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New Scientist, No. 3335 (2021-05-22)
New Scientist, No. 3335 (2021-05-22)
New Scientist, No. 3335 (2021-05-22)
BLACK HOLES
WHAT EXACTLY IS A
CHEMICAL BOND?
NEW HOPE FOR
LIFE ON EUROPA
CUBA’S HOME-GROWN
COVID-19 JAB
WEEKLY May 22–28, 2021
MOVE
YOUR MIND
How the way you exercise
changes how you think
News Features
13 Platypus hunting 34 Mind-altering moves
Tracking down the world’s News The way you move can change
strangest creatures how you think and feel. Here’s
how to take advantage
14 Parkinson’s nose test
A nasal swab, similar to a 40 Interview: Climate
coronavirus test, could identify hope and grief
early signs of the condition Scientist Kimberly Nicholas on
being human in a warming world
14 Vertical eating
Whale sharks float at the 44 Freaky bonding
surface to catch a meal Chemists are finding surprising
ways atoms can stick together
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Michael Roberts on attempts 52 Citizen science
to use AI to diagnose covid-19 Listen in to help track biodiversity
28 Letters 56 Feedback
Nature isn’t less natural Computer confusion and Bristol
just because we are in it fashion: the week in weird
30 Culture 56 Twisteddoodles
A book looks at the rise for New Scientist
of the digital citizen 16 Methane mystery Where is all this greenhouse gas coming from? Picturing the lighter side of life
Academy Newsletter
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Your immune system “Until the
and how to boost it
As we live through a pandemic,
20th century,
understanding the immune
system has never been so
people
important. This new offering thought
Podcast
Weekly
This week, the team looks
at vaccine booster shots to
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The world, better understood
IN THE long term, the future is looking people to prevent another major wave vaccines fairly, COVAX, has distributed
bright. Several coronavirus vaccines are of hospitalisations and deaths. Most to all the countries in the scheme so far
proving far more effective than we dared countries are in a much worse position. (see page 8).
hope, and while some aren’t as effective Globally, just 9 per cent of people have Experts say that as manufacturing
against new variants, most do still work. had at least one dose, and in lower-income rapidly ramps up, the US could share its
In the short term, however, things may countries the proportion is closer to zero. excess now without any risk of running
get worse before they get better. Despite Many people will die because higher- out. As New Scientist went to press,
many countries, including the UK, income countries are vaccinating their President Joe Biden had promised to
starting to return to “normality” with send 20 million vaccine doses abroad.
the relaxing of restrictions, we now have “A variant that evades existing Higher-income countries need to share
another dangerous new variant – B.1.617.2, vaccines will cost a lot more more money too. Another $45 billion or so
first detected in India – to contend with. than vaccinating the world” is needed to achieve global vaccination –
It might be even better at spreading than small change compared with the $5 to 10
the B.1.1.7 variant from the UK (see page 7). entire populations rather than sharing trillion cost of the pandemic. This money
Even the UK, which has given at least doses once they have vaccinated the most isn’t charity. Ensuring the whole world
one vaccine dose to more than half vulnerable. Worse, some have stockpiles is vaccinated is the best way to reduce
its adult population, may not have of unused doses building up. The US has the risk of further dangerous variants
vaccinated enough people to prevent an estimated 70 million doses sitting emerging. A variant that evades existing
another wave of cases, although it has, on shelves, which is more than the vaccines will cost a lot more than $45
hopefully, vaccinated enough vulnerable international initiative for distributing billion, quite apart from the human toll. ❚
BIG IDEAS
IN PHYSICS
SEAN CARROLL
HOW TIME WORKS
Thursday 3 June 2021 6 -7pm BST/1-2pm EDT and on-demand
“Time” is the most-used noun in the English language, yet some
physicists don’t even believe that time is real. In this talk theoretical
physicist Sean Carroll will argue that time is real – even if many
aspects of it remain mysterious.
exports, leaving COVAX short. few doses that COVAX has? One for who should be vaccinated first Many low-income countries,
COVAX has yet to distribute option, for instance, would be when supplies are limited, which however, don’t have the
enough doses to get close to its distributing doses according are similar to those used by high- infrastructure to contact older
initial aim of 3 per cent vaccination to the proportion of vulnerable income countries in their roll-outs. and more vulnerable people, or
in all countries. Meanwhile, Israel, people in a country and the If doses for fewer than 10 per cent to get them to vaccination centres.
the UK, the US and to a lesser current threat level. That is what of a population are available, A high proportion of people are
extent countries in the EU are COVAX plans to do once 20 per digitally illiterate, so can’t enrol
well on their way to vaccinating cent of people in all countries “The US alone has more via websites. As a result, jabs are
their entire populations. have been vaccinated. vaccine doses sitting being given to whoever can get to
The aim of high-income But we are still far from this unused than have been mass vaccination centres rather
countries, even if not openly point, and changing the plan now distributed via COVAX” than to those who are supposed
stated, is to use vaccination to would be difficult as countries that to get them.
eliminate the coronavirus within signed up to COVAX did so on the healthcare workers at high risk India has changed its plan of
their borders, says Antoine agreement that doses would be and older people should be vaccinating front-line workers
Flahault at the Institute of Global allocated per head of population. prioritised. If there are enough and those over the age of 45 and is
Health in Geneva. That is, to try to What’s more, according to a doses for up to 20 per cent of a now vaccinating everyone over 18,
pass the herd immunity threshold source who didn’t want to be population, the next in line with up to half of doses being
and stop the virus spreading. named, the single biggest issue should be people at risk because of supplied via the private sector.
with equitable distribution isn’t other health problems and groups This could work if it had enough
getting vaccines to countries but who are especially vulnerable, supplies, says Udayakumar, but
Reducing mortality what happens after they arrive. such as refugees or other people in practice could lead to more
By contrast, the focus of COVAX is The WHO has set out priorities who are homeless. inequity. “To open up eligibility >
on preventing deaths and severe
cases. “Countries should focus
initially on reducing mortality How is COVAX distributing vaccines?
and protecting the health system,”
states the document on fair Countries followed two main to start sharing doses once they haven’t yet been allocated enough
allocation by COVAX drawn up routes to get hold of vaccines. reached the 20 per cent threshold, to cover even a tenth of their
by the WHO in September. Some dealt directly with vaccine but this hasn’t happened. populations, with just a few, such
If high-income countries gave companies. Others signed up to a COVAX allocates doses in as Tuvalu – population 12,000 –
away vaccine doses once they have global initiative to fairly distribute proportion to each country’s getting up to 44 per 100 people.
vaccinated the most vulnerable vaccines, called COVAX. Some are population size. However, most Actual deliveries are even
groups, instead of keeping doing both. scarcer. As of 10 May, COVAX had
enough and more for their entire Countries that can afford it pay Of the 122* countries that requested shipped just 58 million doses to
populations, many deaths could COVAX for the doses they get via vaccines through COVAX, most have 122 countries. It had hoped to
received fewer than six per 100 people
be avoided, suggests a model the scheme, while others get them
from the scheme
ship 240 million by the end of
created last year by Alessandro free, funded by donations. Broadly, May. A halt to vaccine exports
Vespignani at Northeastern higher-income countries buy Tuvalu 43.64 by India amid its second wave
University in Boston and his vaccines while lower-income Tonga 23.53 of infections has contributed
Belize 13.55
colleagues. It concluded that countries rely on COVAX. Barbados 12.26 significantly to the delay.
global deaths would be halved in There are some exceptions. Samoa 12.18 received the Of the 78 countries for which
a cooperative scenario compared South Korea initially relied on Angola 6.01 most vaccine figures are available, Tuvalu is
with richer countries keeping most COVAX, choosing to wait its turn.
received the
the only one to get all its allocated
Ukraine 0.99
vaccines to themselves. The team But after public criticism, it started Tunisia 0.98 least vaccine doses. Only six countries have
is updating the model and plans buying vaccines directly. Lebanon 0.94 received enough doses to fully
to publish these findings shortly. The initial aim of COVAX is to Georgia 0.90 vaccinate 3 per cent of their
Pakistan 0.85
But high-income countries ensure first 3 per cent, then 20 per population.
Ecuador 0.67
aren’t sharing in this way. In fact, cent, of everyone in the world gets Serbia 0.57 Higher-income countries
some, including the UK, are now vaccinated, a proportion that will Jamaica 0.55 aren’t donating funds either.
ordering additional booster shots, cover the most vulnerable. The 0 20 40 60 80 100 On 3 May, the WHO said the
Doses per 100 people
which will prevent other countries World Health Organization (WHO) initiative that includes COVAX
*78 OF THE 122 COUNTRIES HAD DATA AVAILABLE ON THE COVAX
receiving more first doses. wanted higher-income countries VACCINE ROLL-OUT PAGE OF THE GAVI WEBSITE AS OF 11 MAY has a $19 billion shortfall.
