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OF MUSIC IS IN YOUR GENESBRITISH LEATHER GOODS.
www.ettinger.co.ukThis week’s issue
On the
cover
ny
reef tact
52.Quantum colder
\sthe LHC about to reveal
‘adeeper layer of realy?
Vol262 No3488
Cover image: Kyle Ellingson
News
Coldstart
Eeatly humans reached Siberia
‘uch eater than we thougat
10 Clustered together
Single-colled creature could
‘explain how embryos evolved
12Partie or wave?
Strange dual dentty of
paces seenin action
Views
21.Comment
Davia Ropek on why we must,
rettnk our fear of cancer
22 The columnist
Hiackea lscouldhave anful
cffcts, ays Alex Wins
‘24 Aperture
Damage wroughton ants
waters byclmatechange
2s Culture
‘Why deep medtation could
help uscrack consciousness
‘iLetters
Bonobo agaession minor
compared withchimps
40 Sardines vs seeds
The bes fas to eat fora
heathy body and mind
26 Extremerecyeling
Howto end plastic waste
forgood
18 Coolcaves
‘wy ancient numans
Wwedin ava tubes
28 The search for pure
Coneclousness 21 Rethinking
‘ur fear of cancer 15 Amazaris
robots 9 Wy yourloveof music
Isinyourgenes
13 Chain reaction Heat ast year hindered growth of algae fo fish to eat
4o Features
“wild-caught
fish havea
better omega
balance than
farmed fish
of the same
species”
Features
82 Reality smasher
How theLargeHadton Colder
could urvave the meaning of
‘quantum mecnanics
26 Plastic fantastic
Thenew tecnologes enabling
endless pasticrecying
40 The omega balance
Perfecting the balance of omega
fattyacis inyourdietcan help
wth heathy body and mind
The back pages
‘44 Mathematies of tite
Spotting Pythagoras nthe wld
45 Puzzles
Tryourcrossword quick que
andlogicpuzle
6 Almost the last word
‘re four gs better than
‘wo forcimbinghils?
448 Feedback
CSitakesto the skes, plus
thinking inside the box
48 Twisteddoodles
for New Scientist
Picturing the lighter side fe
27 Aprllzong| New Sclentistson New Scientist
NS Live
Alneeds you
Heat arial inetigence expert
Verity Haring ascuss how
lessons trom tree recen'ech
revolutions canempowrer us
toshape he comersation
around the future of Al Tickets
renown salefor New Scots
Lune, which wllbe held on
12ard 13 October at London's
ExCeL Cente.
livenewscientist.com
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Fixthe planet
Eel this month, one ofthe fst
real-world talsbegan ofaform
of eoengineering called marine
‘oud brightening tisanattempt
tomake couds morereflactne,
sothat they bounce more ofthe
sun’senergy backinto space
Thiswweek, welookat whether
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Theyalso celebrate the ores
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thehuman tan andmeet a
‘musica who found us
both dabing and inspling tus,
the songsbirs ream about and
a suprisngyenormaus black
holeIncurcosmicbaciard
newsclentist.com/nspod
alNew Selntist| 27 Apil2004
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Ue terrence eee eae
Pete en eee eet oe ee ee eaThe leader
Trash talk
It is too soon to write off innovative technologies that could end plastic waste
IN 1980, Disney World in Orlando, Florida,
started work ona new way togenerate
powerforthe theme park, cuttingits use
foil, the price of which had soared. The
Solid Waste Energy Conversion Plant took
trash, including plastic, and used a method
called pyrolysis to turnitinto combustible
gases. Itopened in 982, but closed.a year
later, as thecost of runningit mounted.
‘Today, envionmental campaigners
are invoking the Disney story totrash the
reputation ofa suite of new technologies,
collectively known as advanced recycling,
Which take plastic wasteand convert it
backintobrandnew plastic.
‘Thelrargument is disingenous.The
{allure of Disney's plant had moretodo
with asubsequent fallin ofl pricesthan
technological orenvironmental problems.
PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL
commer and event decor an Newton
Display verti
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Pyrolysis has improveda ot sincethe
19805. And in any case, Disney's plant
was designedto produce fuel, which
Isn’tclassed asadvanced recycling
Aswereport on page 36, advanced
recycling srapidly innovating industry
that couldhelpto solvethe global plasties
“advanced recycling could
turn millions of tonnes of used
plastic nto a clean, fresh version”
crisis. Ithasthe potential totake millions
oftonnes of discarded plastic, most of,
whichendsup inlandfil, incinerators or
theenvironment, and tur it backintoa
‘lean, fresh version by breaking it down
toitsmolecular constituents. The goalisa
circular economy where there is no longer
NewScientist
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any need to make “virgin” plasticfrom ol
Itisn’ta panacea, Thereareissues
around such plants generating toxie
waste, heir energy useand the
perpetuation of conventional pasties
ahead of newer, greener alternatives.
‘Campaignersarerright to argue that we
would be better off phasing out plastics
altogether. But practical considerations
mean they aren't goingaway any time
soon, and most advanced recycling
technologies arebetter forthe
‘environment than the alternatives.
‘Thereisaserious discussion tobe
hadaroundadvanced recycling. not
least whether it should be factoredinto
forthcoming global treaty on plastic
pollution. Let’ just make sure tis based
‘onthe facts, not Disney stories. &
ET
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a7 Apeitzoag| NewScientit!sWEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024
155 BISHOPSGATE, LONDON
Transforming business
Pdevanicdi Mere Cnlericeploliceniccticiyny
FRE Renee ee eee gen eee
and policy makers at the New Scientist Emerging Technologies Summit.
feller lad
This summit is designed to showcase the critical intersection of science,
technology, and business and identify how emerging technologies such as Al, —
COE ech ea Re AAR RL eau a Leal
Nee eo Seg eos ACR ee Tee)
organisations including Aria, Google, BT, ITV, Bentley, BP, Astra Zeneca, Novo
Nordisk, Home Office, the Labour Party and many more.
For more information and to book your place, visit:
newscientist.com/emergingtech6News
Spacejump Altered needs Pireritual
Knot theory could Cocainemay jock Ancient Maya burned
helpspacecraftswiteh | thewaythebrain dead rulerstomarkc
between orbits po prioritise food pio new dynasty pia
eset
Fated
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China's Henan province. The
Precis)
Pretec)
Oe
Night sight
Noctumalantsuse
polarised moonlight
tofind theirway pis
Braimlike device
Intelcreates world’s
largestneuromonphic
computer pi
27 Aprllzong|NewSclentist7News
When did humans first travel north?
Evidence of human presence in Siberia 417,000 years ago indicates that hominins travelled north
much earlier than we thought — and may even have reached North America, says Michael Le Page
EARLY humans livedat asitein
Siberia that has been dated to
417.000 years ago, making it
by farthe most ancient early
human site found this farnorth,
“Thissitedramatically
revises ourunderstanding of
when humans reached high
latitudes” John fansenat the
Czech Academy of Sciences told
apress conference on 16 Apri
(Other early human sitesin the
Arcticregion areno morethan
{45,000 years od he says.
The fat that early people had
reachedLthis far north meansit
is possiblethat they couldhave
crossed the Bering Strat into what
snow Alaska aroundthistime,
saysJansen. “It remains possible
that peoplecrossed into North
‘America wellbefore the earliest
‘widely accepted timing”
Anintriguing find
‘The steat Diring Yuriakh, near the
city of Yakutsk in Russia, was found
In982.Itconsists of primitive
stone tools buriedin layers of
‘wind blown sand. In i997, \¢ was
shownthat these layers were at
least 260,000 yearsold, but their
actualage remained unknown,
Now, Jansen and his
colleagues have used amethod
417,000
‘Number of years ago that early
‘humans were in Siberia
45,000
‘Agein years of other early human,
sites inthe Arcticregion
33,000
‘Number of years ago that
‘humans reached North America,
according to curent evidence
|New Sclentst|27Apel30ag
called cosmogenicdating to date
thelayersto 417,000 yearsago,
plus orminus about 80,000 years.
