New Scientist Magazine - News Special "CORONA VIRUS" (February 2020)

R E G I S T E R T O D AY


















































Research scientists and employers,




JOIN US AT AACR’S ANNUAL







CANCER AND BIOMEDICAL




RESEARCH CAREER FAIR



April 25, 2020 | AACR Annual Meeting 2020 | San Diego, CA




FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO SIGN UP



Visit CancerCareers.org, call 215-440-9300,
or email [email protected].
















Scientists at all levels: Employers:
Upload your CV/resume today Post Positions

Discovery

Tours































ITALY Departing:

3 March 2020
3 November 2020
Science of the 7 days for £1,825 (approx $2,319)




Renaissance






Encounter the greatest scientific minds and discoveries
on a cultural adventure across the pre-eminent cities
of Renaissance science – Florence and Bologna




Galileo Galilei and Leonardo da Vinci are just the start. This awe-inspiring
tour will take in illuminating astronomical, anatomical, architectural,
medical and mathematical perspectives as it revels in the wondrous
collections, buildings and churches of the Renaissance.

While enjoying the beautiful cities of Florence and Bologna, you will stay
in 4-star hotels and tours will be led by art and architecture expert Andrew
Spira and accompanied by scientific historian Professor David Wootton.


A life affirming experience that includes 4-star hotels, evening seminars,
flights from Heathrow (which can be changed to another airport) and
entrance to all sites and attractions.



To book call +44 207 251 0045

(UK opening hours Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm GMT) In partnership with Travel Editions
Or email [email protected]




newscientist.com/tours

The back pages



Puzzles Feedback Twisteddoodles Almost the last word The Q&A
A quick crossword, Joy of the rovers and for New Scientist How can you get flu Psychologist Suzi
a beetle problem and a puzzle puzzle: the A cartoonist’s take after vaccination? Gage on saying why
the quick quiz p52 week in weird p53 on the world p53 Readers explain p54 to drugs p56





Science of cooking Week 6

Chocolate magic





Understanding the structure of chocolate will give you mastery

over it, says Sam Wong




IF THERE is someone you would
like to impress on Valentine’s day,
this swirly chocolate slab could be
just the thing. Simply melting and
mixing the chocolates won’t do,
however. To make glossy, smooth
chocolate with a pleasing snap,
you need a little knowledge of its
chemical structure.
Sam Wong is social media The chocolate we know is a
editor at New Scientist. far cry from the astringent cocoa
Follow him @samwong1 bean from which it originates.
The cacao tree has been cultivated
in Central America for more than
What you need 3000 years. Archaeologists have

White chocolate found chemical traces of cacao on JAMES WINSPEAR
Dark chocolate pottery dating to 1600-1800 BC.
Thermometer Cocoa beans grow in large pods
Hazelnuts packed with fibrous, sugary pulp.
Coffee beans To make chocolate, the beans are Science of cooking online
Sea salt first fermented in the pulp. Bitter All projects are posted at
phenolic compounds react and newscientist.com/cooking Email: [email protected]
For next week form less bitter complexes, while
Kombu (dried kelp) enzymes in the beans break
Katsuobushi (tuna flakes) down sugars and proteins into in a dense network of compact seed the melted chocolate with the
Miso paste compounds that react more easily crystals. If chocolate melts and right kind of crystals. Keep stirring
Silken tofu in the next step: roasting. Maillard resolidifies in an uncontrolled until the temperature falls to 31 to
Spring onion reactions then produce the full, way, the molecules form loose, 32°C. Hold it at this temperature
complex flavour of chocolate. irregular crystals that result in until you are ready to use it.
The roasted beans are ground, soft, mottled, crumbly chocolate. Do the same with 300 grams of
breaking the cells into particles Tempering is a way of creating white chocolate in a separate bowl,
suspended in fat, known as the right crystalline structure. You but keep it at 27 to 28°C.
Next in the series cocoa butter. The mixture can be will need a thermometer because Line a tray with baking paper.
1 Caramelising onions turned into chocolate by adding the key is to hold the temperature Pour in the dark chocolate, then

