This week’s issue On the 46 The future of 38 Features psychedelic medicine cover “ The fashion 8 DNA secrets of industry has 38 Can fashion Pompeii revealed ever be green? become a The environmental cost 9 How stars steal planets of your clothing — and threat to the what you can do about it 20 Gene therapies treat deadly childhood diseases habitability 12 Go for SpinLaunch! of the planet” The plan to throw things into space 34 Science of Doctor Who 19 Bricks made from moon dust 9 Artificial cells Vol 254 No 3389 51 Is your teabag really Cover image: Kasiq biodegradable? News Features 10 Emergency medicine 38 Green fashion 3D-printed tourniquets News Cheap and cheerful could be used in Ukraine clothing is ruining the environment – here is how 14 AI illustrators you can buck the trend Will text-to-image generators put humans out of a job? 46 Trippy treatment Is a psychedelic experience 15 UK visa really necessary for Scheme to attract global hallucinogenic medicine talent excludes graduates to work? from African universities The back pages Views 51 Citizen science 27 Comment Take part in the Angelo Vermeulen on lessons teabag trials from space about food security 53 Puzzles 28 The columnist Try our crossword, quick quiz Botanical gardens are a haven and logic puzzle for Beronda L. Montgomery 54 Almost the last word 30 Aperture Why are consonants more See neurons, nuclei and more common than vowels? in a whole new light M O L.C 55 Tom Gauld for P E 32 Letters UR New Scientist T A Could the climate be saved N A cartoonist’s take N/ O with economic degrowth? TI on the world C U D O R 34 Culture E P 56 Feedback R U Explore the science of Doctor AT Rogue editors and undefinable N Who at a clever new exhibition 19 Birds in decline The impact of farming on biodiversity in Japan words: the week in weird 4 June 2022 | New Scientist | 1 Elsewhere on New Scientist Event Newsletter Tour “ You see in Instant expert: Meet your brain history very Your brain is the most complex often that organ in your body. It produces your every thought, action, big disasters memory and experience of the world. Six expert speakers will spark off big teach you how our brains store memories and learn language, NSE changes” LI and why they need to sleep. G U L F Join us on 19 November at K/ C O the British Library in London. ST R E T newscientist.com/events UT H S Look up Discover the wonders of astronomy in the Atacama desert Tour Chile: The world capital Video L of astronomy O O P R E With unique geography and V LI S climate, and 70 per cent of the M U E world’s telescopes, Chile truly is US M L the world capital of astronomy. A N O This tour will take you to ATI N F world-leading observatories, O Y S including the Atacama Large TE R U Millimeter/submillimeter CO L A Array (ALMA) and the Paranal N O TI Observatory. Meet local experts NA R E and stargaze at sites near San NT R I Pedro, Santiago and Vicuña. NE R A From 27 March 2023 for S 12 days. The cost is £7999. Sci-fi history Take time to look around this Doctor Who exhibition newscientist.com/tours Podcasts Video Newsletter Weekly Science of Doctor Who Fix the Planet The team ask what DeepMind’s Doctor Who is the longest-running Reporter Adam Vaughan tells the new artificial intelligence, Gato, science fiction television series in story of a woman who blazed means for the future of machine the world. And while it might seem a trail for climate lawsuits. He Essential guide consciousness. They discuss an fantastical, many of the concepts interviews Marjan Minnesma, archaeological detective story that feature in the 59-year-old who, along with her Dutch group Consciousness is the ghost in our and how CRISPR gene editing show are drawn from scientific Urgenda, won a historic case machine – our feeling of being and has been used to make tomatoes ideas. We got a behind-the-scenes against the government of the our relationship with the world. But rich in vitamin D. Also this week, peek at the Doctor Who Worlds Netherlands in 2015, forcing what does it consist of and why do the team examine the likelihood of Wonder exhibition at the World it to upgrade its plans for cutting we have it? Delve into the ultimate of monkeypox becoming the Museum in Liverpool, UK, and carbon emissions. Sign up for mystery of being with the latest next global pandemic. met K9, the Daleks and more. updates on all things climate. New Scientist Essential Guide. newscientist.com/nspod youtube.com/newscientist newscientist.com/fix shop.newscientist.com 2 | New Scientist | 4 June 2022 The leader Make do and mend The fashion world must change its environmentally destructive ways FOR an industry that supposedly thrives We as consumers must also shoulder a harmful. Indeed, consumers have on creativity, fashion has been appallingly large portion of the blame, gladly stuffing disproportionate leverage in this sector. slow to innovate to reduce its distinctly our wardrobes with cheap, shoddy and If patterns of demand change, such as uncool environmental footprint. unsustainably