Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2022-05-07 New Scientist International Edition
2022-05-07 New Scientist International Edition
News Features
9 Childhood hepatitis 38 A seismic mystery
An adenovirus is the prime Features Deep inside Earth are two
suspect in mystery outbreak gigantic anomalies of unknown
origin – what are they?
10 Life on Mars
Meteorites may preserve 42 Sex and gender
evidence of ancient microbes Frans de Waal reveals what apes
can teach us about ourselves
15 Aviation fuel
EU plan to make flights 46 Obesity blockers
sustainable could increase A new drug could help treat
greenhouse gas emissions obesity and even prevent the
condition in the first place
Views
The back pages
27 Comment
Banning ads for high-carbon 51 Citizen science
products would be a win for Help find new planets by combing
legislators, says Andrew Simms through NASA observations
34 Culture 56 Feedback
A hunt for people who How to date in the metaverse:
claimed to have premonitions 42 Wild revelations What can other apes teach us about gender? the week in weird
Event Podcast
Podcast
Understanding “I reckon
the AI revolution
Artificial intelligence is
it’s the most
emerging as one of the most
important issues of our time.
studied scrap
Join AI experts Beth Singler and of land in
Shakir Mohamed for an evening
exploring key questions. Is AI the whole
really a threat? How impressive
is it? How good will it get, and world”
NICOLE MILLIGAN
how soon? Conway Hall, London,
at 7pm BST on 15 June.
newscientist.com/events
Podcast
Weekly
This week, podcast editor Rowan
Video Newsletter
Hooper visits Wytham Woods Jumping jack Fix the Planet
in Oxfordshire, UK, to speak to Tune into our YouTube channel Chief reporter Adam Vaughan
biologist Ella Cole. He takes a to watch a springy robot jump discusses new figures that Essential guide
look at some baby great tits and more than 100 times its own show just how big the chasm
hears how spring has jumped height, take a behind-the-scenes is between countries’ rhetoric More than 3 billion years in the
forward nearly a month since tour of the British Library’s on halting deforestation to making, the latest New Scientist
research began at the forest National Newspaper Building in tackle climate change and Essential Guide is a sweeping
75 years ago. Meanwhile, Boston Spa, UK, and see how a the chainsaw-and-fire-driven survey of the history of life on our
the rest of the podcast team male orb-weaving spider avoids reality on the ground. Plus, planet, the wonders of biodiversity
resurrects the ancient theory being eaten after sex by launching find out how Indonesia is today – and the unique threats
of whether life on Earth could itself away at an impressive turning the tide on this issue. it faces from human activity.
have an extraterrestrial origin. 88 centimetres per second. newscientist.com/ Available to purchase now.
newscientist.com/nspod youtube.com/newscientist fix-the-planet shop.newscientist.com
A MYSTERIOUS outbreak of liver disease, predicting that covid-19 would have some is concerning, as exercise is a great way to
or hepatitis, in young children in the longer-term effects aside from long covid. lower the risk of a range of conditions, from
UK and several other nations is puzzling Young children normally catch every cancer and heart attacks to depression. An
experts. The lead hypothesis is that the illness going around, but rates of common Age UK survey in August and September
cases are connected to a normally mild infections such as flu and stomach bugs 2020 found that some older people had
adenovirus called 41F, plus another plummeted in places that locked down. become less steady on their feet or less
unknown factor that is making children Many babies born in the past two years confident about walking to the shops.
react abnormally to catching it (see page 9). This doesn’t mean lockdowns were
The most likely suspect is that babies “Many of us experienced a drop wrong. They stopped health services
and infants went unexposed to the usual in physical activity during the from being so swamped they couldn’t see
childhood infections over the past two stricter periods of lockdown” everyone who needed help, for covid-19
years of social distancing. Or it could or other conditions, saving countless lives.
be that the affected children have had have had an abnormally long delay before In places where they did sometimes get
a recent brush with covid-19. Either they first encounter these illnesses. overwhelmed, like India and Hong Kong,
way, the pandemic is in the spotlight. There are other indirect health effects some people died avoidably for this reason.
The hepatitis outbreak is out of the of covid-19. Some research indicates that But we shouldn’t shy away from
blue, but it is unlikely to be the only mental health has worsened during the investigating all possible fallout from the
pandemic-related health surprise pandemic, especially in young people. pandemic, to cut the risk of further nasty
awaiting us in the coming years. Many Many of us experienced a drop in physical surprises. We can’t do anything to mitigate
immunologists had already been activity during stricter lockdowns, too. This these effects if we remain in ignorance. ❚
Environment
Pollution makes
coral less resilient
AREAS of coral reefs closest
to land-based development
and pollution are less likely
to survive when ocean
The Electron rocket temperature spikes.
as it blasted off, and After a marine heatwave
moments before it hit Hawaii in 2019, Greg
was captured (inset) Asner at Arizona State
University and his colleagues
wanted to know how its
reefs fared.
“We’re trying to figure
out, how bad is it for these
corals? Which corals, in
which areas?” says Asner.
With colleagues, Asner
flew a small aeroplane
over the area, outfitted
ROCKET LAB
to the site revealed that computer But the funds will need to
servers and other equipment used be found if the Ukrainian and
to collect and back up radiation global scientific community is to
data have been destroyed or safely monitor the world’s most
stolen. Pareniuk says the sensors, contaminated nuclear site. Mike
which are housed in small, steel Wood at the University of Salford
buildings, may have appeared to in the UK said at the conference
be military equipment to Russian that it is vital to have accurate data.
troops and may have also been “Being able to definitively
actively targeted. She says there explain what happened and
is hope that some sensors in more why is important,” he said. “It’s
isolated parts of the exclusion important to ensure confidence
zone remain, but she is pessimistic in the gamma ray-monitoring
about the extent of the damage network, and that’s important
they may have incurred. from a public reassurance
At the International Conference perspective. It’s also important
because this network is a core part
A portable radiation of the international safeguards
sensor mounted on a for nuclear sites. Radiophobia
Boston Dynamics robot is easily resurrected.” ❚
US to bolster its
ability to combat
Adenovirus is prime suspect
lawbreaking drones in child hepatitis outbreak
David Hambling Clare Wilson
Quantum technique
could stop people
Meteorites on Mars may
faking their location harbour signs of life there
Karmela Padavic-Callaghan Jonathan O’Callaghan
CREATING a fully secure method EVIDENCE of ancient life (Astrobiology, doi.org/hr4g). and this may have erased
to verify the location of a device on Mars could be lurking in About 3 billion years any such evidence, she says.
or computer isn’t possible with meteorites on the surface of the ago, Mars may have had the Dozens of meteorites have
classical computers, but now it planet – and such rocks could necessary conditions for life, been found on Mars by various
seems it will be with quantum ones. be investigated by current and including a thicker atmosphere rovers. Tait says such rocks
Matthias Christandl at the future rovers on the Red Planet. and liquid water on its surface. could be prime targets to look
University of Copenhagen in Meteorites that fall on Earth Tait says that any meteorites for signs of ancient life, both
Denmark and his colleagues have are known to experience rapid that fell on Mars before or by NASA’s Perseverance rover
developed a system for verifying contamination by microbes. during this period, in a that is currently on Mars and
location that takes advantage of These can leave telltale markers habitable location, could have collecting samples to return
of their presence behind. been contaminated by Martian to Earth, and ESA’s upcoming
1m
The number of qubits a hacker would
For instance, some may
burrow into the meteorite
and create microscopic tunnels.
life in the same way that
meteorites falling to Earth
become contaminated by
ExoMars rover, which has
been delayed by Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine.
need in order to fool the new system Others might subtly change terrestrial life. “They would Tanja Bosak from the
the chemical composition of have essentially been a time Massachusetts Institute
special properties of the basic units the rock. But it was unclear capsule,” he says. of Technology, part of a
of memory in quantum computers, how well meteorites might Áine O’Brien, who is at the team selecting samples for
known as quantum bits, or qubits. preserve this evidence. University of Glasgow, UK, says
Suppose you wanted to verify the To address this, Alastair Tait at that meteorites on Mars were “Meteorites that fell
location of a device. With the new Monash University in Australia already known to offer a “really on Mars when it was
system, you would connect it to two and his colleagues analysed good” record of the geologic habitable could carry
quantum computers that would seven meteorites they found on history of the planet. signs of Martian life”
then exchange a combination of the Nullarbor plain in southern “They are pristine when they
quantum and classical information. Australia, some of which landed arrive and distinct from the Perseverance to collect for
The data is transmitted in such up to 40,000 years ago. Martian surface,” she says, so possible return to Earth, says
a way that it would be impossible They found that all of they could feasibly contain there are no plans for the rover
for a scammer to spoof or copy them contained evidence of a record of past habitability. to gather meteorites yet.
it without being detected. This fossilised microorganisms, “If there was life, you would “It’s hard to recognise a rock
is because information stored on a as well as chemical changes expect to see evidence of that.” as a meteorite,” she says. “We
qubit can’t be copied surreptitiously. wrought by the microbes However, meteorites that don’t have the time to stop and
The team found that exchanging have been sitting on the examine all random rocks.”
a single qubit and a million classical A meteorite on surface of Mars for billions Sara Motaghian at Imperial
bits would be enough to make the Mars photographed by of years will have been College London, however, is
system secure against anyone with NASA’s Curiosity rover bombarded by radiation, developing analytical tools for
a quantum computer smaller than ExoMars’s cameras to quickly
a million qubits. In other words, identify meteorites on Mars.
tricking the system would require She says the same tools could
a quantum computer thousands of be used by Perseverance.
times larger than any that currently “We can study them with the
exist (Nature Physics, doi.org/hr58). drill or by crushing them with
Adrian Kent at the University of the wheels,” she says, noting
Cambridge says the new protocol that the interiors of some
should be simple to implement on meteorites on Mars could
existing quantum computers. And even provide shielding from
Gilles Brassard at the University radiation and be “tiny habitats”
of Montreal in Canada says the for life that may be there now.
work is the most exciting result Even if the rovers don’t
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
THE moon appears to be having effect is about 0.04°C. This is he says. While the moon’s impact predicted range to 2029 to 2032.
a tiny effect on Earth’s changing much smaller than the shift may be small, Hawkins says it The timing of the current cycle
climate that could hasten the from the cooling La Niña weather warrants inclusion in models also means that in low-emissions
point at which the world’s 1.5°C pattern the world is currently used to project future climate scenarios, the 1.5°C threshold is
warming target is breached. experiencing to the warming scenarios if further research likely to be met around a year
The angle of the moon’s orbital El Niño one, he notes. confirms the findings, which earlier than previously thought.
plane relative to the equator “[But it shows] that we do study haven’t yet been peer-reviewed The influence of the moon
changes in a predictable 18.6-year the whole climate system, from (EGUsphere, doi.org/hsjj). adds another explanation for why
cycle, but it wasn’t known what the sun to the moon to the Earth. Without accounting for the the Arctic is warming faster than
impact this has on Earth’s surface And we try and represent all of the moon’s influence, climate models the rest of the planet, due to the
temperatures. factors we can think about, and predict that the world will exceed structure of the waters there,
In a modelling study, Ed how they might affect the climate,” 1.5°C of warming – a threshold says Hawkins.
