PREPARING FOR LIFE

500 YEARS IN THE FUTURE

THE FROG PANDEMIC
NASA TRIES TO FIX FAILING
HUBBLE TELESCOPE
SHOULD MORE
CHILDREN BE VACCINATED
AGAINST COVID-19?
WEEKLY July 17 – 23, 2021

STRETCH
YOURSELF
The importance of flexibility
to your health

RACIST MEDICINE No3343 US$6.99 CAN$9.99

How doctors are letting down Black people

PLUS MORE BAD NEWS FOR LIFE ON VENUS / STONE AGE MAKE-UP /
VIRGIN GALACTIC LAUNCH / THE TOMORROW WAR, REVIEWED
Science and technology news www.newscientist.com
 EN
TR J
IE UL
S Y
C
LO
SE
WE’RELOOKINGFORTHE

best ideas in the world

ONBEHALFOFOLDERPEOPLE
The Ryman Prize is an international The Ryman Prize is awarded each year by
award aimed at encouraging the best the Prime Minister of New Zealand. It was
and brightest thinkers in the world first awarded in 2015 to Gabi Hollows,
to focus on ways to improve co-founder of the Hollows Foundation, for
the health of older people. her tireless work to restore sight for millions
of older people in the developing world.
The world’s ageing population
means that in some parts of the Since then world-leading researchers
globe – including much of the Western Professor Henry Brodaty, Professor Peter
world – the population aged 75+ is set St George-Hyslop, Professor Takanori
to almost triple in the next 30 years. Shibata and Dr Michael Fehlings have all
won the prize for their outstanding work.
Older people face not only the acute threat
of COVID-19, but also the burden of chronic In 2020 Professor Miia Kivipelto, a Finnish
diseases including Alzheimers and diabetes. researcher whose research
into the causes of
At the same time the health of older
Alzheimers and
people is one of the most underfunded
dementia has had a
and poorly resourced areas of research.
worldwide impact,
So, to stimulate fresh efforts to tackle was awarded the
the problems of old age, we’re offering a prize by the Right
NZ$250,000 (£130,000) annual prize for Honourable,
the world’s best discovery, development, Jacinda Ardern,
advance or achievement that enhances Prime Minister
quality of life for older people. of New Zealand.

If you have a great idea or have achieved something

remarkable like Miia and our five other prize
winners, we would love to hear from you.

Entries for the 2021 Ryman Prize close at 5pm

on Friday, July 16, 2021 (New Zealand time).

Go to rymanprize.com for more information.

This week’s issue

On the 44 Preparing for life

500 years in the future
39 Features
cover “We’re finding
39 The frog pandemic
34 Stretch yourself out what
The importance of 14 NASA tries to fix
flexibility to your health failing Hubble telescope happens
16 Racist medicine 8 Should we be vaccinating when you
How doctors are letting
down Black people
children against covid-19?
remove frogs
from an
ecosystem.
12 More bad news for life on Venus
Vol 251 No 3343 10 Stone Age make-up It isn’t
11 Virgin Galactic launch
Cover image:
Harriet Noble/Studio Pi 32 The Tomorrow War, reviewed pretty”

News Features
10 Stone Age make-up 34 Stretching the point
Bottles of cosmetics may have News Just how flexible do you
been worn around the neck actually need to be in
order to remain healthy?
11 Billionaire space race
Richard Branson blasts off 39 The frog pandemic
on a Virgin Galactic flight Amphibians are suffering their
own terrible disease outbreak,
13 Not OK, computer but we have a shot at stopping it
A Microsoft-owned AI
programmer may be reusing 44 Chris Mason interview
code without permission The geneticist with a 500-year
plan for our off-Earth future

Views
The back pages
22 Comment
Pandemic strategies must take 51 Science of gardening
evolution into account, says How to improve tree cover in cities
Jonathan R. Goodman
52 Puzzles
24 The columnist Try our crossword, quick
James Wong on the idea that quiz and logic puzzle
fruit and veg is not what it was
54 Almost the last word
26 Aperture How can I avoid a bike
Marvel at fantastic fungi puncture? Readers respond
HOLLIE ADAMS/GETTY IMAGES

28 Letters 56 Feedback
Wading into the debate over Gazing at the moon through
ocean geoengineering your legs: the week in weird

30 Culture 56 Twisteddoodles
We check out a new take for New Scientist
on the illicit trade in wildlife 8 Coronavirus What are the benefits of vaccinating children? Picturing the lighter side of life

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 1

Elsewhere
on New Scientist

Virtual event Podcast

Newsletter
The science of “There’s too
can and can’t
Most theories explain reality
much that
by predicting what will occur.
But there is an alternative way
the standard

COLIN MCPHERSON/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

of explaining things: saying model doesn’t
what can and can’t happen.
In this talk, physicist Chiara tell us for it to
Marletto discusses how this
approach holds extraordinary be anything
promise for confronting
challenges in fundamental
approaching
physics. Join us from 6pm BST
on 2 September or watch on
the final
demand. Tickets available now. Dolly the sheep A quarter-century on from the key cloning experiment answer”
newscientist.com/events

Newsletter
Podcast
Weekly
The UK hasn’t decided whether
FONS RADEMAKERS/CERN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

children should be given

covid-19 vaccines, while other
countries forge ahead. What’s
the hold up? It is 25 years
since the cloning of Dolly the
sheep and the team discuss
the legacy of this landmark
experiment. Plus, NASA’s plans
to power a ship with solar sails
and China’s epic progress on
quantum computers. So boring Measurements of the Higgs boson have found no surprises
newscientist.com/
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Covid-19 on fundamental physics New Scientist stories with our Essential guide
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weekday at 6pm BST. catch gravitational waves and a and look for stories that have a our Essential Guide: The
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space-time shop.newscientist.com

2 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 F R EN T
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Debate

ONLINE EVENT
THE GENE THERAPY
REVOLUTION IN HEALTHCARE
Thursday 29 July 2021 | 6-7pm BST, 1-2pm EDT and on-demand
Gene therapy is set to revolutionise medicine. The ability to replace the function of a missing or
faulty gene offers millions of people with life-threatening, rare conditions, the potential for longer,
healthier lives. In some cases, a single one-time treatment can provide a lifetime of benefits.

This New Scientist debate will evaluate how best to assess the value of gene therapies to benefit
individuals, healthcare systems as well as broader society. At the forefront of this issue is how
healthcare systems and policymakers can prepare for a new era of medicine in a way that gives
patients and their families the best outcome.

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The leader

Children are still at risk

Easing of England’s covid-19 lockdown puts unvaccinated children in the firing line

IF THERE has been one saving grace of offering covid-19 vaccines to children virus, many will get ill and some will die.
the covid-19 pandemic, it is that children who are 12 and over, the UK has decided In the case of children, those at highest
are relatively safe from serious disease to hold off (see page 8). Cases of covid-19 risk are those with underlying medical
and death compared with adults. in the UK are growing fast, and with conditions. In the first year of the
Over the first year of the pandemic, only more than half of the adult population pandemic, 25 children died in the UK
259 under-18s in England were admitted vaccinated, the spread of the virus from either acute covid-19 or the delayed
to intensive care with covid-19. Another will be driven into younger people, inflammatory syndrome, and that
312 were treated for a serious but rare was while restrictions were in place.
condition that developed after infection “Unlike the US, the UK is In addition, some 13 per cent of
called delayed inflammatory syndrome. holding off on vaccinating infected children develop persistent
As the UK government prepares to lift children against covid-19” and sometimes debilitating symptoms.
nearly all covid-19 restrictions in England Letting the virus rip through a pool of
on 19 July and allow the virus to spread especially unvaccinated children. unvaccinated people also increases the
through the community (see page 7), Effectively, the government is pursuing risk of a new variant emerging that can
it might seem as if children aren’t at a “natural herd immunity” strategy, in evade the protection from the vaccines
risk, but this isn’t the case. which children are exposed to the virus we have. We have argued many times
Under-18s make up a fifth of the until nearly all of them develop immunity. in the pages of this magazine against
UK population and very few have If children are at low risk of dying, taking this kind of herd immunity
been vaccinated, because unlike does this matter? Well, when very large approach to the pandemic. The same
countries such as the US, which is numbers of people are exposed to the logic applies to children. ❚

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 Advertising feature Commissioned by

ALL-GB-000562 JULY 2021

The diversity challenge

More than half of 16- to 21-year-olds surveyed believe there are gender and ethnicity barriers
to a career in science or medicine1, despite most of them thinking of pursuing one

Career Barriers
Do you think that jobs involving science
and medicine are equally accessible to people
from all ethnic backgrounds and genders?
© IPSEN 2019 / ADAM WISEMAN / CAPA PICTURES

No: 51% Yes: 30% Don’t know: 19%1

Data based on 303 respondents

aged 16- to 21-years old

S
cience and medicine are popular technology, engineering and mathematics), collaboratively to break down perceived
career choices that the UK government less than 30 per cent of researchers worldwide barriers and empower more young people to
has identified as important drivers for are women, according to the UNESCO consider STEM career opportunities.”
the economy. Nevertheless, the government Institute for Statistics2, and a recent analysis by But the fact young people don’t believe
has also noted skills shortages in these areas the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for these jobs are equally accessible is “sadly
and attempted to engage a wider range of Diversity and Inclusion in STEM revealed that unsurprising”,says Katherine Mathieson,
young people in these careers. in the UK, 65 per cent of those working in UK chief executive of the British Science
To better understand the factors that STEM industries are white men3. Association, secretariat for the All-Party
influence young people’s career aspirations, The picture for ethnic diversity is more Parliamentary Group on Diversity and
New Scientist and global biopharmaceutical complex. Some 12 per cent of the STEM Inclusion in STEM. “Young people are more in
company, Ipsen, ran a survey hosted on New workforce have ethnic backgrounds3, about the tune with the world than ever and want to
Scientist’s website among 797 respondents same as the workforce as a whole. However, make a difference,” she says. “We need to
aged between 7 and 21 years. people of Indian ethnicity are over-represented3 nurture this interest by encouraging their
The results1 show considerable engagement while people from other ethnic minorities are aspirations, continuing to actively improve
with 83 per cent having considered becoming under-represented. For example, only 2 per cent accessibility to science and ensuring STEM is
a scientist or doctor. Many (41%) said the of STEM workers are black compared to 3 per a path open to everyone.” ❚
Covid-19 pandemic had increased their interest cent of the rest of the workforce3.
in these careers. The pharmaceutical industry is aware of Find out more about Ipsen careers at:
Yet the survey also revealed that two in these problems and of the potential to attract https://www.ipsen.com/uk
five respondents felt that jobs in science and a more diverse workforce .“Over the last few
medicine aren’t equally accessible to those years, this industry has made positive strides 1. Ipsen Data on File ALL-UK-001361
of different ethnic backgrounds or genders. to improve gender and ethnic diversity in the 2. UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Women in Science;
This sentiment increases with age, jumping workplace, yet there is still work to be done,” https://bit.ly/3iurOfU Last accessed June 2021
to 51 per cent for 16- to 21-year-olds, with the says John Chaddock, VP Head of Research for 3. All-Party Parliamentary Group for Diversity and
perception higher among females. External Innovation & Early Development Inclusion in STEM;The State of the Sector: Diversity
These perceived barriers are reflected in Operations at Ipsen. “The UK is a world leader and representation in STEM industries in the UK;
the wider workforce. For STEM (science, in STEM and as an industry we need to work https://bit.ly/2TUNdEF Last accessed June 2021
 News
Biodiversity plan Climate change Fishful thinking Cold curves If you like this...
UN aims to preserve Extreme US heat Trout brains grow New form of ice is YouTube promotes
30 per cent of world’s made 150 times larger when they incredibly bendy videos that violate
ocean and land p10 more likely p11 think a lot p12 without breaking p13 its own policies p14

Covid-19 marshals
patrolling the streets of
central London in June

deaths a day in England when

cases peak is based on the
assumption that behaviour
will change slowly over several
months, rather than suddenly.
This means the modelling is
assuming that people will still
isolate if they have symptoms
or test positive, wear masks
in crowded places – despite
it no longer being a legal
requirement – and people
who can work from home
will largely continue to do so.
“There is huge uncertainty as
to how people’s behaviour is likely
STEPHEN CHUNG/ALAMY

to change,” says Susan Michie

at University College London.
“On the one hand, people have
overwhelmingly behaved
responsibly in the past when
they could see there was a threat.
Coronavirus in the UK On the other hand, we are
receiving very mixed messages

Cases will spike in August from the government in terms

of them doing one thing and
saying another.”
A total of 228,189 cases were
The UK faces a large wave of covid-19 cases and deaths in the weeks reported in the UK in the past
after lockdown lifts in England, reports Adam Vaughan 7 days, up 28.1 per cent on
the week before. Hospital
MORE than 100 people per day as covid-19 spreads to younger uncertainty stems partly from admissions over the same period
are expected to die and more people who aren’t yet vaccinated small differences in the efficacy are at 3081, up 56.6 per cent, with
than 1000 a day be admitted to (see page 8). and uptake of vaccines making a deaths at 200, up 56.2 per cent.
hospital in England at the peak of The high level of vaccination big difference to epidemiological In England, 1 in 160 people
the UK’s current wave of covid-19 and more younger people being models. One possibility is that are estimated to be infected.
cases, the government’s scientific infected mean the link between there are more unvaccinated SAGE expects the prevalence
advisers are anticipating. cases and hospitalisations and people than modellers think, of the virus to “almost certainly
Modelling released by the deaths has been weakened, but because population numbers remain extremely high” this
Scientific Advisory Group for not broken. There now appears aren’t yet available from the census summer, and believes that such
Emergencies (SAGE) on 12 July to be a fourfold lower chance for England, Wales and Northern high levels pose four major risks.
gives the first detailed look at the of hospitalisations and roughly Ireland done earlier this year. Those are a greater number
possible impacts from around tenfold lower chance of deaths However, the biggest of hospitalisations and deaths,
100,000 cases per day, the number than during the second wave. uncertainty is to do with people’s more people with long covid,
that UK health secretary Sajid There remains a high level of behaviour when restrictions more chance of variants
Javid has warned the country uncertainty over the predicted are waived. A central estimate of developing and a higher pressure
could hit when restrictions lift size of the UK’s third wave as between 1000 and 2000 hospital on work forces due to absences.
in England on 19 July. Scotland, restrictions are lifted. This admissions a day and 100 to 200 However, the peak of deaths
Wales and Northern Ireland have in the third wave is expected
different plans for relaxing rules. Daily coronavirus news round-up to be “considerably smaller”
Cases aren’t expected to peak Online every weekday at 6pm BST than in January 2021, when
until mid-August at the earliest, newscientist.com/coronavirus-latest few people were vaccinated. ❚

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 7

News
Coronavirus: UK third wave

Is it time to vaccinate children?

With covid-19 cases surging and restrictions loosening in the UK, is it time for the
country to start vaccinating children? Clare Wilson investigates the pros and cons
THE UK looks set to drop almost in adults. More trials in younger been recorded in the US so far.

SARAH REINGEWIRTZ/MEDIANEWS GROUP/LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS VIA GETTY IMAGES

all of its covid-19 restrictions on groups are ongoing, including The US Centers for Disease
19 July, despite infections soaring. some in under-12s. Control and Prevention said last
The UK government appears to Side effects appeared similar month that the incidence in 12
be banking on the fact that more to those seen in adults – in other to 17-year-old boys is 63 reported
than half the nation has been fully words, a sore arm, plus broader cases per million second doses
vaccinated against the virus, effects like fatigue and headache. of vaccine administered. A study
helping minimise the number But rare side effects may not from Israel finds about a three
of hospitalisations from covid-19. show up in such trials of just a few times higher rate in 16 to 24-year-
But most under-18s, who thousand people, as was found old males than in the US study. But
make up about a fifth of the UK with the blood-clotting side effect both the US and Israel have said
population, haven’t had jabs yet. seen occasionally in younger that the benefits of vaccination
The rationale for this is that adults receiving the Oxford/ still outweigh any risks. Most
children get less sick from covid-19 AstraZeneca jab. The JCVI is likely cases are mild and transient, says
and were mainly excluded from to wait to see if any similarly rare Peter Liu, a cardiologist at the
initial vaccine trials, so there side effects arise from vaccines University of Ottawa in Canada.
is less information on vaccine in under-18s in other countries, Myocarditis from viral
effectiveness in people of that age. says Helen Bedford at the Royal infections usually stems from
While UK regulatory approval College of Paediatrics and Child an excessive immune response.
for the Pfizer/BioNTech jab was Health in London. Because younger people seem
extended in June to people who to produce more antibodies
are 12 or older, the body that after vaccination, “there is
decides whether people in the Have any rarer side probably a more exuberant
UK should in practice be offered immune response [to the vaccine]
vaccines, the Joint Committee on
effects emerged yet? in younger men”, says Liu. Trials
Vaccination and Immunisation A condition called myocarditis – are investigating if younger people
(JCVI), is still making up its mind. inflammation of the heart – has could be given a lower dose. have died as a result of either acute
This is in contrast to the US, been seen rarely after the mRNA covid-19 infection or the delayed
Israel, France and Spain, for vaccines, particularly in males inflammatory syndrome. Most
example, which have either begun under 30 after their second jab. What are the benefits of of the children who died had
vaccinating children aged 12 and Myocarditis causes breathlessness underlying health conditions,
over or are about to. Is it time more and chest pain, and can be
vaccinating the young? such as neurodisabilities or heart
countries followed suit? Here’s triggered by covid-19 itself. Vaccinated under-18s would be problems, says Russell Viner,
what we know about vaccinating It ranges from being mild to less likely to get ill with covid-19, president of the Royal College
children against covid-19. severe enough to kill, however no but a preprint published earlier of Paediatrics and Child Health,
deaths from this side effect have this month confirmed that this who was involved in the work.
age group’s risk from infection is
What evidence is there already low. Over the first year of “Even younger teens
on child vaccination? the pandemic, only 259 under-18s can overrule a parent’s
in England were treated in wishes if they are judged
Initial trials of the Pfizer/BioNTech intensive care with covid-19. to be fully informed”
vaccine included people aged 16 Vaccination would also decrease
and over, so in some countries, cases of a “delayed inflammatory There are also concerns over
including the US, older teens syndrome” that has occurred in children getting long covid –
have been offered this jab from some children with covid-19. The persistent health problems after
the start of the roll-out. study found that 312 under-18s had infection, such as fatigue and
Two further trials have been been admitted to intensive care muscle ache, although it is unclear
CNRI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

done in younger teens, testing with this condition over the year. how common this is.
the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna In total, 25 under-18s in England A survey by the UK’s Office for
mRNA vaccines. Both found National Statistics found that
good effectiveness, with Pfizer/ Light micrograph of a 13 per cent of secondary school
BioNTech generating higher section through heart children in England have
levels of antibodies in teens than tissue with myocarditis symptoms five weeks after

