BRAIN INVADERS Is Alzheimer’s triggered by infectious bacteria? QUANTUM MAGIC Schrödinger’s cat can be sawn in half WHAT’S IN A FACE Can you really spot criminals by their appearance? WEEKLY June -10, 2016 BREXIT How the most irrational vote ever will be decided S P E C I A L I S S U E T H E E N D How everything will eventually finish and what will come next No3076 US$5.95 CAN$5.95 2 70989 30690 Science and technology news www.newscientist.com US jobs in science KEEP EXPLORING ANETA IVANOVA Subscribe to New Scientist Visit newscientist.com/9020 or call 1-888-822-3242 and quote offer 9020 Live Smarter Professor Dame Carol Robinson 2015 Laureate for United Kingdom By Brigitte Lacombe Science needs women L’ORÉAL UNESCO AWARDS Dame Carol Robinson, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University, invented a ground-breaking method for studying how membrane proteins function, which play a critical role in the human body Throughout the world, exceptional women are at the heart of major scientific 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 JOIN US ON FACEBOOK.COM/FORWOMENINSCIENCE CONTENTS Volume 230 No 3076 This issue online newscientist.com/issue/3076 Leaders News Free speech has met social media, with revolutionary results News Time-travelling writing tablets UPFRONT Why zoo gorilla had to be shot Should Brazil hold Olympics? Your phone probably won’t give you cancer THIS WEEK Schrödinger’s cat can be split in half Could we vaccinate against Alzheimer’s? Stuff of life found around comet Neanderthals’ mystery cave building Cells blog with CRISPR 14 IN BRIEF Mongol hordes beaten by weather The oldest animal ever Baby black holes Pain and pleasure memories take separate paths MOLA Britain’s oldest known writing reveals daily life in 1st century AD On the cover 26 10 Brain invaders Is Alzheimer’s triggered by infectious bacteria? Quantum magic Schrödinger’s cat can be sawn in half 22 What’s in a face Can you spot criminals by their appearance? 16 Brexit How the most irrational vote ever will be decided Special issue: The end How everything will eventually finish… and what will come next Analysis 16 EU referendum How Britain will decide 18 COMMENT Why science would benefit from Brexit – or not 19 INSIGHT There are better ways to decide the big issues than referendums Technology 20 Computers understand phone calls Smart shirt for epilepsy How websites take your fingerprint Guessing personality from faces Aperture News 16 24 Duck and diving up close Britain makes up its mind 26 SPECIAL ISSUE: THE END How you, the universe, civilisation, life, sex, disease, science, humankind and much more will cease to be 38 PEOPLE Shari Forbes on opening Australia’s first body farm FRANCOIS LENOIR / REUTERS How the most irrational election ever will be decided Features Culture Coming next week… Fat lot of good Has official nutrition advice caused obesity? Alien interlopers The bits of the solar system that don’t fit in 40 The peak oilman Following the trail of M King Hubbert, a geologist with a canny idea 41 Stand-up role Sara Pascoe on being female 42 Inside job When’s a parasite not a parasite? Regulars 52 LETTERS Fudging of data begins early 56 FEEDBACK Noah’s ark minus a captain 57 THE LAST WORD Born to drive June 2016 | NewScientist | C60 Trident Pro 600 Chronograph FANCY COLLECTION/SUPERSTOCK LEADER LOCATIONS USA 50 Hampshire St, Floor 5, Cambridge, MA 02139 Please direct telephone enquiries to our UK office +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 UK 110 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6EU Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250 Australia Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Tel +61 9422 8559 Fax +61 9422 8552 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE For our latest subscription offers, visit newscientist.com/subscribe Customer and subscription services are also available by: Telephone 1-888-822-3242 Email subscribe@newscientist.com Political truths Free speech has met social media, with revolutionary results Web newscientist.com/subscribe Mail New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953 USA One year subscription (51 issues) $154 CONTACTS Contact us newscientist.com/contact Who’s 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USA Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in USA by Fry Communications Inc, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 “IT’S confusing the public, it’s democratic legitimacy: their very impoverishing political debate popularity demonstrates that the public are thoroughly fed up they have tapped into the anger, with it.” That was the verdict last frustration and patriotism of week by the chairman of the UK’s voters who feel their concerns Treasury Select Committee on the have been ignored Continuing war being waged over the country’s to ignore them is not an option European Union membership, But the fitness for office of these which he says has become an demagogues can be questioned “arms race of ever more lurid Social media lets them craft claims and counterclaims” messages that fly in some circles, As in any war, the first casualty even if they make little sense to has been truth Much dissembling outsiders Should we care if those of information has taken the form messages are falsehoods – and of “mathswash”, presenting vague if so, how should we curb them? estimates as firm predictions with nary a caveat or error bar in sight “A cynic might wonder if politicians are actually Other claims are misleading but catchy – designed to spread faster any more dishonest than they used to be” than efforts to debunk them The net result is that the UK’s forthcoming vote on “Brexit” Worries that personalisation probably won’t be decided on the on the internet could create “filter bubbles”, within which people see basis of level-headed arguments, only what fits with their existing but by the cognitive shortcuts we turn to when we’re clueless about views, have come home to roost the right thing to (see page 16) That turns out to mean not just convenient truths, but also myths Truth has also been a casualty and distortions, propagated by of Donald Trump’s bid to become algorithms which score them by the Republicans’ US presidential popularity, not truthfulness And candidate His pronouncements, often made using the megaphone it’s not just ignoramuses whose news is thus polluted: the recent of social media, have shown little furore over Facebook’s curation of fidelity either to the real world or to his previous pronouncements its trending topics suggests that anyone who leans on social media Populists all over the world have for their news may be seeing a adopted similar tactics Their opponents cannot claim they lack funhouse mirror of the truth Thus the right to free speech has morphed into the ability to say and spread anything, no matter how daft or dangerous Hence the buzz around the idea of “post-truth politics” – although a cynic might wonder if politicians are actually any more dishonest than they used to be Perhaps it’s just that fibs once whispered into select ears are now overheard by everyone We have been here before As printing became widely available in the 1600s, there was a boom in pamphleteering: cheap, crude publications, often denouncing political and social foes in vitriolic and slanderous terms These were important in fomenting both the English civil war and the American war of independence The idea that the fusion of technology