Hawkins at the University of nearly 200 countries aimed to Joeri Rogelj at Imperial College
Reading, UK, and his colleagues A full moon over an avoid in the Paris Agreement – London, who wasn’t involved in
found that the cycle will have a iceberg in Saqqaq, between 2028 and 2033. Factoring the study, says the research shows
modest cooling effect on global Greenland in the lunar cycle narrows the that the moon’s effects are small
average surface temperatures and cyclical, and it is “extremely
this decade, followed by a slight valuable” to understand both
warming one in the 2030s. The human and natural influences on
pattern could also partly explain Earth’s temperatures. But he says
a purported global warming the estimated impact on when
slowdown in the 2000s. 1.5°C will be reached is so small
WILD WONDERS OF EUROPE/JENSEN/NATUREPL.COM
Palaeontology
Flightless prehistoric Comparing the skeleton to modern A. yoshiiensis was about 30 per filter-feeding surface plankton,
swans, the pair identified it as a cent larger, on a par with Trumpeter says Matsuoka. Their short wings
swan paddled the new genus and species, dubbed swans (Cygnus buccinator), the are unusual for swans. The forearm
seas near Japan Annakacygna hajimei. A second, largest of North America’s living bones were just over half the length
larger species from the same genus swan species. But Annakacygna had of the upper arm bones. In modern
AN ENORMOUS swan lived in the was identified by the same pair a substantially heavier build than swans, these are the same length.
sea around what is now Japan and from a fossilised leg bone found at modern swans, with dense bones. The muscles and joints of the
had stubby wings that it may have the nearby Kabura river in 1995, The researchers think this frame wing may have helped produce
used to cradle offspring on its back. named Annakacygna yoshiiensis probably provided stability as the courtship displays, and when
Hiroshige Matsuoka at Kyoto (Bulletin of Gunma Museum of birds navigated choppy seas. combined with a tail that arches
University and Yoshikazu Hasegawa Natural History, vol 26, p1). Annakacygna were also “head upwards, the wings may have made
at the Gunma Museum of Natural The Annakacygna genus heavy”, with big, broad bills for a cradle to transport hatchlings.
History in Japan analysed a differs considerably from modern Such great specialisation in
fossilised skeleton excavated in the swans. The two extinct species are “It had dense bones feeding and reproduction make
Usui river in Japan in 2000. Deposits flightless sea dwellers. A. hajimei and a massive frame, Annakacygna the “ultimate bird”,
there date to the Miocene epoch was the size of a modern black which probably provided says Matsuoka. ❚
more than 11 million years ago. swan (Cygnus atratus) and stability on choppy seas” Jake Buehler
have masses that are not much PROPOSED European Union food-based biofuels, she says. reductions excludes indirect
heavier than the Higgs”, which is aviation regulations could see That is a problem because land-use effects, says Baldino.
at the upper mass limit that the greenhouse gas emissions from such biofuels use land that is “The devil is in the details
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at flying increase, even while they needed to grow food for people when it comes to biofuels. Some
CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, are claimed to be sustainable, or farm animals. To maintain do more harm than good,” says
can probe, says Peter Athron at if some nations get their way. food supplies, more land would Matteo Mirolo at Transport &
Nanjing Normal University in The ReFuelEU regulations now have to be cleared for agriculture Environment, which campaigns
China. This would explain why being negotiated would require around the world. If the emissions for cleaner transport. “It’s very
we haven’t spotted them yet. commercial flights in the EU to from these indirect effects important that ReFuelEU gives
Some of the new suggested start using “sustainable aviation on land use are counted, they the right signal and supports only
particles could also be candidates fuels”, with the proportion added “could negate some or all of the most sustainable biofuels.”
for dark matter, potentially to standard fuel rising from 2 per the [greenhouse gas] emission Although biofuels made from
another reason why they cent in 2025 to 63 per cent by savings of individual biofuels”, waste such as used cooking oil
haven’t been detected. 2050. But the fuel’s definition is a 2019 European Commission can provide genuine reductions
Combing through these currently up for discussion – and report states. in greenhouse emissions, there
many ideas to find the correct may end up including those that are limits to the amount of waste
one would require time, tests lead to an increase in emissions. “The devil is in the available. “We simply don’t
and, in some cases, a new Under the original proposal details when it comes have the resources to create
generation of particle colliders. put forward by the European to biofuels. Some do the quantity of biofuel needed
“By no means will a new mass of Commission, sustainable aviation more harm than good” to keep up with the rocketing
the W be enough to select a new fuels would consist mainly of demand,” says Cuffe.
theory of nature,” says Sannino. advanced biofuels derived from Food-based biofuels also This can lead to fraud. For
However, before particle waste as well as synthetic fuels push up food prices, hitting the instance, Cuffe says it appears
physicists gallivant off in created using renewable energy. poorest people hardest. “There that some biofuels sold as being
search of more particles and Biofuels made from food and is competition between land made from used cooking oil
a new theory of nature, they animal feed wouldn’t count. for fuel and land for food,” says are actually being made partly
will need to thoroughly check Overall, this is good, Ciarán Cuffe, a member of the from fresh palm oil.
the Tevatron measurement. says Chelsea Baldino at the European Parliament, who is part For these reasons, Cuffe,
“It is premature to think of International Council on Clean of the Green group. “Particularly Baldino and Mirolo would all
any new physics at this point, Transportation, a non-profit in light of the war in Ukraine, we like to see caps imposed on the
before we figure out why this research organisation. But must prioritise land for food.” quantities of biofuels allowed.
measurement is in discrepancy suggested amendments to Another proposed amendment Instead of biofuels, Cuffe
with the other measurements the legislation would include is that only biofuels that reduce thinks ReFuelEU should prioritise
we have,” says Matthias Schott at emissions by at least 55 per cent the use of e-kerosene made using
CERN, who worked on a previous A plane landing at should be eligible. While that renewable energy, electrolysis
W boson measurement using the Amsterdam Schiphol sounds good, the suggested and direct air capture of carbon
LHC. “Obviously, new particles is Airport in the Netherlands method for calculating emission dioxide. Firms are poised to hike
a much cooler explanation, but production if policy-makers send
all the other measurements of investors a clear signal, he says.
the W boson mass just fit together ReFuelEU should also apply to
perfectly, and there’s this one that private jets, not just commercial
doesn’t fit.” flights, says Cuffe. Negotiations
Schott and his colleagues on the wording will continue until
NICOLAS ECONOMOU/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
source of the GCE, it does as almost all of the excess was this can constrain the
present an alternative already explained by the other hypothesis that millisecond
phenomenon that can “explain components used in our study,” pulsars are responsible for
the entirety of the signal”, says says Zimmer. the emission.” ❚
FO EAR
R
NEW SCIENTIST
ESSENTIAL GUIDES
DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR
Based on the best coverage from New Scientist, the Essential Guides are
comprehensive, need-to-know compendiums covering the most exciting
themes in science and technology today.
Get the series, including the brand new issue on Life on Earth, with an
Essential Guides subscription. It means you don’t have to search for issues
in the shops – we can deliver them direct to your door.
MORE than 300 ways to convert possible processes made them about 200 waste molecules,
widely available chemical waste incredibly hard to spot. Among within one step of combinations
into a range of drugs and fertilisers the discovered molecules were you have 40,000 options.”
have been identified by a software drugs to treat leprosy and heart Grzybowski says he hopes
program. The researchers behind disease, but Grzybowski says that Allchemy will eventually
BERKE BAYUR/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES
the tool believe it will optimise that his favourite result was an lead to a “Tinder for molecules”.
the chemical industry and allow antibiotic that can be produced Chemical companies could put
the recycling of by-products that from lactate, which comes from in details of all of their available
would otherwise need to be stored. waste plastic bottles, and phenol, waste products, other companies
Bartosz Grzybowski at US a by-product of coal mining. could list molecules they would
software and chemistry company “I was hoping to find aspirin like to have synthesised for
Allchemy and his colleagues used or something, but it’s actually a specific purpose, and third
their software, also known as much more interesting than parties could bid to perform the
Allchemy, to look for useful that,” he says. “It actually waste-to-drug synthesis. This
products from 189 small solves the problem of circular would reduce waste from the
molecules that are regularly chemistry, pretty much in global chemical supply chain
created as by-products of Workers at a chemical an exhaustive way.” and perhaps also lower the cost
large-scale industrial processes waste disposal facility Grzybowski had previously of drugs and other products.
around the world. An additional in Ankara, Turkey worked on projects to create new Judy Lee at the University of
56 molecules that are commonly methods to synthesise specific Surrey, UK, says identifying uses
created from chemical waste calculate the hundreds of billions molecules, but he says that this for chemical waste in the lab is
during recycling processes of combinations. These were then software works in the other useful, but scaling up that process
were also included. narrowed down to only those direction: it takes a list of may be more difficult. “Something
The software created a vast processes that led to the creation available resources and finds that’s developed in the lab needs
database of all the possible of drugs, fertilisers or other useful all the possible uses for them. to be translated in a profitable way
combinations of chemicals molecules (Nature, doi.org/hrxd). “This chemistry is pretty into a large pilot scale,” she says.
and the processes that could be Grzybowski says that all of straightforward. The difficulty is “The purity of that compound
used to combine them. Running the discovered processes could in spotting the opportunity,” he is important as well. If you can’t
on a single high-end server, the eventually have been found by says. “The building blocks are very purify it enough to be useful,
program took about a month to humans, but the vast scale of simple, but when you start talking then there will be a problem.” ❚
Wildlife
Microplastic
particles stick
Brain signal could stop you
to spiderwebs thinking unwanted thoughts
Joshua Rapp Learn Jason Arunn Murugesu
TINY microplastic particles floating HUMANS may have a warning to think about the word it had subconscious,” says Anderson.
through city air stick to spiderwebs, system in the brain that helps initially been paired with. A red The team also found that
giving researchers a natural way suppress unwanted thoughts. light indicated they should try people with a stronger
to capture and monitor this form Understanding this system not to recall the paired word. No warning signal were more
of pollution. could lead to treatments for action was required for words likely to struggle with recalling
Microplastics are being found obsessive-compulsive disorder that appeared with no light. paired words.
widely in our food, soil and oceans. (OCD) or post-traumatic stress Each word pair was repeated The bigger the warning
But researchers haven’t extensively disorder (PTSD). 12 times in a random order and signal fired, the less activity the
looked into how many airborne Michael Anderson at the was always shown with the team saw in the dorsolateral
microplastic particles might be University of Cambridge and his same – or no – coloured light. prefrontal cortex. This suggests
colleagues analysed the brain that the stronger the warning
A piece of scans of 24 Chinese-speaking “The faster the warning signal, the less effort required
microplastic people as they completed a signal, the less effort by the brain to suppress a
fibre seen under memory task. They were asked required by the brain memory, says Anderson.
