New Scientist - 14 September 2013

THE HUMAN FLOODCoping with the largest migration in recent history

FIXBONE REGROWSKIN REPAIRMUSCLEOne amazing material can do it all

SUPERGOOP UNIVERSEString theory gets a gooey upgrade

MORE THAN A FELINE What really goes on

inside your cat’s head

LOST IN TELEPORTATION And other legal minefields

of the future

FISHERMAN’S FRIENDWhen trawling is good

for the seabed

Science and technology news www.newscientist.com US jobs in science

WEEKLY September 14 - 20, 2013

No2934 US$5.95 CAN$5.95

We delve into an interesting career path for chemists as we look at the role they

play in creating fakes – synthetic versions of naturally-occurring products – for

our benefit.

We will also look at the chemists involved in spotting harmful or illegal cases

of fakery, usually in the case of fake drugs (both medicinal and recreational).

Turn to the recruitment section at the back of the magazine to find out more!

For the latest opportunities in computational chemistry,

biochemistry or materials science, visit our job site at: NewScientistJobs.com

Chemists faking it…

14 September 2013 | NewScientist | 3

CONTENTS Volume 219 No 2934

This issue online newscientist.com/issue/2934

News6 UPFRONT Birth of a quantum cloud. Time to regulate

e-cigarettes? Kenya’s hidden water supply8 THIS WEEK

Supergoop universe. Gravity’s constant changes. Hearts of glass key to organ banks. Lake Magic’s extreme life. Trawling’s silver lining. Bugs on your money. Interstellar tempests

11 INSIGHT Conservation row over wolf’s right to exist

16 IN BRIEF Good dads and smaller testicles. Brains on

beetroot custard. A fish evolves the quickie

Coming next week…Special issue: ThoughtHow you control your mind and it controls you

Ear on the cosmosThe race to detect gravitational waves

Cover image Simon Danaher

32

36

Syria’s human floodHow do we care for the

biggest migration of

people in recent times?

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Fix bone, regrow skin, repair muscleOne amazing

material can do it all

Spot of botherSomething’s gone

wrong with our

sunspot records

Technology19 World’s biggest robot challenge. Bookish

software. Cure cancer with a nano game. Smartwatch boom. Plagiarism in translation

News

On the cover

Features

8 The human flood Coping with the largest migration in recent times

14 Fisherman’s friend When trawling is good

44 More than a feline Inside your cat’s head

40 Lost in teleportation And other future legal minefields

10 Supergoop universe String theory gets gooey

Opinion26 All about me Donna Dickenson on the

downside of personalised medicine 27 One minute with… Chris Rose & Alex

Baker Space balloon kits for everyone28 Selling senses Marketers are exploiting the

synaesthete in each of us, says David Howes 30 LETTERS Naming space. More humane war

Features32 Fix bone, regrow skin, repair muscle (see above left)36 Spot of bother (see left)40 Lost in teleportation And other legal minefields of the future44 More than a feline What really goes on

inside your cat’s head

CultureLab48 Keys to individuality How genes that

make us unique affect everything from health to dating

Regulars5 EDITORIAL As well as food and shelter

refugees need mental health support30 ENIGMA56 FEEDBACK Animate your textbooks57 THE LAST WORD String theory50 JOBS & CAREERS

Aperture24 A most extraordinary brain

How remote can you go?

Out now, the latest issue of Arc, Forever alone drone, explores the technological wilderness over more than 180 pages of exciting new work from a fantastic selection of notable writers.

Every three months, Arc explores the possibilities of tomorrow’s technologies and societies with unique intelligence, wit and charm, publishing work by the world’s most visionary writers and thinkers. It will make you see the future in a whole new light.

A r c 1 . 4 /F o r e v e r a l o n e d r o n e

B u y y o u r c o p y n o w a t a r c f i n i t y . o r g

A rc i s d e s i g n e d t o b e re a d o n d i g i t a l d e v i c e s – t a b l e t s , s m a r t p h o n e s , K i n d l e s , N o o k s , P C s a n d M a c s .

New science fiction from:Liz JensenNancy KressRobert ReedBruce Sterling Romie StottJack Womack

New essays & ideas aboutthe future from:Madeline AshbySimon IngsSmári McCarthySumit Paul-ChoudhuryKim Stanley RobinsonFrank SwainJon Turney

“Consistently brilliant”– guardian.co.uk


Healing Syria’s anguish

EDITORIAL

As well as food and shelter, refugees need mental health support

Trawling for the truth

“What would help is a greater understanding of the psychological impact of humiliation”

What makes the purrfect pet?

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6 | NewScientist | 14 September 2013

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Regulate e-cigs? Rape hotspots

Entangled internet

–A g’day for Tony Abbott–

–Your algorithm is my command–

Oz climate politics shiftAUSTRALIA’S landslide election result

seems to be bad news for the climate.

The new conservative government,

headed by prime minister elect Tony

Abbott, says it will axe the country’s

carbon tax, disband a climate advisory

body and institute a carbon reduction

policy that climate scientists say will

fail to meet even its meagre targets.

It will also scale back plans for a

national broadband network and

direct funding away from research

it deems “ridiculous”.

Abbott and his Liberal-National

coalition triumphed at the polls last

weekend, with a pledge to ”scrap the

carbon tax” central to the campaign.

The coalition also signalled that

it would disband Australia’s Climate

Commission – an independent

scientific body that provides

reliable information on climate

change to the public.

Abbott has been outspoken on

climate issues. In 2009 he said, when

talking about climate change, that

the ”science is highly contentious,

to say the least” and ”the climate

change argument is absolute crap”,

but did accept that precautionary

action against it was a good idea.

The coalition says it will institute

a plan to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions to 5 per cent below 1990

levels. Some are unimpressed. It is

a “great leap backwards,” says Ian

Lowe from Griffith University in

Queensland, Australia. He says

that no climatologists think that

these targets will be met as key

coalition figures do not think

climate change is real.

“E-cigarettes provide unreliable levels of nicotine and there’s little evidence on their safety”

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UPFRONT


Back door for spies

Frack away UK

“In the north of England alone there is enough shale gas to meet UK demands for more than 40 years”

DON’T judge a book by its cover.

Kenya’s Turkana County is notoriously

dry, but a survey now shows that it is

sitting on a total of 250 trillion litres

of groundwater. That is enough to

support 40 million people if it is

extracted sustainably.

Over the last year, a firm called

Radar Technologies International

(RTI) has surveyed 36,000 square

kilometres of Turkana on behalf of

the government.