8 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 Health Check newsletter
Get a weekly round-up of health news in your inbox
newscientist.com/healthcheck

colleges, as happens with several 16 or older and who are clinically

other children’s vaccines, such as very vulnerable or to those who
the HPV vaccine, which protects are 12 or older living in residential
against several cancers, including care with a severe neurodisability.
cervical, mouth and throat cancer. And some 16 to 18-year-olds who
As with the HPV jab, some aren’t vulnerable have received a
parents may refuse to consent vaccine in high-incidence areas.
to their child receiving a covid-19 That still leaves many under-18s
vaccine. But vaccine hesitancy is who are at risk and whose families
relatively low in the UK. According are desperate for them to get the
to a survey by the Office for jab, says Una Summerson at
National Statistics carried out in Contact, a UK charity for families
April and May 2021, about 88 per with disabled children. Some of
cent of parents in England said them have been shielding since
they would definitely or probably March 2020. “There are thousands
let their child have the jab. of children who haven’t left
And teenagers will have the house in 16 months. There’s
their own views. “I would probably a strong case for treating this
have the vaccine. You wouldn’t as a more urgent decision.”
have to worry about infecting
vulnerable people,” says Rebecca
Boland Ross, aged 14. “Most Should more vaccines
of my friends would take it.”
Molly Naylor, 13, says: “I’d be
be sent abroad first?
really happy to be vaccinated. The issue of whether to vaccinate
Vaccinating children means less children in the UK or send doses
infection, compared with 2 per cent A child is hugged after people would have to [isolate] and to other countries is complicated.
of an uninfected control group. taking part in a Moderna more sports activities can open up. Most low-income nations have
Other benefits lie in reducing vaccine trial in Los Angeles Teachers are often self-isolating at immunised less than 5 per cent
transmission to adults, who the moment.” of their populations. The World
can still catch covid-19 even Although in England parents Health Organization wants
if vaccinated, as well as helping would be asked to consent to their enough vaccines to be donated
cut the risk of a more dangerous children being vaccinated against to immunise at least 20 per cent
variant arising in the UK. covid-19, for those aged 16 and of every country.
There are precedents for over, the final decision is up to the Among the arguments for
immunising children for societal child, says Bedford. Even younger giving vaccines to children in
benefit, such as giving the rubella
vaccine to children to avoid them
passing the virus to pregnant
13%
of infected children in England still
teens can overrule a parent, if
they are considered to be fully
informed. But school nurses
higher-income countries before
donating them include the fact
that it may be hard for low-income
women, said Beate Kampmann have symptoms after five weeks would try to address any parental nations to use the Pfizer vaccine
at the London School of Hygiene concerns first, says Bedford. because it needs to be stored at
& Tropical Medicine at a Royal ultra-low temperatures. However,
Society of Medicine conference
last week. “I don’t think covid-19
is an exception there.”
25
children have died as a result
Should vulnerable
other vaccines can be kept in
regular fridges. “There are strong
arguments that the benefits will
of covid-19 in England
children get vaccinated? be so marginal for vaccinating
The question of whether to offer our teenagers that we should be
What about vaccine the vaccine to most under-18s may contributing to international
hesitancy?
Any vaccine provision for
88%
of parents in England would
be in the balance for now, but it is
more pressing for those who are
most vulnerable to covid-19. At
vaccine supply,” said Viner. “But
I don’t think it entirely trumps
the need to vaccinate some of
teenagers would probably be vaccinate their children the moment, the Pfizer/BioNTech our teenagers, particularly those
offered through schools and against covid-19 jab can be given to people who are that are clinically vulnerable.” ❚

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 9

News
Ecology Archaeology

Earth needs more

nature reserves to
Europeans may have worn
avert extinctions make-up in the Stone Age
Adam Vaughan James Urquhart

NEARLY a third of the world’s SOME late Stone Age Europeans old archaeological sites, we known use of lead in the region
oceans and land should be may have carried make-up inside rarely find vessels that still around 6400 years ago.
protected by 2030 to stem miniature bottles that they wore retain remnants of their The three lead-containing
extinctions and ensure humanity around their necks or waists former content,” he says. bottles also had fatty molecules
lives in harmony with nature. That is more than 6000 years ago. Long and thin stone tools called lipids that came from
the suggestion in a proposed United Researchers have found traces were found near the bottle, beeswax inside. A possible
Nations plan for 195 countries to of ingredients known to be used which could have been used plant oil was also detected in
tackle the destruction of nature. in cosmetic formulations by to extract the substance within. one of them, while another
The measure is one of 21 targets later civilisations inside small “Miniature vessels were, for had traces of an animal fat.
in the first draft of the Global bottles unearthed in Slovenia, far too long, considered to be The bottles’ contents
Biodiversity Framework. Others dating to between 4350 and children-related, and there is no could have been pigments for
include reforming planning systems 4100 BC. denial that some probably have painting, says Kramberger. But
to protect species, ending farming The discovery suggests that been,” says Bisserka Gaydarska he says it is more likely that they
subsidies that are driving wildlife lead-based cosmetics were at Durham University in the were cosmetics, possibly for
losses, and boosting conservation possibly used in Europe more medicinal purposes, because
funding by at least $200 billion a
year. Overall funding today is about
$100 billion a year.
than 2000 years earlier than
previously thought, and more
than 1000 years before the
30 they contained common
ingredients for such products
Number of sites in Europe where a known from later cultures.
“Despite ongoing efforts, earliest evidence of their use type of small bottle has been found Around 3100 BC,
biodiversity is deteriorating from ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamians ground
worldwide and this decline is Mesopotamian cultures. UK. “But I know that there was lead-containing minerals,
projected to continue or worsen In 2014, Bine Kramberger at a much more diverse use of including galena and cerussite,
under business-as-usual scenarios,” the Institute for the Protection small vessels, and medicinal into powders to use as grey
says the draft, which negotiators of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia and cosmetic containers is as or white pigments in early
will need to finalise in time for a found a miniature ceramic good as any.” cosmetics. Ancient Egyptians
major UN biodiversity summit in bottle at an ancient site once Now, Kramberger and his also used these and copper ores
China in October. occupied by people of the colleagues have analysed the for their distinctive green and
The plan, roughly the nature Lasinja culture in around substance in the bottle he found black eye make-up, which they
equivalent of the Paris Agreement 4350 BC. More than 100 and examined 13 others from used for religious purposes.
on climate change, ultimately aims similar bottles have been the same period. But their make-up may have
to halt or reverse extinction rates. found across 30 sites in central The mystery material protected their eyes from the
Its new global biodiversity targets and south-eastern Europe. contained a white lead mineral sun and prevented illnesses, too.
are the first that governments will Their purpose was unknown, called cerussite, while different Ancient Egyptian physicians
set for beyond 2020. However, none but it is thought that some lead minerals were identified also prescribed lead-containing
of the world’s previous biodiversity might have been children’s in two other bottles (Journal of treatments for eye conditions.
goals were met by a 2020 deadline. toys due to their shapes, Archaeological Science: Reports, Cerussite powder was popular
One of the key new targets is to resembling animal or doi.org/gmzv). The findings among the ancient Greeks and
protect 30 per cent of the world’s human heads. match the dates of the earliest Romans for skin whitening and
land and oceans by 2030, for Curiously, most of them remedies, despite its known
example as national parks, up have holes in their tiny handles toxicity. European societies
from 16.64 per cent of land and or rims that archaeologists used it until the 19th century
7.74 per cent of oceans today. think people threaded string to achieve a pale complexion
Neville Ash at the UN through, enabling them to be associated with wealth, youth
Environment Programme says the worn around the neck or waist. and beauty, aware that there was
draft is “fairly comprehensive” on But Kramberger’s find was a risk of poisoning, skin damage,
its ultimate aims, but he says many different because it contained hair loss and rotten teeth.
of the 21 targets will need to be a solid white substance. “It Gaydarska says the new study
met much earlier than 2030. was clear that it hid valuable supports what archaeologists
The initial proposals will almost information because in such have long thought – “that
BINE KRAMBERGER

certainly change between now and the abilities and cultures of

October. Line-by-line negotiations An ancient pot found Neolithic people were far more
by government officials are due to in Slovenia that may sophisticated than they are
begin on 23 August. ❚ have held make-up often given credit for”. ❚

10 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 Launchpad newsletter
Sign up to voyage the solar system and beyond
newscientist.com/launchpad
Space flight

Flying to the edge of space

Richard Branson launched on his Virgin Galactic craft
Jacob Aron and Leah Crane

RICHARD BRANSON has finally

travelled to the edge of space
aboard his Virgin Galactic space
plane. The billionaire has narrowly
become the first person to fly on
a spacecraft of their own making,
beating Blue Origin founder
Jeff Bezos by a matter of days.
On 11 July, the VSS Unity
launched from New Mexico,
taking Branson, two pilots and three
other passengers on a 90-minute
suborbital flight to an altitude of
85 kilometres. This passed the
US government’s definition of the
boundary of space. The passengers,
VIRGIN GALACTIC/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

including Branson, were presented

with commercial astronaut wings
upon landing by Canadian former
astronaut Chris Hadfield.
The internationally held
definition of space – the Kármán
line – is 100 kilometres above
Earth, and Bezos will attempt
to cross it in his New Shepard
spacecraft on 20 July. ❚

Environment

Climate change made heatwave more likely

THE recent deadly and record- has warmed Earth, say the an area incorporating parts of The models then showed the event
breaking heatwave in North researchers at the World British Columbia, Oregon and was 150 times more probable in
America would have been Weather Attribution project. Washington. The models were a world with climate change.
“virtually impossible” without “It’s an extraordinary event,” then used to estimate average Up to last year, such heat in
climate change, according says team member Geert Jan maximum daily temperatures the region was impossible, says
to scientists who say they are van Oldenborgh at the Royal in the area studied, with and van Oldenborgh. “We are much
worried about the prospect Netherlands Meteorological without climate change. less certain about how the
of similar events occurring Institute. “A lot of people are The near-50°C temperatures climate affects heatwaves
around the world. very worried about this event. recorded in Canada don’t appear than we were two weeks ago.”
An international team has Could this also happen here in statistical models. That forced The heatwave could just have
found that the heatwave, which in the Netherlands, France, the team to artificially include the been bad luck aggravated by
may have killed hundreds of in other places, suddenly event in their models, making climate change or due to other
people and saw Canada’s having a 5°C jump?” assumptions on the rarity of such interactions in the climate, such
temperature record being broken Van Oldenborgh and his a heatwave, which they estimated as the severe drought in the south
by nearly 5°C in the village of colleagues used an approach as a roughly 1 in 1000 years event. of the area studied, says the team.
Lytton, was made at least 150 times known as extreme event The report is on the World
more likely by global warming. attribution, whittling down “Could this also happen in Weather Attribution website, but
The temperature highs were 2°C 35 computer models to 21 that the Netherlands, France hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed due
hotter than they would have been were best able to reproduce or in other places, suddenly to the rapid nature of the work. ❚
without the human activity that past weather observations in having a 5°C jump?” Adam Vaughan

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 11

News
Astronomy

Mystery Venus gas may be volcanic

Phosphine in planet’s clouds was a potential sign of life, but it may come from eruptions
Leah Crane

THE unexpected discovery of a active. “Many of the volcanic are. And changing amounts of Petkowski at the Massachusetts
gas called phosphine on Venus led eruptions on Earth are things sulphur dioxide in the air could Institute of Technology, a member
to speculation that there may be that would escape our attention if be explained by eruptions tossing of Greaves’s team. He says that
life floating in the planet’s clouds – they happened on Venus because particles aloft. Truong and Lunine it isn’t clear whether there is as
but it may have come from huge of this blanket of sulphuric acid suggest that phosphorus in the much phosphorus in the Venusian
volcanic eruptions instead. clouds,” says Lunine. planet’s mantle could erupt from mantle as Truong and Lunine
In 2020, a team led by Jane However, there are hints that volcanoes in huge plumes and assumed based on comparisons
Greaves at Cardiff University in the volcanoes may be erupting on then interact with sulphuric with Earth.
UK saw evidence of phosphine in Venus. Radar images from orbiting acid to form phosphine (PNAS, Additionally, we don’t know
Venus’s clouds, which are mainly spacecraft have shown features doi.org/gnf7). enough about the chemistry of
made of concentrated sulphuric that could be relatively fresh lava, Not everyone agrees that this Venus’s atmosphere to say for
acid. When the researchers but it isn’t clear that is what they is a viable explanation. “We do sure what would happen if that
analysed ways to make phosphine not think that deep mantle plume phosphorus was erupted into the
on Venus, they didn’t find any Maat Mons, a volcano on volcanism can produce sufficient sky. “I’d expect chemical spikes
that could produce enough of it to Venus, in a radar image amounts of phosphine to explain of other gases if a huge plume
explain the signal. They suggested from the Magellan mission the observations,” says Janusz had happened,” says Greaves. We
that it may have come from living haven’t seen such unexplained
organisms, which is the main way spikes in the abundances of other
the gas is made on Earth. chemicals in the atmosphere.
Now, Ngoc Truong and Jonathan Lunine agrees that we don’t
Lunine at Cornell University in have enough data to say for sure
New York have calculated that if what might be producing the
Venus is as volcanically active as phosphine, but he says volcanism
some of the most volcanic areas is a less outlandish potential
on Earth, that could produce explanation than life in Venus’s
enough phosphine to explain toxic clouds. “Unfortunately,
the signal without invoking the we’re sitting here with these
possibility of life on Venus. little hints of volcanism from all
The thick atmosphere on Venus these pieces of circumstantial
has made it difficult to study its evidence, phosphine included,”
NASA/JPL

surface, so we don’t know for he says. “We don’t know what

certain whether it is volcanically Venus is capable of.” ❚

Biology

Fish brains grow or resources. “The brain is known to the shore, which is a more complex heavier relative to body size than
be one of the most energetically environment. This higher cognitive those of the captive fish (bioRxiv,
shrink depending on expensive tissues to maintain,” demand appears to boost brain doi.org/gnb8).
how much they think says Laberge. growth (Authorea, doi.org/gnb9). This increase was specific
In one study, Laberge and his In a second study, the team to the brain, says Laberge. There
FISH literally get brainier when they team studied lake trout (Salvelinus compared the brain sizes of was no change in the relative size
have to think harder, and less brainy namaycush) across six consecutive rainbow trout that had escaped of the heart, for instance.
when they don’t. At least, that is seasons in two lakes in Ontario, from a fish farm in Canada and Previous lab studies by other
the implication of two studies by Canada. They found that brain size begun living wild in a lake with groups have suggested that fish
Frederic Laberge at the University of relative to body size increased in those that remained captive. After brains change size as needed, says
Guelph in Canada and his colleagues autumn and winter and decreased seven months, the brains of the Laberge. Fish in labs have smaller
that show fish brains grow larger in spring and summer. escaped trout were 15 per cent brains compared with the same
relative to their body size in more Lake trout avoid warm water, fish in the wild, and enriching their
challenging environments and so they are limited to deeper “The brain is known environment increases brain size.
shrink in less challenging ones. water in the summer, Laberge to be one of the most His team is the first to show this
Changing relative brain size as says. But during the winter they energetically expensive happening in the wild. ❚
needed could help fish save vital forage in shallower waters near tissues to maintain” Michael Le Page

12 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

Physics Software

New kind of ice

can curl and uncurl
AI programmer may be
without breaking reusing code without asking
Leah Crane Matthew Sparkes

WHEN grown in tiny strands, ice can Writing code could

bend and then return to its original be easier with
shape. These microfibres are the an AI assistant
most flexible form of ice ever made.
Most water ice is extremely rigid it generates belongs to the
and brittle, breaking easily rather programmer using it.
than bending. However, a single, Some developers have already
long crystal of ice can be far more taken action to protect their
flexible. Limin Tong at Zhejiang work. Adrian Bowyer at RepRap,
University in Hangzhou, China, and an open source 3D printer
MONSTAR STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK

his colleagues have used this quality project, says CoPilot is a great
to fabricate the most elastic water idea but anything it creates
ice ever, close to the theoretical limit must itself be open source.
of how flexible it can be. He has altered the wording
They made their ice fibres using of the licence under which
water vapour piped into a small he releases software: “If any
chamber kept at a temperature part of RepRap covered by
of -50°C. An electric field in the the GPL is used to train any AI,
chamber attracted water molecules A MICROSOFT-owned the original programmer. then all the products of that
to a needle made of tungsten, where tool powered by artificial “You can definitely make AI must be released under
they crystallised to build fibres up intelligence is designed to make it recite code that is almost the GPL as free software.”
to a few micrometres in diameter. life easier for programmers, entirely in the training set The CoPilot website says that
The researchers then cooled the but some developers say it may where there’s no originality about 0.1 per cent of CoPilot
ice even further, to between -70°C be repurposing some of the happening,” says Ronacher, suggestions may contain
and -150°C, and measured the billions of lines of code it was although he says it should be “some snippets” of verbatim
elastic strain of the fibres, which trained on without permission. possible to adjust CoPilot so that code from the training set.
is a way of assessing how much The tool, called CoPilot, it warns the user if code being Neil Brown at UK law firm
a material is being bent and was released by GitHub, a output is close to original work. decoded.legal says that GitHub
deformed. They found that these Microsoft subsidiary that is has made a “bald assertion”
fibres were more elastic than any
other water ice structures that have
been measured – some could nearly
used by millions of people to
share source code and organise
software projects. CoPilot
0.1%
of CoPilot suggestions may
that it can analyse code in the
way CoPilot does under the fair
use copyright infringement
be bent into circles, and all of them uses powerful neural network reuse code from elsewhere defence in the US, but the
returned to being straight lines tools developed by OpenAI to position in the UK is less clear.
afterwards (Science, doi.org/gmxk). solve programming problems A more difficult problem Yin Harn Lee at the University
Previously, the largest elastic by scouring vast numbers to solve is that many of the of Bristol, UK, agrees that
strain observed in ice was about of examples of existing software projects that CoPilot CoPilot could be allowed under
0.3 per cent, but this is about solutions, both from GitHub has been trained on are released US copyright law, which is less
10.9 per cent in the team’s ice fibres, and elsewhere, and learning under free software licences prescriptive, but says it is a grey
says Tong. The theoretical limit for how to create similar solutions. such as the General Public area in the UK that needs to be
the elastic strain in water ice is It then suggests code based on License, or GPL, that only allow tested in court. The US fair use
between 14 and 16.2 per cent. a human programmer’s work in derivative works if they are also is a broader, less defined and
When Tong and his colleagues progress or English descriptions freely released. This doesn’t stop more unpredictable defence.
examined the ice strands in detail, of the functionality needed. them being used commercially. UK copyright law tends to offer
they found hints of the presence of But sometimes CoPilot may “Free” in this context means a much clearer definition of
a second form of ice that is denser directly plagiarise its training that people are free to modify what is and isn’t acceptable.
than the type of ice making up the data, says Armin Ronacher the code, but it does mean “I’m very keen for it to
majority of the fibres. The stress on at software company Sentry. that people using CoPilot would be tested, because I want
the bent part of the fibre may have He has found that it is possible in theory also be required to to know,” says Harn Lee.
driven a transformation in the ice, to prompt CoPilot to suggest release any source code they Microsoft and OpenAI
which means these fibres could copyrighted code from the 1999 create for other people to use. didn’t respond to requests
potentially help us understand computer game Quake III Arena, However, the CoPilot website for comment, while GitHub
how such changes work. ❚ complete with comments from says that copyright for the code declined to comment. ❚