Jansen presented the team’s
preliminary findings ata European
Geosciences Union meeting
in Vienna, Austria,on19 Apr
Thetiming coincides with
‘awarm interglacial period, he
says,so it makes sense that
people moved north atthis time.
“Theage perfectly corresponds
with the interglacial” says Jansen.
Later glacial periods would have
forced the peopleto moveback
south, hesays.
Nohuman remains have been
found atthe Siberian site, but
based on thetiming, tislikely
that the inhabitants were Homo
erectus, a species that evolved
about 2 million years ago and
spread from Affica to Eurasia
Reyondthis, nothing is
known about them. Wedon't
know ifthey used fireormade
clothes, says Jansen, letalone i
they had any speeificadaptations
tolivingsofarnorth,
Although Diring Yuriakh is
2000 kilometres away from
the Bering Strait, tis likely that
some peoplelived closerto it,
hesays. they hungon there
during colder periods when
thesea evel waslower, hey
Couldhumans have
crossed the Bering Strait
between Russia and
‘Alaska hundreds of
thousands of years ago?
Thearchaeological
siteat Diring
Yariakh, Russia
might have be
North America
“They would have been
within striking distance of
crossing thestrait during low
scallevel” says Jansen. “Andalso,
ofcourse, there isthe possibilty
ofcrossing ea ce
‘Thisisjust speculation, he says.
The earliest evidence of humans
InNorth Americais from around
33.000years ago.
ableto reach
Nogenetictrace
Ifany early humansdid make
itto North America at this time,
itseems that they wentextinet
before modern humans artived
because there is no genetic
‘race of them within modern
American peoples.
Itis possible that some human
DNA fromthistimeremains
frozen in siberian permafrost,
Duttheteam can notonger
visit the site because of Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, says Jansen.
The samples that were dated were
taken in 2021, before the invasion,
‘hese are really interesting
results” says Chris Stringerat
the Natural History Museum
inLondon.
“Given the warmth ofthis
interglacial, itiscertainly
plausible hat early humans
\wereabletomoveeven further
north in places like Siberia, t
Teast briefly” he says. “However,
Ithinkitisa speculation too far
tosuggest they couldeven have
reached the Bering Straitand
the Americasatthistime”
Duringthis interglacial sea
evel was severalmetres higher
an today, says Stringer, Which
‘would have made reaching the
Americas even more difficult.
Earlierthis year, Jansen and
hiscolleagues dated another
carly site, in Ukraine, to
14million yearsago. 1Astrophysics
Knot theory could
help spacecraft shift
tonew orbits for free
Lech Crane
WHEN a spacecraft crcinga
planet or salling between moons,
navigating between different orbits
canbettough - but atric from knot
theory may help. Itcan beused to
Identity points called heteroctinic
connections, wherea craft can
transfer fromone orbit to another
without burning its precious fuel.
“These heteroctinieconnections,
alot ofthe time we know there are
some for a par of orbits, but there's
nota good way to know exactly
howmany/says Danny Owen at
the University of Surrey, UK. "t's
Justa caseot getting lots of
and hoping for the best” This
requires either huge amounts
‘of computer power ora "guess-
and-check" method.
‘Owen and Nicola Bares, also
atthe University of Surrey, came
‘up witha way to find allof the
heteraclinc connections for ay pale
of orbits. Inknot theory, the number
of times two ines cossis denoted by
figure called the linking number.
The researchers realized thatthe
linking number ofa pair of orbits
should be equal tothe number of
hheteroctinic connections. Anytime
two gravitationally stable orbits
‘ross, thatis an opportunity for a
spacecraft to transfer betweenthem,
By representing eachorbit asa
series of closed loops like rubber
bands, the researchers could find
thelinking number and spot
‘each heterocinic connection
(Astrodynamics, dotora/msib).
“"f youplot two linesin 30 space,
chances are that they're not going
tointersect because they're
infinitesimally narrow" says Owen.
