New Scientist - 27 06 2020 PDF

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BOLTS FROM THE BLUE

The hidden toll of lightning
and why it’s on the rise
RACISM IN SCIENCE
Truth about life as an
ethnic minority researcher
COVID’S LONG TAIL
Why some symptoms
can persist for months
WEEKLY 27 June 2020 No3288 Australia $9.50 (Inc. GST) New Zealand NZ$9.50 (Inc. GST) Print Post Approved 100007877
YOUR THINKING BODY Why consciousness isn’t all in the mind
WHEN LIFE LEARNED TO SWIM

Evidence of oldest moving cells
PLUS SHOULD I GET AN ANTIBODY TEST? / EXPANDING EXOPLANETS /
FIRST DINO EGGS / ELECTRIC DUST ON MARS / DISNEY SCIENCE
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BRAIN CANCER HEAD-ON.
This week’s issue
On the 40 Bolts from the blue

The hidden toll of lightning
34 Features
cover and why it’s on the rise “People are
28 Your thinking body 14 Racism in science destroyed
Why consciousness
isn’t all in the mind
Truth about life as an
ethnic minority researcher
by covid-19.
17 When life 34 Covid’s long tail
They never
learned to swim
Evidence of oldest
The strange symptoms
that can persist for months
expected it
moving cells to be long
9 Should I get an antibody test?
17 Expanding exoplanets term”
18 First dino eggs
Vol 246 No 3288 12 Electric dust on Mars
Cover image: Patrick George 25 Disney science
News Features
12 Rise of the dinosaurs 28 Your thinking body
Did surging sea levels help News When it comes to consciousness,
the giant reptiles dominate? your brain isn’t the whole story
14 Racism in science 34 Covid’s long tail

The many barriers facing Why many people keep
ethnic minority researchers experiencing symptoms for
months after they were infected
17 Begin to swim
A 3.4 billion-year-old 40 Bolts from the blue
microfossil may be the earliest How global warming is
evidence of moving cells increasing lightning’s impact
Views
The back pages
21 The columnist
Graham Lawton on Black Lives 53 Puzzles
Matter’s environmental justice Cryptic crossword and the quiz
22 Letters 54 More puzzles

Can we make a simulation that How many children are as
includes conscious entities? old as their fathers, reversed?
24 Culture 54 Cartoons
Sci-fi’s suggestions for how Life through the lens of
to avoid a techno-apocalypse Tom Gauld and Twisteddoodles
25 Culture 55 Feedback
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
How Disney became a Waging war against waging

massive research organisation war against hurricanes
26 Aperture 56 The last word

The caterpillar that wears its Why don’t babies let their
old heads as an elaborate hat 12 Wiped clean Electric dust could be erasing signs of Martian life parents get more sleep?
27 June 2020 | New Scientist | 1

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The leader
A cruel and unusual illness

Acknowledging strange symptoms of coronavirus is vital to curbing its spread
THE UK has three, the US 11 and Australia That these symptoms don’t tally to a shortlist of common symptoms
14. What are these? Covid-19 symptoms. with information published by official was arguably the most effective way
That is according to advice from each guidelines is problematic. Not only to identify and act on new cases.
country’s health body. How can the same does it leave thousands of people who But now we have evidence that
disease affect people so differently in are ill with little or no help and support, symptoms can be varied and we must
each country? The answer is: it doesn’t. it also jeopardises our efforts to contain make sure we help those who are still
The disparity is a reflection of the spread of the virus. ill weeks or even months after being
how little we have known about the infected. Crucially, unless we officially
symptoms of covid-19, until now. “Strange symptoms include recognise – and publicise – all symptoms
What we initially thought of as a exhaustion, numbness, brought on by the coronavirus, we don’t
respiratory disease is in fact a much extreme weight loss, stand a chance of identifying those
more formidable enemy. It can kill brain fog and rashes” who may have caught it, in order to
via a two-pronged attack, through test them and trace their contacts.
provoking our immune systems When people started sharing unusual As the UK attempts to use its faltering
and disrupting blood clotting (page 8). symptoms on forums at the start of the test and trace scheme to prevent
And for some people, covid-19 outbreak, it is understandable that they a second wave of cases (see page 7),
results in symptoms that can be strange, were dismissed by some. People were it seems ill-advised that the country
debilitating and long-lived (see page 34). in a state of hypervigilance about their still officially lists just three symptoms.
The list includes exhaustion, numbness, health, and few were getting tested – in Effective contact tracing will require
diarrhoea, extreme weight loss, brain the UK at least – especially not those listening to those who are sick, to
fog, muscle pain and rashes. with odd-sounding complaints. Sticking protect others from a similar fate. ❚
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News Coronavirus
Social distancing
instructions on the
streets of Watford, UK
positive around three days after

the person first developed
symptoms and ordered a test.
Newly published minutes
show that the UK government’s
Scientific Advisory Group for
Emergencies (SAGE) said a month
ago that the contact-tracing
operation “could very rapidly
become overwhelmed” if there
were still high numbers of new
“Only 73 per cent of

people who tested
positive in England were
successfully contacted”
STEPHEN CHUNG/LNP/SHUTTERSTOCK
covid-19 infections. At the time,

there were around 10,000 new
cases across the UK a day. In the
past week, the UK government has
been reporting around 1000 to
1300 confirmed cases a day.
The reproduction number – the
average number of other people
one infected person passes the
Contact-tracing issues virus on to – for the UK is at 0.7 to

0.9, while its infection growth rate
appears to be at -2 to -4 per cent.
Both these estimates suggest the
England is continuing to remove coronavirus restrictions but efforts to outbreak is slowly declining. But
track and stop infections are still struggling, reports Adam Vaughan there have been signs of isolated
local outbreaks, such as at a meat
LAST month, UK prime minister announced on 18 June – an positive were successfully plant in Anglesey, Wales, raising
Boris Johnson said England approach being pursued by contacted, a similar proportion the prospect of a local lockdown
would have a “world-beating” many other countries. The app to the launch week. Initial contact by authorities.
contact-tracing system in June. is unlikely to launch until winter, is key to establishing the person’s Nevertheless, most indicators of
But as non-essential shops began UK ministers indicated. recent close contacts. Similar the virus’s prevalence are showing
reopening in England, the past Scotland and Northern Ireland contact-tracing operations in a decline. Figures last week from
week has seen two major blows are pursuing their own apps. In Wales, Scotland and Northern an ongoing Office for National
to contact-tracing efforts there. the current absence of such apps, Ireland aren’t yet publishing Statistics study suggest that an
First, the UK government the UK’s tens of thousands of comparable statistics. estimated average of 33,000
ditched an overdue National human contact tracers have been England’s scheme hasn’t yet people, excluding those in care
Health Service app designed to attempting to break the virus’s released data on its speed of homes and hospitals, in England
automatically detect possible chain of transmission. However, operation, from the point at which had covid-19 in the first two weeks
instances of virus transmission new figures show that England’s someone orders a test to when of June, down from 149,000 in
between people, after a trial on Test and Trace scheme, the biggest their close contacts are told to the first two weeks of May.
the Isle of Wight found its use of of the UK’s four nations, is still self-isolate. A quick turnaround is On Tuesday, Johnson announced
Bluetooth failed to detect many failing to contact around a quarter vital to contain the virus’s spread. that the 2-metre social distancing
iPhones running the app. The app of people testing positive. One contact tracer for the rule would be reduced to 1 metre in
was originally due to be rolled out During the scheme’s second scheme told New Scientist that England from 4 July, in situations
across the UK in May. week, from 4 to 10 June, only 73 per they were typically phoning where other safety measures are
The UK government will now cent of the 5949 people who tested people to tell them they had tested in place. Without such measures,
pivot instead to build a new app evidence considered by SAGE
relying on software that will be Daily coronavirus news round-up suggests that the shorter distance
baked into Google and Apple’s Online every weekday at 6pm BST carries between two and 10 times
mobile operating systems, it was newscientist.com/coronavirus-latest the risk of transmission. ❚

News Coronavirus
Treatments
Beating severe covid-19

We are beginning to understand how the virus kills - and how to stop it
Clare Wilson
DEXAMETHASONE has become unwanted blood clotting – and

the first drug shown to lower the there is hope that existing blood-
death rate from covid-19. The thinning medicines could help.
discovery of the benefits of this Clotting in the body is normally
widely available steroid, which tightly controlled to ensure that
damps down an overactive blood flows freely through our
immune system, was seen as a blood vessels, yet the slightest
much-needed piece of good news. injury triggers a cascade of
But we will need lots of other chemical reactions that turns this
treatments to help us turn the fluid into a plug. Cytokine storms
NIAID/NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

tide of severe covid-19. were already known to predispose
Many of the coronavirus drug people to clots somewhat, but
trials so far have looked at antiviral with covid-19, this was taken to
medicines that may stop the virus a new level. Doctors saw clots in
from replicating. While some of people’s lungs on scans and could
these appear to shorten the length even see clots forming as they
of time that an infected person is tried to put tubes into people’s
ill, none has yet been shown to veins. “People were saying
reduce mortality. To save the lives something odd is going on,”
of those who are seriously ill, we says Danny Jonigk at Hannover
need treatments that tackle the Medical School in Germany.
effects of severe covid-19, which As well as these visible clots,
occur after the virus has already autopsies have found small blood
replicated within the body. Coronavirus particles where air should be,” says vessels in the lungs suffused with
Evidence suggests that the virus (yellow) on the surface Meadows. “This is like having smaller clots. These were 10 times
kills through a two-pronged attack of a dying cell a raging fire within the lungs.” as common in seven people who
that perturbs both our immune The phenomenon has been seen died from covid-19 as in seven who
defences and our blood-clotting the ACE2 receptor. In some people, before, including in the SARS died from bird flu, according to a
system. Covid-19 was initially the virus spreads down into the coronavirus outbreak of 2003 study published last month (NEJM,
seen as a respiratory illness, but lungs, where cells also bear the and in a type of bird flu. doi.org/ggwtrb). “This is a disease
some of those who die from it ACE2 receptor. Here it causes Drugs with the potential to that targets blood vessels,” says
experience not only lung failure inflammation and leakage of fluid block the cytokine storm are being Jonigk, who worked on the study.
but also heart attacks, strokes, into the lung’s air sacs, interfering investigated, but dexamethasone The key insight is realising
kidney damage and other with breathing. This can lead a is the first demonstrated success. that the virus can enter the cells
conditions caused by blood clots. person’s oxygen levels to fall and Steroids have been used for years of blood vessel walls, which also
The good news is that several mean they require treatment to calm the immune system in
existing and novel treatments to with supplementary oxygen or a other kinds of lung inflammation, Dexamethasone and
fight both of those impacts are ventilator. But even with intensive but it wasn’t certain that they heparin are being tested
being investigated and some are support, death rates for covid-19 would help in covid-19. for treating covid-19
already in use. “We think we know patients receiving ventilation have The first randomised trial of
the mechanisms for how it [kills],” been relatively high. dexamethasone has found that it
says Chris Meadows, an intensive From early in the outbreak, lowers the death rate in ventilated
care doctor at Guy’s and St doctors suspected that part of the covid-19 patients from 40 to 28 per
Thomas’ hospitals trust in London. problem was in how the immune cent. “The survival benefit is clear
“Treatment is now directed system reacts to the virus. and large, so dexamethasone
against those mechanisms, largely Normally, our immune cells fight should now become standard of
towards reducing inflammation off viruses or bacteria, but in some care,” said one of the researchers,
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
and clots. I think we are pretty cases they overreact, pumping out Peter Horby at the University of
close to working it all out.” too many cytokines – chemicals Oxford, in a statement.
The coronavirus enters our that recruit yet more immune The finding is good news, but
body through cells lining the cells in a vicious circle known as a isn’t enough on its own. Other
nose or mouth by latching on to cytokine storm. “There is fluid and groups are looking for ways to
a molecule on their surface called inflammatory cells flooding into tackle the way covid-19 leads to

Briefing
Should I get an antibody test?

Antibody testing can reveal if you have had covid-19.
Michael Le Page asks if it is worth paying for a test
bear the ACE2 receptor, argued TESTS for coronavirus Home swab tests can reveal
Peter Carmeliet at KU Leuven antibodies vary in accuracy and if you are currently infected
in Belgium in a review article may not be useful for everyone. with the coronavirus
last month (Nature Reviews Here’s what you need to know.
Immunology, doi.org/dz55). in the UK and the rest of Europe.
Part of the problem is that ACE2 What can a coronavirus But that doesn’t mean there has
receptors on blood vessel cells test tell me? been independent validation
normally regulate hormones There are two main kinds of these tests. “There’s no
that affect clotting, and this is of tests. One looks for the virus scrutiny,” says Jon Deeks at
JULIAN CLAXTON/ALAMY
prevented by the virus binding to in nose or throat swabs, which the University of Birmingham,
them. The virus also kills blood can reveal if you are currently UK. What’s more, he says many
vessel cells. “That’s a very strong infected. In many countries, clinics offering antibody tests
stimulus to the formation of tests for active infections are don’t reveal which specific
blood clots,” says Carmeliet. free, so there is no need to pay. test they use. Many countries,
Most people in intensive care The other type looks in your including the US and Australia,
are already given low doses of the blood for the antibodies your others. Plus, your test results have stricter regulations.
blood-thinning drug heparin, as immune system makes to attack might not be correct.
being immobile and having a lot the coronavirus. This can reveal Do we know how accurate
of medical procedures raises the if you were infected but have How do I get an antibody test? any of the tests are?
risk of clots forming. Now, many since recovered. It can take In the UK, your only option is Public Health England has
hospitals are increasing the several weeks to produce to have a blood sample taken evaluated five tests developed
amount of heparin given to antibodies, so there is little by a qualified healthcare worker by Roche, Abbott, Euroimmun,
their covid-19 patients, as well point in doing antibody tests and then sent off for testing. DiaSorin and Ortho Clinical.
as monitoring the “stickiness” during or soon after an illness Some private doctors and clinics These tests have a sensitivity
of their blood so the dose can you suspect could be covid-19. will send someone to your of around 70 per cent or higher
be finely adjusted. home to take the sample. after about 14 days of infection,
This is now standard practice Can an antibody test tell me if meaning 30 per cent or fewer
at University Hospitals Leuven in I’m immune to the coronavirus? Aren’t there home testing kits? results are false negatives and
Belgium, says intensive care doctor No. “A positive result may not The antibody tests designed to wrongly identified as not having
Geert Meyfroidt. He believes this mean a person is immune,” be done at home haven’t proved
is behind the relatively low death says the UK’s Medicines and reliable so far. In the UK, it is “A positive antibody
rate for the hospital’s covid-19 Healthcare products Regulatory illegal to sell them but some test may not mean a
patients of less than 25 per cent. Agency (MHRA). People who companies still do. “We strongly person is immune to
Other strategies are being have recovered should be discourage organisations and the coronavirus“
investigated worldwide against immune for a while, but we individuals from purchasing
both blood clotting and cytokine don’t know how long immunity unvalidated antibody tests,” the virus. The tests have a
storms, in the hope that the death against this coronavirus lasts says a UK Department of Health specificity of about 98 per cent
rate can be lowered further still. yet. With other coronaviruses, and Social Care spokesperson. or more – so less than 2 per cent
Beyond these, alternative studies show people can be of results are false positives.
approaches include using reinfected as soon as six months Can I take a blood sample myself?
antibodies from recovered after the initial infection. Some companies were sending If I get a positive test result, how
covid-19 patients and antiviral out self-testing kits that use sure can I be that it is correct?
drugs like remdesivir, which has What use are antibody tests? a drop of blood from a finger This depends on your likelihood
been found to shorten the time For policy-makers, it is useful to prick. However, on 29 May, the of having been infected, says
people spend in hospital or know what percentage of people MHRA ordered companies to Babak Javid at Tsinghua
require extra oxygen. have been infected. But until we stop until it has been shown University in China. If you live
One problem in some European find out more about immunity that antibody tests work with in London and recently had a
countries, such as Belgium, is that to coronavirus, antibody tests blood samples taken this way. severe respiratory infection,
they now have so few new cases of are less useful for individuals. a positive result is likely to be
coronavirus, it is hard to carry out You shouldn’t alter your Which antibody test is best? correct. But if you have been
trials for potential treatments, says behaviour based on a positive So far, 219 antibody tests have shielding in Cornwall with no
Meyfroidt. “But when it comes antibody test. You risk getting a CE certification mark, which symptoms, it could well be
back, we need to be ready.” ❚ infected again, or infecting means they can legally be offered wrong, says Javid. ❚

