New Scientist - 15.02.2020

15 February 2020 | New Scientist | 31

Don’t miss

Watch

Little Joe stars Emily

Beecham and Ben

Whishaw as emotionally

stoppered horticultural

researchers threatened

by plants more wedded

to life than they are. In

selected UK cinemas

from 21 February.

Listen

The Secret History of

the Future, hosted by

The Economist’s Tom

Standage and Slate’s

Seth Stevenson, explores

the prehistory of some

very modern-sounding

innovations, including the

world’s first cyberattack –

in 1834.

Read

The Magicians: Great

minds and the central

miracle of science

(Faber & Faber) is

Marcus Chown’s hymn

to mathematics and its

supernatural (or at any

rate baffling) ability to

predict truths about the

physical world.

TOP: MONGREL MEDIA

Into the deep

A scary sci-fi podcast about a mission to the

ocean depths has Anne Marie Conlon hooked

Podcast

Down

Definitely Human

WHAT mysteries await in the

unexplored depths of the

ocean? Down, a 24-part

sci-fi podcast, poses this

question as it follows a small

crew on a submarine mission

to explore a newly discovered

ocean trench in the Antarctic.

“The bottomless pit”, as it is

rather unimaginatively named,

is a “gaping hole on the surface

of the Earth” revealed by climate

change. Initial explorations by

probes have gone further than

the deepest depths plumbed

to date – Challenger Deep

in the Mariana Trench, about

11,000 metres. Now a crewed

mission will go deeper still.

Our protagonist is Marion

Straker, a famous marine

biologist who is trying to throw

herself back into work after a

family tragedy. The rest of the

crew consists of a curmudgeonly

sea captain, a chilled-out ship’s

engineer, a chirpy lab assistant

and the anxious ship’s doctor.

Their hugely expensive Virgil

submarine is paid for by the

massive energy corporate

Advantage, in a move arousing

some suspicion among the crew,

although they also wonder

at the cutting-edge design of

the sub with its own artificial

intelligence. The corporate rep

who directs the crew from dry

land is a perfectly pitched

super-keen mouthpiece for the

energy company, from “geeking

out” about having Straker on

board to encouraging the crew

to “keep it bouncy, yeah?”

The sound design is

immersive enough to draw

you in to the world of the show,

and while the dialogue can be

cheesy, knowing references to

“red shirts” (crew members

thought most likely to die in Star

Tr e k were the ones wearing red)

let us know that the show’s

creators aren’t taking

themselves too seriously.

The podcast zips along,

with 10 to 15-minute episodes,

and drops enough hints to keep

you hooked. The characters’

occasionally meandering

conversations about what to

have for breakfast also contain

clues to keep us guessing.

Is the captain right that the

real purpose of the expedition

is for Advantage to figure out

the effects of such a mission

on the crew? What happened

to Straker’s brother? Will the

“adaptive AI” become more of

a sinister force? So far the only

adapting it has done is to move

from calling the captain

“Charlie” to “Captain Charlie”.

Four episodes in, as we are

finally confronted with what

could be our first mysterious

creature from the deep, comes

the biggest question of all:

what’s really down there? ❚

What will a crew find in the

Antarctic depths as they plumb

EYE EM/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO a newly discovered trench?

use of such medicines to curb
what society may see as taboo or
deviant sexual desires, or even
addictions to online pornography.
We learn, too, about the
growing use of illegal drugs
such as MDMA and psilocybin
as a means to help people with
relationship problems. Psilocybin,
the psychoactive substance in
magic mushrooms, is being
explored under strict controls
and supervision by psychiatrists,
alongside other treatments, for
people with post-traumatic stress
disorder, which can be a cause of
relationship breakdown.
There is also a suggestion
from research in mice that
MDMA, also known as ecstasy,
might help to relieve social
anxiety for people with autism.
“We’re not talking about a
chemical utopia where everybody
tries whatever drugs they want,”
says Savulescu. But neither should
individuals have to get a diagnosis
in order to qualify for love drugs
for medicinal purposes, he argues.
“We don’t need to call them
medicinal or recreational drugs,”
says Savulescu. “We can introduce
a third category. We need to
identify the people for whom
they would be genuine welfare
enhancers, not crutches, not
replacements for dealing with the
deep questions in their lives, but
people for whom they would
genuinely improve their lives.”
But this would mean breaking
free of society’s distinction
between legal and illegal drugs.
“Everything is just chemicals,
and whether we decided to call it
medicine or not is largely a social
and value decision,” says Earp.
The authors say they don’t
know if society is ready for this
new approach, to start a new
relationship with drugs as
chemical love enhancers. But
they are happy to matchmake. ❚