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 13

News
Astronomy

‘Risky’ fix planned for ageing Hubble

The space telescope malfunctioned unexpectedly last month, but a solution may be possible
Matthew Sparkes

NASA will attempt what has been decommissioned, there fitted to Hubble – the “A side”, as It is a “risky” move, he says,
been described as a “risky” is no way to replace broken NASA calls it – failed in 2008 and because the current A side has
fix for the Hubble Space components of the telescope. was replaced during a Space never been turned on in space.
Telescope after several weeks The payload computer, power Shuttle mission. Since then, “The only things we can try are
of troubleshooting following supply and command unit sit Hubble has been running on the things that can be commanded.
an unexpected shutdown. within a device known as the original backup unit – the “B side”. You can’t actually put your hands
Spacecraft tend to use Science Instrument Command Paul Hertz at NASA says that on and change hardware or take a
tried-and-tested technology. and Data Handling (SIC&DH) unit, engineers have been switching in voltage, so that does make it very
The Hubble telescope’s payload which controls and synchronises bits of the A side replacement to challenging,” says Hertz.
computer is a custom-designed all the experiments on board and work out which part of the B side There are long delays between
NASA Standard Spacecraft communicates with Earth. One has failed, but they haven’t found attempted fixes because engineers
Computer-1 developed in 1974. This of the two original SIC&DH units the culprit. Now they will switch have to go through each plan with
machine stopped communicating in many more components of the a fine-toothed comb to check
with the telescope’s main The Hubble Space A side systems simultaneously that no upgrade or change over
computer and caused a “safe Telescope has been in an attempt to finally divert Hubble’s decades of operation
mode” shutdown on 13 June. in orbit since 1990 around the broken component. will cause problems. When they
Since then, NASA engineers have tested the plan on an exact
have been conducting tests and duplicate of the telescope on the
switching between main systems ground, it must be approved by
and their redundant backups. NASA management before it
What was initially suspected to can be tried for real.
be a memory problem with the Hubble was launched in 1990
payload computer is now thought at a cost of $4.7 billion and has
to be a symptom of a power led to a series of discoveries
supply failure or an issue with the that helped determine the rate
command unit that is the heart of expansion of the universe.
of the telescope’s control system. “Eventually everything
Engineers are only able to breaks. The second one of
issue commands via radio link some redundant system will
as the telescope orbits about fail,” says Hertz. “It’s like which
500 kilometres above Earth. light bulb in your house is going
NASA

Now that the Space Shuttle has to burn out first.” ❚

Technology

YouTube promotes 3362 such regrettable videos, a or graphic content and hate speech. for. Seven in 10 of the regret reports
fraction of 1 per cent of all those “Some of our findings, if scaled were tied to recommended videos,
videos that violate they watched. Reports of these up to the size of YouTube’s user which were 40 per cent more likely
its own rules were highest in Brazil, with about base, would raise significant to be regretted than videos users
22 videos out of every 10,000 questions,” says Brandi Geurkink actively searched for, says the team.
YOUTUBE’S algorithm recommends viewed being logged as regrettable. at Mozilla in Germany. “What we’ve Non-English language videos
videos that violate the company’s Researchers watched the videos, found is the tip of the iceberg.” were 60 per cent more likely to be
policies on inappropriate content, checking them against YouTube’s Most of the contentious videos regretted, which may be because
according to a crowdsourced study. content guidelines. About 12 per were delivered through YouTube’s YouTube’s algorithms are trained on
Not-for-profit company Mozilla cent of the reported videos algorithm, which recommends primarily English-language videos.
asked users of its Firefox web either shouldn’t be on YouTube, or videos from channels that a user A YouTube spokesperson said the
browser to install a browser shouldn’t be recommended through may not follow or hasn’t searched company had made changes to its
extension that tracked the YouTube its algorithm, said the researchers; recommendations system in the
videos they watched, and asked about a fifth would be classified “Scaled up to YouTube’s past year that reduced consumption
whether they regretted watching as misinformation, and a further user base, this raises of “borderline content” to less
each video. Between July 2020 and 12 per cent spread covid-19 questions. We’ve found than 1 per cent of all videos. ❚
May 2021, 37,380 users flagged misinformation. Others had violent the tip of the iceberg” Chris Stokel-Walker

14 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

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News Insight
Medicine

Built-in discrimination
Routine diagnostic tests use race to determine the need for treatment,
despite a lack of evidence to support this. Layal Liverpool reports
THE assumption that Black people says. It also perpetuates the false
have a lower level of cognitive idea that Black people are less
function than white people was, intelligent than white people,
until recently, built into a formula she says. “That’s a big problem.”
used by the US National Football Race-norming could even
League to settle head injury be exacerbating health issues
lawsuits. The NFL has now pledged experienced by people as a result
to stop using this “race-norming” of social factors. “We’re using
formula, but race-based race as a proxy for other things,
adjustments in routine diagnostic instead of measuring those
tests remain pervasive in things directly,” says Naomi Nkinsi
mainstream medicine. Although at the University of Washington
some scientific organisations School of Medicine in Seattle.
are working to remove such For example, the assumption
adjustments, many contacted
by New Scientist declined “Correcting for lifelong
to take a stance on the issue, social experience with
which is growing in prominence. something crude, like race,
Race-norming was first is not precise medicine”
established in the 1990s by
psychiatrist Robert Heaton embedded into race-norming
SEAN JUSTICE/GETTY IMAGES

at the University of California, that Black people start out at a

San Diego, as a way to try to lower level of cognitive function
account for the way African than white people could make
American people tended to it more difficult for Black people
score lower than white people to get diagnosed with diseases
on cognitive tests, which are associated with cognitive
commonly used to diagnose Race-based “These are extremely difficult decline, such as dementia,
conditions such as dementia. adjustments are to measure, quantify and ‘correct when race-norms are applied.
Subsequent research has widely used in some for’ in interpreting test results,” Possin says that to eliminate
shown that adjusting cognitive diagnostic tests said Heaton in a written statement race-norming in cognitive testing,
test performance to take social to New Scientist. “The fact remains, it would be helpful if prominent
factors – such as education that a very substantial amount organisations, such as the
quality– into account significantly of variability in the test International Neuropsychological
reduces this variance by race. performance of normal adults Society (INS) and the American
Despite this, Katherine Possin at can be ‘explained’ (accounted for) Psychological Association (APA),
the University of California, San by the demographic variables took a stance on the issue.
Francisco, says that race-norming of age, education, sex, and However, both declined to do
of cognitive tests is still widely race/ethnicity (together), so so when asked by New Scientist.
practised by doctors in the US our best available norms ‘correct’ “The INS does not have
today, something she says for these characteristics.” guidelines nor take a stance
is extremely problematic. [on] race norming,” said the INS.
Heaton says that although “We are a global organization
observed differences in test Crude proxy and focus on topics that are
performance between subgroups Possin disagrees with using race applicable around the world.”
of the US population may be in this way. “Race is a crude proxy The APA said: “The APA has no
explained by racial discrimination, for lifelong social experience,” official position… on race-based
stressful life experiences, a lack she says. “Genetic differences norming and cognitive testing.”
of consistent access to good
nutrition and healthcare,
and limited educational
opportunities, measuring
1990s
Decade the practice of
in cognition do not follow these
race lines. So correcting for
lifelong social experience with
something very crude, like race,
Race adjustments aren’t just
an issue for cognitive tests. If
your doctor wants to measure
your kidney function, they will
these directly is too hard. race-norming was established is not precise medicine,” she probably start with a test that

16 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 More Insight online
Your guide to a rapidly changing world
newscientist.com/insight

measures the levels of a waste

product called creatinine in your False beliefs and racial biases
blood, then plug the result into
an equation that calculates your The use of race-based appropriate treatment. beliefs predicted racial biases in
estimated glomerular filtration adjustments in routine medical A 2016 US study of 222 white the assessment of pain in fictional
rate (eGFR), which is the rate at tests (see main story) isn’t medical students and residents patients and in subsequent
which your kidneys filter waste. the only thing contributing to found that about half of them treatment recommendation.
The most widely used eGFR racial-ethnic health disparities. endorsed at least one of a list Racial biases in medicine
equations include adjustment for False beliefs about biological of incorrect statements about are also embedded in technology.
race in accordance with guidance differences between racial biological differences between In 2019, a study revealed that
from international non-profit groups may also contribute. Black and white people. These Black people in the US may have
organisation Kidney Disease For example, harmful beliefs, included statements such as “Black been missing out on healthcare
Improving Global Outcomes such as the false notion that Black people’s nerve-endings are less because of racial bias in a widely
(KDIGO), which suggests that people feel less pain than white sensitive than White people’s used algorithm. The study
laboratories should multiply people, may result in physicians nerve-endings” and “Black people’s suggested that the proportion
eGFR by a specific numerical underestimating the pain being skin has more collagen (i.e. it’s of Black people referred for
factor in the equation if the experienced by their Black thicker) than White people’s”. The extra care would more than
sample is from a Black person. patients and failing to prescribe study also found that these false double if the bias were removed.
Similarly, guidelines from
the UK’s National Institute for
Health and Care Excellence must mean that Black people have dependent on these equations people experience kidney
(NICE) recommend applying a higher muscle mass’,” she says. that now are being recognised failure at more than three times
“a correction factor to GFR values… But that study included just to be built on faulty science.” the rate that white people do.
for people of African-Caribbean 1628 participants, only 197 of Not just faulty, but potentially When asked about the
or African family origin”. whom identified as African harmful. A preliminary study scientific rationale behind
American. “It’s based on this one in the UK led by Rouvick Gama its recommendation to
observation that they found out and Kate Bramham at King’s adjust eGFR for race, a KDIGO
No evidence of a very, very small population,” College London found that eGFR spokesperson said: “KDIGO is not
The use of race or ethnicity says Nkinsi. An updated eGFR equations with race adjustments in a position to comment on the
adjustments in calculating equation was developed in 2009, overestimated actual GFR in rationale used to determine the
eGFR stems from an assumption based on a larger study, however Black patients by 14 per cent, as adjustment in eGFR calculations.”
that Black people have higher the assumption that there was a measured using a more invasive
average blood creatinine need to adjust for race was carried but more accurate method. This “Medicine dependent on
concentrations than white through from the earlier study, she overestimation may have serious these equations is being
people, because they have says. “So now, we have all of these consequences for Black patients, recognised as built on
more muscle mass on average. aspects of medicine that are all says Gama. “It could lead to delay faulty science”
But race and ethnicity are social in diagnosis of chronic kidney
rather than biological constructs, disease,” he says, and thus delays NICE told New Scientist that
leading many researchers to in treatment – something borne it is reviewing its guidelines on
question their continued use out by UK health statistics. calculating eGFR and plans to
as proxies for muscle mass. “If you’re of Black ethnicity, publish updated guidance in
“There is no evidence that race you’re three to fivefold more likely August 2021. However, a draft
is related to muscle mass,” says to end up with end-stage kidney version of the updated NICE
Nkinsi. The origin of this idea can disease,” says Bramham. “Almost guidance published in January
be traced back to a small US study certainly we’re not recognising still contained a recommendation
conducted in the 1990s, she says. it enough.” The picture is similar to adjust eGFR “for adults of
KEITH SRAKOCIC/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

It found that study participants in the US, where, according to African-Caribbean or African
who self-identified as African the National Kidney Foundation, family origin”. The draft
American had higher serum Black and African American guidance suggested that future
creatinine levels on average than research should explore the use
those who identified as white. Najeh Davenport filed a of “factors other than ethnicity”
“From this they said, ‘Oh, well lawsuit against the NFL as biological markers.
if they have a higher creatinine, it for race-norming In the US, the National Kidney >

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 17

News Insight

Foundation and the American depending on a person’s maternal mortality, because a

Society of Nephrology established geographical ancestry. “Ingrained successful vaginal birth after
a task force in 2020 to “reassess in lung function interpretation caesarean is associated with
the inclusion of race in the is the long-standing assumption reduced health risks than a repeat
estimation of GFR”. Several that the observed differences caesarean delivery. In the US,
medical institutions across across racial and ethnic Black women have higher rates

ANATOMICAL TRAVELOGUE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

the country, including populations is biologically of caesarean deliveries than white
Massachusetts General Brigham based,” the ATS told New Scientist. women and are also more likely
and Beth Israel Deaconess “There is increasing recognition to die from complications related
Medical Center in Massachusetts that race and ethnicity are to pregnancy or childbirth.
as well as the University of sociopolitical constructs which Despite many of the
Washington School of Medicine, are more reflective of the differing organisations contacted by
have abolished the use of race social and environmental New Scientist not taking a stance
adjustment in eGFR calculations conditions across populations on the issue, overall opinions
over the past four years. than representative of true on racial-adjustments appear to
Race-based diagnosis biologic differences,” said the ATS, be shifting. “It seems to be like a
continues in other areas of adding that it is “committed to period of reckoning in medicine,”
medicine, however. A preliminary Race is a factor in a leading action to address racism says Nkinsi. “A lot of it is being
study of about 14,000 lung commonly used measure in medicine and eliminate the pushed back on, of course,
function tests, led by Alexander of kidney function misuse of race and ethnicity because people are resistant to
Moffett at the University of in clinical decision making” change, but I think we’re moving
Pennsylvania, found that removing and that it has “convened a down a path where it’s no longer
racial adjustments from the workshop to critically evaluate excusable to have these racist
interpretation of the tests saw current guidelines”. algorithms,” she says.
the number of people correctly Moffett agrees. “A lot of this
diagnosed with a lung defect movement has been spearheaded
jump from 59.5 to 81.7 per cent. Changing times by medical students, who are very
The results suggest that Moffett thinks race-norming distrustful of race as a concept in
adjusting for race in lung function adjustments should be stopped. a way that many older clinicians
tests may underestimate the He and his colleagues are currently are not,” he says. “When they’re
severity of lung disease in developing a “race-free equation” taught this in medical school, they
Black patients, says Moffett. for interpreting lung function just say, ‘well, that doesn’t make
“We’re assuming that their lung tests, he says. any sense’, ‘there’s no biological
function should be worse and “Race adjustment can be There are also ongoing efforts basis for this’, ‘why are we using
using that as a way to approach traced back to the idea to develop race-free alternatives race in these models?’.”
the diagnosis,” he says. that Black people are only to the most widely used eGFR Significant challenges remain,
The use of race adjustment healthy when enslaved” equations. And, in the US, the says Nkinsi, because racism is
in lung function tests can be Vaginal Birth After Cesarean so deeply embedded in Western
traced back to the suggestion (VBAC) calculator – a commonly medicine. “Medicine is very
by US physician and slaveholder used medical tool for second hierarchical. It’s very much based
Samuel Cartwright in the 1850s births – was recently updated on this kind of false meritocracy
that Black people had lower lung to remove a race and where for the longest time white
capacity than white people and ethnicity adjustment. men were running everything.
were therefore only healthy Previously, the use of race You can’t question your superiors,
when enslaved. “Everything and ethnicity adjustments in medical students and younger
we’ve learned about race in the VBAC calculator meant that physicians are supposed to just
the last 50 years has invalidated women identified as African take things as they’re taught,”
this,” says Moffett. American or Hispanic were she says. “What I’m trying to

14%
Joint European Respiratory systematically assigned a tell people is that it’s not just
Society and American Thoracic lower chance of a successful the algorithms, it’s the entire
Society (ATS) guidelines VBAC than white women. system and the way that we
recommend the use of different Overestimation of kidney function This may have contributed educate doctors that is creating
lung function test equations using a race-based assessment to racial-ethnic disparities in this problem.” ❚

18 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

Academy

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 News In brief
Astrophysics

Distant space cloud is firing

supercharged photons at us
THE Crab nebula shoots high-energy the original electron had an
radiation at us and researchers have energy of around 2.3 PeV. That
found the second-highest-energy is more than 15 per cent above
gamma ray, or photon, ever spotted the theoretical limit of energy the
coming from this region. It may help electromagnetic fields in the nebula
us explain how particles in space can could impart to an electron. It is
be accelerated to such high energies. also more than 20,000 times the
The photon had an energy of energy that any electron accelerator
1.1 petaelectronvolts (PeV) – that we have built can achieve.
is, 1.1 million billion electronvolts. “Particle accelerators are
An earlier 1.4 PeV photon has been the most sophisticated, complex
detected, but researchers weren’t machines we have. But here, in this
sure of its origin. The 1.1 PeV chaotic environment, somehow
photon probably came from an it is an ideal machine reaching the
energetic electron in the nebula edge of what fundamental physics
smashing into a background photon allows,” says Aharonian.
NASA/ESA/JPL/ARIZONA STATE UNIV.

and blasting it to its extreme energy The find suggests the nebula – the
level (Science, doi.org/gmw5). remnants of a supernova that hosts
Team member Felix Aharonian a neutron star thousands of light
at the Max Planck Institute for years away – may be accelerating
Nuclear Physics, Germany, says more particles to ultra-high energies
the find opens the door to many than current ideas can explain.
possible conclusions. One is that Leah Crane

Materials science Pollution

temperature under the metafabric pictured) into two tanks. The water
Fabric actively helps rose from around 31°C to 32°C over Fish getting hooked in one had methamphetamines
to keep wearer cool that time, while the skin under on remains of drugs matching concentrations in Czech
the cotton rose to around 37°C. streams while the other had none.
CLOTHES and covers made of a In another test, one car was ILLICIT drugs get excreted and After eight weeks, the team
smart fabric that radiates heat covered with the metafabric, end up in streams where fish removed the methamphetamines
and reflects light could help another with a shop-bought cover are becoming addicted to them. from the first tank. During the
people and objects that are out in and a third was left uncovered. In some streams in the Czech following 10-day “withdrawal”
the sun stay several degrees cooler. When left in the sun from 11am Republic, methamphetamines period, Horký tested fish from
Guangming Tao at Huazhong to 1pm, the temperature rose to have been detected at hundreds both groups for signs of addiction
University of Science and 60°C in the uncovered car, 57°C of nanograms per litre, so Pavel and withdrawal. To do this, he
Technology in Wuhan, China, in the car with the standard Horký at the Czech University of constructed a tank in which water
and his colleagues developed cover and 30°C in the one with the Life Sciences and his team decided could flow in on one side and out
what they call a “metafabric” by metafabric (Science, doi.org/gmxf). to investigate the effect on fish. the other. One side of the flow,
combining microscopic beads and The metafabric is most They divided 120 hatchery however, contained the same level
fibres of titanium oxide, Teflon effective when in contact with reared brown trout (Salmo trutta, of methamphetamines that the
and a plastic called polylactic acid, the skin. The researchers are experimental tank had contained.
all embedded within larger fibres. focusing on cooling people and The drug-free fish showed no
The titanium oxide – which is objects exposed to direct sunlight, preference for either side of the
PAUL R. STERRY/NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS LTD/ALAMY

also found in sunscreen – and but there would still be a cooling flow, but the methamphetamine-
the Teflon reflect ultraviolet and effect in the shade. The team has exposed fish repeatedly chose
visible light, while the polylactic also developed cooling fabrics to stay in the drugged water.
acid fibres emit infrared light. The that work in a different way. These fish had raised levels of
sizes of the particles are designed Instead of emitting infrared, they the drug in their brains and were
to optimise these properties. are transparent to it. One of the less active than normal, which
In one test, a volunteer wearing main ways that our bodies lose might harm their chances of
a vest made half of the metafabric heat is by emitting infrared, so surviving and reproducing
and half of cotton sat in direct these could help keep you cool (Journal of Experimental Biology,
sunlight for an hour. The skin indoors. Michael Le Page doi.org/gk469x). Cameron Duke