News Coronavirus
South America
Coronavirus in the Amazon

The global pandemic could soon threaten uncontacted tribes
Luke Taylor in Bogotá, Colombia
MEMBERS of indigenous some travel to regional hubs as

communities in the Peruvian often as once a week, potentially
Amazon have contracted covid-19, carrying infections home.
fuelling concerns that the disease Though the groups’ relative
could devastate indigenous groups isolation may help guard against
throughout South America – the virus, if the coronavirus does
including uncontacted tribes arrive, it could be devastating.
in the region. Many fear whole “It’s the elders who die first,”
communities could be killed if says Aristizábal. “It’s particularly
they contract the coronavirus. tragic for these communities as
The first confirmed case of the elders are the coordinators of
the virus in Sepahua, a remote society and the owners of secrets.”
riverside town in the Peruvian Unlike with Western science, he
Amazon, was reported by the local says, “if an elder dies, their ability
public health authority on 6 June. to make a particular medicine
Eight days later, the number of dies with them”.
TARSO SARRAF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

cases had increased to 27. Sepahua A lack of national park guards
serves as a gateway to five national due to coronavirus measures may
parks, some of which were created also be allowing encroachment
to protect the right of uncontacted into these tribes’ territories by
groups to remain isolated. drug traffickers and loggers taking
“We are expecting advantage of the pandemic to ramp
everywhere in the Amazon to up illegal activities. Such actions
get hit eventually,” says Daniel have historically introduced
Aristizábal, who leads the Isolated Health workers visit to the Articulation of Indigenous malaria and sexually transmitted
Peoples Program at the Amazon communities in Brazil’s Peoples of Brazil. infections into indigenous groups,
Conservation Team in Suriname. Marajoara region In Peru, NGOs say that cases says Aristizábal. “They could be
From Brazil to Colombia, many among indigenous groups are so vectors of coronavirus,” he says.
indigenous groups have distanced reduces the chances that we high and the spread so diffuse that Satellite images confirm that
their communities from others will find individuals naturally they are unable to keep track. The miners are as close as 5 kilometres
for decades to preserve their way resistant to the disease,” says Peruvian government has enforced to the territories of isolated tribes,
of life. As word of the coronavirus Coelho. It is possible that a strict social isolation since 15 March says Aristizábal.
spread, some that no longer lived group may be naturally resistant, and is delivering food parcels to “The risk [of contagion] has
in the region’s rainforests sought but it isn’t probable, he says. indigenous communities, but never been higher,” says Antenor
refuge there again. Very remote communities some already have poor health Vaz, the former head of Brazil’s
Colombia’s Nukak – a semi- may be particularly vulnerable, as due to malnutrition, pollution indigenous affairs agency. Vaz says
nomadic tribe forcibly displaced people may not have had exposure and inadequate healthcare. Some the suspected 185 uncontacted
from the Amazon in the 1980s and to other coronaviruses over tribes in the Amazon, of which 66
90s – returned to the Amazon in
March, seeking distance from
the contagion. Other indigenous
generations, says Nina Moeller at
Coventry University in the UK. But
it isn’t clear whether that would
131
indigenous groups in Colombia
are confirmed in existence in eight
countries, are “in total danger”.
Medical assistance could
groups have blocked roads and help improve immunity to the and Brazil have had covid-19 potentially save uncontacted
bolstered security perimeters, current coronavirus, she says. tribes, but delivering it would be
prohibiting visits from outsiders. In Colombia, the virus has social customs, such as crowding a complex, delicate task. In Peru,
Some indigenous communities infiltrated 33 indigenous groups, around the sick to chant for their for instance, laws ban the state and
may face a higher risk of death with 834 confirmed cases and recovery, could also make NGOs from interacting directly
from covid-19 than the general 28 deaths as of 11 June, according outbreaks deadly. with uncontacted tribes. Protocols
population, says Clayton Coelho to the National Indigenous The growing reliance on require healthcare services to
at the Federal University of São Organization of Colombia. nearby towns for some indigenous be installed in nearby areas, not
Paulo in Brazil. “Most indigenous In Brazil, 98 indigenous people – to sell items they produce delivered directly to uncontacted
groups today are made up of small groups have seen infections, or buy products and services tribes. To do so would force
populations, implying low genetic with 5361 confirmed cases and they cannot make themselves, contact and disregard a group’s
variability. Low genetic variability 281 deaths as of 14 June, according including mobile phones – means self-determination. ❚

Interview Michael Baker
Why we went for full elimination

The doctor who devised New Zealand’s early and extensive coronavirus
response tells Alice Klein what inspired his successful strategy
NEW ZEALAND has been widely Baker was inspired by the The country has recorded only
praised for its aggressive response World Health Organization’s 1515 covid-19 cases and 22 deaths
to covid-19. As New Scientist report from its joint mission to date, and hasn’t had any new,
went to press, the country had to China in February, which locally acquired cases since 22 May.
just 10 active cases. But Michael documented how the country The current active cases are all
Baker, the doctor who formulated largely contained covid-19 when citizens in supervised quarantine
New Zealand’s elimination it was already in full flight. This after returning from overseas.
strategy, says that even some of convinced Baker that New Zealand On 8 June, New Zealand lifted
his colleagues initially thought it could also stop the virus from all its restrictions except for
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO
was too radical a plan and resisted spreading and even wipe it out its border control measures.
its implementation. “Some likened entirely if it implemented a strict “There was this amazing
it to using a sledgehammer to kill a lockdown as soon as possible. sense of relief,” says Baker.
flea,” he says. Other experts, however, He is proud of New Zealand’s
The first case of covid-19 in argued that New Zealand success, but says it is important
New Zealand was recorded on should take a lighter approach Profile not to become complacent or
28 February. Like most countries, like Sweden, which never fully Michael Baker is a professor of smug. Baker warns that other
it initially planned to gradually locked down. Many believed the public health at the University of countries that have seemingly got
tighten its control measures as spread of covid-19 was inevitable Otago, New Zealand, and an adviser on top of the virus, such as China
the virus gained momentum. But and that an elimination strategy to the government of New Zealand. and South Korea, have experienced
Baker, a public health expert at the would “never work”, says Baker. subsequent outbreaks.
University of Otago who is on the Others thought that locking down exchange programme, which Last week, New Zealand
government’s covid-19 advisory the country would lead to mass has meant that rates of HIV was shaken by the news that
panel, believed that this was the unemployment, poverty and among injecting drug users two women had tested positive
wrong approach. “I thought we suicide, which would outweigh the in New Zealand are some for covid-19 after returning from
should do it in the reverse order benefits of containing the virus. of the lowest globally. the UK and being allowed to leave
and throw everything at the The government ultimately On 25 March, when New Zealand quarantine early to visit a dying
pandemic at the start,” he says. decided to go with Baker’s advice, had only 205 covid-19 cases and relative. Extensive contact tracing
possibly because of his public no deaths, the government is now under way.
Wellington, New Zealand, health track record. In the 1980s, implemented one of the strictest To guard against a second
in May as restrictions for example, he helped establish lockdowns in the world, only wave in New Zealand, Baker thinks
began to be eased the world’s first national needle permitting people to leave their masks should be worn on public
homes for essential reasons like
buying food and going to the “I thought we should
doctor. This followed the closure do it in the reverse order
of New Zealand’s borders to and throw everything at
non-nationals on 19 March. the pandemic at the start”
Baker felt “very moved” by the
government’s decision, but also transport, aircraft and at border
anxious, because he didn’t know control and quarantine facilities.
if it would work. “As a scientist, you For him, one positive thing
feel very worried if you’re giving to come out of the pandemic is
advice when the evidence base that it has shown how proactive
isn’t totally there yet, particularly government measures can protect
when it’s something that could the public from avoidable hazards.
be harmful to people,” he says. Baker hopes this will inspire more
MARTY MELVILLE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
However, putting the entire ambitious action on climate

country into home quarantine change and biodiversity loss.
early on extinguished community “People are saying, ‘I can’t wait
transmission and gave authorities to get back to business as usual’,
time to strengthen testing and but there are a whole lot of things
contact tracing capacities, that we must do better,” he says.
which were initially “really “I hope that is the lesson we learn
quite woeful”, says Baker. from this terrible event.” ❚

News
Space
Electric dust could be erasing

signs of life from Martian surface
Leah Crane
SPARKS may be flying on Mars. surface. To do this, they used the researchers were able to problem for the electronics
The grains of dust there can rub bursts of carbon dioxide in a detect them with an antenna embedded in the suits, she says.
together and become electrically low-pressure chamber to create (arxiv.org/abs/2006.01978). Electric charges could also
charged, which could cause a fountain of artificial Mars dust This build-up of electric cause chemical reactions in
chemical reactions that would and measured the electrical effects charge could be an issue for Martian dust. Wang and her
make it difficult to spot signs of the particles rubbing together. human exploration of Mars. colleagues have found that small
of life on the surface. The charges had about the “We are eventually going to electric discharges like the ones
When grains of dust rub same strength that you can send humans to Mars, and all this demonstrated in Méndez Harper’s
together, they can build up typically get from rubbing static electricity will be pretty hard experiments could be key to the
an electric charge in the same two materials together to create to deal with for a human mission,” reactions that release chlorine
way that shuffling your feet on static electricity. The sparks says Alian Wang at Washington from other compounds on the
the carpet can build up static produced weren’t visible, but University in Missouri. Moon Martian surface.
electricity. Those grains can then dust collected in the creases of They have also found that those
release the charge in sparks. The surface of Mars the Apollo astronauts’ suits: if same reactions generate highly
Experiments have hinted that might be crackling Mars dust collects that way too, reactive particles that could
the red dust coating the surface with static electricity the sparks it releases could be a drastically affect the surface
of Mars could be electrified like chemistry of the Red Planet,
this, but for the most part those including destroying the
experiments have included chemicals that are considered
other factors that could have signs of possible life (Journal
influenced the accumulation of Geophysical Research: Planets,
of electric charge. For instance, doi.org/dzs8).
if dust particles touch the walls “If each storm and each dust
of the experiment’s containers, devil induces lots of chemical
they could build up charge. reactions, then searching for
Joshua Méndez Harper at the signs of life would be very hard,”
University of Oregon and his says Wang. “We could go to Mars
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
colleagues devised an experiment to look for those signs and not

that is as close to Mars-like find any on the surface or the
conditions as possible, with the subsurface because it got
dust particles touching only each essentially cleaned up by
other and not any human-made these electrical discharges.” ❚
Palaeontology
Rising sea levels may In 2019, researchers led by were replaced by more swamp-like seabed, such as rising underwater
Tore Klausen, then at the University plants, says Klausen, before the mountains, were responsible
have led to global of Bergen in Norway, reported area became marine. (Terra Nova, doi.org/dzpw).
dinosaur domination that in the late Triassic there was The floods were caused by rising The huge floods must have
a vast river delta in what is now the seas. Today, the seas are rising had a big impact on land animals,
VAST floods caused by sea level Barents Sea between Norway and because the water is warming and says Klausen, which could explain
rise may have helped dinosaurs Russia. The floodplain was 10 times expanding, and because ice caps how dinosaurs came to dominate.
take over the planet. the size of the Amazon delta. are melting, but in the Triassic, the Klausen suggests that other
The first dinosaurs evolved Klausen and his colleagues have climate was consistently warm reptiles were specialised in
early in the Triassic period, about now found that most of this area and there were no ice caps to melt. floodplain environments and
245 million years ago, but it took flooded and became a shallow Instead, Klausen says “global became marginalised when this
about 20 million years for them sea about 227 million years ago. tectonic events” that changed the habitat was drowned. In contrast,
to dominate land ecosystems. Sediments characteristic of land dinosaurs may have been better
Palaeontologists are unsure were replaced by traces of wetlands “The huge floods must have able to cope with hills and deserts.
why the dinosaurs came to be so and then seabed. Fossil pollen affected land animals, “They were occupying niches
numerous and diverse, when other revealed that the plants also perhaps explaining the gradually,” says Klausen. ❚
reptile groups like crocodiles didn’t. changed: those adapted to dry land rise of dinosaurs” Michael Marshall

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News Insight
Racial bias
Science’s institutional racism

Academia must do much more to increase the odds of success in science for
ethnic minority groups, report Jason Arunn Murugesu and Adam Vaughan
“IN SCIENCE, I am surrounded by
a lot of privileged white people,”
says Aya Osman, a neuroscientist
at Mount Sinai Hospital in New
York. Born in Sudan, she moved
from the UK to the US two years
ago for her postdoctoral degree.
“On my first day of orientation,
I was the only black doctor,” she
says. “Everyone else black in that
room worked in cleaning or as
administrative staff. It was the
craziest thing I’ve seen.”
She isn’t alone in identifying the
vast discrepancies in access and
position that fall along ethnic lines
in the sciences. The reverberations
of George Floyd’s death last month
during a police arrest in the US
have sounded through academia,
with thousands of scientists
SOLSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
striking over racism in their fields.
They have good reason: the odds
of succeeding in science are still
overwhelmingly stacked against
black people and those from other
ethnic minority groups.
In the UK, around 7 per cent Healthcare biochemists Osman thinks economics and so put up a shield whenever
of undergraduate students are at work at a research mental health are two big reasons people talk about it,” he says.
black, matching the percentage of facility in London why there aren’t more black Funding figures highlight
black people aged 18 to 24. But the people in science. “There’s a further structural barriers
number plummets when you look mental health impact to being in science. In the UK, senior
at PhD students at top universities, black,” she says. “Knowing your researchers from an ethnic
according to figures the UK’s history comes from slavery and minority are half as likely to have
Higher Education Statistics colonialism, and then being success with a research funding
Agency provided to New Scientist. in white spaces and having to application as their white peers,
For the past five years, the
proportion of black PhD students
at Russell Group universities – seen
as the UK’s most prestigious – has
7%
Undergraduate students in
pretend that it doesn’t matter.
It’s exhausting.”
Daniel Akinbosede at the
University of Sussex in the UK
according to figures from UK
Research and Innovation (UKRI)
for the financial year 2018-2019.
And if they succeed, they get
stagnated at around 2 per cent. the UK who are black says the cost of doing a PhD may £564,000 on average, versus
The figures are even lower at some be a luxury that some black people £670,000 for white researchers.
2%
institutions: the five-year average can’t afford. One of the main
for UK-born black students at the reasons he applied to do a PhD
University of Oxford is 1.3 per cent, was because an academic of
Funding disparities
for example. Black PhD students at the UK’s Indian descent encouraged him. These figures reveal the racial
The story is similar in the US, most prestigious universities He thinks white academics discrepancies in funding from
where African Americans make up often overlook black, Asian and the UK’s seven main research
6.5%
nearly 13 per cent of the population, minority ethnic (BAME) students, councils, but also obscure
but win only 6.5 per cent of and so black students are less disparities among people
doctorates earned, according likely to consider pursuing a of different ethnic groups.
to the latest statistics from the Doctorates earned in the US career in science. “Scientists think The figures bundle all BAME
National Science Foundation. by African Americans they’re too smart to be racist and researchers together. “The stats

