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QUANTUM
SUPREMACY

Atomic tricks for a
computing revolution


SOAK IT AWAY
Regular baths help
combat depression


QUITE A TREK
Bit of Grand Canyon
found in Tasmania


WEEKLY October 27– November 2, 2018


I
SPECI A L S SU E
























What are memories really for?


Why do we forget?

Can I trust my memories?

Is technology making us forgetful?


Is my memory normal?




PLUS: Top tips to boost

your memory

























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GENES AND UNIVERSITY/ANIMALS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

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CONTENTS newscientist.com/issue/3201













Management
Executive chairman Bernard Gray
Chief executive Nina Wright
Finance director Jenni Prince
Chief technology officer Chris Corderoy
Marketing director Jo Adams
Human resources Shirley Spencer
Non-executive director Louise Rogers
Publishing and commercial
Customer services manager Gavin Power
HR co-ordinator Serena Robinson
Facilities manager Ricci Welch ANDREW WEEKES PHOTOGRAPHY
Executive assistant Sarah Gauld AGSANDREW/SHUTTERSTOCK
Receptionist Alice Catling
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Email [email protected]
Commercial director Chris Martin Volume 240 No 3201 This Week Can new technology beat a chemical attack? 4
Richard Holliman, Justin Viljoen,
Henry Vowden, Helen Williams

Recruitment advertising On the cover Leaders Features
Tel +1 617 283 3213
Email [email protected] 42 Quantum supremacy 3 The world can ill afford a new arms 28 Animals in unexpected places
Recruitment sales manager Mike Black Atomic tricks for a computing race. It is time to think seriously Why predators are straying far
Key account manager Viren Vadgama
US sales manager Jeanne Shapiro revolution about banning cars from cities from home
31 The memory illusion Our
Marketing
Head of marketing Lucy Dunwell 14 Soak it away News memories make us who we are,
David Hunt, Chloe Thompson Regular baths help combat but what are they for?
Web development depression 4 THIS WEEK Inside the EU’s nerve 42 Quantum supremacy Michelle
Maria Moreno Garrido, Tom McQuillan, agent attack simulation. World’s Simmons is making the potential
Amardeep Sian
7 Quite a trek largest sea bridge. US to pull out of quantum computers a reality
New Scientist Live Bit of Grand Canyon found of nuclear treaty?
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1206
Email [email protected] in Tasmania
Events director Adrian Newton 6 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY Culture
Creative director Valerie Jamieson
Sales director Jacqui McCarron 31 Special issue: Memory Moral machines. Supercomputers 44 Keep calm and evolve Why
Exhibition sales manager Charles Mostyn The exquisite illusion that creates made from cell skeletons. Oxygen Darwin’s tree metaphor still works
Event manager Henry Gomm
Conference producer Natalie Gorohova our sense of self on Mars. Tasmania’s chunk of 45 Craft work Science isn’t just
Marketing executive Sasha Marks
Grand Canyon. Seven explanations useful, it’s a craft of its own
US Newsstand Plus Car-free cities (22). Fast radio for mysterious fast radio bursts. PLUS: this week’s cultural picks

Tel +1 212 237 7987 bursts (8). Oxygen on Mars (7). WHO calls for ban on virginity 46 The scandal of scholarship
Distributed by Time/Warner Retail,
Sales and Marketing, 260 Cherry Hill Road, Genes and university (25). Animals testing. Reimagining Super Mario. Expect righteous anger as a new
Parsippany, NJ 07054 in unexpected places (28) AI to detect cyberbullies. film reveals an unexpected con
Syndication Honeybees drum at night. Can hot
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Subscriptions
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56 FEEDBACK
City perfume
Analysis
57 THE LAST WORD
22 INSIGHT Why it makes sense Blow out
for cities to go car-free
24 COMMENT We must live
differently to tackle climate change.
Overwork in the tech sector
25 ANALYSIS It’s no surprise that
genes are linked to university


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 1

CIVILISATION










Discover how our species built a global


civilisation, how we gained and lost by


doing so, and what might happen next.










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PDJD]LQH UHWDLOHUV

LEADERS













Editorial
Editor Emily Wilson
Managing editor Rowan Hooper
Art editor Craig Mackie
News
News editor Penny Sarchet
Editors Jacob Aron, Timothy Revell
Reporters (UK) Jessica Hamzelou
Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Sam Wong
(US) Leah Crane, Chelsea Whyte
(Aus) Alice Klein

Features
Chief features editor Richard Webb
Editors Catherine de Lange, Gilead Amit,
Julia Brown, Daniel Cossins, Kate Douglas,
Alison George, Joshua Howgego, BETTMANN/GETTY
Tiffany O’Callaghan
Feature writer Graham Lawton
Culture and Community
Editors Liz Else, Mike Holderness, Simon Ings,
Frank Swain End of an agreement
Subeditors
Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons
The world can ill afford a debilitating new arms race
Tom Campbell, Chris Simms, Jon White
Design
Kathryn Brazier, Joe Hetzel,
Dave Johnston, Ryan Wills ON 20 October, Donald Trump treaty by building the things, and big nuclear treaties that limit

Picture desk announced that the US intends that China has a few hundred of global proliferation could go too.
Chief picture editor Adam Goff to leave the Intermediate-Range them too – may be justified. But That would end all international
Kirstin Kidd, David Stock
Nuclear Forces Treaty (see page 5). the US can easily defend against weapons inspections and free
Production The treaty, signed by Mikhail either threat with similar missiles other countries, including Saudi
Alan Blagrove, Anne Marie Conlon,
Melanie Green Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan launched from air or sea. Arabia and Iran, to weapon up.
in 1987, pictured above, destroyed Hopes for a diplomatic And if nuclear weapons, why not
Contact us
newscientist.com/contact a whole class of smallish ground- resolution are thin. A diminished chemical and biological weapons,
General & media enquiries launched nuclear missiles, in Russia, seeing in the treaty a too (see page 4)?
[email protected]
many ways the most destabilising symbol of its cold war defeat, On nukes, Trump calls on
US and dangerous of the lot. is only too glad to see the US everyone to “get smart” and not
210 Broadway #201
Cambridge, MA 02139 Just as the world requires get the blame for ripping it up. develop these “horrible weapons”
Tel +1 617 283 3213
a massive rechannelling of US National Security advisor in the same breath as pledging
UK resources towards reinventing John Bolton is fanatically $1.4 trillion to developing new
25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES
Tel +44 (0)20 7611 1200 industry, agriculture and energy opposed to arms treaties that ones. His actions seem to stem
AUSTRALIA to combat climate change, a new, restrict the freedom of the US from the ideology that we will
PO Box 2315, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012
expensive arms race looms. to act unilaterally. only all be safe when everyone has
The US’s complaints – that Results could be far-reaching. a gun, writ large. Anything but a
Russia has (probably) broken the If the treaty goes, the remaining smart move. ■



Are cars the new tobacco? well-connected public transport
systems, the unthinkable is
thinkable. The collateral benefits
CARS have become so embedded will ban most private cars from its are huge: more space for greenery
© 2018 New Scientist Ltd, England.
in our cityscapes that we rarely centre from November. Oslo has and community events, making
New Scientist ISSN 0262 4079 is published
weekly except for the last week in December stop to question whether been steadily weeding them out it easier to exercise and socialise,
by New Scientist Ltd, England.
they need to be there. But as by removing on-street parking and for children to play freely.
New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 congestion soars and the huge and turning roads into pedestrian Just a few years ago, banning
New Scientist Limited, 387 Park Avenue
South, New York, NY 10016 effects of air pollution on our and cycle paths (see page 22) . smoking in public places for
Periodicals postage paid at New York,
NY and other mailing offices health become clear, it is time to Not all cars can go – they are health reasons would have
Postmaster: Send address changes to think radically: should we ban still essential for people with been out of the question. No
New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Chesterfield,
MO 63006-9953, USA. cars from our cities? mobility problems, emergency fundamental liberties will be
Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper Several places are already services and in rural areas. But infringed by starting to think the
and printed in USA by Fry Communications
Inc, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 moving in this direction. Madrid for most people in cities with same way about urban driving. ■

27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 3

THIS WEEK









Technology versus nerve agents





Could a suite of new tools help contain future Novichok or sarin attacks?



Giving a “casualty” a wash
in a decontamination tent–

physical similarities with nerve
agents on the skin and clothes
of casualties.
“Anything that would improve
the ability to have detection
happen at the site would change
the way we prepare and add to
our resilience significantly,”
says Amesh Adalja of the Johns
Hopkins Center for Health
Security in Maryland, who
isn’t involved in the project.


Instant analysis

The responders also tested
ANDREW WEEKES PHOTOGRAPHY an electronic tagging system for

tracking each casualty’s status,
location and treatment. This
would be very useful, says Ralf
Trapp, a chemical and biological
weapons consultant in France,
who also isn’t involved in the
Sam Wong in Tatoi, Greece technologies have been tested in first described in the 19th century, project. “It would free medical-
a simulated CBRN event. Tools but only now are detectors response personnel in the field
SEVERAL people have collapsed ranged from miniature chemical small and sensitive enough to be from admin tasks, so they can
at an airport terminal, showing analysers to social media trackers. held in a hand or embedded into focus on dealing with victims.”
signs of nerve agent poisoning. The scenario was a simulation detectors that work like smoke As the simulation continued,
Responders in hazmat suits arrive of a sarin attack, the nerve agent alarms. In the simulation, the team analysed the breath of
and must urgently determine that killed 12 people in a terrorist responders used handheld the two most severely affected
what chemical people have been attack in Tokyo, Japan, in 1995. versions to detect a harmless casualties using a tabletop
exposed to and prevent further The “casualties” – played by chemical that shares some machine. In 40 seconds, the device
casualties. 50 Greek air force cadets – held
Thankfully, this wasn’t a cards describing their symptoms,
real attack, but a test of a suite including loss of sight, inability
of new tools for responding to to walk and convulsions, while
chemical, biological, radioactive a specialist Greek military unit
and nuclear events (CBRN) near used the tools to try to contain
Athens in Greece last week. the hypothetical attack.
Following the Novichok attack in One such device was an
Salisbury, UK, this year, experts ion-mobility spectrometer.
gathered at the Hellenic Air Force This ionises chemicals and
Academy in Tatoi to test the assesses how quickly they move
latest advances in diagnostic in an electric field, enabling the
and tracking technology. identification of the substances.
The field trial is part of Ion-mobility spectrometers were
the European Commission’s
TOXI-Triage project, and it was Electronic wrist tags make it easier
the first time so many unproven to keep track of each patient


4 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news








can detect the metabolites our Scientists call for
bodies produce if we ingest certain
substances, including sarin or, in Brexit cooperation
this case, capsules of peppermint
oil. It then automatically updates LEADING scientists from across
the electronic tag on the tested Europe have written to UK and EU
person’s wrist. leaders, urging them to agree a
Chemical detectors were Brexit deal that preserves scientific
used to ensure decontamination cooperation.
showers were effective, while an The letter was signed by 29
overhead drone used ion-mobility Nobel laureates, including Venki
spectrometry to map how far Ramakrishnan, president of the Royal
the chemical had spread. A social XINHUA NEWS AGENCY/EYEVINE Society, and six winners of the Fields
media tracking tool pulled medal, the biggest prize in maths.
together relevant posts from According to the society, the UK
tweeting participants. received €8.8 billion out of a total of
“You’ve got eyes and ears on
the ground at extraordinary detail World’s longest sea bridge €107 billion of EU research grants
between 2007 and 2013. Many of the
that has never been available to largest grants are given to consortia
incident commanders before,” CHINA’S new mega-bridge was The structure is supported by pillars that span countries. “Creating new
says Paul Thomas, lead scientist officially opened on 23 October embedded in the sea floor, cables barriers to such ease of collaboration
on TOXI-Triage, and at by President Xi Jinping. hanging from giant towers, and two will inhibit progress, to the detriment
Loughborough University, UK. The 55-kilometre-long structure artificial islands. of us all,” the letter says.
All the technologies developed is the longest over-sea bridge in the According to its engineers, it should The Francis Crick Institute,
by the project have been designed world and took nine years to build. be able to withstand a magnitude-8 a medical research centre in London,
to have other uses too, otherwise It crosses the Pearl River estuary to earthquake, a super typhoon or a revealed this week that 78 per cent
they would seldom be used. The connect the Chinese mainland to collision with a 300,000-tonne ship. of the EU scientists working there
breath-analysis kit could be used Hong Kong and Macau, and is 20 times The project has been criticised for said they would be less likely to stay
in hospitals to detect intoxication the length of San Francisco’s Golden the deaths of 10 workers and feared in the UK after Brexit.
Gate Bridge. impacts on local white dolphins. Only
“ Preparation for chemical The bridge becomes an underwater 47 of them are still in the area, down
attacks has been neglected tunnel for a 7-kilometre section so from 188 in 2003. Taking the scenic
recently, but the threat ships can cross and planes can take off China is also home to the world’s
may be increasing” from the nearby airport in Hong Kong. longest bridge of any kind, the route to Mercury
About 400,000 tonnes of steel 164-kilometre-long Danyang–
from alcohol, date rape drugs or were used in the project, equivalent Kunshan Grand Bridge, which THE BepiColombo spacecraft is on
pesticides, for example. to eight times the amount used to crosses land and water between its way to Mercury after a successful
The tools worked well on the build the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Shanghai and Nanjing. launch from French Guiana on
day, but there were problems. 20 October.
One of the main lessons from The joint mission by the European
the trial is that the tools need to US to pull out of kilometres. It is one of only two Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace
be easier to use when wearing remaining treaties imposing verified Exploration Agency aims to probe
protective equipment. “You’re nuclear treaty? limits on US and Russian nuclear some of Mercury’s mysteries, such
sweltering hot. You have sweat forces, which together hold 92 per as its odd magnetic field, weird pools
running down your face. Your gas PRESIDENT Donald Trump told cent of all nukes. Experts fear that if of ice and hollows unlike anything we
mask is fogging up – you need reporters this week that the US will this treaty goes, the New START have seen on other planets.
better ways of enabling them to pull out of the Intermediate-Range treaty, which limits big, long-range But before BepiColombo can
use that kind of kit,” says Thomas. Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, saying nuclear weapons, could go too. do that, it has to get to Mercury,
The TOXI-Triage team is now that both Russia and China possess Since 2008, the US has charged a Herculean task because of the sun’s
analysing the data collected the missiles it bans. that a Russian prototype cruise powerful gravity. To avoid flying right
during the exercise to calculate While Russia is part of the treaty, missile violates the INF Treaty. Russia past Mercury and falling into the sun,
how best to deal with real China isn’t. The latter’s small but in turn charges that US armed drones the craft will take the scenic route.
casualties in such a scenario. growing nuclear armoury consists do, as do missile-defence launchers It will loop back around Earth once,
Preparation for biological entirely of intermediate-range installed in Romania, which could Venus twice and Mercury six times
and chemical attacks got a lot of missiles, however, and Trump may launch medium-range Tomahawk to get the energy it needs to get
attention after 9/11, but has been be trying to force three-way talks. missiles offensively. into orbit around Mercury.
neglected recently, says Adalja. The INF Treaty bans US or Russian These issues could be resolved If all goes well, BepiColombo
“I think the threat is still there ground-launched nuclear missiles with inspections, but raised tensions will reach its final destination in
and maybe even getting larger.” ■ with ranges between 480 and 5500 could now make that difficult. December 2025.

