english new scientist october 22 2016

If we were toembrace the idea that life hasimmeasurable value, then there Put a price on your head A time like the present Valuing human life in financial terms can be the fairest option

Somebody, somewhere

putting a price on your h

ell success coul l d end infertility y

BRIE ENCOUNTERS

Cheese is a hotbed of bacterial evolution

DAM RIGHT

How beavers can sort out California’s drought existential mystery

Rwanda’s flying transfusion delivery

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22 October 2016 | NewScientist | 3

This issue online

newscientist.com/issue/3096

Coming next week…

Our implausible universe

The more we look at it, the less sense it makes

Into uncanny valley

Why do some faces unsettle us?

28

36

The end of

infertility?

Human eggs made in

the lab from skin could

be just five years away

How beavers can sort

out California’s drought

24 Blood from a drone

Rwanda’s flying transfusions

cheese What you’d look like with Botox

Proxima Centauri acts like the sun Overweight mothers have older babies

15 IN BRIEF

Worms farm plants Uranus’s new moons Electrodes let quadraplegic man feel touch

Technology

22 Mountain sensors monitor California’s water

Lasers stop drones crashing First UK trial

of driverless cars UAVs deliver blood

Analysis

18 Animal culling Is it ethical to sanction mass

killing of animals – and does it even work?

28 How much is your life worth?

(see above left)

34 Carbon conundrum Solving the

universe’s existential mystery

36 Dam right (see left)

40 PEOPLE

Chuck Hull and the invention of 3D printing

Culture

42 Picking up the pieces The 9/11 forensic

investigation is casting a long shadow

43 Live long What older men are really for

44 Art, but no artist Philippe Parreno ceded

control of a huge installation to microbes

Regulars

52 LETTERS Compare a mystery and a fake

56 FEEDBACK Pet radio

57 THE LAST WORD Fly away home?

Professor Dame Carol Robinson

2015 Laureate for United Kingdom

h roughout the world, exceptional women are at the heart of major scientii c advances

For 17 years, L’Oréal has been running the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science programme, honouring exceptional women from around the world Over 2000 women from over 100 countries have received our support to continue to move science forward and inspire future generations.

L’ORÉAL

UNESCO

AWARDS

That does seem a dreadfullycynical calculation, and it isunsettling to think that somefaceless bureaucrat somewhere isputting a price on your head (seepage 28) But in reality, it cannot

be any other way If we were toembrace the idea that life hasimmeasurable value, then there

Put a price on your head

A time like the present

Valuing human life in financial terms can be the fairest option

would be no ceiling on how much

we would be prepared to spend toreduce the chance of dying, even

by an infinitesimal amount Thatmay seem morally right, but it iseconomic madness

Take the US healthcare system,where the cost of treatment isoften not considered That hascontributed to rampant inflation;

the US now spends a fifth of itsGDP on healthcare

Contrast that with the UK,where healthcare is a public goodthat must be distributed fairlywith cost considered This makes adifference: basic health outcomes,such as the number of preventabledeaths, are far better in the UK

The people who make thosecalls on behalf of the NHS often

find themselves facing badpublicity The UK’s NationalInstitute for Health and CareExcellence (NICE) is frequentlycriticised for, say, refusing to payfor an expensive new cancer drug

In reality, NICE’s methods arefair and equitable The worldshould embrace its formulas, notcriticise them In realms outside

of healthcare, the value of a life isall over the map, often decided

on a whim or according to highlysubjective criteria We should setaside our squeamishness aboutputting a price on a life – and alsoany romantic notion that to evenask that question is morallyrepugnant – and start to do soopenly and fairly Cynicism issometimes the fairest way.■

THE Italian government recentlygot into trouble over a campaign aimed at reversing the country’s falling birth rate Adverts saying

“Beauty has no age limit Fertilityhas” were slammed for being insensitive to young people struggling financially, and insulting to infertile couples

Tin ear or not, the campaign highlighted some serious points

Fertility is falling; the population

is declining and ageing Thatmay sound good to those who see overpopulation as the root of all ills, but a crash is not a desirable way to solve the problem And the volume of misery that infertility causes is underappreciated It often comes about because people are trying for children later in life, relying on medicine to help

That is one reason to celebrate the latest advances in fertility

treatment Last month, we broke the story of the first three-parent baby born using a technique that saved him from a fatal disease The same method is helping infertile women conceive

Now, scientists have worked out

a way to create fertile mouse eggs from adult skin cells (see page 8) The feat will almost certainly be replicated in humans For those who want children, there might not be a perfect time to start a family, but advances like this will help people choose their time ■

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6 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

THE UK government is being

hauled back into court over its

failure to tackle air pollution

A group called ClientEarth is

asking the High Court to order

ministers to come up with a better

plan for improving air quality

The case concerns levels of

nitrogen dioxide, an invisible gas

that mainly comes from road

traffic High levels shorten lives

by raising the risk of heart attacks,

strokes and respiratory disorders

A 1999 European Union

directive setting legal limits for

nitrogen dioxide levels came into

force in 2010 Six years later, these

limits are still being exceeded in

many places across Europe, partly

because a high proportion of cars

run on diesel

In the UK, 37 of the 43 zones the

country is divided into breach the

limits ClientEarth, a group of

lawyers who use existing laws to

BRITISH spy agencies collecteddata illegally for more than adecade, a court has ruled

The Investigatory PowersTribunal, which looks intocomplaints against GCHQ, MI5and MI6, said on 17 October thatthe agencies’ secretive collectionand use of bulk data from people

in the UK failed to comply withhuman rights laws until 2015

Bulk communications data hasbeen collected since 1998, andincludes information such as the

“Court cases have helped

raise public awareness of

air pollution and put it on

the political agenda”

protect the environment, firsttook the UK government to court

in 2011 The case was referred tothe European Court of Justice,which ruled in 2014 that nationalcourts can and should ensurethat governments act to bring airpollution below legal limits

It also ruled that governmentsmust do this “as soon as possible”

The case then went back to theUK’s Supreme Court, which inApril 2015 ordered the nation’senvironment minister to take

“immediate action” by preparingand consulting with the public on

an air quality action plan asquickly as possible

But little has happened sincethen, prompting the new case

And ClientEarth is not just suingthe UK government Based on theprecedent set by the EuropeanCourt ruling, it has launched orhelped to launch similar actions

in Belgium, Poland, Germanyand the Czech Republic

While these legal battles haveyet to bring much concreteaction, the court cases have helped raise public awareness of air pollution and put the issue on the political agenda

time and location of acommunication, but not thecontent of the message Bulkpersonal data, gathered sincearound 2006, includesbiographical details

“This information reveals a lotabout you,” says Camilla GrahamWood from campaign groupPrivacy International, whichput forward the complaints.Although the data collectionwas ruled to be illegal before 2015,when it was made public, thetribunal found that the agencies’data collection is now lawful

Salvation by dung?

MURKY whale waste may have a

silver lining: it could be the unlikely

catalyst for ending whaling.

The way whale faeces helps

maintain fish stocks will take centre

stage this week and next at the

International Whaling Commission

meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia.

For the first time in the IWC’s

70-year history, delegates will be

invited to vote on a resolution

acknowledging growing evidence

that whales don’t decrease fish

populations – the primary excuse

for continued whaling by Japan,

Norway and Iceland Whales actually

have the opposite effect.

Research is revealing that their

dung brings nutrients to surface

waters, which generates more food

for fish by stimulating the growth of

phytoplankton These tiny organisms are eaten by krill, which become prey for fish Phytoplankton also suck carbon dioxide out of the air, helping

to limit global warming.

Chile submitted the unprecedented resolution for member states to vote on “This is an exciting new horizon for the IWC,” says Claire Bass

of animal advocacy group Humane Society International “It inspires

us to see whales not as resources to

be exploited, or as competitors for fish stocks, but as ecologically essential geoengineers.”

“It means there will be an increased focus on whale conservation activities rather than concentrating on whaling all the time,” says Sharon Livermore of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

–It’s good for the ecosystem–

China’s testing month in space

CHINA has sent a pair of astronauts to live on its experimental new space station for a month.

Jing Haipeng, who is on his third mission, and Chen Dong were due to dock with the Tiangong-2 space station on Tuesday evening (GMT).