20 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 New Scientist Daily
Get the latest scientific discoveries in your inbox
newscientist.com/sign-up
Solar system
Really brief
on the planet’s magnetic fields. into Jupiter’s atmosphere, causing
Mystery of giant They found that the X-rays the X-ray pulses that we see.
planet’s rays solved occurred like clockwork once Knowing this is important
every 27 minutes, and they because it hints that the same sort
JUPITER regularly blasts out observed the exact same timing of magnetic field vibrations may
powerful flares of X-rays as part of in vibrations along the planet’s be crucial to some of the highest-
its auroras, but how it does so has magnetic field (Science Advances, energy processes in the universe.
NATHANAEL PRUNET

been a mystery since these bursts doi.org/gncb). “X-rays are typically used
were discovered four decades ago. “You can picture the magnetic to study really exotic, super-
Now, we have finally figured it out. field of a planet kind of like strings energetic things like black holes,
To solve the puzzle, William on a musical instrument, and the things that are on the edge of the
Dunn at University College field can vibrate like the strings human imagination,” says Dunn.
Cauliflowers’ fractal London and his colleagues used on an electric guitar,” says Dunn. “The only way we can really
florets explained data from the European Space Those vibrations are made up understand how those places
Agency’s XMM-Newton space of waves in the magnetic field. generate these X-rays is to go to
The Romanesco cauliflower telescope on Jupiter’s X-rays Charged particles get caught up more nearby places that do it,
owes its unique shape to and from NASA’s Juno orbiter in those waves, and then smash like Jupiter.” LC
the fact that it forms from
failed flowers. Each Infectious diseases Animal behaviour
nascent flower tries to
grow, but instead forms
shoots, the ends of which Female vampire bats
also try to become flowers, like to care and share
but instead form shoots,
and so on – ultimately VAMPIRE bats live in female-
forming a fractal pattern dominated groups, and they
(Science, doi.org/gmxb). appear to groom and share food
with each other equally without
Sea otters don’t regard for social status.
shiver in the cold Unlike the “strict, obvious
female dominance hierarchy”
How sea otters stay warm seen in many other social animals,
REYNOLD SUMAYKU/ALAMY

without insulating blubber the “egalitarian” social life of

has been a mystery. We vampire bats suggests individuals
now know they do so do well when their group mates
using muscle tissue that are doing well, says Gerald Carter
generates heat chemically at The Ohio State University.
from energy in food – He and his team decided to
which means sea otters Zoonotic viruses found observe 24 wild-captured, adult,
don’t have to shiver. The female common vampire bats
mechanism is unique for in the wild animal trade (Desmodus rotundus) and their
an animal as large as this offspring in a large pen. From this,
(Science, doi.org/gmxc). BATS, primates and other by looking at the frequency with the researchers concluded that the
mammals sold in the wildlife trade which animals are traded. Instead, a bats have what they call a “weak
Beetle lubricant host three-quarters of infectious US-India team took an existing data and shallow” hierarchy.
better than Teflon diseases capable of spilling over set on mammals that are reservoirs They also looked at social
from animals to humans. Just a for known zoonotic viruses, hierarchies in 82 other species,
A lubricant harvested from quarter of the traded species can supplemented it with scientific including mammals, insects and
the legs of a darkling beetle carry such zoonotic viruses. literature and then married it with birds, and found that the vampire
(Zophobas morio) reduces Conservationists say the findings, a database on whether animals bats’ hierarchy was so weak that
the friction between two part of a first detailed, global look are in the wildlife trade or not. it was less clearly defined than for
surfaces even more than at pathogens in traded mammals, The researchers found that 90 per cent of these other species
Teflon does. The wax-like highlight ways to target high-risk 26.5 per cent of traded mammals (Royal Society Open Science,
substance could be useful species to reduce the chance of carry 75 per cent of known zoonotic doi.org/gms3).
in robots, if a way can be future pandemics. The World Health viruses. The biggest disease risk Unlike those species, the
found to make it in bulk Organization considers a wildlife among traded species was from female bats didn’t use grooming as
artificially (Proceedings market in Huanan, China, to be primates, bats, carnivores and a tool to appease individuals of a
of the Royal Society B, a possible origin of covid-19. hoofed animals known as ungulates higher social rank, but instead they
doi.org/gmxd). Most previous research in this (Current Biology, doi.org/gmrs). groomed and shared food evenly.
area has assessed disease risk Adam Vaughan Christa Lesté-Lasserre

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 21

 Views
The columnist Aperture Letters Culture Culture columnist
James Wong on the Marvel at fantastic Wading into the We check out a new Simon Ings seeks
idea that fruit and veg fungi caught on debate over ocean take on the illicit meaning in film The
is not what it was p24 camera p26 geoengineering p28 trade in wildlife p30 Tomorrow War p32

Comment

A genetic gambit
We’re not taking evolution into account properly in our pandemic
strategy – here’s why we must change tack, says Jonathan Goodman

E
ARLIER this year, Dido arise, and plan accordingly.
Harding, whilst heading The genotypic gambit keeps us
England’s coronavirus test on the defensive. It wouldn’t have
and trace system, said that no one been a surprise to evolutionary
could have predicted that new theorists, for example, that a
variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus covid-19 outbreak among mink
that causes covid-19, would in Denmark would lead to mink-
emerge. Of course this was specific mutations. The particular
predicted, and while some people genetic changes are important,
questioned Harding’s statement, but they are more like descriptions
many still seem surprised that of the behaviours – rewritten in
the virus continues to mutate. the language of genetics – that
With covid-19, we have taken a we can and should plan for.
largely reactive approach to new As the UK removes covid-19
variants. As each emerges, we restrictions, we are likely to see
evaluate the genomic changes, further, fitter variants that some
and then attempt to establish argue will allow the virus to evade
whether these mean it represents vaccination. Genomic data can tell
a greater health threat. But it us exactly how this happens, but
is critical that we start to take aren’t necessary for making the
evolution, rather than just genetic overall evolutionary prediction.
change, into account, especially In the US, for example, the
given the recent announcement window between first and second
that cases could reach 100,000 mRNA vaccine doses is three
per day in the UK as it opens up – synthesis, random genomic when talking about fitness. weeks, not the 12 initially used
accelerating the rate at which changes that increase fitness in a Rather than using evolutionary in the UK. The delta variant has,
new variants may emerge. given environment will inevitably theory to attempt to predict how consequently, taken longer to gain
In long-lived organisms, like become more common. SARS-CoV-2 is likely to shift a foothold there – predictable from
humans, individual genetic Modern evolutionary theory behaviour, many researchers evolutionary theory.
mutations don’t tend to have takes a similar approach. In have largely focused on genetic Covid-19 is still a long way from
much of an effect. But among behavioural ecology, for example, change alone. It seems that by just being under control. The data we
viruses, even one mutation can researchers have adopted what is tracking changes in molecular are collecting about its ongoing
drastically affect its fitness – how known as the phenotypic gambit. make-up, geneticists are making genetic changes, coupled with
well it is adapted to host species. This concept, whose name comes a sacrifice of their own – which we Darwinian evolutionary logic,
This is why a fast-evolving virus from a chess strategy of sacrificing could call a genotypic gambit. should inform the timing of
like influenza consistently stays a piece for tactical gain, assumes The sacrifice, here, is jettisoning booster shots and local lockdowns.
ahead of our best efforts to that changes in phenotype – which this reasoning when talking about But if we continue to play the
vaccinate against it. are measurable features, like eye the risk of variants. That reasoning genotypic gambit, the virus will
The connection between or hair colour – are governed by suggests more variants will continue to outmanoeuvre us. ❚
an organism’s genetic make-up genetic change. But the gambit arise that improve the virus’s
MICHELLE D’URBANO

and its environment is the stops there: we sacrifice transmissibility among humans. Jonathan R. Goodman is
bedrock of what is known as the knowledge of the particular We can’t predict the precise at the Leverhulme Centre
modern synthesis of evolutionary genetic change, and focus instead genetic changes, at least not yet, for Human Evolutionary
biology. According to the modern on observable features alone but we should assume they will Studies in Cambridge, UK

22 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

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+++++ 4.6
Views Columnist
#FactsMatter

The mysterious case of declining nutrition I’ve debunked the

claim that food is getting less nutritious before, but when a new
study turned up, I had to investigate further, writes James Wong

I
LOVE playing detective. things like nutrient density be removed, the graph would
So when I found myself on in crops is finding like-for-like actually show a stable level from
a train scrolling through comparisons to establish how 2000 to 2018, with just a single
hundreds of shocked responses these change over time. outlying data point, showing
to yet another viral tweet claiming There are so many factors that an atypically high level for 1948,
that the proportion of nutrients have a measurable impact on with no consistent trend for a
in our fruit and veg has collapsed crop chemistry, including weather, decline. How curious.
over recent decades, I thought soil make-up, harvest stage and So, do these asterisked data
I better do some digging. the unique genetics of a crop, points stand up to scrutiny?
James Wong is a botanist and This ubiquitous, yet generally that agreeing on a universal value Well, the extremely high levels
science writer, with a particular poorly evidenced, claim is one for a “typical” tomato today is of minerals seen in the 1914 stat,
interest in food crops, that I have explored in a previous a challenge, let alone doing the which is essential to the “90 per
conservation and the column. However, as the new same for one more than a cent decline” claim, doesn’t
environment. Trained at the tweet cited a 2018 study that is century ago. It is rather like appear to be from a peer-reviewed
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he more recent than many I have picking a random New Yorker paper. In fact, it seems to come
shares his tiny London flat with looked into before, it seems and expecting them to be from a book entitled Nature
more than 500 houseplants. important to return to the issue, representative of not just every Cure by Henry Lindlahr, which
You can follow him on Twitter particularly given its new-found other inhabitant of the city, made for an eye-opening read
and Instagram @botanygeek influence on social media. when I eventually tracked down
After all, one of the hallmarks “Even graphs from a dusty copy.
of good science is the flexibility journals may not An early 20th-century
to change your stance as new physician, Lindlahr believed that
tell the full story.
evidence surfaces. So, with a sunbathing could cure cancer,
James’s week 4-hour journey ahead of me, The data may not vaccines caused smallpox and
What I’m reading I started delving into the stats come from scientific only “civilised races” could
The fascinating 1914 book used to underpin this claim. research at all” succumb to ill health. Even at
Nature Cure by Henry Centred on a steep line graph the time, he was widely criticised
Lindlahr (see main story). extracted from a paper (doi.org/ regardless of race, gender, as a quack for his outlandish
gf75hz) published in the journal age, class, education or income, views, so his book may hardly
What I’m watching Nutrients, this tweet suggested but all of humanity. be a good source for a scientific
The final season of a there has been a catastrophic When you start to compare paper more than a century later.
sitcom called Superstore, collapse in the average levels these randomly selected single I also found the affiliations
which has to be the most of calcium, magnesium and values over time, created of the three authors of the paper
wholesome, uplifting iron in cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes by an enormous range of interesting. Two of them were
comedy antidote to and spinach of up to 90 per cent environmental variables, things listed as working for a corporation
increasingly uncertain in the past hundred years. get even more complicated. that sells nutritional supplements,
times. With a link to the paper in But let us just imagine the world and under the conflicts of interests
an academic journal, it outwardly isn’t as complex as we know it is, section in the paper, the third
What I’m working on seemed very convincing. So and think of this methodology author was described as being
I am filming a new season why did it pique my interest? as a legitimate one. In any case, a paid consultant for the same
of the BBC documentary Well, as a botanist fascinated science inevitably relies on a company and sitting on its
Follow the Food. by food crops and how they certain amount of generalisation. scientific advisory board.
have shaped human history, Taking a closer look at the I suppose the moral of the story
understanding how the handful individual data points on the is that even graphs from published
of plants on which civilisations graph revealed that three out of journals may not tell the full story
are built have changed over seven were marked with asterisks of the facts or any possible vested
the centuries is one of my key (1914, 1941 and 1992), which interests until you start digging.
research areas. The only problem according to the paper indicated And sometimes the data behind
is that it is very hard to study. that these stats couldn’t be the claim doesn’t come from
One of the biggest problems independently verified. scientific research at all. But
This column appears we have when it comes to Now, if it were the case that who has 4-hour train journeys
monthly. Up next week: answering what can seem these asterisked stats were in to do the detective work to check
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein like simple questions about some way unreliable and should out each viral “science” tweet? ❚

24 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

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Views Aperture

26 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

Budding photographer?
Enter the New Scientist Photography Awards 2021
Full details at newscientist.com/photoawards

Fantastic fungi

Photographer Guy Edwardes

Agency naturepl.com

THESE enchanting images look

like illustrations from a book of
fairy tales, but the magic is really
that of the natural world of fungi.
The shots come from a
collection called Mushroom Magic
by photographer Guy Edwardes.
He took various images of the very
different fungi growing near his
home in Dorset, UK, highlighting
the diversity of fungal species.
The largest photo (far left)
shows an amethyst deceiver
(Laccaria amethystina). This
fungus grows in the leaf litter
of forests and is a key food
source for fly larvae. It is edible
for humans, but not considered
a choice mushroom. Collectors
must be careful to avoid the
poisonous lilac fibrecap (Inocybe
geophylla var. lilacina) that the
amethyst deceiver resembles.
The image next to it (near
left, top) shows night falling
on clusters of Mycena fungi –
notable for their bell-shaped
caps and their small size of
only a few centimetres.
Below it, the two images show
(left to right): a variable oysterling
fungus (Crepidotus variabilis) with
its distinct kidney shapes, which
grows on dead branches and isn’t
edible; and the hallucinogenic
but deadly fly agaric (Amanita
muscaria), a species native to
the northern hemisphere. ❚

Gege Li

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 27

Views Your letters

travel. The push to get back to process and the winning solution. vaccine cover. Given the need to
Editor’s pick offices seems a major missed It isn’t perfect, but it does help protect so many people against
opportunity on this front. reduce the effects of group-think covid-19 in a short time, why does
We really should put this
Working from home not only and domineering personalities. there seem to be so little trial data
climate scheme to the test reduces the pollution produced by or research on this method?
3 July, p 13 cars and other forms of transport
Time for a new name for
From John Koster, University used to travel to work, it also cuts
us, the human survivors The gender disparities of
of California, Santa Cruz the cost of fuel and parking to
You report new plans to test iron workers. A lot less office space 3 July, p 10 covid-19 must be studied
fertilisation of oceans to promote would be needed. This could From David Marjot, 26 June, p 10
phytoplankton growth for carbon reduce rental and electricity costs, Weybridge, Surrey, UK From Stephanie Woodcock,
capture purposes. Given the and the vacant office space could Further to the new developments Carnon Downs, Cornwall, UK
projected environmental challenges be used for housing homeless in the tangled tale of human You report that women are
facing us, it is worth doing a truly people and inner-city residents. evolution. Reconstructions of the developing fatigue-related long
major, multinational experiment faces of Neanderthals and other covid to a greater degree than men.
to see if we could actually figure From Eric Kvaalen, early humans show they didn’t Danny Altmann cites the fact that
out how to do this safely and well. Les Essarts-le-Roi, France look significantly different to women are more prone to certain
A very large-scale effort could be Lawton cites research that current Homo sapiens. As the autoimmune conditions than
conducted quite economically in the blames the fossil fuel industry for so-called modern human is the men. Hence gender differences in
vast Southern Ocean by deploying sending the message that action only variant left standing, perhaps the immune system’s behaviour
a continuous round-trip chain of by individuals is the answer to we should rename ourselves would seem to be the front runner
satellite-controlled, self-propelled climate change. Well, it is the main Homo sapiens var. homicidius. when seeking an explanation.
surface vehicles. These could tow answer. I don’t remember the oil Medical science has recorded
huge, seagoing rubber bladders industry trying to get us to drive many instances of certain diseases
Let’s give our booster
filled with iron fertilisation solution. more or heat our homes more. being more common in one
These would carry instruments It is consumers who demanded jabs to those in need gender than another. Examples
to take and preserve samples and gasoline and heating oil. 22 May, p 8 include migraine, Alzheimer’s
to sense and transmit data from the From Keith Hollins, disease, lupus and Parkinson’s
surface layer. They would also bring, London, UK disease. In addition, recent
One way to reduce bias
release and retrieve autonomous Regarding questions of getting research at the University of
subs to detect and record in decision making vaccines to the wider world. Amid Southampton, UK, has found
underwater effects. 19 June, p 40 the talk of a third, booster shot in that covid-19-related lung damage
This approach avoids the gigantic From Andrew Shead, the UK, surely it is better to send occurs more frequently in women.
costs and limitations of on-scene Tulsa, Oklahoma, US these jabs to lower-income, under- When we know why these
oceanographic research vessel time, The interview with behavioural vaccinated nations than for richer gender disparities occur, we will
which frustrated earlier efforts. scientists Daniel Kahneman and ones like the UK to hog supplies? have a big clue as to what is going
I think seasonality could be a factor Olivier Sibony described a system I would seriously consider on, not only in long covid, but in
in how iron fertilisation works, so that seems similar to the trade-off refusing my booster if I was sure other, similar diseases too.
let’s do a test over the course of studies, also known as figure of someone in an under-vaccinated
at least a year. Safeguards include merit analysis, used by engineering region would get it.
Let’s use algorithms
situating the large research grid as teams to help reduce bias and
remotely as possible, where the arrive at an optimal decision. From Richard Brown. to detect new diseases
water mixing is sufficient to soon A trade-off study solicits Huntly, Aberdeenshire, UK 19 June, p 34
“erase” undesirable outcomes. individual opinions of several Low-dose intradermal vaccination From Derek Bolton,
subject-matter experts in isolation, (using a smaller dose but putting Sydney, Australia
with the results compiled into a it into skin rather than muscle) Your feature on the algorithms
Business as usual is
cost-benefit matrix that can then is effective for some viral that run our lives discussed
a missed opportunity be reduced to a score for each of inoculations. I was successfully some of those used for medical
3 July, p 24 the competing options. Each vaccinated against rabies in this triage. An interesting extension
From John Hockaday, expert is ignorant of the opinion way, at one-tenth of the usual dose. of this would be for such
Canberra, Australia of the others surveyed. This approach is potentially algorithms to watch for clusters
Graham Lawton ponders the Every trade-off study results very useful for vaccinating large of cases of illness that, when
transport-related environmental in a document that describes the numbers of people and increasing looked at together, don’t fall
costs of driving his cat to the vet quite so convincingly into a
amid the pandemic, rather than given diagnosis.
using the bus. This is part of a Want to get in touch? This could, for example, detect
wider discussion on his fading Send letters to [email protected]; emerging viral variants, new
hope that lockdowns would see terms at newscientist.com/letters causes of disease or new types of
persuade us to lead greener lives, Letters sent to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, illness that would take far longer
especially through decreased London WC2E 9ES will be delayed for human analysts to notice. ❚

