Humans

The covid-19 pandemic has forced millions to participate in one of the biggest social experiments of our time. Nearly two years in, it’s time to take stock: what happens when workers abandon offices?

Humans

15 December 2021

By Alice Klein
Working from home has led to rises in productivity for someExperience Interiors/iStock
THE covid-19 pandemic has forced millions of us to participate in one of the biggest social experiments of our time: what would happen if office workers largely abandoned their workplaces and began working from home? More than 18 months in, it is time to take stock.
One thing seems clear: more people working remotely has brought some benefits for the environment. With less commuter traffic, wildlife has been able to reclaim urban spaces while people have been tapping away at their home keyboards.
But what about the benefits to people? The major perks of home working include people having more flexibility to mould jobs around their family, exercise and leisure time, being able to wear whatever they like, controlling their own heating and lighting and not having to commute. The lack of commuting may be the biggest bonus, since surveys show that workers typically rate their commute as the worst part of their day, unless they walk or cycle.Advertisement
Many people have also been able to get more done while working remotely, possibly due to fewer distractions. A survey by Boston Consulting Group of 1500 managers at large European companies found that more than half had seen productivity levels rise as their employees shifted to remote work during the pandemic.
“There used to be a lot of resistance to working from home because managers thought employees would just goof off and watch Netflix, but there’s a lot more trust now,” says Sue Williamson at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia.
However, the experiment hasn’t been all positive. Many people forced to work from home have reported feeling isolated and finding it harder to switch off due to the blurred boundary between work and home life.
“Surveys show that workers typically rate their commute as the worst part of their day”
Many managers have also reported declines in innovation, which is probably because “it’s hard to get those serendipitous conversations between people that spark ideas” when everyone is physically separated, says Anne Bardoel at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia.
Then there is “Zoom fatigue”, the drained feeling that often accompanies virtual meetings, even though they tend to be shorter than in-person ones. This may be because people have a stronger sense of being on show while on screen and feel more pressure to present well, says Allison Gabriel at the University of Arizona.
As vaccines help to control covid-19, many organisations are hoping to reap the best of both worlds by letting employees work from home on some days and travel to the office on others. The coming months and years will undoubtedly involve trial and error as companies and employees settle on the optimum mix of office and work-from-home days. But one thing seems certain: now that office workers have been given a chance to really think about how they want their work lives to look, there is no turning back.
“It is this opportunity to reset and rethink how we actually work, and I think that’s a very positive thing,” says Bardoel.

2021 in review
This was a year of tackling great challenges, from the covid-19 pandemic to climate change. But 2021 was also rich in scientific discoveries and major advances.

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By New Scientist
Martin O’Neal
*Some questions have multiple correct answers
1 Health benefits of intimacy
A Cuddling increases bone density
B Sex is a nasal decongestant
C Masturbating improves eyesight

2 States of matter
A In condensed matter physics, a “hyperfluid” is a material with zero viscosity, meaning it can flow backwards in time and, when stirred, will spin forever (both forwards and backwards in time)
B In condensed matter physics, a “time crystal” is a state of matter in which the configuration of the component parts shifts in a repeating cycle forever without using any energy
C In condensed matter physics, an “ontological condensate” is an ultracold gas that could reveal the true nature of being, should we ever be able to isolate it

3 Hairy faces
A Beards might have evolved to keep faces warm
B Beards might have evolved to store food in through winter
C Beards might have evolved to soften the blows from punches

4 Animals at play
A Komodo dragons play tug of war
B Crows play blackjack
C Elephants play hide and seek

5 Celestial bodies
A Astronauts could use their own hair to create Martian space suits
B Astronauts could use their own blood to build a Martian base
C Astronauts could use their own nail clippings to create rocket fuel

6 Grand delusions
A Capgras syndrome is the irrational belief that a familiar person has been replaced with an exact duplicate
B Fregoli syndrome is the irrational belief that a familiar person, typically someone persecuting the affected individual, is disguised as various other people
C Cotard syndrome is the irrational belief that part of … More

By Layal Liverpool
Shutterstock/Mariia Tagirova
BING CROSBY dreamed of a white Christmas. This December, I’m dreaming of categorising snowflakes. All in the name of science, of course.
White Christmas or not, you too can get up close and personal with snowflakes and contribute to climate research by taking part in the online Snowflake ID project. It invites volunteers to flick through high-resolution snowflake photos taken around the world – from Alaska to the Swiss Alps to Antarctica – and help classify them by characteristics, such as their size and shape. You can access the project via the Zooniverse citizen science platform.
Snowflakes come in many … More

Computer predictions for the outcome of European football matches over a 26-year period become more accurate in recent years

