New Scientist - 2019.05.18

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OVERSTRETCHED
Why we’re running
out of rubber
THERE’S NO SUCH
THING AS RACE
By Angela Saini
LIFE’S HOT TUB
Did cells evolve in
bubbling springs?
WEEKLY May 18–24, 2019
50 years on from the moon landings,

billionaires and space agencies are vying to send
humans to other worlds once more.
Are you ready for lift-off?
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We’re looking for the best

ideas in the world.
The Ryman Prize is an international award The Ryman Prize was first awarded in 2015
aimed at encouraging the best and brightest to Gabi Hollows, co-founder of the Hollows
thinkers in the world to focus on ways to Foundation, for her tireless work to restore
improve the health of older people. sight for millions of older people in the
developing world.
The world’s ageing population means that in
some parts of the globe – including much of World-leading researchers Professor Henry
the Western world – the population aged 75+ Brodaty and Professor Peter St George-Hyslop
is set to almost triple in the next 30 years. won the prize in 2016 and 2017 respectively for
their pioneering work into Alzheimer’s Disease.
The burden of chronic diseases including
Alzheimers and diabetes is set to grow at the The 2018 Ryman Prize went to inventor
same time. Professor Takanori Shibata for his 25 years of
research into robotics and artificial intelligence.
In order to stimulate fresh efforts to tackle
the problems of old age, we’re offering If you have a great idea or have achieved
a $250,000 annual prize for the world’s something remarkable like Gabi, Henry, Peter
best discovery, development, advance or and Takanori, we’d love to hear from you.
achievement that enhances quality of life for Entries for the 2019 Ryman Prize close on
older people. Friday, June 28, 2019.
Go to www.rymanprize.com for more information
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with 2018 Ryman Prize winner Professor Takanori Shibata.
www.rymanprize.com
This week’s issue
On the 44 Overstretched Coming

Why we’re running
cover out of rubber next week
36 The new space age 40 There’s no such
50 years on from the moon thing as race
landings, billionaires and By Angela Saini
space agencies are vying to
send humans to other worlds 14 Life’s hot tub
once more. Did cells evolve in
bubbling springs?
Are you ready for lift-off?
Jupiter’s jewels How the
giant planet and its moons
could explain the solar
11 Microbiome forensics 26 Know your axions 19 Uranium sponges system’s deepest secrets –
15 The death of coal 32 Dreams on PS4 and why there’s life on Earth
Vol 242 No 3230

Cover image: NASA
News Features
9 Organ swap 36 The new space age
World’s first non-identical News Between billionaires and nation
organ exchange states, space exploration is
lifting off
12 How machines see
Why AIs are easily confused 40 There’s no such thing as race
by simple images Studying human variation is possible
without outdated concepts, argues
20 Opioids in the UK Angela Saini
Do measures to prevent
an addiction epidemic go 44 Overstretched
too far? Rubber is essential to modern
life, but the world’s supply is
at risk
Views
25 Comment The back pages
We need to rediscover the
wonder of space exploration 51 Maker
How to make a toast alarm
26 The columnist
Are physicists making things 52 Puzzles
up, asks Chanda Prescod- Quick crossword, a cube puzzle
Weinstein and quiz
28 Aperture 53 Feedback
Killer air pollution illuminated Dog DNA and parrot police
30 Letters 54 Almost the last word

Climate change is political Spacecraft gravity and kissing
KIERAN STONE/GETTY
hazards
32 Culture
How to build your own 56 Me and my telescope
video-game world, with Kate Shaw on Higgs bosons
no tricky coding 14 Hot tub time machine Recreating life’s origins in hydrothermal pools and Emmy Noether
18 May 2019 | New Scientist | 3

The leader
The dawn of a new space age

Let’s go about our renewed exploration beyond Earth in the right way
THE plan looks ambitious, perhaps The upcoming Space matters – not least, as
overambitious. But then they said that Apollo 11 Richard Webb argues on page 25, for
in 1961, when President John F. Kennedy moon landing the perspective it gives us on Earth.
announced that the US would put a anniversary gives But that perspective also sounds alarms.
human on the moon by the decade’s a chance to look In Leah’s feature, European Space
end. And the lunar lander that Amazon afresh at space Agency boss Johann-Dietrich Wörner
boss Jeff Bezos hopes will return humans exploration rightly warns of national rivalries
to the moon by 2024 (see page 7) is just endangering the peaceable use of space.
one tune in a cacophony of new space And human expansionism and resource
exploration initiatives. That starts this week with Leah hunger bring with them moral perils.
New Scientist’s story is entwined with Crane’s analysis of the space renaissance In a paper last month, astrophysicist
that of space exploration: we launched (see page 36). Next week, we will focus Martin Elvis and philosopher Tony
in November 1956, less than a year on Jupiter, the solar system’s largest Mulligan asked: “How much of the solar
before Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite that planet, as well as previewing cultural system should we leave as wilderness?”
kicked off the cold-war space race. Now events around the moon landing As we enter a new space age, answers
the 50th anniversary of the successful anniversary. Look out too for a special to questions like this become pressing,
Apollo 11 moon landing – the end edition of New Scientist: The Collection especially if we share the solar system
product of Kennedy’s ambition – is near. called The Quest for Space. On sale with other life, for example on
To mark it, we will have a special series from 5 June, it brings together the Jupiter’s moon Europa (see page 12).
of articles on what seems to be a new very best of our latest space coverage Let’s see to it that our sins on Earth are
NASA
golden age of solar-system exploration. and the cream of our cold-war archive. not repeated in the heavens. ❚
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And where does belly-button fluff come from?

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News New Scientist: The new quest for space

For the latest news on crewed missions visit
www.newscientist.com/space
Space exploration
JONATHAN NEWTON / THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY
Crewed missions to the moon

Amazon’s founder and NASA both have ambitions to take humans
back to the moon in 2024, reports Leah Crane
NASA and Jeff Bezos’s company which is currently in development. humans to the moon in 2024. The Gateway, from which the lander
Blue Origin both want to land Blue Moon should be able to land mission is named after an ancient will take them to the surface.
humans on the moon in five years’ up to 6.5 tonnes on the lunar Greek moon goddess. Officials say The nature of space travel
time. Separate announcements surface. It will be able to carry the mission will be the first to today means the mission will
from each organisation have rovers, vehicles that can launch put a female astronaut on the involve collaboration with private
come in the past week, but could off the surface of the moon, and moon’s surface. firms (see page 36). Blue Origin,
they end up working together? maybe even mining equipment, The budget applies to the Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the
Blue Origin was first to hit the said Bezos. financial year 2020 and includes United Launch Alliance will all
headlines by revealing a mock-up The lander will run on $1 billion for the development probably vie for this business.
of Blue Moon (pictured), a lunar hydrogen, which could, in theory, of a commercial lunar lander, The budget request will
lander that the firm hopes will be extracted from water deposits which NASA will purchase from need to be approved by the US
return humans to the moon’s on the moon’s surface. Bezos a private company. Congress. Some experts question
surface by 2024. “It’s time to also alluded to the idea of mining Most of the remaining money whether it will be enough. “We
go back to the moon, this water from lunar ice deposits, as will go towards NASA’s Space will need additional funds, but
time to stay,” Bezos said at well as harvesting solar power. Launch System rocket and Orion this is a good amount that gets
the unveiling on 9 May. On 13 May, US president Donald spacecraft. They are intended us out of the gate in a very strong
The lander is designed to launch Trump announced $1.6 billion for to carry crew members to the fashion,” NASA administrator Jim
on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, NASA’s Artemis mission to take planned Lunar Orbital Platform- Bridenstine told the press. ❚

News
Environment
Free-floating DNA to reveal the

health of river and lake ecosystems
Adam Vaughan
THE mix of DNA floating in The Environment Agency also

rivers and lakes will finally hopes eDNA will provide an early
be used to monitor the state warning system for the invasive
of aquatic ecosystems, after species that rising temperatures
years of tests to show that are expected to help spread
the technique works. through UK waters. The group is
Conventionally, aquatic developing procedures, expected
life is monitored by capturing to be ready by 2020, to spot four
LINDA PITKIN/2020VISION/NATUREPL.COM
organisms, either by using nets priority non-native species: the

or scraping under boulders, for quagga mussel, zebra mussel,
examination. These techniques killer shrimp and demon shrimp.
are time-consuming, can harm “If we’ve got the tools to detect
species and require skilled them early before they’re
ecologists. Monitoring fish established, it’s much easier
typically involves using to deal with them,” says Walsh.
electricity to stun them, which However, there are limitations
can sometimes prove fatal. to using eDNA for monitoring
But these techniques could be The DNA of pike In a recent study at Lake lakes and rivers, says François
replaced by simply taking a water (Esox lucius) has been Windermere in Cumbria, eDNA Edwards at the UK Centre for
sample and analysing the DNA detected in water analysis identified DNA from Ecology and Hydrology. While it
in it. This environmental DNA 14 of the 16 species of fish that is good at reflecting the diversity
(eDNA) comes from the cells, The agency has a responsibility have ever been recorded there. of species present, it is not so good
waste and blood of organisms. to monitor the health of rivers and This is about three times as many at indicating their abundance.
Thanks to advances in cheap, lakes, and the number of species species as are usually detected It is also hard to know
fast genetic sequencing and in our living in these environments can using conventional measures, whether eDNA shows that an
ability to identify which species indicate this. The agency began and included pike and eel. organism is present in a lake now,
the DNA comes from, England’s exploring the use of eDNA “Some fish become aware of or was there a year ago but has
Environment Agency plans to seven years ago in a bid to make nets and stay away. Whereas with since died off. And in rivers, the
start using eDNA to monitor fish efficiency savings, and now its eDNA it’s in the water, it’s mixed. eDNA may have travelled a long
next year. “eDNA is no longer proof of concept tests suggest Fish are great because they are way from where the species
a concept,” says Kerry Walsh at that eDNA can be more accurate slimy and releasing eDNA all the actually is. Nevertheless, eDNA
the Environment Agency. than established techniques. time,” says Walsh. holds potential, says Edwards. ❚
Industrial chemistry
Can we make our There has been a lot of talk about isn’t much less than the 26 PWh demand is so massive comes down
greening the chemicals industry, of electricity a year produced by to the laws of thermodynamics,
plastics from says André Bardow of RWTH the entire world in 2018, according says Bardow. “What you are
captured carbon? Aachen University in Germany, to the International Energy Agency. doing is inverting combustion.”
but no one has worked out what Only a third of global electricity For now, he says, it makes
THE really hard part of reducing it would take to do it. So he and his currently comes from clean more sense to use the renewable
greenhouse gas emissions could be team created a bottom-up model sources. Even by optimistic electricity we have to decarbonise
even more difficult than we thought. of the industry, looking at what is projections of growth, the total heating and transport.
Most chemicals we use, including needed to create the key feedstocks. amount of renewable electricity But the chemicals industry will
plastics, contain carbon, which is They calculated that using available in 2030 is predicted have to be decarbonised in the
currently taken from fossil fuels. carbon captured from the air for to be less than 18 PWh. coming decades if the world is
In theory, the global chemicals this could remove 3.5 gigatonnes The reason the electricity to limit global warming. And
industry could switch to using of carbon dioxide and other this industry is far from the only
carbon dioxide captured from greenhouse gases by 2030. “Greening the chemicals tricky sector. Reducing emissions
the air as a feedstock. But a study However, this would require industry could take from farming, for instance,
suggests that this would require 18.1 petawatt hours of electricity more than half the will also be difficult. ❚
vast amounts of clean electricity. per year (PNAS, doi.org/c5qc). That electricity in the world” Michael Le Page
8 | New Scientist | 18 May 2019

Organ transplants
Kidney-for-liver swap
World’s first non-identical organ exchange between living donors
Clare Wilson
“IT WAS heartbreaking for me research describing the idea Annie Simmons, in Boise, Idaho, some recompense in the form of
to see what my mom was going of trading a kidney for the only whose liver was unsuitable to use helping her mother.
through – dialysis was getting other organ generally taken from a as a transplant for her own sister, The hospital gave the go-ahead
to be really painful for her,” says living donor – the liver. People can Connie Saragoza de Salinas, who and the four operations required
Aliana Deveza from Santa Cruz, donate up to 60 per cent of their had severe liver disease. by the swap took place on
California. “I had to help.” liver. It is one of the few organs They drew up a plan: Simmons the same day. In the following
Her mother, Erosalyn Deveza, that can regenerate, so the donor would donate a kidney to Erosalyn weeks, Aliana noticed how tired
was on the waiting list for a kidney eventually regrows a full-sized Deveza, and in return, Aliana she felt, which she had been
10%
transplant. Aliana wanted to give liver, as does the recipient. would give half her liver to Connie.
one of her own kidneys to her Aliana says she suggested the The proposal was reviewed by
mother, but she was turned down idea to many hospitals, but got the hospital’s head of ethics, and
because she might develop the nowhere. “They didn’t know what the would-be donors were given
same health problems in later life. I was talking about. They didn’t the usual health assessments. The increase in living-donor
So Aliana came up with a know which hospital department A possible sticking point transplants that could occur
different plan. In 2017, she to transfer me to. One transferred was whether this was a fair swap. as a result of direct swaps
instigated the world’s first paired me to the morgue.” In theory, a liver is worth more
exchange of different organs Eventually, when she contacted than a kidney, because people warned would happen as her
between living donors, swapping Roberts, he saw the idea’s with kidney failure can survive body put all its energy into
half her liver for someone else’s potential. Aliana was assessed for many years on dialysis, but regrowing her liver. “It was like
kidney. A case study of the and judged to be in good enough there is no equivalent for liver bad jet lag,” she says.
organ swap has now been health to donate part of her liver. failure. Liver donation also has But an ultrasound scan
published (American Journal of It then took 18 months to find a higher rate of complications. two months later showed that
Transplantation, doi.org/c5nz), and But Aliana had no doubts. her liver was almost back to
the surgeons involved are calling (Left to right) Connie “I was losing hope and I really normal. “Regeneration probably
for more exchanges like this. Saragoza de Salinas got wanted to do something.” starts within hours,” says Roberts.
“You can imagine the enormous half a liver from Aliana One factor that swayed the The team hopes that the
impact for mixed organ extended Deveza; Nancy Ascher ethicists was that people are groundbreaking case will inspire
chains,” says John Roberts, a and John Roberts carried allowed to altruistically donate more people to consider doing
surgeon at the University of out the surgeries; Annie part of their liver to a stranger. the same. Roberts says that direct
California, San Francisco. Simmons donated a While not an equivalent swap, swaps involving two donors could
Most organ transplants come kidney to Erosalyn Deveza at least Aliana would be getting enable 30 extra living-donor liver
from people who have died, but transplants a year in the US,
there are never enough organs on top of the roughly 300 a year
for those who need them. Most that already happen. Kidney
people can get by with just one transplants from live donors
of their kidneys, so people with are more common, with several
kidney failure are increasingly thousand a year taking place.
receiving donated organs from For Aliana, an increase would
relatives or friends. be very welcome. “I set out to do
However, some people who this for my mom and I’m glad that
want to donate can’t, because in the process I was able to help
their immune system is other people too. I hope to set a
incompatible with that of the precedent.”
would-be recipient. In such cases, However, such exchanges
doctors can try to find pairs of aren’t being considered in the
donors who can each give a kidney UK, said a spokesperson for the
JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX/UCSF HEALTH
to the other’s relative. Sometimes country’s National Health Service

there can be long chains of such Blood and Transplant authority.
transfers, usually started by “The uptake is likely to be low and
someone happy to donate their so it is difficult to justify setting
kidney to a stranger. up such a scheme which is more
When Aliana was looking into complex and confers greater risk
such chains, she came across on the living liver donor.” ❚

News
Genetic healthcare
NHS trials genetic analysis

Can DNA data improve the health of people with hypertension?
Adam Vaughan
A HUNDRED people undergoing variants someone has. If a person could scale up to work in a hospital an approach that is cheaper than
treatment at a UK hospital are is told they have a high genetic risk that sees more than a million sequencing and analysing the
to get their DNA analysed in a for hypertension, for instance, patients a year. whole genome. But the NHS is also
pioneering trial. will they be better at taking their One important benefit of doing looking into offering full genome
Around 85,000 people with rare medicine? It is also hoped that the genetic testing in a hospital in an sequencing for volunteers,
disorders in the UK have already programme could help clinicians ethnically diverse city such as providing they agree to share
had their genomes sequenced provide more tailored treatment. London is that it could start to their data with researchers.
through the National Health Although the trial is small, the address the fact that population- The UK isn’t the only country
Service as part of the 100,000 team wants to see if the approach wide genetic studies have largely exploring the use of genetic
Genomes Project. Now, University involved people who are white and analysis for health. In Finland,
College Hospital in London plans Volunteers will be of European descent. around 3400 volunteers will
to invite around 100 people sought at a blood To keep costs down, the trial will soon be told via a secure web
attending its blood pressure clinic pressure clinic only look at specific gene variants, portal if they have a greater-
to undergo genetic analysis. than-average risk of developing
The trial aims to test how useful heart disease, type 2 diabetes or
such analysis might be in a busy, venous thromboembolism – the
hospital environment, says Reecha formation of a blood clot in a vein.
Sofat of University College London. “We selected these three
The data may also inform future diseases because they are
drug development. preventable and actionable,”
Sofat says that, currently, she says Heidi Marjonen at the
can rarely tell her hypertension National Institute for Health
patients why they have high blood and Welfare in Helsinki.
pressure, but genomics might one Estonia is running two trials
day change this. on polygenic risk scores, which
More than 500 individual are percentages that indicate a
genetic variants have previously person’s chance of developing
MATTHEW HORWOOD/GETTY
been pinpointed as contributing a condition compared with the

to high blood pressure. A big part population average. The country
of the trial will be seeing whether is exploring how they can be used
it makes any difference to know to build a national programme
what combination of these of personalised medicine. ❚
Machine learning
AI recommends As part of a live trial, the tool In a live test on Taobao’s iFashion other items at them (arxiv.org/
has already recommended outfits designer clothes app, the suggested abs/1905.01866).
‘fashionable’ outfits to more than 5 million people. outfits were clicked on about 25 per Online shoppers are often faced
to millions of people The aim is to enhance customer cent of the time, compared with a with a “tyranny of choice” that
experience by encouraging more 15 per cent click-through rate from can be overwhelming, says retail
WHAT shoes go with that dress? Or fashionable shopping behaviour, other approaches. adviser Doug Stephens. Offering
these jeans? Artificial intelligence says Wen Chen at Alibaba. The system can also develop suggestions of outfits that
is now answering those questions To build the system, Chen and fashion profiles for customers genuinely look good would
automatically for online shoppers her colleagues trained an AI on a based on their clicks, which could therefore be welcome.
in China, thanks to an algorithm collection of more than 1 million potentially be used to target “It’s a great problem to solve,
developed by web giant Alibaba. outfits created manually by staff given that one of the consumer’s
1 million
The system recommends entire at Alibaba’s shopping site Taobao. most significant apparel challenges
personalised outfits to people as The AI was then able to select is the coordination of items,
they browse, mixing ensembles compatible clothing for items particularly online where there’s
from recently viewed items and that users had recently clicked an absence of human assistance,”
other pieces judged to coordinate on. Endless combinations can be The number of outfits the AI fashion says Stephens. ❚
well with them. created as the customer shops. guru was trained on Chris Baraniuk

