SOLID, LIQUID, GAS AND... Extraordinary states of matter and how to make them DON’T HAVE A COW The lab-grown milk revolution is coming THE POWER OF PLACE Why where you work changes how you think

WEEKLY August 14– 20, 2021

NEWS SPECIAL

YOU AND YOUR VACCINE Everything we now know about our best weapons against covid-19 How well they work | Risks and side effects | What comes next

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This week’s issue

On the 40 Solid, liquid, gas and... 19 News Extraordinary states of matter cover and how to make them “ You need a 8 You and your vaccine 46 Don’t have a cow membrane Everything we now know The lab-grown milk about our best weapons revolution is coming to make a against covid-19 36 The power of place membrane. Why where you work changes how you think It is the ultimate 7 The IPCC report 20 Google’s time crystal chicken and 30 Sea snot 20 Menopause genetics egg paradox” Vol 251 No 3347 54 What’s the smallest Cover image: Lisa Sheehan boring number?

News Features

7 IPCC warning 36 Thinking place Sombre findings from Feature Your physical environment landmark climate report has a surprisingly strong effect on your cognitive abilities 17 Solar aircraft Uncrewed plane may 40 Strange states stay airborne for 90 days We can’t stop discovering bizarre new states of matter. Are we 19 Telling tales close to having a complete list? Girls and boys both tend to make boys the main subject 46 Lab-brewed milk of their stories Real milk made without animals will soon be on the menu Views The back pages 25 Comment Laura Healey on a record- 51 Science of gardening breaking Olympic games Rooting out plant bullies

26 The columnist 52 Puzzles Plant toxicity is a complicated Try our crossword, quick subject, says James Wong quiz and logic puzzle

28 Letters 54 Almost the last word There are so many issues What is the smallest number holding up self-driving cars that is uninteresting?

30 Aperture 56 Feedback

Striking swirls of sea snot S Golfing crocs and high-speed E G A

clog Turkish waters M blimps: the week in weird I

Y T T E G /

32 Culture D 56 Twisteddoodles T L

W New Scientist The life of Vera Rubin, who J for made us rethink the cosmos 36 Personal space Making a desk your own can change how you think Picturing the lighter side of life

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 1 Elsewhere on New Scientist

Newsletter Virtual events Newsletter Creating a “T here could sustainable future Global heating is a crisis that be a new level requires massive societal of infinity to changes. During this one-day online event, we’ll explore how be discovered to make them as quickly as possible. Three stages of talks within the will cover everything from habitat restoration and the realm of H C E

path to net zero to sustainable T L A C

- numbers we

diets. Join us on 25 September L P J / A

from 10am BST. Get your S A

N can grasp” tickets now. Gold rush Do supernovae create heavy elements like precious metals? The anatomy of friendship T N E

Friendship is the most M Video P O L

important factor in our E V E D

well-being. It is also the &

N O I

most complicated thing in T A V R

the universe, making huge E S N O

demands on our brains. In C

R O F this talk, Robin Dunbar will E C N

explain how our brains create A I L L A friendships for us. Join us on A J E N

21 October from 6pm BST. E T R A S

newscientist.com/ , A Y O

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R I M O E L Podcasts Clear as mud Dolphins have learned a smart new hunting tactic Weekly The team look at the Newsletter Video latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel Lost in Space-Time Dolphin mud rings on Climate Change, on the Get Richard Webb’s monthly Bottlenose dolphins are physical basis of global newsletter on fundamental known to be clever hunters. Essential guide warming. They also explain physics delivered free to your Now some have developed a why some nations are giving inbox. In the latest issue, he “mud ring” hunting strategy, in Let the eighth New Scientist people two different covid-19 looks at where the chemical which one animal circles near Essential Guide fill you in on the vaccines. Plus: microplastics elements come from. And the ocean floor, trapping fish greatest threat we face: climate found in human placentas for there is exciting news that behind a ring of muddy water change. Learn what is at stake, the first time; and Google has we seem to have discovered as others lie in wait. Subscribe the basics of climate science made a real-life time crystal. a new kind of infinity. to our channel for more videos. and about innovations that newscientist.com/ newscientist.com/ youtube.com/ could help avoid disaster. nspod lost-in-space-time newscientist shop.newscientist.com

2 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 ATEM Mini Pro model shown.

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A tale of two crises The covid-19 vaccine success has lessons for action on climate change

A CRISIS urgently needs solving. a year is utterly astonishing – one sufficient to counter the worst effects. Science can provide the tools to help, that, while we’re keeping score, we got Now, as the latest Intergovernmental but we must be willing to change our a little wrong, saying it would take at Panel on Climate Change report says lifestyles. Solutions will be very expensive, least 12 to 18 months. (see page 7), we are afforded no such yet the cost of inaction is even higher. As our special report on vaccines details luxury. Even extremely rapid action is This isn’t the first time we have drawn (page 8), it has been a truly global effort, unlikely to be enough to avoid hitting the parallels between climate change and the too. Over 4 billion doses have already been 1.5°C of warming that global governments coronavirus pandemic. We first did so in administered worldwide, though much pledged to avoid at the Paris meeting in our leader of 7 March 2020, when total 2015. Current plans put us on track for a global cases of covid-19 numbered fewer “ The coronavirus pandemic temperature rise of around 3°C – and the than 100,000, and there was as yet has shown we can take catastrophic effects of the warming so officially no pandemic. “We are facing swift action when needed” far, of just over 1°C, are becoming plain. a global emergency, and politicians Yet, as we detailed in our special report who appear to not believe in science are more needs to be done to get jabs to on the new energy world last week, the putting us all at risk,” we said back then. people in lower-income countries. solutions are within reach. The pandemic The difference now is that we have We first mentioned climate change in has shown we can take swift action when seen what happens when we put our our 20th issue, in 1957. Even if humanity needed, even if it is costly. The upcoming minds (and wallets) to tackling a global had only begun taking action at the turn COP26 meeting in the UK is the chance for emergency. The development of multiple of this century, a gradual change to how the world to grasp the nettle and act once successful coronavirus vaccines in under we work, live and travel would have been again in its own best interests. ❚

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4 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Ê×ÒÖÙØÛÝÊ×ÝÖÎÜÜÊÐÎÏÛØÖÙÛØÏÎÜÜØÛ×ÒÌÔÕÎÖØÒ×ÎÖÍÙÑÍÏÖÎÍÜÌÒÌÑÊÒÛØÏÝÑÎÖÎÍÒÌÊÕÛÎÜÎÊÛÌÑÏØÞ×ÍÊÝÒØ× Gifts in Wills could be the key to protecting the future of human health

ØøõèûóèõìèñæèòéÌØßÒÍ¢ ' äñ÷ìðìæõòåìäïõèöìö÷äñæèëèõ öëòúöëòúöøççèñïüäêïòåäï life’s work. health challenge can appear. Without support at the crucial As someone interested in early stages, researchers like science, you will understand ÍõÔäéòõòøæäñåèéòõæèç÷ò ÷ëä÷úëìïèñòåòçüæäñóõèçìæ÷ äåäñçòñ÷ëèìõóäööìòñäñç what we will face next, we leave science altogether, æäñåèæèõ÷äìñ÷ëä÷÷ëèéø÷øõè úì÷ëäñìððèäöøõäåïèïòöö úìïïåõìñêðäñüðòõè÷ëõèä÷ö to future human health. to human health. Gifts in Wills provide the long ĒÝëèéøñçìñêÒõèæèìùèç÷ëõòøêë÷ëèÖèçìæäïÛèöèäõæëÏòøñçä÷ìòñ As Chair of the Medical term funding and security úìïïåè÷õäñöéòõðä÷ìùèéòõðüõèöèäõæëēÍõÖüõöìñìÔäéòõòø Research Foundation – the that allows the Foundation æëäõì÷äåïèäõðòé÷ëèÖèçìæäï to invest in projects like the future holds for human discoveries in the future. ÍõÔäéòõòøĐöäñçïäü÷ëè ëèäï÷ëìñ÷ëèÞÔúèçò ÛèöèäõæëÌòøñæìï£Òëäùè ÒĢõðïüåèïìèùè÷ëä÷äêìé÷ foundations for quality know that research, and the öèèñ÷ëèìñæõèçìåïèìðóäæ÷ in your Will to the Medical research in years to come. åõìïïìäñ÷öæìèñ÷ìö÷öçõìùìñê÷ëä÷ that individuals who Research Foundation is an research forward, are the key õèðèðåèõ÷ëèÏòøñçä÷ìòñ excellent investment and to meeting those challenges in their Wills can have on “As scientists, will have a lasting impact for years to come. the future of our health and our duty is to on science and on the úèïïåèìñêëèõèìñ÷ëèÞÔ secure the future But many of these scientists future of human health in Ýëèöèêìé÷öéøñçõèöèäõæëäñç rely on the generosity and the UK. researchers which can have of research for éòõèöìêë÷òééèïïòúðèðåèõö éäõ¢õèäæëìñêìðóïìæä÷ìòñöéòõ the generations òé÷ëèóøåïìæ£óèòóïèïìîèüòø Please consider human health. that follow.” who understand the power of this very special gift today. With a gift in your Will science and are willing to leave Professor Fiona Watt, a gift to medical research you can play a key role in President of the Medical providing the science that in their Wills. At the Medical Research Foundation and Research Foundation, over Professor Nick Lemoine will protect the health of Executive Chair of the Medical '[òéòøõùòïøñ÷äõüìñæòðè future generations. Research Council. MD PhD FMedSci comes from individuals who Chair of the Medical Research Right now, the Foundation choose to include a gift in Foundation Your Will can fund the is funding research to tackle their Will – they are crucial rational response to health äñ÷ìðìæõòåìäïõèöìö÷äñæè ìñ÷ëèÏòøñçä÷ìòñĐöäåìïì÷ü Get your free guide challenges that medical and investing in researchers to fund research that will science provides. to supporting ïìîèÍõÖüõöìñìÔäéòõòø£úëò èñäåïè÷ëèñèû÷êèñèõä÷ìòñòé research in your Will. úìïïðäîè÷ëèĢêë÷äêäìñö÷ While we don’t know what scientists to make real world

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Wildfires ravage the island of Evia, Greece, on 8 August

more we can slow down those [long-term] changes,” says Tamsin Edwards, an IPCC author based at King’s College London. “It will be our activities and choices that will determine where we end up over the next decades and centuries,” says Joeri Rogelj of Imperial College London, an S E IPCC author. Humanity currently G A M I emits around 40 billion tonnes of Y T T

E carbon dioxide a year. That needs G

A I V to fall to around 5 billion by 2050 G R E

B for the very low emission scenario. M O

O Under an intermediate scenario, L B / S I emissions would be similar to D I L A

K today by mid-century. In the very A S T high scenario, emissions would be S O N I

T about double today’s level by 2050. N A T

S Rogelj says, given that not all N O

K government pledges on climate action have been translated to Climate change policy, we are probably currently between the intermediate and high emissions scenarios. Those Earth in the danger zone would lead to an estimated 2.7°C and 3.6°C of warming, respectively. The planet is set to see significant warming, but there are still things Changing track to get on the pathway of the very low emissions we can do to slow the rising temperature, reports Adam Vaughan scenario – the only one where warming later this century falls OUR world is expected to hit as the report came out. “Climate IPCC report. “We don’t fall off a back to below 1.5°C – will be a the critical threshold of 1.5°C of change is not a problem of the cliff if we go over those thresholds. key task for nearly 200 countries warming due to climate change future, it’s here and now,” says Every bit of warming matters.” that are meeting at the COP26 within the next 20 years under Friederike Otto at the University The report has a much greater climate summit in Glasgow, UK, all five scenarios considered of Oxford, a lead IPCC author. focus than past IPCC assessments this November. by a landmark report. That is In the worst of five scenarios on “low likelihood”, but possibly Piers Forster at the University of regardless of how deeply we detailing how future global disastrous, outcomes, which Leeds, UK, an IPCC author, says the cut greenhouse gas emissions. emissions may play out, the world become more likely with more report robustly shows that getting In a summary of the state faces a catastrophic 4.4°C average warming. “Abrupt responses to net-zero emissions can stabilise of climate science, agreed by temperature rise by 2100, the IPCC and tipping points of the climate temperatures. “The good news is 195 countries and published on concluded. In all five scenarios, system, such as strongly increased we can be very certain near-term 9 August, the Intergovernmental in the next two decades warming Antarctic ice sheet melt and forest [emissions] reductions can really Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reaches or exceeds the 1.5°C goal dieback, cannot be ruled out,” the reduce the rate of unprecedented said humanity’s role in driving of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which authors said. New research on warming,” he says. climate change was “unequivocal”, also set a weaker goal of holding how ice sheets may collapse in the The report – the Physical Science an upgrade on the language of warming to 2°C. highest emissions scenario shows Basis Summary for Policymakers, “clear” used eight years ago. However, the good news is the average sea level rise could be as written by Working Group I of the Researchers said each most ambitious scenario – with much as 1.88 metres by 2100, near IPCC – provides higher confidence of the past four decades has emissions cut to net zero and double that envisaged previously. levels for many statements made been warmer than any decade carbon sucked out of the air – Some changes, such as ocean in the equivalent 2013 report, since 1850, and warned of more would see warming fall back to acidification, will be irreversible mainly due to drawing on multiple extreme weather to come. This 1.4°C by 2100. “The 1.5°C or 2°C for centuries to millennia lines of evidence by combining year has already seen deadly goals, they are not cliff edges,” says regardless of how societies cut models with observations and floods, heatwaves and wildfires, Ed Hawkins at the University of emissions in coming years. “But a better understanding of the with Greece battling major blazes Reading, UK, an author on the the more we limit warming, the physical processes. ❚

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 7 News special Covid-19 vaccines

What we know so far More than half a year into the mission to vaccinate the world against covid-19, we are beginning to get a picture of how well the leading vaccines are working

WE HAVE never before had anything like a covid-19 vaccine. Developed in record time, we now have an armoury of different jabs to help us tackle the coronavirus. Their speedy roll-out means we are receiving them before any longer-term data can confirm how effective they are at preventing infection, transmission, illness and death. That information is now rolling in. While it is largely encouraging, we are only starting to get a glimpse at how long each vaccine offers protection, whether booster shots will be needed and how well the jabs are holding up against newer variants of the coronavirus.

From efficacy to preventing S E G long covid, over the next A M I

Y T

seven pages we examine what T E G / we now know about the leading S R A B

vaccines, and how many more S R A are yet to come. M

Oxford/AstraZeneca Widely used in the UK, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is effective at preventing deaths and hospitalisations

How does it work? countries. The UK has used about to approve the Serum Institute Australia, New Zealand, Canada A chimpanzee cold adenovirus 5 million doses from the Serum of India as a manufacturing site. and those in the European Union. has been genetically altered so it Institute of India, but exports The Indian-made version has can no longer reproduce and has stopped when covid-19 surged batch numbers 4120Z001, How many doses have been had a gene added that encodes the in India earlier this year. 4120Z002 and 4120Z003, which distributed so far? coronavirus’s spike protein. When can be found on UK vaccination More than a billion doses injected, the virus is taken up by Are the UK and Indian versions cards or via the National Health have been manufactured. immune cells, which then make of the vaccine different? Service app. the spike protein and “display” it They are identical, but a few Are there side effects? to other immune cells, triggering people in the UK who got the Where has it been approved? All vaccines can cause a sore arm an immune response. Indian-made version have had It has various forms of approval and issues including fever, fatigue, their covid-19 vaccine passports in 121 nations, including the UK, dizziness and headache. The Where is it made? rejected by some European Oxford/AstraZeneca one has also Most UK stock is made by countries, such as Malta, Cyprus “ A few people who got been found to rarely cause a blood- AstraZeneca facilities in the and Portugal. That is because the Indian-made shots clotting syndrome called vaccine- UK, although the vaccine is European Medicines Agency is still have had their vaccine induced immune thrombotic also manufactured in 14 other considering AstraZeneca’s request passports rejected” thrombocytopenia, or VITT.

