Home/Science/New Scientist Australian Edition/21-Nov-20/In This Issue
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Elsewhere on New ScientistAcademyThe biggest mysteries of the cosmosThe first course from New Scientist Academy is now on sale. If you are fascinated by the the universe, this expert-led introductory course is for you.newscientist.com/coursesPodcastWeeklyIn this week’s podcast, the team discusses news of a vaccine for covid-19, examines the origin of animals and takes a deep dive into the thorny debate about human population.newscientist.com/podcastsNewsletterLaunchpadOur free weekly newsletter delivers all the space news you could ask for to your inbox. The latest edition looks at the mystery of fast radio bursts.newscientist.com/sign-up/launchpadOnlineCovid-19 daily briefingAll the most important coronavirus coverage in news, features and interviews. Updated at 6pm GMT.newscientist.com/coronavirus-latest…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20A note from our news editorAS A New Scientist reader, you probably know that the study of human origins is one of the most exciting fields around at the moment. In the past decade, we have seen a complete revolution in our understanding of how we evolved, and it seems as if not a week goes by without a new fossil or discovery that rewrites the history books.That is why we are delighted to be launching a free monthly newsletter, Our Human Story, to chronicle these extraordinary finds. It will be written by Michael Marshall, a former New Scientist staff writer and regular freelancer who will no doubt be a familiar name from these pages.The first edition, which will be going out on 24 November, is full of fascinating material. Michael will expand on his…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The end is in sightWHAT a difference a week makes. In about that time, we have gone from having little more than hope that a coronavirus vaccine would work, to having promising results from not one but three trials. As last week’s issue went to press, we had just heard the news that a vaccine candidate in late-stage human trials seems to be safe and effective – at least according to interim findings. That was the vaccine from US firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Then came the results – albeit in a smaller sample – from Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. And on Monday, US firm Moderna chimed in with interim findings for its vaccine (see page 7), the most promising of all, which encouragingly seems to have an effect even for older…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Phase IV trialsOnce vaccines are approved, they are usually closely monitored to detect any rare but potentially serious side effects that the trials were too small to spot. This evaluation, often called a phase IV trial, usually runs for a year or two because rare adverse reactions may take months or even years to be detected, says Susanne Hodgson at the University of Oxford.One rare but serious problem is “vaccine enhanced disease”, in which vaccinated people who go on to catch the virus their vaccine targets become more ill than they would have without the vaccine. It occurs when the immune response elicited by a vaccine backfires and actually helps the virus cause disease rather than hinder it.Hodgson says this was seen in animal experiments on vaccines for SARS and MERS, diseases…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Vaccines: hope vs realityIT IS the ultimate exit strategy from covid-19. A safe and effective vaccine is of “critical importance to world health”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Vaccine developers are working flat out to make good on that. Last week, the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced positive-looking results from their ongoing phase III trial, the last stage of testing whether a potential vaccine is safe and effective. The interim results showed a headline success rate of 90 per cent, meaning that nine out of 10 trial participants who caught the new coronavirus had received a placebo rather than the vaccine. “How long will immunity last? The desired answer is ‘forever’, but realistically a year would be positive” The news got some people very excited indeed.…13 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Phase IV trialsOnce vaccines are approved, they are usually closely monitored to detect any rare but potentially serious side effects that the trials were too small to spot. This evaluation, often called a phase IV trial, usually runs for a year or two because rare adverse reactions may take months or even years to be detected, says Susanne Hodgson at the University of Oxford. One rare but serious problem is “vaccine enhanced disease”,in which vaccinated people who go on to catch the virus their vaccine targets become more ill than they would have without the vaccine. It occurs when the immune response elicited by a vaccine backfires and actually helps the virus cause disease rather than hinder it. Hodgson says this was seen in animal experiments on vaccines for SARS and MERS,…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Flashing lights could prevent catastrophic satellite collisionsA SMALL satellite launching in early 2021 will test a novel method to track objects in orbit – using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that flash to relay its position to the ground.LEDSAT, a cube-shaped satellite measuring around 10 centimetres on each side, will be equipped with 140 LEDs across its faces. These will flash every few seconds, enough to be noticeable to observers. The solar-powered satellite is designed to operate for at least a year.The LEDs won’t be visible to the naked eye and will be dimmer than most stars in the night sky, so they aren’t expected to cause any problems for astronomers. But the light should still be bright enough to spot the satellite from Earth using a telescope, while different coloured LEDs on each side will reveal which…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Weak radio bursts in our galaxyMYSTERIOUS fast radio bursts (FRBs), brief and powerful blasts of radio waves in space, may not be quite as rare and unusual as we thought. Astronomers have discovered that a star inside our galaxy that produces FRBs may also create weaker but more frequent bursts.“What we show here is FRBs can go down in luminosity much further than we thought,” says Franz Kirsten at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. “We conclude that FRBs are probably a lot more common than we think.”Earlier this month, researchers said they had located an FRB source inside our galaxy for the first time. The conclusion was based on observations made in April by the CHIME telescope in Canada and the STARE2 radio receivers in California and Utah. Astronomers suggested that the…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Flashing lights could prevent catastrophic satellite collisionsA SMALL satellite launching in early 2021 will test a novel method to track objects in orbit – using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that flash to relay its position to the ground. LEDSAT, a cube-shaped satellite measuring around 10 centimetres on each side, will be equipped with 140 LEDs across its faces. These will flash every few seconds, enough to be noticeable to observers. The solar-powered satellite is designed to operate for at least a year. The LEDs won’t be visible to the naked eye and will be dimmer than most stars in the night sky, so they aren’t expected to cause any problems for astronomers. But the light should still be bright enough to spot the satellite from Earth using a telescope, while different coloured LEDs on each side will…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The war over Toumaï’s femurAFTER more than a decade in limbo, a crucial fossil of an early human relative has finally been scientifically described. The leg bone suggests that Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the earliest species generally regarded as an early human, or hominin, didn’t walk on two legs, and therefore may not have been a hominin at all, but rather was more closely related to other apes like chimps. A paper from a rival group, not yet peer-reviewed, disputes this. The studies are the latest twist in a bitter saga that has seen the fossil held back from publication and its existence ignored. “We have been anxiously awaiting the publication of this femur for many years,” says Kelsey Pugh at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. 