New Scientist - USA (2021-02-13)

13 February 2021 | New Scientist | 55

Tom Gauld

for New Scientist

Answers

1 kilogram of carbon dioxide
equivalent (CO 2 e). This unit is
a measure of carbon footprint,
expressed in terms of the amount
of carbon dioxide that would
have the same impact over a
100-year period.
E-readers are slightly better
than paper books, as long as you
use them many times. In my book
How Bad Are Bananas?, I estimate
their carbon footprint to be about
36 kg CO 2 e, so you have to read the
equivalent of at least 36 paperback
books (bought new, then recycled)
in e-book format before the paper
saving outweighs the emissions
embodied in the device.
Newspapers are a bit different as
there is far more paper produced
per hour of reading time
compared with books. I calculate
that a newspaper such as the UK’s
Guardian has a climate impact
of 0.37 kg CO 2 e if it is recycled, but
this is probably on the low side
as it doesn’t take into account the
footprint of journalism, such as
offices and flights taken by writers.
The big weekend newspapers
with supplements have a much

bigger impact. Getting two of

these a week for a year has an

impact of around 200 kg CO 2 e,

similar to a flight from London

to Barcelona. Here, online wins.

Using a smartphone to access the

internet for an hour a day has an

impact of 63 kg CO 2 e over a year.

It is crucial to recycle newspapers

because they emit the potent

greenhouse gas methane when

they rot in landfill sites, and

for each one that isn’t recycled,

another newspaper’s worth of

new paper has to be made.

But both reading online or in

paper format is a good thing to do

if the content helps you become

aware of the world, the climate

crisis and what we can do about it.

And reading itself is a low-carbon

activity because it is hard to shop

or drive while you read.

Cover-up

When you wash a duvet cover,

why does other washing end

up in it? (continued)

Keith Macpherson

Clevedon, Somerset, UK

In a previous response (31 October

2020), David Muir showed that,

during his washing cycle, an

average of 4.6 out of 10 socks

migrate into a duvet cover and

5.6 out of 10 escape.

However, his research leads

to an even more interesting

thought: during a wash, many

socks must be transiting in and

out all the time and all we see is

the final result.

Talia Morris

Cape Tribulation, Queensland,

Australia

Previously, Brian King described

duvet covers as “textiferous (the

textile equivalent of a carnivore)”.

Textiferous means bears or

carries fabric. The term should be

“textivorous” (eats fabric). Trust

me, I’m a linguist. ❚

Quick quiz #88

Answers

1 Epilepsy

2 Agapornis

3 Five

4 The hypothalamus

5 Theobromine

Cryptic crossword

#50 Answers

ACROSS 1 Surfactant, 7 Tudor,

8 Burette, 10 Strains, 11 Volta,

12 Enough, 14 Elicit, 16 Avert,

17 Uranium, 19 Tactile, 20 Laser,

21 Permafrost

DOWN 2 Undercover cop,

3 Fermi, 4 Cubist, 5 Arrival, 6 Total

eclipses, 7 Tesseract, 9 Elastomer,

13 Gutsier, 15 Eureka, 18 Adler

#99 Around

the clock^

Solution

It is 2 o’clock. We don’t know

how many numbers are in the

right position, but we are told

that if we did know this, we

could work out the time.

There are several orientations in

which no number is in the right

place. If just one number is in the

right position, it could be 1, 3, 6

or 10. If three are in the right

position, then those three might

be 4,9,11 or 5, 7, 12. However,

if two are in the right place, those

numbers can only be 2 and 8.

The hour hand is pointing at 2

which is in the correct position,

so the time is 2 o’clock. If the

pranksters have painted XI and

IX upside down, there is still only

one pair of numbers that could

be in the correct position.

“ E-readers are better

than paper books

if used many times

so the paper saving

outweighs the device’s

embodied emissions”