EDITORIAL

As we slip into autumn with the world still in the grip of the pandemic (turn to p.8 for our round-up of Covid-19 news), we can look back at a summer marked by protests and demonstrations (often mobilising the current concerns of the conspirasphere, from 5G to global elite paedophile rings; see p.4) and even a wave of iconoclasm of a kind not witnessed in the West for centuries (the illustration shows the Belgian Beeldenstorm of 1566). In this month’s cover story (p.32) Alan Murdie asks whether the frenzy of statue-toppling we’ve witnessed in recent months might be more than just a form of explosive historical revisionism fuelled by energies pent up by months of lockdown: do statues and monuments embody deeper human fears about death and the uncanny? From ambulatory stone lions and wandering giants to swaying Virgins, there is a rich lore devoted to moving statues.

Off world, things have been equally interesting. September brought news that British scientists had discovered evidence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus; this smelly, toxic gas shouldn’t be there – on Earth, it occurs as the result of industrial or microbial processes – and has been interpreted as a possible ‘biosignature’ indicative of life. Sceptics have expressed doubts, but as David Hambling suggests in this month’s Science column (p16), while the Perseverance rover has blasted off for Mars, it might be looking for signs of historic life in the wrong places on the Red Planet: in fact, we may need a broader definition – dubbed ‘lyfe’ – in order to find life hiding in plain sight. Meanwhile, Jenny Randles (p.30) argues that our use of technology like the Martian rovers ought to prompt a rethink of the nature of UFOs.

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ERRATA

FT394:35: In our cover feature on the Mandela Effect, Nick Bostrom was named as a “Swiss philosopher”, while he was in fact born in Sweden. “The article writer would certainly not be the first to mix up Sweden with Switzerland, but I thought I should point it out nonetheless,” wrote Petter Fredriksson of Sweden (not Switzerland).

FT395:28: Some copy got lost from Ulrich Magin’s report on the only village in Pavia Province, Lombardy, that was completely free of Covid infections. The Mayor had suggested this was perhaps due to “some unusual genetic trait of the locals.”