p48 New Scientist September 16 2017

CONSCIOUSNESS REGAINED
The man who unlocks

trapped minds
GHOST LEOPARD
The bid to revive a big cat
that may never have existed
BIODIVERSITY BONANZA
20 major branches
added to the tree of life
WEEKLY September 16 - 22, 2017
STORM WARNING Will hurricane-battered regions ever be the same again?
SPECIAL ISSUE
AFTER
CASSINI
As one epic mission ends... the real journey of discovery begins
No3143
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3 7
Science and technology news

www.newscientist.com
0 72440 30690 5 US jobs in science
PLUS FALLING IQ /BETTER QUBITS /PLANET NINE /MEDITATION / VOICE HACKING /

CHINA’S GREEN POWER PLAY /BAD DREAMS /SHRINKING MICRONESIA
ESSENTIAL
KNOWLEDGE
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newscientist.com/issue/3143
CONTENTS
Management
Executive chairman Bernard Gray
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Human resources Shirley Spencer
Non-executive director Louise Rogers
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NASA
Commercial director Chris Martin
Richard Holliman, Justin Viljoen,
Henry Vowden, Helen Williams Volume 235 No 3143 News Clear-up begins after Hurricane Irma’s devastation 4
Recruitment advertising
Tel +1 781 734 8773
Email [email protected] On the cover Leader Features
Recruitment sales manager Mike Black
Key account managers 44 Consciousness regained 3 UK and EU science will both be 27 Ghost leopard Plans to bring
Martin Cheng, Reiss Higgins, Viren Vadgama The man who unlocks trapped weakened by Brexit back a big cat that might never
US sales manager Jeanne Shapiro
minds have existed
Marketing
Head of marketing Lucy Dunwell
Danbi Cho, David Hunt, Chloe Thompson, 27 Ghost leopard
News 29 CASSINI SPECIAL
Andrew Wilkinson The bid to revive a big cat that 4 UPFRONT Hurricane Irma 30 Whole new world What Cassini
Web development may never have existed devastates Caribbean. Massive taught us about Saturn
Director of technology Steve Shinn solar flare. Equifax credit hack 36 Mission possibles Where are
Maria Mareno Garrido, Tuhin Sheikh,
Amardeep Sian 6 Biodiversity bonanza our missions to the outer solar
New Scientist Live
20 major branches added to the 6 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY system now?
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1273 tree of life Microbial “dark matter”. Ultrasound 38 The next voyage We now know
Email [email protected] whispers hijack Siri. AI sees where to look for life in space
Event director Mike Sherrard
4 Storm warning through masks. NYC subway 44 PEOPLE Adrian Owen on
Creative director Rowan Hooper
Sales director Jacqui McCarron Will hurricane-battered regions follows quantum maths. Hottest unlocking trapped minds
Event executive Laura Giddings
ever be the same again? place on Earth’s surface. Planet
Marketing manager Kate Disley
Marketing executive Dimitri Soru Nine is not from outer space. Rats
Conference producer Natalie Gorohova
29 After Cassini replay scary memories in their
Culture
US Newsstand As one epic mission ends... the real sleep. Redesigning the qubit. 46 In the moment Are meditation
Tel +1 212 237 7987
journey begins Algorithm learns to be expressive. and mindfulness really good for us?
Distributed by Time/Warner Retail,
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Parsippany, NJ 07054 Plus Falling IQ (11). Better qubits (9). Pacific Islands lost to rising seas. A Enter the world of psychosis
Syndication Planet Nine (8). Meditation (46). longer life is making us look stupid. through a new game
Tribune Content Agency Voice hacking (6). China’s green Voracious jellyfish. Baffling maths 48 Sense from chaos
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Analysis 52 LETTERS
20 Green China How a clean energy Radicalisation’s roots
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22 COMMENT Embrace the unisex Helping people walk again
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the solution to our food needs Pregnancy pouches
23 INSIGHT Can the US nuke North 57 THE LAST WORD
Korea without starting a war? Give us a clue
16 September 2017 | NewScientist | 1

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THIS IS AXIOML I F E . A B OV E A L L E L S E .
Date of preparation: September 2017 - UK-CELG170155d

LEADER
Editorial
Editor-in-chief Sumit Paul-Choudhury
Executive editor Graham Lawton
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Chief news editor Niall Firth
Editors Sally Adee, Jacob Aron,
Penny Sarchet, Jon White, Chelsea Whyte
Reporters (UK) Andy Coghlan,
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Reynolds, Timothy Revell, Clare Wilson,
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Features
Chief features editor Richard Webb
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Kate Douglas, Alison George,
Still stronger together

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Culture and Community

Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings,
Frank Swain
UK and EU science will both be weakened by Brexit
Subeditors
Managing subeditor Eleanor Parsons
Vivienne Greig, Tom Campbell, AS THE European Union extensive: the UK is among the access. A notable example is the
Hannah Joshua, Chris Simms
(Withdrawal) Bill wends its way top five research partners for the €500 million-a-year European
Design
through parliament, the shape of other 27 members. All concerned Defence Research Programme,
Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel,
Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills post-Brexit Britain is slowly being have incentives to cooperate. due to begin in 2022. On this,
Picture desk
revealed. And not before time: as But in practice, there are the UK government merely says
Chief picture editor Adam Goff things stand, the UK will drop out problems. Consider Horizon it would “welcome dialogue”.
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UPFRONT
YAMIL LAGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Long road to recovery after Irma

AS HURRICANE Irma heads north, now like dengue fever. In Haiti, cholera is a in Providence, Rhode Island. Twelve we should return to mother nature,”
a mere “tropical depression”, it leaves risk; after 2016’s Hurricane Matthew, years after Hurricane Katrina, the says Eric Klinenberg at New York
behind a trail of destruction across affected areas experienced a 50 per population of New Orleans is still University. Perhaps some areas
the Caribbean and southern Florida. cent increase in cases thanks to a lack below its pre-Katrina level. should be abandoned, he says.
Islands like St Martin, Puerto Rico, of clean drinking water. Those who return may be forced But the US government is doing
Barbuda and Cuba were hit hardest. Electricity must be restored to the to live in flood-prone areas because the opposite. President Trump has
As New Scientist went to press, 37 many people who are now without. they cannot afford to pay the higher ditched Obama-era rules that made
people in the Caribbean and 10 in the Irma knocked out power to at least rents in safer areas. There will be it harder to build on floodplains.
US are believed dead. On Barbuda, 90 two-thirds of Florida, some 6.5 million “growing economic inequality” Companies looking to build in
per cent of buildings were destroyed. homes. Much of Puerto Rico may be in cities hit by Irma, says Fussell. Florida will want flood insurance,
The French and UK governments without electricity for four months. says Andrew Lakoff at the University
have sent aid workers, food and The financial cost of Irma hasn’t yet “Many Caribbean islands of Southern California. But outdated
medical equipment to their overseas been calculated. Hurricane Harvey, rely on tourism and will maps mean that insurance estimates
territories. Many of these islands rely which hit Texas a week earlier, caused feel the economic impact don’t include the increased flooding
on tourism and will feel the economic up to $180 billion of damage. of Irma for a long time” risk brought about by climate change.
impact of Irma for a long time. As the waters recede, people So firms may build on vulnerable
For many places across the region, will return to their homes. In Florida, In the long-term, Irma could areas, knowing they will be bailed
the priorities will be safe drinking 6.3 million were evacuated. Some who reshape how cities like Miami, which out by the government’s National
water, food and shelter. There is also find their homes and communities are exposed to rising sea levels and Flood Insurance Program if disaster
an increased risk of disease, partly destroyed may move away rather than extreme hurricanes, are developed. strikes. Trump’s government,
because stagnating water attracts face the risk of another disaster, says “We [have] some very hard it seems, is already creating the
mosquitoes that can carry diseases Elizabeth Fussell at Brown University questions to ask about which places conditions for the next disaster.
4 | NewScientist | 16 September 2017

For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
60 SECONDS
Credit punch Mexico earthquake It could have been much Pluto’s name bonanza
worse. An early-warning system,
Some of Pluto’s features finally have
EQUIFAX, a firm responsible THE official death toll after installed after the devastating 1985
official names. Among locations
for millions of people’s credit Mexico’s massive earthquake earthquake that killed more than
named after scientists, Pluto’s pale
ratings, last week announced last week has risen to 96 as more 5000 people, gave residents vital
heart has been named Tombaugh
that data belonging to nearly fatalities were confirmed in the seconds to flee. Better building
Regio after Clyde Tombaugh, who
half the US population had hard-hit southern states of regulations after that disaster will
discovered the dwarf planet. One
been exposed in a hack. Oaxaca and Chiapas. The US
fracture is now called Sleipnir Fossa
About 143 million people whose Geological Survey reported the “The quake was strong after the Norse god Odin’s eight-
data Equifax has collected may earthquake’s magnitude as 8.1, enough to be felt in legged horse.
have had their names, addresses, making it the biggest quake in the Mexico City, more than
dates of birth, social security country since 1985. 700 kilometres away”
numbers and, in some cases, About 5000 homes were razed
Fin diesel
drivers’ licence numbers stolen. in Chiapas. The quake was strong have also helped lessen the In a bid to address pollution in
“It’s quite horrendous,” says UK enough to be felt in Mexico City, damage. The quake was caused by Beijing, China has floated the idea of
security expert Graham Cluley. “If more than 700 kilometres away, the oceanic Cocos tectonic plate banning the production and sale of
you have people’s contact details, and there have been hundreds of diving under the North American all cars that burn diesel or other
you can begin to contact them aftershocks in the days since. Plate and bending. fossil fuels. The plan will kick into
posing as different organisations,” effect “in the near future”. It would
he says, such as banks. create huge incentives for electric
vehicles and would shore up China’s
It’s not just US citizens caught
up in the hack: 44 million people Sun belches out powerful flares credentials as a green superpower
in the UK may also be exposed. IF YOUR GPS has been acting funny, ejections – that are 10 times the (see page 20).
Many will never have heard of take it up with the sun. Over the past size of Earth and curl up off the
Equifax, much less suspect that week, an active region there has sun’s surface. Coral on the slide
it holds their sensitive data. been belching out sudden streams of This time, the largest coronal The Great Barrier Reef has been
The Information Commissioner’s radiation. One, on 6 September, was mass ejection interfered with losing crucial reef-building corals for
Office has advised Equifax to the largest such flare in over a decade. GPS communications and stopped at least 100 years. Researchers only
keep affected people updated. Flares like this are less common at high-frequency radios working on began tracking reef decline in the
this point in the sun’s roughly 11-year the side of Earth then facing the 1980s, but now radioisotope dating
cycle, as it heads towards what is sun. The charged particles also has revealed many coral deaths
Mired in fire supposed to be its quietest period. created spectacular auroras. throughout the last century
Four flares were placed in the NASA’s Solar Dynamics (PNAS, doi.org/ccz4).
THE western US remains besieged X-class, the most powerful type of Observatory captured the
by an abnormally large cluster of solar flare. The largest measured moment the flare erupted from Get up, stand up
forest fires. As New Scientist went X9.3, the strongest since an X17 the sun’s active region, known
Exercise isn’t enough to ward off
to press, there were 64 large fires flare in 2005. Another flare, on 10 as AR 2673 (below).
risks of sitting still for long periods.
raging, according to the country’s September, was classified as X8.2. The most powerful solar flare
Researchers who tracked people
National Interagency Fire Center. X-class solar flares are the solar ever detected occurred in 2003.
over 45 found that those inactive for
Montana alone had 25. system’s largest explosions. They are It caused all of NASA’s solar
more than 12.4 minutes at a time
Western states remain at risk often accompanied by twisting ropes measurement sensors to cut out
had almost twice the risk of dying
throughout this month, some of plasma – known as coronal mass after they recorded a power of X28.
during the study period as those
into October. Oklahoma and
inactive for less than 7.7 minutes at
NASA/SDO/GODDARD
Texas could see fires in December.

a time. This effect held even when
“Man-made climate change
people did vigorous exercise (Annals
is making things incrementally
of Internal Medicine, doi.org/ccz2).
hotter ,” says John Abatzoglou
at the University of Idaho, so
potential fuel dries out faster.
Animals’ head start
He also says that “a legacy of Tiny preserved burrows reveal that
fire suppression and fuel worm-like animals were thriving
accumulation” has worsened the on Earth 555 million years ago, over
natural pattern of wildfires in the 10 million years before other fossil
US, leading to more extreme fires. evidence starts to appear. The find
Lung health charities warn that supports previous suspicions that
people exposed to smoke and animals evolved earlier than fossil
other pollution are at higher risk bones alone would suggest (Nature
of lung damage, with children Ecology & Evolution, doi.org/ccz5).
and the elderly most at risk. –Giant flare-up–

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Life’s ‘dark matter’

branches, or phyla, to the tree of Parks. But many of the genomes
life. “To give this context, every are highly novel, so it will take
single insect on Earth belongs to time to figure out what they do.
detected at last just one phylum, and every

single animal with a backbone
belongs to one phylum, so this
The microbes could yield new
antibiotics, or be used in industry
and waste management: to make
is crazy new levels of stuff,” fuel and chemicals, or break down
Alice Klein 1500 metagenomes uploaded to says Nicholas Coleman at the plastic pollution, for instance.
a public database. Each contained University of Sydney. “The better we can grasp the
THEY were right under our noses – jumbles of DNA from places like “This study has put names on diversity of microbes, the more
thousands of novel microscopic soil, the ocean, industrial effluent that dark matter,” says Coleman. we can go looking for things that
life forms, now unmasked by and baboon faeces. “Now we need to figure out what are useful,” says Coleman.
genetic analysis. Many belong to Using heavy-duty computers to it’s actually doing and how we The expanded tree of life
entirely new groups, as different sift through this mess, the team can benefit from it.” will also give us clues to ancient
from other microbes as an insect reconstructed 7280 bacterial and One way will be to look for evolutionary events, such as when
is from a chimpanzee. 623 archaeal genomes. About a genes that resemble those of well- oxygen-producing organisms
Earth’s microorganisms are third were new to science (Nature known organisms. “They might evolved, says Parks.
split into bacteria and archaea. Microbiology, doi.org/cczd). have a gene that looks similar to a But the immediate question is
They make up the vast majority The new microbes add 20 major methane metabolism gene,” says how many more species are out
of species, but until recently we there. Previous studies estimated
could only study a tiny fraction. that Earth has 1 trillion microbial
This is because less than 10 per species, with 98 per cent yet to be
cent can be grown in the lab. The identified. “But this is probably an
rest only survive in their native underestimate, as we’ve recently
environment – be it a cow’s guts found that existing methods for
or a deep-sea vent. Researchers estimating this actually miss a lot
call them microbial dark matter. of organisms,” says Parks.
However, a technique called However, the discovery of new
metagenomics is bringing them phyla seems to be levelling off,
to light. It involves sequencing all says co-author Philip Hugenholtz
the DNA in an environmental at the University of Queensland.
CARSTEN PETER/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
sample – its metagenome – then So while there are more microbes

piecing together the genomes of left to find, they may fill up
each microbe present. “It’s like known branches of the tree of life
getting a mix-up of lots of rather than starting new ones.
different jigsaw puzzles, and then “There’s still a whole lot that
trying to put together the pieces we don’t know,” says Coleman.
of each individual puzzle,” says “There are so many crazy
Donovan Parks at the University environments out there, and even
of Queensland in Australia. two patches of dirt side-by-side
Parks’ team analysed more than –Oozing biodiversity– can have different organisms.” ■
Ultrasound thermostats to internet banking, so

security breaches are pretty serious.
voice assistant hears these sounds,
it still recognises them as legitimate
Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana.
But not all devices were equally
turns Siri The hack was created by Guoming
Zhang, Chen Yan and their team at
commands, even though they are
imperceptible to the human ear.
easy to fool. To take control of Siri, the
owner’s voice had to be surreptitiously
against you Zhejiang University in China. Using Yet it isn’t easy to pull off. The recorded for playback before being
ultrasound, a command inaudible to attacker needs to be close to the converted to ultrasound, as Apple’s
DID you hear that? Alexa certainly did. us was used to wake the assistant, target device to hack it, although it system recognises only the speaker.
Voice assistants have been hijacked giving the attacker control of the may be possible to play the commands To secure voice assistants in
using sounds above the range of speaker, smartphone or other device, via a hidden speaker as they walk the future, ultrasound could be
human hearing. Once in, researchers as well as access to any connected past. Assistants falling for the ploy suppressed, says Tavish Vaidya of
were able to make phone calls, post on systems (Cryptography and Security, included Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Georgetown University in Washington
social media and disconnect wireless arxiv.org/abs/1708.09537). DC. However, we should focus on
services, among other things. The attack works by converting “Voice assistants are now protecting against unauthorised
That is a problem because voice the usual wake-up commands – connected to everything commands rather than limiting
assistants can also be connected “OK Google” or “Hey Siri” – into from thermostats to what assistants can do, he says.
to services ranging from smart high-pitched analogues. When a smart banking” Nicole Kobie ■