7 million The age in years…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Really briefUltra-rare squid seen near AustraliaThe extremely rare bigfin squid, found more than 2 kilometres underwater, has been spotted in Australian waters for the first time. One specimen had 1.5-metre-long tentacles. Previously, these creatures had been sighted in the southern hemisphere only three times (PLoS One, doi.org/fht9).Rivers in the sky can melt polar sea iceRivers of warm air that cross vast distances may help trigger the large-scale melting of Antarctic sea ice. The “rivers” can travel from South America to the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, where they can raise water temperatures by 10°C (Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.eabc2695).Some seals evolved south of the equatorThe oldest known monk seal fossils have been found in New Zealand. The 3-million-year-old remains of Eomonachus belegaerensis suggest that the ancestors of elephant and monk seals evolved in…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Martian sandstorms helped turn planet into a dry worldDUST storms may have played a significant role in making Mars the arid place it is now.Scientists have long known that Mars is losing water, but thought it was largely because of a slow process that breaks water down in the lower atmosphere. Now, data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter has revealed water in the upper layer of the atmosphere for the first time, pointing to a more efficient process that may be dumping even more water off the planet.Shane Stone at the University of Arizona and his team analysed the MAVEN data and found the upper atmosphere contained the most water when Mars was closest to the sun or during a major dust storm. The atmospheric warming caused by those events allows water to float…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20A dangerous narrativeClare Wilson is a medical reporter at New Scientist @ClareWilsonMedAS THE world grapples with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been widespread predictions that the fallout would lead to a rise in suicide rates. Fortunately, figures available so far suggest that this hasn’t been happening. So it is important that we now rein in this alarmist narrative to avoid creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.It is understandable that when lockdowns were first brought in, there were fears over the impact on mental health of such an extreme measure. Humans are naturally sociable, and so forcing people to reduce contact with their friends and families was always going to be difficult.Mix in fear of catching a potentially deadly virus, loss of income and less access to mental health services and it…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20This changes everythingAnnalee Newitz is a science journalist and author. Their latest novel is The Future of Another Timeline and they are the co-host of the Hugo-nominated podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. You can follow them @annaleen and their website is techsploitation.comPEOPLE in the US have been so busy freaking out about the recent presidential election that it was easy to miss a vote in California for a ballot measure called Proposition 22. Gig work giants Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates sponsored the measure, to the tune of $205 million. Some even converted their apps into propaganda machines, exhorting users to vote “Yes on Prop 22”.The measure passed, and now California has a new class of worker: “independent contractors”. The result is that there is a special exemption for gig work…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20When rumours killBookStuck: How vaccine rumors start – and why they don’t go awayHeidi LarsonOxford University PressRHETT KRAWITT was just 7 years old when he petitioned local law-makers in California to tighten restrictions on who could avoid vaccinating their children. Rhett had been through years of chemotherapy for leukaemia, so wasn’t able to receive the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. This left him, and others like him, vulnerable to these diseases.But many of the parents of healthy children in the state were turning down the MMR vaccine, using the “personal belief exemption”. Such refusal is thought to have contributed to a measles outbreak tied to a Disneyland theme park, which was linked to 147 measles cases across seven states.The story is one of many that demonstrates how emotions,…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Just a small oneFilmAnother RoundThomas VinterbergDue for release in DecemberACCORDING to some reports, Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud once suggested that humans are born with a blood alcohol level that is 0.05 per cent too low. An unorthodox idea, for sure, and one that is at the heart of Danish midlife crisis drama Another Round. The results, it is fair to say, wouldn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny.Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, the film sees four childhood friends – now all teachers – become willing guinea pigs during a 40th birthday meal. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is morose, bursting into tears over his stale marriage and a history class that has revolted over his blatant apathy. He throws himself wholeheartedly into a Skårderud-style study: how social and professional performance can be affected by a constant level…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The film columnSimon Ings is a novelist and science writer. Follow him on Instagram at @simon_ingsA BARREN landscape at sun up. From the cords of his deflated parachute, dangling from the twisted branch of a dead tree, a boy slowly wakes to his surroundings, just as a figure appears out of the dawn’s dreamy desert glare. Humanoid but not human, faceless yet inexpressibly sad, the giant figure shambles towards the boy, bends and, though mouthless, tries somehow to swallow him.The boy unclips himself from his harness, falls to the sandy ground and begins to run. The slow, gripping pursuit that follows will, in the space of an hour and a bit, tell the story of how the boy comes to understand the value of life and friendship.That the monster is Death is…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Vaccine front runnersAs New Scientist went to press, 53 covid-19 vaccines were being evaluated in 126 clinical trials in 35 countries, according to the COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker from McGill University in Canada.There are three phases of clinical trials in humans. Phase I is to test for safety in a small number of people. Phase II is to show efficacy in several hundred volunteers. Phase III is to show both safety and efficacy at scale and includes thousands of participants. It is usually the final step before approval.Twelve candidates from four broad vaccine categories are now in phase III trials.PROTEIN SUBUNIT VACCINESThese