KAREN SHAPIRO, UC DAVIS
a microscope to memorise 48 pairs of Chinese to suppress a memory” “The hope is that by tracing
words. Each person then had out how these mechanisms
electroencephalography (EEG) About 350 milliseconds after work in detail, we’ll have the
electrodes attached to their participants saw a red light, model system that we could
head and was put into a a brain region known for apply to disorders like OCD,
functional magnetic resonance managing attention, called the anxiety and depression, which
present in urban areas. This is a imaging (fMRI) machine. dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, all feature intrusive thoughts,”
potential concern as they could “We wanted to analyse the sent a signal to an area of the says Anderson.
be getting into our lungs and may participants’ brains in two ways brain involved in working Annemieke Apergis-Schoute
have adverse effects on our health. simultaneously because fMRI is memory, called the dorsolateral at the University of Leicester
Barbara Scholz-Böttcher at the really good at telling you where prefrontal cortex (Journal of in the UK says a limitation of
University of Oldenburg, Germany, things are happening in the Neuroscience, doi.org/hrts). this study is that the word pairs
and her colleagues wanted to brain, but it’s no good at telling The signal might be an alert used might not be relevant to
see whether they could trace you about the timing of brain for an unwanted memory, the experiences of people
the prevalence of these minute activity, whereas EEG is really says Anderson, which the with mental health conditions.
particles using spiderwebs. good at that,” says Anderson. dorsolateral prefrontal cortex “With PTSD and OCD, unwanted
The researchers collected webs A screen displayed the then works to suppress. thoughts are very distressing,”
around semi-covered bus stops words the participants had “It takes about 500 milliseconds she says.
throughout Oldenburg. The most memorised, one at a time, to consciously remember Anderson says that other
common materials they found were alongside a green or red light, something that’s associated similar studies previously
polyester, probably from clothing, or no light. When the green light with something else – so this conducted by his team used
and tyre fibres that probably was shown, they were instructed signal is happening in your distressing stimuli that elicited
originate from vehicles braking activity in the same regions of
in traffic (Science of the Total the brain.
Environment, doi.org/hrxs). “The neural circuit identified
Scholz-Böttcher says that this in this intriguing study can
study could be used as a baseline provide a potential target for
to track the extent of trace particles the treatment of intrusive
in the air over time, or to compare thoughts in PTSD and OCD,”
the level of microplastics and tyre says Benedetto De Martino at
wear between different locations. University College London. In
Christian Enyoh at Saitama the near future, he says, people
University in Japan says the value may be able to train parts of
of the approach might be limited their brain to exert more control
SHUTTERSTOCK/DC STUDIO
*
ONLINE EVENT
BEING HUMAN SERIES
SVERKER ALSO IN
THE SERIES
JOHANSSON ANNA
MACHIN
WHY WE LOVE
OF LANGUAGE BRENNA
HASSETT
THE EVOLUTION
OF CHILDHOOD
Thursday 9 June 2022 , Thursday 7 July 2022
6 -7pm BST, 1-2pm EDT and on-demand 6-7pm BST | 1-2pm EDT
and on-demand
How and why did we evolve from
language-less apes to speaking humans?
Who were the first speakers, what did
they talk about, and in what language?
THE area around Stonehenge, because of the water source. 5000 BC in Europe. The The researchers concluded
UK, may have acquired enormous Helen Lewis at University College researchers drilled down into that Blick Mead and the
significance for Stone Age humans Dublin in Ireland says springs the ground to examine and surrounding area were a mixed
thousands of years before the often attracted prehistoric people date the layers of sediment. habitat with some woodland
famous monument was built, and those sites became important. They also identified pollen and some open grassland.
suggest archaeologists working Samuel Hudson at the grains preserved in the sediment, Some of the clearances were
at a nearby site called Blick Mead. University of Southampton in the which indicate the types of probably made by large grazing
The Stonehenge monument UK and his colleagues have used plants that grew in the area. animals like aurochs, the wild
was built between 3000 and data from Blick Mead to estimate The team obtained plant relatives of domestic cattle, bones
2000 BC. It is a ring of standing what the landscape there was like DNA directly from the sediment, of which have been found at Blick
stones, surrounded by an earth during the Mesolithic period, which revealed the area had been Mead. Mesolithic people may also
bank and ditch. which ran from 15,000 BC to home to trees, wetland plants like have cleared some of the trees
Lying more than a kilometre buttercup and those that live in (PLoS One, doi.org/hrw8).
to the east of Stonehenge is Blick Stonehenge, UK, was open grasslands, such as clover. Hudson thinks that the partial
Mead, the site of a spring where considered significant The pollen studies confirmed clearances during the Mesolithic
warm waters rise up through the by Stone Age humans this, revealing lots of grasses. made it easier for later Neolithic
chalky bedrock. Archaeologists farmers to clear wider areas. By
have been excavating there for the time Stonehenge was under
nearly two decades and have construction, the area was
found over 100,000 stone tools probably largely treeless.
and the remains of animals. That is in line with evidence
People visited Blick Mead long from other Stone Age monuments,
before Stonehenge was built – says Lewis, who wasn’t involved
dating studies suggest there was in the analysis.
human activity there between Over time, increasingly
8000 and 3400 BC. This indicates formalised activities may
CHRIS GORMAN/GETTY IMAGES
the first people at Blick Mead were have taken place in the area,
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, culminating in the construction
distinct from the Neolithic of Stonehenge. By that time,
farmers who built Stonehenge. people may even have forgotten
These hunter-gatherers may about the existence of the Blick
have been drawn to the area Mead spring. ❚
Diseases
Virus spread among a press briefing on 27 April. He and mammals will meet each other regions across Africa and South-
his colleagues used data on animal for the first time and form new East Asia. The findings highlight
wild mammals may habitats and behaviour to build communities, [which will create the need to more closely track
rise with warming a model of how 3139 mammal a] new mechanism for disease the spread of viruses among wild
species would migrate under a emergence that will threaten mammals so we can control future
THE migration of land mammals in 2°C increase in global temperature. the health of animals in the future, outbreaks of disease in people.
response to 2°C of global warming By comparing how closely species with ramifications for our health “This is happening and not
may give rise to thousands of were related – and therefore how too,” said Albery. preventable even in the best-case
new viral transmissions between likely they were to pass viruses to The team forecasts that bats climate change scenarios,” said
mammal species by the end of each other – the team predicts that will be responsible for the majority Albery. Further work will be needed
the century, increasing the risk about 120,000 encounters between of new transmissions, which will to confirm how rapidly animals will
of novel viruses jumping from mammals that hadn’t previously primarily occur in elevated tropical migrate due to warming. “We use an
animals to infect humans. met could lead to 4584 cases of upper limit of how quickly animals
“The coming decades will not novel viral infections of species “This spread is happening might move, so we will need to
only be hotter, but sicker,” said (Nature, doi.org/hrxm). and not preventable even establish how fast they actually
Gregory Albery at Georgetown “Climate change is shaking our in the best-case climate move in the future,” he said. ❚
University in Washington DC, at ecosystems to their core… moving change scenarios” Carissa Wong
Materials Health
diode for the first time. They To hunt for possible genetic
New diode could sandwiched a layer of a material A possible genetic causes, Grant Brown at the
speed up computing called niobium-3 bromine-8 cause of lupus found Australian National University in
between superconducting layers. Canberra and his team sequenced
A SUPERCONDUCTING diode has When electrons travel through THE DNA of a girl with a severe the genome of a girl called
been created for the first time. It the structure in one direction, form of lupus may have helped Gabriela, who was diagnosed aged
could save vast amounts of power they don’t encounter resistance, uncover a genetic cause for the 7. Her age meant a genetic factor
in traditional computing and help but in the other direction they autoimmune condition. was more likely to be involved.
transform quantum computing. do. The result was so unexpected Lupus causes inflammation The work revealed that she has
The diode – an electronic that Ali and his team don’t fully that can lead to joint pain, skin a mutation in a gene called TLR7,
component that lets electricity understand how it works. plaques (pictured) and fatigue. The which encodes a protein called
preferentially travel in one Computers and data centres use cause is a bit of a mystery, making toll-like receptor 7. This normally
direction – is a fundamental part between 10 and 20 per cent of the it difficult to develop treatments. helps the immune system spot
of the transistor, the foundational world’s electricity supply, much Most therapies dampen the foreign agents so it can mount
component of modern computing. of which is wasted as heat from immune system, leaving people suitable attacks against infections.
Diodes and transistors are made electrical resistance in transistors. more vulnerable to infections. Mice given this mutation ended
from semiconductors that have Superconducting versions could up with lupus-like symptoms. The
electrical resistance, meaning use less power and possibly run mutation probably makes it harder
energy is lost in the form of heat. much faster, says Ali. In addition, for the immune system to tell
Superconductors have no the diode could be crucial for foreign agents and healthy tissue
BIOPHOTO ASSOCIATES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
resistance and so no energy loss, advances in quantum computing. apart (Nature, doi.org/hrwp).
but they don’t work as diode Ali and his team now aim However, such mutations
components, since resistance is to use their discovery to build a have only been identified in two
how diodes ensure that electricity superconducting transistor, but other people with lupus so far,
travels in only one direction. there are challenges. Their diode suggesting the faulty gene isn’t
Now, Mazhar Ali at Delft operates at around -271°C, which the only cause of the condition.