Forensics Analysis Nuclear weapons
Bacterial signature Iran steps towards nuclear weapons US hostility has put
could identify Iran back on a path to the bomb, which could put its activities
suspicious stains out of sight of inspectors, says Debora MacKenzie
Clare Wilson
SMALL splatters and stains at crime Iranian president

scenes can sometimes be hard to Hassan Rouhani and
identify, but the unique combination US president Donald
of bacteria they contain may help. Trump “eyes to eyes”
Large splashes of blood at a in a Persian newspaper
crime scene can be self-evident,
but investigators sometimes found a way for its banks and
ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
need to work out if tiny stains are importers to do business with Iran
significant. “If you see something without suffering US sanctions,
that looks like a trace, you want Iran will start enriching uranium
to know if it’s important,” says further towards weapons grade –
Natasha Arora at the Zurich Institute and build Arak to existing plans.
of Forensic Medicine in Switzerland. That will be the end of the JCPOA,
Now Arora and her colleagues as Iran resumes its path to a bomb.
have found that the microbes in We may not even know if it
small traces of body fluids can does. The JCPOA provides three
persist in a room for at least levels of safeguards in Iran. It gets
30 days. This could lead to new THE most ambitious effort ever to city of Bushehr, or heavy water for the standard inspections the IAEA
ways to tell if crime scene stains peacefully stop a country getting a nuclear reactor it was building in does in all countries with nuclear
are blood or faeces, for instance, a nuclear bomb hangs by a thread. the city of Arak. But it prevents it plants; additional inspections
says Arora. On 8 May, Iranian president stockpiling either or enriching agreed in 1997 and voluntary for
Previous work has shown that Hassan Rouhani announced that uranium to weapons-grade levels. IAEA member states; and extra,
different parts of the body have his country would start stockpiling It also says the reactor at Arak must unprecedented inspections,
distinctive communities of bacteria, low-enriched uranium and heavy be redesigned to produce less of including continuous monitoring
viruses and fungi. So Arora’s team water – a potential step towards another bomb fuel, plutonium. using novel technology.
swabbed different body fluids and building nuclear weapons. The incentive for Iran was a James Acton of the Carnegie
skin, to see if their microbial mix lifting of trade sanctions, imposed Endowment for International
would still be distinguishable after The reactor after it was found to have covertly Peace in Washington DC says that
MAJID ASGARIPOUR/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
being exposed to air for a month. building at enriched uranium in the 2000s. without the JCPOA, Iran gets only
“If you go to a crime scene and you Iran’s Since the deal, the International the basic inspections – which it has
find traces, they’re not generally Bushehr Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has successfully evaded in the past.
completely fresh,” says Arora. nuclear judged Iran to have complied with Without extra inspections, the IAEA
The researchers took multiple power plant its constraints. cannot draw credible conclusions
samples of blood, menstrual blood, But a year ago, US president about the absence of undeclared
semen, vaginal fluid, saliva and Donald Trump pulled out of the activities in Iran, says Acton.
skin, and placed the swabs on a high JCPOA, saying he was unhappy
shelf in a frequently used room in The move was in response to with it. The US reimposed trade “Donald Trump pulled out
their lab. To identify the bacteria US sanctions, which were levelled sanctions and threatened severe of the Iran nuclear deal a
present, they analysed the genetic despite Iran’s compliance with trade penalties for countries that year ago, saying he was
material on the swabs at the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of did business with Iran. Iran’s oil unhappy with it”
beginning and end of the month. Action (JCPOA), agreed in 2015 to exports have since fallen from 2.5
The ordinary blood sample limit its potential to make nuclear million barrels a day to 1 million. In theory, inspectors outside
yielded little usable data, probably weapons. The US, the EU, Russia Now, Rouhani’s announcement Iran could watch for krypton-85,
because blood doesn’t normally and China were signatories. means Iran will stop exporting a telltale gas emitted when
contain many bacteria. The team The JCPOA imposed an low-enriched uranium and heavy plutonium is extracted from heavy
also couldn’t tell the difference unprecedented inspections regime water. This export was mandated water reactors, such as the one in
between vaginal fluid and on Iranian nuclear plants. This by the JCPOA, so Iran could Arak. But Acton isn’t even sure Iran
menstrual blood on the basis of included novel monitoring continue production without would attempt to keep that secret.
microbes. But the other swabs could technology that could severely exceeding caps on stockpiles. The idea of having nuclear
mostly be distinguished, whether limit the spread of the bomb. The build-up of the materials weapons is to deter attack – and
the sample was fresh or a month The deal doesn’t stop Iran won’t immediately violate the as Dr. Strangelove observed, it
old (Forensic Science International: making enriched uranium to fuel JCPOA. But Rouhani added that if isn’t much of a deterrent if no one
Genetics, doi.org/c5pb). ❚ its nuclear power plant, near the after 60 days EU countries hadn’t knows you have it. ❚

News
Astrobiology Artificial intelligence
A simple experiment
could help find alien Machines see differently
life on Europa We are beginning to grasp why AI is so easily fooled and
Jonathan O’Callaghan
how to stop it from happening, finds Linda Geddes
FINDING amino acids on other WHY did the machine think the
worlds could be a sign of life there, turtle was a rifle? No, this isn’t a
but only if we can be sure they were bad joke, but one of many recent
produced by living things. examples of machines being
The subsurface oceans of icy tricked into seeing things that
moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and aren’t there.
Saturn’s Enceladus might contain Artificial intelligence can be
amino acids. But they can also be easily confused by so-called
made non-biologically. How can we adversarial images, which
tell them apart? contain seemingly innocuous
One thing that would help is to changes that don’t affect what
rule out the presence of primordial people see. Like many others,
amino acids created when the Aleksander Mądry at the
solar system formed, when life Massachusetts Institute of
wasn’t around. These have been Technology thought this was
found on comets. a bug that would vanish with
“Amino acids are the building better algorithms or ways to
blocks of protein, and the
ANDREI SPIRACHE/GETTY
train these systems.
chemistry of life as we know it,” But he and his colleagues
says Ngoc Truong at Cornell have discovered that adversarial
University in New York. “If amino images seem to arise from
acids can be found in the ocean of features that we can’t perceive,
Europa, could they be the relics of but machines can. Early
primordial synthesis processes?” indications are that, by says Mądry. The team calls Where we see a
understanding these features, them non-robust features cat and a dog, an
Warm it may be possible to stop such because they seem to leave AI may not
oceans lurk alterations causing havoc. AIs particularly vulnerable to
under the icy Most examples of adversarial adversarial images, in which The researchers then used an
surface of images can seem baffling to an these features have presumably AI to point out which parts of an
moons like onlooker, with two pictures that been disrupted to some degree. image it would focus on. They
Europa look identical being interpreted To identify that non-robust then took these out of images
in different ways by an AI. For features were part of the before training another AI on
NASA
instance, with two apparently problem, Mądry’s team took a these altered pictures, in effect
identical images of a cat, an AI standard collection of images forcing it to use more human-
In laboratory experiments, will insist one of them is a dog. of cats and dogs and generated like methods to make its choice.
Truong and his colleagues found As a research experiment, a series of adversarial examples, The result of this was an AI
some amino acids, aspartic acid fooling AIs can be amusing, but which involves tweaking pixels with improved resistance to
and threonine in particular, could if a medical AI misses a clearly adversarial images, reaching a
only be in warm, hydrothermally obvious tumour in a medical “With two apparently level usually only seen when
active oceans of icy moons if they scan, the results could be tragic. identical images of a cat, painstaking effort is used to
were produced in the past million Now Mądry and his team an AI will insist one of correct an AI’s mistakes (arxiv.
years (Icarus, doi.org/c5mt). appear to have confirmed a them is a dog” org/abs/1905.02175).
This means that if any are long-held suspicion that AIs Understanding this is a good
detected, they would probably don’t view images in a similar in each picture. They used step towards AIs that can be
have been produced recently, way to humans. Rather than these to train an AI. safely deployed in the real
cosmically speaking, which means relying on details like ear shape Rather than resulting in world, says Pushmeet Kohli
a biological origin is possible. or nose length to classify images something completely useless, at research firm DeepMind.
“This helps us understand of animals, say, they use features when the AI was shown non- “The concept of these
which biosignatures we may wish that are imperceptible to us. adversarial examples, it got features is helpful, and it goes
to target for missions to Enceladus “We don’t actually know what them right, meaning the non- some way towards explaining
or Europa,” says Morgan Cable at these features are – they may be robust features did help it to the phenomenon,” says Marta
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory big, or small – but the human correctly identify cats and dogs, Kwiatkowska at the University
in California. ❚ brain doesn’t pick up on them,” just not in adversarial images. of Oxford. ❚

Humanity will need the

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

lives daydreaming.
AVAILABLE NOW
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News
Biochemistry
The search for life’s cradle

Scientists are taking the hunt for life’s origins out into the open air
Alison George
NEARLY 4 billion years after life too, the simulated environment

first arose on Earth, researchers can cause the polymers to become
have been trying to recreate the encapsulated inside fatty
first steps towards life in steamy, membranes similar to those seen
bubbling pools in New Zealand. on the outside of all cells today.
One of the big questions in To find out if similar results
understanding life’s origins is could occur in real-world
how small molecules such as conditions, Deamer’s colleague
JANETTE HILL/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

fatty acids, nucleotides or amino Bruce Damer travelled to a
acids first formed long, polymer geothermal area near Rotorua
chains like lipids, RNA or proteins. in New Zealand. The acidic hot
Previous lab experiments by springs there are “like a chemistry
David Deamer at the University experiment that nature is carrying
of California, Santa Cruz, and out”, says Damer.
his colleagues have found that He placed glass vials holding
a “prebiotic soup” into a near-
“These hot springs in boiling pool. This mix contained contamination from existing life. Rotorua’s hot
New Zealand are like a fatty acids and glyceride, another Dried films became visible springs are
chemistry experiment that component of lipids. It also on the glass of the vial and strongly acidic
nature is carrying out” included two components of the subsequent tests revealed that
building blocks of RNA, which is long, RNA-like molecules had experiment did not make RNA
basic, cell-like structures called widely believed to have been life’s formed within these fatty layers. itself, and says he doesn’t think
protocells can form in the first genetic material. Deamer believes this is the first that the “RNA-like” polymers that
conditions seen in hot springs: The pool heated the soup to time anyone has tested laboratory formed are relevant to origins-of-
temperatures of 80°C to 90°C around 90°C. When it dried out, results out in a real environment life chemistry.
and repeated cycles of drying Damer repeatedly wetted it with similar to the kinds of places that “It’s quite neat work, but needs
and rehydration. highly acidic water from a nearby would have existed when life replicating,” says Nick Lane of
These conditions can bring pool that had been filtered to began. He says the results are University College London. The
simple molecules together and remove any microorganisms. The due to be published soon. problem is that there is no obvious
encourage them to form the long, idea was to mimic water splashes But John Sutherland of the MRC path from these results to cells
polymer chains essential for life. from geyser eruptions, but on a Laboratory of Molecular Biology that have a metabolism and can
If lipid molecules are present faster timescale and without in Cambridge, UK, warns that the reproduce themselves, he says. ❚
Cosmology
The magnetism magnetic field, the Faraday effect magnetic field,” says Gaensler. 5111 other pairs of polarised light
causes the light’s orientation, or He and his colleagues used 317 of sources that were both coming from
of the universe is polarisation, to rotate. Gaensler and these pairs to calculate the strength the same direction, but with one that
very, very weak his colleagues used this to measure of the magnetic field in those spots. was double to triple the distance
the strength of the field in the Some of the magnetism we see in from us of the nearer source
THE magnetism of the entire intergalactic medium, the parts that light comes from the matter in (arxiv.org/abs/1905.02410).
universe is 2.5 billion times less of space between the galaxies. the galaxy itself, but some is added The longer that light travels
strong than that of a fridge magnet, They searched through a as the light travels to us through the through space, the bigger the
according to an analysis. catalogue of polarised light sources intergalactic medium. To separate Faraday effect. So the team
“The magnetic field is weak in the universe. Conveniently, these out this element, the team compared subtracted the magnetic field
by that standard, but it’s a lot of frequently occur in pairs because readings from the nearer sources
40
energy. There’s as much energy galaxies often have a supermassive to calculate the input from the
in the Milky Way in magnetism black hole at their centre shooting intergalactic medium. The upper
as there is in starlight,” says out twin jets of radiation in opposite limit of the universe’s magnetism
Bryan Gaensler at the University directions, making them easy was found to be 40 nanogauss – a
of Toronto in Canada. to identify. “They’re like two The strength of the universe’s fridge magnet is about 100 gauss. ❚
As light passes through a searchlights that light up the magnetic field, in nanogauss Chelsea Whyte

Speech recognition Analysis Energy
Voice assistants The renewables revolution is stalling The UK has seen

may be less likely to the longest coal-free period since 1882, but don’t celebrate
understand women just yet, says Michael Le Page
Nicole Kobe
MANY people who use devices with SHOULD we be thrilled that, for the average. Coal is expected be stalling. The International
voice assistants, such as Amazon first time in a century, the UK went to provide only 1 per cent of Energy Agency (IEA) recently
Echo or Google Home, have endured more than a week without using electricity this year, and should announced that the world added
them not fully grasping commands. any coal to make electricity? While be phased out by 2025. 180 gigawatts of capacity of
But it appears they may be worse at some are welcoming this as a sign That isn’t quite as brilliant solar, wind, hydropower and
understanding women than men. that the UK is going green, the as it seems. The UK now gets bioenergy in 2018, the same
Polling company YouGov asked bigger picture is less encouraging. 11 per cent of its electricity from as in 2017. It says we must add
1000 people in the UK about voice For one thing, renewables “renewable” biomass, much of 300 gigawatts a year to have
assistants. Around two-thirds of supplied only 23 per cent of it using imported wood. Forest a chance of limiting warming to
the female participants said the electricity during this coal-free campaigners say swapping coal under 2°C by 2100.
software failed to respond to their period, with 45 per cent coming for wood isn’t truly renewable “These 2018 data are
voice commands some of the time, from natural gas. What is more, and is doing huge damage to deeply worrying, but smart
compared with half of the men. the UK is veering off-track when the environment. and determined policies can get
This is ironic, given that most it comes to meeting its long-term Even the UK’s Committee on renewable capacity additions back
smart speakers are designed to targets for cutting greenhouse gas Climate Change says large-scale on an upward trend,” said IEA
have female voices, says Russell emissions – as is the entire world. electricity generation from director Fatih Birol in a statement.
Feldman at YouGov. Generating electricity without biomass is a bad idea. Wood
As the survey was self-reported, burning fossil fuels is relatively should be used for things like “Most renewables
it may not entirely match reality, easy. It is much harder to heat building, it says, so its carbon subsidies have stopped,
says Trevor Cox at the University of homes, make cement and steel, remains locked away. and onshore wind
Salford, UK. To confirm the results, grow food and power cars, ships The UK has now stopped continues to be vetoed”
tests should be run with different and planes without producing most of the subsidies that drove
voices and different speech- any greenhouse gases. So if its renewables revolution, and is There is some debate about
recognition systems, he says. we are struggling with the easy still vetoing the cheapest form of the IEA figures. They include only
Earlier studies have suggested part, what chance do we have renewable power, onshore wind. new power production that has
gender does affect the accuracy of doing the hard stuff? While renewables could provide been verified and confirmed.
of speech recognition. Rachael Let us start with the UK. In the half of the UK’s electricity within By contrast, research service
Tatman, while at the University of past decade, the country has gone a decade, growth is expected to BloombergNEF’s figures include
Washington, found that YouTube’s from getting a third of its electricity slow to a near halt over this time. estimates of unconfirmed
captioning system, which uses from coal to obtaining more than The global renewables additions, and it says that solar
similar technology, was less a third from renewables, on revolution also seems to grew 10 per cent globally in
accurate for women than men. 2018. Yet that is still a slowdown
She later discovered that much compared with the 30 per cent
of the difference disappeared
Coal-free week growth seen in the past, says
when controlling for sound quality, The UK went over a week without using coal, but only a small amount of Jenny Chase, head of solar at
power came from renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass
suggesting that it may work less BloombergNEF. “But it’s harder
well for women in noisy situations. Nuclear Biomass Large hydro Imports to grow a big number,” she says.
Separate research found that Wind Gas Storage Solar This follows a separate report
analysing speech from men and
35
last year that said investment in
women differently could increase renewables was falling in most
accuracy. Similar accuracy gaps 30 countries, except for China. Now
are seen with dialect and ethnicity. China, too, is cutting back.
Electricity generation (GW)
If a speech-recognition system 25 Many climate activists

is trained on fewer examples of have promoted the idea that
20
female voices or other dialects, the falling costs of renewables
it may be worse at processing 15 will mean they inevitably take
them, says Muneera Bano at over from fossil fuels, even without
the Swinburne University of 10 government help. But if electricity
Technology, Australia. prices don’t stay high enough,
Most big technology 5 investors will take their money
companies have not publicly
0
elsewhere. So we should cheer the
revealed the range of voices that Thu 2 May Sat 4 Mon 6 Wed 8 end of coal – but continue to worry
they use to develop such tools. ❚ SOURCE: BM REPORTS & SHEFFIELD SOLAR about how it will be replaced. ❚