During their 30 days on board, they will carry out 14 experiments

These include a plant cultivation study, a quantum communications experiment and using a gamma-ray burst instrument called POLAR,

which is a collaboration between Chinese, Swiss and Polish scientists The two astronauts will also test systems and processes in preparation for the launch of the station’s core module in 2018

Two laboratory modules are scheduled to be attached in 2020 and 2022, when the Tiangong station is due to become fully operational It is considered a stepping stone to a Chinese mission

to Mars by the end of the decade.

22 October 2016 | NewScientist | 7

NEXT stop, Mars On 16 October

at 1720 GMT, the twin spacecraft

of the ExoMars mission’s firstphase split in two – and if all goes

to plan, one of them will be onthe Red Planet’s surface by thetime you read this

The two spacecraft, theSchiaparelli lander and the TraceGas Orbiter, separated shortlyafter arriving on the outskirts ofMars The lander will head for thesurface, where it should make a

smooth descent on 19 October,while the TGO will slam on thebreaks to enter into orbit

The ExoMars mission is acollaboration between theEuropean Space Agency andRussia’s space agency Roscosmos

The long-term plan also includes

a rover, which is expected to land

on the Martian surface in 2020

This phase is crucial to theoverall mission, because the TGOwill act as a communications relayfor the rover, and Schiaparelliwill test some of its proposed landing gear

Schiaparelli is supposed to take

6 minutes to descend to Mars’s Meridiani Planum To inform

future missions, it will test a heatshield, parachute and propulsionsystem on its way down

Once landed, Schiaparelliwill start monitoring windspeed, humidity, pressureand temperature, to help usunderstand Mars’s weather

“We are nervous, but excited aswell,” says Francesca Ferri, amember of the Schiaparelli team

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

Ozone saviour ban

THE chemicals that saved the

ozone layer, but then turned out

to be an escalating threat to the

climate, are facing a phase-out

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

became widely used in air

conditioning and refrigeration

after 1987, when the Montreal

protocol banned the use of the

chlorofluorocarbons that were

eating up Earth’s ozone layer

But on 15 October, a meeting in

Kigali, Rwanda, of the 170 nations

that signed the Montreal protocol

agreed to largely phase out use of

HFCs by mid-century – because

they are potent greenhouse gases

They escape into the atmosphere

during use and when equipment

is discarded

Molecule for molecule, HFCs

are 4000 times more potent than

carbon dioxide UN estimates

show that they were on course to

raise global temperatures by an

additional 0.5 °C by 2100, and

emissions of them were rising by

7 per cent a year, faster than any

other greenhouse gas “It’s good

that they are being phased out,”

says Keith Shine of the University

of Reading, UK “But they helped

us out of a jam We should give a

vote of thanks to the HFCs.”

60 SECONDS

Fluffy ducky

Rosetta’s comet is as weak as fluffy snow Images from the probe show comet 67P is cracking under seismic stresses That suggests its tensile strength is very low, and its distinctive duck shape will probably change in a few hundred years.

New depression drugs?

A class of anti-inflammatory drugs can relieve symptoms of depression, finds a review of studies of people receiving treatment for chronic

inflammatory conditions (Molecular Psychiatry, doi.org/brxx) The drugs,

called anti-cytokines, are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and may benefit people who don’t respond

to standard antidepressants.

Fewer birth defects

Older women who become pregnant with help from IVF or a fertility treatment called ICSI are less likely

to have children with birth defects than those who conceive on their own, according to an analysis of

300,000 births (BJOG, doi.org/brxz)

The team behind the study thinks this may be due to a beneficial effect

of fertility drugs.

Cold truth about toms

Putting tomatoes in the fridge ruins their flavour – and now we know why Chilling stresses the tropical plant, irreversibly reducing activity

of hundreds of genes, some of which are involved in giving tomatoes their

aroma (PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/

pnas.1613910113).

Resupply success

On Monday evening, US space firm Orbital ATK successfully launched an Antares rocket to the International Space station The Cygnus spacecraft will berth with the ISS

on 23 October and is carrying supplies and experiments It is also bringing a lighting system designed

to help keep astronauts’ body clocks

in sync The firm’s last Antares launch in 2014 exploded shortly after take-off

“They helped us out of a jam

with ozone layer depletion

But it’s good news that

they are being banned”

–See you in 30 days–

–Well on their way–

NOT what the doctor ordered Thefirst study of infections acquired in hospitals in Europe has estimatedthat 2.5 million people caught onebetween 2011 and 2012 – that’s one

in every 20 patients

“The most common were urinary tract infections, surgical site infections and pneumonia, each accounting for 20 per cent

of cases,” says Alessandro Cassini

of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

in Solna, Sweden

As well as causing an estimated 90,000 deaths, the infections also led to long-term conditions, including cognitive and physical

impairment (PLoS Medicine, DOI:

Hospital infections

“The Schiaparelli lander will test a heat shield, parachute and propulsion system on its way down”

8 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

Jessica Hamzelou

FERTILE, mature eggs have been

created from mouse skin cells in

the lab for the first time The feat

suggests that the same could soon

be achieved in humans, opening

up the possibility of new fertility

treatments, and the potential for

two men to genetically father a

baby together

Katsuhiko Hayashi at Kyushu

University in Fukuoka, Japan, and

his team have been trying to

mimic egg development in the

lab The group had some success

in 2012, turning mouse skin cells

into primary germ cells – a kind

of immature egg cell in its early

stages of development But to

finish developing, these cells had

to be re-implanted into a mouse’s

ovary Now, the team has fully

matured egg cells in a dish

Hayashi’s group started with

mice of about 10 weeks old – some

30 years old in terms of human

ageing The team took cells from

their tails and used an established

technique to turn them into

induced pluripotent stem cells,which can divide and formvarious types of cell

By placing these cells in a brew

of specially selected compounds,the team encouraged them tobecome immature egg cells

But to fully mature, the cellsneeded help, says Hayashi –tissue taken from the ovaries ofmouse fetuses Placing a clump

of fetal ovarian cells among theimmature egg cells in the dish letthem grow into mature eggs

In this way, the group generatedmore than 4000 mature eggs

To see if they were fertile, theteam then fertilised some eggswith mouse sperm and implantedthem in the uteruses of femalemice From the 1350 embryos theyimplanted, eight pups were born

(Nature, doi.org/brxt).

“It is a tremendous advance,”

says Azim Surani at the University

of Cambridge “The idea that youcan start with a skin cell andmake viable eggs in culture isquite amazing.”

It is likely to be only a matter of

time until the same feat isachieved with human cells

“From a technical point of view

it could work,” says Hayashi

“If we could make human eggs,

it could be a very powerful toolfor curing infertility.”

“If we can apply this tohumans, we could almosteradicate infertility,” saysZev Rosenwaks at Weill CornellMedicine in New York “I’mextremely excited about this.”

Jacob Hanna at the WeizmannInstitute of Science in Rehovot,Israel, thinks this could bepossible within five years

“You would have the unlimitedability to make eggs,” says Hanna,who is part of a team that hasalready made immature eggcells from human skin cells

If it works in people, thetechnique could create eggs forwomen who have become lessfertile with age or those who havelow numbers of eggs, enablingthem to have IVF Women whoseovaries have been damaged, forexample by cancer treatment,could also benefit

The approach could alsotheoretically be used to createegg cells from men’s skin cells,raising the prospect of babieswith two genetic fathers “I get one email a day from same-sex couples asking me about this,” says Hanna “Regulatory bodies would need to discuss this, but I fully support the idea.”Creating eggs from men’s cells

is more of a challenge Hayashi’s team has been trying to produce eggs from cells taken from the tails of male mice, but they tend

to die at about the time of the crucial cell divisions that share out chromosomes in the rightnumbers among developingsex cells This might be becausehaving a Y chromosome –the male-determining sex chromosome – disrupts thisprocess But there may be ways

to overcome this problem, such

as removing the Y chromosome, says Hanna

There are other hurdles to overcome before anyone can start generating human egg cells in a dish One issue is that Hayashi’s team used fetal tissue in the experiment to give the egg cells the final push to maturity It ispossible that to do the samewith human cells, tissue from aborted fetuses could be used, but researchers are likely to need to develop an alternative method

