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New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Elsewhere on New ScientistVirtual eventA scientist’s guide to a rational lifeThe modern world is full of contradictions that we must navigate as best we can. But what should we believe? And in what and whom should we trust? In this talk, Jim Al-Khalili offers advice on how we can borrow the best bits of the scientific method and apply them to our lives. Join us at 6pm BST on 16 September or watch on demand later. Tickets available now.newscientist.com/eventsPodcastWeekly“Freedom day” arrived in England this month, as the country dropped most covid-19 restrictions. The team discuss why hundreds of experts are calling the move an “unethical experiment”. They also chat about the launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft and Jeff Bezos’s plans to build a “road to space”. Plus the news that tomatoes…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21UK covid-19 cases fallONE swallow doesn’t make a summer, but the recent sustained fall in covid-19 cases in the UK may represent a turning point. However, experts warn there are many other explanations for the decline that cannot be ruled out.As New Scientist went to press, the number of people in the UK testing positive for covid-19 had fallen for seven consecutive days, the longest sustained fall since daily cases started being recorded. According to official UK government figures, 23,511 new cases were reported on 27 July, down from 46,558 on 20 July.There are various possibilities for the fall, says Kit Yates at the University of Bath, UK, who keeps track of the numbers for the Independent SAGE group. “One is that genuinely infections are coming down because we’ve peaked and hit the…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Full human genome put to workA NEW, more complete version of the human genome is already bearing fruit after being released two months ago. It has uncovered enormous amounts of genetic variation between people that we couldn’t detect before – variation that may underlie diseases.Other studies have suggested that the new genome will finally reveal the functions of seemingly useless, repetitive sequences of “junk DNA”. These have proved hard to study before now because standard sequencing technology breaks up DNA into very small chunks that are difficult to piece together when they contain repeated information and so look similar.“We’ve been blind to it,” says Karen Miga at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Miga is co-leader of the Telomere-to-Telomere consortium, which in May published the most complete sequence of the human genome to date. The new…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Full human genome put to workA NEW, more complete version of the human genome is already bearing fruit after being released two months ago. It has uncovered enormous amounts of genetic variation between people that we couldn’t detect before – variation that may underlie diseases. Other studies have suggested that the new genome will finally reveal the functions of seemingly useless, repetitive sequences of “junk DNA”. These have proved hard to study before now because standard sequencing technology breaks up DNA into very small chunks that are difficult to piece together when they contain repeated information and so look similar. “We’ve been blind to it,” says Karen Miga at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Miga is co-leader of the Telomere-to-Telomere consortium, which in May published the most complete sequence of the human genome to…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21DeepMind AI reveals shape of 98.5 per cent of human proteinsIT TOOK decades of painstaking research to map the structure of just 17 per cent of the proteins used within the human body, but less than a year for UK-based AI company DeepMind to raise that figure to 98.5 per cent. The company is making all this data freely available, which could lead to rapid advances in the development of new drugs.Determining the complex, crumpled shape of proteins based on the sequences of amino acids that make them has been a huge scientific hurdle. Some amino acids are attracted to others, some are repelled by water, and the chains form intricate shapes that are hard to calculate accurately. Understanding these structures enables new, highly targeted drugs to be designed that bind to specific parts of proteins.Scientists have long wanted to…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Who gets to be an astronaut?SPACE tourism is ramping up with the recent flights to space of billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos aboard their respective firms’ craft, but not every person who makes the trip is officially considered an astronaut. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has tightened its rules for how it awards astronaut wings to those riding on private space flights, making it harder to become an official commercial astronaut.What are FAA astronaut wings?In the US, there are three agencies that designate people as astronauts: the US military, NASA and the FAA. The first two give wings solely to their own employees, so the only way to be officially recognised as an astronaut after a flight on a commercial spacecraft is to be awarded wings by the FAA. They don’t come with…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Sucking DNA out of the air reveals which animals live nearbyMONITORING wildlife in terrestrial ecosystems might be made easier and cheaper using a new technique that involves vacuuming bits of DNA out of the air, two teams have independently shown.“This could have a profound impact on a lot of different fields,” says Elizabeth Clare at York University in Toronto, Canada.Looking at which aquatic animals are present by searching for so-called environmental DNA, or eDNA, in water has already had a massive impact on fisheries and conservation, says Clare. It has also helped detect rare species.When Clare did a recent report on eDNA, she initially wrote that it could be detected in air as well as in water and soil, because she assumed that it could. But when she went looking for references to back this up, all she found was…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Clove and thyme oils stop invasive beetles eating palm treesTHE red palm weevil, a beetle known for its devastating effect on palm trees, can be stopped in its tracks by clove and thyme oils – offering hope of new control options for crop growers affected by the insect.Researchers at the University of Malaysia, Terengganu, tested the effect of eight chemicals derived from the two essential oils on feeding by red palm weevil larvae (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). It is one of the world’s most invasive species and severely affects the date, coconut and palm oil industries.In a study of 225 larvae over two weeks, daily consumption of blocks of sago palm soaked with clove or thyme oil derivatives was at least 35 per cent lower than that consumption of untreated blocks (Insects, doi.org/gpg6). Of the chemical compounds found in these oils,…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Sucking DNA out of the air reveals which animals live nearbyMONITORING wildlife in terrestrial ecosystems might be made easier and cheaper using a new technique that involves vacuuming bits of DNA out of the air, two teams have independently shown. “This could have a profound impact on a lot of different fields,” says Elizabeth Clare at York University in Toronto, Canada. Looking at which aquatic animals are present by searching for so-called environmental DNA, or eDNA, in water has already had a massive impact on fisheries and conservation, says Clare. It has also helped detect rare species. When Clare did a recent report on eDNA, she initially wrote that it could be detected in air as well as in water and soil, because she assumed that it could. But when she went looking for references to back this up, all…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Keeping tabs on kelpIN THE 1980s, so much kelp washed onto beaches west of Brighton that the “unsightliness” of the seaweed and the flies it attracted made it a problem worthy of debate in the UK parliament. Farmers took the abundance of washed-up brown algae for fertiliser. Locals talked of the “kelp problem”. Today, the problem is too little kelp, says Mika Peck at the University of Sussex, UK. Kelp matters because it locks up millions of tonnes of carbon globally, and provides a nursery for fish and a buffer against coastal flooding. While climate change has played a role in kelp’s decline around the world, local stresses appear to be the bigger driver. For this stretch of England’s south coast, several theories have been floated, including the Great Storm of 1987 and…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Clove and thyme oils stop invasive beetles eating palm treesTHE red palm weevil, a beetle known for its devastating effect on palm trees, can be stopped in its tracks by clove and thyme oils – offering hope of new control options for crop growers affected by the insect. Researchers at the University of Malaysia, Terengganu, tested the effect of eight chemicals derived from the two essential oils on feeding by red palm weevil larvae (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). It is one of the world’s most invasive species and severely affects