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In praise of unnatural interference
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)
The engine of revolution Of this we are certain: science will never lose its capacity to surprise THE American artist Man Ray 25 ideas from the life and Earth once remarked that there is no sciences show (see page 32). progress in art, any more than Take the theory of evolution. there is progress in making As we dig deeper into the web love; there are simply different of bacterial interactions, we are ways of doing it. learning how Darwin’s metaphor From that perspective, science of a “tree of life” needs updating. is a happier field of human Simultaneously, the bleakly endeavour. There are many reductionist view of evolution different ways of doing science, as a product of nothing more but do it right and you could than the sum of individual selfchange its course forever. interest, common currency in Reporting on this spirit of the past half-century, is softening exploration and innovation has as we consider how natural kept New Scientist in business for selection may work even at the past half-century. Judging by “Like great art, great the crop of 50 game-changing science provides brand ideas we present this week and new ways of looking at next, we need not fear running the world” out of material any time soon. What makes science so powerful an engine of change? the level of entire ecosystems. In large part, its iconoclasm. When It is this ability to question, Isaac Newton wrote to Robert correct itself and where necessary Hooke in 1676 “If I have seen a rebuild in the face of new facts little further it is by standing on that sets science apart and makes the shoulders of giants”, he was it the most powerful tool that we telling only half the truth. Good have to make sense of the cosmos. science builds on what went Few scientists doubt the before, of course, but as Newton basic mechanisms of evolution, himself was aware, sometimes 150 years after Darwin’s On the progress means not just standing Origin of Species. But if there is on the shoulders of giants, but a better theory out there, only treading on their toes, too. science will find it. Fortunately, that spirit is still If progress in science depends alive and thriving, as this week’s on looking back so as to
understand and improve what went before, looking forward to the next challenge is just as important. A decade ago, we were celebrating the unveiling of the draft sequence of the human genome. It felt like an end in itself. Now we are recognising that we need more if we are to unlock the much-heralded potential of the genome to alleviate human suffering and disease. That is why initiatives to map human genetic variation, such as the 1000 Genomes Project, and efforts to map the web of molecular interaction encoded by genes – the “interactome” – represent the best of science: one step ahead, striving to answer questions that have only just been formulated. They and our other 48 ideas are inevitably selected snapshots of science’s cutting edge. But together they form a picture of humanity’s most extraordinary creative endeavour. Like great art, great science challenges our preconceptions and provides new ways of looking at the world. At New Scientist, it is our continual pleasure to report on the stunning ideas it produces – and that’s not just this week and next, but every week. n
Biodiversity trumps ‘nature’ in the Gulf LOUISIANA’S coastal ecosystem is in trouble. Under siege from erosion and rising sea levels, at present rates of degradation it will be gone within 50 years. That would be bad news for biodiversity, for the seafood industry and for the city of New Orleans. This catastrophe can be averted, but opinion is divided on how. On one side are the traditional conservationists who
believe in allowing nature to take its course with minimal intervention, fearing that too much could backfire. On the other are those who advocate engineering solutions, from the use of artificial reefs to shore up sinking sediment to novel, hardier breeds of grasses. If the latter get the upper hand, Louisiana will see the first big test of ecosystem engineering (see
page 8). The prospect of tinkering with nature is clearly scary to some people – though what is and isn’t “natural” is not always clearcut. What matters above all is finding ways to preserve or even increase species diversity. If the Louisiana experiment goes ahead, the key will be to take every precaution to ensure that it works. An engineered ecosystem is surely better than a collapsed one. n 9 October 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)
The engine of revolution Of this we are certain: science will never lose its capacity to surprise THE American artist Man Ray 25 ideas from the life and Earth once remarked that there is no sciences show (see page 32). progress in art, any more than Take the theory of evolution. there is progress in making As we dig deeper into the web love; there are simply different of bacterial interactions, we are ways of doing it. learning how Darwin’s metaphor From that perspective, science of a “tree of life” needs updating. is a happier field of human Simultaneously, the bleakly endeavour. There are many reductionist view of evolution different ways of doing science, as a product of nothing more but do it right and you could than the sum of individual selfchange its course forever. interest, common currency in Reporting on this spirit of the past half-century, is softening exploration and innovation has as we consider how natural kept New Scientist in business for selection may work even at the past half-century. Judging by “Like great art, great the crop of 50 game-changing science provides brand ideas we present this week and new ways of looking at next, we need not fear running the world” out of material any time soon. What makes science so powerful an engine of change? the level of entire ecosystems. In large part, its iconoclasm. When It is this ability to question, Isaac Newton wrote to Robert correct itself and where necessary Hooke in 1676 “If I have seen a rebuild in the face of new facts little further it is by standing on that sets science apart and makes the shoulders of giants”, he was it the most powerful tool that we telling only half the truth. Good have to make sense of the cosmos. science builds on what went Few scientists doubt the before, of course, but as Newton basic mechanisms of evolution, himself was aware, sometimes 150 years after Darwin’s On the progress means not just standing Origin of Species. But if there is on the shoulders of giants, but a better theory out there, only treading on their toes, too. science will find it. Fortunately, that spirit is still If progress in science depends alive and thriving, as this week’s on looking back so as to
understand and improve what went before, looking forward to the next challenge is just as important. A decade ago, we were celebrating the unveiling of the draft sequence of the human genome. It felt like an end in itself. Now we are recognising that we need more if we are to unlock the much-heralded potential of the genome to alleviate human suffering and disease. That is why initiatives to map human genetic variation, such as the 1000 Genomes Project, and efforts to map the web of molecular interaction encoded by genes – the “interactome” – represent the best of science: one step ahead, striving to answer questions that have only just been formulated. They and our other 48 ideas are inevitably selected snapshots of science’s cutting edge. But together they form a picture of humanity’s most extraordinary creative endeavour. Like great art, great science challenges our preconceptions and provides new ways of looking at the world. At New Scientist, it is our continual pleasure to report on the stunning ideas it produces – and that’s not just this week and next, but every week. n
Biodiversity trumps ‘nature’ in the Gulf LOUISIANA’S coastal ecosystem is in trouble. Under siege from erosion and rising sea levels, at present rates of degradation it will be gone within 50 years. That would be bad news for biodiversity, for the seafood industry and for the city of New Orleans. This catastrophe can be averted, but opinion is divided on how. On one side are the traditional conservationists who
believe in allowing nature to take its course with minimal intervention, fearing that too much could backfire. On the other are those who advocate engineering solutions, from the use of artificial reefs to shore up sinking sediment to novel, hardier breeds of grasses. If the latter get the upper hand, Louisiana will see the first big test of ecosystem engineering (see
page 8). The prospect of tinkering with nature is clearly scary to some people – though what is and isn’t “natural” is not always clearcut. What matters above all is finding ways to preserve or even increase species diversity. If the Louisiana experiment goes ahead, the key will be to take every precaution to ensure that it works. An engineered ecosystem is surely better than a collapsed one. n 9 October 2010 | NewScientist | 5