New Scientist

FOCUS ON

CORONAVIRUS
The global picture on
vaccine hesitancy
Mistrust among Colombia’s

Indigenous peoples
Cold feet in Europe
over AstraZeneca jab

WEEKLY March 27–April 2, 2021

THE NATURE FIX

Why green space is vital for our mental health

A MONTH Science and technology news
ON MARS www.newscientist.com

What we have learned No3327 US$6.99 CAN$9.99
so far from Perseverance
PLUS HORSES PASS MIRROR TEST/
COMPUTER CHIP SHORTAGE /
TRUE COST OF AI /MONSTER WAVES

WE’RE LOOKING FOR THE

best ideas in the world
ON BEHALF OF OLDER PEOPLE

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,
was awarded the
So, to stimulate fresh efforts to tackle prize by the Right
the problems of old age, we’re offering a Honourable,
NZ$250,000 (£130,000) annual prize for Jacinda Ardern,
the world’s best discovery, development, Prime Minister
advance or achievement that enhances of New Zealand.
quality of life for older people.

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 Focus on coronavirus 41 Features
cover 8 The global picture
on vaccine hesitancy “These
36 The nature fix 10 Mistrust among Colombia’s
Why green space is vital Indigenous peoples monster
9 Cold feet in Europe waves can
for our mental health over AstraZeneca jab appear as
walls of
12 A month on Mars 16 Horses pass mirror test water up
What we have learned so 18 Computer chip shortage to 30 metres
46 True cost of AI
far from Perseverance 41 Monster waves in height”

Vol 249 No 3327
Cover image: Eiko Ojala

News News MONASH UNIVERSITY Features

14 Reverse ageing 19 iBlastoid Structure based on skin cells mimics embryo stage 36 The nature fix
How embryos escape Green spaces are essential for
the ravages of time our mental health – and they
can help biodiversity thrive too
15 Mechanical battery
Super flywheel could 41 Monsters of the sea
power US Navy railguns Rogue waves that can wreak
havoc on ships are more
17 Ebola’s return common than we thought
The Ebola virus can lie
dormant for years in survivors 46 Kate Crawford interview
before triggering outbreaks The AI expert says the tech is
exploiting people and the planet
Views
The back pages
23 Comment
Understanding perceptions of 51 Science of gardening
covid-19 in West Africa is vital, How gardeners help pollinators
says Ama de-Graft Aikins
52 Puzzles
24 The columnist Try our crossword, quick quiz
Can local honey help with and logic puzzle
hay fever, asks James Wong
54 Almost the last word
28 Letters Could we genetically engineer
Fukushima’s real impact cats that don’t kill wildlife?
was in the evacuation
56 Feedback
30 Aperture Experiential units and rhinos
Catching bats to study viruses on rails: the week in weird

32 Culture 56 Twisteddoodles
A gripping account of for New Scientist
Earth’s extinct humans Picturing the lighter side of life

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 1

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A

The leader

Cities for all

Our reinvention as an urban species demands the reinvention of urban spaces

IN 2007, give or take, came a watershed The covid-19 pandemic has driven for all beneath sprawl and the demands
of a motorised few. Attempts to reimagine
moment in the 300,000-odd-year history home the reality of those connections for cities for a greener, more sustainable,
post-covid future have been piecemeal
of Homo sapiens. For the first time, more many city dwellers. It has also highlighted and disjointed, and often shouted
down by vocal minorities with an
of us were living in urban settings than in the inequalities between socioeconomic interest in the status quo.

small communities embedded in largely groups, both in terms of access to green We are storing up trouble for ourselves.
If there is one general lesson the pandemic
natural environments. space and in the degree to which they has taught us, it is that investment up
front prevents far greater costs down the
Urbanisation has been a driver are exposed to pollution, for example. line. How we plan our cities affects not
just the health of those living in them
of human cultural and material Yet all too often urban planning pays now, but the health of billions who will
live in them in the future.
development since the first cities arose
A liveable environment must be seen as
some 6000 years ago. Yet it is becoming “The pandemic has driven home a fundamental human right. That requires
consequential decisions to be taken across
clear that city life brings with it burdens the connections between access the world to reinvent cities as spaces in
which all inhabitants can thrive. ❚
on our evolved psyches. Indeed, green to green space and our health”

spaces have been shown to be vital not

just to our physical health, but also to our only lip service to matters of human

mental health, including in alleviating health – and still less to creating

conditions such as depression, anxiety environments in which the biodiversity

and mood disorders (see page 36). They we depend on can thrive.

also help with creativity, positive social The rapidly expanding cities of Asia

interactions, healthy sleep patterns and Africa are repeating the mistakes

and much more. made in the West, subjugating liveability

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BIG IDEAS
IN PHYSICS

CARLO ROVELLI
MAKING SENSE OF
QUANTUM THEORY

Thursday 1 April 2021 6 -7pm BST/1-2pm EDT and on-demand

Quantum physics has given us many startling ideas: ghost waves, distant
objects that seem magically connected to each other, cats that are both dead
and alive. Countless experiments have led to practical applications that shape
our daily lives.Today our understanding of the world around us is based on
this theory and yet it is still profoundly mysterious.

In this talk, professor Carlo Rovelli, one
of our most celebrated scientists, will tell the
extraordinary story of quantum physics and
reveals its deep meaning: a world made of
substances is replaced by a world made of
relations, each particle responding to another
in a never ending game of mirrors.

For more information and
to book your place visit:

newscientist.com/quantumtheory

BIG IDEAS IN PHYSICS SERIES
CARLO ROVELLI

News

One recombinant
coronavirus is
circulating in Japan

he says, “these mark the first
instances of widespread
transmission of recombinants”.

Some of the other, rarer
recombinants do carry those
mutations of concern. “The real
worry with recombination is that
you recombine two lineages that
have higher transmissibility or
virulence, and that could be really
dangerous,” says VanInsberghe.

“The real worry is that you
recombine two lineages
with higher transmissibility
or virulence”

NICOLAS DATICHE/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES Since the analysis was done, the
most common recombinant has
Coronavirus recombination become even more numerous and
widespread in the US, which could
Hybrid virus is spreading be a sign of greater transmissibility,
he says. The research has yet to be
Recombinant viruses made up of two variants mashed together peer-reviewed.
are circulating widely between people, reports Graham Lawton
A separate analysis by the
VIRUSES formed by mash-ups bring recent mutations together found more than 1000 possible Walter Reed Army Institute of
of two variants of the SARS-CoV-2 in new and more dangerous recombinants. Most remain rare, Research in Maryland looked
coronavirus are now spreading combinations, although there is but two are circulating widely, one at 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes
from person to person, potentially no evidence yet of that happening. in the US, UK, Singapore, Japan collected globally up to the end of
increasing the risk of dangerous The risk of new variants is and Canada, and the other in the October 2020, when fewer variants
new variants arising. particularly concerning given US, UK, Canada and Denmark were circulating. It identified eight
many countries are seeing surges (bioRxiv, doi.org/f3bq). probable recombinants (bioRxiv,
New Scientist reported on in coronavirus cases, including doi.org/f3br).
the first detection of this kind many European nations. Neither of these two
of so-called recombination last recombinants carry mutations The paper says the circulation
month, but at that point it was In an analysis, VanInsberghe that have been flagged up as being of SARS-CoV-2 recombinants
unknown whether the resulting and his colleagues estimated that “of concern”, such as the ones seen could have “major implications,
hybrid was circulating in the wild. up to 1 in 20 of all SARS-CoV-2 in the variants first identified in especially if circulating
Two new analyses end any doubt. variants circulating in the UK and the UK, Brazil and South Africa. recombinant results in escape
“Recombinants are circulating,” US are now recombinants. The “We have no reason to believe that from both natural and vaccine
says Dave VanInsberghe at Emory team analysed over half a million the recombinants have altered induced immunity”.
University in Atlanta, Georgia. SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences transmissibility or virulence,”
from around the world and says VanInsberghe. Even so, There is precedent for this
Recombination is a potent with a different group of viruses.
source of evolutionary change in Daily coronavirus news round-up Recombination between strains
coronaviruses. It normally occurs of norovirus has been shown to
when two variants meet in one Online every weekday at 6pm GMT/BST lead to rapid escape from naturally
host cell. The worry is that it could newscientist.com/coronavirus-latest acquired immunity and new
pandemics of gastroenteritis.

For now, recombination and
regular mutation of coronavirus
variants pose similar threats, says
Sergei Pond at Temple University
in Pennsylvania, although that
could change. “[Recombination] is
not a major evolutionary driver at
this point – recombinant strains
are rare – but it will likely increase
in prominence,” he says. ❚

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 7

News Coronavirus

Public opinion

Global vaccine hesitancy declining…

People in richer nations are becoming more willing to have a covid-19 shot,
matching attitudes in poorer countries, reports Adam Vaughan

WHEN Margaret Keenan became Covid-19 vaccinations
the first person to receive a at Lichfield Cathedral
covid-19 vaccine outside a trial in Staffordshire, UK
last December, she was among the
7 in 10 people surveyed globally OLI SCARFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Daniel Freeman at the University
who said they would be willing to of Oxford and his colleagues
receive a dose. But the significant help society.’ Others say, ‘This is Nevertheless, the suspensions found that 16.6 per cent of people
minority unwilling to have a great, we can go for dinner if we’re will alter public attitudes, says in the UK were very unsure about
vaccine led public health experts all vaccinated.’ We need to reach Lazarus. “We needed to investigate, getting a vaccine and 11.7 per cent
to worry about how such people on all levels,” says Lazarus. but we didn’t need to suspend use.” were strongly hesitant. Now,
hesitancy might hamper efforts he says, based on unpublished
to achieve herd immunity. Recent studies showing the In the UK, vaccine hesitancy data from 15,000 people surveyed
impressive real-world safety and has receded as the country’s rapid between January and February,
The good news is that with effectiveness of vaccines may also vaccine roll-out continues, with things are looking better.
more than 400 million people help assuage some people. Before nearly 28 million people now
around the world having received roll-outs began, these were two of having received at least one dose. “There has been a noticeable
at least one dose of a vaccine, the most commonly cited reasons increase in vaccine acceptance
attitudes are changing. for vaccine hesitancy. Last September and October, in the UK since the vaccination
programme began, which is
One survey, which included In some places, however, there really positive,” says Freeman.
Japan and the UK, found that in is a risk that willingness to be
11 of 14 high-income countries, the vaccinated is set back by the halt Figures vary depending on the
number of people who “strongly in use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca survey, but one data set shows that
agreed” they would get vaccinated vaccine in several countries over the share of people in the UK who
increased by at least 9 percentage blood clotting fears (see “…but have received a vaccine already or
points between November 2020 Europeans get cold feet amid who would take a vaccine if offered
and last month. Seven of these vaccine controversy”, right). stood at 93 per cent in early March,
countries saw a rise of at least up from 78 per cent in December,
20 percentage points. The European Medicines according to the UK’s Office for
Agency concluded last week that National Statistics (ONS).
Meanwhile, the proportion of the vaccine’s benefits outweigh
their population who “strongly the risk of side effects, sparking “That is really good,” says
disagreed” with getting a vaccine many countries to resume its use. Helen Bedford at the UCL Great
dropped or stayed stable. None of Ormond Street Institute of Child
the surveyed countries saw a rise AstraZeneca has also since Health in London. She thinks a
in unwillingness to get vaccinated. published promising safety combination of factors are shifting
and efficacy results from human views. “When you start seeing
The survey also found that trials in the US, in which no risk
the number of people who were of blood clots was reported. Share of survey respondents who would definitely get
worried about side effects fell or a covid-19 vaccine if available
remained constant in all nations
over the same period. UK 20 40 60 80 100
Denmark Percentage of respondents
“It’s been exciting to see people Sweden
are seeing this vaccine can get us Netherlands
out of this situation,” says Jeffrey
Lazarus at the University of Italy
Barcelona in Spain. He says the Norway
dial on attitudes may be shifted Germany
again by new incentives, such as Canada
the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention recently advising Spain
that some vaccinated people in the Australia
US can mix in households without
face masks or social distancing. Japan
South Korea
“People are human, they need
incentives. Some people say, Singapore
‘I’ll save my life, save my family, US

France

0

SOURCE: OUR WORLD IN DATA/IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON YOUGOV COVID-19 BEHAVIOUR TRACKER DATA HUB – 17 MARCH 2021