27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 5

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY








In a crash, whose life of a preference to spare the young autonomous vehicles because
over the old, or to spare those
that would simply perpetuate
would you spare? with high status. Decisions to save cultural biases that may not
reflect moral decisions.
humans ahead of cats and dogs
were less pronounced in a “The fact that there are some
A SELF-DRIVING car is travelling policy-makers and the experts Southern cluster, which included cultural patterns should not
along a two-lane road when its they may rely on as they devise Central and South America, and surprise us, but that has nothing
brakes fail. Should it stay in lane regulations for driverless cars. countries with French influence. to do with the fact that something
and hit a pregnant woman, “This is one way to deliver what The preference there was to spare is right or wrong,” says ethicist
a doctor and a criminal on a the public wants,” he says. women and fit people. H. Peter Steeves at DePaul
pedestrian crossing, or swerve The team found that people in Many technology researchers University in Chicago. The instinct
and hit a barrier, killing the family regional clusters made similar and ethicists told New Scientist to save women and children, for
of four in the vehicle? decisions. In an Eastern cluster, they thought the results shouldn’t example, is rooted in patriarchal
This derivative of the classic which included Islamic countries be used to set policy or design views of these groups having less
Trolley Problem is the kind of and eastern Asian nations that autonomy and therefore being
scenario that makes up the Moral belong to the Confucianist Driverless cars may soon have to deserving of rescue, he says.
Machine experiment, an ethics cultural group, there was less make life-and-death decisions We end up having these debates
survey of millions of people from because we anthropomorphise
233 countries and territories AI, but ethics related to transport
around the world. Participants isn’t just about self-driving
were asked to consider different cars, says Joanna Bryson at the
scenarios in which those who University of Bath, UK. We already
might be saved could be, say, make decisions and trade-offs
fit or fat, young or old, pets, about road use that don’t always
criminals or those with high- result in the highest safety for the
status jobs. In all, 40 million greatest number of people. “SUVs
decisions were collected. are twice as likely to kill anybody
Overall, people preferred to you hit, and yet we’ve accepted
spare humans over animals that into our culture,” she says.
and younger over older people, Programming morality into
and tried to save the most lives. an algorithm may be impossible,
The characters that people opted especially if coders and the
to save least were dogs, followed general public don’t act ethically
by criminals and then cats on the whole, says Steeves. “Then
(Nature, DOI: 10.1038/ the dream of finding the right
s41586-018-0637-6). moral algorithm is just as absurd
Edmond Awad at the as finding the right comedic
Massachusetts Institute of DAREKM101/GETTY parabola, or the right colour of
Technology and his colleagues dance, or the right frequency for
think these findings can inform spaghetti.” Chelsea Whyte ■




Computers the protein-based scaffolds that give computers, called logic gates. Adamatzky. Tubulin and actin are also
cells their shape. Adamatzky and his colleagues less complex than DNA, making them
made from Cytoskeletons are constructed from have pulled all this together into easier materials to work with.
several different elements, including an overall concept for the first time But Ross King at the University of
cell skeletons 25-nanometre-wide tubules made (arxiv. org/abs/1810.04981). Manchester, UK, who has worked on

from a protein called tubulin and They argue that cytoskeleton DNA computers, is sceptical. He thinks
BUILDING a computer from the 6-nanometre-wide filaments made devices would have an advantage it may be difficult to get the signalling
skeleton that holds our cells together from a protein called actin. These over ones made from DNA, another mechanisms of cytoskeleton
could allow us to make machines structures also distribute information form of biological calculator that computers to perform digital
that are smaller and far more in the form of patterns of atoms, some people think could supercharge computation at the atomic level.
energy efficient. electrons and ions, allowing computing. DNA is good at storage, He agrees with Adamatzky that
To encourage the development of communication between parts of but poor at processing signals, says silicon’s days are numbered, however.
such computers, Andrew Adamatzky cells. By forcing these patterns to We have reached the point where a
at the University of the West of combine in various ways, it may “Cytoskeleton devices could single supercomputer consumes the
England, UK, and his colleagues have be possible to perform simple be a more promising way same amount of energy as thousands
developed a theoretical foundation computations. This would essentially to supercharge computing of households, says King. “That’s not
for computing with cytoskeletons, reproduce the basic units of digital than those made of DNA” scalable.” Douglas Heaven ■


6 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news









Salty Martian

water may hold

oxygen for life


THE atmosphere of Mars may not
contain much oxygen, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean the planet itself
lacks the stuff. A calculation of how
much oxygen could be dissolved in
salty Martian groundwater shows
that the dusty world may be hiding
an abundance of oxygen under its
surface – potentially enough to
support life.
We know Mars has oxygen on its
surface, which is why it looks red:
iron in Martian dust mixes with
oxygen to create rust.
Vlada Stamenkovic´ at NASA’s Jet DANIEL VIÑÉ GARCIA/GETTY
Propulsion Laboratory in California
and his colleagues calculated how
much oxygen could be dissolved in
brines just under the planet’s surface. western United States,” he says.
They found that, under particularly Australia’s Grand Beyond extending the Grand
cold conditions, certain types of Canyon’s reach across the
brines could hold just as much Canyon connection Pacific and into the southern
oxygen as seawater does on Earth. hemisphere, uniting the
This would be enough for microbes Tasmanian rocks with those in
and even simple animals like sponges North America helps to solve an
to survive (Nature Geoscience, Lucas Joel didn’t look a lot like similarly ancient geological jigsaw puzzle.
doi. org/ cv2v). aged rocks nearby.” About a billion years ago, all
But we aren’t entirely certain THE Grand Canyon in Arizona Mulder and his colleagues of Earth’s continental plates
there are liquid brines on Mars. has a bizarre Antipodean link. have now found that the rocks formed a single supercontinent
Despite clues, such as recurring A chunk of the rock sequence that contain minerals with the same
slope lineae – dark lines flowing down has been sliced through to form “geochemical fingerprint” “We concluded that
hills that appear to be liquid – there this natural wonder of the world as those in the Grand Canyon Tasmania must have
is no definitive proof on which all now sits thousands of kilometres (Geology, doi.org/cv24). been attached to the
researchers can agree. away in Tasmania, Australia. “We concluded that although western United States”
“There have been various different To peer into the Grand Canyon it’s now on the opposite side
claims for where we may or may not is to behold, in its rock layers, a of the planet, Tasmania must called Rodinia. But working
have seen evidence for these brines record of Earth’s distant past. The have been attached to the out exactly how today’s
existing,” says Kirsten Siebach at Rice oldest layers at the bottom date continents would once have
University in Texas. “Small amounts back more than 1.5 billion years. fitted together to form Rodinia
of brines would be possible, but we It is some of the most ancient is no simple task given how long
aren’t sure that they’re really there.” layers in the sequence that ago it existed. The Tasmanian
Even if Mars does have oxygen-rich interest Jack Mulder, a geologist discovery provides a clue because
brine, that’s no guarantee of life, at Australia’s Monash University. it is clear evidence that North
says Robin Wordsworth at Harvard He thinks these rocks – which are America and Australia were linked
University. “It’s two sides of the coin between about 1.1 and 1.2 billion together at the time.
in a way,” he says. “If you want years old – look just like similarly “Jack’s paper shows that
respiration, oxygen is good, but too ancient rocks in Tasmania. Tasmania holds the key to tying
much oxidation can be bad for life.” The Tasmanian rocks in together the tectonic geography of
Compounds like hydrogen peroxide question have always seemed a the time,” says Alan Collins at the
can damage cells, which may be bit out of place, he says. “They University of Adelaide, Australia.
particularly bad for primitive life forms “It’s really a good link and tie that
that don’t have that many cells to These Tasmanian rocks were once JACK MULDER allows us to build full plate models
begin with. Leah Crane ■ part of the Grand Canyon (top) of the ancient Earth.” ■

27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 7

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY









Bid to explain radio its matter. Some ideas suggest interacting with AGNs to produce
the characteristic radio waves.
that dark matter, the mysterious
substance thought to make up
bursts from space 85 per cent of matter in the Close encounters
universe, could be sucked into a
A pulsar traversing an asteroid
neutron star and cause a collapse belt could strip away charged
that would spew out FRBs. particles from an asteroid’s

Chelsea Whyte of Cape Town in South Africa. surface and produce radio waves
Platts and her colleagues have Giant bubbles and pulses characteristic of an FRB. Or a
STRANGE flashes of radio waves grouped the explanations in the Rapidly rotating pulsars have comet captured by a neutron star
have been a mystery ever since following seven categories. been suggested as an FRB source could break apart and emit radio
the first one was detected in 2007. because their magnetic fields waves as it is sucked into the star.
It is tough to say what is causing Smash-ups could accelerate clumps of
these fast radio bursts (FRBs) Mergers between two large particles that can then give off Axion interactions
because most are here and gone astronomical objects could cause radio waves. Or a pulsar in a cloud One candidate for dark matter is
in a moment – only one has ever radio waves. For instance, when of dust could create a wind bubble a hypothetical subatomic particle
been seen to repeat – which makes the magnetic field of a super- as it spins, triggering an FRB called the axion. Groups of these
it tricky to gather much data dense neutron star meets that of that travels through the nebula could clump up and collapse or
about any of them. a white dwarf star – or a supernova it sits inside. Neutron stars with collide with a highly magnetised
But astronomers do have ideas ejecting its mass, or even a black extremely powerful magnetic object such as a black hole or
about where they might come hole – the fields might create fields, known as magnetars, could neutron star. The resulting
from, ranging from the mundane streams of particles that result produce a similar bubble. interactions could produce FRBs.
to the exotic, such as alien craft in radio waves. The same thing
powered by beams of light. could occur if two neutron stars Active galactic nuclei Weird stuff
A project now aims to gather collided, or a black hole collided When an enormous black hole Maybe FRBs are created in
all the most likely explanations with another black hole. sits at the centre of a galaxy exploding white holes, mirror
and whittle them down gobbling up gas and dust, some opposites to black holes that spew
(arxiv. org/abs/1810.05836). Collapses of the matter can gain speed matter instead of sucking it in. Or
“When we started the As large celestial objects collapse, due to the extreme physical maybe they come from lightning
catalogue at the beginning of the radiation can escape in the form conditions and shoot out as a jet produced on the surface of a
year, we had more theories than of radio waves. An FRB could be a before it is swallowed. These jets pulsar. String theorists suggest
we had observations, but we now result of a neutron star collapsing shine brightly under the forces FRBs could occur when the cosmic
have more observations,” says into a black hole or a quark star: of heat and friction, shooting out strings they suppose make up our
Emma Platts at the University a hypothetical star at such high from an active galactic nucleus universe oscillate or collide.
pressure and temperature that its (AGN). Some ideas about the
Might colliding neutron stars be subatomic quarks are stripped origins of FRBs suggest that “Some of these theories are
the cause of fast radio bursts?– from the neutrons that make up objects or particles may be more likely than others,” says
Shriharsh Tendulkar at McGill
University in Canada, who works
on the project. “That’s why we
set up a discussion board, so
scientists can discuss the pros
and cons of all the theories.”
For any of these ideas to be
correct, it has to account for several
oddities among the 60 or so FRBs
found so far.
The recorded signals are all
high in frequency, suggesting
they come from something
NASA’S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER/CI LAB polarised light, while others
compact. But they have little else
in common. Some FRBs emit


don’t, for instance. What’s more,
we have only been able to pin
down a few FRBs to their home
galaxy, so we aren’t even sure if


FRBs more often than others. ■

8 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018 certain environments produce

WHAT IF TIME STARTED




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Machines make

the next Super

Mario


YOUR plucky blue box bounds over
gaps and hops onto platforms, the
pulsating red wall never more than
half a screen behind. If it catches you,
it is game over. Then the wall falls into
a hole, you bounce on it and it is gone.
This is Super Mario reimagined by
artificial intelligence.
Matthew Guzdial and Mark Riedl
at the Georgia Institute of Technology
RAVEENDRAN/AFP/GETTY learning system that has taught itself
in Atlanta have created a machine-

the basics of video game design by
watching videos of people playing
classic games, such as Super Mario,
Kirby and Mega Man.
WHO calls for end A demonstration against virginity the interactions between characters
This allows the AI to learn about
tests in New Delhi, India, in 2009
and objects: what happens when this
to virginity testing hymen. In rape cases in India and thing goes over there, what happens
Virginity tests don’t stop at the
when this thing touches that thing.
neighbouring countries, medical It then takes the patterns it has
or police examiners insert two identified in individual games and
Debora MacKenzie hymens of women who had fingers into the vagina, to assess remixes them into new ones. “Some
or hadn’t had penetrative the “laxity” of the vaginal muscles, are good, some are bad,” says Guzdial.
DOCTORS, police and employers intercourse were insignificant. thought to reflect whether a The above game, nicknamed Death
should be banned from using Another study found that hymen woman has become “habituated” Wall, was one success. Another, called
so-called virginity tests on women inspection accurately identified to sex. Killer Bounce, has the player jumping
and girls, and those who continue less than 10 per cent of the women But vaginal muscle tone reflects across blocks that disappear when
to use them should be prosecuted, who had experienced penetration. no such thing, says the WHO. you touch them, forcing you to keep
the World Health Organization Yet in Indonesia, a woman wanting Nevertheless, in court a diagnosis bouncing. It was the result of the
has declared. to join the military must have a of past sexual activity can weigh system taking the Super Mario rule
Such tests are used around the “virginal” hymen. against an unmarried woman that you dispatch enemies by
world in rape investigations and Virginity tests are also used who has been raped. Aruna bouncing on them and then making
even in hiring women for certain to humiliate women in prisons, Kashyap of Human Rights Watch everything in the game an enemy
professions. The WHO is calling including demonstrators in says that doctors in India “obsess (arxiv.org/abs/1809.02232).
on governments to ban these Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring. In South about vaginal evidence”, even At the moment, Guzdial’s system
practices, and to educate doctors, Africa, girls who fail virginity tests though rape often leaves no produces very abstract, blocky
police and others that these tests vaginal injuries. games, but he would like to add
don’t indicate past sexual activity. “Virginity tests are used to India’s most recent guidelines more recognisable character designs
For centuries, many people humiliate women in prison, on how to treat women who and backdrops. These could also be
have believed that the hymen – including demonstrators in report being raped no longer machine-generated. Guzdial has
a fringe of tissue inside most Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring” include the “two-finger test”. But previously used AI to generate new
vaginas – can be used as a sign the guidelines have only been Pokémon, for example.
of virginity. But there is no may be ostracised, and some adopted in nine of India’s 36 states Eventually, he would like anyone
evidence that the hymen can employers have held policies of and territories. “A lot needs to be to be able to use such systems.
reveal if a woman has had sex, only hiring women who pass. done,” says Kashyap. “People often say they want a game
as underscored by a review of Women who fail virginity While virginity tests are most that’s a bit like one thing and a bit like
available research co-authored tests – regardless of whether they common in parts of Africa, the another,” says Guzdial. “Wouldn’t it
by the WHO’s Claudia Garcia- have ever had sex – suffer socially Middle East and Asia, the WHO be great if you could show the AI
Moreno last year. and psychologically, says the says they also occur in immigrant Fortnite and Minecraft and it spat
In one study, doctors found WHO. Some attempt suicide; communities in rich nations, out something new you could play?”
that the differences between the others are killed by their families. including the UK. ■ Douglas Heaven ■