use a small piece of viral protein to trigger an immune response. US company Novavax is working on one (NVX-CoV2373).MRNA VACCINESThis kind of vaccine takes pieces of the virus’s genetic material…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Racism in close upTHE explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement into mainstream awareness has brought the prevalence of systemic racism and anti-Black bias into sharp focus. This isn’t confined to individual acts and attitudes. It is racism deeply embedded as normal practice in the systems, structures and institutions that underpin society. And although it remains invisible to some, a growing body of research shows that systemic racism has a hugely detrimental impact on people across the world.In the US, where the most recent wave of anti-racism protests began, Black people are far more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than white people for the same crimes. But the issues faced in the US and other countries go far beyond law enforcement. We know that racism is also baked into housing, education, employment…12 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Future-proof fruitClare Wilson is a reporter at New Scientist and writes about everything life-science related. Her favourite place is her allotment. Follow her @ClareWilsonMedIF YOU think your garden or gardening skills aren’t up to growing fruit, think again. Blackcurrant bushes are very easy to care for and they take up little space – perhaps a couple of square metres each.I do little to my own plant, apart from throwing some garden netting over it every summer for a month or so to stop the birds from stealing the crop. I hold the netting away from the fruits with a ramshackle structure of bamboo canes, which can be taken down once the berries are picked.Blackcurrants’ weakness, though, is a potential vulnerability to climate change. If the winter isn’t sufficiently cold for long…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Just a small oneFilm Another Round Thomas Vinterberg Due for release in December ACCORDING to some reports, Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud once suggested that humans are born with a blood alcohol level that is 0.05 per cent too low. An unorthodox idea, for sure, and one that is at the heart of Danish midlife crisis drama Another Round. The results, it is fair to say, wouldn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, the film sees four childhood friends – now all teachers – become willing guinea pigs during a 40th birthday meal. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is morose, bursting into tears over his stale marriage and a history class that has revolted over his blatant apathy. He throws himself wholeheartedly into a Skårderud-style study: how social and professional performance can be…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20FeedbackPaper chaseFeedback’s mind was recently blown by an unlikely source – the annual report from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. The interesting bit wasn’t the headlines that it now has to combat malicious emails disguised as coronavirus updates. No, the most surprising news was that until this year, the cryptographic keys sent to military bases were in the form of spools of punched paper.That’s right – the same method that was first developed as an input tool for programmable looms in the 18th century, taking the term “legacy IT” to a new level. Apparently, the punched paper keys were hard to replace because they had such a crucial function in a wide range of infrastructure.But watch out, cybercriminals! After years of effort, keys are now sent out in Top…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Vaccine front runnersAs New Scientist went to press, 53 covid-19 vaccines were being evaluated in 126 clinical trials in 35 countries, according to the COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker from McGill University in Canada. There are three phases of clinical trials in humans. Phase I is to test for safety in a small number of people. Phase II is to show efficacy in several hundred volunteers. Phase III is to show both safety and efficacy at scale and includes thousands of participants. It is usually the final step before approval. Twelve candidates from four broad vaccine categories are now in phase III trials. PROTEIN SUBUNIT VACCINES These use a small piece of viral protein to trigger an immune response. US company Novavax is working on one (NVX-CoV2373). MRNA VACCINES This kind of vaccine takes…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Almost the last wordGroan up Why do some older people groan or say “ohoo” when we sit down, stand up or do pretty much any one-shot physical activity? Is it a cultural convention or is there a physiological reason? Bryan Simmons Bratton, Wiltshire, UK We say “ooh” when we stand up because bits of our anatomy hurt. It is as simple as that! Peter Bursztyn Barrie, Ontario, Canada I admit it. I am an “older person” and I occasionally vocalise when I move. There is nothing cultural about it. Moving hurts, and this is largely at the start of activity. Clive McGavin Horrabridge, Devon, UK The groan or grunt after a brief physical effort is either the sudden release of pent-up air through the glottis – the space between the vocal cords –…6 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Elsewhere on New ScientistAcademy The biggest mysteries of the cosmos The first course from New Scientist Academy is now on sale. If you are fascinated by the the universe, this expert-led introductory course is for you. newscientist.com/courses Podcast Weekly In this week’s podcast, the team discusses news of a vaccine for covid-19, examines the origin of animals and takes a deep dive into the thorny debate about human population. newscientist.com/podcasts Newsletter Launchpad Our free weekly newsletter delivers all the space news you could ask for to your inbox. The latest edition looks at the mystery of fast radio bursts. newscientist.com/sign-up/launchpad Online Covid-19 daily briefing All the most important coronavirus coverage in news, features and interviews. Updated at 6pm GMT. newscientist.com/coronavirus-latest…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The end is in sightWHAT a difference a week makes. In about that time, we have gone from having little more than hope that a coronavirus vaccine would work, to having promising results from not one but three trials.As last week’s issue went to press, we had just heard the news that a vaccine candidate in late-stage human trials seems to be safe and effective – at least according to interim findings. That was the vaccine from US firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Then came the results – albeit in a smaller sample – from Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. And on Monday, US firm Moderna chimed in with interim findings for its vaccine (see page 7), the most promising of all, which encouragingly seems to have an effect even for older people.These…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Vaccines: hope vs realityIT IS the ultimate exit strategy from covid-19. A safe and effective vaccine is of “critical importance to world health”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.Vaccine developers are working flat out to make good on that. Last week, the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced positive-looking results from their ongoing phase III trial, the last stage of testing whether a potential vaccine is safe and effective. The interim results showed a headline success rate of 90 per cent, meaning that nine out of 10 trial participants who caught the new coronavirus had received a placebo rather than the vaccine.