and media may have revolutionary outcomes – primed this time round by politicians rather than proletarians – will alarm those who prefer the status quo: there have been calls for the new media titans to be regulated To be sure, they cannot carry on dodging their responsibilities But the ultimate answer isn’t policing social media for rabble-rousing mistruths, but bursting the filter bubbles and talking to those who disagree with us Because we need democracy to be more than just a popularity contest ■ June 2016 | NewScientist | BUDA MENDES/GETTY IMAGES UPFRONT Olympics Zika threat NEARLY 200 bioethicists have called for this year’s Olympic Games to be moved or postponed due to Zika virus The games are set to begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August There are currently 32,000 probable cases of infection in the city In an open letter to the World Health Organization last week, the bioethicists said that more people are likely to get Zika if the games go ahead than if they are held elsewhere or delayed until Rio has driven out its mosquitoes The WHO says such drastic measures won’t change the global spread of the virus, and that it can be avoided by preventing mosquito bites and blocking sexual transmission It recommends wearing insect repellent, avoiding slums and staying in air conditioned rooms, and that visitors should use condoms “or abstain from sex during their stay and for at least four weeks after their return” August falls in the southern hemisphere’s winter, meaning that the games are expected to take place during the annual low point for mosquitoes in Brazil But the letter says that cases of dengue fever, which is carried by the same mosquitoes, are much higher than usual this year, suggesting that the insects are unusually numerous and may not entirely disappear It also warns that visitors from the northern hemisphere could spread the virus, if they carry it home to countries that are in the midst of the mosquito season Under the sea capacity one yet, moving data at 160 terabits per second Slated to be completed by October 2017, it will stretch from the US state of Virginia to Bilbao in Spain Infrastructure like this will “enable customers to more quickly and reliably store, manage, transmit and access their data in the Microsoft Cloud”, said the companies in a release Microsoft and Facebook aren’t the only tech giants plotting their own private cables In 2014, Google struck deals to build two, intended to link the US with Japan and Brazil –Going ahead– Selling carbon from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy to fine-tune the plant’s design so it runs more cheaply and efficiently during the three-year pilot period The company hopes it will then run as a self-sustaining business The plant will collect to tonnes of CO2 per day “The advantage of taking it out of the ambient air is that you can it wherever you are on the planet,” says Dominique Kronenberg, chief operating officer at Climeworks “You don’t depend on a CO2 source, so you don’t have high costs for transporting it where it is needed.” WHAT’S the best way to get rid of greenhouse gases? Swiss company Climeworks thinks the answer is to feed them to greenhouses – and is building the world’s first facility to so commercially The firm expects to open the plant near Zurich in September or October Its technology will suck carbon dioxide out of the air and sell it to nearby greenhouses to spur the growth of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes CO2 is already taken out of the air in enclosed spaces such as submarines and space capsules Climeworks will use a similar process, called direct air capture With this method, normal air is pushed through a sponge-like filter material impregnated with chemicals called amines, which are derived from ammonia and bind to CO2 Climeworks will use funding | NewScientist | June 2016 FOTOGLORIA/LUZ/EYEVINE “The advantage is that you can suck CO2 out of the air wherever you are, keeping transport costs down” AIN’T no ocean deep enough to keep them from you On 26 May, Microsoft and Facebook announced plans to lay a fibreoptic cable 6600 kilometres long under the Atlantic Ocean Undersea cables criss-cross the ocean floor, as a key part of the internet’s infrastructure, enabling transcontinential exchange of digital information Microsoft and Facebook say their new cable – named Marea, which means “tide” in Spanish – will be the Atlantic’s highest- Phones are fine KEEP talking Scientists have cast doubt over evidence that cellphone radiation may cause cancer The US National Toxicology Program last week released some results from a two-year study in which more than 1000 rats were exposed to differing levels of cellphone radiation for hours a day, for the whole of their lives No increases in brain or heart –No need to hang up– tumours were observed in female For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news No more passwords rats But around per cent of males developed a brain cancer known as malignant glioma, and up to per cent grew heart tumours called schwannomas (BioRxiv, doi.org/bjfm) Michael Lauer of the US National Institutes of Health says the results should be interpreted with caution The number of cancers was small, meaning they could be statistical blips, he says Most of the rats in the study were exposed to radiation levels higher than those permitted in current phone models, and on average, the exposed rats lived longer than the controls YOU’VE been hearing it for years, now it might really be happening: the password is almost dead At Google’s I/O developer conference, Daniel Kaufman, head of the company’s advanced technology projects, announced that Google plans to phase out password access to its Android mobile platform in favour of a trust score This would be based on a suite of identifiers: what Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth devices you’re connected to and your location, along with biometrics, including your typing HPV vaccine trial 60 SECONDS speed, voice and face The phone’s sensors will harvest this data continuously to keep a running tally on how much it trusts that the user is you A low score will suffice for opening a gaming app But a banking app will require more trust It’s part of a trend towards building security and privacy into design, instead of making it the user’s responsibility Kaufman said that the method is better than two-factor authentication because it does not break down if a phone signal is unavailable Developer kits will be available by the end of 2016 Child with gorilla was in danger VIRALHOG THE UK is to trial offering the HPV WHEN a small child managed to get into the gorilla enclosure at vaccine to gay and bisexual men, Cincinnati Zoo on 28 May, the child but campaigners are calling for it was approached and grabbed by a to be given to all boys, as is done 180-kilogram male silverback Zoo in the US and Australia officials shot the animal dead, Since 2008, girls in the UK causing outrage on social media have been vaccinated against the The zoo said it had no choice human papillomavirus, which “It was an incredibly dangerous can cause cervical cancer But the situation for the child,” says Kirsten virus, which is spread by sexual Pullen, head of the British and Irish activity, can also trigger anal, Association of Zoos and Aquariums, penile and throat cancer and an expert in gorilla behaviour The pilot programme, “The silverback, Harambe, grabbed announced by