New Scientist Australian Edition 3-Dec-22

Virtual event The best of New Scientist 2022 Subscribers can now register for this free event, in which our expert panel of journalists reviews the biggest scientific stories of the year and looks forward to 2023. There is also a chance to put your questions to the team. Join us online at 6pm GMT/1pm EST on 13 December. newscientist.com/decevent1 Survey New Scientist business We are launching a product specifically for businesses that will challenge, inspire and connect curious minds. If you are a senior business leader and use New Scientist at work or for information about the opportunities science presents for business, please take our survey to help us shape this. newscientist.com/surveyb2b Podcast Weekly This week, the team learns about the odd new names, including quecto and quetta, that have just been added to the International System of Units to…

Virtual event The best of New Scientist 2022 Subscribers can now register for this free event, in which our expert panel of journalists reviews the biggest scientific stories of the year and looks forward to 2023. There is also a chance to put your questions to the team. Join us online at 6pm GMT/1pm EST on 13 December. newscientist.com/decevent1 Survey New Scientist business We are launching a product specifically for businesses that will challenge, inspire and connect curious minds. If you are a senior business leader and use New Scientist at work or for information about the opportunities science presents for business, please take our survey to help us shape this. newscientist.com/surveyb2b Podcast Weekly This week, the team learns about the odd new names, including quecto and quetta, that have…

SLOWLY but surely, space is opening up to people and groups who couldn’t access it before. As New Scientist went to press, Japanese firm ispace was set to launch a lunar lander called Hakuto-R, which – if all goes well – could be the first commercial craft to land on the moon (see page 12). It will carry with it two small rovers, one from the United Arab Emirates and another from the government-run Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, smashing the US, Soviet Union and Chinese hegemony of previous lunar landings. At the same time, the European Space Agency has announced its newest class of astronauts, including the first ever astronaut with a physical disability, Paralympian John McFall (see page 16). These developments are part of ongoing efforts to diversify space. Historically, only…

THE largest active volcano in the world, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, is erupting for the first time in almost 40 years, with US officials warning nearby residents to prepare for possible evacuation. The eruption, the volcano’s first since 1984, began at 11.30pm local time on 27 November at Moku‘āweoweo, the summit’s caldera located inside Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii. At first, the eruption was confined to the summit area, but officials warned that the situation could change rapidly. Along the sides of the volcano are two so-called rift zones, extending north-east and south-west from the caldera, where the surface of the volcano can crack and split. “Very fluid and fastmoving lava” can quickly run from a new fissure, threatening populated neighbourhoods downstream, said Ken Hon at the Hawaiian Volcano…

SLOWLY but surely, space is opening up to people and groups who couldn’t access it before. As New Scientist went to press, Japanese firm ispace was set to launch a lunar lander called Hakuto-R, which – if all goes well – could be the first commercial craft to land on the moon (see page 12). It will carry with it two small rovers, one from the United Arab Emirates and another from the government-run Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, smashing the US, Soviet Union and Chinese hegemony of previous lunar landings. At the same time, the European Space Agency has announced its newest class of astronauts, including the first ever astronaut with a physical disability, Paralympian John McFall (see page 16). These developments are part of ongoing efforts to diversify space.…

FOR any mammal, the loss of the Y chromosome should also mean the loss of males and the demise of the species. So how the Amami spiny rat manages without this chromosome has puzzled biologists for decades. Now, Asato Kuroiwa at Hokkaido University in Japan and her colleagues have shown that one of the rat’s other chromosomes has effectively evolved into a new male sex chromosome. The Y chromosomes in many mammals, including us, have been shrinking over tens of millions of years and could eventually disappear, says Kuroiwa. The spiny rat shows how this might happen, she says. There are many different sex-determining systems across the animal kingdom, but in virtually all mammals, sex depends on the X and Y chromosomes. If an embryo inherits two X chromosomes, it develops into…