28 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

ESSENTIAL GUIDES

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Views Culture

Profiting from nature

The big-money, murky world of wildlife crime is the subject
of a new podcast series. Gege Li listens in
says Michele Menegon, co-
director of PAMS, aTanzania-based
Podcast conservation foundation, .
Wild Crimes That makes tackling wildlife
Natural History Museum, London trafficking a complicated and
complex issue, and it isn’t just
THERE is no shortage of criminal about stopping the poachers on
activity in the natural world – the ground, some of whom are
and it shows no sign of letting up. simply “victims of circumstance”,
Wildlife crime generates up to as Menegon puts it. The fight can
$23 billion in profits annually, only be won with a comprehensive
according to conservation group approach that involves, for
ARIEF BUDI KUSUMA/EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES

the Environmental Investigation example, aligning national and

Agency, making it one of the most international regulations on
lucrative illicit activities on Earth. wildlife trade and encouraging
Wild Crimes, a new 10-part people to be ambassadors for
podcast series by the Natural threatened species.
History Museum in London,
delves into the origins and
“One shocking statistic
workings of the illegal wildlife
trade. It reveals some shocking says that some 30 per
and at times uncomfortable cent of wild animals
truths, while exploring solutions sold as pets die within
through conversations with a the first year”
range of experts and other guests.
Hosts Tori Herridge, an The more off-the-cuff
evolutionary biologist at the segments, in which Herridge
museum, and Khalil Thirlaway, and Thirlaway digest what they
a science communicator, explore have learned, pose stimulating
some of the biggest and most questions, even if they are
nefarious wildlife crimes – from sometimes a little predictable.
ALISSA EVERETT/ALAMY

the ivory trade and eel smuggling But where Wild Crimes is best is
across Europe to the sale of when the passion for protecting
orchids on the black market. the animals and plants at risk
The first episode features rings out. For example, hearing
arguably the most iconic poster the two coo in one episode over a
child for the illegal wildlife trade: A smuggled pangolin News and images of exotic video of baby pangolin Tot (her
the pangolin. With 100,000 of rescued by Indonesian reptiles online only serve to mother, Tayta, was found in a bag
these mammals smuggled into conservationists and perpetuate this demand. We hear of potatoes) is not only a heart-
South-East Asia every year, ivory seized in Kenya from one regretful owner of a warming boost for the spirits after
pangolins are the world’s most panther chameleon, a striking a sombre first half, it also serves as
trafficked animal, and the demand poached and being abused.” native of Madagascar, who comes a reminder of the simple joy and
for their scales and meat is Episode two casts a light on to realise how bad it really is to beauty of nature – and why it is
pushing them to the brink so fast the trade of exotic reptiles as pets, keep these animals as pets. One so important to protect it.
that some species could even in particular the chameleons of shocking statistic says that some “The amount of love for
go extinct within a decade. Tanzania, which are among the 30 per cent of wild animals sold pangolins that I’ve felt from
Pangolins are “the most most popular choices for buyers. as pets die within the first year. everyone I’ve spoken to in this
charismatic, harmless and Despite that nation enforcing a “I think that the key thing is episode has really been a source
magical spiritual creatures you’ll blanket ban on all wildlife exports that we are dealing with living of hope,” says Thirlaway in the
ever experience,” Ray Jansen at in 2016, this hasn’t been enough animals, but for many people first instalment of the series. ❚
Tshwane University of Technology to put the brakes on the conveyor they’re just an object of business –
in South Africa tells Thirlaway. “It’s belt of species leaving the country and business is perfectly shaped to Gege Li is a science journalist
frightening at what levels they’re under the radar. do things in a very efficient way,” based in London

30 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 Don’t miss

Spaced out
Teenagers on a voyage to save humanity learn that they are being
drugged. Gregory Wakeman finds out what happens next
passengers to increasingly out like a carbon copy of William Read
engaged individuals. Golding’s seminal 1954 novel Everybody Needs
Film Throughout, Burger adds to the Lord of the Flies, minus the gravity. Beauty, says Samantha
Voyagers sci-fi thriller’s sense of foreboding Even though it continues to Walton in her new book.
Neil Burger and mystery. Cinematographer look pretty, there is a complete She is in search of natural
Now in UK cinemas Enrique Chediak’s eerie visuals lack of depth, tension and surprise. treatments that sidestep
and the sleek but claustrophobic Voyagers merely plods along the excesses of the
IT IS the year 2063 and Earth is set created by production designer exactly as you might expect, while wellness industry, and
on the brink of destruction due to Scott Chambliss enhance the its haunting aesthetic and premise speaks seriously to the
climate change as the film Voyagers ambience, while Burger himself vanish from the film like air leaving connection between
opens. After discovering a new shows moments of cinematic a deflating balloon. nature and health.
planet that will take 86 years to At least the performances
travel to, scientists have genetically “The eerie visuals remain strong, as the actors
engineered children, raised them gallantly try their best to inject
and sleek but
in isolation and sent them to some much needed energy and
this distant world so that their
claustrophobic set heart into the proceedings. But the
offspring will ultimately colonise add to the film’s dearth of characterisation leaves
it and save humanity. sense of foreboding” the film feeling hollow.
Ten years into their journey, Its final act in particular is
the children start to question flair that suggest Voyagers especially gruelling to watch.
their lives onboard the spaceship might actually build to something Burger tries to ramp up the action Visit
Humanitas when Christopher that is both epic and resonant. and spectacle, but by this point you Trust me, I’m not a
(Tye Sheridan) discovers that they It doesn’t take long for the film will have long given up caring about bot… or so claims data
are being drugged to suppress their to falter, though. All the thematic any of the characters, let alone artist Eric Drass (aka
personalities. Mission commander possibilities that Voyagers flirts whether they will be able to save shardcore), who is
Richard (Colin Farrell) originally with dissipate, replaced by a humanity from extinction. ❚ speaking at PLATF9RM
tries to quash their concerns, predictable plot reminiscent of in Brighton, UK, and
but the teenagers begin to reject dozens of other stories. In fact, as Gregory Wakeman is a film critic and online from 6pm BST
their compliant existence. it progresses, the film begins to play writer based in Los Angeles, California on 21 July. How does
Voyagers showcases plenty of machine manipulation
potential talent. Writer and director warp our relationship
Neil Burger, who showed he is with reality?
a dab hand at overseeing young
adult stories and sci-fi films in the
dystopian movie Divergent, doesn’t

MIDDLE: CARLOSCASTILLA/ALAMY; BOTTOM: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ALAMY

get bogged down in the detail of
why they are leaving Earth. Instead
he sets up the background in a
succinct and expert fashion, as well
as teasing out the psychological
struggles that the teenagers will
go on to confront. Watch
The film also has an impressive The First Stars
young cast that can realistically are illuminated by
convey these issues. Sheridan, astrophysicist Emma
Fionn Whitehead and Lily-Rose Chapman from 6pm BST
Depp become more and more on 22 July. This talk on
convincing as their characters the universe’s early years
develop from mere passive is the first of four New
Scientist online events
VLAD CIOPLEA

The young characters in exploring the latest

Voyagers shed drugged cosmological thinking.
compliance for resistance

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 31

Views Culture
The film column

Fighting for our future in the future After being recruited by soldiers from 30 years
in the future, a former US army officer has to take on an alien invasion. The real
message in The Tomorrow War doesn’t lie far below the surface, says Simon Ings

Dan (Chris Pratt, left)

ends up in the future,
trying to save Earth

evident: the war against the

alien White Spikes (they are
white; they fire spikes) is
already lost. Yet Muri may
have something that Dan
Simon Ings is a novelist and can take back to his own time
science writer. Follow him on to pre-empt the crisis.
Instagram @simon_ings The Tomorrow War wears
its social message on its sleeve.
FRANK MASI/PARAMOUNT PICTURES

For “future war”, read “runaway

climate change” – the subject
of an almost constant barrage
of incidental and overheard
dialogue for the film’s first
half hour.
Aliens are a way better common
enemy than climate change.
FOOTBALL fans, don’t you just a favour of his estranged dad – the They are solid, visible and icky,
hate it when yobs invade the inimitable J. K. Simmons in full particularly the ones designed for
Film pitch? Schoolteacher Dan survivalist mode – proves a pill this film. Fresh from work with
The Tomorrow War Forester (Chris Pratt) is watching too bitter for Dan to swallow. both Marvel and DC, concept
Chris McKay soccer on television with his And that is how Dan ends up designer Ken Barthelmey cuts
On Amazon Prime Video daughter Muri when heavily in the future with a rag-tag band loose with critters that are a sort
armed soldiers fall from the sky, of ill-trained civilians wielding of dog-based, pony-sized flea
Simon also ruining a perfectly good goal. futuristic guns bigger than they armed with twin organic
recommends... They have their reasons. are. Their tour of duty only bazookas.
Where they are from, 30 years lasts a week, and (spoiler alert), The Tomorrow War is like a
Book in the future, alien invaders cuckoo clock: its precision is its
Yellow Blue Tibia have all but exterminated “The Tomorrow War point. The script delivers bite-size
Adam Roberts humanity. They have come gobbets of motivation, jeopardy
delivers bite-size
A good enemy is a joy to invite volunteers from their and redemption precisely on
forever; this is Joseph Stalin’s past – our present – to join the
gobbets of motivation, cue. (Dad and daughter fall out.
view in this alternate history. fight. For the first time in history, jeopardy and Son and dad bond. Dad and
In 1946, he gathers sci-fi a TV blares shortly afterwards, redemption on cue” daughter… oh, you know how
authors to dream up an all humanity is gathering to face this goes.) The actors have nothing
external threat that will hold “a common enemy”. few will survive it, among them to do beyond standing tall,
the Soviet Union together. Dan is understandably Charlie (Sam Richardson), too reacting to the LED wall.
reluctant to be picked up in a affable to die, and Dorian (Edwin I enjoyed The Tomorrow War.
Film rapidly instituted “global draft”. Hodge), too traumatised for the It did, though, leave me wondering
Starship Troopers He has a young family to look script to jettison before his heroic exactly what it means that we
Paul Verhoeven after, and anyway, he has served moment in the third act, by are making monster movies
This disconcerting satire his time. A former officer in the which time The Tomorrow War about the end of the world.
on militaristic thinking US Army, he has been trying to has degenerated into a sort of fan I wouldn’t say it is a bad thing,
(be careful who you cheer get hired as a medical researcher. mash-up of Ridley Scott’s Alien necessarily, but it is an odd thing.
for) used Robert Heinlein’s He is a gifted scientist, but combat and John Carpenter’s The Thing. And while we may like to think
gung-ho 1959 novel of the has left him with the “wrong sort” While dodging aliens, Dan runs that we can meet an invisible, slow,
same name for its plot of leadership experience. into his daughter Muri, now a inexorable existential challenge,
and Nazi propaganda A way to cheat the draft 30-something army commander, 30 years in our future, White
films for its look. beckons, but having to ask and learns what is by now self- Spikes may be more our level. ❚

32 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

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 Features Cover story

Stretching
the point
How flexible do you actually need
to be, asks Caroline Williams

I
“ BEND so I don’t break.” No one knows who without causing injury. For a long time,
first coined this phrase, but search for it flexibility has been considered a key
online and you will find it accompanying component of physical fitness (along with
numerous pictures of yogis in various states of cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance,
contortion. Flexibility, according to common muscle strength and body composition – the
wisdom, is not only impressive to look at, but percentage of body weight which is muscle,
something we should actively work towards. fat and bone) by groups such as the American
Scientifically, however, the question College of Sports Medicine. Its latest
of whether we should stretch to become guidelines, for example, recommend
more flexible has been difficult to answer. stretching all the major muscles groups at least
Assumptions about the benefits of stretching two or three times a week, holding the stretch
to prevent sports injuries and greater for anywhere from 10 seconds to 1 minute.
flexibility being better for our overall physical But even for exercise-phobes, there are
fitness hadn’t been confirmed by studies. good reasons to stretch: our species is
Does it matter if you can’t touch your toes, unique in having invented a way of resting
let alone do the splits? Even in sports science, that works against the needs of our bodies.
where most of the research has been conducted, Anthropological evidence suggests that from
there has been little agreement. at least 2 million years ago, and until the
In recent years, though, answers have started invention of chairs, our ancestors rested by
to emerge. The surprising outcome is that, squatting on their haunches, a position that is
while stretching may well be good for us, still common among young children, modern
it is for reasons that have nothing to do with hunter-gatherers and in cultures across Asia.
being able to get your leg behind your head. For those who are used to it, squatting is a
One thing is for sure: stretching feels good, comfortable resting position, and has the
particularly after a long spell of being still. We added bonus that it keeps the hips, calves and
aren’t the only species to have worked this out. ankles mobile through the range of motion
As anyone with a dog or cat will know, many needed to walk, run and otherwise move
animals take a deep stretch after lying around. around in the world.
This kind of stretching, called pandiculation, Resting in chairs, however, does the
is so common in nature that some have opposite, causing us to stiffen up. A study
suggested it evolved as a reflex to wake up last year by researchers at the University of
the muscles after a spell of stillness. Salford, UK, suggested that this has a real
Pandiculation aside, other species don’t seem impact on range of motion. People who
to spend any time maintaining and extending regularly sat for less than 4 hours a day and
HARRIET NOBLE/STUDIO PI

their range of motion. Which raises the were generally active had 6 degrees more
question, is there any reason why we should? range of motion in their hip joints than less
Our flexibility is controlled by the tissues of active people who sat for more than 7 hours.
our musculoskeletal system, which determine There is also evidence that sedentary
the maximum range that our joints can move lifestyles in general are having a knock-on

34 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 effect on overall flexibility. A 2012 analysis by
the US Institute of Medicine in Washington DC
of data from the now-defunct Presidential
Physical Fitness Test, which, between 1966
and 2012, included a sit-and-reach flexibility
test for all US schoolchildren, found that
flexibility in young people had decreased
over the decades, particularly among boys.
By early middle age, the most sedentary
people are so stiff that they can injure
themselves even while sitting at a desk.
“We see that starting at age 30 or so, people
get problems from non-sporting activities
like moving the computer mouse,” says
Markus Tilp at the University of Graz
in Austria, who studies stretching.
What’s more, it isn’t just the physical
act of sitting that leaves us feeling tight.
Concentrating on a mental task contributes
to tension in the shoulder girdle, arm and neck.

“Sedentary
lifestyles
are having a
knock-on effect
on flexibility”
This is partly because when we focus our eyes
on a screen, we often tense our shoulders to
increase our ability to focus visually (and
mentally). One study found that the trapezius
muscles in the upper back, which help keep
the head upright, are particularly sensitive
to the difficulty of the task – the more we
need to concentrate, the more they tense up.
For people who sit a lot and are under a
lot of stress, then, stretching and mobilising
stiff parts does relieve tension and lengthen
muscles – at least temporarily (see “What
happens when you stretch?”, page 37). It is
also well known that, when done regularly,
stretching can lengthen muscles and
connective tissue, restoring their length and
a full range of motion to underused joints.
Which sounds like case closed for the
benefits of stretching, especially for those who
feel their bodies are tight, weak and inflexible.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean we should
devote lots of time to stretching to get more
flexible as part of an exercise regime. In fact,
according to exercise scientist James Nuzzo,
this type of stretching isn’t worth the effort.
Nuzzo says that the hype about stretching
dates to 1980 when exercise scientists >

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 35

Charles Corbin and Larry Noble, then at Kansas
State University, first made the case for its
hugely important,” he says. Cardiovascular
fitness, muscle strength and endurance all
“There isn’t
importance in overall health. They argued that correlate with a lower risk of mortality, he strong evidence
flexibility was important to maintain posture argues. Flexibility, not so much.
and protect the back, while allowing the body That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t aim to that flexibility
“freedom to move”. Soon afterwards, the sit-
and-reach test was incorporated into the first
maintain a healthy range of motion, and to
extend that range if necessary, says Nuzzo.
correlates with
version of US standardised physical fitness People who spend most of the day sitting and things that are
tests as a measure of flexibility, and the idea then exercise in frantic bursts are at risk of
that stretching is the way to improve flexibility doing themselves an injury if they don’t take the hugely important
became entrenched in the popular time to maintain a useful range of motion. But
consciousness. However, in his 2020 paper he argues that there are better ways to achieve
for our health”
“The case for retiring flexibility as a major this goal than a dedicated stretching regime.
component of physical fitness”, Nuzzo, then “We need to get out of our minds this
at the University of New South Wales in notion that stretching exercise holds a
Australia, argues that, while maintaining monopoly on the lengthening of tendons
a healthy range of motion is important, and muscles,” he says. “It’s not the only activity
stretching has a reputation that far outstrips where flexibility or range of motion will
what it can actually do for our physical fitness. improve when you do it for several weeks.”
For a start, the degree of flexibility you need Resistance training – in particular eccentric
very much depends on what you plan to do contractions, where muscles are loaded as they
with your body. Normal human movement lengthen (for example, the lowering phase of a
only requires the hips to be sufficiently flexible
to allow the legs to extend backwards to an
angle of 30 degrees from upright. In other
words, for everyday activities, you only really
need the flexibility to get halfway to the splits,
at most, and there is little reason to push your
hips any further.