the date, coconut and palm oil industries. In a study of 225 larvae over two weeks, daily consumption of blocks of sago palm soaked with clove or thyme oil derivatives was at least 35 per cent lower than that consumption of untreated blocks (Insects, doi.org/gpg6). Of the chemical compounds found in…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Sharks’ spiral intestines resemble a Tesla inventionSHARKS have spiral-shaped intestines that work in a similar way to an unusual valve designed by Nikola Tesla. Studying their anatomy could help improve industrial fluid-pump technology.Most animals have tubular intestines that use muscles to push food along. But sharks instead channel their meals through spiral intestines (pictured). These are also shaped in a way that only allows food to flow one way – like a performance-enhanced Tesla valve, says Samantha Leigh at California State University Dominguez Hills.Sharks have one of four different kinds of spiral intestine: columnar, scroll, and two types with either upward-facing or downward-facing funnels. When Leigh and her colleagues passed liquid through each type, they found that it took about 35 minutes to run through the spirals in the normal direction of flow. However, when they…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Male and female mammals kill for different reasonsADULT mammals have the capacity to kill other members of their own species, but males and females seem to kill for different reasons. Biologists have already studied mammalian infanticide, the killing of infants by adults of the same species, but the same isn’t true for killing adults. This means we don’t know as much about why adult mammals sometimes kill other adults within their species. In order to figure out whether there are any patterns in killing behaviour, José María Gómez Reyes at the National Research Council Arid Zones Experimental Station in Spain and his colleagues analysed the causes of death among 1384 mammal species. Of these, the team found evidence of adult killing in 352 species. It was particularly common amongungulates, primates and carnivores, but almost unheard of among…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Mummified man’s last meal discoveredAN ANCIENT man ate a simple meal of cooked cereals and fish before being hanged and dumped in a bog 2400 years ago. Tollund Man was roughly 40 years old when he died in what is now Denmark. He was probably offered as a human sacrifice, and the peat bog he was buried in mummified his body. Dozens of other Iron Age Europeans were sacrificed in the same way. Danish scientists first analysed Tollund Man’s intestinal contents shortly after his body was found in 1950. They found 20 plant species and one species of parasite. Now, Nina Helt Nielsen at Museum Silkeborg in Denmark and her colleagues have run new analyses on the contents of his large intestine, investigating plant fossils, pollen and a full range of non-pollen microfossils, steroids…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Life in extremisTHESE poignant and intensely personal images are among the winners and finalists in the Wellcome Photography Prize 2021, run by health research foundation Wellcome.The competition focuses on three of the most urgent global health challenges: mental health, global warming and infectious disease. There are two top prizes, one for a single image and one for an image series.At top left is The Time of Coronavirus by finalist Aly Song. Taken in April 2020, volunteers are disinfecting Qintai Grand Theatre in Wuhan, China, the city where covid-19 cases were first detected.Next, at top right, is a shot from Yoppy Pieter, winner of the image series prize, called Trans Woman: Between colour and voice. It shows one aspect of life for transgender women in Indonesia, with Lilis (centre), a trans woman, being…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Living on another planetFilmSettlersWyatt RockefellerUK cinemas and streaming 30 JulyLIFE, death and existential dread are at the heart of Settlers, an impressive debut feature film from writer-director Wyatt Rockefeller. It is a slow-burning sci-fi thriller that asks pertinent questions about humanity’s relationship with adversity and survival.Following an ecological disaster on Earth, a couple try to survive in a desolate Martian compound with their young daughter. Reza (Jonny Lee Miller) and his wife Ilsa (Sofia Boutella) do their best to protect 9-year-old Remmy (Brooklynn Prince) from the dangers of the arid surroundings. But when hostile outsiders appear in the nearby hills, ready to attack the compound in order to expel the family from their home, Remmy becomes aware of the disturbing reality of the situation that her parents have shielded her from.Later, she is…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Flexible processor most powerful yetCOULD a flexible processor on your melon track its freshness? That’s the idea behind the latest processor from UK computer chip designer Arm, which says such a device could be made for pennies by printing circuits directly onto paper, cardboard or cloth. Almost all chips made today are rigid devices created on silicon wafers. Now, Arm has developed a 32-bit processor called PlasticARM with circuits and components that are printed onto a plastic substrate, just as a printer puts ink on paper. James Myers at Arm says the processor can run a variety of programs, although it currently uses read-only memory so is only able to execute the code it was built with. Future versions will use fully programmable and flexible memory. “It won’t be fast, it won’t be energy…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21The cave art conundrumIN 1879, an 8-year-old girl made a discovery that would rock our understanding of human history. On the walls of Altamira cave in northern Spain, she spotted stunning drawings of bison, painted in vivid red and black. More striking even than the images was their age: they were made thousands of years ago by modern humans’ supposedly primitive ancestors. Today, nearly 400 caves across Europe have been found decorated with hand stencils, mysterious symbols and beautiful images of animals created by these accomplished artists.The discoveries led to the view that artistic talent arose after modern humans arrived in the region some 40,000 years ago, as part of a “cultural explosion” reflecting a flowering of the human mind. But more recent evidence has blown this idea out of the water. For…13 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21THE FIRST SELFIEOne of the most striking things about the oldest cave art is what the painters left out. In European caves, people represent less than 3.3 per cent of the images of animals. They are rare in South-East Asian cave art too. What’s more, whereas animals are depicted with great virtuosity, humans are often stick figures. “In the Palaeolithic world, there were very few humans,” says prehistorian Jean Clottes. “They lived in small groups of 20 to 25 people, with the next group maybe 50 miles away. Their world was full of animals, and animals were of much more importance than humans.”One of the most remarkable cave drawings of the human form is in a limestone cave called Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia (see above). It…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Happy hypoxia?Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors have been baffled by a consistent pattern among some people with covid-19: their blood oxygen levels are staggeringly low. So low, in fact, that they are “incompatible with life”, according to an analysis by pulmonologist Martin Tobin at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. And yet, many of these people are able to speak normally and seem to have no breathing trouble. The condition has been dubbed “happy hypoxia” or “silent hypoxia”.However happy hypoxia emerges, it seems to allow the lungs to keep expelling carbon dioxide, at least initially. Apparently, this fools the body into feeling fine even though the oxygen level in the blood is decreasing.But silent hypoxia does do harm. Diminished oxygen has been associated with increased covid-related mortality. There…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21KEEP ON AUTONOMOUS TRUCKINGThe newest trend in autonomous vehicles is putting robots on the road for long-haul trucking, where many trips are largely on limited-access highways that autonomous vehicles can navigate readily. A human driver could take the trucks to the highway at the start of the trip, with another driver picking up the truck at an exit near its destination.Most interest so far has been in the sprawling US. The automated vehicle companies Waymo and Aurora have both expanded into trucks; start-up TuSimple, based in San Diego in California, started out with them. It has been running tests on highways from Arizona to Texas, with a driver on board for safety and monitoring. The trucks have lidar (which uses lasers to sense surroundings) with a 200-metre range, a microwave radar with a…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21HOW SAFE ARE SELF-DRIVING CARS?Proponents of autonomous vehicles often point to studies by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) blaming driver error for around 94 per cent of all traffic accidents as a reason to forge ahead with their introduction.Robotic vehicles certainly aren’t prone to reckless human behaviours such as excessive