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27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 51

LETTERS [email protected] @newscientist newscientist









EDITOR’S PICK Economists’ dogmas than in the US, UK and Australia.
What’s more, Boyer has a
The lab going nowhere at 28,000 km/h don’t always add up rather naive view of economic

From Guy Cox, St Albans, transactions in traditional human
out on board the ISS. New South Wales, Australia societies, focused on hunter-
The exception was an oblique In comparing the opinions of gatherer societies where “wealth”
reference to the skill sets of Russian economists with those of the is distributed equally. The
crew members, which I took to refer general public, Pascal Boyer headman or respected elder gets
to the routine running of the station. makes an interesting point the same share as everyone else.
Surely, any decisions concerning the (22 September, p 40). But from The coming of agriculture,
future of this wildly expensive facility there he works on the assumption some 10,000 years ago, changed
must depend on the nature and that the economists are right. this dramatically and soon led to
significance of the current and future As a scientist, I prefer to use huge inequalities in wealth and
work taking place there. If there observation rather than opinion status. For a striking example
are queues of vitally important in my work, and the 2008 global of how agricultural societies
experiments waiting for inclusion, financial crisis is enough to make functioned before the invention of
then that would be a reason to keep one suspicious of economists. money, look no further
From Bryn Glover, the ISS afloat. Let’s take one of Boyer’s than “How to read Inca” in the
Kirkby Malzeard, If, however, the ISS is simply being examples: “While 69 per cent of following issue (29 September,
North Yorkshire, UK sustained for symbolic reasons, then the public saw excessive executive p 33). Both these examples colour
Reading Leah Crane’s article on the I would say we should abandon it as pay as a reason the economy our present-day mindset, but
uncertain future of the International soon and as safely as we are able, wasn’t doing better, just 12 per Boyer ignores this, imagining
Space Station (6 October, p 24), I and redirect the billions of dollars it cent of economists did.” Yet in the some Arcadian past.
noticed that nowhere was any requires into the long list of terrestrial two powerhouses of the post-war Nymphs and shepherds come
reference made to the scientific problems that are urgently pressing economy, Germany and Japan, away – your world never actually
experiments that are being carried for a solution. executive salaries are much lower existed.





























































52 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

“ Someone involved in the naming process is
cackling every time they read about this”
@_TinaD is delighted, as many were, by the revelation that moons
can have moons and they are called moonmoons (20 October, p 10)


From Steve Skinner, Oak Flats, What other substitutions much better at 17 per cent and Having worked in the field,
New South Wales, Australia are found in alt-milks? up, even for cheap supermarket I know that devices in wide use,
The world’s economy does not brands, and tend to have less or such as blood glucose meters and
function, and in fact has never From Paul Whiteley, no bulking and “flavouring”. always-online vital sign monitors,
functioned, as Boyer imagines. Bittaford, Devon, UK Consumers should be careful contain easily identifiable patient
There cannot be free trade Chelsea Whyte lists alternatives that they are not being ripped data in unencrypted storage, and
when there is manipulation by to cow’s milk (22 September, p 22). off in the Wild West of milk use little or laughably insecure
governments to lower the value Potential convertees should be alternatives, and should always encryption and authentication to
of their currency, giving their cautious as not all alternatives a check the ingredients. send this information to patient
nation a competitive advantage re what they seem, with price not data management systems.
that is not reflected in the real necessarily being a helpful guide. Lack of IT hygiene puts Worse still, these are often
cost of production, or the quality Soya milk can contain as little patient data at risk connected to the hospital’s
of their products. as 5 per cent soya beans. The best corporate IT network rather than
Then there is the blunt refusal I’ve seen in the UK is 12 per cent. From Sam Edge, a separate secured one, while
of some governments to carry Similarly, almond milk can have Ringwood, Hampshire, UK unsecured Ethernet sockets on
the expenses of environmental wide ranging amounts of almonds I. Glenn Cohen and Alex Pearlman the same network are scattered
protection and the well-being of from as low as 2 per cent. I once rightly discuss ongoing concerns around the hospital, often in
workers. These conditions create saw some that had no almonds, about the ownership and use of areas such as waiting rooms.
unsustainable trade deficits. only almond flavouring! data from devices such as smart This is unlikely to change
Finally, free trade supposes The bulk of the liquid in dairy pills and medical devices until the law allows those who
honesty, yet the consistent milk alternatives, apart from the (29 September, p 22). are responsible, the upper
corruption and fraud in the global headline ingredient, is made up But equally of concern is the management of healthcare
financial system shows this does of corn starches, maltodextrins, almost total lack of “baked in” and organisations and manufacturers,
not exist internationally, and has gums and sweeteners, usually properly audited security in the to be personally and heavily
no prospect of existing in the apple juice, and added vitamins. storage, extraction and prosecuted for breaches or
foreseeable future. Continental soya milks fare transmission of the collected data. repeated audit failures. >