It is also not clear how healthy the resulting eggs are Only a tiny fraction of the embryos generated

by Hayashi’s team made it through

to live births Of the eight pups born from skin-derived stem cells, two were eaten by their mother There are many reasons why this might have happened, but it

is possible it may have beenbecause they were abnormal

“There are risks that we are willing to take with animals that

we aren’t willing to take withhumans,” says Craig Klugman,

a bioethicist at DePaul University

in Chicago “I’m a man married

to a man, but I’m not going tosign up to this until it’s a proven technique.” ■

22 October 2016 | NewScientist | 9

IT’S a bold claim Twoastronomers think they havespotted messages from not justone extraterrestrial civilisation,but 234 of them

In 2012, Ermanno Borra atLaval University in Quebec,Canada, suggested that an aliencivilisation might use a laser forinterstellar communication If thelittle green men flashed a lasertowards Earth like a strobe light,

we would see periodic burstshidden in the spectrum of theirhost star Those bursts would befaint and rapid, but mathematicalanalysis could uncover them

“The kind of energy needed togenerate this signal is not crazy,”

says Borra Laser technology

we have on Earth today couldgenerate that kind of signal

To check for such a signal ofextraterrestrial intelligence (ETI),Borra’s graduate student EricTrottier combed through datafrom 2.5 million stars recorded

by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

He found it, down to the exactexpected shape, in 234 stars

Most of those stars are in thesame spectral class as the sun,

which Borra says supports theidea that this signature is ofextraterrestrial intelligent life

He thinks that 234 distinctcivilisations are beaming laserpulses of the same periodicitytowards Earth (arxiv.org/

abs/1610.03031v1)

Borra and Trottier ruled outother possible explanations forthe pattern, like rapid pulsations

in the atmospheres of the starsthemselves and light emittedfrom molecules in the star’satmosphere “We have to follow

a scientific approach, not anemotional one,” says Borra

“But intuitively – my emotionspeaks now – I strongly suspectthat it’s an ETI signal.”

Others think Borra’s intuitionmight have run away with him

“They don’t consider everynatural possibility and jumpprematurely to the supernatural –

so to speak – conclusion,” says

Peter Plavchan at Missouri State University in Springfield

“There is perhaps no bolder claim that one could make in observational astrophysics thanthe discovery of intelligent lifebeyond the Earth,” says AndrewSiemion, the director of the SETIResearch Center at the University

of California, Berkeley “You can’tmake such definitive statementsabout detections unless you’veexhausted every possible means

it has to be validated with morework,” he says

But the Breakthrough Listenteam is less enthusiastic In astatement, they rate the detection

as zero to 1, or insignificant, onthe 10-point Rio Scale for theimportance of SETI observations.Siemion thinks the spectralpatterns were most likely caused

by errors in calibration or dataanalysis And Plavchan agrees

He points to several steps in theteam’s data analysis that “scaredhim” because they didn’t consider how those steps might affect theirresults – a red flag in any claim.The signal probably comes down

to a human error, he says

“It’s not a bad idea to look for asignal, it’s just that they didn’t dotheir homework,” says Plavchan.There is a ray of hope, though.The history of astronomy ischock-full of examples of anunimaginable signal that led tothe discovery of new objects, likepulsars, says Siemion If it is nothuman error, the signal couldpoint towards a new discovery

in astrophysics Shannon Hall ■

SMALL island nations are at risk of

severe drought as climate change

causes sea levels to rise Groundwater

supplies are salinated as the sea

swamps coastal areas, but there’s

another problem inland, where fresh

water is being pushed above ground

and vanishing into thin air.

As the seas rise, they not only lap

higher up the beach but also raise the

level of the groundwater – sometimes

above low points on the surface This

can cause existing lakes to expand

and new ones to form, which speeds

up evaporation.

“Lots of work so far has focused on

coastal inundation,” says Jason Gulley

at the University of South Florida in

Tampa “But there has been less focus

on interior indentations that flood as

sea-level rise pushes the water table

higher.”

Gulley’s team used computer

simulations of islands similar to those

in the southern Bahamas to show

that such lake formation reduces

groundwater resources more than

twice as much as coastal inundation

for a given amount of sea-level rise

(Geophysical Research Letters,

doi.org/brwx).

“Arid regions are going to get

substantial losses of fresh water,”

says Gulley.

Although just a small number

of islands might be affected, the

consequences could be severe,

says Shannon Sterling at Dalhousie

University in Halifax, Canada “This

is significant,” she says, “because

reductions in available water are

occurring in already water-limited

sensitive areas, with potentially large

economic and human consequences.”

Gulley says the next step is to take

his simulated results and figure out

which real-life islands are most

susceptible But that will not be easy.

“It’s more complicated than just

predicting how much coastline will be

flooded,” he says “It will require deep,

island-specific knowledge of

topography.” Brian Owens ■

Strange signals from 234 stars could be ET – or not

■Is it ethical to cull animals, and does it even work?, page 18

■First UK trial of driverless cars, page 23

■Wildlife Photographer of the Year winning image, page 26

10 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

THIS WEEK

Michael Le Page

THAT cheese you’re so fond of

is a hotbed of bacterial bestiality

The diverse microbes that

cheese-makers use are swapping genes

like crazy as they evolve to thrive

in the new environment we have

created for them

A study of 165 of the bacterial

species in cheeses has found that

130 of them – 80 per cent – have

shared genes with other species

Altogether nearly 5000 genes

have been swapped The process

probably began when people

started making cheeses, and

continues to this day

And this level of sharing is

probably an underestimate,

according to Kevin Bonham of

the University of California, San

Diego, and his colleagues Cheese

contains many bacterial and

fungal species, so there could also

be gene-swapping between fungi

and bacteria, and among fungi

(bioRxiv, doi.org/brwr).

It is now clear that

gene-swapping is much more common

than we thought, especially

among bacteria “If you think

about it, it’s not that surprising,”

says microbiologist Tom

Beresford of the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Fermoy, Ireland “But I had never thought about whether it occurs in the cheese environment.”

The finding is based ongenome comparisons The teamsequenced 30 bacteria they found

in the rinds of traditionally agedcheeses from the US, Spain, Italyand France, although they wouldnot say exactly which ones theysampled They also used anotherteam’s sequences of 135 species ofbacteria found in French cheeses

Cheese-making initially relied

on random colonisation bymicrobes from the environment

Once cheeses were matured inbulk in places such as caves, themicrobes could escape from one

batch into the surroundingsand then colonise new batches

“They’re in the ripening room,

in the walls, in the air,” saysBeresford Bulk production hasencouraged microbes to thrive incheese by, for instance, picking up

new genes.“There’s been evolutiongoing on for millennia,” says PaulKindstedt of the University ofVermont in Burlington

Although the functions of most

of the 5000 swapped genes areunknown, many help scavengeiron That makes sense: one wayanimals try to limit bacterialgrowth is by depriving them ofthe metal Milk containslactoferrin, an antibacterial thatmops up free iron As a lack of iron

is also what limits the growth ofmany disease-causing bacteria,this finding is slightly worrying

Could some microbes become

more dangerous if they stole scavenging genes from cheesebacteria? We don’t know yet.While the distinctive tastes ofmany cheeses – such as cave-agedGruyère – depend on specialisedmicrobes, it is possible to makecheese using microbes from justabout anywhere – even yourarmpits But some microbes canwreck cheeses they colonise.Beresford’s team recently foundthat a pink discoloration plaguingsome cheese-makers is caused by

iron-Thermus thermophilus, whoseusual home is hot springs It maylove being pasteurised.■

–Ripe with iniquity–

EVER wondered what you’d look like

with your cheeks enhanced, or after

Botox? A 3D-scanning technique may

soon be able to show you.

Michael Molton at Epiclinic,

a clinic in Adelaide, Australia, began

developing a 3D imaging technique

after becoming frustrated with

before-and-after photos These are

used to show prospective clients how

Molton used a 3D camera to take full-face scans of clients before and after they received dermal fillers, a popular injected treatment for plumping up the face

His team’s software then used the scans to generate a contour map showing which parts of the face had filled out after treatment.

Molton has now tried this on

200 people, and says it allows him

to assess their treatment in a more accurate and unbiased way This improved understanding has let his team develop an algorithm that predicts how someone will look after

being injected with filler (Journal of Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery, doi.org/brwz) The team

plans to test it with patients early next year.

To predict the outcome of Botox injections, which alter how the face moves rather than its shape, the team

is considering using 3D video instead

Software could analyse the

differences in how people smile, for example, before and after treatment.