University of Technology in the requires more energy to maintain Brown’s team is now exploring
Netherlands and his team have than the diode might save (Nature, whether drugs that target TLR7
demonstrated a superconducting doi.org/hrws). Alex Wilkins could treat lupus. Alice Klein
ichthyosaurs dominated the sea. shelved because new, seemingly there is a big crown”, says Sander.
We knew these extinct reptiles better-quality ichthyosaur fossils Vertebrae and rib fragments
could be as large as a sperm whale. were being found in Canada. from one of the other individuals
However, palaeontologists have Sander and Heinz Furrer at the suggest that the reptile was
discovered the largest ichthyosaur University of Zurich in Switzerland around 20 metres in length.
tooth to date, suggesting they were decided to take another look at the Though the giant tooth infers
even bigger than we thought. Swiss fossils, and realised they had a giant owner, Sander and Furrer
Plesiosaurs could There are just a handful of evidence of three of the largest aren’t sure if it is from a massive
afford to look odd ichthyosaur specimens around ichthyosaurs to date. ichthyosaur or a smaller one
the world, with a giant black tooth The crown jewel of their with particularly large teeth (The
Extinct marine reptiles and a collection of vertebrae and discovery is an ichthyosaur tooth Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,
known as plesiosaurs ribs from the Swiss Alps among with a root around 6 centimetres doi.org/hrxr). Corryn Wetzel
didn’t have to be very
streamlined. Their vast Technology Electronics
bodies generated drag,
but as bodies get larger,
the ratio of surface area to Super-fast battery
mass falls, which cuts the charges in minutes
drag per unit of body mass
that must be overcome, so A LITHIUM-ION battery that uses
their muscles could easily copper and copper nanowires to
cope (Communications structure its anode can charge to
Biology, doi.org/hr39). 60 per cent in 6 minutes, without
affecting its energy storage. It
We instinctively run could one day be used to improve
at an optimal speed charge times for electric vehicles.
Yao Hongbin at the University
We seem to automatically of Science and Technology of
China in Hefei and his colleagues
ELLIOT W. HAWKES
SC E I
IEN NC
Nature expeditions and
T IS L U D
T ED
cruises departing this year
PORTUGAL MADAGASCAR
L A ACE
L A ACE
PL
PL
ST S L
ST S L
F E EF
F E EF
W T
W T
Marine ecosystems Wildlife of
of the Azores Madagascar
21 May | 8 days 10 September | 13 days
Explore the delights of this mid-Atlantic Join park rangers on patrol in Madagascar’s
archipelago with marine biologists, study stunning lemur-packed forests, enjoy bush
iconic whales and dolphins, and visit basalt camps, visit the Durrell Wildlife Conservation
vineyards and volcanic lagoons. Trust and explore several wildlife habitats.
ARGENTINA USA
Reserve your place on one of these tours and get a free New Scientist Academy online course “Evolution:
The source of life’s diversity” to enhance your understanding of how evolution creates the wonders of the
living world before your trip-of-a-lifetime Discovery Tour.
Comment
F
ROM the car advert urging polluting cars and 33 per cent
you to enjoy a life “without support curbing ads for air travel.
restrictions” by driving an Echoing the debate that led to
SUV with emissions 250 per cent the ending of tobacco advertising,
above the EU target to the airline around half said that warnings
ad mocking people who holiday alone wouldn’t alter their choices.
at home, why, in a warming Regulators are beginning
world, are we surrounded by ads to look more at corporate
encouraging us to buy polluting, “greenwash”, such as airlines
high-carbon products? Ending promising climate-friendly flights.
them would be an easy win for France is requiring car adverts
decision-makers looking to take to carry environmental warnings
rapid climate action. and prompts to walk, cycle or
Ads promoting high-carbon take public transport instead.
lifestyles and products are Amsterdam and five other Dutch
ubiquitous. Car firms spent cities have banned public ads for
an estimated $35.5 billion on fossil fuel products. UK councils,
advertising in major global including Liverpool, Norwich and
markets in 2018. SUVs were the North Somerset, have passed
second-largest contributor to the similar policies. A European
increase in global carbon dioxide petition for a new EU law to ban
SIMONE ROTELLA
emissions between 2010 and 2018. fossil fuel ads has raised more
Following heavy promotion by than 200,000 signatures.
vehicle manufacturers, in less Given the heavy lifting facing
than a decade, SUVs went from other climate measures, simply
being 1 in 10 of new car sales to 606 million tonnes of greenhouse looked at how behaviour change removing the advertising that
more than 4 in 10. gas emissions in 2019 – an order could complement system change pushes us to consume polluting
Once you start to look for of magnitude ranging from in achieving rapid emissions cuts. products could prove an appealing
such ads, they are everywhere. between the Netherlands’ entire It lists regulation of advertising option for policy-makers.
Sport is one of the world’s biggest emissions that year to almost as an example of a policy measure As with tobacco, stopping ads
advertising markets. The three twice those of Spain. that can have a “major influence wouldn’t prevent the harmful
sponsors with courtside adverts To a large degree, the on mitigative capacity”. products from being sold, but
at the 2021 Australian Open tennis advertising of high-carbon The sheer incongruity of it would reduce demand and
tournament were an oil and gas products has taken the place urgently needing to cut emissions the cultural normalisation of
company, an airline and a car- of once-common tobacco while being surrounded by ads for this damaging activity. ❚
maker (Santos, Emirates and Kia). advertising, which ended in the gas-guzzling SUVs isn’t lost on the
Advertising wouldn’t be the UK in 2003 for health reasons. general public either, as a new poll
multibillion industry it is if it Now, with a climate crisis and an of UK attitudes illustrates. In a
didn’t work. One recent estimate estimated 8.7 million premature nationally representative survey
looking at the degree to which deaths a year from burning fossil of 2000 people, 68 per cent of
global car and airline advertising fuels, ads from big polluters UK adults said they would restrict Andrew Simms is co-director of
increased demand suggests that should go the same way. advertising of environmentally the New Weather Institute and
it could have been responsible The latest Intergovernmental harmful products, while 45 per assistant director of Scientists
for between 202 million and Panel on Climate Change report cent favour limits on ads for highly for Global Responsibility
O
VER dinner with friends, the illegal trade, the long-term whether the seller obtains their
one half of a couple economic implications have yet plants sustainably.
proudly declared that to be fully counted by most. Another option is to buy locally,
his resourcefulness in finding The removal of plants by and to choose plant varieties
local, sustainably caught fish poachers isn’t always a careful endemic to the area. I have a
had allowed a watershed for him, operation and it can result in sentimental attachment to the
a carnivore, and his partner, a physical damage to ecosystems fragranced, bright red and orange
vegetarian-leaning pescatarian. and disruption to the soil. The trumpet-shaped flowers of the
Sustainable fishing is of critical roots of plants are important cross vines (Bignonia capreolata)
Beronda L. Montgomery importance, because demand for for maintaining soil structure grown by my grandmother and
is a writer, researcher and seafood has caused populations of and contributing to soil health. mother in Arkansas, where I was
biochemist who studies how fish and shellfish around the world When roots are disturbed, soil born and raised. But living in
plants detect and respond to to become endangered, as well as erosion is accelerated. Michigan, some of the species
their local light environment. leading to habitat destruction. The plants that are removed that hark back to my youth
She is the author of Lessons When I mentioned that are also members of communities can’t be sustainably grown,
from Plants. You can follow discussions of sustainable and their departure means the as they need more water and
her on Twitter @BerondaM practices for harvesting plants and fertiliser, or may be invasive.
gardening are also increasingly “If our love for plants Instead, I grow clematis
recognised, and likewise hotly accelerates damage varieties with large, beautiful
debated, my friends seemed flowers that are red, pink or
to the environment,
surprised. However, gardening wine-coloured, which are more
practices and the growing of then we need to ecologically friendly yet still
houseplants can have significant question the roots strongly remind me of the
Beronda’s week sustainability issues. of our love” beautiful blooms of my youth.
What I’m reading A surge in interest in gardening I also pay close attention to
The Cooking Gene: A occurred during the pandemic. entire community is disrupted. whether plants will require me
journey through African In response, many people began This leads to a decrease in to enrich my soil with peat – a
American culinary to sound the alarm about plant diversity. major unsustainable gardening
history in the Old South myriad unsustainable ways that The impact spans far beyond product that is found in almost
by Michael W. Twitty coveted, and sometimes exotic, the immediate loss of plants. Plant every gardening centre – or if
houseplants were being obtained, removal affects the insect and I will be able to use more
What I’m watching from the energetic costs of bird populations that pollinate the sustainable compost.
At my sister’s prompting, commercial glasshouses and plants and rely on them for food Peat is derived from wetlands –
I have been watching the transport to the destruction and habitation. And soil erosion, moss-rich areas in some cases,
brave kids on Old Enough! of plant communities and coupled with the reduction and or decomposed leaves and tree
ecosystems due to poaching. potential extinction of plants that parts in tropical areas. It is often
What I’m working on Recent accounts of plant sequester carbon, can ultimately harvested faster than it can be
I’m editing a thesis poaching abound. Plants targeted accelerate climate change. organically replaced, thus leading
and dissertation for include in-demand Californian What can you do to contribute to significant habitat erosion or
graduating students – a succulents, carnivorous pitcher to sustainable practices and still destruction. Peatlands function as
time to celebrate all they plants found in the Philippines engage in a love for plants? My carbon sinks, so their destruction
have accomplished! and endangered species such favourite option is to propagate or overharvesting contributes
as succulent button plants and plants through cuttings obtained significantly to climate change.
lithops in South Africa. from fellow plant lovers. If our love for plants accelerates
Since 2010, the slipper orchid Many plants can regrow roots damage to, rather than honouring
has been rapidly depleted; less from a cutting – sometimes and protecting, the ecological
than 1 per cent of its original simply by placing the cutting in niches in which they reside and
population remains, threatening water and waiting. So if there is a thrive, then we need to question
it with extinction. And habitats rare plant I love, such as my prized the roots of our love. We should
are often damaged or destroyed by variegated Monstera, I try to find cultivate a needed reciprocity, in
those illegally harvesting plants. someone willing to share a cutting which we care sustainably for the
Up next week: While the economic benefits for rather than buying a specimen, environments from which our
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein the poachers are driving much of especially if I can’t determine beloved plants are derived. ❚
*
ONLINE EVENT ALSO IN
THE SERIES
BIG THINKERS SERIES
DAVID CHALMERS
CHAD ORZEL
REALITY+ FROM
THE MATRIX TO THE
METAVERSE
A BRIEF HISTORY
Available on-demand
CLAUDIA DE RHAM
OF TIMEKEEPING
WHAT WE DON’T
KNOW ABOUT
GRAVITY
Available on-demand
CLAUDE ZERVAS TUAN ANDREW NGUYEN 2021. COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JAMES COHAN, NEW YORK
Creative juice
Gege Li
ADRIENNE ELISE TARVER
Editor’s pick eagerly seeking the article. Gayo on her belief that people plunge me into depression.