Is there a better way of using the
to 900 million people when there because delaying the second dose starting to share vaccines. France
are 70 to 80 million doses a month will increase the risk of the virus recently became the first to donate
of capacity creates an even worse mutating to evade vaccines. doses from its domestic supply,
mismatch between demand and The shortfall in COVAX supplies providing an initial 100,000 doses
supply,” he says. “There’s a path for means that many people aren’t to COVAX that the scheme
people who can afford vaccines to getting the second dose within allocated to Mauritania. Norway
get it more quickly as opposed to the planned window. So this and New Zealand are donating
those who might benefit most.” delay is happening whether it doses that they had been allocated
POCKETS of liquid water trapped hundreds of thousands of years. Chivers, possibly hundreds of gets incorporated into the ice shell
in the thick ice shell of Jupiter’s Evidence for the pockets comes them. They may be a result of the and later remelted, that could kick-
moon Europa may be shorter- from images taken by NASA’s ocean seeping into the icy crust or start a community,” he says. But
lived than previously thought, Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s portions of the crust itself melting. once the pockets refreeze, that life
but they may still be present and 2000s. It spotted pits and “We think there is still would become trapped. “It’s a
and potential habitats for life. markings called lenticulae on the shallow water under some of doomed community.”
Europa, the fourth-largest surface of Europa, some of which these features,” says Chivers. Some The pockets are close enough
moon of Jupiter, is believed to appear dark in colour – thought to may even erupt onto the surface to the surface that they may be
have a liquid water ocean buried be linked to salt that keeps water as plumes, which were previously detectable by upcoming missions
tens of kilometres under its frozen liquid in subsurface pockets. thought to come directly from such as NASA’s Europa Clipper
surface. This water may be in These features suggest that water Europa’s subsurface ocean. spacecraft, scheduled to launch in
contact with an ocean floor that pockets are still present today, says If these pockets do exist, they 2024 and arrive in 2030. The craft
provides the necessary mix of could be potential habitats for life, will fly by and use a radar to peer
materials for life to arise. Previous Europa is covered in says Mark Fox-Powell at the Open beneath the surface. It also has a
research suggested that parts of a thick shell of ice, but University in the UK. “If there is dust analyser that could detect
the icy shell might also be liquid, life might lurk below life in the subsurface ocean, and it material from one of these
in pockets of water 10 kilometres pockets – perhaps even microbial
or so wide that sit much closer life itself – if it were to pass
to the surface, perhaps only a through a plume linked to one.
kilometre down. Steve Vance at NASA’s Jet
Chase Chivers at the Georgia Propulsion Laboratory in
Institute of Technology in Atlanta California says having evidence of
and his colleagues have modelled liquid water so close to the surface
these pockets in greater detail, would be “really intriguing”. If
finding that while they might be these pockets do exist, they would
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SETI INSTITUTE
Animal behaviour
Female mice that sharing a nest and parenting duties. 85 per cent of the couples had a 55 days after the first meeting.
But if the partner dies or disappears, litter of pups – a similar success rate When it was a bereaved female
lose a partner are the bereaved mouse often finds a to that the researchers reported in a mouse being offered a virgin
wary of a new one new life partner and reproduces. connected experiment involving partner, though, pups were born
Amber Valentino at Saint Joseph’s 525 virgin-virgin mouse couples. on average 65 days after the
FEMALE mice that mate for life University in Pennsylvania and her However, the pups typically adult mice first met (Behavioural
seem to take longer to get over colleagues found that this process arrived sooner when it was the male Processes, doi.org/gcgm).
the loss of their partner than male happens more quickly if the getting a new partner. Bereaved The team thinks females wait
mice. The females are slower to bereaved mouse is male. The males entered a sexual relationship longer than males because their
begin a sexual relationship with a researchers examined the birth with a virgin female just as fast reproductive investment is greater,
new partner – perhaps because life records of 59 California mouse as they did with their first partner, through pregnancy and nursing.
experience has taught them that a couples in their labs in which and pups were born on average “We suspect their decision to
new male might not be able to stick one was a virgin and the other had go ahead and have pups with
around and help care for pups. lost a partner within the preceding “Females may wait longer another male takes longer based
California mice (Peromyscus 24 hours, usually because of than males to take a new on the previous experiences they
californicus) form lifelong death from natural causes. partner because their have faced,” says Valentino. ❚
relationships with a partner, The team found that roughly investment is greater” Christa Lesté-Lasserre
“PLATYPUS and fish are all their assigned sites. The samples
shedding DNA into the water – it will eventually be tested in the lab
can be skin cells, hair cells, scales,” with a platypus-specific probe,
says ecologist Josh Griffiths. which binds to any platypus
“A lot of it is actually urine and mitochondrial DNA present.
faeces – which, next time you’re Two samples of eDNA can detect
swimming in the river, is probably the presence of a platypus with
not a great picture.” an accuracy of 97 per cent, says
MOORABOOL CATCHMENT LANDCARE GROUP
There are a few chuckles from Griffiths. The testing process seems
the dozen or so members of the simple – essentially just water
Moorabool Catchment Landcare collection – but it has changed the
Group, who have joined Griffiths way in which platypus populations
at a park in Ballan, a town in are monitored, he says.
Victoria, Australia, north-west Platypuses have home ranges
of Melbourne. of 1 to 2 kilometres and tend to
Griffiths works for EnviroDNA, be solitary animals, meaning
a company that detects DNA from that population surveys have
environmental samples in order historically been hard to carry out.
to monitor animal populations. Volunteers learn how South Australia. Major threats Because of their low density,
In partnership with Odonata, a to take environmental include vegetation clearing and Griffiths believes that mapping
biodiversity non-profit, the team DNA samples urbanisation. “Because they’re platypus whereabouts is a more
is hoping to map the whereabouts dependent on aquatic ecosystems,
of platypuses in Victorian
waterways. Group members
have volunteered their Saturday
and partly to avoid contaminating
the water with anything that may
be on our boots, like dog faeces.
essentially every time we modify
our rivers, that’s going to have an
impact,” says Griffiths.
200,000
Area of platypus habitat lost in the
morning to join the search. Environmental DNA (eDNA) Farley Connelly, who also works last 30 years, in square kilometres
Expecting dreary weather, moves with the flow of water, at EnviroDNA, demonstrates how
everyone is dressed accordingly – travelling between 100 metres and to take samples, drawing up creek practical measure of population
rain jackets and wellies abound – 1 kilometre, says Griffiths. If any water through a large syringe and health than quantifying numbers
but it turns out to be a brilliant sample tests positive, it means pushing it through a fine filter in of animals at individual locations.
autumn morning. In the trees there are platypuses upstream. a thin spurt. Gradually, the filter In the past, he has done overnight
surrounding us, crows caw as Logging their locations is browns with collected matter. trapping surveys, which involves
Griffiths explains the programme increasingly important. The group scatters, driving off a laborious process of setting and
for the day and gives a short safety Platypuses are found on the to take two samples at each of checking nets every few hours for
briefing. “Look out for snakes and eastern mainland of Australia the nocturnal creatures. “They’re
stings – so typical outdoor issues,” and in Tasmania. The animal is Platypuses are nocturnal not easy to spot,” says Griffiths,
he says, and because we are all classified by the International and hard to spot, but DNA which somewhat alleviates my
Australian, nobody bats an eyelid. Union for Conservation of Nature sampling can track them disappointment at not managing
Our job today is to take samples as a near-threatened species, and to see one today.
from the Moorabool river, which populations have declined in The team is planning to launch
is flowing at around 10 per cent recent decades. a Victoria-wide citizen science
of its usual volume. There are 18 Research from the University mapping project later in the
sampling sites. People are assigned of New South Wales concluded in year, sampling during platypus
three or four sites each and given November that platypus habitat breeding season between August
printed satellite maps with marked has shrunk by 200,000 square and October.
