- Email: [email protected]
Fertiliser fix
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)
Fertiliser fix The time is right to plant the seeds of the next green revolution HALF the world’s population decades ago, efforts to achieve have Fritz Haber to thank for the the same goal fizzled out synthetic fertiliser that gives embarrassingly when the scale them their daily bread. The and complexity of the task “Haber-Bosch process” may have became clear. But in the wake helped to feed more people than of recent and unexpected any other development. Now, as discoveries suggesting that the global population heads for cereals already have the biological more than 9 billion by the middle machinery to accommodate of this century, we have the rhizobia, researchers are keen to genetic wherewithal to consign “The aim is simple: to Haber’s 1909 trick to history. enable all major crops to The aim is simple: to enable all make their own fertiliser major crop plants to make their and help feed the world” own fertiliser, a feat that will in turn help feed the world and have many environmental benefits too. give it another shot (see page 8). The good news is that beans, peas Three options are on the table: and other legumes can already tweak cereals so that they form pluck nitrogen from air with the symbiotic partnerships with help of soil bacteria called rhizobia. rhizobia as legumes do; colonise The challenge is to teach this trick cereal roots with other types to all the world’s major cereals. of nitrogen-fixing bacteria; Cynics will sigh and carp that or transfer the bacterial genes we have heard it all before. Two that make fertiliser directly
into the crop plants. A pragmatist would argue that perhaps it is better to plump for the first two options since no genetic modification is required, for fear of a customer backlash, given the angst in some countries over GM food. However, even though the non-GM options do appear easier to achieve, the goal of self-fertilising crops is so critical that we should not limit our options. There are also risks. Yields may decline if cereals expend too much energy making their own fertiliser. But if this feat can be achieved efficiently, we could have another green revolution on our hands. This time it could wean us from our dependence on synthetic fertilisers that do so much harm and cost so much to make. It would be reckless not to push ahead. n
A new kind of genius THE idiosyncratic loner is a familiar figure in the annals of mathematical genius. Classic examples include the impoverished Indian clerk Srinivasa Ramanujan a century ago, and Grigori Perelman, who in 2006 turned his back on his peers by rejecting the offer of a Fields medal for his landmark work. Now this stereotype is being
challenged by a thoroughly cooperative way of doing mathematics. The first analysis of the Polymath project concludes that online collaborations set up in the right way can solve problems with unprecedented speed and efficiency (see page 10). This takes cooperation to a level way beyond that enjoyed by the famously collaborative Hungarian
mathematician Paul Erdös. Perhaps just as importantly, it also has the potential for drawing in enthusiastic amateurs who would otherwise never have dreamed of doing “real” maths. The rise of a global mathematical brain may even help redefine what it means to be clever. As Luca Trevisan of Stanford University has remarked, genius “could just be in the union of many minds, each doing nothing more than saying what is obvious to them”. n
If dolphins could talk to us…
as “non-human persons” and accorded basic rights. This proposal is likely to be re-examined now there is a possibility that we might actually be able to translate the whistles and squeaks of wild dolphins (see page 23). The work will give us a clearer picture of the mental lives of dolphins. The prospect of two-way
communication looks distant but, if successful, would be mind-blowing. What will dolphins say? Will it lead to a more humane relationship, or a more exploitative one? Whatever they do tell us, an interspecies “conversation” would be an unparalleled contribution to the debate about animal rights. n
DOLPHINS have big brains, social structures, names, distinct personalities, and are probably self-aware. For these reasons and more, one group of scientists last year called for them to be classified
7 May 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)
Fertiliser fix The time is right to plant the seeds of the next green revolution HALF the world’s population decades ago, efforts to achieve have Fritz Haber to thank for the the same goal fizzled out synthetic fertiliser that gives embarrassingly when the scale them their daily bread. The and complexity of the task “Haber-Bosch process” may have became clear. But in the wake helped to feed more people than of recent and unexpected any other development. Now, as discoveries suggesting that the global population heads for cereals already have the biological more than 9 billion by the middle machinery to accommodate of this century, we have the rhizobia, researchers are keen to genetic wherewithal to consign “The aim is simple: to Haber’s 1909 trick to history. enable all major crops to The aim is simple: to enable all make their own fertiliser major crop plants to make their and help feed the world” own fertiliser, a feat that will in turn help feed the world and have many environmental benefits too. give it another shot (see page 8). The good news is that beans, peas Three options are on the table: and other legumes can already tweak cereals so that they form pluck nitrogen from air with the symbiotic partnerships with help of soil bacteria called rhizobia. rhizobia as legumes do; colonise The challenge is to teach this trick cereal roots with other types to all the world’s major cereals. of nitrogen-fixing bacteria; Cynics will sigh and carp that or transfer the bacterial genes we have heard it all before. Two that make fertiliser directly
into the crop plants. A pragmatist would argue that perhaps it is better to plump for the first two options since no genetic modification is required, for fear of a customer backlash, given the angst in some countries over GM food. However, even though the non-GM options do appear easier to achieve, the goal of self-fertilising crops is so critical that we should not limit our options. There are also risks. Yields may decline if cereals expend too much energy making their own fertiliser. But if this feat can be achieved efficiently, we could have another green revolution on our hands. This time it could wean us from our dependence on synthetic fertilisers that do so much harm and cost so much to make. It would be reckless not to push ahead. n
A new kind of genius THE idiosyncratic loner is a familiar figure in the annals of mathematical genius. Classic examples include the impoverished Indian clerk Srinivasa Ramanujan a century ago, and Grigori Perelman, who in 2006 turned his back on his peers by rejecting the offer of a Fields medal for his landmark work. Now this stereotype is being
challenged by a thoroughly cooperative way of doing mathematics. The first analysis of the Polymath project concludes that online collaborations set up in the right way can solve problems with unprecedented speed and efficiency (see page 10). This takes cooperation to a level way beyond that enjoyed by the famously collaborative Hungarian
mathematician Paul Erdös. Perhaps just as importantly, it also has the potential for drawing in enthusiastic amateurs who would otherwise never have dreamed of doing “real” maths. The rise of a global mathematical brain may even help redefine what it means to be clever. As Luca Trevisan of Stanford University has remarked, genius “could just be in the union of many minds, each doing nothing more than saying what is obvious to them”. n
If dolphins could talk to us…
as “non-human persons” and accorded basic rights. This proposal is likely to be re-examined now there is a possibility that we might actually be able to translate the whistles and squeaks of wild dolphins (see page 23). The work will give us a clearer picture of the mental lives of dolphins. The prospect of two-way
communication looks distant but, if successful, would be mind-blowing. What will dolphins say? Will it lead to a more humane relationship, or a more exploitative one? Whatever they do tell us, an interspecies “conversation” would be an unparalleled contribution to the debate about animal rights. n
DOLPHINS have big brains, social structures, names, distinct personalities, and are probably self-aware. For these reasons and more, one group of scientists last year called for them to be classified
7 May 2011 | NewScientist | 5