the UK public the child by the leg and whooshed health minister Jane Ellison, him through the water He was will offer the shot to 40,000 using the child as part of a display men who have sex with men The We can’t see the gorilla’s expression plan has been welcomed, but has so we don’t know if he is being prompted calls for vaccination to aggressive, but the display be extended to all boys in the UK “Ideally, you must get people before their sexual debut, and a gender-neutral programme would cover all the bases,” says Carrie Llewellyn at the University of Sussex, UK A decision on vaccinating all boys is unlikely to be made until 2017, when an advisory panel is due to report on the possible costs and health impact of such a move But sexual health charity the Terrence Higgins Trust believes this is unnecessary stalling “We’re urging them to roll it out as soon as possible for all boys,” a spokesperson told New Scientist –Unpredictable situation– indicates an agitated animal, and his behaviour is very unpredictable.” Harambe, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, was also seen standing over the child Many people interpreted this as Harambe guarding the child, but that’s not necessarily the case, says Pullen “The silverback’s job in the group is to put himself between his family and the unknown,” she says The appearance of a child in the enclosure is an unknown, and represents a possible threat to the group Gorillas have been known to “rescue” children who fall into their enclosure, but the children had been knocked unconscious in those cases, which would not add to the tension of the situation, says Pullen Moth classic in action It is a textbook example of evolution: the rise of industrial cities led to the darkening of the peppered moth — an adaptive response to pollution and bird predation Now two studies have independently picked up a single gene behind this trait (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature17951 and 10.1038/nature17961) Pump up the module NASA has successfully puffed up its new inflatable on the International Space Station – on the second try Astronauts first attempted to inflate the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) on 26 May, but while pressure inside the module increased, its volume did not keep up A second attempt on 28 May did the trick Carbon aliens If aliens exist on one of the most alluring worlds spotted by NASA’s Kepler probe, it’s a big thank you to carbon dioxide Planet Kepler 62f gets less heat from its star than we So, unless its atmosphere is packed with the greenhouse gas, any surface water will be frozen, climate simulations suggest (Astrobiology, doi.org/bhz8) Electric bumblebees Bumblebees can detect and make sense of electric fields using the tiny hairs on their body Their mechanosensory hairs bend in response to an electric field, triggering neural activity Since such hairs are common in arthropods, many insects may be equally skilled  (PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1601624113) Heimlich’s first Ironically, Henry Heimlich who gave his name to the famous anti-choking manoeuvre, has only recently used it himself The 96-year-old retired surgeon reportedly performed the technique on an 87-year-old woman at a retirement home who was choking on a piece of hamburger June 2016 | NewScientist | MOLA THIS WEEK Britain’s oldest writing found Roman messages buried for 2000 years have been unearthed beneath a London station Joshua Howgego Before the Romans invaded, London didn’t exist, says Roman historian Roger Tomlin at the University of Oxford There were just “wild west, hillbilly-style settlements” scattered in the area The documents are written in Latin and date from between AD 43 and AD 80 They show that the city quickly became filled with a variety of characters, including BETTER smarten up if you want to get ahead in business That’s advice from the earliest writing ever discovered in the UK The message is part of a haul of 405 writing tablets unearthed in the heart of London, metres from Bank underground station They date from as early as AD 43, the year the Romans started their “I never imagined that in conquest of Britain the late 1st century AD, The tablets reveal a rich cast of there was a community of 1st-century Londoners, contain people very much like us” the first ever written reference to the city and hint at Britain’s very first school (see “What the ancient soldiers, merchants, judges and texts say”, below) even a brewer “It’s exceptional, really “I’ve been digging around wonderful,” says Michael Speidel in London for years and never of the Mavors Institute for quite imagined that in the late Ancient Military History in Basel, 1st century, there was a Switzerland “Looking at things in community of people who are very the past is usually a bit like glaring much like us,” says Sophie Jackson, into a fog and we can’t really see who manages the dig for the beyond With documents like this, Museum of London Archaeology the fog clears away a bit.” Aside from a few pottery shards –Clues to Roman London– that have been scrawled on, the next-earliest known example of writing in Britain is the huge cache of inked wood scraps and wax tablets excavated from the Vindolanda fort near Hadrian’s Wall in northern England The earliest of these is at least 40 years later than some of the new haul This “pushes the written record almost back to the conquest”, says Andrew Birley, director of the Vindolanda excavations Examples of Roman writing are rare because ancient stationery tends to degrade easily The London tablets survived because of a quirk of fate In the mid-1st century, the course of the Thames ran about 100 metres further north, and the area between the (AD 43-53) “…because they are boasting through the whole market that you have lent them money Therefore, I ask you in your own interest to not appear shabby You will not thus favour your own affairs…” This seems to be business advice It’s not clear if the “market” is real, and refers to a forum, the centre of Roman public life, or if the word is being used metaphorically (AD 62-65) “…I ask you by bread and salt that you send as soon as possible the 26 denarii in victoiriati | NewScientist | June 2016 and the 10 denarii of Paterio… Bread and salt represents hospitality in many cultures, so this expression might be appealing to the recipient to be kind and offer a loan as a favour (AD 57) “In the consulship of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus for the second time and of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, on the 6th day before the Ides of January I, Tibullus the freedman of Venustus, have written and say that I owe Gratus the freedman of Spurius 105 denarii from the price of the merchandise which has been sold and delivered This money I am due to repay him or the person whom the matter will concern…” This might be Britain’s earliest IOU Romans had a cumbersome way of defining years – naming the two consulates elected for that year – but in this case it means the document effectively dates itself (AD 60-62) “…ABCDIIFGHIKL, MNOPQRST…” (shown right) This looks like writing practice, so could be evidence of Britain’s first school MOLA WHAT THE ANCIENT TEXTS SAY University of Missouri School of Medicine iversit abama irmingham (UAB) e The th premi e s with internattionall de programs in the basic sciences as slational medicine It is commi tted to lopment of outstanding postdoctoral scientists