6 Scientific American, December 2020 Illustration by Nick HigginsFROM
THE EDITOR Laura Helmuth is editor in chief of Scientific American.
Follow her on Twitter @laurahelmuthBOARD OF ADVISERS
Robin E. Bell
Research Professor, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University
Emery N. Brown
Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering
and of Computational Neuro science, M.I.T.,
and Warren M. Zapol Prof essor of Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School
Vinton G. Cerf
Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
Emmanuelle Charpentier
Scientific Director, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology,
and Founding and Acting Director, Max Planck Unit for the
Science of Pathogens
Rita Colwell
Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland College Park
and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Kate Crawford
Director of Research and Co-founder, AI Now Institute,
and Distinguished Research Professor, New York University,
and Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research New York City
Nita A. Farahany
Professor of Law and Philosophy, Director,
Duke Initiative for Science & Society, Duke UniversityJonathan Foley
Executive Director, Project Drawdown
Jennifer A. Francis
Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Research Center
Carlos Gershenson
Research Professor, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Alison Gopnik
Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor
of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
Lene Vestergaard Hau
Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics,
Harvard University
Hopi E. Hoekstra
Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Harvard University
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Founder and CEO, Ocean Collectiv
Christof Koch
Chief Scientist, MindScope Program, Allen Institute for Brain Science
Meg Lowman
Director and Founder, TREE Foundation, Rachel Carson Fellow,
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, and Research Professor,
University of Science MalaysiaJohn Maeda
Global Head, Computational Design + Inclusion, Automattic, Inc.
Satyajit Mayor
Senior Professor, National Center for Biological Sciences,
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
John P. Moore
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology,
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Priyamvada Natarajan
Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Yale University
Donna J. Nelson
Professor of Chemistry, University of Oklahoma
Lisa Randall
Professor of Physics, Harvard University
Martin Rees
Astronomer Royal and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics,
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Daniela Rus
Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science and Director, CSAIL, M.I.T.
Meg Urry
Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Yale University
Amie Wilkinson
Professor of Mathematics, University of ChicagoThe Human Side
of Science
One of the joys of being a science journalist is that it’s your job
to talk with people who are doing mind-bending and world-
changing research and to ask them goofy questions. We ask them
serious questions, too, of course, but we also encourage scientists
to share the funny, tense, disappointing, surprising, human sides
of their work. The goal is not to make an expert seem ridiculous
but to demonstrate that we’re all just people trying to figure out
how to make sense of the world.
This month’s cover story on new discoveries about how stars
explode and die is an exciting look at a rapidly growing field that
is studying phenomena at awesome time and size scales. But it’s
also a human drama about how Anna Y. Q. Ho had to sleep in a
sleeping bag in a remote observing lab, wake up at 4 a.m. and
race the dawn to get a reading on an exploding star 21 billion
light-years away. See page 26 for more about her pursuit of
strange star endings.
One reason we urge scientists to show us the personal side
of research is that we hope it demystifies what they do. Increas-
ingly, we’re seeing the danger of people rejecting scientific find-
ings and claiming that certain fields are all a hoax or a conspir-
acy. It’s distressing but mostly harmless when people fall for
fake documentaries claiming the earth is flat. It’s life-threaten-
ing when they fall for misinformation about the COVID-
pandemic. Starting on page 54, Filippo Menczer and Thomas
Hills detail the ways conspiracy theories spread—including adisinformation campaign targeted at their own research group.
The delicate surgery required to transplant a hand is just the
start of the process; the recipient must then relearn how to use it.
The brain reroutes neural signals in many different areas, show-
ing how nimble and adaptable it can be. Scott H. Frey describes
how his early interest in neuroscience was inspired by his moth-
er’s multiple sclerosis and her loss of motor control. He shares
this research starting on page 62.
The human body is actually a superorganism teeming with
bacteria, fungi and hundreds of trillions of viruses. The study of
the human virome is only about a decade old, and the research
is accelerating as scientists respond to SARS-CoV-2, the virus
that causes COVID. These viruses aren’t all bad. Some are harm-
less, and some might help treat diseases or fight antibiotic resis-
tance. Turn to page 46 for David Pride’s fascinating discoveries
about the viruses that live in and among us.
The idea of an international collaboration to build a fusion
reactor that could produce clean energy came out of a Superpow-
er Summit in Geneva in 1985 featuring Ronald Reagan and
Mikhail Gorbachev. Now the International Thermonuclear Exper-
imental Reactor is being built. The project feels like a series of
marathons, the ITER director tells senior editor Clara Moskowitz.
Parts have been made all over the world, and beginning on page
70, you can see the stunning facility coming together.
We’re delighted to have editor in chief emerita Mariette DiChris-
tina back in our pages this issue. Once again, she and the World
Economic Forum teamed up with a steering committee of experts
in a wide range of fields to highlight 10 emerging technologies
( page 34 ). It’s an inspiring package and a reminder that research
and innovation have the potential to save and improve our lives.