In this section
■ Hottest place on Earth’s surface, page 8
■ Rats replay scary memories in their sleep, page 9
■ How clean energy will make China a superpower, page 20
Face ID tech can

see through
your disguise
DITCH the hat and scarf – face
recognition software can now identify
you despite such disguise.
Amarjot Singh at the University
of Cambridge and his team trained a
machine learning algorithm to locate
the 14 key points on the face that our
brains pay most attention to when
we look at someone. It only needs to
JENTZPHOTO /ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
see a fraction of these points to guess

where the others are likely to be.
The researchers then showed the
system 2000 photos of people
wearing hats, glasses, scarves and
fake beards, hand labelling them to
indicate the location of those key –Mind the gap–
points, even if they couldn’t be seen.
Finally, the algorithm was given a
subset of the images to learn how NYC subway runs best controlling agency, and each
bus belonged to the driver.
disguised faces corresponded to the
same faces without any disguise. with quantum maths To maximise the number of
passengers they could transport –
It was able to accurately identify and therefore profit – the drivers
people wearing basic disguises like a WITH its antiquated trains, rusty arrive more or less randomly. set up a series of checkpoints to
cap and scarf 69 per cent of the time rails and straphangers who keep “If you were waiting at a stop avoid clustering.
(arxiv.org/abs/1708.09317). the doors from closing, the New for 5 minutes, waiting for the Upon arriving at a checkpoint,
This isn’t as good as systems that York City subway system could next 5 minutes does you no the driver would learn when the
recognise undisguised faces, but the hardly be described as efficient. good,” says Trogdon. In a more previous bus had stopped, and
algorithm is better at seeing through And yet, some trains arrive with functional transit system, you’d would slow down or speed up to
disguises, says Singh. “In effect, it is a reliable regularity, following a expect that after waiting for a optimise gaps between vehicles.
able to see through your mask.” neat statistical model similar to while, the probability of a train Analysing the records of when
You can also probably say goodbye that seen in quantum systems. arriving soon would be quite high. buses came and went, researchers
to CV Dazzle, the camouflage make-up Aukosh Jagannath at the The Poisson distribution does found that the buses in
mooted as a way to stay anonymous University of Toronto, Canada, not guarantee this. Cuernavaca obeyed random
in a world of face recognition. “This and Tom Trogdon at the “I think the data is confirming matrix patterns.
will work very well for this type of University of California, Irvine, people’s intuition about the two The parallel isn’t exact for the
camouflage,” Singh says. The team used the subway system’s real- New York City subway system,
will present its findings next month time data feeds to analyse gaps “The southbound 1 train on however. The random matrix
at the International Conference on between arrival times on two lines. the west side of Manhattan patterns break down at the last
Computer Vision in Venice, Italy. They found that the follows more efficient 10 stations of the southbound
The system could help identify southbound 1 line that runs down random matrix patterns” 1 line. What’s more, the
criminals who are trying to hide their the west side of Manhattan shows northbound 1 line does not
identities, says Singh. But he admits what are called random matrix lines,” says Trogdon. The 1 line follow those patterns.
that authoritarian governments could patterns, which are “a sign of is one of the three local subway “The analysis of the New York
also use it to identify protesters. greater efficiency”, says lines serving the west side of system is less clear [than for
“There’s always a trade-off Jagannath, who is now at Harvard Manhattan, so it’s far less crowded Cuernavaca],” says Ariel Amir at
between security and privacy,” says University. These trains run at than the 6, which at the time of Harvard University. Still, he says
Anil Jain at Michigan State University. more regular intervals (Physical the study was the only local line this kind of analysis is the first step
But he says that people in public Review E, doi.org/cczj). on the east side. towards optimising the subway
spaces are already under constant In contrast, the 6 line that runs The efficiency analysis was system. For the commuters who
surveillance by security cameras, so up the east side of Manhattan is inspired by a landmark 1990 take more than 1.7 billion rides
they shouldn’t be too worried about inefficient. Its trains follow the study in Cuernavaca, Mexico. At on New York’s subterranean rails
every improvement in the technology. Poisson distribution, a statistical that time, buses in Cuernavaca a year, that’s always going to be
Matt Reynolds ■ model describing particles that operated with no central a plus. Mark Kim ■

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Record heat from Unseen Planet

Black at the University of
California, Berkeley.
Now clues left behind in the Nine wasn’t
space rock impact Mistastin Lake crater in Labrador,
Canada, which is 28 kilometres
across, are revealing just how
stolen from afar
hot the impact site became. PLANET Nine may not be from outer
Aylin Woodward and affected its habitability. Nicholas Timms at Curtin space after all. The mysterious giant
But inferring the heat University in Perth, Australia, planet that astronomers think may
IT IS the hottest temperature generated by these ancient and his team found that the orbit our sun far beyond Pluto may
ever recorded on Earth’s surface. meteorites is tricky. Not only did crater was once hot enough to have been born with the rest of the
When a space rock struck the they hit Earth millions of years transform the common mineral solar system’s planets instead of
ground nearly 40 million years ago but both the meteorites and zircon into gem-like cubic stolen from another star or scooped
ago in what is now Canada, the the surface rocks often vaporised zirconia. The zircon acts as a up from interstellar space.
impact briefly heated rocks to in the resulting shock waves. thermometer, because the From the weird motion of distant
2370 °C. That’s halfway to the This is a pity, since such rocks minimum temperature necessary objects in the Kuiper belt, researchers
temperature at the sun’s surface. hold temperature clues. We can for this transformation is 2370 °C. have estimated that if there is a
The blistering heat has been predict maximum temperatures – Timms’s team traced the planet out there, it should have a
revealed by an unexpected estimated to be over 2000 °C. zircon’s history back to the point mass around 10 times that of Earth.
source: gemstones. However, a lack of physical of impact, about 38 million years Since the material to build a planet
When space debris crashes evidence in the rock record ago (Earth and Planetary Science that size isn’t available out that far,
into Earth, the impact creates meant it was not possible to test Letters, doi.org/cczc). that leaves two possible options:
hellishly hot temperatures in the most extreme predictions. “Nobody has even considered either the planet was formed closer
the collision zone. Such impacts “What kinds of records can using zirconia as a recorder of to the sun and migrated out, or it was
when our planet was young survive an event capable of temperatures of impact melts caught from elsewhere.
changed its atmosphere and crust, vaporising rocks?” asks Benjamin before,” says Timms. “This is To find out how likely it is that
the first time that we have an Planet Nine was captured by the sun
indication that real rocks can early in its lifetime, Richard Parker at
get that hot.” the University of Sheffield in the UK
“These new results underscore and his colleagues simulated a
just how extreme conditions can theoretical cluster of stars (arxiv.org/
be in the seconds to minutes after abs/1709.00418).
asteroids strike a planet,” says There aren’t many stars near our
own now, but most stars are born in
“These new results crowded star-forming regions. Parker
underscore just how and his team simulated such a region,
extreme conditions can but adjusted it to make it as easy as
be after asteroids strike” possible for stars to acquire planets –
with one planet for every star and
Black. Understanding the upper everything moving at similar speeds.
limits of temperatures during Even so, they found that less than
these impacts might improve 6 per cent of the planets get captured.
our picture of the conditions on In simulations of clusters tweaked
Earth’s surface over 4 billion years further to be more like the type our
ago, when the newly formed sun’s chemical make-up tells us it was
planet was repeatedly bombarded probably born in, only three out of
10,000 stars were able to capture a
PLANET OBSERVER/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES
from space.
Black says superheating planet on an orbit similar to what
from more frequent and larger Planet Nine’s seems to be.
bombardments could have baked Even if the sun formed in a densely
Earth’s crust, keeping hydrogen, populated cluster, it’s still unlikely
carbon and sulphur in the that it captured Planet Nine, Parker
atmosphere. All these elements says. But Kat Volk at the University
are considered essential for life: of Arizona says it is tough to rule out
for instance, without hydrogen any formation mechanism, especially
and oxygen there can be no water. since we aren’t even sure that Planet
But too much could have affected Nine really exists. “Three planets like
the planet’s climate and chemistry, Planet Nine out of 10,000 still means
–Hot enough for gemstones– making it less habitable. ■ it’s possible,” she says. Leah Crane ■

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
Gabrielle Girardeau. “If you do

it in the face of a human, they
don’t like it either.”
As well as looking at the
animals’ hippocampi, the team
also recorded activity in their
amygdalas, a pair of nearby
brain structures that become
active when they are scared.
Sure enough, when the rats
replayed memories of the route
while sleeping, their amygdalas
became more active as they
mentally revisited the spot where
they had been frightened (Nature
BENJAMIN BECHET/PICTURETANK
Neuroscience, doi.org/ccz3).
This is the first replay study
to bring in the emotional
system, says Dan Bendor of
University College London.
–Night terrors– “That’s really important because
our memories are not just
Rats replay scary storage, and has recently

been detected in people for
information – we remember
all the emotional context.”
memories as they sleep the first time.

Buzsáki’s team wondered
What isn’t clear is if the rats
experienced this replay of
if such memory replay might emotions as a dream, says
HAVE we had our first peek at the structures in the brain. include not just spatial Buzsáki. “We can’t ask them.”
source of nightmares? When rats Different locations are processed information, but also how the But he does think that if the
are given a fright while awake, by distinct groups of neurons in animal was feeling at the time. same thing goes on in people,
the fear centre in their brains the hippocampi that fire together They tested this by giving a rat it might lead to nightmares.
reactivates when they fall asleep. in sequence as rats run around a an unpleasant but harmless “It has been fairly well
This could explain why maze, for example. experience – a puff of air in the documented that trauma leads
people who endure frightening After the animals explore an face from a computer keyboard to bad dreams,” he says. “People
experiences often have environment like this, these firing cleaner – at a particular point are scared to go to sleep.”
nightmares afterwards, says sequences are replayed as the rats along a route. James Bisby of University
György Buzsáki of New York sleep. It is as if they are dreaming As expected, the rats learned College London thinks that is too
University. of the routes they have taken. to fear the same spot. “They slow big a leap. All we know for now,
Like us, rats store mental maps This process is thought to down before the location of the he says, is that it seems to be a
of the world they experience in allow memories to become air puff, then run superfast away memory strengthening process.
their hippocampi – two curved consolidated for longer term from it,” says Buzsáki’s colleague, Clare Wilson ■
Revamped qubit computers at an atomic scale (Nature

Communications, doi.org/cczq).
team shows that it is possible to
extend their reach by pulling the
However, superconducting and
silicon quantum systems both work
may bring faster Silicon quantum systems allow
little room for electronics because
electron further away from the
nucleus of each atom.
only at temperatures close to absolute
zero, says Michele Reilly at Turing, a
computing qubits have to be so close to each Silicon-based qubits aren’t the only quantum start-up in California. She
other to communicate – about 10 or candidates for quantum computers. says diamond-based systems could be
A RETHINK of one of the most 20 nanometres apart. But by Google is making quantum chips from easier to scale up because they use
fundamental parts of a quantum combining an electron and a nucleus superconductors, and claims it will similar types of qubits to silicon
computer could pave the way for in one qubit, Morello and his team have built the first quantum computer systems, but don’t need to be so cold.
ultra-powerful devices. think they have found a way to let capable of surpassing some abilities Simon Devitt at Macquarie
Andrea Morello at the University of qubits communicate over distances of of ordinary computers later this year. University in Sydney says this new
New South Wales in Australia and his up to 500 nanometres. “This would qubit could be a solution for
team have a design for a qubit – the allow you to cram other things “Combining an electron and silicon-based quantum systems.
smallest unit of quantum information – between qubits,” says Morello. nucleus in one qubit lets “But they’re going to have to go into
that could get round some of the Qubits in silicon systems interact them communicate over the lab and make this work,” he says.
difficulties of making quantum through electric fields, and Morello’s longer distances” Matt Reynolds ■

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Chatbot learns apt

a video of a human speaking, and Facebook will present the work
choose in real time what the most at the International Conference
appropriate facial response would on Intelligent Robots and Systems
facial expressions be. If the person was laughing,

for example, the bot might choose
to open its mouth too, or tilt its
in Vancouver, Canada, later this
month.
However, the animations the
head subtly. team used were quite basic, so it’s
Matt Reynolds faces into 68 key points that it The Facebook team then tested not clear whether a humanoid
monitored throughout each the system with panels of people robot powered by this algorithm
THERE’S often something not Skype conversation. Eventually, who watched animations that would have natural-seeming
quite right about humanoid it learned to produce the same included both the bot reacting to reactions.
robots. They are cute up to a nods, blinks and small mouth a human, and a human reacting to Additionally, learning the basic
point, but once they become a movements that we involuntarily a human. The volunteers judged rules of facial communication
bit too realistic, they start to make during conversation. the bot and the human to be might not be enough to create
creep us out – a foible called the The bot was then able to look at equally natural and realistic. truly realistic conversation
uncanny valley. partners, says Goren Gordon
Now Facebook wants robots at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
to climb their way out of it. “Actual facial expressions are
Researchers at the company’s AI based on what you are thinking
lab have developed an expressive and feeling.”
bot, an animation of a face In this case, the Facebook
controlled by an artificially system ends up creating a
intelligent algorithm. kind of “average personality”,
The algorithm was trained say Morency. In future, more
on hundreds of videos of Skype sophisticated bots might be
conversations, so that it could able to pick from a range of
learn and then mimic how personalities or adapt their own
people adjust their expressions to match that of the person they
in response to each other. In are talking to.
tests, it successfully passed as Robots aren’t so good at
human-like. mastering these subtle elements
Non-verbal facial cues are a of human interaction, says
key part of human conversation, Gordon. We already know that
says Louis-Philippe Morency at humans prefer speaking with
Carnegie Mellon University in robots that mimic their own
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/GETTY
Pittsburgh. We use them to signal facial expression, he says, but now

that we are listening to someone Facebook is trying to take robot
and engaging with them. conversations to the next level.
To mimic this organic feature “At some point we’ll get out of
of human communication, the the uncanny valley and come
algorithm divided individual –Deadpanning won’t cut it any more– out at the other side,” he says. ■
Our ancient primates, which now include lemurs,

and “dry-nosed” primates, which
known. What is more, the bone
suggests it flexed and extended its
have the suggestion of leaping traits,
it starts to look like acrobatic leaping
ancestors leapt encompass monkeys and humans.
The two share traits like grasping
ankle to launch into the air (Journal
of Human Evolution, doi.org/ccvq).
behaviours were important early in
primate evolution.”
like acrobats hands and feet, hinting that these Early dry-nosed primates may have But not all primatologists agree.
features evolved in their common been leapers too. Archicebus achilles Philip Gingerich at the University of
THE first primate may have been a ancestor, which is often imagined as a had long hindlimbs and short Michigan isn’t sure that Donrussellia
leaper, not a clamberer. It was thought small animal that ran along branches. forelimbs, typical of such an animal. and its close relatives are truly
that the common ancestor of all But a 52-million-year-old ankle “Donrussellia and Archicebus are wet-nosed primates.
primates scampered along thin tree bone found in France calls this idea definitely on opposite sides of the The story of early primate evolution
branches. Now a new fossil suggests into question. Doug Boyer at Duke tree,” says Boyer. “So when they both is still a puzzle, says Thierry Smith at
it was actually a bizarre monkey-like University in North Carolina and his the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural
animal capable of impressive leaping. team say it was from an early primate “It starts to look like Sciences. Confusingly, some traits
Primates appear in the fossil record called Donrussellia provincialis. acrobatic leaping evolved sooner in some subfamilies
about 57 million years ago. They soon They claim D. provincialis is the behaviours were important than others, with no discernible
split into two groups: “wet-nosed” most primitive wet-nosed primate early in primate evolution” pattern, he says. Colin Barras ■