Alas, I was disappointed. “usually have a short memory” Instead, it was a huge productivity
The big problem, as I see it, for events like tsunamis, and that and morale boost. I could open a
On the never-ending
lies in attempting to analyse maintaining behaviour linked to window for fresh air and focus on
question of infinity infinity as if it were an actual, such memories for 1000 years “is getting work done.
16 April, p 38 tangible mathematical entity – a lot”. However, I understand that
From Ian Dunbar, an exceedingly big number. some Indigenous people in the far From Trevor Jones,
Culcheth, Cheshire, UK It isn’t. Infinity is a convenient north of Australia still maintain Sheringham, Norfolk, UK
In his article, Timothy Revell concept, in the same way that memories of land that was The article “Better by design”
asks: “Mathematically, infinity i, or an imaginary number, is a submerged by rising sea levels at last presents a science-based
is useful, but does it really exist in convenient concept. It is a tool after the last glacial period, approach that takes architecture
the physical world?” This question invented for a job. It performs its many thousands of years ago. and interior design seriously. I
raises issues beyond the nature tasks admirably, but it needs to The article states this memory particularly valued the “habitat
of infinity, questions about the have been eliminated by the end happened “despite not having a theory” of open-plan living.
ontology of mathematics and its of any calculation, otherwise the system of writing”. I’d say people I have recently introduced
relation to physics and the physical. conclusion is meaningless. were able to maintain those wood-frame glass doors into the
Our knowledge of arithmetic memories because they weren’t ground-floor living areas of my
seems to be at least as secure as that From David Holtum, written. Oral tradition may be dual-aspect house after watching
of the physical world. It is therefore Bathampton, Somerset, UK longer lived than written history. a video of a Frank Lloyd Wright
hard to see why numbers should Thanks for the very interesting house in the Prairie (savannah-
be seen as less real than physical article highlighting some of the like?) style. I find this to be more
Open-plan office sounds
objects. Moreover, mathematical difficulties with infinity. secure and comforting, as there
physics is full of references to Quite a few mathematicians good until reality dawns are now across-vistas to the front
numbers, so the physical and have problems with the concept 16 April, p 44 and back gardens. Worth every
mathematical worlds appear to of infinite sets and Norman From Ron Dippold, penny, as better design often is.
overlap. Nobel prizewinner Eugene Wildberger at the University of San Diego, California, US
Wigner called this “the unreasonable New South Wales has released You reported on preferences
Amazon destruction
effectiveness of mathematics in the a number of videos that have for open-plan spaces in your
natural sciences”. elaborated at great length on look at the psychology of design, is just so worrying
infinity, the difficulties of real often based on virtual reality 9 April, p 20
From Peter Leach, numbers, functions and calculus. experiments. Yes, most people From John Neimer,
Nercwys, Flintshire, UK An interesting recent would rather work in a brightly lit Stoborough, Dorset, UK
Infinity has always been an development is the use of open space, but only up to a point. You report the truly frightening
uplifting, almost spiritual, concept “intuitionist mathematics” In reality, real-world studies show destruction of the Amazon
for me, so I was interested to read by physicist Nicolas Gisin to that when it comes to offices, rainforest, which seems to be
about the knots mathematicians reformulate some of the laws of working in an open-plan space aided by the actions of Brazil’s
tie themselves in while trying to physics. This rejects the existence with more than half a dozen other president. Perhaps environmental
define its mathematical nature. of numbers with infinitely many people is a miserable experience. protest groups in the UK, like
The concept of nothingness digits. His approach seems to offer You are interrupted by noise. Extinction Rebellion, could make
is harder for me to live with than hope of closing the gap between Constant movement in your an impression by blockading the
infinity. It feels scary, unnatural relativity and quantum mechanics. peripheral vision is exhausting. Brazilian embassy instead of
and dispiriting. You are often hot-desking. Sales disrupting ordinary citizens’ lives.
people bellow all day. Everyone
Memories can linger
From Philip Welsby, Edinburgh, UK else gets noise-cancelling headsets From Geoff Harding,
Mathematics can’t address for millennia and pretends nothing around Sydney, Australia
infinity as suggested. That infinity 16 April, p 12 them exists, so communication A strategy to halt the deforestation
comes in different sizes is a From Will Kemp, Wagait Beach, and satisfaction decrease. of the Amazon is to encourage
nonsense because infinity isn’t a Northern Territory, Australia So hurrah for the dingy closet a blanket ban on the import of
number. Any infinity that can be In your article about people in workspace! I went from an open- all products sourced from the
doubled, or broken down into a what is now Chile who maintained plan office to a bedroom for the Amazon. This could be done
great number of smaller numbers, memories of coastal threats for pandemic. Many workplace via the COP27 climate summit.
isn’t an infinity to begin with. 1000 years, you quote Eugenia experts seemed to think it would This would have the additional
benefit of promoting a drastic
From Bryn Glover, Kirkby reduction in beef cattle ranching,
Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK Want to get in touch? which would lead to significant
Having grappled with infinity Send letters to letters@newscientist.com; greenhouse gas reduction. In
for as long as I can recall, your see terms at newscientist.com/letters compensation, farmers could
cover line, “A new answer to the Letters sent to New Scientist, Northcliffe House, be paid to reforest their land
largest question of all”, sent me 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT will be delayed for carbon offsetting. ❚
EXCLUSIVE
NEW SCIENTIST
TOTE BAGS
AND BINDERS
Our reusable tote-style shopper bag is perfect
for taking everything you need on the go.
For those unruly back issues at home, meanwhile,
ourShare your
binders are knowledge
just the thing. Each fitsthis season.
13 issues –
get holiday
Give asprice
4 for the aseason.
gift
of 3*and
. Givesaveasup a gift
to 53%
and save up to 73% or call
Visit newscientist.com/9248
03303339470
Visit
1-888-822-3242
* Add 4 binders to your basket and the 4th will automatically discounted at checkout.
Views Culture
A bad omen?
The story of a 1960s hunt for people who claimed they had premonitions is beautifully
written, but goes too easy on the pseudoscience, says James McConnachie
by journalist Sam Knight. worked at the Post Office. His Knight finds that Barker
Barker was certainly an visions were accompanied by could be “credulous, or laconic;
Book
interesting man. Intellectually distress and headaches. doubtful, yet insinuating”.
The Premonitions Bureau
ambitious, he researched In one “major hit” for the Something similar is true of
Sam Knight
Munchausen’s syndrome and bureau, Hencher predicted a plane Knight. Now a staff writer at The
Faber
experimented with aversion crash involving 123 people. Nine New Yorker, his non-fiction heroes
therapy, claiming to have cured a days later, a plane came down include sophisticated literary
IN OCTOBER 1966, around the man of desire for an extramarital near Nicosia in Cyprus, killing storytellers such as W. G. Sebald
time a colliery spoil heap in affair by administering 70-volt 126 people, 124 of them on impact. and Joan Didion. He likes jump
Aberfan in Wales collapsed, electric shocks. He was a pioneer cuts, internal resonances and
burying a school and homes and of longboard surfing. And he “While touring Aberfan, leaving things unstated.
killing 116 children and 28 adults, kept a crystal ball on his desk. Take the section where he
John Barker heard
an English psychiatrist called John In the 15 months it existed, the segues from a discussion of
Barker was working on a book bureau collected 723 predictions,
stories of forebodings entropy to a tragic outbreak
about people who appeared to of which 18 were recorded as and warnings, and he of foot-and-mouth disease in
have scared themselves to death. “hits”, with 12 coming from just had a new idea” England and then to a campaign
In some ways, it was a precursor two correspondents. One was a to shut Victorian-era asylums –
to the work of writers such as London music teacher, Kathy In another, Middleton wrote by a woman who dreamed
Oliver Sacks: Barker was boldly but Middleton. She saw pictures, to Barker detailing a vision of a of the winning horses in the
thoughtfully exploring the odder with words flashing as if in petrified astronaut. Earlier that Epsom Derby.
reaches of the psyche. In other neon lights. The other “human day – although it wasn’t reported Or another where he moves
ways, however, his research was seismometer”, as Fairley put until later – Vladimir Komarov’s from the origin of the word
sensationalist and foolish – Barker it, was a switchboard operator Soyuz 1 capsule had crash-landed embolism to the nocebo effect and
was also a member of the Society called Alan Hencher, who in Russia, burning him to death. Sweden’s uppgivenhetssyndrom
for Psychical Research and he (resignation syndrome), a
had suggested that people could condition in which refugee
become aware of the moment of children appear to retreat into
their death. By telepathy, perhaps. near-comas of hopelessness.
In the aftermath of the Aberfan With such manoeuvres, Knight
disaster, Barker heard that a boy builds a subtle, allusive study of
who had escaped the wave of coal his subject, and his evocation of
slurry had later died of shock. the frowsty yet aspirational mid-
Barker drove 160 kilometres from 1960s England feels just right. But
a psychiatric hospital where he it is Barker who dominates the
was a consultant to investigate. book, with his “contained, quietly
But while touring Aberfan, he belligerent energy”, and Knight
heard stories of forebodings and treats him with generosity, and
warnings, and he had a new idea. delivers a great deal of pathos.