speed, and they don’t drink or take drugs. But robots are also imperfect, and reports of crashes have received a lot of publicity.Fatal mistakesWith more than a million cars on the road with its “Autopilot” feature, Tesla has taken particular heat. At first glance, the numbers look bad. A website called Tesla Deaths has, as of 21 July 2021, counted a total of 196 deaths in 167 crashes involving Teslas around the world since the cars came on the market in…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21PuzzlesQuick crossword #88Set by Richard SmythScribble zoneAnswers and the next cryptic crossword next weekACROSS1 James ___, Gaia theorist (8)5 ___’s wort, plant in the family Hypericaceae (2,4)10 Threaded fastener that can be tightened by hand (4,3)11 Like an automaton (7)12 Type of stress denoted by τ (5)13 ZnO (4,5)14 Condition resulting from poor diet (12)18 Study of the nervous system (12)21 Early phase of software assessment (5,4)23 Corundite (5)24 Stretchy (7)25 Tube for the removal of urine (7)26 Vision (6)27 The meaning of life, according to Douglas Adams (5-3)DOWN1 Least; deepest (6)2 Thin cosmetic layer (6)3 Moon ring (5,4)4 Data gathering or other study undertaken by non-scientists (7,7)6 Pertaining to the shin bone (prefix) (5)7 Bone inflammation (8)8 Protons or neutrons (8)9 Controversial video-game franchise launched in 1997 (5,5,4)15 Small…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Almost the last wordA low bowI saw a strange rainbow, at the wrong height compared with a normal one. It is supposedly impossible to see a rainbow at any other angle than around 42 degrees, but the arc of my “low bow” (pictured below) looked like 21 degrees.Can anyone explain?Mike FollowsSutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UKThis rainbow is low because the photograph was taken when the sun was high in the sky.Rainbows occur when sunlight gets refracted inside raindrops and is reflected at least once off their inside surface. Rainbows form on the arc of a circle with a radius of about 42 degrees, centred on the so‑called “anti-solar point”, which is located exactly opposite the sun from the observer’s point of view. This means that the sun is directly behind you when you…6 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21FeedbackIt’s got legsSlightly off-putting news comes from Japan that a 36-armed octopus has recently debuted in an aquarium in the city of Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture.This, we discover, is a rare but far from unique phenomenon, thought to be the product of mutant regeneration of limbs bitten off by predators. A 96-legged octopus captured in 1998 in Matoya Bay, also in Japan, even survived long enough in captivity to have (octopedal) young.Our next question of whether octopus legs only come in multiples of eight is answered by the presence of an 85-limbed specimen in Japan’s Toba Aquarium.Octopuses are famously resourceful creatures, but given some people’s occasional problems coordinating just two limbs, we can only see such numbers as a burden.Then again, given the recent revelation in these pages that each…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Where’s my robot car?AS REVOLUTIONS go, this one has been rather lacking in revs. For the past decade or so, there have been confident predictions that gas-guzzling cars driven by accident-prone humans would soon be on the slip road to oblivion. The future of mobility was to be all-electric – and all-autonomous. Electric cars are already on the move, although we must go much further and faster if we are to meet climate goals. Meanwhile, however, the “autonomous” bit seems to be stuttering, to say the least. To be sure, some of the latest commercially available cars come with ever more computing smarts, such as adaptive cruise control, which allows for occasional hands-free use in very specific road conditions. But beyond a few small-scale tests of truly autonomous vehicles, drivers must keep their…10 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Beautiful beetrootWITH its vibrant crimson hue, beetroot is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. It is great to bake with, and clever chemistry can help keep it pretty in pink. Beetroot gets its colour from pigments called betalains. These include betacyanins, which are redviolet, and betaxanthins, which are yellow-orange. Some beetroot varieties, such as Chioggia, have alternating layers of red phloem tissue and unpigmented xylem, giving them a beautiful ringed pattern when sliced. Beetroot, sugar beet and chard are all cultivars of the same species, Beta vulgaris. Betalains are found in a handful of plant species, including prickly pear cacti and amaranth. They are quite different from anthocyanins, a more common group of pigments that impart red and blue colours to apples, cabbages, potatoes and many berries.…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Almost the last wordA low bow I saw a strange rainbow, at the wrong height compared with a normal one. It is supposedly impossible to see a rainbow at any other angle than around 42 degrees, but the arc of my “low bow” (pictured below) looked like 21 degrees. Can anyone explain? Mike FollowsSutton Coldfield, West Midlands, UK This rainbow is low because the photograph was taken when the sun was high in the sky. Rainbows occur when sunlight gets refracted inside raindrops and is reflected at least once off their inside surface. Rainbows form on the arc of a circle with a radius of about 42 degrees, centred on the so‑called “anti-solar point”, which is located exactly opposite the sun from the observer’s point of view. This means that the sun is…6 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Elsewhere on New ScientistVirtual event A scientist’s guide to a rational life The modern world is full of contradictions that we must navigate as best we can. But what should we believe? And in what and whom should we trust? In this talk, Jim Al-Khalili offers advice on how we can borrow the best bits of the scientific method and apply them to our lives. Join us at 6pm BST on 16 September or watch on demand later. Tickets available now. newscientist.com/events Podcast Weekly “Freedom day” arrived in England this month, as the country dropped most covid-19 restrictions. The team discuss why hundreds of experts are calling the move an “unethical experiment”. They also chat about the launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft and Jeff Bezos’s plans to build a “road to…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21A road ill-travelledDURING the coronavirus pandemic, we have all become amateur epidemiologists, readily discussing R numbers, herd immunity and test sensitivity in everyday conversation. Now, with the virus still nowhere near eliminated, we would do well to concern ourselves with the principles of viral evolution too. It is a widespread misconception that viruses tend to evolve to become less deadly. To really grasp what a virus is likely to do, we must look at the opportunities it has to evolve and the selection pressures that could force it to change. In these respects, the UK has stumbled into a dangerous realm (see page 8). Its high infection numbers provide ample chance for evolutionary experimentation, while high-but-not-yet-high-enough levels of vaccination could prove a strong driver for new “escape variants” that can better evade…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Is the climate becoming too extreme to predict?RECORD-BREAKING climate events, such as Canada’s highest temperature on record being exceeded by almost 5°C last month, will be increasingly likely in the coming decades, suggests new research. It comes as the ability of climate models to predict such extremes has been called into question following intense weather events around the world.Erich Fischer at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and his colleagues ran computer models to simulate the average maximum temperature of the hottest week of the year in parts of North America and Europe to see if they could yield temperatures that broke records by large margins. They could: some emissions scenarios smashed records by more than 1°C by 2030, not the 0.1°C or 0.2°C usually predicted.The researchers conclude that the likelihood of such record-breaking events is largely down to the…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21The variant race is upon usBACK in March, an eventual end to the coronavirus pandemic appeared to be in sight. The number of covid-19 cases were plummeting in the UK and the US as vaccination levels rose. It seemed the same might gradually happen in country after country around the world. But then India was hit by a devastating second wave, due largely to a new variant now known as delta. After delta spread to many other countries, case numbers soared once again, including in the UK and US. The question is, will this keep happening? Will more dangerous variants keep evolving, causing fresh waves of infections around the world despite vaccine roll‑outs? The answer is almost certainly yes. “Variants will continue to arise, there’s no doubt,” says Ravi Gupta at the University of Cambridge.