“So you run these simulations of
closed loops, andif the liking
‘Rumber changes, you know that they
hhave passed through each other”
‘Any spot where the inking
‘number changesis.a place where
spacecraft could pass fromone
orbit tothe other without fring
its thrusters orusing any fuel,
Your DNA seems to influence how
much youlike listening to music
Roberta Angheleant,
HOW much we enjoy musie
ray partly come down toour
‘geneticmake-up, according to
study ofthousands of twins
The pleasure people get
from atunehas been linked
toiltseffects on ouremotional
responses, alertness and ability
to formsocial connections.
‘Thedegree of enjoyment differs
This made it easier toteaseout
sgeneticcontributions.
Theresearchers fist got the
twins to completethe Barcelona
‘Music Reward Questionnaire,
hich assessed how much
pleasure they get from muse.
Forexample they were asked
theextent towhich they agree
from personto person, butlittle “The apparent influence
isknownabout why.
‘Toinvestigate the role of
‘genetics, Giacomo Bignardi
atthe Max Planck Institute
forPsycholinguistis in the
Netherlands and his colleagues
lookedat morethan 9000 twins
from the Swedish Twin Registry,
medical research resource.
‘About 3400 were identical
and s6o0non identical
‘Theformer sharethe same
‘genome, while non-identical
‘wins shareonly halftheit|
‘genomes asisalsothecase
with any non-twin biological
siblings. allthetwins inthe
study, who were between 37
and 64 years old, were raised
Inthesame households and
sohadsimilarenvironmental
‘exposures while growingup.
genetics has on enjoying
music isn’t necessarily
linked to musical talent”
with statements suchas “when
share musie with someone Ife
‘special connection with that
person” and"in my free time
hardly listen to music
Theteamthenuseda
statistical methodto analyse
therelativecontributions of
genetics andenvironmental
Tactorstothe degree of musical
enjoyment among the wins.
This showed that genetics
seemsto lay asubstantial
role n influencing how much
pleasure musicbrings, with the
‘dential twins being morethan
‘wiceas similar in thistrait than
thenon-identicalones.
Die-hard fansat
{estivalstike Copenhell,
Denmark, mayhavean
innateloveotatune
Inanotherpartofthe
‘experiment, Bignardi and his
team tested the participants
abilities to distinguish between
different melodies, rhythms and
pitches, with previous research
havinglnked genetics to
‘musical ability, They found that
the apparent influence genetics
has onenjoying musicisn't
necessarily linked to musical
talent (bioRxly, dokorg/msha).
The study is provocative, says
Peter Harrisonat the University
‘of Cambridge. It’s intuitive that
‘musiealabilty mighthavea
‘genetic bass; it provides aneasy
‘explanation for why some
people seem to possess an
innate knack’ for music that
‘enables them todevelop
prodigious kill froma young
age It is perhaps less obvious
that thedegree of pleasure from
listening to musicis influenced
bynes, sot is interesting the
study finds this effet, he says
Theresults adda new piece
tothepuzzleof why musiecan
have such a powerfuleffect on
certain peopleand “open up
new possibilities for using inter:
individual differences to gain
sights intothe biology of akey
aspect of human behaviour’ the
researchers writein their paper.
Yet the role of cultural
influences in music enjoyment
shouldn't be understated,
says Nick Collins at Durham.
University, UK “There
‘could bean underlying
‘geneticcomponent to
certain auditory capabilities
and preferences, butthereis
aheavy cultural component
tomusicevolution thatisnot
addressedby genetics alone” #
27 Apellzoag|NewScentist!9News
Developmental biology
Groups of single-celled creatures
could explain how embryos evolved
Claire Ainsworth,
ASINGLE-celledereature
‘originally foundin shallow
sea sediments around Hawai
develops into multicellular
structures with remarkable
similarities to animal embryos,
The finding could help us
understand more about
howandwhenembryonic
development evolved
One of the biggest questions
Inbiology is how a single cell,
the fertilised egg, coordinates
its development into.acomplex
‘multicellular body with many
different celltypes all doing the
right thingsin the right places.
We havelearneda great deal
bout it, ut how the process
evolved from our single-celled
ancestors remains mysterious.
Clues have come from our
modem single celled relatives,
many of which gothrougha
brief multieltular stage as part
oftheir life cycle. Ourclosest
single-celled relatives, the
choanoflagellats, forexamp
divideto form small colonies.