“How long will immunity last? The desired answer is ‘forever’, but realistically a year would be positive”The news got some people very excited indeed. Asked on BBC…13 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Vaccine trial hat-trickIMPRESSIVE early trial results for another coronavirus vaccine appear to trump those released just a week ago by Pfizer and BioNTech, and ones from a Russian trial. The latest results, for Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine, suggest that it is 95 per cent effective and works in those who need protecting the most – people aged over 65 – the US-based company announced on 16 November. The vaccine can also be stored in a normal freezer or fridge, which would help with distributing it. If the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines work as well as their results imply, the prospects look good for other coronavirus vaccines that act in the same way, several of which are already undergoing human trials. Such vaccines are desperately needed: about 55 million covid-19 cases have now been…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20How the Pfizer/BioNTech phase III trial worksMore than 43,500 people are recruited to the trial Around half are given a vaccine, half get a placebo. Neither participants nor researchers know who is in which group When participants report mild symptoms like a cough or fever they are tested for the coronavirus Once a certain number of people are confirmed as having had covid-19, called a “checkpoint”, the results are “unblinded” to reveal whether these positive cases had been given a vaccine or a placebo So far, of 94 covid-19 cases, 90 per cent were among those in the placebo group The trial will end when there have been 164 confirmed infections, the final checkpoint…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Living electrodes could link brains to computersNERVE cells modified to respond to light and act as “living electrodes” have been successfully implanted in the brains of animals. The hope is that they will provide a better and longer-lasting way to link brains with computers than conventional electrodes.“It allows our technology to be speaking the language of the nervous system, instead of electrical jolts, which is what is done now,” says Kacy Cullen at the University of Pennsylvania. “When our implanted neurons are activated, the deeper part of the brain they are connected to then becomes activated by a natural synaptic mechanism.”Electrodes implanted in the brain have been used since the 1950s for everything from treating Parkinson’s disease to helping people who are paralysed to communicate, move and even sense things. “There have been some fantastic successes,”…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The promise of mRNA extends far beyond the current pandemicA COLLECTIVE wave of excitement swept around the world when Pfizer and BioNTech announced positive early results from their coronavirus vaccine trial last week. Now, biotechnology firm Moderna has announced even better findings (see page 7). These are no ordinary vaccines: they could be the first messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to be approved. If this technology lives up to its promise, it could bring huge benefits for healthcare, not just for tackling the coronavirus. “Part of the reason why the results from Pfizer are so exciting is that nobody has ever shown in humans that an mRNA vaccine can be effective,” says Anna Blakney at Imperial College London, who is working on a different vaccine. “I think it will change the way we make a lot of vaccines.” Viruses consist…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Some male spiders tie up females to avoid being eatenMANY male spiders engage in courtship rituals during mating, but some attack females instead and tie them up to avoid being eaten.In April 2019, Lenka Sentenská, now at the University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada, was studying the behaviour of a spider species (Thanatus fabricii) that is native to Israel. She realised that males behaved oddly during mating, but the action was so quick that it was difficult to observe.Sentenská and her colleagues collected some of the spiders and brought them to the lab to film their behaviour in slow motion.“The male just rushed towards the female,” says Sentenská. The male spider would bite the female, which seemed to startle her into pulling in her legs and playing dead. At this point, the male would begin to lay down some…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Camels inspire new material that cools without electricityA THIN gel layer that works like camel fur could help insulate objects, potentially keeping them cool for days, without electricity.Researchers have long been interested in hydrogels, which can absorb water and then release it through evaporation to produce a passive cooling effect. But a key challenge has been finding ways to make this effect last longer.Jeffrey Grossman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his team looked to camels for inspiration by combining hydrogel with a thin layer of another gel – aerogel – which is a light, porous insulating material.The hydrogel layer is like the camel’s sweat gland, allowing water to evaporate and provide a cooling effect, whereas the aerogel layer plays the same role as the camel’s fur, he says, providing insulation to keep out ambient heat,…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Weak radio bursts in our galaxyMYSTERIOUS fast radio bursts (FRBs), brief and powerful blasts of radio waves in space, may not be quite as rare and unusual as we thought. Astronomers have discovered that a star inside our galaxy that produces FRBs may also create weaker but more frequent bursts. “What we show here is FRBs can go down in luminosity much further than we thought,” says Franz Kirsten at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. “We conclude that FRBs are probably a lot more common than we think.” Earlier this month, researchers said they had located an FRB source inside our galaxy for the first time. The conclusion was based on observations made in April by the CHIME telescope in Canada and the STARE2 radio receivers in California and Utah. Astronomers suggested…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Some male spiders tie up females to avoid being eatenMANY male spiders engage in courtship rituals during mating, but some attack females instead and tie them up to avoid being eaten. In April 2019, Lenka Sentenská, now at the University of Toronto Scarborough in Canada, was studying the behaviour of a spider species (Thanatus fabricii) that is native to Israel. She realised thatmales behaved oddly during mating, but the action was so quick that it was difficult to observe. Sentenská and her colleagues collected some of the spiders and brought them to the lab to film their behaviour in slow motion. “The male just rushed towards the female,” says Sentenská. The male spider would bite the female, which seemed to startle her into pulling in her legs and playing dead. At this point, the male would begin to lay…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Camels inspire new material that cools without electricityA THIN gel layer that works like camel fur could help insulate objects, potentially keeping them cool for days, without electricity. Researchers have long been interested in hydrogels, which can absorb water and then release it through evaporation to produce a passive cooling effect. But a key challenge has been finding ways to make this effect last longer. Jeffrey Grossman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his team looked to camels for inspiration by combining hydrogel with a thin layer of another gel – aerogel – which is a light, porous insulating