…9 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Is the climate becoming too extreme to predict?RECORD-BREAKING climate events, such as Canada’s highest temperature on record being exceeded by almost 5°C last month, will be increasingly likely in the coming decades, suggests new research. It comes as the ability of climate models to predict such extremes has been called into question following intense weather events around the world. Erich Fischer at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and his colleagues ran computer models to simulate the average maximum temperature of the hottest week of the year in parts of North America and Europe to see if they could yield temperatures that broke records by large margins. They could: some emissions scenarios smashed records by more than 1°C by 2030, not the 0.1°C or 0.2°C usually predicted. The researchers conclude that the likelihood of such record-breaking events is largely down…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Dogs will ignore you if they know you are lying, unlike childrenDOGS tend to ignore suggestions from people who are lying, hinting that – unlike young children – they might recognise when a person is being deceptive.Ludwig Huber at the University of Vienna in Austria and his colleagues trained 260 dogs to find hidden food in one of two covered bowls. The dogs learned to follow the suggestion of a “communicator”, who would touch the food-filled bowl, glance at the dog, and say, “Look, this is very good!”Once trust was established, the team had the dogs witness another person move the food from the first to the second bowl, while the communicator was either present in the room to witness the switch, or absent. The communicators would later recommend the first bowl – which was now empty.Roughly half of the dogs…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Russian science lab launched to expand ISSRUSSIA has launched a new module for the International Space Station (ISS), after more than a decade of delays. The Nauka module blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of a Proton-M rocket on 21 July, along with a robotic arm for the station made by the European Space Agency. The ISS is composed of modules and equipment from different space agencies, including Europe, Japan and Canada. The bulk of the station is composed of two main sections, a Russian segment and a US segment. At 13 metres long and weighing more than 20 tonnes, Nauka, also called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, will be among the largest parts in Russia’s half. Nauka had a problem with its propulsion system shortly after launch, but mission controllers were able to…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Dogs will ignore you if they know you are lying, unlike childrenDOGS tend to ignore suggestions from people who are lying, hinting that – unlike young children – they might recognise when a person is being deceptive. Ludwig Huber at the University of Vienna in Austria and his colleagues trained 260 dogs to find hidden food in one of two covered bowls. The dogs learned to follow the suggestion of a “communicator”, who would touch the food-filled bowl, glance at the dog, and say, “Look, this is very good!” Once trust was established, the team had the dogs witness another person move the food from the first to the second bowl, while the communicator was either present in the room to witness the switch, or absent. The communicators would later recommend the first bowl – which was now empty. Roughly half…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Cosmic collisions could outshine supernovaeSTARS that collide after being sped up by orbiting close to supermassive black holes may be so bright they rival the most powerful supernovae, some of the brightest phenomena in the cosmos. Studying these cosmic crashes could help us learn about the universe’s most massive black holes and their environments. Near the most massive black holes, stars are expected to move close to the speed of light withoutgetting shredded by their enormous hosts’ gravity. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be destroyed in a head-on collision. Betty Hu and Avi Loeb at Harvard University simulated what would happen if such a smash-up were to occur. “The vicinity of a black hole is an accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider, except it’s a large star collider,” says Loeb. They found that…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Who gets to be an astronaut?SPACE tourism is ramping up with the recent flights to space of billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos aboard their respective firms’ craft, but not every person who makes the trip is officially considered an astronaut. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has tightened its rules for how it awards astronaut wings to those riding on private space flights, making it harder to become an official commercial astronaut. What are FAA astronaut wings? In the US, there are three agencies that designate people as astronauts: the US military, NASA and the FAA. The first two give wings solely to their own employees, so the only way to be officially recognised as an astronaut after a flight on a commercial spacecraft is to be awarded wings by the FAA. They don’t…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Male and female mammals kill for different reasonsADULT mammals have the capacity to kill other members of their own species, but males and females seem to kill for different reasons.Biologists have already studied mammalian infanticide, the killing of infants by adults of the same species, but the same isn’t true for killing adults. This means we don’t know as much about why adult mammals sometimes kill other adults within their species.In order to figure out whether there are any patterns in killing behaviour, José María Gómez Reyes at the National Research Council Arid Zones Experimental Station in Spain and his colleagues analysed the causes of death among 1384 mammal species.Of these, the team found evidence of adult killing in 352 species. It was particularly common among ungulates, primates and carnivores, but almost unheard of among bats, whales…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Mummified man’s last meal discoveredAN ANCIENT man ate a simple meal of cooked cereals and fish before being hanged and dumped in a bog 2400 years ago.Tollund Man was roughly 40 years old when he died in what is now Denmark. He was probably offered as a human sacrifice, and the peat bog he was buried in mummified his body. Dozens of other Iron Age Europeans were sacrificed in the same way.Danish scientists first analysed Tollund Man’s intestinal contents shortly after his body was found in 1950. They found 20 plant species and one species of parasite.Now, Nina Helt Nielsen at Museum Silkeborg in Denmark and her colleagues have run new analyses on the contents of his large intestine, investigating plant fossils, pollen and a full range of non-pollen microfossils, steroids and proteins.This revealed…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Tomatoes’ inbuilt attack warningTOMATOES that are being eaten by insects use electrical signals to send an alert to the rest of the plant, similar to the way our nervous systems warn of damage.The messages seem to help the plant muster defences such as releasing hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that combats microbial infections of damaged tissues.Plants lack the neurons humans have for sending electrical signals, but they do have long, thin tubes called xylem and phloem for moving sap between their roots, leaves and fruit. Charged ions flowing in and out of these tubes can propagate electrical signals around different parts of the plant in a similar way to neurons.Previous work found that leaves that are damaged send electrical signals to other leaves. Now, Gabriela Niemeyer Reissig at the Federal University of Pelotas in…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Flexible processor most powerful yetCOULD a flexible processor on your melon track its freshness? That’s the idea behind the latest processor from UK computer chip designer Arm, which says such a device could be made for pennies by printing circuits directly onto paper, cardboard or cloth.Almost all chips made today are rigid devices created on silicon wafers. Now, Arm has developed a 32-bit processor called PlasticARM with circuits and components that are printed onto a plastic substrate, just as a printer puts ink on paper.James Myers at Arm says the processor can run a variety of programs, although it currently uses read-only memory so is only able to execute the code it was built with. Future versions will use fully programmable and flexible memory. “It won’t be fast, it won’t be energy efficient, but…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21There’s another wayA COUPLE of weeks ago, I had an experience that was new to me, and which proved both infuriating and enlightening: I was harangued on Twitter for not being green enough. Last month, I wrote about driving my sick cat to and from the vet, and how the gridlocked traffic looked like a depressing taste of our post-pandemic future. “Shocked by yr column blaming traffic,” my chastiser tweeted at me. “You ARE the traffic; have you tried cycling?”Deeply unfair. But it gave me a glimpse of what many people must feel when their behaviour falls short of the standards set by self-appointed eco police. I was merely doing what I thought was the right thing. But it involved a car, and I was judged for it. (For the record, I…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Your lettersEditor’s pickIs this why machines will