More Insight online

Your guide to a rapidly changing world
newscientist.com/insight
look terrible. But they also funding bodies. Students who By comparison, an equivalent universities with roles at senior
aggregate, because they’d look have finished their PhD and are scheme to recognise universities management level – categorised
even worse otherwise,” says looking to apply for a fellowship removing barriers for BAME as managers, directors and senior
Michael Sulu at University College need to be put forward by their staff and students has seen just officials – less than 5 per cent
London, who is a member of The institution, as part of internal 14 universities receive an award for identify themselves as Asian,
Inclusion Group for Equity in competition. “In some their efforts. All 14 achieved only mixed or other. None is black. Out
Research in STEMM (TIGERS). administrations it’s robust, in the “bronze” award for the Race of 21,520 professors, 0.65 per cent
One defence deployed against many it’s a tap on the shoulder,” Equality Charter. None has hit identify as black, 6.3 per cent as
separating out the figures is that Hussain says of the process, “silver” and the standards to meet Asian and 1.2 per cent as mixed.
though he says he hasn’t for “gold” aren’t even laid out yet. “If you don’t see people like you
“Scientists think they’re too experienced that personally. “The scheme doesn’t have any in a system, you are less likely to
smart to be racist and so “There is gatekeeping.” incentive, it’s more of a marketing choose that path,” says Hussain.
put up a shield whenever One fundamental problem is a tool. Ethnicity problems are where
people talk about it” lack of incentives for universities gender problems were 20 years
to do better. Equality on funding ago,” says Hussain. Outright racism
there might be so few people from for female researchers in the UK The lack of ethnic minorities Then there is the problem of
a particular ethnic minority got a huge boost in 2011 when Sally among staff in the universities of outright racism in academia, says
applying to a certain funding Davies, then the UK government’s many countries, and the resulting Sulu. A freedom of information
body – a single British Bangladeshi chief medical adviser, linked loss of the mentoring and role request last year found that only
researcher, for example – that funding from the National modelling they could have 37 per cent of formal complaints
they would be identifiable. Institute for Health Research to provided, is a big deterrent for on racism at UK universities in
“They have been using this universities achieving a specific BAME students continuing five previous years were upheld.
argument for decades now. But standard for a gender equality a career in science. The problem There are many other barriers
if you don’t break things down scheme. Universities fell over is worst at the top. that add up. One is micro-
to a granular level, we will never themselves to meet the standard. Of the 540 people across UK aggressions, where people are
know if there is a problem,” says treated differently just because
Tanvir Hussain at the University of their ethnicity. Sulu gives the
of Nottingham in the UK, who How do we address the problem? personal example that visitors
is also a member of TIGERS. at University College London
A workaround would be to Paulette Williams at Leading 26 per cent of roles it filled in are often surprised to see him
publish most of the breakdown Routes, an initiative to help those sectors in the UK in the in his department.
apart from where issues of more black students into UK past year went to people who Some students, such as
identification and disclosure arose universities, has said there is no self-identify as black, Asian or Akinbosede, are cynical about
because numbers were so low, quick fix to solve the problem of minority ethnic. But only 10.5 per universities’ efforts on racism.
says Sulu. In such cases, the figures racism in universities and science. cent of the scientific workforce “Universities want the perception
could be withheld and the reason In a 2019 report, she and her is BAME, figures from the UK of anti-racism, without actually
publicly acknowledged, he says. colleagues offered actions such Royal Society reveal. Tying doing any anti-racism,” he says.
Previously, the national figures as better data collection and more funding to institutions being more A spokesperson for
also masked how some research diverse interview panels, amid inclusive would be another route. representative body Universities
funders are more regressive than the more seismic change needed. Change must also come from UK says: “Universities have a vital
others. More than half a year after Another idea is name-blind researchers educating themselves role to promote a safe and inclusive
promising to make more detailed applications. While Michael Sulu on the barriers that some people environment in which students
data available, UKRI told New at University College London says face due to the colour of their and staff of all backgrounds and
Scientist that it plans to publish they are “borderline impossible” skin, says Tanvir Hussain at the ethnicities can flourish. The sector
a council-by-council breakdown in academia because of the need University of Nottingham, UK. is clear that there is no place for
on 24 June. to show publications, they may “One of the key problems we have racism on a university campus,
The group says it is also have a role in hiring for careers in academia is we’ve fostered the nor anywhere else.”
undertaking an in-depth analysis in science, engineering, maths, idea it’s a true meritocracy. But Akinbosede, like Osman, is
on ethnicity to underpin new medicine and technology. it’s not,” he says. “The only way still actively working to make
action on inequalities. Kate Glazebrook at Applied, we can challenge that narrative his university more welcoming
For BAME academics in the UK, a recruitment platform that tries is letting people be aware and to BAME students. He says: “It feels
the obstacles begin even before to remove hiring bias, found that read more widely about it.” like I am doing two PhDs: one in
they have to start dealing with biochemistry and one in race.” ❚

News
Palaeontology Exoplanets
Cells may have evolved to Hot giant planets

get larger as they are
move 3.4 billion years ago heated by their stars
Michael Marshall Jonathan O’Callaghan
SOME of the earliest microbes GIANT planets known as hot Jupiters

BIOMEDICAL IMAGING UNIT,SOUTHAMPTON GH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
may have been able to move appear to be growing in size as

around under their own they are heated by their stars over
power using whip-like “tails”, billions of years.
according to a study of fossils Hot Jupiters are a loosely defined
from 3.4 billion years ago. class of gas giant exoplanets that
But other palaeontologists orbit stars incredibly closely,
say the evidence is weak, reaching temperatures of more than
although it is possible that 4000°C. They can be up to twice as
the ability to move did evolve large as their cooler counterparts,
early in life’s history. such as Jupiter in our solar system.
The oldest confirmed fossils In 2016, research suggested
are 3.5 billion years old. They that hot Jupiters orbiting red
are all single-celled bacteria-like giants – stars in an expanded latter
organisms. Researchers led by stage of their life – may be heated
Frédéric Delarue at Sorbonne by these stars and grow, partially
University in Paris, France, have of an organism able to move by Helicobacter pylori, accounting for the size difference.
now described a new collection itself. Today, microorganisms a modern bacterium Now, Daniel Thorngren at the
of microfossils from 3.4-billion- use several methods of with tail-like flagella University of Montreal in Canada
year-old rocks in the Strelley locomotion. Many have a and his colleagues have discovered
Pool Formation of Western flagellum, a whip-like tail made what kind of appendage the that this process happens to more
Australia. The leaf-shaped cells of protein that rotates at high cells had. “We probably have of these planets than we thought.
are 30 to 84 micrometres long, speed and powers the cell only a part of a locomotor Studying 312 hot Jupiters at
and about half as wide. through water. Others move organelle,” says Delarue. different stages of their lives, they
Some “microfossils” turn out using tube-shaped extensions “We don’t know whether found evidence that the planets were
to be inorganic rock formations, of their outer membrane it was entirely preserved.” growing in size by up to 20 per cent
so the team performed chemical called prosthecae. Tanja Bosak at the on average during their lifetimes,
tests to confirm they are the Delarue and his colleagues Massachusetts Institute
remains of living organisms.
“We observe nitrogen and
phosphorus that are preserved
argue that the microfossils’
appendages must also have
been used to get around
of Technology says the
appendages are much thicker
than any known bacterial
20%
Lifetime growth in size of an
in the fossils,” says team (bioRxiv, doi.org/dzpd). “For flagella. “There’s nothing we average hot Jupiter exoplanet
member Romain Tartèse at me, it’s probably the finding know of that really looks like
the University of Manchester of my life,” he says. this today,” she says. following a brief period of shrinking
in the UK – both of these are The researchers say that But the team argues that and cooling after their formation.
characteristic elements of life. they cannot be sure exactly the fossil cells themselves Heat from the star causes
Abderrazak El Albani at the are larger, meaning that the gas inside the planet to expand,
University of Poitiers in France Some early fossil appendages are roughly the increasing its radius. “The gas
says he is convinced the fossils cells appear to have same relative size as a modern gets less dense and that pushes
are genuine. “It’s very good and appendages bacterial flagellum. out the radius of the planet,”
very well documented,” he says. Mobility enables says Thorngren, who presented
But exactly what the fossil microorganisms to move the research virtually at the
cells demonstrate is more towards food, so it may well 236th meeting of the American
controversial. A handful have a have evolved early, says Bosak. Astronomical Society this month.
short rod, which the team calls “You just need proteins with How the planet is heated from
a “lash-like appendage”, sticking certain properties,” she says. the inside isn’t entirely clear, but
out at one end. Only four of But flagella are fragile and one possibility is that thermal tides
about 500 of the specimens would probably not preserve caused by the gravitational pull of
have this appendage. “Most of as fossils. A better way to work a star make the planet bulge, which
FRÉDÉRIC DELARUE
them lost it during geological out when they originated might might create friction that dissipates
history,” says Delarue. be to estimate when the key heat inside the planet. Modelling
He says the appendages genes responsible for mobility will be needed to understand this
could be the earliest evidence first evolved, says Bosak. ❚ further, says Thorngren. ❚

News In brief
Humans
Really brief
Did Stone Age rulers in
Ireland practice incest?
A MAN buried at the heart of
the 5000-year-old Newgrange
passage tomb in Ireland was
born from an incestuous union,
EIJIRO MIYAKO
DNA sequencing has revealed.
Daniel Bradley and Lara
Cassidy at Trinity College Dublin
sequenced the genome of remains
found in a burial chamber in the Soap bubbles can
200,000-tonne tomb. “People pollinate flowers
have said it is the Irish equivalent
of the pyramids,” says Bradley. “It Mix pollen grains with soap
required a lot of muscle to build.” and load the blend into a
The man’s parents were either bubble gun, and you have
brother and sister or parent and a way to fertilise flowers
offspring (Nature, doi.org/dzr5). without bees, whose
EYE OF SCIENCE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The location of his remains at the populations are in decline.
heart of the tomb suggests that In a pear orchard, the
the parents’ relationship was method was as successful
socially sanctioned, and the ruling as pollination by hand, with
elite in Stone Age Ireland took 95 per cent of the flowers
partners from within their family, bearing fruit in both cases
like some ancient Egyptian (iScience, doi.org/gg2jvx).
dynasties. Michael Le Page
Milky Way shreds
Palaeontology Infectious diseases galactic neighbour
“It has a high fatality rate,” says One of our neighbouring
First dinosaurs may Monitoring of Mader. “Those that do survive galaxies is dying, and it
have laid soft eggs often have long-term issues.” is the Milky Way’s fault.
ticks in the US Mader and her colleagues Our galaxy is nearly done
THE first dinosaurs laid soft eggs surveyed 140 people working in ripping the Sagittarius
and it was only later that some is uneven and the US on the control of vector-borne dwarf galaxy to shreds,
evolved eggs with hard shells. This diseases, including academics and according to simulations
finding overturns a long-standing underfunded people at local, county and state of the two galaxies’ orbits
assumption that dinosaurs always public health bodies and vector- based on data from the
laid hard-shelled eggs like birds do. TICK-BORNE diseases are on the control agencies. All participants Gaia satellite (arxiv.org/
Mark Norell at the American rise in the US – but programmes were asked about their tick abs/2006.02929).
Museum of Natural History in to monitor the spread of ticks surveillance and control programmes
New York and his team examined and the pathogens they carry and any difficulties encountered. Measles originated
preserved embryos thought to be are underfunded and patchy, Three-quarters of respondents
in ancient big cities
from Protoceratops, which lived according to a survey. The findings said they had a programme to
between 83 and 72 million years are “disconcerting”, says Emily detect the presence of ticks, but The measles virus crossed
ago and Mussaurus, which lived Mader at Cornell University in only 26 per cent said they had an over to people from cattle
around 200 million years ago. New York, who led the work. initiative to test ticks for potentially in around 500 BC, which
All the embryos were surrounded In 2018, ticks were responsible harmful pathogens. Just 12 per cent supports the idea that
by a thin outer layer of material. for almost 48,000 reported cases reported having a tick control it could only get established
Comparisons to databases of human disease in the US, programme (Journal of Medical as a human disease once
of eggs from extinct and living according to the US Centers for Entomology, doi.org/dzsk). we had started building
animals showed that the material Disease Control and Prevention. When asked, those who completed large cities. The finding is
matched soft-shelled eggs, and Lyme disease is the most common, the survey “universally said they based on genetic analysis
that the first members of many “but there are many others that need more funding”, says Mader. of a lung specimen from
groups, including lizards and are less well known”, says Mader. Consistently funded surveillance someone who died
dinosaurs, laid soft-shelled Some ticks can carry the is vital for detecting new outbreaks of measles in 1912
eggs (Nature, doi.org/dzsj). Powassan virus, for example, of ticks and potential diseases, (Science, doi.org/dzrn).
Michael Marshall which can cause encephalitis. she says. Jessica Hamzelou

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Letters Culture Culture Aperture
Can we create a computer Sci-fi’s suggestions How Disney became The caterpillar that
simulation that includes for how to avoid a a massive research wears its old heads as
conscious entities? p22 techno-apocalypse p24 organisation p25 an elaborate hat p26
Columnist
Fighting for justice

The Black Lives Matter movement is primarily about social justice, but
it will help tackle environmental injustices too, says Graham Lawton
I
Graham Lawton is a staff WANTED to join the recent Much has been made of the link finds that people who are Hispanic,
writer at New Scientist and Black Lives Matter protests between today’s racial injustices African American or from other
author of This Book Could Save in London, but I also didn’t and historical slavery. According minority ethnic groups are more
Your Life. You can follow him want to be in close proximity to to Elizabeth Yeampierre, co-chair concerned than people who are
@grahamlawton thousands of other people for of the Climate Justice Alliance in white about environmental issues.
hours on end. My fear of catching Washington DC, environmental BLM rests on the simple idea
the coronavirus won out and so I injustices also began with slavery. that if the people who are affected
demoted myself to social justice The rapacious exploitation of by racial injustice come together
warrior (armchair division) and humans enabled the rapacious and say “no more”, the pressure
watched on TV. exploitation of the environment, to change will be irresistible.
The protests are principally a and just as the legacy of slavery Environmental justice works in
fight for social justice. But I also endures in racism, so it endures in a similar way. If the people most
view them through another lens. affected by environmental
Black Lives Matter may not look “Black Lives Matter degradation fight back, it becomes
Graham’s week
like an environmental movement, may not look like harder for destructive industries
but I think deep down it is one, an environmental to make and conceal their messes
What I’m reading too. If – when – it achieves its in places where the wealthy and
movement, but I
London’s Street Trees: A objectives, the world will not only powerful elites don’t go.
field guide to the urban be more socially just, but more think deep down That is the direct line between
forest by Paul Wood. sustainable, as well. it is one, too” BLM and the battle for the
Feeding my obsession The causes of social and environment. They are one and
with the city’s wildlife environmental justice first crossed the economic model that regards the same. You could also bundle in
paths in the US in the 1970s when the environment as a resource to the health disparities that have led
What I’m watching activists from both camps realised be plundered, not preserved. to covid-19’s disproportionate
Season 2 of the deadpan that they were fighting many of Since the 1970s, environmental death toll on poor and minority
vampire comedy What the same battles. Pollution and injustices have only widened. The ethnic communities.
We Do in the Shadows other forms of environmental effects of climate change are now BLM activist Zellie Imani
degradation disproportionately kicking in, and guess what: they acknowledged that he and his
What I’m working on affected certain sections of society: disproportionately affect people fellow protesters were taking
Yet more covid-19 poorer people, working class who are unable to escape from health risks – both personal and
coverage people, people of colour, Native extreme weather events. Consider public – by assembling in large
Americans and immigrants. how Hurricane Katrina laid crowds, but said that this historic
Their neighbourhoods also lacked waste to the poorer districts of cause was more important. “Going
green space and access to nature. New Orleans in 2005, and how outside may kill us because of the
It isn’t hard to fathom why Hurricane Maria did the same pandemic, but going outside as a
this link exists. It is another in Puerto Rico in 2017. Black person in America has been
manifestation of the unequal This disparity hasn’t gone killing us for over 400 years,” he
distribution of wealth and power unnoticed in the communities told Sky News.
in society. Rich people can afford it affects. Concern about the The pandemic has been
to buy their way out of degraded environment is often dismissed widely flagged as a chance to
This column appears neighbourhoods, and have as a self-indulgent pursuit for build a more sustainable society.
monthly. Up next week: the political clout to resist the wealthier (i.e. white) people. But It is also an opportunity to build
Annalee Newitz incursion of polluting industries. it isn’t: polling in the US regularly a fairer one, too. ❚