8 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Roll-out suspensions

…but Europeans get cold feet
amid vaccine controversy

Layal Liverpool

your family members being THE short-lived suspensions of YouGov poll published this week. administered around 13 doses
immunised and they’re absolutely the Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 “I am afraid that this will of a covid-19 vaccine per
fine, that’s reassurance,” she says. vaccine by several European 100 people as of 20 March,
countries over fears of blood have a disastrous impact,” says compared with 36 in the US,
However, Bedford notes that clotting may have increased Caroline Goujon at Montpellier 44 in the UK and 112 in Israel.
the ONS figures show that young vaccine hesitancy, just as a third Infectious Disease Research
women are more hesitant to wave of infections hits Europe. Institute in France, just when full Scepticism around vaccines
receive a vaccine than their acceptance from the population in general is prevalent in Europe.
male peers. People from ethnic In mid-March, several is needed “more than ever”. A 2016 survey of 65,819 people
minorities also appear less willing countries, including Germany, across 67 countries found that
to have one. A study of 19,000 France, Italy and Spain, Coronavirus cases are rising seven of the 10 countries with
healthcare workers in England suspended the vaccine’s use in much of Europe. “We have now the least confidence in vaccine
found that 36.8 per cent of black pending investigations into seen three consecutive weeks safety were in Europe. France had
staff were vaccinated compared isolated cases of bleeding and the highest level of scepticism
with 70.9 per cent of white workers. blood clots. Many countries have “People are desperate to with regard to vaccine safety
since resumed their roll-outs get their normal lives back of all the countries surveyed.
While the hesitancy among after the European Medicines and vaccinations are seen
young women is a surprise to Agency concluded that the as the way to achieve this” The picture is similar for
Bedford, she says the difference vaccine was safe and effective. covid-19 vaccines. A survey
by ethnicity was predictable since of growth in covid-19 cases in February found that just
there has been a similar trend However, trust in the vaccine with over 1.2 million new 40 per cent of people in France
with previous vaccination has waned in the European cases reported last week across said they would take one.
programmes. She says more Union. More than half of people Europe,” said Hans Kluge at the
preparation should have been in France, Germany and Spain World Health Organization during France has a history of
done to have trusted local leaders surveyed during the latest a press conference on 18 March. negative attitudes around vaccine
and healthcare workers change controversy believe that the safety and mistrust in health
minds in some communities. Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine The rate at which people in the authorities. In the 1990s, it was
is unsafe – an increase from EU are being vaccinated is lagging revealed that French government
One bright spot comes in February – according to a far behind those in the US, UK officials had knowingly
the world’s poorer countries. and Israel. The EU as a whole had distributed blood products that
On average, 80.3 per cent of people were infected with HIV. In 1998,
in 10 low and middle-income NATHAN LAINE/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES France temporarily banned a
countries said they would have hepatitis B vaccine due to isolated
a covid-19 vaccine when it became cases of multiple sclerosis. An
available, according to a study of investigation found no causal
46,000 people, surveyed between link, but concerns lingered.
June 2020 and January this year.
That is a much greater proportion Vaccine controversies have
than in some high-income led to almost one in four family
countries, such as the 64.6 per doctors in France believing that
cent willing to get one in the US. some vaccines recommended by
French authorities aren’t useful.
The average acceptance
across the 10 countries masked Nevertheless, a third wave of
differences ranging from 66.5 per lockdowns may change attitudes.
cent in Burkina Faso and Pakistan Naveed Sattar at the University
to 96.6 per cent in Nepal. “I think of Glasgow, UK, suspects that
it’s good news, conditional on hesitancy about coronavirus
getting people to follow through vaccines will be outweighed
with their intention,” says Mushfiq by the desire to see restrictions
Mobarak at Yale University, an eased. “People are desperate to
author on the study. “For the get their normal lives back and
remainder, the data gave us vaccinations are seen as the best
some clues on the sort of way to achieve this,” he says. ❚
messaging we should highlight.
[It is] telling us they’re concerned A covid-19 vaccine recovery
about safety and efficacy.” ❚ area at Jean-Pierre Rives
sports centre in Paris, France

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 9

News Coronavirus

Colombia’s Indigenous communities

Mistrust over vaccine roll-out

A lack of government communication is fuelling vaccine hesitancy in Colombia’s Indigenous groups

Daniel Henryk Rasolt

AS COVID-19 vaccines begin to they will bring covid-19 with them. designated as high-priority groups. which is necessary for building
arrive in the Andean highlands trust, says Montoya.
in Colombia, Maria Pito, a leader Colombia has almost 2 million Communication is also an issue.
of the Nasa people, is reluctant In the Sierra Nevada de Santa
to receive one. “As a nurse, I will Indigenous people. It is a prime “The biggest problem is a lack of Marta in northern Colombia, the
be required by the clinic where 30,000-plus Arhuaco people are
I work to be vaccinated but if I example of the obstacles facing respectful information sharing, taking a pragmatic approach to
had the choice, I would not take the vaccines. They have made the
it and would continue to rely on vaccine roll-outs in Indigenous and the government not including collective decision to remain
traditional medicine,” she says. isolated in the mountains during
“I and many others don’t trust communities in South America. Indigenous communities in the the first phases of vaccine roll-out,
this untransparent government.” after which they will decide
The Colombian Amazon is an decision-making processes,” whether or not to be vaccinated.
Her distrust echoes the feeling
of many Indigenous people in the area of notable concern, especially says Pablo Montoya, director For Brazil’s approximately
region, even though they belong 900,000 Indigenous people,
to one of the demographics most along the border with Brazil. of Colombian NGO Sinergias. vaccine scepticism is less
vulnerable to covid-19. prevalent than in Colombia,
Colombia’s Amazonas department “What we are proposing to with many scientists and
Many are choosing to use Indigenous leaders demanding
traditional medicines and well- has registered one death from the Colombian government that Indigenous communities
established isolation tactics to be prioritised for vaccines.
prevent the spread of coronavirus. covid-19 per every 434 inhabitants, and Indigenous authorities is a
“The situation with these new Elsewhere, where Indigenous
vaccines is complicated, and we the highest rate in the country. groups have been consulted in
have very little information about vaccine roll-out, acceptance has
them,” says Marcelino Noé, a Estimates suggest that Indigenous “Illegal miners, loggers and been higher. In Canada, for
Tikuna leader from the Caña Brava instance, the government has
Indigenous community near people living in rural parts of the smugglers have become included Indigenous leaders and
Tarapaca, Colombia. “We must doctors in vaccine planning and
protect our elders, but we prefer Colombian Amazon are 2.5 times emboldened, and could distribution, leading to a wide
to trust our traditional medicines.” acceptance of vaccines by
more likely to die from covid-19 bring covid-19 with them” Indigenous communities. ❚
This approach, which has
been supported for decades by than the general population.
intercultural organisations, may
not be enough in this situation. In response to the P.1 variant respectful two-step strategy for

There are several reasons why first seen in Brazil, the Colombian Indigenous vaccine roll-out,” he
Indigenous people in the region
may be particularly vulnerable government has prioritised the says. In an initial consultation,
to covid-19. Though there is great
diversity between groups, many border regions of the Amazon for communities would have their
share the characteristics of a
community-based way of life. the first phase of the national questions answered by an
They may also lack access to basic
health services, clean water, food vaccine roll-out, which began at intercultural team. Then, if they
security or electricity. In the
Amazon, illegal miners, loggers the end of February. But it will agree, a second team would
and smugglers have become
emboldened since Indigenous focus on urban areas. The region’s vaccinate the community with
communities went into isolation
early last year, posing a risk that 64 Indigenous Peoples, who the one-dose Johnson & Johnson

haven’t been consulted on the vaccine. It is the government’s

roll-out and may in some cases responsibility to gain informed

refuse the vaccines, aren’t consent with Indigenous groups,

REUTERS/BRUNO KELLY

Covid-19 vaccination takes
place in an Indigenous
community in Manaus, Brazil

10 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

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News

Space exploration

A view from Mars’s surface…

The Perseverance rover has sent back pictures and audio, and zapped some rocks

Leah Crane

SINCE NASA’s Perseverance rover of audio as it drove around on NASA/JPL-CALTECH
landed on Mars on 18 February, Mars on 7 March.
it has been doing as much research Rover tracks in the Martian will be to test Ingenuity, the
as it can during the testing phase “If I heard these sounds driving dirt after Perseverance small helicopter that the rover
of its scientific instruments. my car, I’d pull over and call for drove around on 4 March carried to Mars in its belly. For
That has involved driving short a tow,” said Dave Gruel at JPL in that, Perseverance will drop
distances and taking pictures of a statement. “But if you take a have volcanic rocks that were Ingenuity off, drive a short
the rocks near the landing site. minute to consider what you’re once covered by the lake that distance away and attempt to
hearing and where it was recorded, used to fill the crater. take a video of the helicopter
“So far, all of this has it makes perfect sense.” as it lifts into the Martian air.
been going exceedingly well,” One of the images taken
However, one of the high- during testing even showed a After Ingenuity’s test flights,
“If I heard sounds like pitched scratching noises in the Martian dust devil – a rotating which are expected to happen
these while I was driving recordings was unexpected and column of dust – moving across this spring, the rover will be free
my car, I’d pull over and NASA engineers are now trying the surface. These are common to drive further afield and begin
call for a tow” to figure out what is causing it. on Mars – most of the spacecraft its science phase in earnest. At
we have sent there, including the that point, it will begin searching
said Ken Farley at NASA’s Perseverance has also Viking landers in the 1970s, have for signs of ancient life and take
Jet Propulsion Laboratory zapped several of the rocks spotted them at some point. samples to be returned to Earth
(JPL) in California, during a near its landing site with its by a mission planned for 2026.  ❚
presentation at the virtual laser to determine their chemical Perseverance’s next major task
Lunar and Planetary Science compositions. They are similar
Conference on 16 March. “We’ve to basaltic rocks on Earth, and
had no major technical issues.” some of them also appear to
have water locked up in their
The rover’s first drive on molecular structure.
4 March – which lasted 33 minutes
and covered about 6.5 metres – Many of the nearby rocks
demonstrated that it can, in fact, contain visible holes, some of
rove, and the other tests are going which were probably bored by
smoothly as well, he said. wind, whereas others may have
been sculpted by flowing water.
Perseverance has a microphone,
which has allowed us to hear All of these findings are exactly
the Red Planet for the first time. what scientists expected. Basalts
It recorded more than 16 minutes form from molten rock and we
knew that Jezero crater, where
Perseverance landed, ought to

Geology

...and a deeper look that skim near the surface and Using that time difference This may mean that Mars’s
to measure the size travel in a relatively straight line and the directions from which the interior is richer in relatively light
of its molten core between the quake and the lander, various waves arrived, the team elements, such as oxygen, than
and those that bounce around calculated that Mars’s core has researchers had realised.
WE ARE starting to understand within the planet before reaching a radius of about 1810 to 1860
Mars’s heart. NASA’s InSight lander the detectors. It records the kilometres, said Simon Stähler “So far we did not peer into the
has used seismic waves bouncing intensity of the waves in a graph at the Swiss Federal Institute of core itself, but now we know where
around the interior of the planet to called a seismogram. Technology in Zurich. He presented in the seismogram to look,” said
measure the size of its molten core. this work on 18 March at the Stähler. “On top of that, we can
The InSight team found that virtual Lunar and Planetary search for signs of a potential,
Since landing on Mars in 2018, many of the records of marsquakes Science Conference. if unlikely, solid inner core.”
InSight has measured more than included a set of seismic waves
500 marsquakes, most of them with a shape that suggested they That size is at the high end of However, all of the InSight
relatively small. When these quakes bounced off the boundary between the range of estimates calculated lander’s measurements so far
occur, the lander measures two the planet’s mantle and its core. in previous work, which implies are consistent with previous
types of seismic waves – those These arrived about 500 seconds that the core may be less dense studies that suggest the core
after the first surface tremors. than we thought, Stähler said. is entirely molten. ❚
Leah Crane

12 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Discovery
Tours

Italy | 8 days | 6 September 2021

Hidden science of the
Dolomite mountains

A gentle outdoors tour through the UNESCO - Visit the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology BOOKNIONWG
World Heritage Site of the Dolomite Mountains with Laura, where Ötzi the caveman and his
that investigates several scientific phenomena artefacts are exhibited. Ötzi is Europe’s oldest
including what glacial recession reveals about known natural human mummy.
our history. From Otzi the Neolithic caveman to
the World War 1 high altitude trench remains - Explore the South Tyrol Museum of Nature
at Marmolada with writer and journalist Laura and see detailed exhibits on the geology of
Spinney. Plus, the tour reveals the Dolomites the Dolomites and the emergence and
fascinating geological and ecological stories developments of its habitats after its early
including the Geoparc Bletterbach and the Ritten beginnings as a tropical ocean with coral
earth pyramids. The tour covers several reefs and volcanoes.
museums, stays in four-star hotels throughout
and starts with an exploration of Venice. - Study the deep-time history of the region
at the Geological Museum of the Dolomites,
Highlights that features geological collections consisting
of more than 11,000 specimens, including
- Visit the stunning glacial trenches by cable the richest collection of invertebrate fossils
car at the Museum of the Great War, sat atop of the middle-Triassic period in Italy.
Marmaloda, the Queen of the Dolomites.
- Explore the Ice Age in the Dolomites in the
- A guided tour of Venice in Saint Mark’s Square. impressive gorge at Geoparc Bletterbach.
Hear stories about the medieval Doge’s Palace
and the Bridge of Sighs, and admire the breath - Enjoy wine tasting experience and learn about
taking gilded mosaics and shining treasures of wine production from practicing experts.
Saint Mark’s Basilica.
Covid-19 safety
- Travel to the small town of Ripa where protocol includes:
you will visit Juval Castle which can be traced
back to 1278, home of part of the Messner - Pre-departure screening of all guests
Mountain Museum. and tour leaders.

- Visit the Helmut Ullrich Astronomical - Increased sanitisation of all accommodation In partnership with
Observatory at 1770 meters above sea-level and transport. Travel Editions
for a private viewing.
- Mandatory use of PPE where appropriate.

For more information visit newscientist.com/tours

News

Biology

How embryos reverse ageing

The aged cells of parents produce biologically young offspring – now we know how

Claire Ainsworth

WE NOW know how a developing begins earlier, when does it to track ageing in cells and tissues. of a similar pattern at work,
embryo reverses signs of ageing actually begin?” says Vadim Gladyshev and his colleagues although ethical restrictions on
and appears younger than the Gladyshev at Brigham and growing human embryos beyond
fertilised egg from which it arose. Women’s Hospital in Boston. looked at these epigenetic changes 14 days in the lab mean the team
The finding suggests that in cells and tissues from the start was unable to study every stage
embryos are able to rejuvenate, Age-related damage manifests of mouse development. The team of development (see page 19).
which could lead to ways of as changes to patterns of chemical found that this measure of ageing
reversing age-related diseases. marks – known as methylation – began to decrease when the early The discovery points to a
on the DNA in the genomes embryo formed into a hollow ball rejuvenation mechanism that
One of life’s great mysteries of cells. These “epigenetic called a blastocyst and reached its rolls back ageing to a minimal
is how aged parents produce clocks” correlate reliably with lowest point after it had implanted point from which a new individual
youthful offspring. Our cells chronological age and can be used in the uterus. It then increased can begin life, says Gladyshev.
show signs of age as a result of again as development progressed
the accumulation of damage A human blastocyst in (bioRxiv, doi.org/f282). Ageing can also be reversed
wrought by the environment the uterus three days in adult cells by reprogramming
and the body’s metabolism, after fertilisation The team also looked at data on them into more immature cells
and yet the eggs or sperm that human embryos, and found signs known as pluripotent stem cells.
our bodies make can combine However, this also makes the
to produce a baby biologically LENNART NILSSON, TT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY cells lose their specialised adult
younger than its parents. functions, making it less useful
as a way to repair age-related
This has led biologists to damage. Gladyshev hopes that
suggest that the germline, the further study will help reveal
cells that give rise to eggs and whether it is possible to separate
sperm and which carry genes these two processes.
down successive generations,
are immune to ageing. But “This observation is exciting,
recent research shows that not since it hints at a potential,
only does the germline age, but naturally occurring rejuvenation
that ageing starts even as embryos that resets the biological time of
develop in the uterus, much germ cells during the first days
sooner than we thought. of development,” says Juan Carlos
Izpisúa Belmonte at the Salk
“Then the question is, if ageing Institute in La Jolla, California. ❚

