1 February 2020 | New Scientist | 53The back pages Feedback
Falling flat
Graphene, you may not have heard,
is a wonder material. That’s right:
gram for gram, no other substance
can generate such great volumes of
publicity. In the 16 years since it was
first isolated, this two-dimensional
arrangement of carbon atoms
has been touted as a solution
to problems ranging from water
filtration to shoe design. But those
glory days may be behind us.
In a recent paper by Lu Wang at
the University of Toronto, Canada,
and his colleagues, they state “it
has become almost a paradigm that
the once fantastic graphene... is not
so fantastic anymore and that we
need to add something to it”. It’s a
good point, one that Feedback feels
they made more effectively in the
paper’s title. Namely, “Will any crap
we put into graphene increase its
electrocatalytic effect?”.
The answer, it seems, is yes.
Graphene doped with guano
(Craphene™ patent pending)
will indeed perform outstandingly
well under a range of tests. It seems
that legendarily caustic physicist
Wolfgang Pauli, who once described
solid-state physics as the physics of
dirt, was right once again.
Bear jokes
The other week, ITV News
obtained footage of an animal
never before captured on film. The
elusive drop bear, allegedly one of
Australia’s deadliest creatures, is
physically indistinguishable from
its distant cousin, the koala. This
fearsome beast targets its prey
by dropping on them like a ton of
koala-shaped bricks before sinking
its fangs into their necks. It is,
according to the earnest-seeming
staff at a wildlife park in South
Australia, the third most common
cause of injury to tourists.
It is also, we should point out,
entirely fictional. If something
looks like a koala and stinks of
eucalyptus like a koala, then it is
either some elaborate eucalyptus
topiary or a koala.
None of this was apparently
known to Debi Edward, an ITV
soon got distracted. “She does
have a soothing voice. I’d like to
listen to her if I were in a cage,”
said the only one of the pair
capable of saying anything.
“They’ve obviously put lots of
thought into the script, but dogs
only really learn like five words,
so it feels a bit absurd.” Though
he perked up at the sound of
chirping birds, the truth is Kevin
doesn’t have a clue what’s going
on, said Geoff.
More research is needed to
determine whether dogs are more
content if left alone with a podcast
on than without. But for fairness,
we should test other podcasts
too, including the soon-to-launch
New Scientist podcast. While not
specifically made with dogs in
mind, we welcome listeners of all
stripes (and spots). If any readers
would like to run this experiment,
Feedback is all ears.Unheard herd
Perhaps we were too quick to
dismiss Kevin’s linguistic abilities.
Emerging research suggests that
communication skills may be
more widespread among animals
than we thought. A study by
Alexandra Green at the University
of Sydney and her colleagues
found that cows can recognise
their herdmates’ distinctive moos.
Green hopes to help farmers
understand these moos, which
can apparently express arousal,
excitement and distress. “It is like
she is building a Google translate
for cows,” team member Cameron
Clark told The Independent.
For now, we can only imagine
what cows discuss when chewing
the fat. “Awful weather today”,
“lovely bit of grass over here”
or perhaps “I can’t wait to hear
the New Scientist podcast”. ❚correspondent who was tricked
into wearing body armour from
head-to-toe before being allowed
to gingerly hold the animal she
was told was a drop bear.
In the popular imagination,
of course, Australia is the land
of the venomous beast. There,
you can’t lift a deadly taipan
snake without finding a funnel-
web spider underneath it, or so
the story goes. It is about time our
northern hemisphere prejudices
were given a good fanging.Dog whistle
Dogs and their owners have a
special bond, so being separated
from one’s beloved companion
for long periods of time is a wrench
for owners and, we presume,
for dogs too. To alleviate pets’
distress, or possibly just owners’
guilt, streaming service Spotify
has released My Dog’s Favourite
Podcast, some 600 minutes
of soothing speech, specially
composed music and background
sounds, such as a washing machine.
The producers have been advised
by Alex Benjamin, a psychologist at
the University of York in the UK. She
specialises in, well, talking to dogs,
but in a science-y way. In 2018,
she published a study showing
that dogs actually do seem more
interested in humans when they
speak in that special tone of voice
reserved for conversing with pets
(“who’s a good boy?” “sit” or
“for Christ’s sake, Trevor, not on
the piano”), but also pay more
attention when words being
spoken are relevant to dogs
(“dog”, “dog” or “dog”).
Thanks to this research, the
podcast features actors Jessica
Raine and Ralph Ineson talking in
soft, mellifluous tones intended to
encourage pooches to relax. “The
spirit of the wolf has stayed strong
in your heart,” says Raine, which
might relax a puppy but could scare
the daylights out of its owner.
Being but a page in a magazine
with no human form, Feedback
has no pets of its own, so we asked
regular reader Geoff to see what his
pup, Kevin, made of it. But GeoffGot a story for Feedback?
Send it to New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street,
London WC2E 9ES or you can email us at
[email protected]Twisteddoodles for New Scientist