Pacific islands
swallowed by
rising seas
EIGHT low-lying islands in the Pacific
have disappeared under rising seas.
Sea levels are rising by 3 millimetres
a year due to climate change. But they
are creeping up even faster in the
western Pacific, where a natural trade-
wind cycle has caused a build-up of
water over the last 50 years. In the
Solomon Islands and Micronesia, sea
WATCHLOOKSEE.COM/GETTY
levels have risen by up to 12 millimetres

a year since the early 1990s.
In 2016, Simon Albert at the
University of Queensland in Australia
found that five of the Solomon Islands –Live long, forget more–
had been lost since the mid-20th
century. Now, Patrick Nunn at the
University of the Sunshine Coast has Longer lifespan may be team did spot another trend in the
historical IQ tests: an increase in
driving down average IQ

observed similar losses in Micronesia. the proportion of people sitting
His team did coastal surveys, spoke tests who were aged 60 or older.
to local people and reviewed satellite Working memory is known to
images for the island of Pohnpei and WE’RE getting stupider – and now Morris of King’s College London decline with age, while short-term
several low-lying islands. we may know why. and his colleagues have found memory is usually preserved. In
Pohnpei itself shows little coastal For the period of about a a way to get around this. They their study, Morris’s team write
erosion, perhaps because it is fairly century, average IQ scores in have broken down old IQ tests that the over-60s may be partly
high above sea level and ringed by wealthy nations kept rising by into different categories that are responsible for the decline in
mangrove forest. Three small islands about three points a decade. This easier to compare. working memory scores in more
to the west are also well preserved; “Flynn effect” is thought to be the Morris’s team looked through economically developed nations.
they are sheltered by the main island. result of improvements in social more than 1750 different types of “The idea that population
However, several low-lying reef conditions like public health, IQ test from 1972 onwards for two ageing may be responsible is
islands – mostly to the south of the nutrition and education, and has sub-groups of tests: those that interesting and may serve as an
main island – have shrunk (Journal of been seen in many countries, measure short-term memory, alternative to the oft-proposed –
Coastal Conservation, doi.org/ccxz). from the Netherlands to Japan. and those that assess working but empirically little-supported –
Others have vanished. Local people But by 2004, researchers had selective fertility patterns,” says
described two islands called Kepidau begun to notice what seems to “The idea that population Jakob Pietschnig of the University
en Pehleng and Nahlapenlohd – the be a reversal of this trend, with ageing may be responsible of Vienna in Austria. “It is a novel
latter famous for a great battle average IQ scores going into for declining IQs does hypothesis that makes sense.”
in 1850. Both appear to have decline. “The drop is around make sense” But both he and Stuart Ritchie
disappeared within the last century. 7 to 10 IQ points per century,” at the University of Edinburgh,
Aerial images showed that another says Michael Woodley of the Free memory – the ability to hold UK, say they would like to see
six uninhabited low-lying islands went University of Brussels (VUB) in in your head information for stronger and more specific tests
under between 2007 and 2014. Belgium. processing, reasoning and of this idea, looking at elements
As sea levels rise, many people Some researchers believe decision-making. of intelligence whose decline
will be forced to higher ground, Nunn this can be explained by the When they looked at how with age are well established,
says. This is already happening in the controversial fertility hypothesis: people performed on these kinds such as processing time and
low-lying Carteret Islands of Papua that the most educated women of tests throughout time, the reaction speed.
New Guinea: the population is moving in Western countries have been team saw a clear pattern. While Until then though, Ritchie
to Bougainville, a higher island. having fewer children than the short-term memory scores have warns that the whole concept
However, one positive finding is rest of the population, and this risen in line with the Flynn effect, of reversing IQs should be
that not all low-lying islands are being is lowering IQs . working memory ability appears treated with scepticism. “This
destroyed, says Albert. Islands that But it’s difficult to investigate to have declined (Intelligence, is speculative stuff and it’s only
are sheltered, or have mangroves or hypotheses like this. Part of the doi.org/ccvg). a handful of papers. Anyone
lagoons for trapping sediment, appear problem is that IQ tests have Morris wouldn’t be drawn on drawing conclusions is jumping
to be resilient, he says. Alice Klein ■ changed over time. Now Robin why this might be the case, but his the gun.” Sally Adee ■

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NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Box jellyfish may

eat up the oceans
Christie Willcox by predators, for example, may
have been missed.
AS THE oceans become more To find out, Hammill and his
acidic, box jellyfish may start colleagues collected copepods
eating a lot more. Their greedy and one of their predators, the
appetites could have a huge box jellyfish Carybdea rastoni,
impact on marine ecosystems. from the waters around Australia.
Some of the carbon dioxide we They kept the plankton in tanks
release is dissolving in the oceans, containing either ambient
where it becomes carbonic acid – seawater or seawater acidified
making the oceans less alkaline at levels predicted for 2100, then
and more acidic. Scientists are added box jellyfish to half of each
scrambling to identify which set of tanks. After 10 days, they
species will be most affected. counted what survived.
They are particularly concerned Both acidification and box
about those that play pivotal roles jellyfish reduced the number of
in marine food webs, because if copepods, but the two together
they disappear, entire ecosystems caused 27 per cent more deaths
THOMAS P. PESCHAK
may collapse. than the sum of the two

Copepods are especially critical. individually. The jellyfish were
These tiny crustaceans are the eating more: they ate nearly 37 per
most abundant animal on Earth cent of copepods in the ambient –Looking for munchies–
by mass. They can swarm in vast seawater tanks, but almost 83 per
numbers, creating a feast for cent in the acidified water (Global “It is a simple and clever dramatic and cascading effects
larger animals. What happens to Change Biology, doi.org/ccvd). experiment with some intriguing on the ocean food web.”
copepods affects all that depend Hammill thinks the copepods results,” says Nyssa Silbiger of Other jellyfish are likely to
on them, “which is pretty much were weakened by the acidified California State University. It respond similarly to acidified
everything”, says Edd Hammill water and that the jellyfish took highlights the critical need to water, says Hammill.
of Utah State University. advantage. But he can’t rule out better understand community He plans to look at the Arctic
Previous studies have found other possibilities. “It could be dynamics in response to changing ecosystem next. “It’s the most
they may be fairly resistant to the jellies are being negatively environmental conditions, she productive and one of the largest
ocean acidification. However, affected by the acidified water says. “If these results do translate ecosystems [in] the world,” he
these have largely focused on and are needing more prey to to the global oceans, even just a says. If the same pattern occurs,
single species, so effects driven get along,” he says. little, it could have potentially it “could be a really big deal”. ■
300-page sum- equation a + b = c. The conjecture

has been thought for some time to be
unfamiliar to the field. Mochizuki
refuses to travel outside Japan to
of the original papers,” says Minhyong
Kim at the University of Oxford.
up of maths true, and in 2012, Shinichi Mochizuki
at Kyoto University in Japan produced
help explain his work, and his written
explanations can seem impenetrable.
But others are not so sure. “I don’t
expect it will help clear up the matter.
proof baffles a proof to settle the matter. To help clear things up, Go It’s very much in the same style of
Unfortunately, it was 500 pages Yamashita, a colleague of Mochizuki Mochizuki’s writing. Mochizuki and
A SUMMARY of a massive long and developed a whole new type at Kyoto University, has written a his group can’t seem to communicate
mathematical proof that has of mathematics called inter-universal 300-page summary paper that tries and nobody from outside has had any
baffled mathematicians for the past Teichmüller theory (IUT) that nobody to clarify some of the language. success in understanding the details,”
five years aims to help people get to at the time could really understand. “The language strikes me as says Felipe Voloch at the University
grips with the key ideas. How long Since then, two conferences have substantially more accessible than that of Canterbury in New Zealand.
is the explainer? A mere 300 pages. tried to get to grips with the work, For the time being, the ABC
The original proof is of the and some mathematicians have “I don’t expect it will conjecture is likely to remain in limbo,
long-standing ABC conjecture made progress. But because IUT is help clear up the matter. because no journal has been willing to
that explores the deep nature of so different from other mathematical Nobody has had success publish it – the final stamp of approval
numbers, centred on the simple approaches, much of the language is understanding the details” for a proof. Timothy Revell ■

All-seeing
It takes engineering excellence to
create intuitive displays that help
pilots see the big picture and the
fine detail when it really matters.
Looking to apply your skills to
this kind of innovation?
Look no further.
www.baesystems.com/education
Copyright © 2017 BAE Systems
IN BRIEF
HANS CHRISTOPH KAPPEL/NATUREPL.COM
Wearable sensor
has got your back
MOVE over, health and safety
videos. A wearable sensor could
help prevent injuries caused by
incorrectly lifting heavy stuff.
We are all taught that the safest
way to lift items is with our knees
bent and back straight. To monitor
whether a person is doing it right,
Eya Barkallah at the University of
Quebec at Chicoutimi in Canada
and her colleagues created a pair
of pressure-sensing insoles to see
how a person distributes their
weight. They combined this with
a hat-mounted accelerometer
that tracks how they are moving.
The team then trained an
algorithm on a volunteer
lifting correctly and incorrectly.
Soon, it could correctly judge the
person’s posture 95 per cent of
the time (Sensors, doi.org/ccx9).
The team is on the right track,
says James Brusey at Coventry
Bats crash into windows When a smooth plate was put on one side of the tunnel,
19 of the 21 bats collided with it at least once. None were
University, UK, but they need to
test the sensors using more people
because of ‘sonar’ glitch hurt. When Greif put similar plates near wild bat colonies, to ensure it works for everyone.
the bats also crashed into them (Science, doi.org/cct4).
WINDOWS are deathtraps for bats. If they approach Greif says the beam of sound emitted by bats is like the
a smooth vertical surface like a window at an angle, beam of light from a torch. If you shine a torch at a mirror
Aeroice is light like
none of their echolocating clicks bounce back to them, in the dark, you won’t see a reflection unless you are
making it appear to be a gap they can fly through. directly in front of the mirror or very close to it. Smooth frozen candyfloss
“They think it’s an opening,” says Stefan Greif of surfaces are the acoustic equivalent of mirrors.
the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, “Over their evolutionary history, [bats] did not meet THERE’S a new ice in town: a
Germany. In 2010, he found that bats perceive a smooth any smooth vertical surfaces,” says Gareth Jones of the porous, lightweight “aeroice” that
horizontal plate as water. When he left plates standing University of Bristol, UK. can tell us more about how water
upright, he noticed that bats tended to collide with them. No one knows how many bats are killed this way. But if works under extreme conditions.
To investigate further, Greif and his colleagues got buildings near bat colonies really are death traps, Greif Masakazu Matsumoto at
greater mouse-eared bats to fly through a narrow tunnel. says, the death toll could be cut with acoustic deterrents. Okayama University in Japan and
his team modelled this aeroice
with a node and stick scaffold of
‘Pen’ could guide cancer surgery Algorithms then decide whether molecules (The Journal of
the tissue is likely to be healthy Chemical Physics, doi.org/ccvp).
A PEN-sized device could help in seconds. When its disposable or cancerous within 10 seconds. In “normal ice”, water cools at
surgeons tell whether they have nozzle is placed on tissue, Livia Eberlin at the University ambient pressure and freezes into
cut out all of a person’s tumour. it releases a tiny drop of water. of Texas, whose team created the a solid crystal form arranged in
Distinguishing between This soaks up biological material – device, tested it on 253 human hexagons. Hexagonal ice, and the
cancerous and healthy tissue can such as fats, proteins and sugars – tissue samples (Science occasional bit of cubic ice in our
be hard; it usually takes several from the tissue surface. Translational Medicine, doi.org/ upper atmosphere, are the only
days for pathologists to analyse These samples are cctx). “It gave the right answer 96 two forms that occur naturally
a tissue sample. But this is too late then transferred to a mass per cent of the time,” says Eberlin. on Earth. At below atmospheric
to help surgeons ensure they cut spectrometer, which compares The team has also used the pressure, water molecules
out the entire tumour and the combination of biomolecules pen to guide tumour removal become a less-dense, lightweight
prevent a relapse. with reference data collected from surgeries in mice, and hopes to crystal that is more air than
The new device gives feedback tumours and healthy tissue. test it in hospitals next year. molecule – like an icy candyfloss.

For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
Metal vampire Sleep therapy eases depression and paranoia

ants from hell A THERAPY designed for students who have difficulty fewer hallucinations than the
insomnia has been found to also sleeping to try using Sleepio, and control group, a 25 per cent
A NEWLY discovered species of “hell help a range of mental health nearly 1870 others to try following reduction in paranoia, and their
ant” had anatomy that lived up to issues, including negative standard advice for insomnia. anxiety and depression levels
this name, including a lethal feeding thoughts, anxiety, depression Both groups filled in were 20 per cent lower (The Lancet
apparatus reinforced with metal. and psychosis. questionnaires beforehand that Psychiatry, doi.org/cctz).
Hell ants lived in the dinosaur era. Daniel Freeman at the assessed their sleep patterns, Statistical analysis revealed
Instead of normal mouthparts, they University of Oxford and his team as well as their tendency to that improved sleep was itself
had upward-facing blades unlike have been testing Sleepio, a type experience paranoia and accountable for up to 60 per cent
any modern ant. These mandibles of online cognitive behavioural hallucinations. They repeated of these additional benefits.
may have shot up to impale prey. therapy. The 10-week course is these questionnaires at three, 10 “If you have problems sleeping,
Some hell ants had a horn-like intended to restore healthy sleep and 22 weeks into the experiment. we know it affects the way you
appendage that jutted out over patterns in people with insomnia, Overall, those using Sleepio think, giving you more fearful and
their tusk-like mandibles. Among and Freeman wanted to see if it slept 50 per cent better than the depressive thoughts and more
these was Linguamyrmex vladi, could also relieve other problems. control group, says Freeman. The rumination – all consistent with
which Phillip Barden at the New His team asked nearly 1900 Sleepio users also had 30 per cent a dip in mood,” says Freeman.
Jersey Institute of Technology in
Newark and his colleagues found
NASA/CXC/UCL/W.DUNN ET AL, OPTICAL: NASA/STSCI

in 98-million-year-old amber.
Happy music
Its blades may have flipped up
and impaled creatures against the boosts creativity
horn. “You have this sort of stopping
plate, made to accommodate the NEED inspiration? Turn on some
mandibles closing and capturing upbeat music. Listening to positive
prey,” says Barden. music boosts creativity, while
CT scans showed the horn was silence is best for problem-solving.
reinforced with metal (Systematic There are two main types of
Entomology, doi.org/ccvb). thinking: divergent thinking,
“Probably the metal helps to keep which generates new ideas,
the horn undamaged,” says Vincent and convergent thinking, which
Perrichot at the University of finds solutions for a problem.
Rennes 1 in France. To see whether music affects
L. vladi may have been a vampire. either type, Simone Ritter at
When its mandibles moved up they Radboud University in Nijmegen,
formed a “gutter” that might have the Netherlands, and Sam
funnelled insect blood through the Ferguson at the University of
mouthparts, says Barden. Technology in Sydney, Australia,
His team found a beetle grub by put 155 volunteers into five groups.
the ant in the amber, which may Four of these were each given Turbulence creates Jupiter’s aurora
have been next on the menu. different pieces of music to listen
to while doing a series of tests, and NOT all auroras are created equal. emit tiny bursts of light that together
P. BARDEN & D.A. GRIMALDI
the fifth group did them in silence. Jupiter’s light shows aren’t sparked create auroras.
People who listened to music by the same process that generates Although Jupiter’s wells of electric
they thought was positive came Earth’s flashiest polar auroras, potential can be 30 times as strong as
up with more unique ideas than say Barry Mauk at Johns Hopkins those on Earth, they don’t align with
those who worked in silence. The University in Maryland and his team, its auroras. Instead its light shows
other types of music had no effect who have been studying data from might come from a process that
(PLoS One, doi.org/cct6). “It seems NASA’s Juno spacecraft. causes dim auroras on Earth: ripples
the type of music is important,” Powerful electric fields build up in the electric field that accelerate
says Ferguson. along Earth’s magnetic field lines, electrons less (Nature, doi.org/ccth).
However, happy music – in creating wells of electric potential. Jupiter’s size means its electric
this instance, Antonio Vivaldi’s When electrons from the sun hit potentials could get so strong they
Spring – only boosted divergent these, they accelerate towards the become unstable, turning into
thinking. No type of music helped ground. On the way down, they waves and random turbulence.
convergent thinking, suggesting collide with atoms in the upper This accelerates electrons to produce
that it is better to solve problems atmosphere, release energy and a dazzling display.
in silence.

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refreshment
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ANALYSIS GREEN CHINA
Can China save the world?

The nation leads the world in clean energy investment. Will its globalisation
strategy catalyse a green revolution asks Alice Klein
RENEWABLE energy is having cheap renewables in the region thousands of wind turbines each 2002 and 2012, China invested in
its moment in the Chinese sun. and reduce nations’ reliance on year. The country now owns five at least 124 solar and wind projects
The country’s investment in solar, fossil fuels, but there are also out of six of the world’s biggest in 33 countries, according to the
wind and other clean energy fears it could expand the solar panel manufacturers and World Resources Institute. Since
technology has soared from country’s powerful coal industry. half of the 10 largest wind turbine the announcement of the Belt
$8 billion in 2005 to $103 billion in So, as China adopts the stance manufacturers. Greenpeace and Road network in 2013, this
2015. China now spends more on of a true global power, will it estimates that every hour, China expansion has accelerated in
developing renewable energy than help or hinder the worldwide installs at least one wind turbine countries taking part.
the US and Europe combined. renewables movement? and enough solar panels to cover For example, Chinese firms
Most of this investment has China is well placed to lead a a football pitch. have recently won tenders to
been domestic, but China is now clean energy push. Its enormous This capacity has allowed build solar farms in the United
looking to sell its green tech to the manufacturing capacity means Chinese companies to shift their Arab Emirates (UAE), Pakistan,
rest of the world. In doing so, the it can churn out millions of focus to the international energy Egypt, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Jordan,
nation steps into the climate cheap solar panels and tens of market in recent years. Between Iran, Oman, Romania, Tajikistan
leadership void left by the US
under President Donald Trump.
As Trump pursues an “America
First” strategy and sings the
praises of “beautiful, clean coal”,
China is looking for ways to
collaborate with other countries
“Every hour, China installs

at least one wind turbine
and enough solar panels
to cover a football pitch”
on tackling climate change.