and consistentlly ran a ked d e p n locatiion a m on universittiies ning postdoctoral schola ars In addition to an exceptional UAB offffers postdocs: The University of Missouri (MU) School of Medicine in Columbia invites applications and nominations for the position of SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH This position reports directly to the Dean of the School of Medicine MU has an outstanding research infrastructure in life sciences MU has numerous distinctions including the largest and most powerful university-owned research reactor in the country; the only NIH-funded national swine resource and research center; one of 13 regional biocontainment laboratories in the nation; one of only four Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers; a Rat Resource and Research Center Thus, MU is the only university in the nation to hold three major NIH national centers The Senior Associate Dean for Research will work with the Dean of the School of Medicine and campus research leaders to develRS VWUDWHJLHV WKDW LGHQWLI\ DUHDV RI UHVHDUFK VLJQL¿FDQFH ZKLFK ZLOO enable the School of Medicine to grow its research enterprise The candidate will be expected to coordinate and lead extramural applications for research infrastructure and other large institutional awards; represent the School of Medicine to local, regional and national constituencies; and provide leadership in the area of clinical and translational research The Senior Associate Dean will also oversee the graduate program in biomedical sciences, the research FRPSOLDQFH SURJUDPV ODERUDWRU\ VDIHW\ DQG WKH ¿VFDO LQWHJULW\ RI the research enterprise This individual will have an MD or PhD or equivalent degree, broad progressive administrative leadership experience in an academic health center environment; working knowledge of current national biomedical research interests with a history of sponsored funding; national recognition for achievement in research pursuits that would warrant appointment as a Full Professor There should be a demonstrated record of promoting collaboration and cultivating both internal and external relations The candidate must demonstrate the highest integrity and personal ethics and have a strong commitment to diversity Interested individuals should submit a letter of interest and a current CV to: Barbara Montgomery, staff for the search committee, montgomeryb@health.missouri.edu or MU School of Medicine, DC018.00 Columbia, MO 65212 telephone (573) 882-0003 For additional information, visit the following web sites: http://medicine.missouri.edu/ and http://missouri.edu/ The University of Missouri is fully committed to achieving the goal of a diverse and inclusive academic community of faculty, staff and students We seek individuals who are committed to this goal and our core campus values of respect, responsibility, discovery and excellence $QHTXDORSSRUWXQLW\$FFHVV$I¿UPDWLYH$FWLRQ3UR'LVDEOHG & Veteran Employer such as on-going workshops and certificate program x x competitive benefits, including maternity/paternity leave for eligible postdoc ed d Exp x erriences in n Researrch, UAB is also home to the NIH-funded IRACDA Mentore Instruction, and Teachin ng (M ME ERIT Prrogram, which provides postdocs with both research and teaching experiences to qualified postdocs www.uab.edu/meritprogram Birmingha is id-size e a moderate climate metropolitan areas trally located e utheast nea beaches r round outdoor activiti t es with a cost ng ntains an e enjoys most posted Visi s ite ww.uab.edu/postdocs a n d s e l e c t Postdoctoral Oppor tunities pos i t ion s Send your er letter to the conttac name e positions for which qualified u University of Birmingham, AL 35294-2182 UAB , Office s td doctoral Education, 172 05-975-7020/975-7021 2nd Avenue S, nt pportunity employer ual employmen Postdoctoral Scholars for MERIT Program Funded by a NIH IRACDA Program The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) MERIT (Mentored Experiences in Research, Instruction, and Teaching) Program is seeking individuals who are interested in outstanding teaching and research experiences during their postdoctoral training The MERIT Program will provide opportunities for research experience at UAB and teaching experiences at minority serving institutions, including Oakwood University and Stillman College, located near UAB MERIT Scholars are supported for four years at NRSA rates; are provided with health insurance at no charge; Allowance for travel and supplies as outlined on our website Applicants to the MERIT Program must be Ph.D candidates or recent Ph.D recipients (with the past year) and a US citizen or non-citizen national; individuals with comparable degrees, include MD and DVM, are also eligible Women and persons from diverse backgrounds, including underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are encouraged to apply Application materials as well as other information are available at http://www.uab.edu/meritprogram/ Executive Director, North Pacific Research Board Congress created the North Pacific Research Board in 1997 to recommend marine research initiatives to the U.S Secretary of Commerce, who makes final funding decisions Primary Responsibilities: Under the direction of the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), provide leadership for a nationally recognized scientific organization to maintain and enhance the organization’s reputation for excellence in marine research To meet this goal, manage the staff and established processes to administer sub-awards with funds made available to the Secretary of Commerce from the Environmental Improvement and Restoration Fund (EIRF) EIRF funds provide for Federal, State, private and foreign organizations or individuals to conduct; research activities for cooperative marine research projects and activities on, or relating to, the fisheries or marine ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and Arctic Ocean (including lesser related bodies of water) as set forth at 43 U.S.C §1474d(e)(1) and in accordance with criteria and priorities for grants established by the North Pacific Research Board, as set forth at 43 U.S.C §§1474d(e)(2) and (e)(4)(B) Specific Duties: Work jointly with the parties of the Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) and the North Pacific Marine Research Institute; the U.S Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Alaska SeaLife Center to meet the overall objectives of the EIRF Employ and manage NPRB staff and contractors in accordance with relevant laws and regulations to assist in achieving the duties and responsibilities outlined in this scope of services Develop the annual work plan formulation process to generate budgets for the operation and administration of all research, education, and administration activities, and submit these timely for NPRB approval, together with all proposals for grant funding; track and report on the work plan in synchrony with Board meetings Manage the overall NPRB budget, and track and report on the budget in synchrony with Board meetings Provide NPRB with all information necessary to approve research, education and demonstration projects in accordance with 33 U.S.C §2738 and oversee implementation and monitoring of all approved grants to ensure compliance and timely conduct; report to Board timely on issues associated with grant implementation Work with and for the Board, including working at the direction of the Board to develop standard operating