New Scientist May 16_ 2020

“Many quantum theorists
would say we should abandon
any notion of reality”

Individual quantum particles can, at one time, be in scale or across the vast distances over which the effects
two different places – or three, or four, or spread out of general relativity become clear, then, the common-
throughout some region, perhaps wiggling around sense reality of chairs, tables and other material things
like a wave. Indeed, the “reality” that quantum theory would seem to dissolve away, to be replaced by a deeper
seems to be telling us to believe in is so far removed reality inhabiting the world of mathematics. Our
from what we are used to that many quantum theorists mathematical models of physical reality are far from
would tell us to abandon the very notion of reality complete, but they provide us with schemes that
when considering phenomena at the scale of particles, model reality with great precision – a precision
atoms or even molecules. enormously exceeding that of any description that
is free of mathematics. There seems every reason to
This seems rather hard to take, especially when we believe that these already remarkable schemes will be
are also told that quantum behaviour rules all improved upon and that even more elegant and
phenomena, and that even large-scale objects, being subtle pieces of mathematics will be found to mirror
built from quantum ingredients, are themselves reality with even greater precision. Might
subject to the same quantum rules. Where does mathematical entities inhabit their own world, the
quantum non-reality leave off and the physical reality abstract Platonic world of mathematical forms? It is an
that we actually seem to experience begin to take over? idea that many mathematicians are comfortable with.
Present-day quantum theory has no satisfactory In this scheme, the truths that mathematicians seek
answer to this question. My own viewpoint concerning are, in a clear sense, already “there”, and mathematical
this – and there are many other viewpoints – is that research can be compared with archaeology; the
present-day quantum theory is not quite right, and that mathematicians’ job is to seek out these truths as a
as the objects under consideration get more massive task of discovery rather than one of invention. To a
then the principles of Einstein’s general relativity begin mathematical Platonist, it is not so absurd to seek an
to clash with those of quantum mechanics, and a ultimate home for physical reality within Plato’s world.
notion of reality that is more in accordance with our
experiences will begin to emerge. The reader should be This is not acceptable to everyone. Many
warned, however: quantum mechanics as it stands has philosophers, and others, would argue that
no accepted observational evidence against it, and all mathematics consists merely of idealised mental
such modifications remain speculative. Moreover, concepts, and, if the world of mathematics is to be
even general relativity, involving as it does the idea regarded as arising ultimately from our minds, then we
of a curved space-time, itself diverges from the notions have reached a circularity: our minds arise from the
of reality we are used to. functioning of our physical brains, and the very precise
physical laws that underlie that functioning are
Whether we look at the universe at the quantum

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grounded in the mathematics that requires our The first in an
brains for its existence. My own position is to avoid entirely new series,
this immediate paradox by allowing the Platonic
mathematical world its own timeless and locationless Essential Guide:
existence, while allowing it to be accessible to us The Nature of Reality
through mental activity. My viewpoint allows for
three different kinds of reality: the physical, the mental is available now
and the Platonic-mathematical, with something (as
yet) profoundly mysterious in the relations between Get it in all good retailers, or get 10% off*
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wakeful healthy human brains, is organised in just the
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consciousness, when directed towards the
understanding of mathematical problems, is
capable of divining mathematical truth. What does
this tell us about the nature of physical reality? It tells
us that we cannot properly address the question of
that reality without understanding its connection
with the other two realities: conscious mentality and
the wonderful world of mathematics. ❚

ROGER PENROSE is a theoretical physicist and

cosmologist, emeritus professor at the University of
Oxford, UK, and the author of many books on physics,
consciousness and the nature of reality. This classic
article, updated for the Essential Guide, originally
appeared in New Scientist in 2006

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52 | New Scientist | 16 May 2020

The back pages Puzzles

Puzzle Cartoons Feedback Last word
Can you find the right The lighter side of life Eels forget what Why do cats pull fewer
numbers to fill in the with Tom Gauld and humans look like: faces than dogs?
diagram? p54 Twisteddoodles p54 the week in weird p55 Readers respond p56

Cryptic crossword #31 Set by Sparticle Scribble Quick quiz #51
zone
1 Their employment of
whip-like cells known as flagella
in reproduction suggests animals
share a common ancestor
with which other traditional
kingdom of life?