“Multilateral trade negotiations
make progress only with great
difficulty and the implementation
of the Paris [climate] agreement
has met with resistance,” China’s
president Xi Jinping said last week
at a meeting of the BRICS (Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South
Africa) nations. “Some countries
have become more inward-
looking, and their desire to
participate in global development
cooperation has decreased.”
To strengthen relations with
other nations, China has begun
one of the largest-ever trade
initiatives, known as the Belt and
KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
Road. This links it to 68 countries

in Asia, the Middle East, Europe
and Africa along the historic Silk
Road trade routes.
Many climate analysts hope
this will drive uptake of China’s

and Uzbekistan. They are also its clean energy tech, says Ma
Green splurge
building wind farms in South Tianjie at Chinadialogue, an
Africa, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, independent environmental NGO China’s upward trajectory for green investment means it now leads the world
in renewable energy tech, while Europe and the US shrink back
and hydropower plants in in Beijing. “Over the last decade or
Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal so, the Chinese government has
US Europe China
and Bosnia and Herzegovina. put a strategic emphasis on
China is also setting its sights investing in renewable energy 2015 44.1 48.8 102.9
2014
on linking up green energy grids because it sees it as the next
2013
across borders. Last year, it started industrial revolution – one
2012
SOURCE: UNEP, BLOOMBERG NEW ENERGY FINANCE

talks with Russia, Japan and which it wants to lead,” he says.
2011
South Korea about building a Tim Buckley at the Institute for
2010
supersized clean power grid. Energy Economics and Financial 2009
This would allow the four nations Analysis in Sydney, Australia, 2008
to share their solar, wind and agrees. “China wants to dominate 2007
hydro energy and balance out industries of the future while the 2006
each other’s supplies when the governments of the US and 2005
sun isn’t shining or winds aren’t Australia want to dominate 2004
blowing – a key feature if you industries of the past.” 0 50 0 120 0 120
want to rely on renewables. But China’s renewable energy
New investment in renewable energies ($billion)
Beyond obvious financial firms are facing competition from
rewards, China seeks to extend its their fossil fuel counterparts,
political influence by globalising which also want to capitalise on several reasons why China’s clean impoverished Kosovo.
the Belt and Road partnerships. energy sector will ultimately beat Now, Chinese lenders appear to
Since 2001, the country has its fossil fuel competitors. be following suit. The Asian
been involved in at least 240 First, the rapidly declining Infrastructure Investment Bank,
coal power projects in 25 of the cost of Chinese renewables will which was set up to fund the Belt
participating countries. And in make them highly attractive to and Road Initiative, has ruled
its 2015 Belt and Road vision other countries. Chinese firm out financing coal power and
paper, the Chinese government JinkoSolar, for instance, is promised to be “lean, green and
said the initiative should increase constructing a solar farm in the
cooperation with other countries UAE that produces electricity for “China wants to dominate
in pursuing coal and oil resources 2.4 US cents per kilowatt hour. industries of the future
in addition to renewable energy. In comparison, the US average while the US wants to
This appears to have been is 5 cents per kilowatt hour for dominate the past”
borne out. Since the Belt and solar and 6 cents per kilowatt
Road initiative was proposed hour for unsubsidised coal. clean”. At the same time, Chinese
in 2013, Chinese involvement “This is key, because at the banks have become the world
in coal projects in the region has end of the day, economics drives leaders in issuing green bonds to
tripled, according to the Global most decisions,” says Buckley. finance environmental projects.
Environmental Institute (GEI), Speed is another advantage – These factors will allow China
a non-government agency a solar or wind farm can be built to drive the “biggest acceleration
based in Beijing. in six months, compared with five of global renewables uptake
to 10 years for a coal-fired plant. we’ve ever seen”, says Buckley.
Many Belt and Road “I have almost zero doubt this
Coal competition countries are also introducing will be the case.”
For example, the deal has paved environmental policies to limit Tianjie is also positive. “I think
the way for Chinese companies fossil fuel use. India, which was China is going to change the
to build several coal-fired plants previously the top destination landscape of global energy very
in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and in the partnership for Chinese fast in the near future,” he says.
helped kick-start the operation coal investment, is now heavily If they are right, the long-held
of a Chinese oil pipeline across backing solar energy and is assumption that developed
Myanmar after years of delay. aiming to get 57 per cent of its countries will lead the green
These kinds of investments could energy from renewables by 2027. revolution will be overturned.
lock in fossil-fuel dependency in Finally, clean energy projects Instead, the fastest uptake of clean
developing countries before are more likely to win investors. energy could come from China
renewable energy gets a look-in, The World Bank no longer and the countries along the new
says Lauri Myllyvirta, an energy finances overseas coal projects, Silk Road. Rich nations like the US
analyst at Greenpeace in Beijing. unless under exceptional may be the only ones left clinging
–Shining bright- But Buckley believes there are circumstances, such as in to their “beautiful” coal. ■

COMMENT
What to wear
The strict line between clothes for boys and girls is another way we
shape young minds for ill. Good riddance to it, says Lara Williams
WHEN the retailer John Lewis increasingly shows the hardening

ditched gendered labels on of unwelcome and damaging
children’s clothing, a backlash stereotypes as a result of
soon followed. relentless gender-based
The anger was over its decision marketing on the young.
to become the first major UK We have been here before,
clothes seller to offer exclusively especially with toys. “Pink gives
gender neutral children’s clothes. girls permission” was the title
Labels read “Girls & Boys” or of a study that found the explicit
“Boys & Girls” on all items, from gendering of toys leads to
newborns up to 14 years. It has “different developmental
also launched a unisex line for the trajectories” for girls and boys.
young, with no more prescriptive Co-author Lisa Dinella, at the
pink for girls and blue for boys. Gender Development Laboratory
Some quickly embraced its at Monmouth University,
progressive and nuanced take on New Jersey, argues that this
gender politics. But others were influences children’s intellectual
instantly scandalised – calling it and emotional outcomes.
an example of liberal pandering While play informs the
or outsized political correctness development of creativity and
(gone wrong). dexterity, providing an essential
It is undoubtedly a radical formative role, clothes also act
move – clothes have been a means as objects of self-expression and
of expressing gender for centuries. identity. If a doll or toy soldier
But it is also a legitimate move, encourages a particular mode
rooted in scientific research that of being, so do the costumes we
There’s a catch
Using less than 1 per cent of all areas will become fish farms.
the 11 million square kilometres Then there’s the bigger problem
the team identified would match of unintended effects. Rather than
current wild-caught fisheries. saving wild fisheries, aquaculture
Farm the oceans to feed the world? It’s not so Better still, if we used all of it, can harm them further by
we could produce 100 times more spreading disease and pollution,
simple, says Olive Heffernan seafood than we eat each year. not to mention the senseless
So could we farm our way out practice of using small wild fish
of the fisheries crisis and improve as feed. Alternative crop-based
WE ARE now eating twice as much But fear not. A solution could be
global food security? It sounds feeds are being developed, but
seafood as we were 50 years ago. in sight, say researchers who have
so simple – except it’s not. they add to pressure on land.
That’s good for our health, but bad totted up ocean areas suitable for For starters, concerns about A lesser worry is that we will
for ocean life. Almost 60 per cent aquaculture. They identified spots
habitat damage and opposition to end up with a restricted menu of
of global fish stocks are exploited around the world where fish and processing plants will mean not delicacies. Mussels and oysters are
to full capacity and 30 per cent are shellfish could be farmed. The an obvious choice to farm, as they
almost tapped out. By 2050, with areas had to be up to 200 metres “Rather than saving wild extract their own food from the
a predicted 10 billion people to deep but not currently farmed or fisheries, aquaculture can sea, but this suggests a less diverse
feed and climate change hitting used for shipping, oil exploration harm them by spreading future. What’s more, some species
fish populations, things look bad. or conservation. disease and pollution” take to aquaculture better than

For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion
assume and the clothes we

wear. Boys’ clothes tend to
INSIGHT North Korea
veer towards more mobile
and utilitarian styles, while for
girls they remain restrictive,
embellished and decorative.
Caroline Bettis, head of
childrenswear at John Lewis,
cited “not wanting to reinforce
stereotypes” as the reason behind
the labelling decision. Those
stereotypes can take hold very
young. It is thought children
KYODO NEWS VIA GETTY IMAGES
begin recognising gender from

the age of 1, even associating
certain objects with a particular
gender. From here it isn’t a huge
leap to the gender misconceptions
that harm society, such as girls –Testing times–
believing brilliance is a male trait.
WilltheUSreallynuke
The backdrop is one of attack by either side would set.
neuroscientists increasingly “The primary bulwark against
dismissing the idea that there nuclear anarchy is the norm of non-
NorthKorea?
are fundamental differences use on battlefields,” says Michael
between male and female brains. Krepon at the Stimson Center, a
Gender identity doesn’t always security think tank in Washington DC.
fit the binary model – it is thought “If the crisis with North Korea results in
that as many as 2 per cent of live mushroom clouds, then the barrier
births are of babies who are Debora MacKenzie attempt to make the US back down against nuclear weapons use will be
intersex. Gender is more complex would not be irrational,” he says. lowered for other states,” he says.
than external anatomy. Gender NORTH KOREA’s nuclear tests continue But even if the US got lucky and Rather than all-out nuclear war,
doesn’t necessarily match the sex to provoke its enemies. Some people took out North Korea’s nukes in a first Krepon fears a global resumption of
you are born into. If sex and gender are suggesting that a pre-emptive strike, Kim could still fight back. North nuclear testing, resulting in smaller
aren’t a perfect dichotomy – why strike would end the uncertainty and Korea is thought to have 10,000 to battlefield weapons that are more
should clothing be? ■ liberate its long-suffering people. 15,000 artillery guns and over 1000 likely to be used than the large Cold
Last week, US defence secretary short-range ballistic missiles, mostly War missiles. “We [would] be opening
Lara Williams is a writer based in James Mattis promised that “any threat trained on the South Korean capital the gates of hell,” he says.
Manchester, UK to US territories (or) our allies will be Seoul, says Paul Ingram of the British Still, people are thinking about
met with a massive military response”. American Security Information Council, actually using nuclear weapons for
That sounds pre-emptive. “We are not a London think tank. the first time since 1945. The South
others. Salmon cope well in looking to the total annihilation of… It is unclear how many of Seoul’s Korean defence minister this week
packed pens whereas cod are North Korea, but we have many 25 million people this arsenal could suggested reviewing the US decision
much less resilient to problems options to do so,” he added. That kill, but strategists say that return fire to remove its small “tactical” nuclear
of captivity such as sea lice. sounds nuclear. from South Korea and the US would missiles from South Korea in 1991.
Warm waters are also the most But on close inspection, it doesn’t US analysts have calculated that a
productive, with tropical regions sound sensible. The country’s leader, “If this results in mushroom recently improved US warhead might
dominating the areas the team Kim Jong-un, has developed nuclear clouds, then the barrier destroy North Korea’s nuclear arsenal
identified. Herring need not apply. weapons for the sole purpose of against nuclear weapons without killing many people, by
Knowing that we have space to deterring such an attack. If the US use will be lowered” detonating at high altitude.
grow aquaculture beyond current didn’t take out all of North Korea’s Such a situation, however, would
needs offers some comfort, but nukes in a first strike, its fear of nuclear take out the batteries in a day or two, almost certainly escalate, says Krepon.
there are many caveats. And if we attack could become self-fulfilling. leaving North Korea open for a ground Other paranoid mass murderers like
keep on feasting on wild-caught The US would be more likely to use invasion. So why have them? The Stalin and Mao were kept in line by
fish, we may soon have to accept conventional weapons, says James guns, like the nukes, are deterrents: deterrence, he says, so surely, the US,
that our diet will change in ways Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for don’t attack and it won’t use them. with 1240 nuclear warheads ready
we hadn’t anticipated. ■ International Peace in Washington DC, All this suggests a pre-emptive for launch, can deter a tiny country
though that could also spark a nuclear strike on North Korea would unleash with at most a handful of them. It may
Olive Heffernan is an environment response. “If Kim believed his regime its threat, rather than resolving it. But be unsettling to do nothing – but it
writer were in danger, such a desperate the real risk is the precedent a nuclear may be the only way. ■

APERTURE
Clockwise from right:

Esme swimming, Parkroyal
on Pickering, Singapore
Chuck taking sample

readings at the Geysers,
the world’s largest
geothermal field,
California
Kenzie inside a melting

glacier, Juneau Icefield
Research Program, Alaska
New crop varieties for

extreme weather, Geneva
Greenhouses, New
York State Agricultural
Experiment Station,
New York
Madelaine in a study of
stress reduction in virtual
reality, Bosch Lab, Swedish
University of Agricultural
Sciences, Sweden
Chance and Patrick

launching an ozone-
sonde balloon, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Colorado

Our ‘natural’ world
SPOT the human. As part of a quest to explore
our turbulent relationship with the natural
world, photographer Lucas Foglia has captured
the many different ways in which we interact
with our environment.
In the main image, a woman is swimming
in a pool beneath luxury flats festooned with
plants in Singapore. Called Esme, she’s scarcely
visible, and is hidden from the passing cars by
lush greenery.
The other images in his book and exhibition
mainly depict scientists at work trying to
understand nature. For example, at the top left
are two climatologists launching an ozone-sonde
balloon in Colorado to measure levels of protective
stratospheric ozone.
Meanwhile, growing inside the greenhouse
“on fire” (bottom left) are new crop varieties
adapted to extreme weather, at the New York
State Agricultural Experiment Station.
Beginning and ending his exhibition with
interpretations of paradise, Foglia’s images show
how the human form weaves in and out of nature
in a variety of settings, from cities, forests and
farms to deserts, ice fields and oceans. They
also reflect how humans have made an indelible
impact on the entire planet. “I realised that if
humans are changing the weather, then there
is no place on Earth unaltered by people,”
says Foglia.
Foglia’s images are on show at the Human
Nature exhibition at the Michael Hoppen Gallery
in London from 13 September to 21 October.
Andy Coghlan
Photographer
Lucas Foglia
Courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery

The Association for Women in Science
Smart Women Doing Cool Stuff
Join our community of over 20,000
women and men working in STEM fields.
Visit www.awis.org and join today. AWIS

Chasing
ghosts
Plans are afoot to bring back a big cat
even though it might never have existed.
Sean Mowbray investigates
“ HIS is another animal from the distant which help them balance in the trees.
T wilds of the interior, whose skins the

savages bring to the borders to barter
with the Chinese.” With these words,
There haven’t been any sightings of clouded
leopards in Taiwan for decades, let alone
confirmed ones. In the 1980s, a hunter claimed
published in 1862, Robert Swinhoe introduced to have caught one, but this was never verified.
the Formosan clouded leopard to the Western As a result, Alan Rabinowitz, now CEO of
world. Europe’s consular representative to the feline conservation group Panthera,
Taiwan, he had seen only a few flattened skins interviewed tribespeople and collected seven
on the island, but this was enough for him to accounts of recent sightings, but these could
distinguish it as a species new to science. Unlike not be verified either. Then, in 1990, large paw
its relatives elsewhere in Asia, wrote Swinhoe, prints were found near Yushan National Park
the Formosan clouded leopard had a short tail. in 1990, which may – or may not – have been
It was declared extinct in 2013, but this is no left by a clouded leopard.
ordinary story about a large cat being wiped So, beginning in 1997, hundreds of camera
off the planet. There’s a catch. Plans are afoot traps and hair-trigger snares were set up across
to bring the svelte feline’s closest relative back the island, and conservation biologists began
to Taiwan – despite lingering questions over the long wait for the ghost-like leopards to
whether the clouded leopard ever existed at all. show their face. Without so much as a flick of
Today, Asia is home to two species of clouded a tail recorded, the Formosan clouded leopard
leopard. Neofelis nebulosa is found across was declared extinct 16 years later.
the mainland from the Malay peninsula to Perhaps it was never there to be found. To
the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. The Sunda this day there is a slight cloud of doubt hanging
clouded leopard, Neofelis diardi, is only found over Taiwan’s big cat, says Anthony Giordano
on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Both of the conservation group SPECIES. It has been
are at risk of extinction and rarely glimpsed so elusive, and what evidence we do have is
in the wild even by those who study them. so sparse, that some have doubted whether
Their broad paws and flexible ankle joints it ever existed, explains Po-Jen Chiang of the
GK HART/VIKKI HART/GETTY
make them among the best climbers in the Formosan Wild Sound Conservation Science
cat family – they have been seen hanging Center in Taiwan. An alternative explanation
upside down from branches and running suggests that Taiwan was merely a staging post
head first down tree trunks – and they have for traded pelts, as they travelled from South-
flowing tails that can be as long as their body, East Asia to Japan and mainland China. >

nothing short of reintroducing the same
SEBASTIAN KENNERKNECHT / MINDEN PICTURES
Formosan clouded leopard is acceptable. “That

to me is nuts,” says Rabinowitz. It would rule
out any reintroduction efforts unless quite
by chance a zoo animal can be found that is
a perfect match for the pelt DNA. Subspecies
evolve mainly because of geographic
separation, and in that sense are entirely
artificial, says Rabinowitz. If Taiwan created
“For some, only a perfect

genetic match would make
reintroduction acceptable”
a subspecies out of N. nebulosa once, the
likelihood is that it will do so again over time.
Rabinowitz believes the cat could be
reintroduced – a 2015 study shows there
is enough habitat to support hundreds of
animals – but stops short of saying it should.
“Should implies there is an ecological reason
The Sunda clouded leopard is found Taiwan that counter the trade hypothesis. for it,” he says. For that, the local ecosystem
on Borneo and Sumatra Ammunition was controlled by the Japanese would have to be out of balance due to the
at the time, and hunters had to report how gap left by a top predator. Deer and macaque
But most biologists, including Giordano and many bullets they used and what for. The populations have boomed and become a
Chiang, believe the Formosan clouded leopard records still need to be cross-checked but they nuisance in recent years, but researchers
was native to Taiwan and was either a sub- suggest 24 clouded leopards were shot in 1933. can’t say for sure that this is because there
population or subspecies of N. nebulosa. Even so, reintroduction won’t be are no clouded leopards.
The distinction matters now more than ever, straightforward. The leading option is to release Suitable land and prey is one thing,
as increases in the populations of clouded captive N. nebulosa, but for some scientists willing humans are another. A litmus test
leopard prey mean that efforts to reintroduce in Taiwan that won’t do. They see different of the Taiwanese people, from farmers to
a big cat to the island are gathering pace. populations of the same species as exotic, says city dwellers, will be taken to gauge local
Last month a joint effort by the National Kurtis Jai-chyi Pei of Dong Hwa University, so enthusiasm. Based on previous interviews,
Dong Hwa University and SPECIES began Jai-chyi Pei believes there is support within the
filling in the gaps. Researchers are gathering DNA samples from pelts held by aboriginal Rukai and Paiwan communities. But Giordano
DNA from pelts, teeth and skulls held by the communities will help trace the cat’s history is cautious. The leopard cat, a much smaller
Paiwan people, and recording oral accounts feline, is a hardy survivalist, he says, found
from the Rukai and the Paiwan. If the DNA even on barren palm plantations. It isn’t
TORII RYUZO/DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO, C.1900
matches that of living Sunda clouded leopards, threatened across much of South-East Asia,
this will suggest the pelts arrived on the island but on Taiwan it is an endangered species.
as a result of trade, and the Formosan clouded A toxic mix of pollution, habitat disturbance
leopard may never have existed. It would be an and persecution – particularly due to the cats’
unexpected result, says Giordano, but cannot fondness for farmers’chickens – has caused its
be ruled out. numbers to drop to the low hundreds. “How
A more likely outcome, he believes, is that are we going to protect clouded leopards if
the DNA will be related to the mainland we can’t protect leopard cats?” Giordano says.
species, backing the idea that the Formosan But this may be counting our leopards
clouded leopard was related to N. nebulosa. before they have their spots. The first step is
Historical records will then be drawn upon to to find out for sure whether the elusive feline
rule out trade connections to the mainland. really existed. If it is confirmed, then at some
Precisely how closely the pelt DNA matches point in the future, Taiwan may see clouded
modern mainland species would allow leopards roaming its forests again and become
geneticists to determine whether the an important stronghold for the cat’s survival
Formosan clouded leopard was a subspecies in Asia. ■
or just a sub-population of N. nebulosa.
Recently, Chiang found records from Sean Mowbray is a freelance journalist based in
the 1895 to 1945 Japanese occupation of Switzerland