10 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

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AI may protect kids



from cyberbullies






Alice Klein algorithm on posts from ASKfm
it hadn’t seen before, they found
CYBERBULLYING has become a it could detect over two-thirds
scourge of social media. Artificial of threats, insults and instances
intelligence could help: it is of sexual harassment (PLoS One,
learning to detect and filter doi.org/gfdg6g).
out bullying posts before they The attacks it missed tended to
reach users. be more subtle and contain fewer
About one-third of teenagers obvious slurs, says Jacobs. “It’s
have been bullied online, really difficult to get 100 per cent
according to surveys. Some detection accuracy because there
victims have taken their own are so many different ways you
lives, prompting governments can bully someone,” he says.
to introduce harsher penalties Moreover, the system LAY-P1192M1516919/PLAINPICTURE
for perpetrators. However, these sometimes failed to distinguish
measures fail to prevent exposure malicious comments from
to cyberbullying in the first place. friendly sarcasm, such as
Gilles Jacobs at Ghent “You might want to do some
University in Belgium and his sports ahah x”. Nevertheless, One-third of teenagers says Davidson. The platform still
colleagues wondered if they the algorithm should become have been bullied online– lets users manually lodge reports
could train a machine-learning better at detecting the difference of bullying, which can then be
algorithm to spot bullying between subtle bullying and AI should make it easier for used to refine the algorithm and
content on social media, which harmless jokes as it is exposed platforms to moderate vast train it to recognise similar
might allow it to be removed to more examples, says Jacobs. swathes of content, says Thomas content in the future, he says.
before it can inflict damage. Social media sites are already Davidson at Cornell University in Young people will only accept
They asked linguists to read rolling out their own versions of New York. “It is simply infeasible these systems if they do their job
almost 200,000 posts on the systems like this. Instagram, for to rely on human moderators to without becoming too intrusive,
social media platform ASKfm instance, announced earlier this manually scan through millions says Jacobs. Surveys of teenagers
and pick out examples of month that it had started using a of comments every day,” he says. have found that they support
cyberbullying. Then they trained machine-learning algorithm to Instagram hasn’t revealed checking posts for cyberbullying,
an algorithm to identify words spot signs of bullying in photos the accuracy of its automated but that “they also want to be able
and phrases in this data that the and captions. Once a post is detection system, but even if it to express themselves freely and
linguists associated with bullying. flagged, it is sent to human isn’t perfect, it will be backed up not feel like they’re constantly
When the researchers tested the moderators to review. by traditional reporting methods, being monitored”, he says. ■




Mystery of why called dorso-ventral abdominal bees that typically give the signal, bees that don’t leave the hive and
vibration (DVAV), for about 90 years. to activate members of the colony. don’t experience normal circadian
old bees drum Some biologists have captured “The recipient bee seems to be rhythms, so the DVAV signals might
video of bees producing the sound, energised,” says Bencsik. “She gets help coordinate their activity with the
at night but these earlier studies have only on with her job with more energy, daily cycle of foraging, say the team.

monitored bees for short periods as if she has had coffee or something.” The DVAV is one of numerous
SOMETIMES a honeybee hive isn’t during the day. The researchers’ discovery that the vibrational signals that bees are
quite buzzing, and the workers need Now Martin Bencsik at Nottingham DVAV signal occurs most frequently at known to make. Others include the
a signal to get busy. Older honeybees Trent University, UK, and his night might be related to activities like waggle dance, which tells other bees
use a drumming sound to order colleagues have analysed a year’s food processing or brood care. These where to forage, and the cleaning
their colleagues to get to work. But worth of data from devices that record activities are performed by worker dance, which a bee performs when it
extensive monitoring of beehives vibrations in the honeycomb inside wants another bee to groom its wings.
suggests the signal is given most three hives, revealing more about the “ The signal is given most Bencsik’s team previously
often at night – which is odd given function of the message (Scientific often at night – which described a whooping sound that
that bees only forage during the day. Reports, doi.org/cvx4). is odd given bees only appears to be an expression of
We have known about this signal, Earlier studies suggest it is older forage during the day” surprise. Sam Wong ■


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 13

NEWS & TECHNOLOGY









Gravitational

waves could be

tractor beams


THE ripples in space-time caused
by the motions of massive objects
could act like sci-fi tractor beams and
pull things along.
We already know that a rotating
beam of light can trap tiny particles
FRANK MUCKENHEIM/PLAINPICTURE Nobel prize in physics was awarded
and move them around – this year’s


for related research.
This works because particles
essentially get stuck between peaks
of the light wave as it propagates
forward, like a surfer riding a swell.
As the rotating wave turns, it acts like
His team looked at 45 people
Hot baths could with depression, about half a sort of whirlpool of light, trapping
the particle in place.
of whom were taking Iwo Bialynicki-Birula at the Polish
reduce depression antidepressant medicines, Academy of Sciences and Szymon

which they continued with.
Charzynski at the University of
People were randomly allocated Warsaw calculated that the same
to either twice-weekly exercise thing could happen with a rotating
Clare Wilson that there is not enough of sessions or thermal therapy. beam of space-time ripples, also
a brain-signalling molecule The bathing involved going to known as gravitational waves.
LONG soaks in a hot bath could called serotonin, because a spa to soak in a pool at 40°C for An object could get stuck in a swell
help with depression. A small antidepressants seem to boost up to 30 minutes, then getting out of increased gravity, and rotation of
study has found that afternoon levels of this compound. and wrapping up with blankets the wave would trap it there. “When
baths just twice a week produce Another suspect is disturbed and hot water bottles for another something gets trapped, it is like it is
a moderate but persistent lift to circadian rhythm, the physical 20 minutes. After two weeks, in the eye of the gravitational wave
mood. The size of the benefit was and biochemical changes that some people chose to carry on hurricane,” says Bialynicki-Birula
similar to that seen with physical happen to our bodies over the day. with the routine at home, while (arxiv.org/abs/1810.02219v1).
exercise, which is a recommended Your body temperature would the rest continued with it at Such a gravity vortex would
therapy for mild or moderate normally rise in the morning, the spa. The baths raised body probably be produced when a pair
depression. peak in the afternoon, then temperature by nearly 2°C. of black holes or other enormous
The method could work dip back down when you sleep, After eight weeks, the hot-bath objects orbit one another, he says.
because raising body following a wave-like curve treatment reduced symptoms by All the gravitational waves we have
temperature in the afternoon with a difference of about a 1°C about 6 points on a commonly observed came from systems like
helps restore the normal circadian between day and night. used depression scale, down from this, where orbiting black holes or
rhythm of temperature, which an average starting place of 21, neutron stars spiralled inwards and
is often disturbed in people “ Afternoon baths just while the exercise programme smashed together.
with depression. The baths also twice a week produce lowered it by about 3 points. There is just one problem, says
improved people’s sleep patterns. a moderate but persistent The baths also started working Lionel London at Cardiff University,
Depression is one of the most lift to mood” within two weeks, unlike exercise, UK. For a tractor beam to do anything,
common mental-health issues say the authors in their paper it needs something to grab hold of,
and is usually treated with But if you have depression, the (bioRxiv, doi.org/cvzv). but black holes tend to sweep away
antidepressants and talking cycle may be flatter, erratic or Nick Stafford, a psychiatrist at or suck in surrounding matter.
therapy. However, the medication delayed by a few hours causing the Black Country Partnership Neutron star systems may host
may cause side effects, and a the peak to occur later in the day. NHS Foundation Trust, UK, says additional matter that could be
course of talking therapy can be So Johannes Naumann at the approach makes sense given available to be stuck in a gravitational
expensive, sometimes with long the University of Freiburg in what happens to circadian wave tractor beam, he says, but it
waiting lists in the UK National Germany and his colleagues rhythms in depression. “I’m not isn’t certain the gravitational waves
Health Service, for instance. wondered if a timely hot bath surprised they found a benefit, generated by a neutron star would
The root cause of depression could nudge the cycle back into I’m just surprised no one has be powerful enough to trap anything.
is unclear. The dominant view is rhythm and improve mood. tried doing this before.” ■ Leah Crane ■


14 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018



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IMAGEBROKER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO Pretty birds just

can’t carry a tune



A MALE peacock’s call isn’t an
appealing noise, but its splendid
tail means that doesn’t matter.
Now an analysis shows that this
is a common trade-off in birds:
the best lookers aren’t the greatest
singers, while the best vocalists
aren’t as easy on the eye.
Christopher Cooney at the
University of Oxford and his
colleagues studied the songs
of 518 bird species and their
feather colours. In particular,
they looked at how feathers
differed between males and
females of each species – a sign
that plumage colour evolved to
help attract a mate.
They found that birds in which
one sex has showier plumage
than the other tend to have more
monotonous songs. For species
in which the males and females
more closely resemble each other,
Secret of the mantis shrimp’s like a bow, and when it is released, that energy transfers the males sing longer songs and
into the club. use more notes (Proceedings of the
mighty punch are revealed Miserez and his colleagues found the saddle can hold Royal Society B, doi.org/cvwk).
all that energy without snapping because of its two-layer
THE mantis shrimp packs a mean punch, smashing its structure. The top is made of a ceramic material similar
victims’ shells with the force of a .22 calibre bullet. to bone and the bottom mostly plastic-like biopolymers. A condom that
Now we know how it does this. It isn’t because it has When the saddle is bent, the top layer is compressed
particularly powerful muscles – instead of big biceps, and the bottom is stretched. The ceramic can hold a lot of can self-lubricate
it has arms that are naturally spring-loaded, allowing it energy when compressed, but is brittle when bent and
to swing its fist-like clubs at up to 23 metres per second. stretched. The biopolymers are stronger and stretchier, THE next generation of condoms
The key to the shrimp’s punch is a previously so hold the whole thing together (iScience, doi.org/cvxr). may lubricate itself with a polymer
identified saddle-shaped structure on the arm just Materials designed using our knowledge of these coating that turns slippery once
above its club. It works a bit like a bow and arrow, shrimp shapes may be useful in microrobots, says Ming it comes into contact with body
says Ali Miserez at Nanyang Technological University Dao at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. fluids, and that doesn’t dry out.
in Singapore. The muscles pull on the saddle to bend it See Letters for more on the power of the shrimp’s punch Most condoms are coated with
silicone oil. But this, and other
lubricants based on water, oil or
The trick that makes our brains superior This could give greater silicone, are absorbed by the skin,
computing powers to each cell. so lubrication wears off.
EACH of our brain cells could work of their tree-like structure. Mark In a mouse neuron, if a signal Mark Grinstaff at Boston
like a mini-computer, according Harnett at the Massachusetts starts down a dendrite, there are University and his colleagues have
to recordings of electrical activity Institute of Technology and his so many ion channels that the tackled the problem by treating
in the fine branches of the cells. team have now used thinner signal will probably continue into condoms with a “water-loving”
The work has revealed a key electrodes to record activity in the main trunk of the neuron. In coating called HEA/BP/PVP. This
difference between human and dendrites, fine branches at the a human neuron, by contrast, the turns slippery on meeting water
mouse brain cells, or neurons, end of the trunk. set-up allows patterns of activity and body fluids and won’t wear
that could help explain our Compared with mice, in dendrites, and in synapses off. Grinstaff says the coating has
superior intelligence. human dendrites have fewer ion linked to dendrites, to determine been used to lubricate medical
Signals within human neurons channels: the molecules in the the final “decision” on whether devices, but will need approval for
have been recorded before, brain cell’s membrane that let the main branch of a brain cell condom use (Royal Society Open
but always in the main “trunk” electricity flow along the dendrite. should fire (Cell, doi.org/cvwp). Science, doi.org/cvwm).


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 17

IN BRIEF For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news








Genes change Fossil life from nearly 4 billion years ago may just be rocks

during pregnancy THE oldest fossils in the world team found a patch of material cross-section, a structure often

might not be anything of the kind, that appears to have survived this seen in deformed rocks, she says.
WOMEN’S bodies go through radical but simply deformed rocks. process relatively unharmed. The chemical analysis also doesn’t
changes during pregnancy, and In 2016, Allen Nutman at the Now Abigail Allwood at the stand up, says Allwood’s team.
now it is becoming clear that there University of Wollongong in Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Nutman rejects the conclusions.
is also upheaval at the gene level. Australia and his colleagues said California and her colleagues have He says that if the objects were
Alicia Smith at Emory University they had found the oldest fossils reanalysed the rocks in Greenland. produced by deformation, they
in Atlanta, Georgia, and her yet, describing stromatolites – They say they aren’t stromatolites wouldn’t all have flat bottoms –
colleagues took blood samples preserved mats of microbes (Nature, doi.org/gfdb45). but they do, and this suggests
from 63 women early and late in sandwiched between layers of Allwood thought it was odd they are stromatolites. Nutman
pregnancy to investigate changes sediment – in 3.7-billion-year-old that the rock face had broken open also criticises Allwood’s team for
in gene expression. Of the 16,000 samples from Greenland. straight through the middle of all focusing on one patch of rock,
genes they looked at, 439 altered Most rocks that old have at the cone-shaped stromatolites. which he says is poorly preserved.
their activity between the first and some point been carried deep into So she cut 10 centimetres into the However, Allwood points out
third trimester of pregnancy. the planet, where pressure and rock and found that they are long that the same rocks were the
Many of the changes occurred in heat destroy fossils. But Nutman’s ridges, with a roughly triangular centrepiece of the original paper.
genes involved in the immune and
circulatory systems. For instance,
Nicotine gives mice
there was increased expression of
alpha-defensin genes, which help to
fight disease-causing bacteria, fungi hyperactive pups
and viruses. This probably protects ESO/L. CALÇADA & OLGA CUCCIATI ET AL.
the fetus from microbes like listeria EXPOSURE to nicotine has
that can cause miscarriage and negative effects that echo down
pre-term birth, says Smith. the generations – in mice, at least.
There were also changes in genes Male mice exposed to nicotine
that protect the fetus from the had offspring with signs of a
mother’s immune system. And genes mouse version of attention deficit
involved in oxygen transport in blood hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
became more active. This is probably To check the impact of paternal
because women produce more nicotine use, Pradeep Bhide at
blood when pregnant to deliver Florida State University and his
adequate oxygen to the fetus and colleagues put nicotine in water
safeguard against blood loss during given to 12 male mice and, after
delivery (PLoS One, doi.org/cvwg). 12 weeks, mated them with females
Smith says knowing how gene never exposed to the chemical.
activity changes in the course of The offspring were between
healthy pregnancies might allow 30 and 50 per cent more active
us to develop tests that can pick than normal mice. They were also Early giant of the universe discovered
up abnormal changes. worse at trying to escape from a
maze. Moreover, the males, but A SURVEY of the early universe had many more billions of years to
PLAINPICTURE/JANKLEIN exploring new objects — an formed just 2 billion years after the been seen before, but astronomers
not the females, spent less time
has revealed a huge structure that
grow as gravity pulled them together.
Pieces of the supercluster had
indicator of attention deficiency.
big bang. Its existence could teach
The brains of the male offspring
hadn’t realised that they were
us more about how the universe
had levels of dopamine 30 per
cent lower than expected and half developed and hints at how much looking at parts of a larger whole.
Using the VIMOS instrument
dark matter was around then.
the dopamine receptors usually The half-formed supercluster of on the European Southern
present in a mouse brain. Both galaxies, nicknamed Hyperion after Observatory’s Very Large
characteristics are associated with a Titan from Greek mythology, is the Telescope, which gives a more
ADHD. No significant changes largest object seen from that epoch. panoramic view of very distant
were found in the brains of female Hyperion’s mass at just 2 billion regions of space, a team led by
mice (PLoS Biology, doi.org/cvwq). years old is 1 million billion times that Olga Cucciati at the National Institute
Bhide suspects that nicotine of the sun. This puts it in the same for Astrophysics in Bologna, Italy,
may change gene expression in league as the largest structures in were able to join the dots (Astronomy
sperm. Why male offspring are the universe today, but those have & Astrophysics, doi.org/cvwj).
worse affected isn’t known.