never have consciousness?10 July, p 34From Mike Newman, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UKYour special on consciousness was fascinating and thought-provoking. The section on whether machines could ever be “conscious” and “self-aware” seemed to ignore the role played by the fierce will to live and reproduce exhibited by living creatures. Where does this come from and where does it reside?One might argue that this compulsion is the ultimate driver of evolution and, by extension, the development of consciousness.Given our destructive impact on the planet, an all-consuming desire to live may not be totally logical. In what sense could machines have a parallel survival instinct? Might they decide that they were an unhealthy drain on resources and altruistically choose to self-destruct?From Derek Hough, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UKWhen discussing consciousness,…5 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Can AI make us less binary?Book12 BytesJeanette WintersonJonathan CapeJEANETTE WINTERSON, the award-winning author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, began circling around artificial intelligence after reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near. Since then, the science and technologies of AI have informed her fiction, including her 2019 novel Frankissstein.12 Bytes is Winterson’s first non-fiction book about AI. With 12 essays, or “bytes”, that together form an unusual and entertaining read, the book is inflected with the same delightful, dry humour as the rest of her work.In each essay, Winterson holds AI up to the light, contemplating it from different angles. One of the most thought-provoking (and smile-inducing) of the resulting refractions is her treatment of spirituality. By comparing Gnostic aeons (similar to angels) to quantum bits, god to a 3D printer and heaven to…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Sharks’ spiral intestines resemble a Tesla inventionSHARKS have spiral-shaped intestines that work in a similar way to an unusual valve designed by Nikola Tesla. Studying their anatomy could help improve industrial fluid-pump technology. Most animals have tubular intestines that use muscles to push food along. But sharks instead channel their meals through spiral intestines (pictured). These are also shaped in a way that only allows food to flow one way – like a performance-enhanced Tesla valve, says Samantha Leigh at California State University Dominguez Hills. Sharks have one of four different kinds of spiral intestine: columnar,scroll, and two types with either upward-facing or downward-facing funnels. When Leigh and her colleagues passed liquid through each type, they found that it took about 35 minutes to run through the spirals in the normal direction of flow. However, when…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21The Red Planet beckonsTHIS month has seen billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos launch aboard spacecraft made by their own firms, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin respectively. It is quite an accomplishment for the private space sector, but it is also worth noting that neither firm’s suborbital flight exceeds the achievement of the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin, who orbited Earth 60 years ago.I have also been making an attempt at orbital flight, albeit virtually, in Mars Horizon, a space agency simulator developed in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). The game lets you choose to play as ESA, NASA, the Soviet Union, China or Japan, and recreate the space race starting in 1957 (ignoring the fact that three of the participants entered the race years later). I made the first…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21DATING AUSTRALIAN ROCK ARTHumans may have arrived in Australia as early as 65,000 years ago. Thousands of rock art sites are found there, but dating these artworks is extremely challenging because the geography means there is a lack of the minerals and organic material generally used to establish age. A breakthrough came this year, courtesy of Damien Finch at the University of Melbourne and his colleagues, working with the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the traditional owners of the land. They dated images in eight rock shelters in Kimberley, Western Australia. Using radiocarbon measurements from fossilised wasp nests lying beneath and on top of the artworks, they found Australia’s oldest known image: a large kangaroo painted between 17,500 and 17,100 years ago.This record is unlikely to last long, becasue there are already hints…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Your lettersEditor’s pick Is this why machines will never have consciousness? 10 July, p 34 From Mike Newman, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK Your special on consciousness was fascinating and thought-provoking. The section on whether machines could ever be “conscious” and “self-aware” seemed to ignore the role played by the fierce will to live and reproduce exhibited by living creatures. Where does this come from and where does it reside? One might argue that this compulsion is the ultimate driver of evolution and, by extension, the development of consciousness. Given our destructive impact on the planet, an all-consuming desire to live may not be totally logical. In what sense could machines have a parallel survival instinct? Might they decide that they were an unhealthy drain on resources and altruistically choose to self-destruct? From…5 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Where’s my robot car?AS REVOLUTIONS go, this one has been rather lacking in revs. For the past decade or so, there have been confident predictions that gas-guzzling cars driven by accident-prone humans would soon be on the slip road to oblivion. The future of mobility was to be all-electric – and all-autonomous.Electric cars are already on the move, although we must go much further and faster if we are to meet climate goals. Meanwhile, however, the “autonomous” bit seems to be stuttering, to say the least.To be sure, some of the latest commercially available cars come with ever more computing smarts, such as adaptive cruise control, which allows for occasional hands-free use in very specific road conditions. But beyond a few small-scale tests of truly autonomous vehicles, drivers must keep their eyes and…10 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Can AI make us less binary?Book 12 Bytes Jeanette Winterson Jonathan Cape JEANETTE WINTERSON, the award-winning author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, began circling around artificial intelligence after reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Near. Since then, the science and technologies of AI have informed her fiction, including her 2019 novel Frankissstein. 12 Bytes is Winterson’s first non-fiction book about AI. With 12 essays, or “bytes”, that together form an unusual and entertaining read, the book is inflected with the same delightful, dry humour as the rest of her work. In each essay, Winterson holds AI up to the light, contemplating it from different angles. One of the most thought-provoking (and smile-inducing) of the resulting refractions is her treatment of spirituality. By comparing Gnostic aeons (similar to angels) to quantum bits, god to…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Beautiful beetrootWITH its vibrant crimson hue, beetroot is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. It is great to bake with, and clever chemistry can help keep it pretty in pink.Beetroot gets its colour from pigments called betalains. These include betacyanins, which are redviolet, and betaxanthins, which are yellow-orange. Some beetroot varieties, such as Chioggia, have alternating layers of red phloem tissue and unpigmented xylem, giving them a beautiful ringed pattern when sliced.Beetroot, sugar beet and chard are all cultivars of the same species, Beta vulgaris. Betalains are found in a handful of plant species, including prickly pear cacti and amaranth. They are quite different from anthocyanins, a more common group of pigments that impart red and blue colours to apples, cabbages, potatoes and many berries. Anthocyanins are…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21The Red Planet beckonsTHIS month has seen billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos launch aboard spacecraft made by their own firms, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin respectively. It is quite an accomplishment for the private space sector, but it is also worth noting that neither firm’s suborbital flight exceeds the achievement of the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin, who orbited Earth 60 years ago. I have also been making an attempt at orbital flight, albeit virtually, in Mars Horizon, a space agency simulator developed in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). The game lets you choose to play as ESA, NASA, the Soviet Union, China or Japan, and recreate the space race starting in 1957 (ignoring the fact that three of the participants entered the race years later). I made the…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21DATING AUSTRALIAN ROCK ARTHumans may have arrived in Australia as early as 65,000 years ago. Thousands of rock art sites are found there, but dating these artworks is extremely challenging because the geography means there