APPY TALK It’s never too late to learn another language WHO’S IN THE MIRROR? How it feels to have someone else’s face COSMIC BRUISE Glimpse of another universe? WEEKLY October 31 - November 6, 2015 COMPUTER SAYS NO Your career is already in the hands of AI How civilization took root all over the world No3045 US$5.95 CAN$5.95 44 0 70989 30690 5 Science and technology news www.newscientist.com US jobs in science TRUST NO ONE Laws of physics keep your secrets safe from hackers Mind. Full. Give a gift that satisfies this holiday Subscribe and save up to 73% Visit newscientist.com/8308 or call 1-888-822-3242 and quote 8308 CONTENTS Volume 228 No 3045 This issue online newscientist.com/issue/3045 News Leader 5 Tech is closing language gaps, 8 with results we can’t predict Cosmic bruise News 6 UPFRONT Evidence we got 23andMe returns with new genetic test. bashed by another TB now world’s leading cause of death. universe? Flying through a Saturn moon plume 8 THIS WEEK Rosetta finds oxygen on comet 67P. Anaesthesia blunts emotional memories. Self-sacrificing cells use DNA as weapon. Bumblebees deliver pesticides. Asthma RUDI SEBASTIAN/PLAINPICTURERUDI drug rejuvenates brains. Dark matter may blow up stars 10 SPECIAL REPORT On the cover The plan to make meat without animals 16 IN BRIEF 40 Appy talk Neighbouring planet could be an illusion. 31 Learn another language King penguins face longer swims for food 28 Who’s in the mirror? Seeds of How it feels to have Technology revolution someone else’s face 8 Cosmic bruise 20 Your career is in the hands of recruitment AI. How civilization Glimpse of other universe? Ball bots to monitor underwater world took root all over 20 Computer says no the world AI is running your career Aperture 36 Trust no one 24 The extraordinary beauty of snails Laws of physics keep secrets safe from hackers Cover image Opinion Tim McDonagh 26 No more red pen! Rachael Jolley says China must come clean on its deadly air pollution 26 Unhealthy stealth Trust in medical tech Features depends on openness, says John Ioannidis 27 One minute with… Chris Henstridge My brain collection may help us thrive in old age 40 28 Behind my new face Carmen Blandin Tarleton on life after a face transplant Appy talk Features It’s never too late 31 Seeds of revolution (see above left) to learn another 36 Trust no one Laws of physics keep your language secrets safe from hackers 40 Appy talk It’s never too late to learn another language CultureLab GONÇALO VIANA GONÇALO 44 Worlds remade A tale of the search for the ultimate algorithm dodges the big questions 45 Winning ways Can science win book prizes Coming next week… only if it dons other clothes? Entangled universe The quantum origins of space-time Regulars 52 LETTERS Morality needs more thought Therapist in your pocket 56 FEEDBACK Rotting apples with your mind The apps people are turning to for support 57 THE LAST WORD Perfect perch 31 October 2015 | NewScientist | 3 The Cambridge Executive MBA “Cambridge has this critical mass of academic and business expertise, capital & connections. 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ART MUSEUM, SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE For our latest subscription offers, visit newscientist.com/subscribe Customer and subscription services are Deconstructing Babel also available by: Telephone 1-888-822-3242 Email [email protected] Tech is closing language gaps, with results we can’t predict Web newscientist.com/subscribe Mail New Scientist, PO Box 3806, WHY does humanity speak so Many constructed languages years ago, Google’s question Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953 USA many languages? Our ancestors were created in the hope that a “Translate this page?” seemed One year subscription (51 issues) $154 decided it must be the result of linguistically unified humanity more hopeful than helpful. But CONTACTS divine intervention: when the would become socially unified, torrents of data have changed all Contact us newscientist.com/contact people of Babel decided to build too. Another, Lojban, is designed that: the latest version of Android Who’s who a tower to the heavens, God on the basis of logic, enabling will translate typed messages on newscientist.com/people “confused” their tongues to any person to communicate with the fly. Audio is not far behind: General & media enquiries [email protected] scupper work on their hubristic any other without ambiguity – Skype already offers real-time Editorial project. or perhaps even talk to a machine. translation for some language Tel 781 734 8770 Today, we think languages Talking to machines turns out pairs. You might not yet trust any [email protected] [email protected] “speciate” much as organisms do. to be key to demolishing language of these with literature or legal [email protected] Biological speciation is a complex barriers, although not in the way papers – but that day is coming. 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The internet has Sales and Marketing, 260 Cherry Hill Road, Parsippany, NJ 07054 obscure sequel to the biblical tale, it seems, can sometimes succeed already helped far-flung speakers Syndication Fénius Farsaid, legendary patriarch where correspondence courses of rare tongues find each other. Tribune Content Agency of the Irish people, directed 72 wise and evening classes so often fail: But the interplay of language Tel 800 637 4082 men to spend a decade studying in teaching adults a new language. and culture is complex, to say © 2015 Reed Business Babel’s confused tongues before This success is in part due to the least, and we should be wary Information Ltd, England. reintegrating them into a single apps’ tireless capacity for tuition, of potential homogenisation. New Scientist ISSN 0262 4079 is published weekly except for the last perfect language: Gaelic. but it’s also because their design Still, there are plenty of week in December by Reed Business Gaelic has yet to catch on as a is informed by an improved reasons to hope that automated Information Ltd, England. global lingua franca, but there are understanding of how adults translation will help humanity New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 New Scientist at Reed Business plenty of other candidates, most learn – and how this differs from reach new heights. Fittingly, Information, c/o Schnell Publishing Co. famously Esperanto, devised by children’s apparently effortless one such app was created to Inc., 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451. Polish linguist Ludwik Zamenhof language acquisition (see page improve communication at Periodicals postage paid at in the late 19th century. Although 40). Whether adult learners will CERN, a multinational consortium Boston, MA and other mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes its fans claim that 2 million people share any of the cognitive benefits probing the secrets of creation. to New Scientist, PO Box 3806, have learned it, it cannot be said kids get from bilingualism (5 May A better analogue to the tower Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953, USA. Registered at the Post Office as a to have caught on: Klingon could, 2012, p 30) remains to be seen. of Babel is hard to imagine. newspaper and printed in USA by Fry by some measures, be seen as But learning languages at all And perhaps this time the story Communications Inc, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 much more successful. may fast be becoming passé. Five will end differently. ■ 31 October 2015 | NewScientist | 5 UPFRONT Quake hits Afghanistan A MAGNITUDE-7.5 quake that struck to be the remnants of a former north-east Afghanistan on Monday subducting piece of Earth’s crust that has killed at least 311 people and is burrowing beneath another piece, injured 1500. says Gavin Hayes of the USGS. “Deep The final death toll could reach quakes [in north-east Afghanistan] XINHUA NEWS AGENCY/REX SHUTTERSTOCK NEWS AGENCY/REX XINHUA 1000, according to the US Geological represent rupture within the core of Survey. “Communications appear to the subducted ‘slab’.” have gone down in the worst-affected By contrast, the Nepal quake was areas, so it will be some time before on a much shallower and more active we know the full impact,” says Ilan plate boundary and was related to Kelman of University College London.