New Scientist - June 11, 2016

7/26/2019 New Scientist - June 11, 2016

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BALLOONIVERSEThe exotic particle makin

space expand like crazy

MEET THE BAGGINSESNew bones from thancient hobbit human

TEST-TUBE HUMANWhat could we learn from

a synthetic genome

OLYMPIAN TASK How to Zika-proof the Rio games

STRIKING BACK Stem cell shot reverses stroke damage

Whats really worse for your health?FAT VSCARBS

WEEKLYJune 11 - 17, 2016

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Whatsthe future of business?

We atNew Scientistdecided totake a look at how threeof its key

drivers energy, automation and money mightchange over the

next decade. To do that, weve asked three writers with a deep

understanding of these areasto tell us how they think thefuture

could unfold, and howit might confound our initial expectations.

In this report,authorDavid Wolmanlooksat thefuture of money

in a world increasinglydivorcingitself from centralised institutions.

With technologyalready disrupting the roleof the middleman,

he examineshow long banks can expect to eke outan existence.

By a subtractive process, Wolman identifies howmuchof banking

is socially uselessactivity ripefor technological disruption.Even

ostensibly specialist products like initial public offeringsand

insurance are being brought to themasses.He also sees a threat

over the horizon to theUS dollarsgloballyprivileged status.

To downloadyourfreecopy, register online

at newscientist.com/gamechangers.

Sally Adee

Editor, GameChangers

GET YOURCOPY

NEWSCIENTIST.COM/GAMECHANGERS

GAMECHANGERSMONEY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author of our third GameChangers report in the series is David Wolman,who wrote the bookThe End of Money. Wolman is a contributing editor at Wired,and has written for a range of international publications includingThe New YorkTimes, The Wall Street JournalandNew Scientist

IN THIS EXCLUSIVENEW REPORT F IND OUT:

Why trust in traditional financeinstitutions has broken down, leading tosurprising shifts in the currency markets

Why control of credit is shifting frombanks to individuals with the advent ofdisruptive technology and new P2Pbusiness models

Where is the smart money heading?Find out about the rise of the blockchainand understand whats driving it

INTRODUCING THE THIRD IN A NEW SERIESOF WHITE PAPERS FROM NEW SCIENTIST


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11 June 2016 | NewScientist | 3

OTT Volume 230 No 3077This issue online

newscientist.com/issue/3077

Coming next weekMind over matterIs dark energy just a trick of geometry?

False convictionForensic flaws that might get you jailed

CoverimageStuart Ford/Shutterstock

28

36

Why thecosmosis moving faster

Mysteryneutrinoscouldbe speedinguptheuniverses growth

8

RENAUD

VIGOUR

T

YURIARCURS/GETTY

Fat vs carbs

Whats really worsefor your health?

Not fromaround here

The alien invadersredesigning oursolar system

News

On the cover

Features

8 Ballooniverse

The exotic particle

helping space expand

16 Test-tube human

What could welearnfrom

a synthetic genome?

10 Meetthe Bagginses

Hobbit bonesrevealed

19 OlympianTask

Zika-proofing the games

12 Striking back

Stem cells to help stroke

News6 UPFRONT

Europe and Australia hammered by floods

and storms. Gravity probesperfectfree fall.

Quantum test in space

8 THIS WEEK

We domesticated dogstwice. Fossilsshed

lighton Flores hobbit. Thegeneticcodefor

success. Stemcell injection reverses stroke

damage. Eels deliver electric shock in mid-air

14 INBRIEF

Giraffe fades to white. Virus fixes liver cells.

Sponge rocks holding Martian methane

Technology22 Cheap satellites andAI give intelto farmers.

Chip design quirks make unhackable devices

Analysis16 Writing our genome What will building

a humangenome fromscratchachieve?

18 COMMENT

How Donald Trump threatens the climate.

Is Elon Musk right, are wein a simulation?

19 INSIGHT

How to Zika-proof theRio Olympics

Features28 Fatvs Carbs (see above, left)

33 Life onthe edge The surprisinghotspots

where evolution flourishes

36 Not fromaroundhere (see left)

40 PEOPLE

The archaeologist battling treasure hunters

Culture

44 Emerging minds What happens when youtesthow animals think ontheirownterms?

45 Tomorrow person Bucky Fullers visions

of the future are still beguiling

Regulars52 LETTERS Free will or free choice?

56 FEEDBACK Uranus land-grabbers

57 THE LASTWORDJust lion around

Aperture26 The bizarre beauty of lifesaving objects

Leader5 The row over dietary fat exposes bigger

problems with health advice


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11 June2016|NewScientist |5

L

The consensus on fat,carbs and health has beenunder pressure for yearsand may need revising

MISQUOTING Hippocrates todefend yourself against charges ofmedical illiteracy is not the bestPR strategy, but those are thedepths to which the UKs NationalObesity Forum sank last week.

Forced onto the defensive afterpublishing a controversial reporton dietary fat and health, thepressure group tried to pour

(cooking) oil on troubled watersby claiming that the father ofmedicine advised eating richfoods to stay thin, includingfatty meats, especially fromgrass-fed animals. Where theobesity forum got this from is notclear, but the wording is verysimilar to that on a site promotinggrass-fed meat for weight loss.

To be fair, Hippocrates didadvise overweight people to eatrich foods. But he also said theyshould only eat one meal a day,

drink wine, refrain from bathingand sleep on a hard bed. Grass-fedmeat doesnt get a look-in.

This less than rigorousapproach to the facts was largelywhat got the obesity forum intotrouble in the first place. Critics ofthe report calledEat Fat, Cut TheCarbs and Avoid Snacking To

Reverse Obesity and Type 2

Diabetes say that the authorscherry-picked the evidence andignored important studies. PublicHealth England condemned the

Unhealthy adviceThe row over dietary fat reveals deeper problems

report as irresponsible andmisleading. The British DieteticAssociation also rejected it.

Flawed it may be, but the reportcontains much food for thought(see page 28). The consensus onfat, carbs and health has beenunder pressure for years, andthere is growing evidence that theorthodox advice needs revising.

The forum probably jumped thegun, but may eventually prove tohave been broadly correct. Thereis now a pressing need for arigorous review by a body such asPublic Health England: despite its

official-sounding title, theNational Obesity Forum is a

self-appointed charitableorganisation, something that didnot come across clearly in thecoverage of the report.

The row also exposes deeperproblems with dietary advice.Scientific disagreements aside,the protests over the report werelargely based on assumptionsabout what the general publicwould take away from it. Healthofficials fretted that we would beleft confused, or use the report asan excuse to eat fatty food and

quit counting calories. The worstoutcome would be for people toconclude that the health policedont know what they are talkingabout, and stop even trying to leada healthy lifestyle.

These assumptions about howmost of us might respond tohealth advice are reasonable, butthey are only assumptions, and

quite patronising ones at that.They take it for granted thathealth advice has to be clear andunequivocal, even if the scienceitself is unclear and equivocal.

What would be really useful issome detailed research on howpeople respond to healthmessages, so that genuinely well-intentioned experts, includingthe obesity forum, understandhow to share their wisdom withus. We know from research oncommunicating climate change,

for example, that simply handingdown scientific facts doesnt workand often backfires. There is noreason to assume that healthadvice is any different.

One thing that scientific bodiesmust do is refrain from appealingto ancient wisdom a strangelyeffective but ultimately self-defeating rhetorical device.Hippocrates was way ahead of histime, but his time was more than2000 years ago. Modern sciencecan do better.

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6 | NewScientist | 11 June2016

WHEN gardenswimming poolsareuprooted andwashedinto thesea,you knowa stormis serious.

Thats what happened in Sydneythisweek afterthecity wasbattered fortwo nights byferocious winds,torrential rainand waves upto 8 metreshigh.

AsNewScientistwent to press,four people hadbeen killed, andtherewaswidespread damage,floodingand disruption as thestormheaded south, withfloodingstill setto peakin Tasmania.

Luxuryproperties in Collaroy

Beach losthalf their backyards aswellas thatswimmingpooland the beach itself narrowedby50 metres.

Ian Turner, director of theWater Research Laboratoryat theUniversity of NewSouthWales,says sand levels on the beachdropped by between2 and5metres, with 150 cubic metres

ITSthe next steptowards anunhackable global network. Inthelatestdemo,a tiny CubeSat

satellite hasproducedandmeasured photonsthat all havethe same quantum properties.

The test paves thewayforsatellitesthat could keepmessages secureover longerdistances than ever before,between NewYork andLondon,forexample. Bothparties couldexchange encrypted messages,with thesatellite beamingeach

...as Ozisbattered Quantumsatellite

OT

Climate change may mean

more such storms nearinhabited shorelines in thefuture but fewer overall

washedback into the seafromeverymetre of theshoreline.

TheAustralianBureau ofMeteorology warned last Fridaythat thestormwould be

unusuallyfiercebecause of a rarecombinationof monster wavescalledkingtides andtheusualseasonallow pressure zones calledeastcoastlows that routinelydevelopat thistime of year.

