The Week - UK (2021-02-13)

NEWS 21

We maynotyetbe ready tolivealongside

wolves, but what about tree frogs? Derek

Gow, the“rewilder” behind manybeaver

reintroduction schemes,hasbegunbreeding

treefrogsonhis farm in Devon,andisnow

hopingtoget permissiontorelease them

intothe wild–thoughit’s notentirelyclear

when the tinyamphibians last perched in

British trees. Their chirping wasafeature

of life in the16thcentury:the naturalistSir

ThomasBrownereferred toa“little frogof

an excellentparrot-green, that usually sits

on trees and bushes”. Mostlikely, their

populationsthen decline dasBritain’s

wetlands were drained,butthey may have clung on untilthestart of the last century.

Tree frogs cansurvive without wetlands,however; andthey couldcertainlycope

with theclimate: theyarecommoninBrittany, and somereleased pets have already

formedacolonyint he NewForest. They do,Gow admits, makealot of noise–but

that should be seenas apositive.“It’s asignofl ife!”hetold TheDaily Telegraph.

Our ancestors livedwith acacophony of bird andanimal noises. “Wehavecreated

asilent planet becausewehavesmotheredandmuffl ed thesoundof all other life.”

Health &Science

13 Februa ry 2021 THE WEEK

Theyoungareforgetfultoo

Whenpeopleareintheir 5 0s,memory

lapsescanseemlikeanalarmingindicator

ofimpendingoldage;butitturnsoutthat

youdon’tneedtobeoldtoexperience

seniormoments,saysTheTimes.ABritish

studyhasfoundthatmenandwomenin

their20softenforgeteverythingfrom

whytheywentintoaroom towherethey

puttheirkeys.DrLauraMcWhirter,a

neuropsychiatristatEdinburghUniversity,

questioned 124 healthyadults,aged

18 to59,abouttheirmemories.Amere

13%describedtheirmemoryasexcellent;

almost39%saidithaddeterioratedover

thepreviousfiveyears;24%thoughttheir

memorywasworsethanthatoftheir

peers;andmorethanhalfwerescared

ofdevelopingdementia(with13%“very

afraid”).Halfsaidtheyforgetwhythey

enteredaroomatleastonceaweek,and

40%misplacedtheirphoneatleastonce

aweek.Oneinfiveroutinelystruggled

to find theirkeys,and18%sometimes

blankedontheirPin number. Crucially,

suchmemorylapses werejust ascommon

intheyoungerparticipants astheolder

ones.Theonlydifferenceis,whenpeople

areolder,the lapses worrythem.And they

areunlikelyto beasignof dementia:

memorylapses onlyreallybecomeworry-

ingwhenyouforgetyou arehavingthem.

How the Moon may affect sleep

IfyoustruggletosleepwhentheMoon

isbecomingfull,you’re not alone.A

newstudyhasfound thathumansleep

patternsvary with the lunar cycle –even

whenthereis abundantelectric light.

Theresearchersselectedthreegroupsof

individualsfromindigenouscommunities

inArgentina:onehadnoaccess toelectric

light;the secondhadlimited accessand the

finalgroup hadunfetteredaccess.They

expected to find that only the sleep patterns

of people with littleornoelectric light

would changewiththe Moon,butinall

groupsthepeople went tobedlater,and

sleptless,in thethree tofivedaysbefore

thefullmoon.Sleepduration changedby

20-90minutes, and bedtimesbyup to

30-80minutes. Unsurprisingly,themost

extreme changeswerein people whohad

no access to electric light. In order to corro-

boratetheirfindings,they then looked at

data onhundredsofstudentsin theurban

environmentofSeattle–and foundthe

sameoscillationsin theirsleeppatterns.

“Wehumans tendtobelievethat weman-

agedtosomehowcontrol nature,and the

useofartificiallight isagreatexampleof

that,” saidstudyauthorProfHoraciode

la Iglesia,ofthe University ofWashington.

“Butit turns outtherearesomeforcesof

naturethatwe cannotgetawayfrom.”

However,he also acknowledgedthathis

studyhadnotproved causality.

The threat from undersea noise

Noisepollution is“drowningoutthe

ocean soundscape”,and harmingmarine

life, anewreporthas warned.Fromwhale

songto thegrindingof Arctic ice, the

world’soceanshave always been naturally

noisyplaces.But for thepastcentury,

soundsfrom humanactivitiessuchas

shippingandoilexploration haveaddedto

the mix,makingoceansfarnoisier;at the

sametime,lossof habitatssuch ascoral

reefs, and the huntingofvocal speciessuch

aswhales,hasledtodeclinesinthelevels

ofbiologicalsound.Havinganalysed

500 previous papers, ateam fromKing

AbdullahUniversityinSaudi Arabiawarns

thatthese changesarehavinganimpact

on arange ofspecies: thereisevidencethat

evennewlyha tched fishlarvaearenow

unabletohear“thecall” oftheirhabitat

when driftingin the ocean.Yetwhennoise

pollutionreducedby20%,duringthe first

lockdown,theeffect was observable: for

instance,largemarine mammals wereseen

inareastheyhad notbeen observedinfor

years –givinghopethatthedamagecanbe

undone. “Themomentweturn thevolume

down,theresponse ofmarinelifeis

instantaneousandamazing,”saidstudy

leaderProf CarlosDuarte.

The world’s smallest reptile

Atiny lizard,nobigger thanaseed, has

beenidentified astheworld’ssmallest

knownreptile.Asubspecies ofthe

chameleon, the creature wasdiscovered

intheforests ofnorthernMadagascar,by

aGerman-Madagascanteam.The male

Brookesianana,ornano-chameleon,is

just 22mm (0.86in)fromtoptotail.The

female they found was29mmlong.Dr

MarkScherz, oneof theresearcherson the

expedition,describedit as“aspectacular

case ofextreme miniaturisation”.

The nano-chameleon: extreme miniaturisation

The number of teenage girls admitted

to hospital for self-harm has tripled in a

decade, according to new data released

by NHS Digital. It shows that English

hospitals recorded around 3,235 cases

of self-harm among girls aged 13 to 17

in the year 2019/20, up from 980 in

2009/10. In total, there were 9,675 self-

harm admissions for patients aged 13

to 30–84% up from the 5,245 recorded

adecade ago. The number of girls and

women admitted for self-harm has

doubled; the number of male self-harm

patients has also increased, but not as

dramatically–from 2,295 to 2,955,arise

of29%.Tom Madders, of the charity

YoungMinds, described the figures as

“deeply concerning”. He warned that

many people don’t seek help until they

reach “crisis point”, and those that do

sometimes facealong wait for the

support they need–which can have

“devastating consequences”.

Moregirlsself-harming

What the scientists are saying...

Bringingbackthe tree frog

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