Scientific American - USA (2022-05)

4 Scientific American, May 2022 Illustration by Nick Higgins

FROM

THE EDITOR Laura Helmuth is editor in chief of Scientific American.

Follow her on Twitter @laurahelmuth

BOARD 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 University

Jonathan Foley

Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Jennifer A. Francis

Senior Scientist and Acting Deputy Director,

Woodwell Climate 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

Co-founder, Urban Ocean Lab, and

Co-founder, The All We Can Save Project

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 Malaysia

John 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 Chicago

New Perceptions

Science is all about expanding the realm of human perception.

Sometimes that means making the invisible visible, like when Gali­

leo turned a telescope toward Jupiter, discovered moons around an­

other planet and changed our literal worldview. We now know that

flowers, as beautiful as they are to us, are communicating with birds

and bees using ultraviolet patterns we can’t see and that elephants

can feel vibrations travel through the ground from miles away.

People have been observing birds singing and calling since

there were people. Birds vocalize to attract mates, defend territo­

ry, find one another, and more. Many birds’ songs sound musical

to us, with distinct notes that are repeated in pleasing patterns at

a steady speed—melody, rhythm and tempo, basically. But as Adam

Fishbein and other bird researchers have discovered recently

( page  36 ), what sounds so entrancing to us isn’t that meaningful

to them. Birds don’t seem to listen to the melody so much as to fine

details within each note that humans can’t detect.

Most parasites are invisible, although some are not (like tape­

worms, yikes). Beauty is in the bird’s ear or the scientist’s eye of the

beholder, and there’s a growing movement to recognize that par­

asites can and do go extinct and should be protected. As science

journalist Rachel Nuwer writes on page 62, as many as 40 to 50 per­

cent of all animal species are parasites, and almost every other spe­

cies has at least one parasite that has evolved to parasitize it.

Parasites are one of the problems plaguing fish farms. When

you concentrate fish in huge pens, parasites and diseases spread

rapidly and can escape to wild­living animals. Now scientists and

science­informed aquaculturists are experimenting with environ­

mentally and financially sustainable fish­farming practices. On

page  44, author Ellen Ruppel Shell takes us to Maine, where the

commercial fisheries of cod, shrimp and mussels have crashed, and

the climate emergency is pushing lobsters to cooler Canadian

waters. Farmed shellfish and even enormous finfish operations

being developed there could be the future of seafood.

The future of computing is the subject of our fascinating cover

story this month, by quantum theorist Zaira Nazario. Quantum

computing uses basic units called qubits (analogous to the bits in

classical computers but in the form of waves rather than 1s and

0s) that are linked together through quantum entanglement.

Quantum computers can store and manipulate information at

scales and speeds far beyond anything classical computers can do,

but they also suffer from errors unlike anything in classical com­

puters. Nazario specializes in fixing these errors, and on page  28

she narrates the challenges and discoveries and delights of this

important and mind­bending work, with graphics that help make

invisible quantum quirks visible.

The Ashaninka people have a different sort of vision for what’s

possible. They have seen parts of the Amazon destroyed by loggers,

miners and drug runners, and they’ve been exploring sophisticat­

ed and creative methods for protecting their homeland. In an

unusual (for us) collaboration, anthropologist Carolina Schneider

Comandulli and the Apiwtxa Association share one community’s

worldview and how it has inspired them to create a sustainable,

self­sufficient way of life and empowered other Indigenous people

in the Amazon and their allies to protect and rebuild habitat. Turn

to page  70 to enjoy the stunning accompanying photography.

We have just witnessed what is almost certainly the fastest­

spreading human virus in history, the Omicron variant of SARS­

CoV­2. On page 58, science journalist Megan Scudellari and graph­

ic artist Veronica Falconieri Hays show why this variant is so good

at what it does. Omicron has more genetic mutations than previ­

ous variants of concern, starting with mutations that allow it to

hide from the human immune system. And more variants are com­

ing. We hope you’re able to stay as safe and healthy and well

informed as possible, as science helps us see and hear and fix things

that we can’t easily perceive.