In a commentaryposted online,Acacia Pepler,who studiestheeffectof climatechangeon eastcoast lows at theUniversity ofNewSouthWales ClimateChangeResearch Centre, saidthat thereareusually sevenor eight suchlows peryear.Her modelling

studiessuggest that thecurrentstorms arent a resultof climatechange.

If anything, eastcoastlows willdecline overallby 25 to 40per centby the end ofthe century, she says.But theymay havea largerimpact,becoming more frequentin warmer months, occurringcloserto inhabited shorelines,andbeboostedfurtherifsealevelscontinue to rise. That meansmore properties are vulnerableto storm surges, she writes.

of them photonsthat they coulduseto create an uncrackable key.

Eventhe satellitewouldntbeableto eavesdrop onthemessages unlikecurrent

networks, whichrely on trust.This test is thesecondattemptto launch a delicate quantumexperimentintospace by theteambasedat theNationalUniversityof Singapore. Butalreadythingsare going betterthanfirst time round theequipment wason board anAntaresrocket thatexploded6 seconds after launch in 2014.

Europe hit by floods...A BARRAGE of heavy rain across

France and Germany last week hasforced thousands to evacuate their

homes and left at least 10 people

dead. One region received the

equivalent of six weeks of rain in

a single day.

A weather phenomenon called an

omega block is behind the deluge.

In this case, air currents known as

the jet stream have kinked in such

a way as to create a large area of

low pressure over western Europe.

How this fits into the broader

trend of a changing climate is

unclear. Last weeks flooding

event is not unprecedented but

it is unusual, says a spokesperson

at the Centre for Hydrology and

Ecology in Wallingford, UK.

Warming temperatures can make

the air hold more water and that

in turn could mean a greater chancefor floods, says Nigel Arnell at the

University of Reading, UK.

Yet natural fluctuations obscure

the effect that a long-term trend like

climate change has on a single event.

And there are other factors that might

set the stage for more floods for

example, changes in land use.

Also, shifting air currents such

as the current omega block can be

affected by things like temperature

anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean, ice

cover in the Arctic, or air temperature

variability in the tropics. Its less clear

how thats going to be affected by

climate change, Arnell says. However,

he thinks its more likely than not

that the risk of floods will increase

in western Europe over time.

Paris under wate

Climate on leaders minds

IT WOULD firmly put the Paris climatedeal on the road to becoming a reality.

In his meeting with US president

Barack Obama on Tuesday, Indias

prime minister, Narendra Modi,

was expected to announce that his

country would ratify the 2015 Paris

agreement to limit global warming.

This would clear a key hurdle of

needing nations accounting for at

least 55 per cent of global carbon

emissions to officially join, or ratify,

the agreement before it takes effect.

Obama has already said he woulduse his executive power to get the

US to ratify it.

But Indias ability to meet its

ambitious climate goals depends on

US investment in Indias developmen

of clean energy, experts said ahead

of the meeting. Indias energy needs

are huge: some 240 million people in

the country still have no access to

electricity. A clean-energy partnership

was also on the discussion agenda

for Modi and Obamas meeting.


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11 June 2016 |NewScientist |7

ITSthe ultimate sky dive. Two2-kilogram cubes of goldandplatinum floatinginsideaspacecraft are nowexperiencingthetruestfreefall ever achievedby human-made objects.

The EuropeanSpace AgencysLISAPathfinder mission isdesigned to testthe technologyneededfor a gravitational-wave

observatoryin space. Predicted byAlbert Einsteinalmosta centuryago, suchripplesin space-time

are causedby collisions betweenmassiveobjects suchas black holes.

ESAhaslong-term plans fora trioof spacecraft called LISA,which willfly1 million kilometres

apart andpickup anychanges indistancebetween them caused bypassing gravitationalwaves. LISAPathfinders test cubesare just 38centimetres apart, but measuringthat distance to within a trillionthof a metre, or less than the widthof an atom, as required for LISAinvolves the same principles.

The cubes were released withinthe spacecraft shortly afterlaunch, and are now in free falltogether, meaning they are barelymoving with respect to each

other. Thefirst results,released onTuesday, show that thespacecraftcanmeasurethe distancebetweenthecubesdown to thefemtometrescale 100 timesbetter thanplanned. That means plans for thelarger observatorycan go ahead.The mostimportantmessageis,wecan gowith LISA, said missionleadStefano Vitale of theUniversity of Trento, Italy.

Floating free

APPHOT

O/EVAN

VUCCI

Fornew stories everyday, visitnewscientist.com/news

Cancer lotteryITStantalisingnewsfor peopleinEurope.A trial ofa cancer drug

called palbociclib hasgone well,butitsonly available in theUS.

Results ofa trial of666 womenwithadvancedbreast cancer were

presented at theannualmeetingof the American SocietyofClinicalOncology(ASCO)thisweek.They revealed that

palbociclibcombined withexistingdrug letrozoleincreasedprogression-freesurvival for amedian of 24.8 monthscomparedwith14.5 monthsfor womentaking letrozolealone.

Palbociclib hasbeen availableintheUSformorethanayear,but you still cant get it inEurope.Thedrugs maker, Pfizer, appliedfor a Europeanlicencelast August,butthe EuropeanMedicinesAgency is yet tomakea decision.

Evenif the drug is approved,UK charity Breast Cancer Nowhas voiced concerns that the$10,000 a month price tag willstop the National Health Servicefrom funding the treatment.

Palbociclib is taken withletrozole to treat late-stageoestrogen receptor-positivebreast cancer the mostcommon form of this cancer.

60 SECONDS

Tropics tallest treeAt almost 90 metres tall, a Yellow

Meranti (Shorea faguetiana) tree in

the Maliau Basin Conservation Area

of Malaysia is probably the worlds

tallest tropical tree, say University

of Cambridge researchers. Its just

a few metres short of Londons Big

Ben. Trees in temperate regions, like

the giant redwoods, can grow up to

30 m taller, but no one knows why.

Enter the BEAMAn astronaut has floated into the

latest addition to the International

Space Station, an inflatable room

called the Bigelow Expandable

Activity Module. Jeff Williamsopened the hatch to BEAM on

Monday to check its sensors and

confirmed it is in pristine condition.

Star ternAn Arctic tern has claimed the record

for the longest ever migration, with

a 96,000 kilometre trip from the UK

to Antarctica and back. The 100 gram

bird wore a 0.7 g tracking device on

its leg so its route could be followed.

Its colony breeds in the Farne Islands

off Northumberland, and travelsto find food around the Southern

Ocean for nine months of the year.

Perky pensionersGood news for readers worrying

about old age recent increases

in life expectancy have been

accompanied by a greater increase

in disability-free years, driven by

better cardiovascular and vision

therapies. A report published by

the National Bureau of Economic

Research showed that between

1992 and 2008, life expectancy rose

by just over a year, while disability

free years rose by almost two.

Zuck gets hackedIf your password is password123,

youre not alone in your poor digital

hygiene. Facebook boss Mark

Zuckerberg had his Twitter and

Pinterest accounts hacked last

week, revealing that the password

dadada was used on both accounts.

Breast Cancer Now voicedconcerns that the $10,000price tag will stop the NHSfrom funding the drug

ESA/ATGMEDIALAB

The two may agree energy deal

In free fall

TINYplastic beads mayhavehadtheir day. A UK parliamentaryhearing this week will considerwhether the nation should followthe lead of the US by banningplastic microbeads in cosmeticproducts.

Between 16 and 86 tonnes ofplastic microbeads from facialexfoliants are washed down UKdrains every year, according to anew report by the Parliamentary

Office of Science and Technology.The beads are too small to befiltered by waste-water treatmentand end up being ingested byfish and other marine organisms,impairingtheir health.

Cosmetic companies needto clean up their act, says MaryCreagh, chair of the EnvironmentalAudit Committee,whichwill holdthehearing. Ifthey refuse toact, the Environmental AuditCommittee will consider callingfor a full ban on microbeads.

End of microbeads?

The spacecraft canmeasure the distancebetween the cubes downto the femtometre scale


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WE MUSTbe missingsomething.Theuniverseis expanding 9 percentfaster thanit should be.Either our bestmeasurementsarewrong,or a glimmer ofnewphysics is peekingthrough the

cracks of modern cosmology.If thats thecase, some

lightweight,near-light-speedparticles maybe missingfromour picture of theuniverse shortlyafterthe bigbang.But wemightbe in luck. Particlephysicists have

alreadyspent over a decadechasingsomethingthat fitsthebill:ghostly neutrinos unlikethethree alreadyknown.

Fora cosmologicalquandary,theissue isnt that complicated:twowaysof measuring howquicklythe universe is flyingapartare coming upwithincreasingly different numbers.

The first looksat dimples inthecosmicmicrowave background, aglow left behind bythe hot, soupyuniverse justa fewhundred

thousand years after thebig bang.Thesize of these fluctuations letus calculate howquickly theuniverse wasexpanding when itbegan some13.7 billion years ago.