News
Virtual reality
The perfect shot

Headsets are letting directors test unlikely camera angles on set
Andrew Rosenblum
WEARING a virtual reality headset, Similar methods were used for

I am immersed in a speakeasy bar the recent remake of The Jungle
of the 1920s. A strange-looking Book and the upcoming new
wooden protagonist, played by version of The Lion King.
a human actor whose footage has The technology can reduce
just been recorded, chit-chats with the bill for visual effects by 15
computer-generated patrons.
The technology I am testing has “Steven Spielberg was
been created by media company crawling around on the
Technicolor. It allows film floor to frame shots in VR
directors to instantly see what a for Ready Player One”
scene will look like with computer-
generated imagery added in. to 20 per cent, says independent
With the touch of a joystick, film-maker Kevin Margo.
TECHNICOLOR
I can “fly” around the set to get Margo cobbled together his own
a different point of view for the virtual production system with a
perfect shot, or shrink myself flat-panel screen in front of his face
relative to the scene, Alice in to shoot Construct, a short film
Wonderland-style. Where a jazz A digital scene can Rather than placing an order about humanoid robots. He says
band in the corner of the bar give film-makers for effects to be added after the method can make directors
seemed quaint when viewed from ultimate control shooting a scene, directors “are more creative because they can
above, its bass player now fills the serving it up for themselves”, see visual effects immediately.
entire frame. Viewed from below, Now directors can put on a VR says John Brennan at the High-powered VR headsets are
he looks huge and intimidating. headset, powered by a stack of University of Southern California. still mostly a niche product as they
In the past, directors had to chips originally designed for video The technique is increasingly are pricey, says Nancy Richardson
send footage to special effects gaming, and immediately see how common in visual effects-heavy at the University of California, Los
studios with collections of a scene will look with effects added films. Steven Spielberg was an Angeles. The cost of a high-end
powerful computers, known in. The system means the director early adopter for Ready Player One. system can easily reach $10,000,
as render farms. These would can be immersed in the 3D world “Steven was crawling around on out of reach for low budget films,
add in graphical elements, in of the virtual scene and seek out the ground to frame shots in VR,” but a relatively minor expense for
a process taking hours or days. the most arresting camera angles. says Joe Henderson at Technicolor. a blockbuster. ❚
Evolution
Birds introduced despite the loss of native fruit- (Evolution, doi.org/c5k5).

eaters, Oahu still has complex, The four species studied were
to Hawaii evolve functioning ecosystems – possibly introduced between 50 and
in mere decades thanks to the rapid evolution of 90 years ago. “Evolution is typically
non-native birds to fill the niches thought to occur over millennia,”
NON-NATIVE birds are adapting to vacated by the lost endemic species. says Gleditsch. “We’re talking about
life in Hawaii at a blistering pace. To see whether the introduced 10 to 20 generations at most.”
YI-CHEN CHIANG/GETTY
Most native fruit-eating birds birds have been evolving on Oahu, But statistical analysis suggests
in the Hawaiian archipelago have Gleditsch and his colleague Jinelle that the birds’ evolution is probably
gone extinct. These birds were Sperry compared four non-native only partially shaped by adapting to
important for dispersing fruit seeds. songbird species on the island, life on the island. “Founder effects”
On the island of Oahu, this is mostly including the red-billed leiothrix may also have been at work. These
now done by non-native birds. (Leiothrix lutea, pictured), with changes of up to 13 per cent in evolutionary phenomena involve
Jason Gleditsch at the University museum specimens collected from some measurements. Compared the genetic mix of a small starting
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and their native range. They measured with native range specimens, two population prompting a species
his colleagues have been studying the birds’ bills, tails, legs and wings. species had significantly shorter to evolve changes that aren’t
how these changes have affected They found that, in Hawaii, these legs, and most had larger, thicker necessarily beneficial or adaptive. ❚
the island. They have found that, birds have undergone physical bills, shorter wings and longer tails Jake Buehler

WHAT IF TIME STARTED

FLOWING BACKWARDS?
WHAT
IF THE
RUSSIANS
GOT TO
THE MOON
FIRST?
WHAT IF DINOSAURS
STILL RULED THE EARTH?
AVAILABLE NOW
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News
Environment
Damming of rivers has left

precious few in natural state
NEARLY two-thirds of the world’s tapping rivers for electricity
longest rivers have had their flow generation, a strategy many Asian
impeded by humans in the form countries have pursued recently.
of dams, reservoirs and other water Hydropower booms are expected
engineering. A boom in hydropower in both the Amazon and Balkans.
is partly to blame, suggesting the In all, we have interrupted
pursuit of renewable energy may and diverted the flow of rivers
be putting fragile habitats at risk. by constructing about 2.8 million
Günther Grill of McGill University dams, as well as building irrigation
in Canada and his colleagues spent and water-diversion schemes
a decade analysing over 300,000 (Nature, doi.org/c5k8).
water courses, producing the most We should care about free-
detailed global assessment yet of flowing rivers because of the
long, free-flowing rivers. benefits they provide to humans
They found that they have and wildlife, by allowing the
become increasingly rare, confined exchange of nutrients, sediment
to remote regions such as the Arctic and species, says Grill.
and the Congo basin. Of the 246 “They are among the most
rivers that are 1000 kilometres biodiverse habitats in the world,
SHAN.SHIHAN/GETTY
long or longer, they found that just given their relatively small
90 are still free-flowing. Eight of habitat space, and are very fragile
these are in the Amazon basin. to human alterations,” he says.
The big driver of this has been Adam Vaughan
Marine biology Animal cognition
Dark depths look full rod opsin gene. However, adult

silver spiny fins (Diretmus
Wasps are first can reason that A is bigger than C.
Elizabeth Tibbetts at the
of colour to fish eyes argenteus) – a flat fish that lives insect logicians University of Michigan and
at depths down to 2000 metres– her team put 40 paper wasps
SOME animals living in the has 38 of them. LOGICAL reasoning is complex individually into a shallow
deep ocean have evolved The team translated these behaviour, and has often been rectangular container. These
highly-sensitive eyes that can genes into proteins in a dish thought to be limited to animals boxes had a different colour at
see a range of colour hues in and shone lights of different that have complex nervous each end, and five colours were
the near-blackness. wavelengths onto them, to see systems. But it appears wasps can used in total, each corresponding
“It’s a big surprise,” says Zuzana how they would respond. They use a kind of logical deduction, the to a letter from A to E.
Musilova at the University of found that these opsins detect first such finding in invertebrates. In any combination, the colour
Basel in Switzerland, who made a wide range of colours, and are The type of reasoning is called that was linked to the later letter
the finding with her colleagues. especially sensitive to green and transitive inference and it is in the alphabet was rigged to give
“They have more sensitive eyes blue light (Science, doi.org/c5mc). something people do easily: if wasps an electric shock if they
and can see way better than “We believe they can detect you know that A is bigger than B, stood on it.
humans in lower light.” more shades of blue and green and B is bigger than C, then you After 10 trials of encountering
Musilova and her team collected than us,” Musilova says. the four colour pairs that
DNA from 26 species of fish that She says having highly sensitive corresponded to adjacent letters –
live more than 200 metres below eyes may be useful for detecting A/B, B/C, C/D and D/E – the wasps
the surface. Analysing this DNA, the glowing bioluminescence were then tested on B/D and A/E.
WILLIAM ATTARD MCCARTHY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
the team found that six species emitted by many deep-sea In these scenarios, they would
carried additional genes for rod creatures. These bioluminescent have to use logic to work out the
opsin – the light-sensitive protein lights are mostly blue and green order of the letters and avoid
that enables the retina’s rod cells in colour. getting an electric shock.
to detect light. Being able to tell colours Overall, 65 per cent of the wasps
Vertebrate animals use rod apart could help fish distinguish managed to correctly choose B
opsin to detect light in dim whether a flash comes from a over D, which is better than chance
environments, but most species, predator or prey, Musilova says. (Royal Society Biology Letters,
including humans, only have one Yvaine Ye doi.org/c5mf). Chelsea Whyte

New Scientist Daily

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Technology
Really brief
Taking an Uber may trips on traffic in the city, the
team turned to a simulation used
San Francisco between 2010 and
2016. Extra cars and disruption
worsen traffic jams by transport planners to forecast from curbside pick-ups and drop-
road use by taking into account offs increased total hours of road
RIDE-HAILING services Uber and population growth, employment delays in the city by 62 per cent.
Lyft don’t seem to have lived up to rates, construction of new Without Uber and Lyft in the
claims of reducing traffic delays. roadways and public transit. simulation, that delay grew by
FATCAMERA/GETTY
In San Francisco, use of these The version they used was only 22 per cent, meaning the
services increased congestion by calibrated to 2010, before Uber services accounted for the other
40 per cent between 2010 and and Lyft were widely in use, which 40 per cent, says the team (Science
2016, according to a study. offered a chance to forecast what Advances, doi.org/c5k2).
Greg Erhardt at the University of traffic would have been like Both services questioned the
Meditation linked to Kentucky and his colleagues were without these services and then finding. “It overlooks notable
anxiety and fear able to work out how many Uber compare it with real world data. contributors to congestion,”
and Lyft trips were taken there They found that Uber and Lyft says Lyft. Rival service Uber points
In a survey of 1232 people and their start and finish points. were the largest contributors to out that studies disagree on the
who regularly meditate, To find out the effect of these increases in traffic congestion in causes of congestion. CW
over a quarter said they
had experienced negative Design Materials
mental states as a result of
the practice. People were
more likely to report this There’s plenty more
MORPHING MATTER LAB, HCII/ SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, CARNEGIE MELLON
if they used only types of uranium in the sea

deconstructive meditation,
which typically involve A SPONGE could harvest the metal
contemplating the nature used to fuel nuclear power plants
of conscious experience from ocean water.
(PLoS One, doi.org/c5mk). The easiest way to get uranium
now is to mine it. There are about
Benefits of dung 7.6 million tonnes of it that should
spread far and wide be relatively simple to dig up,
enough to cover global needs for
Penguin and seal faeces about a century. But seawater
can help organisms that holds more than 4.5 billion tonnes
are kilometres away. An of uranium, making it a potential
analysis of vegetation backup source.
in the Antarctic found that Dong Wang at Hainan
nitrogen from penguin and
It’s a great yarn: knitted
University in China and his
seal waste could spread to colleagues have created a sponge
creations that can move

areas up to 240 times the that sucks up uranium. It is made
size of the colony, providing of melamine foam. This is dipped
vital nutrients to plants and in chemicals that easily bond to
small creatures. (Current CUDDLY soft toys and furnishings such as curving or forming an uranium and then dried.
Biology, doi.org/c5mn). are getting an upgrade to make S-shaped bend. The team call After eight weeks in a 5-tonne
them more like robots. the approach 4D knitting. tank of seawater, the sponge had
Progesterone Lea Albaugh at Carnegie Mellon This technique could be used absorbed about 1.9 milligrams
University in Pittsburgh and her to make cost-effective wearables.
boosts birth rate of uranium per gram of sponge
colleagues have used knitting It is also an ideal approach for (Advanced Functional Materials,
A hormone may increase machines to create moving making soft robots, says Albaugh, doi.org/c5k6).
live births among women children’s toys and other objects. because of the wide availability This is a similar yield to other
who have previously had These include a toy rabbit that of fabrics and colours. methods of harvesting uranium
a miscarriage and bleeding gives hugs when pressed, a jumper The researchers have also from the ocean, says Sheng Dai at
during early pregnancy. with a self-moving sleeve, and a experimented with conductive yarn, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
A study linked progesterone lampshade that changes shape which could be knitted into objects Tennessee. But the sponge is more
treatment to a 5.5 per cent when given a tug (pictured). to add smart sensors that can eco-friendly as it biodegrades
increase in live births Silk strands are knitted into detect stretching or being touched. better than plastics used in many
among such women the fabric as part of the process. Their work was presented at of those other methods, he says.
(New England Journal of These strands function as tendons, the Human Factors in Computing Getting uranium from the sea
Medicine, doi.org/c5mm). enabling the objects to move in Systems conference in Glasgow, UK. is more costly than mining it,
certain ways when they are pulled, Donna Lu but that may change. Leah Crane

News Insight
Opioid crisis
A problem born in the USA

Doctors in the UK are concerned about following the US into an opioid
crisis, but are preventive measures going too far, asks Clare Wilson
The US opioid crisis
has lowered average
life expectancy
opioids also cause sedation and

feelings of pleasure, so people
in withdrawal feel highly agitated.
As a result, many in the US
began asking their doctor for ever-
higher doses. If they reached one
doctor’s limit, they might try other
clinicians or topping up from illicit
sources. More liberal prescribing
meant people had spare pills to
sell, fuelling the black market.
“It was in everybody’s medicine
chest,” says Kolodny. Deaths from
opioid overdoses started to climb.
Once people are buying pills
illegally, there can be a temptation
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY
to switch to heroin because it is

cheaper. Making things worse,
there has recently been an influx
of newer synthetic opioids such
as fentanyl, which are much more
PRESCRIPTION painkillers road to a new addiction epidemic, claimed had less than a 1 per cent potent and easier to overdose on.
containing opioids will soon without leaving people in risk of addiction. “The message Drug dealers began spiking their
come with a warning in the unnecessary pain? was that if you’re enlightened, heroin with fentanyl to make it go
UK: “can cause addiction”. The Opioids have always been our you’re going to be different from further. “It has led to a public
decision, announced last month, most potent pain relievers. They those stingy, puritanical doctors health catastrophe,” says Kolodny.
is part of a range of measures are excellent for helping people in in the past,” says Andrew Kolodny There have been similar trends
the UK is taking in reaction to severe but short-lasting pain, such of Brandeis University in Boston. in Canada and, to some extent,
the opioid crisis gripping the US. as from broken bones or surgery. Doctors began prescribing Australia. But the picture is very
As medical use of these Because of the potential for more opioids after surgery and different in the UK and most other
painkillers in the US has risen, addiction, though, doctors tended upped the use of these drugs European countries. That is partly
to be cautious about prescribing outside hospital for conditions down to culture. In North America,
“Being on opioids for long them outside hospital, apart from such as arthritis, back pain or people have more control over
enough changes brain for people with terminal cancer. nerve damage from diabetes. their medical care. The US is also
chemistry so you need Attitudes started changing in When someone is on opioids one of the few nations where drug
more for the same effect” the 1990s. Pressure was building for long enough, their brain firms can advertise prescription
among doctors to do more to keep chemistry changes and they need medicines directly to the public.
so has the number of people people free from pain. Several to take more to get the same effect. The way the UK’s National
getting hooked on them and US medical bodies said it should If they try to cut back, the pain Health Service is set up has helped.
graduating to illegal opioids such become the “fifth vital sign”, amplifies. At higher doses, Everyone registers with a single
as heroin. Deaths from opioid along with pulse, temperature, primary care physician who acts as
overdoses have lowered the breathing and blood pressure. Morphine is gatekeeper, so people can’t juggle
country’s life expectancy. At the same time, US a powerful multiple prescriptions. “You don’t
But pain specialists warn that pharmaceutical companies opioid – doctor shop,” says Clare Gerada,
MARK RICHARDSON/ALAMY
restricting opioid use too much began creating new formulations very useful a family doctor in London who
also has risks, as some people have of existing drugs, and heavily if used specialises in addiction.
a real need for these powerful promoting these to doctors. The properly There has been a rise in
medicines. Will the UK be able to best known is OxyContin, a slow- opioid use in the UK: in England,
avoid following the US down the release opioid the manufacturer prescriptions have more than

More Insight online Working

Your guide to a rapidly changing world hypothesis
www.newscientist.com/insight
Sorting the week’s
supernovae from
the absolute zeros
doubled since 2000 (see graph, “Everyone’s saying you must a different doctor to her usual one
below). But doctors seem to have not use opioids for chronic pain, a few years ago. He told her she
taken heed of what is happening [but] there is a group of people needed to come off medication
across the Atlantic. In both 2017 where they work reasonably well.” because she was an addict, she
and 2018, there was a slight fall in Even people on too high a dose says. “I was fearful because I knew
the number of prescriptions. shouldn’t be made to quit unduly my life depended on it.” Without ▲ Salvador Dalí
Now, though, the UK risks fast or they will get withdrawal, painkillers, she says, “just moving The Dali Museum in
running into the opposite says Colvin. “If you’re in horrible is almost unbearable”. St Petersburg, Florida,
problem: of doctors being too pain, that’s fairly terrifying.” She was referred to a specialist got an AI to study archive
reluctant to give opioids, says who overruled her doctor and she footage of the great
Cathy Stannard, a pain specialist at is now on a long-term programme artist and recreate him as
118%
the NHS Gloucestershire Clinical to slowly lower her dose, although a deepfake. How surreal.
Commissioning Group. For people she believes she will always need
in long-term pain, there are no some painkillers to be able to get ▲ Spellcheck
simple alternatives to opioids. For out of her house and go to work. Microsoft will help you
Increase in opioid prescriptions
a while, it seemed the answer was Stannard has also had to talk mind your Ps and LGBTQs
in England from 2000 to 2016
a newer class of painkillers such as hospital doctors out of ditching with a version of Office
pregabalin, but then people began opioids for pain after surgery. that checks documents for
getting addicted to those too. The risk is that people in pain “That’s a ridiculous, knee-jerk inclusive language, such
This means opioids can be turn to illegal drugs. When some response,” she says. “Opioids are as changing “housewives”
valuable for people who can take US states clamped down on opioid absolutely the best thing for post- to “homemakers”.
a low dose for a long time without prescribing, fatal heroin overdoses operative pain.” She says these
developing a tolerance, says surged. “The prescribing was just drugs can be used safely after ▼ Robot butlers
Stannard. “There are a small stopped,” says Colvin. “There was surgery, as long as people get just a People are coming for
number of people for whom these no additional support.” few days’ supply and are told how robot jobs. Japanese
drugs are life-transforming.” The Stannard, who advises clinicians to reduce the dose over that time. start-up Mira Robotics will
proportion of people like this is on pain management, says a few UK doctors will soon get more soon sell a robot butler –
unclear, but Stannard estimates family doctors have tried to ban help to tread the fine line between the catch is it is controlled
it to be about 10 per cent. long-term opioid use. “I’ve had being too strict and too liberal remotely by a human.
Yet some doctors are so alarmed people saying to me: ‘We are going with these medicines because
at the prospect of the UK having to take everyone off opioids’.” various UK bodies are working on ▼ Space art
its own addiction epidemic that Emma Scott-Smith, an artist inquiries or guidelines on opioid The Orbital Reflector,
they try to stop opioids for such in Stirling, UK, who is on opioid use. A report from Public Health a piece of “space art” in
individuals, says Lesley Colvin painkillers for spinal pain, England is due out in a couple of the form of a shimmering
at the University of Dundee, UK. experienced this when she saw months, while a spokesperson for balloon, has failed in
the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare orbit. Everyone’s a critic.
Drugged up products Regulatory Agency
says it is considering further ▼ Toothpaste
Opioid prescriptions in the US have surged ahead of those in England moves “to minimise the risk of Charcoal-based
inappropriate use while ensuring toothpastes, which
US England
800 these medicines are available for are black, don’t whiten
those who need them”, but teeth, according to the
Morphine milligram equivalent
declined to give specific details. British Dental Journal.

