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A new kind cyborg is evolving
EDITORIAL
LOCATIONS UK Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250 Australia Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Tel +61 2 9422 2666 Fax +61 2 9422 2633 USA 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451 Tel +1 781 734 8770 Fax +1 720 356 9217 201 Mission Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel +1 415 908 3348 Fax +1 415 704 3125 to SUBSCRIbe UK and International Tel +44 (0) 8456 731 731 [email protected] The price of a New Scientist annual subscription is UK £137, Europe €211, USA $154, Canada C$182, Rest of World $267. Postmaster: Send address changes to New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953, USA. cONTACTS Editorial Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Picture desk Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1268 Who’s who newscientist.com/people Contact us newscientist.com/contact Enquiries Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 Display Advertising Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1291 [email protected] Recruitment Advertising UK Tel +44 (0) 20 8652 4444 [email protected] Permission for reuse [email protected] Media enquiries Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 Marketing Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1299 Back Issues & Merchandise Tel +44 (0) 1733 385170 Syndication Tribune Media Services International Tel +44 (0) 20 7588 7588 UK Newsagents Tel +44 (0) 20 3148 3333 Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark St, London SE1 OSU Tel: + 44 (0) 20 8148 3333 © 2010 Reed Business Information Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by Reed Business Information Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Polestar (Colchester)
Towards a saner future Epigenetics will help shape the mental health of coming generations THROUGHOUT human history, Most tellingly, they bore the same people have realised that many chemical marks on their DNA as illnesses are “in the blood”. their maltreated forebears. More recently, we have The mouse study is the first established that there is a genetic evidence that mental health contribution to psychiatric problems can be “passed down” in diseases too. The extent to which this way. Evidence is growing, too, the environment acts with our that exposure to environmental genes to cause illness is still under cues, from poor maternal diet study, however. during pregnancy to taking An even bigger question is powerful recreational drugs such whether the environment can as cocaine, can and do alter the cause inheritable “epigenetic” chemical markings on key genes changes. These wouldn’t alter the that are linked with mental sequence of your DNA one jot but disorders such as bipolar disorder, instead leave chemical marks on genes that dictate how active they “Environmental cues may alter chemical markings are, not just in you but in your on key genes linked with children and grandchildren. mental disorders” We know plants and fungi can inherit epigenetic changes and in this issue (see page 8), we report schizophrenia and addiction. the best evidence yet that they are Many questions remain. heritable in mammals too. For example, no one knows If male mice suffered from how many generations the depression and social withdrawal “molecular memory” of because of maltreatment in the epigenetic marks can persist for. first weeks of life, so too did their Even so, the implications of this pups and grand-pups even if they new understanding are huge. were well looked after from birth. The more we know about how
genetic effects get passed down this way, the better we can help people make lifestyle choices with the potential to protect their children and even their grandchildren. Of course, the science has a long way to go and converting basic knowledge into public health messages isn’t easy. The success of the campaign to reduce spina bifida with folic acid supplements shows that people will act on advice when lifestyle choices are linked to specific diseases. Imagine a similar dietary intervention that could reduce the risk of your offspring, and their children, suffering from depression. Also, unlike genes themselves, which can only be altered through complex – and sometimes risky – gene therapy, epigenetic marks are reversible, and so could be a target for new, safer treatments. Revealing how these marks work and what they do will open remarkable new chapters in genetics and health policy. n
Walk like a lamprey, dance like a moth CYBORGS have walked among us for many years: humans fused with devices such as pacemakers, prosthetics and cochlear and retinal implants. Now the opposite approach is being embodied in a new kind of cyborg: a robot with an animal’s nervous system (page 22). Some bots run on grey matter culled from a living creature. Others run
software based on “brainjacking”, for example, the pair of robot legs that learned to walk using a lamprey’s nerve signals. This presents an unorthodox future for the cyborg. If lamprey software can help people with spinal injuries, it will be in the shape of animal brain circuitry realised on a chip wired into a human being – a kind of cyborg
sandwich. Other cyborgs will be altogether inorganic but granted animalistic or even human thought patterns. Compared with the traditional image of a cyborg chimaera, such software hybrids may be more adaptable, perhaps even able to merge several kinds of minds. Unsettling perhaps, but we shouldn’t be surprised by the evolution of the cyborgs. n
ULTIMATE INTELLIGENCE TEST Devised by Adrian Owen of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK, and Roger Highfield, editor of New Scientist magazine, this project has lived up to its name. Since we launched the experiment last week with the Discovery Channel, more than 22,000 people have taken part. To participate in what is now the biggest experiment of its kind, go to bit.ly/9M6NaP
6 November 2010 | NewScientist | 5