C A S S I N I
THE GRAND FINALE

On 15 September, the Cassini space probe will burn up in Saturn’s atmosphere,
ending a 20-year voyage of scientific discovery. In this commemorative special we
look at the wonders Cassini has seen, where it fits in the pantheon of outer solar
system missions, and why its successors will be searching for one thing – life

In 13 years orbiting Saturn, the Cassini probe has beamed
back pictures that have revolutionised our understanding of
planets and their moons. Words by Jeff Hecht; interview
with Michele Dougherty by Michael Brooks
NEW E
EW
WORLDS

THE RINGS
ITAN’S methane lakes. Icy Enceladus
T spouting geysers of hot water. Sponge-

like Hyperion. Ravioli-shaped Pan and
Atlas. Iapetus with its equatorial ridge battered
After a six-and-a-half-year journey, Cassini
entered orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004 –
and immediately encountered the planet’s
by ancient craters. Close-ups of those iconic signature feature, its rings. Pictures collected
rings engirdling the gas-giant planet itself, by the Voyager probes when they flew past
and gigantic hurricanes around its poles. Saturn in 1980 and 1981 suggested the planet
The Cassini probe, launched in 1997, has was girdled by about 10,000 rings, each a
orbited the Saturn system for 13 years. What it cloud of particles tightly confined to a narrow
has revealed is astounding – and challenges orbit. “Now the number is in the millions,”
our understanding of planets and their says Larry Esposito, principal investigator for
satellites everywhere, says planetary scientist Cassini’s ultraviolet imaging spectrograph.
Julien Salmon of the Southwest Research The rings are also complex: Cassini’s images
Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “If everything have revealed clumps, holes, gaps and other
comes from the same processes, should we structures. Some wave-like features are due
get so much diversity?” he asks. “It seems like to gravitational interactions with the moons
every moon has a part of the story to tell.” embedded in the rings, but the origin of others
Right up to this weekend’s “Grand Finale”, is unclear.
Cassini has been collecting more data and The rings probably formed initially when
snapping fresh images with a series of low a large moon came too close to Saturn and was
swoops over Saturn’s moons and through its ripped apart by gravitational forces. Esposito
rings. But what it has already seen constitutes, thinks this was early in the solar system’s
arguably, the richest haul of discoveries from history, and that the rings have gradually
any mission yet mounted to another planet. spread since then, perhaps forming moons in
“It’s going to be tough to say goodbye to the process. Others think the rings go through
Cassini,” says Salmon. cycles: moons collide forming new rings that
coalesce into new moons which eventually
collide again, with the current rings as little
Like many space probes, Cassini had as 100 million years old.
only a narrow launch window in Old rings are expected to be much more
October 1997 to take advantage of massive than young ones. In its past final
gravitational assists from Venus, Earth weeks, Cassini has been repeatedly passing
and Jupiter on its planned trajectory between the rings and the planet, accurately
to Saturn. Back then, Michele measuring the rings’ mass to perhaps resolve
Dougherty was just about to take over the question.
as principal investigator of Cassini’s
magnetometer, its instrument for
Michele
Dougherty measuring magnetic fields. It was, Cassini’s six-and-a-half year journey
she recalls, a nervous time… to Saturn was far from idle time, says
Dougherty. It allowed the mission to
decide what its priorities were…
“ “I thought, it’s going to be so exciting. I gave the

impression I knew what I was doing but I didn’t.
“
We got up three mornings in a row at some “We spent the time planning the first four
ungodly hour because the launch was going to years of observations in interminable
happen at two in the morning. Two days in a teleconferences – about four or five a week in
row, it was postponed because of upper winds the final weeks. We would spend hours talking
and things like that. When it finally happened about the timing of every observation. To
and you’re standing there and you’re watching begin with, everyone wanted to do their thing
this thing go up, the ground shakes and you’re all the time. But slowly, we got to understand
standing there, thinking, I hope it’s going to be each other’s science, and the team would say,
OK, I hope it’s going to be – and your heart is in you can have that part of the orbit if I can have
your mouth. It really is.” another. That time was really good for us,
because it got us working together as a team.”
” ”
ENCEL ADUS
Before Cassini, researchers had expected
this icy, 500-kilometre-diameter moon to
HYPERION
be frozen solid. But on an early fly-by in
February 2005, the spacecraft’s magnetometer Trapped in a gravitational resonance
“sensed something unusual going on with its with Titan, Hyperion (right) tumbles
magnetic field”, says Cassini project scientist chaotically in orbit. Subject of an early
Linda Spilker of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory fly-by in September 2005, its light,
(JPL) in Pasadena, California. porous-looking surface resembles a
A later pass showed that the south pole battered sponge, but no one quite
was much warmer than expected, and was knows why. One possibility is that it is
spouting geysers of salty water into space. a fragment of a larger object shattered
Enceladus circles Saturn twice for every in a past collision. The dark zones look
orbit of the larger moon Dione, inducing a lower than the light-coloured ridges,
gravitational interaction that melts ice inside perhaps because they absorbed
both moons. The process squeezes Enceladus, more sunlight, causing ices below
ejecting jets of water from large fracture zones them to evaporate and the dark layer
near its south pole (pictured below). Cassini to sink down.
measured the composition of these jets,
detecting raw materials for life including salt,
water, carbon dioxide, methane, other organic
molecules and, most recently, hydrogen, an
ideal energy source for life.
Silica found in the jets can be produced
only in water close to boiling point, indicating
that hydrothermal vents are also present in
the subsurface ocean – making the icy moon
a hot target in the search for life.
Close fly-bys revealed

warm jets spouting
from Enceladus (left)
The “something
unusual” in Enceladus’s
“ “The first fly-by was 1000 kilometres
away above Enceladus, the second
waiting for coffee. I said, we’re seeing
something in our data and we want
– and we eventually agreed to
reduce the fly-by altitude to just
magnetic field meant 500 kilometres below, I think. I went to try and persuade the project to 173 kilometres. That’s when we saw
Dougherty’s team had out to JPL to give a presentation to go really close on the third fly-by. the plume of water vapour coming
its work cut out. To the icy satellites group. I was jet- He said: ‘That would be cool, I’ve off from the south pole, the hot spot
investigate further lagged to hell and just before the always wanted to go closer to a and cracks at the south pole with
meant flying closer to meeting I bumped into Jerry Jones, planetary body than anyone else.’ organic material and dust coming
the moon – much closer the person responsible essentially for “In the meeting, some people said out. Enceladus suddenly became
than planned… driving the spacecraft, in the line this is crazy, but Jerry said it’ll be fine the place to go.”

”
TITAN
When Voyager 1 passed Titan in 1980, it couldn’t
see the surface of Saturn’s largest moon: solar
ultraviolet radiation drives reactions between
nitrogen and methane molecules in its
atmosphere that yield a thick, orange-brown
gunk. The purpose of Cassini’s Huygens
lander, built by the European Space Agency,
was to find out what lay beneath. Voyager had
discovered that the temperature and pressure
on Titan’s surface would allow liquid methane.
Huygens, released on 14 January 2005, was
made to withstand a wet or dry landing.
Photos taken during the lander’s
150-minute descent showed networks of
branching streams possibly carved by liquid
methane. But the touchdown was hard, on a
cobblestone-strewn flood plain near Titan’s
equator like “something you might see in
Death Valley”, says Alexander Hayes of Cornell
Titan’s lakes (above) University in Ithaca, New York. But at around
are filled with liquid -180°C it was much colder, with a surface
methane covered in plastic shavings and foam beads.
Huygens transmitted data from the surface
for 72 minutes until its battery failed. In the
years since, Cassini has probed Titan’s
atmosphere and mapped its surface on
successive fly-bys, confirming the presence of
liquid methane. In radar observations a few
weeks apart it found evidence that methane
showers had soaked the soil, then evaporated –
the first proof of precipitation beyond Earth.
IAPE TUS Titan’s landscape is eerily calm, with

methane seas and lakes that are “fantastically
flat”, says Hayes. They are more transparent
At first glance, an equatorial ridge girdling than water lakes: a radar echo from one was
Iapetus looks like a moulding mark on a reflected from its bottom, 160 metres down.
factory-fresh rubber ball. A Cassini fly-by in Bright“magic islands”, which appear briefly in
2007 revealed that the ridge is as heavily the dark lakes before disappearing, are thought
cratered as the rest of the 1500-kilometre- to be nitrogen bubbling out of solution.
diameter moon’s surface, so it must have Perhaps oddest of all, Titan has two ocean
formed long ago. Iapetus’s surface is also levels. Beneath the hydrocarbon seas on the
oddly two-toned, with a darker leading edge. surface, under a shell of water ice, lies salty
This is caused by gravitational forces that liquid water. This hidden ocean is, says Hayes,
lock the moon into position around Saturn, “the most accessible laboratory for prebiotic
causing its front face to sweep up dust. chemistry in the solar system” – a potential
habitat for life.
Huygens’s dry landing meant a long wait

for confirmation that Titan was indeed a
“
wet world, says Dougherty…
“When we first arrived at Titan, we expected to see liquid on

the surface, but there wasn’t any. It was maybe six years into
the mission when the infrared spectrometer saw the sun
glinting off something at the north pole. That was the first
view that we had of any liquid. The reason we hadn’t seen it
before was because of the seasons. It just hadn’t rained.”
” 16 September 2017 | NewScientist | 33

MIMAS
At 396 kilometres in diameter, Mimas
is the smallest known rounded body
in the solar system. Seen closest by
Cassini in February 2010, it’s not
completely round, however: one side
is dominated by the 130-kilometre
Herschel crater with walls 5
kilometres high. The giant pit makes
Mimas, right, look eerily like the
planet-destroying Death Star in the
“Star Wars” movies. It is, however,
extremely vulnerable: made
principally of water ice, cracks on its
opposite side show that a past
impact came close to shattering it.
62
known moons of Saturn.
Cassini discovered 7 of them
HURRICANES Dougherty’s fascination with Saturn
ON SATURN began long before Cassini, as a child

growing up in South Africa…
Hurricanes on Earth tend to go

towards the poles, but those on
Saturn, pictured right, are fixed
“ “My dad built a 10-inch telescope when I
was a kid. My sister mixed the concrete for
the base. He ground the mirror. He had the
there. They have central eyes telescope in the garden and I remember
and eye-wall clouds like my first view of Saturn. You could just
terrestrial hurricanes, and spin make out the little rings. We saw Jupiter
in the same way, but at 4000 too and the little spots of its four main
kilometres across, three of them moons, but I never thought I’d do
side by side would span Earth’s what I do.
diameter. Terrestrial hurricanes “My dad died 12 years ago, and my
are powered by heat released mum a couple of years after that. They
from warm ocean surfaces. knew that I was taking over on Cassini,
There’s nothing like that on and they were chuffed about that, but
Saturn, so what powers its they didn’t get to see how well things have
storms remains a mystery. gone. That’s one of my big regrets.”
34 | NewScientist | 16 September 2017 ”

The growth of the tiny
moon Pan (below) may be
curtailed by gravity
PAN
Fat, round, ravioli-shaped Pan orbits in a gap
in Saturn’s A-ring, the outermost of the large,
bright rings. Its central core is icy, but ring
particles accumulate on a strip around its
circumference, fattening Pan out to a
35-kilometre diameter. Revealed in great detail
in images taken in March 2017, this belt is
cratered, with signs of a small landslide pulled
downhill by the moon’s gravity. Atlas, another
moon in the A-ring, is similar, but its skirt
shows no craters and looks fluffier. The moons’
growth may be limited by a gravitational tug
of war between them and Saturn: if ring
particles pile too high on Pan’s equator, the
planet’s gravity tugs them off again.
Cassini’s discoveries are far from over as the

team continues to pore over its data. But it is
an emotional farewell, says Dougherty…
“ “Cassini has been a discovery mission. The only way

you can understand a system is to orbit. The Pioneer
20,000km/h and Voyager spacecraft gave us little nuggets, but

Cassini will allow us to decide what to focus the next
Saturn mission on. Is it going to be Enceladus? Is it
going to be Titan? Is it going to be a polar orbiter?
“There’ll be a big get together for the end of mission
Entry speed of the itself. I’m not very emotional, at least not in public.
But I gave a talk a few months ago and I showed a
Huygens probe into movie that JPL put together showing the lifetime of
Cassini and how it’s going to end by burning up. I was
Titan’s atmosphere standing there, blinking, hoping the lights wouldn’t
go up. But I’m going to be brave. There’ll be a sense of
regret, and also relief, because I am exhausted after
13 years. And pride, definitely pride.”
”
WHY THE
GRAND FINALE?
Almost 20 years after leaving Earth, Cassini’s
plutonium-powered generators are running
out of fuel needed to adjust its course. Left to
drift, it might collide with one of Saturn’s
moons, perhaps contaminating an
environment that might contain or provide
the conditions for life. To avoid that possibility,
it will be steered into the atmosphere of
Saturn itself, burning up like a meteor as it
becomes part of the planet whose environment
it has spent so long exploring. ■
Jeff Hecht and Michael Brooks are consultants for

New Scientist. For the full interview with Michele
Dougherty go to newscienti.st/cassini-special

MISSION POSSIBLES
In 40 or so years we have been exploring the outer solar system, nine probes have made it past the asteroid belt
INNER SOL AR S Y S TEM

ASTEROID
BELT
R
TE
PI
N
JU
SU
H
RT
RY
EA
S
CU
S
U
AR
N
ER
VE
M
M
Pioneer 10 Pioneer 11
Voyager 1 Voyager 2
Galileo Cassini
New Horizons Juno
Ulysses
Where are they now?