material. The hydrogel layer is like the camel’s sweat gland, allowing water to evaporate and provide a cooling effect, whereas the aerogel layer plays the same role as the camel’sfur, he says, providing insulation to keep out…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20How legless lizards got their limbs backIN THE distant past, climate change may have driven limbless lizards to evolve legs – having already lost them before. The once-four-legged, ancient lizards of the Brachymeles genus first emerged in dry conditions in what is now South-East Asia. They lost all four limbs about 62 million years ago, but 40 million years later, some species grew them back, says Philip Bergmann at Clark University in Massachusetts. This coincided with a shift from a very dry climate to a monsoonal climate with rainfall pretty much all year, says Bergmann. Growing limbs back probably helped these burrowing animals dig into wetter, more packed ground, he says. To further investigate this idea, Bergmann and his team caught and carried out measurements on nearly 150 wild lizards from 13 different species of modern…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Really briefUltra-rare squid seen near Australia The extremely rare bigfin squid, found more than 2 kilometres underwater, has been spotted in Australian waters for the first time. One specimen had 1.5-metre-long tentacles. Previously, these creatures had been sighted in the southern hemisphere only three times (PLoS One, doi.org/fht9). Rivers in the sky can melt polar sea ice Rivers of warm air that cross vast distances may help trigger the large-scale melting of Antarctic sea ice. The “rivers” can travel from South America to the Weddell Sea off Antarctica, where they can raise water temperatures by 10°C (Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.eabc2695). Some seals evolved south of the equator The oldest known monk seal fossils have been found in New Zealand. The 3-million-year-old remains of Eomonachus belegaerensis suggest that the ancestors of elephant…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Bacteria from yogurt speed bone healingIMPLANTS coated in bacteria could be used during bone fracture surgery to help speed healing and prevent post-operative infections. When someone breaks a bone, surgery can be needed to help it mend correctly. A common technique is to use a metal implant to keep fractured bones aligned while healing. The bone fuses to the metal as it mends. Lei Tan at Hubei University in Wuhan, China, and his colleagues tested whether coating an implant in the bacterium Lactobacillus casei, found in yogurt, could improve recovery. This species is known to regulate the immune environment, which could support tissue generation, and to release antibacterial substances. The researchers gave titanium implants to rats with broken tibias. Three received standard implants and three had implants coated in dead L. casei bacteria. After four…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Don’t missReadVanished Giants: The lost world of the ice age by Anthony J. Stuart reveals the vibrant lives of Pleistocene megafauna, driven extinct by climate change and human hunters. Can lessons from the past halt a sixth mass extinction?AttendFuture of Food and Agriculture, New Scientist Live’s day of online talks and demonstrations, tackles how we can eat well and still save the planet. Live on 28 November and on demand afterwards.ReadFirst Light: Switching on stars at the dawn of time finds physicist Emma Chapman exploring the early universe after hundreds of millions of years of dark expansion. At this time, the first stars – which were hundreds of times the size of the sun – burst into life.…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The biggest logistics challenge in historyIN KALAMAZOO, Michigan, millions of vials of a covid-19 vaccine may soon be rolling off production lines. There are still many hurdles to leap before that vaccine – the candidate from US drug company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech – or any other is approved and distributed, but governments, manufacturers and shipping firms around the world have already spent months preparing for what happens next.That comes down to a simple but easily overlooked fact: a vaccine by itself is useless. “Vaccines don’t save lives,” says Kelly Moore at the Immunization Action Coalition in the US. “Vaccination does.”When a covid-19 vaccine is approved, it will trigger a staggeringly complex chain of events. These events must occur in perfect lockstep using a global supply chain that needs to reach even the…12 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20This changes everythingAnnalee Newitz is a science journalist and author. Their latest novel is The Future of Another Timeline and they are the co-host of the Hugo-nominated podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. You can follow them @annaleen and their website is techsploitation.com PEOPLE in the US have been so busy freaking out about the recent presidential election that it was easy to miss a vote in California for a ballot measure called Proposition 22. Gig work giants Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates sponsored the measure, to the tune of $205 million. Some even converted their apps into propaganda machines, exhorting users to vote “Yes on Prop 22”. The measure passed, and now California has a new class of worker: “independent contractors”. The result is that there is a special exemption for…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Your lettersEditor’s pick Comebacks on the bouncing black holes 31 October, p 30 From Neil Doherty, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK In his book extract, Carlo Rovelli hits a good note on black holes. A true singularity predicted to have an infinite density at an infinitesimal point is a mathematical anomaly, as maths hates infinities. But here this one has sat, grinning wide – or the inverse thereof, in fact. My only problem, though, is that when Rovelli’s black hole rebounds to become a white hole, tens of billions of years will have passed to those on the outside, due to “the dilation of time… in the rest of the universe”. This is a problem because, over this period, trillions of tonnes of material will fall in, past the event horizon. The…5 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20PuzzlesQuick crossword #71Set by Richard SmythScribble zoneAnswers and the next cryptic crossword next weekACROSS1 Means of providing acquired immunity (7)5 Simple nutriment; pap (7)9 Defrosting (7)10 Part of the skull (7)11 Measure of a rocket’s efficiency (4-5)12 Savoury flavour, named in 1908 (5)13 The study of death or deaths (9)16 MacGillycuddy’s ___, mountain range in County Kerry, Ireland (5)17 Vestige; faint impression (5)19 Scouring material (5,4)22 Fluid secreted by lachrymal glands (5)23 Mirror, perhaps (9)26 Profession of Agnes Hunt and Linda Richards (7)27 Molasses-like syrup (7)28 Sir James ___, chloroform pioneer (7)29 Bright red (7)DOWN1 A, B, C, D, E or K, perhaps (7)2 Archetypal (7)3 More frozen (5)4 23 (5)5 Preliminary model, for testing or display (9)6 Bq (9)7 Pierre-Simon ___, “the French Newton” (7)8 Systems or standards of…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Almost the last wordGroan upWhy do some older people groan or say “ohoo” when we sit down, stand up or do pretty much any one-shot physical activity? Is it a cultural convention or is there a physiological reason?Bryan SimmonsBratton, Wiltshire, UKWe say “ooh” when we stand up because bits of our anatomy hurt. It is as simple as that!Peter BursztynBarrie, Ontario, CanadaI admit it. I am an “older person” and I occasionally vocalise when I move. There is nothing cultural about it. Moving