LOCATIONS UK Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250 Australia Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Tel +61 2 9422 2666 Fax +61 2 9422 2633 USA 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451 Tel +1 781 734 8770 Fax +1 720 356 9217 201 Mission Street, 26th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel +1 415 908 3348 Fax +1 415 704 3125 to SUBSCRIbe UK and International Tel +44 (0) 8456 731 731 [email protected] The price of a New Scientist annual subscription is UK £137, Europe €211, USA $154, Canada C$182, Rest of World $267. Postmaster: Send address changes to New Scientist, PO Box 3806, Chesterfield, MO 63006-9953, USA. cONTACTS Editorial Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Picture desk Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1268 Who’s who newscientist.com/people Contact us newscientist.com/contact Enquiries Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 Display Advertising Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1291 [email protected] Recruitment Advertising UK Tel +44 (0) 20 8652 4444 [email protected] Permission for reuse [email protected] Media enquiries Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 Marketing Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1299 Back Issues & Merchandise Tel +44 (0) 1733 385170 Syndication Tribune Media Services International Tel +44 (0) 20 7588 7588 UK Newsagents Tel +44 (0) 20 3148 3333 Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd, The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark St, London SE1 OSU Tel: + 44 (0) 20 8148 3333 © 2010 Reed Business Information Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by Reed Business Information Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Polestar (Colchester)
Towards a saner future Epigenetics will help shape the mental health of coming generations THROUGHOUT human history, Most tellingly, they bore the same people have realised that many chemical marks on their DNA as illnesses are “in the blood”. their maltreated forebears. More recently, we have The mouse study is the first established that there is a genetic evidence that mental health contribution to psychiatric problems can be “passed down” in diseases too. The extent to which this way. Evidence is growing, too, the environment acts with our that exposure to environmental genes to cause illness is still under cues, from poor maternal diet study, however. during pregnancy to taking An even bigger question is powerful recreational drugs such whether the environment can as cocaine, can and do alter the cause inheritable “epigenetic” chemical markings on key genes changes. These wouldn’t alter the that are linked with mental sequence of your DNA one jot but disorders such as bipolar disorder, instead leave chemical marks on genes that dictate how active they “Environmental cues may alter chemical markings are, not just in you but in your on key genes linked with children and grandchildren. mental disorders” We know plants and fungi can inherit epigenetic changes and in this issue (see page 8), we report schizophrenia and addiction. the best evidence yet that they are Many questions remain. heritable in mammals too. For example, no one knows If male mice suffered from how many generations the depression and social withdrawal “molecular memory” of because of maltreatment in the epigenetic marks can persist for. first weeks of life, so too did their Even so, the implications of this pups and grand-pups even if they new understanding are huge. were well looked after from birth. The more we know about how
genetic effects get passed down this way, the better we can help people make lifestyle choices with the potential to protect their children and even their grandchildren. Of course, the science has a long way to go and converting basic knowledge into public health messages isn’t easy. The success of the campaign to reduce spina bifida with folic acid supplements shows that people will act on advice when lifestyle choices are linked to specific diseases. Imagine a similar dietary intervention that could reduce the risk of your offspring, and their children, suffering from depression. Also, unlike genes themselves, which can only be altered through complex – and sometimes risky – gene therapy, epigenetic marks are reversible, and so could be a target for new, safer treatments. Revealing how these marks work and what they do will open remarkable new chapters in genetics and health policy. n
Walk like a lamprey, dance like a moth CYBORGS have walked among us for many years: humans fused with devices such as pacemakers, prosthetics and cochlear and retinal implants. Now the opposite approach is being embodied in a new kind of cyborg: a robot with an animal’s nervous system (page 22). Some bots run on grey matter culled from a living creature. Others run
software based on “brainjacking”, for example, the pair of robot legs that learned to walk using a lamprey’s nerve signals. This presents an unorthodox future for the cyborg. If lamprey software can help people with spinal injuries, it will be in the shape of animal brain circuitry realised on a chip wired into a human being – a kind of cyborg
sandwich. Other cyborgs will be altogether inorganic but granted animalistic or even human thought patterns. Compared with the traditional image of a cyborg chimaera, such software hybrids may be more adaptable, perhaps even able to merge several kinds of minds. Unsettling perhaps, but we shouldn’t be surprised by the evolution of the cyborgs. n
ULTIMATE INTELLIGENCE TEST Devised by Adrian Owen of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK, and Roger Highfield, editor of New Scientist magazine, this project has lived up to its name. Since we launched the experiment last week with the Discovery Channel, more than 22,000 people have taken part. To participate in what is now the biggest experiment of its kind, go to bit.ly/9M6NaP
6 November 2010 | NewScientist | 5