7 May 2022 | New Scientist | 15have masses that are not much
heavier than the Higgs”, which is
at the upper mass limit that the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at
CERN near Geneva, Switzerland,
can probe, says Peter Athron at
Nanjing Normal University in
China. This would explain why
we haven’t spotted them yet.
Some of the new suggested
particles could also be candidates
for dark matter, potentially
another reason why they
haven’t been detected.
Combing through these
many ideas to find the correct
one would require time, tests
and, in some cases, a new
generation of particle colliders.
“By no means will a new mass of
the W be enough to select a new
theory of nature,” says Sannino.
However, before particle
physicists gallivant off in
search of more particles and
a new theory of nature, they
will need to thoroughly check
the Tevatron measurement.
“It is premature to think of
any new physics at this point,
before we figure out why this
measurement is in discrepancy
with the other measurements
we have,” says Matthias Schott at
CERN, who worked on a previous
W boson measurement using the
LHC. “Obviously, new particles is
a much cooler explanation, but
all the other measurements of
the W boson mass just fit together
perfectly, and there’s this one that
doesn’t fit.”
Schott and his colleagues
have already begun checking
the new measurement against
data previously gathered by the
CMS and ATLAS detectors and the
LHCb experiment at CERN, and
they should have results in the
next six months to 2 years, he says.
Depending on what those
results say, the search for new
physics may be on. ❚
PROPOSED European Union
aviation regulations could see
greenhouse gas emissions from
flying increase, even while they
are claimed to be sustainable,
if some nations get their way.
The ReFuelEU regulations now
being negotiated would require
commercial flights in the EU to
start using “sustainable aviation
fuels”, with the proportion added
to standard fuel rising from 2 per
cent in 2025 to 63 per cent by- But the fuel’s definition is
currently up for discussion – and
may end up including those that
lead to an increase in emissions.
Under the original proposal
put forward by the European
Commission, sustainable aviation
fuels would consist mainly of
advanced biofuels derived from
waste as well as synthetic fuels
created using renewable energy.
Biofuels made from food and
animal feed wouldn’t count.
Overall, this is good,
says Chelsea Baldino at the
International Council on Clean
Transportation, a non-profit
research organisation. But
suggested amendments to
the legislation would include
food-based biofuels, she says.
That is a problem because
such biofuels use land that is
needed to grow food for people
or farm animals. To maintain
food supplies, more land would
have to be cleared for agriculture
around the world. If the emissions
from these indirect effects
on land use are counted, they
“could negate some or all of
the [greenhouse gas] emission
savings of individual biofuels”,
a 2019 European Commission
report states.Food-based biofuels also
push up food prices, hitting the
poorest people hardest. “There
is competition between land
for fuel and land for food,” says
Ciarán Cuffe, a member of the
European Parliament, who is part
of the Green group. “Particularly
in light of the war in Ukraine, we
must prioritise land for food.”
Another proposed amendment
is that only biofuels that reduce
emissions by at least 55 per cent
should be eligible. While that
sounds good, the suggested
method for calculating emissionreductions excludes indirect
land-use effects, says Baldino.
“The devil is in the details
when it comes to biofuels. Some
do more harm than good,” says
Matteo Mirolo at Transport &
Environment, which campaigns
for cleaner transport. “It’s very
important that ReFuelEU gives
the right signal and supports only
the most sustainable biofuels.”
Although biofuels made from
waste such as used cooking oil
can provide genuine reductions
in greenhouse emissions, there
are limits to the amount of waste
available. “We simply don’t
have the resources to create
the quantity of biofuel needed
to keep up with the rocketing
demand,” says Cuffe.
This can lead to fraud. For
instance, Cuffe says it appears
that some biofuels sold as being
made from used cooking oil
are actually being made partly
from fresh palm oil.
For these reasons, Cuffe,
Baldino and Mirolo would all
like to see caps imposed on the
quantities of biofuels allowed.
Instead of biofuels, Cuffe
thinks ReFuelEU should prioritise
the use of e-kerosene made using
renewable energy, electrolysis
and direct air capture of carbon
dioxide. Firms are poised to hike
production if policy-makers send
investors a clear signal, he says.
ReFuelEU should also apply to
private jets, not just commercial
flights, says Cuffe. Negotiations
on the wording will continue until
later this year, he says, and the
final outcome is hard to predict.
“The definition of sustainable
aviation remains a hugely divisive
topic and positions among
member states vary greatly,”
an EU official told New Scientist.
Discussions are ongoing, they
said, and the European Council has
yet to reach a common position. ❚“ The devil is in the
details when it comes
to biofuels. Some do
more harm than good”AviationMichael Le PageEU plan to cut emissions from
planes may increase them
NICOLAS
ECONOMOU/NURP
HOTO
VI
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AGESA plane landing at
Amsterdam Schiphol
Airport in the Netherlands