Theother methodmeasureshowdistantgalaxies appear torecede fromus as theuniverseexpands which led to thediscovery of dark energy, amysterious outward pressurepushing the universe apart.

The trouble comes when wecompare the two estimates. They

dont agree,saysAdam Riessof the Space Telescope ScienceInstitute in Baltimore, Maryland,one of the recipients of the 2011Nobel prize in physics for darkenergys discovery and an author

of a new paper pointing out thetension (arxiv.org/abs/1604.01424).

So what are we missing? Ourpicture of what the universe ismade of cant change much, sinceit agrees so well with observations.These show that the history of theuniverse has been a balancing actbetween just a few ingredients,which competed for dominanceas theuniverse stretched andchanged. Thismodel of the

cosmos hasbeen the mainstreamideafor years,but its showingsigns of strain.

Weve given these really smartkids,the young cosmologists,whatwe thoughtwas a prettygoodtoy,and nowtheyretrying to break it, says MichaelTurner at the University of

Chicago. Maybe they have.Would tweaking the ingredientsthemselves help make sense ofthe difference?

One possibility is that darkenergy is a little stronger than wethought. Or it could have rampedup over time, giving expansiona bigger push. Thats not a very

appealing theory, though, saysAvi Loeb of Harvard University.The measured strength of dark

energy is already a big headachehe says. Letting it vary in timewould add another, perhapsunjustifiable, wrinkle. That woulbe twice as much pain, Loeb says

But the deeper problem withdarkening dark energy is that itdoesnt do enough to bridge thegap between the ancient andmodern measurements. Fiddlingwith dark energy enough to help

would put it into disagreementwith other observations. You canonly do this so much, Riess says.

The easiest solution, says Riessis dark radiation: small, unknownparticles similar to neutrinos,moving close to the speed of lightaround the beginning of time. Thiis the period when effects fromundiscovered particleswouldhave been felt moststrongly(seeMissing Lithium, left).

In our current understanding,as the universe expanded, dark

T W

The cosmic

expansion crisisWe may have already seen a particle pulling

the universes strings, saysJoshua Sokol

YURIARCURS/GETTY

Weve given these youngcosmologists a great toy,and theyre trying to breakit. Maybe they have.

MISSING LITHIUM

A fresh particle may solve another

mystery related to the big bang:

why the element lithium is muchless common than it should be.

All heavier elements were forged

during the lives and deaths of stars,

whereas lighter materials like helium,

beryllium and lithium were produced

around the big bang. But lithium

poses an accounting problem: the

early universe had between a half

and a fifth of the amount we think

should have been produced when

radioactive beryllium decayed.

Now, Andreas Goudelis at the

Institute of High Energy Physics in

Vienna, Austria, and colleagues think

they have just the thing to explain it:a light, short-lived particle with the

power to interact with quarks the

constituents of atomic nuclei.

The new particle could have

been gobbled up by beryllium atoms,

destroying them before they had

time to decay into lithium (Physical

Review Letters, doi.org/bjm6). It is

predicted to stick around for just a

few minutes or hours not long

enough to alter the abundances

of other elements.


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11 June2016| NewScientist | 9

energyfilled thespace formed,withmatter becoming moredilute. Through a warof attrition,the outward-pushing dark energycameto dominate matter.

Weaker brakes

Butifsomemasswastrappedinlight, fast-movingparticles, darkenergywouldhavewon evenmore quickly.Thatsbecauseas the universeexpanded,stretching space wouldhave

shiftedthe particles to lowerenergies, weakeningtheirpull.

Adding thisingredient intothestandard account of theearly universe could bring themodernand primitive expansionrates back inline not becausethefoot on theacceleratorwasheavierthan expected, butbecauseback then thebrakeswere a little weaker.

There may bea chancethatwe have already glimpsed a darkradiation particle. For years, we

Inthis section

Fossilsshedlight on Floreshobbit,page10

What will buildinga human genomeachieve?, page 16

Cheap satellites and AI give intel to farmers, page 22

have seen hints of so-calledsterile neutrinos, which wouldinteract with gravity and the threeknown neutrinos, but little else.

Vexingly, measurements ruleout the simplest version of sterileneutrinos as our missingparticle.But there may be roomforsomething stranger still.

Lets say these neutrinos arenot truly sterile, says AlexanderFriedland at the Stanford LinearAccelerator in California.Theyhavetheir owninteractions, and

theyare part ofsomehiddensector some world which existsright under our noses but interactswith our world extremely weakly.

If so, such neutrinos could bethe missing ingredient. Andthrough neutrino experimentsand ever-better studies of theearly universe, we might knowwithin the next decade if a hiddensector of particles offers a way out.

This is where we are,Friedland says. There are hints,and they will be tested.

I see it!

A CANINE conundrum solved?

Itlooks asif dogs emergedfrom

notone, but twowolffamilies at

opposite endsof Eurasia.

Debate hasraged foryearsover

whethermans bestfriendcame from

Europeor Asia, withgenetic studies

finding conflictingresults. It now

appearsthat bothcampsmay be right.

LaurentFrantz attheUniversity of

Oxfordandhiscolleaguesconstructed

an evolutionarytimelineby comparing

thecompletegenomeof a 4800-year-

olddog skull from Irelandand

mitochondrial DNA samplesfrom

59ancientdogsthatlivedup to

14,000 years ago, withgenomes

of more than600 modern pooches

fromacrossEurasia.

Theresults show thatdogs

originated fromtwoseparatewolf

populationsin theeastern and

western halves of Eurasia. Then,

between 14,000 and6400 years

ago, people broughtAsian dogs

westwards, wherethey partially

replaced their Europeancounterparts.

Thismixingof lineagesis thereason

whypast geneticstudieshavebeen

difficultto interpret, saysFrantz.

Itwould have blurredthe signal.

Fewmoderndogs havepure

European or Asian roots,the study

shows. Anexampleof a breed with

largelyAsian lineageis theTibetan

mastiff, while German shepherds are

closelyalignedto ancient European

dogs (Science, doi.org/bjmp).

Mietje Germonpr at the Royal

Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

in Brussels says the dual-origin theory

is plausible. It reconciles two

hypotheses that dogs were either

domesticated in Europe and the Middle

East or in the Far East, she says.

The theory is also consistent with

archaeological evidence. Ancient dog

remainsfrommore than12,000 years

agohave beenfoundtowards the

eastern and western ends of Eurasia,

but not in the middle. Combined with

our DNA analyses, this observation

suggests that two distinct

populations of dogs were present in

eastern and western Eurasia during

the Palaeolithic period, says Frantz.

It is still unclear how dogs became

domesticated. Its not as simple as

Palaeolithic people choosing to take

wolf pups into their camps and trying

to domesticate them, Franz says.

Domestication was most likely a

long-term phenomenon that started as

a natural-selection process, whereby

wolves that were less wary of humans

were more likely to come closer to

camps and become domesticated.

Alice Klein

Mans best friend wasdomesticated twice

MIKESEGAR/REUTERS

Who gets the better deal?

New genetic evidence now

reconciles two opposingviews on the origins ofdomestic dogs


12/60


T W

Colin Barras

HAVEwe found the ancestors ofHomofloresiensis, akathehobbit?Perhaps.A newcacheof hobbit-like remainsuncoveredon theislandofFloresanswers at leastsomequestionsin thedecade-longquestto understandtheidentityand originsof thistinyancienthominin.

The hobbit stoodabout 1 metretall andthesingle skullfound sofar had a braincaseno larger thana chimpanzees. It lived around190,000to 50,000 years ago. Oneidea is thatit evolved froma smallspecieslikeH. habilis; anotherthata groupof largerH. erectusreachedFlores about 1 millionyears agoonly to shrink becauseof peculiar conditionson theisland. Or the hobbit may beasmall-bodiedmember of our own

species,with thesingle smallskulljustthe result of disease.The new remains sixteeth,

a fragment of jawboneand a tinypiece of skull dont settle theissue, but Yousuke Kaifu atTokyos National Museum ofNature and Science and hiscolleagues think the fossils backthe shrunkenH. erectustheory.

The 700,000-year-old fossils

were collected inthe Soa Basin onFlores, which wasan African-likesavannah at thetime. Thesimilaritieswiththe hobbit arestriking, sayKaifu.In particular,thejawbone, which theteam saysbelonged to anadult as thewisdom tooth it once housedhadfully erupted is just as small asits hobbitequivalents (Nature,DOI: 10.1038/nature17999).

I was stunned bythe extremesmallnessof these fossils,saysKaifu.

If the fossils are, in fact, oldermembers of the hobbit lineage,then Flores seems to have beentheir home for hundreds ofthousands of years. Thismeans

the hobbit has a muchdeeperevolutionary historythan wethought, says BernardWoodat the

GeorgeWashingtonUniversityinWashingtonDC.