procedures, science and strategic plans, and other policies for ultimate NPRB approval and oversee their implementation by staff, consultants, and contractors Provide oversight of scientific guidance provided to the Board and scientific peer review of grant requests via the Science Panel; implement and administer grants, programs and projects, and perform such other science review functions as may be required by the Board Coordinate Advisory Panel meetings and reports to the Board and foster community and public input to the Board as appropriate Oversee a public process of communications and outreach and develop a biennial report of NPRB activities for Board approval Oversee, in conjunction with the ASLC HR manager, performance appraisals of NPRB staff; submit to the Executive Committee an annual performance report for this position and meet annually to agree on personal business goals and priorities for the year ahead Represent the Board at appropriate public, professional, and scientific meetings and symposia Ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and work with the Fiscal Agent for the NPRB (the Alaska SeaLife Center) to ensure compliance with all Federal, State and local regulations pertaining to NPRB operations; comply with all NPRB policies, procedures, and programs and all ASLC financial agent requirements relating to human resources, fiscal management, risk management, etc Perform other related duties as assigned from time to time by the Executive Committee Physical Requirements: The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by the employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions Minimum Skills and Qualifications: Proven/strong managerial and leadership skills; team building; and strong interpersonal skills; At least 10 years experience at a senior level in research and/or organizational management with years of program-level supervisory experience; Proven communication and interpersonal skills - must be able to communicate effectively, internally and externally, to multiple audiences; Leader and facilitator – ability to motivate, influence, and develop capacity in others to create conditions that elicit passion, commitment, and best in class work that builds the reputation of an organization; Proven emotional intelligence (i.e., ability to appropriately perceive, use, understand, and manage the emotions of oneself and others); and a Bachelor’s degree in a field related to science, business, law, administration, fisheries, or environmental research Preferred Skills and Qualifications: A postgraduate degree in a field related to science, business, law, administration, fisheries or environmental research; A record of accomplishment with a particular emphasis on oversight of multidisciplinary research that has management applications; Solid understanding of issues relating to marine ecosystems, including current, key, and developing issues; Experience working with and for a board of directors; Ability to work effectively with key government, private and academic institutions; Current knowledge of key government and academic institutions and partners in marine science and management, including fisheries, oil and gas, tourism and other marine industry organizations; Demonstrated experience with business and financial management; Demonstrated partnership-building experience with diverse political environments at State, National and International levels; Able to work with confidential information and diverse stakeholders; Be alert to opportunities, be innovative, entrepreneurial, and take on new challenges in a manner that supports and reinforces the priorities of the Board; and Be of the highest levels of character and ethical behavior This is a regular, full-time position equivalent to the GS-15 level in federal service Candidates should submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, a two-page summary of their philosophy on guiding collaborative research and contact information for four references at http://alaskasealifecenter.gatherdocs.com/apply?listing_id=2382 Applications will be accepted through June 24, 2016 and review of applications will take place in July with an anticipated start date of no later than October 21, 2016 NPRB is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce LETTERS EDITOR’S PICK Mass fudging of data begins early From a teenage reader I have read several articles recently describing how the scientific profession has become discredited by scientists changing and manipulating their data (see for example 16 April, p and p 39) This practice is even more deep-rooted than you might think For my GCSE biology course I must “investigate what factors affect simple animal behaviour” We chose to put woodlice in a choice chamber and let them run around, to study the effect of different light intensities There are 60 students in my year, and we all came to the resounding conclusion that woodlice are completely psychotic So did we write a thoughtful evaluation? Did we repeat the test? Did we seek secondary data to explain our findings? Of course not How could I expand “woodlice are psychotic” into a 5000-word submission with graphs and tables in hours? We all fudged our data We created new data sets from scratch One student created two data sets, and published one on a blog so he could reference it We need better education to stamp out such behaviour and to teach school students that this can’t be done What was worse was that it was considered the norm Got bad data? Make up some more! Name and address supplied 52 | NewScientist | June 2016 letters@newscientist.com More walking does not reduce traffic From Olaf Olsen Will increased walking or cycling bring down air pollution (14 May, p 6)? Probably not The immediate effect would be less congestion and cleaner air So far, fine But congestion is a deterrent to driving When it is reduced, unless there is a new legal or physical impediment, such as road closure or narrowing, or monetary fees, new drivers will appear from the large reservoir of potential drivers These will enjoy, briefly, pleasant motorised travel Soon pollution and congestion will again be in balance In the 1980s, tolls on some New York river crossings were lowered for “high-occupancy vehicles” – those with at least one passenger besides the driver A co-worker responded by picking up a passenger or two at a bus stop before the Holland Tunnel So transit operators lost revenue, along with the bridge and tunnel agency, and pollution from his large Lincoln car remained as it was Dreamers and reformers should think beyond step one Millerton, New York, US Driverless cars and the tragedy of jam From Adrian Bowyer You rightly say that we should be thinking about the implications of driverless cars now (14 May, p 5) I suggest that the most common number of occupants of a driverless car on the road will probably be zero A very important aspect of a highly automated and widely distributed technology is that it doesn’t matter to users how slowly it works, within reason It takes 15 minutes for you or me to wash a pile of dishes It takes a dishwasher an hour, but we don’t mind the extra three-quarters of an hour because it isn’t our time Similarly a sprawling traffic jam of stationary unoccupied driverless electric cars on their way to collect the week’s groceries is costing their owners nothing and emitting no pollution Driverless cars will create a vast tragedy of the commons, these commons being road space