New Scientist 2018 sep

4 | NewScientist | 8 September 2018

THIS WEEK

IT IS the American dream that

anyone can become prosperous

through hard work, irrespective of

their status at birth – but the reality

is different. The socio-economic

status of someone in the US is more

strongly influenced by that of their

parents than previously thought.

Michael Hout of New York

University looked at data from 21,

people, each given a “socio-economic

index” (SEI) score – a measure of pay

and credentials ranking 0 to 100, with

0 representing the lowest in society.

The data included questionnaire

answers that helped establish the

SEI scores of the people’s parents.

The American dream suggests that

anyone can achieve a high SEI score,

but Hout found otherwise. It turned

out that there was a strong linear

relationship between someone’s SEI

score and that of their parents (PNAS,

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1802508115).

Earlier studies have hinted at such

“intergenerational persistence”, says

Hout, but not to such a strong degree

as his findings suggest.

TIME is running out for NASA’s

Opportunity rover. A dust storm that

has been raging on Mars since early

June is starting to subside, potentially

giving the rover enough sunlight to

charge its batteries. But on 30 August,

NASA set a 45-day deadline before it

gives up trying to wake it.

The Opportunity rover runs solely

on solar power, so a dust storm like

this one, which has blocked out more

than 99 per cent of sunlight on Mars’s

BUDA MENDES/GETTY

surface, can be catastrophic. The last

signal received from Opportunity was

on 10 June. Since then, it has been in

sleep mode, using any power it has

left to keep its batteries warm enough

to survive on the frigid surface.

Now that the planet-encircling

storm has begun to clear, rover

operators are sending Opportunity

wake-up calls three times a week with

orders to send back a beep if it is alive.

The hope is that sleep mode kept the

battery safe, and that a Martian dust

devil will soon come along and blow

the sand off the rover’s solar panels,

allowing it to charge up again.

HEALTH chiefs in England this week

launched an online “heart-age” test,

which is claimed to reveal people’s

risk of a heart attack or stroke. Public

Health England (PHE) says that if a

person’s heart is “older” than their age,

they are at increased risk and should

consider diet and lifestyle changes.

PHE says that of 1.9 million who

have already tried the test, 78 per

cent had hearts older than their age.

In 14 per cent, their hearts were

10 years older. But critics say the

test – which asks simple physical and

lifestyle questions – could create

unfounded alarm by basing estimates

on incomplete data.

It asks for accurate measurements

of blood pressure and cholesterol, but

if these are not available, it seems to

assume abnormal values, potentially

overestimating heart age. “I just

entered this as a 30-year-old with

no risk factors, and it told me to get

cholesterol and blood pressure-

tested,” tweeted Margaret McCartney,

a family doctor in Glasgow, UK. “Where

is [the] evidence of benefit?”

Doubts raised over

online heart test

Race to save Mars

rover Opportunity

American dream

is slipping away

NASA/JPL

Treasured artefacts lost

BRAZIL’S oldest and most important

scientific museum was gutted by

fire on 2 September. Within hours,

the blaze destroyed many priceless

scientific artefacts and collections

gathered since the National Museum

was founded in 1818.

Items potentially lost include

the massive Bendegó meteorite,

weighing 5260 kilograms, and Luzia,

a 12,000-year-old human skeleton,

the oldest in the Americas.

Based in Rio de Janeiro, the

museum housed irreplaceable

collections of scientific artefacts,

specimens and records in geology,

botany, biology, palaeontology and

zoology, as well as priceless cultural

and anthropological artefacts. Almost

90 per cent of the 20 million items

there are thought to have been lost.

“It is incalculable for Brazil to lose

the collection of the National

Museum,” said Michel Temer, Brazil’s

president, in a statement reported by

The Rio Times. “200 years of work,

research and knowledge were lost.”

Media sources report that the

fire began between the museum

closing at 5 pm as usual on Sunday

2 September and 7.30 pm.

Some reports claim that two

key fire hydrants on site were dry,

preventing firefighters from tackling

the fire in the early stages. Other

reports say that successive

governments had allowed the

museum to fall into disrepair.

The Brazilian government says it

is now seeking corporate funding to

help rebuild the museum. Officials are

also seeking international help and

are speaking to UNESCO, the cultural

agency of the United Nations.