2 The Frenchman Jean-Henri Fabre
wrote an influential 1912 book,
still in print, called Social Life in the...
what?

3 What first did Harriet Quimby
achieve over 59 minutes
on 16 April 1912?

4 In what area of scientific
Answers and the endeavour might you find yourself
next quick crossword operating on bras and kets?
next week
5 Described as a “magic sheet of
ACROSS DOWN paper that can perform calculations
and recalculations” on its release
7 Stop the passage of time leading to harm (6) 1 Geological formation conceals in 1979, how might we describe
8 Top American academic is a notorious the uneven ocean view (4) VisiCalc today?

hunk (6) 2 Some Eurostar machinery? It goes on the road (6) Answers on page 54
9 Danger Mouse sequence makes people ill (4) 3 Mathematician clings to a break in the music (7)
10 Go on, mother, go ahead and pretend 4 Physicist son of Catherine the Great (5) Quick
5 Cheesier-sounding protector of pupils (6) Crossword #57
to be ill (8) 6 Weaves in, out; goes up, down (4,4)
11 Old Pennsylvania town’s lack 12 Biological compounds automatically Answers

of transparency (7) bulking up nails (8) ACROSS 1 Karpov, 4 Ice cap,
13 Boring to outlaw almost everything (5) 14 Sales pitch about a dog (7) 9 Byte, 10 Transplant, 11 Atomic,
15 Reportedly police small group of trees (5) 16 On the radio, made out a creepy crawly (6) 12 Bookmark, 13 Snow-blind,
17 Root of redwood tree starts becoming 18 Sea creature lurching without its shell (6) 15 Film, 16 UNIX, 17 Penis envy,
19 The two of them closing in on oxygen stand (5) 21 Aqueduct, 22 Cavern, 24 Razor grass,
neater (7) 22 Action invariant under parity symmetry (4) 25 Loop, 26 Kidney, 27 Arnica
20 Democrat with one toilet produces
DOWN 1 Krypton, 2 Rheum,
a lot of liquid (8) 3 Optical, 5 Cosmos, 6 Columbine,
21 Medic overturned drug manufacturing 7 Pangram, 8 Carbon neutral,
14 White gold, 16 Up Quark, 18 Incisor,
laws (4) 19 Variola, 20 Jungle, 23 Villi
23 Cricket, say, still playable by religious group (6)
24 Expedite documentary that’s abridged Our crosswords are
now solvable online
and bowdlerised (6)
newscientist.com/crosswords

16 May 2020 | New Scientist | 53

The back pages Puzzle

Tom Gauld set by David Bodycombe

for New Scientist #59 Celebrate the
differences
Twisteddoodles
4
for New Scientist
Quick Complete the diagram so
54 | New Scientist | 16 May 2020 quiz #51 that each of the nine circles
contains a different digit from
Answers 1 to 9. Whenever two circles
are connected by a straight
1 Fungi. Sperm are line, the difference between
flagella, as are spores the two numbers must be
three or more (e.g. 5, 6, 8
2 Insect World and 9 can’t be connected to 7).
The bottom-left square isn’t 1.
3 She became the
first woman to fly Answer next week
an aeroplane across
the English Channel #58 Lego lockdown

4 In quantum theory; There are 89 ways of combining
they are a common the bricks to make a row of length
notation for vectors 10. The combinations for length n
describing quantum follow the Fibonacci sequence, in
states which each number in the sequence
is the sum of the previous two:
5 A spreadsheet
program; it was the 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89
first such developed
for a PC This is because sequences of length
n can be created either by adding a
2-brick to the end of each sequence
that has length n-2, or by adding a
1-brick at the end of each sequence
that has length n-1. The total
number of combinations can
therefore be obtained by adding
these two smaller numbers together.