8 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Pfizer/BioNTech A third dose of this mRNA vaccine is already being rolled out as a booster shot for the over-60s in Israel

People receiving the How does it work? Are there side effects? the need for admission to an Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine in The vaccine uses messenger RNA The most common is pain at intensive care unit. Tepoztlán, Mexico, in April (mRNA) to make the body produce the injection site, followed by Two studies from Israel, a protein from the coronavirus fatigue and headache. More released in July, found that This tends to occur more often and prime your immune system serious side effects, like severe two doses of the vaccine were in younger people: it is estimated to fight off the real thing. allergic reactions or heart 80 to 88 per cent effective against to happen after 1 in 100,000 doses inflammation (myocarditis), infection and 41 to 79 per cent in people aged 50 and over, but Where is it made? have been reported, but are effective at cutting transmission. after 1 in 50,000 doses in people The manufacturing process extremely rare. The latter range is uncertain between 18 and 49. Because of this, involves multiple sites, but most because so few vaccinated some countries, including the UK, doses are distributed from sites How effective is it? people infected others, so are limiting the vaccine’s use in in Kalamazoo in Michigan and Pfizer’s initial analysis in the sample size was small. younger age groups. Puurs in Belgium. 2020 found that it was 95 per cent effective at preventing How long does immunity last? How effective is it? Where has it been approved? symptomatic disease. The vaccine is still strongly Figures from Public Health It has forms of approval in There is less information effective at preventing disease England suggest it is 75 to 99 per 97 countries so far, including on asymptomatic cases, but six months after the second cent effective at reducing deaths the US and the UK, which was one study found that the dose, but the efficacy does from covid-19 after two doses. the first country in the world vaccine cut these by about slowly decline, according to Having two shots reduces the to authorise it. a third in those over 60. a preliminary Pfizer study. In number of people who need to A real-world study in June the first two months after the go to hospital because of the virus How many doses have been found that it is 89 per cent second dose, efficacy against by between 80 and 99 per cent distributed so far? effective at preventing disease was 96 per cent, but by and cuts the number who have “Hundreds of millions of hospitalisation and 100 per four to six months it had fallen an infection by 65 to 90 per cent. doses,” according to Pfizer. cent effective at preventing to 84 per cent. The study ended One dose is estimated to reduce before the delta variant had transmission by 35 to 50 per cent, Public Health England’s assessment of how effective the UK’s become so dominant. but there are no figures yet on most-used vaccines have been at preventing a range of outcomes, how much it reduces transmission mainly from the alpha variant How effective is it against after two doses. However, all these Pfizer/BioNTech variants? figures date from a time when the One dose The vaccine held up well against Symptoms main coronavirus variant in the 55-70% High the alpha variant, but we know Hospitalisation 75-85% confidence UK was alpha (formerly known Death 70-85% Comprehensive less about its performance as the Kent variant). Infection 55-70% evidence from against delta. One UK study Transmission 45-50% multiple studies from July suggested that one How long does immunity last? Two doses dose was 31 per cent effective Symptoms 85-95% Medium We don’t know yet, but the UK Hospitalisation 90-99% confidence against symptoms caused is considering offering booster Death 95-99% Evidence with a by delta and two doses were vaccinations from September Infection 70-90% moderate level 88 per cent effective. Transmission No data of uncertainty to vulnerable groups and people or from a Preliminary research from aged 50 or over. Oxford/AstraZeneca limited number Israel’s Ministry of Health of studies One dose suggests the vaccine is also less Symptoms 55-70% How effective is it against variants? Hospitalisation 75-85% Low able to prevent transmission Two doses seem to be 67 per cent Death 75-85% confidence of delta. The country has begun effective at reducing cases of Infection 55-70% Limited giving a third shot as a booster symptomatic disease caused by Transmission 35-50% evidence and to people aged over 60. Two doses inconclusive the delta variant, originally Symptoms 70-85% results According to a Pfizer business spotted in India. That compares Hospitalisation 80-99% report, there is evidence that with 75 per cent effectiveness Death 75-99% a third dose given at least six against the alpha variant but Infection 65-90% months after the second can Transmission No data only 10 per cent against the beta boost antibodies against the 0 20 40 60 80 100 variant, which was first seen in delta variant at least fivefold. SOURCE: HTTPS://ASSETS.PUBLISHING.SERVICE.GOV.UK/GOVERNMENT/UPLOADS/SYSTEM/UPLOADS/ South Africa. Clare Wilson ATTACHMENT_DATA/FILE/1000512/VACCINE_SURVEILLANCE_REPORT_-_WEEK_27.PDF Michael Marshall >

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 9 News special Covid-19 vaccines

Moderna The protective effect of this mRNA vaccine against the original variant still looks strong six months later

How does it work? was 93 per cent effective symptomatic disease stayed Like the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, the against infection, whether above 90 per cent after a jab. The ones that Moderna vaccine uses messenger symptomatic or asymptomatic. This suggests that the protective got away RNA (mRNA) that prompts the Moderna’s initial analysis effect doesn’t decline much in body to produce a protein from found that the vaccine the first six months. A few coronavirus vaccines the coronavirus that then primes was 100 per cent effective have fallen by the wayside, but the immune system. against severe disease, while How effective is it against not many. Of a total of 135 Soundararajan’s study found it variants? candidates, just five have been Where is it made? was 86 per cent effective against Moderna released a preliminary abandoned. Given that around At a plant in Norwood, hospitalisation and 100 per cent study in June addressing this three-quarters of experimental Massachusetts. effective against admission to question. There was no vaccines usually fail, that might an intensive care unit. difference in antibody levels seem very low, but there is still Where has it been approved? The World Health produced against the alpha ample time for more to fail. It has various forms of approval Organization says it isn’t variant and the original virus. None of the vaccines have in 64 countries. clear if the vaccine prevents However, the beta, delta and secured full regulatory transmission. However, a gamma variants did show approval in the US or UK yet. How many doses have been recent study by Marc Lipsitch reductions. Levels were 2.1 times Three of the failures involved distributed so far? and Rebecca Kahn at Harvard lower for delta, a drop the a technology called replicating Moderna’s initial agreement University concluded it does. company describes as “modest”. viral vector (RVV), which uses a with the US government was They estimated that one dose live, replicating virus unrelated for 100 million doses. The firm of the Moderna vaccine reduces Will a booster shot be necessary? to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus the potential for transmission It is distinctly possible and to deliver SARS-CoV-2 genes. “ One dose of the Moderna by at least 61 per cent. Moderna is preparing to roll out All produced disappointing vaccine cuts the potential such shots. It has developed a results in early trials. for transmission by at How long does immunity last? booster that targets the beta None of the 21 approved least 61 per cent” A study published in April variant, which shows some vaccines are based on this found that antibody levels evidence of escaping immunity. technology, so it is tempting expects to supply 800 million remained high six months In a preliminary study posted to view it as a failure, but it to 1 billion doses globally in 2021 after vaccination. That same in May, the company found that has succeeded with other and up to 3 billion in 2022. month, Moderna announced antibody levels against beta diseases and there are eight that effectiveness against were low in people vaccinated coronavirus RVV vaccines Are there side effects? six months earlier, but that the still in clinical trials. The vast majority are mild and A box of the Moderna booster brought levels back up to One of the other failures, short-lived, such as headache, vaccine that was donated the original post-vaccine peak. from Imperial College London, nausea and swelling of the to Indonesia by the US Michael Marshall > used a novel self-amplifying underarm glands on the mRNA technology. Progress side that was injected. Heart simply proved too slow. inflammation, or myocarditis, The other one, a protein occurs very rarely. subunit vaccine from the University of Queensland, How effective is it? Australia, also tried and Moderna’s initial analysis, failed to push the technology released in November 2020, envelope. One of its components found that two doses were was a protein derived from S E

G HIV that helped to stabilise

95 per cent effective against A M I

symptomatic disease. Y the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. T T E G This is backed by an analysis But this unexpectedly caused A I V

of real-world data co-authored P some volunteers to record false F A / N by Venky Soundararajan, I positive tests for HIV, which D D

U could interfere with legitimate co-founder of nference, an Y H A

M results from such tests. AI biomedical start-up in R E E

Massachusetts, published in D Graham Lawton I A H

June. It found that the vaccine C

10 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021

News special Covid-19 vaccines

Johnson & Johnson More than 13 million people in the US have received this vaccine, which only requires a single shot

How does it work? Why do you only need one dose? How effective is it? The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is Johnson & Johnson tested There is less real-world data similar to the Oxford/AstraZeneca this vaccine giving just one available for this vaccine than one in using a harmless adenovirus dose in its final-stage clinical for several of the others, but that has been tweaked so it can no trials, because the initial small its large clinical trial published in longer reproduce. But the Johnson trials suggested that this gave April found that it reduced cases & Johnson one involves a human a strong-enough immune of moderate-to-severe infections S E G

virus, not a chimpanzee one. The response. The firm also has A by 66 per cent and reduced M I

virus has been given a gene that a trial ongoing testing two Y severe disease by 85 per cent. T T E G encodes the coronavirus’s spike doses given eight weeks apart, There were no hospitalisations A I V

protein, which prompts our an approach that is likely to P or deaths during the trial. F A / N immune cells to make the protein raise the immune response still I D D

U How long does immunity last? and trigger an immune response. further and make it last longer. Y H A M

It isn’t yet known how long R E E

Where is it made? Are there side effects? D immunity lasts. I A H

The Netherlands and the US. The vaccine has been found C to rarely cause the same How effective is it against variants? Where has it been approved? blood-clotting syndrome, Doses of the Johnson A study published in July It has various forms of approval called vaccine-induced immune & Johnson vaccine in suggests that people who have in 59 countries, including the thrombotic thrombocytopenia, Kathmandu, Nepal the Johnson & Johnson vaccine UK and the US. or VITT, as the Oxford/ generate lower levels of antibodies AstraZeneca vaccine. In the against the delta variant than How many doses have been US, 28 such cases of VITT were people who have the Pfizer/ distributed so far? identified after nearly 9 million BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. The US Centers for Disease Control doses had been given. The CDC The study authors say a second and Prevention (CDC) estimates paused use of the vaccine in dose of the Johnson & Johnson that more than 13 million doses April as a result, but allowed vaccine may be beneficial. have been given in the US. it to restart after 10 days. Clare Wilson

Do vaccines affect long covid?

Being vaccinated reduces your “We do not yet know to what covid by a factor of 20 (medRxiv, “Ours is the largest study and chance of getting long covid, extent covid-19 vaccination can doi.org/gk7czd). This is mainly probably the best evidence to which can involve a variety of prevent long covid,” says Annika because vaccination reduces the date,” says Ondine Sherwood at symptoms that persist for weeks Jödicke at the University of Oxford, risk of being infected in the first LongCovidSOS, a UK organisation or months after an infection whose team will use data from place by a factor of 10, and the that campaigns for support for with coronavirus. the UK’s National Health Services risk is also halved in those who people with long covid. The benefits of vaccination in to try to answer this question. get infected despite being Of the three vaccines that reducing the risk of getting long vaccinated, says Spector. Sherwood and her colleagues covid can be seen even if people “ We do not yet know to For those who already have long assessed, the Moderna one was get infected after having a shot. what extent covid-19 covid, it seems vaccination can be most beneficial, reducing the There is also evidence that vaccination can prevent helpful. In a survey of 900 people average symptom severity score vaccines reduce the severity of long covid” who were vaccinated after having by 31 per cent. For Pfizer/BioNTech, symptoms in most people who symptoms lasting for at least it was 24 per cent, and 23 per cent already have long covid, but in a A team at King’s College London four weeks and in most cases for Oxford/AstraZeneca. minority their symptoms worsen. has released initial findings from more than three months, around Sherwood and her team want While various studies are an ongoing study in which people 60 per cent reported an overall to do a follow-up to see how long getting under way, so far there report any long covid symptoms improvement in their symptoms. the symptoms last and what is almost no published evidence via an app. According to study A quarter reported no difference the impact of a second dose is. on the relationship between leader Tim Spector, vaccination and 20 per cent reported worsened However, a randomised trial long covid and vaccination. reduces the risk of getting long symptoms (SSRN, doi.org/gqrw). rather than a survey would

12 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Covaxin Approved for emergency use in India, Covaxin uses a weakened form of the coronavirus itself

Vaccinations How does it work? How effective is it? fewer neutralising antibodies Covaxin is an inactive vaccine, According to Bharat Biotech, against the delta variant and worldwide comprising the coronavirus phase III trial data shows three times fewer against that causes covid-19, but in that Covaxin has 93 per cent the beta variant. Just 29 per cent of the world’s an altered form that can’t efficacy against severe Similarly, the vaccine is population has received at least replicate. When the vaccine illness. Overall vaccine reportedly effective against one dose of a coronavirus vaccine is injected into the body, effectiveness against the highly infectious delta the immune system learns symptomatic infections to recognise the virus. is 78 per cent and 64 per 14.8% cent for asymptomatic 78% Where is it made? infections. Covaxin’s effectiveness against It is produced by Bharat symptomatic infections 14.2% Biotech in India. How long does immunity last? It isn’t known yet how long plus variant, but with a 71% Where has it been approved? the body’s immune response weaker immune response India approved emergency to Covaxin lasts. to this variant. use of Covaxin in January. Eight other countries have How effective is it against Will a booster shot be necessary? given it various forms of variants? We don’t know yet. Bharat Fully vaccinated approval, but the US Food Blood serum analysis by Biotech is conducting trials Single vaccinated and Drug Administration the US National Institutes on booster shots and is due Unvaccinated says there is insufficient of Health suggests that to release the first results Source: ourworldindata.org/ information for it to grant Covaxin stimulates in August. covid-vaccinations approval. The World Health antibodies that are effective It is possible that booster Organization is expected against the alpha variant. jabs may be needed annually to make a decision soon. However, some research to keep antibody levels high suggests that Covaxin enough to protect people. How many doses have been stimulates about 2.7 times Dalmeet Singh Chawla > distributed so far? The exact numbers are unclear, but fewer have been distributed than had been provide more reliable results. hoped. The Indian government The different effects of says it anticipates receiving vaccination on long covid make 400 million doses between sense given emerging evidence August and December this that there are many different year, but Bharat Biotech has mechanisms that can cause long so far delivered only 16 million covid. It can be due, for instance, shots, missing its target of to persistent infections in some 80 million jabs between parts of the body, to tissue January and July. damage from past infection, to disruption of the immune Are there side effects?

system or can arise from all of K For several days, there C O T these occurring in one person. S

may be a few side effects R E T Vaccines would be expected of Covaxin, including fever, T U H S to help clear persistent infections, / headaches, irritability and S E M I

but to make no difference to T pain or swelling on the N A tissue damage. They might T injected arm. S U D N

even worsen immune disruption I H /

R in some cases. The Covaxin vaccine being A M U K Michael Le Page administered in Gurugram, N I P I

India, earlier this month V

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 13 News special Covid-19 vaccines

A shortage of Sputnik V doses has slowed Venezuela’s vaccination campaign

4.46 billion doses of covid-19 vaccines have been given worldwide 38.6 million vaccine doses are currently being K C O

T administered every day S R E T T U H S / E F E - 1.1% A P E

/ of people in low-income countries R

A

N have received at least one dose E P

R E

N Source: ourworldindata.org/ Y A

R covid-vaccinations (9 Aug)

Sputnik V This Russian vaccine is similar to the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but with a twist

How does it work? of 3.8 billion, mostly on an Serbia and San Marino show that administered as Sputnik Light, The Sputnik V vaccine uses emergency use basis. The the vaccine is extremely safe. is 79 per cent effective at tweaked adenoviruses, like the vast majority of these are preventing infection, according to Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson low-income countries. How effective is it? The Lancet paper. An independent & Johnson vaccines. But unlike in There is also “Sputnik Light”, RDIF has claimed it has the “most study has confirmed that it the others, the inactivated viruses which is just the first dose, for use efficient covid-19 vaccine in the stimulates the body to produce used to deliver dose one and dose in places with acute outbreaks in world”, citing non-peer-reviewed antibodies. two of Sputnik V are slightly need of rapid vaccination. This numbers from Russia and the different, which theoretically is approved in 12 countries. United Arab Emirates that a How long does immunity last? makes the immune response double dose is almost 98 per cent There is no data on duration, it provokes stronger. How many doses have been effective against infection and but it has been reported that distributed so far? 100 per cent effective against Sputnik Light will also be used Where is it made? According to database company severe disease. as a booster six months after the The vaccine was developed by a Statista, Russia has exported more second shot. team at the Gamaleya National than 600 million doses – 250 “ Russia has exported Center of Epidemiology and million of them to India – and more than 600 million How effective is it against variants? Microbiology in Moscow with a further 3.3 billion doses have doses, including Very effective, according to funding from RDIF, Russia’s been manufactured abroad 250 million to India” research done at the Gamaleya sovereign wealth fund. It is under licence. centre and published in the manufactured in Russia by In February, a peer-reviewed journal Vaccines. This found that pharma companies part-owned Are there side effects? analysis in The Lancet of interim it neutralises the alpha, beta, delta by RDIF, and also under licence The vaccine is well tolerated: just phase III trial results reported 92 and gamma variants. in 14 other countries. over half of people given both per cent efficacy against infection However, a very small doses had mild side effects such and 100 per cent efficacy against study in Argentina found that Where has it been approved? as headache, flu-like illness moderate or severe disease, both it was effective against alpha It is available in 69 countries and sore arms. RDIF has said from the day of dose two onwards. but less so against beta. with a combined population that real-word findings from The first dose alone, as is Graham Lawton

14 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 China’s coronavirus vaccines Three key Chinese vaccines are in use outside of China, particularly in low-income countries, but their efficacy varies

IN TERMS of sheer numbers, Another inactivated virus its efficacy against delta. the leading Chinese vaccine vaccine from China, Coronavac The WHO also says there More in the pipeline is the snappily named from Sinovac Biotech, has is no information available BBIBP-CorV from Beijing-based some form of approval on whether it prevents Several further coronavirus pharmaceutical firm in 39 countries, mostly transmission. vaccines are in late-stage Sinopharm and the Beijing low-income ones, and has A third Chinese vaccine, Ad5- testing. According to McGill Institute of Biological Products. WHO emergency use listing. nCoV from CanSino Biologics, University’s vaccine tracker, This is an inactivated virus Efficacy of this vaccine varies is approved in eight countries there are 130 coronavirus vaccine that uses viruses a lot from trial to trial, with a but not by the WHO. It uses an vaccines still in clinical trials, originally isolated from high of 84 per cent against adenovirus as a parcel to deliver 40 of them in phase III. covid-19 patients in China. symptomatic disease in a trial the DNA for the coronavirus In the UK, those most likely These are grown in cell culture in Turkey and a low of just spike protein into the body, to see the light of day are made and then “killed” by soaking over 50 per cent in Brazil. The given as a single dose. Results by Novavax, Valneva and them in a chemical called WHO’s emergency use listing CureVac. The UK government beta-propiolactone. assessment concluded that the “ All the vaccines on the has options to buy batches of This vaccine is approved in vaccine is 51 per cent effective WHO emergency use list all three, pending approval. some form in 59 countries, at preventing symptomatic are effective in preventing Novavax’s shot consists mostly low-income ones, disease but 100 per cent severe disease” of spike proteins from the and also has emergency use effective against severe disease SARS-CoV-2 virus embedded in listing from the World Health and hospitalisation. from a trial in Pakistan suggest a virus-like nanoparticle. Interim Organization (WHO), which Effectiveness against variants 66 per cent effectiveness. results from phase III trials means it can be used under also varies. Some research Three other Chinese vaccines suggest it is about 90 per cent COVAX, the global initiative suggests the Sinovac vaccine are being used exclusively in effective at preventing disease for equitable vaccine sharing. works well against the alpha China, and one is in use in China with the original coronavirus Information from Sinopharm variant but less so against and Uzbekistan. One of these strain but less effective with is thin on the ground, but the beta, and is ineffective against vaccines was also developed by variants (NEJM, doi.org/ WHO says that all the vaccines gamma. However, the WHO Sinopharm, in partnership with gk3zvz). Novavax is tweaking on the emergency use list says it is effective against the Wuhan Institute of Virology. the vaccine to deal with them. are “highly effective in gamma. There is no data on It is essentially identical to Valneva’s vaccine is an preventing severe disease and BBIBP-CorV and just as effective, inactivated virus vaccine, hospitalisation due to covid-19”. Children aged 12 to 17 but used a different SARS-CoV-2 the only one of its kind in WHO approval is also an queuing for vaccination sample as its starting point. development in Europe. It is in endorsement of safety. in Suqian, China, in July Graham Lawton a phase III trial in the UK, with Peer-reviewed results of a results expected in September. phase III trial showed that the CureVac’s jab is an mRNA vaccine is 78 per cent effective vaccine, but results from its against symptomatic disease phase III trials so far have been (JAMA, doi.org/gj7khd). The disappointing, with only 48 per WHO concluded that the cent efficacy against infection. Sinopharm coronavirus Other late-stage vaccines vaccine is 79 per cent effective worth watching are from the against hospitalisation. Canadian firm Medicago, The vaccine seems to be which grows vaccines in a

effective against the alpha S relative of the tobacco plant, E G A as well as a viral protein vaccine

coronavirus variant but less M I

Y

T from pharma giants Sanofi and so against the beta variant. T E G

A Peer-reviewed data on its I GlaxoSmithKline. Initial results V

A I effect on the gamma and D on the latter disappointed and E M

delta variants has yet to T trials were halted, but it has F O R emerge. The WHO says there C been reformulated and is R A B is also no information available / showing promise in phase III O T O on whether it prevents F trials. Graham Lawton T S O transmission. C

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 15 presents

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Animal behaviour Dolphins use mud to fish Sophisticated fishing technique seen in two unrelated groups

Alison Kentish

BOTTLENOSE dolphins near Florida are known to make “mud rings” to catch fish – and now the behaviour has been documented in the Caribbean too. A “ring maker” dolphin circles near the ocean floor and traps fish with a ring of mud as others wait with mouths open, lunging to catch any fish attempting to escape.