E
US
UN
RN
R
EA S
M H
O
TE
AN
S
NU
PT
RT
TU
UT
N
AR
PI
SU
UR
NE
VE
SA
PL
JU
Billion kilometres 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PIONEER 10 PIONEER 11 VOYAGER 2 VOYAGER 1

L AUNCHED: 3 M ARCH 1972 L AUNCHED: 6 APRIL 1973 L AUNCHED: 20 AUGUST 1977 L AUNCHED: 5 SEP TEMBER 197 7
Pioneer 10 was the first probe to Visiting Jupiter a year after Pioneer In the 1960s, space scientists Voyager 1 launched after Voyager 2,
cross the asteroid belt, traversing it 10, Pioneer 11 continued to Saturn, realised that a happy configuration but took a faster trajectory to Jupiter
between July 1972 and February testing the dangers of navigating of the outer solar system would and Saturn, arriving at both first. Its
1973. Arriving at Jupiter in the planet’s rings and flying within allow one probe to visit four planets. route was optimised to bring it
December 1973, it passed some 21,000 kilometres of its surface on Voyager 2 remains the only probe to within 6500 kilometres of Titan,
132,000 kilometres from its cloud 1 September 1979. It almost collided have visited the two furthermost confirming Pioneer 11’s observation
tops, and obtained fuzzy images of with a small Saturnian moon and ice giants: Uranus in January 1986 that the moon possessed a thick
the four large “Galilean” moons, photographed Titan, the largest and Neptune in August 1989. Its atmosphere. On 14 February 1990,
Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io. moon. An anomalous slowing of primary radio receiver failed in Voyager 1 turned its camera to take
Now out of contact, this true space both the Pioneer probes brought 1978, but 40 years on it is still the first family portrait of Earth and
pioneer was last spotted coasting long-lasting speculation that the sending back data as it crosses other solar system planets. Still
towards the constellation Taurus established laws of gravity didn’t the edge of the solar system, transmitting from interstellar space,
and the red star Aldebaran, which it work in space. The “Pioneer called the heliosheath, and enters Voyager 1 is now the furthest
should reach some 2 million years anomaly” is now thought to be interstellar space. human-made object from Earth.
from now. down to heat loss from the probes’ Both Voyager probes carry “golden
thermoelectric generators. CURRENT STATUS: records” of sounds and images of
CURRENT STATUS: 17 billion kilometres from Earth, Earth for any alien intercepter.
Last contact 23 January 2003, now CURRENT STATUS: heading towards the constellation
estimated to be 16 billion kilometres Last contact 30 September 1995, Telescopium CURRENT STATUS:
from Earth now estimated to be 14 billion 21 billion kilometres from Earth,
kilometres from Earth, heading heading towards the constellation
towards the constellation Scutum Ophiuchus

OUTER SOL AR S Y S TEM KUIPER
BELT
E
N
S
U
TU
N
EP
RA
TO
N
RN
U
PL
TU
SA
Arrival dates
(closest approach or orbital insertion)
Jupiter Saturn Uranus

Pioneer 10 4 December 1973 Pioneer 11 1 September 1979 Voyager 2 24 January 1986
Pioneer 11 3 December 1974 Voyager 1 12 November 1979
Voyager 1 5 March 1979 Voyager 2 25 August 1981 Neptune
Voyager 2 9 July 1979 Cassini 1 July 2004 Voyager 2 25 August 1989
Ulysses 8 February 1992
Galileo 7 December 1995
Cassini 29 December 2000 Pluto
New Horizons 28 February 2007 New Horizons 14 July 2015
Juno 4 July 2016
Pioneer 11 Pioneer 10 Voyager 2 Voyager 1

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
SOURCE: NASA/JPL
GALILEO ULYSSES NE W HORIZONS JUNO

L AUNCHED: 18 OC TOBER 1989 L AUNCHED: 6 OC TOBER 1990 L AUNCHED: 19 JANUARY 2006 L AUNCHED: 5 AUGUS T 2011
Galileo was the first mission to The prime objective of the Ulysses It is the fastest spacecraft ever Unlike previous probes to the outer
spend years orbiting a planetary probe was to survey the sun, but it launched, but by the time New solar system, Juno doesn’t have a
system, rather than simply passing took a long gravitational slingshot Horizons reached Pluto on 14 July nuclear reactor at its heart: it is
through on its way elsewhere. On its around Jupiter, thus entering an 2015, its destination had changed: powered entirely by solar panels.
six-year journey to Jupiter, it turned orbit over the top of the solar Pluto had been controversially Juno entered into a polar orbit
its instruments on Earth, picking up system that enabled it to monitor downgraded by the International around Jupiter on 5 July 2016, with
signs of life such as the absorption the sun’s north and south poles. Astronomical Union from “planet” to the intention of measuring the
of red light by chlorophyll. Inserted “dwarf planet” in August 2006. New composition and gravitational and
into Jupiter orbit on 7 December CURRENT STATUS: Horizons took intriguing photos of magnetic fields of the solar system’s
1995, Galileo’s activities included Decommissioned 30 June 2009 this rocky world’s hazy atmosphere largest planet, as well as testing
sending a probe into the giant and surprisingly varied, craggy theories of how it formed. Its first
planet’s atmosphere . It also
collected data supporting the
CASSINI-HUYGENS surface, as well as its moons. It is
now on its way for a rendezvous
results indicate some surprises:
huge magnetic and atmospheric
theory that Jupiter’s moon Europa L AUNCHED: 15 OC TOBER 1997 with the snappily titled space rock storms, and the revelation that
has a subsurface liquid ocean. (486958) 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper Jupiter isn’t as uniform as had been
Spending 13 years cruising Saturn’s belt, where it is expected to arrive assumed.
CURRENT STATUS: moons, Cassini fulfilled the goal of on 1 January 2019.
Mission terminated with a plunge sending a probe to the moon Titan CURRENT STATUS:
into Jupiter’s atmosphere on (see “What Cassini saw”, page 30). CURRENT STATUS: In orbit around Jupiter, currently
21 September 2003 In the Kuiper belt, 5.7 billion 0.95 billion kilometres from Earth
CURRENT STATUS: kilometres from Earth
Mission due to terminate in Saturn’s
atmosphere, 15 September 2017

Thanks to Cassini and its
predecessors, we know now what
we’re looking for in the outer solar
system – life, says Stuart Clark
AST your mind back to 1977. If you weren’t
C around then, here are some pointers:

Elvis died, Star Wars was released and
flared trousers were big in all senses.
But two lower-profile and seemingly
unconnected things also happened that year –
a deep-sea dive off the Galapagos Islands and a
pair of rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in
Florida. Their consequences are converging
now in the depths of the outer solar system.
Those events marked the beginning of a
revolution in our understanding: a story in
which the Cassini probe, now reaching the end
of its life, has played a distinguished part. Just
40 years ago, we never would have suspected
that the secrets of how life formed on Earth,
and whether it exists elsewhere, may lie in the
icy moons of the outer solar system. That
revelation, for which we have Cassini and its
forebears to thank, is set to shape the next
decades of space exploration – and perhaps
Under Europa’s cracked lead to one of the biggest upheavals in human
surface could be the knowledge we can possibly imagine.
best place in the solar The rockets launched in 1977 were NASA’s
system to look for life Voyagers 1 and 2. They weren’t our first probes
to the outer solar system: Pioneers 10 and 11, produced a tarry residue that contained amino colleagues reported the presence of chemical
launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively, hold acids, the building blocks of proteins that are species known as carbon chain anions, and
that mantle (see “Mission possibles”, page 36). themselves the building blocks of life. also longer organic molecules. These
But the Voyagers were special because they Sagan endlessly tweaked and reran the molecules became more abundant deeper
gave us the blueprint for multi-instrument, experiment over a decade to find out the down – just as the anions began to thin out. “It
deep-space probes able to build a range of conditions under which amino acids was a definitive correlation,” says Desai: the
comprehensive picture of distant worlds. would form. In 1979 this culminated in him carbon-chain anions were coming together in
For the first time, we got close-up views not and colleague Bishun Khare proposing the the creation of longer chain organic
just of Jupiter and Saturn, but also of their name tholins for the organic sludge. molecules. These were Sagan’s tholins in the
moons. We discovered that Jupiter’s moon Io A year later came the Voyager revelations process of being formed.
was the most geologically active world in the about Titan’s atmospheric composition. Sagan This suggests tholins are easy to make,
solar system, with its volcanic eruptions and pointed out that the mix was almost identical explaining why we are now beginning to find
lava-strewn surface. Voyager 1 confirmed a to that in the laboratory set-up – and the idea these molecules in abundance across the solar
suspicion that Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, of Titan as a replica of early Earth was born. system. The New Horizons mission, which
possessed a thick, hydrocarbon-rich The Cassini mission was conceived in part to flew past Pluto in 2015, showed that they give a
atmosphere. And there were a host of other investigate this connection. The Huygens red colour to it and its moon Charon, and they
excitements including the icy visages of lander, built by the European Space Agency, are also present on the largest asteroid, Ceres.
Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede, the descended to Titan’s surface in 2004, and data “Our work seems to be showing that there is a
solar system’s largest moon. from it and Cassini’s many fly-bys has only universality to creating large complex organic
Intrepid exploration paid dividends. These strengthened most astronomers’ belief that molecules,” says Desai.
mini-worlds have in many ways eclipsed their But it’s still a long way from organic
parent planets for scientific interest, thanks to
the discovery there of organic molecules and
“Cassini suggests that molecules to actual life, and here this
particular juggernaut comes to a shuddering
water – the ingredients on which all known virtually all moons and halt. Huygens found no evidence of life on
living things depend. Researchers came to Titan, and suggestions of possible life signs on
believe these moons could be essential in planets were seeded with the frosty moon – which would have to be life
solving the mystery of life’s origins. not as we know it, based on liquid methane
Perhaps more than anyone else, in the 1980s the ingredients of life” instead of water – are tenuous. Cassini
the US astronomer Carl Sagan came to suggests that virtually all moons and planets
champion Titan as a time capsule that might Titan has significant astrobiological interest in the solar system might have been seeded
tell us how life on Earth began. His interest in (see “What Cassini saw”, page 30). “Titan has with the ingredients of life, but “how
the chemical origins of life was sparked as a the most complicated atmospheric chemistry chemistry turns into biology is probably the
student at the University of Chicago in 1952, in the solar system,” says Ravi Desai of biggest open question in science,” says Desai.
when Stanley Miller and Harold Urey University College London. Better, perhaps, to take one step back. “You
performed landmark experiments. They took Cassini has made low passes through Titan’s cannot start with the chemistry,” says Michael
a sealed flask containing water, methane, upper atmosphere several times in recent Russell of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
ammonia and hydrogen – chemicals thought years. Passing at altitudes from 950 to 1300 California. “Right down underneath
to be the composition of the atmosphere on kilometres, it used its plasma spectrometer everything, you’ve got to know the physics.
the early Earth – and passed a spark through it instrument, known as CAPS, to “sniff” the Life is not simply an agglomeration of organic
to simulate lightning. Famously, they molecules there. In July this year, Desai and his molecules.” Besides the building blocks, you

127 fly-bys of Titan by the
Cassini mission
WHAT DOES
LIFE DO?
When it comes to working out what life need a source of free energy. That takes us back moon. This ocean probably contains more
is, that’s the one question not to ask, once again to 1977, this time to that deep-sea water than Earth, and must be powered by a
says Michael Russell of NASA’s Jet dive off the Galapagos Islands. heat source at Europa’s centre. That gives rise
Propulsion Laboratory. “Never ask what In February of that year, oceanographers to the hope of hydrothermal vents – and a
anything is. Ask what it does,” he says. Jack Corliss of Oregon State University, and perfect place to put Russell’s theory through
“What does life do?” Tjeerd van Andel of Stanford University its paces. “I’m lucky enough to be at the
We may be tempted to answer that travelled to the sea floor in Alvin, the beginning of a big extraterrestrial test of these
life passes on heritable information by submersible best known for exploring the ideas,” says Russell.
the process of reproduction. But that’s a wreck of the Titanic. They were looking for NASA and ESA are both planning return
limiting statement, according to Russell, hydrothermal vents, which jet warm water out missions to Jupiter’s moons. NASA’s is called
because it looks at things from the point from beneath the seabed into the cold ocean. Europa Clipper and will launch in the 2020s.
of view of our biology, rather than the They not only found these “black smokers” – Because of the intense radiation around
underlying physical processes. “Life so-called for the colour of the minerals that Europa, in the form of high-energy electrons
hydrogenates carbon dioxide,” he says. It precipitate out of the hot water – but also an trapped in Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field,
takes hydrogen from water and joins it extraordinary abundance of life around them. the spacecraft will not orbit the moon, but
together with carbon dioxide, which circle Jupiter and perform 45 fly-bys at
originally emanated from volcanoes in altitudes varying from 2700 kilometres to just
abundance. This rights what would
Extraterrestrial tests 25 kilometres. Cameras and spectrometers will
otherwise be an unresolvable chemical Corliss and others concluded that such places determine the surface ice composition, radar
disequilibrium, and produces a supply of could have been the backdrop for the origin of will determine its thickness, and a
organic molecules in the process. life, pitting them against those advocating the magnetometer the depth and salinity of the
Doing this requires a source of free idea of organic chemistry in the atmosphere. underlying ocean. Together, those readings
energy to drive the chemical reaction Russell, then a deep sea vent geologist working should confirm whether the conditions are
and a small engine to make it happen. In on underwater mineral deposits, soon joined suitable for life to have arisen.
this picture, life is made of small the discussion. He thought the black smokers But Europa is not the only object of interest.
electrical engines, driven by the were too energetic: fragile organic molecules The ESA mission, called JUICE for Jupiter Icy
movement of free electrons in our would be as easily destroyed as created. Moons Explorer, is planned for a 2022 launch.
environment. Replication – or Instead, he proposed that life began at the It will dive close to Europa to take similar
reproduction – is just something that calmer, warm water vents, in the mineral
evolved to keep that going. As the deposits he was studying.
Hungarian Nobel prizewinner Albert The trouble was how to test the hypothesis.
Szent-Györgyi put it: “Life is nothing but To simulate the sea floor would require water
an electron looking for a place to rest”. at pressures 10 times that at sea level. It would
“Put electrons in the system and they have to be acidic to represent the higher
will try to escape. That very flow of concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s
electrons is what drives these little early atmosphere, and the whole lab would
engines to generate the organic have to be more sterile than an operating
molecules,” says Russell. theatre to ensure that no ordinary Earth bugs
were inside – and nothing that sprang to life
inside could get out.
The Galileo probe, which reached Jupiter
late in 1995, showed the experiment might
already be going on elsewhere. In particular,
its images of Europa showed huge cracks in
the moon’s icy surface and areas where the ice
blocks had moved, as if transported by
currents in a subsurface ocean. Readings from
Galileo’s magnetometer revealed that a
churning saltwater system encircled the whole

The orange tinge to
Titan’s atmosphere,
comes from organic
molecules, as Voyager 1
(below left) confirmed
potential mission to search for evidence

of life on Europa’s surface, concluding it
would need to look for cells. “They can be
dead, but whole cells would be what I would
look for. That would be the killer evidence,”
says Russell. These cells might be expelled
in a plume of water and caught during a
fly-by, or found scattered across the icy
surface using an on-board microscope to
image samples. But money to develop a
Europa lander was cut in NASA’s 2018 budget,
and the Europa Clipper and JUICE will only
be able to analyse molecular compositions.
In April, planetary scientists from both sides
of the Atlantic called for ESA and NASA to
work together to land on Europa, just as ESA
developed the Huygens lander for the NASA
Cassini mission.
Others would prefer to use any money
to land on Titan and explore the organic
chemistry there. Thanks to Cassini, we now
readings to the Europa Clipper, but also enter has much of what one might expect from know the moon has methane lakes and a
orbit around Ganymede. Galileo’s a battery,” he says. High-energy electrons hydrological cycle based on liquid methane.
observations suggested this satellite, too, hit the moon all time, oxidising the surface. But with large missions taking around
might have a hidden ocean, not so active as “If you can get those electrons into the 20 years from conception to results, even if
Europa’s and perhaps 100 kilometres down. ocean, you have the disequilibrium that the money can be found, deciding which
“It might have more liquid water than Earth life equires,” he says. destination to gamble on first is a big deal.
and Europa,” says Olivier Witasse of JUICE. The importance of finding life beyond But one thing is for sure. Whatever your
“It is the largest moon of the solar system, Earth cannot be overstated. To find viewpoint about the origin of life – whether
so there must be something special about it. it elsewhere in our solar system would as a product of atmospheric chemistry and
I will not be surprised if by the end of the surely mean it is widespread throughout the downward drift of organics, or underwater
JUICE mission you find that Ganymede is the entire galaxy. It would allow us to study hydrothermal vents – the icy worlds of the
maybe a more interesting object than Europa.” the chemical composition of life: must it outer solar system are now the place to be.
Russell is not so sure. For him, the focus be based on DNA or is another molecule “Europa has the ocean and possibly
remains on Europa because the radiation that capable of carrying heritable information? hydrothermal vents so is similar to Earth.
makes spacecraft operation difficult is exactly It might also bolster the idea that not just Titan is a different environment and like the
what he thinks might be needed to trigger life. planets, but moons in other solar systems early Earth,” says Desai.
“Life is an electrical motor,” he says (see “What might be profitable places to look for life. As we wave goodbye to Cassini, we are far
does life do?”, left). An electrical motor needs It may be a while before we find out. from the end of an eye-opening voyage of
a battery to supply a flow of electrons. Russell was part of a 21-person team who discovery. “It is astounding in my lifetime
At hydrothermal vents on Earth, the battery published a NASA report earlier this year on a what has changed,” says Russell. “Forty years
is created by the alkaline waters of the vent ago we didn’t know what these moons looked
gushing into the seawater, which is more like up close.” ■
acidic thanks to dissolved atmospheric carbon “Beneath the ice, Europa’s
Stuart Clark is a consultant for New Scientist. His
dioxide, as well as chemical reactions around
the vent. All in all, the vents generate
heated subsurface ocean latest book is The Search for Earth’s Twin (Quercus)
500 millivolts to 1 volt. probably contains more
Russell thinks that the electrons in Jupiter’s IMAGES: MICHELE DOUGHERTY: DAVID STOCK; NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SPACE SCIENCE; SSI/
radiation field can do a similar job.“Europa water than Earth” JPL-CALTECH/NASA; NASA / JPL-CALTECH / USGS; NASA/JPL/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE;
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA/UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO.