locations, as well as testing kits in kilometres in the past 30 years – The hope is that by identifying
bright blue fabric lunch boxes. an area roughly the size of England waterways that platypuses
Though most of us are wearing and Scotland combined. historically inhabited but are
waterproof shoes, we are told not In January, the government now scarce in, the team may be
to get into the water if possible. of the state of Victoria listed the able to develop programmes to
This is partly to avoid disturbing animal as a threatened species increase populations, such as
sediment in the water, which can for the first time. The platypus boosting water flows during
clog up the fine sampling filter, is also officially endangered in dry summer months. ❚
SIGNS of Parkinson’s disease another early sign of in the gut in others, and then this WHALE sharks can suspend
could be detected in the nose Parkinson’s, a sleep disorder spreads to the brain, says Poewe. themselves in an upright position
years before people develop where people start acting out Alternatively, synucleins could despite having a body density that
more obvious symptoms their dreams, which is caused start misfolding in multiple is greater than that of seawater.
of the condition. by the loss of the usual brain sites in the nervous system. A study of captive whale sharks
The finding could lead to the mechanism that keeps us suggests this may be due to air
development of a nasal swab motionless during sleep. The they take in as they feed.
test for the disorder, similar researchers took samples of Prevent misfolding
to ones used for coronavirus the cells at the top of people’s Several medicines aimed at When sucking
testing, and may shed light on nasal cavities with a swab. stopping misfolded synucleins in their food,
its causes, says Werner Poewe They found that 44 per cent from spreading to other nerve whale sharks
at the Medical University of people with the sleep disorder cells are in development. If they also take in air
SIMON PIERCE/ALAMY
of Innsbruck in Austria. had misfolded synucleins in prove effective, a nasal swab
Parkinson’s disease is a their noses. This compared with would be an easier test than
condition involving tremors 46 per cent in another group the current way of checking for
and difficulties in moving that of 41 people with confirmed faulty synucleins, which is to
usually starts in later life. It is Parkinson’s disease and 10 per take a sample of cerebrospinal
caused by the death of brain cent of 59 people of a similar age fluid from the spine, says Scientists have previously
cells that make a signalling who didn’t have the condition Poewe. “This is the least invasive observed whale sharks (Rhincodon
(Brain, doi.org/gjtd99). obtainable tissue to test,” he says. typus) feeding vertically in the wild.
44%
of people with an early sign
Those who tested positive
through the swab but who
hadn’t been diagnosed with
“Early diagnosis is going
to be important in the future
when we have better drugs,”
They use slow fin movements to
stay in place, but occasionally remain
still without sinking or tipping to the
of Parkinson’s had misfolded Parkinson’s disease could also says Alfonso De Simone at side, says Taketeru Tomita at the
proteins in their nose be in the early stages of the Imperial College London. Okinawa Churashima Foundation
condition, says Poewe. “The later you get diagnosed, Research Center in Japan.
molecule called dopamine. People with the sleep disorder the more damage you will Tomita’s team found that
These cells die because of who tested positive also had have to your neurons.” whale sharks in an aquarium didn’t
the build-up of a faulty more severe loss of smell, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, have to move all the time to stay
version of a protein called suggesting that problems with a much rarer brain disorder upright. Fascinated, the team
alpha-synuclein. When some faulty synucleins are indeed that is also caused by protein realised that the animals would
synucleins become wrongly the cause of this symptom. misfolding, can already be suck in air from the surface while
folded, this spreads to others, One idea is that synucleins diagnosed by collecting consuming prey. When they stopped
like a row of dominoes toppling. start becoming wrongly folded nerve cells from the top taking in air, they would sink.
In the past few years, there in the nose in some people and of the nasal cavity. ❚ The group estimated the body
has been growing evidence that volume, mass and density of two
synucleins can sometimes start sharks, then equipped one with
becoming misfolded in the gut underwater ultrasound equipment.
and this spreads up to the brain This detected air in the shark’s gill
through long nerve fibres. But cavities when it was feeding
a nasal origin has also been vertically, but not at other times.
suspected because many people Using this data, the group created
with Parkinson’s disease have a mathematical model to determine
MYA C. SCHIESS, ROGER BICK, UT MEDICAL SCHOOL/SPL
a reduced sense of smell, which how much air the whale shark
often begins years before their would need to stay vertically afloat
movement problems. and immobile. In theory, about
Poewe’s team looked for 0.2 cubic metres of air would
misfolded synucleins in the provide enough buoyancy for each
noses of 63 people who had of the study sharks, says Tomita
(Zoology, doi.org/gcdf). Considering
Misfolded synuclein the size of the sharks’ mouths, the
(red) degrades animals could easily suck in that
neurons (blue) much air each time they feed. ❚
WE MAY have already seen and his colleagues have done a says Vitale. “I got surprised.” University of Western Ontario
black holes from the dawn of the statistical analysis of data from However, because this result in Canada. “But such a change
universe, known as primordial LIGO and Virgo that was informed relies on theoretical models, it is important.” It could lead
black holes. The Laser by data from three leading models isn’t proof that primordial black astrophysicists and cosmologists
Interferometer Gravitational- for the formation of astrophysical holes exist. Those models are the to build more sophisticated
Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the black holes, as well as a model of best we have right now, but they models for black hole formation,
US and the Virgo observatory primordial black hole formation. aren’t guaranteed to be correct. both for astrophysical and
in Italy have detected 47 pairs Their analysis concluded that “The result is not definitive: primordial black holes, she says.
of black holes slamming into the observatories have collected so it is not a ‘hard proof’, it is more If some of these black holes are
one another, and a statistical study much gravitational wave data that of a change in our expectations primordial, they could be a crucial
suggests that nearly one-third all of the formation models are in light of the new data,” says window into our early universe
of them may be primordial. likely to be correct. This includes Francesca Vidotto at the and may even make up part of
Black holes are thought to form the idea that some observations the mysterious dark matter that
via several mechanisms. The main are from primordial black holes One of LIGO’s gravitational holds galaxies together. But
way is by a huge star collapsing in (arxiv.org/abs/2105.03349). wave observatories is either way, this result is a hint
on itself, forming what is called “Typically in this kind of in Livingston, Louisiana that our understanding of black
an astrophysical black hole. Some analysis, you’re punished holes is incomplete. “Even if these
black holes are too large to have because of Occam’s razor for are only astrophysical black holes,
formed that way, so they probably making things more complex there’s clearly something
come from the mergers of smaller and adding more models,” says involved in their formation
black holes. And primordial black Nelson Christensen at the Nice beyond what has been assumed
holes may have formed in the Observatory in France. “So the fact so far,” says Jane MacGibbon at
early universe from dense clouds that they added primordial black the University of North Florida.
of plasma, but as yet we have no holes and that had the highest The next step is to build
direct evidence for their existence. probability is interesting.” better models and get more
“When we get a black hole The analysis suggests that data from LIGO and Virgo. The
observation from LIGO, it does not about 27 per cent of the LIGO observatories, along with the
come with a label that tells us how and Virgo black holes could be Kamioka Gravitational Wave
CALTECH/MIT/LIGO LAB
it was formed, it just comes with primordial. “When I started this, Detector in Japan, are expected
a mass and a spin,” says Salvatore I was expecting we would not find to turn on again in 2022. “We
Vitale at the Massachusetts any significant level of support need more [data], and we will
Institute of Technology. Vitale for primordial black holes,” get more,” says Christensen. ❚
Internet culture
Emoji meanings non-English tweets filtered out. The four emojis that changed findings have limitations. She says
They analysed them with models meaning most over the study period this doesn’t generalise beyond
may morph as that recognise the semantics of how were fingers pointing left, right and Twitter, and says social media
time goes by words are used based on others down, and a fist bump. For example, and linguistic experts could help
around them. This allowed them to the fist bump changed from parse the data in more detail.
THE meaning of emojis can change attribute meanings to emojis and signifying a willingness to fight to “If you map to closest words,
depending on the context in which note changes to those meanings. expressing support for movements the pairings may remain matched,
they are used and when they have “We found patterns we would such as Black Lives Matter but language use online is also
been posted, according to the first also find in words,” says Robertson. (arxiv.org/abs/2105.00846). flexible and evolving,” she says. For
study of their use over time. Just as words change meaning Effie Le Moignan at Newcastle example, “tea” has evolved to mean
Alexander Robertson at the through usage, so do emojis. “You University, UK, says the work is a gossip in online vernacular. Seeing
University of Edinburgh, UK, and his have seasonality in emojis,” he says. valuable contribution, but that the a word next to an emoji “does not
colleagues tracked how emojis were For instance, the maple leaf emoji guarantee in the weird world of
used on Twitter between 2012 and was most used in exchanges about “Language use online the internet the meaning didn’t
2018. They checked 1.7 billion autumn during those months, while is flexible and evolving. alter over the time you collected
tweets to see if they contained an for the rest of the year it became a ‘Tea’ has changed to mean data”, she says. ❚
emoji, with duplicate content and substitute for mentions of cannabis. gossip in online vernacular” Chris Stokel-Walker
14.7
Manning at the Victoria University source – the burning of methane more of the powerful greenhouse
of Wellington, New Zealand. But locked up in fossil fuels – a gas. “What if subtle changes to
that isn’t happening in reality. pyrogenic one, such as burning temperature and precipitation are
Since the pre-industrial period, wood, or a biogenic one, meaning 2020 increase in methane increasing natural emissions of
methane has contributed about microbes in wetlands, rice paddies, levels in parts per billion methane?” says Dlugokencky.