Such a complex, learned behaviour T N E M is tailored to specific conditions P O L E

like those in the Florida Keys. V E D

With the help of drone footage, D N A

Eric Ramos at the City University N O I T A of New York and his colleagues V R E S have now found that dolphins N O C living in the Chetumal-Corozal R O F

E

Bay off Mexico and Belize also use C N A I L this technique (Marine Mammal L A

A J

Science, doi.org/gqtt). E N E T

“We don’t believe [the two groups] R A S

, cross paths,” says Ramos. “The same A Y O T species in a different area appears N A S

R to be independently developing I M O E that mud ring strategy.” ❚ L

Technology Solar plane that will stay in the air for months

THE US Navy is developing an development, sometimes known airliner-sized MQ-4C Triton more robust than other solar uncrewed solar-powered aircraft as high-altitude platform systems drones with an endurance of aircraft. “That makes sense for the to fly for 90 days at a time. or pseudo-satellites. These are 30 hours on maritime patrols, US Navy in particular, which faces The craft adds new software lightweight and fly at extreme but seeks longer flight times. some pretty serious weather at and hardware to Solar Impulse 2, altitudes with small payloads. “The biggest advantage of long high altitude over the Indo-Pacific a piloted solar plane that flew The Skydweller plane is much endurance is not having to make region,” says Bronk. “Hydrogen around the world in 2015-16. The heavier and has a 72-metre repeated transits to and from the fuel cells make sense as a backup new plane is made by US-Spanish wingspan covered in solar cells. operating area,” says Justin Bronk if you need to climb rapidly if aerospace firm Skydweller Aero, It may later be fitted with hydrogen at UK security think tank Royal there is bad weather intruding.” which was awarded $5 million to fuel cells for an additional boost. United Services Institute. He says In the longer run, he says, the develop the aircraft. The firm’s “We are currently following our the Skydweller aircraft appears largest market may be commercial CEO, Robert Miller, says having plan to test autonomous flight, telecommunications, with solar human pilots meant previous then autonomous take-off, then The Skydweller drones providing 5G or other Solar Impulse flights had to autonomous landing and finally solar plane has services at a fraction of the cost break up circumnavigation our first fully autonomous flight,” a 72-metre of satellites. “It may still not have of the planet into hops of says Miller. “Once all this has been wingspan enough power for an active sensor O R no more than five days. proven, we will move into long- E like radar, but it could be useful for A

R E

The Skydweller aircraft is endurance testing with the goal L passive sensors such as cameras, L E radically different from other of operating for 90-plus days.” W or as a communications node.” ❚ D Y K high-altitude solar aircraft under The US Navy currently operates S David Hambling

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Cell biology Psychology Organic blobs built in lab may Both boys and girls tend to write stories be step towards synthetic life about boys

Danielle Sedbrook Jason Arunn Murugesu

A NEW way to make simple STORIES written by children are organic bubbles could provide far more likely to feature male fresh clues about how cells characters, regardless of whether formed spontaneously on the writer is a boy or a girl. early Earth – and help efforts Yaling Hsiao at the University to generate synthetic life. of Oxford and her colleagues Protocells, the ancient analysed more than 100,000 short ancestors of life today, may have stories written by British children, been little more than simple, aged 5 to 13, for a national writing spherical compartments, competition organised by the BBC enclosed by membranes in 2019. and containing water and the The researchers wanted to find molecules of life. But how these out how a child’s gender influenced A Y compartments – or “vesicles” – R the gender of the characters they A H

C wrote about. They also wanted to came about is a mystery. A T T A determine if this changed with a The membranes found in H B

T I modern cells self-assemble in J child’s age. N A H water from molecules called A The team used the England and lipids. But in all modern life Wales birth register from 2017 to forms, the proteins that help system to generate one protein Artificially coloured categorise every character named generate lipids only work needed to create synthetic image of cell-like in the children’s stories. A name when embedded in a lipids and a second that can organic vesicles was considered male if more than membrane. In other words, bind to the surface of the 60 per cent of the babies given you need a membrane to make vesicles. When lipid precursors according to David Deamer at that name that year were recorded a membrane. It is the ultimate are added to the solution, the University of California, as male at birth, and female if “chicken and egg paradox”, says vesicles form spontaneously Santa Cruz. “The first more than 60 per cent of babies Neal Devaraj at the University and the second protein attaches membranes were simply with the name were recorded as of California, San Diego. to the outside of the membrane. mixtures of fatty acids and female at birth. Now, Devaraj’s research group This is the first time anyone has fatty alcohols,” he says. The researchers found that – has found a way around this used this cell-free system to Devaraj agrees. He says that regardless of age – boys typically constraint. “We basically just create a synthetic vesicle from future versions of vesicles like wrote about male characters. More [place] some small molecules those he and his colleagues that 75 per cent of the characters and DNA into a solution, and have developed will be more in the stories by boys were male. out come vesicles that are 3.5 useful for learning about living In contrast, while some 70 per protein decorated,” says Devaraj. billion years ago – time by organisms rather than for cent of young girls wrote about To perform this trick, the which cellular life had emerged understanding the origin female characters, only about 50 researchers relied on a 20-year- of cellular life. per cent of 13-year-old girls did so. old technology developed to basic ingredients (Journal Booth says that any insights The researchers suspected that encourage DNA that has been of the American Chemical from these studies into the this is because the books children removed from its cell to still Society, doi.org/gjz3nt). organisation of life as we know read often have central male function and generate proteins. “To create them from it may also help in the efforts to characters. They confirmed this The approach involves placing scratch is really exciting,” generate synthetic life. “If you idea by analysing a large sample the DNA in a solution with only says Michael Booth at the can make vesicles, then you can of children’s literature from 1813 the basic ingredients needed to University of Oxford, who think about making them make to the modern day (Society for translate a genetic code into a wasn’t involved in the research. more vesicles,” he says. Research in Child Development, protein: these comprise 35 or so “It’s just building down the Devaraj says this is one doi.org/gqs2). proteins, a dash of magnesium, complexity even more to of the goals of his research. This bias in children’s literature a sprinkling of amino acids and simple starting materials.” “Ultimately, that’s what we’re might have a detrimental effect on other small molecules, plus a That said, the system Devaraj trying to strive toward. Can you boys’ outlook on life, says Hsiao. few ribosomes – the molecular and his colleagues used is still take a known set of parts and “If all boys read is about boys, they “machines” inside cells where far too complex to mimic the assemble them spontaneously may not be motivated as much to proteins are synthesised. emergence of the very first in a way that leads to a life-like think about the female perspective,” Devaraj’s group modified this protocells on early Earth, artificial cell?” ❚ she says. ❚

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 19 News

Physics A true quantum time crystal A strange phase of matter has been made inside Google’s quantum computer

Matthew Sparkes

A UNIQUE phase of matter called penned them long ago “weren’t says is a time crystal truer to the this delicate state spontaneously a time crystal, which can in theory aware of all the subtleties that strict definition than ever before. reverse their spin in unison to flip between two configurations open up” in the world of quantum The team used a series of create a new pattern of data, forever with no energy input mechanics. He says he “took a 20 quantum bits, or qubits, within then revert to their original state, necessary, has been created inside lot of grief” in the years after he Sycamore to represent a string of over and over again (arxiv.org/ a quantum computer built by published his hypothesis from data with random spin patterns. abs/2107.13571). The team says Google. It is one of the first people who thought he had fallen These values were then finely part of the quantum processor real-world problems solved by into the trap of describing a balanced using a technique called had become a time crystal. a quantum computer, and could perpetual motion machine. many-body localisation, in which “It’s definitely a milestone in be harnessed to improve them. But the concept quickly became interference between particles the field,” says Wilczek. “And I A crystal can form out of a more plausible. Several teams freezes them in place even when think even more so in some ways material when its components have claimed to have created a they would tend to drift apart due it’s a milestone for quantum form stable, repeating patterns. time crystal in recent years and to thermal equilibrium. The team computing. I think this is the first At this point, it is said to have lost now a group of researchers from demonstrated that the qubits in reasonably natural problem that spatial symmetry – it no longer Google, Stanford University and a quantum computer has actually looks the same from every angle. MIT among others have used A processor for helped to solve.” In 2012, Frank Wilczek at the Google’s Sycamore quantum Google’s Sycamore He jokes that, in some ways, the Massachusetts Institute of computer to achieve what Wilczek quantum computer experiment is like a traditional Technology suggested that as computer falling into an accidental general relativity defines time infinite loop and crashing, and as a fourth dimension, a material that time crystals can be thought could instead lose temporal of as an “interesting failure mode” symmetry. Such a “time crystal” for quantum computers. would move back and forth Wilczek believes that time between two states again and crystals could find applications again without using or losing within quantum computers to energy. Its patterns repeat over increase reliability and accuracy, time, rather than across space. but are more likely to find use Wilczek, who wasn’t involved before that as extremely accurate in this new work, admits that this measurement tools because idea of perpetual motion feels their stability is delicate. ❚ O like it should violate the laws of R E C U

L For more on exotic states of matter, thermodynamics, but says it is K I R only because the scientists who E turn to page 40

Genetics

Menopause research influence the age of menopause a member of the research team. When the team genetically may help improve using information from 200,000 The gene found to have the modified female mice so that they women with European ancestry biggest effect is CHEK2, which was had no CHEK2, their eggs died off fertility treatment and nearly 80,000 women with already known to be involved in a more slowly as they aged. They East Asian ancestry. process of programmed cell death also released more eggs when they A POTENTIAL treatment for The researchers found 290 called apoptosis. Women with a were treated with gonadotrophin, infertility has been suggested by regions of DNA that collectively variant that stops this gene from which is used during IVF to a study that investigated the genes cause about a third of the genetic working go through menopause stimulate egg development controlling the age of menopause. variation in the age at which 3.5 years later than those with a (Nature, doi.org/gqs3). Menopause usually happens menopause occurs. working version, the study found. If we could develop a drug that around the age of 50, but there Many of the genes identified blocks CHEK2, it could help women is wide variation. The study, are known to be linked to processes “If we could develop a drug having IVF release more eggs, says undertaken by a large international of DNA repair, says John Perry at that blocks the gene, it Perry. “CHEK2 is probably causing consortium of researchers, the University of Cambridge could help women having viable eggs to die,” he says. ❚ looked at genetic variants that School of Clinical Medicine, IVF release more eggs” Clare Wilson

20 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Discovery Tours

7 days | 18 January 2022 Norway: Wonders of the Arctic

Norway boasts some of the most beautiful city in Norway. Explore charming wooden natural experiences, home to the northern lights streets, Vågen harbour and the Bryggen as well as a rich diversity of marine life in its fjord quarter, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. coastline. On this New Scientist Discovery Tour, - Wildlife fjord safari by boat where, as you you will gain an in-depth insight into the science pass through the frozen coastline, you will behind the Aurora Borealis and the behavioural get an opportunity to look for sea eagles, ecology of the humpback and orca whales. seals, elegant cormorants and whales (orca Accompanied by marine biologist Helen Scales and humpback). and plasma physicist Melanie Windridge. - Take a trip to Polaria, the world's most You will explore Norway’s iconic fjords by northerly aquarium, where you will see some boat, where you can meander through the of Norway's native species and enjoy a film frozen forested valleys from the picturesque about life in artic Norway. city of Bergen at their heart. You will travel north and stay in an observatory where you can - Enjoy a talk on the benefits of ice-swimming witness and learn about the splendour of the and perhaps have a go at it yourself. northern lights. - Explore the Northern Norwegian Science Centre, a popular science experience centre containing almost 100 interactive installations. Highlights - Take a cable car ride from Tromsdalen, where you will enjoy amazing views. - Marine biologist Helen Scales will give evening talks and accompany you on a cruise - Head to the wilderness to visit a husky from Bergen along the Osterfjord to the kennel where you can learn about the Alaskan rugged Mostraumen fjord. husky breed, dog sled racing and animal welfare. Then an experienced musher will - Plasma physicist and STEM ambassador take you sledding safely through the gorgeous Melanie Windridge will accompany you during landscape. your two night stay at the Aurora Borealis Observatory on Senja Island. Here you will enjoy stargazing outdoors and talks about the Covid-19 safety protocol includes: northern lights and the science behind fusion - Pre-departure screening of all guests energy where researchers are trying to and tour leaders. B replicate the nuclear reactions which take O - Increased sanitisation of all accommodation OK place inside the stars themselves. N I and transport. OW N G - A walking tour of Bergen, the most beautiful - Mandatory use of PPE where appropriate.

In partnership with Intrepid Travel For more information visit newscientist.com/tours News In brief

Solar system Moon may have always had a puny magnetic field

FRESH analysis of rocks from the that you didn’t have a field,” he says. moon has revealed that it may never Tarduno and his team believe that have had a strong magnetic field. the evidence of a strong field is due The moon formed about to moon rocks being magnetised by 4.5 billion years ago in a collision the shock of asteroid impacts. They that sent a chunk of our planet into found that other Apollo-era samples orbit, so it has a similar iron core from different lunar locations show to Earth’s. Currently, the moon’s no sign of such a field. magnetic field is less than one- The team analysed a glass-like thousandth as powerful as Earth’s, moon rock that formed 2 million but initial analysis of rocks collected years ago in an asteroid impact and from the moon by Apollo astronauts found that it showed evidence of a in the 1970s suggested that this strong magnetic field being present field would have been like Earth’s when it cooled and solidified. But 3.6 billion to 3.9 billion years ago. by that time, the moon’s strong John Tarduno at the University field should have waned. They say of Rochester in New York says this indicates the impact caused this discovery was a big surprise, the magnetisation. The team also because the moon wasn’t large tested samples dating back to enough to power such a strong between 3.2 billion and 3.9 billion S G S

U magnetic field. “How do you have years ago, and found no evidence / L P J / a magnetic field if you have no of a strong field (Science Advances, A S A