Sowherediditcomefromoriginally? Kaifus team saysthe new jawbone has thecharacteristically thin, verticalshape ofH. erectus as opposed tothethicker, slightly curved shape

typical ofH. habilis jawbones.The evidence definitely tips thescale towards a close relationship

with early JavaneseHomoerectus, says team member Gerrvan den Bergh at the University oWollongong, Australia.

But not everyone is convincedthatH. erectuscould have shrunkfrom perhaps 170 centimetres tojust 1 metre, and shed about halfits adult brain volume in such ashort time. Robert Martin at theField Museum in Chicago thinkswe need to uncover a second tinyskull before he can even accept

that the hobbit is a distinctspecies. The new skull fragmentis too small to be informative so his scepticism remains.

The find is likely to refocus thefossil hunt on the Soa Basin in thhope that many more fossils fromaround 1 million years ago will bediscovered there, boosting ourunderstanding of this chapter inearly human evolution.

Hobbit ancestors

found on Flores

KINEZ

RIZA

People with higher scoreswere more likeable andfriendly, but not happieror healthier

NEXTtime youre celebrating an

achievement,youdbetter toast

yourgenes as wellas yoursupportive

spouse. Subtle variations across

thegenomecango a smallway to

predicting howlikelya person is to

have a prestigious job, a highincome

anda likeable personality in short,

tobe successful.

Thank yourgenes for someof your success

Daniel Belsky at Duke University

in Durham, North Carolina, has beenlooking at data on 918 New Zealanders

whose lives have been recorded in

detail since they were born.

The research builds on a 2013

study looking at the genetic profiles

of 126,000 people. It compared these

with the highest level of education

each person achieved. Researchers

found thousands of genetic variations

that together offered a way of

calculating a polygenic score that

accounted for 2 per cent of the

variation in educational attainment.

When Belsky and his colleagues

looked at the genetic profiles of theNew Zealanders, they found those

with higher polygenic scores not

only did better educationally, but

achieved more in other ways. By the

age of 38, they had more prestigious

occupations, higher incomes, more

assets and were better at managing

their finances.

The relationship held regardless of

level of education or socio-economicstatus. People with higher scores

were alsomore likeable and friendly,

butnot happier or healthier

(PsychologicalScience, doi.org/bjmj)

Its important to respect genetic

scores, says Robert Plomin at Kings

College London. When kids dont do

well, we blame their teachers and

parents, but kids vary genetically.

[A lowpolygenic score] doesnt

mean a kidcant learn,but we should

recognise that it might take more

effort. Jessica Hamzelou

The lost world of the hobbits

The tiny ancient humans are now thought to have lived on theIndonesian island of Flores at least 700,000 years ago

Savu Sea

Flores Sea

First hobbit remains foundin caves at Liang Bua, 2003

FLORES

New remains foundin Soa Basin

If the jaw fits


13/60

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Andy Coghlan

PEOPLE once dependent onwheelchairs following a strokeare walking again after receivinginjections of stem cells into theirbrains. Participants in the smalltrial also saw improvements intheir speech and arm movements.

One 71-year-old woman couldonly move her left thumb at thestart of the trial, says GarySteinberg, a neurosurgeon atStanford University who was partof the team that performed theprocedure on 18 participants.

She can now walk and lift herarm above her head.

Run by SanBio of MountainView, California, the trial is thesecond to test whether stem cellinjections into peoples brainscan help ease disabilities resultingfrom a stroke. Volunteers in thefirst trial, carried out by UKcompany ReNeuron, also showedmeasurable reductions indisability a year after receivingtheir injections and beyond.

Everybody in the latest trial

showed improvements. Theirscores on a 100-point scale for

evaluating mobility with 100being completely mobile improved on average by 11.4points, a margin consideredto make a real difference topeoples quality of life. The mostdramatic improvements werein strength, coordination, abilityto walk, the ability to use handsand the ability to communicate,especially in those whosespeech had been damaged bythe stroke,says Steinberg.

Steinberg injected geneticallymodified stem cells into regionsof the brain that control motormovements, which had beendamaged by the stroke. Eachparticipant received either 2.5,5 or 10 million cells.

The injected material consistedof mesenchymal stem cells taken

from thebone marrowoftwohealthy donors. SanBioengineeredthe cells to possessa gene calledNotch1, whichactivates factorsthat help braindevelopment in infants. Previousstudiesin rats revealed that theengineeredstemcells disappearwithina month,but notbefore

secreting growthfactors thatbuild connections between braincells andspawn thegrowthofnewblood vessels to nourishbrain tissue.

We think the cells change theadult brain so that its more likea babys brain, which repairsvery well, says Steinberg. Theyare secreting all sorts of growthfactors, which aid repair, andwhich also alter the immunesystem to get rid of inflammationthat otherwise obstructs repair.

In the ReNeuron trial, peoplereceived neural stem cellsextracted from the brains ofaborted fetuses, then multipliedto produce larger amounts.

Shamim Quadir, a spokesmanfor the UK Stroke Association, saysthe latest trial adds to a growingbody of early clinical evidencesuggesting stem cell treatmentcould promote recovery in peoplemonths, even years, after havinga stroke, bringing hope to manyliving with a disability.

MOREthan 200 years ago, naturalist

Alexandervon Humboldt recounted

seeing electriceels leaping outof the

water to attackhorses in theAmazon

Thestory wasthought tobe an

exaggeration nobody elsehad

witnesseda similar assault.Until now

Kenneth Catania from Vanderbilt

Universityin Nashville,Tennessee,

sawtheeelsjumpingwhenhe used

a net totransferthemto a different

tank inhis lab. Sometimesup tohalf

oftheir bodyrises out ofthe water,

he says. Thisisnt something electric

eelstypically do.

He initiallythoughtthe eels

weretrying toavoidthe net,but

then noticed that they kept their

chin in contact with it during a leap.

So he decided to record their electric

pulses by placing a conductive rod

in an aquarium. He then dunked

a fake alligator head laced with LEDs

into a tank, which would light up if

the eels shocked it.

When the eels jumped onto the

alligator head, the current it received

increased as the eels slithered highe

up,maintainingthe contactbetween

thetipof their electricorgan andthe

target(PNAS, doi.org/bjnr).

The eels have only a single

high-voltage setting, so cant tweak

the power output. To provide a greate

shock, they seem to be delivering an

attack directly, instead of sending a

current through the water. It seems

clear that the eels are actively

keeping contact with their chin to

try to target the object they see asa threat, says Catania.

It is a beautiful example of how

the eel has evolved a fairly simple

behaviour that exploits the basic

physics of electricity, says Bruce

Carlson of Washington University

in St Louis.

Catania thinks the behaviour is an

adaption to life in the Amazon, where

water retreats during the dry season,

leaving eels trapped in small bodies

of water and exposed to predators.

Sandrine Ceurstemont

Stem cells repairstroke damage

ONOKY

PHOTONONSTO

P/ALAMYSTOCKPHOTO

One woman could onlymove her left thumb... Shecan now walk and lift herarm above her head

Brain injections could help

Leaping eelsdeliver electric

shock in mid-air

T W


15/60

SPEAK TOOUR ARCTICSPECIALIST

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Youll be staying on the Kapitan Khlebnikovicebreaker accessing remote, ice-chokedregionsthat ordinary ships dare notnavigate. Experience what its like to battlethrough some of the toughest ice in theworld. Enjoy aerial views of petrified forestsand sweeping landscapes from the shipstwo on-board helicopters. Excursions to

iceberg-filled fjords on Zodiac boats willgiveyou memories to treasure forever.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield shot to worldwidefame in September 2013 when he performedSpace Oddityon the International SpaceStation. During various missions, totalling166 days, he helped to run scientificexperiments and walked in space twice. Onthis trip, he hosts a science-based varietyshow that blends knowledge, music and

comedy as well as providing a glimpse intothe adventures of an astronaut.

On shore, youll visit Arctic deserts,breathtaking fjords and traditionalcommunities. Enjoy hikes across the tundra,which comes alive during the brief summermonths. Discover how giant meteoriteskickstarted the regions Iron Age. Learnabout the valiant explorers who gave theirlives searching for the Northwest Passage.

Watch out for magnificent seabirds, walrusand polar bears.

2 2 A U G U S T 8 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6


16/60


ITMIGHTbe small,but its a verybigdeal. A lens built from light-warpingmetamaterials is thinnerthan thewaves of light it focuses.

Ina normal lens,a curvedglasssurface a fewmillimetresor evencentimetres thickredirectslightraysto a commonfocal point.Toimprove theimage,you haveto keep adding glass layers.

Metamaterials, by contrast,canbend light towardsa common

point using structures that areas small or smaller than thewavelengths of thelight wavesthemselves. Our lensis flat, butI call it virtualcurvature,saysReza Khorasaninejad,whodesignedthe new lens with ateam at HarvardUniversity.

Using a beamof electrons,theteam carvednanofins600-nanometre-tall blocksthattogether resemblethe worlds

smallestStonehenge outof ablock of titanium dioxide. Acrossthat lens, thenanofins are rotatedat different angles to catch thepolarised light, whichlets thempulllight rays together.