“That would be consistent with the United Nations Environment Atmospheric methane levels are still climbing
the observed isotopic signals. Programme (UNEP) found that The concentration of methane in the atmosphere (solid black line) is continuing to
It would also complicate the a 45 per cent cut in methane stay above what all but the highest old emissions scenario projected (orange/red
challenge of reducing greenhouse emissions by 2030 would avoid lines show projections of older climate scenarios, blue lines show newer scenarios)
emissions to stabilise the climate.” nearly 0.3°C of warming by the Observations RCP2.6* RCP8.5** SSP 119* SSP 126*
Last year was one of the three 2040s. Another recent paper
used to help protect the lungs of is dark, the water is cold, food is
Life-saving oxygen premature babies, so are likely to Genes reveal secrets scarce and the pressure intense.
could be given anally be non-toxic when used in this of surviving the deep To find out how it survives,
novel way, says Takebe. researchers led by Xinhua Chen at
PIPING an oxygen-rich liquid The researchers anaesthetised ADAPTATIONS that help a snailfish Fujian Agriculture and Forestry
through the anus could be a four pigs and put them on a survive in the crushing depths University in Fuzhou, China,
lifesaver. A new treatment for ventilator at a lower breathing of the Pacific Ocean have been sequenced its genome. They
failing lungs that involves this has rate than normal, so their blood identified. It has extra genes for found that it has extra copies of
been successfully tested in pigs. oxygen levels fell. When they repairing its DNA and for making genes involved in DNA repair.
People with low blood oxygen gave two of the pigs enemas of a chemical that stabilises essential Some DNA repair genes also
levels may be treated in intensive the oxygenated fluid, replaced proteins in high pressure waters. contained mutations that would
care by being put on a ventilator, once an hour, their blood oxygen The species was found in 2017 alter the proteins they coded for –
which blows air into their lungs. levels rose significantly. The same in the Yap Trench in the western although it is unclear if or how
But this usually requires sedation happened when the fluid was Pacific at a depth of 6903 metres. this is helpful for life at depth.
and can injure delicate lung tissue. delivered by a tube surgically Tentatively called the Yap hadal It also had five copies of a gene
Takanori Takebe at the Tokyo inserted into the rectums of the snailfish, it was at depths where it crucial for the production of
Medical and Dental University other two pigs (Med, doi.org/gcgn). trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO),
wondered if people could absorb If the same happened in people, a chemical that stabilises proteins
oxygen through their intestines, it would be enough to provide and may protect them from
which some freshwater fish do. In a medical benefit, says Takebe. damage by the intense pressure.
mammals, the rectum has a thin He thinks this could be especially In line with this, the snailfish’s
membrane that allows certain useful in low-income countries muscle tissue had elevated levels
MU Y ET AL., 2021, PLOS GENETICS
compounds into the bloodstream. with few intensive care facilities. of TMAO compared with zebrafish
Takebe’s team tested the idea One problem is that gut that live in shallower waters.
on pigs by giving them enemas of function may be impaired in The Yap hadal snailfish has lost
perfluorocarbon, a fluid that can people sick enough to need such many olfactory receptor genes,
hold a lot of oxygen. Such fluids care, which can cause diarrhoea, possibly because its deep-sea diet
have been investigated as a way of says Stephen Brett at Imperial is very repetitive (PLoS Genetics,
breathing liquid, and are already College London. Clare Wilson doi.org/gcgh). Michael Marshall
and convert them into text. letters and words on a piece of The model the team created
The method works accurately at paper, the signals were fed to won’t translate to another person
90 characters per minute. a neural network. With the as the neural network is trained
That is more than twice the two arrays monitoring around only on data from one individual.
record for typing with head or eye- 200 neurons, there were enough Using this system, the man was
Big mammals hit the tracking systems, which are hard clues in the data for the neural able to type at 90 characters per
beach even earlier on users as they are all-consuming, network to build a reliable minute, near the average of people
says Jaimie Henderson at Stanford interpretation of brain signals. his age when using a smartphone,
An extensive set of University in California. Often a neural network is which is 115 characters (Nature,
fossilised footprints To solve this problem, he and trained with thousands of pieces doi.org/gjz4x9). Matthew Sparkes
shows that large mammals
were gathering by the Physics Climate change
sea 9 million years earlier
than we thought. Some of
the 58-million-year-old Global warming is
tracks were made by the damaging cave art
now extinct hippo-like
Coryphodon, depicted DEGRADATION of prehistoric rock
above (Scientific Reports, art in Indonesia may be picking
PHOTO RESEARCHERS/SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES/ALAMY
O N L I N E C O U R S E S TO E N L I G H T E N ,
E N T E R TA I N A N D I N S P I R E
A NEW COURSE
YOUR IMMUNE
/ Expert led
video tutorials
Dan Hooper is a senior scientist and the head Penny Lewis is a sleep scientist and professor
of the theoretical astrophysics group at the Fermi of psychology at Cardiff University. She has coined
National Accelerator Laboratory, as well as a the term sleep engineering to capture the spirit of
professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the her lab’s work. She explores ingenious ways to
University of Chicago. His research focuses on the enhance memory, disarm negative emotions, and
interface between particle physics and cosmology, combat cognitive decline through ageing during
and he is especially interested in questions about sleep. Her book, The Secret World of Sleep explores
dark matter and the early universe. the latest research into the night time brain to
ĔĦ
Fiona Panther is a research associate at The Anil Seth is professor of cognitive and
University of Western Australia in Perth. She is a computational neuroscience at the University
physicist and mathematician with an interest in of Sussex. His research seeks to understand the
astronomy and software development. Her expertise biological basis of consciousness by bringing
is primarily in microphysical astronomy: how processes together research across neuroscience,
that occur on the atomic and subatomic scale can mathematics, computer science, psychology,
ĕ philosophy and psychiatry.
cosmological scales.
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Comment
Machine churning
Attempts to use artificial intelligence to diagnose covid-19
have so far been unsuccessful, says Michael Roberts
I
S THERE no problem artificial Though authors may have
intelligence can’t tackle? been motivated by the desire to
Methods such as deep learning develop models that could help
are finding uses in everything people, in their haste, many of
from algorithms that recommend the publications didn’t take
what you should purchase next into account how, or whether,
to ones that predict someone’s these models could pass
voting habits. The result is that regulation requirements to
AI has developed a somewhat be used in practice.
mystical reputation as a tool that The papers also suffer from
can digest many different types of publication bias towards positive
data and accurately predict many results. For example, imagine a
different outcomes, an ability theoretical research group that
that could be of particular use for carefully develops a machine-
solving previously impenetrable learning model to predict covid-19
problems within healthcare. from a chest X-ray and it finds
However, AI is no panacea. that this doesn’t outperform
Too often, it is turned to too standard tests for the illness.
quickly and in an impulsive This finding isn’t of interest to
way, resulting in claims that it many journals and is hard to
works when it doesn’t. This has communicate. It is far easier to
become increasingly apparent develop a model with poor rigour
during the covid-19 pandemic, that gives excellent performance
as many AI researchers try their and publish this.
hand at healthcare – without While machine learning has
much success. great promise to find solutions
It is no wonder many people and to accurately predict how The papers themselves often for many healthcare problems,
think healthcare is a promising patients will fare. didn’t include enough detail it must be done just as carefully
area for AI as hospitals generate My colleagues and I looked to reproduce their results. as when we develop other tools
lots of data, which deep learning at every such paper that was Another issue was that many of in healthcare.
relies on. The partnership has published between 1 January 2020 the papers introduced significant If we take as much care in
already borne fruit, with AI and 3 October 2020 and found that biases with the data collection developing machine-learning
systems able to help identify none of them produced tools that method, the development of models as we do with clinical
cancer earlier and better predict would be good enough to use in a the machine-learning system trials, there is no reason why these
which treatments people will clinical setting (Nature Machine or the analysis of the results. For algorithms won’t become part of
respond to. Intelligence, doi.org/gjkjvw). example, a significant proportion routine clinical use and help us all
In the initial stages of the Something has gone seriously of systems designed to diagnose push towards the ideal of more
pandemic, there was a deluge of wrong when more than 300 covid-19 from chest X-rays were personalised treatment pathways.