Most of the water bonanza it

discovered lies in five deep aquifers

that had not been spotted before.

RTI estimates that these reservoirs,

in combination with shallower ones

already exploited, could provide

3.45 trillion litres of water per year,

in perpetuity.

It could be very good news for the

region: Turkana County is prone to

drought, and struggles to support

the Kakuma refugee camp, which is

currently home to 120,000 people.

Before the deep extraction can

begin, the Kenyan government must

check the quality of the water, says

Alan MacDonald of the British

Geological Survey in Edinburgh, UK.

It might contain too much fluoride to

be drinkable. He says it is also crucial

to figure out how long it takes for the

aquifers to refill, to avoid taking the

water out faster than it is replaced.

MacDonald has found that

other regions of Africa are rich in

groundwater, too, a discovery that

could help alleviate the continent’s

chronic water-supply problems.

Kenya’s watery roots discovered

–Not as dry as it looks–

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This way LADEENASA’s latest moon shot is on its

way to orbit after a technical hitch

left it briefly pointing in the wrong

direction. The LADEE spacecraft,

which launched on 7 September, will

reach the moon in about a month

and will test a lunar broadband

connection as well as collect data

on the moon’s meagre atmosphere.

Mars hopefulsThe submission period is closed, and

about 200,000 people have applied

to join Mars One, the private project

that claims it will send humans on

a one-way trip to the Red Planet

by 2023. Applicants are now being

screened by a selection committee,

and those who make the cut will be

notified by the year’s end.

That Szechuan buzzThe delicious tingle you get from

eating Szechuan pepper is not

just down to taste buds. The spice

stimulates your sense of touch, too.

Experiments show people do not

feel the tingle if the nerves that

sense vibration have been turned

off – and the feeling is identical

to a gentle vibration of 50 hertz

(Proceedings of the Royal Society B,

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1680).

Mouse rewindAdult cells can be turned into

pluripotent stem cells within the

body, suggests a study in mice.

Researchers induced the stem cells –

which can differentiate into many

different cell types – by using the

same “recipe” of factors they use

in the lab (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/

nature12586).

Two for SpaceshipTwoSpaceshipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s

purpose-built tourist vehicle, made

its second rocket-powered flight on

5 September. The rockets burned for

20 seconds and the craft ascended

to 21 kilometres. That is longer and

higher than on the first trip but a 70-

second burn is needed to reach space.

Virgin plans to fly tourists in 2014.

For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news


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How do you house, feed and care for millions of traumatised people, asks Debora MacKenzie

LASTING COSTS OF SYRIAN WAR

Relying on

handouts in

camps can

affect refugees’

psychological

well-being

NEWS FOCUS / SYRIAN REFUGEES


Healthcare and food are vital for

the refugees now flooding out of

Syria (see main story), but in an arid

region the real problem is water –

especially in Jordan, the world’s

fourth most water-poor country.

Refugee camps are thirsty.

Aid agencies decided in July that

trucking 3.4 million litres of water

into the Zaatari camp each day was

too expensive. They plan to install

more water-saving toilets, but

people may also have to live with

less water.

This week, Jordan opened a new

camp for 130,000 refugees west of

the Azraq oasis. Water will come

from a borehole drilled into a deep

aquifer running under the site,

avoiding a shallower one that

supplies Jordan’s cities and is at

risk from over-pumping.

That aquifer stands as a warning:

it was first tapped to supply an

earlier influx of Palestinian

refugees. Pumping was stopped

in 1982 in a bid to save the Azraq

wetland, but had to resume when

demand could be met no other way.

The wetland was destroyed.

Refugees in Jordan’s cities,

meanwhile, are competing with

locals for water – and many taps

already flow for only a few hours

each week. “Public water supply

systems are under severe stress,”

says the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

“Permanent solutions for water

supply and sanitation both in

camps and in host communities,

require large, costly infrastructure

projects,” says UNHCR. The UN

is trying to get a two-year plan

approved by host governments and

funded by donors. But it is a hard

task: with no knowing what will

happen in Syria, no one is sure how

long refugees will stay.

HUNT FOR WATER BENEATH THE DESERT

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Fleeing the violenceAt least 7 million people are on the move to escape Syria’s civil war

In this section Supergoop universe, page 10

Lake Magic’s extreme life, page 13

World’s biggest robot challenge, page 19

THIS WEEK


Lisa Grossman

–Shaped by string theory–

Goop cosmos helps crack glass’s secrets

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“ If you have lots of these little black holes and you fiddle with them, they exhibit goopy behaviour”

According to string theory, there is

an alternate “supergoop” universe

where black holes form molecule-like

structures. So could this universe

give rise to black-hole-based life?

Tarek Anous of the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology thinks so.

“There’s no reason why you

can’t create arbitrarily complicated

stuff out of supergoop,” he says.

That throws up a philosophical

stumbling block.

In the string theory multiverse,

anything you want to happen can

happen if you pick the appropriate

universe. That raises an enigma: why

do we live in our universe, not in a

different one? If you change any of

the fundamental constants in our

universe, we wouldn’t be here to

observe it, but we don’t know why

the universe should be so well suited

to us. It becomes tempting to think

our universe is special, and that

makes physicists uncomfortable.

“Then the onus is on the physicists

to explain why it seems we’re so

special,” says Anous.

Supersymmetry almost provided

an answer. Some theorists suggested

IS THERE A SUPERGOOP CRADLE OF LIFE?that universes with a low degree of

supersymmetry – probably including

our own – are the ones that can give

rise to atoms, molecules and complex

life. In that case, a whole class of

universes might have life, and we

would not be special.

Now it seems supergoop could

give rise to atoms too, and it exists

in a highly supersymmetric universe.

The goop also means we are not

special, but it erases the possible

explanation, and it presents a whole

new riddle, Anous says. “Then you

can ask, why aren’t we supergoop?”



Grey wolf’s future depends on which wolf is which

eastern wolf, now in parts of Canada.

This conclusion is based on research

led by Paul Wilson at Trent University in

Ontario, Canada, who in 2000 argued

that wolves in the state’s Algonquin

Provincial Park are descendants of the

eastern wolf. This species evolved

separately from grey wolves, he

says (Canadian Journal of Zoology,

doi.org/fcwf65).