“Overall, I think this is positive,” says Gazi Hussain, vice-president

of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons However, he cautions that the technique may be used solely

as a tool to attract clients, and that if people think they are being shown exactly how they will look, they may end up feeling disappointed “We see this with rhinoplasty Some surgeons use computer generations to show what their noses might look like, but you can’t always get that result surgically.” Alice Klein ■

INSTANT EXPERT:

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12 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

THIS WEEK

Rebecca Boyle

IN AUGUST, we learned that the

nearest star to our solar system is

likely to have a rocky, Earth-sized

planet orbiting it – and now the

star, too, turns out to be more like

the sun than we thought

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf

that was known to be just

tenth the size of the sun and

one-thousandth as bright But it has

been found to have a seven-year

activity cycle, similar to the sun’s

11-year one

At times in the cycle, up to a

third of its surface is pockmarked

by starspots, which can produce

flares But unlike the sun’s

relatively sedate flares, Proxima’s

raging flares and outbursts of

X-ray and ultraviolet radiation

could prove deadly for any life

on its planet, Proxima b

Because the star has a slightly

different internal structure to the

sun, it hadn’t been thought to

experience the regular activity

cycle of sun-like stars, says Brad

Wargelin at the Smithsonian

Every 11 years, these fields flip upside down In between flips, the

sun cycles between minimum and maximum activity At solar max, there are more solar flares and sunspots, while during the solar minimum, the sun can be

so quiet that its face is spotless

But Proxima Centauri is a convective star all the way through, Wargelin says, so it shouldn’t have regular magnetic cycles It should also constantly spew energetic particles in the form of flares, so it is known as a flare star Those flares also make

it tricky to study As a result, previous attempts to nail down itsactivity have been inconclusive

To settle the question, Wargelin

and his team pieced together 15 years of data from an automated ground-based telescope network and the Swift, Chandra and XMM-Newton space telescopes As well

as discovering that Proxima has

a seven-year activity phase, they found that the star takes roughly

83 days to rotate (arxiv.org/abs/1610.03447)

During Proxima’s stellarmaximum, one-third of its face

is covered in starspots At the sun’s maximum, by contrast, sunspots cover less than one per cent of its surface

“Flare stars are very spotty,” Wargelin says, which means the star would look dimmer to an observer on its nearby planet.Proxima’s magnetic activity drives stellar winds, plus X-ray and ultraviolet radiation, that could zap or blow away its planet’satmosphere Until we can peer atProxima b directly – which may beseveral years away – studying the star’s activity will be our best way

to understand what conditions might be like on the planet

“The stellar wind and energy emissions are driven by the magnetic field of the star,

high-so you have to understand the magnetic field as a first step in understanding what’s happening

to the planetary atmosphere,” Wargelin says ■

Proxima b’s star has

a touch of the sun

–What’s going on inside?–

WOMEN who are overweight while

pregnant are more likely to have

babies who are biologically older than

those born to women of a healthy

weight This could put the babies at

a higher risk of developing chronic

diseases later in life, and may reduce

their life expectancy.

Biological age is linked to the

length of our telomeres – DNA that

caps the ends of our chromosomes.

Telomeres shrink every time our cells

divide, and shorten throughout life.

at Hasselt University in Belgium.

The length of a person’s telomeres

at birth varies, and Nawrot and his team wondered if a mother’s weight might make a difference They collected the BMI scores of 743 women who later became pregnant, and measured the length of telomeres

in blood cells taken from the umbilical cord and placenta of their babies.

The team found that the telomeres

of babies born to overweight women were around 2.5 per cent shorter than those whose mothers were a healthy weight And babies born to obese

women had telomeres that were

5.5 per cent shorter (BMC Medicine,

DOI: 10.1186/s12916-016-0698-0)

“In normal ageing, it takes 5 to 10 years to experience a shortening of 5.5 per cent,” says Nawrot.

We do not know yet whether this effect could lead to shorter lives, or how maternal weight affects a baby’s

telomeres Nawrot’s team thinks excess fat might trigger inflammation, producing reactive chemicals that pass into a baby’s body via the

placenta and cause damage But Catarina Henriques at the University of Sheffield, UK, isn’t so sure Overweight people may already have shorter telomeres, she says, something they may pass on to their children via their genes, rather than through the placenta If so, a father’s weight could play a role, too, although this needs to be tested, she says

In the meantime, women hoping

to get pregnant may want to watch their weight “Maintaining a healthy body weight whilst trying to conceive will have long-term benefits for the baby, giving it a head start with longer telomeres,” says Janet Lord at the University of Birmingham, UK

Jessica Hamzelou ■

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22 October 2016 | NewScientist |15

BRAIN stimulation has made it

possible for a paralysed person to

experience the sensation of touch

via a bionic hand for the first time

Robert Gaunt at the Center for

the Neural Basis of Cognition in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his

team achieved this by implanting

electrodes in the brain of Nathan

Copeland, a 28-year-old

quadriplegic man

They were placed in the brain

region that registers touch fromthe hand, and linked to a robotic hand in the same room via a computer Copeland’s brain was stimulated when the robotic hand was touched “He feels thesesensations coming from his own paralysed hand,” says Gaunt

When blindfolded, Copeland could correctly tell which of the robotic hand’s fingers Gaunt was touching 80 per cent of the time

(Science Translational Medicine,

doi.org/brvz)

This is the first time electrodeshave been implanted in a person’ssomatosensory cortex, the regionthat registers touch Earlier work focused on the motor cortex, enabling paralysed people to use their thoughts to move bionic arms But the ability to feel objects

is vital for gripping and smoothlymanipulating them – somethingGaunt now hopes to marry with thought-controlled movement

Frogfish turns ghostly white

to match a bleached coral

GOOD camouflage may require a speedy makeover,

as this frogfish living on a bleached coral shows.

Warty frogfish are sedentary seafloor dwellers that

can change colour over a few weeks By seamlessly

blending in with their surroundings, they keep

themselves invisible to prey.

Since the warm waters off the Maldives abound in

vibrantly coloured corals, the frogfish there typically sport

matching orange or pinkish hues, says Gabriel Grimsditch

of the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Maldives in Malé But rising ocean temperatures have led

to widespread coral bleaching (Coral Reefs, doi.org/brvr).

Diving in North Ari atoll in May, Grimsditch and his team photographed an unusual white frogfish resting amid the bleached corals Its dark protruding warts mimicked bits

of brownish algae growing on dead parts of the coral skeletons “It was fascinating, because we had never seen a frogfish that had changed colour to become white because of a bleaching event,” says Grimsditch.

Frogfish rarely change location, so this individual had probably been in that spot for a while It probably turned white as the corals bleached in late April or early May, when ocean temperatures were unusually high

Might it change colour again if the coral becomes overgrown with brown algae? “I would think it would – that would be my guess,” says Grimsditch.

Quadriplegic man feels with bionic hand

First birds honked

in dinosaur times

HONK if you’re a bird Birds developed the unique vocal organ that enables them to sing more than 66 million years ago when dinosaurs walked the Earth,

a fossil discovery shows

But the earliest syrinx, an arrangement of vibrating cartilage rings at the base of the windpipe, was still a long way from producing the lilting notes

of a blackbird Instead, the extinct duck relative that possessed the organ between 66 and 69 million years ago was only capable of

honking (Nature, doi.org/brvv)

All birds living today are descended from a family of dinosaurs that developed feathers and flight The fossil suggests the syrinx is another hallmark of avian dinosaurs “This finding helps explain why no such organ has been preserved in a non-bird dinosaur or crocodile relative,” says Julia Clarke at the University

of Texas at Austin

Toddler stars kick out their planets

SINGLE-exoplanet systems may

be the fault of their stars

Many stars appear to have only one planet crossing their face, and this may be their sole orbiting world Now, Christopher Spalding and Konstantin Batygin at Caltech

in Pasadena, California, argue that the rapid rotation of young stars may explain this odd setup.The spinning makes each star bulge in the middle, altering its gravitational field That can cause

it to toss most of the planets originally orbiting it out of its pen Spalding and Batygin modelled the star Kepler-11, which has six known planets Tilting the star and spinning it faster flung two tofive of its planets into space after

1 million years (The Astrophysical

Journal, doi.org/brv3)

16 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

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

Spiders can hear

you walk and talk

THIS might not be a comforting

thought When you arrive home,

the spiders can hear you.

