Scientific American - USA (2022-02)

February 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 7

ESTABLISHED 1845

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HOW TO CONTACT US

Subscriptions

For new subscriptions, renewals, gifts,

payments, and changes of address:

U.S. and Canada, 800-333-1199;

outside North America, 515-248-7684 or

[email protected]

Submissions

To submit article proposals, follow the

guidelines at http://www.ScientificAmerican.com.

Click on “Contact Us.”

We cannot return and are not responsible

for materials delivered to our office.

Reprints

To order bulk reprints of articles (minimum

of 1,000 copies): [email protected].

Reprint Department,

Scientific American,

1 New York Plaza,

Suite 4600,

New York, NY

10004-1562;

212-451-8415.

For single copies of back issues: 800-333-1199.

Permissions

For permission to copy or reuse material:

Permissions Department, Scientific

American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600,

New York, NY 10004-1562; [email protected];

http://www.ScientificAmerican.com/permissions.

Please allow six to eight weeks for processing.

Advertising

http://www.ScientificAmerican.com has electronic

contact information for sales representatives

of Scientific American in all regions of

the U.S. and in other countries.

Scientific American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004-1562 or [email protected]

Letters may be edited for length and clarity. We regret that we cannot answer each one.

Join the conversation online—visit Scientific American on Facebook and Twitter.

EDITORIAL Amy Brady, Katherine Harmon Courage, Lydia Denworth, Ferris Jabr,

Anna Kuchment, Michael D. Lemonick, Robin Lloyd,

Steve Mirsky, Melinda Wenner Moyer, George Musser, Ricki L. Rusting,

Dava Sobel, Claudia Wallis, Daisy Yuhas

ART Edward Bell, Zoë Christie, Lawrence R. Gendron, Nick Higgins, Katie Peek, Beatrix Mahd Soltani

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Laura Helmuth

A R T

SENIOR GRAPHICS EDITOR Jen Christiansen PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Monica Bradley ART DIRECTOR, ONLINE Ryan Reid

ASSOCIATE GRAPHICS EDITOR Amanda Montañez ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Liz Tormes

COPY AND PRODUCTION

SENIOR COPY EDITORS Angelique Rondeau, Aaron Shattuck

MANAGING PRODUCTION EDITOR Richard Hunt PREPRESS AND QUALITY MANAGER Silvia De Santis

CONTRIBUTORS

MANAGING EDITOR Curtis Brainard COPY DIRECTOR Maria-Christina Keller CREATIVE DIRECTOR Michael Mrak

E D I T O R I A L

CHIEF FEATURES EDITOR Seth Fletcher CHIEF NEWS EDITOR Dean Visser CHIEF OPINION EDITOR Megha Satyanarayana

FEATURES

SENIOR EDITOR, SUSTAINABILITY Mark Fischetti

SENIOR EDITOR, MEDICINE / SCIENCE POLICY Josh Fischman

SENIOR EDITOR, SPACE / PHYSICS Clara Moskowitz

SENIOR EDITOR, SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Madhusree Mukerjee

SENIOR EDITOR, TECHNOLOGY / MIND Jen Schwartz

SENIOR EDITOR, EVOLUTION / ECOLOGY Kate Wong

NEWS

SENIOR EDITOR, MIND / BRAIN Gary Stix

SENIOR EDITOR, SPACE / PHYSICS Lee Billings

SENIOR EDITOR, HEALTH AND MEDICINE Tanya Lewis

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, TECHNOLOGY Sophie Bushwick

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SUSTAINABILITY Andrea Thompson

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Sarah Lewin Frasier

MULTIMEDIA

SENIOR EDITOR, MULTIMEDIA Jeffery DelViscio

SENIOR EDITOR, AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT Sunya Bhutta SENIOR EDITOR, COLLECTIONS Andrea Gawrylewski

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT SUPERVISOR Maya Harty

EDITORS EMERITI Mariette DiChristina, John Rennie

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN CUSTOM MEDIA

MANAGING EDITOR Cliff Ransom CREATIVE DIRECTOR Wojtek Urbanek

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Kris Fatsy MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Ben Gershman

ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Dharmesh Patel ACCOUNT MANAGER Samantha Lubey

CORPORATE

HEAD, COMMUNICATIONS, USA Rachel Scheer

PRESS MANAGER Sarah Hausman

ANCILLARY PRODUCTS

CONSUMER MARKETING & PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD Raja Abdulhaq

SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER Christopher Monello

SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER Ian Kelly

SENIOR WEB PRODUCER Jessica Ramirez

SENIOR COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR Christine Kaelin

MARKETING & CUSTOMER SERVICE ASSISTANT Justin Camera

ACTING PRESIDENT

Stephen Pincock

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Michael Florek VICE PRESIDENT, COMMERCIAL Andrew Douglas

PUBLISHER AND VICE PRESIDENT Jeremy A. Abbate

CLIENT MARKETING SOLUTIONS

MARKETING DIRECTOR, INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIPS AND CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT Jessica Cole

PROGRAMMATIC PRODUCT MANAGER Zoya Lysak

DIRECTOR, INTEGRATED MEDIA Matt Bondlow

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Stan Schmidt

HEAD, PUBLISHING STRATEGY Suzanne Fromm

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Diane McGarvey

CUSTOM PUBLISHING EDITOR Lisa Pallatroni

PRINT PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Madelyn Keyes-Milch ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER Michael Broomes

do other senses. It also suggests that ap-
propriate physical activity can slow this
decline—just another way that well-target-
ed exercise can reduce the risk of falling.

FEEDING FUTURE
POPULATIONS
“More Food, Less Waste,” by Chad Frisch-
mann and Mamta Mehra, started out with
a major punch: given the current rate of
population growth and economic develop-
ment, by 2050 an area at least equivalent
to India would have to be added to our
global food production systems to meet ex-
pected needs. The article describes poten-
tial improvements to the efficiency of food
use, mainly by reduction of waste, to tack-
le that issue, and they seem to be well
worth attempting to achieve. But what
about addressing the rise in food demand
by trying to lower or reverse human popu-
lation growth?
Whereas more efficient food usage
makes sense for a variety of reasons, it
might target the symptom rather than the
cause. Perhaps Scientific American could
present us with another article on how
much food demand, as well as many other
environmental problems, might be reduced
if people across the globe adopted practic-
es that would move total human popula-
tion downward.
Scott T. Meissner via e-mail

SCI-FI HISTORY
Gabrielle Bellot’s review of Black Sci-Fi
Short Stories in “Exploring Black Sci-Fi”
[Recommended; July] reminds me that
about the time my first fantasy novel ap-
peared with Warner Books, my editor, Bet-
sy Mitchell, oversaw the publication of
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fic-
tion from the African Diaspora (Warner
Books, 2000). The anthology, which won a
2001 World Fantasy Award, was edited by
Sheree R. Thomas. I was lucky enough to
get a copy signed by Thomas, which she
kindly addressed to my son.
James Stoddard via e-mail

ERRATUM
In “Infinite Math,” by Emily Riehl, the ar-
rows in the illustration “Compositions Are
Associate and Unital” are incorrect. The ar-
row g ∘f should point from A to C , and the
arrow h should point from C to D.