publications attempting to do the papers are published that have trained on adults with covid-19 But there is no rushing that. ❚
same for covid-19. In particular, no practical benefit. and children without it, so their
MICHELLE D’URBANO
there are hundreds of papers Our review found that there algorithms were more likely to be Michael Roberts is part
claiming that machine-learning were often issues at every stage detecting whether an X-ray came of the Cambridge Image
techniques can use chest scans of the development of the tools from an adult or a child than if that Analysis group at the
to quickly diagnose covid-19 mentioned in the literature. person had covid-19. University of Cambridge
I
N OUR world of constant How much is a 15 per cent constitute a significant
information bombardment, surplus from 100 grams of 300-calorie saving per day.
there are so many conflicting celery? A ridiculously tiny This isn’t just the findings
claims about food out there that amount: just 2 whole calories. of a single study either. One
it can often be hard to sift fact However, it is still technically experiment at the University
from fiction. Sometimes you a surplus. Case closed, right? of Pennsylvania found that eating
hear an idea being proclaimed Well, here’s the thing: in a single apple before lunch could
as incontrovertible truth almost reality, humans don’t live off slash the total calories people ate
as often as you hear the exact celery alone. We don’t even tend in a meal by 15 per cent. That is
James Wong is a botanist same one being resoundingly to eat it on its own, but as part of an impressive reduction of an
and science writer, with a debunked by scientists. meals containing all sorts of other average of 187 calories, more than
particular interest in food Yet when it comes to a topic ingredients. We also know that is found in a can of soft drink.
crops, conservation and the as complex as diet, could this foods with a low calorie density, It is fair to say that both of
environment. Trained at the often be because both claims particularly those that contain these trials were short term and
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he have some merit depending on loads of water and fibre, can included only a limited number
shares his tiny London flat with the context? I think looking at one measurably increase satiety. of participants, but similar results
more than 500 houseplants. long-enduring dieting belief – that So, in the context of wider diet, have been echoed by a number
You can follow him on Twitter you burn more calories digesting could foods like celery fill us up of other studies investigating
and Instagram @botanygeek celery than it contains – is a useful faster, resulting in a reduction foods with low-calorie densities,
way of answering this question. like vegetable soup and pears,
This is a piece of received “Humans tend to suggesting a consistent pattern.
wisdom that I have been hearing eat a similar weight This points to a curious
since I was a kid. Indeed, it is phenomenon surrounding
James’s week of food each day,
intuitively plausible given the appetite regulation and our
What I’m reading extremely small number of
irrespective of the eating behaviour. Humans tend
This isn’t exactly reading, calories that celery contains and number of calories to eat a similar weight of food
but I am currently how much chewing is involved it contains” each day, irrespective of the
hooked on the podcast to crack open its fibre-lined cells number of calories it contains.
A History of the World and access their contents. in our consumption of more To me, this is a fascinating quirk
in 100 Objects. So I was fascinated to learn calorie-dense food, cutting of how our bodies regulate our
that the idea that celery was a overall calorie intake? Well, appetite, one that may offer key
What I’m watching “negative-calorie” food had looking at the evidence so far, insights into weight management.
Last Stand For Our been scientifically investigated the answer seems to be: probably. In the concluding words of
Forests – Fairy Creek, by a team at Oxford Brookes According to a study published one such study by researchers
a short film about University in the UK back in in the Journal of the Academy at Pennsylvania State University:
the felling of one of 2012. The researchers served of Nutrition and Dietetics, for “This approach may facilitate
the last old-growth a group of women a typical example, serving up a large starter weight loss because it emphasizes
temperate rainforests 100-gram portion of the fresh salad to a group of volunteers saw positive messages rather than
on Vancouver Island stems, then closely measured them eat significantly smaller negative, restrictive messages.”
in Canada. their calorie expenditure at portions when presented with So, while even extremely
specific intervals using an a massive, all-you-can-eat buffet low-calorie, high-fibre foods
What I’m working on ingenious “ventilated hood” of pasta. How much smaller? Well, like celery don’t contain magical
I am just about to do system that calculated their there was as much as a 12 per cent negative calories when tested in
an interview on the bodies’ energy usage by measuring reduction in calories consumed, isolation, when viewed in the
ecology of hedgerows the carbon dioxide they exhaled. even when those contained in more accurate, real-world context
for BBC Radio 4. Crunching the numbers, the salad were factored in. of how we actually eat, it seems
the team found that although On average, this clocked in that this could indeed be a
digesting, assimilating and a saving of up to 100 calories reasonable label. So could
storing the energy from the veg in a single meal. Although the difference between fact
did, on average, burn more than extrapolating too much from and fiction in simple scientific
This column appears 85 per cent of the calories that the limited data is fraught with measures sometimes just be
monthly. Up next week: the celery contained, there was difficulty, if this sort of calorie the frame of reference used
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein indeed a small surplus. cut could be replicated, it would in the definition? I think so. ❚
Hosted by New Scientist’s Rowan Hooper, new episodes are out each Friday.
Follow us on Twitter @newscientistpod
Views Aperture
Gege Li
GENE KRITSKY
boredom and displacement If that was the case, it might of silver birches outside
Editor’s pick activity leading to increased also indicate that these were might be conscious and able to
“grazing” from the pantry is the first people to develop social communicate with each other; he
Nature isn’t less natural
more likely to be the cause. hierarchies and a warrior caste, wouldn’t have a bit of it because,
just because we are in it and the first to have the time and he told me, the bible said only
8 May, p 24 means to develop arts and crafts. humans could possibly have these
Another way to improve
From Ralph Timms, It might also have allowed attributes. I never went back to
Nocton, Lincolnshire, UK your metacognition contagious diseases to evolve bible class. At 73, I feel vindicated
Claiming that there was once a 8 May, p 36 in more unsanitary conditions. after your interview with Suzanne
time when nature was in a perfect, From Tim Johnson, London, UK Simard on the ways in which trees
“pristine pre-industrial state”, as Reading Stephen Fleming’s communicate and cooperate.
Quantum theory equation
mentioned in Graham Lawton’s article on self-reflection,
column on ecocide, is a fallacy. I realised there is at least one is far from unacceptable
Letters, 10 April Extra historical notes on
A preference for one environment training exercise that might
or species over another is purely a improve metacognition – the From Peter Holness, Hertford, UK sweet, red watermelon
human judgement; evolution has ability to think about our own Regarding Brian Reffin Smith’s 24 April, p 22
no inclination for, say, an English thinking – that millions of letter reducing to absurdity the From Claire Taylor,
bluebell over a Spanish bluebell, people do every day: crosswords. equation cited by Carlo Rovelli in Nottingham, UK
or English farmland over the forests How well does your answer his take on quantum theory. The To add to James Wong’s thoughts
that were cleared to create it. fit the clue? Is it the right length? equation doesn’t deserve ridicule. about the colour of watermelons
The concept of pristine nature Does it match the existing letters? It is no more controversial than historically, there is more evidence
seems reliant on the idea that our We get quick feedback on the the theory it is part of. Physicists from the 14th century that the
species isn’t the result of natural correctness of our ideas, which used and accepted such “non- inside of the fruit was red then.
causes or evolution like every other Fleming suggests should give commuting” equations long Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta
organism on the planet, but a deus us “heightened metacognitive before Rovelli was born. travelled throughout Eurasia. He
ex machina that sits outside nature sensitivity”. I wonder whether loved his food and observed that
and interferes with it. The dams we regular crossworders do better Khwarazm, south of the Aral Sea,
The platypus’s glow
build are as “natural” as those that on metacognitive tests. produced a “wonderful melon” of
a beaver makes, and both can result may be an accident which “the rind is green, and the
in good and bad consequences. 8 May, p 41 flesh is red, of extreme sweetness
Underwater archaeology From Martin Pitt, Leeds, UK
All isn’t doom and gloom in a and firm texture” and which was
world influenced by humans, as is a wave well worth riding In your look at the platypus, sometimes dried in slices. This
ecologist Chris Thomas writes in 17 April, p 44 you write that its “pelt glows certainly sounds like watermelon,
Inheritors of the Earth. He says that From Peter Robbins, London, UK in UV light, which makes no which is still preserved in that way.
our influence is actually leading to You report rising interest in the sense for a nocturnal animal”.
an acceleration of new species. archaeology of seabeds that were It only makes no sense if you
Battle against malaria
once land. Another reason to think assume the fluorescence is the
coastal areas would be rich in function, not just a consequence was an inspiring story
Lockdown keeps the 1 May, p 44
possible finds is the idea that food of a complex chemical structure
pantry close to hand supplies were effectively static in for some other purpose, perhaps From Martin Sigrist,
8 May, p 10 these areas. Unlike forests or open waterproofing. It is like supposing Newbury, Berkshire, UK
From Sam Edge, plains, where hunter-gatherers that the only purpose of Thank you for your article about
Ringwood, Hampshire , UK would have had to be constantly haemoglobin is to make blood red. the fight to eradicate malaria.