hurts, and this is largely at the start of activity.Clive McGavinHorrabridge, Devon, UKThe groan or grunt after a brief physical effort is either the sudden release of pent-up air through the glottis – the space between the vocal cords – or an attention-seeking device to show that we can still…6 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The film columnSimon Ings is a novelist and science writer. Follow him on Instagram at @simon_ings A BARREN landscape at sun up. From the cords of his deflated parachute, dangling from the twisted branch of a dead tree, a boy slowly wakes to his surroundings, just as a figure appears out of the dawn’s dreamy desert glare. Humanoid but not human, faceless yet inexpressibly sad, the giant figure shambles towards the boy, bends and, though mouthless, tries somehow to swallow him. The boy unclips himself from his harness, falls to the sandy ground and begins to run. The slow, gripping pursuit that follows will, in the space of an hour and a bit, tell the story of how the boy comes to understand the value of life and friendship. That the monster…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Keeping coolThe fact that the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech needs to be stored at -70°C has raised concerns about its distribution. But it may not need to be kept so cold. Anna Blakney’s team at Imperial College London found that their mRNA vaccine candidate is stable for months at 4°C. That is also true of an mRNA candidate from CureVac in Tübingen, Germany. It should be the case for the Pfizer vaccine too, says Blakney. “I guarantee that they are doing the exact same studies.” All three vaccines encase RNA in droplets of fat, called lipid nanoparticles, made by the Canadian firm Acuitas. Company director Thomas Madden says deciding to store the vaccines at -70°C was due to “an abundance of caution”, but that “there’s no technical limit”.…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20AI gets emotionalRANA EL KALIOUBY was alone in her flat, messaging her husband. “How are you doing?” he typed. “I’m fine,” she typed back. Except that wasn’t true. The couple had been apart for weeks and she was feeling miserable. Had he been in the room, he could have read the emotions on her face at a glance. But he was miles away. It is a scene that could easily have played out during a coronavirus pandemic lockdown, when colleagues, friends and even families were cut off from one another. But it actually took place 20 years ago, soon after el Kaliouby had moved from Egypt to the UK to study, leaving her husband behind. It was in that moment, she says, that she realised how technology was blind to human emotions.…10 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20FeedbackPaper chase Feedback’s mind was recently blown by an unlikely source – the annual report from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. The interesting bit wasn’t the headlines that it now has to combat malicious emails disguised as coronavirus updates. No, the most surprising news was that until this year, the cryptographic keys sent to military bases were in the form of spools of punched paper. That’s right – the same method that was first developed as an input tool for programmable looms in the 18th century, taking the term “legacy IT” to a new level. Apparently, the punched paper keys were hard to replace because they had such a crucial function in a wide range of infrastructure. But watch out, cybercriminals! After years of effort, keys are now sent…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20A note from our news editorAS A New Scientist reader, you probably know that the study of human origins is one of the most exciting fields around at the moment. In the past decade, we have seen a complete revolution in our understanding of how we evolved, and it seems as if not a week goes by without a new fossil or discovery that rewrites the history books. That is why we are delighted to be launching a free monthly newsletter, Our Human Story, to chronicle these extraordinary finds. It will be written by Michael Marshall, a former New Scientist staff writer and regular freelancer who will no doubt be a familiar name from these pages. The first edition, which will be going out on 24 November, is full of fascinating material. Michael will expand…2 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Vaccine trial hat-trickIMPRESSIVE early trial results for another coronavirus vaccine appear to trump those released just a week ago by Pfizer and BioNTech, and ones from a Russian trial.The latest results, for Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine, suggest that it is 95 per cent effective and works in those who need protecting the most – people aged over 65 – the US-based company announced on 16 November. The vaccine can also be stored in a normal freezer or fridge, which would help with distributing it.If the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines work as well as their results imply, the prospects look good for other coronavirus vaccines that act in the same way, several of which are already undergoing human trials. Such vaccines are desperately needed: about 55 million covid-19 cases have now been reported globally,…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20How the Pfizer/BioNTech phase III trial worksMore than 43,500 people are recruited to the trialAround half are given a vaccine, half get a placebo. Neither participants nor researchers know who is in which groupWhen participants report mild symptoms like a cough or fever they are tested for the coronavirusOnce a certain number of people are confirmed as having had covid-19, called a “checkpoint”, the results are “unblinded” to reveal whether these positive cases had been given a vaccine or a placeboSo far, of 94 covid-19 cases, 90 per cent were among those in the placebo groupThe trial will end when there have been 164 confirmed infections, the final checkpoint…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The promise of mRNA extends far beyond the current pandemicA COLLECTIVE wave of excitement swept around the world when Pfizer and BioNTech announced positive early results from their coronavirus vaccine trial last week. Now, biotechnology firm Moderna has announced even better findings (see page 7). These are no ordinary vaccines: they could be the first messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to be approved. If this technology lives up to its promise, it could bring huge benefits for healthcare, not just for tackling the coronavirus.“Part of the reason why the results from Pfizer are so exciting is that nobody has ever shown in humans that an mRNA vaccine can be effective,” says Anna Blakney at Imperial College London, who is working on a different vaccine. “I think it will change the way we make a lot of vaccines.”Viruses consist of the…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The war over Toumaï’s femurAFTER more than a decade in limbo, a crucial fossil of an early human relative has finally been scientifically described. The leg bone suggests that Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the earliest species generally regarded as an early human, or hominin, didn’t walk on two legs, and therefore may not have been a hominin at all, but rather was more closely related to other apes like chimps.A paper from a rival group, not yet peer-reviewed, disputes this. The studies are the latest twist in a bitter saga that has seen the fossil held back from publication and its existence ignored.