18 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

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INSIGHT CAR-FREE CITIES









The road reimagined





Cities are starting to experiment with banning cars from their streets.
It is a move that makes a lot of sense, says Alice Klein





IN DOWNTOWN Madrid, the and diesel cars also produce commutes by car contribute to When Paris held its fourth
reign of cars is coming to an end. greenhouse gases – chiefly physical inactivity, one of the annual car-free day on
Starting next month, the city carbon dioxide – that contribute biggest public health problems of 16 September, levels of nitrogen
centre will be shut off to all cars, to climate change. the 21st century. Exposure to traffic dioxide pollution near major
barring electric vehicles, those On top of this, road crashes noise, meanwhile, has been linked roads dropped by as much as
belonging to residents and a few injure 78 million people and with depression in adults and 41 per cent and noise levels fell by
other exceptions. kill more than 1 million others attention problems in children. up to 5 per cent. In Brussels, soot
Several other capital cities are globally every year. Long In other words, cars are bad levels decreased by 80 per cent
also clamping down on cars. Oslo news. Now, evidence is mounting when it banned cars on the same
is eliminating on-street parking Cyclists in Mexico City take full that bans can help to alleviate day. And after Stockholm
and converting roads into advantage of a car-free Sunday some of these problems. introduced a congestion charge
cycleways and pedestrian paths.
Paris and Brussels have started
hosting annual car-free days.
Others – including Mexico City,
Athens and Rome – are planning
to ban diesel cars by 2025. So does
this herald the end of city driving?
There are good reasons for
banning cars in dense urban
areas. Cars and their supporting
infrastructure now fill up to
60 per cent of space in cities,
says Mark Nieuwenhuijsen at the
Barcelona Institute for Global
Health in Spain, which takes a
heavy toll on our physical and
mental health. “We’ve forgotten
that cities are meant to be for
people, not cars,” he says.

“Health benefits of going
car-free would be 30 times
more than from switching
to electric vehicles”


The latest estimates suggest
that vehicle pollution – which
includes nitrogen oxides, soot
and carbon monoxide – is
responsible for at least
184,000 premature deaths
globally each year, mostly due
to heart and lung disease.
It has also been linked with
dementia, with recent research DOROTHY ALEXANDER/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
finding that people who live near
major highways are 7 per cent
more likely to develop the
condition. Of course, petrol


22 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news








in 2006, the drop in traffic was in Pontevedra now walk to school. Cars are a very ineicient way to get around – other modes of transport are capable
accompanied by fewer asthma For cities that are considering of moving far more people per hour in the same urban space
attacks in children. car restrictions, several options
Rail 22,000
Unsurprisingly, car bans also are available. One is to ban
seem to reduce road accidents. petrol and diesel cars but permit Pedestrians 19,000
The city of Pontevedra in Spain, zero-emission electric vehicles.
for example, has had zero road Another is to ban all cars. A third Cyclists 14,000
deaths in its central zone since it is to change the way the city is
Bus 9000
was closed off to all non-essential organised so that walking, cycling
vehicles in 1999. and public transport are more Private car 2000
Additional evidence shows that attractive than driving.
SOURCE: SUSTRANS
car restrictions help to promote Audrey de Nazelle at Imperial
active lifestyles. In Copenhagen, College London believes that extra trams to existing lines, Yes to Cars in Oslo is filled with
which has turned many of its getting rid of all cars, except for made public transport cheaper, complaints about how the city’s
streets into car-free walkways and those belonging to less mobile and started offering subsidies for “war on cars” is infringing on
cycleways since the 1960s, over people and essential services, is electric bikes. personal freedoms, making it
60 per cent of residents now cycle the winning option. Restricting Few private cars still drive into unpleasant to get around in
to work, compared with 2 per cent fossil fuel cars while still allowing the city centre, leaving a trickle winter, reducing visitor numbers
of people in London. Similarly, electric vehicles doesn’t go far of taxis, delivery vans and and hurting local businesses.
more than 80 per cent of children enough, she says. public service vehicles. A recent “Oslo has become a ghost town!”
“It will reduce air pollution, but Greenpeace report found that the one post says.
I still think it’s short-sighted and city now has some of the cleanest However, Marcussen says it
a missed opportunity for more air in Europe. is actually the car-free parts of
holistic thinking about health,” Large, sprawling cities like Oslo that now attract the most
says de Nazelle. Modelling Sydney present additional
suggests that the health benefits challenges because they are harder “Our grandchildren will
gained by cities going car-free to traverse on bike or foot, says probably look at pictures
would be 30 times greater than Dorina Pojani at the University of of our car-clogged cities
those from switching to electric Queensland in Australia. But she and think we were crazy”
vehicles, because it would also still thinks they could go car-free
reduce accidents and promote with well-connected public visitors – both locals and tourists.
more exercise. transport systems. And Nieuwenhuijsen disagrees
“We need to move away from with the argument that everyone
extreme individualism – wanting should have the right to drive.
Radical change
to have our own separate car and “We banned smoking inside
Taking all cars out of the equation detached house – and start buildings because we realised the
would also let us radically reshape embracing communal effects of the pollution on other
city landscapes and make them consumption patterns like public people,” he says. “Now we’re
more people-friendly. The space transport and apartment-living,” realising the same thing with cars.”
freed up could be repurposed for she says. Better public transport It is difficult to imagine
other activities, like playgrounds, would also reduce congestion, weaning ourselves off cars
markets and community events, which currently traps Sydney because we have become so used
says de Nazelle. motorists in their cars for an to them, says Nieuwenhuijsen.
Given that many people estimated three weeks per year. “We just get in a car and go from
would baulk at the thought of But not everyone supports these A to B without thinking about the
banning cars altogether, less car-free visions. The Madrid impact,” he says. But de Nazelle
extreme approaches may work Association of Automobile thinks it is only a matter of time
better. Similar effects can be Dealers, for example, has raised before other cities follow the lead
achieved by simply making concerns about the Spanish city’s of Madrid and Oslo.
other modes of transport imminent ban on all cars except “Change will happen because
more convenient, says Hanna for electric models and those we’ll no longer be able to accept
Marcussen, the vice mayor for belonging to residents, less mobile living in places where we can’t
urban development in Oslo. people, delivery drivers and send our children out to play
Since 2015, Oslo has turned essential services. The group says because of the pollution and the
many of its roads into walkways it will discriminate against people danger of cars zooming past,” she
and cycleways and removed all who can’t afford electric cars and says. “Our grandchildren will
on-street parking from its centre those living further out, while also probably look at pictures of our
to discourage car use. It has also discouraging visitors to the city. car-clogged cities in 2018 and
extended its rail network, added Similarly, the Facebook page think we were crazy.” ■


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 23

COMMENT









An unpalatable truth









Shying away from the realities of climate change, such as the need

to eat less meat, hinders our ability to tackle it, says Adam Corner





IF WE’RE to get climate change nations such as the UK tend
under control, the recent to see climate change as a
Intergovernmental Panel on “psychologically distant” risk: not
Climate Change report makes it here, and not now. As a political
clear that absolutely everything issue, it struggles to compete
must be on the table. with more immediate concerns
This includes lifestyle changes like insecure employment or
such as flying less and cutting immigration.
down on red meat. Adding to the public’s sense
Yet Claire Perry, the minister in of disconnect, warnings of
charge of the UK’s climate change apocalyptic futures have been
strategy, doesn’t see it this way. paired with “simple and painless”
She described the idea of behavioural changes, like reusing
government telling us what to eat plastic bags and banning straws.
on climate grounds as “the worst The research my colleagues and
sort of nanny state ever”, adding: I do is designed to address these
“Who would I be to sit there problems. One clear lesson from
advising people in the country this research is that it is crucial
coming home after a hard day of to talk about climate change in
work to not have steak and chips?” the here and now, linking shifts
Perry’s reluctance to ask us to in the weather to tangible and
change also says something meaningful actions that people
important about why public can take to cut carbon.
engagement on climate change What’s more, most people find
has not been straightforward. it easier to think about their own
People in wealthy, industrialised health than that of the planet, so



In overdrive deadlines. In reality, it ruins lives code works. Raluca Gaina at Queen
and destroys relationships, and it
Mary University of London is
has been doing so for decades.
game automatically and then
Given that tech firms hoover up working on AI that can play any
Overwork shouldn’t be a fact of life in the some of the smartest minds on report back on its experience.
the planet, you would think they In the 1930s, economist John
tech sector, says Michael Cook could find a better way. Maynard Keynes predicted that

My research field, artificial increasing automation would
intelligence for games, is mean a 15-hour working week by
ROCKSTAR Games, the renowned staff had been working 100-hour exploding right now with just the about now. In reality, it seems that
developer behind the Grand Theft weeks to get the game finished. tools to help. Ceptre, the creation when we can make things easier,
Auto series, has been hard at work He later clarified that such efforts of US researcher Chris Martens, the resulting time savings aren’t
promoting its latest digital epic, were a “choice” made by staff. is a mathematical language for passed on to the worker.
the cowboy-simulator Red Dead Overwork is treated as a fact automatically checking that game If we make it simpler to create
Redemption 2. It is set to be one of of life in the tech sector. Watch a the 300,000 animations in Red
the biggest releases of 2018, but it film about a plucky tech start-up “ It seems that when we can Dead Redemption 2, say, will
comes at a cost. and you will see people chugging make things easier, the Rockstar simply want 600,000
An interview given by Rockstar energy drinks and working time savings aren’t passed animations for the sequel? If we
co-founder Dan Houser revealed through the night to meet on to the worker” help designers and developers to


24 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion








emphasising the health benefits ANALYSIS Achievement genes
of low-carbon activities like
cycling instead of driving, or
insulating draughty homes,
might be a better way to go.
Few of us discuss climate
change with friends – perhaps
that’s why many politicians
underestimate concern on the
topic, and the level of support
for renewable energy. Getting
the conversation going is the
first step to meaningful action.
Most important of all is
connecting with public values
across the political spectrum. ROGER ASKEW/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Avoiding wastefulness in energy
use, improving health outcomes,
conserving green spaces, creating
a sense of pride in rebuilding
energy infrastructure, and So is it case closed?
fostering a sense of responsibility Can genes predict your Not necessarily. Intelligence genes
for future generations are all ways might influence what university
of talking about climate change you go to in other ways, for instance
that are more likely to resonate future university? by affecting how impressive an
than guilt-laden messages about application you write and how well
self-sacrifice. you do at interview.
Once the public is engaged in a
meaningful conversation about Clare Wilson Could a genetic test tell you which Isn’t the whole concept of IQ falling
our responsibility to consider university your child could get into? into disrepute anyway?
how we eat, travel and live in a A LARGE study of twins has found Fortunately not. The same team There is a shameful history of using
changing climate, skipping the links between genes and what also looked at the DNA of a different IQ tests to justify racist and sexist
steak and chips might not sound university you end up attending, 3000 people and could only identify up attitudes without taking societal
such a radical proposition. ■ but the relationship isn’t simple. to 5 per cent of the genes that seemed inequalities into account. But that
to be linked to the university attended. doesn’t mean the tests themselves
Adam Corner is research director at Is there an “Oxbridge gene”? That means we are a long way from are flawed. Countless studies have
Climate Outreach, Europe’s leading Hardly. A study of 3000 pairs of UK being able to make genetic predictions found that people with higher IQ on
climate communication organisation twins has found that, like intelligence, about university acceptance. average do better at school, get better
your chance of going to a prestigious jobs and earn more money in life.
university is partly heritable. If your How much of a person’s intelligence Whatever it measures, it is something
automate the process of making twin gets into the University of Oxford, is determined by their genes? interesting, says Stuart Ritchie, also
a game, will the companies that say, you are more likely to join them if Previous research suggests between of King’s College London, who wasn’t
employ them simply lay off they are your identical twin, with whom 50 and 80 per cent of the variation in involved in the research.
excess staff until those left are you share all your DNA, than if they are people’s IQ is inherited. As intelligence
working 100 hours again? your fraternal twin, sharing only half. affects school exam results, which in Does this mean our fate is
Researchers have to be cautious The work suggests that 57 per cent of turn influence university admissions, determined at birth after all?
about the kind of work they are the “quality” of your university is down it is unsurprising that genes may be Not at all. If half the variation in
doing, and consider whether to your genes, says study author Ziada linked to university destination too. intelligence or university destination is
it is serving workers, or profit Ayorech of King’s College London But the team tried to eliminate down to genes, the rest must be down
projections. As Rockstar Games (Scientific Reports, doi.org/cvwf). the effects of intelligence from the to environment. That could include
begins to plan its next epic, we analysis by removing the impact of how much encouragement children
should reflect on what research What do they mean by “quality”? exam results on university entrance, get, the wealth and education of their
can do to make sure the future of The team used university league using statistical techniques. When parents, and what school they go to.
the creative industries is one that tables as a measure of quality. they did this, they found that genes Initiatives like free preschool education

works – not overworks. ■ Some might argue that this doesn’t were still behind 47 per cent of can help level the playing field.
account for the possibility that the variation in university quality, And, of course, going to any
Michael Cook is a senior research different institutions could suit suggesting they do affect university university isn’t the right choice for
fellow at the MetaMakers Institute different people for reasons other destination in ways other than by everyone, including plenty of
at Falmouth University, UK than their academic prestige. shaping your intelligence. intelligent people. ■