You report a study claiming that following game, seafood can be Quite apart from reporting the
decreased physical activity during found on beaches and under rocks success in tackling that terrible
My views on trees were
the first covid-19 lockdown in at any time of the year. disease, you included a statistic
England may lead to increased Although this would mean that justified after six decades that at any time would be a source
obesity. But I have recently read the early humans living by the sea, 1 May, p 39 of hope, and especially now.
several convincing articles in New maybe in fairly large numbers, From Aroha Mahoney, Anuradha Gupta’s quote
Scientist showing evidence that could lead sedentary lives, it might Te Awamutu, New Zealand saying that, compared with
there is little correlation between also mean that they had to be Nearly 60 years ago, I had an two decades ago, we now save
exercise and weight change when called upon to defend their argument with the curate taking 8.5 million children per year
measuring over periods longer coastal “asset” from other groups. our bible class. I thought the grove from dying is quite simply the
than a month or two. best statistic I can recall reading.
If obesity is the phenomenon The fact that this has happened in
of interest, the researchers would Want to get in touch? lower-income countries is all the
do better collecting data on Send letters to letters@newscientist.com; more inspiring. Sadly, I suspect
weight change from their subjects. see terms at newscientist.com/letters that the astonishing success in
I wouldn’t be surprised to find Letters sent to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, these nations has gone under
an increase, but I suspect that London WC2E 9ES will be delayed the radar for many people. ❚
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T-B: CBBC DON’T BLAME ME, BLAME MY BRAIN; ALLEN LANE; NETFLIX
Big neuroscience, big egos In Silico doesn’t look slick, but it is a sharply scripted
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intricacies of the human brain – and in just 10 years, says Simon Ings
A virtual model of
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seen in In Silico
Mind-altering moves
The way you move your body can change the way you
think and feel, says Caroline Williams. Here are six
ways to shift your brain into a new gear
F
-ILTER-FEEDERS aside, humans are the
only creatures that can get away with
sitting around all day. As a species, we
have been remarkably successful at devising
ways to feed, entertain ourselves and even
find mates, all while barely lifting a finger.
True, this is a sign of just how clever and
adaptable we are. But there is a huge cost to
our sedentary ways, not only to our bodies,
but also our minds. Falling IQs and the rise
in mental health conditions have both been
linked to our lack of physical movement.
But the connection between movement
and the brain goes deeper than you might
think. A revolutionary new understanding
of the mind-body connection is revealing
how our thoughts and emotions don’t
just happen inside our heads, and that the
way we move has a profound influence
on how our minds operate. This opens up
the possibility of using our bodies as tools
to change the way we think and feel.
Evidence is starting to stack up that
this is indeed the case, and it isn’t all about
doing more exercise. In my new book,
Move! The new science of body over mind,
I explore emerging research in evolutionary
biology, physiology, neuroscience and cell
biology to find out which body movements
affect the mind and why.
Whatever it is that you want from your
mind – more creativity, improved resilience
or higher self-esteem – the evidence shows
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‘This is a
terrifying, nail-biting,
exciting time
to be alive’
If humanity has any hope of tackling
climate change, it needs to take action
in this decade, sustainability researcher
Kimberly Nicholas tells Richard Webb –
and that challenges every aspect
of how society works
several years ago. I was really struck by what The book suggests you already feel a sense climate change: that people who have done
a momentous time we live in. We are the of grief over the extent of the climate crisis. the least to cause it suffer the most, and for
stewards of the very last traces of humanity’s I’ve been studying climate change since 1997. the injustice across generations. And there >
is this really well-documented misinformation who need to be changing our behaviour, not to Paris for 15 hours. We actually ended up
campaign over decades from the fossil fuel the majority who never fly, including half of liking each other a lot better at the end of it.
industry. I genuinely do not know how oil people in the US and UK.
executives sleep at night knowing the harm Besides travel, there are other areas where
that their products are causing. That is, Some of my colleagues and friends have been we need to prioritise reducing emissions, for
I think, justifiable and righteous anger. saying they can’t wait to fly away on a short example in agriculture and food production.
I think scientists can be human beings with break after the pandemic. How do you change You have a problematic legacy there.
emotions and also do rigorous and fair science. an ingrained mindset of privilege? Globally, almost a quarter of greenhouse gas
As a sustainability scientist, I must deliver Around flying, it’s starting to change. I lead a emissions come from agriculture, and a
goals that society has set, for example the research project called The Takeoff of Staying disproportionately large share of that comes
Paris climate change agreement and the UN on the Ground, which is looking at the social from animal agriculture. My grandfather
Sustainable Development Goals. The movement in Sweden of people giving up George helped invent an industrial-style
governments and the people of the world flying for the sake of the climate. Here, it’s process for making bigger turkeys where you
have said clearly that we want to live in a world reaching very close to a social tipping point basically feed them highly concentrated corn,
where everyone’s needs are met and well-being where enough of the country’s population soy and wheat, and turn food and clean air into
is prioritised, but where we also have thriving is joining – around 25 per cent – to precipitate greenhouse gases and an excess of nutrients in
land and oceans and a stable climate. a wider change in norms. That movement the form of animal poop.
Science tells us equally clearly that we is spreading to other countries, too. A lot of research shows that both for health
don’t live in that world today, and we’re not and for climate reasons, we need to shift to a
heading for it with the decisions we’re making. You write about trying to find love on dating more plant-based diet. And livestock need to
It’s really critical that scientists who have this app Tinder as someone with deeply ingrained be integrated into a wider system – for example
information speak up, point out this gap and climate values. How did you do that without cows grazing on grasslands that benefit
highlight how we can do better and deliver becoming an insufferable bore and turn-off? from grazing for biodiversity or cultural
what society has said we want. Thank you for assuming that I’m not an reasons – rather than feeding animals food
insufferable, boring turn-off! It’s not always that could be going to people.
You say that working to undo climate change easy, and there were definitely some awkward
can be “a crucible to create meaning in our first dates where it was clear that my climate In general, it is cheap to buy things that are
lives”. What do you mean by that? priorities and values did not mesh with those dangerous to the planet, like a plane ticket or
We find things meaningful that are bigger than of the people I was seeing. When I met my industrial meat, and comparatively expensive
ourselves, that connect us with others, that are husband, on our fourth date we went by train to buy sustainably produced stuff. How do we
about giving more than taking, that make us change that?
part of a story and where our actions are in line One fundamental challenge is realising we
with our values. Climate action really gives us need a stable climate to have a functioning
the opportunity to put all those things in place. economy. An economy is meant to deliver
There is no more important task than things that improve human lives. We can’t
stabilising the climate and ensuring a good
future for all of us alive today and every human
“Nobody knows measure that in terms of just GDP; we need to
look at indicators like education and
who will ever live. It’s an opportunity for healthcare and social equality and democracy.
everyone, way beyond just scientists. if we can pull this Subsidy reform is another big part of it.
Some of my own work recently has been
You have given up flying to scientific
conferences. Isn’t the flexibility that
off. But what is looking at the [EU] Common Agricultural
Policy, showing how some subsidies increase
makes such decisions possible a luxury
that most people can’t afford?
humanly possible income inequality and pay big polluters rather
than the lowest-income farmers. Meanwhile,
Definitely. But the people who really need to
make lifestyle changes are the people who have
is what humans fossil fuel subsidies and the cost of the damage
they cause amount to more than 6 per cent of
that luxury, like me: it’s the 10 per cent of the
global population who make above about make possible” the global economy. Recalculating the value of
things so that the market price reflects their
$38,000 per year. Emissions are proportional true costs is a big step to an economy that
to income, and we are the real high emitters meets our needs in a sustainable way.
JON SLADE
Freaky N
O SCHOOL chemistry textbook
is complete without a detailed
enumeration of the basic types of
chemical bond: covalent, ionic and metallic.