“We have been anxiously awaiting the publication of this femur for many years,” says Kelsey Pugh at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.7 million The age in years of bones of…4 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Living electrodes could link brains to computersNERVE cells modified to respond to light and act as “living electrodes” have been successfully implanted in the brains of animals. The hope is that they will provide a better and longer-lasting way to link brains with computers than conventional electrodes. “It allows our technology to be speaking the language of the nervous system, instead of electrical jolts, which is what is done now,” says Kacy Cullen at the University of Pennsylvania. “When our implanted neurons are activated, the deeper part of the brain they are connected to then becomes activated by a natural synaptic mechanism.” Electrodes implanted in the brain have been used since the 1950s for everything from treating Parkinson’s disease to helping people who are paralysed to communicate, move and even sense things. “There have been some…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20How legless lizards got their limbs backIN THE distant past, climate change may have driven limbless lizards to evolve legs – having already lost them before.The once-four-legged, ancient lizards of the Brachymeles genus first emerged in dry conditions in what is now South-East Asia. They lost all four limbs about 62 million years ago, but 40 million years later, some species grew them back, says Philip Bergmann at Clark University in Massachusetts.This coincided with a shift from a very dry climate to a monsoonal climate with rainfall pretty much all year, says Bergmann. Growing limbs back probably helped these burrowing animals dig into wetter, more packed ground, he says.To further investigate this idea, Bergmann and his team caught and carried out measurements on nearly 150 wild lizards from 13 different species of modern Brachymeles in the…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Fibre-optic glove has a sense of touchA GLOVE made from stretchable fibre optics can detect distortion and pressure and could be used in robotics, sport and medicine.Hedan Bai at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her team created the touch-sensitive glove using elastomeric polyurethane optical fibres that transmit light from an LED. The light is disrupted when the fibres are bent, stretched or put under pressure.The team dyed parts of the fibres with various colours, so that, as they are distorted, the colour of light exiting the fibres changes. The researchers analyse this light to estimate the location of and type of distortion in the glove (Science, doi.org/fhwg).Because the sensors stretch, they could be used in clothing, wearables and soft robots. The team is also looking at sport and medical applications. One is measuring respiration…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Bacteria from yogurt speed bone healingIMPLANTS coated in bacteria could be used during bone fracture surgery to help speed healing and prevent post-operative infections.When someone breaks a bone, surgery can be needed to help it mend correctly. A common technique is to use a metal implant to keep fractured bones aligned while healing. The bone fuses to the metal as it mends.Lei Tan at Hubei University in Wuhan, China, and his colleagues tested whether coating an implant in the bacterium Lactobacillus casei, found in yogurt, could improve recovery. This species is known to regulate the immune environment, which could support tissue generation, and to release antibacterial substances.The researchers gave titanium implants to rats with broken tibias. Three received standard implants and three had implants coated in dead L. casei bacteria.After four weeks, the team found…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Godzilla wasps are water-loving terrorsWASPS aren’t known for their swimming, but one recently identified species is at home in the water. Godzilla wasps (Microgaster godzilla) dive to hunt aquatic caterpillars, surfacing in a way that is reminiscent of the Japanese monster emerging from the sea.José Fernández-Triana at the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Nematodes in Ottawa worked with researchers at Osaka Prefecture and Kobe universities in Japan, who first found the creatures.The tiny wasps are parasitoids, implanting their eggs inside the bodies of other insects, where they hatch. The larvae go on to eat their living hosts from the inside out. In this case, the wasps’ hosts were aquatic caterpillars of the Elophila turbata moth, which live near the water’s surface in a case fashioned from plant fragments.The team studied how the…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Fibre-optic glove has a sense of touchA GLOVE made from stretchable fibre optics can detect distortion and pressure and could be used in robotics, sport and medicine. Hedan Bai at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her team created the touch-sensitive glove using elastomeric polyurethane optical fibres that transmit light from an LED. The light is disrupted when the fibres are bent, stretched or put under pressure. The team dyed parts of the fibres with various colours, so that, as they are distorted, the colour of light exiting the fibres changes. The researchers analyse this light to estimate the location of and type of distortion in the glove (Science, doi.org/fhwg). Because the sensors stretch, they could be used in clothing, wearables and soft robots. The team is also looking at sport and medical applications. One…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Your lettersEditor’s pickComebacks on the bouncing black holes31 October, p 30From Neil Doherty, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UKIn his book extract, Carlo Rovelli hits a good note on black holes. A true singularity predicted to have an infinite density at an infinitesimal point is a mathematical anomaly, as maths hates infinities. But here this one has sat, grinning wide – or the inverse thereof, in fact.My only problem, though, is that when Rovelli’s black hole rebounds to become a white hole, tens of billions of years will have passed to those on the outside, due to “the dilation of time… in the rest of the universe”. This is a problem because, over this period, trillions of tonnes of material will fall in, past the event horizon. The effect of this raining down…5 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Martian sandstorms helped turn planet into a dry worldDUST storms may have played a significant role in making Mars the arid place it is now. Scientists have long known that Mars is losing water, but thought it was largely because of a slow process that breaks water down in the lower atmosphere. Now, data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter has revealed water in the upper layer of the atmosphere for the first time, pointing to a more efficient process that may be dumping even more water off the planet. Shane Stone at the University of Arizona and his team analysed the MAVEN data and found the upperatmosphere contained the most water when Mars was closest to the sun or during a major dust storm. The atmospheric warming caused by those events allows water to…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Godzilla wasps are water-loving terrorsWASPS aren’t known for their swimming, but one recently identified species is at home in the water. Godzilla wasps (Microgaster godzilla) dive to hunt aquatic caterpillars, surfacing in a way that is reminiscent of the Japanese monster emerging from the sea. José Fernández-Triana at the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Nematodes in Ottawa worked with researchers at Osaka Prefecture and Kobe universities in Japan, who first found the creatures. The tiny wasps are parasitoids, implanting their eggs inside the bodies of other insects, where they hatch. The larvae go on to eat their living hosts from