2 Making cheese ingredients such as sugar and at 31 to 32°C, which is below the pour the white over the top. Use
3 Science of crispiness milk solids. It is then mechanically melting point of the right crystals a chopstick to make patterns and
4 Tofu and Sichuan pepper worked in a process called and above the melting point of the ensure there are no holes in the
5 Gravlax and curing conching, before being cooled wrong crystals. slab. Drop in some hazelnuts and
6 Tempering chocolate into solid bars. Break or chop 300 grams of dark coffee beans – or anything else you
7 Umami and flavour The texture of chocolate chocolate into small pieces and like – along with flakes of sea salt.
How to maximise that is determined by the crystal hold a few in reserve. Melt the rest Let it cool at room temperature
rich, savoury taste structure of the fat molecules. in a bowl over a pan of hot but not to allow the crystalline structure
8 Perfect pancakes The glossy surface and pleasing boiling water. Once it is all melted, to develop fully. Wrap up the
9 Kimchi and fermentation snap of a good bar of chocolate remove from the heat and stir in whole slab as a gift, or break it
10 Sourdough bread arise when the fat molecules align the reserved chocolate, which will into pieces.  ❚


8 February 2020 | New Scientist | 51

The back pages Puzzles






Cryptic crossword #24 Set by Wingding Quick quiz #37 Puzzle set by Rob Eastaway

1 Vitamins are organic
micronutrients essential #45 Beetles on a clothes line
to the functioning of an

organism’s metabolism. Peg beetles are a rare species with rather
How many are humans odd behaviour. As any peg beetle expert

generally considered to need? will know, these beetles always walk at
2 Which vitamin, also known 1 metre per minute, and when two beetles
as cobalamin, is essential meet, they immediately reverse direction.

to the functioning of the Six peg beetles are on a 2-metre-long
nervous system and clothes line, some walking left to right
generally only found in

animal-derived foods?
3 The synthesis of
cholecalciferol in the skin A B C D E F

on exposure to UVB
radiation is one way humans and others right to left (as the diagram
acquire which vitamin? shows). As we join the action, beetle A
is at the left-hand end of the line and
4 Which disease, with
effects on the cardiovascular walking towards the right, while beetle F
and nervous systems, is is at the right-hand end, walking left.
associated with a deficiency When a beetle reaches the end of the
of vitamin B1, or thiamine? clothes line, it drops off onto the ground.
5 A spinach, red pepper, Which two beetles will be the last
ACROSS grapefruit and parsley to drop off the clothes line, and how
1/4/16 This year, plan to get 18 Back in here, get nine smoothie would hugely long will it be before that happens?
good eyesight (6,6,6) or 10, perhaps (7) boost your intake of
4 See 1 Across 20/23 Beautiful woman which vitamin? Answer next week
9 Extreme weather damaged getting right into spiritual
a pet, cutting off its tail (7) leader and astronaut (5,7) Answers below
10 Slimy creatures have 22 Emotional, I speed (5)
information about 23 See 20 Across
Tory leader (5) 24 Two ants at sea, Quick #44 Elevator pitch
11 Space explorers initially swimming (6) crossword #50 Solution
lost in a cavity (5) 25 Drug user’s phlogiston Answers
12 Come before 2 April eradicated partially (6)
and go back (7) ACROSS 1 Eureka, 4 Itchweed, In a lift accelerating upwards, neither the
10 Cyberpunk, 11 Xylem,
13 Disappointing about 12 Dodo, 13 Meningitis, helium balloon nor the ice cube move at all.
climate activist taking time 14 Neutron, 16 Etna, The spider does move down, however.
to be around loved one (11) 19 Mons, 21 Allheal,
24 Metropolis, 25 Germ, Anything floating, as Archimedes postulated,
27 Sci-fi, 28 Parkinson,
DOWN 29 Skeleton, 30 Skidoo is subject to an upwards buoyancy force
1 Tweets annoy intermittently, 14 Distillation of additional equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.
causing muscle spasm (6) cat extremities (7) DOWN 1 Encoding, 2 Rubidium, Gravity, as Einstein explained, cannot be
2 Makes headless carnivore 15 Goya the artist hiding 3 Kirk, 5 Tektite, 6 Hexagonal, distinguished from acceleration so
stand on poles (5) under the surface (2,5) 7 Eolith, 8 Demist, everything feels heavier in the accelerating
9 Tune in, 15 Rhodolite,
3 Short sea bird eating 16 See 1 Across 17 Reversed, 18 Flamingo, lift, including the water, ice cube, helium
marsh bird in caravan (7) 17 More stupid and mad to 20 Scorpio, 21 Aviary, and air. The spider also feels heavier and
5 Grimace, seeing carbon lose second resistor (6) 22 Emesis, 23 Strike, 26 Dick so the silk it hangs from has to stretch,
in drink (5) 19/6 Developed renewed by Hooke’s law.
6 See 19 Down angle on plan to tackle
7 Spooner’s predicament: climate change (5,3,4) Quick quiz #37
money makes people 21 Gents toilet heard above, Answers
unwilling to say no (3-3) in space (5)
8 Make digital customer vitamin C as fresh orange juice has almost three times as much
pie mixture (11) 5 Vitamin C. By mass, parsley

