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2018 the YEAR of the FLU How to Survive the Worst Outbreak in Living Memory

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2018 the YEAR of the FLU How to Survive the Worst Outbreak in Living Memory BRAINWAVE THERAPY Sound, light and hums set to shake up Alzheimer’s treatment OUT OF A BLACK HOLE Bizarre quantum theory solves greatest paradox in physics THE DEVIL RIDES AGAIN How Australia’s last big predator is biting back WEEKLY 6January2018 VERY HIGH FASHION Spacesuits get a long-overdue makeover SPECIAL REPORT 2018 THE YEAR OF THE FLU How to survive the worst outbreak in living memory No3159 £4.10 US/CAN$6.99 01 9 770262 407275 PLUS INFECTION-FIGHTING FAT / LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT / WANDERING MOONS / ALPINE PYRAMIDS / RECYCLING CRISIS / REPLACEMENT BONES / BOOKS OF 2018 AN DATA SCIENCE Research & Development | Real-World Value & Outcomes IMS Health and Quintiles are now IQVIA™ – created to advance your pursuits of human science by unleashing the power of data science and human ingenuity. Join the journey at iqvia.com/success Copyright © 2017 IQVIA. All rights reserved. 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CONTENTS newscientist.com/issue/3159 Management Executive chairman Bernard Gray Publishing director John MacFarlane Finance director Matthew O’Sullivan Strategy director Sumit Paul-Choudhury Human resources Shirley Spencer Non-executive director Louise Rogers Publishing and commercial Customer services manager Gavin Power Head of data science Kimberly Karman HR co-ordinator Serena Robinson Facilities manager Ricci Welch Management PA Emily Perry Display advertising Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1291 Email [email protected] ALFRED PASIEKA/SCIENCE LIBRARY PHOTO GAERTNER/SCIENCEJUAN LIBRARY PHOTO Commercial director Chris Martin Richard Holliman, Justin Viljoen, Volume 237 No 3159 News Can sound help against Alzheimer’s plaques? 6 Henry Vowden, Helen Williams Recruitment advertising Tel +44 (0)20 8652 4444 On the cover Leaders Features Email [email protected] Recruitment sales manager Mike Black 6 Brainwave therapy 5 This year’s flu should shake us out 28 2018: The year of the flu What Key account managers Sound, light and hums set to of complacency. We need a vision you need to know about the worst Martin Cheng, Reiss Higgins, Viren Vadgama US sales manager Jeanne Shapiro shake up Alzheimer’s treatment to solve impaired sight outbreak in living memory 33 Very high fashion The iconic Marketing Head of marketing Lucy Dunwell 14 Out of a black hole spacesuit gets a long-overdue David Hunt, Chloe Thompson, Andrew Wilkinson Bizarre quantum theory solves News makeover Web development greatest paradox in physics 6 THIS WEEK Sound therapy zaps 38 The devil rides again How Director of technology Steve Shinn Alzheimer’s plaques. Marijuana Australia’s last big predator is Maria Moreno Garrido, Tuhin Sheikh, Amardeep Sian 38 The devil rides again legalised in California. China biting back How Australia’s last big predator tackles climate change 40 PEOPLE Andrew Bastawrous, New Scientist Live Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1273 is biting back the doctor who wants to teach Email [email protected] 8 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY the world to see Event director Mike Sherrard 33 Very high fashion There’s no such thing as love at first Creative director Valerie Jamieson Sales director Jacqui McCarron Spacesuits get a long-overdue sight. A survivor from a lost age. Event manager Henry Gomm makeover How our lust for chocolate changed Culture Conference producer Natalie Gorohova cocoa trees. Google’s robot voice 42 A cultural year The books UK Newsstand 28 2018: The year of the flu gets an upgrade. Too much gaming and events that will shape 2018 Tel +44 (0)20 3787 9001 Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd, How to survive the worst outbreak really can be bad for you. Genital 44 You’ve just crossed over… 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, in living memory crabs can’t find sex. Learning not A 1950s TV show takes to the London E14 5HU to fall over. Parallel universes solve stage – and it really works Syndication Plus Infection-fighting fat (16). Love at black hole problem. 