Humans

15 December 2021

By Chris Stokel-Walker
A match between KRC Genk and Club Brugge in the Belgian First Division AJoris Verwijst/BSR Agency/Getty Images
Football matches have become more predictable over time, according to an analysis of 87,816 matches across 11 European leagues.
The study covers the results of matches between 1993 and 2019, including 10,044 each from England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga, as well as leading divisions in Belgium, Greece, Scotland and Turkey, among others.
A computer model that was given data from the matches tried to predict whether the home or away team would win by looking at the performance of the teams in previous matches in the league. The model didn’t count any drawn matches, which excluded between a quarter and a third of the total matches from the analysis.Advertisement
“Our model isn’t the most accurate,” says Taha Yasseri at University College Dublin in Ireland. “I’m sure there are better models, but it’s very simple and you can go back 26 years and do the exercise as if you were doing the prediction 26 years ago.”
The average AUC score – which measures how well the computer model performed – was around 0.75, meaning that the model correctly predicted the match result 75 per cent of the time.

Seven of the 11 leagues that were studied saw an increase in predictability over time. Richer leagues, such as the Premier League and La Liga, had higher AUC scores than worse-funded ones, like Belgium’s First Division A.
The study found a correlation between predictability and inequality, in terms of the distribution of points between teams at the end of the season – that is, match results are predicted correctly more often in leagues where the points are spread more unequally.
The researchers suggest that football is becoming more predictable because inequality between the richest and poorest teams has grown, as prize money and other revenues have increased and successful clubs can spend more on players.
The study also found that home team advantage is becoming less of a factor in matches. In France, for instance, home teams took around two-thirds of points in 1993, but around 58 per cent of them in 2019.
Joey O’Brien at the University of Limerick, Ireland, says the researchers make rigorous statistical arguments that football has become more predictable. “Perhaps, at a more philosophical level, one could also question whether this predictability is good for the game,” he says. “Do fans get just as much enjoyment observing skilled teams predictably performing strongly?”
Journal reference: Royal Society Open Science, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210617

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Maternal body odour signals to babies that they can safely build relationships with other adults, a trait that may have evolved so that mothers can share the load of child rearing

Humans

10 December 2021

By Alice Klein
A mother and daughterfizkes/Shutterstock
Babies are more socially receptive to unfamiliar women when they can smell their mother’s natural body odour, suggesting that maternal scent functions as a safety signal.
Previous research has found that mothers’ unique smell signatures allow their babies to recognise them and have a soothing effect when they are in pain.
Yaara Endevelt-Shapira at The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, and her colleagues wondered if signals in maternal odour also change the way that infants respond to strangers.Advertisement
They asked 62 mothers to wear cotton T-shirts for two consecutive nights and avoid using deodorant or other scented products, so that their natural smell would rub off onto the clothing.
Their babies – aged 7 months on average – were then strapped into chairs and introduced to an unfamiliar woman who was about the same age as their mother, lived in the same area and was a mother herself.
When the babies had their mother’s T-shirt under their nose, they were more likely to smile, laugh and gaze at the stranger than if they were sniffing an identical unworn T-shirt.
Electroencephalography (EEG) devices fitted to both participants’ heads showed that the babies’ electrical brainwaves were also more likely to synchronise with the stranger’s when they could smell their mother’s T-shirt. The same kind of brainwave synchronisation is found between babies and their mothers when they gaze at each other and is thought to be a sign of feeling mutual connection.
The findings suggest that “maternal body odours can assist infants in transitioning to social groups, exploring new environments and communicating with unfamiliar partners”, says Endevelt-Shapira.