Gil Menda at Cornell University in

Ithaca, New York, and his colleagues

studied a type of jumping spider,

Phidippus audax It was thought

to rely almost completely on sight

and the vibrations it feels through

objects like leaves or floorboards to

sense nearby movements.

But microelectrodes implanted

in the spiders’ brains showed that

their neurons responded to sounds

such as chairs scraping and people

clapping even when the noises

were made between 3 and 5 metres

away (Current Biology, doi.org/

brwq).

“We were very surprised,” says

Menda “Our studies extended the

range of auditory sensitivity to

more than 3 metres – over 350 body

lengths – for our spiders.”

“All spiders have these hairs, so it

seems likely this is something that

lots of spiders can do,” says Menda’s

colleague, Paul Shamble, now at

Harvard University The team has

started testing other species of

spider, and so far all of them seem

to have a similar ability.

“Spiders can hear humans talking

and walking,” says Menda “When

I see spiders at my house or

anywhere else, I find myself trying

different tones to see if they

respond, and sometimes they do.”

What to eat for less smelly farts

IF YOU’RE feeling unpopular, try eating more bananas A team of researchers has been experimenting with human faeces to discover which foods should make a person’s farts smell better.

Chu Yao at Monash University

in Melbourne, Australia, and her team found that mixing faeces with cysteine – a component of meat, dairy and other types of protein – causes a seven-fold increase in the amount of hydrogen sulphide gas – which smells like rotten eggs – that was released

by the gut bacteria in the faeces.

“This explains why bodybuilders who consume lots of protein powder are known to have smelly farts,” says Yao.

But resistant starch, found in potatoes, bananas, legumes and cereals, and fructans, which are found in wheat, artichokes and asparagus, reduced hydrogen sulphide by about 75 per cent The findings, presented at a Gastroenterological Society of Australia conference in Adelaide last week, challenge conventional wisdom that people with stinky gas should eat less fibre.

WORMS have been spottedgrowing sprouts in their burrows,

a type of cultivation never seenbefore in non-humans

Ragworms were thought toconsume the seeds of cordgrass,

an abundant plant in their coastalhabitats But the seeds have atough husk, so it was a mysteryhow the worms could access theedible interior

Zhenchang Zhu at the RoyalNetherlands Institute for SeaResearch in Den Hoorn and histeam have now discovered theworms’ surprising trick: they bury

the seeds and wait for them togerminate, later feeding on thejuicy sprouting shoots

The sprouts are more nutritiousthan the raw seeds and are rich inprotein, fats and amino acids

“The process of sproutingimproves the digestibility andquality of the food,” says Zhu

To test the effects of sproutconsumption, they gave

20 worms different diets Thosethat ate sprouts gained moreweight, growing by 25 per cent,compared with 5 per cent forthose that stuck to raw seeds and

sediment (Ecology, doi.org/brvt).

Ted Schultz, an entomologist atthe Smithsonian Institution inWashington DC, thinks sproutcultivation could be important

to the worms’ survival, and thatthis is a sophisticated adaptationbecause they must wait to harvestthe food rather than consuming itimmediately “It’s the beginning

of agriculture,” he says

The team suspects thatearthworms are sprout-growers,too, because they are thought tosupplement their diets withseeds

Marine worms seen dabbling in gardening and farming plants

Uranus may have two unseen moons

WAVY patterns in Uranus’s rings may hold two small moons that orbit closer to the planet than any

of its other satellites

The ice giant has 27 known moons – far fewer than the 67 and

62 of its neighbours Jupiter and Saturn, respectively Its dark, narrow rings were first spotted in

1977 when they blocked the light from a distant star Voyager 2 later discovered two moons, Cordelia and Ophelia, on either side of Epsilon, the planet’s outermost ring The gravitational pulls of the two moons herd the ring particles into the narrow formation

Now Rob Chancia and Matthew Hedman at the University of Idaho, Moscow, have re-examined Voyager data and discovered wavy patterns in two other rings, Alpha and Beta The team think these may arise from the gravitational tug of a tiny moon – 4 to 14 kilometres across – outside each ring (arxiv.org/abs/1610.02376)

“It’s certainly a very plausible possibility,” says Mark Showalter

of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who has discovered moons around Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto He hopes to use the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm the theory

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18 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

HIPPOS in South Africa, cats in

Australia, deer in the US, badgers

in the UK Across the world,

governments are announcing

plans to cut back the numbers of

some of our most-loved animals

The latest is a proposed cull of

250,000 Siberian reindeer – which

could spread anthrax – just before

Christmas

Such mass slaughter invariably

sparks fierce debate between

politicians, conservationists,farmers and animal-rightsactivists Is it reasonable to killanimals if they threaten otherspecies or are under threatthemselves?

There are three circumstancesthat justify lethal wildlife control,says Bidda Jones of animal welfaregroup RSPCA Australia The first is

if culling will save animals from

an even worse fate For example,

South Africa announced lastmonth that it would kill some

350 hippos and buffaloes toprevent herds from sufferingfood shortages while the countryendures a severe drought

Culling can also be necessary ifother animals are harmed by a species out of control Feral cats are culled in Australia to protect native wildlife Kangaroos are alsolethally controlled when their

numbers balloon, to prevent them from destroying vegetation that supports other species

Finally, animals that threaten livestock or human safety may need to be eliminated In the US, overabundant deer are culled to prevent car collisions and Lyme disease transmission to humans

In the UK, badgers have been culled to slow the spread ofbovine tuberculosis amongcattle And Norway has recently approved a plan to cull two-thirds

of its native wolf population to reduce attacks on sheep

The ethical debate becomesmurky when a decision must

be made about which animals warrant greater protection, says Jones “People have different values,” she says Farmers value their livestock, conservationistsoften seek to protect overallbiodiversity, which may require culling certain species, whereas many animal-rights groups believe that all killings are unjustified

Popular animals tend toattract the most vocal support, says Katherine Moseby at the University of Adelaide, Australia The public backlash last yearwhen the Australian governmentannounced a plan to kill 2 million feral cats by 2020 is one example

“People love what they know –they have cats as pets and spend

a lot of time around them and understand them,” she says “But they’re not the ones out there seeing our native wildlife being slaughtered by cats every day.”Culling methods vary, from shooting in the head – seen as themost humane way because of itsimmediacy – to poison, traps and even specific viruses, but does the general principle actually work? Killing overabundant species seems like a logical strategy to reduce their impact, but it oftenbackfires, says Chris Johnson, anecologist at the University of

To kill or not to kill?

Mass wildlife slaughters are routinely carried out around the

world Are they ethical and do they work, asks Alice Klein

22 October 2016 | NewScientist | 19

Tasmania, Australia “In many

cases, removing some animals

actually increases the survival

and reproduction of the ones

that remain, and provides

opportunities for new animals

to move in,” he says

Isn’t it ironic?

This was recently demonstrated

in Tasmania, when culling a third

of the feral cats at four study sites

led to population increases of

between 75 and 211 per cent

Remote cameras showed that

as dominant cats were removed,

more cats crept in from outside

Equally, a small-scale culling of

ferrets on Rathlin Island in the UK

ended up doubling the population

because the remaining ones

had more resources, which

encouraged additional breeding

Killing predators to

protect livestock can also have

counterintuitive effects A recent

US study found that the more

wolves were culled, the more wolf

attacks on sheep and cattle there

were the following year Attacks

on Australian cattle have also

been shown to be higher after

dingoes are baited “The wolves or

dingoes that move in are typically

solitary young males They often

have a higher propensity to attack

livestock than the family groups

that would be there if you just left

them alone,” says Johnson

The badger cull that began in

2013 in the UK is on similarly shaky

ground, with no clear evidence

yet that it is reducing bovine

tuberculosis cases “Often these

things are done unthinkingly,”

says Johnson “There’s very rarely

a proper evaluation of whether it

will work and justify the cost.”