3D-printed Tribune Content Agency Tel +44 (0)20 7588 7588 first sight (8). Wandering moons bones. Fat fights infections. Email [email protected] (16). Alpine pyramids (26). Cast-off moons roam the cosmos Regulars Subscriptions Recycling crisis (25). Replacement 26 APERTURE newscientist.com/subscribe bones (14). Books of 2018 (42) 19 IN BRIEF Mars water slurped by Alien world of the Alps Tel +44 (0)330 333 9470 Email [email protected] rocks. Cuddly crows. CRISPR slows 52 LETTERS Post New Scientist, Rockwood House, deafness. Killer cells feed fetuses Morality in a driverless car Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, 55 OLD SCIENTIST West Sussex RH16 3DH Januaries past Analysis 56 FEEDBACK 22 Drug substitutes The NHS Predicting bitcoin’s future wants to use cheaper versions of 57 THE LAST WORD certain drugs, but some doctors Human attraction aren’t sure 24 COMMENT Don’t count on the CiCo diet. Is supersonic air travel worth reviving? 25 INSIGHT China’s ban on imported Western rubbish could backfire 6 January 2018 | NewScientist | 3 LEADERS Editorial Acting editor Graham Lawton Managing editor Rowan Hooper Head of production Julian Richards Art editor Craig Mackie Editor at large Jeremy Webb News Chief news editor Niall Firth Editors Jacob Aron, Penny Sarchet, Jon White, Chelsea Whyte Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan, Jessica Hamzelou, Michael Le Page, Timothy Revell, Clare Wilson, Sam Wong, (US) Leah Crane, Aylin Woodward, (Aus) Alice Klein Features Chief features editor Richard Webb Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit, PETER MASON/PLAINPICTUREPETER Catherine Brahic, Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins, Kate Douglas, Alison George, Joshua Howgego, Tiffany O’Callaghan, Sean O’Neill Culture and Community Atishoo, we all fall down Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings, Frank Swain This year’s flu should shake us out of our complacency Subeditors Managing subeditor Eleanor Parsons Vivienne Greig, Tom Campbell, Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms FLU season stalks the northern And yet the world remains because a better vaccine won’t hemisphere. That is not news – it astonishingly cavalier about a be blockbuster-profitable. Design Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel, happens every year, and for most virus that regularly kills hundreds This month also marks 100 Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills of us it is usually little more than a of thousands and occasionally years since the outbreak of Picture desk nuisance. But the flu of 2018 could more. We fend it off half-heartedly the so-called Spanish flu, the Chief picture editor Adam Goff be as bad as an annual winter with a vaccine from the 1940s, worst pandemic we know about. Kirstin Kidd, David Stock outbreak gets (see page 28). which is better than nothing – but This year’s“Aussieflu”is a Production You may think you have heard we know we can do more. We descendant of that virus. It won’t Mick O’Hare, Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon, Melanie Green it all before, but you probably spend a pittance on developing be as bad, but we must hope that haven’t. To be clear, we are not vaccines that will actually defeat its inevitable impact is enough Contact us talking about an emerging strain newscientist.com/contact it, even though researchers have to tell the world that ordinary General & media enquiries of bird or swine flu, the kind that some very promising leads. flu is still a serious disease and Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1202 keeps virologists awake at night Why? Partly because of that a repeat of 1918 is bound [email protected] fearing a pandemic. Right now the complacency: most of us have to happen. UK 25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES warnings are about regular winter had flu and lived to tell the tale. In the UK, centenarians are Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 flu. But it looks like a bad one. Partly because denialists peddle entitled to a birthday message AUSTRALIA For people vulnerable because of the lie that the threat is overstated from the queen. She should send Level 11, Suite 3, 100 Walker Street, age, pregnancy, obesity or other so pharma companies can sell one to the 1918 flu too, to remind North Sydney, NSW 2060 risk factors, it could be a killer. vaccines and drugs. And partly us that it is still with us. ■ Tel +61 (0)2 9422 8559 US 210 Broadway #201 Cambridge, MA 02139 diagnosing the several billion Tel +1 781 734 8773 Sight for more eyes people who need them is a bigger hurdle.
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