is a lack of the minerals and organic material generally used to establish age. A breakthrough came this year, courtesy of Damien Finch at the University of Melbourne and his colleagues, working with the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the traditional owners of the land. They dated images in eight rock shelters in Kimberley, Western Australia. Using radiocarbon measurements from fossilised wasp nests lying beneath and on top of the artworks, they found Australia’s oldest known image: a large kangaroo painted between 17,500 and 17,100 years ago. This record is unlikely to last long, becasue there are already…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Thin-air therapyMOUNTAINEERS Ralf Dujmovits and Nancy Hansen are no strangers to thin air, having collectively reached the summits of all eight of the world’s highest mountains. But when they entered the hypoxia chamber at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne in May 2018, they were effectively climbing one of the highest peaks of their careers. After a two-week acclimatisation, they spent 16 days breathing air thinner than at Everest base camp – including four days at the equivalent of 7112 metres. This is just shy of the “death zone” over 8000 metres, where the lack of oxygen impairs climbers’ judgement and increases their risk of heart attack and stroke. Time and again, the two mountaineers – and those observing them – questioned whether they should keep going, but they did.…8 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21KEEP ON AUTONOMOUS TRUCKINGThe newest trend in autonomous vehicles is putting robots on the road for long-haul trucking, where many trips are largely on limited-access highways that autonomous vehicles can navigate readily. A human driver could take the trucks to the highway at the start of the trip, with another driver picking up the truck at an exit near its destination. Most interest so far has been in the sprawling US. The automated vehicle companies Waymo and Aurora have both expanded into trucks; start-up TuSimple, based in San Diego in California, started out with them. It has been running tests on highways from Arizona to Texas, with a driver on board for safety and monitoring. The trucks have lidar (which uses lasers to sense surroundings) with a 200-metre range, a microwave radar with…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21FeedbackIt’s got legs Slightly off-putting news comes from Japan that a 36-armed octopus has recently debuted in an aquarium in the city of Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture. This, we discover, is a rare but far from unique phenomenon, thought to be the product of mutant regeneration of limbs bitten off by predators. A 96-legged octopus captured in 1998 in Matoya Bay, also in Japan, even survived long enough in captivity to have (octopedal) young. Our next question of whether octopus legs only come in multiples of eight is answered by the presence of an 85-limbed specimen in Japan’s Toba Aquarium. Octopuses are famously resourceful creatures, but given some people’s occasional problems coordinating just two limbs, we can only see such numbers as a burden. Then again, given the recent revelation…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21A road ill-travelledDURING the coronavirus pandemic, we have all become amateur epidemiologists, readily discussing R numbers, herd immunity and test sensitivity in everyday conversation. Now, with the virus still nowhere near eliminated, we would do well to concern ourselves with the principles of viral evolution too.It is a widespread misconception that viruses tend to evolve to become less deadly. To really grasp what a virus is likely to do, we must look at the opportunities it has to evolve and the selection pressures that could force it to change.In these respects, the UK has stumbled into a dangerous realm (see page 8). Its high infection numbers provide ample chance for evolutionary experimentation, while high-but-not-yet-high-enough levels of vaccination could prove a strong driver for new “escape variants” that can better evade the immune…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21The variant race is upon usBACK in March, an eventual end to the coronavirus pandemic appeared to be in sight. The number of covid-19 cases were plummeting in the UK and the US as vaccination levels rose. It seemed the same might gradually happen in country after country around the world.But then India was hit by a devastating second wave, due largely to a new variant now known as delta. After delta spread to many other countries, case numbers soared once again, including in the UK and US.The question is, will this keep happening? Will more dangerous variants keep evolving, causing fresh waves of infections around the world despite vaccine roll‑outs? The answer is almost certainly yes. “Variants will continue to arise, there’s no doubt,” says Ravi Gupta at the University of Cambridge.The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus…9 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21UK covid-19 cases fallONE swallow doesn’t make a summer, but the recent sustained fall in covid-19 cases in the UK may represent a turning point. However, experts warn there are many other explanations for the decline that cannot be ruled out. As New Scientist went to press, the number of people in the UK testing positive for covid-19 had fallen for seven consecutive days, the longest sustained fall since daily cases started being recorded. According to official UK government figures, 23,511 new cases were reported on 27 July, down from 46,558 on 20 July. There are various possibilities for the fall, says Kit Yates at the University of Bath, UK, who keeps track of the numbers for the Independent SAGE group. “One is that genuinely infections are coming down because we’ve peaked and…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Termite bacteria could chomp wood waste into biofuelBACTERIA in one termite species’ guts can break down toxic creosote, which is used to preserve wood. The finding could be useful for turning harmful, chemically treated wood waste into biofuels.Termites’ guts are teeming with microbes that allow the insects to digest tough lignin and cellulose in wood. Previous studies suggested that the microorganisms could be key to turning lignocellulose – which contains these substances and is the most abundant source of renewable carbon on the planet – into biofuels via anaerobic digestion.Anaerobic digester systems often use methane-producing microbes in the absence of oxygen to convert food waste or sewage into biogas, a mixture comprising mostly methane with a bit of carbon dioxide. But converting woody plants is difficult because most microorganisms struggle to break up lignocellulose. Throw toxic wood…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Russian science lab launched to expand ISSRUSSIA has launched a new module for the International Space Station (ISS), after more than a decade of delays. The Nauka module blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of a Proton-M rocket on 21 July, along with a robotic arm for the station made by the European Space Agency.The ISS is composed of modules and equipment from different space agencies, including Europe, Japan and Canada. The bulk of the station is composed of two main sections, a Russian segment and a US segment. At 13 metres long and weighing more than 20 tonnes, Nauka, also called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, will be among the largest parts in Russia’s half.Nauka had a problem with its propulsion system shortly after launch, but mission controllers were able to solve the…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Termite bacteria could chomp wood waste into biofuelBACTERIA in one termite species’ guts can break down toxic creosote, which is used to preserve wood. The finding could be useful for turning harmful, chemically treated wood waste into biofuels. Termites’ guts are teeming with microbes that allow the insects to digest tough lignin and cellulose in wood. Previous studies suggested that the microorganisms could be key to turning lignocellulose – whichcontains these substances and is the most abundant source of renewable carbon on the planet – into biofuels via anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digester systems often use methane-producing microbes in the absence of oxygen to convert food waste or sewage into biogas, a mixture comprising mostly methane with a bit of carbon dioxide. But converting woody plants is difficult because most microorganisms struggle to break up lignocellulose. Throw toxic…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Cosmic collisions could outshine supernovaeSTARS that collide after being sped up by orbiting close to supermassive black holes may be so bright they rival the most powerful supernovae, some of the brightest phenomena in the cosmos. Studying these cosmic crashes could help us learn about the universe’s most massive black holes and their environments.Near the most massive black holes, stars are expected to move close to the speed of light without getting shredded by their enormous hosts’ gravity. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be destroyed in a head-on collision. Betty Hu and Avi Loeb at Harvard University simulated what would happen if such a smash-up were to occur.