Marine biology

Male toadfish while “sneaker” males creep into collected plainfin midshipman eggs sneaker male fluids (Proceedings of
protect eggs with the egg-filled nests and try to steal from 18 healthy and 19 infected the Royal Society B, doi.org/f29k).
antibacterial fluid fertilising opportunities. Both types broods and cultured bacteria from
have so-called accessory organs, both. The researchers then applied The researchers also profiled
MALE plainfin midshipman toadfish an outgrowth of the testes, that are fluids from the accessory organs the molecules within the fluid and
produce an antibacterial fluid that known to help sperm competition of 24 guarders and 12 sneakers found they didn’t match known
keeps the eggs in their care healthy. by producing nutrients to make the to the different cultured bacteria. antibacterial agents, meaning the
sperm swim faster. But guarder fluids contained a novel bacteria-
Plainfin midshipman (Porichthys male accessory organs grow during They found the fluids prevented killing chemical. “It’s a mystery how
notatus) live in the deep sea of the mating season while the sneakers’ the growth of bacteria cultured from they’re producing this,” says team
eastern Pacific, but come to shore shrink, which is the opposite of unhealthy eggs, but not of bacteria member Meghan Pepler, also at
to mate. Males build nests in the what we would expect if they were cultured from healthy eggs. What’s McMaster University.
intertidal zone for females to lay solely to aid sperm competition. more, guarder male fluids were
eggs in, although the microbe-rich three times more potent at this than Balshine suggests the accessory
water means eggs can become Now it seems the accessory organs aid parental care by
infected with bacteria. organs also help protect the “The molecules in the producing an antibacterial fluid
eggs from bacterial infection. male toadfish fluid that helps protect the eggs from
Males come in two types: didn’t match known harmful bacteria while allowing
“guarder” males look after the eggs, Sigal Balshine at McMaster antibacterial agents” harmless bacteria to survive. ❚
University in Canada and her team Ibrahim Sawal

14 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021





Technology Evolution

Mechanical battery could Llamas and alpacas
power US Navy lasers carry genes from
‘ghost’ relatives
David Hambling
Michael Marshall
Railguns could
potentially run on DOMESTIC alpacas and llamas
mechanical batteries carry DNA from an extinct “ghost”
population of their wild relatives.
and he has a 10 kilowatt-hour
The origins of today’s
prototype charged by rooftop domestic llamas (Lama glama)
and alpacas (Vicugna pacos)
solar panels that powers his are mysterious, says Paloma
Fernández Diaz-Maroto at the
whole house at night. University of Copenhagen in
Denmark. Domestication had
U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY JOHN F. WILLIAMS Gajjar says the flywheel is a begun by 7000 years ago, but
the details are disputed.
simple mechanical device and
This is partly because the
no rare materials are needed domestic species may have
derived from one of two wild
to make it, so it could be mass- South American camelid species:
guanacos (Lama guanicoe),
produced at low cost. Chemical which live in many habitats, and
vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna), which
batteries become less efficient only live high up in the mountains.

after a few hundred charge/ For a clearer picture of what
happened, Diaz-Maroto and her
discharge cycles, but this battery colleagues obtained mitochondrial
DNA from the remains of 61 ancient
shows no deterioration after camelids from northern Chile, dated
from 3500 to 2400 years ago.
THE US Navy has a mechanical president of Vishwa Robotics. tens of thousands of cycles and
battery based on spinning Mitochondrial DNA is only
flywheels, which store energy Specially created bearings make should last for decades, he says. inherited from the mother, so it
as they spin and can discharge can reveal the female family line.
it in a quick burst when stopped. the unit more efficient and Keith Pullen at City University
It could be used to power laser They studied the ancient DNA
weapons or railguns, or even economical. Gajjar says the of London says mechanical and also DNA from modern llamas,
to store energy for homes. alpacas, guanacos and vicuñas.
design stores more energy than batteries seem a good fit for
Generators provide sustained Llama and alpaca mitochondrial
power, but can’t be cranked up a lithium-ion battery of the applications requiring sudden DNA was most similar to that of
for short bursts of high power. guanacos. This suggests that llamas
For that, the US Navy currently same weight, and can release bursts of power. He is doubtful and alpacas were domesticated
uses banks of lithium-ion from ancient female guanacos.
batteries, which can discharge it faster with no thermal risk.
rapidly but pose risks: they But the results also show llamas
contain hazardous materials The prototype 5-kilowatt “Flywheels can be and alpacas carry some ancient
and are prone to catching fire. guanaco DNA that doesn’t match
Batteries also don’t work well mechanical battery is a disc safer than chemical that from any present-day guanaco
at high and low temperatures. populations. That suggests it comes
just 25 centimetres across, and batteries if they are from a “ghost” guanaco population
To address these problems, that has gone extinct in the recent
researchers at Vishwa Robotics many can be stacked to power properly engineered” past (eLife, doi.org/f287).
in Massachusetts and the
Massachusetts Institute of more energy-intensive However, the male ancestors
Technology have designed a of today’s llamas and alpacas
mechanical battery that uses an weapons, such as lasers to about them producing greater may have included vicuñas.
array of flywheels set in a box. A 2020 study of present-day
Flywheels can’t usually compete counter drones, says Gajjar. energy than lithium-ion camelid nuclear DNA – which is
with chemical batteries on inherited both paternally and
energy storage, but this battery “Currently available energy batteries by weight, though. maternally – found that alpacas
has some innovative features. have a lot of vicuña DNA. ❚
conversion and storage devices The Navy’s primary goal is
For a start, it is a collection 27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 15
of smaller units rather than that can power such long-range, better safety than chemical
a single large flywheel. “By
making the dimensions smaller, drone-killer weapon systems batteries, although there have
each cell can be spun much
faster,” says Bhargav Gajjar, have two problems. They are been notable flywheel accidents

made with explosive chemicals in the past where flying debris

and they are very bulky,” he says. or flywheels that came loose

Software monitors the have injured people. “But

mechanical battery, drawing they are safer than chemical

power from different wheels batteries if they are properly

to match demand. Gajjar says it engineered,” says Pullen.

is also suitable for domestic use, The US Navy awarded a

two-year contract for the

This mechanical battery, which will

mechanical include testing its performance

battery, based and safety. It will be evaluated

on a spinning for supplying power not just

VISHWA ROBOTICS flywheel, can for weapons, but for sensors

deliver short and propulsion, for example

bursts of in uncrewed submarines

high power and as backup power. ❚

News

Genetics

A DNA replication mystery

One microbe is missing genes we thought were vital for reproduction

Michael Marshall

AT FIRST sight, it shouldn’t be To copy DNA, the
enzymes helicase (red)
alive: a single-celled organism and polymerase (blue)
are usually needed
that lacks most of the molecular

equipment needed to copy DNA.

Duplicating DNA is

fundamental to reproduction, mechanism for starting DNA
replication, says Salas-Leiva.
so DNA replication systems were
Organisms have repair
thought to be present in all non- EQUINOX GRAPHICS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY mechanisms to copy DNA if
a section of the genome gets
parasitic species with complex damaged or lost. Salas-Leiva
and her colleagues think that
cells. But it seems they aren’t. C. membranifera may have
cobbled them together with
“I was astonished,” says other proteins to copy the
entire genome – although this
Dayana Salas-Leiva at Dalhousie might lead to a lot of mistakes
during replication.
University in Halifax, Canada. The
“It’s plausible,” says Hawkins.
unusual microbe, Carpediemonas “I think each step has been shown
somewhere else in a different
membranifera, must have a species.” The next task will be to
find out if this is really happening
mechanism for copying its DNA in C. membranifera cells.

that is unknown to science. The lack of the standard DNA
replication system isn’t the
Although C. membranifera they had failed to sequence the polymerases, the enzymes that only oddity about the microbe.
copy one strand of DNA to make C. membranifera is missing
is a single-celled organism, genome thoroughly enough, a new one. But the cell must also proteins that help move DNA
“decide” which sections of DNA around when cells divide so
it is a eukaryote, so its cell is so they spent a year redoing the need copying. This is done by that both new cells get copies
six proteins that form the origin of every gene. It is unclear how
large and complex like those work. “To this day, I cannot get recognition complex (ORC), plus the organism copes. “We are very
another protein called Cdc6. All perplexed,” says Salas-Leiva. ❚
of animals and plants. It lives those genes,” says Salas-Leiva. are missing in C. membranifera.

in low-oxygen sediments. “It’s such a textbook thing,
that eukaryotes have ORC,”
As part of a general study of “The microbe must says Michelle Hawkins at the
University of York, UK. “To find
the microbe’s biology, Salas-Leiva have a mechanism for something that doesn’t have it,
that’s cool.”
and her colleagues sequenced its copying its DNA that
The most likely explanation is
genome. They were baffled to find is unknown to science” that C. membranifera has another

several genes missing, including

some that code for the proteins “They sequenced the genome

that start DNA replication of this organism really well and

(bioRxiv, doi.org/f292). Until now, really deeply,” says Vladimír

all free-living eukaryotes that have Hampl at Charles University in

been sequenced have had these. the Czech Republic. “I believe it.”

The researchers wondered if C. membranifera does have

Animal behaviour

Mirror test hints that Initially, all the horses treated reflection – with an “X”. At first, they species, including elephants and
horses can recognise their reflection as though it were used transparent gel, but they later magpies. But Gordon Gallup at
themselves another horse to play or fight added colour to the gel to make it the University at Albany in New
with. But most horses later stand out against the horse’s skin. York, the developer of the mirror
HORSES seem to recognise changed their behaviour and self-recognition test, disagrees
themselves in mirrors, and they may began investigating, says Baragli. When the X marks were coloured, with the findings of this study.
even use the information in their the horses stood in front of the
reflection to recognise if their face Eleven of the horses checked mirror rubbing their faces with their “None of the horses
is dirty and needs wiping clean. behind the mirror and watched legs for five times longer than when spontaneously used the mirror to
their reflections as they moved their the X marks were transparent. investigate parts of their bodies that
Paolo Baragli at the University heads around. Some even stuck Baragli thinks the horses recognised could not be seen without a mirror,”
of Pisa, Italy, and his colleagues put out their tongues at the reflection. from their reflection that they had he says. Without this self-directed
a large standing mirror in an indoor something on their own faces behaviour, Gallup says the team’s
arena and let 14 horses loose, The researchers then used (Animal Cognition, doi.org/f2zk). face-marking test “is like putting
one at a time, in the open space. medical ultrasound gel to mark the cart before the horse”.  ❚
the 11 horses’ cheeks – which Self-recognition has already Christa Lesté-Lasserre
horses can’t see except in a been detected in a few other

16 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Space exploration Infectious diseases

The asteroid Ryugu Ebola may linger in body
barely reacted when and trigger new outbreak
we bombed it
Layal Liverpool
Leah Crane
DEADLY Ebola virus has hit the people who survived could In addition to semen,
IN 2019, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 Guinea again and the outbreak still harbour the virus years Ebola can also persist in other
spacecraft shot the asteroid appears to have been sparked by later and pass it on to others. “immune-privileged” sites in
Ryugu with a 2.5-kilogram lump of a person who was first infected the body – those parts that are
copper to create an artificial crater. during an epidemic there five “What does that mean for difficult for the immune system
Scientists expected this to shake the years ago. This suggests Ebola [Ebola virus disease] survivors?” to reach – such as cerebrospinal
ground, but its effect was far milder. can persist in survivors and be says Magassouba. He fears the fluid in the central nervous
a source of future outbreaks. new findings will worsen the system or fluid inside the eye
Images from Hayabusa 2 have existing stigmatisation of called the vitreous humour.
shown that the surface of Ryugu Recent preliminary analyses these people.
has fewer small craters than of viral genome sequences by The first known Ebola virus
expected for an asteroid of its size, N’Faly Magassouba at the Gamal Researchers already knew outbreak was in the Democratic
which probably indicates that dust Abdel Nasser University of that Ebola could persist in the Republic of the Congo in 1976,
is being moved somehow to fill in Conakry in Guinea and his body for a long time, but five but the 2013-2016 outbreak in
those craters. Asteroids don’t have colleagues, along with other years is unprecedented, says West Africa was much larger,
atmospheres, so the primary research teams, revealed that which could explain why more
suspect to explain this movement the virus responsible for the new 1976 cases of persistent infections in
has been the ground shaking due cases hardly differs from the survivors have been detected
to small impacts from other space strain that caused the previous Year of the first known in recent years. It might be that
rocks that produce seismic epidemic. This indicates the this is relatively rare, so it is only
waves – a sort of asteroid-quake. virus may have lain dormant in Ebola virus outbreak becoming apparent now that
someone who caught it in 2016. there are more survivors, says
Were that the case, rocks around Muñoz-Fontela. In 2016, a Muñoz-Fontela.
the site where the copper impactor “This is very surprising and resurgence of the 2013-2016
hit Ryugu should have been moved very shocking,” says César epidemic in Guinea was traced Another possibility, he says,
by the impact, but they weren’t, said Muñoz-Fontela at the Bernhard back to a survivor who shed the is that viral persistence is an
Gaku Nishiyama at the University Nocht Institute for Tropical virus in their semen for at least inadvertent consequence of
of Tokyo in a virtual presentation Medicine in Germany, who was 531 days after first becoming an increased availability of
at the Lunar and Planetary Science in Guinea during the earlier infected, and transmitted it to treatments. “Now we have
Conference on 15 March. epidemic. “It’s like a relapse.” their partner. [treatments] that can save
people [who] in the past were
Comparing images of the area There were 28,646 reported It is possible that the virus impossible to save – and when
before and after the impactor hit, cases from 2013 to 2016 when behind the current outbreak you have persons with that
Nishiyama’s team found that the Ebola hit West Africa and 11,323 in Guinea may have persisted amount of virus in the blood,
rocks had moved less than 1 metre. reported deaths. These new in a person’s body before being the treatment itself may push
Seismic waves produced by the lump findings indicate that some of transmitted in a similar way, the virus to these immune-
of copper must therefore have been says Muñoz-Fontela. privileged sites,” he says.
far weaker than expected. What’s
more, Hayabusa 2’s images of CAROL VALADE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Screening for persistent
Ryugu revealed that, in many places Ebola virus infections and
on the asteroid, there are small vaccinating the contacts of
boulders stacked atop larger ones, Ebola virus disease survivors
which wouldn’t be possible if the could help to protect people
ground shook regularly. The team and prevent future outbreaks,
calculated that Ryugu must be good says Magassouba, although
at diffusing seismic waves – about availability of vaccines could be
100 times better than our moon. a limiting factor. As of 16 March,
there had been 18 cases and
That is probably because the nine deaths in the new outbreak
dust grains on Ryugu are larger in Guinea, with 366 contacts
than those on the moon, allowing of cases identified and
them to scatter energy from seismic 3332 people vaccinated. ❚
waves much more efficiently.
Nevertheless, something must be Ebola vaccine is
erasing the small craters on Ryugu given to people in
and if the culprit isn’t impact- Guéckédou, Guinea
induced asteroid-quakes, the dearth
of small craters remains a mystery.  ❚