N way to power it? The answer is doi.org/gmfc7j). Matthew Sparkes

Technology Zoology

The researchers thought that an front four can become jaws or Post is a first class alternative might be to freeze-dry Secrets of arachnid’s pincers or limbs called pedipalps. way to send sperm sperm onto a surface and send it grasping legs cracked To find out more about what through the standard mail. After drives the differences, Guilherme A SIMPLE way to transfer sperm in testing materials, including filter SOME spider-like animals have Gainett at the University of the mail could find an application paper and vinyl sheets, the team legs that can grasp like a monkey’s Wisconsin-Madison and his team in research and animal husbandry. discovered that weighing paper – tail – and a genetic study has joined forces with specialists at Sperm is often transported a type used to hold samples being helped work out how they develop. the Smithsonian Institution in nationally and internationally, but weighed in scientific analyses – Harvestmen, or daddy-long- Washington DC to draft a sequence the glass vials typically used are was the best option. Mouse sperm legs, are arachnids belonging to a of the genome of a lab-raised vulnerable to breaking in transit. could be freeze-dried onto the group called the Opiliones, closely harvestman (Phalangium opilio). A team led by Daiyu Ito at the paper and remain viable when related to spiders. They have eight After identifying three genes University of Yamanashi in Japan it was retrieved later. very long legs and they can bend that might affect how the animal’s has come up with a way to deliver To put the method to the test, the tips of them around objects. legs develop, they engineered sperm that removes the risk of the team freeze-dried mouse However, harvestmen actually dozens of harvestmen embryos sample loss. The method involves sperm to a sheet of weighing have 12 limb-like appendages. The with different combinations of placing sperm on a sheet of paper paper, before sandwiching this modified ways of expressing those and popping it in the post. between plastic sheets for easier genes. Some of the harvestmen “Until now, sending mouse handling and sending it through developed deformed legs that sperm to other researchers has the Japanese postal service, either more closely resembled the first required a freezing environment placed in an envelope or attached four appendages, says Gainett. such as liquid nitrogen or a to a postcard. When the team interfered with freezer,” says Ito. “Not only is When the samples specific genetic pathways, the legs M

the constant supply of liquid were retrieved after travelling O lacked the kind of segmentation – C . L

nitrogen and electricity needed 200 kilometres over the course P similar to joints in vertebrates – E R U

for transportation expensive to of two days, the researchers were T that allows harvestmen to curl legs A N /

maintain, but if there is a road able to use the sperm to produce N around objects (Proceedings of the O T P U

disruption or power outage, all healthy mice (iScience, doi.org/ Royal Society B, doi.org/gqsz). K C I

the sperm will melt.” gqs4). Krista Charles N Christa Lesté-Lasserre

22 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 New Scientist Daily Get the latest scientific discoveries in your inbox newscientist.com/sign-up Palaeontology Really brief Food and water contain carbon titanosaur eggshells found in Breeding left giant and oxygen, but the mix of stable similar mid-latitude regions in dinos with a thirst isotopes of these varies depending other parts of the world and found on environmental conditions. they all fitted a pattern of forming S

E TITANOSAUR dinosaurs – thought These isotopes transfer to animals in drier conditions. G A M I to have been the largest animals to that consume them, so the ratios It was already thought that Y T T

E walk on Earth – might have gone in eggshells or teeth give a glimpse titanosaurs had to migrate to G / S O

I thirsty and hungry when making into the environmental conditions get enough food. If they lingered C A L

A nests and laying eggs. under which those tissues formed. permanently in arid areas where P

O I

C Léa Leuzinger at the University The eggshells contained more they laid their eggs, they would A N G I of Buenos Aires in Argentina and of an oxygen isotope associated quickly munch through all the her team studied stable carbon with higher evaporation rates of available vegetation. So the study Machu Picchu is and oxygen isotopes in titanosaur water than the tooth. This suggests indicates that titanosaurs, in mid- older than thought eggshells and a tooth, all from that the eggs formed while the latitudes at least, possibly went to three fossilised nesting sites titanosaurs were in relatively arid more arid areas only to reproduce The Inca site of Machu in Argentina. The fossils are places. The team compared the (Chemical Geology, doi.org/gqs6). Picchu may have been up to 100 million years old. results with isotope data from James Urquhart built at least 20 years earlier than we thought. Archaeology Diet Spanish accounts from the 16th century suggest it was constructed after Pleas to cut calories, 1438, but using enhanced salt and sugar fail carbon dating, researchers say human remains at the ENCOURAGING manufacturers to citadel are from 1420 voluntarily reduce calories, sugar (Antiquity, doi.org/gqss). or salt in food doesn’t work. That’s according to an analysis of changes Ancient Mars lake in the nutritional content of was a small pond branded produce sold in English supermarkets from 2015 to 2018. A vast lake believed to have Over the years, Public Health been present in Gale crater England, a government agency, on Mars may have been has set voluntary targets for Y L L

smaller than we thought. E reducing calories, sugar and salt in K

W

Analysing data collected E

R processed food sold in the country. D N

by the Curiosity rover, A The hope was to encourage change researchers say just 1 per rather than force it on firms. cent of the rocks – those Geometry of triangles was in Lauren Bandy and her team at in the deepest parts of the University of Oxford have now the crater – formed in a use long before Pythagoras assessed the impact of the targets. lake (Science Advances, “The only change that we could doi.org/gqvk). ANCIENT Babylonians understood (pictured) that dates to between see was with soft drinks,” says key concepts in geometry, including about 1900 and 1600 BC. It bears Bandy. That may be because Pianists learn to use how to make precise right-angled cuneiform markings that make up a sugary drinks have been subject robot thumb to play triangles. They used this know-how table listing “Pythagorean triples”. to a UK tax since 2018, she says. to divide up farmland – more than Each triple comprises the lengths of The researchers observed a A robotic thumb strapped 1000 years before the Greek the sides of a right-angled triangle, small increase in the number to a user’s hand next to philosopher Pythagoras, with where each side is a whole number. of products classified by the UK their little finger can be whom these ideas are associated. The simplest example is 3, 4 and 5; government as healthy on the used well enough to act Babylonia was one of several others include 5, 12 and 13. basis of their nutrient profile, as an 11th digit while ancient societies in Mesopotamia, The key clue to why they did this from 46 per cent in 2015 to 47 per playing piano. Both a region of south-west Asia that was a second tablet excavated in cent in 2018. There was also an amateur and experienced was situated between the Tigris and Iraq in 1894. Mansfield tracked increase in the sale of healthy players learned to control Euphrates rivers. Babylonia existed it down to a Turkish museum. It products, from 44 per cent in the thumb, which is between 2500 and 500 BC. was a surveyor’s tablet, used to 2015 to 51 per cent in 2018. They manipulated by moving Daniel Mansfield at the University make calculations to fairly share attributed these increases to the their foot, within an hour of New South Wales in Sydney, out a plot of land by dividing it into sugar reductions in soft drinks (bioRxiv, doi.org/gqvm). Australia, has been studying a clay rectangles (Foundations of Science, encouraged by the 2018 tax tablet known as Plimpton 322 doi.org/gqsw). Michael Marshall (PLoS One, doi.org/gqst). KC

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 23 A BR U A DI N O D FE N App A EW T UR Finish that article or go for E that walk? Now you can do both With New Scientist’s new audio magazine feature, you can balance your everyday life with learning something new. Listen to stories from the world’s leading science and technology weekly through our app. Got a print only subscription? Not to worry – we've gifted you app access for a limited time, so you can enjoy our new listening experience. newscientist.com/app

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+++++ 4.6 Views

The columnist Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist Plant toxicity is a There are so many Striking swirls The life of Vera Rubin, Simon Ings on complicated subject, issues holding up of sea snot clog who made us rethink M. C. Escher’s art of says James Wong p26 self-driving cars p28 Turkish waters p30 the cosmos p32 the impossible p34

Comment Record-breaking Olympics World records tumbled at an impressive rate on the athletics track at this year’s Olympic games. Was new technology responsible, asks Laura Healey

HE Tokyo Olympics behind it, spent three years brought some of the fastest researching and developing the T times ever seen on the surface specifically for Tokyo 2020. athletics track. At an astonishing The track was precisely tuned number of races, athletes beat to allow shock absorption and personal bests along with energy return, playing a similar national, Olympic and world role to the foam in spikes. records. Elaine Thompson-Herah Research on engineered track set a new Olympic record in the surfaces is as old as 1978, when women’s 100 metres, breaking it was found that a compliant, Florence Griffith Joyner’s record resilient track surface could set more than 33 years ago. World improve times by as much as records were smashed in both the 2.9 per cent. Although the exact men’s and women’s 400 metres savings of the Tokyo track are hurdles, by Karsten Warholm and unknown, its developers have Sydney McLaughlin respectively. said it could improve times by In both these events, the silver as much as 2 per cent compared medallist also ran faster than with previous Olympic tracks. the previous world record. While it is tempting to attribute Was this just an unusually good the record-breaking times to the Olympics for record-breaking new spike and track technologies races or was something different alone, other factors were at play going on? Part of the answer could too. The games being delayed by a be found by looking down at an year due to the covid-19 pandemic athlete’s feet. If you looked closely, may actually have benefited some you might have spotted some athletes, giving them more time to new technology known as being applied to track spikes. the foam acts as a spring with train. Other, more variable, factors, “super spikes” – and underfoot, Similar to their super shoe each step the athlete takes. such as the weather, can affect how there was a high-tech track. counterparts, super spikes The role of the carbon-fibre an athlete performs on any given Recently, track spikes – shoes combine soft, compliant and plate is less clear. Research has day. And above all, we cannot that have spikes on the underside resilient foam with a stiff, curved shown that stiffening track spikes ignore the effort and talent of to give runners grip – have seen a carbon-fibre plate. The exact will reduce the amount of energy the athletes competing in these similar shift in the performance- benefits of super spikes are lost during toe flexion. This may races. It may just be that we got a enhancing technology that difficult to quantify, but each increase the demands on the particularly talented crop this year. previously took place with component probably plays a role. ankle. However, it has also been Overall, the record-breaking marathon racing shoes. Marathon Traditionally, track spikes have shown that if an athlete is strong times seen in Tokyo are likely to “super shoes” first emerged in tried to lessen the amount of enough to meet these increased be a combination of all the above, 2017 with Nike’s Vaporfly 4%, midsole foam to reduce weight demands, the plate allows them including fast shoes, fast tracks which gave athletes average and energy absorption. However, to get a more effective push off. and extremely talented athletes. ❚ energy savings of 4 per cent new technology is lightweight Another new technology that O N A

B compared with competitors not and the foam is better at returning contributed to athletes’ speed Laura Healey is a R U ’ D wearing them. By now, almost energy to the athlete than foams in Tokyo was the track. While it manager of footwear E L L

E every brand has a super shoe, before it, giving back as much may have looked like a regular innovation at Puma H C I

M and the new technology is as 80 to 90 per cent. In this way, track, Mondo, the company

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 25 Views Columnist

#FactsMatter

What even is toxicity? People often ask me what plants are toxic, but giving concrete answers on the subject is more complicated than you might imagine, writes James Wong

AM often approached by Even on the same plant, apples I know we all probably know people looking for definitive at the top of the tree, for example, people we might like to enrol in I answers about plant toxicity. can contain nearly twice the levels such trials, but ethics boards exist It seems like an area that needs of some antioxidant compounds for a reason. That is why many urgent clarity, given that you as those closer to the ground. safety or toxicity levels are see well-being influencers using That is because apples generate based on estimates. The problem potentially deadly, exotic flowers these compounds partially as here is that estimates can leave as decorations on smoothie a sunscreen to help shield their an awful lot of flexibility when bowls or online diet gurus delicate tissues from the damage it comes to interpretation, James Wong is a botanist and claiming that everyday fruit associated with ultraviolet light. particularly in the context science writer, with a particular and vegetables are toxic and You can often actually see this of cultural pressure. interest in food crops, should be eliminated from phenomenon in action on For example, selling apricot conservation and the the diet. Surprisingly, however, the same fruit, because these kernels, which contain a defence environment. Trained at the determining whether a plant compounds are also pigments. compound that is converted to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he is “toxic” or not is actually The redder side of any apple is the cyanide by the body, is banned shares his tiny London flat with quite tricky. side that was exposed to higher due to their potential toxicity in more than 500 houseplants. The first thing you need to levels of UV light and is richer in countries including New Zealand. You can follow him on Twitter know about toxicity is that it potentially beneficial compounds. The same seeds are, however, and Instagram @botanygeek isn’t binary, but a sliding scale legal in many countries, but determined largely by dosage. “ Apples at the top with government advice to greatly Take alcohol, for example. A single of the tree can limit consumption. In Ireland, drop of vodka in a 1-litre jug of contain twice as as little as one small kernel is James’s week water is extremely unlikely to considered the maximum safe have any measurable biological many antioxidants daily dose, while the European What I’m reading effect on your body. However, as those closer Food Safety Authority Gathering Moss by Robin swap that jug for a litre of pure to the ground” recommends up to three Wall Kimmerer, which my vodka and this obviously times this level to be the limit. botany mates say is just becomes a very different story, But why am I talking about At the same time, all over the the most fascinating book. with a continuum of risk beneficial compounds in an world, Italian Amaretti cookies between the two extremes. article on toxicity? Well, counter- and liqueurs made with apricot What I’m watching Now, in plants, the intuitively, many nutrients are seeds as one of their key 911 Lone Star. I know it combinations and concentrations also toxins, depending on the ingredients are sold without is trash, but it is glossy, of their constituent substances dose. Vitamin A, for example, the same levels of legal restrictions aspirational trash that I can vary enormously depending is essential to human health or warnings. To me, it is all find the perfect antidote on a complex range of factors, but a chronic excess of it can, fascinatingly confusing and to stressful times. including genetics, soil chemistry, in rare cases, cause irreversible sometimes highly contradictory. sunlight levels, pest damage, damage to the liver and brain. This nuanced, often quite What I’m working on harvest stage and even how a fruit As if the huge range of factors fuzzy, picture of toxicity means A series of short films for or vegetable has been stored and that can determine the levels of that it is indeed technically the BBC going behind cooked. This can mean that – much these compounds wasn’t tricky true to say that all sorts of the scenes at the Royal like those two jugs – two virtually enough, the exact level at everyday foods contain toxins, Botanic Gardens, Kew. identical looking peppers sitting which they become problematic leaving the term open to on the same shelf can contain a to health is similarly hard to misinterpretation, particularly 100,000 fold difference in their determine. This is because the if you would like to deploy it levels of capsaicin, the highly precise dose at which a compound to fit a cultural narrative. irritant compound responsible starts to cause damage can only Likewise, one might argue, for the spicy flavour of chillies. really be determined by running depending on your perspective, Indeed, the mildest peppers a clinical trial where you that it can mean potentially and the chillies so fiery that intentionally give a large group dangerous foods can be they are used to make pepper of people varying levels of known widely sold. That is a real This column appears spray are the exact same species, toxic substances and record the headache for those seeking monthly. Up next week: just slightly different genetic concentration at which negative simple solutions in our Chanda Prescod-Weinstein selections within that. effects start to become apparent. beautifully complex world. ❚

26 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 CH RA E N CK G O E U OF T B O O UR OK Shop S Summer reading from New Scientist Explore our range of fantastic books now, from our very own award-winning journalists as well as other scientific writers at the very top of their fields.

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Editor’s pick actions and position to all vehicles been able to secure as many an increase in essential proteins around it, one could achieve a level doses as the UK, for example, and minerals, thus diluting the So many issues holding of mass “awareness” that gets then thousands more deaths will nutritional value of the crop. around the shortcomings of stand- occur in those places. And while So there is a problem. up self-driving cars alone sensors. Traffic islands, lane long-term restrictions do affect One study looked at rice crops 31 July, p 45 splitters, lamp posts and so on well-being, there is evidence that subjected to levels of CO2 expected From Martin Stanley, London, UK could also transmit their “presence”. the lifting of restrictions and the later this century: 580 parts per In “Where’s my robot car?”, Jeff Each car has a more or less continued risk of the virus are also million compared with the Hecht points out that self-driving predestined path and it shouldn’t sources of anxiety for many. current 410 ppm. This confirmed cars that stop at every false alarm be too onerous to avoid conflicts. the findings of other studies: that would cause gridlock. I would add Without this, I cannot see level 4 or First space colonists may essential nutrients significantly that pedestrians could also learn 5 autonomy in the next 20 years. dip while sugars and starches rise that they won’t need to wait to have a wasted journey (think diabetes and obesity). cross the road in front of fully 17 July, p 44 Good reason to double autonomous vehicles that detect From Ian Napier, Air DNA sampling, coming people. Cars would always stop for jab everyone and fast Adelaide, South Australia them, again causing traffic delays. 31 July, p 8 and Leader Chris Mason suggests that within to a street near you soon? Beware the auto industry From Rachael Padman, a billion years we will have to leave 31 July, p 16 arguing that pedestrians need to Newmarket, Suffolk, UK Earth to escape the effects of a From Adrian Bowyer, be separated from busy streets – You say countries with many dying sun. We will need to colonise Foxham, Wiltshire, UK perhaps behind fences – and partially vaccinated people and a a new planet using a spacecraft You report that “monitoring allowed to cross only at designated lot of coronavirus infections (such capable of supporting successive wildlife… might be made easier points. I feel this would be too high as the UK) are breeding grounds generations for the voyage. and cheaper… [by] vacuuming bits a price to pay for autonomous for new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 I suggest a postscript, in which of DNA out of the air”. Presumably, driving in urban areas. virus that may evade antibodies. the generation ship, nearing New soon every CCTV camera will have On the other hand, you say in Earth after a couple of thousand an air sampler attached to detect From David Myers, your related Leader that lower- years of travel, sends a triumphant our DNA. People walking past can Commugny, Switzerland income countries will be harmed message back home to that effect. expect to get everything from a As a postgraduate physics student by these new variants because of Almost instantly it receives a text suggesting they visit a nearby 50 years ago, I was told by an AI vaccine nationalism. message that says: “Welcome to shop to being arrested. expert that “we shall have machine The logical conclusion from New Earth folks. We didn’t know translation licked in 10 years”. the first is that countries that who you were until our historians No mystical vitalism, but I think we are similarly over- are able to fully vaccinate their dug down and realised that you optimistic about the imminent whole populations should do so came from our home planet a consciousness may be rare arrival of truly self-driving cars. as quickly as possible, and only while back. We got here well Letters, 24 July One problem is software written then divert vaccines elsewhere. over a thousand years before you From Lawrence R. Bernstein, for ideal conditions. I’ll believe because, a few centuries after you Menlo Park, California, US that self-driving cars have arrived From Christine Duffill, left, a way was found to travel at Regarding Luce Gilmore’s when one can drive through a Southampton, UK near light speed.” comments on consciousness, Sicilian village in summer and Regarding your Leader, a balance the rejection of mystical vitalism down an alpine road in winter, must be struck between “the There is a reason why food doesn’t exclude the possibility such as the Valsertal here in speediest possible end to the that consciousness only arises Switzerland. I would love to see pandemic” and the long-term may get less nutritious from certain living brains. what the car would do on a single- effects of lockdown restrictions on 17 July, p 24 It may be that billions of diverse width road covered in deep snow the mental and physical health of From John Radogno, neurons, having trillions of varied with a 300-metre drop on one side millions. I fail to see how the UK Rohnert Park, California, US and ever-changing connections and faced with oncoming traffic. government could have reacted to Further to James Wong’s look carrying constantly modulating Perhaps programmers should delta any more safely than it did. at claims that food is becoming signals, bathed in a brew of ions, be obliged to traverse the Valsertal less nutritious, there is reason to hormones, enzymes and other in vehicles with their software The editor writes: think this will occur. Higher levels substances in continually before such cars reach the public. ❚ If vaccinations were delayed in of carbon dioxide increase plant fluctuating concentrations, nations not yet widely able to fully growth, but as more carbon interacting with a host of non- From Robert Maier, vaccinate because they haven’t enters the plant it doesn’t bring neuronal cell types and other Penicuik, Midlothian, UK structures is the level of complexity Hecht’s article omits one potential required for consciousness. This route to fully autonomous level 4 Want to get in touch? isn’t yet obtainable with silicon. or 5 driving, namely fully Send letters to [email protected]; In trying to create a conscious interconnected traffic. If every see terms at newscientist.com/letters entity, we may find that we have vehicle, be it driving or stationary, Letters sent to New Scientist, Northcliffe House, to recreate a living brain and its would constantly transmit its 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT will be delayed connected sense organs. ❚