Lethal wildlife control can be

effective if it is widespread or

conducted on islands, so that

culled animals are not replaced by

more from outside the region, says

Johnson For example, Australia

recently successfully controlled

its feral camel population by

shooting them from helicopters,

targeting their entire

1.3-million-square-kilometre range This large-scale approach prevented the camel population from rebounding, but was costly and labour-intensive

Is there a better way? Non-lethalsolutions for managing wildlife are cheaper, more ethical and more effective, says Johnson

Instead of trying to minimise animal numbers, these approaches often focus on minimising their impacts

One example of this strategy

is to plant more native grasses to make it harder for feral cats to catch small mammals that hide inthem In sparse, open landscapes that have been degraded by grazing and fire, 70 per cent of feral cat hunts are successful

But in thick, grass-covered areas, only 17 per cent of hunts succeed

Farmers have found that stationing guard dogs deters predators from attacking livestock In a recent South

African study, cheetah attacks

on sheep, goats and cattle stopped in 91 per cent of places with guard dogs

“These sorts of indirect

measures – increasing vegetation cover, improving land conditions and so on – can be implemented fairly easily,” says Moseby “I think culling has to stay in there as an option but we need to look at the broader picture.”

Some have suggested more unusual ways to keep numbers down Small studies have demonstrated that contraceptive implants can reduce the reproductive rate of kangaroos, but the approach is expensive and unsuitable for animals that are

difficult to trap or that spread over large areas

Genetic engineering techniques such as CRISPR could be used to alter sex-determining genes in invasive species so that all offspring are male and sterile This has been demonstrated in lab mosquitoes, but hasn’t yet been tested in the wild “There are obviously massive questions about whether it would be ethical and what would happen if it got into areas where animals were native,” says Moseby

Sophisticated non-lethal control strategies may help to appease our guilt over killing animals, but we still don’t know

if they will be effective or about their potential downsides

In the meantime, it is important to ensure that the control methods we use are scientific and thoroughly evaluated Killing wildlife is often seen as a quick fix, but it won’t work, or it might backfire,

if it is not done in the right way Evidence-based non-lethal approaches such as landscape modification also need to become integral parts of wildlife management plans Not only will this help us manage wildlife, it will also help us sleep at night ■

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news

LETTING NATURE TAKE ITS COURSE

Now that we’ve wreaked havoc on native ecosystems by introducing foreign animals, there is a sense of obligation to clean up the mess But what if we didn’t try to remove the invaders?

Some ecologists believe that restoring ecosystems to their past

glory is impractical Writing in Nature,

a group of ecologists recently argued that we should “embrace the fact of

‘novel ecosystems’ and incorporate many alien species into management plans” If a hands-off approach was adopted, some native species could evolve defence mechanisms that allow them to coexist with invasive

animals For example, some native Australian snakes have evolved smaller jaws since the introduction

of poisonous cane toads in the 1930s that reduce their ability to eat large toads containing lethal doses of toxin.

However, these are likely to be rare cases, says George Wilson at the Australian National University

Almost 90 birds, 45 mammals and

10 reptiles have already been driven

to extinction by invasive predators, and the list of threatened species continues to grow, he says “The idea that you could just let nature run its course is absolute nonsense – it’s ecological cuckoo-land.”

International hit list

Animals across the globe have been, or are set to be, culled for a variety of reasons

Norway

47 wolves Protect sheep

UK 10,000 badgers Combat bovine TB

Russia 250,000 reindeer Reduce anthrax risk

Spain

2700 mountain goats Protect native species

US

63 dee Combat Ly disease

Australia 2,000,000 cats Protect native species

New Zealand 10,000 rabbits and ferrets Protect native species

Pakistan

700 dogs Prevent attacks

Canada

484 geese Excessive droppings

“The more the wolves were culled, the more attacks on sheep and cattle there were the following year”

CO MMENT

Power struggle

Samsung’s exploding phones show how risky

lithium-ion batteries can be, says Paul Marks

EXPECTATIONS were high as the

latest lightweight model hit the

market – and initially all was fine

Users raved about its sleek curves,

capacity and power But then the

lithium battery fires began and

the brand took a knock

No, not Samsung’s Galaxy

Note7 smartphone, whose

blazing power cells saw the

product withdrawn worldwidelast week Rather, this was theBoeing 787, the carbon-fibreairliner whose launch was alsodogged by burning batteries

In January 2013, a battery in anempty plane combusted at LoganAirport in Boston A week laterone caught fire in flight, leading

to an emergency landing in Japan

In January 2014, a 787 batteryoverheated at Tokyo’s Naritaairport Boeing’s answer was abetter enclosure to contain anyfire and an exhaust to jettison hotgas and smoke outside the plane

If such problems can strike

an airliner, it is little surprise

to see lithium battery failures

in less safety-critical products

There have been a succession,

in smartphones, laptops,hoverboards and e-cigarettes

One reason is that while these

batteries pack a punch in terms of power density, they can be volatile

if treated badly And “badly”can mean squeezed into more extreme spaces and shapes by the forces of fashion, as well as being bent, bashed and abused in use.Lithium-ion battery chemistry

is highly sensitive to tiny structural failures: if separatorskeeping electrodes apart fail, alot of heat is released quickly.This is almost certainly what happened at Samsung In September, the firm blamed a manufacturing flaw for the Note7 fires But a product recall and corrective action failed, so it pulled the phone entirely

“This will cost Samsung dear in the near term but the knock-on effect is incalculable”

A ban too far

The US wanted to criminalise kratom, a leaf long used in traditional

medicine That would have been madness, says Marc T Swogger

WHEN the US Drug Enforcement

Administration announced plans

to criminalise the sale and

possession of the psychoactive

plant kratom, people across the

country became interested in a

leaf used medicinally for

centuries in parts of Asia

What the DEA did not seem to

know is that hundreds of

thousands of people in the US

were already taking it to relieve

pain and as a substitute for

opiates and other drugs

Kratom, related to the coffee

plant, provides a caffeine-like

energy boost at low doses and has

opiate-like effects at higher doses,

although it isn’t an opiate

In 2015, I led a study of people’s

experiences with kratom Reports

were largely positive: besides pain

relief and success in quitting drugs

such as opiates, it gave a sense of

well-being and relaxation, and

increased empathy and sociability

A minority reported negative effects, such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, chills and sweats About

10 per cent mentioned withdrawal symptoms, mostly relatively mild.Reviewing the literature, we read anecdotal reports of serious adverse effects coinciding with kratom use, including deaths involving use of multiple drugs But the evidence is too sketchy to definitively link kratom with serious harm

The DEA wanted to put kratom

on a fast track to criminalisation, without seeking public comment Nonetheless, comment ensued Thousands wrote to politicians, petitioned the White House and talked to the media about what they saw as an infringement of the right to use a plant that helps them Researchers expressed dismay that research into kratom’s medical uses could be crippled

My colleagues and I could only

Clare Wilson

THROUGHOUT history, self-inducedabortions have been a byword forhorror, danger, even a grisly death

Many countries legalised abortionpartly to eradicate them

But now we have the abortion pill

Up to the ninth week of pregnancy,women can safely have a hometermination by taking two drugs overtwo days

The second dose of pills triggersbleeding and painful stomach cramps

as the embryo is passed; this typicallytakes a few hours but can last severaldays A few per cent of women need

to go to hospital to complete theprocess But it’s more or less like anearly miscarriage, which women canusually cope with at home

The pills are also safer than manyother medicines we can buy frompharmacies without a prescription

Viagra is available over the counter inthe UK, for example So why can’twomen get abortion pills frompharmacies and manage the processthemselves at home if they choose?

It might sound radical but it’salready widespread in countries where

abortion is illegal, with women buyingthe pills from online pharmacies

The advent of mail-order abortionpills means the law is becomingalmost irrelevant

Not all pharmacy websites can

be trusted, but one reputable site,called Women on Web, provides onlinemedical advice along with the pills, andwaives the €70 fee if someone can’tafford it Requests for help fromwomen in Ireland and Northern Ireland,where abortion is illegal in almost allcircumstances, nearly tripled between

2010 and 2015, to 1438 a year,according to an analysis of the site’s

figures this week (BJOG, doi.org/brws).