This could explain why bringing a “transitional object” like a blanket or cuddly toy from home can help young children settle into nursery school, because it might smell a bit like their mother, says Endevelt-Shapira. The researchers didn’t look at whether the scent of fathers or other familiar caregivers can have a similar effect.
Human babies benefit from bonding with adults other than their parents because they are more helpless than the young of other species and often require a wider circle of care, says Endevelt-Shapira. This may be why maternal odour facilitates these external relationships, she says.
The current study found that maternal scent helps babies to bond with women who are similar to their own mothers, but more research is needed to see if the effect extends to women from different cultures and men, says Endevelt-Shapira.
Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg6867
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By Gregory Wakeman
Malik (Riz Ahmed, centre) is determined to prepare his sons to fight the aliensAmazon Content Services LLC
Encounter
Michael Pearce
UK cinemas, Amazon PrimeAdvertisement
ENCOUNTER brings together three of the most exciting stars in the British film industry: director Michael Pearce, whose debut feature Beast was critically acclaimed on its release in 2017, screenwriter Joe Barton, who created the equally lauded Giri/Haji, and Riz Ahmed, whose performances in Four Lions, The Night Of and Sound Of Metal secured his status as one of the UK’s best actors.
For the first half of Encounter, their talents complement each other perfectly. Ahmed stars as Malik Khan, an ex-soldier on a mission to rescue his two young children Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) when the world comes under attack from an extraterrestrial invasion that is made more terrifying by the fact that the aliens come in the form of parasitic microorganisms that first infect insects, then move on to tackle humans.
Encounter begins by immediately establishing the seriousness of the extraterrestrial threat. Before the title sequence even hits the screen, we see the aliens arrive on Earth, attack insects and then quickly explode in numbers. Pearce shoots this sequence with a detail that is simple to follow yet sinister and creepy. So much so that the subsequent shots of insects will make your skin crawl.
The action ratchets up further when Malik’s ex-wife Piya (Janina Gavankar), who doesn’t see the rescue in quite the same light, informs the authorities that her children have been kidnapped. Special agents Shepard (Rory Cochrane) and Hattie (Octavia Spencer) are put on the case and set off in pursuit across the mountains and deserts of California and Nevada.
At this early stage of the film, it is a blast, successfully towing the line between a riveting sci-fi drama and a road-trip movie.
Ahmed commands the screen instantly, giving Malik a toughness and intensity that emerge gradually as the story progresses. The young actors who play his sons are just as impressive, but for very different reasons. It won’t take long for audiences to be charmed by Geddada, who brings a much needed levity and heart to the film. Chauhan becomes more confident as time goes on, displaying an impressive maturity and strength of character. Pearce gives Malik, Jay and Bobby the space to build a genuinely touching connection.
“Ahmed commands the screen, giving Malik a toughness and intensity as the story progresses”
With all this going on amid the beauty and desolation of the Californian mountains, it is impossible not to be drawn into the story. Barton’s economical and believable script propels the film forwards, while providing just enough backstory on the alien attack to keep audiences intrigued. The soundtrack, too, subtly makes the alien creatures feel present and menacing, without ever allowing the sound of their advancement to get in the way of the scene-building and storytelling.
Then, just when Encounter is really getting under way, Pearce hits us with a seismic shift in direction. While potentially a deliberate ploy to surprise the audience and keep us engaged, it doesn’t quite work. Instead, it disrupts what was building into a beautiful and unnervingly atmospheric experience and throws us for a loop. For a good 10 minutes after this turn, it feels as if the story is thrashing around. It is unnerving to say the least.
Despite this unexpected shift in perspective, the narrative isn’t entirely derailed. It soon finds its footing again, and Ahmed’s continually powerful performance ensures that Encounter remains intriguing all the way to its finale. Chauhan, alongside him, does a great job at keeping the intensity high.
On the other hand, anyone who was enjoying the sci-fi-cum-road-trip experience may find themselves less invested in the more intimate and psychological character study that Encounter becomes. Ultimately, by the time the credits roll, it feels like two separate movies that have been jammed together to form an uneven psychological sci-fi thriller that, while good, could have been so much more.

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By Gregory Wakeman
Malik (Riz Ahmed, centre) is determined to prepare his sons to fight the aliensAmazon Content Services LLC
Encounter
Michael Pearce
UK cinemas, Amazon PrimeAdvertisement
ENCOUNTER brings together three of the most exciting stars in the British film industry: director Michael Pearce, whose debut feature Beast was critically acclaimed on its release in 2017, screenwriter Joe Barton, who created the equally lauded Giri/Haji, and Riz Ahmed, whose performances in Four Lions, The Night Of and Sound Of Metal secured his status as one of the UK’s best actors.
For the first half of Encounter, their talents complement each other perfectly. Ahmed stars as Malik Khan, an ex-soldier on a mission to rescue his two young children Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada) when the world comes under attack from an extraterrestrial invasion that is made more terrifying by the fact that the aliens come in the form of parasitic microorganisms that first infect insects, then move on to tackle humans.
Encounter begins by immediately establishing the seriousness of the extraterrestrial threat. Before the title sequence even hits the screen, we see the aliens arrive on Earth, attack insects and then quickly explode in numbers. Pearce shoots this sequence with a detail that is simple to follow yet sinister and creepy. So much so that the subsequent shots of insects will make your skin crawl.
The action ratchets up further when Malik’s ex-wife Piya (Janina Gavankar), who doesn’t see the rescue in quite the same light, informs the authorities that her children have been kidnapped. Special agents Shepard (Rory Cochrane) and Hattie (Octavia Spencer) are put on the case and set off in pursuit across the mountains and deserts of California and Nevada.
At this early stage of the film, it is a blast, successfully towing the line between a riveting sci-fi drama and a road-trip movie.
Ahmed commands the screen instantly, giving Malik a toughness and intensity that emerge gradually as the story progresses. The young actors who play his sons are just as impressive, but for very different reasons. It won’t take long for audiences to be charmed by Geddada, who brings a much needed levity and heart to the film. Chauhan becomes more confident as time goes on, displaying an impressive maturity and strength of character. Pearce gives Malik, Jay and Bobby the space to build a genuinely touching connection.
“Ahmed commands the screen, giving Malik a toughness and intensity as the story progresses”
With all this going on amid the beauty and desolation of the Californian mountains, it is impossible not to be drawn into the story. Barton’s economical and believable script propels the film forwards, while providing just enough backstory on the alien attack to keep audiences intrigued. The soundtrack, too, subtly makes the alien creatures feel present and menacing, without ever allowing the sound of their advancement to get in the way of the scene-building and storytelling.
Then, just when Encounter is really getting under way, Pearce hits us with a seismic shift in direction. While potentially a deliberate ploy to surprise the audience and keep us engaged, it doesn’t quite work. Instead, it disrupts what was building into a beautiful and unnervingly atmospheric experience and throws us for a loop. For a good 10 minutes after this turn, it feels as if the story is thrashing around. It is unnerving to say the least.
Despite this unexpected shift in perspective, the narrative isn’t entirely derailed. It soon finds its footing again, and Ahmed’s continually powerful performance ensures that Encounter remains intriguing all the way to its finale. Chauhan, alongside him, does a great job at keeping the intensity high.
On the other hand, anyone who was enjoying the sci-fi-cum-road-trip experience may find themselves less invested in the more intimate and psychological character study that Encounter becomes. Ultimately, by the time the credits roll, it feels like two separate movies that have been jammed together to form an uneven psychological sci-fi thriller that, while good, could have been so much more.