The only solution I see is ubiquitous road pricing, which – with the encrypted secure logs that the insurance companies will insist that the cars have – should be easy to implement Foxham, Wiltshire, UK I am not sitting comfortably in that From Perry Bebbington Are you sitting comfortably, asks the caption on an image of a driverless car (14 May, p 22) Not in those awful seats No lower back support, horribly concave It might as well have been designed to make back pain worse Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, UK Axiom of evil would be a big deal From Hazel Brickhill Jacob Aron says that if one of the Turing machines simulated by Adam Yedidia and Scott Aaronson halts, it would prove the set of axioms of mathematics called ZFC to be inconsistent, but mathematicians wouldn’t be too panicked because “they could simply shift to a slightly stronger set of axioms” (14 May, p 9) It seems Aron here means “stronger” in the everyday sense of “tough”, not the sense I use at work as a mathematician – “able to prove more things” An inconsistency in ZFC would be a big deal for me It would undermine virtually all work in modern set theory since before Kurt Gödel’s 1931 second @newscientist newscientist incompleteness theorem This proves that a set of axioms sufficient to define arithmetic cannot prove its own consistency: you can add more axioms to prove the consistency of your first set, but you will not be able to prove the consistency of this bigger set without adding more axioms again – and so it goes on Bristol, UK Empathy need not be painful From Steve Haines Empathy may not require feeling others’ pain (14 May, p 32) It could be defined as imaginatively entering into another’s experience That requires only understanding This sort of empathy would provide the means for those with different lives and experience to better empathise – and moreover offers a protective model for those professionals in danger of burnout It would be an important construct for politicians to adopt before developing policy that excludes some groups from access to fully sharing in society Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire, UK From Julian Smith You describe a growing worldwide crisis in empathy (14 May, p 5) I draw your attention to papers such as “From Painkiller to Empathy Killer: Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) reduces empathy for pain”, also published in May (Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, doi.org/bhtd) Rochdale, Lancashire, UK Protecting the internet of things From Neil Doherty So John Matherley’s Shodan webcrawling engine lists everything connected to the internet (14 May, p 40) That’s a creepy crawler if ever I heard of one For me it “Let’s get rid of the profit aspect of energy It’s what keeps renewables from being mass-produced” Jorge Rodriguez challenges economic arguments about falling renewable electricity prices (21 May, p 19) highlights the weakest link in the thingternet (internet of things): the Wi-Fi router/receiver This is the first thing that such a crawler will find in your home Wi-Fi routers offer security settings, but I doubt many people bother or know how to use them Shouldn’t firms that manufacture this first point of contact for hackers be obliged to ensure that they continually check security, blocking and warning by default? Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK Is your data safe in Scotland? From Sam Edge In his letter describing NHS Scotland’s approach to privacy (9 April), Harry Burns mentions its reliance on Guiding Principles for Data Linkage, published by the Scottish government (bit.ly/ NS_gpdl) I was concerned to find the document stresses that it does not set out rules It sanctions the dissemination of personal data without consent TOM GAULD or notification It makes no strong requirement for recipients of data sets to secure the data or to be independently audited It states that recipients should not try to de-anonymise data, but does not require policing of this Again and again it mentions privacy concerns but states that these should be addressed “where practicable” Ringwood, Hampshire, UK For want of a ‘standard’… From Chris James Lisa Grossman attributes the demise of the Mars Climate Orbiter to “failure to convert between standard and metric units” (7 May, p 19) Metric units have of course been “standard” for decades in advanced technological countries The US retaining the irrational measurement system of its former colonial rulers is one of its more bizarre features A mix-up over what is standard may be why the spacecraft was lost Winchester, Hampshire, UK Asynchronous rhythms of life From Mabel Taylor Catherine de Lange describes work on biological clocks (16 April, p 30) But some of the findings she reports have long been known, as shown in Gay Gaer Luce’s well-researched book Body Time (reviewed in New Scientist, November 1972, p 417) It is amazing how such ideas can come back as mainstream 40 years later Knutsford, Cheshire, UK Please remember early Australians From Stuart Leslie As so often when discussing ancient humans, your writers ignore evidence from Australia – and the article on graves was no exception (14 May, p 36) At Lake Mungo in New South Wales a male was carefully buried lying on his side, slightly flexed, with his hands placed neatly over his groin He was covered with so much red ochre the sands are still stained with it more than 40 years after the excavation This burial has been dated to at least 42,000 years ago The nearest source of red ochre is over 200 kilometres away, so considerable effort and resources were put into this burial and it was obviously important This is by far the oldest formal, ritual burial of a modern human Nearby were found the remains of Mungo woman, older than 20,000 years, burnt and then broken up This represents the oldest evidence of cremation in the world Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia Victorians did spot melting glaciers From Graham Davis As I was reading a new acquisition, Ice by Mariana Gosnell, I heard New Scientist drop onto the doormat – with your report that Victorians experienced early climate change but missed the signs (30 April, p 15) Gosnell mentions that in 1871 physicist John Tyndall gave a lecture to young people about mountain glaciers and reported that “for the last fifteen or sixteen years the glaciers of the Alps have been steadily shrinking…” At the time, this was attributed to the recovery in temperatures from the Little Ice Age In 1894, an international group of scientists was set up in Zurich to monitor the state of the glaciers Bracknell, Berkshire, UK Letters should be sent to: Letters to the Editor, New Scientist, 110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU Email: letters@newscientist.com Include your full postal address and telephone number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to articles We reserve the right to edit letters Reed Business Information reserves the right to use any submissions sent to the letters column of New Scientist magazine, in any other format June 2016 | NewScientist | 53 Free sample issues See science everywhere Enjoy free sample issues within the app Download the New Scientist app today FEEDBACK For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback PAUL MCDEVITT BILL BALDWIN finds a vial of lens cleaner from Vision Clear boasts some extraordinary ingredients on the label These include “propagandist”, “cellulose