4 Beriberi
Get in touch
3 Vitamin D
Email us at
2 Vitamin B12
Answers and the next quick crossword next week. B9, B12, C, D, E and K B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, [email protected]
[email protected]
1 Thirteen: vitamins A,
52 | New Scientist | 8 February 2020

The back pages Feedback








Beef stock weird questions that only Twisteddoodles for New Scientist
science can answer.
Prediction is difficult – especially Not the pithiest of titles,
about the future, as Niels Bohr we admit, but at least it has the
might have said (but apparently virtue of making it very plain
it is just as difficult to predict who what sort of book it is. Or so we
invented well-used aphorisms in thought, until we discovered that
the past). As such, we can safely e-commerce behemoth Amazon
assume that anyone who earns had placed the book in the
lots of money by investing in stocks “religion” category.
that go up in value must be very How did it end up there? Was
clever indeed. Or can we? A neat it the product of random chance,
experiment performed on a or intelligent design? This,
Norwegian television show and unfortunately, is not one of those
related by the Financial Times questions science can help with.
illustrates flaws in this line of
reasoning. A puzzle puzzle
The programme challenged
two stockbrokers to an investing Our attention was drawn this week
contest. Their competition? An to regular reader and puzzle solver
astrologist, two beauty bloggers extraordinaire Jim Randall. Jim has
and a herd of cows. The cows set himself a goal of solving New
chose their stocks by placing Scientist’s entire back catalogue
deposits (of the biological variety) of puzzles, and has been recording
on a grid where each square was progress on his website
assigned to a different company. (enigmaticcode.wordpress.com).
After three months, the Not only has he solved all of
stockbrokers achieved a return the puzzles in our current series,
of 7.28 per cent, marginally but he has also tackled many of our
ahead of the cows, which much-loved Enigma puzzles, which A worthy message, we are sure you McBoatface a route to victory.
managed 7.26 per cent. The ran from 1979 to 2013. Helping him would agree. It was just a shame To name its next Mars rover,
winners, however, were the in this endeavour is a mastery of that they chose to phrase it with NASA is holding a competition
beauty bloggers, whose portfolio the Python programming language, the words: “The world is now only open to students from kindergarten
went up by more than 10 per cent. which has allowed him to code his 8.6 per cent circular.” Still, at least through to 12th grade. Nine finalists
The presenters then sprang a way to easy and elegant solutions. it cheered up some flat-Earthers. were chosen from the submissions,
surprise, revealing that they had Feedback is inherently suspicious and a public vote will be only one
their own portfolio, which gained of this level of skill, and has factor in deciding the winner.
Joy of the rovers
almost 24 per cent. However, they begun to wonder whether we The final nine include a great
had actually chosen 20 different might not in fact be dealing with If we are ever visited by travellers variety of highly imaginative
combinations, and ditched the a hyperintelligent neural network from another world, we will learn names, if your idea of imaginative
worst ones. Fund managers can masquerading as a man named Jim. much about them by the name of names is restricted to abstract
use a similar strategy to inflate To get to the bottom of this, the ship they arrive in. If it is called nouns representing admirable
their performance, shutting down we might have to ask the New Vision or Clarity, we can conclude personality traits. The list looks
funds that do badly in their early Scientist puzzle editor to set that their civilisation, like ours, is like a flip chart you might find in
years so that the remainder show a riddle no machine would ruled by branding consultants. a conference room after a group
more impressive results. ever be able to solve. Any Nomenclature is a tricky business, of middle managers have been
What’s an investor to do? Well, suggestions for what such a especially for people more versed in asked to list their company’s brand
bovine-assisted stock selection fiendish conundrum could look science than art, as the astronomers values at an office away day.
appears to be as good a strategy like would be gratefully received. behind the Very Large Telescope will From Feedback’s viewpoint,
as any, but only in a bull market. attest. Inviting suggestions from the Ingenuity, Fortitude and Courage
In a bear market, head to the woods. public can be helpful, but these days serve only to highlight what is
Circular argument
administrators are careful to keep missing from the choices on offer.
Solecism of the week award goes a tight grip on the process, fearful You might call it a huge missed
Religious text
to Circle Economy, a non-profit of allowing the likes of Boaty Opportunity. ❚
There are some questions that organisation. In a recent report
science can’t answer. But there highlighting the dire state of
are others that only science can, global recycling infrastructure, Got a story for Feedback?
74 of which are answered in the it lamented the low percentage Send it to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
New Scientist book, Why Do of goods which could be said to London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
Boys Have Nipples? And 73 other be part of a truly circular economy. [email protected]