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 25

APERTURE




















































































































26 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

Spirit of the rainforest


CONTRARY to appearances, this is a black bear.
It is a member of a rare subspecies of the
American black bear, called the Kermode bear,
which is found only on the coastal islands of
British Columbia in western Canada.
Around 15 per cent of this subspecies have
white fur. Also known as “spirit bears”, these
animals are revered by First Nations peoples
in the area.
White fur is a genetic trait, caused by inheriting
a recessive gene from both parents. These bears
aren’t albinos – they still have pigmented eyes
and noses, which are black.
This particular bear’s repast was photographed
in the Great Bear Rainforest, a pristine temperate
rainforest 600 kilometres to the north-west of
Vancouver. This vast area is well supplied with
energy-rich salmon that swim upstream from
the Pacific Ocean to spawn.
Although white fur makes bears more
conspicuous, it has its advantages. One study
found that spirit bears are 10 per cent more
successful at catching fish in the daytime than
Kermode bears with black fur, perhaps because
salmon can’t make them out against the bright
sky overhead.
This photo is one of more than 300 included in
Animal: Exploring the zoological world, which will
be published by Phaidon in October. Yvaine Ye



Photographer
Paul Nicklen
National Geographic Creative











































27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 27

Home from home








From sea otters and mountain lions to vultures and alligators, animals

are turning up in unexpected places. Isabelle Groc nds out why







HEN Brian Silliman found himself more of them – and they seemed to be right predators could be conservationists’ best
face to face with an alligator, he at home. Diving into the scientific literature, allies, because they can help improve their
Wthought he was seeing a ghost. It was he discovered that alligators are not the only old stomping grounds.
night and he was knee deep in mud in a salt predators found thriving in places where they Sea otters in California were some of the
marsh in Georgia, searching for crabs and are not supposed to live. It was a light-bulb first animals to shake our assumption that
snails. Alligators are freshwater reptiles, so moment. “I started re-evaluating everything I predators showing up in unexpected habitats
Silliman was not expecting to come across had been taught about large animals,” he says. were lost or searching for food. Hunted almost
one, but the pair of red eyes watching him was It turns out that at least 23 species of to extinction by fur traders in the 18th and
unmistakably real. Thinking fast, he shook predator have been spotted living in 19th centuries, conservation efforts have
a cage between him and the predator to scare surprising habitats. As well as alligators, the seen sea otter numbers increase from about
it away. “That freaked me out,” he says. list includes otters, mountain lions, wolves 50 several decades ago to some 3000 now.
The next morning, haunted by the and raptors. But the real revelation is that The recovery was initially limited to coastal
encounter, Silliman, a conservation biologist these creatures are actually returning to areas but, after 1990, otters started turning
at Duke University, North Carolina, couldn’t places they once occupied. This is giving us up in Elkhorn Slough, a major estuary on
stop wondering why the alligator was in the astonishing insights into the lives of animals California’s central coast that is covered in
salt marsh. Returning to the site, he spotted we thought we knew. What’s more, these salt marshes and seagrass beds.


28 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

ISABELLE GROC FLPA/ALAMY








“When we first noticed that an ever larger Unsurprisingly, we tend to associate them It turns out that sea otters don’t
number of sea otters were living in the slough, with mountains. But historical records show need to live in the sea, nor mountain
we did not immediately grasp the fact that the that in Patagonia they once lived in open lions in the mountains
slough could provide all their habitat needs,” grasslands. As sheep farming became
says Lilian Carswell from the US Fish and established in South America, they were These birds were thought to be small-island
Wildlife Service. The remnant population of persecuted – along with their prey, a kind of specialists, so why were they abandoning
otters had persisted exclusively on California’s llama called a guanaco. As a result, mountain their homes? His insight came when he visited
coast, and conservationists had assumed this lions survived only in the remote Andes away Castro de Baroña, an Iron Age settlement on a
is where they belonged, foraging in kelp beds. from humans. But in the past 20 years, sheep rugged peninsula in Galicia. “I realised it was a
But the fact they were thriving in Elkhorn ranching has declined. “We started to see a terrible place to live, exposed to winter storms
Slough forced a rethink. “We wiped out these change,” says Mark Elbroch from conservation and difficult to cultivate. My conclusion was
species from most of their range long before that the Iron Age people built a village there
we had ecology as a science,” says Carswell. “ If ecologists want to because they were forced to do so,” he says.
“There is so much we don’t know.” understand the present, Suddenly, Martínez-Abraín saw the
The story of California’s sea otters is not connection with the Audouin’s gulls. He
a one-off. Earlier this year, Silliman and his they should look at the past” realised that human persecution had forced
colleagues revealed a wider trend in a paper the birds to leave their preferred mainland
aptly titled “Are the ghosts of nature’s past society Panthera. “The mountain lions that habitat and eke out a living on the islands.
haunting ecology today?”. As a result of had been removed from the open grassland Now, no longer threatened by humans, they
conservation efforts, a variety of predators are began to come back out of the mountains at are returning to their historical homes – just
reappearing in ecosystems they were pushed the same time as the guanaco was beginning as the people of Castro de Baroña moved to
out of by hunting and development. “It is an to move back into the grassland.” more hospitable areas once the Roman Empire
exciting time for ecologists,” says Carswell, Such recolonisation is happening in became peaceful. “We have been studying
“because these species are coming back to Europe too. Alejandro Martínez-Abraín at the things from the wrong perspective. If
these ecosystems from which they have University of A Coruña, Spain, was puzzled to ecologists want to understand the present,
been absent for many human generations and discover that ground-nesting Audouin’s gulls they should look at the past,” he says.
they are putting their house back in order.” were relocating from archipelagos in the Martínez-Abraín’s research, published
Mountain lions are another example. western Mediterranean to the mainland. in June, documents a variety of species >


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 29

“ It means there is much more habitat in

which endangered species can recover”






returning to their historical habitats in
southern Europe as a result of humans
moving out of the countryside and decreasing
persecution of wildlife. Eagles and vultures
have tended to nest on cliffs to avoid humans,
but are now increasingly nesting in trees as
their forebears did. Likewise, conservation
efforts mean that the critically endangered
Mediterranean monk seal, which had
retreated to caves to avoid human
persecution, is returning to beaches.
“Everything we see in the present is an
artefact, rather than the animals’ true
preferences. They are not where they want
to be. They are where they can be,” he says.
JAMES NIFONG

Stop the pigeonholing

This may pose challenges for conservationists.
For example, the archipelagos where the crabs to prey on them, grazing invertebrates
Audouin’s gulls sought refuge are nature such as sea hares became larger and more
reserves, whereas their mainland homes abundant. Sea hares feed on the harmful algae
are not always protected. But it also brings growing on the seagrass, leaving the leaves
opportunities. “We pigeonholed most of these healthy and clean. “The importance of sea
large predators as being habitat specialists: otters to estuaries makes me think about all
mountain lions love the mountains, sea otters the efforts that people are spending to restore
are kelp bed specialists, alligators love the estuary ecosystems and wetlands,” says
swamp and fresh water,” says Silliman. “This Carswell. “It makes me think how important
is a paradigm change. The animals are not it is to have the full complement of species
habitat specialists, they are habitat generalists back in those systems to enact restoration.”
and can withstand a much wider range of In Patagonia, the return of mountain lions
physical and biological conditions.” It means to the grasslands is bringing benefits too.
there is more habitat out there in which MARK ELBROCH / PANTHERA Elbroch discovered that they generate far
endangered species can recover. more carrion than do grey wolves – the
This provides new hope for species such as equivalent top predator – in Yellowstone
the orangutan, whose numbers declined by National Park. “That carrion bolsters the
an estimated 100,000 between 1999 and 2015. Alligators are returning to salt marshes and health of ecosystems and creates biodiversity
Orangutans were traditionally viewed as able raptors are nesting in trees rather than on cliffs hotspots across the landscape,” he says. As a
to live only in undisturbed forest habitats. result, the mountain lions help support the
However, research reveals that coexisting shark attacks, which are a leading cause of recovery of the threatened Andean condor,
with humans for tens of thousands of years otter death in California. which needs carrion to survive.
has left them able to adapt their behaviour The move back into historical habitats isn’t It seems like a win-win. However, Elbroch
to survive in different areas. “Orangutans just good for the predators, though. Hughes emphasises the need to educate local people.
are ecologically far more flexible than we has examined the impact of sea otters on the “If we truly want mountain lions to be
imagined,” says Erik Meijaard at the University health of Elkhorn Slough. Seagrass meadows successful in this recolonisation of historic
of Queensland, Australia. This realisation are declining worldwide, partly because of habitat, we need a community of people who
presents new conservation opportunities. pollution. Yet those in the slough have been are willing to live with them,” he says. And that
To take advantage of this, we need to find out expanding. “I couldn’t figure out why the applies wherever predators are returning to
what ecosystems animals used to call home. seagrass was recovering in Elkhorn Slough past haunts. “We need to think about building
“We don’t know enough about the natural and I looked at every possible driver,” he says. tolerance with people because without
habitat range for most of these top predators,” Eventually, he discovered that the presence tolerance there will be no carnivores.”
says Brent Hughes of Sonoma State University of some 100 otters was a crucial factor. Silliman agrees. He is still haunted by his
in California. Nevertheless, ecologists may In the highly polluted estuary, excessive alligator encounter, but sees it as instructive.
find clues outside their field. For example, nutrients from farm run-off spur the growth “The alligators remind us about the past so
historical and archaeological records indicate of algae on seagrass leaves, which kills the we can learn from it for the future when
that sea otters used to live in large numbers plants. But Hughes documented a remarkable these animals return in larger numbers.” ■
in estuaries such as San Francisco Bay. What’s chain reaction leading to seagrass recovery.
more, their move into Elkhorn Slough makes The otters moving to the slough became the Isabelle Groc is a writer and photographer based in
ecological sense because it protects them from apex predator, eating many crabs. With fewer Vancouver, Canada


30 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

COVER STORY



































The








grand









memory










illusion











The truth about your

memory is far more

elaborate than we

thought. Here’s TARA MOORE/GETTY

how it really works,

and how to make

the most of yours















27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 31

HEN considering what makes us who we
are, it is easy to think our memories are
the answer. Aside from the physical
traces of the passing of time on your
W body, your recollections are perhaps the
only thing that links the you sitting here today to
the many yous from every previous day of your
existence. Without them, your relationships
would mean nothing, not to mention your
knowledge, tastes, and your many adventures.
It might be no exaggeration to say your
memories are the essence of you.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that
much of the burgeoning field of neuroscience
has turned its efforts to understanding what
makes a memory and how to keep hold of it.
Perhaps the most intriguing idea to come
from recent discoveries is a reimagining of the
dark side of memory – forgetting.
As cherished memories fade or when we fail to
remember an important task it is easy to feel that
memory is failing us. But what the latest findings
show is that simply thinking of memory as either
accurate or fallible is a mistake. Instead, our
memories are malleable, and for good reason.
Rather than existing in the filing cabinet of the
brain, we conjure memories from scratch with
our own style (see page 41). As we sleep, the brain
meticulously crafts them into the most useful
versions (see page 34). Technology too, affects
how we remember and might even create whole
new recollections (see page 38). As for forgetting,
as infuriating as it can be, we’d be lost without it. THORDIS RÜGGEBERG/PLAINPICTURE
Because memory, it turns out, is an illusion – one
we create every time we recall the past and that is
exquisitely designed to help you live your life.





What is A It is your personal database are also impaired at imagining the apart from many other species.
T FIRST, it seems obvious.
If we can’t recall past events and
future,” says Eleanor Maguire at
Memory is about the past.
University College London.
preferences, our ability to make
We now know there is a strong link
memory of things you have experienced. between being able to remember sound decisions crumbles too. This is
In fact, this repository has a
because during the decision-making
process, the brain uses previous
purpose that goes way beyond
past events and being able to plan
choices and existing knowledge to
merely recalling information. Some
for the future. Imaging studies, for
for? of the best evidence of this came example, show that similar patterns assess options and imagine how
of brain activity underlie both.
they might turn out.
from studies of people with brain
The latest thinking is that memory
damage or amnesia.
One iconic case was of a patient The key seems to be the ability to could even have evolved to enable
generate images of scenes in the
known as KC in the early 1980s. After mind’s eye. “If you think about it, our species to communicate. Earlier
a motorcycle accident, he was left recalling the past, imagining the this year, cognitive scientists
with an impaired episodic memory: future, and even spatial navigation, Johannes Mahr and Gergely Csibra at
he could remember facts, but not typically involve us constructing the Central European University in
personal experiences. The weird scene imagery,” says Maguire. It could Budapest, Hungary, suggested that
thing was, it also stopped him doing be that being able to picture the past the key difference between human
something else entirely. “By studying enabled us to imagine the future, and memory and that of other animals is
patients who have an impaired ability therefore plan – one of the complex that we don’t just recall an event, we
to recall the past, we find that they cognitive feats that stands humans also remember how we came to know


32 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

FAQ. Can I supercharge





my memory?
WHY CAN’T I


REMEMBER WHAT I

DID 5 SECONDS AGO? UPERHUMAN memory has a special appeal.