This has since been widely

questioned. In 2011, Robert Wayne

of the University of California, Los

Angeles, led a study of genetic

relationships between dogs, wolves

and coyotes. It concluded that the

“eastern wolf” is the product of

an ancient hybridisation between

grey wolves and coyotes (Genome Research, doi.org/ccz92z).

With 15 other biologists, Wayne

has lodged a criticism of the science

behind the proposal. Even Wilson

believes the FWS has gone too far

in suggesting that grey and eastern

wolves never coexisted in the

north-east US. “I just don’t think we

have any evidence that would exclude

the grey wolf from that area,” he says.

“This is not a settled issue,” responds

Gary Frazer of the FWS. “The FWS

still needed, though, to try and make

sense of the best available scientific

information.” Peter Aldhous

INSIGHT

IT’S enough to make conservationists

howl. The existence, or not, of the

eastern wolf as a distinct species has

become a battleground in the fight to

restore the iconic grey wolf to greater

swathes of the US.

What was an obscure taxonomic

debate has become a major row, as the

US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) tries

to justify plans to remove endangered

species status from the grey wolf.

Wolves once roamed most of the US,

but were nearly eradicated last century

by hunters. Today there are about

5000 grey wolves in the contiguous

US, almost all in the northern Rocky

mountains and western Great Lakes

regions – thanks chiefly to the

protection afforded by its status.

While those populations are

recovering, and have already lost

endangered status, the FWS proposal

would hit hopes of further expansion.

Protection usually remains until a

species recovers across most of its old

range. Citing a review by its scientists,

the FWS argues that the grey wolf

never occupied much of the eastern

US, so no protection is needed there

(North American Fauna, doi.org/np6).

It says that area was home to the

Protected for now, but perhaps

not for much longer

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SUPPORTING LIFE SCIENCEThe Society of Biology is working to support the advancement of life science skills through its Degree Accreditation Programme, which ensures a pipeline of skilled research-ready graduates.

We are committed to recognising professional excellence, through accreditation, membership networks and professional registration.

For more information and a list of accredited degrees visit: www.societyofbiology.org/newscientist

THIS WEEK


Katia Moskvitch

–Would you fall for it?–

Gravity shifts – and this time it’s serious

Heart of glass could be key to banking organsTRANSFORMING donated organs into

a glassy state and putting them on

ice could enable many more people

to have transplants.

When a person dies, doctors often

have mere hours – or in the case of

kidneys, just over a day – to find a

recipient before the organ degrades.

“This precludes any chance of

banking organs and makes every

transplant an emergency procedure,

often in the dead of night… when

patients aren’t ready,” says Stephen

van Sickle of Arigos Biomedical in

Mountain View, California.

Nearly 1 in 5 donor kidneys is

discarded in the US each year,

because a suitable recipient or clinic

cannot be found in time. But what

if these organs could be frozen?

Standard freezing creates

damaging ice crystals. An alternative

is vitrification. This process is often

used to store human eggs or embryos

for years and involves infusing the

tissue with an antifreeze-like liquid

and rapidly cooling it to create a

glassy state. Doing this with large

organs such as hearts and kidneys

is harder, as more antifreeze can be

toxic and the glassy organ can crack.

To tackle this problem, van

Sickle combined vitrification with

persufflation, in which blood is

replaced with a gas – helium in this

case. The organ cools more quickly,

less antifreeze is needed and pockets

of tissue are separated by gas,

protecting against shattering.

So far, van Sickle, who outlined his

work at the Strategies for Engineered

Negligible Senescence meeting

in Cambridge, UK, has frozen pig

kidneys. CT scans revealed a lot less

fracturing than with vitrification

alone. The next stage is to rewarm the

organs to see if they remain viable.

Greg Fahy of Californian firm

21st Century Medicine has vitrified,

rewarmed and transplanted smaller

rabbit kidneys. The new approach

is “potentially valuable”, he says.

Linda Geddes

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“At the moment, every transplant is an emergency, often at night when patients aren’t ready”



–Home sweet home–

Michael Slezak

Extreme life conjures up hints to Martian past

“Martian rocks may host microorganisms and we’d never know it because we look in the wrong way”

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THIS WEEK

Travelling bugs value Romanian leu over dollarsWHEN you pay with cash, it’s likely

you’re giving the cashier more than

money. Bills and coins can spread

bacteria – and the currency you use

appears to play a major role, too.

Habip Gedik at the Okmeydani

Training and Research Hospital in

Istanbul, Turkey, and his colleagues

in the Netherlands investigated

how well bacteria survived on seven

currencies: the euro, US dollar,

Canadian dollar, Moroccan dirham,

Croatian kuna, Romanian leu, and

Indian rupee. The team sterilised

banknotes of each currency before

coating them with one of three types

of bacteria: MRSA, VRE – another

antibiotic-resistant bug that can

cause hospital infections – or E. coli.None of the bacteria survived for

longer than 3 hours on the kuna. But

the leu provided a happy home for all

three species for at least 6 hours, and

MRSA was detectable on it 24 hours

later. No species survived for a day

on any of the other currencies.

The team also studied to what

extent the euro, leu and US dollar

could spread E. coli or Staphylococcus aureus onto people’s skin. They made

volunteers with clean hands rub

contaminated bills for 30 seconds

and then tested their fingers for bugs.

People who handled euros coated

in E. coli were bacteria-free, but

those who handled the leu got both

types of bacteria on their skin. People

who handled US dollars laced with

S. aureus also got the bug on their

fingers (Antimicrobial Resistance &

Infection Control, doi.org/nqz).

The leu is made of polymer fibres.

Polymer banknotes last longer and

are harder to counterfeit than cotton

fibre ones, and the Bank of England

is now considering using them. But

such notes appear to provide the best

conditions for bacteria to survive,

and they could therefore help spread

bacterial infections, the team says.

“I was amazed to see that some

currencies act like breeding grounds

for bacteria while others seem to be

auto-sterilised,” says team member

Andreas Voss of Radboud University

Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Laasya Samhita

“Some currencies act like breeding grounds for bacteria while others seem to be auto-sterilised”

Fred Pearce

–No plaice to hide–

Ecological merits of trawling the oceans

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Solar system embroiled in an interstellar tempest


Sun

Alpha Centauri

Sirius

Direction ofsun’s motionthrough gas cloud

Lisa Grossman

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Award partners:

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will be held incollaboration with ARMS 16th Annual Conference: www.arms2014.org.au

For more details, visit http://asia.elsevier.com/SYRA2013

Humanities and Social Sciences

Physical Sciences

Engineering & Technology

Life Sciences and Biological Sciences

Medicine and Medical Sciences


Single hair reveals crime-scene DNA

Acidifying ocean added to the hurricane’s long rap sheet

AS IF tropical storms didn’t get enough of a bad press, it

now seems they can ramp up ocean acidification, putting

the world’s coral reefs under even greater pressure.