28 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Signal Boost

Welcome to our Signal Boost project – a page for charitable organisations to get their message out to a global audience, free of charge. Today, a message from Canine Partners

More than 1.2 million people in the UK use a programme, not only for over 1000 volunteers The effects of the covid-19 pandemic have wheelchair, and a significant number of those but also for our partners (those we provide had a significant impact on our fundraising would benefit from a canine partner assistance assistance dogs to) to ensure a bespoke match. efforts. The crisis has brought an increased dog to help with life-changing tasks. Canine Each dog’s training is tailored to an individual health risk and greater isolation for many of the Partners both train and provide amazing applicant on our waiting list, who is then trained 420 people Canine Partners supports, with assistance dogs for people with physical by one of our specialist trainers. They learn how most having to shield or self-isolate to protect disabilities, boosting their confidence and to work with their dog and continue its training themselves from the virus. Our amazing dogs independence. to ensure the best possible working partnership. have been a lifeline throughout this frightening The dogs are taught a range of everyday tasks We also offer on-going aftercare, training time, providing practical support, including picking up and fetching items, opening and guidance to support each established companionship and security. doors and helping to undress a person. They can partnership throughout their entire working Supporting Canine Partners at this crucial even help to load and unload a washing machine lives until the dog’s well-deserved retirement. time will help to make sure that Canine Partners and they can fetch help in an emergency. These We commit to the lifetime of each partner, is able to continue to train amazing dogs to life-transforming dogs not only offer practical providing them with a successor dog when this transform lives of people living with physical support, they also provide physiological, time comes. disabilities. psychological and social benefits including increased independence and confidence as well Want to help? as increased motivation and self-esteem. If you can, please donate today to help us to transform We run a dedicated training and education lives by visiting caninepartners.org.uk/donate Views Aperture

30 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Killer sea snot

Photographer Muhammed Enes Yildirim Agency Anadolu Agency/ Getty Images

THE striking swirls in this shot of the Sea of Marmara, in north-west Turkey, represent one of the latest examples of the destructive effects of pollution. Last month, photographer Muhammed Enes Yildirim used a drone to capture these mesmerising patterns, which are formed by what is known as marine mucilage. Also called sea snot, it is a mixture of mucus and various microorganisms, including phytoplankton. When these microorganisms receive extra nutrients – from untreated waste water, for example – they multiply and make an excessive amount of mucus, which clumps together to form the thick swathes. Although marine mucilage has routinely plagued Turkey’s waters since 2007, this year it stretches from the surface down to about 30 metres, in what is the largest and most damaging example yet. Thousands of cubic metres have already been collected. The marine mucilage has become a huge environmental problem in recent months as it has grown, suffocating marine life beneath and disrupting fishing and tourism. Lockdowns due to covid-19 resulted in more domestic waste water and detergent being released into the sea, making clean-up efforts more challenging. Researchers predict that ongoing climate change will worsen the situation, as warming seas cause more algal “blooms” and so more marine mucilage. ❚

Gege Li

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 31 Views Culture

The rising star of Vera Rubin The stellar career of the astronomer who brought dark matter into the mainstream was a trailblazer for many others, writes Vijaysree Venkatraman

Vera Rubin at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1965

accounted for by luminous matter. Rubin’s work was the strongest evidence yet for dark matter. Many astronomers and cosmologists had worked on this non-intuitive idea of dark matter, but Yeager shows the full context and importance of Rubin’s work. She also brings to life the N O T

G supportive framework of family N I H

S (and some scientists) who made A W

F her stellar career possible. O

N O I Margaret Burbidge, a senior T U T I

T colleague and mentor, was the S N I

E observational astronomer who I G E

N showed Rubin she could have it R A C

,

Y all: a fulfilling career and a happy S E T

R family. Vera was married to U O

C mathematician Robert Rubin. When their daughter became an she did the coursework, picked another question, which could be astronomer, Rubin could clearly an intriguing problem in galaxy answered using data others had see what had changed for women Book dynamics, and began work on already gathered from telescopes. in astronomy and what still Bright Galaxies, Dark her master’s thesis. When her Some 10 years after her PhD, needed to change. Matter, and Beyond: The life calculations proved interesting, Rubin finally gained access to Rubin was an advocate of that of astronomer Vera Rubin her adviser offered to present her powerful telescopes. This was a change, a mentor fondly recalled Ashley Jean Yeager results at a conference – in his own turning point. She chose to study by many astronomers today, MIT Press name. She said no. the motions of stars in the Milky especially women. She opposed In December 1950, weeks after Way and in distant galaxies. all-male conference panels, all- VERA RUBIN began her career at her first child was born, she spoke Kepler’s laws say planets closer male departments and all-male a time when women were denied at her first professional meeting. to the sun move faster than those committees, and called out sexism access to telescopes at leading “A young mother, in her early that are farther away. Astronomers relentlessly. If a journal article observatories. Eventually her 20s, startled the American aimed at physicists used only the work helped scientists rethink Astronomical Society with her “ If an article aimed at male pronoun, she would write a the content of the cosmos. presentation on the group of physicists used only blistering letter to the editor. In Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, galaxies she studied,” says a Rubin also liked to unearth, and Beyond, science writer Ashley media report cited in the book. the male pronoun, she and popularise, stories of women Jean Yeager traces the journey of In reality, most astronomers would write the editor in the history of science. Her this remarkable astronomer, the scoffed at Rubin. Only one a blistering letter” own story will doubtless inspire first woman to have a national astrophysicist from Princeton generations to come thanks, in observatory named after her: University (which didn’t accept had assumed that the velocities part, to this excellent biography. the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, female graduate students at of stars would also slow away The telescope named after her planned to open in Chile next year. the time) gently remarked that from the centre of their galaxy. should help astronomers delve Born Vera Cooper, Rubin’s she would need more data to Rubin’s work, however, revealed deeper into the mysteries of the parents were supportive of her conclusively make her claim. that stars orbit at more or less the universe – including dark matter, dream of being an astronomer, But she had no access to a same speed regardless of where which remains undetected. ❚ but on the first day of graduate telescope powerful enough to they are located in a galaxy. This school, her adviser told her to collect the data she needed. She was possible only if galaxies have Vijaysree Venkatraman is a study something else. Undeterred, went on to get her PhD based on much more mass than can be Boston-based science journalist

32 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Don’t miss

A digital love story Can a perfectly crafted humanoid robot get under the skin of an academic in this tragi-comic sci-fi, asks Jon O’Brien

The tech behind Tom comes into arthouse tends to avoid wrapping Watch play just once when he briefly things up neatly in a bow. Although Growing Up Animal Film malfunctions, while the film’s she slowly succumbs to Tom’s follows the story of baby I’m Your Man Berlin setting is a near-future attributes, both physical and mammals, from their Maria Schrader whose aesthetic is more soft mental, Alma always remains aware time in the uterus to In cinemas now pastels than dark dystopia. that she is being manipulated by his their first steps towards Despite Tom’s best efforts to constant recalibration. Happily- independence as they CAN happiness flourish even when ignite a spark using the millions of ever-after never looks likely. grow up in the wild. This it is knowingly built on fabrication? data strands at his disposal, he is Still, the two stars ensure you six-part documentary Is perfection conducive to a healthy thwarted by a dismissive Alma at remain invested in this relationship, will be on Disney+ from partnership? Can artificial and every turn. “Ninety-three per cent wherever it leads. Eggert offsets 20 August. emotional intelligence truly coexist? of German women dream of this,” Alma’s abrasiveness with a quiet Fresh from her Emmy-winning he remarks, after running a candlelit vulnerability and compassion, success with the Netflix miniseries bath, strewn with rose petals. particularly in the scenes with her Unorthodox, Maria Schrader leaves “Guess which group I belong to,” cranky dad (Wolfgang Hübsch) who such questions hanging in I’m Your comes the reply. has dementia, which hint at her fear Man, her fourth film. It is only when Tom tones down of ending up in a lonely state, too. Adapted from Emma Braslavsky’s the programmed cliches and starts Meanwhile, Stevens is charm short story Ich bin dein Mensch, responding less, well, robotically personified in a performance partly this German-language tale stars that the iciness thaws. He senses inspired by Cary Grant. His comic Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens as the sadness behind Alma’s steely timing is exquisite, proving that his Read Tom, the ideal life partner. He is a exterior, and his matter-of-fact, scene-stealing turn in last year’s How to Talk to a handsome sharp-dresser with blue yet effective, probing renders Eurovision movie was no fluke. Science Denier by eyes that could pierce a stone, a their “couples counsellor” (Toni Schrader has served up a new, philosopher Lee McIntyre penchant for romantic gestures and Erdmann’s Sandra Hüller) obsolete. if resolutely low-key, tragi-comic draws on his encounters a willingness to cater to every whim. Before long, Alma surprises herself spin on the digital love story that with flat Earthers, He is also a humanoid robot. by defending Tom from a colleague combines depth, humour and, no anti-vaxxers, coronavirus Love in the time of algorithms with no sense of personal space. matter how mechanical, heart. ❚ truthers and others. has been explored in the Amazon If I’m Your Man had emerged McIntyre offers tools anthology Soulmates and Netflix’s from Hollywood, this would be the Jon O’Brien is a writer based in and techniques for Osmosis and The One. However, cue for wedding bells. But European Leyland, Lancashire, UK communicating the truth the central coupling here is born and values of science. out of necessity rather than a search for “the one”. Academic Alma (Maren Eggert) has reluctantly agreed to house Tom in a three-week experiment, which

will help finance her research. She is Y M A L

completely uninterested in sharing A / L L a bed, or even a conversation, with E R R U D

this apparent kindred spirit, created D N to make her happy. “Leaving me Watch O M D E

alone should be no problem at all,” The Social Instinct R

; S S she tells Tom, who can’t compute is revealed in all its E R P

T her disdain. “That’s what makes manifestations, both I M

; Y

me happiest.” human and animal, in M A L A I’m Your Man is a curiosity. You this talk by psychologist / N E G could call it a sci-fi rom, yet there and author Nichola R E B D

is little if any sci-fi or, indeed, rom. Raihani. It will be N A Z

N L streamed by the Royal A Z V N

E E F N Alma and Tom gradually Institution at 7pm BST E D N A I I T become closer in this R S on 19 August. A I

: R B H - offbeat love story C T

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 33 Views Culture

The film column But is it art? M. C. Escher thought that the passion for tiling, symmetry and representing infinity reflected in his woodcuts meant he wasn’t a “real” artist. Luckily, as an insightful documentary shows, we weren’t fooled, says Simon Ings

Escher’s Bond of Union is a lithograph, dating back to 1956

they supposed to become more like themselves and less like others? It is interesting to compare him with his close contemporary, the Simon Ings is a novelist and mathematician Kurt Gödel. Both

science writer. Follow him D preferred study to self-expression. N A L on Instagram @simon_ings L And both gave themselves a hard O H

N

R time: Gödel believed himself A A B

. to be lazy; Escher reckoned that V . B

Y he couldn’t draw. Yet Escher N A P

M enjoyed a lifetime of fascinated O C

R striving. “It is,” he once remarked E H C

S of his career, “and remains, the E

. C .

M game of a child.”

E H

T Escher is also revealed through photographs, home movies ROBIN LUTZ’S documentary about him from being an artist, in the and interviews with two of his Maurits Cornelis Escher begins proper sense. Artists pursue children. Clearly, he relished Film near the end of his life. Escher, beauty, he mused in his diary: his marriage, family and home, M. C. Escher: Journey one of the Netherlands’s most “Perhaps I only pursue wonder.” though life wasn’t always easy. to infinity famous artists, and by then in Advances in mathematics, The second world war kept them Robin Lutz his late 60s, is discovered by computation and psychology largely housebound, and they In selected UK cinemas now California’s counterculture. have made nonsense of that nearly starved to death. Later, For the life of him he can’t distinction. Escher’s subject was his wife Jetta slowly succumbed Simon also understand why. Escher’s perception. He might not have to dementia. You can call Escher’s recommends... hyper-rational, mathematically considered that art, but opinions art cold and distant, but the man sophisticated woodcuts aren’t was never that. Film even art as far as he is concerned. “ The camera is an Lutz harnesses the talents of Pi And now a bunch of hippies are informed eye here, animators and graphic designers Darren Aronofsky zoning out on them. Colouring to create a film that starts in An unemployed number them. Making them into place explaining Escher’s the real world, but slowly, subtly theorist sees patterns mats. Mick Jagger even wants work, not turning it slides into the phantasmagoric, everywhere and loses his him to design an album cover. into visual effects” monochrome world of Escher’s mind (or does he?) in Darren Escher’s acid reply to Jagger imagination. Warped perspectives Aronofsky’s debut feature, is delivered with relish by actor- have moved on there now. straighten to reveal their secrets. a gothic homage to the broadcaster Stephen Fry, who Nash believed that Escher’s Long, panning shots combine mathematical mind. reads from the artist’s voluminous reputation would only grow with prints to reveal how tiles correspondence and diaries posthumously. In his good- mutate into living forms, then Book throughout the documentary. humoured and increasingly back to geometrical figures. The Complete Stories English singer-songwriter playful documentary, Lutz camera is an informed eye here, Rudy Rucker Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills strongly agrees. explaining Escher’s work, not Lewis Carroll and Edwin & Nash) had a better time of it. Achieving, after a lifetime’s turning it into visual effects. Abbott, move over! When he phoned to say what effort, a satisfying representation Escher believed the only person The prolific and wildly a great artist he thought Escher of infinity, Escher still berated who could properly film his work diverse output of this was, they got talking. Escher told himself: “I am starting to speak was himself – and that the result computer scientist and Nash that he thought his own a language that is understood would be awfully boring. I hope mathematician includes interest in symmetry, tiling and by very few,” he wrote. But isn’t he is watching this, tucked away some era-defining sci-fi. representing infinity disqualified this what true artists do? Aren’t in some hidden dimension. ❚

34 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Are you looking to get back into science after a career break?