They tested three lenses, tunedto red,green,and violet light.Eachcouldfocus light moresharplythan a 55-mm-thick Nikonmicroscope lenswith similaroptical properties (Science,doi.org/bjkb). The next step is toexpandthelenss colour range.

YIN

G

GUO

AND

COLLEAGUES

How thehipster chickengotits handsomebeard

THEhipster chickenssecret isout:nowweknowhowit

gotits beard. TheHuiyangbeardedchickenisa famous

local breed, saysXiaoxiangHuatthe ChinaAgricultural

University inBeijing.

WhenHu andhiscolleaguessearchedfor thegenes

thatcontrol thedevelopmentofbeardsinchickens,they

foundthata complexmutation switcheson theHoxB8

gene inthe skin cellsofa chickens chin (PLoSGenetics,

doi.org/bjkd). Thegenemakesthemgrow longfeathers

toform a handsomebeard.They alsodevelopmutton

chopscalled muffsto goalongwithit.

Hoxgenesarefamousfor their rolein regulatingspine

andlimbgrowthin animals fromfish tothegreatapes.

IfHoxB8controls feathers onthese chickens faces,its

possiblethat Hoxgenesareresponsiblefor morethan

justan animals basicbodyplan,saysCheng-MingChuong

attheUniversityofSouthernCalifornia.

Perhapssomecontrol externalbody characteristics

like skinand feathers, saysChuong,includingthe

plumageofshowy speciessuchas birds ofparadise

andpeacocks. Previous studiesshowedthatsome

Hoxgenesguidehairdevelopmentin mice.

Itcould alsomean thatthosegenesguidepatterns

ofskinand hair inhumans,too.I thinkHoxgenesare

a goodcandidate, hesays. Humansreallyarenot that

different fromchickens.

Lensisthinner thanthe light it bends

Eating planetsmakesstars go pink

A STAR is what it eats. Consuminga planet or two earlyin itslifemaexplain why someyoung starsariron-rich andthose habits canchangeits colour.

Emanuele Tognelli andPierGiorgioPrada Moroni at theUniversityof Pisacompared whahappenswhen planets of varioussizes from Earth-like to 50 timemoremassive getenveloped bythe outer layer ofa young star.

Thesimulations showed thatswallowing oneor moreplanets

containingiron is enoughtochangethe chemical make-up ofthe star,givingit a reddish tint similar to howflamingos becomepinker withevery shrimptheyslurp(arxiv.org/abs/1605.07920)

Sincethishappens earlyon inastars evolution, its hard to sayifmorematurestars hadplanet-eating habitsin their youth. Butits possiblethatour sun ate oneor more planets long ago,theteamsays.

Desert plant loves atipple from the air

TAKE a leaf out of this book.A common desert moss suckswater directly out of the airinstead of from the ground. Thediscovery could be used to inspireways of collecting clean drinkingwater in developing countries.

Most desert plants, including

cacti, rely on extensive rootsystems to mop up scarcegroundwater. But the desert mosSyntrichia caninerviscollects freswater straight from theatmosphere.

Tiny fibres attached to thetips of the moss leaves, knownas awns, allow S. caninervistoharvest fog and mist droplets,says Tadd Truscott of Utah StateUniversity, who filmed the plantdrinking behaviour (NaturePlants, doi.org/bjm2).


17/60


Wild giraffe turnsghostly white

ITS a curious case ofa fadinggiraffe. ZoeMuller atthe

Rothschilds GiraffeProject has

reportedthe firstknowncase of

an adult wildgiraffeturningwhite.

Ifirststartedto seea few white

spots appear on theanimals coat

back inNovember2009,and was

puzzled asI hadneverseenthis

before, saysMuller, whostudied

thegiraffein theSoysambu

Conservancy in Kenya. Over the

nextsix yearsMullersaw thewhite

patchesgrow and spread (African

JournalofEcology, doi.org/bjkf).

Therehasnever been a

documented caseof a giraffe

turning white over time.

Theskin condition is called

vitiligo, where the skin gradually

loses its pigment. The condition

affects people, too, and Michael

Jackson is thought to have had it.

In the case of the giraffe, Muller

thinks a skin infection might be to

blame, as the giraffe had been

scratching itself excessively

before it started changing colour.

Thegiraffe is aliveandwell, and

appears to be unaffectedby its

unusual skincolour.

ButMullerfears that such an

infection should it spread could

havea serious impactuponthe

survivalof theRothschilds giraffe

subspecies, of whichthereare only

1100 leftin thewild. Itcould reduce

their camouflage, forexample.

Rockshold Marss methane hostage

IT COULDbe a blow for thosewho

believetheres life on theRed Planet.

Spongy minerals atthe surface,not

living organisms, could be releasingMarssmysteriousmethane.

Methanegas, whichchiefly

emerges frombiological processes,

wasidentifiedon Mars in2003.

Because it doesnt hangaroundfor

long,something muststill have

beenproducing it.

But a newstudy is hypothesising

thatthe methaneis actuallyvery old

and has beenlocked away,perhaps

forbillionsof years, occasionally

pulsing into theatmosphere.

Olivier Mousis at theMarseille

Observatoryin Franceand his

colleagues suggest thatthe methane

isbeingstoredin a reservoir ofzeolites: sponge-like minerals with

microscopic holes and channelsthat

easily trapand releasegases (arxiv.

org/abs/1605.07579).

On Earth, theseform in volcanic

rocksor materials, such asash

exposed to water. Evidencesuggests

theRedPlanethad a watery past,

so its reasonable to expect thatit

supportedzeolites,too although

despite30 years of searching, we

haventfoundany yet.

FROM foeto friend.A modifiedvirus canrepair diseasedlivers

byturningbad cellsintogoodones. Themethodcould onedayoffer a lifelineto thousands ofpeople withliverfailure.

Thetreatmenttargets liverfibrosis,the progressivescarringof the liver that leadsto organ failure.Fibrosis occurswhen healthy cells calledhepatocytes are damagedbyalcohol anddisease.The gapsleft bythese cellsare filled withmyofibroblasts,which generatescartissue fromcollagen.

Eventually, the livercantgeneratenewhepatocytes quickly enough

to counteractthe scartissuedamage,and theorgan fails.

Holger Willenbringof theUniversityof California, SanFrancisco, andhis colleagues haveworkedout a way totransformmyofibroblastsinto healthyhepatocytes using a cocktail ofliver gene switchescalledtranscriptionfactors.

They packed the transcriptionfactorsinside an adeno-associatedvirus, andusedit like a Trojanhorseto get inside the

myofibroblastsin mice withliverdamage.Once inside,the virus

spits outthe transcriptionfactors,whichtransform thecells intohepatocytes.

Thetreatmentincreased thenumberof healthy cells, andreduced thecollagen content oftherodentsliversby about athird improving liver function(Cell StemCell, doi.org/bjkc).

We think thecombination ofmaking morehepatocytes andreducing collagen is themostpromising approachto treatingliverfibrosis,saysWillenbring.

Trojanhorse virusturns failinglivers into healthyorgans

Brain drainmakesyou acton impulse

WEVE all been there: after a toughmental slog, your brain feels asknackered as your body does aftera hard workout.

Now we may have pinpointedone of the brain regions worn outby a mentally taxing day and it

seems to also affect our willpower,so perhaps we should avoidmakingimportant decisionswhenmentally fatigued.

Ina small trial,BastienBlainatINSERM inParisand hiscolleagues askedvolunteerstospend six hours doing trickymemorytasks, whileperiodicallychoosing either a small sum ofcash now,or a larger amountafter a delay.

As theday progressed, peoplebecame more likely toact on

impulseand to pickan immediatereward.This didnt happenin thegroups that spent timedoingeasier memory tasks, readingorgaming.For those engagedindifficult work, fMRIbrain scansshoweda decreasein activityin the middle frontal gyrus, abrain region involved in decision-making (PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1520527113). If this area isbecoming less excitable, thatcould impair peoples ability todelay gratification, says Blain.

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


18/60


WHATI cannotcreate,I donotunderstand.Lastweek, 25 leadingsynthetic biologists decidedit wastimeto follow RichardFeynmansfamouscredo.

After nearlytwodecades spentporing over the 3 billion lettersor base pairs thatmakeup thehumangenome, theyannounced

a 10-year planto chemicallysynthesise one.Reading thegenomecan onlyget you so far.Atsomepoint you haveto buildit,says Susan Rosser of theMammalianSynthetic BiologyResearchCentreat theUniversityof Edinburgh, UK, anda co-authoron thepaper outlining theplan.

Theteam, which countsamongitsleaders themaverickgeneticistGeorge Church, says it is aimingto launch theambitious initiative

thisyear,dependingon raisingan initial 100million.The primary goal ofthe Human

GenomeProject-Write,as it isknown,is to engineer largegenomes of upto 100 billion

basepairs, includingwholegenomeengineering of humancelllines andother organismsof agricultural andpublichealthsignificance, the teamwrites. This willrequiretechnologicaldevelopmentearlyon inthe projectto propel

large-scalegenome designand engineering(Science,doi.org/bjmv).

