- Email: [email protected]
Vulcan launch
For new stories every day, visit newscientist.com/news
WELL, well, well. South-East England could be sitting on a huge oil field, as much as 100 billion barrels, according to media reports of last week’s announcement by the UK Oil & Gas Investments.
KIM DONG-JOO/AFP/Getty
UK oil bonanza?
60 Seconds
Earth’s hot core… Our planet may have collided with a body rich in sulphur, such as Mercury, during its formation. A collision of this sort would have allowed conditions to be right for uranium and thorium to still be powering Earth’s magnetic field today (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature14350).
“I’d be happier with their claims if they had a core and test-well data, but they should press on”
...and its freezing past
ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
But some experts have since cautioned about over-hyping the find. Even UKOG chief executive Stephen Sanderson said further testing will be needed to prove the commercial viability. Rein in the bots Alastair Fraser of Imperial College London has questioned the CAN we control the killer robots? reliability of the estimates, which This week, the United Nations is hearing from technical and legal rely on analysing the oil content of chips of Kimmeridge clay from experts on the subject. The series of briefings 760 to 900 metres underground. and panel debates at the UN A better approach, he says, would Convention on Certain be to analyse a full cylindrical Conventional Weapons is the bore. “Then you know the depth of the oil-bearing deposits, where latest step to a potential treaty on lethal autonomous weapons. it comes from and that there’s no Key to the discussions is what contamination from higher up.” Fraser would also recommend a constitutes “meaningful human control” – what type of human test well to see how much, if any, oil actually came out. “You could “You can’t just have look at the oil, how fast it comes out and, most important, how fast autonomous weapons out there without any kind of it became depleted,” says Fraser. “I’d be happier with their claims if human supervision” they had a core and test-well data, involvement is necessary in but they should press on and see the process of killing someone what they can get out.” on the battlefield? Peter Asaro, a member of the International Committee on Robot Arms Control, is attending the talks. He says most people now feel it is unacceptable for robots to kill people without human intervention. Asaro believes that several countries, such as South Korea, whose statements were somewhat cautious in previous delegations, have become more outspoken in their opposition to autonomous weaponry. “I think there is consensus –Not so attractive after all– around the fact that in its most
–Don’t shoot, I surrender–
extreme form you can’t just have weapons out there without any kind of human supervision,” says Asaro. “But there is still disagreement and work to be done on how we define this as a legal term.” Even the most hopeful estimates suggest that a treaty or formal ban is at least a year or two away.
Vulcan launch WANTED: helicopter pilot who can catch a falling rocket engine. On Monday, United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, announced a new rocket, named Vulcan after the Star Trek aliens in a public vote. ULA plans for Vulcan to eject its engines after launch, then have them deploy parachutes and be caught in mid-air by a nearby helicopter. Being able to reuse the engines would lower the cost of space flight. The firm is aiming for its first launch in 2019, at a cost of $100 million per flight. ULA currently launches NASA and other spacecraft on its Atlas and Delta rockets. SpaceX, one of ULA’s main competitors, is also developing reusable rockets and was set for a test flight as New Scientist went to press.
What was the climate like when our planet was completely enveloped in ice? New estimates based on reconstructing oxygen isotope ratios show that even regions close to the equator were as cold as central Antarctica today – around -40 °C (PNAS, doi.org/3ng).
Robot chef Dinner is robo-served. A robot chef can rustle up a crab bisque, seemingly on its own. The system, created by London-based Moley Robotics, tracked a former MasterChef-winner’s hands in 3D as he prepared a dish. Two robotic hands then recreated every move in a specially designed kitchen. The firm hopes to have a commercial version ready in two years.
No plaice to go Say goodbye to your haddock and chips. As the North Sea warms by some 1.8 °C over the next 50 years, haddock, plaice and lemon sole may struggle to survive as the deeper, cooler water they retreat to becomes too warm. Instead, fish such as sardines and anchovies that prefer warmer waters are likely to flourish (Nature Climate Change, doi. org/3nf).
Pills blunt emotions Popping a paracetamol tablet may numb the pain, but it also appears to dull emotions. Students who took the drug, also called acetominophen, reported less strong responses to emotional images, such as those of crying, malnourished children, or kids playing with kittens (Psychological Science, doi.org/3nh).