Who could resist the idea of remembering
Severything they wanted to, without trying?
Learning would be made easy, exams a breeze
and you would never forget where you left
your keys. Oh and memory-related disorders FLORE-AEL SURUN/TENDANCE FLOUE
like Alzheimer’s would have met their match.
Hang, on – you just left the house, So it is of little surprise that scientists have
but did you lock the door? When it turned their attention to ways of enhancing
comes to these habitual behaviours, human memory using techniques that
your body knows what to do without stimulate, supplement or even mimic parts 30 per cent. A similar technique might even
the need for conscious thought. of the brain. The immediate goal is to treat be used to implant memories directly, which
The brain no longer encodes the memory disorders, but the idea of a memory could also help those with Alzheimer’s disease.
details of a repeated behaviour, so prosthesis for everyday life is gaining ground. Techniques like these involve invasive
while you remember how to lock the “We’re at the point now where on the one surgery, so have been reserved for people with
door, there’s no specific memory of hand it’s very exciting, but on the other it’s neurological disorders for whom the benefits
when you last did it. controversial because we are not only treating might outweigh the risks. But many of those
This ability to autopilot can be disorders, we’re trying to enhance mental behind the research envision a time when any
beneficial, freeing up attention for functions,” says Michal Kucewicz at the of us could be walking around with implants
more important things. The danger Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. quietly boosting our brain function.
comes when this “habit memory” One approach is deep brain stimulation The projects are backed by big names
takes over when it isn’t supposed to, (DBS), which involves zapping an affected and big money. The US Defense Advanced
which can lead to mistakes like brain area with an implanted electrode. This Research Projects Agency has been supporting
forgetting to drop a child off and is already used in the treatment of Parkinson’s the epilepsy memory prosthesis project since
leaving them in the car instead. disease and epilepsy, among other conditions.
Yvaine Ye Implanting electrodes in brain regions “ It’s controversial because as well
responsible for memory, such as the
memory boost too. And small studies have as treat disorders, we are trying
hippocampus, seems to offer a short-term
about it. “This is different from just even suggested that DBS might reverse some to enhance mental functions”
knowing about it,” says Mahr. “Having of the damage seen in certain people with
first-hand experience of something Alzheimer’s disease, halting the shrinking
gives us authority, makes us more of the hippocampus and potentially 2013, as part of its Restoring Active Memory
convincing and accurate.” encouraging it to grow bigger. programme, which seeks to help improve
Sending signals that are convincing DBS is still a blunt tool, however. A more- memory in the injured brain.
is a vital part of managing our social advanced approach is to artificially recreate In 2016, entrepreneur Bryan Johnson
relationships and belief systems, he the same electrical activity in the brain that invested $100 million in his company Kernel,
argues. Without this, we would be happens when memories form. One such which seeks to develop brain implants to
unable to justify social entitlements “memory prosthesis” has already been shown boost intelligence. The company started by
and obligations, such as promises, to work in people with memory problems focusing on memory. Since then, Elon Musk
which is often possible only by explicit resulting from epilepsy. The researchers has joined the action. The engineer and
reference to past events. involved taught an algorithm to learn the investor, who heads Tesla and SpaceX, has
Whether memory led to complex pattern of brain activity that occurs when co-founded a venture called Neuralink. He
communication or vice versa is not memories go into long-term storage using wants his brain-machine interfaces to merge
yet known, but what is clear is that far data they collected from the patients’ brains aspects of human and machine intelligence.
from being a mere databank of the as they were learning. They then used One goal is to outsource the hard work of
past, memory is essential for our implanted electrodes to simulate this activity, memory-making, whether to combat disease
present and future. Now that’s worth causing memories to be stored in the brain. or put an end to worries about where we left
remembering. Alison George The implant boosted memory performance by the keys. Jessica Hamzelou


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 33

“During slow-wave sleep, there is this release,
What happens to your a kind of beautiful set of interactions between
different brain areas, that is specialised, and it
looks different than what we see during awake
memories when you sleep? periods,” says Anna Schapiro, also at Harvard
Medical School. There is conversation between
regions key to memory, including the
hippocampus, where recent memories are
stored, and the cortex, where long-term
memories end up. This chatter might be
allowing the cortex to pull out and save
important information from new memories.
We don’t need to recall everything that
happened in a day, and sleep favours certain
types of memory. It homes in on information
that might be useful at a later date, and puts it
into longer-term storage. Schapiro has found,
for example, that merely telling people they
will be tested on certain material helps them
remember more of it after sleep.
Memories with an emotional component
also get preferential treatment – especially


“ Sleep will help to preserve

a really intense memory,


but decrease the emotionality”



negative emotions. That makes sense from
an evolutionary perspective if we are to
remember our mistakes and so increase our
chances of survival.
However, there are also hints that sleep
might help to modulate emotional memories.
“If you have a memory that was really intense,
sleep will help to preserve the memory, but
THIERRY ARDOUIN/TENDANCE FLOUE “Post traumatic stress disorder might actually
decrease the emotionality,” says Schapiro.
This could be crucial for our mental health.


be a direct consequence of failures of those
sleep-dependent processes that weaken the
intensity of emotional responses to
memories,” says Stickgold.
It could also help explain why getting too
little sleep is so bad for you. Negative
HERE is an old wives’ tale that putting your parts of a memory to retain. And it links memories become dominant over neutral and
revision notes under your pillow the night new memories with established networks positive ones, for a start. We end up less wise
T before an exam will make you remember of remembrances. It discovers patterns and too, says Stickgold. “We remember facts and
more. That might be stretching the truth, rules, says Stickgold, “and it’s doing this events, but don’t manage to figure out what
but there could be something in it – you really every night, all night long.” they really mean for us and our future.”
do learn in your sleep. One of the biggest unanswered questions And what about advice for anyone with
You don’t need sleep to create a memory. is how the sleeping brain knows which exams on the horizon? “It’s much better to go
“But sleep plays a critical role in determining memories to strengthen, and which to ignore. to sleep between studying and taking a test
what happens to these newly formed “We don’t know either the algorithms the than to stay awake all night studying,” says
memories,” says Bob Stickgold at Harvard brain uses to make these decisions, or how Schapiro. So put those notes under your pillow
Medical School. Sleep determines what goes they are implemented,” says Stickgold. and get some shut-eye. Your brain should do
into long-term storage. It can also select which What we do know is that sleep is special. the rest. Catherine de Lange


34 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

FAQ. Can you choose




what to forget?


WHY CAN’T WE REMEMBER

BEING BABIES?


E ALL have memories we would
rather forget – and it is possible,
W if you try hard enough.
It is easy to think of memories as
something you can actively strengthen,
whereas forgetting is a passive process.
Infants are constantly learning, but only But we have started to discover it can TARA MOORE/GETTY
a handful of people have memories from be intentional too.
before the age of 2. That’s because Perhaps the easiest way to forget
parts of the brain critical for longer-term something is simply to try to suppress a
memory are still immature. So babies can memory. Jeremy Manning at Dartmouth Given the vital role of sleep in memory
form memories – a 6-month-old can recall College, New Hampshire, has found that formation (see “What happens to your
how to do certain tasks for up to three just telling people to “push thoughts out of memories when you sleep?”, page 34),
weeks – but holding onto them is tricky. their head” is enough to make them forget this is also a prime time to intercept them.
As the brain begins to mature, that lists of words they have learned to associate Earlier this year, Katharine Simon at the
neural machinery gets more efficient and with particular cues. “We don’t know how, University of Arizona and her colleagues
memories start to stick – until the age of 7, but people seem to know how to do it.” found that they could train people to
when there’s a sudden dip. Children recall This seems especially paradoxical associate a particular sound with the
far more about earlier events in their lives because we also know that rehearsing instruction to forget something. They
when asked before they are 7 than just memories helps to strengthen them. then taught the volunteers to associate
a year later. This sudden erasure, known Suppression has been linked to decreased other sounds with specific words.
as “childhood amnesia” may be down to activity in the hippocampus, so we may be Then, as the volunteers slept, the
pruning, the brain’s process of snipping unknowingly reducing our hippocampal team reactivated the memories of some
away lesser-used connections to activity by focusing on the present, says of these words using their associated
strengthen those that remain. Justin Hulbert at Bard College, New York. sounds, while also playing the “forget”
Although the slightly older children This won’t work for everyone. Post- sound. A week later, the volunteers were
remember fewer things, their recollections traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves worse at remembering these words than
are more detailed. “What’s also developing intrusive memories that keep coming words that hadn’t been targeted.
is your ability to tell a good story,” says back – often suddenly and unexpectedly. Being able to exert some control over
Patricia Bauer at Emory University in Studies have found that people with what you remember probably helps to
Atlanta, Georgia. “You place it in context, this condition are less able to suppress bolster your resilience in the face of
you tell me what you did, highlight certain memories, even those unrelated to adversity, says Hulbert.
events and activity. All of those things traumatic incidents. Beware the downsides, however.
are part of what we mean by But other approaches for forgetting Hulbert’s team found that when you try to
autobiographical memory.” might help, including what are known as suppress a memory, you are later less likely
This points to a possible strategy cognitive vaccines: interventions that to remember things that happened around
for hanging onto more of those early can “inoculate” the brain against the onset the time you attempted suppression.
memories, or at least attempting to of PTSD symptoms if administered soon It seems that quietening your hippocampus
influence which ones stick. In cultures after trauma. to block a memory causes an “amnesic
where family storytelling is a cherished Some computer games seem to do the shadow” that more generally impairs
pastime, people are more likely to retain trick. Playing Tetris after watching an memory formation.
early childhood memories. Summoning upsetting film has been found to reduce And good can come from holding on
and reviewing these memories, flashbacks of that film, possibly because to even the most awkward of memories,
a process known as reconsolidation, thinking about a visual task stopped the Hulbert says. “For sure, bringing one to
can fortify them. brain from processing the visual images mind can be cringe-inducing, but it’s
So if you want your child to remember of death and injury from the film. However, important to reflect on the good that
a special trip to the beach, indulge in a little doing a non-visual task, such as playing certain embarrassing memories can bring,
reminiscing, and get them to tell you the a general knowledge game, actually as learning experiences that teach us what
story. Tiffany O’Callaghan increases flashbacks. not to do again.” Penny Sarchet


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 35

TOP TIPS TO BOOST


YOUR MEMORY Can I trust my




memories?









Get active Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus exposed false memories

Exercising after learning will help facts
stick. For best results, wait several in historic sex abuse cases. Now there are fresh reasons
hours before working out. not to believe your own memories, she tells Clare Wilson


Quiz yourself

When it comes to revision, reviewing O ONE has done more than Elizabeth Loftus true events from their childhood, and a
the material isn’t enough. You need to to expose the fallibility of human memory. completely made-up experience about how
test yourself repeatedly too. N In the 1990s, amid growing panic over they got lost in a shopping mall, frightened,
claims of satanic child sex abuse rings, the crying, and were ultimately rescued by an
Take a break psychologist showed how easy it is for people elderly person and reunited with the family.
After they’d had about three interviews, we
to develop false memories of events that never
You’ll remember more if you take regular happened. All it took was repeatedly being found that about a quarter of these adults fell
breathers from learning. For best results, asked to imagine them. At the time, this was a prey to the suggestion and developed a partial
do something totally different and common psychotherapy technique to recover or complete memory of being lost.
absorbing. supposedly repressed memories.
Over the past three decades, Loftus, from Why was that discovery important?

Timing matters the University of California, Irvine, has At the time, people were going into therapy with
become well known for her work as an expert
depression or an eating disorder and coming
Teenagers remember better if they witness in legal cases. Her ongoing research on out with an even bigger problem, namely
learn in the afternoon or evening, while the fallibility of eyewitness testimony has memories of traumatic experiences that they
older adults tend to have morning brains. taken on fresh importance in an era of fake thought they had repressed.
news, the Me Too movement and digital image Their therapists weren’t deliberately
Try interval training manipulation. planting false memories. They believed that
child abuse was the most likely explanation
There’s a “sweet spot” for when you Why did you first start looking into false for their client’s problems, and they needed
should revise. Revisit material at a point memories? to recover the memory to get better. Innocent
10 or 20 per cent of the way between I had already been looking at how reliable people were getting accused and families were
the time of learning and of taking a test eyewitness testimony was, to see if people’s being destroyed.
to improve your memory by at least memories of the details of an event could be
10 per cent. distorted. Like if the guy running away had What was the reaction?
curly hair, not straight hair. But in t he 1990s, I started getting hate mail and death threats.

Sleep on it when there was an explosion of highly There was a letter-writing campaign to try to
improbable satanic child abuse claims, it
get me fired from my university position.
Snoozing shortly after learning new looked like people were developing whole I also got sued for exposing an egregious case
facts or skills helps the brain reinforce memories for things that didn’t happen. of wrongful accusation. I spent many years
its memory traces – especially if you We came up with the idea of trying to make fighting off that litigation. These days things
have a test the next day. people remember an event that never have calmed down quite a bit but there’s still
happened – being lost in a shopping mall some hostility.
Chew gum when they were young. The Me Too movement has led to a surge

It can help with recall during a test. How did you do it? in historic claims of sexual assaults. Do you
However, the effects are short-lived, We told people we were doing studies of think some of these could be based on false
so save your chewing for when you childhood memory, and we talked to their memories?
need it most. parents to get some stories. Then we would It is possible. We have to accept that when
Kate Douglas interview adults and present them with three there are two people whose versions of an


36 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

it at 60. People often don’t detect you gave
them the wrong rating and they start to feel
less anxious about the task. When they look
back, it was less awful for them. You could do
this with kids when they go to the dentist.
A former student of mine did some research
with kids at a dental clinic, and she got them
to remember less fear and pain, and they
also behaved better at the next visit.

So there could be benefits to fallible memories?
If your kid has had a traumatic but minor
experience, rather than dwelling on the negatives,
it might be better instead to talk them up. To say:

“ People remember voting in


elections they didn’t vote in.

It makes them feel better”




“You were so brave, you hardly cried.” It is
generally a little easier to plant a positive
memory than a negative one. We don’t know
why, it just empirically seems to be the case.


Is there any evolutionary reason why
BRAD SWONETZ/REDUX/EYEVINE memory is so unreliable?
One benefit is that when errors creep in,
you can fix them and update memories
with true information. Another is that
some errors can make you feel better about
yourself. These are called prestige-enhancing
memory distortions. A common example is
event are different, the man’s version may What other memory problems has your people remember voting in elections they
not be the truth or, alternatively, maybe the research shed light on? didn’t vote in, because they like to think of
woman’s version is not the truth. We have We have been doing some work on a themselves as civic-minded. Sometimes it
to look for other sources of evidence to phenomenon called memory blindness. gets people into trouble, like in “stolen
corroborate either person. But right now, Say that someone is being interviewed after valour cases”, when someone famous says
at the height of “Me Too”, people are not as witnessing a crime. They tell you that person they were a brave soldier on the battlefield
interested in hearing you talk about false was wearing a green jacket. Later on you tell and it turns out they were really behind a
accusations as they might have been a year them they told you the jacket was brown. desk on that day.
ago. The pendulum has swung too far in the We are exploring the extent to which people
direction of automatically believing the even notice you fed back a different answer So most of the time it is a harmless delusion?
accuser. It used to be too far the other way. from the one they actually gave. Often they If these kinds of prestige-enhancing
don’t. We think this can be a problem in cases distortions aren’t caught, it does allow people
But we know most abuse cases are not where the police are writing out a statement. to feel better about themselves. People with
successfully brought to trial... They say “Here’s what you told me.” What if depression don’t have them as much as
I absolutely see what you’re saying. But as there are errors contained in it? It can happen. everyone else. Such people are sadder but
an expert witness on memory, I see a different We are showing that people can fail to detect wiser. This is just a correlation, so we don’t
subset of cases to the ones that most people them and be influenced by them. know if the lack of prestige-enhancing
see. I see the most contentious ones. I hate memory distortions is causing the depression.
the idea that people will try to point to all Can we misremember our feelings as well But it does suggest another possible upside to
the false memory work and use it to deny as facts? the unreliability of our memories. If there are
guilt when they’re truly guilty. I think that The evidence would suggest so. Another study costs, there have got to be some benefits. ■
probably sometimes happens and it’s just we are doing is we take you through a difficult
going to be a cost. I don’t know what we can task and ask you to rate your anxiety. I tell you Clare Wilson is medical news reporter at
do to stop that. that you rated it at 40 when really you rated New Scientist


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 37

Is technology




making my




memory worse?