And for good reason, because bonds are the
bonding
glue that binds chemistry together. “We talk
about chemical bonding because we want to
understand and predict materials’ properties,”
says Matthias Wuttig, a materials physicist
at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
That makes it all the more shocking
that, a century and a half after the idea of
Chemists are finding new and surprising ways chemical bonds was first floated, we are still
a long way from a complete understanding
that atoms can stick together – some of which of how atoms’ outermost electrons, the
mediators of chemical bonds, form these links.
could generate novel materials, finds Philip Ball Recent discoveries show that there are more
types of bond than we thought, and that some
of the familiar ones might not be quite as we
had imagined. There are even bonds that,
completely against chemical orthodoxy,
involve no electrons at all.
We are still getting to grips with this new
panoply of bonding varieties. Even so, it is
Conventionally, covalent and metallic bonding cells, because they absorb sunlight to mobilise
are seen as mutually exclusive. Atoms can electrons so that it can be harvested as
share electrons in a localised way to bind them electrical energy.
tightly together, as in a covalent bond, or have Incipient metals have some curious relatives
free electrons floating about in a soupy glue, called “strange metals”. These are more
as with metallic bonds. But they can’t do both. metallic than incipient metals, while still not
It might not be that simple. In 2019, Wuttig quite going the whole hog. They are basically
and his colleagues argued that a whole class of metallic, but with an electrical resistance that
materials lie in a no man’s land between these increases in direct proportion to temperature,
traditional bonding types. They typically rather than with the square of the temperature
combine elements from the borderlands of like a conventional metal. New kinds of
metals and non-metals – “metalloids” such as superconductor, which have zero electrical
tellurium and germanium – and elements at resistance, might appear in these border
the far right-hand edge of the metallic region regions between covalent and metallic bonds
of the periodic table, like lead and tin. too, along with a host of other “odd metals”,
It is as though these elements can’t decide such as “bad metals” and “chiral metals”.
whether their unions should be covalent or
2
metallic – and do something different from
both. One way to look at it, says Wuttig, is that
each bond is formed from fewer than two
electrons. Yet like metallic bonds, these
“metavalent” bonds are collective affairs
that exist only in extended systems – in solid also a vital part of the glue that binds the
materials, not lone molecules. They have PHANTOM BONDS molecular chains of protein molecules into
unique properties distinct from covalent their complicated shapes, and which zips
or metallic materials: for example, whereas up the double helix of DNA.
covalent bonds vibrate like simple springs, Yet it is still not entirely clear what hydrogen
metavalent bonds wobble differently. Hydrogen bonds involve hydrogen atoms bonds are. As a simple model of hydrogen
Wuttig calls the resulting compounds already covalently bound to atoms such as bonding, bifluoride (HF2−) has been generally
incipient metals: a kind of “wannabe” oxygen, nitrogen or fluorine – elements that regarded as a covalently bonded hydrogen
metal. Their soft bonds give them low heat tend to hog electrons, leaving the hydrogen fluoride (HF) molecule H-bonded to a fluoride
conductivity (in contrast to normal metals), with a slight positive charge. The hydrogen ion. But closer inspection has begun to confuse
but they are nevertheless reasonable electrical is therefore attracted to negatively charged things. Andrei Tokmakoff at the University of
conductors. What’s more, collective vibrations regions of other molecules, or even parts of the Chicago and his colleagues have found that,
of the soft bonds have a strong influence on same molecule, where electrons congregate – as the bifluoride ion vibrates in water, the
how the electrons move through the material. specifically, to “lone pairs” of electrons that structure could vary between this picture and
This means that their electrical conductivity don’t take part in covalent bonding. one in which the hydrogen atom is shared
may be particularly sensitive to influences The extra stickiness caused by hydrogen equally with both fluorines “at the tipping
from their surroundings, such as heat, making bonds explains why water (H2O) holds point where hydrogen bonding ends and
some incipient metals useful as thermoelectric together as a liquid rather than a gas under chemical [covalent] bonding begins”.
materials that scavenge waste heat from places everyday conditions, and how water molecules Bonds generally aren’t rigid, but bend and
like car exhausts, turning it into electricity. link into a crystal lattice in ice. These bonds are stretch as well as vibrating. This suggests that
Thermoelectrics require almost contradictory
properties, combining metal-style electrical
conductivity with semiconducting behaviour
and low heat conductivity – a weird blend of
“It’s as if these elements can’t
properties that incipient metals with the right
combination of elements can offer. Incipient
decide whether their unions
metals might also be attractive for use in solar should be covalent or metallic”
46 | New Scientist | 22 May 2021
3
LOOPS AND LINKS
5
BOUND BY DISORDER
Ultimately, chemical bonding is about before that point. The ordering happens when, Glotzer, is a global state – it doesn’t have
atoms and electrons arranging themselves bizarrely, the crystal state has a higher entropy any meaning for just two atoms, say. But she
into lower energy states. The structure and than the liquid one. and her team have shown that it is possible
order that can result is, however, potentially For instance, Glotzer has engineered an to describe how their various entropically
undermined by the influence of entropy, a entropic crystal of particles that assemble bonded arrangements come together in
thermodynamic quantity that is generally into an orderly cage-like framework that terms of a hypothetical force between pairs
seen as promoting disorder and, according encapsulates other particles in the holes – an of particles that would bring them together
to the second law of thermodynamics, analogue of the chemically bonded materials in isolation in the same way as they come
is always on the increase. known as clathrates. Here, all the disorder is together under the entropic influence of their
“Normally, people assume that energy focused on the captured “guest” particles, many neighbours in her colloidal system.
and entropy are competing all the time,” which “move like crazy, rotating around”, “I would like to make colloidal robots,”
says chemical engineer Sharon Glotzer at she says, elevating the entropy so that the host Glotzer says, using the entropy to locally order
the University of Michigan. “We think energy framework is free to form an ordered structure. and disorder the components. The relative
wants to order things, and entropy wants to “If you stop the guests from spinning, the weakness of the entropic bonds here is an
disorder things.” However, entropy alone can whole thing falls apart,” says Glotzer. In fact, advantage for making structures readily
lead to a kind of order, and Glotzer has shown she says that she and her colleagues have yet reconfigurable to suit different circumstances
that this acts as a form of “entropic bonding”. to find a crystal structure formed by atoms or functions. She also imagines a “periodic
Chemists can carefully tune the properties or molecules bonding by covalent, ionic or table of shapes” showing which particle
of a suspension of microscopic plastic spheres metallic bonds that can’t also be formed from shapes you need for a given material
in a solvent so that the particles feel no entropic bonds of non-interacting particles. or structure to assemble entropically.
significant interaction forces at all. It has been But are these really “bonds”? Entropy, says Glotzer is convinced that future textbooks
known for decades that, above a threshold need to include something about entropic
density of particles in such a suspension, an bonds. It certainly seems Pauling’s original
orderly “colloidal crystal” will form. With no taxonomy is overdue an upgrade. ❚
interaction energy until the particles actually “Surprisingly,
touch and push back against each other, the
only driving force for the ordering is entropy.
entropy alone Philip Ball is a science writer.
It isn’t just a question of increased density
forcing the particles to pack like oranges at a
can lead to a His latest book is The Beauty of
Chemistry (MIT Press, 2021)
greengrocer’s stall. Entropic crystals form well kind of order”
48 | New Scientist | 22 May 2021
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The back pages
Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for Feedback Twisteddoodles
Try our crossword, Why is it easier to New Scientist Computer confusion for New Scientist
quick quiz and copy a picture than to A cartoonist’s take and Bristol fashion: Picturing the lighter
logic puzzle p53 draw from life? p54 on the world p55 the week in weird p56 side of life p56
Citizen science
DIKKYOESIN1/GETTY IMAGES
wherever you live. You will need to
What you need wake up early though: the Dawn
A smartphone with Chorus team recommends starting
the Dawn Chorus app half an hour before sunrise.
