Scientific American - USA (2020-08)

2 Scientific American, August 2020

August 2020

VOLUME 323, NUMBER 2

SCOTT G. RENDER ART PHOTOGRAPHY

Getty Images

ON tHE COVER

Oak trees are hugely diverse, with some

435 species worldwide, and they are essential

to the functioning of the forests they inhabit.

Recent genomic studies have allowed re ­

searchers to chart their rise to prominence.

Photograph by steve Zimic.

36

ECONOMICS
24 Measuring What Matters
Gross domestic product fails
to count the things that make
for a healthy society.
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
32 Galileo’s Lessons for
Living through a Plague
An outbreak in Italy in the 1630s
forced him to find new ways of
doing his research and connecting
with his family. By Hannah Marcus
E C O L O G Y
36 Animals Apart
People are struggling with social
distancing, but lobsters, birds
and some primates routinely use
the strategy to ward off disease.
By Dana M. Hawley and
Julia C. Buck
EVOLUTION
42 Ascent of the Oaks
Genomic studies reveal the
remarkable evolutionary history

of oak trees. By Andrew L. Hipp,

Paul S. Manos and

Jeannine Cavender-Bares

MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS

50 Quantum Leap

The quest to solve one of the

greatest open questions in physics:

How can a quantum phenomenon

become macroscopic?

By Spyridon Michalakis

ANTHROPOLOGY

58 Survival of

the Friendliest

Natural selection for hypersocial

traits enabled Earth’s apex species

to best competitors.

By Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods

SUSTAINABILITY

64 The Biomass Bottleneck

Strategies for drawing down

carbon dioxide depend on more

trees, grasses and crop residues

than the planet can spare.

By Eric Toensmeier and

Dennis Garrity

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