“The vicinity of a black hole is an accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider, except it’s a large star collider,” says Loeb.They found that these collisions…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21DeepMind AI reveals shape of 98.5 per cent of human proteinsIT TOOK decades of painstaking research to map the structure of just 17 per cent of the proteins used within the human body, but less than a year for UK-based AI company DeepMind to raise that figure to 98.5 per cent. The company is making all this data freely available, which could lead to rapid advances in the development of new drugs. Determining the complex, crumpled shape of proteins based on the sequences of amino acids that make them has been a huge scientific hurdle. Some amino acids are attracted to others, some are repelled by water, and the chains form intricate shapes that are hard to calculate accurately. Understanding these structures enables new, highly targeted drugs to be designed that bind to specific parts of proteins. Scientists have long…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Keeping tabs on kelpIN THE 1980s, so much kelp washed onto beaches west of Brighton that the “unsightliness” of the seaweed and the flies it attracted made it a problem worthy of debate in the UK parliament. Farmers took the abundance of washed-up brown algae for fertiliser. Locals talked of the “kelp problem”. Today, the problem is too little kelp, says Mika Peck at the University of Sussex, UK.Kelp matters because it locks up millions of tonnes of carbon globally, and provides a nursery for fish and a buffer against coastal flooding. While climate change has played a role in kelp’s decline around the world, local stresses appear to be the bigger driver. For this stretch of England’s south coast, several theories have been floated, including the Great Storm of 1987 and damage…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Birth of an alien moon glimpsed for first timeWE MAY be watching the birth of a moon for the first time. Astronomers have spotted a disc of debris around a distant planet called PDS 70 c, and it is massive enough that the young exoplanet might be in the process of forming exomoons.When a new stellar system is forming, the planets coalesce out of a cloud of debris called a circ*mstellar disc. Then, the planets can suck gas and dust from that cloud to form their own circumplanetary discs, which feed the planets’ growth and provide the material for moons to form.The star PDS 70, which is about 370 light years from Earth, has provided researchers with a unique laboratory to study this process. Its two giant planets, PDS 70 b and c, are the only two that…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Unravelling the causes of migraineVIRTUAL roller coasters set off altered brain cell activity related to dizziness and motion sickness in people who experience migraines, even if they aren’t currently having a migraine. The finding could lead to a better understanding of migraines.Gabriela Carvalho at the University of Lübeck in Germany and her colleagues carried out functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on the brains of 40 people – half of whom regularly experience migraines – as they watched realistic, animated videos of roller coaster rides on a screen inside the scanner for 35 minutes.None of the participants experienced migraines during the virtual rides, but 65 per cent of those in the “migraine” group reported on a questionnaire that they felt dizzy during the simulation, while just 30 per cent of those in the control group…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Really briefBirds learn bin trick through copyingA few years ago, some co*ckatoos learned how to open residential waste bins in Sydney, Australia. Now, almost 1400 bin-looting incidents have been reported across the Sydney-Wollongong area. It seems other co*ckatoos have learned the skill through copying (Science, doi.org/gpfb).Pterosaurs flew soon after hatchingThe flying pterosaurs that lived alongside dinosaurs may have been capable of flight within minutes of hatching, according to an analysis of fossil bones. The young pterosaurs may have flown in dense forests that were inaccessible to adults with much larger wingspans (Scientific Reports, doi.org/gpfc).Roman road in Venice lagoonAn ancient road has been discovered at the bottom of the Venice lagoon in an area that would have been dry land 2000 years ago. The 1140-metre-long structure was discovered using scanning technology, as…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Birth of an alien moon glimpsed for first timeWE MAY be watching the birth of a moon for the first time. Astronomers have spotted a disc of debris around a distant planet called PDS 70 c, and it is massive enough that the young exoplanet might be in the process of forming exomoons. When a new stellar system is forming, the planets coalesce out of a cloud of debris called a circ*mstellar disc. Then, the planets can suck gas and dust from that cloud to form their own circumplanetary discs, which feed the planets’ growth and provide the material for moons to form. The star PDS 70, which is about 370 light years from Earth, has provided researchers with a unique laboratory to study this process. Its two giant planets, PDS 70 b and c, are the only…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Spineless legislationFRANKLIN the cuttlefish considered the juicy prawn meat morsel in front of her. As mouth-watering as it looked, she resisted temptation and waited for her favourite meal to become available – live shrimp. Her self-control is impressive and comparable to what we see in chimpanzees and crows.Self-control is a vital cognitive skill that underpins decision-making and future planning. In humans, these abilities are linked to sentience because they are thought to involve conscious experience. Imagining future choices is accompanied by an awareness of the projection of self in time – what will my future self want, and how different will it be from what I want now? Some animals possess similar cognitive abilities, but cannot report their experiences, and so whether they are sentient is an ongoing debate.This topic has…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Unravelling the causes of migraineVIRTUAL roller coasters set off altered brain cell activity related to dizziness and motion sickness in people who experience migraines, even if they aren’t currently having a migraine. The finding could lead to a better understanding of migraines. Gabriela Carvalho at the University of Lübeck in Germany and her colleagues carried out functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on the brains of 40 people – half of whom regularly experience migraines – as they watched realistic, animated videos of roller coaster rides on a screen inside the scanner for 35 minutes. None of the participants experienced migraines during the virtual rides, but 65 per cent of those in the “migraine” group reported on a questionnaire that they felt dizzy during the simulation, while just 30 per cent of those in the…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Really briefBirds learn bin trick through copying A few years ago, some co*ckatoos learned how to open residential waste bins in Sydney, Australia. Now, almost 1400 bin-looting incidents have been reported across the Sydney-Wollongong area. It seems other co*ckatoos have learned the skill through copying (Science, doi.org/gpfb). Pterosaurs flew soon after hatching The flying pterosaurs that lived alongside dinosaurs may have been capable of flight within minutes of hatching, according to an analysis of fossil bones. The young pterosaurs may have flown in dense forests that were inaccessible to adults with much larger wingspans (Scientific Reports, doi.org/gpfc). Roman road in Venice lagoon An ancient road has been discovered at the bottom of the Venice lagoon in an area that would have been dry land 2000 years ago. The 1140-metre-long structure was…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Tomatoes’ inbuilt attack warningTOMATOES that are being eaten by insects use electrical signals to send an alert to the rest of the plant, similar to the way our nervous systems warn of damage. The messages seem to help the plant muster defences such as releasing hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that combats microbial infections of damaged tissues. Plants lack the neurons humans have for sending electrical signals, but they do have long, thin tubes called xylem and phloem for moving sap between their roots, leaves and fruit. Charged ions flowing in and out of these tubes can propagate electrical signals around different parts of the plant in a similar way to neurons. Previous work found that leaves that are damaged send electrical signals to other leaves. Now, Gabriela Niemeyer Reissig at the Federal University…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Don’t missReadA Trillion Trees by Fred Pearce, who is no stranger to New Scientist, explains how we can cool and clean the planet. The answer isn’t mass replanting, but instead letting forests reclaim vast swathes of Earth at their own pace.WatchOld sees a family on a secluded tropical beach ageing rapidly, with their lives reduced to a single day. Gael García Bernal, Eliza Scanlen and Rufus Sewell star in director M. Night Shyamalan’s shocking and deeply personal film. In UK cinemas now.VisitSound Season at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, UK, explores the manipulation and meaning of sound in two exhibitions, Sonic and Boom, and other events until 5 December. Don’t forget your headphones.