The back pages Feedback

The meme economy Got a story for Feedback? Swiss Embassy. As you might
expect from an official organ of
It isn’t often that Feedback has a Send it to [email protected] or the Helvetic Confederation, their
bone to pick with the Society for New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES correspondence is always timely,
Conservation Biology. Its cause Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed informative, easy to read and
is admirable, its intentions pure almost antiseptically humourless.
and its disdain for bone-picking
internationally acknowledged. This week, however,
Feedback received a selection
But the Soc for Conny B, as it of coronavirus-related leaflets
pleases us to call it, has recently so surprisingly jolly that we
committed a mammoth faux pas. seriously suspected postal fraud.
Its fauxest pas, arguably, since In an attempt to keep our spirits
failing to conserve the biology up, the embassy had included a
of the mammoth. checklist of activities that it
suggested we engage in during
In a recent issue of its journal, these uncertain days.
Conservation Biology, a paper
was published entitled “Effects “Tidy up a messy drawer”,
of amusing memes on concern ran one. Tick. “Try yodelling
for unappealing species”. In it, the through an open window”,
authors reveal that entertaining ran another. Also tick.
internet memes can help boost
funding for animals they call “Pickle vegetables of your
“unpopular and unappealing”. choice” was another that we
breezed through, before deciding
In other words, when coupled to “call someone with children
with a suitably humorous caption, and read them a story by phone”.
an unattractive photo of a toad can We didn’t ask for permission,
generate just as many clicks online mind, we just broke straight into
as an adorable snapshot of a panda. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and
Feedback is well acquainted with Punishment and carried on until
this phenomenon from our own Thursday. Tick.
childhood days, only back
then we called it cyberbullying. Now all that’s left for us to do
is “write down the story of your
Sucks to be you life” and “compile your best jokes”.
Oh wait – tick, tick!

One of the perils of having the person depicted. A second or This short-term memory Time flies
children, Feedback is reliably two later, the answer came back. loss is worrying the eel keepers,
informed, is that at some point “Oh wow,” said Wolfram. “It says however, who fear that their Some weeks ago, Feedback
your creations turn against you. I look like a plunger.” Not to charges may start hiding from pointed out a technical snafu on
There you are, teaching them to worry, Stephen: the Society for them as they pass by. To remind the part of New Scientist’s Twitter
catch a ball or preparing their Conservation Biology has some them what humans look like, the account, one appearing to imply
dinner, when they bite your ideas for how you could turn aquarium has introduced what it that a parallel universe travelling
ankle and start shedding all that to your advantage. calls a “face-showing festival”, backwards in time was likely to be
over the furniture. Or maybe setting up tank-side iPads and an unattractive shade of brown.
that’s dogs. We have always Eel problems encouraging fans to FaceTime We are grateful to James Henriksen
struggled to tell the difference. directly with the eels. for reminding us of an article we
In these turbulent times, it is all published in 2002 that suggests this
Far safer instead to create an too easy to be consumed by one’s “Given the animals’ natural was no accident, but the revelation
artificial intelligence. Polite, own problems and forget about the bashfulness,” reports The Guardian, of a profound cosmic truth.
respectful and guaranteed not real victims of the coronavirus crisis: “they are requested not to raise
to embarrass you in front of your the eels. To be precise, the garden their voices.” An excellent piece “In our past, and the other
friends – or so you might think. eels at Tokyo’s Sumida aquarium. of advice, and one that Feedback universe’s future, New Scientist
Mathematician and computer will pass on to our line managers published that our universe is
programmer Stephen Wolfram According to a report in immediately. beige as well,” he wrote.
recently proved this hypothesis The Guardian, these delicate “Or could our universe have
wrong when he appeared on creatures are so absent-minded Frank Swiss just made a U-turn in time?”
Lex Fridman’s AI podcast. that the dearth of visitors during
the outbreak is making them forget For reasons too tiresome to We are putting our best
In a bid to show off the power what humans look like. Feedback enter into at present, Feedback reporters on it, James – stay tuned
of his celebrated Mathematica can empathise – we are starting to occasionally receives postal for an update in about a week ago.  ❚
software, he fed it a photograph feel that way about sunshine. communications from the
of himself and asked it to identify Written by Gilead Amit

16 May 2020 | New Scientist | 55

The back pages The last word

Feline feelings Is the same amount
of the planet always
Cats don’t seem to have as covered by cloud?
many facial expressions as
dogs. Is there a reason for this? worried about the spread of

Jane Monroe virus-laden droplets in the air.
Arcate, California, US
Cats certainly seem to have much After this question was published,
more subtle facial expressions
than dogs. The likely reason it was effectively answered by one
comes down to sociality.
of our news stories.
Dogs are highly social animals,
whose welfare depends on getting There is some evidence that
along with their pack mates,
whether canine or human. cold and flu viruses can remain
So it is important that dogs can
communicate their moods and MARK J BARRETT/ALAMY infectious for several hours,
feelings to their pack mates, for
which an expressive face helps. depending on where they fall.