Views Your letters
covid-19 can cause serious illness On the trail of the desire, in this lockdown hell,
Editor’s pick and even death, the regulatory to experience vigilance and
missing dark matter
bodies wouldn’t be unreasonable amazement.
We won’t survive long 6 June, p 30
in taking a cautious approach. I They cite as an example being
enough to simulate reality would like to suggest a possible From Stephen Graham, able to watch the daily life of a
6 June way to reduce this dilemma. Ottery St Mary, Devon, UK family of falcons unfold through a
From Mike McGrath, Perhaps plasma from vaccinated Your fascinating articles about dark webcam, and say that this reflects
Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK subjects could be given to people matter, in particular “Have we got a need to vicariously experience
In “Is reality a simulation?” by with mild to moderate covid-19. the universe right?” by Jim Peebles, natural processes over time.
Nick Bostrom, republished as an If these people show a reduction prompt me to suggest that we I am growing borlotti beans
extract from your Essential Guide: in the development of serious should consider more closely how in my little front garden, and
The Nature of Reality, he ponders illness, this may indicate that the much mass has been drawn into it occurred to me as I read the
the question posed in the headline. antibodies from the vaccinated black holes since their inception article that this is exactly what
To answer yes, it would person’s plasma are effective and what has happened to it. I am doing: watching through
have to be possible to create a in reducing disease severity. Some scientists suspect that my front window as they grow,
computer simulation that includes Not only would the ethical dark matter is at the centres of night and day, the fragile tendrils
self-conscious entities. It may be difficulties for the regulatory galaxies, where some or most of spiralling up their canes to the sky.
possible, if extraordinarily difficult, bodies be reduced, but the the black holes seem to be. Could The only difference is that
to replicate the physical matrix shortage of plasma from it be that the suggestion that dark Newitz doesn’t (I hope!) look
of the brain, but achieving the recovered patients would matter came into being about forward to drying, storing, then
emergent quality of consciousness also potentially be alleviated: 6 billion years ago defines the cooking and eating the falcons
from this seems very unlikely. a win-win situation. point at which black holes became in a stew later in the year.
Bostrom considers various significant enough in size or mass
propositions that might answer the to exert the effect on the universe From Ian Simmons,
There are other ways
simulation question. The first is that that we are trying to explain by Thorpe Bay, Essex, UK
“almost all civilisations at our level to keep shipping safe postulating “dark matter”. The oddly satisfying videos that
of development become extinct 13 June, p 19 Can I have my PhD now please? Newitz enjoys brought to mind
before becoming technologically From Jørn Hovmand Larsen, videos that are said to provoke
mature”, which would rule out a Greve, Denmark From Julian Higman, an autonomous sensory median
simulation if true. I would say this In your online story about Wantage, Oxfordshire, UK response (ASMR).
is likely to be correct, given our spoofing the Automatic Peebles is correct to say that The audio and tactile triggers
trashing of our essential biosphere. Identification System (AIS) of physics is incomplete. It probably in ASMR footage that apparently
This would mean, of course, ships, you state: “There haven’t always will be. So, have we got the give some people a pleasurable
that Bostrum’s final proposition, been any known accidents due to universe right? sensation leave me cold, but I
“You are almost certainly living in the spoofing, but ships rely on AIS Well, the short answer must do get something close to that
a computer simulation”, is almost to avoid collisions, so there is the be that we don’t know. But there from looking at things like
certainly not true. potential for major disaster.” are good reasons for suspecting robots making very precise
As a merchant ship captain, that we haven’t, and that the big movements and repetitive
❚ The editor writes I can say that AIS, which includes bang theory is wrong. As we get production line processes.
Essential Guide: The Nature of GPS data, has without doubt more and more telescopes of I thought it was just me, but
Reality, a compilation of the best increased safety at sea because varying kinds up into orbit, not it seems that Newitz and others
New Scientist writing on this ships are transmitting identity just around Earth but around experience something similar.
subject, is available now and destination. This resolves a lot the sun too, the picture will
of potential problems. However, become clearer.
To train a lie-detecting AI,
AIS isn’t a recognised system for
Is there a route to make just feed it some politics
collision avoidance – radar and
vaccine trials safer? Newitz’s falcons are Letters, 6 June
visual observation usually are.
6 June, p 10 Yes, GPS can be spoofed, and this my borlotti beans From Sam Edge,
From William Cole, can create issues if you rely solely 6 June, p 21 Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, UK on GPS. But with the proliferation From David Aldred, Dwight Hines suggests that
You report that there are already of satellite navigation systems Elloughton, East Yorkshire, UK court transcripts could be a
26,000 potential volunteers besides GPS, it will become more Annalee Newitz wrote source of training material
willing to take part in a “human difficult to spoof ship locations. interestingly about our general for a linguistically based
challenge” trial for a covid-19 lie-detection algorithm.
vaccine, in which they would I offer the pronouncements
be exposed to the virus post- Want to get in touch? of our top politicians and
vaccination to test its efficacy. Send letters to letters@newscientist.com; their aides with respect to the
However, as indicated, ethical see terms at newscientist.com/letters pandemic and to climate change
concerns are likely to prevent Letters sent to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, as a much richer seam of data
or delay such trials. Given that London WC2E 9ES will be delayed to mine for this purpose. ❚

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Views Culture
Too much knowledge

Many recent books imagine a techno-apocalypse brought on by the internet.
A few offer hints at how to avoid one as well, says Sally Adee
A banner about fake
news at an anti-lockdown
THE nuclear blast that takes out protest in California
Moab, Utah, in Neal Stephenson’s
2019 novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell madness” is also responsible
is “epistemic ground zero”. That is for other ills, including vaccine
because it doesn’t actually happen. and climate change denial.
It is an online-only 9-11, a viral “We don’t let citizens handle
conspiracy theory that becomes nuclear waste,” one mother tells
the fault line along which the US a congressional panel, explaining
fractures in two. that some things are just too
On one side, the people who dangerous for untrained people
believe that Moab is a no-go to use. “It’s time we realised that
zone, and that the event has been the internet is one of those
STANTON SHARPE/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
covered up by swamp-dwelling technologies.” The resulting

politicians. On the other, the internet of 2026 seems to get
people who can freely travel reset to the late 1980s.
to Moab to see the town is Stephenson portrays a more
untouched. individualistic world view: what
The know-nothing side of keeps his progressive America
the US devolves into Mad Max marching forward is personal
anarchy, becoming a no-go zone content moderation. Every person
in its own right, which Stephenson who can afford it has their own
brands Ameristan. The rest human curator of knowledge
continue unimpeded into the to scrub the drivel, ads and
technological future. misinformation out of their
The book is one of many information stream in real time.
recent ones that tackle one Human information curators.
of the questions of our time. takes the whole thing down. But as of the previous “fallen” world Now let’s see, what did we used to
As comedian Ronny Chieng put demolishing the internet also is suppressed by the church call those? Ah yes: librarians. But
it in his Netflix special: “Who takes down everything that relies in an attempt to curb another you don’t find many librarians
knew all of human knowledge on it to function – which of course techno-apocalypse. in apocalyptic sci-fi. Until now!
could make people dumber?” is everything – the result is the Rose Eveleth’s short story In Kit Rocha’s Deal with the
The internet was supposed collapse of society. Mothers Against Digital Devil, librarians become the
to unleash new dimensions of Robert Harris’s The Second Sleep Danger doesn’t send all saviours of a society in which
collective human potential by goes even further than societal internet access – and the world –
bringing knowledge to the masses. collapse. In his novel, “enfeebling, “Every person who can has been destroyed by a solar flare.
What no one took into account narcotic technology drove their afford it has their own These cybernetically enhanced
is that not all our knowledge is civilisation mad” and as a assassin librarians scour the
human curator of
smart. An overwhelming amount consequence, all progress wasteland of “Backslide America”
of what the world “knows” is a after the 14th century has been knowledge to scrub for the last remaining digital
mix of campfire stories, gossip erased, with humanity reset the drivel and ads” copy of the Library of Congress.
and conspiracy theories. And to a darker age. The novel isn’t quite as chin-
now we have built a machine that If this is the future we are of civilisation back to its stroking as others in the genre
sprays it all, fully homogenised barrelling towards, prevention beginnings, just the internet. but, like them, it has identified
straight into our brains. might be worse than the disease. Activist mothers, whose a pressing need: information
Stephenson isn’t alone in Several books in the backslide children were radicalised by may want to be free, but it also
predicting a resulting backslide genre flirt with curation as a way white supremacist manifestos wants to kill us.
for civilisation. In Tim Maughan’s to staunch the flow of de-civilising and consequently became Maybe it is time to have a
novel Infinite Detail, a hacker knowledge, but none embraces school shooters, convince the conversation about librarians,
collective gets tired of how the it wholeheartedly because US government that the internet and maybe even about other
internet has been turned into a of the implications of censorship. spreads extreme violence like gatekeepers, before we really
control tool for a powerful few and In The Second Sleep, all knowledge a contagion. This “internet do get an online-only 9-11. ❚

Don’t miss
Fairy tale research

A book and a TV series show just how much academic research
goes on at Disney, says Chris Stokel-Walker
Snoddy, who leads the 3000-strong One of the final episodes of Read
Imagineering team, told New The Imagineering Story looks at Breath: The new
TV Scientist. The team’s ethos, though, the future. It shows a life-sized science of a lost art
The Imagineering Story is that its work should go under animatronic robot being flung from sees journalist James
Available on Disney+ the radar, he says. “We’ll often hire a trebuchet before moving mid-air Nestor describe the
someone with a PhD in physics and in a way eerily reminiscent of experiments conducted
tell them: ‘You’re going to do some Spider-Man, a character from on him at Stanford
Book of the most amazing work you’ll do the Marvel superhero universe University, California, to
Magic Journey in your entire career, and if people that Disney bought in 2009. discover the impact of
Kevin P. Rafferty notice it, we’ve failed.’ ” The project, developed under bad breathing. What
Disney Editions When Rafferty, who rose over the name “Stuntronics”, was the he found will take
his career to become executive result of three years’ work by a your breath away.
THINK of Disney and you may creative director in the Imagineering team of 15, and will be used in the
conjure up images of sometimes department, joined Walt Disney, new Avengers Campus at the Disney
saccharine animated films and California Adventure Park, due to
enchantingly unreal theme parks. “An animatronic robot is reopen in July. The flying robot is a
What probably doesn’t spring breathtaking moment.
flung from a trebuchet
to mind is a huge research Other innovations the team is
organisation. Yet the firm’s science before moving mid-air working on include artificial
and technology has thrilled, in a way reminiscent intelligence-controlled
enthralled and spooked generations of Spider-Man” animatronics to interact with
of children and adults. park guests in character and Celebrate
Disney calls its researchers there was a sign in the department augmented reality glasses to #Harryhausen100 will
“imagineers” and its California- that simply said: “Lead, follow, or provide unique experiences for celebrate the work of Ray
based research team the get the hell out of the way.” riders on roller coasters. Harryhausen, one of the
Imagineering department, hence the The firm is a significant “We also have a whole pipeline most influential special
titles of new Disney+ documentary contributor to academic research of stuff that’s hard to describe,” effects artists in history.
series The Imagineering Story and papers as well. Disney Research, says Snoddy. “We live for the Events and initiatives are
book Magic Journey: My fantastical the company’s academic-facing moment when the audience look planned to honour his
Walt Disney Imagineering career by branch, has submitted 20 papers at something and don’t have words centenary, with the Ray
Kevin Rafferty. to major academic conferences to describe it because they’ve never and Diana Harryhausen
Throughout its history, the since the start of 2019. seen anything like it.” ❚ Foundation website
Imagineering department has keeping his flame alive.
registered more than 300 patents.
In 2019 alone, it was granted 74.
It invented the first daily
operating monorail system in
the US, installed at Disneyland
in California in 1959, the world’s
first audio-animatronic figures
in 1963 and the world’s first
computer-controlled thrill ride, in
THE RAY AND DIANA HARRHAUSEN FOUNDATION; NETFLIX
the form of Disney World’s Space Watch

Mountain in 1975. The team also JU-ON: Origins is a
put together the world’s first radio Japanese horror drama
frequency identification wristbands on Netflix from 3 July.
to act as payment and queueing The tale of a paranormal
systems in 2014. researcher follows where
“We do have big tech chops,” Jon 13 films in the JU-ON
franchise have led since
A Disney dwarf gets 1998 (spoiler: it isn’t
DISNEY+
some attention in The a happy place).