Within a week, in collaboration Too much generosity and
with Peter Fairley, the Evening too much pathos, because
Standard’s science journalist, he premonitions aren’t true. If you
was inviting the newspaper’s deal in them, you are deluded or
readers to contact him with their a charlatan. Barker was mostly
“dreams and forebodings”. These the former. Knight, I am sure, is
MARIO DE BIASI/MONDADORI VIA GETTY IMAGES
pandemic simulation exercises. Ventilation gets an enthusiastic markets or extractive industries Watch
More debatable is his proposal thumbs up, as do cheap and in wild places, is missing. Yet an How the science
for a global pandemic agency, the effective masks. As one public off-topic chapter about covid-19 of dogs changed
Global Epidemic Response and health expert told him, the book accelerating the process of the science of life
Mobilization (GERM) team, with would be very short “if everyone digitisation is tacked on at the end. captivates zoologist
$1 billion annual funding. Gates would just wear masks”. This handbook isn’t as successful Jules Howard. His talk,
says it would be managed by the His book is punctuated with as Gates’s climate guide, but it is which streams from
World Health Organization, but powerful examples from personal welcome. And it couldn’t be more London’s Royal
never explains why a new layer experience. He recounts watching timely, with thousands still dying Institution on 12 May at
of bureaucracy is better than just a minimally invasive autopsy of a daily. As he writes, “once covid is no 7pm BST, explores what
beefing up the WHO. baby boy in Soweto, South Africa, longer an acute threat, don’t forget we know about dogs.
Nor does he spell out how GERM in an otherwise dry passage about about what it has done”. ❚
Identity crisis Shades of dark romanticism and late 19th-century social savagery
haunt two wild new books, which are united in their exploration of how unreliably
memories construct our identity, says Sally Adee
Scan me to sign up
The Weekly The Daily Fix The Planet Health Check Launchpad Lost in Space-time Our Human Story Wild Wild Life
Features Cover story
STUART MCREATH
mystery
ancient”, says Sujoy Mukhopadhyay at the
University of California, Davis, “it tells us
something about how our planet formed”.
And they might even surprise us with an answer
to a bigger question, one that goes beyond
parochial concerns about our own planet.
Since the late 19th century, geologists have
used vibrations called seismic waves, normally
Deep inside Earth are two vast generated by earthquakes, to map the interior
geological anomalies of unknown origin. of our planet. These waves move slowly in less
dense and rigid rock, but faster through more
Planetary scientists are on a mission tightly packed matter. After studying their
speed in countless rock types, geoscientists
to explain these mysterious blobs, sent seismic waves through Earth to see the
as Robin George Andrews discovers composition of its internal structure: a solid
inner core, surrounded by a liquid outer core,
which sloshes molten iron and nickel around
to generate its magnetic field. On top of this is
the mostly solid mantle, the bulk of Earth’s
interior. Capping all this is the crust, an
amalgam of rocks that have been erupted,
broken up, squashed together and pulled apart.
This is what you learned about at school.
But what you may not know is that, in the
O
UR planet is like a bad cake in a cosmic 1980s, seismic waves hit on something odd:
baking contest. On inspection of the two giant clumps inside the planet’s mantle,
first slice, the judges might say its making up about 8 per cent of the mantle’s
layering is quite neat. The crunchy crust sits volume. These lumps sit on top of the liquid
on a solid-but-squidgy mantle, which wraps core, one below the Pacific, one beneath Africa.
around a gooey outer core. But cut another As wide as ocean basins, they also seem to rise
slice and they will soon see that something almost 1000 kilometres vertically, into the
has gone awry. Looming inside the neat layers mantle. They are uneven and misshapen, like
are two giant, messy lumps. the waxy blobs of a lava lamp. But right from
These two blobs are colossal. They are the the get-go, the questions of what they are
size of continents, covering almost a third doing there, and how they got there, have
of the boundary between the core and the confounded Earth scientists.
mantle. We also know that they are hotter It is even hard to know what to call them.
than their surroundings. But everything else When seismic waves hit the blobs, they slow
about these blobs is mysterious, from what down. This earned them the name “large low-
they are made of and where they came from shear-velocity provinces”, a clumsy collection
to how they affect our planet today. of words. “It’s not an acronym you can easily
The quest to understand them has so say,” says Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at
far verged on the quixotic. Geologists and Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.
planetary scientists are pursuing it with Some call them superplumes. Byrne insists
vigour, however, because the blobs are “blob is fine”.
likely to be guarding some serious secrets. Most of what we know about these blobs is
We are scrambling to get a better picture through seismology, but seismology has its
of these shadowy underworld titans, flaws. Temperature changes the density and
not least how ancient they are. rigidity of a rock, but so does its composition.
That is important because if they turn “It’s really hard to tell the difference between >
Shaping
Earth
Two vast blobs of anomalous the two,” says Harriet Lau, a geophysicist at the which determines what rises and falls,
material in Earth’s mantle (see main University of California, Berkeley. Most agree and gives clues about temperature and
story) are, geologically speaking, that the blobs are probably hotter than the chemical composition. “Density is kind
alive. This layer of our planet is surrounding mantle, but it is hard to tell if they of the holy grail in this debate,” says Paula
populated by towering streaks are made of the same stuff, with lots of iron in Koelemeijer, a seismologist at Royal Holloway,
of superheated material that rise them, or if they are packed with other minerals. University of London.
to inflict prolonged, island-making, Working separately, Lau and Koelemeijer
continent-tearing and occasionally have both been trying to figure how dense
climate-changing volcanism on Rise and fall these blobs are. In 2017, using GPS sensors to
the surface. The simplest explanation is that they are made measure tidal changes to the shape of the crust
Plume-driven volcanism is unlike of the same material as the mantle, and are just caused by the blobs, Lau and her colleagues
any other. It has created chains of hotter. If so, their presence may be a result of estimated the blobs to be fairly dense. But that
islands like the Hawaiian archipelago, the disintegration of Pangaea, Earth’s most same year, Koelemeijer and her colleagues
home to by far the largest volcanoes recent supercontinent, which formed around used a type of seismic wave sensitive to deep
on the planet. It played a key role in 330 million years ago and started breaking up mantle structures, to study where the blobs
the dismantling of supercontinents around 200 million years ago. Continents are sit in relation to the core. They were always
and the creation of ocean basins. part of the planet’s outer shell, made of crust elevated above the rest of the core, hinting that
And it even contributed to the chaos and some upper material in the mantle. As they were less dense than the surroundings.
that unfolded 65 million years ago, Pangaea broke into tectonic jigsaw pieces, The two approaches “were showing us
unleashing climate-changing volcanic prominent subduction zones – deep wounds conflicting results”, says Koelemeijer. To crack
gases while the world reeled from a that allow one tectonic plate to descend the case, the researchers decided to team up.
major asteroid impact. beneath another – opened up. For the past Early results from their new work indicating
Although some seem to stand 250 million years, defunct chunks of tectonic that the blobs may be mostly light – perhaps
alone, most of these entities, named plates, called slabs, have been descending bundles of hot, buoyant mantle plumes – but
mantle plumes, appear to sprout into the lower mantle. Since the insides of with dense plant-like roots. But until the
from the two blobs. But the way our planet are hotter, the blobs might simply results are published, they don’t want to
they do this is subject to debate. be the warm spots on the core-mantle speculate about what this could mean for
They might rise up as one continual boundary that aren’t receiving any of this the blobs’ origins.
fountain, or they could appear as cooler falling material. Another important conundrum is the age of
many little blobs that together give Then again, the simplest explanation isn’t these blobs. Scientists examined lava spewed
the illusion of one continuous plume. always the correct one. There is also a chance by oceanic volcanoes powered by the blobs (see
For now, the main investigation is these blobs aren’t just hotter, but are also made “Shaping Earth”, left), finding odd chemistry.
into where they came from. “Until of different stuff to the rest of the mantle. If so, Some of this volcanic material seems like it
we know what the blobs are, it seems where they came from is a mystery. And the “hasn’t ever erupted at the surface of the
a bit premature to attribute them to key to solving the mystery lies in their density, planet”, says Lau. This includes radioactive
any causal mechanism,” says Paul elements dating back to the first 50 to 100
Byrne at Washington University in Two giant blobs (red) sit million years of Earth’s life, stuff you won’t
St Louis, Missouri. inside Earth, below the find in younger rocks. “That’s a very strong
Pacific and parts of Africa argument to say there’s something really
ancient down there,” says Mukhopadhyay.
If so, that would go against the idea that
plate tectonics caused the blobs. Plate tectonics
began at least 3 billion years ago, but we don’t
know exactly when it started. If the blob
matter is truly primordial, even older than
the advent of plate tectonics, then where else
could it have come from? One option is that
this material crystallised deep within the
molten soup that was the very young Earth,
remaining there since.
A more intriguing suggestion, which has
been gaining interest in recent years, is that the
If that’s right, it would solve the origins of better understanding. If Earth blobs truly are today: instead of being swept up by the
the Earth blobs and settle the debate over how primordial, then ancient radioactive elements mantle’s currents and blended into it, their
the moon formed in one fell swoop. Except would give off a unique neutrino signature high density let them sink to the base of the
that is a tricky thing to prove. For one, Theia that, hypothetically, could be detected at the mantle and become stubbornly stuck there, to
has been destroyed, so we can’t take samples planet’s surface. But that would need the right this day. Subducting plates may be influencing
to compare with the lava created by the blobs’ sort of detectors placed at the perfect spots, the location and composition of the blobs
mantle plumes. Another issue arises when and we aren’t there yet. today, but perhaps Theia gave birth to them.
trying to virtually reproduce the giant, Most scientists hope to do more with the That would have been a sight to behold, says
primordial impact. Chemical analyses of tools they already have – seismology, chief Yuan. “It’s beyond my imagination.” ❚
lunar material scooped up during the Apollo among them. Most seismometers, the devices
era suggest that the moon is mostly made of that detect seismic waves, are on land, which
Earth material, but simulations of the giant makes up less than a third of Earth’s surface Robin George Andrews is a freelance
primordial impact create a moon mostly made area. The oceans, on the other hand, are “one writer and author of Super
from Theia. A recent study suggested you get massive blind spot that global seismology is Volcanoes: What they reveal about
something geologically closer to the real moon yet to really improve upon”, says Lau. Floating Earth and the worlds beyond
WHERE once we thought of ape behaviour Frans de Waal: Well, some people insist that Donna, who is biologically female, is very
only in terms of sex and war, we now we have genders and chimps and bonobos have masculine in her appearance and her
understand that our closest relatives live sexes, and that is the end of the discussion. behaviour – and unlike the majority of female
a much more nuanced life. A huge part of I think that is nonsense. Gender as a concept chimps, she likes to hang out with the males.
that understanding comes from the work exists mainly because we are a sexually I do not know how she identifies and I can’t
of primatologist Frans de Waal, a professor reproducing species. Sex is predominantly ask her, but she looks like a male and acts like
of psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, binary – male and female – plus a small a male most of the time.