8 February 2020 | New Scientist | 53

The back pages Almost the last word









Going viral Apart from microorganisms,
does anything eat foxes?
I had my flu vaccination, then
promptly came down with a really year, it is likely that you will have a
bad case of flu three weeks later. modified illness. Although it may
How can that happen? feel like a bad case, the vaccine
may have partially protected you
Nikki Walters, from even more severe disease.
Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK
The first possibility is that perhaps Tim Lewis
it wasn’t the flu. The vaccine only Consultant chest physician,
protects against the influenza Landshipping, Pembrokeshire, UK
virus but there is a whole menu STEPHEN DALTON/NATUREPL.COM It is possible to be infected with
of possibilities when it comes to influenza virus when attending a
diseases with flu-like symptoms. crowded surgery for the injection
Secondly, even if it was and fall ill before immunity has
influenza that you had, there is a had time to develop.
chance you caught a strain that This week’s new questions
wasn’t covered by the vaccine. Anna Butcher
There are many different strains Awful eaters Foxes have the most repulsive smell, alive Brookton, Western Australia
of influenza virus, and several or dead. We often see dead foxes on our farm and they just My GP advises vaccination
can be circulating at once. decompose in situ. So, does anything eat foxes? Anna Butcher, some months ahead of the flu
Brookton, Western Australia season so that I have maximum
Jane Monroe immunity when it arrives.
Arcata, California, US The nose knows Rust doesn’t appear to release molecules
Every year, immunologists must into the air? So how does it have a smell? Hugh Cartwright, David Critchard
predict which strain, or strains, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Exeter, Devon, UK
of flu virus will dominate during Like me, my son is allergic to
flu season. This is so the correct vaccines cultured in eggs.
vaccine can be produced. Making GP, the vast majority of patients rather than those of the WHO. I decline to be vaccinated, but
this prediction is difficult, so who thought they had influenza A 2018 review by the Cochrane he is a surgeon, so is vaccinated
sometimes the vaccine doesn’t were more likely to have been Collaboration found that flu as soon as the latest one
match the virus strain that infected with a parainfluenza vaccine cuts the risk of healthy becomes available. He is
is circulating most widely. virus – which is like influenza – adults getting influenza from then ill, sometimes needing
There are multiple strains of or a rhinovirus or adenovirus, 2.3 per cent without vaccination intensive therapy unit treatment
influenza virus circulating during which both cause a cold. to 0.9 per cent with it. for up to a month.
flu season, and you may have Thirdly, it takes between two Two years ago, he was
been infected by one of those that and four weeks after having the John Philpott-Howard vaccinated and had the allergic
wasn’t included in the vaccine. vaccine for antibodies to influenza London, UK reaction. Some time afterwards,
to develop, so it is possible to get Vaccines are never 100 per cent a patient was flown in, having
Lewis O’Shaughnessy flu before you have full protection. effective in all people, although been shot in a remote region of
London, UK two doses of measles vaccine (as Pakistan, where people often go
More than 200 different viruses Michael Allen MMR) come close, giving more unvaccinated. He was patched
cause flu-like symptoms. Each has Ottawa, Ontario, Canada than 99 per cent protection. up, but my son and his colleagues
different antigens – parts of the A surveillance system developed Also, immunisation can result went down with a dangerous flu.
virus that would be targeted by by the World Health Organization in a suboptimal immune response, It hadn’t been included in that
antibodies – and so requires a attempts to identify the strains of for a variety of reasons: poor year’s vaccine. My son infected
different vaccine. On top of this, flu circulating around the world vaccine administration technique, his sister. The virus killed the
influenza viruses are able to from swabs of the nose and throat for example, or because of other baby she was carrying and
mutate rapidly, so vaccines are of patients with flu symptoms. health problems affecting your almost killed her.
only effective for a few years. The WHO then recommends immune system at the time. Even if the effects of
the strains to be included in the It is important to note that even vaccination can be unpleasant,
Rob Colebrook vaccine for the upcoming season. if you get infected by the influenza the consequences from the lack
Clee Hill, Shropshire, UK There isn’t always a good match strain that is in the vaccine that of it can be much worse. ❚
Firstly, and most importantly, a flu between the strains in the vaccine
vaccine can’t give you influenza. and those that actually cause
Secondly, unless you had a blood influenza that year. In addition, Want to send us a question or answer?
test or nasal swab to prove it, it some countries, including Email us at [email protected]
is unlikely that you actually had Australia, choose to follow Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
influenza. When I practised as a their own recommendations Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms


54 | New Scientist | 8 February 2020

Kepler’s Prague:


Music of the spheres




Departing: 14 April 2020 and 14 September 2020

6 days for £1,968 (approx $2,499)


This unique tour allows you to experience how Johannes Kepler developed his theories around
“music universalis” and planetary motion in stunning Prague, the city of a hundred spires.