the inside out. In this case, the wasps’ hosts were aquatic caterpillars of the Elophila turbata moth, which live near the water’s surface in a case fashioned from plant fragments. The team…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20A dangerous narrativeClare Wilson is a medical reporter at New Scientist @ClareWilsonMed AS THE world grapples with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been widespread predictions that the fallout would lead to a rise in suicide rates. Fortunately, figures available so far suggest that this hasn’t been happening. So it is important that we now rein in this alarmist narrative to avoid creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is understandable that when lockdowns were first brought in, there were fears over the impact on mental health of such an extreme measure. Humans are naturally sociable, and so forcing people to reduce contact with their friends and families was always going to be difficult. Mix in fear of catching a potentially deadly virus, loss of income and less access to mental health…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Keeping coolThe fact that the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech needs to be stored at -70°C has raised concerns about its distribution. But it may not need to be kept so cold. Anna Blakney’s team at Imperial College London found that their mRNA vaccine candidate is stable for months at 4°C. That is also true of an mRNA candidate from CureVac in Tübingen, Germany. It should be the case for the Pfizer vaccine too, says Blakney. “I guarantee that they are doing the exact same studies.” All three vaccines encase RNA in droplets of fat, called lipid nanoparticles, made by the Canadian firm Acuitas. Company director Thomas Madden says deciding to store the vaccines at -70°C was due to “an abundance of caution”, but that “there’s no technical limit”.…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20AI gets emotionalRANA EL KALIOUBY was alone in her flat, messaging her husband. “How are you doing?” he typed. “I’m fine,” she typed back. Except that wasn’t true. The couple had been apart for weeks and she was feeling miserable. Had he been in the room, he could have read the emotions on her face at a glance. But he was miles away.It is a scene that could easily have played out during a coronavirus pandemic lockdown, when colleagues, friends and even families were cut off from one another. But it actually took place 20 years ago, soon after el Kaliouby had moved from Egypt to the UK to study, leaving her husband behind.It was in that moment, she says, that she realised how technology was blind to human emotions. Ever since,…11 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20When rumours killBook Stuck: How vaccine rumors start – and why they don’t go away Heidi Larson Oxford University Press RHETT KRAWITT was just 7 years old when he petitioned local law-makers in California to tighten restrictions on who could avoid vaccinating their children. Rhett had been through years of chemotherapy for leukaemia, so wasn’t able to receive the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. This left him, and others like him, vulnerable to these diseases. But many of the parents of healthy children in the state were turning down the MMR vaccine, using the “personal belief exemption”. Such refusal is thought to have contributed to a measles outbreak tied to a Disneyland theme park, which was linked to 147 measles cases across seven states. The story is one…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Don’t missRead Vanished Giants: The lost world of the ice age by Anthony J. Stuart reveals the vibrant lives of Pleistocene megafauna, driven extinct by climate change and human hunters. Can lessons from the past halt a sixth mass extinction? Attend Future of Food and Agriculture, New Scientist Live’s day of online talks and demonstrations, tackles how we can eat well and still save the planet. Live on 28 November and on demand afterwards. Read First Light: Switching on stars at the dawn of time finds physicist Emma Chapman exploring the early universe after hundreds of millions of years of dark expansion. At this time, the first stars – which were hundreds of times the size of the sun – burst into life.…1 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20The biggest logistics challenge in historyIN KALAMAZOO, Michigan, millions of vials of a covid-19 vaccine may soon be rolling off production lines. There are still many hurdles to leap before that vaccine – the candidate from US drug company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech – or any other is approved and distributed, but governments, manufacturers and shipping firms around the world have already spent months preparing for what happens next. That comes down to a simple but easily overlooked fact: a vaccine by itself is useless. “Vaccines don’t save lives,” says Kelly Moore at the Immunization Action Coalition in the US. “Vaccination does.” When a covid-19 vaccine is approved, it will trigger a staggeringly complex chain of events. These events must occur in perfect lockstep using a global supply chain that needs to reach…11 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Racism in close upTHE explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement into mainstream awareness has brought the prevalence of systemic racism and anti-Black bias into sharp focus. This isn’t confined to individual acts and attitudes. It is racism deeply embedded as normal practice in the systems, structures and institutions that underpin society. And although it remains invisible to some, a growing body of research shows that systemic racism has a hugely detrimental impact on people across the world. In the US, where the most recent wave of anti-racism protests began, Black people are far more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than white people for the same crimes. But the issues faced in the US and other countries go far beyond law enforcement. We know that racism is also baked into housing, education,…12 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20Future-proof fruitClare Wilson is a reporter at New Scientist and writes about everything life-science related. Her favourite place is her allotment. Follow her @ClareWilsonMed IF YOU think your garden or gardening skills aren’t up to growing fruit, think again. Blackcurrant bushes are very easy to care for and they take up little space – perhaps a couple of square metres each. I do little to my own plant, apart from throwing some garden netting over it every summer for a month or so to stop the birds from stealing the crop. I hold the netting away from the fruits with a ramshackle structure of bamboo canes, which can be taken down once the berries are picked. Blackcurrants’ weakness, though, is a potential vulnerability to climate change. If the winter isn’t sufficiently…3 min
New Scientist Australian Edition|21-Nov-20PuzzlesQuick crossword #71 Set by Richard Smyth Scribble zone Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week ACROSS 1 Means of providing acquired immunity (7)5 Simple nutriment; pap (7)9 Defrosting (7)10 Part of the skull (7)11 Measure of a rocket’s efficiency (4-5)12 Savoury flavour, named in 1908 (5)13 The study of death or deaths (9)16 MacGillycuddy’s ___, mountain range in County Kerry, Ireland (5)17 Vestige; faint impression (5)19 Scouring material (5,4)22 Fluid secreted by lachrymal glands (5)23 Mirror, perhaps (9)26 Profession of Agnes Hunt and Linda Richards (7)27 Molasses-like syrup (7)28 Sir James ___, chloroform pioneer (7)29 Bright red (7) DOWN 1 A, B, C, D, E or K, perhaps (7)2 Archetypal (7)3 More frozen (5)4 23 (5)5 Preliminary model, for testing or display (9)6 Bq (9)7 Pierre-Simon ___, “the…2 min