acetate butterfat”, and the chemically confounding “5-chlorine2-methyl-4-indianapolis-3-one” “I’m not sure that I want to put any of that on my glasses,” says Bill Feedback is left to ponder if propagandist is the sort of mindaltering chemical now outlawed by the Psychoactive Substances Act LAST seen perched atop Mount Ararat, Noah’s ark has reappeared in the rolling hills of Kentucky Christian ministry and mythological re-enactment society Answers in Genesis is putting the finishing touches to Ark Encounter, a full-size replica of the famous ship Previously responsible for the Creation Museum, the organisation has constructed the world’s largest timber-frame structure, a 160-metrelong, 25-metre-high biblical boat, built in part to “dispel doubts that Noah could have fit two of every kind of animal onto a 500-foot-long ark” Unfortunately, in the event of any Old Testament wrath the new ark will not float This may explain why Ark Encounter has positions advertised for zookeepers, shuttle drivers and bus supervisors, but no mention of an opening for captain A vote of faith in the unlikelihood of catastrophic climate change, or worrying oversight from the ministry of arks? FURTHER to previous suggestions of odd-smelling flora and fauna, Ilene Yeomans writes of a particularly fragrant sea creature: “Here on the west coast of Canada, we have a hooded nudibranch that smells like watermelons.” Which prompts Feedback to wonder, ocean-dwelling creatures think that watermelons smell like hooded nudibranchs? PREVIOUSLY we explored the surprising passport-related facts contained within the Home Office’s exciting pamphlet Introducing the new UK passport design (28 May) Yet even armed with this, we find ourselves unable to provide an answer to Rory Allen, who writes “when my wife recently renewed her passport, on the last page there was a square yellow label reading simply ‘Please remove this label’ Can Feedback or any of your readers suggest the logic, if any, behind the label and the request to remove it?” JOHN COCKTON reports that delivery vans for Well Pharmacy in Newcastle upon Tyne now announce on the back that, among other items, “No oxygen is left in this van overnight” “I assume they use some form of air-fractioning equipment after parking up,” says John “Or they seal the vehicles and fill them with nitrogen?” Brendon Hooper informs us that the US navy’s new stealth destroyer, the USS Zumwalt, is commanded by none other than Capt James Kirk 56 | NewScientist | June 2016 JAPANESE artist Megumi Igarashi, who built a kayak modelled on her own vulva, has escaped an obscenity charge for the creation of her body-themed boat However, while Tokyo District Court dismissed charges against the artist (better known as Rokudenashiko or “good-fornothing girl”) for her artworks, it upheld a separate charge relating to the distribution of 3D data used to create the boat, which Igarashi had shared with those funding the piece Feedback thinks this may be the first time 3D files – which encode a set of measurements rather than a rendered image – have been classified as pornography Are readers aware of antecedents? IAN NAPIER is left puzzled by some out-of-the-box thinking he found in an article from the Independent on how London became the UK’s capital Here we learn that the Romans cemented the city’s importance with a unique “125-by-90-metre playing-card-shaped fort” “At first I thought that rectangular would have sufficed, but then considered that perhaps it might be the ratio of the sides that is also being described by this odd unit of measurement,” says Ian However, neither poker cards nor bridge cards match the relative dimensions given Feedback is stumped – but then Roman architecture was never our strong suit PREVIOUSLY, Feedback pondered the latest celebrity diet, confusingly known only as Celebrity Diet, which recommends eating foods low in calories but high in energy (23 April) Monica Backes discussed possible foodstuffs with her family “We rejected anything ingested as a high-velocity projectile on health and safety grounds,” she says “Inspiration was found a few days later: the Celebrity Diet must be composed of food eaten on top of Helvellyn.” Other mountains are available for imbuing food with potential energy, Feedback adds IF YOU have a pessimistic view of the future and a track record of publishing in high-impact journals, you’ll be perfect for University College London’s new position, Professor of Future Crimes The winning applicant will head a centre dedicated to “identifying emergent crime and security threats and developing and recommending pre-emptive measures” Civic-minded clairvoyants, fortune tellers and associated fruitloops: this is your time to shine WHEN it comes to nominative determinism, there are always plenty more fish in the sea, proves Maya Hussain: “The BBC’s new series on bioluminescence features a marine biologist named Stephen Haddock.” You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com Please include your home address This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website Last words past and present at newscientist.com/lastword THE LAST WORD Born to drive How did we evolve to be able to safely control cars travelling at 100 kilometres per hour? ■ In climbing, running, fighting, exploration and experiment over many millions of years, long before cars existed, our ancestors evolved strength, reflexes and intelligence adequate for driving Humans and roads were therefore preadapted to cars, which were necessarily adapted rapidly to match Context is all: “Given that over a million people die in road accidents every year, it is clear we are not adapted to drive” had our preadaptations been different, so would our cars No matter who drives, we want roads to match our vehicles and vehicles to match our evolutionary heritage that can be controlled in a way that does not kill us Our roads evolved over millennia to serve foot traffic, then wagons, coaches, bicycles, and finally motorised traffic We now demand vehicles and roads that allow us to read traffic situations a good seconds in advance, for which our reflexes and coordination are adequate If we had been given, say, the physical attributes of slugs or snakes, our cars would have been different, even if the performance and functions were similar Jon Richfield Somerset West, South Africa The writers of answers that are published in the magazine will receive a cheque for £25 (or US$ equivalent) Answers should be concise We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style Please include a daytime telephone number and an email address if you have one New Scientist retains total editorial control over the published content Reed Business Information Ltd reserves all rights to reuse all question and answer material that has been ■ The question has put evolution in the wrong place We did not evolve to be able to safely control cars travelling at 100 kilometres per hour It is cars that have evolved to be safely controlled by us Early cars were certainly unsafe at any speed, and it was only user pressure that forced those off the road and applied the rule of survival of the fittest to roads and motor vehicles Given that more than a million people die in road accidents every year, it is clear that evolution has not adapted us to drive We can only hope that the evolution of the driving environment continues until it succeeds in counteracting our genetic shortcomings Crispin Piney Mougins, France