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27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 53

LETTERS [email protected] @newscientist newscientist








At present, it is the organisation pathological (15 September, p 24). It would be interesting to know being genetically engineered to
that gets prosecuted, so the His assertion that higher voter if any measurements of electron spread sterility in their species
taxpayers or patients end up turnouts may lead back to “a more densities for that period exist. (13 October, p 24). Couldn’t we
paying the fines. familiar political landscape” is instead engineer a mosquito not
questionable. It was contradicted Electric cars may clean to carry the plasmodium that
Shrimp’s breakout punch in the UK referendum on EU air, but choke roads causes malaria? That would still
doesn’t hold water membership, which engaged allow the species to be preserved.
3 million more voters than the From Rosemary Sharples,
From Rob Gunnett, previous general election. Penshurst, New South Wales, The editor writes:
London, UK Most of the mainstream Australia Q Engineering a mosquito that is
You describe a mantis shrimp media has acknowledged that The impact of electric cars raised immune to the malaria parasite
that “creates a force that shatters the large parts of society that by Roy Harrison focuses on may be possible and is a goal now
aquarium glass” (29 September, have not thrived under neoliberal sources of electricity to charge being pursued.
p 40). This is simply not true. economics and bewildering social their batteries (Letters, 6 October).
I’m a senior aquarium service change deserve respect, and to be But the true impact will be seen The nose knows, but
technician with over 25 years of understood on their own terms. when there is a substantial what about us?
experience, and this is one of number of them, in the
those stories that gets tossed Unexamined legacy of congestion they create. Will their From Harry Lake,
around, yet there’s no actual proof the Vietnam conflict drivers feel entitled because of Bussum, The Netherlands
of it ever happening. the lack of pollution at the point Alastair Mouat writes that the
From Ian Kennedy, of use, and make more and longer head brewer at his Edinburgh
The silent majority are Norwich, UK trips as a result? brewery could distinguish
going to the polls Andy Coghlan writes that the between the same canned beer
bombs dropped in the second Wipe out malaria, but produced at different locations
From David Cole, world war rattled the edge of keep the mosquitoes (Letters, 15 September). How does
Dunmow, Essex, UK space (6 October, p 16). he know the head brewer wasn’t
Simon Oxenham repeats the The total bomb load dropped From Christopher Clark, having them all on?
standard New Scientist suggestion on Vietnam in the mid 1960s and Houston, Texas, US
that a liberal outlook is the default early 1970s was some three times Simon Terry and Stephanie A world populated
in Western societies and that, that dropped on Europe over a Howard raise the ethics around mostly by impostors
conversely, a current propensity similar timescale. One would deliberately causing extinctions,
for conservatives to support expect a similar reduction in with the example of mosquitoes From Peter Norton, Martha’s
right-wing “populist” parties is ionosphere electron densities. that infect people with malaria Vineyard, Massachusetts, US
Catherine de Lange mentions
V. S. Ramachandran’s work on
Cotard syndrome, in which people
believe they are dead, and Capgras
syndrome, the belief that loved
ones have been replaced by
impostors (29 July 2017, p 40).
Who is to say they are wrong
and we are right?