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Your physical environment has a surprisingly strong influence on your cognitive abilities. Time to rethink the workplace, says Annie Murphy Paul E V I H C R A

K N U R T / O D E V E C A

E I N A L E M

36 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 “ How well you expect to do in an environment can determine how you actually perform”

N THE summer of 2001, Sapna Cheryan learned. If we seize it, we could be in for develop this sense of fitting in or not “even was a new graduate interviewing for some big changes. from a cursory glance at a few objects”. More Iinternships at tech firms in California’s Inspired by her own experiences, Cheryan’s recently, she has explored how spaces might be Bay Area. At one company, she recalls, the research focuses on one particular aspect of designed to make a wider range of people feel workspace looked like a computer enthusiast’s the physical environment, what psychologists they belong. The key, she maintains, is not to basement hang-out, full of action figures call cues of belonging. These are signals eliminate stereotypes, but to diversify them – and Nerf guns, with a soda-can model of the embedded in a space that communicate to to convey the message that people from many Golden Gate Bridge. To her, it seemed designed occupants that they are welcome there – or not. different backgrounds can thrive in a given to promote an exclusive conception of the In one experiment, Cheryan and her colleagues setting. Building on this idea, her university firm’s ideal employee. As a young woman of commandeered a space in Stanford University’s revamped its computer science lab, applying colour, she felt unwelcome, even alienated. computer science building and created what a fresh coat of paint, hanging a variety of She accepted a place at another company – one they called a stereotypical classroom and a artworks and arranging the seating to with a workspace that was bright and inviting. non-stereotypical classroom. The former encourage more social interaction. Five Five years later, Cheryan’s next move was was filled with Star Trek and Star Wars years later, the proportion of undergraduate to Stanford University in California to start posters, books of science-fiction and cans computer science degrees earned by women a PhD investigating how physical cues in our of fizzy drink. The latter featured nature there rose to 32 per cent – higher than at any environment affect how we think and feel. She posters, literary novels and bottles of water. other flagship public university in the US. is among a growing number of psychologists After just a few minutes in the stereotypical To help people think effectively, a workplace and cognitive scientists whose research room, male undergraduates expressed a high doesn’t just need cues of belonging, it also challenges the idea that the brain is like a level of interest in pursuing computer science. needs cues of identity. These are tangible signs computer. Computers are indifferent to Female students were less interested. But their and signals we arrange around us to support their surroundings: a laptop works the interest increased markedly – and actually our self-conception. They do things like same in a fluorescent-lit office or a leafy exceeded that of men – after spending time advertise our enthusiasms, hobbies and park. The same isn’t true of the human brain. In in the non-stereotypical room. Subsequent achievements, express a creative streak or a fact, Cheryan and others have found research by Cheryan found that female quirky sense of humour, or simply remind us its performance to be exquisitely sensitive students exposed to a non-stereotypical of our loved ones. Such displays are sometimes to the context in which it operates. virtual classroom were more likely to predict aimed at informing others of who we are – or This research seems especially relevant they would perform well in computer science who we would like to be – but often they are right now. During the pandemic, many of courses than those exposed to a stereotypical intended for a more intimate audience: us were abruptly forced to work and learn in one. Male students tended to predict they ourselves. When researchers examined the different surroundings, and the effect of place would succeed regardless of which room they workspaces of people in a variety of jobs, from on cognition came into sharp focus. As some encountered. That’s important. “We know engineers and estate agents to event planners of us return to offices and schools, we have from past work in psychology that how well and creative directors, they found that about an opportunity to reimagine these spaces you expect to do in a certain environment a third of the cues of identity were visible only in accordance with what researchers have can determine how you actually perform,” to their owners. That rose to 70 per cent for she said in a TEDx talk. objects whose stated purpose was to remind Objects we place in our Cheryan, who is now at the University of their owners of personal goals and values. workspace reinforce Washington in Seattle, calls the phenomenon Why would we need such reminders? Our our sense of identity “ambient belonging” and believes we rapidly sense of self may feel stable and solid, but it >

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 37 is in fact quite fluid and dependent on the external world for its shape. People commonly Collective experience this when travelling in a foreign country where the unfamiliar environment thinking can create a pleasurable but exhausting sense of discombobulation. In our day-to-day lives, we need to cultivate a steady sense of identity to function effectively, and the personal objects Human thought is highly cognitive processes than we place around us help achieve this. sensitive to context (see when those same people Cues of identity serve another purpose too. main article), and one of the are thinking or acting on Each of us has not one but many identities, most powerful contexts is their own. such as worker, student, sibling, spouse, parent the presence of other people. For example, a study or friend. Signals from the environment we Thinking may feel like a solo employing fNIRS compared are currently in function to bring one of these activity – like something the brain activity of people personas to the fore, with real effects on our we do solely inside our own playing poker against thinking and behaviour, says psychologist heads – but an emerging another person or a Daphna Oyserman at the University of perspective in neuroscience computer. The areas Southern California. Her research suggests that and psychology proposes of the brain involved in whichever identity is salient in the moment that it is fundamentally a generating a “theory of influences both what we pay attention to and social process. According mind” – inferring the mental what we choose to do. In a striking example of to this view, our brains state of another individual – this, one study found that cues reminding Asian evolved to think with people, were active when competing American girls of their ethnicity improved to teach them, to argue with a human, but dormant their scores on maths tests, whereas cues that and to exchange stories. when matching wits with reminded them of their gender undermined As a consequence, when a machine. In fact, play their performance. For all of us, the objects we think socially, we think against a human produced on which our eyes rest each day reinforce differently, and often better, a distinctively different what we are doing in that place, in that role. than when we think alone. pattern of brain activity. Until recently, researchers More brain regions were wishing to investigate the activated, and they “ People feel more role of social interaction manifested a higher on cognition have been degree of connectivity confident and hampered by technical with one another. constraints. Brain imaging Other studies have capable in spaces using functional MRI all but found that areas of the they consider required them to examine brain involved in planning an individual in seclusion, and anticipation, and in their own” shut inside an MRI machine. feeling empathy, are more Now that is changing. active when we are playing With technologies such as against a human rather A related feature of our workspaces concerns electroencephalography than a computer. Brain a sense of ownership. When we enter a space (EEG) and functional regions associated with that feels like it is ours, a host of psychological near-infrared spectroscopy reward also show stronger and even physiological changes ensues. These (fNIRS) we can study stimulation when we effects were first observed in studies of home multiple people’s brains as play – and especially when advantage, the phenomenon in which athletes they interact in naturalistic we win – against a human tend to win more and bigger victories when settings – making deals, opponent. playing on their own fields, courts and playing games or simply Social life and the life of stadiums. Studies show that, on home turf, talking to one another. the mind are often viewed teams play more aggressively and their Using these tools has as distinct realms, or even members (both male and female) exhibit higher uncovered persuasive as being in opposition. This levels of testosterone, a hormone associated evidence for the interactive body of research offers a with the expression of social dominance. brain hypothesis: the different vision, one in which But home advantage isn’t limited to sports. premise that when people the irrepressible sociability Researchers have discovered that when interact socially, their brains of our species lies at the people occupy spaces that they consider their engage different neural and heart of human intelligence. own, they feel more confident and capable. They are also more efficient and productive, less distractible and they advance their own

38 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 New Scientist audio Articles with a headphone icon are available to listen to via our app newscientist.com/app

interests more forcefully and effectively. Benjamin Meagher at Hope College, Michigan, has an intriguing idea to explain this: the place itself helps us think. His research indicates that our mental and perceptual processes operate more efficiently on home turf, with less need for effortful self-control. Meagher hypothesises that the mind works better because it doesn’t do all the work – it gets an assist from the structure embedded in its environment, structure that marshals useful information, supports effective habits and routines, and restrains unproductive impulses. Our cognition is distributed across the entire setting, he argues. Y M A L A / S E

Empowered office G A M I

D I

With ownership comes control. A sense A C R of control over how a workspace looks A and functions increases performance too. Psychologists Craig Knight, then at the University of Exeter, UK, and Alex Haslam at the University of Queensland, Australia, Our brains can’t tune have demonstrated how powerful this effect out the distractions can be. They got volunteers to perform a set in open-plan offices of tasks in four different environments: a bare, minimalist office; an enriched office decorated with posters and potted plants; an empowered we are easily distracted – and open-plan offices More troubling still is the finding that open- office, arranged by participants as they liked; are teeming with distractions. It is nearly plan environments may not actually promote and a disempowered office, in which their impossible, for example, to prevent our gaze creative interactions – one rationale often used chosen arrangement had been rearranged from darting towards a novel object or one in to promote them. Researchers use a device in front of them without consent. motion. Our eyes are especially drawn towards called a sociometer to measure patterns of In the minimalist office, participants faces, and our brains automatically prioritise physical movement and social interaction were lackadaisical and invested little effort processing them, even when we are trying to among co-workers. Worn around the neck like in their assigned work. They were similarly focus on a page or a screen. What’s more, we an ID badge, it collects precise data about who unproductive in the disempowered office, and become emotionally aroused when we feel we talks to whom, where and for how long. Their also reported negative feelings such as anger are being observed. All this visual monitoring surprise finding is that people are less likely and unhappiness. Participants worked harder and processing uses up considerable mental to have face-to-face interactions in open-plan and were more productive in the enriched resources, leaving less brainpower for our work. offices than in more private workspaces. office. However, they performed best in the Then there is noise. Any sounds may grab According to the brain-as-computer model, empowered office, completing about 15 per our attention, but speech is particularly none of these environmental factors should cent more work than in the enriched office and distracting because, whether or not we want matter – but because we are humans, they do. 30 per cent more than in the bare office. The to be listening, our brains try to work out the The way we use our spaces was profoundly size of such effects is large enough to make meaning. Background speech is processed disrupted by a pandemic that shuttered offices employers take notice: given the right by the same brain regions we employ to do and schools and confined many people to their surroundings, three people could accomplish things like analysing data or writing a report. homes for months at a time. As we re-emerge, almost as much as four. It is particularly Research shows that it can drastically reduce we have an opportunity to improve our relevant to employers experimenting with our performance on such tasks. The sort of workspaces: to fill them with cues of belonging hot-desking, in which workers don’t have a one-sided conversation resulting from a and identity, to imbue them with a sense of dedicated space of their own, but grab an colleague speaking on the phone is especially ownership and control, and to provide more available one when they arrive at the office. distracting because our brains constantly try to privacy. In short, we can make them better Another workplace trend, the open-plan predict when the speakers will pause or resume places to think. ❚ office, poses a further environmental conversation and what they will say next. challenge to effective thinking. The brain Lauren Emberson at the University of British Annie Murphy Paul is the author evolved to continually monitor its immediate Columbia, Canada, has found that people’s of The Extended Mind: The power surroundings lest nearby sounds or verbal and motor skills are even more impaired of thinking outside the brain movements signal danger to be avoided or by hearing such “halfalogues” than when they The book will soon be available an opportunity to be seized. In other words, can hear both sides of a conversation. at shop.newscientist.com

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 39 Features

Solid, liquid, gas... and beyond Physicists can’t stop discovering bizarre new states of matter. Are we closing in on a complete collection? Jon Cartwright investigates

HE tenets of physics can seem discovery of a whole new class of matter. Strange stuff carved in stone. The speed of light is The rules we are taught at school to define Ta constant. There are four fundamental states of matter, based on nothing more UNDER PRESSURE forces. Theoretically, rules like these are open complex than shape, seem simple enough. to revision. But new contenders had better A solid has a fixed shape. A liquid flows to take Ratcheting up the pressure is just come with a chisel and a very big hammer. the shape of the bottom of the container it is one of the ways physicists have You would be forgiven for thinking this in. A gas expands its shape to fill its confines. discovered beguiling and extreme confidence also applies to something as new states of matter fundamental as the different states of matter. As we learned in school, there are Throwing shapes DEGENERATE MATTER three of them: solid, liquid, gas. Right? At first glance, the behaviour of these At pressures a thousand billion times Actually, these are only the start. We different states tallies with what the atoms higher than at the centre of Jupiter, matter now know of all sorts of exotic states, or molecules of the substance are doing. In a gets so squeezed that it butts up against from superconductors to Bose-Einstein solid, the atoms are bound together in a rigid a fundamental physical law. The Pauli condensates, quantum spin liquids to three-dimensional lattice. In a liquid, they are exclusion principle says that identical topological insulators. The sheer number is free to move around each other, so that their particles can’t occupy the same quantum as bewildering as their names. Strangely, no combined mass flows. In a gas, they have so state. In places like white dwarf stars, one can give you a definitive list: there could much energy that they fly around all over the this is thought to produce matter that is be as few as four of them or perhaps thousands. place, scarcely touching. All you do to switch technically a gas, but has odd properties, Sorting this mess out isn’t just a matter of between states of matter is to add or take like being virtually incompressible. satisfying our curiosity. If we can pin down away energy in the form of heat. exactly what constitutes a state of matter, we But we have known things are actually more QUARK MATTER should be better able to predict and discover complicated than this for a long time, with Go to higher pressures still and even the new ones. That would not only have great high pressures, low temperatures and odd most basic components of matter, quarks, technological benefits, but it could also give geometries among the things leading to exotic hit the Pauli rule, and theoretically form us fresh ways to probe the nature of reality. behaviours difficult to explain in terms of quark matter. It could be lurking in “quark Such predictive power is central to how conventional states of matter (see boxes, stars” hiding at the centre of neutron stars. physics typically works: we predicted the “Strange stuff”, right and following pages). Even If so, it is the universe’s most dense state Higgs boson existed and built a particle something as familiar as glass confuses things. of matter, except for that trapped inside collider to find it. But where states of matter Glass retains its shape like a solid even though a black hole. are concerned, precision and prediction have its atoms are arranged messily, as in a liquid. eluded us – until now, thanks to the recent Then there is a state of matter that many of us >

40 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 R E D Y R

T T E R B

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 41 Strange stuff SUPER POWERS

Cool ordinary stuff down enough and it adopts quantum properties you can see with the naked eye

SUPERCONDUCTORS Superconductors don’t behave as if made from zillions of individual particles, but like they are a single super-particle. These materials conduct electricity with zero resistance and so allow us to transport electricity without wasting a jot. They were first discovered in 1911, but they only worked at extremely low temperatures of about -273°C. These Y R A

days, we have superconductors that R B I L

work at higher temperatures, but are O T O H

still looking for one that works at P

E C

room temperature and pressure. N E I C S / M U I

SUPERFLUIDS T R O S

Cool helium to just above absolute zero N O C

C

and it will become a superfluid, a material T

H G with zero viscosity. It can flow uphill and, if I H

M A

stirred, will never stop spinning. Superfluid H G N behaviour also arises in Bose-Einstein I M R I B

condensates, a rare example of a state F O

. V of matter that was predicted before it was I N U / I

discovered (see main story). Albert Einstein M I / R E

and the Indian physicist Satyendra Bose K R A P predicted it in the 1920s. It was observed D I V A

70 years later, when physicists could D supercool a cloud of atoms with lasers. The atoms spontaneously begin to behave as an ethereal fluid that can swirl and explode. Thanks to its quantum properties, this hold in our hands each day: a liquid crystal. state is useful for modelling the quantum “ Such materials These materials have optical properties that goings-on near the edge of a black hole. make them go-to ingredients in smartphone challenge our displays. They can also flow like a liquid, despite SUPERSOLIDS having their atoms arranged like a typical solid. A 1969 theory suggested that holes conception Handy for technology – not so handy if the goal in a solid lattice of atoms can, at very low is to neatly categorise the states of matter. temperatures, form a kind of ghostly matter of what is a Liquid-crystal elastomers muddy the waters that can pass through other solids. In 2004, even further. First made in 1975, they consist Moses Chan and Eunseong Kim, both then solid and what of molecules that always align in parallel with at Pennsylvania State University, reported each other. This results in some odd properties. evidence for such a supersolid, when part is a liquid” Try to pull the material apart and it will resist; of an oscillator made of cooled, solid on most of its faces it feels springy. But rub it helium appeared to stop moving, while on one particular face, and it will begin to flow. the remainder passed to and fro through it, “It deeply challenges our conception of what is unhindered. Chan later backtracked and a solid and what is a liquid,” says Mark Warner said what was observed was a normal at the University of Cambridge. change in elasticity due to the cooling. Warner suggests that using a more precise Despite claims of supersolid behaviour definition of shape could make things clearer. in certain Bose-Einstein condensates But that doesn’t get us far. It wouldn’t help, for (see above), it remains to be seen whether instance, when it comes to plasmas, the state a convincing supersolid can be made. of matter from which the sun is largely made. Plasmas are like a gas in which the atoms have

42 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Superconductors paper, one covered with dots in a grid, the interactions can make it impossible to can be used for other covered in random dots. Now rotate computationally simulate their effect on magnetic the pieces of paper a bit. It will be obvious material behaviour; the maths just becomes levitation that the grid pattern has been turned, but less unthinkably complicated. “It’s like doing obvious that the random dots have changed. a seating plan at a wedding,” says Natelson. The random dot pattern has high symmetry, “If no one cares who they’re next to, it’s easy. whereas the ordered grid doesn’t. But if, oh gosh, we can’t put Alan next to The grid and the random dots are akin to Barbara, and Barbara can’t be next to the arrangement of atoms in solids and liquids, Charlie, it becomes very challenging.” so symmetry can be used to differentiate the This unpredictability means we can’t two. The concept also applies far more widely, know whether the states of matter we are including to the organisation of spin in aware of are all there is. Materials science, magnets and charge in plasmas. “Symmetry argued Laughlin and Pines, is different from is a powerful concept,” says Douglas Natelson other areas of physics with their predictions at Rice University in Houston, Texas. and experiments. Like plant hunters heading into the field, people studying matter must be content to find things by chance. Surprise discoveries Explanation and classification can Too powerful, perhaps. Defined according only be done in retrospect. to symmetry, something as simple as water At least, that used to be the case. Over the ice can come in at least 17 different states of past 15 years or so, we have discovered a new matter, depending on how its atoms are group of states of matter, the members of arranged. “You might argue that many which are, apparently, predictable after all. different states are variations on the The groundwork for this revolution was laid same theme,” says Frank Wilczek at the in 1980, when Klaus von Klitzing discovered > Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “If you classify things sufficiently coarsely, then there split apart into charged particles, and so might be a finite number of fundamentally they conduct electricity. Its behaviour is different states of matter, or maybe only one.” unusual, but shape-wise, a plasma is identical Symmetry is useful, but it doesn’t solve the to a gas. Or how about the various forms of problem with classifying states of matter. magnetism? These are routinely spoken of All this means an authoritative list of the as states of matter. Their special properties states of matter doesn’t exist. At the root of come from a quantum property called the problem is our inability to predict new spin, which can be thought of like an arrow states. Historically, most novel states have attached to each of a material’s electrons. been surprise discoveries. The few that were It is the arrangement of these spins – not the predicted belong to a select group governed material’s shape – that gives magnets their by simple mathematical rules that come into attractive qualities. play only under extremely unusual conditions. It would be easy to see this as worrying One example is the Bose-Einstein condensate, over unimportant semantics. Isn’t a plasma a type of superfluid that has proved useful just an electrically charged gas? Isn’t a magnet for modelling the edges of black holes (see just a solid that happens to be magnetic? “Strange stuff: Super powers”,left). For a physicist, it isn’t that simple. There is The scale of the lack-of-predictability A S A no objective way to mark solidity as more problem was emphasised in 2000 by US N fundamental than magnetism, or gaseousness theorists Robert Laughlin at Stanford as more fundamental than charge. University in California and the late David At huge pressures, This is why physicists turned to a different Pines. They argued that when more than like those inside Jupiter, concept called symmetry to categorise states 10 or so electrons become involved in real matter can behave of matter. Imagine you have two circles of materials, strong neighbour-to-neighbour very strangely

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 43 Strange stuff DEEPLY TWISTED

States of matter with properties governed by a type of geometry called topology could be the basis of amazing computers

TOPOLOGICAL INSULATORS The simplest types of topological matter consist of materials that normally insulate, but that exhibit strange types the quantum Hall state of matter. It occurs of conduction when layered together. in semiconductors, like those in computer “ This vast A two-dimensional topological insulator chips, when they are very flat and sandwiched funnels “spin up” electrons one way, between other materials. Switch on a magnetic landscape and “spin down” electrons the other. field, and suddenly the semiconductor changes This effect could be exploited to make state so that it conducts flawlessly around its of states super-fast “spintronic” computers that edge, while insulating everywhere else. process information based not just on Nothing so bizarre had been seen before. has great charge like existing machines, but Symmetry wasn’t enough to explain it; an electron spin too. additional classification was needed. The technological answer is topology, a branch of maths that TOPOLOGICAL SUPERCONDUCTORS describes features of shapes, such as holes promise” This state seems to harbour a highly unusual particle called the Majorana fermion. These particles have never been observed in isolation, but electrons inside topological superconductors can team up and behave in a way that is indistinguishable from them. Because they can withstand interference much better than electrons, Majorana fermions could be used for the quantum bits in next-generation quantum computers.