C A S S I N I
15.10.1997 - 15.09.2017
PEOPLE
First contact – with

a trapped brain
People in a vegetative state were assumed to have no awareness
at all, until Adrian Owen asked them to imagine playing tennis
HEN he found out that his old flame, fMRI scan as yours would if I did the same PROFILE
W Maureen, was in a vegetative state

as a result of a brain haemorrhage,
neuroscientist Adrian Owen started wondering
thing to you. That was the first indication
we had that any of these people had any
cognitive function.
Adrian Owen is a
neuroscientist at the
Brain and Mind Institute
whether she, and other people in a similar at the University of
situation, might have some awareness. He was How did you feel when you realised her brain Western Ontario,
already scanning parts of the brain to study was working? Canada. His new book
their function, so when he got the chance a In those days, the results were a bunch of is Into the Grey Zone
year later to scan Kate, a woman in a vegetative numbers – but we looked at them and went, (Guardian Faber
state, he jumped at it. Kate made occasional hang on a minute, these numbers suddenly Publishing)
involuntary movements, but didn’t respond to all get really big. I think she’s activating!
external stimuli. It was 1997, and it had always It was tremendously exciting.
been assumed that people in this condition
had no conscious awareness at all. What Owen Was Kate conscious?
uncovered would change everything. No, we couldn’t say that. We thought wow,
maybe she’s in there. And then somebody said,
What made you scan someone in a well is she? Face recognition is an automatic
non-responsive vegetative state? brain response, it’s not something you
This idea was bonkers at the time. But after necessarily have to be conscious to do.
what happened to Maureen, it was on my
radar. It seemed logical that some people So you had to work out how to detect
might be aware, because people with locked-in consciousness?
syndrome – in which people can move nothing We tried speech on the next patient, and again
but their eyes – are cognitively fine. It seemed their brain responded normally. But then we
probable that there would also be a group wondered, would an unconscious brain still
of people who are conscious but couldn’t perceive speech? We tried it on healthy people
even move their eyes. But there was a lot of who had been sedated and it turns out that
resistance to the idea, because it makes us they do. We worked out that a lot of responses to do something that would make them think
uncomfortable to think that a person might don’t necessarily indicate consciousness. about moving their arms because we knew
be completely conscious but trapped inside It took us a decade to solve that problem. that imagining big, sweeping arm movements
themselves. When my colleagues said it wasn’t activates the brain’s premotor cortex. That was
possible, I’d say, “How would you know? You And how did you solve it? a pivotal moment.
have no way of detecting it.” I realised I had to get a patient to somehow tell
me they were conscious. If I wanted to know What happened when you asked them to
And did you find any activity in Kate’s brain? if you were conscious, I would say raise your imagine playing tennis?
A viral infection had left her in a vegetative arm, and you would raise it. And I realised The premotor cortex lit up on the scan. Then
state, but her brain was responding exactly that with fMRI we had a tool that could allow we said stop, and the activity went away. It was
as a healthy person’s brain would. We showed someone to do that with their brain. incredible because this was a woman who had
her photos of family members, for example, So we asked someone to imagine playing been hit by two cars while crossing the road,
and the same part of her brain lit up on the tennis. It was a simple way of asking a person who had been in a vegetative state for five

Photographed for New Scientist by Finn O’Hara
individuals making careful decisions about

data. We have to be very careful that we don’t
promise too much.
We and other teams are now developing
more portable brain-computer interfaces.
But to my knowledge, no one has yet used
one to allow communication in a patient who
appears to be vegetative.
Are people treated differently after they show

signs of awareness?
Yes, that’s happened many times. Kate, my
first patient, made a pretty good recovery in
the end, and I saw her a few years later. She
said something she hated was the fact that
she had been treated as an object. Once people
know there is more going on in someone’s
mind, they become much more interactive,
they start to treat them as a person. I basically
treat everybody as though they are completely
conscious, though it’s an odd thing because
I’m obviously getting nothing back.
“It’s uncomfortable to
think that people could be
trapped inside themselves”
Did you ever scan Maureen?
No, but someone else did, in 2010. There was
no brain activity. For me, it was comforting
that she obviously wasn’t suffering. She
wasn’t aware. She hadn’t been lying there
for 20 years in pain. I was glad about that.
What proportion of people in a vegetative

state ever get scanned for brain activity?
Virtually zero. People get a basic MRI scan
to assess any structural brain damage, but
scanning for brain function is not routine
care. It is more widely used than before,
but typically, people in a vegetative state live
for decades at home or in a hospital and are
not continually monitored. They have been
quite neglected.
It is well over 10 years since we proved that
months and who had not produced a single Have you tried communicating with them? demonstrating awareness has clinical utility.
response. That’s the point when I knew we had At the start we were very conservative. If we It can help us find which patients are going to
something really important. It was the first had rushed in and said we could communicate go on to do better. That alone means it should
time that anybody had proved a vegetative with the woman who had been hit by cars and be more widely adopted. From my experience,
patient could actually be conscious. then failed to get it working, that would have awareness seems reasonably common.
been incredibly disappointing for her family.
So people whose brains respond are not in I get people all the time saying, why don’t So there must be thousands of people out
a vegetative state at all? you just bring patients in and let the families there who are conscious but nobody knows?
In a vegetative state, by definition, there talk to them? And the reason is we’re still not Yes, I’m quite certain of that. ■
is no awareness. The patients that we are at that stage. It still takes about 5 minutes per
uncovering are some other thing, for which yes-or-no question, with imagining playing Interview by Julia Brown
there is no name, because nobody knew it tennis for “yes” or moving around their Adrian Owen will be speaking at New Scientist
existed before we found them. house for “no”. And it involves highly skilled Live at the end of September (live.newscientist.com)

CULTURE
Into the moment...

Are meditation and mindfulness really good
for us or do they encourage narcissism?
Michael Bond explores
The Science of Meditation: How to breath, stray thoughts) might

change your brain, mind and body have such a dramatic impact on
by Daniel Goleman and Richard our well-being and state of mind.
Davidson, Penguin It is much needed. Of the
Mindlessness: The corruption hundreds of behavioural and
of mindfulness in a culture of neuroimaging studies carried out
narcissism by Thomas Joiner, on meditators over two decades,
Oxford University Press many are inconclusive. Even so,
Goleman and Davidson find
IN THE West, meditation is hailed plenty to be optimistic about. For
as a panacea for many ills. It is example, there is good evidence
taught as a cure for emotional that regular sessions of mindful
distress and as a recipe for attention have a calming effect on
happiness. It is even prescribed the amygdala, the brain’s emotion
for pain relief and as a treatment processor, and reduce impulsive
for recurring depression when the reactions to stressful or negative
STEVE MCCURRY/MAGNUM PHOTOS

drugs fail. In central and south thoughts and experiences.
Asia, where the practice originated, Mindfulness can help mute
it represents something quite our emotional response to
different: a spiritual exploration physical pain, and lessen anxiety
of the mind, a profound recasting and mind-wandering (not the
of how we understand ourselves. kind that feeds creativity but its
The two are not incompatible, unfocused opposite). The benefits
though. The Dalai Lama, who are apparent, even for beginners,
practises in the Eastern tradition, and they increase with practice. Lost in meditation: are devotees on found a neural correlate to this
is one of several meditation Compassion meditation, a different plane of consciousness? mind-warp: a massive increase
masters to encourage a de- which aims to boost empathy, in the intensity of gamma waves
spiritualised version, a path has an even more immediate selflessness, equanimity, in the brain, a signal associated
accessible to all. effect: just 7 hours over the course compassion and the ability to free with conscious perception.
For many years, science of two weeks has been shown to the mind of negative emotions – Are these monks living on a
writer Daniel Goleman and boost altruistic behaviour. It is what they call “highly positive different plane of consciousness
neuroscientist Richard Davidson probably no coincidence that altered traits”. from the rest of us?
have collaborated with the Dalai this makes us happier, too. Much of the evidence for these While Goleman and Davidson
Lama in this mission, answering traits comes from Davidson’s lab are long-time meditation
his call for scientists to test the “The fundamental aim at the University of Wisconsin- enthusiasts, they are not
effects of meditation in the lab and of meditation is to Madison, where he has scanned evangelists. They are sceptical of
apply the results wherever they deconstruct the self, the brains of dozens of highly many claims about the benefits
might be useful. Goleman and not shore it up” experienced Tibetan monks. of mindfulness, and Davidson
Davidson have now written a book, These yogis, who have meditated makes a point of publishing
The Science of Meditation, in which This is the kind of affirmation for thousands – in some cases, “non-findings” from his lab.
they try to cut through the tangle that Goleman and Davidson tens of thousands – of hours, For this, he would no doubt be
of claims and promises. Their aim most enjoy. They are interested describe themselves as living in a applauded by Thomas Joiner,
is to make clear what works and less in meditation’s potential for heightened state of present- a psychologist and specialist in
what doesn’t, and to explain why improving health or sharpening moment awareness, “as if their suicidal behaviour, who argues in
focusing our attention minute by business performance and more senses were wide open to the full, his own book Mindlessness that
minute on a single facet of in its capacity to cultivate rich panorama of experience”. interest in this form of meditation
consciousness (a mantra, our enduring qualities such as Davidson claims he has has gone too far. “Authentic

For more books and arts coverage, visit newscientist.com/culture
Hallucinations of Hellblade
mindfulness has been perverted
into solipsism,” he declares.
Yet he never properly draws the
line between the authentic and
solipsistic versions, and appears
to use mindfulness as a stand-in
for his real bugbear: the modern A new game tries to present a realistically immersive approach
culture of self-importance and to the hallucinatory world of psychosis, finds Simon Ings
narcissism, manifest in such
things as selfies, self-marriage
ceremonies, self-compassion,
and even trendy coffee shops. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice by Ninja
through a hallucinatory landscape, phenomenon. “A lot of people
“To ask that people gaze though. It’s about a rational hero suffer not because of the content
Theory, for PS4 and PC
inward… is inviting them to let desperately trying to make sense of their hallucination, but because
natural inclinations run amok, YOU are Senua, a Pictish outcast of her world.“Most of us are pretty of being ostracised,” Fletcher says.
to the point of unseemly excess,” whose lover has been sacrificed bad at that,” says Fletcher. He’s Meanwhile, games
says Joiner. Self-examination at to the gods by homicidal Norse referring to a paper he co-wrote are becoming increasingly
this level ends in “the sound of invaders. To release his spirit, you a couple of years ago, showing immersive. Hellblade’s binaural
a cell phone click as one takes a must enter Hel, their underworld. that people in the early stages soundtrack, placing Senua’s
selfie, and… the self glorified But is this all real? of psychosis are actually better intrusive voices in distinct locales
while the culture falls around it”. Three years ago, Paul Fletcher, than the rest of us at interpreting for the player, is a case in point.
a psychiatrist at the Behavioural ambiguous visual information Fletcher hopes that psychiatrists
and Clinical Neuroscience (think of the Dalmatian illusion, and designers can work together
Self-lightening Institute in Cambridge, UK, took in which a dog is camouflaged in to create immersive environments
Really? It’s easy to be cynical about a call from games company Ninja a black-and-white image). tailored to individual needs.
popular culture, but pinning its Theory. The firm wanted help “Someone said perception is “Avatar therapy”, using a screen-
excesses on mindfulness seems a creating a character who controlled hallucination. This is based, computer-generated figure
stretch. The fundamental aim of experienced severe psychosis. true. You bring what you know to represent, normalise and quell
meditation is to deconstruct the “My defences were up,” Fletcher an aggressive intrusive voice, is
self, not shore it up, to “lighten admits, “but quickly I realised “The game’s most radical already proving its clinical worth.
the system that builds our I was in serious company. We element is that while Certain players will find the
feelings of I, me, and mine”, as started by discussing the kinds of Senua is in the throes of game rather restrictive, and some
Goleman and Davidson put it. hallucinations people experience, psychosis, she is a hero” of those limits are imposed by the
One of their most interesting and within two or three sessions psychological realism. Senua’s
passages describes what this self- we were into the neuroscience.” to bear on what you sense. demons are consistent, staying
lightening looks like on a neural Senua’s world blurs as she That is how we recognise things.” more or less the same. Psychosis
level, how meditation practice moves. The walls crawl as she Not all people who experience is not a variety show. It’s worth
quietens the brain’s default mode passes. When she looks in her hallucinations consider them noting, though, that the game’s
network, the constant background mirror, the wrong voice screams a problem. Some who hear most traditional element is also
chatter that accompanies mind- out of her reflected mouth. voices, for example, have joined its most radical: while Senua may
wandering and self-absorption. “But more interesting,” says Ninja networks dedicated to removing be in the throes of psychosis, she
If a wandering mind is an Theory’s co-founder Tameem the social stigma attached to the is also a hero. ■
unhappy mind, as various Antoniades, “was the way
psychological surveys argue, then someone in psychosis will make
a focused mind must be worth sense of their world by making
struggling for. For Goleman and associations: ones that outsiders
Davidson, the struggle is not so might find very strange.”
much about individual relief as Players will enjoy the way
global salvation, about reducing that runic images and the features
“greed, selfishness, us/them of Senua’s landscape conjoin in
thinking and impending eco- perspectival games that further or
calamities, and promoting more frustrate her progress. And there
kindness, clarity, and calm”. are incidental delights: at one
Joiner may raise a sceptical point, the embers of a fire pulse to
eyebrow, but the Dalai Lama the rhythm of Senua’s breathing.
would probably approve. ■ Hellblade is more than a journey
NINJA THEORY
Michael Bond is a consultant for Mirror nightmare: another voice

New Scientist screams out of Senua’s reflection

CULTURE
Making sense of chaos

To understand earthquakes we must endure them, finds Alexander Densmore
The Great Quake: How the biggest context of plate tectonics, the succeeds in creating a vivid anticipate the timing or impacts
earthquake in North America unifying theory of the rigid portrait of both the region and of the next big event. Miles takes
changed our understanding of lithospheric plates that comprise the process of scientific enquiry. readers to a core repository to see
the planet by Henry Fountain,
Earth’s surface. The Alaska quake His descriptions of how rocks from the heart of the San
occurred at the culmination of the earthquake science is carried out, Andreas fault, and to the Hoover
Crown Publishing
plate tectonics revolution, when written up and presented are dam to consider earthquake
Quakeland: On the road to America’s
seemingly disparate properties of compelling and convincing. intensity and probability.
next devastating earthquake by
the continents and oceans were Kathryn Miles takes a very She goes deep into a lead-zinc
Kathryn Miles, Dutton
being pieced together. Fountain different approach in Quakeland. mine to talk about stress changes
AT THE heart of seismology lies shows convincingly how plate She focuses on critical in the shallow crust, and visits
an uncomfortable truth: each tectonics inspired Plafker to infrastructure – bridges, levees, a wastewater injection well in
large, devastating earthquake devise a new model of this and dams, airports – and talks to Oklahoma to consider the idea
teaches us something new about similar large earthquakes. scientists and emergency that human activity can
how Earth works. A visit to a The Great Quake follows a large managers who are trying to unwittingly induce damaging
stricken area triggers a sobering cast of characters, but focuses in quakes. She also strolls around
mix of emotions: heartbreak, at particular on Chenega, the “Each large, devastating West Hollywood with an
the cost of lives and livelihoods, as Alaskan village where a third of earthquake teaches us earthquake engineer to learn
well as awe at getting a peek under the population lost their lives in something new about about structural damage, and
the hood of the planet’s tectonic the ensuing tsunami. Fountain how Earth works” canoes up the Copalis river in
engine. What we learn helps us Washington state to learn how
better understand the hazard, earthquakes can raise or lower
but that knowledge always comes the ground surface over hundreds
too late to help those affected. of square kilometres.
Two new books explore our Yet this breadth means that
existing knowledge, albeit from Quakeland feels stretched in
very different perspectives. places. The vulnerability of dams
In The Great Quake, Henry and mines takes up a large portion
Fountain dissects the 1964 Alaska of the book, but ironically it later
earthquake (pictured, right), emerges that they are often pretty
still the largest recorded in North resilient. Most problematic,
America, and teases out its wider however, is that Miles doesn’t
scientific impact. develop the science behind the
Fountain focuses on George anecdotes. Too often, the reader is
Plafker, a geologist with the told that scientists “aren’t sure” of
US Geological Survey (USGS), something. This is no doubt true,
showing how his careful but it misses the point; science
observations were used to isn’t concerned with surety, but
build up a broad picture of what with hypothesis-testing and the
happened deep within Earth balance of evidence.
along the boundary between As USGS volcanologist Jake
the Pacific and North American Lowenstern says in Quakeland,
PAUL SLADE/PARIS MATCH VIA GETTY IMAGES
plates. This is pure detective “We’re trying to figure things out

work, and Fountain captures that are 10,000 times older than
the exhilaration and excitement our collective consciousness.
of fieldwork and the unexpected We’re just opening our eyes and
insights that it brings. looking around, and yet we expect
The story is set within the wider to have all the answers.” ■
Aftershock and awe: a major Alexander Densmore is a professor of

quake can arouse mixed emotions geography at Durham University, UK

LETTERS
[email protected] @newscientist newscientist
EDITOR’S PICK Elimination of diseases

versus eradication
Radicalisation’s roots and a radical psychedelic proposal
From Ditch Townsend,
shot by the British army in Derry in the UK parliament’s human rights Chulmleigh, Devon, UK
Northern Ireland, I was in Dublin in the committee reported that the nation’s Claire Wilson’s article about rabies
Republic of Ireland watching university Prevent strategy may actually make was fascinating (5 August, p 38).
students queuing to join Sinn Féin, a matters worse. Suggested It reminded me of being raised at
party linked to the Provisional IRA. countermeasures were to encourage the Manorom mission hospital in
Most seemed to be middle-class, community engagement; to break rural Thailand. When our pet dog
well-educated boys, who had down stereotypes, rehumanising developed rabies in 1971, I had to
recently left home and were open to collaborators; and encouraging undergo a series of traumatising
ideas about what was valuable in life. empathy and compassion through (and still memorable) abdominal
Maybe only a few became active brain training. Those most susceptible muscle inoculations aged only 5.
Provisional volunteers, but on that to the propaganda were identified Around that time, the hospital
morning they were open to the as being uncertain about their lives, adopted a policy of vaccinating,
possibility. Whoever thinks killing or having psychiatric problems. and red-inking, all stray dogs that
From Kevin Stafford, innocent citizens is innocuous is not Then I read Graham Lawton’s wandered through its compound.
Bunnythorpe, New Zealand only wrong morally but foolish – unless interview with Robin Carhart-Harris The article suggests this was a
I thank Peter Byrne for the article on they want to stimulate insurgency. (p 42). Carhart-Harris reports that wise approach. Unfortunately, it
the roots of terrorism (19 August, subjects on psilocybin experience conflates the terms “elimination”
p 30). One incident can be enough to From Liz Berry, profound feelings of connectedness and “eradication”. This was not
encourage an individual to join an Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, UK to others. Even a single dose can make controversial until 20 years ago
insurgency group or to trigger an Peter Byrne points out that no classic the subject more politically liberal and when the World Health
insurgency. In 1972, shortly after intervention strategy to combat more connected to other people. Organization began suggesting
Bloody Sunday, when marchers were radicalisation seems to work and that Is it worth a try? that leprosy could be eliminated –
Could you help transform a life?