Seawater is becoming less alkaline as it absorbs ever

more atmospheric carbon dioxide, levels of which are

rising owing to fossil fuel use. As a result, seawater holds

less calcium carbonate, so corals, molluscs and other

creatures that use it to make their shells will struggle.

Corals were thought less at risk because they

live in tropical seas rich in calcium carbonate, says

Derek Manzello of the Atlantic Oceanographic and

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Better dads have smaller testicles

Meteorological Laboratories in Miami, Florida.

But hurricanes could render them vulnerable.

Manzello and colleagues were monitoring two reefs

off Florida when tropical storm Isaac swept through in

August last year. The team found that the seawater’s pH

fell from 8.0 to around 7.8 as the storm moved through,

and stayed at that level for a week afterwards. As a

result, the water was significantly less rich in calcium

carbonate over the same period. The main cause seems

to have been rainfall and water runoff from the land.

With climate models predicting increased ocean

acidification, Manzello calculates that by 2100, every

hurricane will briefly push calcium carbonate levels so

low that coral skeletons will begin dissolving (Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, doi.org/npg).

Impregnate me, and make it quick


Cell scaffolds found in oddball meteor

World’s largest volcano lurks beneath the Pacific

EVER tried beetroot custard?

Probably not, but your brain can

imagine how it might taste by

reactivating old memories in a novel

pattern. Now the first evidence is in

that we use memory combination to

make decisions.

Helen Barron at University College

London and colleagues at the

University of Oxford wondered if our

brains combine memories to help us

decide whether to try something new.

So the team used an fMRI scanner

to look at the brains of 19 volunteers

who were asked to remember

specific foods they had tried. Each

volunteer was given a menu of

13 odd food combinations – including

beetroot custard, tea jelly, and coffee

yogurt – then asked to imagine how

good or bad they would taste, and

whether or not they would eat them.

“Tea jelly was popular,” says Barron.

“Beetroot custard not so much.”

When each volunteer imagined a

new combination, they showed brain

activity associated with each of the

familiar ingredients at the same time

(Nature Neuroscience, doi.org/nq5).

Memory combination might help us

make decisions about other new

experiences too, says Barron.

Who’s up for beetroot custard?

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Carbon-coated silk can feel your pulse

SPIDER silk darkened with a coating

of carbon nanotubes can tell if your

heart just skipped a beat.

Following a few simple steps,

researchers have made a silk-

nanotube hybrid that is tough,

flexible and electrically conductive.

The material might find uses in a

range of bendy medical sensors.

Eden Steven at Florida State

University in Tallahassee started

with bundles of silk from a species

of golden orb-weaver spider. He

polarised a powder of carbon

nanotubes so that the tubes would

stick to the naturally charged silk,

then mixed the materials with a few

drops of water and pressed them

between two sheets of Teflon.

When the material dried out, the

silk was coated with a thin layer of

nanotubes. This composite is three

times tougher than spider silk alone

and is sensitive enough to detect

the electrical signals from a heart

pulse (Nature Communications,

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3435).

Commercially available pulse

detectors are often made of rigid

materials. The silk-based version

can be wrapped around irregularly

shaped objects, such as wrists or

fingers, without losing sensitivity.

Scaling up production may be a

challenge, though, as it is hard to

farm spider silk in large amounts,

Steven adds. But there has been

progress making synthetic silk.

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


For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technologyTECHNOLOGY

Hal Hodson

Robots to the rescueThe world’s biggest robotics challenge will see humanoid machines show off their derring-do

>

THE only non-US entrant in DARPA’s

Robotics Challenge is Schaft, a

robotics firm based in Tokyo. Schaft

was spun off by two roboticists

originally at the University of Tokyo,

Yuto Nakanishi and Junichi Urata.

They were driven to take part

because they believe that humanoid

robots should have been more

useful in the response to the

Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

Narito Suzuki, also at Schaft, says

the strengths of their robot are the

power it generates and its stability

as it navigates. “Most life-sized

humanoid robots generate one-tenth

of the power that humans do, but

ours generates the same amount,”

he says. “Our robot doesn’t fall down

even if it is kicked.” Rob Gilhooly

–Ready to do your bidding–

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“This is the grandest, the most exciting, and possibly the most important robotics project ever”

Fukushima trigger


TECHNOLOGY

–If you enjoyed reading this…–

Douglas Heaven

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Find your next bookSoftware builds a picture of a novel’s style, helping to spot the next bestseller

“If a robot can do all of these eight tasks, it means that robots can be used for everything”

For more technology stories, visit newscientist.com/technology


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Whispered secrets at your fingertipsSend a secret whisper with a touch of your finger. That’s the

idea behind an electronic art project called Ishin-Denshin. The

set-up encodes sound recorded through a microphone as an

electrical signal. The signal modulates an electrostatic field

around your body, and when you touch your finger to

someone else’s ear, the field causes the ear to vibrate slightly,

reproducing the sound. The project’s name comes from a

Japanese expression meaning an unspoken understanding.

“Who knew in 1984… that this would be big brother… and the zombies would be paying customers?”So reads the caption on what German magazine Der Spiegel says is a US National Security Agency PowerPoint slide

picturing Apple founder Steve Jobs. The magazine claims

the NSA has access to user data on iPhones, Android and

BlackBerry.

Elon Musk’s Iron Man momentAs a rocketeer, sports-car designer and internet billionaire,

SpaceX chief Elon Musk is often likened to Tony Stark – aka

Iron Man. Perhaps playing up to this image, Musk has made a

video in which he demonstrates the emerging technologies

used to design Falcon rocket engines at SpaceX. These

involve a Leap Motion gesture interface, glass projection

displays (as used in the film Iron Man), the Oculus Rift VR

headset and a 3D printer to output rocket nozzles in laser-

fused titanium.

Air gets all emotionalA burst of air can change your mood. Mehdi Ammi of the

University of Paris-South in Orsay, France, has developed a

moving nozzle capable of blasting air at different strengths.

Changing the movement and intensity of the blast altered

the emotional responses of his 16 volunteers. The results

could create more emotion-based telepresence systems – or

add another dimension to video games.

