New Scientist International Edition 1-Jan-22

Events Why is laughter funny? Laughter is an important form of communication, and yet it has long been neglected by scientists. In this talk, University College London’s Sophie Scott will reveal what we know about the natural history and neuroscience of laughter, from its role in social bonding to the neural basis of how to perceive other people’s chuckling. Join us online on 3 March at 6pm GMT (1pm EST). True crime Find out the truth about psychopathy with leading expert Mark Freestone, who helped to create the character Villanelle in smash-hit TV drama Killing Eve. Then learn about the latest developments in forensic science with Niamh Nic Daéid at the University of Dundee, UK, who advises crime writers Ian Rankin and Val McDermid. Join us at Conway Hall in London on 16 March…

HELLO and welcome to the first issue of 2022 – and our predictions of what the year ahead holds (see page 7). This magazine went to press as the omicron variant of the coronavirus was on the rise. As the pandemic enters its third calendar year, we look at the likely evolution of further variants and the need for yet more boosters in the next 12 months. Thankfully, news is cheerier elsewhere. The mRNA technology used in the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines has gone from experimental to essential in record time, and researchers are investigating whether it can be used to treat everything from cystic fibrosis to heart disease, with human trials potentially beginning in 2022. Sticking with medicine, a row about an Alzheimer’s drug approved in the US in…

INDIA gained notoriety when it finished November’s COP26 climate summit by weakening a move to end the use of coal. Less widely recognised is that the country also started the Glasgow summit in a more positive fashion, with a plan to massively expand the reach of solar power by joining up the electricity grids of countries and even entire continents. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has talked about the idea before, but the One Sun One World One Grid initiative launched in Glasgow now has the backing of more than 80 countries, including Australia, the UK and the US. The alliance is just one example of a growing movement to create regional and, eventually, global “supergrids”: long-distance, highvoltage cables linking each country’s growing renewable power output. The supergrid movement is being driven partly…

“mRNAs could slash the time and cost of drug development by setting our bodies to work” 2022 could be the year when we find out whether mRNA vaccine technology can be used for a lot more than just making vaccines. The hope is that it can also get our bodies to produce drugs that are otherwise very expensive to make, opening the door to treating a vast number of conditions. mRNAs are essentially genetically coded recipes that tell cells in our body how to make proteins, the large molecules that form most of the machinery of life. In the case of mRNA vaccines, the mRNAs code for viral proteins that provoke an immune response. When the coronavirus pandemic began, mRNA vaccines were still an experimental technology. There had been only a few small…

EXPECT to see debate over a new medicine to treat Alzheimer’s disease, called aducanumab, continue into 2022. Approved in the US last June, it is the first drug designed to treat a possible cause of this form of dementia, rather than the symptoms.Aducanumab targets beta-amyloid, a protein that makes up plaques in the brain often seen in people with Alzheimer’s disease. But the drug has its critics as well as its cheerleaders. It hasn’t so far been proven to reduce memory loss and confusion, the chief symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Other commonly used medicines slightly alleviate these symptoms, but they don’t work for everyone and their effects wear off. The US drug regulatory body, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approved aducanumab for use to combat early Alzheimer’s on the basis…

THE Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, will start running again after a three-year shutdown and delays due to the covid-19 pandemic. The particle collider – known for its role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, which gives mass to all other fundamental particles – will return in 2022 with upgrades that give it a power boost. Work has been under way to conduct tests on the collider and calibrate new equipment. Now, it is gearing up for experiments that could give physicists the data needed to expand the standard model, our best description of how particles and forces interact. Phil Allport at the University of Birmingham in the UK says the upgrades could allow new measurements that give us insight into the way the Higgs boson decays,…