…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Spineless legislationFRANKLIN the cuttlefish considered the juicy prawn meat morsel in front of her. As mouth-watering as it looked, she resisted temptation and waited for her favourite meal to become available – live shrimp. Her self-control is impressive and comparable to what we see in chimpanzees and crows. Self-control is a vital cognitive skill that underpins decision-making and future planning. In humans, these abilities are linked to sentience because they are thought to involve conscious experience. Imagining future choices is accompanied by an awareness of the projection of self in time – what will my future self want, and how different will it be from what I want now? Some animals possess similar cognitive abilities, but cannot report their experiences, and so whether they are sentient is an ongoing debate. This…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21There’s another wayA COUPLE of weeks ago, I had an experience that was new to me, and which proved both infuriating and enlightening: I was harangued on Twitter for not being green enough. Last month, I wrote about driving my sick cat to and from the vet, and how the gridlocked traffic looked like a depressing taste of our post-pandemic future. “Shocked by yr column blaming traffic,” my chastiser tweeted at me. “You ARE the traffic; have you tried cycling?” Deeply unfair. But it gave me a glimpse of what many people must feel when their behaviour falls short of the standards set by self-appointed eco police. I was merely doing what I thought was the right thing. But it involved a car, and I was judged for it. (For the record,…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Thin-air therapyMOUNTAINEERS Ralf Dujmovits and Nancy Hansen are no strangers to thin air, having collectively reached the summits of all eight of the world’s highest mountains. But when they entered the hypoxia chamber at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne in May 2018, they were effectively climbing one of the highest peaks of their careers. After a two-week acclimatisation, they spent 16 days breathing air thinner than at Everest base camp – including four days at the equivalent of 7112 metres. This is just shy of the “death zone” over 8000 metres, where the lack of oxygen impairs climbers’ judgement and increases their risk of heart attack and stroke.Time and again, the two mountaineers – and those observing them – questioned whether they should keep going, but they did. If…8 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Life in extremisTHESE poignant and intensely personal images are among the winners and finalists in the Wellcome Photography Prize 2021, run by health research foundation Wellcome. The competition focuses on three of the most urgent global health challenges: mental health, global warming and infectious disease. There are two top prizes, one for a single image and one for an image series. At top left is The Time of Coronavirus by finalist Aly Song. Taken in April 2020, volunteers are disinfecting Qintai Grand Theatre in Wuhan, China, the city where covid-19 cases were first detected. Next, at top right, is a shot from Yoppy Pieter, winner of the image series prize, called Trans Woman: Between colour and voice. It shows one aspect of life for transgender women in Indonesia, with Lilis (centre), a…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Living on another planetFilm Settlers Wyatt Rockefeller UK cinemas and streaming 30 July LIFE, death and existential dread are at the heart of Settlers, an impressive debut feature film from writer-director Wyatt Rockefeller. It is a slow-burning sci-fi thriller that asks pertinent questions about humanity’s relationship with adversity and survival. Following an ecological disaster on Earth, a couple try to survive in a desolate Martian compound with their young daughter. Reza (Jonny Lee Miller) and his wife Ilsa (Sofia Boutella) do their best to protect 9-year-old Remmy (Brooklynn Prince) from the dangers of the arid surroundings. But when hostile outsiders appear in the nearby hills, ready to attack the compound in order to expel the family from their home, Remmy becomes aware of the disturbing reality of the situation that her parents have…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Don’t missRead A Trillion Trees by Fred Pearce, who is no stranger to New Scientist, explains how we can cool and clean the planet. The answer isn’t mass replanting, but instead letting forests reclaim vast swathes of Earth at their own pace. Watch Old sees a family on a secluded tropical beach ageing rapidly, with their lives reduced to a single day. Gael García Bernal, Eliza Scanlen and Rufus Sewell star in director M. Night Shyamalan’s shocking and deeply personal film. In UK cinemas now. Visit Sound Season at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, UK, explores the manipulation and meaning of sound in two exhibitions, Sonic and Boom, and other events until 5 December. Don’t forget your headphones.…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21The cave art conundrumIN 1879, an 8-year-old girl made a discovery that would rock our understanding of human history. On the walls of Altamira cave in northern Spain, she spotted stunning drawings of bison, painted in vivid red and black. More striking even than the images was their age: they were made thousands of years ago by modern humans’ supposedly primitive ancestors. Today, nearly 400 caves across Europe have been found decorated with hand stencils, mysterious symbols and beautiful images of animals created by these accomplished artists. The discoveries led to the view that artistic talent arose after modern humans arrived in the region some 40,000 years ago, as part of a “cultural explosion” reflecting a flowering of the human mind. But more recent evidence has blown this idea out of the water.…13 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21THE FIRST SELFIEOne of the most striking things about the oldest cave art is what the painters left out. In European caves, people represent less than 3.3 per cent of the images of animals. They are rare in South-East Asian cave art too. What’s more, whereas animals are depicted with great virtuosity, humans are often stick figures. “In the Palaeolithic world, there were very few humans,” says prehistorian Jean Clottes. “They lived in small groups of 20 to 25 people, with the next group maybe 50 miles away. Their world was full of animals, and animals were of much more importance than humans.” One of the most remarkable cave drawings of the human form is in a limestone cave called Leang Bulu’Sipong 4 on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia (see above). It…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21Happy hypoxia?Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors have been baffled by a consistent pattern among some people with covid-19: their blood oxygen levels are staggeringly low. So low, in fact, that they are “incompatible with life”, according to an analysis by pulmonologist Martin Tobin at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. And yet, many of these people are able to speak normally and seem to have no breathing trouble. The condition has been dubbed “happy hypoxia” or “silent hypoxia”. However happy hypoxia emerges, it seems to allow the lungs to keep expelling carbon dioxide, at least initially. Apparently, this fools the body into feeling fine even though the oxygen level in the blood is decreasing. But silent hypoxia does do harm. Diminished oxygen has been associated with increased covid-related…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21HOW SAFE ARE SELF-DRIVING CARS?Proponents of autonomous vehicles often point to studies by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) blaming driver error for around 94 per cent of all traffic accidents as a reason to forge ahead with their introduction. Robotic vehicles certainly aren’t prone to reckless human behaviours such as excessive speed, and they don’t drink or take drugs. But robots are also imperfect, and reports of crashes have received a lot of publicity. Fatal mistakes With more than a million cars on the road with its “Autopilot” feature, Tesla has taken particular heat. At first glance, the numbers look bad. A website called Tesla Deaths has, as of 21 July 2021, counted a total of 196 deaths in 167 crashes involving Teslas around the world since the cars came on…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|31-Jul-21PuzzlesQuick crossword #88 Set by Richard Smyth Scribble zone Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week ACROSS 1James ___, Gaia theorist (8) 5 ___’s wort, plant in the family Hypericaceae (2,4) 10 Threaded fastener that can be tightened by hand (4,3) 11 Like an automaton (7) 12 Type of stress denoted by τ (5) 13 ZnO (4,5) 14 Condition resulting from poor diet (12) 18 Study of the nervous system (12) 21 Early phase of software assessment (5,4) 23 Corundite (5) 24 Stretchy (7) 25 Tube for the removal of urine (7) 26 Vision (6) 27 The meaning of life, according to Douglas Adams (5-3) DOWN 1Least; deepest (6) 2 Thin cosmetic layer (6) 3 Moon ring (5,4) 4 Data gathering or other study undertaken by non-scientists (7,7) 6…2 min