600 Kolodny says Europe should
learn lessons about opioids
per capita
400 from the US. “We have known for

TOP: GETTY; BOTTOM: ALAMY
millennia that these are highly

addictive, so it makes sense to
200 be as cautious as possible,” he
says. “You need to tread very
0 carefully to avoid following in
2000 2005 2010 2015 our footsteps. For us the genie’s
SOURCE: doi.org/c5j4; SIEPR.STANFORD.EDU
out of the bottle.” ❚

Conventional wisdom has

been around for ages, but
people forget to challenge
what it means. Or why we
continue to repeat it.
At Orbis, we’ve always
questioned common thinking
to avoid sleepwalking into
common results.
Watched pots do eventually
boil, and they’ve
served our clients well.
Ask your financial adviser for
details or visit Orbis.com
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Watched
pots
do boil
Views
The columnist Aperture Letters Culture Culture columnist
Are physicists making Killer air pollution Climate change is How to build your own Simon Ings on how to
things up, asks Chanda illuminated in deeply political and video-game world, with get the science right for
Prescod-Weinstein p26 beautiful lights p28 needs action p30 no tricky coding p32 time travel in film p34
Comment
Space is us
For the sake of our own planet, we need to rediscover the wonder
of space exploration, writes Richard Webb
Richard Webb is New Scientist’s
executive editor
slugfest between Amazon

founder Jeff Bezos (see page 7)
and Tesla boss Elon Musk about
who has the biggest rocket – well,
its motivation speaks for itself.
Not all of that cynicism is
well placed. To leave Earth is still a
supreme technological endeavour,
albeit not such a trapeze act now
as when the Apollo missions
were launched on little more
computing power than is found
inside a smartphone today.
And while national and,
increasingly, commercial rivalries
will play a part in the second space
age, space is one of the few things
that truly belongs to all of us.
JOSIE FORD
Think of advances such as satellite

communications that have bound
humanity closer together, or space
F
IFTY years ago, almost to into the high recesses of the of the 1986 Challenger space telescopes that have allowed us to
the day, Snoopy nearly Big Top and there witnessing the shuttle disaster. Those horrific look further into the cosmos.
made it to the moon. Not most incredible trapeze act ever images of the darker side of space Space invites us to consider our
the canine wannabe pilot: Snoopy performed, from the comfort certainly seared themselves on position as the dominant species
was also the call sign of the Apollo of our ringside armchairs”. my 7-year-old mind. on a fragile planet with humility.
10 lunar landing module (the The money would be better spent The moon landing anniversary On 24 December 1968, Apollo 8
service module was Charlie Brown, on the world’s poor, we said. is a moment to reclaim a little astronauts took perhaps the most
naturally). On 22 May 1969, in the A half-century on, the Apollo optimism, and recalibrate our influential photo ever. “Earthrise”
dry run for the Apollo 11 landing moon programme is often attitude towards today’s space showed a beautiful blue orb
two months later, it transported dismissed in similar terms renaissance (see page 36). Sure, emerging from the moon’s
astronauts Eugene Cernan and (assuming you don’t believe it China’s current desire to make shadow. It is often credited with
Thomas Stafford to within all played out on a film lot in its mark in space is geopolitical kick-starting the environmental
15 kilometres of the moon’s surface. Los Angeles). Neil Armstrong’s muscle flexing, too. US vice- movement. Earth-monitoring
New Scientist’s attitude at the small-yet-giant step of 20 July president Mike Pence’s demand satellites have since helped expose
time was notably sniffy. Putting 1969 was an iconic achievement, that NASA recreate a totemic our effects on the planet’s climate
a man on the moon, we wrote but also a costly, dangerous, moment of US primacy by putting and ecosystems. To attempt to
just before that event, required ideologically driven boondoggle. an astronaut on the moon again transcend Earth’s boundaries
courage, organisation and Boundless tech optimism of the by 2024 is a logical end point of is to understand the value of what
ingenuity, but was “a matter of no sort that hailed “the space age” a “Make America Great Again” we have within them – and how
greater moment than just peering had all but burned out by the time agenda. As for the billionaire hard we must fight for it. ❚

Views Columnist
Field notes from space-time
Are we just making things up? Everything theoretical physicists

do is speculative, and likely wrong, except for the things we get right,
says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
R
ECENTLY, I visited a is hard-pressed to explain, and universe, starting billions of
prestigious physics that the axion clears up, is why years before humans showed
department and gave a the distribution of positive and up asking questions.
presentation about my research negative charges seems to be This type of scientific
on a particle called the axion. exactly the same – why it has work presents us with unique
Fifteen minutes in, a member of precisely zero electric dipole challenges. Unlike chemists in
the department interrupted me moment, to use the jargon. a laboratory, we can’t rerun the
to insist, “Isn’t the axion just a Professor Sceptic was right. experiment. We have exactly
matter of speculation? Shouldn’t This is all hypothetical. First of all, one sample universe to work
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein you say that?” I had been warned the neutron may have an electric with, and it operates entirely
is an assistant professor of by the graduate students to dipole moment – just one so small beyond our control. The best we
physics and astronomy, and beware this particular professor, we can’t detect it. But, as I told my can do is collect information, by
a core faculty member in who has a habit of rudely audience, this would create new taking images of distant stars
women’s studies at the interrupting talks to ask female problems to address: why have a and galaxies with telescopes, by
University of New Hampshire. speakers unnecessary questions. property that exists, but is so testing ideas about how particles
Her research in theoretical “Yes,” I responded. “I have no idea unnaturally small? Even if the interact with each other at
physics focuses on cosmology, if the axion is real. Everything electric dipole moment is zero, it facilities like the Large Hadron
neutron stars and particles theoretical physicists do is is entirely possible that the axion Collider and by detecting
beyond the standard model speculative, and likely wrong, vibrations in the fabric of space-
except for the things we get right.” “Much like detectives time, aka gravitational waves.
I continued by reminding To interpret this data, we make
in a mystery novel,
the audience of something that some mathematical assumptions,
we develop theories
Chanda’s week I had already noted: the axion is and we simultaneously use the
a particle that may be produced about what happened, data to hone our mathematical
What are you
reading? during what researchers like then refine or assumptions. Much like detectives
I am enjoying Cosmological me call “the early universe”, alter them” in a mystery novel, we develop
Koans by Anthony Aguirre, when space-time as we ideas about what happened,
which comes out in the US traditionally speak of it and then we refine or radically
later this month. was less than 1 second old. alter those ideas, based on new
The existence of the axion was evidence. Then, we try to convince
What are you originally hypothesised with a far ourselves and each other that our
watching? from frivolous purpose: to prevent ideas are good, realistic models
The Desus & Mero talk particles that we know to be real of the universe.
show is making me laugh from developing properties that There is much we don’t
so hard. we are pretty sure they don’t have. know. The universe certainly
What are you It originates in the Peccei-Quinn doesn’t care if we figure it out.
working on? mechanism, named after its At the same time, it is a great
I am doing my usual: inventors Roberto Peccei and pleasure to do the work of
worrying about what axions Helen Quinn. Here, it exists still doesn’t exist. Maybe the pairing speculative imagination
get up to. to stop the standard model of Peccei-Quinn mechanism is a with hard-won data to get to know
particle physics – our best stab yet nice idea that doesn’t reflect how the universe in this way. I came
at explaining how material reality the universe works, so we need to study the axion not for its role
works – from endowing a particle a different way of clearing up the in the dipole problem, but because
in the centre of all atoms, the mystery. In other words, I told the it may also be a good candidate
neutron, with properties that gathering, I wasn’t worried about to solve a problem of missing,
are inconsistent with our running out of things to work on. transparent matter – what
laboratory observations. Professor Sceptic’s concern goes has historically been called the
As its name suggests, the to the heart of what theoretical “dark matter problem”. Axions
neutron has no overall electric physicists who study the origins still might not exist. But their
This column will appear charge. But it is made of smaller and evolution of the cosmos do: demise would raise so many
monthly. Up next week: fundamental particles, called we ask questions about the nature questions that it is hard to feel
Graham Lawton on the quarks, that do have a charge. The of the evolution of space and time worried about that possibility.
environment mystery that the standard model and everything that exists in the I say, bring it on. ❚

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Views Aperture

Interested in air quality?

Listen to air pollution expert Benjamin Barratt at New Scientist Live
newscientist.com/speakers/benjamin-barratt
Deadly beauty
Photographer Robin Price

robinprice.net
THESE luminous specks floating

in the half-light look like delightful
fireflies. In fact, they are potent
markers of air pollution.
To tell how many dirty particles
linger, you usually need data (or to
blow your nose). Artist Robin Price
and environmental researcher
Francis Pope at the University of
Birmingham, UK, have devised a
way to depict pollution levels in
Earth’s dirtiest and cleanest places.
Price walked through this street
behind Port Talbot’s steelworks
in Wales, UK, with a pole covered
in LEDs and a particle sensor. The
probability of the LEDs flashing
is based on the particle readings:
more particles means more lights,
revealing the invisible pollution,
he says. “I’m carrying a 3-metre
pole, taking a long exposure,” says
Price. “Only things that are very
bright or still appear in the image."
Price disappears because he
moves too fast for the exposure.
This photo revealed there were
20 to 30 micrograms of particles
less than 2.5 micrometres across
per cubic metre of air. This is at
the top end of the World Health
Organization’s recommended
maximum average daily exposure
to particulate matter. Inhaling
pollutants is linked to shortened
lives and mental health problems.
The steelworks probably create
much of the pollution, but they
are the major local employer so
nobody wants them to close. Price
says this uneasy balance between
economics, environmental
degradation and chronic health
problems plays out in the other
locations he photographed,
from Mexico City to Delhi. ❚
Chris Simms

Views Your letters
Climate change is deeply

political and needs action
Leader, 27 April
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard,
North Yorkshire, UK
You say that “climate change
is, emphatically, not a political
issue”. While agreeing with
everything else you wrote,
I must disagree with this.
We humans have devised
numerous economic models
by which to conduct our affairs.
They can be divided between two
broad headings: market forces
and planning for need.
In practice, the vast bulk of
our activities since the industrial
revolution have followed the
former model, supposedly
steered by the “invisible hand”
that economist Adam Smith
proposes guides markets. In fact,
it is almost exclusively devoted to
the creation of return on capital
investment. To do so, this model the UK parliament and the night, I heard an aurora. knee-jerk reactions that aren’t
must treat Earth as an unlimited Scottish and Welsh governments. I told some scientists from the long-term solutions. If they slow
resource, and as a bottomless Given the scale of the task, Swedish Institute of Space Physics. growth, this will hurt the poorest.
sewer and rubbish dump. Extinction Rebellion can only They later told me they had The solution to global warming
What the planet needs to succeed if it continues to grow into found an answer. Earth’s magnetic will be technological. There is a
now experience isn’t simply a huge mass movement. Whatever field is modified in synchrony huge amount of research into
a standstill, but an actual your circumstances, you can play with the aurora. I wear metal- renewable energy, and investment
diminution in current activities. a vital role. Your planet needs you. framed glasses and the arms is increasing rapidly. Once we have
The only fair and humane way to were catching these changes in clean energy, we can perhaps
achieve that is by planning global The editor writes: the magnetic field, creating the consider climate engineering
production strictly according to ❚ We had no intention of being noise I was hearing. to reduce the amount of
need. There can be no doubt dismissive of Extinction Rebellion. To me, the sound was like ice carbon in the atmosphere.
that to embark on the radical, crystals fluttering on the surface
revolutionary course of switching of the snow, and it wasn’t coming
Another view on the Please don’t call drive
economic models, as humanity from above as suggested in the
surely must, is a profoundly sounds of the aurora article. The synchrony with the assist an autopilot
political matter. aurora was perfect, so I knew
that the sound was being created
From Derek Langley, near me and not at aurora level.
Cambridge, UK
In view of your exemplary
Panic over the climate
recent coverage on the depth
and urgency of the climate crisis, is counterproductive
I was shocked by your dismissive Letters, 20 April
comments on the recent 6 April, p 40 From Mary Rose, 6 April, p 6
Extinction Rebellion protests. From François Danis, Goolwa, South Australia From Sam Edge,
To put the record straight: Palaiseau, France David Flint suggests that what Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
1130 supporters were arrested, David Hambling reports a is missing from efforts to reduce You mention the limitations of
with many, many thousands on proposal that auroral sounds climate change is panic. But the drive-assist feature in Tesla
the streets, and the protests were come from corona discharges at panic is rarely helpful. It leads cars. My biggest concern is that
entirely peaceful and respectful. an altitude of less than 100 metres. to short-term thinking and the company calls it an autopilot.
The protests have achieved In the 90s, I was at Esrange Space stopgap measures that can be This will inevitably give people
unprecedented coverage, as well Center, near Kiruna in the north counterproductive in the long run. an incorrect impression of its
as declarations of emergency by of Sweden. One quiet, wind-free Restriction and abstinence are capabilities. If someone is

Views From the archives
concentrating on reading, for glasses. A significant proportion

example, then it would take them of my career involved analysing 3D
several seconds to re-engage and seismic data using interpretation 40 years ago, New Scientist
assess what needed to be done if and mapping software. This often was captivated by a confirmation
the car tried to hand back control came with default colour scales of Einstein’s general relativity
or, worse, if it made a mistake involving a blue-white-red colour
but did not announce it. bar. With astigmatism, I can’t WE DIDN’T hold back with the
By this time, on most focus red and blue in the same superlatives on 17 May 1979,
highways, the pending accident plane. I used to wonder why I got when describing observations
would already have happened. headaches, until I changed the made with the Multiple Mirror
colour bar to something more Telescope (MMT) just installed at
amenable, which, fortunately, the Mount Hopkins Observatory
Credit where credit’s due in Arizona. “The instrument’s
these tools allowed me to do.
for cell culture work Later, I attended an design represents the century’s
ergonomics course by a company most radical innovation in optical
whose corporate colour scheme telescopes,” we enthused, “a
and visual aids were bright red carefully coordinated combination of six 1.8 metre
and blue, which was horrendous telescopes, whose light-collecting power is equivalent
for me to look at. to a single 4.5 metre mirror.” That made it the third
most powerful optical instrument in the world.
Despite only having operated for six nights, it
No human traders need had already come up with the goods: “the most
20 April, p 24 that kind of speed spectacular demonstration yet of light being
From Gil Domingue, deflected by gravity, as Einstein predicted in
Edinburgh, UK his theory of general relativity”, we said.
Colin Garner makes some That story began in 1919, when two teams,
good points regarding the need to promoted by astronomer Arthur Eddington, observed
educate doctors about prescribing the positions of distant stars changing during a total
antibiotics. But he does us solar eclipse, just as predicted by Einstein’s new theory.
microbiologists a disservice In 1933, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky predicted that
by stating that medical doctors a sufficiently massive body, such as a galaxy, would
culture bacterial samples to 4 May, p 44 bend light around itself to the point that objects
identify infections. From Eric Kvaalen, behind it would appear twice in the sky when
Microbiologists are the ones Les Essarts-le-Roi, France observed from Earth.
who do that. We can troubleshoot Mark Harris asks us to imagine This was what, almost half a century on, the MMT
when doctors unwittingly a trader in London wanting to saw for the first time. Analysis of the spectrographic
choose the wrong antibiotic. access data from New York: if it signatures of two quasars 8.7 billion light years away,
were routed via SpaceX’s planned QSO 0957+561 A and QSO 0957+561 B, showed
constellation of satellites, it might that they weren’t just suspiciously similar – they were
Colour discomfort affects identical. “That forces us to conclude that the images
reach her in 45 milliseconds.
many more people If that kind of speed were come from the same object,” Smithsonian astronomer
Letters, 13 April needed, the trader would be Fred Chaffee told us. The same light had bent two
From Jeff Dickens, Strachan, neither a “she” nor a “he”, ways around an intervening object.
Aberdeenshire, UK but an “it” – an algorithm. ❚ The pair have proved a gift that keeps on giving.
Graham Cox raises the issue of In 1995, Johannes Pelt at the Tartu Observatory in
how people whose perception of Estonia and his colleagues at the Hamburg Observatory
For the record in Germany used the time lag between modulations in
colour is different to the average
for the population can be poorly ❚ Strictly speaking, the Centers A and B’s brightness to calculate how fast the universe
served ergonomically. This isn’t for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding. From this, they determined that it is a
limited to colour blindness. declared measles to be eliminated couple of billion years older than previously thought.
I have astigmatism. I in the US (20 April, p 22). The following year, Rudy Schild at the Harvard-
lived with it uncorrected for ❚ It is bacteria associated with Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and his
many years, until my near sight fungi and other organisms that colleagues spotted a momentary dip in the brightness
deteriorated enough to require do nitrogen fixation (27 April, p 8). of one quasar image. That is perhaps induced by the
passing of the most distant planet we have yet
detected, 4 billion light years away. Simon Ings
Want to get in touch?
Send letters to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, To find more from the archives, visit
London WC2E 9ES; please see terms and email at newscientist.com/old-scientist
newscientist.com/letters

Views Culture
How to build your own world

Dreams lets everyone create a video game realm – but without
the tricky coding. Douglas Heaven goes exploring
games and more from scratch? create, share”. In many ways,