Bending to extremes
What’s more, the kind of extreme flexibility
that makes a great social media post can be
more trouble than it is worth. As many as 20 per
cent of people have hypermobile joints, which
extend further than the normal range. This can
lead to physical problems, such as joint pain
and dislocations, if the joint hasn’t been
strengthened throughout its full range. Most
cases of joint hypermobility are inherited,
caused by an unusually loose form of collagen,
but some researchers think that certain types
of extreme stretching – dance training, for
example – can lead to joint hypermobility
and the problems this can cause. This suggests
that a training regime with flexibility as its
sole aim may not be such a good idea.
Nuzzo’s main problem with stretching,
though, is that for our overall health, it’s largely
a waste of time. “There is not strong evidence
that flexibility really correlates with a lot that’s

36 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

What happens
when you
stretch?
The short answer is that the You don’t need
muscles, tendons and fascia – to go to the gym
a kind of connective tissue that to exercise your
surrounds the muscles – all get body’s full range
longer, at least temporarily. of movement
While this had long been
suspected, it wasn’t until around
10 years ago that studies by
Markus Tilp at the University of
Graz in Austria using ultrasound
confirmed that stretching
temporarily increases the length of
the muscle-tendon unit by between
5 and 10 per cent. The effect comes
down partly to the lengthening of
individual sarcomeres, the basic

WESTEND61/GETTY IMAGES
units of the muscle, and partly
down to viscoelastic effects that
make the muscle and connective
tissue more pliable for an hour or so.
In the medium term – six to
eight weeks, say – studies have
found that a regular programme of
stretching significantly increases bicep curl or walking down the stairs) – range of motion, that just keeps the flexibility”,
range of motion. However, no has the same effect on the muscles as pulling he says. Tilp, too, recommends prioritising
changes in the muscles or other them into a stretch, he says. Doing this, you get strength throughout the whole range of
tissues have been identified on strength as well as flexibility, with no need to tag motion of the joint. Active stretches, such as
this timescale. This has led Tilp on a series of stretches afterwards. “If people yoga poses that involve holding your body
and others to speculate that only have a limited amount of time and you weight in a stretched position, like a downward
increased range of motion is want to make them healthier, I would argue that dog, strengthen and stretch muscles at the
explained by an increase in stretch taking up chunks of their workout time with same time. “You have not only the flexibility
tolerance: essentially, a sign that lots of stretching is not a good use of their time.” but also strengthening,” he says.
the nerves don’t sound the pain In fact, keeping the joints oiled doesn’t need But don’t abandon your flexibility
alarm so easily, because the to involve anything that you might think of as training just yet. Not only can it help
nervous system has learned that exercise. Squatting onto your haunches when prevent sporting injuries (see “Stretch then
this level of extension is safe. you need to reach something on the floor will exercise?”, page 38), it has surprising benefits
Less research has been done on release sitting-related tension without the for the cardiovascular system as well.
what a long-term programme of need to contort your body into an “official” Over the past decade or so, studies have
stretches does to the muscles and glute stretch. Reaching to grab something revealed a link between inflexibility and risk
other tissues. Observations of ballet from a high shelf or playing frisbee will help factors for cardiovascular disease. For instance,
dancers suggest that, over long free up the shoulders too. a 2009 study of Japanese adults led by Kenta
periods, individual muscle fibres The benefits of choosing strong mobility Yamamoto at the National Institute of Health
do get longer, which may be over flexibility is that you get side benefits and Nutrition in Tokyo found that the stiffest
caused by adding new sarcomeres in terms of increased strength and endurance, participants (as measured by a sit-and-reach
to the muscle’s length. Tilp’s study which – unlike flexibility – are proven to test) aged 40 or over had stiffer arteries,
on this was postponed during bring significant benefits for overall health and this effect was independent of the
the pandemic, however, so we and longevity. aerobic fitness levels of the participants.
still don’t know for sure. Tilp also says it is a lack of movement, rather What’s more, a 2018 study of 1354 Japanese
than a lack of stretching per se, that causes us men aged 35 to 59 found that the least flexible
to stiffen up in the long term. “We know that (as measured by the sit-and-reach test, plus
when you get older, you become less flexible.” range of movement in the shoulder and arm)
But “if you move your joints through the whole showed the highest levels of atherosclerosis, >

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 37

Stretch then The Australian
women’s softball

exercise? team stretch out

in a pre-Olympics
training session
A quick warm up followed by stretches
was once the staple of pre-exercise
preparation to prevent injuries and
prepare the body to move. But
studies on the benefits gave
conflicting results, leading people
to question if stretching makes
exercise safer, and even whether
it could harm performance.
REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON

Then, in 2016, David Behm at

Memorial University in Newfoundland,
Canada, and his colleagues reviewed
the evidence. They concluded that,
while much is still unclear, stretching
before exercise is more beneficial than
it is harmful for both injuries and
overall performance. the build-up of plaque in the arteries, which is wrap, the fascia are now known to be
In terms of preventing acute muscle another risk factor for cardiovascular disease. biologically active and may play an important
injuries, the team found that stretching This implies that it may be possible to improve role in the management of inflammation.
before exercise reduced the risk of our cardiovascular health via a regime of Experiments by Helene Langevin and Charles
injury to muscles by up to 54 per cent. stretching, or at least by keeping our joints Serhan, then both at Harvard University, show
These benefits were mostly confined and muscles oiled. A growing number of that when samples of rats’ fascia are gently
to activities that involve explosive studies show that this is indeed the case. stretched, cells within the tissue rearrange to
movements, such as sprinting or In 2008, researchers from the University become flatter and longer, whilst secreting
jumping. Sports that involve endurance of Texas at Austin were investigating whether anti-inflammatory molecules.
or brute force, however, got less benefit strength training could reduce arterial These studies have revealed that stretching
from a pre-emptive stretch. stiffness. Their control group undertook a injured tissue speeds up healing and increases
Another hotly debated topic is the mild stretching programme: holding stretches levels of chemicals called resolvins that are
effect of stretching on performance. of all the major muscle groups for 20 seconds, made by the body to turn off the inflammation
In the early 2000s, research started three days a week for 13 weeks. The unexpected response. “That suggested that the stretching
to come out indicating that static finding was that strength training had no helped the body to resolve the inflammation –
stretching – where a single position is effect, whereas stretching reduced arterial it helped the natural process,” says Langevin.
held for a period of time – decreases stiffness by 23 per cent. She also stresses that, while stretching may be
performance. “This had really big beneficial, extreme bendiness is likely to be
consequences,” says Markus Tilp at the surplus to requirements. Just stretching until
University of Graz in Austria. “Nobody Unexpected benefits you feel it is probably enough, she says.
dared to do static stretching anymore.” Another Japanese study found that middle- In fitness classes, it is easy to get fixated on
However, Behm’s review concluded aged people who carried out a four-week the bendy people at the front, but there is no
that any such reductions were small, regime of static stretches of all the major need to go to extremes to get the benefits of
temporary and, for anyone who isn’t muscle groups had significantly reduced flexibility. What is most important for physical
an elite athlete, hardly worth worrying arterial stiffness. The mechanism behind well-being is ensuring to exercise our body’s
about. Long, static stretches, held for this effect is still a mystery, though there full range of movement, and this doesn’t
more than 1 minute, resulted in a small are a number of proposed explanations. necessarily require a stretching routine at
but measurable effect on muscle power One is that improving the elastic properties the gym. And although such regimes can
– yet this was less than 5 per cent and of our skeletal muscle also improves the help prevent sports injuries, there are side
only lasted for a few minutes after elasticity of our blood vessels. benefits for our cardiovascular system too.
stretching. At an elite level, that might Another is that atherosclerosis is an Putting your leg behind your head?
enough to make the difference inflammatory condition, which is somehow Science says: no need. ❚
between gold and silver, so athletes alleviated by the physiological effects of
might be better off with shorter stretching. Evidence for this comes from
stretches lasting less than 1 minute, studies of the fascia – the layers of connective Caroline Williams is the author
which had no effect on performance. tissue that surround muscles and allow them of Move! The new science of body
to slide over each other. Long thought to be over mind. To buy a copy, go to
nothing more than nature’s version of plastic shop.newscientist.com/move

38 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

Features

TOMMYGUN714/GETTY IMAGES
Frogs in trouble
Amphibians are suffering
U
P IN the mountains of northern of frogs in the wild in which the disease
Majorca, a group of toads live in a series has been eradicated.
their own global outbreak of rocky, rain-fed pools. They aren’t Now there is a feeling among
of a terrible disease. much to look at, with their spotted, greyish- conservationists that we have to protect our
brown skin and pale underbellies. But they are, remaining frogs before they croak their last.
Can we turn the tide on it? in their own way, very special amphibians. “It’s such a race against time, because as this
If you had visited the rocky pools a few years fungus spreads further, it’s affecting more
Krista Charles investigates ago, you would have found the toads in an awful and more species,” says conservationist
state: those not dead would have been lethargic, Jonathan Kolby. “It’s not being controlled at
some with red, peeling skin. They were infected all and we’re running out of clean habitat.”
with a deadly fungus that has been careening Failing to put the brakes on this situation
through the world’s amphibians, and has would be disastrous, and not just because
already wiped out dozens of species of frogs, frogs are beautiful animals that act as linchpins
a group of animals that includes toads. The for their ecosystems. We have also recently
Majorca midwife toads are the only species learned first-hand how terrible it can be >

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 39

 501 when animal diseases spill over into other
species. Luckily, we are making progress. We
know where this “frog pandemic” came from
Number of amphibian species infected and – although it will be difficult – we are in
with the fungal disease chytridiomycosis the early stages of a global fightback.
We first realised frogs were in trouble in
1993, when several species started dying off

90 at once in Queensland, Australia. Researchers

quickly realised the frogs were all being killed
by the same mystery disease, which we now
Number of amphibian species that have call chytridiomycosis. It wasn’t until a few
been driven to extinction by this disease years later that the culprit was identified.
In 1998, biologist Lee Berger at James Cook
University in Australia and her colleagues

1
described the microscopic fungus

CHRIS MATTISON/ALAMY
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd,
and showed that it caused the disease.
Number of wild frog populations in Once we knew about chytridiomycosis,
which the disease has been eradicated we began finding more of it. Combing through
Source: doi.org/gfxkrt old tissue samples in labs around the world
revealed that the disease had been killing
frogs here and there since at least the 1960s.
We also began to see it pop up in more places fungal infection of the skin causes a heart
around the planet and in other amphibians. attack,” says Trenton Garner at the Zoological
It has now spread to every continent except Society of London. After parasitising an
Antarctica, making it a panzootic, the animal amphibian, the Bd fungus goes through its
equivalent of a pandemic. reproductive cycle, releasing spores into the
The offending fungus is part of a much water, where they can latch on to other animals.
broader group of aquatic fungi called A closely related fungus called
chytrids. Most of them just feed on pollen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal,
or algae. The ones that affect frogs are which also causes chytridiomycosis, mostly
a rare exception. Amphibians have thin, in salamanders and newts, was discovered in
water-permeable skin, which they breathe 2013. The most comprehensive study we have,
Fire salamanders live in through. The Bd fungus gets into the skin published in 2019, found that Bd and Bsal have
Europe, where chytrid and begins to attack. We don’t fully understand affected more than 500 amphibian species,
fungus is spreading why, but not every infected animal develops 90 of which have already gone extinct. Some
chytridiomycosis. Those that do get it biologists say this makes them the most
experience problems with their nerves destructive pathogens the world has ever seen.
and with regulating their water and oxygen Can we fight back? We have plenty of creams
levels. “With amphibians, you have the full that are effective at stopping fungal infections,
spectrum,” says Kolby, who runs the Honduras so one early idea was to use these. In 2008,
Amphibian Rescue & Conservation Center. researchers from the National Museum of
“Some species nearly can’t become infected, Natural Sciences in Madrid, the Zoological
ARCO/J. FIEBER/IMAGEBROKER/ALAMY

they’re so resistant. Others absorb it like a Society of London and Imperial College
sponge and die in five days.” London decided to try this out in Majorca.
It is difficult to determine exactly how the They began capturing midwife toads and their
disease causes death because infected frogs are tadpoles and treating them with the antifungal
often in remote places. “The one case where drug itraconazole. The researchers then
they’ve actually looked at a cause of death, drained the pools to get rid of any spores and
there’s heart arrhythmias. So, essentially a allowed them to naturally refill with rainwater.

40 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 “Frogs don’t call in sick. They’re
often in very remote places that
you need a helicopter to get to”

Majorca midwife
toads (left) are
the only wild
population of
amphibians in

QUENTIN MARTINEZ/BIOSPHOTO/ALAMY
which chytrid has
been eradicated.
Biologists are
testing other
species, like this
dart frog (right), to
monitor the spread
of the disease

But when they returned the following year, them. When they’re small, when they’re ill, they are evolving resistance to the fungus.
the toads were all infected again. they’ll hide. They are often in very remote As well as trying to save frogs from chytrid,
It turned out the Bd fungus had a trick up its places that you need helicopters to go to.” people have been trying to determine where
sleeve. “The neat but scary thing about chytrid If disinfecting ponds sounds like an extreme it came from in the first place. This has
is that it’s an alternate saprobe,” says Kolby. In measure, it is. The team only took this step already revealed some surprises that may
other words, it can switch from being a parasite in Majorca because the pools are regularly help us fight the disease.
to getting its nutrition from decaying organic refilled with rainwater, so the disinfectants For a long time, the prevailing hypothesis
matter. This meant traces of chytrid could hide don’t cause lasting harm. was that this fungus came from Africa and
out in rocky crevices and feed on detritus while A glimmer of hope is that some frogs, spread globally in the mid-20th century.
the pools were empty. When the toads came such as the critically endangered mountain Unlikely as it sounds, this idea was largely
back, it could reinfect them. chicken frog, which is endemic to the Caribbean based on the way that pregnancy tests worked
islands of Dominica and Montserrat, have before the invention of pee-on-a-stick home
responded positively to conservation efforts. tests. Believe it or not, this involved frogs.
The first eradication These frogs had been driven to extinction by The story begins with a British zoologist
Undeterred, the researchers treated the chytrid in Montserrat but after being bred named Lancelot Hogben who studied
toads again, this time thoroughly disinfecting elsewhere, were reintroduced to the island hormones by injecting them into frogs.
the pools too. In 2015, after monitoring the in 2019. Chytrid doesn’t survive well at high In 1930, he was working with the African
toad population for a few years, the team temperatures. So to keep the fungus away clawed frog, a species then found abundantly
announced it had worked. Chytrid had been from the reintroduced mountain chickens’ in sub-Saharan Africa. He discovered that
eradicated from the rocky mountain pools. new semi-wild enclosures, conservationists this frog would begin to lay eggs if certain
That first eradication has been the only one, are attempting to make the frogs’ environment hormones related to pregnancy were injected
so far. The midwife toads live in a small area. hotter, by removing tree cover and heating under its skin. By the 1950s, Hogben showed
Many other frog populations are dispersed their ponds. that the frogs could be used as a reliable
across huge distances, making them far more There is hope, too, in Panama. There, human pregnancy test: inject a woman’s
difficult to catch and treat. “Frogs don’t call in 12 species of frog had decreased in abundance urine under the frogs’ skin and if the animal
sick,” says Matthew Fisher at Imperial College after chytrid arrived in 2004. But a 2018 study ovulated, then the woman was pregnant.
London, who was part of the team working in showed that nine of these species were Thanks to this discovery, the clawed frogs
Majorca along with Garner. “You’ve gotta find beginning to bounce back, possibly because were exported widely from Africa for this >

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 41

 Animal outbreaks
Amphibians aren’t the only animals battling a panzootic
disease – one that has spread around the world

use, and it seemed likely that chytrid PAST THREATS

came with them. Rinderpest This viral disease caused the deaths of
However, more recent evidence points to millions of cattle and buffalo around the world, resulting
a different origin. By studying the DNA of in famines in the 20th century. Following the development
chytrids, it has become clear that they have of a vaccine in 1960, there was an international effort to
been around for millions of years. Various get rid of rinderpest. It was declared eradicated in 2011.
strains have long existed all around the world
and amphibians lived more or less happily Millions of
alongside their local strain – long exposure cattle were
enabling them to build up resistance and avoid killed by
any potential harms caused by the fungus. Rinderpest

Amphibian apocalypse
We know that amphibians in South-East Asia
are generally more resistant to the most
dangerous strain of Bd, the one responsible for
the panzootic, than amphibians are elsewhere.
This suggests the panzootic strain originally PRESENT THREATS
came from South-East Asia. “We believe Avian influenza One strain of “bird flu”, called H5N1,
amphibians have been living with this is panzootic. It causes respiratory problems in birds,
particular chytrid for at least 40 million including domestic poultry and has a high mortality rate.
years,” says Fisher. “So, a very long time, It can also infect humans – 700 people are known to have
but only in one part of the planet.” Frogs contracted it since 2003 and about 60 per cent have died.
from this region were probably then exported,
both to be pets and for lab experiments. White-nose syndrome This disease, which affects bats,
This spread the South-East Asian strain of is caused by a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus
Bd to places where local amphibians had no destructans. Millions of bats have died of it in North
resistance to it, and kicked off all the trouble. America. It is also prevalent across Europe, although bats
The strain circulating most widely now there are thought to have developed some resistance.
appears to be a highly virulent hybrid between
that initial Asian strain and another chytrid. Newcastle disease Another panzootic that affects birds,
In 2019, yet another new strain of Bd was including pigeons, the Newcastle disease virus is highly
discovered. There could be more. The parallels contagious. So far, however, there have been no cases
with the covid-19 pandemic, where travel has of people catching it.
spread new virus variants around the world to
devastating effect, are clear.
This suggests a course of action that could FUTURE THREATS
slow chytrid’s spread: tight controls or a ban African swine fever Acute forms of this viral disease
on the export of amphibians. Although chytrid cause fever, depression and loss of appetite in pigs.
is found worldwide, there are pockets of clean It spreads easily and has recently been seen across
habitat. For instance, Madagascar, a hotspot of Africa, Asia and Europe. Some think it could go global.
amphibian diversity, is still thought to be free
CAMERON WATSON/SHUTTERSTOCK

of the fungus. Bsal, the chytrid that mostly Sarcoptic mange A skin infection reported in thousands
infects salamanders, seems to be confined to of individuals across almost 150 wild and domestic
Europe for the moment. The UK, US, Canada mammal species. It is caused by the mite Sarcoptes
and the EU all have legislation to control the scabiei, which is also behind the itchy condition known
movement of salamanders. According to the as scabies in people. Sarcoptic mange may be the newest
North American Bsal Task Force, as of 2020 emerging panzootic in wildlife.
there weren’t any cases of Bsal in North

42 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

America. “There are increasingly global bans Bullfrogs, like
on movement of amphibians that are known this one in Texas,
to be vectors of chytrids, and that appears to can be killed by
be a very powerful way of stopping further chytrid fungus,
spread of Bd and Bsal,” says Fisher. especially when
Export bans won’t have much effect in they are young
places where chytrid is already present
though. That’s why people are also trialling
new methods of controlling the fungus to halt
the further decline of amphibian populations.
But there are no easy options.
One disease control strategy is to cull