Theartificial genomewontbe derivedfrom anyone person,but will becreatedusingcomputer-aideddesign oneofthemain playersis software

company Autodesk. Chunksofsynthetic DNAcould then be putinto cell lines, like thoseusedtotest drugs,or intoE.coli bacteria,theworkhorse of theresearch lab,withthe host geneticmaterial

gradually being replaced.While difficult to puta figure

on the cost at this stage, the teamsays it expects the final bill to beless than the $3-billion cost of thefirst Human Genome Project.

But whats the point of such alofty proposal? To entice funders,the team has outlined several

pilot projectsthat willtakeadvantage of theprogressas itis made. Those discussed in thepaper include the developmentof an ultra-safe line of cells thatwould be virus resistant, cancerresistant andfreeof potentiallyharmful genes that could lead,for example, to prion diseases.

That would be a boon for stemcell medicine, says Paul Freemont,who runs the synthetic biologycentre at Imperial College London.

One of the benefits of stem-celltherapies is that thecells canmultiply rapidly but this is alsoa characteristic shared by cancercells, so a therapeuticinjectionofstemcells turning cancerous haslongbeen a concern. A syntheticbiologyvariantencoded to neverbecomecancerouswould bepreferable,he says.

Other projectsinclude findingtheminimal human genomethetiniestpossible stashof DNAcapableof supporting life and

adaptingthe piggenome so itbecomes a better source of organsfor humantransplants.

Theres alsoa proposal todevelopa reference humangenome.This would consistofthe most common gene variantsthat humans carry at every singleposition of the genome. It couldbe used to make a cell that has ageneralised genome that mostaccurately represents the baselinegenetic code of the majority of thehuman race.

Church calls thegenomethis would create a totally plainhuman. If you had this, you canintroduce variants of unknownsignificance one at a time. Theseare turning up constantly ingenomeresearch butyou dontknow if thevariants are causal,or how many it takes [to causedisease], he says. You could use

this blank slate, this plain yogurtof humanity, to slot in thedifferent genes and find out.

This could help identify whysomepopulations are moresusceptible to certaindiseases,for example sickle cell anaemia,which is more common in peopleof African, African American orMediterranean heritage. Thiswould be a way of finding outwhy, says Freemont.

Some see darker applications,however. Some of the speculativ

LY WT O O

Synthetic humans are goWhats the point of building the entire human genomefrom scratch? Sally Adee investigates

EPA/MICH

AELREYNOLDS

You could use this plainyogurt of humanity toslot in different genesand find out what they do

REWRITING

BAKERS YEAST

Sc2.0is an international attempt torecreate thegenomeof bakers yeast,

Saccharomycescerevisiae,oneofthe

firstorganisms tobe sequenced.

Theyeast genomeis tiny:just 12

millionbase pairson 16 chromosomes,

comparedwith the3 billion basepairs

ofthe humangenome spread over

23chromosomes.The projectshould

address somepreviouslyunanswerable

questions, suchas howtransposons

jumping genes thatinsert

themselves in DNA evolve. The

projectis expected to finish in 2018.

CRAIG VENTERS

ARTIFICIALBACTERIA

In 2010, a teamled byCraig Venterreportedthat it hadsynthesised

theonly chromosome ofthe

bacteriumMycoplasmamycoides

and transplantedit into an empty

chassis of a separate strain of

Mycoplasma.

Earlier this year, the team

announced that it had whittled

down the 901 genes of the synthetic

bacterium to the minimum needed to

support life. Of these essential genes,

we have no idea what 31 per cent of

them do.

AN ALMIGHTY LEAP

The project to create an artificial human genome will build on

previous work to construct synthetic genomes


19/60

11 June 2016 |NewScientist |17

goals of this project soundinnocuous or benignOthers would be dangerouslyunacceptable, said MarcyDarnovsky, who heads theCalifornia-based Center forGenetics and Society, in astatement. In an interview withUS radio station NPR, she said:Theworry is that weregoingto

be synthesisingentireoptimisedhumangenomes manufacturingchromosomes that could be usedultimately to produce synthetichuman beings that they see asimproved models.

While there is no suggestionthat the artificial DNA sequencecreated by the project would beput into a human egg or embryo,allowing the creation of a humanfrom scratch, the paper doesnt domuch to allay these fears. While itmentions ethical considerations,

it doesnt state clearlywhatpotential risks or ethicalquandaries the project mightraise, says Baojun Wang, also attheUniversity of Edinburgh.Morejustifiable reasonsthan thosegiven in thepaper namely that itwoulddeliver important scientific

advances andreducethe cost ofgeneticengineering are neededto start the HGP-Write project,he says. The investment is hugeand long-term and will involvegovernmental taxpayers money.

Francis Collins, director of theUS National Institutes of Health,agrees. NIH has not consideredthe time to be right for funding a

No easy task, ethically or technically

large-scale production-orientedHGP-Write effort, he said in astatement.

Then theres the question of

who wouldownthe synthesisedgenome. Unlike existingDNAthathas been manipulated, awholly synthetic cell could beowned outright. This couldbenefit any corporations involved.If you process it in your lab, it isyours, you can patent it, saysLaurie Zoloth, a bioethicist atNorthwestern University inEvanston, Illinois.

Genome owner

In the first Human GenomeProject, it was clear that theknowledgegainedwouldbeowned by everyone anyonecan download and use theinformation, says Freemont.But its less clear how that willwork with this project this willnot be digital information, thiswill be a physical entity Its anissue that hasnt been sorted out.

Rosser says that is exactly thediscussion the teams paper is

intended to catalyse.But not everyone is placated bythe authors talk ofresponsibleinnovation. Zoloth and DrewEndy, a synthetic biologist atStanford University, say theauthors failto poseessentialquestions in their proposal.Nordo they detail specificlimits about what shouldnotbe done. This raises the questionof whether the group is wellequipped to organise and leadsuch a project, the pair say.

Church says that people areworking to make sure certainactionscannotbe carriedout.As an example, he points to thenow widely implemented safetystandards he devised in 2004 toprevent DNA being used to makebiohazardous material.

Whatis certainis thatthere isstillplenty oftimeto get thingsin order. With just a few groupscapable of writing genomes withmillions of bases, the synthetichuman is a long way off.

UNCERTAIN AMBITION

The Human Genome ProjectWrite

was generating controversy before

it was even officially announced.On 10 May, team members held

an invitation-only meeting at

Harvard University. Attendees

were barred from speaking with

the press, leaving people to guess

at the applications of the rumoured

project. This led to suggestions of

using the synthetic genome to

create human beings without

biological parents.

The reality will be less

sensational but just as radical, says

geneticist George Church at Harvard,

one of the leaders of the project.

We are not well suited to 60-mile

commutes, a super-abundance of

food, and certainly not for being

astronauts, says Church.

Knowledge gleaned from this

project could, for example, switch

off the genes that make us

susceptible to type 2 diabetes.

While the descriptions of the

applications (see main story) seem

uncontroversial enough, greater

ambitions may lurk behind them.

There has been a ratcheting down

of the rhetoric of the project [since

10 May], says Hank Greely of the

Stanford Centre for Law and the

Biosciences. But whether theres

been a ratcheting down of the plans,

I dont know.

Clues may lie in its leaders

wider interests. During

presentations, for example,

Church likes to show a slide on which

he lists naturally occurring variants

of around 10 genes that give

people extraordinary qualities or

resistance to disease.Andrew Hessel of software

company Autodesk, who first

proposed the human genome

synthesis project in 2012, is a

lecturer at think-tank Singularity

University, which explicitly tries

to adapt to a future in which

technology outpaces biology. Hessel

has often spoken of his plans to

make genetic engineering into an

accessible programming language,

using Autodesk software.

The worry is that it could

be used to producesynthetic humans theysee as improved models


20/60


A virtual certainty?Elon Musk says our universe is a simulation.Are weall code now, wonders Geraint Lewis

ARE we, andtheuniversewe arein,a simulation? SpaceX chiefElon Muskthinksthere is a tinybillions-to-onechancethat weactually exist physically, andit ismuchmorelikely that weare dataswirling aroundon someonessupercomputer. Whatleads himto this strangeconclusion?

Muskisimmersedina

technological world thathasadvanced rapidly, andit seemsinevitableto himthat afunctioninghumanbrain,consciousnessand all, willexistwithin a computer inthe not toodistantfuture.With thegrowthincomputingpower over the nextfewmillennia, thisfirstlonelybrainwillbe joined bymany

more in a computed universe.Maybe thishas already

happened andweare in someoneelses synthetic universe.Therearesome intriguingpropertiesof

theuniverse that make us ponderthispossibility,in particular themassesof fundamental particles,such as electrons andquarks, andthestrengthsof theforcesthatdictatetheir interactions.