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 17

News

Briefing Space

What is causing the global Satellite set to
shortage of computer chips? grab orbiting junk
with magnets
Matthew Sparkes
Leah Crane
COMPUTER chips needed for
everything from fridges to A NEW way of capturing space
cars are in short supply just as junk using magnets is set to be
demand has skyrocketed, and demonstrated for the first time.
a perfect storm of problems With the number of space launches
may keep the shortage going. dramatically increasing in recent
years, the potential for a disastrous
Why are there chip shortages? VLADIMIR GERDO\TASS VIA GETTY IMAGES collision above Earth is continually
growing. Now, Japanese orbital
The covid-19 pandemic led to margins on older technology TSMC churns through 156,000 clean-up company Astroscale is
an initial slump in car sales of used in cars also gives chip- tonnes of water a day normally. testing a potential solution.
up to 50 per cent, because few makers an incentive to focus But there are droughts in Taiwan
people were travelling and on smartphone and tablet chips. at the moment, reservoirs are The End-of-Life Services by
confidence in the economy was drying up and the firm is now Astroscale demonstration mission
low. Car companies slimmed Where are the chips made? bringing water to the factory in was launched on 22 March aboard
manufacturing and reduced Much of the world’s supply trucks. Plus, a fire struck a chip a Russian Soyuz rocket. It consists
their usually huge orders of of computer chips comes from factory in Japan in October, of two spacecraft: a small “client”
computer chips, which control Taiwan, and most are made while an unseasonable cold satellite and a larger “servicer”
braking, steering and engine by the Taiwan Semiconductor snap in Texas temporarily shut satellite, or “chaser”. The smaller
management in modern cars. down plants there. satellite plays the role of space junk
According to research firm IHS 90% and is equipped with a magnetic
Markit, 672,000 fewer vehicles How long will the shortage last? plate so the chaser can dock with it.
than usual will be made in the Amount of 2021 chip output by Some analysts say it will take
first quarter of 2021 as a result. Broadcom that is already sold up to a year for manufacturing The two stacked spacecraft
to get back on track, and then will perform three tests while in
At the same time, there was a Manufacturing Company a further six months for stock orbit, each of which will involve
rush for home office items like (TSMC), which has been dealt levels at various companies the servicer satellite releasing and
laptops and smartphones – vital a double whammy. to reach normal levels. US then recapturing the client satellite.
for many who began working chip-maker Broadcom says The first test will be the simplest,
from home. There was a similar A US-China trade war has 90 per cent of its 2021 output with the client craft drifting a
rush for game consoles. limited sales to the US. Both is already spoken for. short distance away and then
countries are building up being recaptured. In the second
Factories supplying chips their own production of chips, Other figures show that the test, the servicer satellite will set
switched from making car with the US getting TSMC to chip industry has been edging the client satellite tumbling before
components to smartphone, build a $12 billion chip factory closer to its full manufacturing catching up and grabbing it.
laptop and tablet chips. In terms on its own shores. capacity for some years now, so
of total sales, production is this could have been expected Finally, the chaser will live up
booming: the Semiconductor As if that wasn’t enough, the but there wasn’t enough of to its name by letting the client
Industry Association says weather is also against many a buffer in place to handle satellite float a few hundred metres
chip sales in January 2021 hit chip-makers. Manufacturing fluctuations in demand. ❚ away before finding it and attaching
$40 billion, up 13.2 per cent on processes require lots of water. to it. All of these tests will be
the same month last year. Now, performed with little to no human
car sales have picked up again, input once they are set in motion.
so companies across several
industries are fighting to get “These kinds of demonstrations
priority in factory order books. have never been done before in
space. They are very different
What about backup stock? to, say, an astronaut controlling
a robotic arm on the International
Many companies operate with Space Station,” says Jason Forshaw
low stock levels to keep costs at Astroscale UK. “This is more of an
down and are now rushing autonomous mission.” At the end of
to replenish supplies. Chip the tests, both spacecraft will burn
factories have limited capacity, up in Earth’s atmosphere.
and building new factories
is expensive and often takes If companies wanted to use
several years. Lower profit this capability, they would have to
attach a magnetic plate to satellites
so they could be captured later. ❚

18 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Biomedicine

Skin cells to help study infertility

There is now a way to study embryonic development without using embryos

Donna Lu

LIVING structures that model in Gold Coast, Australia, who “That’s something that we will When placed in a 3D scaffold
early human embryonic wasn’t involved in the research. never be able to model,” says Polo. known as extracellular matrix,
development have been generated “That’s a big deal.” the cells spontaneously organised
entirely from cells in the skin. “Right now, you can’t implant into spherical structures made
The models mean it should be The structures, which the this into a woman and get her up of distinct layers of cells that
possible to study infertility, early team has called iBlastoids, could pregnant,” says Limnios. human blastocysts contain
miscarriage and early embryonic be used to model the first two (Nature, doi.org/f2tw).
development without the weeks of embryonic development. The team used a technique called
controversial use of real human nuclear reprogramming to create The iBlastoids can give rise
embryos – although the models The iBlastoids are structurally the iBlastoids. This involved taking to pluripotent stem cells – cells
raise ethical issues of their own. and genetically very similar to fibroblasts from adult donors and, that are able to self-renew and
real human blastocysts, but by altering the genes expressed in differentiate into different cell
Previously, the only means of aren’t identical. For example, the cells, changing their properties. types of the body. They could
studying the early development the iBlastoids lack a zona help to advance research into
of human embryos was using pellucida, a membrane that These iBlastoid infertility, enabling scientists
blastocysts obtained from IVF surrounds a blastocyst before structures look like to study what happens when
procedures. Blastocysts are a it implants in the uterus. real human blastocysts embryos are exposed to toxins
ball-like early stage of embryonic or viruses early in development.
development that is formed five MONASH UNIVERSITY
days after fertilisation occurs and The development of the
can go on to form embryos. But embryo-like models brings up
their use in science is controversial ethical and legal questions. In
because of their potential to grow many countries, human embryos
into a living human. cannot legally be cultured in
a laboratory beyond 14 days.
Now, by reprogramming There will now need to be a
fibroblasts – connective tissue discussion about whether this
cells taken from skin samples – limit should be extended for
Jose Polo at Monash University iBlastoids, given that they aren’t
in Melbourne, Australia, and his real human embryos, says Polo.
colleagues have created human
blastocyst-like structures. “The law has to catch up
with the science,” says Limnios.
“This is the first time in humans “Until that time, everyone’s
where we’re making an embryonic going to respect the current
structure without any egg,” says laws and treat these iBlastoids
Jason Limnios at Bond University as if they are embryos.” ❚

Technology

Firefox web browser this slipped over the past decade In the group that read about The team says the results show
seems faster when that perceived performance can be
we read that it is and now stands at just 8 per cent. self-driving cars, 39 per cent of boosted without actually making
any technical improvements.
THE key to making your software Chrome is used by 66 per cent people perceived Chrome to be
appear zippier is simply to tell “Our big concern was we
people that it is quicker, according of internet users. quicker and 31 per cent believed could sink all of our time into
to research from the organisation making this browser work better
behind the Firefox web browser. Rebecca Weiss and her colleagues Firefox was faster. and better and better against all
of these conventional engineering
Mozilla researchers wanted to asked 1495 participants to read But in the group shown the performance metrics, but if
know why Google’s Chrome internet everyone is only hearing ‘Chrome
browser had developed a dominant a news article. Some read an article article about Firefox, 49 per cent is faster’, classic psychology theory
market share. In 2009, Firefox had would predict that it will trump
a market share of 32 per cent, but claiming that Firefox was now rated it as the quickest, with just anything we do,” says Weiss. ❚
Matthew Sparkes
“faster, smoother, and higher- 24 per cent opting for Chrome
27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 19
performing than competitors”; (arxiv.org/abs/2103.06181).

others read about self-driving cars.

Subjects then watched videos “In the group that read

of Chrome and Firefox carrying about Firefox’s high-

out simple tasks like opening a new performance, 49 per

tab and decided which was faster. cent rated it as quicker”

News In brief

Environment

Bush fires choked the skies
with pollution for months

NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY/U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DEVASTATING wildfires in Australia that is picked up by satellites.
in 2019/20 injected vast amounts This showed that over the
of smoke into the atmosphere – and
this led to record aerosol levels over southern hemisphere in the early
the southern hemisphere. months of 2020, aerosols were
at record highs: well above the
Ilan Koren at the Weizmann monthly averages prior to the
Institute of Science in Israel and wildfires, and comparable with
Eitan Hirsch at the Israel Institute levels caused by a moderately
for Biological Research analysed large volcanic eruption.
satellite data from 1981 to 2020
to look at what effect the fires had Although the fires were out by
on amounts of tiny particles known early May, the researchers noted
as aerosols high in the atmosphere. that stratospheric smoke persisted
across the southern hemisphere
While aerosols in the lower until at least July 2020.
atmosphere have a lifetime
measured in minutes to weeks, The overall effect of aerosols
those that reach the stratosphere in the stratosphere is one of the
can persist for months or years. largest uncertainties in climate
science, says Koren. In the case of
The researchers looked at a the Australian wildfires, the smoke
parameter called aerosol optical blocked some solar radiation,
depth, which measures how much leading to marked cooling over
this type of pollution contributes cloud-free ocean areas (Science,
to the amount of reflected light doi.org/f2zc). Donna Lu

Society Zoology

Women sleepeasier gender development index. Infected dogs smell there efficiently spread the
The team found that, in good to biting flies parasite, says Gordon Hamilton
in more equal nations at Lancaster University in the UK.
general, both men and women in PARASITES that cause the disease
WOMEN in managerial roles managerial roles report restless visceral leishmaniasis, also known To study how this happens,
seem to sleep better if they live sleep more often than people in as kala-azar, may make dogs smell Hamilton and his colleagues
in a country with greater gender less senior positions, but that more attractive to female sandflies. gathered samples from dogs in
equality. The same isn’t true for female managers living in The insects feed on the dog’s blood Governador Valadares, Brazil.
male managers, who sleep better countries with a higher gender and can pass on the parasite, which
in countries with higher GDP. development index reported can then transfer to people via a They extracted odour-causing
better sleep than women with dog bite and cause serious illness. chemicals from the hair of
Leah Ruppanner and her similar jobs living in less equal 15 infected and 15 uninfected
colleagues at the University countries (PLoS One, doi.org/f2xf). Leishmania infantum is one of dogs, and then presented them to
of Melbourne, Australia, used a group of parasites that can cause male and female sandflies. They
data from the 2012 European “The Nordic countries tended an infection. Many cases occur in monitored which odour samples
Social Survey to study the sleep of to do really well here, because Brazil, possibly because sandflies the flies chose. Female sandflies
18,116 people, aged 25 to 64, from they have a whole range of feed on blood, while the males
29 European countries. Although policies that work to empower CAPUSKI/GETTY IMAGES don’t. Both sexes were generally
it is an annual survey, this was the women and close the gender attracted to the dog hairs, but
most recent year the participants gap,” says Ruppanner. 65.7 per cent of the female
were asked about sleep patterns. sandflies were drawn to the
The same wasn’t true for men in infected samples while the males
The survey asked people managerial roles. They slept better were equally attracted to samples
whether they had experienced in nations with a higher GDP. The from infected and uninfected dogs
restless sleep in the past week, study only identifies a correlation (PLoS Pathogens, doi.org/f2w8).
along with which country they between gender equality and
live in and their occupation. sleep, rather than showing a Shaden Kamhawi at the US
Ruppanner and her team then causal link, and there may be National Institute of Allergy
combined these answers with data complex issues underpinning and Infectious Diseases says that
on each country’s gender gap, as why female managers reported understanding these biological
quantified by the United Nations poorer sleep in countries with a interactions could help efforts to
wider gender gap. Karina Shah control the disease. Krista Charles