For the record


Q The actor who plays the lawyer in
War with the Newts is Everal A. Walsh
(13 October, p 48).

Letters should be sent to:
Letters to the Editor, New Scientist,
25 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9ES
Email: [email protected]


Include your full postal address and telephone
number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to
articles. We reserve the right to edit letters.
New Scientist Ltd reserves the right to
use any submissions sent to the letters column of
New Scientist magazine, in any other format.

54 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

MAKE

Do try this at home






Spectacular wall art from astro photographer Chris Baker















RUSSELL COBB





Haunt your own house
Available as frameless acrylic or framed backlit
Make scary Halloween stories even more terrifying by up to 1.2 metres wide. All limited editions
adding ghoulish special effects


“I love telling scary stories, to the internet, or being wired
but my tales don’t spook my to a board that is.
children like they used to,” says For example, I could have my
Evelyn Tenshens. “Is there a smart lights flash when I say www.galaxyonglass.com
techie way to give them a fright the word “lightning”, or I could
this Halloween, other than wire a speaker to a Wi-Fi board +44 (0) 7814 181647 [email protected]
hiding their iPads?” for ghoulish voices on cue.
Of course, choosing the right
You can’t beat a good scare. trigger words is important. If
One easy way to amp up the you’re speaking of a dark and
adrenaline in your storytelling stormy night, “dark” is a
is by haunting your own house. tempting choice – but a
The key is to create spooky wayward remark about dark
accompaniments to your words. chocolate could spoil the
For that, you need a trigger. A surprise. Even safer bets like
concealed remote was my first “plunged” into darkness could
thought, but you are likely to be result in a downpour of plastic
spotted pushing buttons. The spiders during a chat about DIY.
words themselves would make At least that would be shocking.
the best trigger. But choose overly obscure
To achieve this, I took my keywords and listeners might
programmable Arduino circuit figure out the ruse. Keep them
board and clipped on a device guessing by making some
called 1Sheeld. This lets me triggers more complicated.
control Arduino over Bluetooth Have sensors lying in wait
via the sensors in my phone. and prime them to activate
It offers a shortcut to voice after the trigger word. Perhaps
recognition, which is something a motion sensor in a doorway,
my phone is smart enough to so the next person to leave the
do already. A few lines of code room after you say “pumpkin”
later, my Arduino was ready to gets a face full of pumpkin pie,
make mischief when it heard a or saying “my smartphone
preprogrammed magic word. died in this room” switches off
Next, the props: anything as the router. That last one was
long as they have a way to talk enough to strike fear into the
wirelessly to the Arduino. This hearts of my millennial friends.
either means being connected Hannah Joshua ■