manufactured garments, shifting to brands that run buy-back On all three fronts in the planetary destined to be worn a few times and then schemes for unwanted clothing, the crisis – climate change, nature loss and unceremoniously dumped. Most people industry will respond. More powerfully, waste – manufacturers and retailers of on Earth participate in this grotesquely we can simply choose to wear our clothes textiles and clothing could, and must, wasteful cycle, helping to make clothing for longer. Keeping a garment for an do better. Their carbon emissions are extra year can cut its environmental “ Keeping a garment for an extra enormous, thirst for raw materials footprint by 30 per cent. year can cut its environmental unsustainable and waste management That, of course, requires a shift in footprint by 30 per cent” systems rubbish. As just one example, our mindsets. But such things can and do every year we send 350,000 tonnes of happen. A few years ago, plant-based diets clothing to landfill in the UK. one of the most environmentally were the choice of the unconventional There are growing pockets of green destructive industries (see page 38). few. Now they are commonplace. creativity in the industry, but for the Unlike some other damaging consumer We need the same revolution to most part high-street brands seem intent choices, such as buying animal products happen when it comes to clothing on doubling down on the “fast fashion” and flying, it isn’t really possible to simply choices. Here’s to a make-do-and-mend business model that has done so much opt out of clothes shopping. But of course mindset becoming mainstream – and to line theirs. there are ways of consuming that are less even fashionable. ❚ PUBLISHING & COMMERCIAL EDITORIAL Commercial and events director Adrian Newton Chief executive Nina Wright Editor-in-chief Emily Wilson Executive assistant Lorraine Lodge Magazine editor Catherine de Lange Display advertising Team administrator Olivia Abbott News and digital director Penny Sarchet Tel +44 (0)203 615 6456 Email [email protected] Creative director Craig Mackie Sales director Justin Viljoen Finance & operations Account manager Matthew Belmoh Chief financial officer Amee Dixon News Partnerships account manager David Allard Financial controller Taryn Skorjenko News editor Jacob Aron Commercial finance manager Charlotte Thabit Assistant news editors Alexandra Thompson, Sam Wong Recruitment advertising Commercial finance manager Anna Labuz Reporters (UK) Michael Le Page, Matthew Sparkes, Tel +44 (0)203 615 6458 Email [email protected] Management accountant Dani Duffy Adam Vaughan, Clare Wilson, (Aus) Alice Klein Recruitment sales manager Viren Vadgama Management accountant Charlie Robinson Trainees Jason Arunn Murugesu, Alex Wilkins Key account manager Deepak Wagjiani Intern Carissa Wong Human resources New Scientist Events Human resources director Shirley Spencer Digital Tel +44 (0)203 615 6554 Email [email protected] HR business partner Katy Le Poidevin Audience editor Alexander McNamara Sales director Jacqui McCarron Podcast editor Rowan Hooper Head of event production Martin Davies Web team Emily Bates, Matt Hambly, Chen Ly, David Stock Head of product management (Events, Courses CONTACT US & Commercial Projects) Henry Gomm Features newscientist.com/contact Marketing manager Emiley Partington Deputy head of features Daniel Cossins, Helen Thomson Events and projects executive Georgia Peart General & media enquiries Editors Abigail Beall, Anna Demming, Kate Douglas, UK Tel+44 (0)203 615 6500 Alison George, Joshua Howgego New Scientist Discovery Tours Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT Feature writer Graham Lawton Director Kevin Currie Australia 58 Gipps Street, Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Culture and Community Marketing & Data US PO Box 80247, Portland, OR 97280 Comment and culture editor Alison Flood Marketing director Jo Adams UK Newsstand Senior culture editor Liz Else Director of performance marketing Marketforce UK Ltd Tel +44 (0)33 0390 6555 and audience development Jeffrey Baker Subeditors Head of campaign marketing James Nicholson Syndication Chief subeditor Eleanor Parsons Head of customer experience Emma Robinson Tribune Content Agency Tel +44 (0)20 7588 7588 Bethan Ackerley, Tom Campbell, Head of audience data Rachael Dunderdale Email [email protected] Chris Simms, Jon White Data and analytics manager Ebun Rotimi Trainee Tom Leslie Subscriptions Senior email marketing executive Natalie Valls newscientist.com/subscription Design Email marketing executive Ffion Evans One year print subscription (51 issues) UK £270 Art editor Julia Lee Senior customer experience Tel +44 (0)330 333 9470 Joe Hetzel, Ryan Wills marketing manager Esha Bhabuta Email [email protected] Senior marketing executive Sahad Ahmed Picture desk Post New Scientist, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Marketing assistant Charlotte Weeks Picture editor Helen Benians Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH Tim Boddy Digital Products Digital product development director Laurence Taylor Production © 2022 New Scientist Ltd, England. New Scientist is published Head of learning experience Finola Lang weekly by New Scientist Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) Production manager Joanne Keogh Technology ISSN 2059 5387. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and Robin Burton Chief operations officer International printed in England by Precision Colour Printing Ltd New Scientist US Debora Brooksbank-Taylor US Editor Tiffany O’Callaghan Technology director Tom McQuillan Editors Timothy Revell, Chelsea Whyte Maria Moreno Garrido, Dan Pudsey, Amardeep Sian, Reporters Leah Crane, Karmela Padavic Callaghan, Ben Townsend, Piotr Walków Grace Wade, Corryn Wetzel Subeditor Alexis Wnuk 4 June 2022 | New Scientist | 5 News Nanoparticles Solar panels Rules of the road Set sail Space buildings Drug coating could Tomato chemical Driverless cars could NASA backs plans for Moon dust can aid brain cancer boosts solar power improve everyone’s rainbow-coloured be used to make treatment p14 efficiency p15 driving p16 solar sail  p16 bricks p19 Concept image of a future small modular reactor produce higher volumes and greater complexity of waste because they are naturally less efficient. Nuclear power generation involves a nuclear chain reaction, in which one nuclear reaction in the reactor core creates neutrons that then go on to cause an average of one or more subsequent nuclear reactions. However, according to Krall’s team, SMRs leak more ER neutrons out of their core than W O P a larger reactor, so they cannot E L CA maintain the self-sustaining S U Y/N reaction for as long (PNAS, T RSI DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2111833119). E V NI Diane Hughes at NuScale Power U E AT says the study relies on outdated T S N information and the waste per O G RE unit of energy for its SMR O compares favourably with large Energy reactors. “We don’t agree with Nuclear waste in spotlight the conclusion that the NuScale design creates more used spent fuel per unit of energy compared to currently operating light water Mini nuclear reactors may create more radioactive waste for a given reactors,” she says. The UK government has amount of power than conventional reactors, reports Adam Vaughan provided funding for Rolls-Royce SMR to advance its own version of A MUCH-vaunted first wave by SMRs would compare with of electricity generated. For the the technology. This design wasn’t of mini nuclear power stations that from their large-scale peers. long-lived equivalent waste, SMRs considered in the new study, but may produce more radioactive Lindsay Krall at Stanford would produce up to 30 times a company spokesperson said waste than traditional large-scale University in California and her more and for spent nuclear fuel, Rolls-Royce SMR would be reactors when generating the colleagues used data NuScale up to five times more. The submitting estimates on waste same amount of power. Power has shared publicly with variation in these figures reflects volumes as part of its years-long Small modular reactors US authorities, and extrapolated expected variation in SMR designs journey through the UK nuclear (SMRs) have been mooted by to model the waste from three in development. regulatory approval process, their developers and proponents different SMR technologies. They which started in April. The Rolls- “SMR performed worse as a cheaper and faster way to compared SMR technology with a Royce SMR design “includes on nearly all of our metrics build new nuclear power capacity, conventional 1.1 gigawatt nuclear some technical innovations compared to standard with UK prime minister Boris reactor, roughly a third of the that reduce waste arisings”, commercial reactors” Johnson claiming they could be capacity of a nuclear plant being said the spokesperson. generating electricity by 2030. built in south-west England. Very few countries have made The US government has provided They have found that SMRs could “The information right now progress on plans for long-term financial support to the firm increase the volume of short-lived being put out by reactor developers facilities to store their nuclear NuScale Power to develop its low and intermediate-level waste – can be seen as promotional,” says waste underground, with Finland version of the technology. the two lowest of three categories – Krall. “SMR performed worse on and Sweden two of the exceptions. But to date there has been little by up to 35 times compared with a nearly all of our metrics compared “We need to get more serious independent assessment of how large conventional reactor, when to standard commercial reactors.” about practically managing the radioactive waste produced looking at waste produced per unit The study suggests that SMRs [SMRs] nuclear waste,” says Krall. ❚ 4 June 2022 | New Scientist | 7 News Archaeology First genome of Pompeii resident Human remains from towns destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius reveal the genetics of ancient Romans and the resilience of bone proteins, reports Colin Barras MOUNT Vesuvius in southern 0 as Herculaneum, where ash is 1 Italy erupted in AD 79 to FIG. thought to have been particularly 6, devastating effect, destroying 28 hot. Estimates suggest it baked P. several Roman settlements, 4, the town at temperatures of 3 9 including Herculaneum to the À, 1 500°C and killed some residents T west of the volcano and Pompeii CHI instantly, before vaporising TI to the south-east. Analysis of AN their flesh. DI human remains found buried VI He and his team extracted A C S under the ash and pumice that LI small samples of bone from seven G E blanketed these ancient towns E D human skeletons recovered from ZI is revealing new details about the OTI Pompeii and five recovered from N people who died in the eruption. Herculaneum. They found that The eruption killed many of they could isolate traces of ancient Pompeii’s inhabitants, but it protein from all of the samples. didn’t destroy their DNA. The first “This is the first work aimed complete genome from Pompeii at the detection of [proteins] has now been sequenced and it in people exposed to high reveals genetic markers that temperatures,” says Petrone. haven’t been seen before in Surprisingly, he says, bones ancient Roman DNA. from Herculaneum contained The volcanic ash and debris a greater diversity of proteins that covered Pompeii is estimated than those from Pompeii, even to have been at least 250°C – hot piece together a full genome. The two individuals though they experienced higher enough to kill people instantly Scorrano and his colleagues found in the Casa del temperatures (Scientific Reports, and, presumably, cause significant then compared the man’s genome Fabbro in Pompeii doi.org/hwpv). damage to their internal tissues with those from 1030 ancient This may be because the bones as well as their DNA. people who lived during the past the Italian island of Sardinia. at the two sites have encountered “There was the expectation 5000 years or so and 471 present- Hints of bacterial DNA in the different environmental that the high temperatures day people from western Eurasia. bone sample collected from the conditions since the disaster. would make our effort in DNA This revealed that the man who man in Pompeii are consistent The volcanic ash at Herculaneum sequencing in Pompeii fruitless,” died in Pompeii had comparable with existing evidence from is thought to have remained says Gabriele Scorrano at the DNA to that recovered from the his skeleton that he had spinal waterlogged for most of the University of Copenhagen, skeletons of people living in Italy tuberculosis (Scientific Reports, past 2000 years, which might Denmark. “Cremated bodies, at the height of the Roman Empire. doi.org/hwkz). have limited the breakdown of for example, show no sign of However, the team did find “This pathology causes proteins in the bones by microbes. DNA preservation, according differences. In particular, severe pain, such as lumbago Fluctuations in the local water to multiple studies.” groups of genes on the man’s and sciatica,” says Scorrano. table mean the ash at Pompeii But Scorrano and his colleagues Y chromosome and in his This might explain why he didn’t periodically dried out, says decided to look for ancient DNA mitochondrial DNA were unlike flee when the eruption began, Petrone, probably allowing anyway. They focused on the those seen in earlier studies of as many Pompeiians did. for more microbial-driven skeletal remains of two people ancient Romans. Instead, they It is only because of decomposition. discovered in a building called the were similar to sequences carried improvements in analytical The fact that the proteins in Casa del Fabbro, or House of the by some people living today on techniques that we can now human bone can survive high Craftsman. The pair – a man in his extract DNA from the skeletons temperatures could inspire 250˚C 30s and a woman who was at least preserved at Pompeii, says Pier further investigation, the team 50 years old – seem to have been Paolo Petrone at the University of says. For instance, it may lead to lying on a low couch in what may Estimated temperature of volcanic Naples Federico II in Italy. He says research exploring which of the have been a dining room at the ash that buried Pompeii the work shows there are “always 1000 or so proteins generally moment they died (pictured). new discoveries” to be made even found in human bone degrade at 500˚C The researchers managed to at world-famous sites. particular temperatures. Forensic obtain genetic material from both Petrone and his colleagues investigators could use this to skeletons, although only the man’s Estimated temperature of volcanic have also studied human bones estimate a fire’s temperature bones yielded enough DNA to ash that buried Herculaneum recovered from Pompeii, as well based on human remains. ❚ 8 | New Scientist | 4 June 2022