But cats are solitary animals – They tend to stay active longer
the undomesticated ancestors
of house cats spent most of on hard surfaces like stainless
their time alone. With no other
cats around to read their facial steel or plastic than on soft, porous
expressions, they didn’t need
to have obvious ones, nor learn ones like fabric. The amount of
to interpret smiles and grimaces.
Nevertheless, I swear my cat This week’s new questions virus deposited and the level of
smiles at me when I give him heat, humidity and ultraviolet light
a bit of tuna.
Cloud cover At any one time, how much of Earth is covered by can also determine how long some
David Muir
Edinburgh, UK cloud? Does this vary? Andrew Parsons, Welford, Northants, UK viruses stay active outside the body.
Dogs are pack animals, so
they have evolved the ability Different viruses seem to
to communicate through
facial expressions. Fresh smell I notice the smell of perfume I have used for a have differing abilities to survive

But as you have to be close while less than a new one. Is our sense of new smells keener? outside the body, however, and
enough to clearly see the facial
expressions of others of your What’s the evolutionary benefit of this? Chloe Hurst, Leeds, UK we are still learning about the new
species for this to be efficient, dogs
can also communicate through coronavirus. One study suggested
body language, sound and smell.
it can survive for up to 72 hours
The ancestors of domestic cats
were lone hunters, so had less feline expressions overlap with Patrick Forsyth on plastic and stainless steel,
need for close communication.
Furthermore, cats are nocturnal those of humans. Maldon, Essex, UK less than 24 hours on cardboard
hunters, as is deduced from
their vertical-slit pupils. Facial For example, cats furrow their Cats and dogs may both be and less than 4 hours on copper
expression is of little use in the
dark, thus it didn’t evolve in the brows to convey worry. However, domestic pets, but they are (newscientist.com/viral-survival).
ancestors of our pet cats.
as humans don’t rotate their very different creatures. However, a report by the US
Gary Warburton
Dublin, Ireland ears, it is harder for us to make The old adage is that dogs Centers for Disease Control and
It isn’t a matter of a lack of
feline expressions, but rather the connection between a will come when they are called, Prevention suggested that traces
a lack of human familiarity
with them – even though some cat’s turned-back ears and the whereas cats will take a message of the new coronavirus could be

equivalent human expression, and may get back to you later. present on surfaces for longer.

which is turning our mouths Cats are regarded as being This is because RNA from the virus

down at the corners to show more independent and more was detected on surfaces in the

sadness. Also, we wouldn’t introverted than dogs, so surely cabins of the Diamond Princess

intuitively see a cat’s squinted eyes they just want to communicate cruise ship 17 days after passengers

as an expression of friendship. less with their owners – or should had left, including those who hadn’t

Apart from their faces, cats that be their staff? shown symptoms of covid-19.

also express themselves using Other research suggests that

their tails. In contrast to a dog, in Viral survival the related SARS and MERS
coronaviruses can persist on
cats, whole-tail swishing usually

indicates deep concentration, How long do viruses like cold, metal, glass and plastic surfaces

not pleasure. flu and coronavirus survive for up to nine days.

Moving only the tip of the tail outside the body? What factors Virus particles expelled in

indicates annoyance. I recently affect this? coughs or sneezes may have a

saw a wildlife documentary in protective layer of mucus that

which a lion expert advised the The editor of this page, helps them survive. But this may

camera crew to leave when the Lilian Anekwe, writes: also mean that viruses lingering

lion exhibited this behaviour, Understandably, the covid-19 on surfaces can’t necessarily still

so it seems to be common to pandemic has many people infect other people.  ❚

big cats as well.

A tail held vertically means Want to send us a question or answer?
a friendly “Hi!”, while a tail fluffed

like a bottle brush can mean Email us at [email protected]

delight if it is vertical, but terror Questions should be about everyday science phenomena

if it is horizontal. Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms

56 | New Scientist | 16 May 2020

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