20 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

New Scientist Daily

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S. SIDEBOTHAM Really brief Fossils Ankylosaurids were bulky the body while it dug using
quadrupeds with short and its forelimbs (Scientific Reports,
City deserted after Large dinosaur was powerful limbs. They had a club doi.org/f2xj). “They may have
ancient eruption made for digging tail and an armoured body with been able to dig out roots for food,
wedge-shaped bony protrusions and dig wells to reach subsurface
Egyptians abandoned the THE remains of an ankylosaurid, in the skin known as osteoderms. water as modern African
city of Berenike in about an armoured herbivore that elephants do today,” says Lee.
200 BC. Excavations there lived sometime between 72 “Articulated body skeletons of
have uncovered a well filled and 84 million years ago during armoured dinosaurs are quite Digging dinosaurs are relatively
with detritus from the time, the Cretaceous period, suggest rare,” says Lee. To date, only four rare, although some small species
such as coins (pictured). that it was adapted to digging. individuals with fairly complete are known to have burrowed.
If the well stopped working, skeletons have been discovered. The ankylosaurid specimen was
abandonment may have Yuong-Nam Lee at Seoul excavated in 2008, as part of
been due to a drought National University in South The bones of the ankylosaurid 700 vertebrate fossils the team
with possible links to Korea and his team collected the show it had heavily built forelimbs collected over a five-year field trip.
a volcanic eruption ankylosaurid fossils – belonging and forefeet suited to digging. The “It takes a lot of time and effort to
(Antiquity, doi.org/f2xd). to an individual that was more fusion of several vertebrae and identify, classify and study these
than 6 metres long – from the ribs may have helped keep the specimens,” says Lee. DL
Abel prize honours Gobi desert in Mongolia. dinosaur’s trunk rigid, stabilising
algorithm research
Palaeontology Locomotion
One of the biggest prizes in
maths has gone to László Secrets of how your
Lovász at the Alfréd Rényi body reacts to a trip
Institute of Mathematics in
Budapest, Hungary, and Avi VULLO ET AL., SCIENCE (2021) MISS a step when walking down
Wigderson at the Institute stairs and your legs will attempt
for Advanced Study in Prehistoric winged shark to recover your balance – but how?
Princeton, New Jersey. The cruised the ancient oceans The key seems to be in the way our
pair explore computational calf and foot muscles are activated.
complexity – the study of THE discovery of a fossil in a But unlike manta rays, which use
the speed and efficiency Mexican quarry has revealed that pectoral fins for propulsion, the Taylor Dick at the University of
of algorithms. a bizarre shark with manta ray-like shark probably relied on the fin Queensland in Australia and her
wings slowly patrolled the seas at its rear to propel it. team conducted an experiment
Sea creatures swim more than 90 million years ago. that involved attempting to make
in mysterious circles As the only known specimen, it is people fall over. They got 10 people
Named Aquilolamna milarcae, unclear whether the fossil (pictured) to jump up and down on platforms
Tracking data shows it was unique in being wider than belonged to a juvenile or a mature with devices measuring the forces
that several marine it was long, with a wingspan of shark. Vullo suspects it was an adult exerted by each foot individually.
animals swim in circles, 1.9 metres and a length of about and that the species was probably a
but the reason for the 1.6 metres. Romain Vullo at the medium-sized shark, 3 metres long The platforms were dropped
behaviour isn’t known. University of Rennes in France, who at most, with very small teeth. without warning. As participants
For example, tiger sharks helped describe the species, says tried to retain balance, sensors on
(Galeocerdo cuvier) off the the body shape and wide mouth Vullo and his team compared the their legs tracked muscle activity
Hawaiian coast circled up suggest it hoovered up plankton. fossil with 26 modern shark species and changes in muscle length.
to 30 times with each circle and, based on vertebrae shape and
an average of 9.4 metres It was probably a steady the skeleton of its tail fin, assigned The team found the timing
in diameter (iScience, swimmer. “Like modern manta it to the order Lamniformes, which between when the muscles in
doi.org/f3bc). rays, relatively slow swimming was includes great whites (Science, participants’ legs and feet first
enough to eat plankton,” says Vullo. doi.org/f2w6). Adam Vaughan activated and when they reached
their shortest length increased.
This enabled foot muscles to
absorb and dissipate energy more
effectively, aiding recovery. While
opposing muscles normally
contract in turn when walking,
both groups of muscles contracted
at the same time during the
unexpected drop (Proceedings of
the Royal Society B, doi.org/f2xg).

The researchers hope that this
work can inform the design of
lower limb assistive devices,
such as prostheses. KC

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 21

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Views Letters Aperture Culture Culture columnist
Fukushima’s real Catching bats to A gripping account Simon Ings on a film
The columnist impact was in the study viruses that of Earth’s extinct about an analogue
Can local honey help evacuation p28 could harm us p30 humans p32 champion p34
with hay fever, asks
James Wong p24

Comment

A too familiar threat

Understanding how covid-19 has been perceived in West African
nations like Ghana is crucial to tackling it, says Ama de-Graft Aikins

MICHELLE D’URBANO IN A comedy sketch that in Ghana’s capital Accra via Asian African vaccines used the same colonial medical treatments of
recently went viral on and European countries where emotive language that fuelled infectious diseases in West Africa
Ghanaian social media, it was endemic. Because early protests against Ebola vaccine trials led to advances in tropical
Coronavirus arrives late to a hospital admissions and deaths in 2014. Stigma and secrecy around medicine and laboratory sciences.
meeting. “What’s up, fellow deadly were linked to international air coronavirus infection emerged. But this history was marred by
diseases,” Coronavirus says, as travel, many Ghanaians distanced People started to experiment unethical and racist practices,
Malaria, Cholera and AIDS jump themselves from the domestic with faith healing, herbal cures such as toxic treatments for
up from their seats and rush for threat by describing covid-19 as a and home remedies. As a sleeping sickness forced on
their face masks. disease of a privileged urban class. professional woman in Accra told hundreds of thousands of
me: “Nobody goes to the hospital… people. During the Ebola crisis
The sketch illustrates how some As infections spread and When you have symptoms, you that began in 2014, West Africa
people in Ghana are making sense preventive measures were boil cloves, lemon, ginger and was stigmatised and exoticised
of the pandemic. While covid-19 imposed, public understanding garlic and drink it like tea.” by global media, causing a negative
is new and unique, for some it and practices developed in ways financial impact on tourism,
feels like just another on a list of that mimicked responses to At a deeper level, the idea of higher education and industries
long-standing and omnipresent previous public health threats. Africa as a conduit for infection is with international ties.
threats to public health. an enduring familiar alien threat
Popular artists evoked collective in the global imagination. Social During covid-19’s first wave,
Social psychologists often use memories of past health crises and responses to covid-19 are also global health experts predicted
the term “familiar alien threats” reminded people about inequitable shaped by awareness of this idea. huge numbers of African deaths,
to describe situations that people official responses. On social media, even as local scientists developed
actively distance themselves conspiracy theories about anti- From the 1880s to 1970s, effective methods for testing,
from in their minds because they prevention and treatment. These
represent disruption or danger. forms of defamiliarisation devalue
But these threats still change the complex African realities and
way we think, feel and behave. compound mistrust of Western
interventions, like vaccination
In 1918, the Spanish flu came to drives. But they also force critical
colonial Ghana through European self-reflection and new ways of
travellers. It quickly spread across engaging with the world, from
the country, killing an estimated independence movements in the
100,000 people in six months. 1940s to the current “decolonise
This was preceded by a plague global health” movement.
pandemic, and was followed by
epidemics of smallpox, yellow Equitable healthcare,
fever and sleeping sickness. social protection and global
cooperation will play a large part
Ghana and other West African in fighting the covid-19 pandemic.
countries have since had serial Understanding social responses
public health crises, including HIV to it is equally important. ❚
and AIDS, Ebola virus disease and
swine flu, and the silent epidemic Ama de-Graft Aikins is
of chronic diseases, such as
diabetes. Social responses to British Academy Global
covid-19 are being shaped by
this deep collective knowledge Professor at University
of sickness, debility and death.
College London
In March 2020, covid-19 arrived

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 23

Views Columnist

#FactsMatter

A sweet idea Eating local honey is often recommended
as a treatment for hay fever. Does it have any effect?
James Wong investigates

IT IS that time of year again. which continued to the end of the What about the other studies?
The days are brighter, daffodils eight-week study and beyond. A few years before the Malaysian
start popping up around my PDFs of the report are often sent trial, a team in Finland reported
that people consuming birch
neighbourhood, the dawn chorus to me by people from the UK and pollen honey had “significantly
better control of their symptoms
of birdsong finally returns each US as “proof” that local honey than those on conventional
medication only”. But birch trees
morning and my social media is indeed a cure for hay fever. are pollinated by wind, not by
bees, so what is birch pollen
starts filling up with anxious The first thing that piqued my honey? The answer is honey
with added pollen. So, again, is
questions about whether local interest as a Malaysian botanist this a like-for-like comparison?

honey can treat hay fever. Now, I coming across this study is that The only other study is
from 2002 from the University
James Wong is a botanist and realise this is a little self-interested, hay fever is essentially unknown of Connecticut, which appears
science writer, with a particular to be the best-designed of the
interest in food crops, but here is my attempt to get to the in the humid tropics. In the three to test the claim of whether
conservation and the ordinary honey consumption
environment. Trained at the bottom of the best evidence we equatorial climate, plants don’t can improve hay fever symptoms,
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he by people consuming one
shares his tiny London flat with have to date, once and for all. Or at release pollen en masse in the tablespoon of honey per day, and
more than 500 houseplants. found no significant difference.
You can follow him on Twitter least until more studies come in. same short windows that they
and Instagram @botanygeek It is important to point out
With approximately 20 per cent do in highly seasonal, temperate that in the latter two trials all the
James’s week participants were given honey on
of people in the UK affected by regions. Indeed, when you look top of the existing antihistamines
What I’m reading they were taking. So whatever
Clinical and consumer an allergic response to airborne at the methodology of the study, the result, the idea that honey is a
trial data for a brand’s more (or less) effective alternative
new botanical skincare pollen, it is perhaps unsurprising to these medications can’t be
formulations. established as there was no side-
that many are turning to an “They didn’t track by-side comparison. Furthermore,
What I’m watching all the trials were very short term
US crime drama Bosch, everyday food that contains small the weight of the and tested really small groups of
having pretty much amounts of pollen, but doesn’t participants after people, so much more evidence
exhausted the back trigger the allergy, as a plausible- the addition of more is needed to authoritatively
catalogue of every sounding remedy. Being great- than 10,000 calories confirm or negate this claim.
streaming service. tasting, widely available and
What we can say, however, is
What I’m working on relatively inexpensive, honey during the study” that the bold statements we often
I am about to start a new see simply aren’t supported by
series of a BBC food and would indeed be an excellent solid evidence at this time. Indeed,
farming documentary when we look at the alleged
I made last year. vehicle to administer non- it didn’t even look at hay fever mechanism of action behind this
claim, it seems increasingly shaky,
This column appears triggering doses of pollen. This at all, but at other allergies because the vast majority of
monthly. Up next week: people with hay fever are allergic
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is supposed to work as a form to dust and pets. to tree and grass pollen, not those
from insect-pollinated flowers,
24 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021 of immunotherapy to prime our Even if it did, is a rare honey which are what are used to make
honey. So, for now, I am afraid this
bodies to deal with the summer from a rainforest bee comparable online fact should probably be
confined to the fiction pile. ❚
onslaught. When you consider with that of European honeybees

the potential side effects of foraging on totally different

the antihistamines used in plants for people in the UK and

conventional medication, you can US? Can this Malaysian honey

definitely see the allure. But what even be described as local to the

does the evidence actually say? participants in the study, who

Despite the frequency with didn’t live in the heart of rainforest

which local honey’s therapeutic reserves, let alone to people on

effect is claimed, there seem the other side of the planet?

to only be three scientific Finally, let’s look at the dose

studies that have systematically of 1 gram per kilogram of body

investigated it. Sadly none of weight used in the study. For

them, arguably, in a particularly me, that’s 90 grams of honey

robust way. per day, which is three times the

The most recent one is a 2013 maximum daily amount of sugar

study carried out in West Malaysia. the National Health Service in

This found that after consuming England recommends I consume.

a multifloral honey produced by I note the researchers didn’t track

a tropical bee species deep in the the weight or blood sugar levels of

rainforest for four weeks, people the participants after the addition

showed an improvement in of more than 10,000 calories

symptoms for allergic rhinitis, from sugar during the study.

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Views Your letters

Editor’s pick of radiation on life expectancy. happened to the antimatter, all well and good, but we need an
A 2011 study of survivors of the which should have appeared investigation into why we have
Reaching out on the in equal amounts to matter. seen a big spike in mental illness
issue of friendship atomic bombings of Hiroshima in the past few decades.
and Nagasaki found that those Antimatter may experience
6 March, p 36 who got an amount of radiation antitime and antigravity, so in our The recent mental health
From Charlotte Stansfield, of less than 1 gray, a massive dose universe it would fall up. However, decline seems attributable to the
Backwell, Somerset, UK and many times that received by if we study antimatter in our lockdown conditions affecting
Robin Dunbar talks about the anyone living in the Fukushima universe, it may seem to fall, but is everyone, yet your figures make
differences between people who area, had a median loss of life of actually rising, only in reverse time. it clear the pandemic wasn’t
are “larks”, using their phones just two months. So why did those the cause of the decline, but the
mostly during the day, and “owls”, at Fukushima see life expectancy Have we found the latest factor contributing to it.
using them mainly at night, in a cut by three months? solution to space junk?
study of 30 students. The owls I have a plethora of ideas
phoned more people frequently The atom bomb survivors have 13 March, p 12 as to why young people might
than larks did, but spent less time been followed for decades and From David Turvey, York, UK be experiencing pathological
on the phone to each person. results from this informed the The article on the laser thruster levels of distress given the
international guidelines existing to power satellites was fascinating, rapid deterioration of the
Some years ago, a friend at the time of the Fukushima and got me thinking about planet and relentless evolution
suggested that larks may be more meltdown. Those guidelines were another application. Would it be of social dynamics perpetuated
introverted than owls – they find ignored when Japan ordered a possible to use the same principle by the online world. However,
the activity of the day, which often mass evacuation, including of sick to deorbit defunct satellites or I am curious whether my
requires them to be extroverted, and older people. Unsurprisingly, push space junk into lower orbits assumptions are correct or
tiring and will be ready for sleep many people died because of so it burns up in the atmosphere? if this decline is related to
earlier than owls, who gain energy those evacuations. factors that I haven’t considered.
through the day and are ready to
stay awake and continue activity For me, time marches Big spending may lead to There is a good side
into the night. This is borne out by in one direction only even bigger corruption to slugs and flies
observation of friends and family.
6 March, p 46 27 February, p 38 27 February, p 49
If the larks noticed by Dunbar From Jeff Doodson, London, UK
tended to talk for longer, but to a From Robert Masta, From David Wilkinson, In recent weeks on your pages,
smaller number of friends than owls Ann Arbor, Michigan, US Los Angeles, California, US we have learned how to deal with
did, I wonder whether this fits with Julian Barbour suggests that Rowan Hooper’s plan to eradicate or even kill both slugs and flies.
introverts having fewer friends. time may flow in two directions, world poverty by spending
highlighting that the physics of $1 trillion doesn’t mention Perhaps it is time to give their
From Howard L. Ritter Jr, a billiard ball collision appears the corruption, which is said to waste side of the story. Most of the 40
Sun City Center, Florida, US same with time flowing forwards far more than $1 trillion per year. or so species of slug are active
Your article on friendship brought or backwards. That doesn’t work recyclers/composters in the
a flashback to a science-oriented if the event is seen as a whole: Well-overseen pilot projects, garden, with similar positive roles
cruise of the Norwegian fjords balls would jump out of pockets like those he cites, may not scale for the thousands of flies. Most of
that my wife and I took. One of and self-assemble in the centre of up to well-overseen megaprojects. these animals do no harm, yet we
the talks was by Dunbar, on the the table, violating Newton’s laws. Do we simply assume that kill many of them because of the
hierarchies of friendship groups. corruption will be obliterated few species that are generally no
Surely causality is the indicator by the flood of money? Rather, worse than minor irritants.
He mentioned “Dunbar’s of time’s direction, and an I would expect corruption to
number”, the 150 or so people argument against universes scale up: the sweeter the pot, More than one way to
you know well enough not to be with reversed time. the more grasping hands. crack interstellar travel
embarrassed to join uninvited for
a drink if you run into them at a From Alex Bowman, Glasgow, UK Childhood mental health 6 March, p 16
bar. I gained 15 pounds in my quest Perhaps at the big bang, time has long been in decline From Robert Peck, York, UK
to verify Dunbar’s number. did move backwards and forwards. The idea of a slower-than-light
Our universe moved forwards 6 March, p 8 warp drive is interesting. But I
Fukushima’s real impact and the antiverse, with antimatter, wonder if any civilisation with the
was in the evacuation moved backwards. From Russell Wells, resources necessary to fabricate a
Bunbury, Western Australia spaceship’s shell compressed from
13 March, p 18 This would explain a flaw in Your report on the impact of the something that was Earth’s mass,
From Geoff Russell, the big bang theory over what pandemic on children’s health is and then accelerate it, would find
Adelaide, South Australia it easier to achieve time dilation
Regarding your look at the Want to get in touch? by the still complex, but slightly
Fukushima nuclear power plant more practical, method of a low-
accident 10 years on, I wasn’t Send letters to [email protected]; mass vessel propelled as close as
surprised by the small impact see terms at newscientist.com/letters possible to the speed of light? ❚
Letters sent to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
London WC2E 9ES will be delayed