Both, kind of. “It’s a fantastic Dreams is a natural progression,
creative engine disguised as a but taken to an extreme. Where
Game game,” says Beech. LittleBigPlanet invited players to
Dreams Since Dreams launched on design their own levels for an
Media Molecule 16 April in “early access” mode, existing game using pre-made
For PlayStation 4 in which keen players buy an props, Dreams pretty much
unfinished version and Media invites you to do anything.
“WE’RE going to make a hedge- Molecule uses their feedback to Players can take the images in
aroo? Sounds good!” With that, tweak the final release, things their head and bring them to life.
John Beech is off. Wielding two have become clearer. So far, The usual stuff crops up, of
PlayStation motion controllers around 58,000 player creations course: spooky woods, kooky
with great precision, he tugs and have been shared online. But houses, robots, unicorns. Then
teases a brown blob on screen into that’s just the start: over several there’s a giant T. rex stomping
a hedgehog shape. The wand-like years, millions of examples are on skyscrapers and a cactus that
controllers are used to pull tufty expected to follow. wants a hug. One person has
prickles from its back. Four more In the full release later this made stunningly detailed fried
blobs become kangaroo legs year, Dreams will be packaged eggs. Another has recreated the
that are stretched, toned and with a more recognisable game – surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
prodded into place. an adventure with quests, There is also an animated story
Beech is a designer at Media milestones and levels. Many about a pea trying to cook itself,
Molecule, a game studio in players will probably just play narrated by the protagonist. Then
Guildford, UK. The company is that, says Beech. But what is clear there’s an amazing reproduction
known for its quirky, creative is that those who do dive in will of a scene from Dead Space – a
games and the demo of its new bring a lot of very weird and 2008 survival horror video game designs of Roman column. “There
release Dreams at Rezzed, a video- wonderful things to the surface. made by a team of hundreds. This is a test at the end, but it’s done in
game event in London, is more Browsing through what recreation has been made by just a really fun way,” he says. He now
improv workshop than tech players have made and uploaded one player – Quinn Barnett. It is thinks that teachers should use
showcase. “Be prepared to be already is like scrolling through more or less accurate apart from Dreams in their lessons.
imaginative,” we are told before society’s subconscious. “It’s a bit the giant yellow banana amid the Beech even used Dreams to plan
Beech bounds on stage. He asks like YouTube for games,” says mutant apocalypse. his wedding. He made a replica of
the crowd what he should make Beech. “You’ve no idea what People have also uploaded the venue and his girlfriend
and runs with it. you’re going to get.” dozens of original games, from walked around it in virtual reality
With a few more casual flicks Player-made contributions first-person shooters to racing and pointed to where she thought
and clicks, he animates his have been a big part of Media games to platformers. Beech is they should put the balloons and
hedge-aroo’s head and legs to Molecule’s output for some time. thrilled: “Oh, wow, it’s such a mix, flowers. “Everyone from work who
make it dance. He then makes an Its LittleBigPlanet game series was it’s unbelievable.” One that caught came to my wedding was familiar
underground station, complete marketed with the tag line “Play, his eye introduces you to different with the venue because they’d
with train, disco ball and confetti. seen it on my screen,” he says.
He adjusts the colours and angles My first go with Dreams is a
BOTH IMAGES: MEDIA MOLECULE/SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT
of the lighting. Opening up a little overwhelming. The motion

multitrack music editor, he chops controls are easy but there are so
out the middle section of a jaunty many options at every turn that
tune and sets it playing in his I freeze, wondering what to do.
hedge-aroo’s underground disco. Beech admits that it is a steep
Dreams is a masterclass in how learning curve, but he’s convinced
much can be done with so little. reaching the top will be worth it.
Yet people have been confused “Dreams is very intuitive and
about what exactly Dreams is slick,” says Barnett. He’s dabbled
since it was announced several in game-making before but says
years ago. Is it a video game or a he can already do more in Dreams
powerful design tool that lets you than with other design tools. He
craft your own music, films, remade Dead Space to get to grips

Don’t miss
Listen
found messages from other

players telling him he should
get a job at Media Molecule. “It 13 Minutes to the
suddenly clicked and I thought, Moon is Kevin Fong’s
now that’s a good idea,” he says. BBC podcast trailing the
“I went up there wearing a 50th anniversary of the
backpack with my PlayStation in Apollo 11 moon landing
it and they told me I could start in July. It features new
the following week,” he says. That interviews with Apollo
was 10 years ago. For the last eight astronauts Michael
he has been working on Dreams. Collins and Jim Lovell.
To make Dreams possible,
Media Molecule has had to Read
reinvent how games are made.
Most games construct their
worlds out of millions of
interconnected polygons, which
give everything you see its shape.
These are then given more detail
by covering them with what are
known in the game design
industry as textures. It’s a little
like making structures out of Finding Our Place in
millions of odd-shaped boxes and the Universe (MIT Press)
with Dreams and now wants to Fantastical beasts and then wallpapering over them. by French astrophysicist
use it to make original games. other creatures (above and Working with polygons and Hélène Courtois, recounts
“I expect this will demystify below left) – some of them textures is hard, though. “In most her 20-year effort to
game development for a lot of made by players of Dreams games you have very skilled identify Laniakea, a
people,” he says. “It’s a gateway artists who have learned how to supercluster of galaxies
for creative people who might optimise this,” says Beech. “We to which the Milky
have been daunted by can’t give that to someone and Way belongs.
conventional programming expect them to be able to do it.”
and 3D graphics systems.” So Dreams does without Play
That’s what Beech hopes, polygons and uses what the studio
too. He got his job at Media “People who calls “flecks” instead – virtual
Molecule by creating levels objects that can be given both
dive in will bring
in LittleBigPlanet that became shape and detail, like the brown
popular with other players.
weird things to the blob that sprouts hedgehog
Migraines had made it hard for surface. It’s already spines. “I don't think anyone has
him to take exams and he left like trawling done it before,” says Beech. “We
school with few qualifications, through society’s can have almost infinite detail.”
working as a builder for 11 years. subconscious” The result is an amazing
When he started playing creation tool that combines the Observation (No Code/
LittleBigPlanet at 26, he drew power of professional-grade Devolver Digital) casts
on his job to build things in the design software with the handling you as the resident AI
game. “I’d see what other people of a video game. “Someone asked on a space station that’s
had done and thought I could do me – do you think it’s going to put gone badly wrong. You
it better,” he says. game artists out of a job?” says can operate control
One day he was nearly killed at Beech. “I don’t. I think it’s going to systems, cameras and
work when he was buried at the create the next generation.” ❚ tools to unravel the
bottom of a trench. He came mystery. Out on 21 May
home covered in mud and started Douglas Heaven is a technology writer for PC and PS4.
playing the game to relax and he based in London

Views Culture
The science of film
When smaller matters Blockbuster franchises like the Avengers often want to
create alternative time frames or mess with different outcomes. One of the best
escape routes is to delve into the quantum realm, finds Simon Ings
Ant-Man has no clue

about the science of
the time machine
retrograde transmission of
information. Still, the time
machines aren’t remotely
buildable, the messages you can
send from the future say virtually
Simon Ings is a culture editor nothing, and the more you cite
at New Scientist. His latest real science, the more you invite
novel is The Smoke (Gollancz) responses that begin “Yes, but…”
or “I think you’ll find…”
Avengers: End Game’s hokey
time travel works far better,
MARVEL STUDIOS/DISNEY
I reckon, by colliding two chunks

of utter nonsense at high narrative
speed. Take one master thief
(the always affable Paul Rudd as
Ant-Man), give him a suit that lets
Film him shrink small enough to enter
Avengers: End Game HALFWAY through Anthony and we have had the ravages of passing “the quantum realm”, point out
directed by Anthony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: End Game, time embodied by the unageing, (correctly) that at this scale time
Joe Russo Tony Stark knocks together a time unkillable and ever more lonely and space don’t mean a whole lot,
machine. He is out to stop Thanos, figure of Wolverine, played with and hey presto, you have yourself
Simon also a villain whose solution to the true pathos by Hugh Jackman. a franchise-sized Get Out of Jail
recommends... universe’s resource shortages has From the BBC’s intermittently Free machine powered entirely
been to wipe out half of all life. mind-bending Doctor Who to the by flimflam. Viewers can’t cavil,
Film
Stopping Thanos won’t be easy, gobsmackingly weird last act of because there is no science to be
The Incredible
since the film – the capstone to the Battlestar Galactica retread, had here – not since 1899, anyway.
Shrinking Man
21 interconnected movies in the it is clear that you can tell truths That was the year physicist
directed by Jack Arnold
Marvel cinematic universe – opens Max Planck evolved a model of
In this 1957 sci-fi movie,
with him having already achieved “End Game’s hokey time the physical universe that relied
a man starts shrinking
his goal. Many favourite characters upon ratios (which are timeless
after exposure to travel works better by
are already dead. and universally true) rather than
radioactive pesticides. colliding two chunks of
Resetting past narratives measurements (which depend
A heartbreaker. utter nonsense at high
is a hard trick to pull off, as the upon who is making the ruler).
Book deceased Bobby Ewing discovered narrative speed” In Planck’s universe, the speed of
The Order of Time when he stepped out of his shower light, the electromagnetic wave
Carlo Rovelli in 1986, erasing two whole seasons about time, age, mortality, loss function and the gravitational
Allen Lane of Dallas’s soapy story arc. and regret in playful ways without constant all have a value of 1.
“The events of the world On the face of it, you would ever resorting to a science book. From this, you can work out the
do not form an orderly think sci-fi franchises ought to I wish someone had pointed this shortest distance imaginable – the
queue, like the English,” have an easier time of it. The out to Star Trek, notorious for point at which the terms “here”
writes this most erudite world of the X-Men draws to a being the franchise where or “there” cease to have meaning.
theoretical physicist. close this year with two films, overblown pop-science goes to die. In a space smaller than
“They crowd around Dark Phoenix and The New Since The Next Generation, the Planck length squared,
chaotically, like Italians.” Mutants. The franchise’s constant, Star Trek has been saddled with information can’t exist. This is
piecemeal reinventions have a science bible that almost makes why a single photon entering a
been sloppy, though surprisingly sense. Einstein’s equations black hole increases the area of
faithful to the even sloppier logic do allow for time machines. the hole’s event horizon by 10-66
of the comic books. Physicist Kip Thorne’s space-time square centimetres – as the ever-
By way of compensation, wormholes do permit the modest Ant-Man doesn’t say. ❚

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Features Cover story
A new golden
space age
Whether it’s billionaires vying to build the biggest rocket
or the US and China competing to return to the moon,
space exploration is lifting off again, says Leah Crane
“I’m on the surface, and, as I take man’s last main parties to the cold war, fought largely for (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and
step from the surface, back home for some time propaganda purposes. “The Soviet Union was the Canadian Space Agency. Since Cernan’s
to come – but we believe not too long into the suffering from poverty and corruption and it return, its orbit 400 kilometres up is the
future – I’d like to just [say] what I believe still cemented itself as a huge power by what it furthest humans have strayed from Earth.
history will record. That America’s challenge could accomplish in space,” says Laura Forczyk The times they are a’changing, however.
of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. of the space consultancy firm Astralytical in Most notably, China has rapidly established
And as we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we Atlanta, Georgia. The Soviets made the early itself as a third space superpower, with
leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall running, too, launching the first artificial capabilities approaching those of the original
return, with peace and hope for all mankind. satellite in 1957 and putting the first man, two. The China National Space Administration
Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.” and woman, into space in the early 1960s. sent its first “taikonaut” into space in 2003, and
That stung the US into action. Its Apollo has now landed uncrewed craft on the moon
T
HOSE words, spoken by astronaut Gene programme ensured that it pulled off the twice, including Chang’e 4, which made the
Cernan on 14 December 1972, aren’t ultimate coup of that one small step onto first controlled landing on the far side of the
nearly as famous as Neil Armstrong’s the moon on 20 July 1969. But after that, the moon in January. After short-lived successes, it
“giant leap for mankind”. But as we gear up increasing cost and decreasing propaganda plans to have its own permanent space station
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first up and running by the early 2020s. In total, 13
moon landing this July, they have a certain nations plus an additional 22 that collaborate
pathos. The last words spoken on the moon “China has established itself in ESA have rocket launch capabilities, and
came just three-and-a-bit years after the first. as a space superpower, there are 72 separate national space agencies.
Since they were uttered, humanity hasn’t
ventured beyond near-Earth orbit. Our
with capabilities like the Former NASA deputy administrator
Lori Garver explains this boom with
aspiration to reach for the stars – or at least original two” science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson’s
the nearer bits of outer space – was over sentiment that the only motivations that drive
almost as soon as it began. value of crewed space flight meant dreams big things are fear, greed and glory. “Apollo
Just lately, however, space is looking a little of moon bases or settling on Mars remained was a combination of fear and glory,” she says.
crowded again. National space agencies and just that – dreams. “I think this renaissance is about greed, and
private companies in the US, China, Japan, We never gave up entirely on space, of I’m fine with that.” That is true at least of some
India, Israel and elsewhere are vying to send course. Earth’s immediate environment has commercial interests, who want to get in early
uncrewed missions to the moon, Mars and become increasingly packed with satellites on what they see as an industry that will one
beyond. In the US, one of the two original space surveying the planet and beaming messages day boom. With smaller nations, glory is still
powers, the stated aim is to send humans around it, plus a whole load of associated junk. in play. “For the new countries in space flight,
back to the moon by 2024. Other countries are Then there is the International Space Station they haven’t gotten their glory yet,” says Garver.
making serious noises about permanent space (ISS), a symbol of a new era of post-cold war As for the “why now?”, the basic story is
bases, too. So why this space boom, and why space cooperation since its first component simple. “When there’s sort of a sea change,
now? And crucially – are we ready for it? blasted into orbit in 1998. It is jointly operated it’s usually because there’s tonnes going on
The original space race was simple to by NASA, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, underneath the surface,” says Mary Lynne
fathom: it was a straight fight between the two the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Dittmar of the Coalition for Deep Space >

New Scientist: The new quest for space

Next week, read how the solar system’s most
mysterious planet may have enabled life on Earth
Exploration, a space-industry advocacy to land on the moon”, says John Thornton, company founded by the entrepreneur Elon
group based in Washington DC. The jump CEO of US space robotics company Astrobotic. Musk, has been launching large rockets into
may seem sudden, but humanity has been “That same thing can be repeated all around orbit since 2010. One of its Falcon 9 rockets can
slowly building towards this for decades. the world.” The Mexican Space Agency, which now get your mission there for $62 million.
Take the “new” space power, India: it was only founded in 2010, is planning to send If you are willing to ride-share – to launch
has been launching satellites with its own a scientific instrument to the moon aboard your spacecraft in a bundle with other
rockets since 1980. An Indian Space Research an Astrobotic lander sometime this year. satellites aboard the same rocket – the costs
Organisation probe that entered orbit around get even lower. If you have a satellite that is
Mars in September 2014 brought it into the under 100 kilograms, one of US company
spotlight as the fourth space agency to get Ready-made rockets Rocket Lab’s smaller Electron rockets could
there after NASA, Roscosmos and the ESA. Dig deeper, and you find the developments launch it from its New Zealand facility for
Similarly, Japan launched Hayabusa, the reflect different strands of progress coming just $5 million. In 2018, there were 114 rocket
first mission to bring back samples of dust together to give us more ways to play in space. launches using 25 different types of rocket.
from an asteroid, as far back as 2003. Its Decades of miniaturising electronics and “There’s this cycle of goodness: the more
successor, Hayabusa 2, blasted a cannonball at other components, plus advances in 3D they can launch, the more the cost is reduced,
another asteroid to take samples last month. printing and robotics, means that spacecraft therefore the more people come up with
The Hayabusa missions are part of a conscious parts are cheaper and easier than ever to make. things to launch because they can afford to,”
softly-softly approach on Japan’s part. “Back in the Apollo era, they were inventing says Garver.
“Frequent small missions would be the path technology for the first time and using the The true new space race may be more
for us to pursue, and this should allow new very first of everything,” says Thornton. between the large private launch providers
players to participate in our missions,” says “Now you can just go buy the parts you need than between nations. SpaceX, the United
Masaki Fujimoto, deputy director of JAXA’s and it’s making it possible to build spacecraft Launch Alliance and Amazon founder Jeff
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. very, very quickly.” Bezos’s Blue Origin are all working on new
That illustrates a key factor in the new space Space technology companies are springing heavy-lift rockets to take cargo into deep
race: the willingness of smaller nations to up to fill a multitude of niches, so would-be space, although SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is
work with industry. Nowhere was that more space adventurers don’t have to go through the only one that has flown as yet.
apparent than with the Beresheet mission years of research and development on their So far, so non-human. But along with the big
that, after successfully reaching orbit around own as larger companies did in the early rocket companies, smaller firms are working
the moon, crash-landed on its surface on 2000s. “They’re able to get start-up cash, do on the tech for human space flight, from
11 April. It was run by SpaceIL, an Israeli development and get their product to market budget lunar landers to habitats that inflate
company founded to participate in the Google in a very short amount of time, and I think or that are 3D printed from Martian dust.
Lunar X Prize, which offered $20 million to the that’s where the renaissance is coming from,” For now, the customers for commercial
first privately funded venture to land on the says Eric Stallmer of the Commercial firms big and small are mainly governments,
moon. Although mostly backed by private Spaceflight Federation in Washington DC. particularly the US government, through
donors, it got some funding from the Israeli Underpinning all of this is a revolution in NASA. More than half of SpaceX’s launches
government and displayed an Israeli flag. the launch market. Getting the NASA space have carried payloads from US government
Despite the ultimate failure to touch down, shuttle into orbit cost about $1.5 billion per agencies. “NASA is providing a backbone,” says
owing to an engine problem in the final stages trip by the time it was retired in 2011. A launch Dittmar. “I see it as a natural evolution: money
of landing, “Beresheet is a great testament to with ESA’s Ariane 5 rocket today will set you flowing from government into business
show that you don’t have to be a superpower back around $200 million. But SpaceX, the ventures, ventures furthering this technology
and government eventually moving on.”
The US government is certainly not moving
The Israeli Beresheet on yet. In March, vice president Mike Pence
probe crash-landed on announced that the president would direct
the moon in April – but it NASA to send astronauts to the moon by 2024
shows how far start-ups “by any means necessary”. That is a tall order:
can get in space ideally, NASA would use its own Space Launch
System rocket, but it has been mired in
schedule and budget overruns since the
agency contracted Boeing to start building it
in 2012. NASA could use a rocket from SpaceX
or Blue Origin, but it would require an
overhaul of how payloads are put on those
rockets, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine
said last month.
Such an ambitious deadline will require
REUTERS/SPACE IL
additional funding. If NASA gets it, that could

be a game changer for the wider space-flight
industry. “If that’s an enduring statement,

Moon Village is a multi-partner open concept.