For more Makes, visit newscientist.com/make


27 October 2018 | NewScientist | 55

FEEDBACK For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback









NOTHING fires up a Feedback reader found to contain the bacteria, and
quite like a mystery object, and rubbing the nose also helped
officials in South Carolina have to spread the bugs.
stumbled across a huge one. Earlier The clinicians report that the
this month, a 3-metre-wide object, findings bolster the case for fastidious
looking something like a rocket nose hand-washing during flu season.
cone, washed up on Seabrook Island Feedback adds that in the absence
(see it here: bit.ly/2PzTL4v). of facilities the only alternative is to
Local news reports that, despite swallow the evidence.
resembling concrete, it was soft and
“foam-like” to the touch, and didn’t IT IS a dirty business: enterprising
appear to have spent much time in individuals in Zimbabwe have
the water as the surface was clear been selling human faeces to
of barnacles and seaweed. beleaguered travellers. Following
Shadowy “local officials” soon a cholera outbreak last month,
arrived and whisked away the officials at the Chirundu border
evidence, leaving nothing but crossing began insisting all
questions. Part of an alien spacecraft? those crossing from Zimbabwe
A colossal failed munition? Or a undergo stool testing, offering
marine buoy? No hypothesis is too laxatives to speed things along.
wildly speculative for Feedback to But it turns out that the lasting
print, and we invite yours. effects of laxatives make them
an unpopular amuse-bouche
NOTHING stirs the memory FEEDBACK has reported before RESEARCHERS at the Royal for those starting out on long
quite like smell, so for absent on the high-end fruitloopery Melbourne Institute of road journeys. Local news site
metropolitans, how about a bottle available from Gwyneth Technology in Australia have TimesLive reports that a glut of
of London fragrance? The concoction, Paltrow’s wellness brand Goop unveiled a font they claim will
prepared by artist Michael Pinsky (17 March). The store is perhaps make words written with it highly
and a team of master perfumers, best known for its brisk trade in memorable. The Sans Forgetica
evokes “an olfactory snapshot of quartz “yoni” eggs, to be inserted typeface lists drunkenly to the
Piccadilly Circus”, with “long notes into the vagina to perform a left, and each letter is missing
of diesel, and a tar accord with a spiritual detox, focus energy and some part, making it about as
butch subwoofer taste”. get in touch with your Chinese easy to read as a Captcha.
Those who wish to take a concubine ancestors. The researchers say the text
sensory trip abroad can also But yoni eggs may be works on the principles of
breathe in the gritty sulphurous causing even Paltrow to wince cognitive psychology, which
smog of Beijing, or the sharp tang lately, after a court in California Feedback takes to mean its
of rotting garbage and car fumes issued the company with a illegibility requires readers to
reminiscent of Sao Paulo, Brazil. $145,000 fine after finding spend twice as much time as
The city scents are part of a project no credible scientific evidence usual trying to work out what travellers led to a black market
to call attention to air pollution to support claims for these, nor it says. As Feedback’s colleague in clean poo, with one vendor
around the world. for a “floral blend” purported to points out, even if plain old reporting: “I could sell about
Turning perfumery on its head, fight depression. Helvetica is only half as 40 portions of stool on a good
Pinsky sought to find a use for One in the perfectly styled memorable, you could read day at $4 to even $10.”
bad smells instead of trying to mask eye for Feedback’s queen of twice as much in the same time. As the threat of cholera
them. Londoners could sample the fruitloopery. Goop’s strategy is to This all prompts Feedback subsided, the restrictions were
foul air in “pollution pods” erected offer remedies for weirdly specific to wonder if there is a font that dropped, and the bottom fell
in Somerset House in the city earlier complaints, such as the “Why Am lies at the other end of the scale, out of the second-hand faeces
this year. This installation has long I So Effing Tired?” vitamin pouch. that is to say, a typeface which market. “Now that things are
PAUL MCDEVITT since wrapped up, but those who Perhaps her in-house alchemists is immediately forgettable. back to normal‚ it’s back to
airtime and sim-card vending
Although, how can we be sure
can whip up a crystal-infused
missed it need only step outside
we haven’t seen it already?
“See You In Court” healing balm.
for me,” said the trader.
for an approximate experience.
BAD news for nose pickers:
Hefty visitors to Santorini will have to go
researchers at the Liverpool School You can send stories to Feedback by
uphill by Shanks’s pony, after officials banned of Tropical Medicine have shown that email at [email protected].
those weighing more than 100 kilograms from the habit, perhaps unsurprisingly, can Please include your home address.
spread pneumonia-causing bacteria. This week’s and past Feedbacks can
riding the Greek island’s famous donkeys Both wet and dry, er, deposits were be seen on our website.