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“It’s more likely that we’ve always been
more global than initially thought”
Kate Horrocks doubts that controversial fossil footprints show
humans evolved in Europe not Africa (9 September, p 9)
which can be defined as reduction in people’s brains while they (Letters, 19 August). The strategy value chain. Any direct impacts
to zero of the incidence of a viewed Kickstarter campaigns behind such divestment is pale in comparison.”
specified disease in a defined predicts which will be successful to break the hold these companies Dozens of campaigns already
geographical area – without 59 per cent of the time (26 August, have on the political process exist in the UK targeting local
eradication, which would be p 6). Is it not more likely that and thus pave the way for pension government schemes,
permanent reduction to zero of successful campaigns appeal to the types of restrictive legislation several of which have already
its worldwide incidence with no that part of the brain? necessary to bring about real committed to divest.
further intervention required. The research may simply change.
The confusion has now spread be identifying what triggers A 2013 study at the Stranded Search for sustainable
to other neglected diseases such investment by Kickstarter Assets Programme of the synthetic fabrics
as lymphatic filariasis. The small funders. Perhaps it will pin down University of Oxford’s Smith
print to look out for in WHO texts what prompts that investment, School of Enterprise and the From Richard Marshall,
is a goal of eliminating a disease regardless of the actual viability Environment surveyed earlier Thatcham, Berkshire, UK
only “as a public health problem”. of projects. campaigns and concluded that in Joseph Poore’s account of
almost every case “from adult reduction in farmland was very
The editor writes: Research says that services to Darfur, from tobacco encouraging with regard to the
■ The WHO indeed aspires only to South Africa, divestment prospects for wildlife (12 August,
disinvestment works
to eliminate rabies. campaigns were successful in p 26). One reason given is that
From Andrea Needham, lobbying for restrictive consumer preference for synthetic
The neural correlates of Hastings, East Sussex, UK legislation”. fabrics rather than wool or cotton
crowdfunding success Alec Cawley asks how getting The outcome of stigmatisation is reducing demand for land.
institutions such as universities that the fossil fuel divestment This disconcerts me. All fabrics
From Tim Duerden, and pension funds to ditch their campaign has now triggered, the break down in wear and washing.
Manchester, UK investments in the oil, coal and authors noted, “poses the most Today’s synthetic fabrics break
Helen Thomson reports that gas industries puts “any pressure far-reaching threat to fossil fuel down into microplastics that
scanning the nucleus accumbens on the companies to be greener” companies and the vast energy persist in the environment and >
GALAXY ON GLASS
Come meet the
Apollo 15 Astronaut
Col. Al Worden
on the Galaxy on Glass
stand 129 Cosmos
at New Scientist Live
Thursday
28th September
Available as frameless acrylic mix or

framed backlit up to 1.2 metres wide.
A big impact in any room. All limited editions.
www.cosmologychris.co.uk z www.facebook.com/galaxyonglass
or call Chris now on +44 (0)7814 181647

LETTERS
[email protected] @newscientist newscientist
enter the marine food chain, Christian political party is tiny. glass was recycled, so glass from This triggered a memory of sailing
so we ingest them (19 August, p 7). In people’s everyday life and that period is now a rare into Salcombe in Devon, UK,
We could expand the range of conversations I hear religion collector’s item. about two years ago. As I know the
plant-based fabrics. Flax is used playing hardly any part at all. channel well, I was going by eye
to make linen and bamboo can be Knowledge and science are very Vegans concerned about rather than instruments. Imagine
processed into soft, comfortable much appreciated. animals, not health my surprise when a crew member
fabric, but land would be needed Maybe Lutheranism with pointed to our GPS that showed us
to grow more of these. We could its ideals of hard work and From Naomi Elias traversing the hillside on a
see fabrics based on polymers pragmatism has been absorbed Seaford, East Sussex, UK parallel track. Another hand-held
similar to polylactic acid, which only as a background canvas. As a vegan of 10 years’ standing, unit displayed the same track.
is finding use as packaging in the Perhaps Finns are quantum I can assure Anthony Warner that I have no idea what caused it,
food industry. Such polymers beings: both religious and atheist, the majority of us are animal but over a few beers we decided
break down without damaging God-believing and science- rights advocates first and vegan as it was “the Russians” – an
the environment. believing at the same time. a consequence (26 August, p 24). explanation my mother used to
I am certainly not vegan because suggest for most problems from
On religion, Finns may be Saving energy with of diet or health – though there bad weather and back pain to
quantum beings recycled glass are health advantages to not traffic jams.
eating flesh. So Warner’s criticism
From Ilpo Salonen, From Harm J. Schoonhoven, of the film What the Health is Why medical psilocybin
Helsinki, Finland Utrecht, The Netherlands beside the point for me. is vastly expensive
Bob Holmes mentions that Finns As Peter Urben suggests, no My diet is not a choice; it’s a
showed no anti-atheist bias and energy can be recovered from consequence of my vegan way of From Charles Sawyer, Byron Bay,
that Finland has a long secular recycled glass (Letters, 26 August). life: a way of living and of seeing New South Wales, Australia
tradition (19 August, p 22). It has to be cleaned and sorted the world. Some might call it more Graham Lawton mentions that
Finland seems to me to be a before it can be melted, which of a religion than a food choice. synthesising medical-grade
curious combination of religious requires energy input. psilocybin is “staggeringly
belief and atheism. New glass starts with crystalline More Global Positioning expensive” (19 August, p 42).
In a recent survey, 52 per cent of ingredients that have to be melted System spoofing, maybe The significant cost is complying
Finns said they believed in God in at a high temperature. Addition with the regulations for working
some way. About 72 per cent are of even a small amount of used From Andrew Stone, Bristol, UK with a scheduled substance.
members of the dominant glass can speed up this process You report ships suffering a The very similar synthetic drug
Lutheran church, though church and save energy. Global Positioning System sumatriptan is routinely prescribed
attendance is fairly low. The As early as 500 years ago much spoofing attack (19 August, p 6). for migraine relief, and psilocybin
is a simpler compound. And can’t
psilocybin be purified to medical
TOM GAULD
grade from natural sources?
The editor writes:

■ Robin Carhart-Harris tells us
that only synthetic psilocybin
qualifies as medical grade.
For the record

■ Jonathan Montgomery’s term as
chair of the UK’s Nuffield Council
on Bioethics ended in February
(2 September, p 22).
Letters should be sent to:

Letters to the Editor, New Scientist,
110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU
Email: [email protected]
Include your full postal address and telephone

number, and a reference (issue, page number, title)
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New Scientist Ltd reserves the right to
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New Scientist magazine, in any other format.

SIGNAL BOOST
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OLIVER KENNETT, LEGS4AFRICA.
Helping people walk again

The World Health Organization states that just 1 in 10 people
with physical disabilities in the developing world have access
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that they don’t have to endure the frustrations and solitude that
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FEEDBACK
For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback
the office thermostat, we would of eating her greens: “As little

habitually keep our central as three serves of fruit and
heating on a higher setting, vegetables a day should be
burning more even energy enough to stave off heart attacks,
and hastening global warming. stroke and death – and any more
After a few decades of this, the offers no benefit, a new study has
world would warm enough that found.” We wonder what extra
we had no choice but to bump up benefit could top immortality.
human body temperature again,
and, well, you get the picture. FURTHER to John Cartmell’s
observation that homeopathic
OF COURSE, with the latest big remedies could be labelled on demand
bang under North Korea shaking (26 August ), James Fradgley recalls
up regional geopolitics, perhaps that the Russians got there first.
we should stop worrying about the “Shortly after the collapse of the
melting ice caps and focus on a more USSR, I was asking about the wines a
immediate kind of climate change. Russian supplier had, and the reply
Unfortunately, we aren’t sure was: ‘What do you want?’”
what sort of modifications would James then discovered that the
allow humans and a rain of nuclear supplier printed the labels after
fire to peacefully co-exist. Before getting an order, on the assumption
we head to the shelters, Feedback that the buyer wouldn’t know the
recommends training cockroaches to difference.
keep things running in our absence.
At least the gestating babies will be A STRETCH of the imagination:
EARLIER this month, we asked you mind-boggling 18 years or so it takes nicely matured once things cool off. “I was pleased to note that the
how humans might be improved upon, to evict a regular-born human from distance from shore of DONG
given the mounting environmental the nest, who knows how long it will NINA BAKER is desperately
threats to our species (2 September). take for these Huxleyan hatchlings seeking a Susan, or any woman,
“It’s clear that human brains already to fly the coop? who has been immortalised as a
exceed their optimum size at birth,” scientific unit (10 June). Mike Ellis
says Brian Horton. The obvious MEANWHILE, Klaus Mogensen recalls that in the 1960s, long
solution, he says, “is to take a few chimes in with a strategy to before the Ada programming
genes from marsupials, so that babies mitigate the effects of climate language was created, he worked
are born a few weeks after conception change – or rather, to mitigate our on the Royal Navy’s early digital
and immediately transferred to a intolerance to them. “It is difficult information system known as
pouch, where they will be safe for for the body to get rid of excess Action Data Automation, or ADA.
the next eight months”. heat if the outside temperature “This was deliberately contrived
Brian doesn’t elucidate where exceeds that of the body,” he says, to celebrate Ada Lovelace, who
these pouches will be located, but we “and some equatorial regions thus became both eponym and
think the idea would be popular if they may become too warm to be acronym – a double whammy for
were available in a range of brightly habitable.” women.”
coloured fabrics from IKEA. This would Klaus proposes engineering Energy’s proposed offshore
allow parents to gestate their child on humans to maintain a higher AND finally bringing us something windfarm HornSea 3 is officially
the shelf while they carry on life as body temperature: “This would verging on a unit is John Davies, measured in one of the most
normal in this brave new world. probably imply burning more who tells us of the Apgar score used internationally recognisable
The downside, of course, is that calories, simultaneously reducing globally to assess the physiological units,” says Sam Millard.
humans are already born half-baked problems with obesity.” condition of newborn babies. “i.e. ‘three times the distance
by the standards of most of the animal Feedback spies a problem: for “This provides an invaluable from Norwich to Cromer’.”
kingdom. Witness the newborn those of us living in cooler climes, means of comparison, for research For US readers, that would be
PAUL MCDEVITT
gazelle, up and running in minutes, the world would feel even chillier on procedures and treatments, about twice the distance from
a milestone that takes us humans a than it does now. So aside from as well as monitoring the progress of Roswell to Artesia. Clear?
year to waddle past. And given the leading to more arguments over resuscitation,” says John. “It is named
after its originator, Virginia Apgar,
a US obstetric anaesthetist.” You can send stories to Feedback by
Jo Spencely is in two minds about whether to email at [email protected].
CATCHING up on local news in Please include your home address.
visit a local studio offering “Quantum Yoga”. Adelaide, Australia, Jo Hamilton This week’s and past Feedbacks can
Might this be where you can learn superpositions? discovers the lifesaving potential be seen on our website.

Last words past and present at newscientist.com/lastword
THE LAST WORD
Give us a clue insights may lead to solutions. ■ There used to be a debate about across. With that disparity
This idea of incubation has never the origin of the lunar craters. between the size of the rock
I do cryptic crosswords. On my first been experimentally verified, If they were volcanic, it would be and the crater it produces, it is
attempt, I usually finish about half the but two modes of thinking – easy to understand why they are hardly surprising that the angle
clues and get stuck. When I return to analysis and insight – have been all circular, and for a long time of impact has no effect on
the crossword the following day, even identified by neuroscientists. this was a convincing theory. crater shape.
if I haven’t been consciously thinking Kevin Byron However, it is now believed that Mike Brown
about it, I usually get a few more Lincoln, UK almost all craters on the moon Knutsford, Cheshire, UK
clues very quickly. But after half an are the result of impacts.
hour at most, I become stuck again. ■ This reminded me of “morphic Even at fairly low speeds, ■ The short answer is that most
What’s going on? resonance”, parapsychologist impact craters tend to be circular things don’t skid, they explode.
Rupert Sheldrake’s idea that we because the delivery of energy to About 5 per cent of craters in
■ It is generally believed that when inherit a collective memory from the surface forces the material the solar system are noticeably
we have been grappling with an others involved in the same task. outwards symmetrically, elongated, such as the Messier
open-ended problem – with many This would mean that as more producing a crater larger than the crater in Mare Fecunditatis on
routes of exploration before a people work to solve a crossword, impacting body, thus obscuring the moon. But the rest are circular
solution can be found – and no its clues become easier over time the effect of angle of impact. because when an impactor hits,
insights have been forthcoming, for others to solve. I believe that For rocks falling on the moon, the immense kinetic energy is
it is best forgotten for a while. This experiments were designed to the speeds are not modest. The nearly instantaneously converted
is because our creativity becomes test this, but the results did not slowest possible speed for a rock to heat and compression.
less active the more intent we are support the theory. The impactor and surface fail to
on finding a solution. In a previous job making “Moon craters are circular contain this and simply explode
When returning after this so- up compounds for potential because most meteorites in a circular area between 10 and
called unconscious incubation medicinal use, I found that those don’t skid on impact, 1000 times the diameter of the
period, new insights may appear. that had never been made before they explode” actual impactor – so the impact
Sometimes they can arise could be a devil to crystallise. angle is hidden.
unbidden in unusual places. These However, if the prep was repeated hitting the moon would be The Wetumpka crater in
are called “eureka” moments. later it proved much easier. 2.38 kilometres per second Alabama is circular and 7.6 km in
With cryptic crossword clues, My colleagues experienced the (the lunar escape velocity). diameter because the meteorite
if a solution isn’t immediately same thing, but others dismissed At this speed, every kilogram of was about 300 m across and hit at
it as “folklore”. rock would have a kinetic energy a 30-45 degree angle.
“Insights can arise unbidden Peter Gandolfi about two-thirds of that released Non-round craters may be
in unusual places and Chelsfield Village, Kent, UK by detonating a kilogram of TNT. caused when the speed of impact
these are referred to as According to NASA, the actual is so low that the rock doesn’t
‘eureka’ moments” Read more: newscientist.com/ speeds are much higher than vaporise and slides or skips. Or the
article/mg21228441-500 that – up to 72 km per second. impact angle may be so shallow
forthcoming and we go over it The biggest impact directly (less than 10 degrees or so) that
several times, our thinking observed so far was produced the rock isn’t stopped. Elongated
rapidly becomes conditioned and Point of impact by a rock perhaps 1 metre in craters can also be caused by
we narrow down the number of diameter with a mass of about ground faults or by multiple
potential routes of exploration. Why can I only see round craters on 400 kilograms. This struck at a or split meteorites producing
In effect, our creativity becomes the moon and on other bodies in speed of 17 km/sec per second overlapping impact craters, such
temporarily restrained. When the solar system? Surely, not all the and released nearly 60 gigajoules as in the Elysium Planitia on Mars.
returning to the crossword, the impacts can be at right angles to (equivalent to 14 tonnes of TNT), Ron Dippold
clues are seen afresh and new the surface. What am I missing? producing a crater 40 metres San Diego, California, US
We pay £25 for every answer answers to The Last Word, New Scientist,
published in New Scientist. To answer 110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU, UK.
a question or ask a new one please New Scientist Ltd retains total
email [email protected]. editorial control over the published
Questions should be scientific content and reserves all rights to reuse
enquiries about everyday phenomena, question and answer material that has
and both questions and answers been submitted by readers in any medium
should be concise. We reserve the right or in any format and at any time in
to edit items for clarity and style. Please the future.
include a postal address, daytime You can find all unanswered questions
telephone number and an email address. and an archive of previous questions and
You can also send questions and answers at newscientist.com/lastword/
COULD YOU REINVENT FUEL
EFFICIENCY PIECE BY PIECE?
DISCOVER THE
University College London, UK
Hydrone | Shell Eco-marathon
ANSWERS SHAPING
TOMORROW
#makethefuture

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