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By Alexandra Martiniuk and Joseph Freeman
Simone Rotella
CYBERBULLYING was already a problem before the covid-19 pandemic hit. In Australia, for example, one in five young people reported in 2017 that they had been socially excluded, threatened or abused online, and the same proportion said they had participated in cyberbullying themselves. Then lockdowns and work-from-home orders came into force, meaning even more time was spent online.
Yet when it comes to cyberbullying, the pandemic has had a different effect than you might expect. Although we have been online more, some studies show that cyberbullying has decreased. The reasons behind this could tell us how to better tackle this problem once we emerge from the pandemic.
Unlike in-person bullying, cyberbullying can occur 24/7 and has a stronger association with suicidal ideation. We know that teenagers already spend a lot of time online, and that is increasing. A survey of people aged 10 to 18 in 11 European countries during the 2020 spring lockdowns found that nearly half of them felt they were experiencing “online overuse”. They were online for 6.5 hours per weekday on average, and around half of that time was related to school. In 2018, the comparable number was 2.7 hours per day.Advertisement
Previously, more time online had been linked with an increased chance of participating in cyberbullying. Studies have also shown that stress and anxiety have increased during the pandemic, both of which can drive increases in anger and cyberbullying.
Yet this phenomenon has actually decreased during the pandemic. One study looked at school cyberbullying in the US using Google search data. Trends in the search term “cyberbullying” have previously matched up with actual survey data about it. This study found that searches for both “cyberbullying” and “bullying” dropped by 30 to 40 per cent relative to historical norms after US schools adopted remote learning.
Another study involving South Korean schoolchildren found that the proportion of school-aged children that were either cyberbullying or being cyberbullied decreased from 27 per cent in 2019 to 23 per cent in 2020.
What’s going on? One reason for the decline is that in-person interactions can fuel both online and in-person bullying. Bullying tends to start in unstructured time, which doesn’t exist in the same way in online schooling. This suggests if we focus prevention efforts on unstructured time, it is likely we will stop both traditional bullying and cyberbullying.
Bullying rates aren’t fixed. When children feel nurtured and socially and emotionally safe, they bully less. During the pandemic, young people have spent more time at home with their parent or carer. For some, this has probably provided feelings of safety – a positive effect well known to occur in times of disaster or crisis.
Positive relationships also help reduce bullying. While some families have had interpersonal conflicts during the crisis, most households worldwide have reported increased cohesion and positive bonding between family members. Studies have shown that children reflected positively about spending more time with family. Keeping these positive relationships strong may also help prevent bullying in the future.
Unstructured play is key to the development of self-esteem, self-determination and the ability to self-regulate – all vital parts of emotional development that help prevent children bullying and protect them from being bullied.
The answer isn’t to get rid of unstructured time. But by making it a more nurturing environment backed up by positive relationships, the reduction in cyberbullying seen during the pandemic may stick around for some time.
Need a listening ear? UK Samaritans: 116123 (samaritans.org). Visit bit.ly/SuicideHelplines for hotlines and websites for other countries

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