In terms of achievement and courage, Kepler is considered greater than Galileo. The 12 years
he spent in Prague during the 17th century were the most productive of his life. But Europe was
still gripped by superstition, which led to conflict between politics, religion and science. That
made it a dangerous time for astronomers such as Kepler.

Accompanied by author, broadcaster and Royal Astronomical Society fellow Jane Green,
guests will discover what remains of the legacy of Kepler and his mentor Tycho Brahe, and
explore the medieval centre of Prague plus its surrounding regions.




To book call +44 207 593 2284

( UK opening hours Mon to Fri 9am-6pm GMT Sat 9am-4pm GMT)
Discovery Or email [email protected]
Tours
newscientist.com/tours





8 February 2020 | New Scientist | 55

The back pages Q&A




What’s the most exciting thing you’re working
on right now?

I’m really excited about a current project using
two groups of young people born 10 years apart to
explore changing patterns in lifestyle behaviours
and mental health in UK teenagers. Depression is on
the rise in UK teens. We’re trying to understand why,
and hopefully do more to support young people.

How has your field of study changed in the
time you have been working in it?

The national, and global, conversation about drugs
There is a lot of misinformation is changing. We are seeing cannabis decriminalised
in lots of places and it feels like the public perception
and ignorance about drugs, says of drugs has become a bit more nuanced.
psychologist Suzi Gage. She is out to
Were you good at science at school?
change that with a podcast and book Yes, but if anything, it was A level English literature

called Say Why to Drugs that helped the most for a degree in psychology.
What is the best piece of advice anyone
ever gave you?
Explain your work in one easy paragraph. God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.
I explore the relationship between recreational drug
use and mental health. It is surprisingly hard to
unpick what might cause what. We see more drug What’s the best thing you’ve read or seen
use in people with poor mental health, but is this in the past 12 months?
because drugs increase the risk, or because people Hannah Fry’s Hello World, about algorithms, and
with poor mental health are drawn to use drugs, or Luke Turner’s memoir Out of the Woods, exploring
that other factors affect the likelihood of both? sexuality and Epping Forest, among other things.

How did you end up working in this field?
When I was studying psychology at University Do you have an unexpected hobby, and if so,
College London, I took a module called “Drugs and please will you tell us about it?
the Mind”. The practical involved us taking either I play synths and have been in a number of bands,
alcohol or nitrous oxide and doing a number of including a covers band that played the music of
cognitive and fine motor tasks. I was fascinated by Goblin, a 1970s Italian horror soundtrack band.
the course, and realised, maybe for the first time, “ One of the
that different drugs can have very different effects. If you could have a conversation with any
scientist, living or dead, who would it be? most common
As a child, what did you want to be Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to get a medical
when you grew up? degree in the US. She did so after a female friend said misconceptions
An astronaut. It was the mid ‘90s and she might have suffered less with a recent illness if a is that you only
Helen Sharman was living my dream. female physician had treated her.
need to take a
Your book debunks myths about drugs. What scientific development do you hope
Why did you decide to write it? to see in your lifetime? drug like heroin
Loads of us hold misconceptions about drugs, A better understanding and treatment for dementia. once to become
including legal ones like alcohol. I made a podcast
exploring these, and the science around drugs more How useful will your skills be after the addicted”
generally, and it really took off. The book explores apocalypse?
what we know, and what we don’t, about the drugs I can knit, and I am quite good at growing vegetables.
in our lives and in our societies.
OK, one last thing: tell us something that will
What are the most common misconceptions blow our minds…
about drugs? The drug ketamine really is a horse tranquilliser,

One is that you only need to use a drug like heroin but it is also particularly useful in camel surgery.  ❚
once to become addicted to it. Another is that legal
drugs are less harmful. While it is true that there are Suzi Gage is a psychologist and epidemiologist at the
additional risks when a substance is illicit, such as University of Liverpool, UK. Her book Say Why to Drugs
dosing, drugs like alcohol and tobacco are most is out now (Hodder and Stoughton) @soozaphone
certainly not without harm. Quite the opposite. PORTRAIT: JIM MORAY


56 | New Scientist | 8 February 2020