Growing evidence tellsus thatif theuniversehad been bornwithmassesand forcesonly slightly

different to the ones we have,the results would have beencatastrophic, with a dead andsterile cosmos. Perhaps we areonlyhere because some higher

dimensional programmer fine-tunedour fundamental laws.

But how would we know? Thermightbe subtle clues. If theircomputers are like ours, then therelyon numbers with finite digitwhich would result in coarsegraining of space and time ratherthan a smooth continuum. Wecould look for this. Alternatively,we couldsearch for glitches andbugs,places where the programis not behaving properly. But inboth cases, we might just treat

Are we only here becausesome higher dimensionalprogrammer fine-tunedour fundamental laws?

Climate denials Trump cardA Donald Trump presidency would disrupt the fight against globalwarming, threatening to snuff out all hope, warns Matthew Nisbet

DONALDTRUMPs promisetocancel theParis climateagreement, endUS fundingforUnitedNations climatechangeprogrammes, androll backstupidObama administration

regulations to cutpowerplantemissions shouldworryus all.

The Republican presidentialcandidate hasoften defiedpartyorthodoxy,but his scriptedspeechto an oil industry meetingdirectly echoedtheparty lineon climatechangeand energyprobably reflectinga desiretowin industry funding for hiscampaign and boost votersupport in oil, gas and coal states.

Republicans sceptical about

anthropogenic global warmingare nothing new. Yet a Trumppresidency poses an existentialthreat to efforts to combat climatechange that are qualitativelydifferent from past candidates.It could set in motion a wave of

political and economic crises,creating turmoil that wouldfatally disrupt efforts to tacklethis issue.

Alarmed by the possibilityof a Trump victory in November,

international negotiators areurgently working to finalise theUN Paris agreement, in the hopethat it can become legally bindingbefore President Obama leavesoffice. Yet even if this succeeds,a Trump victory could crippleprogress in other ways.

To meet the Paris targets,countries will have to ratchetup efforts to end reliance onfossil fuels over the next fewyears. Just when the world needs

US leadership on this, Trumpsincoherence on climate andenergy and disgust for globalcollaboration would have achilling effect on progress. Thebroader disruption of a Trumppresidency would do even greate

OT


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11 June2016 | NewScientist | 19

these as newfeaturesof theuniverse andinclude theminour fundamental laws.

Ofcourse, the notion ofasimulateduniverse gives riseto

manyphilosophical questions,not leaston freewill.What ifwearejustunintendedconsequencesin a simulation run forsomeotherpurpose?Andwhathappensif thecomputer loses power?

Science offers no definiteanswers, and Musks odds arelittle more than wishful thinking.But at the moment, they are asgood as anyone elses.

Geraint Lewisis a professor of

astrophysics at the University of Sydney

damage,weakeningeffortstocreate a sense of urgency overclimatechange.

Hiscandidacy hasbrought

publicdiscourse inthe UStoits ugliestlevel,as he tradesin trash talkand outrageousinsults, spreading falsehood andinnuendo, fomenting bigotryandprejudice. His success emboldensfar rightand ultra-nationalistmovementsin theUS andacrossEurope,risking destabilisation.

At home, Trumps promisetoban Muslimsfrom entering theUS, to builda wall atthe Mexicanborder, andto deport millionsofimmigrants willspark widespread

protestand civil unrest.Abroad,his bravado and

reckless unpredictability, his vowto renegotiate trade deals andtowalk away from security allianceswillgenerate tensions withChina,RussiaandEurope,riskingfinancialcollapse and conflict.

Inthemidstofsuchdysfunctionand upheaval, theglimmerof hope offered by thehistoricclimate changepactagreed to inParis last yearmay

fade forever. The stakes ina USpresidential electionhave neverbeen higher.

Matthew Nisbet is professor of

communication atNortheastern

University in Boston

DeboraMacKenzie

SHOULDthe Olympic Games go

ahead in Rio de Janeiro, despite Brazils

Zika epidemic?Lastweek, 200health

experts calledon theWorld Health

Organization to recommend moving

theGames, ordelayingthem until

the virus is undercontrol.

TheWHO argues that Zika is already

present in many countries, and people

with thevirusin their blood are already

flying to uninfected nations thathave

theAedesmosquitoesable to transmit

it. Pregnant womenshould avoid Rio,

says the organisation,but stopping

other people from travelling to the

Olympics wontmakea dent in theexisting viral tourism.

This argumentis weak. TheDNA

evidenceshows the epidemic in Brazil

wasstarted by one traveller carrying

Zika.That means just oneperson

could cause an outbreak somewhere

else with the right mosquitoes.

It doesnt matter that Rio is only one

of many Zika-affected destinations

especially as many of the rest arent

nearly so badly infected. It may matter

far more that travellers to the Games

are on average more likely than normal

tobe going home to somewhere with

the right mosquitoes.

Critics of the WHOs approachargue

that theOlympicsattracta richer

nationaland socialmix than thenorm

forair travel:almost every country

sends people, andnot allgo home to

the mosquito-proofed livesof typical

jet-setters. Thatcould makeit more

likely that one person could repeat

what happened in Brazilin Dhakaor

Addis Ababa.And Augustis mosquito

season in the northern hemisphere.

That said, therisk ofcatching Zika

in Rio will certainly diminish between

nowand August. The southern-

hemisphere winter will slowviral

replication in mosquitoes: Zika petered

out in Rio last August. Many in the

state have also now been exposed to

the virus, and their immunity will slow

its spread. In addition, the campaign to

spray Rio with pesticide since February

will have had some effect.

But the risk wont be zero. So how

much is too much?The countryhas

spent some $11 billion on the Games

a huge investment to lose, even in

part, to address the unmeasurable risk

of hastening Zikas spread elsewhere.

Brazil was on a roll when it bid for the

Olympics, but has since been hit hard

by falling oil prices, never mind the

cost of the Games and of Zika itself.

The WHO, and governments, have

in effect covered their backs: visitors

have been told how to avoid catching

and spreading Zika, so now its their

responsibility not to get infected.

But everyone knows that insect

repellent and condoms wont be

100 per cent effective. Some Olympic

visitors will get the virus, some could

carry it somewhere vulnerable, and

we cant really say how likely that is.

Should we delay or move the Games?

I suspect at this point it just isnt going

to happen, so we need to cut the risk

as much as possible.

Someone are you listening, World

Bank? should give Brazil severalmillion small bottles of Deet-based

mosquito repellent, to be handed

out relentlessly at all Olympic venues.

A donor could also boost diagnostic

capabilities for Zika in countries where

they are lacking, to keep a lid on any

virus that does get away from Brazil

or any of the other affected countries.

And we wont get ahead of this

virus or the next one until we have

a vaccine. If we spent as much on that

as we do on the Olympics, we might

not be having this problem.

WeneedtoZika-prooftheRioOlympics

T Oy tet

MA

RIOTAMA/GETTY

Just weeks left to prepare

Should we delay or movethe Games? I suspectit wont happen, so weneed to cut the risk

For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion


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20|NewScientist |11 June 2016

COMEAND SEE...

Seethe future,

change the future

Engineers and architects have long builtmodels to see their next big creation and ironout problems before construction starts.Innovate UKs Transport Systems Catapult istaking this idea to a new level: using big dataand virtual reality to model entire cities togauge the impact of future changes.

The Manchester Table is an interactivemap of the city below which sit layers ofdata about road, rail and tram networks.The system connects everything together,and calculates how flows of peoplemight change in response to road closures,park-and-ride schemes or even innovationslike electric bikes and cars.

Planners can drop travellers such asfamilies, students and business people on tothis map who make decisions according totheir own needs and wants. As changes aremade to the future city, these people altertheir travel patterns, letting planners see how

their plans will play out.Virtual reality also offers the chance to

model the future as never before. A catapultprogramme has paired an Oculus Rift VRheadset with an omnidirectional treadmill tocreate a rudimentary version of a Star Trekholodeck. It enables people to walk around avirtual model of Milton Keynes, a train stationor even architectural designs. By adding realworld data, researchers can monitor peoplesreactions to changes in crowds, traffic orweather, for example.

The possibilities for shaping our future areendless and intriguing.

WHERE ExCel London

WHEN 22 25 September 2016 WHAT Talks, debates, exhibits, demonstrations.

Interact with the latest technology and engage

with 100 of the worlds most original thinkers

WelcometoNewScientistLive,afour-day

festivalofideasanddiscovery.Here,youllfindthe best, latest and most provocative science,guaranteed to touch all aspects of human life

Sponsored by

TECHNOLOGYMAKINGTHEFUTURE

EARTHEXPLORING

OUR PLANET

COSMOSTHE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND

AINODYT MEANS

HUMAN

R& B

O BE

LIKENOOTHER PLACEONEARTH

EARTH ZONE


23/60


COMEAND HEAR...