S AN ostrich’s eye bigger than its brain? This
kind of trivia question was once a cognitive
I workout, but when was the last time you really
pondered a question, rather than simply turning
to the internet for help? Then there are phone
numbers and friends’ birthdays: information
we once stored in our brain is now held in the
smartphone in the palm of our hand.
Outsourcing memories, for instance to pad
and paper, is nothing new, but it has become
easier than ever to do so using external devices,
leading some to wonder whether our memories
are suffering as a result.
Probably the largest data dump is of snapshots
of events, whether it is thousands of photos
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON/MAGNUM documenting our lives. You might think that
posted on social media or status updates

taking pictures and sharing stories helps you to
preserve memories of events, but the opposite is
true. When Diana Tamir at Princeton University
and her colleagues sent people out on tours,
those encouraged to take pictures actually had





Is my memory I know that I went out for recall in precise detail events from
decades ago. The best-known case is “ Creating a
dinner last month, but I can’t
that of a woman called Jill Price, who
remember anything about
normal? the experience can recall most days of her life from hard copy of
the age of 11. The majority of us fall
memories in
How much we remember of events we somewhere in between. Strong
have experienced seems to fall on a autobiographical memory skills are media leaves

Why do some people spectrum. At one extreme, some linked to the ability to form vivid
individuals are unable to form these
visual memories of experiences,
remember what they did kinds of memories at all. “People with and probably to a strong sense of a diminished
years ago, whereas others severely deficient autobiographical your own self-awareness. copy in our
memory syndrome would report an
have no clue, but never awareness of the fact they were at the Random memories pop

forget a face or are dinner, but they don’t have a feeling of spontaneously into my own heads”
masters of the trivia quiz? re-experiencing it. It’s more of a factual mind all the time
memory,” says neuropsychologist
Brian Levine of the Rotman Research Known as “mind pops”, these
Institute in Toronto. involuntary recalls happen to all of us,
At the opposite end of the spectrum on average about 20 times a day,
are those with “higher superior although there is a lot of variation
autobiographical memories”, who can between individuals. “It’s a basic


38 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

a poorer memory of the tour at a later date. tomorrow? Does it need to be written down?
“Creating a hard copy of an experience through Should I set a reminder? This is called meta-
media leaves only a diminished copy in our memory, and technology seems to screw it up. FAQ.
own heads,” she says. For instance, people who can access the
People who rely on a satellite navigation internet to help them answer general
system to get around are also worse at knowledge questions, such as “How does a zip
working out where they have been than work?”, overestimate how much information WHY DOES BEING
those who use maps. they think they have remembered, as well as
The mere expectation of information their knowledge of unrelated topics after the STRESSED AFFECT
being at our fingertips seems to have an effect. test, compared with people who answered
When we think something can be accessed the questions without going online. You lose YOUR MEMORY?
later, regardless of whether we will be tested touch with what came from you and what
on it, we have lower rates of recall of the came from the machine. “These are subtle
information itself and enhanced recall instead biases that may not matter too much if you
for where to access it. continue to have access to external resources,”
“These kinds of studies suggest that says Gilbert. “But if those resources disappear –
technology is changing our memories,” says in an exam, inan emergency, in a technological
Sam Gilbert at University College London. catastrophe – we may underestimate how
“We increasingly don’t need to remember much we would struggle without them. Having Emotion and memory go hand in
content, but instead, where to find it.” accurate insight into how good your memory hand. We secrete stress hormones,
In some instances, this could be useful. actually is, is just as important as having a good such as cortisol and adrenaline,
When people were given two lists of words and memory in the first place.” when we are emotionally aroused,
asked to memorise them each in 20 seconds, For now, technology seems to be tweaking whether the result of a trauma or a
those who were allowed to save the first list on rather than upending our capacity for memory, fantastic concert. These hormones
a computer rather than deleting it before but if the interface between us and devices trigger the firing of signals in the brain,
moving on to the next, could remember more merges more in the future, “the brain will really which promotes memory formation.
information from the second list at a later date. begin to adapt in ways we can’t anticipate right The flip side is that when it comes
It seemed as if cognitive offloading freed up now”, says Martin Conway, director of the to retrieving memories, stress can
vital brain resources that allowed them to Centre for Memory and Law at City, University hamper our efforts. It can also prevent
better memorise new information. of London (see “Can I supercharge my us from updating existing memories
But relying too heavily on devices can memory?”, page 33). with new information. Which explains
mess with our appreciation of how good our So if you are ever again asked about an why, despite our best efforts, it is all
memory actually is. We are constantly making ostrich brain, try the encyclopaedia in your too easy for the mind to go blank in the
judgements about whether something is worth head before reaching for your phone. Just stressful setting of a presentation or
storing in mind. Will I remember this remember, the answer is yes. Helen Thomson the exam hall. YY





characteristic of autobiographical These involuntary memories memory is different. This could be in Baltimore, Maryland.
memory,” says Dorthe Berntsen of are often associated with the down to innate differences in brain Expertise, prior knowledge and
Aarhus University in Denmark, environment we are in, and there is a wiring. People with prosopagnosia, practice make a big difference to
who studies this phenomenon. Once high probability they have relevance or face blindness, for example, can’t what we remember. Tests of chess
they pop into your head, they soon to the ongoing situation, she says. easily tell faces apart, even if they masters, for example, show that they
disappear. “They’re like dreams – if “They can give you an update, belong to people they know well. have a superior memory for patterns
you don’t write them down, you reminding you that last time you were At the other end of the spectrum of pieces on a chessboard, but only
forget all about them,” Berntsen says. in this situation you did this or that,” are super-recognisers, who have for ones that are plausibly found in
We tend to experience more of she says. But they are also cheap. an amazing memory for faces. the game. Their ability to remember
these spontaneous memories as we “They don’t require the parts of the For the rest of us, our memory random positions is little better than
age and retrieve fewer memories brain that require effort – executive skills (or lack thereof) are more that of novices. And studies on
consciously, perhaps because we find functioning. If they are not relevant, likely to be due to our life experiences master memorisers who, for instance,
it harder to inhibit thoughts as we get you don’t have to think about them,” and strategies we’ve picked up along can remember thousands of digits
older. Berntsen’s work shows that Berntsen says. the way. Most of us start out with of the number pi, show that their
they tend not to spring up when we roughly the same memory ability, superior powers of recall are due to
are focused on a task, but are more I can remember facts, but “subtle differences at the strategies to “chunk” information into
likely to appear in dull moments. but am rubbish at faces beginning get amplified by meaningful groups, not any innate
She thinks that, far from being an experiences and interests that build talent for remembering. “They still
unwanted distraction, they are an You might come across as rude if you on each other. It’s not intrinsic, it’s need sticky notes on the fridge door
important component of daily don’t remember people, but don’t acquired,” says neurologist Barry to remember their shopping list,”
functioning. beat yourself up about it, everybody’s Gordon at Johns Hopkins University says Gordon. Alison George


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 39

What happens to




memories over time?









EMORIES fade quickly, as we all know an interconnected network of brain cells.
too well. “All things being equal, it’s To retrieve a memory, you need some part of
M harder to remember things from a its content: for example, to recall who came
long time ago compared to more recent to your last birthday party, you might start
events,” says neuroscientist Marc Howard by picturing where the party took place.
of Boston University. Artificial intelligence researchers have
But forgetting doesn’t just happen by built computer programs that work on the
accident. Evidence suggests that it is largely same principles, known as neural networks.
down to active processes in the brain. They have found that when memories are
In the hippocampus, for instance, which distributed across interconnected units like
plays an important role in memory, new this, there is a lot of potential for what’s
cells are formed throughout life. It takes called interference, in which one memory
energy to do this, yet these cells seem to effectively impedes the recall of another.
overwrite established memories and This is especially true if they share some
induce forgetting. of the same content, so you might end up
Why should the brain invest energy in confusing memories of two birthday parties
dismantling its own memories? The issue that happened at the same venue. In
isn’t storage space: given the number of addition, if you store memories that are no
cells and connections in the brain, there is longer useful, there’s a high risk that they
reason to think we could remember much will hamper the storage of new memories.
more than we do. Having fewer memories can also make it bodies simply aren’t adapted to living quite
According to Blake Richards at the easier to spot important patterns that help as long as we do, says Aoife Kiely from UK
University of Toronto, Canada, the goal us plan for the future. By remembering charity the Alzheimer’s Society.
of memory isn’t to store information instances when traffic was bad on your Aside from some new cells in the
indefinitely, but to optimise decision- commute, for example, you would learn hippocampus, “the neurons you are born
making in the future (see “What is memory which times to avoid. Remembering every with are pretty much the ones you are going
for?”, page 32). And it seems that forgetting single journey would make it impossible to to live your whole life with”, she says. “It is
most of our experiences actually helps us identify such patterns. certainly an issue of wear and tear of the
learn important lessons. Even so, there are less practical reasons brain.” As we age, we lose many of the
Each memory is thought to be stored in for forgetting, especially as we age. Our connections between these neurons,






FAQ. DOES CLOSING YOUR EYES WHY IS IT THAT YOU ONLY the box — it activates the connections

that memory fragments are attached to.
But sometimes, a friendly prompt can
TRULY HELP YOU REMEMBER? REMEMBER SOME THINGS mess with your memory. Imagine you


said to you: “Remember they sang such-
Yes. Vision is our dominant sense and WHEN OTHER PEOPLE went to a concert with a friend who later
a key source of new information. When and-such song?” Each time you recall a
you try to think of something, seeing TRIGGER THE MEMORY? memory, it becomes fragile and vulnerable
the world in front of you is a major to change. Even though you don’t actually
distraction. So, closing your eyes helps We store a lot more information in the remember, you’ve heard of this song,
limit the distraction, especially when brain than we can intentionally recall. your friend looked very confident and you
you try to retrieve a highly visual piece What we can retrieve depends largely on may end up convincing yourself about
of information. But it’s highly individual. the cues given, either from other people or this experience. And this becomes a new
Some people may find it works while the environment. If memories are a pile of memory (see “Can I trust my memories?”,
others don’t. YY jigsaw puzzle pieces, cues are the picture on page 36). YY


40 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

How can two people remember




the same event differently?








T IS the day after a blazing row and you are
determined to clear the air. But the more you
Italk about the argument with your partner,
the more you struggle to hide your incredulity.
How can their recollection be so, well, wrong?
It’s as if you are reading from different scripts.
In some ways, you are. To understand how
people can experience the same event but
recall it so differently, we need to forget our
assumptions about how memories work, says
Signy Sheldon at McGill University in Canada.
We tend to think of memories as
information stored in the filing cabinet of the
brain for future use. In fact, they are only built
DIANA HARONIS/GETTY when we retrieve them. All the information
you were bombarded with during that
argument – what was said, the scene, your
feelings and reactions – was just sitting there
gathering dust. It wasn’t until you called the NAILA RUECHEL/GETTY
event to mind the next day that you created
and immune cells in the brain can also a mental representation of what happened.
begin to run amok. And of all the details you could have picked
Still, factors like health and education out, you can bet you didn’t focus on the same areas involved in visual processing. “People’s
play a large role in how our memory fares ones as your sparring partner. brains are wired differently depending on how
as we age, Kiely points out. And even when One reason for this is very basic. they naturally approach the act of retrieval,”
memories seem to have disappeared, “We are now understanding that there are says Sheldon.
they are often still lurking somewhere, strong individual differences in how people Beyond individual brain differences,
it is just that we can’t or don’t retrieve remember,” says Sheldon. What’s more, these there are other reasons why two people might
them – until the right moment comes differences are etched in our brains. Hints at have conflicting memories of the same event.
along. Sam Wong and Catherine de Lange what is going on come from people who have Their emotional response to it is one.
aphantasia, the inability to form mental
such people’s memories also lack a visual “ We now understand that there
images in the mind’s eye. Unsurprisingly,

component, even though they can recall
facts. Sheldon and her colleagues wondered are strong individual differences
WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHIC whether this might help in understanding the
different ways other people remember things. in how people remember”
MEMORY? Exploring this possibility, they asked people

to complete a questionnaire about how they “Emotional events can be recalled much more
Photographic memory is the ability to recall tend to remember, before having their brain naturally, almost like they are stamped in
a past scene with great accuracy. Some scanned. The team found that people’s our minds,” says Sheldon. It is as if we shine a
people have better visual memory than memory style was reflected in their brain spotlight on the things that really matter to
others, especially those with highly superior connectivity. Those who were better at us. What we remember will also be affected by
autobiographic memory (HSAM). We don’t remembering facts had more physical links whether we consider it useful. And there are
know why, but their memory seems to work between the hippocampus, and the prefrontal benefits to that too. It can help us learn lessons
the same way, yet is somehow better cortex, which is involved in reasoning. and bond with others. The malleability of
organised, so they can retrieve more details. Those with richly detailed “autobiographical memory is often seen as something that’s broken,
But their memory isn’t perfect – flashbacks memories”, by contrast, had more says Sheldon, “but it’s really very adaptive”.
as real and precise as photos are a myth. YY connectivity between the hippocampus and Catherine de Lange


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 41

INTERVIEW









I’ll make quantum







reign supreme










Quantum computers have phenomenal potential, and

Michelle Simmons is making it real, says Phil Dooley

















he describes it as “an eye opener” – What did it mean to you to win Australian
the childhood moment when of the Year as an immigrant?
SMichelle Simmons’s father casually To be recognised by my adopted country says
underestimated her ability at chess. She won much more about Australia than it does about
the game in question regardless, but the me. To celebrate someone in this way, who
moment stung. That someone so close to her wasn’t born here, speaks to the forward-
didn’t appreciate what she was capable of looking and positive outlook of the Australian
became a motivating force. psyche. My friends in the UK were amazed.
These days, no one is underestimating
Simmons. Her drive and determination led What inspired your move to Australia?
the English-born quantum physicist to win In 1998, I was working at the University of NIC WALKER/FAIRFAX
the Australian of the Year award in 2018, Cambridge on quantum materials made from
highlighting the impact made by the scientist a compound called gallium arsenide, which
sometimes dubbed the “quantum queen”. was really unpredictable. Then I saw a Nature
The quantum computers that Simmons paper by Bruce Kane at UNSW that said if an understanding is especially rewarding
works on hold the promise of solving you were building a quantum computer, if I can make something practically useful.
problems that would leave conventional silicon would be the best material. I looked A quantum computer will allow us to see
computers whirring impotently until the at Bruce’s idea and thought, if I was going the world in a different way and solve a
heat death of the universe. In an industry rife build something, that’s the way I would do it. host of problems, including some we’re not
with speculation and misinformation, she Technologically it was completely beyond even aware of yet. Our society is dependent
has built a team at the University of New the capability of the time, but the Australian on so many complex systems, the more
South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney that has hit team really decided, right, we’re going to try powerful the computing power we can
goal after technological goal along the road to to build that. marshal, the better.
delivering silicon-based quantum computers. It was by far the best move I ever made.
Her team made headlines when it built A lot of people internationally said “yeah, that’s How do you go about making such a
a transistor made of a single atom of great but none of that has been done before – precise device?
phosphorus, embedded in silicon. The good luck to you”. I enjoyed that, because a lot Phosphorus is next to silicon in the periodic
phosphorus acts as a qubit, the unit of quantum of the challenges were technological ones that table so, using a scanning tunnelling electron
computation. Unlike digital bits, which exist I thought were likely to work out. microscope in an ultra-high vacuum, you
only as 0s or 1s, qubits can be both at once. After can take a silicon atom out of a crystal and
recently adding a second phosphorus qubit, What drew you to quantum computers? put a phosphorus atom back in its place.
Simmons’s team showed that they affected Like many scientists, I seek universal The phosphorus sits in the same site that
each other – a step towards quantum knowledge that will bring us a better the silicon would have been, but it has an
entanglement, the key to giving quantum understanding of the world. But I am additional electron. We are using the spin
computers their phenomenal power. drawn to concrete things. Building such states of that extra electron as the qubit.