Gamers get to work on hard-to-treat tumoursCANCER is nothing to play around

with. But a new online game

encourages people to do just that,

fiddling with swarms of nanoparticles

to come up with promising strategies

for attacking tumours.

The game, called NanoDoc, trains

players on a few basic rules, including

the types of nanoparticles in their

arsenal and how they swarm through

tissue to find cancerous cells. It then

lets players try challenges, which

feature real configurations of tumour

cells, some of which researchers have

yet to find an effective treatment for.

The idea is that, as crowds of online

users chip away at these tough

problems, they will find solutions

researchers haven’t thought of yet,

leading to improved treatments.

“We want bioengineers to come

in and design the scenarios,” says

Sabine Hauert, a swarm engineer

at the Koch Institute for Integrative

Cancer Research at MIT, who released

NanoDoc online last week.

Hauert was inspired by the

protein-folding game FoldIt, in which

online users help determine the

optimal folding patterns of proteins.

The difference is that, in playing

NanoDoc, citizen scientists are

designing treatments for specific

tumour scenarios.

Players can adjust a range of

variables to design nanoparticles

for a particular job – the size of each

particle, the number of them in a

swarm, the coating on those particles

and the dose of drugs they carry.

These can be combined to produce

a range of effects, including search-

and-destroy behaviour, where one

kind of particle seeks out a tumour,

then signals the location to drug-

bearing particles.

Any solutions that NanoDoc

players come up with will be verified

in computer models, and using

swarms of nanobots in a lab, to

make sure the particles move

efficiently and leave healthy

tissues alone. If the simulations are

successful, researchers can move

on to biological testing.

Aaron Becker, who works on

swarm simulation at Rice University

in Houston, Texas, says he is looking

forward to seeing what will come out

of NanoDoc, and adds that it is a great

platform for education. “My 4-year-

old son Logan was delighted to see

those ugly grey tumour cells ‘pop’ out

of existence, and stayed engaged as

we completed the tutorials,” he says.

Hal Hodson

“The nanoparticles have a range of effects, including search-and-destroy behaviour”

–”Pop” goes the tumour–NA

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TECHNOLOGY


CELLPHONES liberated many of us

from the need to wear a wristwatch –

they not only tell you the time, they

also let you check Facebook. But the

watch is poised to make a comeback.

“Smartwatches”, which let you check

text messages and social media, could

be the next big thing.

Not convinced? Many still aren’t, but

big tech is banking on them. The first

of the big name smartwatches was

unveiled on 4 September at the

International Radio Exhibition in Berlin,

Germany. Called the Galaxy Gear, this

$299 Android-powered smartwatch

has been developed by Samsung to

communicate wirelessly with the

firm’s phones. While other firms have

created similar gadgets, it is Samsung’s

launch that has really fired the gun on

the race to corner the market.

The idea is that smartwatches will

liberate us from the hassle caused by

the cellphone itself – sparing us the

bother of retrieving our smartphones

from our pockets to see who has called,

tweeted or texted. Instead, a flick of

your wrist could tell your smartwatch

to get wireless updates of texts from

your phone. Other “micro interactions”

could also be programmed, such as

voice commands to check Facebook

messages or call your best friend.

Such watches could also take on

the traditional role of a phone. Holding

the Galaxy Gear to your ear lets you

answer a call, Dick Tracy-style, for

example. “For everyday moments

you don’t have to take out your

smartphone anymore,” Samsung

research director Pravin Mistry says.

But it doesn’t end with less fiddly

phoning: as they are in contact with

your skin, smartwatches offer the

perfect wearable platform for fitness

apps. Developers could build in

dedicated workout tracking devices

like the FitBit or Nike FuelBand.

Samsung isn’t the only firm

creating such tech. Apple is thought

to be readying an iWatch to connect

wirelessly with iPhones, while others

hatching smartwatches include

Google’s Motorola Mobility, LG of

South Korea and Qualcomm of San

Diego, California. Then there’s the

host of crowdfunded start-ups

typified by Pebble of Silicon Valley.

Competition comes in the form of

Google Glass, which also controls a

smartphone via micro interactions:

the voice command “OK Glass” gets

the system’s attention before you

tell it to, say, reply to a message.

Thad Starner, technical lead of

Google’s Glass project, believes it’s

early days and that there will be many

ways to interact. “Wristwatches are

certainly another way to do micro

interactions. Simple features like

displaying caller ID can be very

powerful. I suspect we’ll see a suite of

devices in the future from which a user

can choose what suits them best.”

Robert Milner, who works on smart

devices at UK-based Cambridge

Consultants, agrees. “It is users that

will drive the form these devices

eventually take. Smartwatches could

be a stepping stone to Google Glass,

for instance, but in sports, glasses

could get in the way. The watch is

perhaps a better platform for adding

multiple features. It is far from obvious

which way this is all going to go.”

Whatever happens, it is ease of use

that will win out, says Starner. “The

difficulty is in creating interfaces that

provide the maximum utility for the

minimum visual or manual attention

on the part of the user,” he says.

“Creating the right set of features is

where the magic is.” Paul Marks

Time for a changeSmartwatches that connect to your phone could be the next big thing

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“Holding Samsung’s new smartwatch to your ear lets you answer a call, Dick Tracy-style”

INSIGHT Wearable tech

LAZY students take note – lifting an

article off the internet, translating

it into another language and

presenting it as your own work

won’t necessarily go unnoticed.

It used to be really tough to spot

this kind of plagiarism, thanks to

creativity on the part of online

translators. Not any more.

A team led by Alberto Barron-

Cedeno at the Polytechnic

University of Catalonia, Spain, used

a number of statistical methods

to analyse suspicious-looking

documents. One involved breaking

each text down into fragments that

were five sentences long and

looking for elements of words that

were similar in two languages.

Another method used a bilingual

dictionary to automatically check

how many words in each text were

the same. The documents could

also be translated into a language

with a common root to make the

analysis easier.

The results surprised even

them: their technique showed

“remarkable performance” not only

in identifying entire documents that

had been copied – but in spotting

tracts that made use of excessive

paraphrasing, too (Knowledge Based Systems, doi.org/nqc). If a

document is flagged by the system

as being similar to another, then

human experts can take a closer

look. Paul Marks

Cheating is cheating – in any language

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–Watch of the future–

www.newscientistjobs.com

24 | NewScientist | 00 Month 201324 | NewScientist | 14 September 2013

APERTURE

00 Month 2013 | NewScientist | 2514 September 2013 | NewScientist | 25

A most unusual brain

ONCE you know what it is, this apparently

innocuous picture of a blob assumes a terrible

gravity. It is an adult human brain that is entirely

smooth – free of the ridges and folds so

characteristic of our species’ most complex organ.