ESA’s role is something like a broker to bring
together the different players,” he says.
Rules of the road

If we don’t do it together, we might not be
able to do it at all, says Wörner. In March,
India tested its new anti-satellite missile
system, the fourth country to do so, blasting
one of its satellites into pieces. “India
registered its name as a space power,” said
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in a
statement after the test. That registration
came with a cost: hundreds of bits of fast-
moving debris, putting other satellites and
even the ISS in danger.
“Especially in light of this anti-satellite
test, it’s clear that there need to be rules of
the road,” says Stallmer. The more satellites
and other spacecraft we send up, the more
difficult it is to keep an eye on everything.
Tracking capabilities and international
laws need to catch up with the boom in
commercial space flight. “You can’t just
expand the space industry by orders of
magnitude and manage it as business as
usual,” says Laura Grego of the Union of
Concerned Scientists in Massachusetts.
But get it right, and we can all benefit.
Having more satellites has given us better
“The new jump into space moving industry from Earth into space. Nine internet and communications, and more
other companies, including Astrobotic, have accurate weather forecasting and GPS. Testing
may seem sudden, but been awarded NASA contracts to work on on the ISS has led to the development of water
humanity has been building moon landers. purification systems that are more compact
to this for decades” Meanwhile, in the wake of its successful and efficient than ever before. Building
moon landings, China is turning its sights spacecraft has enabled innumerable advances
towards crewed missions and eventually a in material science. “Space is a team sport,”
lunar research station. ESA has ambitious says Rush. “The more folks that are thinking
that’s going to push everybody hard and plans for many robotic missions and crewed about utilisation in space to help their
really be the deliverance on this renaissance,” flights to Mars in the 2030s, and has developed populations or their customers or their
says Andrew Rush, the CEO of in-space a concept for a moon base. Roscosmos has industry, the better it is for everyone.”
manufacturing company Made In Space. announced plans to establish a lunar So what is behind the new space race?
NASA’s plans, which include a moon- settlement by 2040, although experts have Glory – certainly. Greed – undoubtedly. But it
orbiting space station, are far from the only questioned its ability to do so, given that is also about dreaming, and a genuine desire
ones – after all, the moon is an obvious first Russia has done no planetary exploration to push the boundaries of science and
step in our second attempt to reach for space. since the Soviet Union was dissolved. technology in space once more. “All of the
“I think of the moon as our practice ground as Not everyone is entirely at ease with the people who are coming to the table right now,
a species,” says Thornton. “If you can learn to direction of space travel. ESA director-general they’re being drawn to the big idea – the big
really live off the land and use the resources Johann-Dietrich Wörner is worried about a idea that we’re going out and exploring again,”
of another planetary body, that’s when we can return of the “space race” framing, seeing it says Dittmar. Fifty years after the culmination
become true explorers of our solar system.” as counter to the collaboration that has been of the first space race, we are listening out
In 2017, Musk announced that SpaceX fruitful in projects like the ISS. “I hope that we again for those next words from the moon. ❚
would aim to enable the creation of a lunar are not back into the race,” he says. “If we do
base. Last week, Bezos announced Blue this together beyond Earthly borders, beyond
Origin’s plans for developing a crewed lander Earthly politics, beyond any Earthly crisis, Leah Crane is New Scientist’s
to go to the moon’s south pole by Pence’s 2024 then we do a service for all humankind.” space reporter, based in Boston,
deadline. That would be a prelude to setting ESA’s own moon base concept follows this Massachusetts. Follow her on
up a permanent settlement there, eventually collaborative principle, says Wörner. “The Twitter @DownHereOnEarth

Features
Studying human variation is possible without

resorting to race, argues Angela Saini in this
extract from her new book
The long
reach of
race science
T
HE end of the second world war was
meant to have spelled the death of
race science. Until the 1930s, it had
been relatively acceptable for biologists and
anthropologists to believe in innate differences
between races. Many assumed that certain
groups were superior to others. It was only
after the war and the Holocaust that the
world finally turned its back on this dangerous
field of research.
People thought about race differently
following the war. Anthropologists showed
ANGÉLICA DASS / HUMANAE - WORK IN PROGRESS
that most of what we think of as racial

difference is in fact cultural and linguistic
difference. Geneticists, starting with Richard
Lewontin in 1972, have shown that more
than 90 per cent of the genetic variation we
see between humans lies within the racial
categories we use. Being of the same race
doesn’t necessarily make two people more
genetically similar to each other than either

of them would be to someone of another race. There are no distinct racial “types” with hard
Race is today described as a social construct, boundaries, only statistical similarities
its study confined to the social sciences so between whichever groups we want to identify.
we can understand the effects of historical Philosopher Lisa Gannett, at Saint Mary’s
and modern-day discrimination. The handful University in Halifax, Canada, has warned
of scientists who have continued to insist of the ethical repercussions of thinking
publicly on the existence of biological about race in this clustered way. The problem
races have often been on the margins of lies in the need to group in the first place,
respectability. There was William Shockley, to separate people even when that means
the Nobel prize-winning physicist at Stanford having to zoom in on the tiniest bits of the
University in California who wanted black genome that might differ. Even then, those
women in the US to be voluntarily sterilised. tiny differences are only on average, not
Then there was Arthur Jensen, a psychologist applicable to every person in that group.
at the University of California, Berkeley, Gannett calls it “statistical racism”. While
who claimed that black people had innately scientists may feel they have left race behind,
lower intelligence levels than white people. she argues, in reality it is only their language
We think of Jensen and Shockley as and parameters that have changed. They may
exceptions. We assume that race has been not call them races, but researchers today still
purged from science. But has it? refer to European and African “populations”.
In truth, it never completely disappeared.
There remains a suspicion among some
scientists that there could be something Population trap
tangible to race, that genetics could someday This clustered way of thinking about
uncover unpalatable truths. Last year, Harvard race culminated in the early 1990s with
population geneticist David Reich wrote in the Human Genome Diversity Project,
The New York Times, “it is simply no longer spearheaded by Cavalli-Sforza himself. He
possible to ignore average genetic differences and colleagues based mainly in the US wanted
among ‘races’”. Reich told me in an interview to take DNA samples from what they saw as
a month later that he doesn’t believe these distinct, isolated indigenous groups around
differences will be large, and genetics will the world – including the Basques of Europe,
continue to shatter racial myths, but even the Kurds of eastern Turkey and Native
so, “there are differences amongst people. Americans – and use them to build a picture
We don’t know what they are so we have to of the past as well as of human evolutionary
deal with uncertainty.” change. This new perspective, they announced
“We assume This uncertainty reflects how even well- in the journal Genomics in 1991, would
that race has intentioned, politically neutral researchers
such as Reich can’t help but resort to race
“supplement and strengthen findings from
archaeology, linguistics, and history”.
been purged when thinking about human difference. Could this be called race science? Those
The field of population genetics is a case behind the Human Genome Diversity
from science. in point. One of its former leading lights, the Project didn’t see what they were doing as
late Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was a staunch race science, but it was hard not to see how
But has it?” anti-racist. In 1973, he publicly debated race the project bore some of its hallmarks.
with Shockley at Stanford, where he was also One scientist, for example, “talked about
a professor. Yet even Cavalli-Sforza, whose the need to sample ‘isolates of historical
work focused on understanding how genetic interest’, a term that indigenous populations
variation is distributed among humans, did not care for”, says Henry Greely at
clung to the belief that race isn’t a completely Stanford Law School, who was brought in to
redundant concept in genetics. navigate the ethical issues around the project.
In his book Genes, Peoples and Languages, “It struck me that that was not likely to be
published in 2000, Cavalli-Sforza wrote: well received because it’s a very clinical,
“A race is a group of individuals that we can bloodless way of referring to people who
recognize as biologically different from others.” are alive, and cultures that are living now.
His was a statistical definition of race, based Historical interest is something you find in
on the concept that there are clusters of people a museum. It was tone-deaf.”
who share certain gene frequencies. So while Politically anti-racist though the scientists
our common racial categories may have little behind the project were, they fell into the trap
meaning, suggested Cavalli-Sforza, certain of treating some populations as biologically
populations – especially tight-knit ones – could special and distinct. They forced people into
be considered races, even if only statistically. categories that did not necessarily make >

How real is race?

Hear Angela Saini speak at New Scientist Live
www.newscientistlive.com
evolutionary sense, in the same way that race structured – deliberately targeting particular Measuring human diversity
scientists did in the 18th and 19th centuries populations rather than looking at the DNA Geneticists typically sample from discrete populations,
when coming up with the racial categories we of people wherever they happened to be in but a potentially much better approach is to do so
use today. These populations were sometimes the world – was what ultimately undermined based on a regularly spaced geographical grid
defined by little more than cultural or it. “How you define the population in the first
linguistic boundaries. place, these are culturally loaded things in
“The idea that [the people in] these groups themselves,” he says. “So there was a lot of
are somehow truly genetically similar is a cultural discrimination in the original aims.”
huge assumption,” says sociologist Catherine It is perfectly possible to study global
Bliss at the University of California, San human variation without grouping people,
Francisco. Just because communities appear says Jobling. Our genomes have so much in
to be tight-knit and ancient doesn’t mean common, the physical variations so subtle,
there has never been any mixing between that humans can theoretically be grouped any
them and others. There has always been way we like. The genetic variants associated
mixing between all human populations, with light skin, for instance, are common not
which is why we are so similar today. only in Europe and parts of east Asia, but also
Even at the outset of the Human Genome in the San hunter-gatherers of southern Africa. Population clusters Grid sampling
Diversity Project, concerns were raised. Before You could do a thought experiment where you
it was launched, an alternative was mooted. grouped everyone on Earth based on three
Rather than sampling the DNA of population nationalities: Kenyan, Swede or Japanese, he
groups thought to be isolated, scientists could says. Theoretically everyone could be placed
instead study people at regularly spaced in one of these groups as we are all genetically
geographical intervals across the globe. connected to the average Kenyan, Swede
or Japanese person, either directly or by
historical migration. “You could say that
Culturally loaded you were so many per cent Kenyan, so many
This “grid sampling” approach was per cent Swedish and so many per cent
championed by Allan Wilson, a biochemist Japanese,” says Jobling.
based at the University of California, Berkeley, This may seem bizarre, and of course he’s
known for the Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis, not suggesting we do it, but it is no more
placing our most recent common ancestor bizarre than dividing the world into black,
in Africa around 200,000 years ago. Wilson brown, yellow, red and white – as race
believed that grid sampling would document scientists once did. And it is only a little less
human variation as it really was rather than arbitrary than the racial categories we use
imposing possibly incorrect assumptions today. Medical researchers have noticed how
on existing groups. poor a proxy for human variation these racial
“If you were to grid sample,” says Bliss, categories can be. Even the gene that causes
“you’re not going to get tidy and neat sickle cell disease, which people often think
similarities.” This is because there aren’t any: of as being mainly associated with those of
human variation doesn’t sit along precise African ancestry, is actually found in all ethnic
boundaries. It is messier than any racial groups, as the UK’s National Institute for
model, with each neighbouring population Health and Care Excellence points out.
blending into the next. While some This isn’t to say that those behind the
populations may have slightly different gene project were racist. “Racism is born of
frequencies to others, there is no gene that ignorance, fear of the stranger and desire for HUMANAE
appears in all the members of one race and power: it has to be fought, first by showing its PROJECT
not in another. “Wilson’s approach would’ve nonsense and its real roots,” Cavalli-Sforza These images
gotten us closer to actual similarities,” says wrote in an email interview with me six by photographer
Bliss. “It would have been more accurate.” months before he died in August 2018. He Angélica Dass
But Wilson died aged 56, just before the was a force for good, a scientist who fought match skin tones
first planning meetings for the Human publicly against racism and fascism in the full to the Pantone
Genome Diversity Project began. Without understanding of what this meant, having colour system.
him, his grid sampling proposal was shelved. lived in Italy during the second world war. “Humanae is an
The project went on to become mired in Yet in the same exchange, he also ongoing, unusually
ethical controversy and protests from referred to the “children of partners direct reflection on
indigenous groups. It never secured the coming from genetically distant groups” – the colour of the
funding it needed to get off the ground. commonly known as mixed-race or mixed- skin that challenges
For geneticist Mark Jobling at the University heritage children – as “hybrids”, a term the concept of
of Leicester, UK, the way the project was that many might see as both morally race,” she says.

Angela Saini is a science

writer and broadcaster based
in London. Follow her on
Twitter @AngelaDSaini
and scientifically inappropriate. genetics, which seems to be incredibly neutral. notes, “the interbreeding thing is more
“Cavalli-Sforza was an old school It’s numbers, it’s statistical, it’s objective,” says like a symbolic thing for us than it is of
anthropologist,” says Jobling. “He would historian Joanna Radin at Yale University. evolutionary consequence”.
show old slides of him collecting DNA, blood But “population genetics is a science done Even now, scientists struggle to accept
samples in Africa from pygmy groups and by people, working with the assumptions that they may still be working within the
offering glass beads and cigarettes in return.” and the ideas that are available at the time”. frameworks of the past. There remains a
Cavalli-Sforza wasn’t a racist. At the same tendency to treat population groups as if
time, it may be impossible to expect anyone, they are genetically distinct. The Center for
especially a biologist born in 1922, to Race is useless the Study of Human Polymorphisms in Paris,
completely shed the ideas of race prevalent According to geneticist Mark Thomas France, keeps a bank of DNA samples from
in the early 20th century, particularly when at University College London, who has populations all over the world. And in 2015,
society in general still lives with them today – collaborated with Reich, race is a useless way the University of Oxford launched a project
racial discrimination is still widespread in to think about human variation. “There is no to make a genetic map of the people within
education and employment, for example. categorical imperative in biology, and no need the UK, named People of the British Isles.
This is the heart of the problem. It is difficult or value in placing people in biological boxes,” While no members of these projects would
to be convinced that mainstream scientists he says. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop see themselves as race scientists, it could be
fully abandoned race science after the second people ‘racialising’ others, and perhaps that argued that this grouping of people harks
world war – not because they were racists, but reflects our desire to categorise.” back to the same methods.
because they were human. They were living The recent discovery that other, Population genetics also fuels the trend
in a world that was still ridden with racism, now-extinct humans such as Neanderthals for consumer ancestry testing. In 2018,
segregation and apartheid. The old ideas and Denisovans bred with Homo sapiens AncestryDNA announced that it had sold
about race that had been a firm part of has reignited the racial debate, prompting around 10 million kits. “The Human Genome
everyday science wouldn’t simply vanish. some to wonder if the greater proportion Diversity Project had these ethnic groupings,
“What happens is that you’ve got a large of Neanderthal DNA shared by Europeans, and all these ancestry testing firms have
community of very well-meaning, self- for instance, gives meaning to our racial their ethnic groupings, which are the same
described anti-racist scientists seeking to find categories. But as anthropologist John Shea groupings,” says Bliss. “They collect DNA
a way to move beyond race into population at Stony Brook University in New York and have reference populations, and they’re
interchangeable. The way they communicate
those results and map people’s ancestry is in
a completely ethno-racialised way.”
Among the public, the tests may reinforce
a belief that race has deeper biological
meaning. In 2017, it was reported that white
supremacists in the US were using them to
“A pernicious prove how “white” they were, brandishing
their results as proof of shared European
assumption ancestry. These tests are based on the belief
is that specific that there are distinct ancient populations
from which each of us hail, says Bliss.
races have The answer, perhaps, is for researchers
to stop thinking about people in clusters.
specific genes” “One of the most pernicious assumptions
that we still hold when it comes to human
genetics and genomics is that specific races
have specific genes or specific genetic material
that’s unique to them,” says Bliss.
This assumption is false. But we will
never be free of the fallacy, she says, “if we
keep on sampling by racial categories or
ethnolinguistic categories, and write the
data through the software, and then slap
the categories back on afterwards”. ❚
This piece is an edited extract from Angela Saini’s new

book Superior: The return of race science (4th Estate),
published on 30 May.
Watch a video interview with her on race at

newscientist.com/angelainterview

Features
I
N A classic episode of The Simpsons, Bart
and his schoolmates watch an educational
film called A World Without Zinc. For
reasons unexplained, a man called Jimmy
wants to live without zinc. His wish is granted,
but he soon regrets it: he can’t go on a date
because his car won’t start, and he can’t call his
girlfriend because his telephone won’t work.
Horrified at what he has done, he tries to shoot
himself. But his gun won’t fire, because the
firing pin is made of zinc.
A real-life world without zinc would
probably be survivable. But there are some
commodities we would struggle without.
Many are obvious: steel, oil, aluminium.
But others are less so. In A World Without Zinc,
Jimmy wakes up to find it was all a bad dream.
In A World Without Rubber, however, the
nightmare threatens to become all too real.
Rubber is one of industrial civilisation’s
great unsung heroes. Apart from its obvious
uses in tyres, wellies, condoms and underwear
elastic, it is a crucial ingredient in some
40,000 products, including shock absorbers,
transmission belts, gaskets, hoses, medical
devices, sports equipment, cement, paints,
plastics and pharmaceuticals. According to
agricultural scientist K.P. Prabhakaran Nair,
rubber is “essential to the enjoyment of the
conveniences and amenities of modern life”.
Unfortunately, the prospect of a rubber
crisis isn’t the stuff of fiction. Demand keeps
growing, but supply isn’t keeping pace. With a
deadly fungus threatening to wipe out rubber
trees, and the rubber industry, the hunt is on
for new sources of the stuff.
Right now, the world has two of those
sources: oil and trees. For many applications,
the tree version – called natural rubber – is
considered superior to the synthetic version
BLOOMBERG/GETTY
made from petrochemicals. It is stronger,
more elastic, better at absorbing impacts
and more resistant to heat and friction. In
other words, rubberier. To connoisseurs, the
A world without rubber?