42 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

We can use the electric and magnetic opinion “this is never going to work”, Then we will really be addressing the
fields around the phosphorus to affect that so our patent for how to keep an atom in question: can you control the world at the
electron’s spin, so we can control it in three place was very exciting. atomic scale? And, if so, will that give you the
dimensions. We can even bring in a second predicted spin-up in computing power – the
phosphorus atom and look at the overlap What are the challenges in scaling up to notion of quantum supremacy? No one has
and the entanglement. chips with multiple qubits? shown unequivocally that it is possible yet.
One challenge in the qubit world is cross-talk,
How on earth do you not lose an individual which happens if you try to engineer one Will I get a quantum laptop?
phosphorus atom? qubit and inadvertently affect the one next I’m not sure that you will. To understand
It’s a technical achievement. To keep track to it, because it is so close. But we have and control the quantum world, you need
of it after taking it out of the microscope, recently demonstrated atomic engineering very low temperatures, and exquisite control
we make all kinds of markers on the transistor’s that beautifully isolates each one. of the electric and magnetic fields – every
surface. We also needed to encapsulate that parameter. It is likely to be a cloud-based
phosphorus atom in silicon to protect it, So when will quantum computers become quantum server that people would access
without having it move around during that a useful reality? through conventional computers.
process. The industry was very much of the We want to demonstrate a 10-qubit system I must admit that when we began, we had
by 2022. Then we are looking for between this idea to build a universal system that
“ A quantum computer will 10 and 100 qubits, which we want to do in anyone could program, but I’ve realised that’s
allow us to address problems the five years after that. I think that’s where a very utopic view, that’s a long way off. Q
the first commercial applications will come,
we aren’t even aware of yet” if not before. Phil Dooley is a science writer in Canberra, Australia


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 43

CULTURE








Keep calm and evolve









Many writers want to update Darwin. But facts are stubborn, says Matthew Cobb




from this cross-species event. Lokiarchaea, it neatly took up its The general validity of
The Tangled Tree: A radical new Nevertheless, Quammen does place on one twig of the tree of Darwin’s tree metaphor is even
history of life by David Quammen, not nail his claim that HGT, or the microbial life, rather than being clearer when it comes to animals.
William Collins
origin of eukaryotes, destroys the smeared all across it. The first version of the human
Lamarck’s Revenge: How epigenetics
usefulness of the tree metaphor. When a microbe acquires genes genome spectacularly claimed
is revolutionizing our understanding There is no need to fix Darwinism through HGT, only some of them that we have acquired more
of evolution’s past and present by in this respect. survive. Natural selection retains than 200 genes through HGT.
Peter Ward, Bloomsbury
It is true that tracing the those genes that provide an We didn’t. No vertebrate genome
IN JANUARY 2009, at the start evolutionary relations between contains a significant amount of
of the bicentenary of Darwin’s microbes has become much more “Darwin thought changes microbial DNA. Our chromosome
birth and the 150th anniversary complex since we discovered the to an organism during its structure and our immune
of the publication of On the extent of HGT between microbial lifetime could be passed systems help stop this from
Origin of Species, the cover of this lineages. Some arthropod species to its offspring” happening.
magazine proclaimed: “Darwin have also acquired genes from One thing that Darwin
was wrong”. symbiotic microbes, slightly advantage and purges those definitely did get wrong was his
This bombastic declaration blurring their position on the tree that do not. While the history understanding of inheritance.
related to the discovery that genes of life. But we can still identify of a particular gene may show Like many of his contemporaries,
can be passed “horizontally” microbes and their relation to complex crossings between Darwin thought changes to an
between distant microbial species other organisms from their different microbial lineages, the organism during its lifetime could
as well as in the usual way, genomes. Following the recent overall relations of microbes be transmitted to its offspring,
“vertically” down the generations identification of a new group, the maintain a tree-like structure. hence his claim that blacksmiths’
of a species. “Horizontal gene
transfer” (HGT) means that
when we study the evolutionary
relationships of microbes, we
can find a thicket of connections
instead of the tree-like concept
developed by Darwin.
The Tangled Tree, by science
writer David Quammen, adds
some intriguing new discoveries
to that story. One is the fact
that viral DNA, trapped in our
genomes, can sometimes, as a
result of natural selection, lead
to key adaptations, such as the
mammalian placenta. Above all,
the appearance of eukaryotic cells
around 2 billion years ago came
about through the apparently
chance fusion of two unrelated
microbes rather than through
inheritance.
As a result, the branch of life
represented by eukaryotes – you,
mushrooms, flowers and so on – is
these days depicted as emerging LISA WILTSE/CORBIS VIA GETTY


Identical twins are never entirely
identical, due to epigenetics


44 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

DON’T MISS
For more books and arts coverage, visit newscientist.com/culture







sons have big arms.
This view is now mistakenly Craft work Visit
identified with one of his What if we used movement to
predecessors, French naturalist manipulate the mind? That’s the
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. In A new show reminds us science isn’t just there to premise behind choreographer
reality, Lamarck’s version of this Matthias Sperling’s deliriously
conception was semi-mystical, be useful – it’s a kind of making, finds Simon Ings strange performance-lecture Now
invoking the will or desire of That We Know, 1-2 November at
the young animal to change. the Lilian Bayliss Studio in London.
These basic, historical facts
have escaped palaeontologist Watch
Peter Ward in his deeply Seventy-two people died when
misguided book Lamarck’s fire consumed the Grenfell Tower
Revenge. He claims not only flats in west London last year.
that Darwin was wrong, but On 30 October, The Fires That
that Lamarck, or the idea that Foretold Grenfell on BBC2 tells the
he thinks was Lamarck’s, is right, haunting story of five major blazes
as shown by modern research that forewarned of the tragedy.
in epigenetics – a sexy term for
gene regulation. This involves Read
organisms responding to their Marion Nestle reveals an Unsavory
own developmental stage, and MARK BLOWER 2018 Truth: How food companies skew
factors such as environmental the science of what we eat (Basic),
stressors, by turning some genes while Donald Varene explores The
on and off, often by adding Science of Cookery and the Art of
temporary chemical tags to DNA. Dawns, Mine, Crystal by Yunchul Kim, gels, metals, all kinds of reagents, Eating Well (Columbia).
In principle, this explains much acids and oils. While labs (and not
Korean Cultural Centre, London, to
of our physiology and growth, 3 November. Some of the work also a few artists’ studios) grow more Listen
and why identical twins are not features at FACT, Liverpool, sterile and digital, his workspace The Outside/In Radio podcast
completely identical. remains stubbornly wedded to explores the natural world and
22 November to 3 March
Some say that these regulatory stuff. The artist’s wry description how we use it. A two-part look
changes can be transmitted NOSTALGIA was not the first of his practice – “touching, at overpopulation asks why this
through many generations, word that sprung to mind when staring, waiting for things to once burning issue has become
driving evolution. Ward goes even I visited a show at London’s dry” – captures something of something you only seem to hear
further, bizarrely including HGT Korean Cultural Centre by South science’s lost materiality. about from Marvel’s Thanos and
as an example of epigenetics and Korean artist Yunchul Kim. At first Kim’s latest work (see above) other comic book supervillains.
arguing, without any evidence, glance, indeed, Kim’s art appears shows a contraption in three
that everything from the rapid intimidatingly modern. parts that turns cosmic rays into Watch
expansion of the mammals after The new pieces exhibited bubbles suspended in space, a In cinemas from 2 November, Mirai
non-avian dinosaurs became were inspired by his residency copper-aluminium sludge, stirred (pictured) is a poignant Japanese
extinct to the human propensity last year at the CERN particle by hidden magnetic orreries, animation fantasy about a boy who
for warfare can be explained by physics laboratory near Geneva, and a shattered gelatin rainbow. discovers a portal to other times,
epigenetic evolution. Switzerland. They centre around What are these but the results and long-vanished ancestors.
The key stumbling block for this photonic crystals, colloids and of a strange science that is the
guff is that, in animals, there is no particle detectors, and are placed outcome of some spectacularly
evidence that epigenetic effects in the context of earlier work, purposeless noodling?
can be inherited for more than a featuring eviscerated hard drives, The physicists at CERN loved it,
few generations. pencil sketches of fluid flows and and Kim soon found out why: “I
For epigenetics to have a role in a “chemical synthesiser” turning make all my own machinery, and
evolution requires a mechanism the electrical current flowing so do they,” he says. “Their love
to get from changes in gene through a droplet of seawater into of craft is everywhere, from the
regulation in tissue to enduring a cloud of sound. colour for their cabling to the
changes in gametes. Darwin spent But for the scientists who are careful labelling of everything.”
years worrying about this and Kim’s most committed audience Kim’s art is a reminder that
came up with a completely wrong (and eager collaborators), there science isn’t just there to be
answer. Ward does not even try. ■ is something wonderfully old- useful. It is also a craft. It’s
fashioned about the way he works. something humans do, and
Matthew Cobb is a zoologist at the Kim’s studio in Seoul is full of something that, when presented
University of Manchester, UK materials: homemade ferrofluids, this well, we are bound to enjoy. ■


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 45

CULTURE








The scandal of scholarship









Expect some righteous anger as a new film exposes an unexpected con, says Graham Lawton




margins of some 37 per cent – nice have risen faster than inflation for research bodies, which together
Paywall: The business of scholarship, for shareholders and the industry. years. Publishers sell discounted hand out €18 billion a year,
directed by Jason Schmitt, can be These fat margins are built on “bundles” of subs to libraries, but unveiled a radical plan: from
viewed at paywallthemovie.com
publicly funded research and free remove content without notice. 2020, research they fund must
TWO minutes into this riveting scientific labour. The research, They also ask institutions to sign be published in an open access
documentary, there’s a moment paper writing, peer review and non-disclosure agreements about journal, making it instantly
of cinematic genius. Just as the journal editing are done by prices, ostensibly in return for a available to everyone for free.
story is getting into its stride, scientists funded by taxpayers. discount, so nobody knows what Will this finally change the game?
THUD – down comes a paywall Yet the resulting research papers anyone else pays and collective The evolving story is told
and a voice says: “We are sorry, somehow end up the intellectual mainly through talking heads,
you do not have the credentials to property of the publisher. “ Scientists in poor (and yet, amazingly, the passion and
access this documentary. Please To add insult to injury, subs and even rich) countries can’t eloquence of the interviewees
see payment options below.” tolls are largely paid by university get at research they need, plus punchy editing keeps it
You’re going to have to shell libraries, funded by… taxpayers. while publishers get rich” exciting. And the film ends with
out $39.95 to keep watching. Of It’s not as if there’s competition, a real bang as we meet Alexandra
course, you don’t. The paywall either. Scientists need access to all bargaining is impossible. Many Elbakyan, the “pirate queen” of
is fake and, after a few agonising journals, making them a licence scientists in poor countries (but scientific publishing, who runs
seconds, the film rolls on. But to print money for the publishers. sometimes also in rich ones) can’t Sci-Hub. This website makes
its impact is real, a mixture of And to advance their careers, they get access to research they need, around 70 million paywalled
“WTF?” and “How dare they!” must publish in high-impact while the publishers just get rich. research papers freely and easily
This is precisely the reaction journals, mostly run on the There is another model, open available. Elbakyan has been
film-maker Jason Schmitt is toll-access model. access, but 20 years of insurgency sued by Elsevier and others, and
aiming for, and what academics There’s worse. For no reason have failed to smash the system. is a fugitive from justice so her
feel when butting up against other than price gouging, costs Last month, however, 13 European interview was a real coup. When
paywalls that demand money in Schmitt asks her opinion of
exchange for allowing them to Elsevier (Sci-Hub’s most pirated
read the latest research in their publisher), she delivers the film’s
field. This research is likely to coup de grâce with her arch reply:
have been paid for by all of us, “I like their slogan ‘making
but has ended up out of reach uncommon knowledge common’
behind a barrier. very much, but as far as I can tell,
The story of how this happened Elsevier has not mastered this job
is the stuff of Paywall, a movie well. Sci-Hub is helping them to
whose unpromising material is fulfil their mission.”
unexpectedly spun into gold as If I have any criticism of the
we are carried on a rising tide movie, it is that it fails to capture
of astonishment and righteous the publishers’ story – if only to
anger. By the end, you will be let them hang themselves. It also
convinced scholarly publishing focuses too much on Elsevier,
is one of the greatest cons ever. which, says Schmitt, declined
It is worth billions to to take part. This focus unfairly
publishers, who charge people to demonises one company and
read their journals through fees or lets others off the hook. For
subscriptions. But neither comes balance, you should know that
cheap. Take Schmitt’s example, Paywall shows the giant does participate in
PAYWALLTHEMOVIE.COM A sub costs around $10,700 a year. funded publishers accept the problem
how publicly
Biomaterials, an Elsevier journal.
open-access publishing, and that
Individual articles on Elsevier’s
and the need for change – in part
research is
to dodge the bullets fired by
turned into
Science Direct portal generally
cost $39.95. These prices drive
46 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018 private profit exposés such as this. ■



Position Title: Research Associate Professor
Req # 03919
Department of Chemistry at The University of Chicago invites
applications for the position of Research Associate Professor.
The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining a
research program and advise graduate students in Theoretical
or Computational Chemistry. The candidate is expected to
collaborate with experimental and/or theoretical faculty within the
department. Ideally, candidates should have demonstrated ability
to raise support for their research and lead collaborative projects.
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teaching experience in Chemistry. The successful candidate will
have demonstrated competence in teaching, and have experience
mentoring graduate students in Chemistry. Candidates must have
evidence of publication and research dissemination.
Applicants must apply online at the University of Chicago’s
Academic Jobs website https://tinyurl.com/yd8tkptv, and must
upload a curriculum vitae and cover letter.
Review of applications will begin November 15, 2018 and will


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NRC Research Associateship Programs
The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers postdoctoral and senior research awards on
behalf of 23 U.S. federal research agencies and affiliated institutions with facilities at over 100 locations throughout the
U.S. and abroad.
We are actively seeking highly qualified candidates including recent doctoral recipients and senior researchers.
Applications are accepted during 4 annual review cycles (with deadlines of February 1, May 1, August 1, November 1).

Interested candidates should apply online http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/RAP/PGA_046398

Awardees have the opportunity to:
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• 1 year award, renewable for up to 3 years
• Stipend ranging from $45,000 to $80,000, higher for senior researchers
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Applicants should hold, or anticipate receiving, an earned doctorate in science or engineering. Degrees from universities
abroad should be equivalent in training and research experience to a degree from a U.S. institution. Some awards are
open to foreign nationals as well as to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.


ABOUT THE EMPLOYER
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Fellowships Office has conducted the NRC Research
Associateship Programs in cooperation with sponsoring federal laboratories and other research organizations approved
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