HOW WEBECAME HUMAN

Alice Roberts highlights the

unique traits that set our

ancestors on the road toglobal domination

BEYONDTHEHIGGSBOSON

Tara Shearshas theinside

storyon thelatest strange

signals from the Large

Hadron Collider

YOUSEEM SADTODAY,DAVE. CAN I HELP?

Computers thatdetect

your emotions are on the

way. Peter Robinson

explores theirpromises

and dangers

THEMETEORITEINTUTANKHAMUNSTOMBTherewas far moreto

Egyptianastronomy than

we had everimagined.

Join Marek Kukula fora

fascinatingtour

HOWTO HIJACKA SATELLITE

MeetKeithCowing,who

hackedaNASAspaceprobe3millionkilometres

fromEarth

ARE WEALONEIN THEUNIVERSE?

Andifnot,wherearethe

alienshiding?Findout

fromDuncanForgan

AND DONTMISS...

To find out more and buy your tickets go to newscientistlive.comor if you are in the UK call our ticket hotline on 0844 581 1295

Itsnot theendof theworld:just

ofcivilisationasweknowit.

AtNewScientistLive,astrobiologist

andauthorLewisDartnellfromthe

Universityof Leicesterwillask:what

wouldbethemostvital knowledge

youdwanttopreservein theevent

ofanapocalypticevent?

Alongsidesuch obviouscandidates

asagricultureand electricity,

Dartnellbelieves itsmore subtle

formsof knowledgewemightmiss

most. Idarguethatitsthenotionof

germs,hesays.Withoutthe

knowledgethat disease-causing

microbesaretoosmall tobeseen,we

couldbetransportedbacktoatime

wheninfectionswereblamedon

fractiousgodsor badair.

COSMOSSTAGESATURDAY24 SEPTEMBER

Prepare for thenext big solar flare

Whatdowedowhenthesunattacks?

Findout atNewScientistLive.

Withterrifyingunpredictability,

ourlocalstaremitsmassiveburstsof

radiationinourdirection.Solar

stormsaremuchmorelikelythan

largeasteroidstrikes, says

astronomerandwriterStuartClark.

Historyshowstheycan be

devastating.Thelastbigonehit in

September1859,whenskiesturned

redand phantomelectricitycaused

sparkstofly fromtelegraphmachines,

shockingoperatorsandcausingfires.Intodaysnetworkedworld, a

large-scalesolarstormcouldfrazzle

ourcommunicationsnetworksand

leaveus withoutgridpower.

Ourknowledgeofthesunis

gettingbetterall thetime,says

Clark,butthatonitsownwillnotbe

enough. Thetrickis toturnthispure

scienceintoamitigationstrategy

forwhenthenextbigstormcomes

ourway,he says.

BRAIN & BODY STAGESUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER

Whittling away atthe hard problem

Wheredoes consciousnesscome

from?Its a famouslyhardquestion.

Perhapssohardthatwemightnever

beableto getourprimitivebrains

aroundit.Afterall,saysAnil Seth,

aneuroscientistattheUniversity

ofSussex,evenaplanetsworthof

frogswouldstruggleto understand

generalrelativity.

Butas brain imagingtechnologies

improve,wewill getevercloserto

pinpointingthe complexneurological

processesthatmakeuswhoweare.

Willweevermanageto findthe

answer?Theonlywaytofindout is

totry,saysSeth.CometoNew

ScientistLivetohearmore.

EARTHSTAGETHURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER

Time to decideyour future climate

Wehavethepowertochoosevery

differentfutures, saysAlice

Bows-Larkin,aclimatescientist

attheUniversityofManchester.

Ifwekeepemittinggreenhouse

gasesaswedo now,Earthsaverage

temperaturecould risebyafurther

3C,puttingit 4Cabovepre-

industrial levels. Thatwouldbring

heatwaves,droughts,andother

extremesofweather.Our

infrastructure isnotdesignedto

copewithsuchextremes,shesays.

TheUNsParisclimateagreement,reachedin December2015,commits

countries tolimittemperatureriseto

wellbelow2Coverpre-industrial

levels.Thoughstillnotideal, its the

bestwecanhope for.

CometoNewScientistLiveto

findoutwhateachofuscando to

helpus getthere.

How to rebuild the world from scratchTECHNOLOGY STAGE SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER

DENISSCOTT/TAXI/GETTY

HANSNELEMAN/GETTY


24/60

22|NewScientist |11 June 2016

WEVE long had eyes in the sky.But now a handful of start-ups arusing these satellites to monitoreverything from flood damage tocropyieldwith greater frequencyand detail than ever before.

Efforts to keep tabs on Earthfrom above began with NASAs

Landsat programme, whichstarted in 1973. It currently hastwo satellitesin orbit imagingthewholeof Earths surfaceevery16 days. The resolution is highenough to capture major roads,butnot individualhouses.

Morerecent satellites supplyfargreater detail and moreoften. Thanks to private firms likeSpaceX, the cost of launching acommercial satellite is also a lotless than it used to be. But the rea

breakthrough is in the computerassisted analysis that can be doneon the images. Improvements inmachine learning let us analysehigh-definition images of Earthssurface to gain previouslyunavailable insights about ourplanet and the way it is changing

Forexample, Google-owned

TerraBellaoffersits customersoverviews of how land is beingused around theworldandassessmentsof flooddamage,as well as information about theprogress of construction projectsOther companies are usingsatellites to look for landfill sitesthat might be profitably minedfor valuable materials.

Astro Digital, a company basedat the NASA Ames Research Centein Mountain View, California,

TOLOY

JESSEALLEN/NASAEO1TEAM/USGS

Viewed from aboveTech start-ups are taking advantage of cheap satellites to share intel onour changing planet from space, says Hal Hodson

Small commercial satellitecan now provide previouslunavailable intel on cropyields and construction

Fertile territory


25/60


providessimilar intel. Butitwillalsofocus on monitoringagriculturalland lettingfarmersmonitortheir crops fromseveralhundred kilometresup.

Its all about buildingtools thatmineinsight fromlarge volumesof data, says Bronwyn Agrios atAstroDigital. This is notaboutcreatingmaps or pretty pictures.

In three months,Astro Digital

will launch thefirst ofitsLandmapper satellites on aSpaceX rocketfrom VandenbergAir Force Basenear Lompocin California.The companysset-upwill eventuallyconsistof 30 satellites orbiting650kilometres above Earth.

A thirdof thesewilltakeimageseveryday ata resolutionof onepixelfor every 22square metres ofland. Therest willcaptureimagesat a resolutionnine times highereverythree to four days. Thefirst

group willbroadlyidentify wherechanges are happening,saysAgrios. Then themore precisesensors will zoomin andsee whatis changing andhow.

With itssatellitelaunches stilla few months away, Astro Digitalhas been working on its imageprocessing platform. To testthe system, it is using existingfree data from public satellites,such as Landsat. The companyswebsite already lets you play withprocessed images of London, for

example. One shows built-upareas in blue and grey, with openspaces in red (see image above).Over time, these regions shift.Once Astro Digitals satellites arein orbit, it will be possible to keeptabs on the ebb and flow of theworlds largest cities.

The companys main focus willbe on scanning agricultural land,however. And South African

start-up Farm is ready to helpfarmers make the most of AstroDigitals tools.

Chantal Yazbek and her team atFarm initially looked into usingdrones as a means of monitoringland and crops, but decided thattraining pilots and maintainingaircraft would be impractical. So

For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technology

Eyes inthe skycanalsohelpus learn

things about humans. Night-time

lights, viewed from space, are knownto be a proxy for areas of relative

wealth, as they tend to trace urban

areas. But in the poorest places in

the world there are few lights, so

the technique isnt so useful for

monitoring poverty. Now Michael

Xie and his colleagues at Stanford

University have a fix.

The researchers used machine

learning to match features visible

in satellite pictures taken during

the day with levels of lighting seen

atnight.This let them matchdata

about prosperity previously tied to

light levels to physical features onthe ground instead. They could then

use information about houses and

roads rather than the light or lack

of it to identify poverty.

They found that their system

accurately estimated poverty levels

in regions that dont have electric

lighting. The researchers think that

by providing a measure of poverty in

the worlds least visible places, their

approach has the potential to help

change peoples lives for the better.

IN THE DARK ABOUT POVERTY

NASA

LANDSAT

Wide open spaces

rather than having a few droneswatching a single plot from theair, satellites will be used instead.

Not missing out

However, for individual farmerswanting to know about theirfarms, existing satellites arentquite enough. Farmers needupdates every few days and

Landsat images every 16 daysdont cut it, says Yazbek. Youwould keep missing the growingphase, she says. But with AstroDigitals satellite updates comingthrough twice a week, the techbecomes useful. You can pick andchoose what it is you want to focuson in a given month.

Yazbek says that farmers areimpressed by the ability to pullinsight from pictures taken fromspace. Yet most just want to know

about their crops, not have tolearn how to use novel software.

So Farm will use Astro Digitalstools to provi

New Scientist - June 11, 2016

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