Imagineering Story

Views Aperture

Mad hatterpillar
Photographer Alan Henderson
THIS caterpillar sports a unique

headpiece: each ball is one of its
old moulted heads, precariously
stacked on top of each other.
As the caterpillar of the moth
Uraba lugens grows, it sheds its
exoskeleton – but rather than
getting rid of the previous head
section, it stays attached to its
body to create a bizarre “hat”.
This has earned it the
nickname the mad hatterpillar,
after the Mad Hatter in Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland by
Lewis Carroll. Found in Australia
and New Zealand, U. lugens is
also known as the gum-leaf
skeletoniser, thanks to the
caterpillars’ tendency to
demolish eucalyptus leaves
down to the veins.
U. lugens moults up to 13 times
while in its caterpillar phase, with
the tower of heads starting to be
built from the fourth moult. As the
caterpillar grows, each empty head
is bigger than the last.
The headpiece isn’t just for
show, however. “The function is
to protect them from predators –
they use it to bat predators
away,” says photographer Alan
Henderson of Minibeast Wildlife,
an invertebrate resource centre
based in Queensland, Australia.
The “hat” probably boosts the
caterpillars’ survival chances,
by prolonging how long it takes
predators to get a clear shot,
he says. ❚
Gege Li

Features Cover story

PATRICK GEORGE

Body
consciousness
When it comes to consciousness, your brain
isn’t the whole story, finds Laura Spinney
P
ARTS of Ann Arbor bring The Truman others to a surprising conclusion: that the
Show to mind, with their wood-frame body helps to generate our sense of self and
houses and white picket fences. Home is a key part of consciousness. This idea has
to the University of Michigan, the city oozes practical implications in assessing people
middle-class prosperity and security. So, who show little sign of consciousness. It may
while doing research there a decade ago, also force us to reconsider where we draw the
Sarah Garfinkel was shocked to discover line between life and death, and provide a
that young veterans of wars in Iraq and new insight into how consciousness evolved.
Afghanistan felt terrified even in Ann Arbor. It has long been known that our internal
“It broke my heart,” she says. And it changed organs have lives of their own. They generate
the course of her career. electrical activity, which is conveyed by
Garfinkel was in Michigan to study the neurons to the brain. As a result, signals from
brain circuitry involved in persistent fear. your heartbeat, your breathing, the slow,
But working with traumatised veterans, she regular pulses of your stomach and the state
realised two things. First, a safe environment of your muscles are all represented in the
didn’t help them feel less fearful. And second, brain’s electrical activity. The brain, in turn,
their fear was physical as well as mental: regulates these functions. In other words,
their hearts were constantly racing, their there is a neuronal loop in which nerve cells
pupils dilated, their palms sweaty. “It seemed carry information from the organs up to the
to me that what their bodies were doing was brain, and commands down to the organs.
meaningful, but I was just scanning their However, in the 20th century,
brains,” she says. So she set out to understand neuroscientists tended to ignore the body.
the body-mind connection. They associated mental life exclusively
Garfinkel, now at the University of Sussex, with the brain – an approach epitomised
UK, discovered that our bodies have more by the “brain in a vat” thought experiment,
influence over our minds than you might in which a disembodied brain continues to
imagine. “Our thoughts, feelings and have normal conscious experiences.
behaviours are shaped in part by the internal Things began to change at the turn of
signals that arise from our body,” she says. this century, when neuroscientist Antonio
But it goes beyond that. It is leading her and Damasio at the University of Southern >

California pioneered the field of embodied

consciousness. “I have been defending
“It starts with the first neurophysiological evidence of a link
between interoception and the brain’s notion
the idea that the body is a critical player in
anything that has to do with mind,” he says.
interoception, of self, claimed the researchers. “The HEP
reflects changes in bodily self-consciousness
For years, he was in a minority, but now a
handful of researchers, including Garfinkel,
a sort of sixth such as changes in self-identification with –
and displacement towards – the virtual body,”
have joined him in his quest for the bodily
origins of our sense of self.
sense that we says Olaf Blanke, who heads EPFL’s Laboratory
of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Their starting point is interoception, a
sort of sixth sense that we have about what
have about our The EPFL group has gone on to show that
our bodily self is anything but passive – it
is going on in our own body. A simple way
to measure interoception is to get someone
own body” intervenes in every decision we make. Blanke’s
team has built on work by US physiologist
to count their heartbeats over a fixed time Benjamin Libet, who in 1983 detected a signal
and compare their count with the actual that arose in the brain just before a person
one measured by an electrocardiogram became aware of their intention to act. Libet
(ECG). People’s ability to do this varies a lot. interpreted it as meaning that there is no
Those who can sense their heartbeat most such thing as free will. The EPFL group has
accurately tend to make better intuitive found that the same signal is linked with
decisions and are better at perceiving the a particular bodily act, breathing: we are
emotions of others. more likely to initiate a voluntary act when
What is going on? To tease it out, Signals from our exhaling. Blanke describes the finding as
the researchers needed a read-out of heartbeat influence a clear indication that “acts of free will are
interoception in the brain. They found one in out-of-body illusions
the brain’s response to the heartbeat, known
as the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP).
Many studies focus on this because the HEP is
relatively easy to measure: the heartbeat isn’t
completely regular, so it is possible to filter
the HEP out from all the brain’s other activity.
The HEP can be found by simultaneously
recording a person’s heartbeat, via an ECG,
and scanning their brain. It shows up as
activity in various “resting-state networks”
in the brain, which are active even when a
person isn’t consciously doing anything.
One clue as to what the HEP might be
doing came in 2016 when neuroscientist
Hyeongdong Park at the Swiss Federal
VINCENT MONCORGE/LOOK AT SCIENCES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)

and his colleagues measured it in people
who were experiencing a full-body illusion.
Volunteers donned a virtual reality headset
and watched a simulation of themselves
having their back stroked as it was being
stroked in reality. After a while, they
described feeling as if they were now
physically located closer to where their
virtual self was, rather than where they
were actually sitting. The more pronounced
their HEP, the stronger the illusion. Here was

hostage to a host of inner body states”. In as-yet unpublished work, Tallon-

Such experiments have led Park and Baudry’s group has also shown how the body
Blanke to propose that signals from the might contribute to our decisions on our
organs, together with signals from the personal preferences, which in many ways
outside world, feed a representation of define us in the eyes of others. Volunteers
the bodily self to the brain. This includes saw 200 posters of well-known films and
self-identification and self-location, as in were asked to rate the ones they had seen.
the full-body illusion. They also believe Next day, they were shown pairs of posters
that the rhythmic nature of signals from from the films they had rated, and had to
the organs helps generate a feeling of your indicate which they preferred as they had
self being continuous in time. “The cyclic their HEP tracked. As is usual with these sorts
pattern of the heartbeat is predictable,” says of experiments, people’s responses weren’t
Blanke, “and this temporal element could wholly consistent. However, people with the
ICP/INCAMERASTOCK/ALAMY
play a big role in that continuity of self.” biggest HEP at the moment of choice gave
Catherine Tallon-Baudry, a neuroscientist answers that were most in line with their
at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, original ratings. Their choices were truest
France, has a different conception of how to themselves when their brains were
the body contributes to self-consciousness. listening most closely to their hearts.
The brain is constantly bombarded by signals Blanke’s notion of a bodily self and Tallon-
from inside and outside the body and as a Can a robot ever be Baudry’s notion of bodily consciousness may
result of its own cognitive processes. The conscious without a not be too far apart. Indeed, they can imagine
signals are processed by different brain heart, lungs and gut? hitting on an overarching model of the
circuits. She thinks that rhythmic signals embodied self that reconciles their findings.
from the organs impose a unified frame consciousness, but says there is no need to But how does Garfinkel’s research fit in?
of reference on the brain. This allows us to conclude that the self is involved. To address
perceive all that incoming information from this issue, Tallon-Baudry and her group
the perspective of a single, subjective “I”. devised another study. This time, they homed Emotional me
“I think of consciousness as a property that is in on the distinction between “I” and “me”. She has been exploring two connected
generated by the brain once it has integrated Tallon-Baudry says “I” captures the most ideas: that bodily signals influence emotions
information from the whole organism,” she basic aspect of self – the aspect that comes and that emotions shape our sense of self
says. And a series of experiments supports before thought, the unified entity that does through memory and learning. Working
her contention, she believes. the thinking. It is fundamentally different with people with autism, she has concluded
In 2014, Tallon-Baudry and Park, who from the kind of reflection about “me” that the problems they often encounter
worked in her lab before he moved to that implies monitoring different bodily relating to others stem from their brains
Blanke’s, began by exploring how the HEP functions without that sense of unity. being overwhelmed with the visceral inputs
might influence our conscious experience of To see if they could show that the brain associated with their own and others’
things. They asked people to fix their gaze on treats those two concepts differently too, emotion. Building on the idea of an
a central point and to say whether they could Tallon-Baudry’s team asked people who were overactive body-brain axis, Garfinkel’s
see a faint ring around that point. The bigger having their brain scanned to fixate on a point research has now come right back to what
a person’s HEP just before showing them the and then let their mind wander. Every now haunted those traumatised war veterans:
ring, the more likely they were to perceive it. and then, they were interrupted and asked fear. In her most recent study, she has
“The heartbeat behaves like an extra piece whether – at that precise moment – they adapted a classic psychology paradigm
of visual information,” says Tallon-Baudry. were thinking about “me” or “I”, which they called fear conditioning, in which volunteers
It also provides the intrinsic “mineness” of had been trained to recognise. Depending learn to associate neutral stimuli with
the conscious experience. “In the person’s on which they reported, the HEP occurred negative consequences. She measured
response – ‘I saw something’ – there is that in different parts of the brain: a region near people’s heartbeats and their skin’s electrical
element of ‘I’,” she says. “We shouldn’t ignore the front for “me” thoughts and one further conductivity, which increases when we feel
that element of ‘I’ in perception.” back for “I” thoughts. This showed for the fearful. Her volunteers showed more fear
Blanke sees this study as a beautiful first time that the brain does indeed discern when stimuli were presented as their heart
demonstration of the threshold of between the two concepts. was contracting than when it was relaxing. >

Heart drugs might

help war veterans if
they develop PTSD
again, he argues. It was imposed by the

musculoskeletal system, which evolved
as a physical framework for the central
nervous system and, in so doing, also
provided a stable frame of reference:
the unified “I” of conscious experience.
While Damasio contemplates a synthesis,
the other researchers are thinking about
applications of their findings. Garfinkel
JEFFREY GREENBERG/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/VIA GETTY IMAGES
intends to test her idea about an overactive

heart-brain axis directly in people affected
by trauma. Already, her results lend support
to the rationale that drugs designed to act on
the cardiovascular system might help treat
post-traumatic stress disorder – and indeed
such drugs are now in clinical trials.
Blanke and Park have filed a patent
related to the use of breathing patterns
to predict behaviour. Among other
applications, it could help in tuning brain-
computer interfaces to be more sensitive
to the choices of people with disabilities.
Tallon-Baudry is working with neurologist
Steven Laureys at the University of Liège
The phase of the heartbeat also affected
how easily those fear responses were evoked “It may force us in Belgium to study the HEP in people
with disorders of consciousness, such
later on. “These signals from the heart can
really drive and override conditioned fear to reconsider as coma. They have trained an artificial
intelligence to learn how the HEP relates
responses,” she says.
Garfinkel doesn’t like to talk about where we to measurable clinical signs in such patients,
to test whether the HEP alone could serve
consciousness because she thinks the
concept is woolly. “Consciousness operates draw the line as a diagnostic tool in people whose clinical
signs are ambiguous – particularly those
on so many levels,” she says. But she does
believe she is trying to solve the same puzzles between life in the grey area known as minimally
conscious state.
as Blanke and Tallon-Baudry. For Damasio,
all three approaches are reconcilable if we and death” There are philosophical implications to
these discoveries too. If consciousness is
take an evolutionary perspective. embodied, that could affect how we think
Four billion years ago, the first primitive about death, which is currently defined
organisms monitored changes in their bodily by the World Health Organization as the
state – equivalent to hunger, thirst, pain and irreversible loss of brain (but not body)
so on – and had feedback mechanisms to function. The research also has implications
maintain equilibrium. The relic of those for the consciousness of other animals and
primitive mechanisms is our autonomic how we treat them. And if consciousness is
nervous system, which controls bodily embodied, it would mean that a machine or
functions such as heartbeat and digestion, robot with no way of integrating signals from
and of which we are largely unconscious. its body will never be truly conscious. “When
Then, about half a billion years ago, the you start to think through the implications
central nervous system, featuring a brain, of the embodied self,” says Tallon-Baudry,
evolved. “It was an afterthought of nature,” “they are really quite profound.” ❚
says Damasio. But it became the “anchor”
of what had once been a more distributed
mind. Changes in bodily state were projected Laura Spinney is a writer based
onto the brain and experienced as emotions in Paris, France. Her latest book is
or drives – the emotion of fear, say, or the Pale Rider: The Spanish flu of 1918
drive to eat. Subjectivity evolved later and how it changed the world

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Features
The enduring
grip of covid-19
Contrary to medical expectation, many people with
covid-19 are still experiencing symptoms weeks or even
months later. Linda Geddes investigates what’s going on
W
ITHIN 24 hours of asking an online in two months. Others reported fatigue, were dealing with a respiratory infection that
covid-19 support group if anyone headaches, tingling fingertips and brain fog. had symptoms similar to flu, and that while a
had been experiencing prolonged As the months tick by since the start of the minority of people would develop pneumonia
or unusual symptoms, I had been messaged coronavirus pandemic and we learn more and need breathing support, most would
by 140 people. The list was mind-boggling and about covid-19, it is becoming increasingly experience a mild illness characterised
deeply upsetting. “I feel like I’m in the middle evident that even mild cases can have by a cough, fever and shortness of breath,
of a waking nightmare,” said Zoe Wall, who distressing and long-lasting effects. “There’s which would be over in a couple of weeks.
was previously fit and healthy. Two months clearly something going on here. It is not Some of the first clues that the coronavirus
after developing covid-19-like symptoms, their imagination or hypochondria. It doesn’t behind covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, might trigger
she was still experiencing chest pains and even seem to be linked to how severely they more widespread disease began to emerge
“fatigue beyond description”. had the disease, as far as I can see,” says in February, when the outbreak in the
Harry’s symptoms started with a terrible Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Chinese city of Wuhan was at its peak and
headache and itchy body, followed by Imperial College London. All this means we doctors in the Lombardy region of Italy
shortness of breath. He was still experiencing need to rethink how we diagnose and treat were also experiencing a surge in cases.
breathing difficulties, chest pain, numbness covid-19. The long list of symptoms also As their emergency department colleagues
in his arm and bloating 10 weeks later. Jenn seems to suggest there might even be several fell sick, doctors like Sebastiano Recalcati,
had had no sense of smell or taste since subtypes of the disease, which could help us a dermatologist at Alessandro Manzoni
testing positive for covid-19 on 31 March. predict which cases will become serious. Hospital in Lecco, Italy, began taking over
Abbi had minimal respiratory symptoms, When the pandemic was announced in the care of those hospitalised with covid-19.
but very bad gastric ones and lost 19 kilograms early March, the prevailing view was that we He noticed skin problems in around 10 per

ROBERTO CIGNA
cent of the covid-19 patients he encountered. That was just the start. By mid-March, the
Some symptoms, like a flat red rash on virus had spread across Europe and many
people’s torsos, could have had other causes “Hardly countries were announcing lockdowns.
besides the virus, but others were more As epidemiologist Tim Spector packed up
specific: some patients developed small anyone’s his lab at King’s College London, he pondered
blisters on their torso or around their how he might continue his research, on
mouth – similar to those seen in chickenpox, symptoms are the health differences between twins,
except that they weren’t itchy. from home. Together with the technology
Since then, he and others have the same the company Zoe, Spector developed an app
documented other skin symptoms, to allow the twins in his study – and maybe
including a reddish-purple rash, whole way the general population – to log and track any
caused by tiny clots in blood vessels, potential covid-19 symptoms they developed,
and chilblain-like lesions on the toes. through” so they could be monitored over time.
Unlike the earlier rashes and blisters that The Covid Symptom Tracker app launched
Recalcati spotted, which seem to strike at on 23 March – the start of the UK’s own
the time of infection, these additional lockdown. Within 36 hours, it had been
symptoms occur several weeks later. downloaded by 1 million people, and by
“We think they may be a delayed immune 29 March they had 1.5 million users, of whom
response, whereas the other types of rash 1702 reported having been tested for covid-19.
may be a direct viral response,” he says. “That’s when we started to see this lack of >

smell coming up as the top feature, present in The list of unexpected symptoms doesn’t
60 per cent of people who had positive tests,” stop there. Other covid-19-associated
says Spector. This is higher than fever or
cough, in predictive terms, he says, because
“The extreme gastrointestinal problems, such as diarrhoea,
nausea and vomiting, have been reported
some of those who tested negative for the
coronavirus also had fever or cough. Studies
fatigue is like by researchers in California and Hong Kong,
and many doctors are reporting neurological
in China and Italy have also found loss of
smell and taste to be quite common in people
being hit over symptoms ranging from headaches and
dizziness to seizures and hallucinations.
with covid-19. As a result, loss of smell and
taste are now recognised as a key symptom
the head with There have also been reports of covid-19
patients being discharged from hospital,
by several health bodies including the NHS.
Other predictors currently being
a cricket bat” only to return several weeks later with a deep
vein thrombosis or blood clot on the lung,
investigated are severe muscle pain, which says James O’Donnell, director of the Irish
seems to differ from the general aches and Centre for Vascular Biology in Dublin.
pains you get with the flu – “it can be very Some relatively young and healthy people
acute and very painful”, says Spector – and with mild covid-19 are having heart attacks
loss of appetite, which may be connected or strokes with unusual features. “The strokes
to the loss of taste or smell. Spector seem to involve multiple different parts of
himself lost 3 kilograms within a week the brain, and some of them are occurring
of developing relatively mild covid-19. and progressing despite patients being on

