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Beyond the Goldilocks zone
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 £143, Europe €228, USA $154, Canada C$182, Rest of World $293. 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 1286 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 © 2011 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)
Don’t judge, treat Vague moral misgivings must not obstruct therapy for steroid rage IMAGINE a drug that could surgery or been injured playing dampen aggression in people a dangerous sport on the grounds prone to acts of random, that they shouldn’t have done it in unprovoked violence. Would you the first place. Similarly, we treat deny that drug to somebody who people who have smoked, drunk really wanted it? Probably not. or drugged themselves to death’s But what if that person was door. Steroid abusers should suffering from “roid rage”, a expect the same level of care. proven side effect of anabolic “We don’t deny medical steroid abuse? Chances are you care to people who would think twice. Why should have suffered botched somebody who has chosen to cosmetic surgery” take a risky recreational drug be entitled to medical treatment that allows them to carry on? That is That they will get it is doubtful. exactly the dilemma that doctors There is something morally may soon face. As we report on offensive about offering a medical page 12, the causes of roid rage intervention that would give are becoming clearer and it seems steroid abusers an excuse not to plausible that existing drugs address the root of the problem – could be used to combat it. namely the steroids. There is a So should we treat roid rage? precedent here. A drug called Of course we should. We don’t propylthiouracil, currently used deny medical care to people who to treat an overactive thyroid, have suffered botched cosmetic may protect heavy drinkers
from cirrhosis. But fears that it would give alcoholics free rein to carry on drinking appear to have prevented the testing of the drug for this purpose. A more rational worry is that a roid-rage blocker might encourage people who would otherwise have abstained to abuse steroids. This seems unlikely. Steroids are overwhelmingly abused by young men for whom another of the potential side effects – sexual dysfunction – is surely more unappealing than rage, yet that doesn’t seem to put them off. We need to be pragmatic. The scale of steroid abuse, particularly among young male athletes, is staggering. We are all potential victims of roid rage. Those who object to blockers on moral grounds should consider the moral implications of their actions. n
The bonus paradox COMPANIES pay bonuses for all sorts of reasons. One is to link salaries to profits to help keep wage bills down in bad years. Another, of course, is to make people work harder. It is for this last reason that governments in several countries have introduced performance-related pay for many of their employees over the past 30 years.
Yet as our feature on page 40 shows, paying for results doesn’t always boost performance. In fact it can make it worse. The problem runs far deeper than the practical difficulties of measuring performance and the ill will that such schemes can create. Contrary to what economists believe, offering rewards, particularly in jobs
that people do for love as well as money, can actually undermine the motivation of workers. In one of the largest trials of performance-related pay so far, in the healthcare sector in the UK, the generous rewards on offer made no discernible difference. Such findings should make governments and institutions demand hard evidence that bonus schemes really are delivering, and that they are not just throwing money away. n
Life beyond the Goldilocks zone
galaxy could heat an alien world enough to make it habitable, even without the warm glow of starlight (see page 16). Astronomers are far from impressed, since these darkmatter worlds will be hard to detect. But surely that is not the point. These free-floating worlds – if they exist – would be the only
warm spots left trillions of years from now (New Scientist, 2 April, p 37). If nothing else, this work illustrates how we have yet to think through the possibilities for extending a star’s Goldilocks zone, where Earth-like planets are awash with liquid water. Even when all the starlight has faded, life may find a way. n
GOOD news for all those who fret about the fate of life in the cosmos. Dan Hooper and Jason Steffen of Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, calculate that the dark matter that lies at the heart of the
9 April 2011 | 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 £143, Europe €228, USA $154, Canada C$182, Rest of World $293. 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 1286 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 © 2011 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)
Don’t judge, treat Vague moral misgivings must not obstruct therapy for steroid rage IMAGINE a drug that could surgery or been injured playing dampen aggression in people a dangerous sport on the grounds prone to acts of random, that they shouldn’t have done it in unprovoked violence. Would you the first place. Similarly, we treat deny that drug to somebody who people who have smoked, drunk really wanted it? Probably not. or drugged themselves to death’s But what if that person was door. Steroid abusers should suffering from “roid rage”, a expect the same level of care. proven side effect of anabolic “We don’t deny medical steroid abuse? Chances are you care to people who would think twice. Why should have suffered botched somebody who has chosen to cosmetic surgery” take a risky recreational drug be entitled to medical treatment that allows them to carry on? That is That they will get it is doubtful. exactly the dilemma that doctors There is something morally may soon face. As we report on offensive about offering a medical page 12, the causes of roid rage intervention that would give are becoming clearer and it seems steroid abusers an excuse not to plausible that existing drugs address the root of the problem – could be used to combat it. namely the steroids. There is a So should we treat roid rage? precedent here. A drug called Of course we should. We don’t propylthiouracil, currently used deny medical care to people who to treat an overactive thyroid, have suffered botched cosmetic may protect heavy drinkers
from cirrhosis. But fears that it would give alcoholics free rein to carry on drinking appear to have prevented the testing of the drug for this purpose. A more rational worry is that a roid-rage blocker might encourage people who would otherwise have abstained to abuse steroids. This seems unlikely. Steroids are overwhelmingly abused by young men for whom another of the potential side effects – sexual dysfunction – is surely more unappealing than rage, yet that doesn’t seem to put them off. We need to be pragmatic. The scale of steroid abuse, particularly among young male athletes, is staggering. We are all potential victims of roid rage. Those who object to blockers on moral grounds should consider the moral implications of their actions. n
The bonus paradox COMPANIES pay bonuses for all sorts of reasons. One is to link salaries to profits to help keep wage bills down in bad years. Another, of course, is to make people work harder. It is for this last reason that governments in several countries have introduced performance-related pay for many of their employees over the past 30 years.
Yet as our feature on page 40 shows, paying for results doesn’t always boost performance. In fact it can make it worse. The problem runs far deeper than the practical difficulties of measuring performance and the ill will that such schemes can create. Contrary to what economists believe, offering rewards, particularly in jobs
that people do for love as well as money, can actually undermine the motivation of workers. In one of the largest trials of performance-related pay so far, in the healthcare sector in the UK, the generous rewards on offer made no discernible difference. Such findings should make governments and institutions demand hard evidence that bonus schemes really are delivering, and that they are not just throwing money away. n
Life beyond the Goldilocks zone
galaxy could heat an alien world enough to make it habitable, even without the warm glow of starlight (see page 16). Astronomers are far from impressed, since these darkmatter worlds will be hard to detect. But surely that is not the point. These free-floating worlds – if they exist – would be the only
warm spots left trillions of years from now (New Scientist, 2 April, p 37). If nothing else, this work illustrates how we have yet to think through the possibilities for extending a star’s Goldilocks zone, where Earth-like planets are awash with liquid water. Even when all the starlight has faded, life may find a way. n
GOOD news for all those who fret about the fate of life in the cosmos. Dan Hooper and Jason Steffen of Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, calculate that the dark matter that lies at the heart of the
9 April 2011 | NewScientist | 5