New Scientist Australian Edition 15-Oct-22

Virtual event Memory, the brain and who we are How do our brains store past experiences to make us who we are? Why can memories feel so real? Are there such things as “true” and “false” memories? Psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane will offer a new way of thinking about our own personal experiences. Watch online at 6pm GMT/1pm EST on 10 November. Also available on demand. newscientist.com/events Tour Science of the Arctic expedition cruise: Norway Join our marine expedition exploring the northernmost region of Earth, the realm of the polar bear and the midnight sun. Gain extensive knowledge of marine and polar nature while deepening your connection to Svalbard, a remote and rugged archipelago. Led by marine biologist Helen Scales, the 13-day tour begins on 7 June 2023. Prices from £9345. newscientist.com/tours Podcast Weekly Podcast editor Rowan Hooper talks to evolutionary…

IF YOU are in the northern hemisphere right now, you may well be channelling your inner bear as the colder months approach and life slows down. You leave your home less often, sleep more and perhaps develop some extra padding. Equally, you may be emerging from the cold spell in the southern hemisphere with renewed energy and the joys of spring. What you might not realise is that this propensity to hunker down in winter could be a relic of our evolutionary past, as we discuss on page 46, and if scientists have their way, humans may once again be bestowed with the ability to hibernate – or at least mimic some of the effects of hibernation – to benefit our health and possibly allow long trips through space. That might sound…

CLIMATE change could cause global energy crises equivalent to the impacts of Russia’s war with Ukraine, according to the World Meteorological Organization. In a year that has seen hurricanes, heatwaves and flooding bring electricity blackouts around the world, the WMO has issued an urgent call for countries to better prepare their power grids for the impacts of extreme weather. “Changes in climate pose significant risks to the energy sector, directly affecting fuel supply, energy production, physical resilience of current and future energy infrastructure, and energy demand,” it says in its latest State of Climate Services report released on 11 October. The threat to the stability of energy systems is on the “same level” as Russian manipulation of gas markets, says Roberta Boscolo at the WMO. Russia has been squeezing gas supplies to Europe in…

THIS year’s global outbreak of monkeypox has seen cases in more than 100 countries, with deaths outside the virus’ endemic countries in West and Central Africa for the first time. The World Health Organization’s official death toll for the outbreak as of 7 October stands at 26, but this excludes large numbers of suspected deaths in countries where there is little laboratory testing. According to countries’ own reported death tolls, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is by far the worst-hit, with 120 suspected deaths between 1 January and 21 September. “We know monkeypox is a problem in the DRC and it’s at our own peril that we continue to ignore it” The monkeypox virus that began spreading across the globe earlier this year is a variant called Clade II, previously known…

MILLIONS of households in Britain may have to run their washing machines at night or their dishwashers during a mid-morning lull to avoid rolling blackouts this winter. On 6 October, National Grid ESO, which operates the electricity grid in England, Scotland and Wales, issued a stark winter outlook, warning that electricity supplies to households could be cut for 3 hours at a time this winter if the European energy crisis deepens. “I’m not aware of there ever having been planned rolling blackouts since the 1970s,” says Simon Cran-McGreehin at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a UK non-profit organisation. “This is, in terms of our modern energy system, unprecedented.” National Grid ESO said it is “cautiously confident” that it can keep the lights on across the three countries this winter, assuming that European…

ENOUGH rain has drenched Sydney since January to set a new annual record, with more than 2.2 metres having fallen by early October. Previously, the city’s wettest year was 1950, when the total annual rainfall was 2.194 metres. This year’s precipitation topped that figure at around 1pm on 6 October. In an average year, Sydney only gets about 1.2 metres of rain. With almost a quarter of the year left to go and wet conditions predicted to continue, 2022 is likely to be the wettest year on record in the city by a long margin, says Milton Speer at the University of Technology Sydney. There are several reasons why it has been so wet, he says. One is that, for the third year in a row, the east of Australia is seeing a…