standard blood thinners,” says O’Donnell. working with coronaviruses since the early immune cells encounter an invader, they
“This started off as a respiratory illness, but 90s, including the one that causes MERS. release signalling molecules called cytokines
within the space of a couple of months we’ve “Nothing that we are seeing with this to rally further immune help. Some of these
now got this kind of multi-system phenotype coronavirus has not been seen with other cross into the brain and trigger further
that we don’t really understand very well.” coronaviruses,” he says. “We know from cytokine secretion and inflammation.
Then there is the extreme fatigue. Paul animal studies that the same coronavirus can “People who get infected with this new
Garner, who had to stop working after cause many different types of clinical disease. coronavirus often have this hyper-intense
coming down with covid-19 in mid-March, We also know from our experience with SARS inflammatory reaction and being in such an
likens the feeling to being hit over the head and MERS that some people are fine, whereas inflamed state will have a negative impact on
with a cricket bat. “Calling it post-viral fatigue others are worse off.” brain health,” says Bullmore. Specifically, it
isn’t helpful because the fatigue has been can damage nerve cells in areas of the brain
there from day one, and runs alongside responsible for emotion regulation.
some quite nasty, life-threatening Immune reset Inflammation may persist long after
conditions,” he says. “It also implies we The same applies to longer-term health SARS-CoV-2 has been cleared from the body.
know what’s happening and that the virus issues. Around 28 per cent of people who had “The healthy response to this virus is to
has gone – but we don’t know any of this stuff SARS were still experiencing impaired lung have massive immune cell activation,” says
really.” Now, three months later, he can only function 18 months after SARS symptoms Altmann. “It would not at all surprise me if
work for 20 minutes at a time before needing started, affecting their ability to exercise and that could slightly reset the set point of your
to lie down, and will soon return to work for their overall quality of life. And a recent meta- immune response in a slightly pathological
an hour a day. Garner says his symptoms are analysis suggested that depression, anxiety, and chronic way.”
the same as chronic fatigue syndrome, with insomnia and fatigue were all found in about Exhaustion could also be linked to vascular
one difference – CFS is defined as not having 10 to 20 per cent of patients in the months symptoms, such as blood clots, which may be
a cause. “This clearly has a cause,” he says. following recovery from SARS. “If covid-19 caused by the immune system or by the virus
Garner speaks with authority. A professor plays out anything like SARS and MERS, there infiltrating the cells that line blood vessels.
of infectious diseases at Liverpool School of will be quite a bit of this longer-term mental Microclots in the lungs could reduce oxygen
Tropical Medicine, he has experienced many illnesses and fatigue,” says Ed Bullmore, a supply by restricting the movement of
of the diseases he studies first-hand. The only neuroscientist at the University of oxygenated blood through the lungs. “We
one that is vaguely comparable, he says, is Cambridge and author of The Inflamed Mind. think we’ve probably got a positive feedback
dengue – a mosquito-borne illness This isn’t just about the psychological loop going on where we’ve got pneumonia
characterised by bouts of exhaustion long trauma of being seriously ill. According to followed by micro-clots in the lungs, followed
after the virus clears. “The weird thing with Bullmore, it is a product of our immune by low blood oxygen, and those things go
covid-19 is how it sort of goes away, and you system’s response to infection. When our round and round in a circle,” says O’Donnell. >
feel a bit muggy and a little bit drained and
then you feel a bit better and then, whack, it
comes at you again from another direction.”
It is this persistent nature of some cases Public health
of covid-19 that troubles many of those who messaging in
contacted me via the online support group. England and Wales
A big frustration is the sense that because on symptoms
they don’t require hospital treatment, their doesn’t fit with
symptoms aren’t taken seriously, and they the way many
are largely left to fend for themselves. “We people experience
keep being dismissed as anxious people who covid-19
haven’t yet given their bodies time to heal,”
said Wall. This lack of medical support really
STU FORSTER/GETTY IMAGES
does make her anxious. “I feel utterly

abandoned and left on my own,” she says.
Not everyone is surprised that SARS-CoV-2
is causing such varied and persistent
symptoms. Julian Hiscox is a virologist at the
University of Liverpool, UK, who has been

It is unclear whether microclots are occurring how long these can be expected to last. Here,
in people with mild cases of covid-19, but if Spector has some insights. Having now
the body isn’t getting enough oxygen, this tracked some 2000 people with positive tests,
could cause many of the long-term symptoms he has found that the median duration of
people are experiencing, such as shortness symptoms was 10 days, but they sometimes
of breath, headache and exhaustion. endured for extended periods. One in
ISABEL INFANTES/EMPICS ENTERTAINMENT/PA IMAGES
Another source of prolonged 10 people had symptoms lasting longer than

inflammation could be the gut. Cells lining three weeks, and one in 20 had experienced
the gastrointestinal tract have a receptor symptoms for longer than a month.
called ACE2 on their surface – the same “Hardly anyone’s symptoms are the
receptor that SARS-CoV-2 uses to gain access same the whole way through, and we think
to lung cells – which suggests they could we are actually seeing six different subtypes
become infected and inflamed. Researchers of disease, based on the groupings of
in Hong Kong have also identified an altered symptoms and their timings,” says Spector.
gut bacteria profile in people infected with The clustering of these symptoms may even
the virus, characterised by large numbers help to predict who is more likely to need
of harmful bacteria and the depletion of hospitalisation. “It looks like illness with a
beneficial ones. These changes persisted even Millions have used really acute and more classic flu-like start
after the virus had been cleared from the body. the COVID Symptom seems to be over quickly and people recover,
“It’s this prolonged phase of disruption Tracker app whereas these other ones that are a bit more
that I’m worried about,” says Siew Ng at the complex seemed to linger on more – but we
Chinese University of Hong Kong, who led need a bit more data to be completely
the research. “If the bacteria in your gut have confident,” he says.
not recovered, you may have some lasting Further studies on the aftermath of
fatigue, discomfort or loss of appetite, and covid-19 are urgently needed. “We are
it may also make you more susceptible to desperate to get our lab studies in place to
other infections.” understand some of these longer-term
One question raised by many of those symptoms and the consequences of this
experiencing persistent symptoms is infection,” says Altmann. “I’ve had lots
whether they are still infectious. Kim Clarke, of contact with people who are really
who lives in Surrey, UK, has repeatedly tested destroyed by this. They never expected
positive for the coronavirus in her blood it to be a long-term chronic problem.”
since losing her sense of smell on 1 April. Until now, much of the response to
She has been caring for her three children
at home, despite severe and ongoing
“People are covid-19 has been about preventing deaths,
but hospitals are beginning to establish
breathlessness, fatigue and headaches.
“They’re saying, because I’ve had the virus for
destroyed by clinics to follow-up the survivors – including
those who are still ill. “I’m certainly hoping
so long, that I can’t still be infectious, but I
don’t think anyone knows anything really,”
this. They that if folks like us can work out some of
the biological mechanisms of this disease,
she says. “At least it helps explain why I still
feel so rough. I can’t leave the house because
never expected there will be therapeutic ways of getting
around it,” says Altmann.
I can’t walk, I can’t breathe.”
The fact that viral RNA can be detected in
it to be long For Wall, this won’t come a moment too
soon. “My life has changed so dramatically.
some people weeks after diagnosis could
imply the presence of some active virus, says
term” I don’t know how to adjust to this. I don’t
know that I want to. I just want my life back.” ❚
Hiscox. However, “whether there is enough
of it to cause an infection in someone else,
we just don’t know at this stage”. Linda Geddes is a science
Another question is what proportion journalist based in Bristol and
of those infected with the coronavirus are a consultant for New Scientist
experiencing prolonged symptoms – and

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Features
PAUL WILLIAMS/NATURE PL

Sparks will fly

Lightning is killing millions of tropical trees
without a trace – and global warming could
increase its strike rate, finds Aisling Irwin
W
EAVING through the sweaty particles – things like dust, pollen, sea salt and
tangles of a Panamanian forest, smoke – to form droplets and clouds. As they
Steve Yanoviak is hunting a rise and cool further, these droplets turn to ice.
killer. Its prey isn’t the monkeys, bats or Lighter ice particles rise to the top of the cloud
multicoloured birds that cram the branches, and tend to lose electrons, becoming
but the foundations of the forest itself – its positively charged, while heavier falling
trees. Each day, this killer strikes thousands particles tend to gain electrons and become
of times around the world, but leaves no negatively charged. The electric potential
evidence behind. “Tropical trees die standing. between the two mounts until giant sparks
They bear no scars,” says Yanoviak. form within the cloud to restore balance.
Catching it in the act takes monumental When sparks really fly, however, is when
effort. That’s because the likely culprit isn’t the negatively charged base of the cloud
a living organism, but instead a familiar starts inducing a positive charge on nearby
force of nature: lightning. bits of ground, concentrating it in protruding
Yanoviak, an ecologist at the University objects such as trees, spires or people. When
of Louisville, Kentucky, is just one of many those two oppositely charged areas are close
researchers around the globe confronting enough, a lightning bolt can make contact
the profound, underappreciated effects that with the ground.
lightning has on the natural world. It ignites For most of us, the destructive potential of a
wildfires that reset ecosystems. It can boost lightning strike is best marvelled at through a
greenhouse gases, and unleashes other window. Though the data is patchy, strikes are
pollutants in an instant. And in the tropics, estimated to kill up to 24,000 people a year
it is the grim reaper that singles out the globally and injure 10 times that number. The
most magnificent of ancient forest trees effects are disproportionately concentrated
for destruction. in lower income countries, where often
What’s more, lightning is probably “there is absolutely nowhere for anybody
on the increase, and that’s because of us. to go”, says Ron Holle, co-author of the book
Climate change seems to be driving up Reducing Lightning Injuries Worldwide. In
the frequency of strikes, while population Bangladesh, for example, lightning killed
growth and changes in land use are 64 people within just four days in 2016. In a
exacerbating their effects. The toll on recent study, Holle highlighted how lightning
both the human and natural spheres strikes in the country peak in April and May,
has sparked a new urgency in getting to exactly the time of year when farmers have
grips with this everyday phenomenon. to harvest their rice.
It all begins harmlessly enough, with But the effects of lightning on human
moisture-laden hot air that rises from the health and well-being can be more insidious.
warm surface of Earth. As it cools, water In a few microseconds, it can heat a sliver of
vapour condenses around microscopic air to 30,000 °C, leading to rapid chemical >

reactions that shatter the normally sturdy

bonds within oxygen and nitrogen molecules
to create nitrogen oxides, which are
pollutants. While lightning-caused wildfires
have always been an intrinsic part of the
forest cycle, making space for new growth
and triggering the germination of some
seeds, they are an increasingly unwelcome
phenomenon in drought-beleaguered zones
that are becoming more vulnerable to fire.
When tinder-dry Australia experienced
record wildfires in early 2020, for example,
lightning was a principal trigger.
Unlucky strikes
One of lightning’s most profound impacts
on natural ecosystems, however, might have
been overlooked had ecologist Lucy Rowland
at the University of Exeter, UK, not had a
spooky encounter in the Amazon rainforest.
She had poked needles into a few trees to test
the flow of sap up and down their trunks,
before retiring to the safety of her camp.
Then, lightning struck. When Rowland
returned, her instruments were smouldering
and ruined, but the tree showed no signs of
damage itself. A few months later, however,
it and its neighbours were dead.
EVAN GORA
This is odd. When lightning strikes a tree
in temperate climes, the damage is generally
obvious. Electrical current is thought to
run down the moist layer inside the bark, In the rainforests
which expands explosively under the high of Barro Colorado
temperatures, sending chunks of bark flying. Island, Panama,
No one knows why tropical trees escape this lightning causes half
fate, though it is possible that they somehow of all large tree deaths
distribute the current differently.
This silent destruction got Rowland’s
colleague Tim Hill, also at the University of
Exeter, thinking. With a back-of-the-envelope
calculation using satellite lightning data and
tree censuses, he concluded that, if every
tree had an equal chance of being struck,
lightning would be insignificant for the fate
of the forest because most trees are small and
unimportant. But if the biggest trees were to
be struck more often, says Hill, that would
change everything. Larger, older trees

NASA
1,000,000
100,000
10,000
1000
The Geostationary
Lightning Mapper
100
is helping build a
picture of lightning’s
true frequency in
the US
are keystone structures of the forest: they that die in the forest, what fraction are dying they tally with the data we have – and
are biodiversity hotspots, bug hotels and from lightning, I might have said maybe 5 per this could indicate potentially severe
generally play a major part in its survival cent,” says Yanoviak. “We’re now beginning consequences, not least for forest ecosystems.
and well-being. They also disproportionately to understand that lightning is far more Sander Veraverbeke at Vrije University in
contribute to the storage of water and carbon important than anyone expected.” Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has been
dioxide. “The top few per cent can store Our basic ignorance about lightning runs studying the incidence of lightning across
50 to 60 per cent of the carbon,” says Hill. deep. We don’t even know how much of it the spruce and pine forests of northern
Figuring out whether they are is happening globally, because it is mostly Canada and Alaska, and has found that
preferentially struck by lightning could monitored by local ground-based systems. lightning-ignited fires in these boreal
therefore be of huge consequence. “It’s a “Tying them together in some kind of a forests have risen relentlessly by 2 to
potentially important effect that no one patchwork is very difficult,” says Jochen 4 per cent a year for the past 40 years.
really thinks about,” says Hill. That is hardly Grandell at the European Organisation for In unpublished work, Veraverbeke has
surprising. Determining lightning’s impact the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. collaborated with Romps and others and
on tropical trees turns out to be incredibly Our best estimate is that there are about found a similar trend for the entire ring
difficult when the killer strikes randomly 1.4 billion flashes worldwide each year. But of boreal forests – in Canada, Alaska,
and unpredictably, when there are hundreds as the planet heats up and the atmospheric Scandinavia and Siberia – as well as for the
of thousands of potential victims and when convection necessary to create lightning Arctic. “We expect quite significant increases
there is no sign of the kill for weeks. increases, there are good indications that in lightning – not only more, but it moves
Hill is now equipping 20,000 tropical these numbers are on the rise. further north,” he says.
forest trees in Nigeria and Ghana with coils In 2014, David Romps at the University of In these forests, as in warmer climes,
of wire. When lightning strikes, its current California, Berkeley caused a stir with a new lightning strikes and attendant wildfires
induces a magnetic field in the coil, which clear patches to allow new growth. They
is instantly logged to identify exactly which are essential for the reproduction of some
tree was struck. “Our best estimate species, such as black spruce. But the more
Yanoviak is taking a different approach. wood that burns, the more carbon is
Since 1996, when lightning struck a tree is that 1.4 billion released – and more clear patches means
terrifyingly close to him during a storm over
a forest on Barro Colorado Island in Panama,
lightning flashes more sunshine can penetrate the permafrost.
That is troubling because of the huge amount
he has been working to catch it in the act.
Working together with his colleague Evan
occur each year” of trapped carbon that could be released into
the atmosphere as the permafrost melts.
Gora, also at the University of Louisville, he It could even be a damaging feedback loop,
has now installed a system of surveillance model that predicted lightning would increase says Veraverbeke. “Because of warming, you
cameras above the Panamanian forest as the planet warmed. It was tricky work: have more lightning. Because of lightning,
canopy, as well as meters on the ground large-scale global climate models operate at you have more fire. Because of fire, you have
below that can detect an electrical surge. such low resolution that they can’t portray more emissions. Because of emissions, you
Algorithms triangulate this data so Gora the behaviour of small and fickle phenomena have higher temperatures.”
knows where to search, with the help of a such as clouds and thunderstorms. Not everyone agrees that climate change
drone, for signs of tree death by lightning. The assumptions he had to make led to is driving up the incidence of lightning. Last
They are still collecting data, but a model that even Romps calls naive, but it year, Declan Finney at the University of Leeds,
so far their results indicate that, to their correlates with the lightning incidence in UK, argued that Romps’s model failed to
astonishment, half of the deaths of large modern records. It predicts that, for every consider how much evaporated water actually
tropical trees are down to lightning – not least 1°C rise in global temperature, there will turns to ice in clouds – an essential ingredient
because it seems a single strike can bounce be a 12 per cent hike in lightning incidence for lightning. His own model, which took
off one tree to affect an average of five others. over the US. Projecting forward to the end this effect into account, predicted a fall in
Assuming that other tropical forests respond of the century, that means business-as-usual lightning incidence. Late last year, Romps
in a similar way, lightning might kill about greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a published a second paper that played with
190 million tropical trees each year globally, 50 per cent increase in lightning strikes in his and Finney’s approaches. It concluded that
and damage half a billion others. the country. they both pointed to an increase in lightning
“If you had asked me, of all the large trees These numbers may sound dramatic, but in the US, while disagreeing with each >