Brewed at altitude How does atmospheric pressure affect the boiling point of water? ■ Water molecules can always escape from their liquid phase to form vapour These escapees exert a vapour pressure, which contributes to the overall atmospheric pressure and depends sensitively on temperature At higher temperatures, water molecules in liquid move faster and are thus more likely to escape into the air It is the most energetic molecules that escape, lowering the average speed of the remainder – which is why evaporation cools the submitted by readers in any medium or in any format and at any time in the future Send questions and answers to The Last Word, New Scientist, 110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU, UK, by email to lastword@newscientist.com or visit www.newscientist.com/topic/lastword (please include a postal address in order to receive payment for answers) Unanswered questions can also be found at this URL remaining liquid For water to boil, vapour bubbles must form within the bulk of the liquid However, these will be squeezed shut by the surrounding atmospheric pressure until the vapour pressure in the bubble matches it Hence, water boils at the temperature at which these pressures become equal This happens at a lower temperature when the atmospheric pressure is lower – up a mountain, for example Conversely, it boils at a higher temperature if the pressure is increased, which is why food can be cooked more quickly in a pressure cooker Chris Evans Earby, Lancashire, UK ■ A liquid boils when the atmospheric pressure above its surface equals its vapour pressure So as the former decreases, the liquid’s boiling point does too Thus at the top of Mount Everest, where the pressure is only about 34 kilopascals (compared to 101.3 at sea level), the boiling point of water is only about 71 °C Eventually, when you reach outer space where the pressure is zero, liquid water boils instantly no matter what its temperature One practical consequence of this is that although you can boil an egg at the top of a mountain, it may not actually cook because the temperature of the boiling water is too low Simon Iveson Chemical Engineering Discipline Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment The University of Newcastle New South Wales, Australia This week’s questions GREEN MACHINE I bought too much broccoli a couple of weeks ago Not wanting to waste it, I boiled and froze it But when I came to defrost and eat it, it wasn’t as nice as the pre-frozen broccoli from a supermarket Even though I hadn’t overcooked it, it was soft and a bit mushy, and the florets had all stuck together – whereas pre-frozen ones are separate in their bag What the producers to avoid the problems I had? Billy Sturman Chelmsford, Essex, UK ROOTING OUT TROUBLE I read that when cooking root vegetables, you should put them into the water when it’s still cold and bring them to the boil But I also read that other types of vegetables should be placed in already boiling water Why? Annemieke Wigmore Ilminster, Somerset, UK PLAYBACK PAYBACK Why, as a general rule, we not seem to like the sound of our own voices when we hear them in recordings? Melanie Green Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK Question Everything The latest book of science questions: unpredictable and entertaining Expect the unexpected Available from booksellers and at newscientist.com/questioneverything [...]... jail in the Midwest recently used a machine-learning system developed by London firm Intelligent Voice to listen in on the thousands of hours of recordings generated every month The software saw the phrase “three-way” cropping up again and again in the calls – it was one churning through the recordings This story illustrates the speed and scale of analysis that machine-learning algorithms are bringing... trapping invading pathogens Working with Robert Moir at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Tanzi’s team has shown that beta-amyloid can act as an antimicrobial compound, and may form part of our immune system (Science Translation Medicine, doi.org/bhzt) To test whether beta-amyloid defends us against microbes that manage to get into the brain, the team injected bacteria into the brains of... a contributing editor at Wired, and has written for a range of international publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and New Scientist GAME CHANGERS MONEY IN THIS EXCLUSIVE NEW REPORT FIND OUT: ] Why trust in traditional finance institutions has broken down, leading to surprising shifts in the currency markets ]Why control of credit is shifting from banks to individuals... Then again, climate instability might hinder farming, leaving hunting and gathering To do any better than that we will need to keep our key institutions, Homer-Dixon thinks, but that could be impossible amid severe climate change and conflict When things settle down, all our records could be gone: even hard drives decay in a century or two And in case you think we might be better off forgetting the... almost certainly lose, each being engulfed in the sun’s inflated atmosphere and torn apart by tidal forces The fate of Earth is less certain As the planet drifts away, it will be hauled back in by tides from the sun’s outer layers “The case is too close to call,” Veras says Still, any life clinging on would be in trouble: the very tides tugging Earth inwards will cook its interior, giving rise to volcanic... stimulates brain regions using targeted magnetic fields By imagining moving his hand, Rao was able to send a signal to Stocco’s brain, causing him to move his finger Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues have gone further with rats and monkeys Last year, they connected the brains of three monkeys, showing that the primates could synchronise brain activity to... pick out suspect behaviour, finds Hal Hodson SAY it out loud and the machines will know Search engines are moving beyond the web and into the messy real world And they’re finding some odd things Every call into or out of US prisons is recorded It can be important to know what’s being said, because some inmates use phones to conduct illegal business on the outside But the recordings generate huge quantities... price, he says, using too much forces the price up – and the economic burn drives us to find alternative ways of making things Innovation, then, is the key to sustained, sustainable growth But innovation might be a finite resource too, says Robert Gordon of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, author of The Rise and Fall of American Growth Since the first throes of the industrial revolution,... Alzheimer’s? Anil Ananthaswamy OUR brain’s defence against invading microbes might cause Alzheimer’s disease – which suggests that vaccination could prevent the condition Alzheimer’s disease has long been linked to the accumulation of sticky plaques of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain, but the function of plaque has remained unclear “Does it play a role in the brain, or is it just garbage that accumulates,”... vaccinate against those pathogens, and potentially prevent this problem arising later in life,” says Moir If many microbes are involved, immunising against them all will be hard, says Jansen “But if the frequency of certain pathogens is quite high, there might be a possibility.” It won’t be easy though Balin says developing vaccines against herpes and chlamydia has proven difficult “People have been trying