Georgia. Over the past five decades, he has percentage of people who are intersex. You also have biological males who are big,
shown that cooperation is at least as important Imagine if we reproduced by cloning and but are not interested in being high-ranking.
as competition in explaining primate were all basically identical. No one would have They avoid confrontations. They can be well
behaviour and society. His work has revealed even conceived of the concept of gender. accepted in the group, but accepted as a male
that the great apes might fight, but they Aspects of gender, such as social roles and who is not involved in male politics. So we have
also reconcile their differences. They have a gendered behaviour, represent the cultural this variability in individuals. Few individuals
capacity for empathy and a concept of fairness side of biological sex. Gender in this respect act like Donna, and few males act non-typically,
that de Waal proposes is the foundation of is not male or female, but rather masculine, but it is important for us to recognise that
the human moral compass. He believes that feminine and everything in between. It is a science hasn’t been looking into the issue of
chimps, bonobos and humans are simply much more fluid concept than biological sex. how individuals express sex-typical behaviour.
different types of ape and that empathetic This concept of gender roles and behaviour Once we start explicitly hunting for it, our
and cooperative behaviours are continuous may also apply to apes, because they are perceptions may change and gender non-
between these species. Now, he has turned cultural beings, too. They develop slowly conforming behaviour in primates may turn
his attention to gender and identity in his and are adults by 16 years of age, so there is out to be more common than we thought.
new book Different: What apes can teach an enormous amount of learning that goes
us about gender. We spoke to de Waal to into their behaviour, which includes their What we might call gender-stereotyped play
find out what he has learned. sex-typical behaviour. Like our children, the is seen in young primates. There are reports
young pick up aspects of their gender roles of young female chimps in captivity playing with
Rowan Hooper: You are well known for from the adults around them. dolls, and some in the wild using a wooden log
writing about the inner lives of chimpanzees as a doll and even building a nest to put it in. Male
and bonobos, but your new book is a bit In your book, you say that while gender roles and chimps, when given a choice of toys, tend to play
different, because it discusses gender roles, gendered behaviour can be influenced by culture, with toy trucks and trains. What is going on here?
NABIL NEZZAR
gender identity and biological sex differences gender identity seems to arise from within. You With the males, people have speculated that it
in both apes and us. What do we mean by write about a chimp called Donna who seems is because these are movable objects and males
gender in non-human primates? to exemplify this. Can you tell us about her? are more physically active in their play. With >
Obesity blockers
A new class of drug promises to help people lose
huge amounts of weight and may even prevent
obesity. Will these medications live up to the hype,
asks Sara Novak
F
or as long as Kimrey Rhinehardt can Obesity is a chronic health issue that puts
remember, she has been trying to lose people at risk for other chronic conditions,
weight. The keto and paleo diets seemed including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and
to work… for a while. But when the weight sleep apnoea. It is also the most common
came off, her emotional eating and sugar health condition in both the UK and US:
cravings ruined her efforts. 28 and 42 per cent of their adult populations,
Rhinehardt’s battle to control her weight respectively, are obese. In 2016, when the latest
has been frustrating, but for the management figures from the World Health Organization
consultant from Pittsboro, North Carolina, (WHO) were made available, 13 per cent of
it is also dangerous. She has high cholesterol, adults globally were obese, a figure that had
asthma and a family history of breast cancer. nearly tripled since 1975. Most of the world’s
Her weight raises the likelihood she will die population now live in countries where being
from one of these risk factors. obese or overweight kills more people than
Then, six months ago, a doctor prescribed being underweight.
her weekly injections of a new kind of Obesity on this scale may be a modern
medication, and everything changed. She lost malady, but the promises of quick fixes for
more than 27 kilograms and her body mass losing weight have been with us for centuries.
index (BMI) dropped from 41 – considered In the 1800s, soap and arsenic were touted
severely obese – to 32, just over the threshold as good options for those wanting to slim
for obesity. The drug even changed her down. By the 1930s, dinitrophenol – an organic
perspective on food. Rhinehardt isn’t compound that can cause rapid breathing, a fast
interested in many of the unhealthy snacks
she used to love. “Cravings for sugar and
heart rate and heavy sweating and can, in some
cases, prove fatal – was promoted for weight “ The drug
bread don’t exist any more,” she says.
This new drug, semaglutide, marketed as
control. And prior to a US ban in the 1970s,
amphetamines became a fashionable means might even
Wegovy in the US, was approved last year by
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
of appetite suppression, despite powerful side
effects, including the risk of heart problems. be used to
For Rhinehardt, it has been the boost she
needed to finally lose the weight she has
Even drugs approved by the FDA have
flopped. Fen-phen, named after the two prevent
struggled with for decades. But for some in
the medical profession, the hope is that the
appetite-suppressing drugs it contained,
fenfluramine and phentermine, was obesity in
drug might revolutionise our fight against
one of the most prevalent and lethal health
considered the star of diet drugs in the
1990s until it was withdrawn from the market the first place”
problems in much of the world. Not only because it caused heart valve defects in as
could it help treat obesity in people finding it many as a quarter of people taking it. In 2020,
hard to lose weight, but it might even be used another diet drug, lorcaserin, was pulled from
to prevent the condition in the first place. sale when it was linked to a range of cancers,
including pancreatic, colorectal and lung. produced in the pancreas – which boosts blood hormone also results in nerve signals being
Despite this chequered past, with obesity sugar levels. Together, this means fewer sugars sent to the hypothalamus, a hormone control
rising globally – coupled with the fact that are left in the body. centre in the brain, telling it to reduce hunger.
when people do lose weight, they normally People with type 2 diabetes tend to produce “Patients benefit because it both decreases the
put it back on again within a few years – there insufficient amounts of GLP-1, which can result desire to start eating and, when you do eat, you
is still a thirst for medicines that could help. in too much glucose in the bloodstream. stop sooner because you feel full,” says Thomas
This is where a hormone called GLP-1 comes Semaglutide, however, increases the amount Wadden at the University of Pennsylvania.
in. As food moves from the oesophagus to the of the hormone circulating the body, helping Following these hints that semaglutide
gastrointestinal tract, it activates a system of to bring blood sugar levels under control. might also be useful for those with weight
hormones that help control the digestion of Given these effects on the pancreas, issues, new trials took place with an increased
food. GLP-1, which is released from the small semaglutide was originally approved for dose to boost weight loss, and the results were
intestine, is of particular importance. It signals diabetes in 2019. But during the diabetes trials, dramatic. Almost 2000 people who were obese
to the pancreas to release insulin, a hormone participants also saw significant weight loss. were given weekly injections of 2.4 milligrams
that allows cells to take up and use additional That is because GLP-1 slows gastric emptying, of the drug – more than twice what the
glucose from the foods we eat, while cutting and keeping food in the stomach for longer participants in the diabetes trial received – or
the amount of the hormone glucagon – also creates a greater feeling of fullness. The a placebo, and they also undertook lifestyle >
2.4 per cent in the placebo group. This can put some people off, says Fatima
Experts are cautiously impressed by these Stanford at Massachusetts General Hospital.
results, and semaglutide was approved by the “When you hear that 45 per cent of patients will
FDA in June 2021, the first weight-loss drug to have nausea, that is high. Some of my patients
gain such approval since 2014. fear having it and won’t try the medications
As well as working well compared to a as a result.” Another 5 per cent developed
placebo and lifestyle changes, it also compares gallstones due to the rapid nature of the
Pills vs surgery favourably to other available weight-loss drugs, weight loss, requiring surgery in some cases.
because it targets a hormone in the body, rather For the most part, however, doctors have
In the US, 228,000 weight loss than just targeting the brain, says Wadden. been able to mitigate side effects by starting at
surgeries were done in 2017. Contrave, for example, is a combination of the a low dose and slowly increasing it as the body
The most popular type is sleeve antidepressant bupropion and the addiction develops a tolerance and symptoms subside,
gastrectomy, where three-quarters drug naltrexone. It works on the hypothalamus says Patrick O’Neil, director of the Weight
of the stomach is cut out so the to help regulate appetite, but it doesn’t provide Management Center at the Medical University
individual can’t eat as much. In the the double whammy of satiation on the gut, of South Carolina. Only about 3 per cent of
two years afterwards, people see and people taking it typically lose between participants dropped out of the trial due to
a mean weight loss of 20 per cent. 5 and 10 per cent of their body weight. Those side effects. Still, we don’t yet have data on
Although we don’t have long-term taking it also commonly experience dizziness, any long-term effects.
data for the weight-loss drug a dry mouth, insomnia and intense dreams.
semaglutide (see main story), Other drugs work by blocking the digestion
Thomas Wadden at the University of fat in the foods you eat, so that about a Lifetime commitment
of Pennsylvania says that if people quarter of it is excreted in your stools rather The hope is that semaglutide could help people
on the drug maintain their weight than being absorbed during digestion. This like Rhinehardt finally reach a healthier weight
loss for two years and it is cost more primitive method results in around a and, more importantly, keep it off. In fact, the
effective, they may choose 5 per cent weight loss and is accompanied by drug’s approval seems to be accompanying a
it instead of surgery. It is the some pretty unpleasant side effects, such as shift in the way that obesity is being treated,
first weight-loss drug to show loose stools, oily faeces and incontinence. at least in the US, with the FDA categorising
comparable results to surgery. With semaglutide, by far the most common weight-loss drugs differently, says Robert
Kushner, a endocrinologist at Northwestern
University in Illinois.
Some older drugs Semaglutide, for example, is in a new group
block digestion of drugs called anti-obesity medications that
of fat in foods – are approved by the FDA for chronic weight
with nasty management, an acknowledgement that the
side-effects issue with obesity often isn’t just losing the
weight, but keeping it off. “Those of us that
work in this field think of obesity as not just
about losing weight, but about how we treat
the disease of obesity and all the metabolic
and health conditions that are associated with
it,” says Kushner. Some people may need help
keeping the weight off for the rest of their lives.
