Scientific American - USA (2020-03)

4 Scientific American, March 2020

FROM

THE EDITOR Curtis Brainard is acting editor in chief of Scientific American.

Follow him on Twitter @cbrainard

BOARD OF ADVISERS

Leslie C. Aiello

President, Wenner-Gren Foundation

for Anthropological Research

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

George M. Church

Director, Center for Computational

Genetics, Harvard Medical School

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

Drew Endy

Professor of Bioengineering,

Stanford University

Nita A. Farahany

Professor of Law and Philosophy,

Director, Duke Initiative for

Science & Society, Duke University

Edward W. Felten

Director, Center for Information

Technology Policy, Princeton University

Jonathan Foley

Executive Director, Project Drawdown

Jennifer Francis

Senior Scientist,

Woods Hole Research Center

Kaigham J. Gabriel

President and Chief Executive Officer,

Charles Stark Draper Laboratory

Harold “Skip” Garner

Executive Director and Professor, Primary

Care Research Network and Center for

Bioinformatics and Genetics, Edward Via

College of Osteopathic Medicine

Michael S. Gazzaniga

Director, Sage Center for the Study of

Mind, University of California,

Santa Barbara

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

President and CSO,

Allen Institute for Brain Science

Morten L. Kringelbach

Associate Professor and

Senior Research Fellow, The Queen’s

College, University of Oxford

Robert S. Langer

David H. Koch Institute Professor,

Department of Chemical Engineering,

M .I.T.

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

Robert E. Palazzo

Dean, University of Alabama at

Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences

Rosalind Picard

Professor and Director,

Affective Computing, M.I.T. Media Lab

Carolyn Porco

Leader, Cassini Imaging Science Team,

and Director, CICLOPS,

Space Science Institute

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.

Eugenie C. Scott

Chair, Advisory Council,

National Center for Science Education

Terry Sejnowski

Professor and Laboratory Head of

Computational Neurobiology Laboratory,

Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Meg Urry

Israel Munson Professor of Physics

and Astronomy, Yale University

Michael E. Webber

Co-director, Clean Energy Incubator,

and Associate Professor,

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

University of Texas at Austin

George M. Whitesides

Professor of Chemistry and Chemical

Biology, Harvard University

Amie Wilkinson

Professor of Mathematics,

University of Chicago

Anton Zeilinger

Professor of Quantum Optics, Quantum

Nanophysics, Quantum Information,

University of Vienna

Troubled Times

“Crisis” is a strong word. Just a few weeks before this issue
went to press, the U.S. and Iran seemed to be on the brink of
war. So it might seem excessive to define a situation in which
there is no danger to life or limb as a crisis. But in the world of
cosmology, there may be no greater predicament than two diver-
gent measurements of how fast the universe is expanding.
Last July, when scientists gathered at the Kavli Institute for
Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, Calif., to discuss the incon-
gruity, “crisis” was the label they chose. Award-winning author
Richard Panek explains the logic in his coverage of the expansion
research, starting on page 30: “Unlike a tension, which requires a
resolution, or a problem, which requires a solution, a crisis requires
a wholesale rethink. But of what?” In this case, it could be the mea-
surement based on observations of the early universe using the
cosmic microwave background, the measurement based on
observations of the late universe using so-called standard candles,
or the standard cosmological model itself. So, a crisis it is.
Elsewhere we turn our attention to more familiar, life-threat-
ening examples of that classification. Beginning on page 38,
journalist Kyle Dickman chronicles atmospheric chemists’
efforts to understand what dangers lurk in wildfire smoke. As a
result of climate change, such blazes now happen in places they
once didn’t, and they’re more intense in places where they’ve
always been. Disturbingly, we still don’t know how their emis-
sions might imperil human health, but a project called FIREX-
AQ is seeking to redress that ignorance.

Next, a pair of articles examine a form of genetic therapy that

relies on antisense oligonucleotides—short strings of chemical-

ly modified DNA and RNA that incite or inhibit protein produc-

tion to thwart pathology. First, journalist and Scientific Ameri-

can contributor Lydia Denworth ( page 46 ) and then married

medical researchers Sonia Minikel Vallabh and Eric Vallabh

Minikel ( page 54 ) describe applications for rare neurodegenera-

tive diseases. Both stories are poignant—respectively, they re -

count the impacts of these illnesses on children and the research-

ers themselves (Vallabh carries a DNA mutation that puts her at

grave risk for prion disease)—but also full of hope and determi-

nation in the face of adversity.

Finally, after a piece by science writer Gabriel Popkin, “What Is

Killing the Monarchs?” ( page 60 ), that lays out a new view of what

is afflicting America’s most beloved butterfly, we break from cri-

sis with rousing coverage of natural history and neuroscience.

Scientific American senior editor Kate Wong tells a tale ( page

68 ) about the discovery of what may be the oldest known example

of narrative art—a 40,000-year-old cave painting of a hunt found

on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Following that, on page 74,

neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields writes the sequel to his 2008 arti-

cle for this magazine about the surprising revelation that the

brain’s white matter (once thought to be merely structural) plays

an important part in learning. Now Fields and others have figured

out exactly how glial cells alter myelin, the insulation of our neu-

ral wiring, to support the mind’s acquisition of knowledge.

In every issue, we strive for this balance between great crises

in science and society and great strides in research. What the

stories have in common is the power to fascinate and inspire.

Illustration by Nick Higgins

© 2020 Scientific American