18 April 2015 | NewScientist | 7
WELL, well, well. South-East England could be sitting on a huge oil field, as much as 100 billion barrels, according to media reports of last week’s announcement by the UK Oil & Gas Investments.
KIM DONG-JOO/AFP/Getty
UK oil bonanza?
60 Seconds
Earth’s hot core… Our planet may have collided with a body rich in sulphur, such as Mercury, during its formation. A collision of this sort would have allowed conditions to be right for uranium and thorium to still be powering Earth’s magnetic field today (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature14350).
“I’d be happier with their claims if they had a core and test-well data, but they should press on”
...and its freezing past
ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
But some experts have since cautioned about over-hyping the find. Even UKOG chief executive Stephen Sanderson said further testing will be needed to prove the commercial viability. Rein in the bots Alastair Fraser of Imperial College London has questioned the CAN we control the killer robots? reliability of the estimates, which This week, the United Nations is hearing from technical and legal rely on analysing the oil content of chips of Kimmeridge clay from experts on the subject. The series of briefings 760 to 900 metres underground. and panel debates at the UN A better approach, he says, would Convention on Certain be to analyse a full cylindrical Conventional Weapons is the bore. “Then you know the depth of the oil-bearing deposits, where latest step to a potential treaty on lethal autonomous weapons. it comes from and that there’s no Key to the discussions is what contamination from higher up.” Fraser would also recommend a constitutes “meaningful human control” – what type of human test well to see how much, if any, oil actually came out. “You could “You can’t just have look at the oil, how fast it comes out and, most important, how fast autonomous weapons out there without any kind of it became depleted,” says Fraser. “I’d be happier with their claims if human supervision” they had a core and test-well data, involvement is necessary in but they should press on and see the process of killing someone what they can get out.” on the battlefield? Peter Asaro, a member of the International Committee on Robot Arms Control, is attending the talks. He says most people now feel it is unacceptable for robots to kill people without human intervention. Asaro believes that several countries, such as South Korea, whose statements were somewhat cautious in previous delegations, have become more outspoken in their opposition to autonomous weaponry. “I think there is consensus –Not so attractive after all– around the fact that in its most
–Don’t shoot, I surrender–
extreme form you can’t just have weapons out there without any kind of human supervision,” says Asaro. “But there is still disagreement and work to be done on how we define this as a legal term.” Even the most hopeful estimates suggest that a treaty or formal ban is at least a year or two away.
Vulcan launch WANTED: helicopter pilot who can catch a falling rocket engine. On Monday, United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, announced a new rocket, named Vulcan after the Star Trek aliens in a public vote. ULA plans for Vulcan to eject its engines after launch, then have them deploy parachutes and be caught in mid-air by a nearby helicopter. Being able to reuse the engines would lower the cost of space flight. The firm is aiming for its first launch in 2019, at a cost of $100 million per flight. ULA currently launches NASA and other spacecraft on its Atlas and Delta rockets. SpaceX, one of ULA’s main competitors, is also developing reusable rockets and was set for a test flight as New Scientist went to press.
What was the climate like when our planet was completely enveloped in ice? New estimates based on reconstructing oxygen isotope ratios show that even regions close to the equator were as cold as central Antarctica today – around -40 °C (PNAS, doi.org/3ng).
Robot chef Dinner is robo-served. A robot chef can rustle up a crab bisque, seemingly on its own. The system, created by London-based Moley Robotics, tracked a former MasterChef-winner’s hands in 3D as he prepared a dish. Two robotic hands then recreated every move in a specially designed kitchen. The firm hopes to have a commercial version ready in two years.
No plaice to go Say goodbye to your haddock and chips. As the North Sea warms by some 1.8 °C over the next 50 years, haddock, plaice and lemon sole may struggle to survive as the deeper, cooler water they retreat to becomes too warm. Instead, fish such as sardines and anchovies that prefer warmer waters are likely to flourish (Nature Climate Change, doi. org/3nf).
Pills blunt emotions Popping a paracetamol tablet may numb the pain, but it also appears to dull emotions. Students who took the drug, also called acetominophen, reported less strong responses to emotional images, such as those of crying, malnourished children, or kids playing with kittens (Psychological Science, doi.org/3nh).
18 April 2015 | NewScientist | 7