Despite the stress, over 99 per cent

of Irish and Northern Irish women said they could deal with their decision

This contradicts claims by abortionists that abortions leave women destroyed by guilt

anti-But even in countries where abortion is legal, we could copy

Women on Web to make terminationseasier, simpler and quicker

In the UK, for instance, women must have two doctors sign them off and visit a clinic two or three times That’s not always easy for those who can’t take time off work because they are in low-paid or insecure jobs, or have young children and no one to mind them Then there are illegal immigrants, and those who must keep their abortion secret, such as women in abusive relationships

Of course some women want counselling to help them weigh up their options and this should always

be on offer But many just want to get it over with

So for those who want it, the pills should be available in pharmacies after a pharmacist has explained what to expect and what complications to watch out for Failing that, a doctor’s prescription should suffice At the very least we should allow clinics to give women the second dose to take home with them This is starting to happen in many countries, and in parts of the US, but UK law says the pills must be taken in front

of a doctor

UK abortion law is so archaic and bureaucratic it almost suggests we are making the process as difficult as possible to punish women for ending

up in this situation Rebecca Gomperts from Women on Web says, “It’s nothing

to do with medical science, it’s about controlling women’s lives.” ■

Timetoletwomen controltheirabortions

IN SIGHT The right to choose

–Women can handle this–

“For women who want

a home termination the pills should be available

in pharmacies”

For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion

This will cost Samsung dear in

the near term but the knock-on

effect is incalculable in its battle

with Apple for customers

And so back to Boeing Airline

cabins are probably the worst

place for a phone fire In August,

Boeing was granted a patent on a

gas-venting fireproof briefcase

into which cabin crew can drop,

seal and extinguish a combusting

phone, tablet, laptop or e-cigarette

If a company like Boeing is

taking such a measure, that’s a

sign Samsung’s meltdown is

unlikely to be the last ■

Paul Marks is a science and technology

writer based in London

shake our heads at the insanity of

the move In a land that jails more

people than any other, with

consequences that include ruined

lives and children growing up

without parents, we choose to

criminalise this.

In a country with an

opiate-dependence epidemic, we try

to remove a tool that people

successfully use to quit opiates,

and one they take for pain relief

instead of hard drugs In a country

that has suffered in a costly

and ineffective “war on drugs”,

we extend that war to a new

substance and a new group of

people, potentially worsening

public health crises It seemed

cruel and irresponsible

Then something amazing

happened The DEA listened It

withdrew its plan, citing public

opposition, and sought comment

from doctors and scientists

The agency has long insisted,

despite much evidence, that

cannabis has no medical use

Does this uncharacteristic

reversal over kratom signal it is

giving a higher priority to facts?

Let us all hope that it proves a

positive development in the long,

sad story of US drug policy ■

Marc T Swogger is associate professor

in the psychiatry department of the

University of Rochester, New York

Climate change has made California’s water supplies unpredictable.

Covering the mountains with sensors could help, finds Hal Hodson

CALIFORNIA’S Sierra Nevada

mountains used to be reliable

natural water towers Winter

storms would coat them with

a thick blanket of snow, which

would melt as temperatures

rose through spring and summer

Gravity carried meltwater down

to cities for free

But climate change means

water managers can no longer rely

on the melt flow Drought is the

new normal, and snow falls less

often and tends to come in bursts

In an attempt to take control of

the state’s water cycle, a project

called SierraNet is covering

California’s mountains with

networks of sensors It will report

snow and water conditions in

unprecedented resolution,

and allow monitoring of the

unpredictable watersheds The

data will help California to manage

its water and the hydroelectric

dams that depend on it

“We’ve operated our water

systems by the seat of our pants

for the past century,” saysRoger Bales, a civil engineer

at the University of California,Merced, who jointly leads theproject “We’ve operated withvery little information, becausethere was plenty of water andnot that many people.”

SierraNet distributes a meshnetwork of sensor packagesthat measure snow depth,humidity and air temperature,

as well as solar radiation, soiltemperature and soil moisturecontent These sensor packs use

a low-powered radio to relay thedata they gather back throughthe mesh to a higher-poweredbase station

This makes sure readings getthrough even if one link fails,says Steven Glaser, an engineer

at the University of California,Berkeley, and the other co-leader

of the SierraNet scheme “With

a mesh you’re guaranteed thatthe data gets back.“

Glaser says he is working out

a deal with Placer County WaterAgency that would fund ongoingmaintenance of the network, withPlacer using SierraNet’s data tohelp manage its water supplies

The lack of water and itsunpredictable supply can play

havoc with hydroelectric power

The Feather river in the SierraNevada is usually flush withsnowmelt in April and is relied

on by hydroelectric dams In 2015,

it was practically dry

“It was the lowest hydroproduction on record, probably,”

says Kevin Richards, an engineer

at Pacific Gas and Electric,

an energy company thatmanages 360 megawatts ofhydroelectric power on theriver, one of the largest hydro projects in California “Let’s

just say very, very, very low.”Over the last few months, PG&E has worked with SierraNet to carpet its Feather river watershed with sensors It wants to use thenew stream of data to help manageits dams If the company knows how much water is sitting in the mountains, it can plan ahead and produce energy when the market most needs it This is becoming increasingly important asCalifornia adds more solar panelsand wind turbines to the grid – predictable and controllable electricity supplies are needed to fill lulls in renewable production.California’s drought andthe accompanying drop in hydroelectric generation is costly both for the economy and the environment, according to an analysis by Peter Gleick at the Pacific Institute think tank inOakland, California In thefour years to September 2015, hydropower was down so muchthat it cost Californian ratepayersabout $2 billion more over thatperiod for their electricity,Gleick writes “The additional combustion of fossil fuels forelectric generation also led to a

10 per cent increase in the release

of carbon dioxide from California power plants.”

Richards says gatheringbetter data from watersheds is

a must-do for dam managers, because climate change means that many of their models for flow

no longer work “The statistical models are having less and less utility,” he says

What it boils down to is thatthe available water needs to beused more cleverly “We need

to start managing the whole watershed, from headwater to groundwater,” says Bales ■

–Better when it’s wetter–

“We’ve operated our water systems by the seat of our pants for the past century”

22 October 2016 | NewScientist | 23

For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technology

DRONES could soon be criss-crossing

cities delivering pizza, cleaning

windows and inspecting infrastructure,

thanks to a sensor that will help them

autonomously avoid hazards while

flying at speed.

InVisage Technologies of Menlo

Park, California, has built a low-cost

sensor called the SML20 that can

rapidly detect obstacles up to 20

metres away It exploits a technique

called structured light, using laser

pulses to project dots that are

distorted by any object they strike

The reflected light allows the sensor

to infer the location and distance of

obstacles ahead.

Previous structured-light sensors

have worked poorly in daylight as

the projected pattern is lost in the

background glare The new sensor

solves the problem by using infrared

lasers operating at 940 nanometres

Sunlight at this wavelength is mostly

absorbed by water vapour before

it reaches the lowest part of the

atmosphere.

The laser light reflected to the

sensor is then detected by a layer of

film made of quantum dots: nanoscale

semiconductors engineered to react

to specific wavelengths These dots

are five times more sensitive than the

silicon-based detectors found in other

sensors, enabling them to pick up

reflections from lower-powered

lasers David Hambling ■

zipping down pedestrianisedstreets in Milton Keynes

The purple-and-white vehicle,designed by automotive firmRDM, looks like a cross between agolf cart and a bubble The doorsopen vertically, but inside it justlooks like a regular automatic carhooked up to an iPad It’s hard totell that it has been kitted outwith driverless control systems

by Oxbotica, a spin-off companyfrom the University of Oxford’sMobile Robotics Group (OMRG)

Tom Wilcox, a senior softwareengineer for the project, tells mehe’s there to grab the steeringwheel if something goes wrong

He taps the tablet and off we go

The pod accelerates to speeds of

8 kilometres an hour (we are in a

pedestrian zone after all) and anon-board computer controls thesteering to avoid hitting obstacles

The pod has a variety of camerasand sensors, including radar andthe laser-based equivalent, lidar,which collect information aboutthe surroundings to help thevehicle figure out where it is inthe pre-mapped environment

“We don’t see a differencebetween the road or thepavement,” says Paul Newman,director of the OMRG “Thevehicles always have to ask thequestions, ‘Where am I? What’saround me? And what should Ido?’ And we make sure that thesystems are in place so that thecars have the answers.”

