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The future is almost upon us
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 © 2012 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)
Silicon Valley’s space age An experimental, entrepreneurial spirit is just what’s needed LATER this month, entrepreneur assuming it goes to plan – will Elon Musk hopes to make history be such a landmark (see page 6). as his company SpaceX becomes An injection of Silicon-Valleythe first non-governmental entity style innovation may be just to dock a spacecraft with the what space needs. The internet International Space Station (ISS). and world wide web were largely Rewind almost 10 years and invented at government Musk was making history of a organisations, but they didn’t different kind – selling PayPal take off until companies like to Ebay for $1.5 billion. Musk is not the only technology “Private companies must not limit their ambitions tycoon turning his attention to space. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to running glorified now runs commercial space outfit haulage operations” Blue Origin. Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are pouring Google got involved. Similarly, to money into Planetary Resources, reap rewards in space, commercial which plans to mine asteroids. entities may be required. And computer games whiz John Musk’s timing is certainly good. Carmack is chief engineer of Since retiring the space shuttle Armadillo Aerospace. last year, NASA no longer has a Their ambitions are well known craft capable of ferrying people but none has yet proved that lofty and supplies to and from the ISS. talk can be matched by action. SpaceX looks well placed to fill That is why the SpaceX launch – that gap.
Private space companies must not limit their ambitions to running glorified haulage operations, though. As government funding for space science and exploration dries up, the private sector should aim to fill that void too. So far the signs are good. Already, scientists are planning to rent space on suborbital tourist flights. And when it comes to curiosity-driven exploration, Musk talks the talk with his plans to send people to Mars (New Scientist, 17 December 2011, p 45). Despite its many flaws and challenges, the internet is one of the biggest success stories of our time: a place where fortunes can be made and that yet retains its spirit of exploration, openness and curiosity. Let us hope its architects can replicate this achievement in space. n
The improbable ape THE more we learn about our evolutionary journey from ape to human, the more astonishing it seems. Around 3.5 million years ago, a gene involved in brain development duplicated itself in one of our ancestors. Around a million years later it did it again. The duplicate genes now play a crucial role in the design of our big, powerful brains (see page 10).
The double duplication joins a handful of other mutations – notably in FOXP2, also known as the “language gene” – that appear to have endowed us with uniquely human traits. It is no exaggeration to say they are the genes that make us human. On one level that is not hugely surprising. The differences between humans and chimps are
obviously encoded in DNA, most likely in genes that determine brain architecture. But on another it brings home the sheer improbability of our existence. The essence of humanity largely boils down to a bunch of random mutations, every one of them happening by chance. Richard Dawkins once described evolution as “climbing mount improbable”. It is always worth remembering that humans have climbed the highest. n
The future is upon us
the size of a wristwatch can now turn your body into an antenna that can control machines with a wave of your hands (see page 19). The age of touchless computing isn’t far off. As if that weren’t enough, we might also find control interfaces embedded in our bodies. Experiments on cadavers have
shown that LEDs, Bluetooth connections and touch sensors are able to communicate with the outside world when implanted into human tissue (page 22). Futurists have long talked of our technologies merging with us. The day when that is a reality may come sooner than you think. n
IT HAS been just 18 months since the Microsoft Kinect motionsensing controller overturned ideas of how humans can interact with computers. Engineers have been quick on the uptake. A device
12 May 2012 | 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 © 2012 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)
Silicon Valley’s space age An experimental, entrepreneurial spirit is just what’s needed LATER this month, entrepreneur assuming it goes to plan – will Elon Musk hopes to make history be such a landmark (see page 6). as his company SpaceX becomes An injection of Silicon-Valleythe first non-governmental entity style innovation may be just to dock a spacecraft with the what space needs. The internet International Space Station (ISS). and world wide web were largely Rewind almost 10 years and invented at government Musk was making history of a organisations, but they didn’t different kind – selling PayPal take off until companies like to Ebay for $1.5 billion. Musk is not the only technology “Private companies must not limit their ambitions tycoon turning his attention to space. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to running glorified now runs commercial space outfit haulage operations” Blue Origin. Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are pouring Google got involved. Similarly, to money into Planetary Resources, reap rewards in space, commercial which plans to mine asteroids. entities may be required. And computer games whiz John Musk’s timing is certainly good. Carmack is chief engineer of Since retiring the space shuttle Armadillo Aerospace. last year, NASA no longer has a Their ambitions are well known craft capable of ferrying people but none has yet proved that lofty and supplies to and from the ISS. talk can be matched by action. SpaceX looks well placed to fill That is why the SpaceX launch – that gap.
Private space companies must not limit their ambitions to running glorified haulage operations, though. As government funding for space science and exploration dries up, the private sector should aim to fill that void too. So far the signs are good. Already, scientists are planning to rent space on suborbital tourist flights. And when it comes to curiosity-driven exploration, Musk talks the talk with his plans to send people to Mars (New Scientist, 17 December 2011, p 45). Despite its many flaws and challenges, the internet is one of the biggest success stories of our time: a place where fortunes can be made and that yet retains its spirit of exploration, openness and curiosity. Let us hope its architects can replicate this achievement in space. n
The improbable ape THE more we learn about our evolutionary journey from ape to human, the more astonishing it seems. Around 3.5 million years ago, a gene involved in brain development duplicated itself in one of our ancestors. Around a million years later it did it again. The duplicate genes now play a crucial role in the design of our big, powerful brains (see page 10).
The double duplication joins a handful of other mutations – notably in FOXP2, also known as the “language gene” – that appear to have endowed us with uniquely human traits. It is no exaggeration to say they are the genes that make us human. On one level that is not hugely surprising. The differences between humans and chimps are
obviously encoded in DNA, most likely in genes that determine brain architecture. But on another it brings home the sheer improbability of our existence. The essence of humanity largely boils down to a bunch of random mutations, every one of them happening by chance. Richard Dawkins once described evolution as “climbing mount improbable”. It is always worth remembering that humans have climbed the highest. n
The future is upon us
the size of a wristwatch can now turn your body into an antenna that can control machines with a wave of your hands (see page 19). The age of touchless computing isn’t far off. As if that weren’t enough, we might also find control interfaces embedded in our bodies. Experiments on cadavers have
shown that LEDs, Bluetooth connections and touch sensors are able to communicate with the outside world when implanted into human tissue (page 22). Futurists have long talked of our technologies merging with us. The day when that is a reality may come sooner than you think. n
IT HAS been just 18 months since the Microsoft Kinect motionsensing controller overturned ideas of how humans can interact with computers. Engineers have been quick on the uptake. A device
12 May 2012 | NewScientist | 3