TOPOLOGICAL SEMI-METALS Like topological superconductors, semi-metals can behave as though they are hosting an unusual particle. In this case, its the Weyl fermion, which is like an electron with no mass. Incredible electrical conduction is one property that results. Potentially more important, however, is that no matter how many impurities it has, a topological semi-metal will always conduct electricity superbly. This could be useful for making robust computers, Y

or detectors with extreme sensitivity. M A L A / E L B M A K

H S I H S A

Charged gases called plasmas are often thought of as the fourth state of matter

44 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 and twists, in terms that ignore changes that Are fridge can be made by deformations of those shapes. magnets merely The way the quantum Hall state funnels solids – or a state electrons into specific trajectories turns out of matter all of Y

M their own?

to be fundamentally topological by nature. A L A /

This got theorists thinking. By 2005, Y A D I R

researchers at the University of Pennsylvania F

M I and another group at Stanford University M independently predicted the possibility of a state of matter based on topology alone. We now call it the quantum spin Hall state. The idea was that materials adopting this state electron-electron interactions that bothered would marshal electrons in different ways Strange stuff Laughlin and Pines – could be topological states according to their spin. Spin-down electrons THE MISFITS of matter. “We’re in a gold mine,” says Bernevig. would go one way around the material’s edge, What about non-topological states of spin-up electrons the other. Within two years, A few states of matter are so odd matter, might we ever have a complete list the state of matter was observed in a real that they defy any classification of those too? Wilczek is certainly confident compound. “That was a first in physics,” says that there are more to be discovered – and Andre Bernevig, one of the Stanford authors. TIME CRYSTALS coming from the person who predicted a Topology complements symmetry In 2010, physicist Frank Wilczek strange state of matter called the time crystal, rather than replaces it. But at last it allowed wondered what would happen if the that isn’t to be taken lightly (see “Strange stuff: predictions to be made. A couple of years atoms in ordered ranks inside solid The misfits”, left). after the experimental discovery of the spin crystals were regularly arranged not in Still, the electron problem that concerned Hall state, theorists found that they could space, but in time. He soon came up with Laughlin and Pines hasn’t gone away. Ross map out topology in combination with three the idea of a time crystal, a bizarre state McKenzie at the University of Queensland, different fundamental symmetries to produce of matter that oscillates by itself – and Australia, says one of the last successful a whole “periodic table” of topological states. never stops. By 2017, Christopher predictions of a complex state of matter was Bernevig and others have now expanded this Monroe at the University of Maryland made by British physicist Duncan Haldane to include all the symmetries that underpin and his colleagues had created a time in 1983 for a type of “spin liquid”, in which the structures of crystals. In all, they have crystal, in a string of trapped ytterbium electron spins remain resolutely unordered found that thousands of topological states ions. Once the team temporarily flipped even at the lowest temperatures. “The fact of matter are up for grabs. This is very the magnetic spin of one of the ions with that there have been no more for 40 years impressive, says Natelson. “As calculational a laser, the rest of the ions flipped back suggests to me that any optimism is misplaced,” methods continue to improve, the realm of and forth in turn, like a never-ending says McKenzie. “I would love to be wrong.” predictability will continue to become larger.” atomic Mexican wave. Bernevig thinks he might be. He says modern computing is taming even the vexed RYDBERG POLARONS mathematics of multiple electron interactions. In a gold mine Atoms usually consist of a tight knot Maybe, one day, we will end up with a list that Early indications suggest that this vast of protons and neutrons orbited by is, to most physicists’ satisfaction, final. “If you landscape of topological states has great electrons. But in 2018, a team at Rice had asked me 10 years ago whether all these technological promise, especially in quantum University in Texas used a blast from a things were predictable, I would have said no,” computing (see “Strange stuff: Deeply twisted”, laser to propel an atom’s electron into an he says. “Now, I’m not so sure.” ❚ far left). The challenge now is to identify which unusually large orbit – so large that more materials might adopt these states. Recent than 100 of the neighbouring atoms estimates by Bernevig and others suggest that became caught inside. These atoms- Jon Cartwright is a consultant for more than four-fifths of all known simple within-an-atom, known collectively as New Scientist based in Bristol, UK compounds – those whose behaviour can a Rydberg polaron, turn our normal be approximated without running into the notions of matter upside down.

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 45 Features

Brewing milk

Real milk and egg, made without animals, will soon be on the menu, discovers Graham Lawton S E G A M I

Y T T E G / O I D U T S

I G A Y

46 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 ACK IN 2014, bioengineer Ryan Pandya Of course, microbial fermentation is hardly answer is, essentially whatever we want. If had a demoralising encounter with a a new food technology. Bread, cheese, yogurt, an animal can make it, it’s likely that we can Bbagel. It wasn’t so much the bagel itself beer and wine were all invented millennia ago, produce at least a relatively faithful facsimile as its filling, a “bland and runny” substance and derive much of their taste and texture with fermentation.” Many companies are busy made from soya which was supposed to from the waste products of yeasts and bacteria making good on that promise, developing resemble cream cheese. Pandya was a recent eating their raw materials. Ditto sauerkraut, all manner of animal products such as egg convert to veganism and was struggling to kimchi, miso, kombucha, tempeh and more. proteins, pet snacks and various additives give up dairy products. But when life dealt In 1990, these traditional ferments for cultured or plant-based meat, including him bad cream cheese, he made ice cream. were joined by a new technology, when the fats, collagen and the blood protein heme. Today, Pandya’s company Perfect Day US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) But the real action is happening with is at the vanguard of a food revolution. approved genetically engineered chymosin, milk. According to a report Crosser wrote It makes and sells milk, but has no cows. aka rennet, for making cheese. This enzyme last year for his former employer, the Good Its farm is a bioreactor in which it cultivates curdles the milk protein casein, and was once Food Institute (GFI) in San Francisco, about microorganisms genetically engineered exclusively harvested from the stomachs three quarters of precision fermentation to secrete milk proteins. The proteins don’t of unweaned veal calves. By the 1970s, there companies are working on the white stuff. resemble milk – they are milk, identical to the was a shortage, so biotech companies raced to “There is a real revolution going on here,” real thing. Perfect Day hasn’t quite cracked use genetic engineering to produce chymosin says biotech investor Jim Mellon, a leading cream cheese yet, but has arguably gone in bacteria or yeasts. Pfizer won. Today, about backer of precision fermentation and author one better: ice cream. It is the only such milk 90 per cent of rennet is made by genetically of Moo’s Law: An investor’s guide to the company to get a product on the market so modified microorganisms. new agrarian revolution. Many of the milk far, but won’t be the last. This 1970s technology – clone the gene companies will follow Perfect Day and get The past couple of years have been an and stick it into a bacterium or yeast – is still products on the market this year, he predicts. absolute beanfeast for people like Pandya who the basis of precision fermentation, but is now Precision fermentation is part of a broader want to give up animal products but also don’t coming into its own. “What can we actually industry called cellular agriculture, which is want to give them up. Plant-based burgers make with fermentation?” says Nate Crosser at best known for cultured meat and seafood. from companies such as Impossible Foods and the alternative proteins investment incubator Firms like Perfect Day are often spoken about Beyond Meat have proved that vegan “meat” Blue Horizon in Zurich, Switzerland. “The in the same breath, but their technologies are can get pretty close to the real thing. Cultured actually very different. “Milk is simpler,” says meat – actual muscle tissue grown from stem Josh Milburn at the University of Sheffield, UK, cells – is being served in high-end restaurants a philosopher who researches human-animal and is inching closer to the mass market. “ If an animal relations. For meat, the starting point is stem But between these two extremes, a third cells extracted from the animal, which are revolution has quietly been brewing. Quite can make it, cultured in a growth medium to generate literally. It is called “precision fermentation”, it’s likely muscle plus sometimes fat and connective which means using genetically engineered tissue. Milk, on the other hand, is just a microorganisms to produce animal products. that we can mixture of biomolecules suspended in Milk is where most of the action is right water, and hence a lot easier to recreate. now, but is by no means all there is on the make it too” To a first approximation, milk is just menu: think of an animal product that isn’t six proteins – four caseins and two wheys – meat, and somebody somewhere is working plus fats, sugars and minerals, all suspended on brewing it up. in water. Right now, most of the fermented >

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 47 dairy companies are focusing on protein cheese because plant-based products are not components of milk rather than whole milk. performing well,” says Wohlgensinger. “ No one has Perfect Day, for example, produces whey Pizza toppings may not be everyone’s idea of to convince proteins in a fungus (Trichoderma reesei) for the full-fat cheese experience, but Formo also use as a food ingredient. This “non-animal has its eyes on a more sophisticated market. regulators – whey protein isolate” is the “dairy” component “We really develop products for the cheese of three brands of vegan ice cream currently lovers, this is the market we’re going for,” says these processes on sale via mail order in the US. Wohlgensinger. Formo is planning to unveil its Maille O’Donnell at the GFI has tasted one prototypes at a tasting event in Berlin later this are already of them, made by a company called Brave year, with the food prepared by Ricky Saward, Robot. “I liked it,” she says. “Friends who tried head chef at Michelin-starred vegan restaurant recognised also said it really tasted like dairy ice cream in Seven Swans. “We focus on taste and texture. a way plant-based ice creams haven’t yet.” It is I’m very confident when I look at what we’ve as safe” competitively priced at $5.99 a pint (about half been able to achieve,” says Wohlgensinger. a litre). That is in stark contrast to cultured That, however, is a challenge because meat, where a few pieces of chicken can cost these cheeses derive much of their character as much as a fancy steak dinner. from the whole milk, not just the protein. That is because fermentation is already That would mean precision fermenting a mature technology familiar to the food milk fat, which is the product of a complex industry, so nobody has to invent new metabolic pathway rather than a single gene. production processes and scale them up. Even better, nobody has to convince regulators Animal-free milk proteins that the foods are fit for human consumption, created through precision because they are made using microorganisms fermentation are being and processes that are already “generally used to make cheeses recognised as safe”. When Perfect Day asked the FDA to approve its whey protein in 2020, the agency said yes right away.

Ice cream and beyond In fact, says Milburn, cultured milk could theoretically be healthier than the real thing. It is produced without antibiotics or hormones and is less likely to be a carrier of food-borne infections. It can be made without lactose, which many people are intolerant to, can feature healthy fats and could be fortified with nutrients. “But this is all quite speculative at the moment,” he says. Ice cream is the only product on the market, but probably won’t be for long. Many other leading companies are focused on cheese. Formo in Germany and New Culture in San Francisco are concentrating on pizza toppings. Formo ferments caseins and whey and then uses standard cheese-making to turn them into mozzarella and ricotta. Like many in the industry, its founders are driven by a desire to replace ethically and environmentally troubling animal products with guilt-free replicas. “In the Western world, the demand for dairy products is kinda limitless,” says CEO Raffael Wohlgensinger. Demand is rising in Asia too. All this is putting unsustainable pressure on the environment, but many consumers are loath to give up cheese. “The biggest consumer pain point for flexitarians O M R O who want to get rid of animal products is F

48 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 But it is work in progress. “That’s a definite consumer and animal welfare groups. because of competition from alternative milks. technology development that is going on Similar barriers exist in the US, where the The industry has yet to start lobbying at the moment,” says Wohlgensinger. FDA defines milk as “the lacteal secretion, against precision fermentation, yet its Gourmet cheeses also trade on a mysterious practically free from colostrum, obtained by aggressive pushback against plant-based quality called terroir, which is a distillation of the complete milking of one or more healthy alternatives is a taste of what companies like the geography, vegetation and climate where cows”. US legislators are currently considering Formo can expect, says Lisa Jordan Powell at the milk was produced and fermented, plus an extension to this definition to include the Sweet Briar College in Virginia. the skill of the cheese-maker. That will be tough lacteal secretions of other dairy animals, and to replicate with bioreactor-created milk. also to prohibit the application of the words But such cheeses are a tiny sliver of “milk,” “yogurt” and “cheese” to plant-based Keeping abreast the market, says Wohlgensinger, and if alternatives. The FDA already designates these But there is a market where something precision-fermented cheeses only eat into alternatives as “nutritionally inferior” and resembling whole milk might gain a toehold, the mass-produced varieties it will be mission prohibits them from being stocked alongside and it has nothing to do with cows. According accomplished. Some food snobs will never traditional dairy products. to the GFI, two precision fermentation firms be won over, but they should examine their In the EU and UK, meanwhile, milk is in the US – Harmony in Boston and Helaina consciences, says Milburn. defined as “the normal mammary secretion in New York – are working on human breast Animal welfare is a major issue in the dairy obtained from one or more milkings without milk. Two other companies, Biomilq in industry. Despite its carefully cultivated image either addition thereto or extraction North Carolina and Singapore’s TurtleTree, of rural idyll, dairy farming routinely involves therefrom”. “This definition does exclude the are eyeing the same market, but going down milking cows to exhaustion, repeatedly products made via precision fermentation,” a different road, culturing human mammary inseminating them, separating them from says Sophie Clarke at trade body Dairy UK. gland cells and collecting the milk they make. their offspring and disposing of male calves The dairy industry is right to be running This is closer to cultured meat technology that are surplus to requirements. The dairy scared, says Mellon. In the past two years, two than precision fermentation. industry also has cow-sized environmental of the US’s biggest dairy companies, Borden None has yet demonstrated a prototype and problems. Producing milk in a live animal is Dairy and Dean Foods, have gone bust, in part it isn’t clear which alternative breast is better. fantastically inefficient and the dairy industry But the potential is huge, says Mellon . “I don’t alone is responsible for 4 per cent of our know how long it will take them to get on the greenhouse gas emissions, according to market, but it’s not too many years off. And the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, it’s a big market – we think over $50 billion.” which, as Wohlgensinger points out, is more Alternative Beyond that, name your animal product. than shipping and aviation combined. materials Fats, collagen and blood are in development, But take the cows out of the equation and mostly to add to cultured and plant-based these problems vanish. Zero animals – aside meats to make their taste and texture more from small biopsies to supply stem cells or Food isn’t the only category of animal authentic (vegan black pudding, anyone?). Eggs DNA – means zero animal welfare issues. And a product that could be made without too, despite whole ones being tricky because recent estimate by scientists at Duke University animals. Materials such as silk, fur, making a separate white and yolk is complex. in Durham, North Carolina, estimated that wool and horn are also brewing. But A company called Clara Foods has already the carbon footprint of milk made through the first animal-free animal material cracked the technology for fermenting egg fermentation could be as little as 1.2 per cent to reach the market will probably be white as a commercial bakery ingredient, that of traditional milk production. leather. A company called VitroLabs although it isn’t yet on the market. Another “I am very much an advocate of this in San Jose, California, has developed company, MagicCaviar, has said it is working technology,” says Milburn, “primarily because a technique to grow tannable cowhides on a version of another type of egg – from of my concerns about animal rights, but from stem cells. The process is similar fish. And there is a whole realm of non-food because of environmental impacts as well.” to the one used to make cultured products out there waiting to be fermented With ice cream on the market and cheese meat, but according to biotech investor (see “Alternative materials”, left). in development, the obvious next place to Jim Mellon – who has a stake in the Ultimately, says Zak Weston at the GFI, go is whole milk for drinking or putting in company – leather will be easier to success or failure will be determined by tea and coffee. That is a whole other challenge, bring to market because people aren’t what always determines the fate of new foods: however – not because of technological expected to eat it. The company has taste, price, accessibility and convenience. limitations, but because of what have been already signed a deal with a luxury If precision fermentation can deliver on dubbed the “milk wars”. In the EU, for example, goods company and will be going those, companies like Perfect Day will be the dairy industry has successfully lobbied into production soon, although details creaming it in. As Milburn says, “the proof law-makers to stop plant-based dairy are hard to obtain due to commercial of this pudding will be in the eating”. ❚ substitutes made from oats and nuts from secrecy. The potential benefits are using the words “milk” and “yogurt”. Last year, huge because leather production the European Parliament voted to extend the is a major contributor to cattle Graham Lawton is a staff writer ban to cover any “evocation” of the concept farming’s huge and unsustainable and columnist at New Scientist of dairy, but in May it dropped the plan after environmental impact. lobbying by a coalition of environmental,

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 49 Principal / Senior / Medical Writer – Global Med Ed and Comms Agency

