Philippa Kaur

Annalee Newitz’s new novel examines the dark side of “uplifting” animals to a state of self-awareness – and asks whose intelligence is being used as the template, finds Sally Adee

Humans

4 January 2023

By Sally Adee
Terraforming means creating human values as much as physical placesTithi Luadthong/shutterstock
The Terraformers
Annalee Newitz (Tor Books on sale 2 February)
IN A deep future tens of thousands of years from now, animals have been brought into the so-called Great Bargain: in saving Earth from the consequences of the Anthropocene, a deal has been struck between all creatures, and humans now include everyone in managing the shared land.
But to participate, you need to be a person, and for that you must pass an intelligence assessment. So while relations between species look … More

New Scientist’s weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss

Humans

4 January 2023

HBO/Warner Media
Watch
The Last of Us moves from award-winning video game to TV show, with Pedro Pascal (pictured above) as Joel Miller, a smuggler who escorts a teenage girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), across a post-apocalyptic US. On HBO from 15 January.

Read
Emotional Ignorance by neuroscientist Dean Burnett tracks the author’s journey after the death of his father from covid-19, as he explores where our emotions come from and what purpose they serve. On sale from 12 January.
Paul Craft/shutterstock
Visit
The Science of Dreams reveals how and why we dream, and how to enhance our … More

Honeycomb, or cinder toffee, isn’t difficult to make, but it reveals the complex science involved in transforming sugar into confectionery, explains Sam Wong

Humans

28 December 2022

By Sam Wong
Getty Images/iStockphoto
HONEYCOMB, or cinder toffee, is simple to make, but is a great example of the complex science involved in transforming sugar into confectionery.
The process begins by heating sugar and water. While pure water boils at 100°C (212°F), the boiling point of a sugar solution is higher. As the solution boils, water evaporates, but the sugar remains, increasing the concentration and raising the boiling point further. At 170°C (338°F), the sugar starts to caramelise: the molecules break apart and recombine, turning it brown and producing delicious flavour molecules.
By measuring the temperature of a boiling sugar … More

CERN-inspired stories, a feminist retelling of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and a new deep future from Annalee Newitz: sci-fi fans have a lot to look forward to in 2023

Humans

28 December 2022

By Sally Adee
In The Lies of the Ajungo, a boy journeys into the desert to save his motherTimothy Allen/The Image Bank/Getty Images, NASA
The Terraformers
Annalee Newitz (Tor Books)
This deep future from New Scientist columnist Annalee Newitz stars a Lone Ranger type and her partner, a telepathic moose. The mission: to keep interlopers off a planet under construction. Things go awry.
Collision
Edited by Rob Appleby and Connie Potter (Comma Press)
Authors worked with particle physicists at the CERN lab near Geneva, Switzerland, on this anthology, in which Stephen Baxter and Margaret Drabble’s thought-provoking stories do more … More

When did hominins start cooking? It might be earlier than we thoughtWe know for certain cooking isn’t unique to our species and that it was going on 750,000 years ago. The evidence of hominins deliberately exposing their food to heat is being pushed back further all the time, finds Michael Marshall More

We know for certain cooking isn’t unique to our species and that it was going on 750,000 years ago. The evidence of hominins deliberately exposing their food to heat is being pushed back further all the time, finds Michael Marshall

Humans

| Columnist

28 December 2022

By Michael Marshall
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock
AT THIS time of year, as the temperatures drop, I find myself craving pies. I don’t know what unrecognised geniuses invented pastry and then had the idea to put a casserole inside it, but I owe them an unpayable debt. So let’s talk about the invention of cooking. How long have humans been deliberately exposing their food to heat to make it better?
You might remember a recent story reporting evidence that hominins were cooking carp fish in an earthen oven around 780,000 years ago in what is now Israel. Previously, the oldest unambiguous evidence of cooking … More

The 250th anniversary of the first documented crossing of the Antarctic circle is being marked with a new book that traces the continent’s history via 100 artefacts from around the world

Humans

28 December 2022

By Alison Flood
Herbert Ponting/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images
THE first documented crossing of the Antarctic circle was made on 17 January 1773 by James Cook on the HMS Resolution. Now, 250 years later, Jean de Pomereu and Daniella McCahey are marking its anniversary in Antarctica: A history in 100 objects, a book that tells the story of the continent via 100 photos and artefacts from around the world.
The main image is an iconic photograph taken from a grotto in an iceberg in 1911 by Herbert Ponting (pictured below). Ponting was the first professional photographer to travel to Antarctica, after being invited by Robert Falcon Scott to join his ill-fated expedition. The ship is the Terra Nova and the men are geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor and meteorologist Charles Wright.
Herbert Ponting in Antarctica in 1910Herbert Ponting/Royal Geographical Society via Getty ImagesAdvertisement
Shaun O’Boyle
Pictured above are the South Pole Telescope and BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiment at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The telescope helped to capture the first image of a supermassive black hole in 2019.
L: Vestfold Museums: R: United States Navy History and Heritage Command
Leather goggles to protect against snow blindness, made during Roald Amundsen’s 1910-1912 Antarctic expedition, are shown above left. Pictured to the right of them are mittens knitted by Edith “Jackie” Ronne during an expedition in 1946-48. Ronne was one of the first two women to winter in Antarctica as part of a geographical expedition.
G. H. Mumm & Cie
The  image above shows Ernest Gourdon and Paul Pléneau sharing a bottle of champagne in July 1904. This was intended to promote Mumm Cordon Rouge, since the Mumm family was a sponsor of the trip.

Pablo de León/University of North Dakota
A spacesuit tested in Antarctica in 2011 for possible use on Mars. (pictured above).

Sebastian Copeland
A humpback whale skeleton (pictured above) reconstructed by conservationist and film-maker Jacques Cousteau on King George Island in 1972-73, to raise awareness of whaling.

Frédéric Perin/Météo France
An anemometer from a 1908-10 expedition.

Pictured above is a New Zealand $5 note commemorating Edmund Hillary, whose team was the first to reach the South Pole using overland vehicles, in 1958.
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
The 1602 Kunyu Wanguo Quantu map from China, (pictured above) featuring a vast “Terra Australis” with the inscription “Few have reached these southern regions. So the things are not explored yet”.
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Coryphaenoides lecointei, a fish specimen collected in the Antarctic on 15 March 1899 (pictured above).

More on these topics: More

From new seasons of The Mandalorian and Severance to a much-anticipated adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, settle in for some stellar shows next year

Humans

28 December 2022

By Bethan Ackerley
Mark Scout (Adam Scott) in Severance.Atsushi nishijima
IN THE waning days of 2022, with little to do but gorge on Christmas leftovers, I find myself thinking about the coming year. Because sincere self-reflection is beyond me, however, all those thoughts concern television – and so I have amassed a non-exhaustive list of the nine shows I am most looking forward to in 2023.
If any TV series gives me hope for the medium’s future, it is Severance, an unsettling workplace dramedy that debuted on Apple TV+ in February. We followed Mark Scout … More