56 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018

THE LAST WORD Last words past and present at newscientist.com/lastword









Blow out standing by it since your effective typical arrangement is two pairs not been required. Additional
cross-sectional area will be larger. of them (known as pectoral and limbs could also impair the
Space movies regularly dispatch If the door only opens partially, pelvic fins) and a tail that actively animal’s mobility, camouflage,
characters through an explosively you are actually more likely to be propels the fish, plus additional or even its way of life entirely.
decompressed airlock. But how likely blown out because the opening is fins on the back or underside that Furthermore, it would take
is such a rapid ejection, taking into smaller and the blast will last provide stability. time and energy to grow these
account the victim’s location in the longer until the air in the airlock Evolution is very good at using extra limbs, which could be
airlock and its volume? Assuming they is exhausted. features that evolved for one diverted from growth of more
are wearing a spacesuit, what is the Holding on to something to purpose as a basis for something important body parts. This
best way to avoid expulsion, apart avoid being blown out will not else, and some ancient fish started might weaken the animal and,
from grabbing something solid? help much: your grip is unlikely living at the water’s edge, crawling in extreme cases, jeopardise it or
to be strong enough, and even if drive it to extinction. For instance,
Q By a sad coincidence, it is, your arm may be wrenched “ Holding on to something why would humans develop a tail
at about the time this question off. The best way to avoid such to avoid being blown out or a third leg? This would be a
was published (21 April), an an accident is to enter only small will not help... your arm waste of time and impair us.
aircraft passenger was killed in a airlocks with large doors, and stay may be wrenched off” There may have been some
similar way. An engine explosion near the wall opposite the door species that we don’t know about
blew a piece of metal through a until the airlock is depressurised. on muddy land using their four with extra limbs. They may have
window and the air escaping from Unfortunately, real airlocks tend pectoral and pelvic fins. We can been driven to extinction or
the plane blew (not sucked as the to have small doors because large see this today with fish called forced to adapt to survive.
media put it) a passenger partially doors have to be stronger and are mudskippers, whose two pairs Luke Worster
out of the window. harder to seal. of fins have become fleshy lobes Nottingham, UK
In practice, everything depends The first fictional account of so they can skip through mud
on the geometry. In a passenger someone being dispatched in this when not in the water. Q Well, there are – giant squid for
plane, the volume of air inside is way may be the defenestration Over millions of years, fish like example, and octopuses. But for
usually quite large compared with of Oddjob from a plane by James these evolved into amphibians land animals, it is a consequence
the size of the opening, so the air Bond in Goldfinger, Ian Fleming’s and later into full land animals, of the history of life on Earth. Big
will be blowing out for some time 1959 novel. and their four fins ended up as land animals are all “tetrapods”
until the pressure is equalised. Richard Parkins proper legs. The other fins were (originally meaning animals with
In a spacecraft airlock, the door Cambridge, UK single ones, so were no good for four legs) because insects, which
is likely to be larger than a plane evolving into legs, as they would have more legs, can’t grow big
window, and the volume of the have just made walking awkward. enough. They have a different
airlock smaller, but the outside Legging it And don’t forget, four legs have type of respiratory system, one
pressure will be zero. The pressure proved perfectly adequate for that limits their size with the
inside can’t be too low otherwise Why aren’t there any big animals animals. It would have been a amount of oxygen that is in
the spacecraft passengers will (not insects) with six legs, or eight waste of energy (requiring more Earth’s atmosphere now.
suffer from anoxia when not legs or more than this? food) to start evolving more. Some tetrapods have lost
wearing spacesuits. So the Richard Swifte limbs (like snakes), and some have
pressure difference is greater and Q The answer lies with evolution Darmstadt, Germany become animals that stand on just
the initial blast will be stronger, and natural selection. Land two limbs (birds and humans).
but the lower volume means it animals with four legs evolved Q A big animal would not develop But it would be too much of a
will not last as long as on an from fish, and their legs were six or more legs unless a certain mutation to suddenly have six
aircraft. If you are near the airlock originally fins. Fish have evolutionary variation was limbs, or eight, instead of four.
door, you could very possibly be developed a variety of fins to needed to increase the success of Eric Kvaalen
blown out, particularly if you are enable them to swim, and a this animal, and this variation has Les Essarts-le-Roi, France



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