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Life's endless possibilities
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)
Life’s endless possibilities We need to spread our search for alien life as imaginatively as we can “IT IS unnatural in a large field to assumptions in Drake’s formula have only one shaft of wheat, and for the first time. The fact that in the infinite universe only one there are few plausible Earth living world.” That saying, lookalikes among the 1200-plus attributed to the pre-Socratic candidate planets identified by philosopher Metrodorus of Chios, Kepler is not hard to explain away. has a strangely modern ring to it. Such small lumps of rock are more Over the following centuries, elusive than bigger gassy bodies, religious sensibilities, perhaps and once they have been glimpsed combined with an overdeveloped it will take time to verify their sense of our own importance, existence. More perplexing is the contrived to convince us that apparent lack of any other solar humanity must occupy a unique systems that have the familiar place in the universe. But the 20th century largely knocked that out “It is looking increasingly plausible that life can take of us. We now know that the many forms that to us universe is, if not infinite, almost seem utterly exotic” unimaginably vast, and that our galaxy alone is populated with many billions of stars rather like qualities of our own, which our own. we believe to have given rise to Fifty years ago, Frank Drake, the life (see page 46). American radio astronomer and That’s a blow to our ideas of pioneer of the search for how solar systems form and extraterrestrial intelligence, develop. Those who believe in calculated what that meant for humanity’s uniqueness may the likelihood of life elsewhere claim that this lack of an alter ego in the Milky Way. His conclusion: for Earth supports their view. the huge numbers involved made We may, however, be focusing it rather implausible that we our search too narrowly. The are alone. diversity of planetary systems Half a century on, and the tide that we are now seeing raises the might be turning again. Waves of possibility that planets or solar discoveries from NASA’s orbiting systems quite unlike the ones we Kepler planet-hunter have given know might harbour life. This us the chance to test some of the week, NASA gave the go-ahead for
further exploratory work on a lander to dip into one of Titan’s frigid methane seas (see page 4). Though the chances are we won’t find much more than some chemically interesting goo there, discovering anything lifelike would break down long-standing assumptions, notably that life requires liquid water. Further afield, things are looking ever more interesting. Just a few weeks ago we were presented with the idea that dark matter could warm planets enough to host life even without a star. Slightly more prosaically, we report in this issue on the possibility of hydrogenenveloped life-supporting planets far from their stars (page 10). If life does exist in such diverse environments, it is a reasonable assumption that it will differ from us in other fundamental ways, too. Uniqueness seems rather too presumptuous a claim for one small planet in an undistinguished corner of a vast cosmos. Given our imperfect but rapidly growing store of knowledge, the idea that life can take many forms that to us will seem utterly exotic looks increasingly plausible. Perhaps we are indeed the lone shaft of wheat – but in a large field sown with many different crops. n
Privacy in the age of Facebook WEBSITES, smartphone apps and online services all make our lives easier, but recent privacy breaches and leaks of data show that convenience can come at a cost. As household names such as Apple, Amazon and Sony hit the headlines over their data use, many people are realising that they can’t rely on big brands to protect their personal data, even as these companies push for us to store
ever more information online. Though there is little you can do once a company has lost your data, there is a better way to be vigilant (see page 22). An app is being developed that will let users monitor the transmission of their information, providing “privacy revelations” about how data flows through apps and to the internet. Combining it with crowdsourcing would allow users
to warn others about rogue apps. But this will only work if enough people are interested. In a world where so many people volunteer intimate personal details on Facebook, how many will see the need to become their own network administrator? It would be a pity if more significant leaks were needed to make everyone put a higher premium on privacy. n 14 May 2011 | NewScientist | 3
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)
Life’s endless possibilities We need to spread our search for alien life as imaginatively as we can “IT IS unnatural in a large field to assumptions in Drake’s formula have only one shaft of wheat, and for the first time. The fact that in the infinite universe only one there are few plausible Earth living world.” That saying, lookalikes among the 1200-plus attributed to the pre-Socratic candidate planets identified by philosopher Metrodorus of Chios, Kepler is not hard to explain away. has a strangely modern ring to it. Such small lumps of rock are more Over the following centuries, elusive than bigger gassy bodies, religious sensibilities, perhaps and once they have been glimpsed combined with an overdeveloped it will take time to verify their sense of our own importance, existence. More perplexing is the contrived to convince us that apparent lack of any other solar humanity must occupy a unique systems that have the familiar place in the universe. But the 20th century largely knocked that out “It is looking increasingly plausible that life can take of us. We now know that the many forms that to us universe is, if not infinite, almost seem utterly exotic” unimaginably vast, and that our galaxy alone is populated with many billions of stars rather like qualities of our own, which our own. we believe to have given rise to Fifty years ago, Frank Drake, the life (see page 46). American radio astronomer and That’s a blow to our ideas of pioneer of the search for how solar systems form and extraterrestrial intelligence, develop. Those who believe in calculated what that meant for humanity’s uniqueness may the likelihood of life elsewhere claim that this lack of an alter ego in the Milky Way. His conclusion: for Earth supports their view. the huge numbers involved made We may, however, be focusing it rather implausible that we our search too narrowly. The are alone. diversity of planetary systems Half a century on, and the tide that we are now seeing raises the might be turning again. Waves of possibility that planets or solar discoveries from NASA’s orbiting systems quite unlike the ones we Kepler planet-hunter have given know might harbour life. This us the chance to test some of the week, NASA gave the go-ahead for
further exploratory work on a lander to dip into one of Titan’s frigid methane seas (see page 4). Though the chances are we won’t find much more than some chemically interesting goo there, discovering anything lifelike would break down long-standing assumptions, notably that life requires liquid water. Further afield, things are looking ever more interesting. Just a few weeks ago we were presented with the idea that dark matter could warm planets enough to host life even without a star. Slightly more prosaically, we report in this issue on the possibility of hydrogenenveloped life-supporting planets far from their stars (page 10). If life does exist in such diverse environments, it is a reasonable assumption that it will differ from us in other fundamental ways, too. Uniqueness seems rather too presumptuous a claim for one small planet in an undistinguished corner of a vast cosmos. Given our imperfect but rapidly growing store of knowledge, the idea that life can take many forms that to us will seem utterly exotic looks increasingly plausible. Perhaps we are indeed the lone shaft of wheat – but in a large field sown with many different crops. n
Privacy in the age of Facebook WEBSITES, smartphone apps and online services all make our lives easier, but recent privacy breaches and leaks of data show that convenience can come at a cost. As household names such as Apple, Amazon and Sony hit the headlines over their data use, many people are realising that they can’t rely on big brands to protect their personal data, even as these companies push for us to store
ever more information online. Though there is little you can do once a company has lost your data, there is a better way to be vigilant (see page 22). An app is being developed that will let users monitor the transmission of their information, providing “privacy revelations” about how data flows through apps and to the internet. Combining it with crowdsourcing would allow users
to warn others about rogue apps. But this will only work if enough people are interested. In a world where so many people volunteer intimate personal details on Facebook, how many will see the need to become their own network administrator? It would be a pity if more significant leaks were needed to make everyone put a higher premium on privacy. n 14 May 2011 | NewScientist | 3