We can only imagine what life was like for this

person. He or she was a resident of what is now

North Texas State Hospital, a mental health

facility, and died there in 1970, but that’s all we

know. While the jar containing the brain is labelled

with a reference number, the microfilm containing

the patient’s medical records has been lost.

Photographer Adam Voorhes spent a year

trying to track down more information about

this and nearly 100 other human brains held in a

collection at the University of Texas, Austin, to no

avail. The label on the jar states that the patient

had agyria – a lack of gyri and sulci, the ridges and

folds formed by the normally wrinkled cerebral

cortex. This rare condition, also known as

lissencephaly, often leads to death before the age

of 10. It can cause muscle spasms, seizures and,

as it vastly reduces the surface area of this key

part of the brain, a range of learning difficulties.

David Dexter, who runs the Parkinson’s UK

Brain Bank at Imperial College London, says he has

never seen anything like this before: “We do get

the odd individual where certain sulci are missing

but nothing to the extent of this brain.” Dexter

says he is not surprised the person survived to

adulthood since the brain is so adaptive, though

he guesses there would be deleterious effects.

Earlier this year the University of Texas took

delivery of an MRI scanner to document the

structure of the brains in the collection in detail.

While this might teach us more about the brain

itself, the identity of the person who had this

extraordinary brain – and details of his or her

life – seem to be lost forever. Rowan Hooper

Photographer Adam Voorhes

www.voorhes.com


“Contrary to the claims of its proponents, personalised medicine hasn’t yet delivered a paradigm shift”

It's all about MeThe growth of personalised medicine threatens the communal approach that has brought our biggest health gains, says Donna Dickenson

OPINION


■

Donna Dickenson is emeritus

professor of medical ethics and

humanities at the University of London

and research associate at the HeLEX

Centre, University of Oxford. Her new

book Me Medicine vs. We Medicine: Reclaiming biotechnology for the common good (Columbia University

Press) is out now

Comment on these stories at newscientist.com/opinion

Your new company, Sent Into Space, sells

do-it-yourself kits to send objects up into

the stratosphere. How did you get started?

Alex: Weather balloons have been around for a

while as a way to collect data. We thought it would

be fun to put a camera on one and see where it

went. For the first flight a couple of years ago, we

just botched something together: a camera, some

foam we found in a bin and a GPS tracker normally

used to track pets. It worked – but only just. We

posted a video online, and some Canadian guys

saw it and sent a Lego man up. Soon people were

asking how they could have a go themselves.

How did you go from there to a business?

Chris: We didn’t really anticipate the attention

it would get. We gave a lot of tips to people,

and were getting so many requests for help

that we thought we should make a kit for the

non-specialist. We designed and manufactured

components to make it as reliable and simple as

possible. We hope to sell the finished product in

shops and through our website, so that anyone

can do this themselves.

Will you still advise people?

Alex: That’s the other side of it. If people have a

project in mind, we see what we can do to make it

happen. We did a launch for a music festival and a

publicity campaign for the University of Sheffield.

We have also worked with an astrobiologist who

wanted to take samples from the stratosphere.

And we do projects with schools, which is a great

way to get kids enthusiastic about science in a

hands-on way. They’re putting stuff into space!

Does the kit contain everything you need?

Chris: You get the balloon, parachute, container

for the payload, tracking devices and a computer

system that we call the black box. It records the

data – including GPS, altitude, pressure, humidity,

temperature and acceleration. Schools really enjoy

having all of that information after the flight.

You just have to get the helium – we tell you the

nearest provider – and apply for clearance from

the Civil Aviation Authority a month in advance.

One minute with...

Chris Rose & Alex Baker

Can you describe a typical flight? How high

and far can the balloons go?

Alex: They can go up to about 38 kilometres. That

is technically near space rather than space, but

you can see the blackness of space during the day.

It normally takes a couple of hours for the balloon

to reach that height. As the pressure drops with

altitude, the balloon expands until it finally bursts;

they start 2 metres across and get to about

10 metres. When the balloon bursts, a parachute

opens and it takes about an hour to come down.

On our website, we link to software that helps you

make quite accurate predictions about where it

will land – anywhere up to about 100 miles away.

What do people who buy the kits usually

do with them?

Chris: Some people want to use it as a tool for

taking pictures from high altitudes. Others want

to send up their personal belongings just to be

able to say they have been into space. But every

project we do is exciting. We still get giddy when

tracking the thing coming down.

Interview by Douglas Heaven

Who needs a rocket when you can use a balloon? This pair of entrepreneurs offers low-budget missions into near space

PROFILE

Chris Rose and Alex Baker are PhD students

at the University of Sheffield, UK. They recently

launched Sent Into Space, a firm that will sell

space balloon kits at sentintospace.com


OPINION INTERVIEW

How are marketers exploiting our senses

in new ways?

In what ways do our senses overlap in our

experiences of consumer goods?

By synaesthesia, do you mean the rare

neurological condition in which sensory

pathways are linked, so people might taste

shapes or associate letters with specific colours?

There’s a little bit of synaesthete in all of us, and marketers are exploiting our sensory overlaps to sell to us in new ways, anthropologist David Howes tells Laura Spinney

Selling sensation

What are examples of cultural synaesthesia?

To some extent, haven’t marketers always

exploited these types of associations?

So this strategy is becoming more deliberate?

From now on, will companies be employing

people to simply observe us?

PROFILE

David Howes directs

the Centre for Sensory

Studies at Concordia

University in Montreal,

Canada. His upcoming

book, with Constance

Classen, is Ways of Sensing: Understanding the senses in society

(Taylor & Francis)

For more interviews and to add your comments, visit newscientist.com/opinion


Does sensory cross-referencing ever backfire?

What other fieldwork has been done to

investigate these cross-sensory associations?

Is more of this kind of research now

happening prospectively?

Are companies increasingly staking claims on

things like scents and colours?

How easy is it to trademark across the senses?

Even so, are these cultural links between the

senses the next land rush for marketers?

■

“ With so much competition for consumers’ attention, no sense is left unturned”

Howes uses ethnography, the study of culture,

to explore our choices in the context of daily life

Photography: Roger Lemoyne for New Scientist


Name game

More humane war

Vaccine benefits

■

Virtual zombies

Safety in numbers

International park

Enigma Number 1766

OPINION LETTERS

WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct

answer opened on Wednesday 9 October. The Editor’s decision is final.