Unlike animalembryos,
however, they dothis in
response to environmental
“There are more ways to
assemble the ‘buildi
blocks’ of multicellularity
than we thought”
changeanddon't seem tohave
a program coordinating how
different celltypes develop.
Recently, researchers have
looked at more distant relatives,
suchas theichthyosporeans,
‘whose ancestors branched off
fromthe lineage that gave rise
toanimals about billion years
‘ago. They havea multicellular
stage of ther lifecycle that
arises independently of
ny environmental cue.
Tofind out more, Omaya
Dudinat the Swiss Federal
sol NewsSclentist|27Apil2024
Institute of Technology in
Lausanne andhisteam studied
anichthyosporean speciescalled
Chromosphaera perkinsil.The
team found that oncesingle
C perkinsicells reach afixed
a
‘thyroid and lung cancers, for
‘example, that are found early when
they aresmall and localised and
‘that meet the pathological criteria
of cancer undera microscope, but
growslowly ornotat allanddon’t
‘cause any symptoms. We have
Jearned by watching such cases
over timethat they almost never
pose any health threat.
Butevenafterdoctorsassure
such peoplethat their condition
isessentially non-threatening,
those frightened by the dreaded
words “you havecancer” often
choose moreaggressiveandrisky
surgeries than required. Tens of
thousands of people are seriously
Letters
Bonoboaggression
‘minor compared
withehimps pat
harmed or eft with additional
health conditionsby these
procedures.Some die. Healtheare
systems spendbillions on this
clinically unnecessary car.
‘Most people believe that the
‘majority ofcancers arecaused
byenvironmentalcarcinogens,
largely industrial chemicals. That
hhas never been true. We now know
‘that cancers predominantly
causedby naturally occurring
‘mutations toDNA that accurnulate
aswe age. Cancer only became
common inthe early 9005, a8
average ifeexpectanciesin richer
nations reached into the sos.
Asaresult ofthis false belief,
governments spend vastly
‘moretoreducetthe isk rom
environmentalcarcinogens
than on any other environmental
health threat. Much more is spent
‘on cancer prevention than heart
disease prevention, though the
latter kills more people globally
‘Wecan'tentirely curecancer=It
{swired into our biology -norcan
we entirely “cure” cancerphobia,
‘thepart ofcancerfearthatisa
natural product of our instinctive
risk perception psychology. But
wemust work toreduce the harm
they both causeto our health
andto society in general, Research
into combattingcancer has come
‘along way. The workon our
«ancerphobiaisjust beginning. &
DaviaRopekisa
scence journalist
arddauthor of Curng
$ —Cancerphabia
27 Aprllzcag| New Scentit 2sViews Columnist
Alex Wikinsisa
New Scientstreporter
covering artical
Inteligence, physics
‘and space tically
Intetigentisa colurmn
that cuts through the
ype andlooks at
‘what Ais eally capable
cfand whatit means
forus.Youcan follow
him @Alexiikins22
Alex's week
What 'mreading
‘The Bell Jar by sylvia
Plath. By no means
uplifting, but honest and
‘occasionally beautiful
Whot I'm watching
I recently rewatched
Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind and had
forgotten how stunning
‘and perfec a film itis.
What I'm working on
There’saraftof new
books coming out
examining how AI might
‘affect the future, so 1am
reading as many of them
‘as ean fora review.
Upnext week
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
sal NewSclentiat|27 Apll2024
Artificially intelligent
A game of whack-a-mole Al companies try to curb chatbots’ worst
exploits, while researchers find ways around the safety measures.
Where will this end, asks Alex Wilkins
forartificial intelligence
‘companies toclaimthat
theworst things their chatbots
canbeused for can be mitigated
byadding “safety guardrails”
These can range from seemingly
simple solutions like wamningthe
chatbots tolookout forcertain
requests, to more complex.
software fixes ~but none is
foolproof. Andalmost ona
weekly basis, researchers find
‘ew ways to get around these
‘measures, called allbreaks.