28 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

FREEVEENT

Events

ONLINE EVENT CONFIRMED
SPEAKERS
A RESCUE PLAN
FOR NATURE Adjany Costa

Thursday 15 April 2021 | 6 -7.30pm BST and on-demand Conservationist, UNEP Youth
Advocate and adviser to the
Join a top-level panel of scientists, conservationists presidency of Angola
and policymakers as they discuss how our disregard
for nature caused covid-19 – and how we can seize Partha Dasgupta
a unique opportunity to build back better.
Economist, University of
This event accompanies our “Rescue Plan for Nature” feature Cambridge, and author of the
series presented in association with the United Nations UK government review “The
Environment Programme (UNEP). It is free for all to attend, Economics of Biodiversity”
and the panel will be answering your questions.
Susan Gardner
Book your free tickets and submit your questions
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Cristián Samper

Tropical biologist, president
and CEO of the Wildlife
Conservation Society

Views Aperture

30 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

The bat mystery

Photographer Adam Dean
Agency Panos Pictures

THIS striking image by
photojournalist Adam Dean
shows bats streaming out
of Khao Chong Pran cave in
Thailand at dusk as researchers
collect individuals to study.

The cave, the largest of several
in a cluster west of Bangkok, is
a popular tourist spot because
millions of bats flock there to roost.
Now scientists from Thailand’s
Department of National Parks,
Wildlife and Plant Conservation are
becoming frequent visitors, too.

More than a year after covid-19
was labelled a pandemic, we are
still trying to discover definitively
whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus
originated in bats. Researchers
are collecting tissue samples from
bats and checking local people –
some of whom use bat droppings
as fertiliser – for covid-19
antibodies. The viruses that cause
severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) and Middle East respiratory
syndrome (MERS) came from bats,
and a virus similar to SARS-CoV-2
was found in horseshoe bats in
Cambodia and China in late 2020.

There are concerns that
urbanisation and agriculture are
destroying or infringing on bat
habitats, making the animals
more susceptible to viruses and
increasing the chances of them
passing diseases to us.

This image is part of Dean’s
Bats and the Pandemic series,
and won him an award in the 78th
Pictures of the Year International
competition earlier this month. ❚

Gege Li

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 31

Views Culture

When we were not alone

What happened to the Neanderthals, Denisovans and other types of human
we shared Earth with? Enjoy a great insider account, says Michael Marshall

Before Us: How science is revealing repeatedly mentions nuclear and There are also thumbnail
portraits of the scientists involved.
a new story of our human origins. mitochondrial DNA, but doesn’t A highlight is Higham’s account of
the discovery of Denny, a girl who
Book It is a slightly misleading main title explain them until chapter 5 – lived in or around Denisova cave,
with a Neanderthal mother and a
The World Before Us because Higham barely discusses although at one point there is Denisovan father. One of Higham’s
students, Samantha Brown (now
Tom Higham the world before Homo sapiens an apologetic footnote directing at the Max Planck Institute for
Viking the Science of Human History,
emerged about 300,000 years ago: readers to that part. Germany), spent weeks testing
ASK any well-informed human bone fragments before identifying
living up to 40,000 years or so ago you won’t find Lucy or any other However, once past these one that belonged to a hominin.
if they were the only intelligent
being around, and they would ape-like australopithecines. But bumps the book settles into a Higham reproduces the flurry
have answered, “No”. That is of excited, expletive-ridden texts
because at that (geologically) he does deliver on the subtitle, with lively groove. Higham devotes he sent after being told the news.
recent time, our ancestors would The reader gets a real sense of
still have been sharing Earth with a fascinating insight into groups whole chapters, sometimes what it is like to “do” science as
several other human groups. In a Higham emphasises Brown’s
very real sense, we were not alone. belonging to the same Homo multiple chapters, to each extinct boring, reward-free slog before
she finally struck pay dirt.
Today we are. The Neanderthals genus as us that lived alongside
who roamed Europe and western When it comes to the perennial
Asia are long gone. So are the us for much of their existence. “When it comes to what question of what happened to
Denisovans of east Asia, the Higham has been involved in happened to groups groups like the Neanderthals,
“hobbits” of Flores Island in like the Neanderthals, Higham wisely embraces nuance
Indonesia and many more. Who many of the biggest discoveries Higham wisely and complexity. It is unlikely
were they? What were they like? in human evolution in recent there is a single explanation for
What happened to them? decades. A specialist in dating the extinction of such a group as
widespread and adaptable as the
Archaeologist Tom Higham at methods, he helped trace the embraces nuance” Neanderthals – and conservation
the University of Oxford tackles biologists tend to find that species
these questions in his first book Neanderthal extinction, studied experience a multitude of threats.
for a popular audience, The World
the mysterious Denisovans, who hominin group. He packs in For groups like the Denisovans,
of whom we have barely any
are mostly known from DNA startling discoveries, impressive remains, he refuses to commit
himself at all. He knows it is too
extracted from bone fragments, insights and the occasional early to make a big claim about
what happened when we don’t
and helped push back the date debunking of a foolish idea. even know the extent of their
range or what they looked like.
H. sapiens arrived in the Americas. Higham’s personal involvement
In any case, many of them
The book gets off to a shaky means he has lots of good stories. haven’t entirely gone. Thanks
to interbreeding, the DNA of
start, as the opening chapters He vividly describes Denisova cave Neanderthals and Denisovans
lives on. In our genes, at least, we
are overstuffed with unnecessary in Siberia, Russia – where the first still share the world with them. ❚

detail that isn’t immediately traces of Denisovans were found –

explained. For example, Higham along with its adjacent field camp.

Mike Marshall is a science writer
based in Devon, UK

MARK HARDY Archaeologist Tom
Higham, with a skull
from a modern human

32 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Don’t miss

Looking for other Earths

With NASA’s next space telescope in sight, top scientists talk about
what it may find in a new documentary, says Katie Smith-Wong

Film Read
The Best of World SF:
The Hunt for Planet B Volume 1 contains
26 sci-fi stories, some
Nathaniel Kahn celebrated and others
Distribution to be announced new, representing
21 countries and five
THE question of whether we CRAZY BOAT PICTURESThe Lick Observatory diversity in the field. This may only continents. Edited by
on planet Earth are alone in the PIXABAYin The Hunt for Planet Bbe a passing moment in the film,writer Lavie Tidhar, the
universe has been a constant over reinforced by JWST programme collection is a celebration
millennia. The Hunt for Planet B, the existence of habitable worlds manager Gregory Robinson, but of a truly global genre.
a new film by award-winning outside our solar system. This the documentary is a welcome
documentary film-maker Nathaniel allows him to highlight the leading companion to films such as Hidden Read
Kahn that premiered at the recent female scientists in the field, who Figures, which celebrated a group of Overloaded is science
South by Southwest festival, each bring a fascinating perspective. African-American women working writer Ginny Smith’s
documents efforts to explore not as NASA mathematicians and exploration of how our
only exoplanets but also other Take astrophysicist Sara Seager, engineers and was set in the 1960s. lives are influenced by
potentially hospitable worlds. who we first meet during a 2013 neurotransmitters, the
NASA congressional hearing. Amid Kahn intersperses the interviews brain chemicals behind
At the centre of this effort is laughter from sceptics on the House with snippets showing JWST’s everything, from what
the James Webb Space Telescope Committee on Science, Space, and ongoing development – as well as we remember and
(JWST), successor to the Hubble Technology, she brushes off doubts news and sci-fi movies – to support who we love to basic
Space Telescope. NASA, the about alien life by firmly arguing the possibility of finding another drives such as hunger,
European Space Agency and the for the probability of an Earth-like habitable planet besides Earth. In fear and sleep.
Canadian Space Agency have spent planet amid the billions of galaxies January 2020, the first potentially
more than $10 billion (so far) on the in the universe. The idea of a habitable world, TOI 700 d, was Watch
project, which has faced many “Planet B” empowers her to fight for discovered more than 100 light Our Future Planet:
delays and budgetary issues during the continuation of the JWST project years away by NASA’s Transiting Global greenhouse gas
its 25-year development and has and displays a no-nonsense attitude Exoplanet Survey Satellite, so removal, the latest in the
needed scientists to fight its corner. that sets the tone for the film. the possibilities are endless. climate talk series from
The telescope is finally due to the UK-based Science
launch in October 2021. Then we are introduced to Aided by Robert Richman’s Museum Group sees
astrophysicist Natalie Batalha, JWST stirring cinematography, The Hunt scientists and engineers
In 2016, Kahn made two short engineer Amy Lo, astrobiologist for Planet B does a terrific job of discuss carbon capture.
films about JWST: Into the Unknown Maggie Turnbull and former Center placing Earth in a new context – as Watch online at 7.30 pm
and Telescope.These show his for SETI Research director Jill perhaps one of a number of planets BST on 31 March.
artistic investment in the project, Tarter – all of whom deliver insights capable of hosting life.  ❚
sharing footage and interviewees, about space exploration that subtly 27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 33
such as JWST scientists John Mather underscore their achievements. Katie Smith-Wong is a film critic
and Matt Mountain. based in London
They also highlight growing
The Hunt for Planet B updates
these films in important ways.
While it doesn’t shy away from
science, with so many scientists
contributing, the sheer volume of
details, diagrams and formulae may
confound viewers new to the field.
And the documentary can lose track
of its narrative, as the story of one
scientist’s personal history with
astronomy quickly shifts to
habitable planets and alien life.

On the upside, Kahn uses the film
as a platform to explore research
into exoplanets, which can signify

Views Culture

The film column

From the heart An Impossible Project is an extraordinary film following the strange
life of entrepreneur Florian “Doc” Kaps, who rescued Polaroid film and champions
the analogue. It even recreates the look of instant film, says Simon Ings

Entrepreneur Florian
Kaps finds analogue
technology irresistible

Simon Ings is a novelist and INSTANT FILM long since kicked him off it.
science writer. Follow him on It is hard to feel too sorry for
Instagram at @simon_ings JENS MEURER is a hard figure to pin revolution. In 2008, he bought
him. His subsequent ventures in
Film down. The European Film Academy the last Polaroid factory, just analogue – including a museum-
cum-bar-cum-store in Vienna
An Impossible Project named him documentary film- before demolition. He got it called Supersense – address his
delight in goods you can touch
Directed by Jens Meurer maker of the year in 1995, but running again, only to discover and smell, in machines you can
iTunes, Amazon, Chili take apart and understand.
the following decades saw him that several chemicals needed
Simon also Kaps curates analogue printing
recommends... (as producer) bring movies like to make Polaroid’s signature and recording equipment,
cameras and telephones. All the
Films wartime drama Black Book and instant-developing film were machines work, and those for sale
sell quickly. After hours, he uses
Takumi biopic Rush to the big screen. no longer in production. his shop floor to stage concerts
cut straight to vinyl, creating
Clay Jeter He is also prepared to spend Early attempts to replicate the unique records of live events.
Car-maker Lexus bankrolled
this feature on the survival months following an eccentric original formula were, in Kaps’s David Bohnett, who founded
of human craft in the age of web service GeoCities and was
artificial intelligence. Former Viennese entrepreneur, Florian one of Silicon Valley’s first
British Museum director millionaires, thinks Kaps is
Neil MacGregor presents “Doc” Kaps, who is convinced the “Kaps believes a inventing a new class of luxury
the work of four fantastic future of technology is analogue, monotonously digital item – unique records of unique
Japanese artisans. or at least post-digital – a strange diet has starved experiences. Is he right?
mash-up of the two, perhaps. the under-25s of
Blow-Up sensory pleasure” People under 25 seem to think
The result is a film close to so. This cohort, who grew up in
Michelangelo Antonioni Meurer’s heart: An Impossible a digital world, are Kaps’s keenest
In this frustrating and customers. Kaps believes a
fascinating art-house thriller, Project, featuring Kaps (who monotonously digital diet has
David Hemmings plays a starved them of sensory pleasure,
fashion photographer who everyone calls “Doc” on account of memorable phrase, “perfect in and that “after a long period of
believes he has accidentally analogue companies trying hard
captured evidence of a his PhD work studying spiders). a special way”: the colours were to become digital, it’s now time
murder in the background for the digital companies to start
of one of his images. Although Kaps can never be too wildly unreliable; half the time the thinking how to connect with
people in analogue ways”.
34 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021 sure how to pay next month’s bills, image would melt off the backing.
An Impossible Project is an
he moves in interesting circles. Still, Kaps persevered. For him, ingenious movie. Meurer has
gone to extraordinary lengths
We follow him around Berlin, analogue technology has an to portray the man who saved
Polaroid in a film that captures the
New York and California and say irresistible mystique: if he rebuilt casual, magical, slightly unreliable
Polaroid feel. Practically every
goodbye as he is hosting a dinner it, new customers would appear. take looks like an out-take. People
grin as if they have never seen a
party for “analogue champions”, He was right. Impossible, the camera before. The shots don’t
seem that well framed, yet add up
including people from Moleskine, company he founded, has now to an extremely beautiful film.
And the colours are gorgeous. ❚
Polaroid and Facebook’s analogue taken the Polaroid name and sells a

research lab in a mothballed grand million of the instant films a year.

hotel just outside Vienna. Kaps, though, is a dreamer not a

Kaps is a one-man cultural manager: the board of Impossible

Online Building Life
and FREE Science Adventures -
to attend Careers Conference 2021

30 – 31 March

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Optimum Strategic Faron
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Features Cover story

The nature fix

Natural spaces are essential for our physical and
mental health – and designed in the right way they
can help biodiversity to thrive too, says Kate Douglas

Crowds fill a About this feature
park in Essen,
Germany, at a This feature is the fourth in our
summer music “Rescue Plan for Nature” series
festival in 2013 produced in association with
the United Nations Environment
Programme and UNEP partner
agency GRID-Arendal. New
Scientist retains full editorial
control over, and responsibility
for, the content. The fifth and final
part of the series, on 10 April, will
look at the links between climate
change and biodiversity loss.