ROLF NUSSBAUMER/NATUREPL
animals so that population density is
reduced and disease can’t spread as rapidly.
This could be applied to groups of frogs that
are especially susceptible to chytrid to stop
them passing it to other species. Brian
Drawert at the University of North Carolina,
Asheville, and his colleagues have modelled
how this might play out. They found that
culling enough animals to significantly
curb the spread raises the probability of
population collapse to intolerable levels.
Not a promising strategy, then.
“We’re finding out what immune systems that we need to understand
to really figure out why they are suffering
A better idea could be to give frogs happens when you from diseases at a higher rate than most
probiotics. We have discovered that some other organisms,” says Savage.
chytrid-tolerant frogs have a mix of bacteria remove large numbers of For Kolby, the most worrying thing
on their skin that can fight off the fungus.
Some conservationists have mooted the
frogs from an ecosystem. about the chytrid panzootic is that it could
be just the first example of a disease outbreak
idea of giving vulnerable frogs a dose of It isn’t pretty” created by blithely moving animals around
these defensive bacteria. This might confer the world. “It took us decades to even realise
more enduring protection than provided frogs were suffering from a pandemic.” He
by antifungals, but it would still involve reckons it could already be happening again.
the difficult task of finding and treating immune reaction to it. “The frogs that are We certainly know there are other dangerous
frogs in the wild. dying are the ones that have super cranked up animal diseases out there (see “Animal
immune responses,” she says. “The ones that outbreaks”, opposite).
are surviving are actually pretty much shutting Meanwhile, we are finding out what happens
A fighting chance down their immune cell expression.” when large numbers of frogs are lost from an
Another line of defence involves genetics There is a sense in which this is hopeful. ecosystem. It isn’t pretty. Disease-causing
and amphibian immunology. We know that It shows that we don’t understand much mosquitoes and other insects aren’t being
certain chytrid-resistant frogs gain some about how amphibian immune systems eaten as much. With less prey, animals like
level of protection from their genes, but work, so research could unearth new, helpful snakes and birds are starting to face declines
don’t fully grasp how this works. Anna insights. Savage points out that frogs seem as well. “You know,” says Savage, “a world
Savage at the University of Central Florida to get infected with diseases very often. without frogs would be a very sad world.” ❚
is one of those trying to find out. She is Indeed, it isn’t just chytrid that is ailing our
conducting gene-editing experiments to frogs. News broke in June that severe perkinsea
tease out what genetic changes might give infection, a deadly disease that causes bloating Krista Charles is an intern
the animals more of a fighting chance. in tadpoles, has been identified for the first at New Scientist
Savage has found that the frogs worst time in the UK. “Maybe there’s something
affected by Bd have an unexpectedly strong fundamentally different about amphibians’

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 43

Features

“We have a chance

to no longer be
subject to the whims
of the cosmos”
To become an interplanetary species,
we may have to alter our DNA,
says geneticist Chris Mason. He tells
Joshua Howgego about his 500-year
plan for life off-Earth

44 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 C
HRIS MASON likes to think about at what happens to the human body in left behind. But I think a duty to life is
the future. He isn’t dreaming about space. The research focused on astronaut something that is activated upon awareness.
a summer holiday, or even planning Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a year in orbit I think therefore we should enact it because
his retirement. His thoughts extend much starting in 2015, and his identical twin, Mark, otherwise no one else will.
further – to the point where Earth is no who remained on Earth for that period.
longer a suitable home for humans. Mason is also actively exploring how Do we have to leave Earth to guarantee
Alarmed at the prospect, Mason has to genetically modify human cells to help the survival of humanity?
sketched out a plan of action in the form of make them more resilient in space. Although When I was writing the book, I had a
his book The Next 500 Years: Engineering life his plan spans 500 years, he is laying the moment of stark sadness. I was projecting
to reach new worlds. It covers some of the usual groundwork already. what happens over the next 5 billion years.
ground: how we will first establish bases on the It’s estimated that the sun will become a
moon and Mars, and later on the solar system’s Joshua Howgego: You say we have a moral red giant and eat up the inner planets and
outer moons. Eventually, we will make an epic imperative to find a way to live beyond Earth. then slowly decay away and become a white
trip to a planet orbiting a different star. Why do you think that? dwarf. Most astrophysicists think we have got
What sets Mason’s ideas apart, however, Chris Mason: This is humanity’s duty because about 4.7 billion years before Earth becomes
is that he realises that human bodies aren’t of one simple fact: we’re the only species that uninhabitable, which is a really long time.
well suited for life away from Earth, what has an awareness of extinction. There could be But the luminescence of the sun will increase
with the radiation, toxic gases and so on. some other species – dolphins or, who knows, to pretty intolerable levels in about a billion
His programme for expansion comes with maybe some primates – that think about this, years. I suddenly realised we only had about
a detailed blueprint for the genetic but to our knowledge they don’t. Plus, we’re one-fifth of the time that I thought we had.
improvements we will need to make to the only ones that can actually act on it. Earth is the greatest home we’ve ever known,
ourselves to boost our resilience off-world. Other duties you have are usually chosen. but if we stay here it will be our last home.
Mason is well placed to write such a plan. Maybe you’ve chosen to join the military and
ROCIO MONTAYA

A geneticist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New you have a duty to your country; or you’ve What dangers will we face when
York, he was a principal investigator on the chosen a spouse and have a duty to your we venture beyond Earth?
NASA twin study, our most thorough look yet family. Those can often be abrogated and We have explored this quite deeply in the >

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 45

 A plan for humans beyond Earth
Join Chris Mason at our online event on
Thursday 15 July, or catch up on demand
newscientist.com/events

work we’ve done with NASA on Scott did the sequencing found an interesting
Kelly. One of the biggest dangers is the catalogue of genes related to DNA repair.
radiation; we could see damaged DNA “The tardigrade There is one gene in particular, called Dsup,
coming out of his urine. You could also which codes for a DNA damage suppressor
see his body trying to adapt to zero gravity,
struggling to maintain muscle strength
genome has protein. In my lab, we’ve now permanently
integrated Dsup into a human genome and a
and bone density. The atrophy of muscles,
including the heart, is a well-known challenge.
revealed a suite new cell line in our lab. We can get up to 80 per
cent reduction in DNA damage compared with
Scott’s heart got a little smaller and some of
his arteries got a bit inflamed. of genes related unmodified cells when we fire heavy radiation
at these cells.
There are also cognitive and mental health Now, this is not an entire human body.
challenges. If you’re in space for a year, that’s to DNA repair” But we think it’s possible to stably introduce
one thing. Scott’s cognitive abilities did slightly other organisms’ genes into human cells
decrease in the six months after he returned to and use that as a way to prevent radiation
Earth. But if you’re in a spacecraft for decades, damage. Another example is a gene called p53 –
that’s another thing entirely. elephants have extra copies of this gene and
it may explain why they so rarely get cancer.
I didn’t realise that Scott’s twin, Mark, was
also an astronaut and has since become a Let’s say we add these genes to our
politician. This is quite a family. DNA. What could possibly go wrong?
Could you imagine being at a dinner party and Whenever you add a gene to an existing
some parent saying: “Yeah, both my sons are biological system, you can create unexpected
astronauts and one’s a senator too”? You would changes. We might see other mutations
think they were lying. emerge, or alterations in the regulation of
gene expression. There also could be a cancer
How are we going to protect future astronauts risk. So you need to have proper oversight of
from the harmful effects of space? all of this sort of work.
Engineering humans is complicated But we might also consider using epigenetic
and controversial. It has to be done in the therapies, where you can temporarily turn
context of rigorous safety monitoring and things on and off. You change the structure
clear regulation. So this is something that I of DNA and how it’s regulated just for a little
think could begin to happen slowly in the while. Imagine there was a burst of radiation
coming decades. I’m proposing two ways of coming at some astronauts – what if you could
doing it. One is using the gene-editing tool therapeutically activate additional radiation
CRISPR to modify specific genes. The second is response machines in their cells and have
epigenome editing, where you can transiently them turn off afterward?
turn genes on or off. With these tools, we have We know this is technically possible, and
this exhilarating opportunity to not be subject just needs to be optimised. These are the
to the whims of the cosmos. kinds of experiments I envision for the
next 10 to 20 years.
Do you have any ideas for which
genes we should target first? Would we want to genetically modify
NECULA VALENTIN ANDREI/SHUTTERSTOCK

We can leverage the evolutionary lessons that other species to help us survive?
every creature has demonstrated in its own If we bring animal companions or plants,
biology. A tardigrade is one great example. they will probably also benefit from genetic
This is a microscopic animal that can survive modification. Some of it may be just for
in the vacuum of space, it can be completely survival – we might need nitrogen fixing
desiccated and then rehydrated – it’s really bacteria modified so they can survive on Mars,
an extraordinary creature. Its genome was for example. But eventually you could very
sequenced in 2015 and the Japanese group that well imagine it would be for food or pets, too.

46 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 An artist’s impression
of what a Mars colony
might look like
MIGUEL AGUIRRE SÁNCHEZ/ALAMY

What about nutrition – is there a danger we’ll Studies of bears have already identified a suite
struggle to grow enough of the food we need? “Multiple of genes we might target to induce something
There are nine amino acids that humans similar in humans.
need to consume to survive because we
can’t make in our own bodies. We have to
generations will Speaking of new generations, one
get them from our diets, which is fine if
you’re living on Earth. If you go far away,
have to live and technology you say we might have in the
future is an artificial womb. What makes
you would have to bring them with you or
manufacture them. But what if we could die in the same you think we will need them?
Whenever possible, I describe in the book ways
make them in our own bodies? in which we should be able to increase not just
In my lab, we’ve done some work on how spacecraft” planetary liberty, but cellular liberty. I’m not
we might make humans more prototrophic, saying exowombs would replace biological
meaning we would be able to make all the wombs. It just gives you options. If, for any
molecules we need to survive within our own reason, pregnancy is too dangerous, it gives
bodies with only simple food. We could co-opt Can you tell me about the last phase of your plan, you an opportunity to have a child.
pathways that are found in other organisms, and particularly the idea of a generation ship?
integrating them into the human genome so There are now several hundred exoplanets Of course, you and I won’t be alive
we can make all of our amino acids. It has been that look habitable, meaning there might to see if all of this happens…
demonstrated that this is possible for one or be enough liquid water there for humans to I’m very much planning to be dead for the vast
two amino acids, though again only in cells. survive – maybe even without any protective majority of my 500-year plan. I think one of the
gear. I propose that, by the year 2400, we most liberating states you can have is a healthy
And you’ve looked at how we can make should have enough knowledge about what sense of mortality. That liberates you to think
sure we get enough vitamin C... happens to the body in long-term space flight, about what is going to come after you and
If you don’t get enough vitamin C, you’ll so we can actually put people on a ship that how you can contribute to the future. What’s
get scurvy. We actually have the gene for can make its way towards the best choice striking is that a lot of people I’ve talked to
vitamin C synthesis in our genome, it’s just of our next home. It’s called a generation about the book have never thought farther
been degraded. Some call it a pseudogene. But ship because it will be a long trip; multiple than 50 years ahead. ❚
with a small CRISPR tweak, you can reactivate generations will have to live and die in
it. If you’re on some faraway planet, why not the same spacecraft.
re-enable some genetic capacity or add other Unless we figure out another way. We Joshua Howgego is a feature
abilities? It would represent one of the largest might be able to avoid the psychological stress editor at New Scientist
genetic engineering projects ever performed of such a trip by having humans slow down
to actually get this to work in full. their biology and go into stasis or hibernation.

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 47

Innovations in Oncology
Read more at healthawareness.co.uk

Embracing the fourth pillar:

How interventional oncology
can help liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma, known as HCC, is the most common form

CT scan showing targeted area of
of primary liver cancer in England. Now NICE has approved a new way
liver to be treated by SIRT (in orange),
sparing surrounding healthy liver.
of treating advanced liver cancer using interventional radiology.

S
elective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) before we can offer it widely. Now NICE has
is a new NHS funded option for treating said we can go ahead and the hospital will be
HCC, yet is not necessarily a new reimbursed where there’s a valid reason for
treatment as it has already been used carrying out the treatment. But we must use it
with great success in other areas. wisely.
It works by delivering high dose radiation “My view is that we should see it as another
treatment into the artery supplying blood to important tool in our armoury against liver
the tumour via a catheter and has now been cancer, but it is a complex procedure that
Dr Praveen Peddu greenlighted by the NHS for use in 11 specialist must be done in high volume centres that have
Consultant Interventional hospitals across the UK. the multidisciplinary expertise to treat these
Radiologist, Kings College Dr Dominic Yu, Consultant Interventional patients.”
Hospital, London Radiologist at the Royal Free Hospital, London
says: “Interventional radiology is where we use
imaging to do procedures, usually those which
are minimally invasive. This means the risks
to the patients are lower, there’s less chance of We’re calling interventional radiology
bleeding and a shorter recovery time, which is
important for patients as they are less likely to the fourth pillar of cancer care. It’s
get a hospital acquired disease.” an additional option when it comes
He adds, “We’re calling interventional
radiology the fourth pillar of cancer care. It’s to treating this type of liver cancer
Dr Nabil Kibriya
an additional option when it comes to treating which we welcome – it’s going to
Consultant Interventional this type of liver cancer which we welcome – it’s
Radiologist, Kings College going to change patient care.” change patient care.
Hospital, London The treatment itself is done via a pinhole
puncture and aims to control the tumour by Exciting time for patients
stopping it from growing. This can allow further Dr Nabil Kibriya, Consultant Interventional
treatment options to be considered, prolong life Radiologist, Kings College Hospital, London,
care in general or offer a better quality of life says, “If a patient is offered a SIRT treatment,
before palliative care, where required. it means that it’s positive news and that they
Innovation in the field are going to get the most appropriate treatment
Dr Abid Suddle, Consultant Hepatologist, Kings for their type of disease. We know it’s a safe
College Hospital, London, says, “The innovative treatment as we’ve previously used it before
part about this treatment is that it can target although it’s always good to ask about the side
specific areas such as the cancer, while avoiding effects. Compared to other options, these can
Mr Abid Suddle
complications in the healthy liver tissue. SIRT be much more pleasant and what’s more the
Consultant Hepatologist, Kings
and other innovations are likely to radically patient will only be offered this procedure if it
College Hospital, London
change the treatment paradigm for patients and will provide a better quality of life.
what NICE has done is to allow us as clinicians a “Right now there’s a limited number of sites in
position where we can define, under reasonable the UK offering it. We’re hoping that over time
guidelines, where the use of SIRT should be in if it’s proved to be effective and hospitals have
the treatment protocol. I think that has been a appropriate patients and set-up, then more will Spread paid for by
really positive step.” open. However, I think that there is currently Boston Scientific
Dr Praveen Peddu, Consultant Interventional a good distribution of sites across the country
Radiologist specialising in liver and pancreatic with experience in the procedure, which should
cancer at King’s College Hospital, London, is allow everyone to be referred on and treated.
also positive about SIRT. He says, “The decision I think it’s quite an exciting time, not just for
Dr Dominic Yu by NICE has been long awaited however, in the clinicians but more importantly for patients.”
Consultant Interventional UK we practice evidence-based medication.
Radiologist, Royal Free Intuitively we’ve believed it’s been a good
Hospital, London option, but we wanted good quality evidence PI-AA-1041201
THIS IS AN INDEPENDENT SPREAD BY MEDIAPLANET WHO TAKE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENT

A liver cancer Patient story

diagnosis is devastating How SIRT gave

Martyn back his life
– but SIRT can help after liver cancer
For the 5000 people in the UK that are diagnosed with primary When Martyn Griffiths couldn’t stop coughing, he
saw his GP to be on the safe side. A shadow on
liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), treatment Vanessa Hebditch his liver revealed that he had primary liver cancer
choices have been severely limited. Now there’s a new option. Director of Communications (hepatocellular carcinoma – HCC).
and Policy, British Liver Trust

A
t 58-years old, Martyn was
SPREAD WRITTEN BY
given the dire news that he
Gina Clarke
would most likely only have a
maximum of five years left to
live unless he undertook a radical new

T
he British Liver Trust has continued also have liver disease which complicates any treatment, SIRT.
to work with the National Institute for treatment plan. While liver disease is often This would include injecting tiny
Health and Care Excellence (NICE) known as a bi-product of alcoholism, there are radioactive beads into the artery that
during its examination into the use actually many reasons why the liver might be supplied blood to the tumour, all
of selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT). damaged. through a catheter in his femoral artery.
Earlier this year, NICE announced that it The aim was to reduce the tumour
would fund SIRT on the NHS, meaning that an Improving access to treatment which could later be removed, while
estimated 36% of HCC sufferers will be eligible However, for those with primary cancer of the saving his healthy liver tissue.
for the treatment. liver or HCC, it is hoped that SIRT will stop the Martyn decided after being given no
Vanessa Hebditch, Director of tumour from growing further and hopefully option for alternative cancer treatments
Communications and shrink it ready that he would need to accept the SIRT
Policy at the British Liver for removal without the solution. “I said where do I sign?”,
Trust was part of the team need to take out any remembering the day he was diagnosed
who helped NICE compile healthy liver tissue. in 2014. But what Martyn didn’t know
evidence and testimony Liver cancer in the UK is one of Hebditch says, “For us was that SIRT was yet to be made
from current sufferers, those forgotten cancers that doesn’t this new treatment is really available on the NHS and was actually
highlighting the current important, we’re delighted funded through a charity at Newcastle
lack of options.
seem to get the same attention as for patients who now have Freeman Hospital.
other mainstream cancers. access to this life-changer.
The forgotten cancer Not only will it prolong
She says, “Liver cancer in the UK is one of those life but it also offers a better quality of life. We
forgotten cancers that doesn’t seem to get the only hope that all patients will have access to I didn’t want to fade away, I wanted
same attention as other mainstream cancers. this treatment, wherever they live. Hopefully a to fight for my family’s sake – and
Not only does it have a grim prognosis – only wider provision of the service will come in time, anyone given the option of SIRT should
13% reach five-year survival rate, but it also although we acknowledge that at the moment it
absolutely go ahead and do the same.
comes with a large stigma attached.” is still a specialist service.”
Hebditch explains that for a large majority of
people diagnosed with liver cancer, they may Martyn says, “I didn’t want to fade
away, I wanted to fight for my family’s
sake – and anyone given the option of
SIRT should absolutely go ahead and
do the same. That’s why I want to speak
Vials of TheraSphere – the tiny out and encourage other people to have
radioactive beads used in SIRT SIRT, which is a life saving treatment that
treatment. Beads shown in size should be readily available on the NHS.”
comparison to a human hair. While Martyn needed two treatments
of SIRT to shrink his grapefruit sized
tumour, he has now fully recovered
after a major operation to remove the
tumour by the skilled surgical team at
the Newcastle Freeman Hospital. While
he still has regular scans, for now he
can mostly continue living his life as it
was before the cancer diagnosis.
Although doctors have suggested
he stay tee total from now on. “I do
miss the social side of drinking” says
Martyn. “Especially now I only have a
soft drink with my Sunday pub lunch.
But it’s a small price to pay for having
my life given back to me.”