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• A life science degree (BSc or MSc) Eden Nuclear and Environment Ltd. is an employee owned SME. We • At least 3 years of experience working in a medical education or specialise in developing safe, sustainable and economically achievable solutions communications agency for radioactive waste management and disposal and the clean-up of radioactively • Solid grasp of editorial SOPs contaminated land. Our business is expanding and we have recently moved into ‡8QGHUVWDQGGHWDLOHGPHGLFDODQGVFLHQWL¿FLQIRUPDWLRQLQYDULRXV QHZEHVSRNHRI¿FHVLQ3HQULWK&XPEULD therapeutic areas :HRIIHUDFRPSHWLWLYHVDODU\DQGSUR¿WVKDUHDQGÀH[LELOLW\LQZRUNLQJORFDWLRQ Known for our impressive staff and client retention, our company culture is diverse, friendly and highly supportive, and we collaborate with remote and 7RDSSO\SOHDVHVHQGDFXUUHQW&9DQGFRYHUOHWWHUWRDGPLQ#HGHQQHFRXNE\ work-from-home colleagues across the globe. Please apply by sending your CV to: [email protected] VW$XJXVW9LVLWZZZHGHQQHFRXNIRUPRUHLQIRUPDWLRQ

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Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for Feedback Twisteddoodles Try our crossword, What is the smallest New Scientist Golfing crocs and for New Scientist quick quiz and number that is A cartoonist’s take high-speed blimps: Picturing the lighter logic puzzle p52 uninteresting? p54 on the world p55 the week in weird p56 side of life p56

Science of gardening Root out the bullies Could the next Japanese knotweed be growing in your garden? Time to grass up the plant thugs, says Clare Wilson

IN THE past, horticulturalists brought thousands of new plant species from distant lands to the UK, and some have became staples in gardens. A few have spread beyond the fence to grow in the wild and are so vigorous they have taken over local ecosystems. Well-known examples include Clare Wilson is a reporter Japanese knotweed, which can at New Scientist and poke up through asphalt, and writes about everything rhododendrons, which colonise life-science related. woodlands, densely covering the Her favourite place is her forest floor. Purple pampas grass, allotment @ClareWilsonMed from South America, loved in many suburban gardens for its

What you need Y huge, showy plumes, is a menace M A L

A smartphone or computer A on rocky coasts where it crowds / T T to log your problem species out native species. E N N on the Plant Alert website E Even floating pennywort B

T A

Sharp eyes (pictured), an attractive addition P to garden ponds, is now choking some lakes and rivers. Eradication pulling them out by the roots website called Plant Alert, where of this is difficult because it can could destabilise the riverbank. people can report invaders. Those reproduce by regrowing whole Ecologists also want help with in the UK and Ireland can use the new plants from small pieces. their efforts to discover which resulting map to see the garden Some of these plants are on a plant will become the next bullies in their area. list of invasive species that have invasive pest – and that’s where As well as helping to protect been declared illegal to sell or home gardeners come in. ecosystems, the project may also distribute in the UK and European It takes an average of 100 years reduce unhappiness over plant Union, although home gardeners for a non-native plant to spread to choices. “Gardeners often say they aren’t obliged to destroy them the wild from its first use. During wish they could have been warned if they are already growing on that time, home gardeners may about a certain plant before they their property. have noticed its invasive potential, bought it,” says Dehnen-Schmutz. As well as avoiding further says Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz “We are not saying people damaging introductions, we can at Coventry University, UK. should only have native plants,” all help by joining local control She wants today’s gardeners she says. “Part of the joy of having efforts. Where I live, in Greater to sound the alarm about other a garden is having lots of different London, community groups introduced species that are taking plants. We just need to keep an eye run “balsam bashing” walks, over their flower beds. “We ask on the very few that might become Science of gardening where volunteers beat back people to report plants that are a problem.” ❚ appears every four weeks the Himalayan balsam plants spreading in their garden and are trying to take over the banks difficult to control.” These articles are Next week of the Hogsmill river. They Along with the Botanical Society posted each week at Citizen science have to be beaten because of Britain & Ireland, she set up a newscientist.com/maker

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 51 The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #89 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #114

1 The only birds known to echolocate are certain  Scribble types of swiftlet and which other species?  zone 2 Which substance extracted from nightshade plants is commonly known as devil’s breath?

  3 What was the title of Sadi Carnot’s 1824 book detailing the Carnot cycle and other concepts in thermodynamics?     4 In what year did the Indian Space Research Organisation first successfully launch a rocket?     5 Who made the first complete proof  demonstrating that there is no algebraic     formula for solving quintic equations?

Answers on page 55

   

Puzzle    set by Andy Howe Answers and the next cryptic #126 More chocs-a-weigh crossword next week

ACROSS DOWN 6500 g 8 State of prolonged unconsciousness (4) 1 (4) 9/13 First female graduate of the US Naval 2 Microbes (8) Academy to fly into space (5,8) 3 Home country of the Nobel prizes (6) 10 Fe (4) 4 Medical device also called Quality Control at the WonderSnack 11 The praying mantis, for example (6) a pump or puffer (7) chocolate factory used to have a problem 12 Disease such as H5N1 (5,3) 5 Tubular shape (8) with one of the six machines that produce 13 See 9 across 6 Means of conveying information (6) 200 gram chocolate bars (see puzzle #109 15 Expand, enlarge (6) 7 Substance of which the Chocs-a-weigh, 17 April, p 52). 17 Mussel or scallop, perhaps (7) pedosphere is composed (4) 19 ___ acid, hydrogen cyanide (7) 14 1979 sci-fi horror film (5) That faulty machine has been scrapped, 22 Type of metamorphic rock (6) 16 Test (5) but Hazel Nutt, the new quality control 24 Vulnerable to cyberattack (8) 18 Campania volcano (8) manager, has discovered that the same 26 Pollen allergy (3,5) 20 Sc (8) issue has cropped up in at least one of the 28 Small cluster, of rocks or cells, say (6) 21 Part of the throat (7) remaining five machines. Faulty machines 30 Zn (4) 23 Actually (2,4) are producing bars that are each 5 g below 31 Relating to a forearm bone (5) 25 Yellow finch, native to a group the required 200 g weight. 32 Alien spacecraft, possibly (4) of Atlantic islands (6) 27 H 2SO4 or HNO3, for example (4) “Hmm,” thinks Hazel. “Last time, we worked 29 Play on repeat; circle (4) out which machine was at fault with a single weighing of a selection of bars taken from each machine. I think I can do the same this T D

N time. But I’ll need a machine that can weigh A R B

E up to, oh, about 6.5 kilograms.” D L I H

E K I

A Why 6.5 kg? And how many bars from M /

K each of the five machines must she add C O T

Our crosswords are now solvable online S to the scales for this weighing? R E T

newscientist.com/crosswords T U H

S Solution next week

52 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 4OVCN*OOPGRFOGSN¥ěJCUG CěRKĚĚKONFOĚĚCRS DTěKHJGFKF

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To advertise here please email [email protected] or call 07867 980409 The back pages Almost the last word

Boring number What would it take for present-day humans to What is the smallest whole number split into two species? with no interesting properties? uninteresting number Sarah Longrigg will gradually be a larger Glasgow, UK and larger value. I have The Penguin Dictionary of If we use the looser definition Curious and Interesting Numbers of interesting and agree that all by David Wells (1987) and in positive integers are interesting, this edition, the smallest whole then it follows that all negative number not listed is 43. However, integers must also be interesting of course, that becomes an due to their positive counterpart. interesting number by the mere Therefore, all non-integer rational fact that it is the first number not numbers must be interesting listed as curious and interesting. because they are expressed as Y M

The next number not listed is 51, A the ratio of two integers, both L A /

but that becomes interesting by T of which must be interesting. H G I

being the first genuinely not L Irrational numbers can’t N I A

interesting number. This could R be expressed as the division continue to infinity. B of integers, but because they This week’s new questions continue indefinitely, they Janet Gunn contain every integer somewhere Nokesville, Virginia, US New humans Would it be possible for humans to evolve in the decimal sequence, so are Suppose there is a “first into two different species in the future? Heather (age 15), very interesting. uninteresting number”. That is, Hampshire, UK Finally, all imaginary numbers in itself, an interesting property. are fascinating, just by being Therefore, there can’t be a Tied up What is the best way to tie shoelaces? Mine never imaginary. “first uninteresting number”. stay tied for very long. Jo Dunn, Cape Town, South Africa A story about mathematicians Andrew Taubman Srinivasa Ramanujan and Godfrey Queens Park, New South Wales, Harold Hardy reveals that the number of colours needed to and when used as a tangent Australia interesting aspect of a number colour any map. Three is the produces the boring 45 degrees. There can be no smallest number of spatial dimensions One finds oneself wondering uninteresting number. As soon “ If there are 23 people we can perceive. then whether the numerous as you designate one, it becomes If there are 23 people in a room, properties of oneness of 1 make interesting; then, being no longer in a room, the the chances of two of them having it the most interesting number. boring, it is no longer interesting. chances of two of the same birthday is greater than You end up in a state of quantum them having the same 50 per cent. And 86,400 is the Brian Horton uncertainty, where the number birthday is greater number of seconds in a day. West Launceston, in question is simultaneously than 50 per cent” The list goes on. Tasmania, Australia boring and interesting. The term “interesting” can isn’t always obvious. Hardy had Ian Paget mean different things to different Speed of light ridden in London taxi number Crundale, Pembrokeshire, UK people, so some mathematicians 1729 to visit Ramanujan and Surely the crown of boring use a strict definition of If the speed of light changed, said that it was a “dull” number. numbers would have to be “interesting” so that only how would it affect our lives? Ramanujan responded: “No, awarded to the number 1. numbers appearing on it is a very interesting number. It is so bland that when specific lists are considered @MeliEscarcega It is the smallest number multiplied by itself it makes 1, officially interesting. via Twitter expressible as the sum of two when divided by itself it is 1. In 2014, the number 247 We wouldn’t notice. Or we’d die. cubes in two different ways.” Indeed, every number when was the lowest number with Depends on how much it changed. divided by itself is 1. The square no Wikipedia page. However, Herman D’Hondt root of 1 is 1 and anything raised it now has its own page, so this Ashley Bryant Mascot, New South Wales, to the power of 1 doesn’t change. type of definition invariably Wellington, New Zealand Australia It is a divisor of all other numbers means that over time the lowest Relativity already tells us what With a little bit of effort, would happen if the speed of interesting facts can be found for Want to send us a question or answer? light were to change, and the every number. It just depends on Email us at [email protected] answer is nothing. what criteria you decide to use. Questions should be about everyday science phenomena Consider a stationary observer For example, 4 is the smallest Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms on a platform looking at a light

54 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021 Tom Gauld Answers for New Scientist Quick quiz #114 Answers

1 The oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) 2 Scopolamine 3 Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire (Réflexions sur la Puissance Motrice du Feu) 4 1980 5 Niels Henrik Abel

Cryptic crossword #63 Answers

ACROSS 1 Risk, 3 Ice storm, 9 Cardiac, 10 Urban, 11 Datil, 12 Orders, 14 Vanity, 16 Eureka, 19 Quacks, 21 Bliss, 24 Larva, 25 Gulpers, 26 Ointment, 27 Emus

DOWN 1 Rock dove, 2 Sprat, 5 Squid, 6 Osborne, 7 Mink, 8/4 Violet cuckoo, 13 Bassists, clock on a fast-moving train. They “ If you reduce the then maybe all the others can also 15 Neutron, 17 Umbels, would be able to observe that, speed of light, you change. Our universe is a delicate 18 Isogon, 20 Claim, 22 Ileum, 23 Alto on the train, the light in the light slow everything. If balance of these fundamental clock is taking a longer path and constants. A small change in any hence the clock is taking longer everything is slowed, of them could end the universe to complete one full cycle than a then you won’t notice as we know it. #125 Digital printing clock in their frame of reference. any difference” Solution But the people on the train Eric Kvaalen won’t notice this. That is because slowed, then you wouldn’t notice Les Essarts-le-Roi, France Kevin has enough of every digit all motion is slowed down equally it. So changing the speed of light What matters in physics is the except the twos – he is one short. in a moving frame of reference, would have no effect on anything. dimensionless constants. For The book needs 38 ones, which so a person’s movement, thinking example, the fine-structure means it has 112 pages. and even ageing is slowed down Graham Smith constant determines the strength equally with the light clock, Werribee, Victoria, Australia of the electromagnetic force. It is In the first 99 pages, every digit such that everything appears The energy of a photon of light related to the elementary charge, except zero appears 20 times, the same in the moving frame is equal to Planck’s constant the speed of light and Planck’s 10 of them in the units place (1, as it does in the stationary one. multiplied by the frequency. constant, and has a value of 11, 21, 31, etc.) and 10 in the The question may be talking If the light already emitted over approximately 1/137, with no units. tens place (10, 11, 12, etc.). about slowing down only the the past 13 billion years increased If the speed of light changed speed of light and not anything in frequency, then one of the but the elementary charge and From 100 to 112, a one is else, such as matter, creating a following must be true: either the Planck’s constant didn’t, then the used another 18 times (13 as relative difference. photons have gained energy from fine-structure constant would a hundreds digit, and three in But at its most fundamental, nowhere, and the conservation change, and this would affect the tens and two in the units), matter is wave functions travelling of energy principle isn’t true, or chemistry and nuclear stability. making 38 ones altogether. and collapsing at the speed of Planck’s constant has to change light. This means that the speed inversely with the change of the Tom Kingwell By the time we get to page 112, of matter, and of everything else, speed of light. via Facebook we have seen 21 of every digit is tied to the speed of light. Planck’s constant and the I’d like to think what would except for the two, which If you reduce the speed of light, speed of light are examples of happen if the speed of light is needed 22 times. you slow everything, and just like fundamental constants in our decreased, but I just wouldn’t in a moving frame, if everything is universe. If these can change, have the energy. ❚

14 August 2021 | New Scientist | 55 The back pages Feedback

Water hazard Twisteddoodles for New Scientist number of meetings they seem to crop up in, too, we also personally When it comes to what some refer look forward to any system that to as the sport of golf, Feedback can tell us indisputably whether is unsure whether we land in the there’s an elephant in the room. bunker of it being a good walk spoiled or, as G. K. Chesterton Ain’t half raining saw it, an expensive way of playing marbles. Howard Clase directs us to the News of an innovative way to Canadian government’s weather enliven the game comes courtesy of forecast site for his neck of the a Facebook post from the Royal Port woods, St John’s in Newfoundland. Moresby Golf Club in Papua New A footnote expands on the table Guinea – an outfit of such grand heading “Likelihood of precip”: venerability that the hole-by-hole “Likelihood of Precipitation as course description on its website described in the public forecast as a appears to be in Latin – forwarded chance of measurable precipitation to us by Brendan O’Keefe of for a period of time”. It further Queanbeyan, New South Wales. expands on its categories: “Nil: 0%. “Members, please be aware that Low: 40% or below. Medium: 60% our water holes 15, 16 and 17 have or 70%. High: Above 70%”. been repopulated with crocodiles”, We’ve never had the pleasure of it states. “The crocs will take Newfoundland, but our impression some time to get used to their through film and story is that it’s new home, so please be mindful the sort of place where it is either when playing these holes and take raining very hard, or it isn’t. But still, extra precautions when walking Howard, on a purely intellectual in the rough.” That’s one way to level, we find your enquiry as to encourage an accurate tee shot. what happened to the percentages Got a story for Feedback? between 40 and 59 justified. Faster than a speeding... Send it to [email protected] or New Scientist, The answer you got back from Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT the relevant authorities, that such An Olympic games where records Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed percentages are “meaningless”, have tumbled on track and field is worthy of expansion. Should has drawn to a close (see page 25). anyone have insights into whether But we can still celebrate The Wall Unfuzzy logic Ele-photo lens this is a peculiarly meteorological or Street Journal’s intriguing a peculiarly Canadian phenomenon, description of volleyball player “Time for a new credit card? There’s Lest anyone think we’re down on or whether there is a hole in Wilfredo León having performed, no need to wait,” bubbles a blurb AI, our large, flappy ears are always statistics we should all be worried in May, “one of the fastest serves that plunges with less warning receptive to new, unexpected and about, do please get in touch. in the history of the game at than an Olympic diver into our email pleasing uses for the technology. 84.3 miles per hour – faster than inpool. It informs us of a website Thanks, then, to Alan Wells of A question of degree a blimp’s maximum speed”. where we can “QuickCheck” our Saltdean, UK, for drawing our We associate blimps with rather eligibility in just 60 seconds. “That’s attention to the Zoological Society Still, we admire the lack of nuance more stately progress. Ralf Ludwig a guaranteed yes or no,” it enthuses. of London’s project, in tandem in Canadian weather forecasts of Melbourne Beach in Florida Rather than a blank stare, a sad, with conservation technology when compared with those from displays the true spirit of the New slow intake of breath or an attempt outfit Arribada Initiative, to the BBC. These indulge in a strange Scientist reader by not allowing to change the subject to more create a thermal vision system but booming obsession with really this to go over his head. While the mutually satisfying topics? We’d for detecting elephants. rather small variations in weather highest speed accredited by the buy that. We’re unsure, however, Training the system has conditions by providing an hour- World Air Sports Federation to whether a computer algorithm that involved taking 30,000 thermal by-hour percentage likelihood an airship is Steve Fossett and restricts itself to binary logic is really images of Indian and African of rain that can take any integer Hans-Paul Ströhle’s 115 kilometres a statement of customer focus or elephants at Whipsnade and value from 0 to 100. Many’s the per hour (71.5 mph) in 2004, he just a reflection of what remains Colchester zoos in the UK, time we’ve hung indecisively discovers, the large rigid airships the state of the art. with the aim of developing a with our brolly by the stationery of the 1920s and 1930s reached What would a quantum system that can automatically cupboard door, wondering speeds of up to 140 km/h or computer’s fuzzy logic deliver, alert communities to impending whether to go for it at 23 per cent 87 mph. “So I guess it should we wonder? A guaranteed yes pachyderms at night, and so or wait another 20 minutes for read: ‘faster than a blimp’s official and no would be more fun, for a reduce human-elephant conflicts. a 21 per cent. They must be using maximum speed’,” he concludes. certain, undefined, value of fun. A mammoth task. Given the a quantum computer. ❚

56 | New Scientist | 14 August 2021