JOCHEN TACK/ALAMY FROM the Hanging Gardens of Babylon waterways. This, Wilson argued, is why being
to the orange gardens of Seville, urban in nature makes us feel good.
planners down the ages have taken
inspiration from nature. And those of us living Whether that is the reason or not, the past
in the concrete and brick jungle have perhaps few years have seen an explosion of research
never appreciated scraps of green space more finding concrete links between increased
than during the covid-19 pandemic. During exposure to nature and not just improved
lockdowns, city dwellers across the world have physical health, but better mental health, too.
found parks and gardens – where they exist – Mental health issues are estimated to account
an unexpected source of calm and joy. for as much as a third of all years lived with
disability, and account for around 13 per cent
That comes as no surprise to the growing of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost,
number of psychologists and ecologists similar to the toll of cardiovascular disease
studying the effects of nature on people’s and circulatory disorders.
mental health and well-being. The links they
are uncovering are complex, and not yet fully The evidence of positive effects from nature
understood. But even as the pandemic has includes studies on specific psychological
highlighted them, it has also exposed that, conditions such as depression, anxiety and
in an increasingly urbanised world, our access mood disorder. Access to nature has also
to nature is dwindling – and often the most been found to improve sleep and reduce
socio-economically deprived people face the stress, increase happiness and reduce negative
biggest barriers. Amid talk about building back emotions, promote positive social interactions
better, there is an obvious win-win-win here. and even help generate a sense of meaning to
Understand how to green the world’s urban life. Being in green environments boosts
spaces the right way and it can boost human various aspects of thinking, including
well-being, help redress social inequality and attention, memory and creativity, in people
be a boon for the biodiversity we all depend on. both with and without depression. “The
evidence is very solid,” says psychologist
On evolutionary timescales, urban living is Marc Berman at the University of Chicago.
a new invention. Our species has existed for at
least 300,000 years, but the oldest cities are Complications in comparing studies and
only some 6000 years old. Only recently – little saying exactly what’s good for whom makes
more than a decade ago, according to figures it hard to distil the effects into an individual
from the UN Population Division – have we prescription (see “How much nature do I
become a majority-urban species. Now the need?”, page 38). In the UK’s remote Shetland
number of us living in cities is booming like Islands, however, they are doing just that: since
never before. By 2050, projections suggest 2018, doctors there have been able to prescribe
almost 70 per cent of us will be urban dwellers nature-based activities such as birdwatching
(see “Urban latecomers”, page 39). and beach walks to treat mental health
conditions and stress, as well as physical
Our late arrival into cities might help explain conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
our affinity with nature and green spaces. In They aren’t alone, either: a review in 2019
1984, biologist Edward O. Wilson made this identified 28 nature-based interventions
connection explicit with his “biophilia” used in various countries to improve health
hypothesis. His idea was that the environment and well-being, from organised gardening
in which humans evolved has shaped our programmes to forest bathing.
brain, priming it to respond positively to cues
that would have enhanced survival for our If we are to maximise the benefits of nature
ancestors, such as trees, savannah, lakes and for the world’s legion of nature-deprived city
dwellers, we need to know exactly how they >

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 37

HOW MUCH ARTUR DEBAT/GETTY IMAGES work. Here, too, there appears to be no simple
NATURE DO answer.
I NEED?
Urban vegetation can benefit people’s
When it comes to pinning down the link physical health by absorbing harmful airborne
between well-being and access to nature, particulates and other pollutants produced by
there are big confounding factors. To begin fossil fuel-powered transport and industry. It
with, what is psychological well-being? The may improve mental health in this way as well.
World Health Organization defines mental Evidence is emerging that exposure to these
health as “a state of well-being in which an pollutants can damage the central nervous
individual realizes his or her own abilities, system and is linked with certain mental
can cope with the normal stresses of life, health conditions such as depression. Urban
can work productively and is able to make vegetation also helps mitigate noise pollution,
a contribution to his or her community”. which causes stress and sleep disturbance.
That is hard to quantify.
Paying attention
Then there is the question of what
“access to nature” means. Some studies Another possibility is that the mental health
measure passive access, or how much green effect is mediated via physical health: urban
space is available in someone’s local area. residents living near green spaces simply take
Others look at active access, which is the more exercise, which in turn improves their
actual exposure a person gets to green mental health. But most research suggests
space. That makes it difficult to compare otherwise. In many cultures, visiting green
results and build a coherent picture. spaces is less associated with physical exercise
than with sedentary social activities, such as
A few researchers have tried to assess picnicking. That could be a source of nature’s
what the appropriate dose of nature might benefits in its own right: socialising can reduce
be. A 2019 study involving almost 20,000 loneliness, anxiety and depression. Certainly,
participants in England concluded that at being part of a supportive community is good
least 120 minutes a week of recreational for mental health – and research shows that
nature contact was associated with good attractive public spaces are a catalyst for
health or well-being. The team, led by building cohesive neighbourhoods.
Mathew White at the University of Exeter,
UK, found that the effect peaks at between Intriguingly, some well-being effects do
200 and 300 minutes a week, with people seem to be entirely psychological. Just this
reporting no further gain after that. year, researchers in Switzerland found that
simply having a view of nature from your
What exactly this means for you – or any home can reduce your perception of noise –
individual – is unclear. As other studies and the closer the green space, the bigger the
indicate, the mental health benefits a effect. Attention restoration theory is the name
person gets from access to nature are likely given to one hypothesis that attempts to
to be influenced by myriad factors, including explain such effects. It says that everyday
age, gender, personality traits, personal focused thinking is cognitively draining, with
preferences and socio-economic status. negative consequences for mood, and that the
Your culture matters too – and, so far, most wide range of stimuli intrinsic to nature
research into the well-being effects of provide a restorative sensory environment
nature has been done in Western societies. that alleviates this attention fatigue.

“Some of the well-being But that is as yet educated guesswork.
effects of nature seem to “There’s a lot going on. We have to be creative
be entirely psychological” with our studies to try to isolate the different
mechanisms,” says Berman.
38 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021
And it is only half the story. Besides mental
health benefits, we know that healthy natural
spaces provide us with a whole range of

essential “ecosystem services” for free, from Even minimal green NICK HANNES/PANOS PICTURES
clean air and water to nutrient recycling, flood spaces, such as under
defence and pollination. Ideally, in designing this overpass in food, energy, connectivity and sanitation. “I
or reconfiguring urban environments, we Osakoko, Japan, boost think they are exactly on par,” she says. “People
should aim to maximise the benefits for our mental well-being need green spaces.”
biodiversity too. How do we do that?
Similarly, a recent study led by landscape This is something that enlightened urban
That is always going to be a trade-off because architect Anna Jorgensen, also at the planning has long taken to heart, from the
cities occupy land that could be wild, says University of Sheffield, concludes that what UK’s Garden City movement at the turn of the
ecologist Karl Evans at the University of urbanites, at least in the UK, most value in 20th century to the recently announced plan to
Sheffield, UK. “Urbanisation is a major and their encounters with nature is variety. turn Paris’s Champs-Élysées, currently a busy
increasing cause of global extinction risk,” thoroughfare, into a green oasis. Our evolving
he says. What’s more, we have a limited We still don’t know whether increased understanding of nature’s broad health
understanding of urban ecology upon which biodiversity equates to increased mental benefits, plus our ongoing pandemic
conservation-minded planners can draw. In health benefits for urban dwellers. But experience, is a wake-up call to apply that
2017, Evans and his colleagues highlighted incomplete as these findings are, they lesson more widely.
some fundamental questions yet to be nevertheless make a strong case for greening
resolved. These include how large, connected cities. “People think of nature as being an “The pandemic has shown that we don’t
and diverse urban green spaces must be to amenity, not a necessity,” says Berman. “But we have enough [access to nature],” says Berman.
promote biodiversity. Many animal species all need it and we need to take it very seriously.” That is especially true for people in more
need access to different types of habitat to Environmental engineer Anu Ramaswami at deprived socio-economic groups. “Access to
thrive. “It’s not just about the amount, it’s Princeton University agrees. She says green green infrastructure is very income-based,”
about the quality of those spaces,” says Evans. public spaces are one of seven key provisioning says Ramaswami. A recent survey by Natural
systems in cities, along with shelter, water, England, for example, found that children
He points out that about half the green from low-income families spent less time
space in urban environments in the UK is outside in green spaces during the pandemic
just closely mown grass, a pattern repeated than children from higher-income families.
in many Western cities. “You could convert
this to meadows or plant more trees,” he says. Meanwhile, a study by Berman and his
In a study of urban meadows in the south colleagues in Toronto, Canada, found that
of England, his team found that people adding just 10 trees to a city block has a huge
responded more positively to the more- impact on people’s perceptions of their health
biodiverse meadows than to mown grassland. and well-being, equivalent to the effect of
earning $10,000 more per household. If urban
Percentage of global populationUrban latecomers greening were an investment priority, it
needn’t take much to have a big impact, with
Although the first cities arose some 6000 years ago, it is only in the most disadvantaged benefiting the most.
the 20th century that urban living really took off – and only in the
past decade or so that humanity became a majority-urban species So, what does an ideal green city of
tomorrow look like? “I would think of compact,
100 walkable cities,” says Ramaswami. “You want
four or five-storey buildings in a liveable fabric.
Urban That’s the base. Then you include green spaces
that are accessible and equitable.” Berman >
80

60

40

Rural

20

0 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2050
1500

Year

SOURCE: OWID BASED ON UN WORLD URBANIZATION PROSPECTS 2018 AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 39

says it is important to make green spaces People use greenL-R: GEOGIF/GETTY IMAGES; MIXETTO/GETTY IMAGES
multipurpose so they meet a variety of needs. spaces for physical
He also favours incorporating more natural and social activity, to push urban greening up the agenda.
elements into the built environment, such as here tai chi in “We need a grassroots movement,” says
green roofs, and even designing buildings that Taiwan Berman. Community involvement ensures
mimic patterns found in nature such as curves that different cultural and local needs are met,
and fractals. Research using eye-trackers critical battles, spurring the building of parks, says Ramaswami. “You want the imagination
indicates that people are drawn to such shapes, green spaces and wildlife corridors in many of those people in those communities to think
and Berman thinks there is something about cities. Admittedly, lower-income countries face of their own vision.”
the way our brains process the aesthetic of many challenges in building greener cities,
nature that is comforting. but they can learn from the mistakes already In some parts of the world, that is already
made in older-growth cities in the West, says happening: the economically disadvantaged
Advocating for nature itself, Evans’s Ramaswami. “There’s a lot of opportunity for favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, for example,
utopia is quite similar, emphasising building sustainability in developing cities,” she says. are home to a burgeoning forestation
compactly to minimise the amount of land movement. A common problem, however, is
taken by cities. “A model green city for me Urban greening that people don’t know about the benefits of
would be one that was relatively densely nature, says Berman. “Scientists need to work
packed,” he says. “But the green space within Some researchers are thinking of new ways a bit harder to get out of the ivory tower, to get
it would be highly connected and extremely to get policy-makers across the world to value their message across,” he says. “It’s important
high quality and, crucially, highly accessible nature more. Biologist Gretchen Daily at to talk to communities. It’s not going to work
to all sectors of society.” Stanford University in California pioneered to be paternalistic.”
the concept of ecosystem services as a way
Realising such visions won’t be easy. of evaluating the benefits nature provides And it isn’t just about knowledge: people
Evans says it is incredibly hard to retrofit and factoring these values into economic need to also experience the effect that urban
existing cities to match his ideal, and he decision-making. In conjunction with Berman green spaces have on their sense of well-being.
doubts that new urban areas will be built and others, she published a paper in 2019 “If we can do interventions where we can
with such a brief in mind. “I don’t think outlining how this approach could be used encourage people to try it, then I think they
biodiversity conservation needs are given to put a price on the mental health benefits will buy in,” says Berman.
high enough priority to make that a realistic of nature in cities. “The intense pressure
prospect,” he says. on urban land means we need to invest That is why the pandemic could be such a
strategically,” she says. Daily has founded powerful force for change. “Our planning –
But Ramaswami is more optimistic. She the Natural Capital Project, which offers free today and into the future – will affect the
notes that the trend for urban greening has science-based computer programs to guide well-being of billions of people,” says Daily.
already begun, pointing to some inspiring such investments. “Software modules on And if we can build back greener, that will
examples in the US, including the Million health are being tested now for release in create a virtuous circle. Recent studies from
Trees Los Angeles initiative and an ambitious the first half of 2021,” she says. both China and England find that feeling
greening programme in New York. more connected with nature makes people
But it will take more than policy-makers more likely to adopt positive environmental
This isn’t just a richer-world phenomenon, behaviours. If so, then greener cities won’t just
either. Most urban growth in the next decades improve the mental health of their residents,
will occur in lower-income nations. The Milan but also focus our minds on the needs of
Urban Food Policy Pact, which aims to increase nature beyond our urban jungles. ❚
urban gardening around the world, has 211
cities signed up, many in Africa, South America Kate Douglas is a feature editor at New Scientist.
and South-East Asia. China’s Ministry of
Ecology and Environment, established in 2018, Additional reporting by Joe Douglas
has made fighting pollution one of its three

“How we plan cities now
will affect the well-being
of billions in the future”

40 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Features

GUY EDWARDES/NATUREPL.COM

Monsters F“ or God’s sake, hold on! It’s got us!”
of the seas When explorer Ernest Shackleton uttered
these words in Antarctica in 1916, his ship
Giant waves that rise up out of nowhere and Endurance had already been crushed by ice
wreak havoc on shipping are more common and sunk. Desperately rowing to the island of
than we feared. Petro Kotze investigates South Georgia with a small crew, Shackleton
spotted another disaster heading their way:
an enormous wave.
“During twenty-six years’ experience of the
ocean in all its moods I had not encountered a
wave so gigantic. It was a mighty upheaval of
the ocean, a thing quite apart from the big
white-capped seas that had been our tireless
enemies for many days,” he later wrote, “but
somehow the boat lived through it.”
Although freak waves like Shackleton’s
“mighty upheaval” are peppered through
mariners’ tales, on dry land, accounts were
met with raised eyebrows. However, when a
gargantuan wall of water slammed into the
Draupner oil platform in the North Sea on
1 January 1995, science finally caught up with
folklore. Dubbed the New Year’s wave, it was >

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 41

the first official recording of a rogue wave.
The 25-metre giant rose from a surrounding
sea churned by waves averaging 12 metres.