Martyn Griffiths
Patient
Images provided by Boston Scientific
Find out more at
bostonscientific.com/en-EU
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The back pages
Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for Feedback Twisteddoodles
Try our crossword, How can I avoid a bike New Scientist Gazing at the moon for New Scientist
quick quiz and puncture? Readers A cartoonist’s take on through your legs; Picturing the lighter
logic puzzle p52 respond p54 the world p55 the week in weird p56 side of life p56

Science of gardening

Urban growth
With or without a garden, we can all help improve
tree cover in towns and cities, says Clare Wilson

BEING called a “tree hugger”

used to be a mild insult, but there
is a growing appreciation for the
benefits of trees. Their best-known
environmental asset is to take in
carbon dioxide from the air, but in
towns and cities they have other
useful qualities too.
In summer, trees cool hot
Clare Wilson is a reporter streets, while in times of high
at New Scientist and rainfall, they take up water,

BY AH_FOTOBOX - ANDREAS*H/GETTY IMAGES

writes about everything stopping it from running into
life-science related. drains too quickly and causing
Her favourite place is her floods. As climate change will lead
allotment @ClareWilsonMed most of the UK to have hotter
summers and wetter winters,
trees help on both counts.
What you need Cities and towns are usually
A watering can several degrees warmer than the
surrounding countryside, mainly
due to their high proportion of
hard surfaces like pavements and
asphalt, which absorb more heat like a more pleasant place to be. likely to make requests, worsening
from the sun. But streets with People with front gardens can inequalities in tree cover.
trees can be several degrees cooler do their bit to help by planting Instead of asking for a tree on
than bare ones thanks to the shade trees next to pavements where their road, people should lobby
the plants create and their ability they add to street shade. When councils to begin equitable urban
to take up water, which evaporates choosing a tree, “thirsty” varieties greening programmes, says Burke.
from leaves, cooling the air. and ones with broader leaf “Street trees are a public necessity
Research carried out in canopies are best for cooling and in a warming world.”
Manchester in the UK suggests soaking up water, although they There is another way to help.
trees reduce radiant temperatures do take more watering during dry Local authorities may fail to
of hard surfaces in summer by 4˚C spells, says Elisabeth Larsen at the water new saplings regularly
to 7˚C. On a large scale, that should UK’s Royal Horticultural Society. and let them die. So people can
cut deaths caused by heatwaves Anyone without a garden can join volunteer groups or just
and the power used by air- still help by joining campaigns to unofficially “adopt” new trees,
conditioning units. green urban spaces. While many whether in their own road or
Some studies suggest tree- local authorities let people request elsewhere, and regularly water
lined roads are linked with better trees for their street, this is a poor them during dry weather.
mental health and less crime. way to allocate planting, says Jon If no one’s looking, you could
Science of gardening While it is hard to show if trees Burke, a former councillor for the even give them a hug. ❚
appears every four weeks are really the cause, as more London borough of Hackney, who
affluent areas tend to have recently began a massive planting These articles are
Next week more street trees, most would programme there. That is because posted each week at
Citizen science agree that they make an area feel better-off households are more newscientist.com/maker

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 51

The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #87 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #110

1 What was the purpose of a sphygmograph?
   
Scribble
    zone 2 How many comets were discovered by
self-taught astronomer Jean-Louis Pons?

3 Who created the first effective vaccine

 
against epidemic typhus?

4 What is the sieve of Eratosthenes


an efficient means of finding?

5 What is the name of the ring of bone found
    in the eyes of many vertebrate species?

Answers on page 55
 



  Puzzle
set by Barry R. Clarke
#122 Article of faith
 
Answers and
the next cryptic
crossword next week

ACROSS DOWN
5 Chewbacca, for one (6) 1 Bone structure (8)
7 Obsolete term for alkaloids such 2 Pierre de ___, known for his enigmatic
as putrescine and cadaverine (8) “last theorem” (6)
9 Flowering plant in the family Primulaceae (8) 3 Combination of two or more elements (8) Dithering Dan has just received his
10 ___ gland, also called the conarium (6) 4 Lift-off (6) monthly copy of Doubtful Daze magazine.
11 Type of resuscitation (5-2-5) 6 Peptide hormone (8) Unsure which article to read first, he turns
13 The ___ Woman, 1970s US sci-fi series (6) 7 ___ Canal, waterway opened in 1914 (6) to a random page and counts a certain
15 Charles ___, evolution theorist (6) 8 Of a tide, at its lowest (4) number of pages forwards, increasing the
18 Periods (12) 12 1000 grams (8) page number. He then counts half of his
21 Strong cleaning agent such as NaOCl (6) 14 Andean shrub with medicinal bark (8) previous page count back, then half the
22 Circular graphic for illustrating 16 One-way rotary devices (8) previous count forwards, and finally half
proportions (3,5) 17 Bone of the inner ear (6) the last count back. The page number he
23 Plants in the buttercup family, 18 “Bad air”, historically (6) finishes on turns out to be four times the
also called windflowers (8) 19 High levels of urea in the blood (6) one he started at. There are fewer than 50
24 Temporally (2,4) 20 ___ Musk, tech entrepreneur (4) pages in the magazine and the pages are
numbered consecutively starting at page 1.

What page number does he finish on?

Answer next week

ICONIC BESTIARY/SHUTTERSTOCK

Our crosswords are now solvable online

newscientist.com/crosswords

52 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 Planet Boost
A project to assist environmental charities in
getting their message out. Today, a message
from Nature’s SAFE
© 2020, CHESTER ZOO

The Living Biobank

Planet Earth has suffered five mass extinctions, each with the loss
of an estimated 70-95% of existing species, with a recovery time
measured in millions of years. Currently, human activity is causing the
sixth mass extinction; the largest predicted loss of biodiversity in 65
million years. Unlike previous mass extinction events, the current one
is taking place over a few centuries rather than many millennia. We need
to act now to prevent this calamity. Species are going extinct every day
and each lost species represents a permanent change to the ecosystem
it used to occupy. This catastrophic decline in biodiversity now is SPECTACULAR WALL ART FROM
threatening our own survival.
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHER CHRIS BAKER
Established as a UK-based charity in December 2020, Nature’s
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 The back pages Almost the last word

If life had never existed,

Flat out
what would our planet
When cycling over rough ground, be like today?
am I more likely to avoid a
puncture by riding slowly or fast?
Cross-legged
Martin Watson Is sitting with crossed legs bad
Ayr, UK for you? If so, why does it feel
There are two main ways that so comfortable (until your leg
a bike tyre can be ruptured – goes numb)?
by a penetrating object or by
a “pinch” puncture. Chris Daniel
A penetrating puncture from, Glan Conwy, Conwy, UK
say, a thorn is more likely at high The reason that cross-legged sitting
speed – and also at high tyre is comfortable is that it allows

WORLDSPEC/NASA/ALAMY
pressure, as the tyre has less the trunk to be held in an upright
opportunity to deform away position with relatively little effort.
from the object rather than being In a standing posture, the pelvis
ruptured. A pinch puncture occurs is rotated slightly forwards, giving
when the bike’s inner tube is the spine an “S” shape with an
compressed between a hard inward curve of the lower back
object, such as a pothole edge This week’s new questions (lumbar lordosis), an outward
or rock, and the tyre rim. This is curve of the upper trunk (thoracic
more likely at high speed and at Seeing the light A rainbow is formed from a continuous kyphosis) and a further inward
a lower tyre pressure. So, to avoid spectrum of wavelengths of light, so why do we perceive curve at the neck (cervical
a puncture, it is best to ride slowly. it as seven separate bands of colour? Peter Holmes, Ulverston, lordosis). When we sit with our
Cumbria, UK legs out straight or on a chair
Rodney Priest with knees flexed and feet on the
Chippenham, Wiltshire, UK Lifeless planet What would Earth be like if life had never floor, the pelvis rocks backwards.
Punctures on rough surfaces are existed? Derek Johnson, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, UK This flattens the lumbar curve,
best avoided by pumping tyres up causing the whole spine to take
hard and standing on the pedals on a “C” shape, which requires
through the worst sections. the “bum-off-saddle” technique, cycle is mainly about your skill effort to correct. As the muscles
Lower speed is only relevant they didn’t get a single puncture. at balancing, control, safety and fatigue, the position becomes
for helping you see an object bragging rights. As your abilities increasingly uncomfortable.
ahead in time to avoid it and lift Anthony Woodward develop, you can go faster with In cross-legged sitting, the
Portland, Oregon, US more control and be easier on the thighs are angled outwards and
“After I taught students A sharp object, such as a nail or bike overall, choosing a better line rotated at the hips while the knees
the ‘bum-off-saddle’ thorn, will penetrate the tyre and and using the suspension to reduce are fully flexed and the lower legs
tube at whatever speed the bike impact force against obstacles. crossed. This has the effect of
technique for cycling
is ridden. Pinch punctures – also Going faster reduces contact time shortening the hip extensor
over rough ground, known as snake bite punctures with the trail surface, so possibly muscles, such as the glutei and
they didn’t get a because the holes resemble snake could reduce penetration by the hamstrings, reducing their
single puncture” bites – occur when the tyre forcibly thorns, but not by much. tendency to pull the pelvis
hits an obstruction. The impact I went from getting punctures backwards. This makes it easier
your bottom off the saddle. This will be more forceful the greater every time I rode to none at all for the hip flexor muscles, such as
allows your calf muscles to act the kinetic energy – that is, the not by changing speed, but by the rectus femoris and iliopsoas
as shock absorbers and so help greater the speed – of the bike. switching to tyres without on each side, to hold the pelvis
prevent punctures that happen Riding slowly over rocky terrain inner tubes, where latex fluid upright. This makes a good sitting
when the downward force of body will therefore reduce the chance sloshes around in the tyres position easier to maintain.
weight is transferred through the of a pinch puncture. and fills any holes. Sitting in any fixed position
frame to the metal rims and sharp Anyway, with the Mendip hills for too long isn’t advisable.
object, thereby pinching the Peter Groom on my doorstep and a mountain Crossing the legs can strain the
rubber tube between them. Winscombe, Somerset, UK bike in the garage, it is time for me joint ligaments and cause blood
For five years, I took groups The speed at which you choose to to stop writing emails and get out! to pool due to constriction of the
of inexperienced teenage cyclists veins. When blood is allowed to
out to ride along stretches of sharp Want to send us a question or answer? flow again, it can be painful for a
aggregate that was used to pave Email us at [email protected] few seconds, but this might be a
a tar-free track on the edge of Questions should be about everyday science phenomena small price to pay for the benefits
Salisbury Plain. After learning Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms of good posture.

54 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

Tom Gauld Answers
for New Scientist
Quick quiz #110
Answers
1 It was used to measure blood
pressure in the 19th century
2 37. Pons discovered more
comets with the eye than any
other person in history
3 Rudolf Weigl
4 Prime numbers
5 The sclerotic ring

Cryptic Crossword
#61 Answers
ACROSS 1 Jabiru, 4/1D Edward
Jenner, 9 Needles, 10 Ochre,
11 Essay, 12 Impetus,
13 Randomising, 18 Incrust,
20 Oddly, 22 Lazed,
23 Shallot, 24 Parsec

DOWN 2 Brews, 3 Relayed,

5 Droop, 6/25 A shot in the arm,
7 Dressy, 8 Astigmatism,
@keshavrajgopal “Cross-legged sitting is for example, where tannic acid 14 Alcazar, 15 Stomach, 16 Fillip,
via Twitter comfortable because is used for the tanning of leather. 17 System, 19 Undue, 21 Delta
Bad? In India, sitting cross-legged As such, the phenolic compounds
is often the default sitting posture
it allows the trunk to present in tea should be referred
if there is no sofa or chair. Many, be held in an upright to as “derived polyphenols”. #121 Creative
especially those who practise position with relatively These substances include addition
yoga, can sit like this for hours little effort” catechins, theaflavins and Solution
without getting uncomfortable. thearubigins. Theaflavins are
tea plant, drawn from the soil responsible for the characteristic The classic “Aha!” solution is to
@suraj1245789 it grows in. orange tint of black tea, whereas turn the 9 upside down to make
via Twitter The practice of making “brick thearubigins account for the 6, so both columns add to 21.
What? Bad? In Sanskrit, we tea’’ (used for economy tea blends) brown colour. Without derived
Indians call it asana. We practise from the trimmings of aged polyphenols, tea would lack colour, But you can also place the 1 card
it often. It is recommended to plants, where the leaves may its characteristic full-bodied on top of the 5 card, so the 5 is
sit on the floor with crossed legs be two or three years old before flavour and astringent mouthfeel. hidden and both columns add
while eating. harvesting, allows fluoride to Astringency is caused through to 20. Or turn the 5 card upside
accumulate to high levels. the interaction of the derived down to reveal its blank side and
Trouble brewing polyphenols with proteins in the place it on the 2 to hide both
Tim Bond saliva and mucous membranes of numbers (columns add to 19).
Is there any harm in drinking too Tea Advisory Panel, London, UK the mouth. If milk is added to tea,
much tea? I drink a lot of it and There continues to be confusion the astringency reduces because Or you can put the 3 top right of
notice how much it stains mugs, on the presence of “tannins” the polyphenols interact with the the 2 to make it 23 (= 8), so the
so what impact does it have on in tea. The phenolic compounds proteins in the milk, rather than columns are both 24. Or what if
my body? (continued) found in tea, including compounds those in the mouth. you pour paint over all but 1, 2, 3
called flavonoids, are often and then move 3 to the other
Caroline Galloway referred to as tannins. Julian Money-Kyrle column? Fair or meh? You decide.
Surrey, UK Although tea does contain low Calne, Wiltshire, UK
Fluoride toxicity may be a levels of tannin-type substances, Many foods – most notably fresh
problem for heavy tea drinkers if the bulk of tea’s flavonoid fruit – readily cause stains, and yet
they drink economy brands, due polyphenols aren’t tannins. They we never question the wisdom of
to the amount of fluoride in the don’t function as a tanning agent – eating them on those grounds. ❚

17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 55

The back pages Feedback

This way up Twisteddoodles for New Scientist own “Parasite fungus sends insects
on sex spree by loading them up on
Feedback is relentless in our pursuit drugs” (4 August 2018, p 18), and
of scientific truth, given breaks for frankly we are much the poorer for
a nice cup of tea and a sit down. We the lack of articles simultaneously
adopt this position, and our Serious referencing castration and chemsex.
Science face, to consider further our
recent throwaway comment about
Solar system diplomacy
the moon looking different when
viewed between your legs (19 June). Exciting news on downbeach.com
Since then, we have been as Ventnor premieres its new solar
inundated by a message from system boardwalk. We are only
Marc Abrahams, who reminds us slightly less excited as we discover
that Atsuki Higashiyama and Kohei the Ventnor in question isn’t our
Adachi, respectively of Ritsumeikan familiar pearl of the Isle of Wight,
and Osaka universities in Japan, UK, but a spin-off in New Jersey.
received an IgNobel prize in 2016 for No matter. “Every inch on the
furthering our understanding of this boardwalk represents 100,000
phenomenon. He helpfully attaches miles,” the article informs us.
a paper entitled “Perceived size To assist our tireless subeditors
and perceived distance of targets in their metric conversion, that
viewed from between the legs: is 1 centimetre for the length a
Evidence for proprioceptive theory”. fingernail grows in about 2 billion
To precis for those currently years. The forces of reaction are
on their tea break and/or without clearly strong in Ventnor City,
a recently risen moon on their NJ, as the outer reach of its
horizon: from a typical vantage solar system remain resolutely
point, our brains see such a moon delimited by Pluto. All of which
as abnormally large, even though is rather incidental to the point
holding a forefinger up in front of it Got a story for Feedback? that piqued Michael Zehse’s
will confirm it isn’t. Our best guess as Send it to [email protected] or interest: the mention in the
to why is that our brain has standard New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES article of the position of a
size requirements for things on the Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed “NASA Solar System Ambassador”.
horizon – this moon is very close by, It turns out that there are many
so must be big, that sort of thing. of these, although sadly you must
A brief survey of the relevant volunteers positioned at a variety of new ‘n’ unusual experiential be a US citizen or Green Card
literature, including the 1982 of angles, the IgNobel-winning measurement comparisons are holder to become one. But we view
classic “The moon illusion: research provided evidence for the now doing it for the free publicity. this concept as a very good thing.
1. How high is the sky?”, confirms second hypothesis. The sight of Observing our fingernails A Ventnor bordering the balmy
that this interpretation remains England fans before their recent carefully, we see they have grown ocean lapping beneath Europa’s
controversial, not least because match with Italy adopting the by about the length of time it takes crust might have a higher sea
astronauts in orbit also report position to conduct their own lunar to read that suggestion in print. temperature and only marginally
seeing the illusion, despite having research convinces us that this is far fewer hours of sunshine than
no foreground objects on the from settled science, however. More
This means spore the English Channel original.
horizon to help generate it. research, and more tea, needed. It would be as well to maintain
The point we are – slowly – Dieter Britz writes from Åbyhøj, good diplomatic relations.
getting to is that viewing an Denmark, drawing our attention to
Nailed it
enlarged moon upside down a news item unaccountably missed
Stayin’ alive
between your legs restores Underneath our chair, we by our esteemed organ. It concerns
cosmic order, somehow changing find a recent copy of The Week the discovery of a parasitic fungus Nicola Hutchison confesses she had
our normal assumptions about magazine, which explains that bursting out of the rectum of a already donned her antiviral flares
sizes and distances and reducing lasers imprint circuits on silicon 50-million-year-old carpenter before discovering an email from
the moon to its more normal size. chips that are “just 12 nanometres ant – all, we hastily add, fossilised “New Scientist Disco” was just a
It seems this can broadly be wide, the length a fingernail and perfectly preserved in amber. truncated version of New Scientist
because our field of vision is rotated grows in 12 seconds”. We admit to passing this on Discovery Tours. As “Freedom Day”
by 180 degrees, or because our Far be it from us to exaggerate partly for the joy of typing “Åbyhøj”, in the UK fast approaches, Nicola, all
visual cues are in the wrong position our humble column’s position but also as a reminder that stories these things become possible, if not
in relation to the rest of our body. in the cosmic order, but we about the gruesome ways of wise. We note the interest, second
Through cunning application can’t help wondering with Don parasitic fungi never grow old. It’s it and bear it in mind for a later
of vision-rotating googles and Wycherley whether the purveyors an inexplicable three years since our diversification of income streams. ❚

56 | New Scientist | 17 July 2021

 CO
S A OS
SM
V E SE
2 5 RIE
% S
ON T I C
A K
Events

ET
THE COSMOS SERIES
EMMA CHAPMAN
THE FIRST STARS
Thursday 22 July 2021 6 -7pm BST, 1-2pm EDT and on-demand
The universe’s first billion years were when darkness gave way to light.
Hundreds of times the size of our sun and a million times brighter, the
very first stars burst into life – and quickly died in powerful explosions
that seeded the universe with the heavy elements we are made of.

But how exactly did all this happen, and why? In this online
talk Emma Chapman, Royal Society research fellow at Imperial
College London, explains how we’re piecing together the
fascinating mystery of the first stars.

Also included in the COSMOS series:

THE DARK MATTERS

WITH CHAMKAUR GHAG
Available now on-demand

PATTERNS THAT
EXPLAIN THE UNIVERSE
WITH BRIAN CLEGG
7 October 6-7 BST, 1-2 EDT and on-demand

For more information and to book your place visit:

newscientist.com/stars

THE COSMOS SERIES

EMMA CHAPMAN