It might not seem as sexy

as Tesla or Google’s driverlessprojects, but the trial demonstrateshow most people are likely tofirst experience driverless cars:

as a shared transit system incity centres

“We’re ready for the public

Hail a pod in UK’s first driverless tech trial

right now,”says Newman “I think you will see autonomous vehicles rolled out in places like Olympic parks or central cities pretty soon, but it’s going to be a while before you can go into a garage and buy

a car without a steering wheel.”Initially, 40 driverless pods will navigate the city’s 250-kilometre network of walkways and cycle paths, with a select group of passengers from the public Over the next few years, the same tech

will be put on roads in Coventry,Greenwich and Bristol

The hope is that the pods can act like taxis You will simply tell

an app where you want to go, then

a pod will pick you up and drive you to your destination

Similar tech is popping up elsewhere MIT spin-off company nuTonomy started testing driverless taxis in Singapore this summer, and Uber began field tests in Pittsburgh last month

A few recent high-profile accidents have put the spotlight

on the safety of self-driving cars, but Newman says the technology just needs some time to develop Every year, over a million people die from road accidents due to human error Newman believes driverless cars can do better

“There’s a whole class of errors that computers never make,”

he says “Self-driving cars never become inattentive, which is a big cause of human error.”Another possible advantage ofthe system is environmental – the vehicles are electric As for worries about batteries running out, a group of pods could charge up while the others are in service

My test ride is a little bumpy and surprisingly creaky As thepod pulls up to our destination,

I feel a little underwhelmed.The journey was like almost anyother that I’ve taken – but that, perhaps, is the point ■

“Simply tell an app where you want to go, then a pod will pick you up and drive you to your destination”

24 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

IN A warehouse outside of Kigali,

Rwanda, 15 drones sit waiting

to receive a message When the

text comes in, one loads up and

zips off into the sky – on a

mission to save a life

Last week, the government

of Rwanda announced an

emergency drone delivery service

These drones will make up to

150 trips per day, carrying blood

supplies to clinics in need

Rwanda has relatively good

infrastructure in some places,

but in others it can be unreliable,

says Moz Siddiqui at the Global

Alliance for Vaccines and

Immunization (GAVI), one of

three partners in the project,

along with UPS and drone

company Zipline “It’s the land

of a thousand hills,” he says

“In some areas, access is really

difficult, especially when youcome to the rainy season, whereroads are just not an option.”

That’s problematic forhealthcare workers, who may nothave the supplies they need todeal with emergency situations –such as postpartum hemorrhage,

one of the leading causes ofdeath for women in Africa

Drones, says Siddiqui, are anelegant solution Now, whenhealth workers at one of 21 clinicsaround the country need aparticular blood type, they cansend a text to the drone base,nicknamed the Nest There, a

drone will be loaded with up to1.5 kilograms of supplies When

it arrives at its destination, itwill drop the load, attached to asmall parachute The team says

a trip that might have takenhours by car can be completed

in under 30 minutes

It isn’t the first time thatresearchers have turned to drones

to transport medical supplies

Last July, the US governmentsigned off on a project to flypharmaceuticals to rural Virginiausing a hexacopter drone

Another project, run by Californiacompany Matternet, deliveredmedicine to a clinic in Haiti

If all goes well, the teamplans to expand the drones’

cargo to include rabies vaccines,then perhaps other types ofvaccine too

“When a child gets bitten by

a rabid animal, it’s 100 per centfatal,” says Siddiqui “You need

to actually have a vaccine at thatparticular point straight away.”

It’s a great idea, subject to afew constraints, says DavidSalisbury at the Royal Institute

of International Affairs inLondon It’s important to makesure that the package gets exactlywhere it needs to go and thatworkers can confirm it has beenreceived, he says

Another obstacle is thatvaccines must be kept chilledwithin a narrow temperaturerange But, if the trips are short,Siddiqui thinks they might nothave to worry about vaccinesgoing bad on the ride over

Ultimately, he hopes the projectcan expand to other countriestoo “Our intention is to scale anyintervention, any project thatenables us to actually save livesand have access to vaccineswherever you are,” he says “Wethink this can be one of those.”■

“When a clinic needs a particular blood type, they can send a text

to the drone base”

ONE PER CENT

Wi-Fi kettle woes

Fancy a brew? It took data analyst Mark Rittman 11 hours to get his Wi-Fi-enabled kettle to boil, a task

he documented on Twitter as he tried to integrate the kettle with his other smart devices “Well the kettleisbackonlineandresponding

to voice control, but now we’re eating dinner in dark while lights download a firmware update,” he tweeted at the end of the ordeal.

120

terabits per second: the capacity of

a new subsea cable being built by Facebook and Google to connect Los Angeles to Hong Kong Google says that's enough for 80 million simultaneous HD video calls between the two cities.

Handle with care

How best to return your Galaxy Note 7? Put it in a ”static shield” bag, then in one box, inside another box – and then inside a final, thermally insulated box These were the instructions that Samsung sent with a return kit it began shipping after being forced

to recall its Galaxy Note 7 amid reports of the phones catching fire and exploding (see page 20) XDA Developers uploaded a video of the kit to YouTube

Blood delivered by drone

Drones fly medical supplies to clinics in Rwanda, finds Aviva Rutkin

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APERTURE

22 October 2016 | NewScientist | 27

Ape takes root

YOU need a head for heights to survive in the jungle The orangutan scaling this dizzyingly high tree is searching for figs – and he knows this is a good source

US photographer Tim Laman took this inducing photo in Gunung Palung National Park

vertigo-in western Borneo, and won this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for it.

To take it, Laman used ropes to climb the 30-metre-high tree and then spent three days rigging up GoPro cameras, which he triggered remotely when he spotted an orangutan hunting for food The tree is wrapped by a strangler fig, which germinated in the tree’s canopy and then wound its roots down the trunk Because orangutans carry a mental map of where the best fruiting trees are, Laman knew that a male

he had previously seen nearby might well return

He was in luck, and captured this wide-angle shot as the ape shimmied up the fig plant’s roots, high above the jungle canopy.

Figs are a vital food for the orangutans on Borneo, which are now critically endangered Poachers kill an estimated 2000 Bornean

orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) every year, while

illegal logging and uncontrolled forest fires mean they are rapidly running out of habitable jungle The number of Bornean orangutans fell by more than 60 per cent between 1950 and 2010, and their numbers are predicted to fall by a further

22 per cent by 2025.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London, where the exhibition opened on

21 October Niall Firth

Photographer

Tim Laman

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

28 | NewScientist | 22 October 2016

IF YOU had to put a price on your life, could

you do it? What would it be? Where wouldyou even start?

We may think valuing human life this way

is the stuff of darkest history, now confined

to the malevolent underworld of humantrafficking We look with shame to an era when

a human being could legally be bought andsold, their worth tied solely to the profit theirwork would yield In the mid-19th century,before slavery was abolished in the southernstates of the US, a “prime male field hand”

could be purchased for about $1100 – roughly

$30,000 in today’s money Other humanbeings were bought and sold for far less

Our repulsion at the idea of putting amonetary value on people is consistent withthe modern principle, outlined in documentssuch as the UN’s Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights, that all human lives are equal –and, we like to believe, equally priceless

Yet we routinely trample on those exaltedideals The scientific literature and the newsare both rife with examples of how unequally

we value life – young over old, those like usover those who are different, the identifiedvictim over the faceless masses

We don’t just value lives differently in amoral sense, but in real money It is how wedivvy up limited resources – from decidinghow much to invest in building safer roads tosetting compensation for families of soldiersand civilians killed in war, or those who werewrongfully imprisoned And depending on

who is doing the pricing and why, thosenumbers can vary, a lot Life, it turns out,doesn’t have a price It has a hundred

One of those numbers is a calculation ofhow much should be spent to prevent yourdeath To decide which potentially life-savinginterventions are worth it, governmentbodies look at a quantity called the value of astatistical life (VSL), or as the UK Departmentfor Transport (DFT) puts it, the value of aprevented fatality “This is not the amount

of money people would accept in exchangefor certain death,” says W Kip Viscusi atVanderbilt University, Tennessee, who helpedintroduce the VSL to US agencies “It’s reallyjust a reflection of their attitude toward avery tiny risk of death.”

Put simply, it’s the type of calculation

we make when deciding whether it’s worthspending extra to buy the car with moresafety features, just on a grander scale Takethe risk of dying from salmonella infection,for instance If people are on average willing

to pay $7 to reduce that risk by 1 in a million,then the VSL is $7 million This would then

be the figure used by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to justify the cost of efforts to prevent salmonella outbreaks The VSL a country adopts tends to vary with its wealth (as a benchmark, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recommends that member nations use a figure between $1.5 million and $4.5 million) Then there is the matter of how you

Each life is priceless.