These drugs are approved for both weight
loss and weight maintenance, which means
JONATHAN KNOWLES/GETTY IMAGES
Heavy cost
Given the global cost of high BMI, estimated at
$990 billion per year, a drug that could prevent
obesity in high-risk people could be worth the
MIODRAG IGNJATOVIC/GETTY IMAGES
Citizen science
Answers and
the next cryptic
crossword Puzzle
next week set by Holly Biming
#166 The week link
ACROSS DOWN
1 Able to move independently (6) 1 US federal health insurance In the Zordik language, the seven days of the
4 The ___ , 1965 sci-fi story collection programme (8) week start with Ardik (Monday). The other
by Stanisław Lem (8) 2 1989 sci-fi film directed by days are Bordik, Curdik, Deldik, Endik, Fordik
9 Judge ___ , law enforcement officer James Cameron (3,5) and Gandik, but not exactly in that order.
in Mega-City One (5) 3 Ore deposit (4)
10 Hardening of tissue (9) 5 Insectivorous migratory bird, In her Zordik class, teacher Miss Taik
11 3D solid with six square faces (4) Motacilla flava (6,7) asked the students to recite the days in
12 Mackerel shark that may be shortfin or longfin (4) 6 Humans, perhaps (10) order, starting with Ardik. Sven called
13 Carnivorous African mammal (5) 7 Part of the foot (6) them out in alphabetical order.
15 Deposit or sediment (7) 8 Of a body part, not proximal (6)
16 River barrier (4) 10 Arcade game released in 1978 (5,8) “You got three in the right place,” said
19 Ne (4) 14 Stimulating hormone (10) the teacher. “Kim, you have a go.”
20 Yuri ___ , Soviet cosmonaut (7) 17 Supply with water, agriculturally (8)
23 Informal name of social networking 18 Sb (8) “Deldik, Bordik, Ardik, Curdik, Endik,
service launched in 2010 (5) 21 Convulsion of the diaphragm (6) Gandik and Fordik.”
24 Relating to a digestive orifice (4) 22 Prefix denoting a relation
25 Collaboratively edited online to the mind (6) “Three right again. Help them, Raki.”
information resource (4) 26 Flightless bird of New Zealand (4)
27 Dye derived from the beetle “Gandik, Deldik, Curdik, Bordik, Ardik,
Dactylopius coccus (9) Fordik and Endik.”
28 Adult form (5)
29 Enzyme that catalyses proteolysis (8) “Unbelievable – you only got three
30 Plant also known as sweet chervil right as well. Still, you now have all the
or garden myrrh (6) information you need to work out the
days of the week in order.”
SHUTTERSTOCK/IAN DYBALL
giant would accumulate at its core. Use of the (by then) readily
So a point would be reached where available warp drive will probably
the “gas” would be too dense to make the feat much easier.
fly through. Also, the increasing
pressure and temperature would Feel the heat
destroy any spacecraft long before
the planet’s centre was reached. This week’s new questions After a swim at my gym, I can
choose a sauna (dry and hot)
Damir Blazina No joke Do any other animals have a sense of humour? If you or steam room (wet and hot).
Chester, UK slipped on a banana skin, are there any creatures that would Both make me sweat, so which
Nobody knows for sure what is laugh? James Buzolic, Coolum Beach, Queensland, Australia is better for my well-being? Or
deep inside a gas giant. Assuming are both just self-flagellation?
that the ones in our solar system – Off the boil Why does taking a near-boiling saucepan of water
Jupiter and Saturn – are typical off the hob immediately cause a lot of steam to be released Joy Hussain
examples, it wouldn’t be possible from the water? Simon Cooper, Cambridge, UK General practitioner and sauna
to fly through one due to the solid researcher, Brisbane, Australia
According to responses to the
“Another challenge the pressure at its core could be up lies beneath. While they may online Global Sauna Survey (2016-
is the temperature, to 100 million times that typically not have a well-defined, solid 2017) that I conducted, greater use
seen on Earth at sea level. It should surface like that of rocky (that of either steam rooms (also known
which might reach be obvious that no spacecraft is, terrestrial) planets such as as wet saunas) or dry saunas was
20,000°C at the could survive this pressure. Earth, you shouldn’t expect to linked to higher quality-of-life
centre of Jupiter. Another challenge is the be able to pass through them. scores. Strikingly, it was the mental
Try surviving that!” temperature, which might Depending on their density, not the physical components of
reach 20,000°C at the centre even the atmospheres of planets well-being measurements that
core, high temperature, high of Jupiter. Try surviving that! and gas clouds could present were higher.
pressure and the difficulty in There is also the possibility a hazard to spaceships, which As to the differences between
obtaining escape velocity. that Jupiter’s core is rocky, although need to slow down to avoid these hot activities, two small
It might be different for at pressures of 100 million burning up like meteors due studies from Poland – both with
exoplanets known as hot Jupiters, atmospheres, there isn’t much to friction-generated heat. only 10 participants – show how
which are gas giants orbiting close difference between rock and gas. When comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 steam rooms put extra physical
to their star. These appear to have collided with Jupiter in July 1994, stress on the body. Dry saunas
very low density, much lower than Mike Follows it didn’t reach the solid core, let and steam rooms increase your
Jupiter and Saturn. This suggests Sutton Coldfield, alone appear on the other side of skin and core body temperatures,
they have more gas and less liquid West Midlands, UK the planet. Instead, one fragment causing various physiological
or solid material, so perhaps The short answer is no. The term released energy equivalent to changes, but these changes
one of those would be a better “gas giant” is misleading. These 6 million megatons of the happen a lot faster and with
candidate for a fly-through? planets aren’t gas clouds, they are explosive TNT, and the comet more intensity in steam rooms
planets cloaked in thick, opaque resulted in a fireball with a because your sweating responses
Herman D’Hondt atmospheres that conceal what temperature peaking at about are dampened, literally.
Mascot, New South Wales, Dry saunas stimulate sweating
Australia Want to send us a question or answer? and steam rooms reduce our
The gas giant Jupiter largely Email us at lastword@newscientist.com ability to sweat. You may feel like
consists of hydrogen, with Questions should be about everyday science phenomena you are sweating just as much in
about 10 per cent helium, and Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms a steam room, but the droplets on
Cryptic crossword
#82 Answers
ACROSS 1 Sagacity, 5 Drab,
8 Irate, 9 Kidneys, 11 Extract,
12 Raise, 13 Tartar, 15 Clam up,
18 Blast, 19 Recedes, 21 Freesia,
22 Innie, 23 Tote, 24 Cinnabar
Love in the metaverse Twisteddoodles for New Scientist annoying than the spontaneous,
self-nucleating variety, or which
A PR writes in a breathless tone that authority ordains they should
suggests they are just back from always be precisely in our way.
doing something else. “For the next
generation dating in the metaverse
Testicle tans
won’t be optional,” we read. “There
will be a blurry line between an US TV commentator and all-
in-person date and being on video. round… egg Tucker Carlson has
The audio will be spatial. The video been teasing his new documentary
will be immersive. And video dating film, The End of Men, with a trailer
will change as we know it.” of such startling homoeroticism
And Mark Zuckerberg will be that it will possibly soon be
hiding round a corner holding a banned in Florida.
big bucket for your most intimate Carlson’s premise is that
secrets, ka-ching. We would bet on male testosterone levels are
at least some people keeping the declining, that this is a bad thing
physical dating option open, if only and that the best way to combat
because not all sensory experiences it is to get your testicles tanned.
are fully available in the metaverse Feedback’s level of hormonal
as yet. But never say never. outrage remains middling about
History is littered with intrinsically all of this. We are unsure of the
real-world experiences we never last part, however, which seems
expected to go virtual: shopping for to involve exposing private parts
shoes, boring people with holiday to infrared radiation. Hot, we
snaps, hurling abuse at strangers. suspect, and not in a good way.
But the spatial audio bit sounds Doing our due diligence, we do
interesting. We weren’t aware the run across well-founded research
metaverse equated to full-on reported in this organ in 2018 –
synaesthesia. More prosaically, Got a story for Feedback? no sniggering at the back, there –
the PR turns out to be offering a Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or New Scientist, that “The higher your testosterone
hook-up with the CEO of a video Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT levels, the more you love soft
speed-dating app for hot chat Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed rock”. On that basis, anything that
with topics including “Requirements accidentally ends up reducing
for dating in the metaverse” – a them is probably all to the good.
large headset and wide turning daughter finds in a Google preview we are vicariously pleased as Kathy
circle, we presume – and window under the rubric “What to Haskard, consulting some celestial
Woke-o-saurus
“Cheating in the metaverse”. do when your baby poops in the runes in her neck of the woods,
We are unsure whether this last bath”. “We recommend removing discovers a website promising that Meanwhile, in the UK, The Sun
one is in the sense of a “how to”, or them from the tub and making the “next planned solar eclipse that reports that David Attenborough’s
just informing us how to tell if an sure to get rid of any excess water will be visible from Adelaide, will new one-off CGI-enhanced
avatar is cheating. There must be which might contain fecal matter. take place on April 20, 2023”. documentary Dinosaurs: The
ways. Perhaps guilty feet have got Once they’re completely dry, give We like the idea of throwing in Final Day features a “softer ‘woke’
no algorithm, to misquote a poet. them a wash with baby-safe the odd unplanned one every now version of the T-Rex”. “Predators
disinfectant or boil them in water and again to keep people on their tend to just fight all the time and we
What the doctor ordered in the same way you would sterilize toes. The errant adjective reminds wanted to show them pooing,” the
a pacifier before returning them Feedback of a report we once article quotes executive producer
Possibly fresh from a consultation to the bath.” And then be sure to spotted in a small-town newspaper Helen Thomas as saying. This
in what we are now joining the throw away the baby with the… no, in Germany, that a spontaneous mystifies us, as that wasn’t on our
world in misbranding as the wait a moment. Following the trail demonstration would occur on list as a specifically woke activity.
metaverse, Andy Howe writes in back to its source, the advice turns the main square at 11am on the We suspect this might annoy
concern at his doctor prescribing out to be about bath toys, but still. following Tuesday, and of another those dinosaurs who like their T. rex
something that sounded very clockwork certainty in keeping with raw in tooth and claw and think the
like “die, mister”. We are happy to Like the sun going down our own native country’s aptitude world’s gone to the dogs since the
confirm that this is a nasal spray for genteel chaos: disruption for mammals have been in charge, or
for the treatment of hay fever, There are few more disheartening anyone so foolhardy as to attempt whatever. We also suspect the final
one Dymista, and merely ideas for those who believe in to travel by train on a weekend or day of the dinosaurs would have
homophonically alarming. human agency than Isaac Newton’s public holiday. We are still unsure been a good one for a spot of
We are altogether more conception of a preordained whether the dread “planned testicle tanning. Doesn’t seem to
exercised by the advice his clockwork universe. This is why engineering works” are any less have done them any good, mind. ❚