Youmight be wondering
why thisis an issue—whats
theworst that could happen?
(One bleak scenario might bean
Albeingused to fabricate a lethal
bloweapon, but many people say
‘outcomes ike this are unrealistic
given curtent Al capabllities
However, there are still fearsome
possibilities with today’s tech.
An Alwith no safety measures
couldbeusedtopump out fake
articles totry to swingvoters,
orto manipulate peoplein more
personal ways,actingasa friend
tosteal personal information,
When Lasked Anthropie’s
Claude 3-widely viewedas one
ofthemostadvanced chatbots
going forthe scariest possibility
Itproposeda scenario in which
someone uses aailbroken Al
toanalyseateenager’s social
‘media activity identifying thelr
insecurities, fears,and desires. The
Althen generates personalised
content, perhaps inthe form
of direct messages or targeted
‘ads, designed to prey on those
vulnerabilities” It sounds sinister,
Dutitis perfectly believable.
‘With the stakes so high, Al
companiesarekeen toimpresson,
show much timeand effort they
spend making sure thelr models
don’tdothis sort of stuff. OpenAL
said that, before releasing GPT-4,
the model that powers the latest
I ‘THAS become common
version of ChatGPT,itspent
sixmonthstesting to make sure
ofitssafety. nthropic, launched
bya splinter group from OpenAL
concerned over Alsafety also
emphasises that it spendsalot
oftimethinkingabout safety.
But these firmsaren't claiming
that any model is perfectly safe,
because they can't. In ust the past
month, we have been told about
three major new ways to jailbreak
some of thelargest chatbot
models including GPT-4and
Claude3 One methodcame
from Anthropicitself, which
discovered that for amodel that
accepts book length text inputs,
‘an AI with nosafety
measures could be
used to pump out
fake articles totry
toswing voters or
tosteal information”
repeatedly giving examplesof
behaviour itwas rainedto view
asbad can convince the model tis
fine forit to output that behaviour.
And Microsoft researchers found
that slowly escalating from
Jnnocuous requests, such as
asking about the history ofthe
Finnish winter war, to dangerous
cones, likeasking how tomake
Molotov cocktails (which the
Finnish soldiers used in this war),
could circumvent guardrails,
‘The fact these jallbreaks were
discovered by Aifirms is used
asevidence that they aretaking
Alsafety seriously and that they
can implement fixes beforethis
technology is used for misdeeds.
But theconstant backand forth
between findingnew ways to
‘manipulatethe models and fixes
forthem s abit likea game of
whack-a-mole. And worse, some
ofthese ailbreaks don't have
convincingsolutions. Researchers
atthe Swiss Federal Institute of
‘Technology in Lausanne found
technique to use the chatbots!
‘own outputs~or,the probability
that a particular word would come
next inasequence of words ~to
createa jailbreak witha “nearly
r00%attack success rate” on
almost every major publiemodel.
Thiscan be adaptedto perform
requests like the scenarios
mentioned earlier.
‘Ofcourse, hackingand
jailbreaking software isn't new,
andthe cat-and-mousegame
offindingand fixing security
exploitsisan established part
of cybersecurity. But where these
exploits often havea limited
‘impact, jailbroken Alscan have
{at-reaching consequences.
Firmslike Anthropicsay they
are optimistic their models canbe
made safe through technical fixes,
like giving models more feedback
‘on what isright andwrong, and
improving our understanding
‘ofhow they work and learn,
Butthere is nocertainty that this
willleadto totally safe systems,
orwhether that is even possible.
Inthe meantime, youmight be
wondering how youcan protect
yourselfagainst impersonation
by ormisinformation from
jailbroken Als. The bad news is
that itis difficult, Several studies
have shown that reliably detecting
Algenerated text isimpossible,
soit isn'tas simple as having
anautomaticAl detector,
Onethingyoucoulddotohelp
protect against Als pretending
tobeyou or people you know
{sto establish safe words with
close friends and family. fon
acalloronline chat, yoususpect
someone of not being who
they say they are,youcan
askthem for your safe word,
This might offera measure of
protection, but, unfortunately,
won't protect against allattacks. 8