Since then, our understanding of the
complex forces that drive water to abruptly
rise to create rogue waves far taller than
those around them has become clearer,
propelled by more reliable measurements,
advances in wave modelling and ramped-up
computational power.

Destructive power

But to protect ships and lives at sea, we need JOHN LUND/GETTY IMAGES
to predict when these rogues will occur. Given
the complex patterns of waves across the vast the first formal detection of a rogue triplet. encountering rogue waves higher than
reaches of the seas, making accurate forecasts Rogues appear unexpectedly, so are very 11 metres along the main shipping routes
is no simple task. Still, the need for such of the North Atlantic.
predictions may be getting more urgent; challenging to study at sea. Ironically, wave
as climate change intensifies weather systems, researchers are unlikely to ever see one. According to an alternative approach to
we may see even more of these ocean monsters. Instead, they rely on data from remote modelling the ocean surface, instead of being
monitoring and laboratory simulations to created by simple merging, these giants can
Waves are swells of energy, created mainly understand and visualise their behaviour. be understood in terms of the physics of the
by wind. They grow bigger over distance movement of wave energy. This uses equations
when egged on by strong winds, and very So what causes them? Originally, they were such as the Schrödinger equation, which can
occasionally the conditions cause one to rise thought to arise through a straightforward help predict future behaviour of chaotic
far higher and much more steeply than its mechanism, where waves with different systems such as stock markets or weather
neighbours. While there is no set definition speeds and directions interact with each patterns. This “non-linear” method predicts
of a rogue wave, it is generally accepted that other and, under the right conditions, merge. that rogue waves aren’t so rare after all, as
they have a crest-to-trough height that is But this so-called linear approach doesn’t confirmed by observations in the real world.
more than twice the average height of the account for all rogues, and it also predicts
tallest third of the surrounding waves. that they should be extremely rare – yet “We believe there are many more of these
we now know that freak waves aren’t so waves than we expect,” says Elzbieta Bitner-
In essence, a rogue wave is a very high freakishly uncommon. Gregersen, who studies rogue waves at DNV,
concentration of energy, says Alessandro a consultancy in Oslo, Norway. Toffoli came
Toffoli at the University of Melbourne, When the MaxWave project carried to a similar conclusion while “playing
Australia. These monsters can appear as walls out the first census of rogue waves using around” with the conditions under which
of water reaching close to 30 metres in height, European Space Agency satellites, for instance, wind-generated waves would turn rogue in
with great destructive power (see “Four freaks”, it identified at least 10 rogues in a region of the a 2017 study. He and colleagues used a ring-
p 45). They pose a serious threat to even the South Atlantic within a three-week period in shaped tank at the University of Turin, Italy,
largest vessels, and are estimated to have sunk 2001. And a 2011 study of buoy data estimated to run their tests. The customary laboratory
at least 22 supertankers between 1969 and 1994 that there is a 1 per cent chance per day of
with the loss of more than 500 lives. Even when
less extreme, they can still be deadly. In South
Africa, many anglers have died after being
washed from the rocks by freak waves on
calm days in False Bay, a location that has
consequently been dubbed “death coast”.

These giants can come in groups, too. On
30 November 2018, a series of three abnormally
high waves were spotted by radar in the North
Sea. Dubbed the Justine Three Sisters, this was

42 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Was The great
wave a rogue?

Knowing what The Great Wave off board the French icebreaker
causes rogue Kanagawa is one of the most L’Astrolabe on the way to
waves could help famous images in Japanese Antarctica in 1991. It was a
us forecast them art. Katsushika Hokusai’s sunny day and sea conditions
(composite image) image, printed in 1831–33, were “not very rough”, she
captures the moment three says. Suddenly, a much bigger
“These monster cargo boats battle a huge wave, around 7 metres from
waves can appear wave, with Mount Fuji in the peak-to-trough, emerged,
as walls of water background. “For a long time, and Sarano, alone on deck,
up to 30 metres this painting was used as quickly took a shot of it.
in height” an illustration of a tsunami,
but a tsunami doesn’t look It isn’t the first time the
practice is to generate waves with paddles in like this at all,” says Frédéric Great Wave has been called
a straight tank, but their novel circular tank Dias at University College a rogue. A 2009 paper
allowed fan-generated waves to flow freely Dublin, Ireland. pointed out that the wave,
and, in principle, indefinitely. estimated at 10 metres, is so
In 2013, Dias co-authored much larger than the average
Rogues in the wild a paper which concluded waves in Tokyo Bay that it
that a process called linear must be a freak. A tsunami
The researchers measured the surface focusing can predict at sea, in comparison, is just
elevation as the wind blew over the water, characteristics similar to “an unnoticeable small
increasing the wind speed until the waves were those of the Great Wave. amplitude swell with a
saturated with energy. At that point, just before The authors also pointed out very long wavelength”,
the wave broke, the probability of extreme the remarkable similarities the authors wrote.
waves “went sky high”, says Toffoli. of the wood print to a rogue
wave photographed in the To ram this point home,
But it is all very well understanding waves sub-Antarctic by Véronique in 2019 researchers created
in the controlled environment of a lab. It is a Sarano, founder of the French a wave strikingly similar
completely different matter out at sea. “The big organisation Longitude. to the Great Wave in their
question is: can I find the results that I’ve seen laboratory, using two smaller
in the model, and in the lab, in the real ocean?” Sarano happened to wave groups travelling at a
says Toffoli. In 2017, after 15 years of studying witness the wave while on crossing angle.
centimetre-high freak waves in labs, Toffoli
set out to do just that. He was on board South The great wave off
Africa’s Antarctic research vessel, the SA Kanagawa might be a
Agulhas II, as part of a University of Cape Town- depiction of a rogue wave
led expedition. They were on a mission to >
KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI. PUBLIC DOMAIN

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 43

characterise the waves in the Atlantic and JOHN LUND/GETTY IMAGES
Indian ocean sectors of the Southern Ocean,
especially at the margin with the sea ice. One of Rogue waves are wave steepening." It also focuses the energy
Toffoli’s aims was to establish the probability thought to have sunk at into a rhythmic succession of waves known as
of extreme waves in this area. least 22 supertankers a wave train. Based on these results, the SAWS
between 1969 and 1994 has launched the first wave forecasting system
Unexpectedly, the conditions turned. “We (composite image) which includes the effect that the Agulhas
were so lucky to find ourselves at the edge of the current has on wave steepening. Although it is
sea ice in the middle of a polar hurricane,” says “We were lucky to still a far cry from predicting individual rogues,
Toffoli. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” find ourselves in Rautenbach says it can statistically paint a
With the data still to be confirmed, Toffoli is the middle of a better picture of where and when to be on the
careful not to claim that he saw an actual rogue, polar hurricane” lookout for extreme waves, and these forecasts
although he describes the findings as “very are now broadcast through maritime alerts.
exciting”. When that research is published later
this year, it should provide insight into how Death coast
closely his experimental wave patterns map
onto waves seen in the wild. New research has also clarified the mechanics
of South Africa’s “death coast”. This shows that
Meanwhile, also of great interest to a shallow bank acts like a lens, refracting the
researchers are the shipping lanes off the incoming open ocean swell and focusing the
east coast of South Africa, where dozens wave energy towards the shore, creating
of ships have been damaged or sunk as a unexpectedly large waves under certain
consequence of rogue waves. Here, the Agulhas conditions. Researchers are hopeful that
current thunders southwards at speeds up to this information could ultimately prove
8 kilometres an hour, eventually meeting up useful for creating coastal warning systems.
with massive ocean swells from the Southern
Ocean running in the opposite direction. In Rogue-wave forecasting has moved forward
1991, a large oil tanker called the ULCC Mimosa in the North Atlantic too, through Extreme
was hit by a wave that its captain described as Wave Warning Criteria for Marine Structures
the biggest he had ever seen. The ship limped or ExWaMar, a Norwegian project that aimed
to port with a hole of more than 20 square to develop warning criteria based on weather
metres in its side. forecasts. ExWaMar further highlights the
challenge of predicting these rare events.
Researchers are hopeful their models can
make these channels safer, but something in First, the ExWaMar researchers used wave
the data wasn't adding up. “We were very much
aware that the Agulhas current influences the
wave climate along the east coast,” says Christo
Rautenbach, former marine scientist at the
South African Weather Service (SAWS), now
at the National Institute for Water and
Atmospheric Research in Hamilton, New
Zealand. Yet the actual wave recordings
from the region didn’t correlate with the
researchers’ models of the movement
of energy in the waves, he says.

Then in 2020, new computer simulations
revealed how other factors – the strength of
the current and its direction relative to the
direction of the waves – affect wave height.
“When the waves oppose the direction of the
current, the current will slow the wave down,”
says Michael Barnes at SAWS. “This results in

44 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Four freaks

Most rogue waves pass unnoticed in the oceans, but occasionally they get
spotted or cause damage to a ship. Here are four notable recent ones

Significant wave height (average
crest-to-trough height of the tallest
third of surrounding waves)

Rogue wave height (peak to trough)

Dec 2010 Oct 2015 Nov 2006 Nov 2007

Significant wave height: 3.5m Significant wave height: 9m Significant wave height: 3.9m Significant wave height: 10m
Rogue wave height: 9m Rogue wave height: 23.4m Rogue wave height: 21m Rogue wave height: 23m

Cruise ship Clelia II is hit by a Cargo ship SS El Faro travelling from A huge wave smashes the windows The Andrea wave, one of the
9-metre wave while returning Florida to Puerto Rico sinks during of the bridge of container ship steepest rogue waves ever
from Antarctica. The wall of water Hurricane Joaquin, with all 33 crew Westwood Pomona in the Pacific recorded, was detected at a North
smashes the pilot’s window on lost. According to analysis of the Ocean, damaging the electronics Sea oil platform during a storm.
the fifth deck, knocking out all sea state, it was hit by a massive and forcing the vessel to seek
communications, with passengers rogue wave. shelter at port in Oregon for repairs.
“rattled like dice in a casino”.

and weather data to see if they could simulate “In the future, Climate Change), ran from 2013 to 2016 to
irregular waves, using a method based on the extreme waves investigate changes to the North Atlantic wave
Schrödinger equation. This approach was able may be more climate with an eye on safe ship design. Large
to successfully recreate that famous Justine likely due to variations in climate change projections,
Three Sisters triplet, proving that accurate climate change” future ice coverage and winds made it
forecasting is in fact possible. tough to draw many robust conclusions.
Medium-Range Weather forecasts, which
There was, however, a snag. This now provide estimates of the tallest waves However, it did highlight some places in
process is so computationally “intense”, says to expect in an area. the North Atlantic that could face more rogue
Bitner-Gregersen, who led the project, that it waves. In one area off the coast of northern
is impractical for meteorological offices to use. Making better predictions of rogue waves Norway, for example, they could result from
Instead, the ExWaMar researchers turned to could already help to make the seas safer for melting sea ice combined with potential
less computationally demanding alternatives, ships in potentially dangerous waters, but increases in wind duration and speed. The
including using machine learning, to predict many believe this need will become even results show that conditions ripe for rogues
indicators of rogue waves. They had some more pronounced in future. Extreme waves will be more common, says Bitner-Gregersen.
promising results, but it is still not enough may become more likely as a result of climate Changes to the extent of sea ice and more swell
to accurately forecast individual rogues. change, both due to an increase in storm due to climate change in the Arctic may also
activity and the fact that melting polar ice will increase the occurrence of rogue waves there.
Bitner-Gregersen thinks the solution may be give the wind a larger sea surface to blow over.
to zoom out a bit. “The sea surface is random. There is a long way to go to be able to
It oscillates,” she says, and so it doesn’t make It is also possible that the changing climate accurately predict rogues in the wild. In the
sense to develop warning criteria for a single won’t cause more rogue waves, but instead meantime, watch out. The maths shows that
point. Instead, the ExWaMar criteria for the fewer, bigger ones, as has been observed in a “super rogue waves” up to five times higher
risk of rogue waves should be applicable to an study of rogue waves off the western US coast. than those around them are theoretically
area of 2.5 square kilometres. This strategy possible. Not only that, but they have been
is currently being tested, with the aim of Predicting these trends is even more tricky generated in a tank. What would Shackleton
including these predictions in the Norwegian than forecasting rogues. Another Norwegian have said if he had encountered one of those? ❚
Meteorological Institute’s open access weather project, called ExWaCli (Extreme Waves &
maps, which look ahead to the next six days. Petro Kotze is a freelance
writer based in Cape Town,
If this proves accurate, the strategy could be South Africa
rolled out internationally, she says. This would
add a new level of detail to the predictions of
organisations such as the European Centre for

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 45