Please send entries to Enigma 1766, New Scientist, Lacon House,

84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected]

(please include your postal address).

Answer to 1760 Squares and cubes: The numbers are 324 and 16

The winner Bryan Butler of Greytown, New Zealand

RICHARD ENGLANDI have listed in random order five

positive integers, four of two digits

and one of one digit. They use each

of the digits 1 to 9. None of the two-

digit integers has any factor greater

than 1 in common with any other of

the two-digit integers. The first of

the integers in my list is a triangular

number. The sum of the first two,

the sum of the first three, the sum

of the first four and the sum of all

five are also triangular numbers.

What are my integers in the order in

which I have listed them?

Triangular sums

14 september 2013 | NewScientist | 31

Cell count

Causality with care

Beam recoil

■

Vacuous transport

Fecund evolution

To join the debate, visit newscientist.com/letters

Letters should be sent to:

Letters to the Editor, New Scientist,

84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS

Fax: +44 (0) 20 7611 1280

Email: [email protected]

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.

For the record Our report on the search for sarin

in Syria should have referred to

“telltale signs of nerve agent”,

not of nerve damage (31 August, p 8).

Wild horses have dragged it from

us that in our story on their travails in

the US (31 August, p 14) Dustin’s

surname should have been Hollowell,

and Robert Garrott is at Montana

State University.

Sign and code

COVER STORY

” Some teams have already used the matrix to build entire organs from scratch – it may even repair brains”


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Once thought to be mere scaffolding, we now know the matrix inside us can enable

regeneration on a scale never seen before. Andy Coghlan reports

Rebuild your body

I

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Superbug battle

“ The early results have been astounding. We’ve got guys mountain-biking who couldn’t stand up before”


After a bomb ruined Ron

Strang’s thigh muscles,

implanted pig matrix

helped regrow them

Brain rebound

Andy Coghlan is a biomedical news reporter for

New Scientist

AP

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“ The biodegradable implant was soon replaced by a matrix of natural collagen identical to the patient’s”

The tally of splotches on our sun tells us what it’s up to. It’s a pity no one can agree how to count them, says Brian Owens

Spot of bother


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Eye of the beholder:

sunspot counting is

open to interpretation


Rival series

Spot the differenceIt can be difficult to pick out individual spots on the sun’s surface. The two main methods for calculating sunspot numbers have produced results that in some

cases differ radically, even after careful weighting and calibration

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1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

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60

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Wolf numberpeak higher

Wolf numberconsistently higher

Maunder minimum(period of

low sunspot activity)

The traditionalWolf number

counts both groups and individual sunspots with different weightings

The newergroup number

counts only groups

” In the mid 1940s, the director of the Zurich observatory changed the way sunspots were counted – only he didn’t tell anyone”


Sunspots have long

captivated popular

imagination

Climate controversy

Brian Owens is a freelance writer based in

St Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada

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In a world awash with robots, teleports and self-driving cars, you are going to need a good lawyer, warns Richard Fisher

Future law


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Rules for robots

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” If a robot incited racial hatred or committed a criminal insult, who would be responsible? We have never had to deal with this before”


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Is it legal to hover a

camera over your

neighbour’s home?

Rude computers

Richard Fisher is a feature editor at New Scientist

Grew wings in a

teleporter? You

may have grounds

for a claim


Cats are an enigma, even to their owners. Now science is offering an insight into their true nature, says anthrozoologist John Bradshaw

More than a feline

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Cats are incapable of

sustaining relationships

with many others


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Handle kittens young and they are likely to

love you back for the rest of their lives

” Cats owe their success as pets to the fact that they have evolved an appealing way to interact with us”


The sound of mewsic

John Bradshaw is director of the Anthrozoology

Institute at the University of Bristol School of Clinical

Veterinary Science, UK. He has studied cat behaviour

for more than 30 years. This article is based on his

new book, Cat Sense (Allen Lane/Basic Books)

” Each cat and its owner gradually develop an individual language that they both understand, but is not shared by others”

Territory is all important to cats, which might

explain some of their inscrutable behaviour

AD

AM

GO

FF

CULTURELAB


The Compatibility Gene by Daniel M.

Davis, Allen Lane, £20/$29.95

Double-edged diversity

The key to your individualityThe genes that make you unique affect everything from health to dating, finds Mark Viney

Life partners: a woman waits to

donate a kidney to her husband TIN

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“Out of a database of 18 million people, Davis is just one of four similar, but not identical, individuals”

For more books and arts coverage and to add your comments, visit newscientist.com/culturelab


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Mark Viney is a biologist and studies

parasitic worms at the University of

Bristol, UK

“In Africa there’s a correlation between compatibility gene types and language groups”

You can stand out in a crowd, but it’s

what’s on the inside that really counts


newscientistjobs.com

Distinctly Ambitiouswww.pet.hw.ac.uk

EXCITING POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

AT THE NEW SHELL CENTRE FOR EXPLORATION GEOSCIENCE

Following the announcement of the new Shell Centre for Exploration Geoscience within the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Shell and Heriot-Watt are seeking applications from outstanding Earth Science candidates to fill fully-funded research Masters, Doctorates and Post-Doctoral positions.

Heriot-Watt is recognised as a world-leading centre of excellence for Petroleum Geoscience and Engineering, with close industry links and three existing flagship MSc programs in Petroleum Geoscience, Reservoir Engineering and Petroleum Engineering. The University also has an outstanding track record of employment for postgraduate geoscientists.

The new Shell Centre will be led by internationally renowned geoscientist, Professor John Underhill (Shell Chair of Exploration Geoscience), who will oversee the research in a newly-constructed seismic interpretation laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and the latest generation of technological equipment and software.

You will join a dynamic research group and undertake integrated subsurface studies based on industry data and analogues. There will be close liaison and interaction with Shell as sponsor. Projects will be grouped into three key themes:-

� t�The relative role of extensional rifting and structural inversion along African continental margins;� t�The structural and stratigraphic evolution of Tethyan margins;� t�Tectono-stratigraphic controls on UK Continental Shelf plays.

Applications for Masters and PhD study are welcomed from petroleum-minded Geology, Geophysics or Earth Science post-graduate students with an aptitude for seismic interpretation, field geology, structural geology, tectono-stratigraphy and sedimentology.