The stretchy stuff is essential to modern life, but the world’s supply is worryingly
vulnerable. A solution is urgently needed, finds Graham Lawton

“The supply of natural rubber is a security issue.

A shortage could destabilise global trade”
difference is like that between Madagascar

vanilla and its synthetic substitute. Natural rubber
The key to good rubber is very long polymer is used for
molecules and a property called “spontaneous everything
self-reinforcement” – reversible stiffening from surgical
under mechanical stress. Think of a car gloves (left) to
cornering: the tyre deforms a bit, which causes heavy vehicle
it to stiffen in response. What enables natural tyres (bottom)
rubber to be either elastic or hard is a process
mediated by proteins and fats at the end of its
BLOOMBERG/GETTY
long, polymer molecules. These have proved
hard to create in the synthetic form.
For some applications – everything from
engine parts to silicone cooking utensils –
synthetic rubber, or a blend of synthetic and
natural, is superior. But for many, natural “Up until the recession of 2008, the price of rubber supply,” says Wolyn. The industry
rubber is indispensable. For instance, aircraft natural rubber went up about tenfold over a could be wiped out in a year, says Cornish.
tyres must be 100 per cent natural rubber decade because of the expanding economies Because of this, leading agronomists have
or the heat and friction would make them in Asia,” says David Wolyn, a plant breeder warned that the supply of natural rubber is
explode on landing, says Katrina Cornish, and geneticist at the University of Guelph an international security issue. A sudden
a rubber expert at Ohio State University. in Canada. “The recession tempered that shortage of aircraft tyres, for example, could
For the past 70 years or so, the world’s major increase, but people are still very concerned destabilise global trade. The threat is so great
source of natural rubber has been the Pará about future supply,” he says. that the United Nations lists the leaf blight
rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), a native of as a potential biological weapon.
Brazil that is now grown all over the tropics. All of which has spurred a decades-long,
It is tapped for its latex, a white gunk that oozes Black death global search for alternative sources of natural
out after the tree’s bark has been carefully But as countries in South-East Asia develop rubber. Dozens of plants have been tried, yet
sliced. This is processed to make rubber as economically, landowners are shifting away most have failed. The Panama rubber tree,
we know it. The total area under cultivation is from rubber. “They cut down their rubber Castilla elastica, for example, produces good
about 100,000 square kilometres, mostly in trees and put oil palm in instead, which is less rubber, but usually dies after being tapped,
South-East Asia. The Pará produces excellent labour-intensive and you get your harvest while the India rubber plant, Ficus elastica,
rubber, but grows slowly and is extremely sooner,” says Cornish. is hardy, but produces poor-quality rubber.
fussy about temperature, rainfall, altitude The shift to palm oil is a threat to supply, but Now, however, two unlikely candidates – a
and soil, which restricts its range to just a it isn’t the worst. A much bigger one is the lack feeble northern weed and a scrubby desert
few degrees north and south of the equator. of genetic diversity of the Pará tree crop, which shrub – may put the spring back into the
Extracting the latex is labour-intensive and makes it frighteningly susceptible to disease – rubber industry’s step.
scaling up production almost impossible, especially a fungus called South American leaf It is rarely possible to pinpoint the exact
meaning that supply is extremely – and blight, the “black death” of rubber. It can’t be time and place of a crop’s domestication, but
ironically – inelastic. Recycling is notoriously treated: it killed off the rubber industry in the Pará rubber tree is an exception: 1876,
difficult too (see “Reclaimed rubber”, page 46). South America in the 1930s. As yet, it hasn’t where the Amazon and Tapajós rivers meet
In 2017, global demand for rubber was close spread to Asia thanks to strict quarantine in Pará state. That was where British explorer
to 30 million tonnes. The natural rubber measures, but if it does, the world economy Henry Wickham collected some 70,000
industry could only satisfy about 45 per cent of is in big trouble. “If the blight ever got to H. brasiliensis seeds, which he took back to
that. And that proportion will only diminish. South-East Asia, it would wreak havoc on our Kew Gardens in London on a falsified export >
AVIATION IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

licence. Kew germinated the seeds and Rubber trees

dispatched seedlings to parts of what are now are threatened
Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, by the rise of
where they were used to establish plantations. palm oil and by
These quickly outcompeted the South a deadly fungus
American industry, which relied on
smallholders tapping latex from wild trees.
Today, about 90 per cent of all natural
rubber comes from the descendants of
Wickham’s contraband trees, mostly in
Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. According
ADAM DEAN/PANOS
to Nair, every tree in these nations is a clone of
one of just 1919 seedlings. “Some of the largest
rubber-producing countries have miles of
virtually genetically identical trees with their
roots and canopies intermingled,” says Cornish.
That is a blight epidemic waiting to happen.
The industry has tried to increase genetic Siberian dandelions, and also a desert shrub, tyres proving that the alternative rubber is
diversity by cross-breeding with other strains, Parthenium argentatum, better known as high-enough quality, although neither is yet
but none appears to be resistant to the black guayule (pronounced why-oolie). This had commercially available. Dandelion rubber is
death. It is only a matter of time before the already been commercialised as a rubber also being developed in China, India and the
fungus makes landfall in Asia and rips crop in the early 20th century, although that US and there are guayule projects in Spain,
through the plantations. Two small outbreaks industry died out in the Great Depression. Australia and South Africa.
are rumoured to have happened already. On The project cultivated wild guayule plants Team dandelion recently stole a march
both occasions, it took a scorched earth policy from Mexico and Texas, but the war ended on the competition when a team at the
to stop the spread. before it could make much headway. Chinese Academy of Sciences published
Now, however, both plants are back in the T. kok-saghyz genome, a critical step
the frame. “They would go a long way to towards rapid crop improvement. “It helps
Beating the blockade solving our problems,” says Cornish. tremendously to understand the genetic traits
Although the world as a whole has yet to On the dandelion side, German tyre giant the breeders are after,” says plant geneticist
endure a rubber famine, it has happened Continental has set up a research centre with Kenneth Olsen of Washington University in
in some regions. One was the Soviet Union the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology St Louis, Missouri. “That allows you to have
during the second world war, when South-East and Applied Ecology in Münster. Its US a more informed breeding strategy.”
Asian exports were blockaded by the Japanese. competitor Bridgestone runs a pilot plant There are still hurdles to overcome, says
Luckily, the USSR had already sown the seeds in Arizona that makes guayule rubber. Cornish, who has commercial interests in
of a domestic rubber industry. In the early Both firms recently unveiled demonstration both plants. The dandelion isn’t a strong
1930s, Soviet agronomists tested more than plant, she says. “It grows slowly to start with
1000 species of indigenous plant as sources and we don’t have chemical weed control.
of rubber. The rubberiest was the Siberian It’s not going to be a commercially viable
dandelion, a native of the Tian Shan RECLAIMED RUBBER crop until that is achieved.”
mountains of Kazakhstan. This close relative There is also the challenge of scaling up
of the common-or-garden patio weed It is extremely difficult to to the millions of hectares needed to meet
produces large amounts of high-quality recycle rubber. To be reused demand – a problem for both contenders.
rubber in its roots. Local people had long used as a raw material it has to be Ultimately, the world needs all three crops,
it as a kind of chewing gum and the second “devulcanised”, which means says Cornish. Demand for natural rubber is so
half of its scientific name, Taraxacum reversing the chemical process high that nobody is going to put anyone else
kok-saghyz, means “root rubber” in Kazakh. used to strengthen it. Various out of business. “We could have the rubber
Throughout the decade, the Soviets methods exist, but they degrade tree in the tropics, dandelion in northern
developed ways to cultivate and process the a key polymer, so the quality temperate regions and guayule in semi-arid
dandelion. By the time of the Nazi invasion in of the recycled rubber is low. areas. They complement each other,” she says.
1941, the USSR had 67,000 hectares of it, and Consequently, about half of For now, maybe we should show more
domestic rubber was meeting 30 per cent of its the 1.6 billion tyres made appreciation for this essential stuff – and hope
needs. Production continued after the war, but every year – accounting for we don’t live to see a world without rubber. ❚
was halted in 1951 as cheaper South-East Asian 70 per cent of global rubber
rubber bounced back onto the market. consumption – aren’t recycled
The Japanese blockade also hit the US. In or repurposed. Those that are Graham Lawton is a staff writer and
1942, it set up the Emergency Rubber Project, mostly end up being shredded columnist at New Scientist specialising
employing more than 1000 scientists to find for applications such as flooring, in environment and biomedicine.
alternatives. They too experimented with road surfaces and insulation. Follow him @GrahamLawton

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IN
SEARCH OF

REMARKABLE SCIENTISTS
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Researcher BioDomain Radiation Oncologists

Shell Graduate Program
The Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Alabama at
<Zg]b]Zm^lZk^lhnàmmhÛeeZl\b^gmblmihlbmbhgbgLaêe Birmingham is currently recruiting for Radiation Oncologists at the level of

;bh_nêlK^l^Zk\a'Ma^khe^bl_h\nl^]hg]êbo^kbgèhp Assistant/Associate Professor. We are interested in clinical trialists or physician
\Zk[hghimbhglZg];bh_nêlbgmhma^fZkd^m%ikbfZkber_khf scientists and experience with proton therapy would be helpful. We plan to
open a proton facility in approximately one and a half years. These are
_^kf^gmZmbo^(ZgZ^kh[b\]b`^lmbhgZg]bg\en]^l]ôêhibg`
tenure-earning positions. Applicants must be Board Certified or Board Eligible.
fb\kh[bZemkZgl_hkfZmbhgkhnm^lZg]k^g^pZ[e^_^^]lmh\dlmh Our goal is the delivery of technically advanced radiotherapy in combination
fhe^\ne^l' with new agents developed in the laboratory to enhance cancer care and
provide treatment in a pleasing and educational environment. Current
Role
Accountabilities recruiting activities are focused on individuals with an interest in translational
Ma^khe^pbee[^bgmaÎkhc^\mlM^\agheh`r@khni%eh\Zm^]

and clinical research in addition to patient care. Laboratory resources are
available for qualified candidates. We have an exciting group of physician
bgAhnlmhg%M^qZl'Ma^ln\\^ll_ne\Zg]b]Zm^pbeephkdhg scientists who work in our very collaborative cancer center. New recruits will
ma^;bhl\b^g\^lZg];bh^g`bg^^kbg`m^Zf%g^pkhnm^l
have the opportunity to interface with a collaborative group of clinical faculty
mhk^g^pZ[e^fhe^\ne^lmaZm[^mm^kaZkg^ll^g^k`rZg] and laboratory scientists. Potential candidates should possess an MD degree.
Zmfhlia^kb\\Zk[hg'Ma^khe^Zelhlniihkmlma^G^p>g^k`b^l Candidates should be Board Eligible or Board Certified in radiation oncology.
[nlbg^llmh]êbo^koZen^Zg]g^pehp\Zk[hghimbhglmh For more information please email your questions to
hnk\nlmhf^kl'Ma^\aZee^g`^lbgln\aZkhe^kZg`^_khf Dr. James A. Bonner at gesims@uabmc.edu
ghoêiZmapZrb]^gmbÛ\Zmbhg%ahlm]ôêhif^gm%^gsrf^ Interested applicants please follow this link to apply:
ar]kherlbl%lheb]Zg]ebjnb]iaZl^_^kf^gmZmbhg%mhfhe^\neZk
http://uab.peopleadmin.com/postings/3796
fb\kh[bheh`b\ZemkZgl_hkfZmbhgl'
UAB is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer committed to fostering a diverse, equitable
and family-friendly environment in which all faculty and staff can excel and achieve work/life balance
4GQTKRGF3TCĚKĂECěKONS5LKĚĚS irrespective of, race, national origin, age, genetic or family medical history, gender, faith, gender
identity and expression as well as sexual orientation.
Ma^ln\\^ll_ne\Zg]b]Zm^pbeeaZo^ZIa=!hk[^bgma^bkÛgZe UAB also encourages applications from individuals with disabilities and veterans. A pre-employment
r^Zk(pkbm^&nih_ZIa="bghg^h_ma^_heehpbg`Zk^Zl%hkZ

background check investigation is performed on candidates selected for employment. In addition,
physicians and other clinical faculty candidates who will be employed by the University of Alabama
kêZm^]Ûê]3 Health Services Foundation (UAHSF) or other UAB Medicine entities, must successfully complete a
pre-employment drug and nicotine screen to be hired.
Fb\kh[bheh`r
;bh\a^fblmkr
?^kf^gmZmbhg
Ma^\Zg]b]Zm^pbeeZelhaZo^Zpbeebg`g^llmhe^ZkgZg]Ziier
\khll&]bl\biebg^ZiikhZ\a^lmhlheobgìkh[e^flpabe^phkdbg`
bgZm^Zfhkb^gm^]^gobkhgf^gm'

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]blmbg\mZ]oZgmZ`^3
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Ahlm\aZkZ\m^kbsZmbhgZg]fh]bÛ\Zmbhg
>gsrfâr]kherlbl Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Position
Lheb]hkebjnb]_^kf^gmZmbhg![Zm\ahk\hgmbgnhnlÜhpZm Dr. Holoshitz’ laboratory seeks applications from talented candidates for a post-doctoral
ibehml\Ze^" position in the Departments of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan School of
Medicine. The individual will carry out funded research projects related to new
Apply mechanism of MHC-disease association. Approaches include transcriptomics,
immunology, cell biology, proteomics, biochemistry, mouse models. The selected
Bghk]^kmh[^\hglb]^k^]_hkZgbgm^kob^p%\Zg]b]Zm^lfnlm FDQGLGDWHVZLOOKDYHRSSRUWXQLW\WRGHYHORSVSHFL¿FSURMHFWVDFTXLUHQHZVNLOOV
Ziierhgebg^Zmhnkp^[lbm^%ppp'laêe'nl(`kZ]nZm^l%Zg] participate in seminars and other academic activities, including presenting at national
conferences.
\eb\dhg
Lmn]^gmlZg]@kZ]nZm^ll^\mbhgZg]Ziiermhma^
Laêe@kZ]nZmÎkh`kZf' Representative publications:
Arthritis Rheumatol. 67:2061-70, 2015

P^k^jnbk^Z\hfie^m^]Ziieb\Zmbhg%Zgni]Zm^]\hirh_rhnk Arthritis Res Ther. 18:161, 2016
Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Dis. 2 (2), 2016
k^lnf^%Zg]Zgngh_Û\bZe\hirh_rhnkmkZgl\kbiml(`kZ]^ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 15:4755, 2018
kîhkmikbhkmhma^bgm^kob^p'

4XDOL¿FDWLRQV
RhnfnlmaZo^ZnmahkbsZmbhgmhphkdbgma^N'L'hgZ_nee&mbf^ 3K'DQGRU0'LQPROHFXODUELRORJ\FHOOELRORJ\LPPXQRORJ\JHQHWLFVRUUHODWHG¿HOG
• Working knowledge of immunology, arthritis models, signal transduction,
[Zlblpbmahnmk^jnbkbg`lihglhklabighphkbgma^_nmnk^' transcriptomics and protein chemistry
• Ability to work collaboratively with individuals from different backgrounds
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
DISCOVER WHAT YOU CAN
Contact:
ACHIEVE AT SHELL Please forward a cover letter, an updated CV, and the names and contact information of
3 references to:
Joseph Holoshitz, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine,
University of Michigan School of Medicine, 5520 MSRB1
1150 W. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI , 48109-5680
Shell is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disability Email: jholo@med.umich.edu
48 | New Scientist | 18 May 2019 newscientistjobs.com

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The back pages

Puzzles Feedback What does… Almost the last word Me and my telescope
Quick crossword, Dog DNA and parrot Liana Finck? Spacecraft gravity, Kate Shaw on Higgs
a cube puzzle police: the week in A cartoonist’s take and kissing hazards: bosons and Emmy
and quiz p52 weirdness p53 on the world p53 readers respond p54 Noether p56
How to be a maker Week 3
Switch to hot buttered toast

The ability to turn a device on and off creates myriad possibilities.
That is where switches come in, as Hannah Joshua demonstrates
LAST time, we gained mastery

over light and the basics of
circuits. As your devices get
more complex, it will make
life a lot easier if you can turn
the circuit on and off without
dismantling it. That means
adding a switch.
Switches come in many
Hannah Joshua is a science flavours, depending on what you
writer and maker based in want them to do. But what they
London. You can follow her on all have in common is that they
DAVID STOCK FOR NEW SCIENTIST

Twitter @hannahmakes make or break a circuit, letting
you control how electricity flows.
For our purposes, we need look
What you need no further than tinfoil.
As last week, plus: Like last week, make a circuit
Piezo buzzer with an LED, resistor and 9-volt
Tinfoil battery. Then disconnect a
Cardboard crocodile-clip wire from one leg
Chopsticks of the LED, and clip it to a piece
of tinfoil. Take another crocodile Make online
For next week lead and give it a second piece of Projects will be posted each week at
Jumper cables tinfoil to grip. Connect the other newscientist.com/maker Email: maker@newscientist.com
An electronics breadboard end of that lead to the LED where
you just broke the connection. the 9-volt battery with no need for Piping hot toast every time.
Touch the pieces of foil together a resistor. If you are ever in doubt, With only a basic circuit and a
Next in to complete the circuit. Suddenly, you can usually find specifications switch, the possibilities are already
the series turning the light on and off is easy. written on the packet. vast. Try sticking foil on the edge
1 Introduction But that isn’t all you can do. Assemble the battery, buzzer of a door and on its frame for a
2 Electric candle To illustrate this, I built a device and wires on cardboard, then find “do not disturb” light that comes
3 Toast notifier that tells me when my toast is some sticks. Anything about the on when you close it. Or make a
4 Desktop traffic light ready. This requires something height of your toaster will do. I flashing bike light, with one part
Use a “breadboard” that makes a sound when the used a pair of chopsticks. Now tape of the switch on the wheel and the
to build a complex toast pops up. I used a piezo a tinfoil switch pad to the end of other on the frame, so the circuit is
circuit buzzer, so called because it each stick. Glue the sticks upright briefly complete once per rotation.
harnesses piezoelectricity. on the cardboard, ensuring the Or how about a fairground
5 Propeller car
When you apply electricity to foil pads are the same height as steady hand game, where you
6 Magic eight ball
a piezoelectric material, it the toaster’s lever when it pops up. guide a wire loop over a shape
7 Theremin
deforms. The buzzer is designed Leave a small gap between the without letting them touch. If the
8 Sound-sensitive
so that this makes the material pads. If we cover the toaster lever buzzer sounds, it is your turn to
disco ball
vibrate, producing sound. with tinfoil, this will touch both make the toast. ❚
9 Rubbish sweeper
Most hobby electronics pads when the lever springs up. In
10 Biscuit bot
operates in the 3 to 12-volt range, other words, the moment the toast Thanks to Imperial College Advanced
meaning your piezo can handle is ready, the buzzer will sound. Hackspace for use of their facilities

