New Scientist Australian Edition 13-Aug-22

NS Live Future stage Find out about the world of tomorrow on the Future stage at New Scientist Live. From incredible artificial intelligence to how to spend a trillion dollars to save the planet, our experts will reveal the mind-blowing innovations that will have the biggest impact on our world. Join us at ExCel in London from 7to 9 October. newscientistlive.com Academy The science of sleep and dreams Explore cutting-edge research into sleep science in this free course. Find out why we sleep and dream, and discover the new field of sleep engineering. Plus, you can learn science-backed tips and strategies for how to sleep better. academy.newscientist.com Podcast Weekly The team talk to legendary writer Neil Gaiman about Netflix’s new series The Sandman, based on his smash-hit comics. They also…

TEMPORARY bans on using hosepipes to fill up paddling pools might seem like a parochial issue. But such modest efforts as most of England nears drought are a reminder that even countries perceived as perpetually rainy will need to get serious about saving water in a warming world. Drought is part of many countries’ natural weather cycles, including the UK. But dry conditions are also expected to become more frequent and intense as Earth moves beyond the 1.2°C of climate change we have seen to date. The worst is yet to come, which is bad news given how nations are faring today. Almost half of the European Union is in drought-warning conditions. France is experiencing its severest drought in history, with forecasts of corn harvests being down by almost a…

FROM what appeared to be stalled negotiations just two weeks ago, the US Senate has now passed the largest climate spending package in US history as part of a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. As New Scientist went to press, the House was set to pass the legislation by the end of the week to later become law with President Joe Biden’s signature. The act aims to address inflation through policies to reduce the cost of energy as well as the federal deficit. It is expected to raise an estimated $790 billion in total, $369 billion of which is marked for energy and climate priorities. The act will reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by electrifying things that currently run on fossil fuels and by generating more electricity…

THE missing ingredients of an ancient Chinese recipe for bronze may have been uncovered, revealing another level of sophistication in the practice of chemistry at the time. Kaogong Ji, a 2300-year-old text, is the oldest technical encyclopedia in the world. The book contains instructions on how to make several objects, such as metal drums, chariots and weapons. It also contains six recipes for bronze that have long puzzled researchers. While bronze-making wasn’t unique to China at that time, Ruiliang Liu at the British Museum in London says the style and scale of the bronzes produced there was unrivalled. “We asked ourselves, how can Asian and Chinese people manage to produce so many bronzes [at that time],” says Liu. Bronze is typically made by combining copper and tin. The recipe mystery…

AN ARTIFICIAL neuron that can both release and receive dopamine in connection with real rat cells could be used in future machine-human interfaces. Most brain-machine interfaces measure simple electrical signals in neurons to glean information about brain function. But much of the information in neural networks like the brain is encoded in neurotransmitters such as dopamine, chemicals that neurons use to send messages to each other. “The brain’s native language is chemical, but current brain-machine interfaces all use an electrical language,” says Benhui Hu at Nanjing Medical University in China. “So we devised an artificial neuron to duplicate the way a real neuron communicates.” The neuron consists of a sensor made from a graphene and carbon nanotube electrode, which can detect when dopamine is released. If enough of it is detected…

AROUND 1 in 8 adults who had a covid-19 infection during the early stages of the pandemic developed long covid symptoms, according to a survey in the Netherlands. Long covid is defined by the World Health Organization as an illness that usually occurs within three months from the onset of covid-19, with symptoms that last for at least two months. These can’t be explained by an alternative diagnosis and can include chest pain, loss of smell and painful muscles. The symptoms have many causes, so it is hard to determine how many people experience these long-term effects as a result of covid-19 infection. Aranka Ballering at the University of Groningen and her colleagues surveyed more than 76,000 adults in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen in the north of the Netherlands between…