other on the incidence over tropical oceans,

and were both inconclusive for anywhere else.
While the likes of Romps and Finney
debate the models, veteran lightning scientist
Colin Price is trawling what past data he can
find for hard evidence of change. Price got
hooked on lightning as a child, watching
summer afternoon thunderstorms race over
Johannesburg, South Africa, where he grew
up. Now at Tel Aviv University in Israel, he
has been studying “thunder day” data. This
has been recorded for centuries at weather
stations all over the world by observers who
MICHAEL HANSON/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

simply made a daily note of whether they
heard or saw thunder and lightning that day.
The data is crude and buried in basements
and drawers around the globe, “but basically,
it’s the best we have going back in time
related to thunderstorms”, says Price.
Stormy future
These records do show increases in
thunderstorms over the past century in to plant, says Guy Midgley at Stellenbosch Farmers ploughing
places ranging from south-east Brazil to the University in South Africa. He is still upset flat, watery terrain
UK and from Japan to Alaska. Since 1970, “we about fatal fires that broke out in pine and are very vulnerable
see a dramatic rise”, says Price, adding that eucalyptus plantations after lightning strikes to lightning strikes
the trend goes on for too long to be the result in the country’s Western Cape in 2017. These
of natural climate cycles, such as El Niño. He non-native plantations and escaped trees lightning storms on the east and west coasts
then found a correlation between a warming growing in surrounding grasslands have was transformed by the launch of the
climate across the African continent and increased the fuel load. The combination Geostationary Lightning Mapper satellite
the number and size of thunderstorms – of increasing drought, fire-prone species and in 2016. Europe aims to launch an even more
a thought-provoking 40 per cent increase more frequent lightning raises increasingly ambitious version, the Lightning Imager, in
for every 1°C rise. “It’s difficult to say that important questions about the sense of such 2022. Grandell predicts that in a decade, such
that’s causing the increase, but they are tree-planting schemes, he says. He isn’t alone. information will trickle through to all. People
fairly well-correlated,” says Price. Researchers recently concluded that such fishing on Lake Victoria in East Africa, for
If the correlation holds, the consequences climate-related changes were risky enough for example, will be warned by SMS message
could be severe for tropical forests, with the plantations in California that the land would that lightning is sweeping in and that they
death rate of the biggest trees increasing by absorb more carbon if it was left as grassland. should return to the shore.
a fifth by the end of the century. That is likely If lightning is really set to strike more, Meanwhile, the work to establish the
to have repercussions. Most obviously, the one key to staving off the worst effects on consequences for the ecosystems we rely on,
death and decay of these forest giants will the natural world, as well as protecting in Panama and elsewhere, continues. The true
release carbon that has been locked away human life and property, will be an improved complexity and power of an awesome natural
in them over decades into the atmosphere, ability to spot lightning coming. Big storms phenomenon is only now being revealed. ❚
changing our climate models in ways that can be forecast days ahead, but smaller ones
could take years to comprehend. can whip up, unnoticed, in a few hours Aisling Irwin is a freelance writer
In more recently planted forests, an anywhere when the conditions are right. based in Oxfordshire, UK
increase in lightning needs to be factored Fortunately, the tech is now arriving.
in to decisions about where, how and what In the US, the “nowcasting” of imminent

Q2 / 2020
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Triage and clinical
The need to digitise decision-making systems: Fast-acting insulin
COVID-19 has put digital Utilising machine learning Fast-acting insulin is one example of where these
technologies in the spotlight like to offer ‘clinical decision support’ reformulation techniques could deliver real patient
never before, with the need to technology can fast track patients to benefits, she said.
deliver care in alternative settings, the appropriate clinical pathway. “We have developed a novel formulation of insulin,
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with the public over the significant diagnose patients in the community sharply,” says Sarah.
benefits digital technologies can or home setting, thus speeding up “We’ve done it by taking an existing product, for which
deliver, and the trade-offs the public access to treatment and relieving the safety and effectiveness is known, and modifying its
will need to consider in gaining workforce pressures. properties.
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At time of writing, there is Remote services: data to show AT247 performs significantly faster than the
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advancement of this agenda. sugar in a healthy range. In turn, that will help them to
Building on the momentum avoid complications like heart disease, kidney failure,
The opportunity of the NHS’s data pool This is not about replacing limb amputation and eyesight loss.”
As the world’s largest single doctors with robots, rather, digital
health-payer system, the NHS technologies can empower patients, Applications
has a rich data pool. target earlier treatment, and free Other applications for the technology include
Large datasets, utilised up clinical time within stretched reformulating powder products into ready-to-use
effectively, mean three things for healthcare systems. liquids, removing the need for complex reconstitution
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such technologies into the NHS, momentum achieved. “Ultimately, advanced reformulation technologies
can greatly accelerate the path to market for affordable,
@Businessandindustry @MediaplanetUK @MediaplanetUK Please recycle efficacious medicines that tackle unmet patient need,”
she concluded.
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Bruntwood SciTech
The role of the UK life sciences
Rise in innovation to sector in the race to tackle COVID-19
meet the COVID-19 COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and business planning across the globe. The UK life
sciences industry has stepped up at rapid pace to meet this unprecedented challenge.
challenge This response has included vaccine development, new testing methods and exploring
digital health solutions to tackle the virus.
T
Global impact, unprecedented
he UK has played a central
challenges, shifting priorities – role in international efforts
these have been hot topics over on COVID-19, drawing on
the recent months. But, a less our inherent strength as the The global race to
world’s third largest biotech cluster.
highlighted topic that should be The sharing of data has been create a vaccine to
recognised, is the rapid rate of Phil Kemp
key to this response, from the generate immunity
sequencing of the very first
innovation and commercialisation Chief Executive,
Bruntwood SciTech COVID-19 genome in China, to in the population,
in the life sciences sector. sharing best practice in COVID-19 is well underway
Steve Bates
Chief Executive, testing strategies.
Reduced production time for new products BioIndustry Association We have seen Sanofi and GSK join manufacture of a COVID-19 vaccine.
New products and services have historically taken years forces, putting aside competition We formed a vaccine
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Now, within the first year of a new decade, the brightest It is not just the larger organisations from the public
minds in the country from academia, industry and pharmaceutical companies and private sectors, academia,
clinical care have compressed this journey into a matter making a difference, we are also and universities.1
of weeks, and new innovations are being launched and seeing the likes of Exscientia The group is currently supporting
adopted at an unparalleled pace. using their AI platform to identify the Jenner Institute’s adenovirus
potential drugs and Oxford vaccine candidate and the work
The creation of the biggest testing network in British history Nanopore using their technology of Imperial College London on a
The UK government approached the Medicines to help with viral sequencing. mRNA vaccine.
Discovery Catapult to coordinate the establishment There is a long list of UK The manufacturing taskforce
of the national COVID-19 ‘megalabs’. companies of all sizes pivoting their will consider any COVID-19
Within three weeks, one of three national ‘Lighthouse research to focus on COVID-19. vaccines or therapies that emerge,
Lab’ testing centres had been established regardless of whether they are UK
at Alderley Park. Creation of an industry-led vaccine or internationally based and look
Together, these now make up the biggest network manufacturing taskforce to help where it can.
of diagnostic testing facilities in British history. The global race to create a vaccine The group is working closely with
The laboratory has rapidly become home to over to generate immunity in the the Government and reporting
80 scientists and volunteers, with the capacity to test population is well underway. directly to the Chief Scientific
up to 65,000 samples per day, enabling thousands To get a vaccine up and running Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance.
of NHS and key workers to return to the frontline. and manufactured at scale, it is
important to bring together the Looking ahead
Increased collaboration between industry and clinical care molecular scientists and large-scale I am pleased to see the UK play such
Within two days of UK lockdown, Yourgene Health, biologics manufacturers. an important role in responding
an international molecular diagnostics company The BIA has built on its work to this health emergency. The
renowned for their expertise in prenatal testing and in response to the Ebola crisis, collaborations and manufacturing
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They partnered with a specialist clinical diagnostics Read more at our members. now and in the future.
company to support the manufacturing of their test businessand We have repeated this exercise to
and set up a COVID-19 test facility at Citylabs, directly industry.co.uk ascertain the capacity to scale-up
surrounded by the NHS Trust hospitals in Manchester.
Yourgene have also developed their own PCR based
SARS-CoV-2 product that focuses on fast turnaround More Info:
and a low false negative rate. 1
Such collaboration has been at the fore. Companies Structure of the BIA’s vaccine
manufacturing taskforce:
such as Stream Bio have been collaborating with MIP Chair of the Industry-led Vaccine
Diagnostics on a rapid diagnostic and mass screening Manufacturing Group: Ian McCubbin
test for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, at Manchester Science Park global 1. Adenovirus vaccine: Cobra Biologics & Cell
molecular diagnostics company QIAGEN, Affinity and Gene Therapy Catapult
2. mRNA vaccine manufacture and formulation: CPI
Biomarker Labs and the University of Manchester have 3. Antibody: Alchemab and Kymab
supported patient testing on automated platforms, 4. Fill Finish: Innovate UK
illustrating the utility of existing high throughput 5. Supply Chain: Fujifilm
6. VMIC: VMIC
PCR and antibody-based testing platforms while 7. Communications: UCL and BIA
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From testing to tech, one thing is consistent during
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This article is sponsored by MedCity
Clusters drive global excellence in life sciences To find out more about the innovative
and pioneering work taking place in
London and the Greater South East’s
life sciences cluster please visit:
COVID-19 has driven collaboration on an unprecedented scale. Life sciences clusters are at the www.medcityhq.com
heart of this and need sustained support to thrive, showcase and drive global excellence.
T
he UK life sciences sector University of London have pooled The Advanced Therapies pandemic and the big shared global
has risen to address together to redeploy laboratories, Network for example, aims to bring health and care challenges of today
the challenges of this equipment and scientists. expert communities together, and the future.
extraordinary time by The Alliance’s response on testing leveraging deeper innovation In turn, the need for academic,
instantly refocussing efforts and has fed into the national effort to across regions and societies. industry and health system
resources to tackle the pandemic, tackle COVID-19. With joint funding from alliance, and the UK’s strength in
with innovation and partnership Meanwhile, cross-sector Research England, MedCity and this area, continues to make us a
at the heart of a united collaboration is driving significant the NHSA are also partnering global leader in life sciences.
commitment across clusters developments in treatment. on an international stage, For this legacy to live beyond
and nations worldwide. The OxVent group, comprising promoting inward investment and the pandemic, the Government
scientists, clinicians, engineers partnerships across Japan, South must continue a relentless pursuit
Clusters drive powerful collaboration and medical technology Korea, Israel, the Commonwealth of excellence by investing in
As a cluster, London and the manufacturers from King’s College Alliance and China. UK life science, research and
Greater South East of England London, University of Oxford As the champion for our regional development.
is a world leader in health and and Smith+Nephew mobilised cluster, MedCity acts as an expert, The time is now to secure
life sciences. quickly in response to COVID-19, neutral and non-political vehicle the future of the UK’s vital life
The global pandemic has developing the OxVent ventilator, to facilitate partnerships across sciences clusters
now driven collaboration on an which can be produced at speed the globe. to showcase
unprecedented scale by rapidly and scale, at significantly lower Clusters are uniquely placed and drive this
joining up components of the cost than alternatives. to draw on collective assets world-leading
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The London COVID-19 Alliance, global powerhouse for life sciences partnerships that advance particularly as
set up by MedCity with the city’s also relies on teamwork across scientific innovation and we forge new
world-leading universities, research clusters. excellence worldwide. international
institutes and industry, has united Through our close working trade deals.
to offer a collective response. relationship with the Northern Excellence requires investment
Alliance members including Health Science Alliance (NHSA), COVID-19 has accelerated joined
King’s College London, Imperial covering a joint population of 34 up working in the life sciences Neelam Patel
CEO,
College London, University million between us, we forge links community. This is vital to MedCity
College London and Queen Mary’s in specialist fields. successfully tackling both this
For more information about the next edition

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This article is sponsored by Life Sciences Hub Wales
Contact us today
We’re looking to engage with
businesses that share our aspirations
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How Welsh industry is responding

to the coronavirus pandemic I M AG E : O RT H O C L I N I CA L D I AG N O ST I C S
Global industries and local businesses in Wales have been adapting and
innovating at significant pace and scale in response to COVID-19.
T
he Welsh life sciences have been qualified by both Public Repurposing factories to
sector (including medical Health Wales and Public Health manufacture PPE
technologies, testing, England, detect antibodies that Similarly, following an initial
diagnostics and medicine) confirm a previous and recent submission to Life Sciences Hub
and businesses beyond have played COVID-19 infection, letting people Wales, long-standing Welsh
a significant role in supporting know whether they have had the manufacturer BCB International has
health and social care services virus. The new-style blood tests are been working to help NHS Wales get
across Wales. At the end of March, being rolled out across the UK as key supplies to frontline staff.
the First Minister of Wales and part of the national testing strategy. The organisation quickly
Cari-Anne Quinn Life Sciences Hub Wales issued a International manufacturer, converted its factory base in Llanelli
Chief Executive Officer, direct call to industry in support of PerkinElmer also responded to our to make high strength alcohol
Life Sciences
Hub Wales
infection control products, medical industry call with an offer to source sanitiser and PPE first responder
devices and digital solutions. testing kits and lab equipment medical equipment for NHS Wales
This activity led to an required to process them. With and key workers. Since its original
overwhelming response from established bases in Wales and the submission, it has supplied over
businesses across Wales and global UK, PerkinElmer was able to work 500,000 litres of its hand-sanitiser
leaders including PerkinElmer and quickly with its UK customers to to the NHS Wales and continues to
Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Working requisition technology devices that provide PPE including gowns, gloves,
alongside health and social care could be repurposed for COVID-19 masks and shields.
buyers, Life Sciences Hub Wales testing. These are just a small number
managed the high volume of supply of the companies that we have had
offers received from businesses, Using recyclable material to make PPE the privilege to work with over
enabling them to focus on the most Caerphilly-based Transcend recent months – businesses that are
appropriate offers of support. This Packaging, manufacturers of placing Wales at the forefront of the
activity helped facilitate and deliver sustainable packaging, including life sciences sector whilst driving
critical products to staff on the paper straws for quick serve innovation, development and
frontline. restaurants, became PPE certified delivery at significant pace.
so that they could create millions of Our ambition is to continue
At the forefront of antibody testing protective face shields that are now the acceleration and adoption of
We worked with Ortho Clinical being supplied throughout the UK innovation across health and social
Diagnostics, a global provider of and across the globe. care beyond the current crisis -
testing solutions for a wide range We worked with them to adapt ensuring a more resilient and robust
of diseases and medical conditions production and ensure face shields healthcare system in Wales and
to produce antibody tests at its met all requirements. As a result, across the globe.
state-of-the-art facility in Pencoed, over three million shields have been
Bridgend and is now one of three produced, with over 1.5 million going
companies worldwide to provide a directly into the Welsh NHS supply Read more at
COVID-19 antibody test for the UK. chain, councils, care homes, retailers businessand
industry.co.uk
The made-in-Wales tests, which and factories.
New Scientist Books Why do boys have nipples?
+2:72.,/ǭ$ Tests show that the ideal temperature for bananas