Studies are expected to commence in October 2013. Deadline for applications is 30th August.

To find out more about these opportunities and to apply please visithttp://www.postgraduate.hw.ac.uk/pet/engineering/

Or contact Debbie Ross at [email protected]

Institute of

PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

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HEALTH & SAFETY

LABORATORY

University of PennsylvaniaTenure Track Appointment in Energy Research

The School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professorship in the FKHPLFDO� VFLHQFHV�� 7KLV� DSSRLQWPHQW� ZLOO� EH� WKH� ÀUVW� LQ� D� FOXVWHU� RI�three hires across the natural sciences focused on energy science. The successful candidate will mount an innovative program of fundamental VFLHQWLÀF� UHVHDUFK� JHDUHG� WRZDUG� VROYLQJ� VRFLHWDO� HQHUJ\� FKDOOHQJHV��The successful candidate will also forge collaborative links with Penn scientists and engineers involved in energy research and participate actively in the future recruitments as the cluster hire initiative progresses. It is anticipated that some of the candidate’s teaching will be of broad interest to students beyond chemistry in another of the natural sciences (Biology, Physics, and/or Earth and Environmental Science).

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Applicants must apply online at http://facultysearches.provost.upenn.edu/postings/28. Required application materials include: curriculum vitae including a list of publications, and a description of proposed research. Applicants should also submit the names and contact information of three individuals who will provide letters of recommendation. Review of applications will begin on October 14, 2013 and will continue until the SRVLWLRQ�LV�ÀOOHG�

http://newscientistjobs.com

http://www.pet.hw.ac.uk

http://www.postgraduate.hw.ac.uk/pet/engineering/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.hsl.gov.uk

http://facultysearches.provost.upenn.edu/postings/28

http://facultysearches.provost.upenn.edu/postings/28



The Beatson Institute

for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK

Drug Discovery Programme -

Head of Biology

The Beatson Drug Discovery Programme (DDP) has

been established as an Industry Standard Unit at

the forefront of cancer drug discovery. Exploiting the

basic biology strengths within the Beatson Institute

and wider Cancer Research UK network, our portfolio

includes some of the most exciting and challenging

cancer targets.

We are seeking a highly motivated and talented

scientist for the post of Head of Biology. Ideally you

will have extensive industrial experience in small

molecule drug discovery, having directed programmes

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to Lead Optimisation and possibly beyond. You will

work closely with academic Group Leaders to identify

new targets for the Beatson DDP as well as directing

the screening, assay development and in vitro and

in vivo aspects of the programme. Reporting directly

to the Head of Drug Discovery, and together with the

Head of Medicinal Chemistry and Structural Biology,

you will have a key role in directing the overall

strategy and success of the programme.

A Ph.D. in a relevant discipline plus extensive

experience of small molecule drug discovery in an

industrial environment is essential together with

strong leadership, management and interpersonal

skills.

In return you will receive a competitive salary

commensurate with your skills and experience and

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atmosphere where your contribution will really make

a difference.

Applications with CV and names of three referees

should be sent to [email protected]

Informal enquiries are welcome and should be

addressed to Dr Martin Drysdale, Head of Drug

Discovery, [email protected]

Closing date for applications 18th October 2013

Tenure Track Faculty PositionAssistant Professor

The Department of Biochemistry and the Ion Channel Research Unit (ICRU) at Duke University Medical Center invite applications for a tenure track faculty position at the Assistant Professor level in the Department of Biochemistry.

The candidate should have a laboratory research program in an area of membrane excitability and/or ion channel structure/function and/or ion channel physiology. Among the broad research areas relevant to this search are programs employing cutting-edge molecular and biochemical approaches that focus on channelopathies, neuropsychiatric disorders and neuronal function, cardiac arrhythmias, peripheral nociception, optogenetics, and development.

The laboratory space will be localized within the ICRU, a multi-departmental and interdisciplinary group of investigators organized around membrane excitability. Opportunities to interact with and build upon programs relevant to membrane excitability include those in neuroscience, cardiac electrophysiology, structural biology, hormone signaling, renal physiology, and development.

High priority will be placed on creativity in laboratory research, potential for independent funding, and dedication to excellence in teaching. A generous start up package will be provided.

Interested individuals should submit a CV, statement of research interest, and re-quest that three letters of references to be sent as PDF files directly to: [email protected].

The deadline for receipt of applications is November 1, 2013.

Duke University Medical Center is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

The Department of Atmospheric Science at the University of Wyoming

has an opening for an individual with demonstrated capabilities and

productivity in aerosol physics, aerosol measurement, and in analysis

of the impact of aerosol on atmospheric radiation and chemistry.

The successful candidate will have an earned Ph.D. in atmospheric

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capabilities, and will have the potential to contribute to current

stratospheric balloon-borne measurement programs at the University

of Wyoming, through the collection of in situ measurements and their

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Applications should include a statement of research interests,

and accomplishments, curriculum vita, and the names and contact

information of three references. Send an electronic copy (PDF version

preferred) of your application materials to Search Committee,

Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Wyoming, c/o

Terry Deshler: [email protected]. The search committee will begin

reviewing applications on 1 October 2013 and will continue until the

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More information about this position, the University, the City of Laramie

and its surroundings can be found at http://www.atmos.uwyo.edu/info/

WyoResSci/ and http://www.atmos.uwyo.edu/info/WyoPostDoc/

Research Scientist or Postdoctoral Opportunity






http://www.atmos.uwyo.edu/info/WyoResSci/

http://www.atmos.uwyo.edu/info/WyoResSci/

http://www.atmos.uwyo.edu/info/WyoPostDoc/

Do what you love.Love where you live.

abclabs.com/careers

Do what you love for a living and love where you live—in

Columbia, Missouri.

Grow your career with us.

As a member of the ABC team,

you’ll work alongside respected

technical experts dedicated to

scientific excellence in a process-

driven, regulatory-compliant

environment.

Our laboratories are modern. Our

instrumentation is state-of-the-

art. And our business is thriving,

creating important career oppor-

tunities from bench to board

room.

http://abclabs.com/careers

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http://www.mcb.harvard.edu/postdocs



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Attached to David Waltner-Toews’s email,

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sign spotted near Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

It reads: “Lose all your weight for $5”

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RICHARD NORMAN, director of

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Cash ISA Agreement. The Key

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Among them was this warning: “Use

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“Isn’t a kettle full of hydrogen

somewhat dangerous?” he asks.

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Win £100 by answering our monthly question about energy issues

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