You can also try visiting Many birds are at their most
cetalingua.com and vocal around dawn, hidden from
zooniverse.org predators by the low light levels,
which also leave them unable to is becoming an important is looking for volunteers to label
search for their food. Low levels of conservation tool,” says Lisa Gill frog calls in recordings. You can
background noise and the stillness at the Biotopia Natural History take part via the Zooniverse online
of the air means sound carries Museum Bayern in Germany, platform for citizen science, and
around 20 times further. part of the team running the help researchers monitor frog
Each species starts singing at Dawn Chorus project. “Birds are populations in Australia.
a specific time relative to sunrise, also important bioindicators of Growing evidence suggests
so the sound of the bird choir habitat change,” she says. access to nature boosts our mental
changes as different species join But don’t worry if you aren’t health. Just listening to the sounds
in. The sound also varies between an early bird. Other projects need of birds, whales and frogs made
regions of the world, depending volunteers to listen to prerecorded me happier and more relaxed.
on the species present and the animal sounds. Whale Chat has “The main goal is to get humans
season. Other factors, such as recruited thousands of people to stop and listen,” says Gill. By
weather and background noise, to listen online to underwater appealing to the sense of hearing,
may also influence the chorus. recordings and help identify she says, the Dawn Chorus project
Your early morning recordings humpback whale vocalisations. aims to create a deep connection
will help researchers track bird Other projects give you the chance to nature and a strong awareness
species in different parts of the to do the same for dolphin and of how human activities interfere
Citizen science appears world and correlate this with manatee sounds. Researchers will with nature. ❚
every four weeks habitat changes in specific use the data to investigate how
areas, such as deforestation marine mammals communicate. These articles are
Next week or noise pollution. Visit cetalingua.com to join in. posted each week at
Science of cooking “Bioacoustic monitoring If you prefer frogs, FrogSong newscientist.com/maker
Answers on page 55
Puzzle
set by Andrew Jeffrey
Answers and
#114 Lara’s birthday
the next cryptic
crossword next week ”It’s amazing,” said Lara. “Today is the
29th of the month and I am 29. Tomorrow
is the 30th and it is my 30th birthday.
ACROSS DOWN
Imagine someone’s age matching the date
1 UK learning institute founded in 1969 (4,10) 2 Homo sapiens (6) two days running!”
9 Souped-up classic car (3-3) 3 Nostrils (5)
10 Volcanic glass (8) 4 Lowest point (5) “Not that amazing, is it?” asked Thomas,
11 Variola minor (8) 5 Noise of an engine (5) doubtfully. “Surely that will happen to
14 Fractions equivalent to 0.166666667 (6) 6 Antarctic bay (4,3) everyone at least once in their lifetime?”
17 Heart attack (7,6) 7 Pointer; alphabetical list of contents (5)
20 Shaped like half a globe (13) 8 Carbocyclic sugar found “It hasn’t happened to me,” said Francesca,
23 Drainage channel (6) in mammal tissues (8) “and it never will.”
25 Daimler micro-automobile (5,3) 12 Rubber outer parts of wheels (5)
28 Online avatar created by Jon Jacobs (8) 13 ___ elk, extinct deer (5) “Nor me,” said Martha, “and my birthday is
29 Quadrilaterals (6) 15 Kind of lymphocyte (1-4) just after Francesca’s.”
30 Process of removing harmful 16 Tropical hardwood tree (8)
substances (14) 17 Kohoutek or Hale-Bopp, perhaps (5) When are Francesca and Martha’s birthdays?
18 Optical compact disc (2-3)
19 Happen again (5) Answer next week
21 Apparent logical impossibility (7)
22 Igneous rock (6)
24 Social media message (5)
25 Raised edge of a continent or ice sheet (5)
26 Of gold (or Goldfinger) (5)
27 Freshwater fish (5)
Why do we offer
Drawing dilemma
cups of tea when
Why is it easier to copy a picture people are upset?
of an apple than to draw the
apple itself? Wouldn’t the image dimensional scene from
on my retina be the same streams of incomplete data from
whichever one I looked at? the optic nerve. So you have a
3D scene rendered in your brain.
Nina Dougall If you only use one eye, it uses
Malmsbury, Victoria, Australia micromovements to create 3D.
As an artist and art teacher, I am Reducing that to flat 2D is a real
always dumbfounded by the skill that takes hard work to
differences in how individuals accomplish.
perceive something. Within
a class of 20 students, there David Muir
2 1932
4 Seven
5 Proteolysis
Cryptic crossword
#57 Answers
ACROSS 1 Beaked, 4 Emesis,
9 Lumbago, 10 Limbo, 11 Ultra,
12 Bristle, 13 Splenectomy,
18 Cluster, 20 Slump, 22 Evade,
23 Spicily, 24 Eleven, 25 Agreed
Computer confusion Twisteddoodles for New Scientist What has the author of the
piece got against Switzerland,
Feedback is forever grateful for he wonders. The country is in one
the alertness and exactitude of the world’s higher regions so
of our readers, which keeps us is unlikely to be affected by sea
on our toes. And not just us, level rise any time soon. It is also
but our robotic associates too. famously mountainous – or
Peter Knight writes in to say “lumpy”, as Brian puts it – so the
that if you ask Amazon’s electronic water would flow down into the
assistant, Alexa: “What is the valleys. “Surely it won’t stay
mass of the neutrino?”, it answers, evenly spread out,” says Brian.
with confidence: “The mass “Water doesn’t work like that.”
of the neutrino is 95 kilograms.” Meanwhile, another reader,
“Seems a bit heavy,” says Peter. who wishes to remain nameless,
He enquires whether New is confused by various websites
Scientist readers have detected any claiming that blue whale farts are
similar electronic eccentricities. To big enough to contain a horse –
which we can only say: over to you. or, according to alternative
sources, a Volkswagen car. But an
Return of the mask in-depth investigation by fact-
checking website Snopes says this
The covid-19 pandemic has been may be fanciful because the size
a source of much controversy over of whale farts has never been
the past year. Many people who accurately measured.
think coronavirus is just a big It is even in doubt whether
hoax have heaped scorn on those whales have the ability to fart,
who wear face masks, despite says the site, because rather than
it being in accordance with storing it up, cetaceans generally
medical advice, not to mention, release their faeces and gas
in many places, the law. The poor Got a story for Feedback? continuously, “akin to a slow and
masks are pejoratively referred Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or steady leak of air from a tire”.
to as “muzzles” or “face nappies”, New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES A few observers have claimed
and so on. Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed to witness a whale fart, but the fact
But that may be about to change, that the creatures’ burps from their
according to Vice. While some may blowholes smell like farts only
scoff at there being any risk from become all too familiar with: the Florida Senate debated a legislative serves to, er… muddy the waters.
the coronavirus itself, the idea of dreaded face nappies. amendment that would ban any
vaccine “shedding” is now causing It is an unusual case of two such vaccine bans. Republican
Bristol fashion
concern in certain circles. Some wrongs – the belief that covid-19 Jeff Brandes of St Petersburg
people falsely believe that those vaccines are harmful and that they spoke in favour, pleading with Speaking of faecal matters,
who have had a covid-19 vaccine can spread to others through the his colleagues:“Let’s show a correction is needed. In a previous
can breathe out small particles of it. medium of breath – making a that the Senate is not insane.” column, Feedback drew attention
While shedding is a risk for some right: these coronavirus sceptics And the result was? The to the existence of the Bristol Stool
vaccines – such as a polio vaccine are finally wearing masks. amendment failed. Readers Chart (6 March), which classifies our
made from a live but weakened can draw their own conclusions. bowel movements from type 1
version of the poliovirus – none School’s out (severe constipation) to type 7
of the available covid-19 vaccines Meaningless measures (severe diarrhoea). We speculated
contain live virus, a prerequisite for Not all coronavirus sceptics follow that residents of the UK city may
any pathogen to replicate within this logic, sadly. The owner of Sun Many of you have been busy be unenthusiastic about their
the body. The vaccines currently City Silver and Gold Exchange, sending in obscure units of association with different
used in the UK and US, for instance, in Kelowna, Canada, has banned measurement you have seen textures of faeces, but Bristol
work by causing the person’s arm people from entering the store if elsewhere. Reader Brian Horton citizen Emily Cox has put us right.
muscle to manufacture the virus they have been vaccinated – or are was left scratching his head Cox says that, in her circle
spike protein. wearing face coverings. You just after some sad news about the at least, it is de rigeur to have a
Yet, it seems that not everyone can’t win with some people. pace of glacier melting on The poster of the eponymous faeces
is accepting this fact. Some of Similarly, at a Miami school, the Independent website. The global classification system in the smallest
those worried about vaccine headteacher has forbidden teaching volume of ice and snow lost each room in the house. As to how her
shedding are taking refuge in a staff from contact with pupils if year would be enough to put community feels about its name?
defence from airborne dangers they have had a covid-19 jab. Switzerland under 7.2 metres “Proud, very proud,” she says.
that the rest of the world has To their credit, politicians in the of water, said the article. Feedback regrets the error. ❚
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