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happens as they decay is accelerated because their
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This is counterintuitive to those of us brought blacken overnight as it softens and breaks down.
up to believe that chilling foodstuffs slows decay,
What’s happening is that the membranes that keep
but a simple experiment will show us if it’s true
the contents of the various compartments inside a
or not. cell separate are essentially two layers of slippery
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** two or more bananas (and possibly some too sticky, the membranes collapse and enzymes
fresh banana skins) and other molecules that are normally kept apart
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** a fridge (and possibly a domestic freezer) the softening of the fruit.
** lemon juice The skin goes black because of the action of an
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:+$7'2,'2" encourages the breakdown of smelly compounds
Place one banana in the fridge and leave the other called phenols in the banana skin. This produces
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banana three or four times a day and note the gives human skin and hair its colour. Just as when
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experiment, rub a third banana with lemon juice increases in your skin, giving you a tan, as the
before subjecting it to the fridge conditions. banana breaks down, its skin gets darker.
:+$7:,/ǭ,6(Ǧ" The change in colour starts sooner in refrigerated

The banana in the fridge will brown or blacken bananas because, when the cold makes the
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While many fruits are stabilised by refrigeration,
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In fact, once your banana is damaged by the cold why adding lemon juice – which is rich in citric
in the fridge, if you take it out again the browning DFLGbśWRVNLQVFDQVORZWKHEODFNHQLQJSURFHVV
process will speed up because the reaction that A similar slowing of the breakdown process can be
causes the browning, once it is under way, is seen if bananas are coated in wax; this stops
speeded up by heat. oxygen reaching the skin and speeding up decay.
This can be demonstrated by putting a banana

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will stay creamy white because, although the HAVE NIPPLES?
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The back pages Puzzles

Puzzles Cartoons Feedback The last word
How many children Life through the lens Waging war against Why don’t babies
are as old as their of Tom Gauld and waging war against let their parents
fathers, reversed? p54 Twisteddoodles p54 hurricanes p55 get more sleep? p56
Cryptic crossword #34 Set by Wingding Quick quiz #57

1 Which African country is named
Scribble after an 11th century city, the ruins
zone of which lie south of Masvingo?
2 Pioneering US agricultural scientist

George Washington Carver famously
worked with which soil-improving
legume crop, Arachis hypogaea?

3 Who calculated the orbital
trajectories that first got NASA
astronauts safely into space and
died earlier this year aged 101?
4 Homo habilis, Paranthropus

boisei, Homo erectus and our own
Homo sapiens form the procession
of hominin species through which
Tanzanian landscape?

5 The astrophysicist and science
populariser Neil deGrasse Tyson is
Answers and the director of which planetarium near
next quick crossword Central Park in New York City?
next week
Answers on page 54
ACROSS DOWN
1 Gold minerals reported to make up ex-cow (7) 1 Beginning to admire China? Quick
5/15/21 Ex-carnivore’s worn-out boots Maybe Kennedy did (5) Crossword #60
reattached (5-7,3) 2 Predator that follows female
Answers
8 Ex-marsupial designs hat nicely (9) deer, by the sounds (3)
9 Dolphin, turtle and guillemot’s tails may be 3 Ruder word for bottom covered up by ACROSS 1 Stanisław Lem, 10 Aleph,
caught in this (3) carbon monoxide detector, finally (7) 11 Analgesic, 12 Geoduck, 13 Essence,
10 Ex-birds’ note repeated sound at first (5) 4 Migrants such as Jonathan and Taylor? (6) 14 Datum, 16 Lubricant, 19 Paradigms,
12 Isn’t one stressed by this? (7) 5 Firm part of vessel (5) 20 Seoul, 22 Cochlea, 25 Houston,
6 See 13 Across 27 Amygdalin, 28 L-dopa,
13/6 Eccentric botanist recoded
29 Ursula Le Guin
ex-marsupial (6,9) 7 Old metal cat gutted, like many
14 Time to go after half of Earth’s air or less (2,4) creatures found here (7)
DOWN 2 The Doctor, 3 Nehru, 4 Spark
17 Russia and Europe getting into dispute 11 Unfairly depict spy as bad-tempered (9) plug, 5 Agate, 6 Logistics, 7 Meson,
for cargo (7) 13 Shortfall appears somewhat 8 Ancient, 9 Tagged, 15 Mudslides,
19 Remote road beginning to end (5) chaotic if edited in reverse (7) 17 Bisphenol, 18 A fortiori, 19 Pickaxe,
21 See 5 15 See 5 Across 21 Linear, 23 Coypu, 24 Allyl, 26 Uhlig
22 Cardiology department’s head moving 16 Carbohydrate feature: carbon, hydrogen (6)
to the ground (9) 18/23 Ex-bird offering not-so-colourful
24 Unspoken thanks - “cheers” interpreted conversation, they say (5,3)
thus, originally (5) 20 Gas causing trouble in outskirts
25 Physiologist injects pig family of Roehampton (5)
with drop of dye (7) 23 See 18
Our crosswords are
now solvable online
newscientist.com/crosswords

The back pages
Tom Gauld Puzzle

for New Scientist set by Zoe Mensch
#65 Father figures
Jasmine has discovered that she

has a special relationship with
her dad. A few times, she has
noticed that his age has been the
reverse of hers: this year, she was
47 and her dad was 74. But this
also happened when she was 36
and he was 63. It first happened
when she was 14 and he was 41.
Jasmine thinks this might be

unusual, so she checks out if it
has happened to any of her 90
Facebook friends. How many of
them do you think will discover
this age reversal has happened
with their own dad at some point?
Answer next week
#64 Ruritanian carpet

Twisteddoodles Answers
for New Scientist
Quick
quiz #57
Answers
R
r
1 Zimbabwe. The
site is now known 5
as Great Zimbabwe
2 The peanut
or groundnut Call the radius of the room R, and
3 Katherine Johnson
the radius of the central pillar r.
The area of the carpet is:
4 The Olduvai πR2 - πr2 = π(R2 - r2 ).
Gorge, one of the But from Pythagoras we know
most famous of all
52 + r2 = R2, and so R2 - r2 = 25
palaeoanthropological
sites So the area of the carpet is 25π,
or roughly 78.5 square metres.
5 The Hayden
Planetarium at the
Rose Center for Earth
and Space

The back pages Feedback
Full of hot air yours too. In future years, it is

more than probable that you will
Feedback tries insofar as possible look back on the reading of this
to steer clear of politics, but very column on this very day
occasionally we find ourselves as the moment your financial
sailing a little close to the wind. worries melted away, like ice caps
Never more so, perhaps, than this in a warming ocean.
week, as we report on the story For this is the week that we
that a US member of Congress has discovered the story of Frédéric
proposed a bill to ban the president Desnard, an employee at a Parisian
from using a nuclear weapon perfume maker who found
against a hurricane. himself so utterly underused at
You may feel that such a bill work that he sued his company
is unnecessary. That it ranks for for boredom. What’s more, he
senselessness alongside such won. €50,000, to be exact.
theoretical bits of legislation as Cash, of course, is a remedy
“Law to Prevent the President for boredom yet to be proven
From Hitting Their Head Repeatedly in a randomised controlled trial
Against the Sharp End of a Pencil” or (where do we sign up?). However,
“Law to Prevent the President from it would be nice compensation
Eating the Nuclear Football”. Yet for not doing any work.
Representative Sylvia Garcia The crux of the case, if we
disagrees. understand the report in The
In light of President Donald Times correctly, is that companies
Trump’s alleged suggestion, during have a responsibility to ensure
last year’s hurricane season, that their employees are treated with
every atmospheric weather respect – which includes,
phenomenon is secretly in want of apparently, ensuring that they
a radioactive explosion somewhere have adequate work to do.
in its insides, she decided to write Got a story for Feedback? If any of our editors are reading
legislation to ensure such a thing Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or this – which, if past experience
never takes place. The bill, New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES is anything to go by, is a slim
according to The Washington Post, Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed prospect – do please rest assured
has no co-sponsors and no hearing that we have plenty to do, thank
date, and “appears unlikely to make you, and our sudden interest
it out of committee anytime soon”. use of “firm” there to indicate both which have turned out to be not in job vacancies in the French
Still, it provides useful publicity the solidity of the choices and the only bristling with subpar scansion perfume industry is nothing
for Representative Garcia, and a corporate nature of their use). but positively libellous. In the words to be concerned about.
timely reminder that he who sows “Content” in its noun form is of the poet:
the wind with uranium-235 must high on the list, referring as it does Bash and forth
reap the whirlwind of congressional to anything from a 10,000-word At Feedback we love our subeditors
disapproval. long read on the nature of reality (Indeed, whosoever’s gainsaid We wade with studiously affected
to an influencer campaign on it errs), reluctance back into the quagmire
Words, words, words behalf of Uber Eats. “Reach out” But suffice it to say, of nominative determinism to
and “circle back” are there, as is the If our jokes are the prey, rescue a contribution emailed in
A colleague this week informs us covid-19 staple “the new normal”. It is they who embody the predators. from Nina Baker. The subject of
of the existence of a website called It’s good clean fun but contains her correspondence, in her words,
the Buzzsaw, which includes an comparatively few surprises. The discussion has set Feedback’s “could not resist working on the
online tool designed to strip the Which got Feedback wondering: creative juices flowing, and so we performance of explosions and
buzzwords out of your copy. which chronically overused words throw the gauntlet down to our projectiles – becoming the foremost
We have been sorely tempted to are you tired of hearing? What readers: you suggest the theme, the ballistics expert of his day, devising
feed our columns into its system alternatives would you prefer? opening line or the scientific paper, test equipment that remained in
but are worried about having an Let us know at the usual address. and we will produce the limerick. active use for over 80 years on
empty page returned to us with Results to follow. the Royal Artillery’s proof and
the annotation “must try harder”. Rhyme time experimental testing ranges at
Every year, the Buzzsaw Eau de boredom Shoeburyness”.
announces its awards for the most The New Scientist chat channels The individual’s name? Reverend
overused jargon du jour, and this roused themselves briefly this week This week may well turn out to Francis Bashforth. ❚
JOSIE FORD
year’s list contains some firm to indulge in a spate of ill-judged mark a turning point in Feedback’s
favourites (note the clever double limerick composition, the fruits of working life. And, perhaps, in Written by Gilead Amit

The back pages The last word
At what point in the

Rest stop
day do our faces get
Why didn’t we evolve to let parents the most UV light?
get more sleep? Wouldn’t offspring
with well-rested parents be more with autism illustrate just how
likely to survive? unpleasant it can be when it is
difficult to switch off awareness.
Ann Bliss Some people may feel constantly
London, UK bombarded by the noise of a
I write from my experience as a crowded environment or are
ADAM HESTER/GETTY IMAGES

mother and a former midwife. excruciatingly aware of scratchy
I would point out that, for most labels on clothing.
of human history, babies have The really interesting
been breastfed and slept close thing about habituation is
to their mothers. In such cases, that it wears off in the absence
there would have been very little of the familiar stimulus. During
disturbance to the mother’s sleep lockdown, for instance, an
pattern by the baby, as it can find This week’s new questions aquarium in Japan asked the
the breast by itself quite readily. public to contact them via
Our social and domestic Rising tide How are sea levels measured over time? FaceTime so that a group of
arrangements, and their impact Joel Epstein, Boston, Massachussetts, US shy garden eels could be
on child-rearing, are a relatively shown human faces.
recent phenomenon. Within a Sun down UV radiation is strongest when the sun is highest. These timid tropical animals
family, one person may do most Is this down to the angle of the sun or UV attenuation? had become accustomed to the
of the childcare at night. This When does my face get the most UV? Paul Gulliver, London, UK presence of aquarium visitors,
arrangement can leave parents but in their absence, they were
feeling socially isolated during reverting to a habit of retreating
most of the day. quite deeply while we walked and of a novel stimulus, but a into their burrows on the rare
The saying “it takes a whole he happily became a night owl. He blunting of our ability to respond occasions when a human
village to raise a child” springs to had trained me to do his bidding to familiar sensory stimuli. It is approached their tank.
mind when considering the needs because I was too tired to object. found throughout the animal Smell and taste habituation can
of parents and the importance One night, he managed to get kingdom and right down to the be particularly useful. Tuning out
of social support to parents and out of the pram and onto the road. level of unicellular organisms, and familiar household odours allows
their babies. In generations past, I had moved on several hundred may even occur in plants, such us to be aware of new smells, like
others would have been around to metres before something woke me as mimosa. smoke, gas leaks and that potato
help take care of babies so that, if up and I found him rolling happily Some species of mimosa can going bad at the bottom of the bag.
need be, the parents could rest in the gutter. Fortunately, at 2 am, become accustomed to sensory Yet even though habituation
during the day. there was no traffic on the road. stimuli caused when they are exhausts our perception of a
The problem lies with stroked and so will cease to smell, the memory remains. If
our domestic and societal Fresh smell fold their leaves in response. In we later reconnect with the same
arrangements, not with a baby’s animals, a classic experiment in odour, we can often be extremely
biological and emotional needs. I notice the smell of perfume habituation involves repeatedly aware of its presence.
I have used for a while less than poking snails until they stop This recollection even appears
Jane Horton a new one. Is our sense of new retracting their eyes stalks. in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost
West Launceston, smells keener? What’s the Habituation is a form of Time, in which tasting madeleine
Tasmania, Australia evolutionary benefit of this? learning and its prevalence cake crumbs triggers the narrator’s
I assumed, when there were suggests that it is pretty vital memories. Ex-smokers often
babies in my life, that they wanted Christine Warman for survival. This may be because have a sharp response to the
to ensure that their parents were Hinderwell, North Yorkshire, UK being constantly aware of all smell of cigarettes, too.
too tired to get up to anything that This phenomenon is popularly the input from one’s senses is In the case of perfume,
might result in competition in the termed “nose blindness”. It exhausting, to say the least, and changing to another scent
form of another baby in the family. occurs when you cease to be so it is far better to pay more for a while, especially one that
This would ensure that a baby had aware of familiar smells, attention to the unfamiliar. is dissimilar, will cause the
a better chance of survival. regardless of whether they are The experiences of some people original to regain its appeal. ❚
However, I developed another pleasant or unpleasant. Nose
theory when I had a baby that blindness is an example of
didn’t sleep. Living on a quiet sensory habituation, which can Want to send us a question or answer?
country road, I pushed the child involve any of the senses. Email us at lastword@newscientist.com
in his pram for many kilometres, Sensory habituation isn’t Questions should be about everyday science phenomena
night after night. I learned to rest so much an increased awareness Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms

In an ever-changing world, no-one

knows what will happen next.
But we can help
you prepare for it.
Bournemouth University Disaster

Management Centre (BUDMC) is
working with governments, emergency
services, the military and international
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