The back pages Puzzles
Crossword #31 set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #03 Puzzle set by Hugh Hunt
1 What name is given to #03 CUBE SHADOW

different physical forms
of the same chemical At midday at her home
element, for example in Ecuador, Natalia
diamond and graphite holds a solid cube
in the case of carbon? 1 metre above the
ground and it casts a
2 “Now I am become death,
destroyer of worlds.” With shadow. She rotates
which physicist, wartime the cube a bit and
head of Los Alamos National finds that the smallest
Laboratory, is this quotation shadow she can create
associated as he watched is a square. What is the
the first nuclear bomb shape of the largest
detonate in July 1945? shadow she can
produce with the cube at noon and how
3 Clocking just 1268 hours much bigger is it than the square shadow?
of sun in 2016 – 3.5 hours
a day - what is Europe’s least Answer next week
sunny capital city?
4 Which Tanzanian gorge is #02

famed for its many discoveries
of hominin fossils? Getting past the freight train
Across Solution
1 Ge (9) 15é 5 When an Italian
6 1895 discovery by Wilhelm 16 Puzzle in which pictures astronomer gave a Dutch Last week we asked how a long passenger
polymath a ride in 1997,
Röntgen (1-4) represent words (5) train could get past a freight train pulling
where did the two end up
9 Distilling apparatus (7) 18 Supply with O (9) three wagons on a single track line with a
eight years later?
10 City in which the first nuclear 20 Subunit within a cell (9) siding that holds two wagons.
reactor was built (7) 23 Head; top; peridium Answers below
11 Willow (5) (in fungi) (5) The freight train (FT) detaches the
12 Type of tissue transplant 25 1958 sci-fi horror film (3,4) Cryptic back two trucks, then drives into
(4,5) 26 Ga (7) Crossword #06 the siding. The passenger train
13 Home to the Lucasian Chair 27 Xe (5)
Answers (PT) now pushes the two trucks
of Mathematics (9) 28 Storage container for natural beyond the siding, and the FT with
gas (9) Across 1 Marconi, 5 Colic, one truck reverses out of the
8 Denisovan, 9 Nan,
siding and out of the way so that
10 Mimic, 12 Rosehip,
Down 13 Pink elephants, 15 Integer, the PT can pull the two trucks
1 Bird excrement (5) 14 V-1 flying bomb (9) 17 Comet, 19 Age, back and then push them into the
2 Re (7) 15 Anatomical structure 20 Anthelion, 22 Yield, siding before heading down the
3 Whale gut secretion (9) resembling a lid (9) 23 Suspend line again.
4 Bone of the middle ear (5) 17 Wetland plant (3,4) Down 1 Modem, 2 Ran, Next, the FT pulls the trucks out
5 Workings (9) 19 Of a baby bird, to form 3 Ossicle, 4 Invertebrates, of the siding and pushes them
6 Star Wars spaceship (1-4) an attachment (7) 5 Cones, 6 Lanthanum, behind the PT. The FT then
7 Hawaiian honeycreeper (7) 21 Synthetic polymer (5) 7 Canapés, 11 Monotreme, reverses and goes into the siding
13 Privacy, 14 Hackers,
8 ___ radio, broadcast at 22 A cube has 12 of them (5) 16 Gland, 18 Toned 21 Ice
with its one truck. The PT pushes
around 1.7–30 MHz (5,4) 24 Stopwatch or hourglass, the other two trucks back up the
PASSENGER
13 Emissions levy (6,3) perhaps (5) line, and can then head off down
Quick quiz #03 the track unimpeded. The FT
Answers reverses out of the siding to pick
descended to its largest icy moon. up its other two trucks.
named after Christiaan Huygens, Incidentally, it is always possible for the PT
piggybacking Huygens lander, to pass the FT however many trucks the FT
ringed planet, while the has – but the number of steps increases.
Domenico Cassini, orbited the
probe, named after Giovanni
5 Saturn and Titan. The Cassini
4 Olduvai Get in touch
3 Reykjavik, Iceland Email us at
Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week. 2 J. Robert Oppenheimer
crossword@newscientist.com
1 Allotropes
puzzles@newscientist.com

The back pages Feedback
What does Liana Finck?

Dog days towards Old Friends Farm in
Georgetown, Kentucky, a facility
Feedback is displeased. Returning for retired racehorses. “The most
from our morning constitutional, difficult step,” Larkin told the
we discover the cause of the suspect Associated Press, “is probably the
pong that has been following us, one where I have to ask the type of
in the form of a sizable patty of dog people that own million-dollar
dirt attached to our shoe. thoroughbreds if I can please have
Considering our immediate some horse turds to put in jars.”
instinct – to release the hounds That, and assuring would-be
in search of the culprit – to be purchasers of the turds’ elevated
counterproductive, we turn to origin, rather than being something
forensic science. PooPrints is a that Feedback just wiped off our
US company that offers a “DNA shoe. One for the DNA testers?
solution for dog waste”. It promises
to get on the scent of dog owners
A view to die for
who don’t clean up after their pets
by matching poo to pooch. For those uncompromising in their
There is a catch: all suspects need pursuit of the perfect Instagram
to be in a doggie DNA database. moment, a cautionary tale from
This is mostly workable for pets in Hawaii. A US man has survived
apartment and housing complexes, falling 21 metres into the caldera
where a management company can of Kilauea, the most active of the
request all dogs on the property be five volcanoes on the state’s biggest
registered. (The company suggests island, after climbing over a safety
kicking off with a “Dog Day” to rail to get a better view.
“make swabbing fun” in order to Were the name of the location –
collect the necessary genetic data.) Steaming Bluff – not warning as a weekend bolthole for wealthy Simply offal
Feedback is conflicted. Do we enough, Kilauea spent much of last Londoners might have something to
risk dog-walking into a surveillance year destroying homes and forcing do with evidence that has emerged And while we are on the subject of
state here? Not answered, for the evacuation of thousands of of a never-ending drug-fuelled cannibalism, doctors in Canada are
example, is just how long a dog’s people. With saintly patience, party going on beneath its surface, asking women to please stop eating
DNA will be kept on file when it park authorities reminded the among its freshwater shrimp. human placentas, often freeze-
hasn’t been charged with a crime. public that guard rails cordoning A study published in Environment dried and put into pills. The practice
Should privacy campaigners be up off the unstable lip of one of the International found that specimens has been praised by celebrities such
in arms – or legs even – demanding world’s most active volcanoes are of the amphipod Gammarus pulex as Kim Kardashian, Chrissy Teigen
due canine process? there for a reason. fished from the county’s waters and January Jones, hailed as a tonic
Don’t say: “Roll over.” Do say: tested positive for cocaine, that replaces iron and lifts mood.
“Who’s a good boy, until proven ketamine, MDMA, tramadol and But a review by the Society of
Not a stool pigeon
otherwise by a jury of his peers?” much more. Proof positive that Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
A PARROT has been taken into drugs don’t just affect you, but of Canada found no evidence that
police custody in Brazil – but he all those around you. Perhaps the post-partum provender has
Brown gold
isn’t squawking. The unnamed bird this could be the basis for a new any health benefits – while coming
Talking of matters scatological, for is accused of acting as a lookout anti-drug campaign. “Choose pond with a significant risk of food
those of you seeking a $200 jar of for a pair of local drug dealers. The life”, Feedback suggests, or maybe poisoning if the organ isn’t
horse manure from 1997 Kentucky parrot shrieked, “Mum, the police!” “Just say newt”. appropriately prepared.
Derby winner Silver Charm, this is as narcotics officers closed in on For those convinced that bodily
your lucky day. US artist Coleman their den during a raid. After recycling is good for you and the
A hard shell
Larkin is offering that and more in refusing to say a word to the planet, Feedback suggests some
his series of “Dixieland Preserves”, authorities while in detention, the Talking of pond life: reader Gavan less problematic alternatives. Chew
nuggets of thoroughbred dung parrot has been passed to a local Schneider spies “turtle cookies” in a your nails to reclaim zinc that would
lovingly immortalised in epoxy zoo, presumably to swagger around canteen in Wentworth Falls, west of otherwise go in the bin. Bottle your
resin in mason jars. the exercise yard in an orange Sydney. These are, the label assures sweat to top up on essential salts.
You might never be able to own jumpsuit, plotting its next move. him, “gluten & vegan free”. You get the idea. ❚
a racehorse, but at least you can
admire the fortitude of its digestive
Water way to live
system with one of these handsome Want to get in touch?
collectibles, the perfect dinner-party The English county of Suffolk is Send your stories to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
conversation starter. Profits from generally thought of as a quiet, London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
the sale of the preserves will go bucolic sort of place. Its popularity feedback@newscientist.com

The back pages Almost the last word
Clouds gather in Kenya.

Lighter Earth
But why does the air smell
We have sent a large number of fresher before a storm?
spacecraft and satellites into space.
This must reduce the mass of the expected between family and close
planet, albeit by a small amount. friends, but even then, I just give
Does this reduction affect Earth’s a hug. I am not about to find out
gravity with respect to the sun whether being licked by an animal
and moon? or kissed by a human is more
dangerous. I will keep my distance,
Anthony Roberts and keep washing my hands.
Rushden, Northamptonshire, UK
IAN FORSYTH/GETTY
Bearing in mind that much of the Henry O’Regan
stuff we send into space falls back Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK
down again, only a few hundred It depends on personal hygiene.
tonnes of spacecraft have actually Animals, of course, lick and eat
escaped Earth’s gravity since the This week’s new questions: items that have been exposed
first space programmes began. to a wider variety of pathogens.
This is tiny compared with the What causes the fresh smell we experience just before the onset Humans are usually much more
quantity of hydrogen and other of a storm or shower of rain, which is especially noticeable after hygienic when it comes to
gases that escape continuously an extended dry spell? Colin Francombe, Nanyuki, Kenya these things.
into space from the upper However, some of us are more
atmosphere. This has been Why is it that the same foods or drinks taste pleasant to strict with hygiene than others.
estimated at between 30,000 some people and horrible to others? Rachel Mckeown, The question of whether it is
and 65,000 tonnes per year. Aberfan, Merthyr Tydfil, UK more dangerous to be licked by an
Earth also gains about 40,000 animal or kissed by a human must
tonnes per year in the form of be taken on a case-by-case basis.
meteorites and space dust. Jamie Barrett Many animals can carry
Overall, though, the planet gets Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, UK pathogens that are transmissible Getting ahead
slightly lighter each year. But Although the mass of Earth to humans, so I am not at all keen
this only amounts to around itself decreases slightly when a on being licked by any animal. My fringe seems to grow faster
a trillionth of a per cent, as satellite is sent into orbit, the total The dogs that work on than the rest of my hair. Is this just
Earth is very, very heavy at mass of Earth and its satellites our farm – two hard-working, because I notice it more, or does
5.97 × 1024 kilograms. stays the same. affectionate kelpies – are washed hair grow at different rates on
Assuming satellites are and wormed regularly, but they different parts of the head?
Herman D’Hondt distributed more or less evenly aren’t allowed to lick me. I still
Sydney, Australia around any given orbit, this also can’t get over the fact that they Jackie Jones
Most of a launched rocket falls means the position of the centre see animal remains as attractive Brighton, UK
back to Earth, and the used fuel of mass of Earth and its satellites and are possible carriers of the I have had a fringe for most of
also stays within the atmosphere. doesn’t change, so Earth’s gravity hydatid tapeworm (Echinococcus my life. It is very noticeable when
Only a small part of the rocket with respect to the sun and granulosus), which can cause it grows by 10 millimetres, and I
actually makes it into orbit. moon isn’t affected. serious illness. have to cut it. But I don’t notice the
For example, the 2800-tonne Sending spacecraft to other Sheep, cattle and goats can rest of my hair so much, so I think
Saturn V (still the most powerful planets or beyond this solar be infected with the bacteria it is a question of perception,
rocket ever) was able to put system does reduce the mass that cause Q fever (Coxiella rather than different growth rates.
118 tonnes into orbit – just over of Earth and its satellites, but burnetii ) and cats can be infected Incidentally, my hair hasn’t
4 per cent of its launch mass. this is probably too small to with Toxoplasma gondii. Both grown more slowly with age
Also, spacecraft in orbit have any effect. are transmissible to humans, (I am now 70), but each hair follicle
are still part of Earth. Even though by means other than dies after a shorter time than it
in geosynchronous orbit at an Intimate contact licking or kissing. did when I was younger. The hair
altitude of 37,000 kilometres, they As for humans, I am averse on the rest of my head, which
contribute to the planet’s gravity From a pathogenic perspective, to being kissed by strangers. is waist length, is now about
just as much as they did when they which is more dangerous, My Italian heritage means that an 150 millimetres shorter than
were standing on the launch pad. to be licked by an animal or informal hug and kiss greeting is it was about 10 years ago.
The main point, though, kissed by a human?
is that all of these figures are so
small compared with the mass Anna Butcher Want to send us a question or answer?
of Earth itself that the effect is Brookton, Western Australia Email us at lastword@newscientist.com
almost completely irrelevant I was once told that “germs Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
to the planet’s gravity. don’t fly, they hitch-hike”. Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms

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The back pages Me and my telescope
Kate Shaw is a physicist at the University of

Sussex, UK, who studies fundamental particles
at CERN’s ATLAS detector in Geneva and works
to promote physics research around the world
First up, do you have a telescope? If you could send a message back to
I have a very big telescope called the ATLAS yourself as a kid, what would you say?
detector. It looks at quarks, leptons and Higgs Have more confidence, and believe in yourself.
bosons – the debris from colliding protons
accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider. What’s the best piece of
advice anyone ever gave you?
As a child, what did you Stop messing around and focus! I still give myself
want to do when you grew up? that advice, daily.
When I was around 10 years old I read Stephen
Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and fell in love
with physics. As I finished the last page, I made a If you could have a long
decision I never questioned again: that I wanted conversation with any scientist,
to study the universe and everything it is made of. living or dead, who would it be?
I would love to talk with Emmy Noether, to
Explain what you do discuss how she saw the connection between
in one easy paragraph. symmetry and conservation laws, something
I work on the ATLAS experiment studying that still blows my mind. I’d want to know what
top quarks, and running the detector. I also she thinks it means about the universe, and
work with UNESCO to promote particle what she thinks mathematics means: if it is
physics worldwide, specifically in nations something intrinsic to the universe or only for
that have few science resources. humans to use as a tool to understand.
What does a typical day involve?

Sometimes I’m at CERN in Geneva, where I What’s the best thing you’ve read or seen in
do my research. Other times I’m in places the past 12 months?
such as Afghanistan, Gaza or Kathmandu in I love the book Sapiens by Yuval Harari. He has
Nepal, working to build physics research. not only understood our journey as humans,
he has communicated it excellently to a
“We never really
What do you love most very wide audience. touch anything.
about what you do?
Well, I simply love physics. It’s amazing how How useful will your skills Our whole
be after the apocalypse?
25 years after reading A Brief History of Time,
my love hasn’t faded one bit. I love that I Particle physics itself won’t help me much, but interaction with
am always learning, every day, exploring new
ideas and concepts.
I like to think my skills in making things, fixing
things and basic understanding of science will
the outside
help me to survive. world is an
What’s the most exciting thing
you’ve worked on recently? OK, one last thing: tell us something illusion”
The Physics Without Frontiers project. We that will blow our minds…
hope to be a driving force in the expansion of We never really touch anything. The atoms of our
physics research worldwide. At CERN, I am fingers exchange particles with the atoms of what
working on the Open Data project, so that we touch and we experience a force. Our whole
everyone can analyse the ATLAS data and see interaction with the outside world is an illusion.
what a Higgs boson looks like. Everything we experience is pictures made up by
and inside our brains, using information from
Were you good at science at school? electrical signals from our totally numb bodies. ❚
Yes, but I was especially good at making
things, and with computers. I was interested Kate Shaw is founder of the ICTP Physics Without
in the things they didn’t teach at school. Stuff Frontiers programme
I had to read in books and in New Scientist. PORTRAIT: OXFORD UNIVERSITY IMAGES/JOBY SESSIONS, MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

AI-powered Genomic map

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drug discovery This is a genomic map of 3,039

rare diseases with genetic
causes. The spiral graphic
for rare diseases represents the human genome.

It’s formed of 2,071 segments,
each containing 1.5m DNA
base pairs. The green dots
There are over 7,000 rare diseases. Only 5% show where the genetic
have an approved treatment. Using traditional mutations are located for each
of these diseases.
drug discovery methods, it will take a very long Inspired by the work of
time to find treatments for all these diseases. Martin Krzywinski ‘Genes that
make us sick’.
Here at Healx, we are changing that.
Number of diseases
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This week’s issue

On the 44 Overstretched Coming

Vol 242 No 3230

30 Letters 54 Almost the last word

18 May 2019 | New Scientist | 3

The dawn of a new space age

PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT EDITORIAL

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Where did we come from?

And where does belly-button fluff come from?

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Crewed missions to the moon

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Free-floating DNA to reveal the

THE mix of DNA floating in The Environment Agency also

organisms, either by using nets priority non-native species: the

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to the other’s relative. Sometimes country’s National Health Service

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NHS trials genetic analysis

been pinpointed as contributing a condition compared with the

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Forensics Analysis Nuclear weapons

SMALL splatters and stains at crime Iranian president

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We spend 50% of our

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Speech recognition Analysis Energy

Voice assistants The renewables revolution is stalling The UK has seen

If a speech-recognition system 25 Many climate activists

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The perfect shot

WEARING a virtual reality headset, Similar methods were used for

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Bring your ÃÌ`VÀ}À>"vwVi