OpinionDecember 21, 20245 min readHow Feminism Can Guide Climate Change ActionFeminism gives us the analysis, tools and movement to create a better climate future for everyone. Its time to embrace itBy Laura Turquet, Silke Staab & Brianna Howell edited by Megha Satyanarayana Amr Bo Shanab/Getty ImagesThis year is projected to be the hottest on record. The latest United Nations estimates indicate that, without radical and immediate action, we are headed toward an increasingly unlivable planet with an increase of up to 3.1 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Solving the climate crisis requires urgent, global cooperation.But the yearly global climate meeting (called the Conference of the Parties, or COP) held in November in the petrostate of Azerbaijan upheld the status quo, at best. The current economic system that underpins that status quo is rooted in the extraction of natural resources and exploitation of cheap or unpaid labor, often done by women and marginalized communities. This system therefore drives the climate crisis while perpetuating inequalities based on gender, race and class. It prioritizes the interests of corporations, governments and elites in positions of power and wealth, while destroying the natural environment that poor and marginalized people depend on the most.We need a different tack to move the needle. As gender-equality researchers at the U.N., we see growing evidence that women, girls and gender-diverse people are bearing the brunt of climate change. And that raises a question: What if we approached climate from a feminist perspective?On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Feminism offers an analysis of how inequalities structure our world and therefore drive the climate crisis, among other global concerns. We believe that it provides a vision of a better climate future, and a practical approach for moving towards it. That sound future is not just about ending fossil fuelbased economiesthough that is urgent and necessarybut a more fundamental transformation of our economic and political systems.Women worldwide have unequal access to economic resources, such as jobs, bank accounts, land and technology. This means that when weather patterns change, disrupting infrastructure and public services, they are less able to adapt, recover and rebuild. As a result, their livelihoods and economic security are particularly at risk. U.N. Womens latest research finds that, globally, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty, and 236 million more women and girls into food insecurity, by 2050 under a worst-case scenario. In addition to income poverty, women and girls face rising time poverty. As water, fuel and nutritious food are harder to come by and the health care needs of family members increase, women and girls have to spend more time on unpaid care work. This reduces the time they have to do paid work, go to school or take care of themselves.This toxic combination of time and income poverty has far-reaching, long-term consequences. After years of slow progress in reducing rates of child marriage, for example, this practice is on the rise again in places experiencing environmental stress, as families struggle financially and see early marriage as a form of security for their girls. In drought-prone areas, girls are increasingly likely to drop out of school, as families cannot afford fees and need their girls to contribute to household work, stunting their opportunities for life.The feminist climate justice approach tries to address the interlinked challenges of climate change, gender inequality and social injustice. It is based on the recognition that women and girls who are poor, from lower castes or a marginalized ethnic group, or are disabled, are most affected by disasters and environmental degradation, while their knowledge and contributions to addressing them are consistently sidelined. A feminist climate justice approach elevates their voices and values their contributions to understanding the climate crisis and charting a new way forward. For example, women from Indigenous and local communities have used their traditional knowledge of tree species to lead sustainable forestry initiatives in Colombia; and in Bangladesh, during extreme floods, women relied on traditional rural cooking methods to provide food in remote affected areas.We need to move away from economies based on extraction and pollution, towards ones that are based on regeneration and care for one another and for the environment. These new systems would prioritize the well-being of people and the planet, over profits and elite power, to enable a more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and equitable future. This feminist vision builds on thinking from a diversity of cultural contexts and growing interest in well-being economies. For example, the Buen Vivir (Living Well) paradigm that underpins the development strategies of Bolivia and Ecuador is inspired by Indigenous knowledge and values that promote harmonious relationships between humans and nature. Meanwhile in Canada, a Quality of Life strategy was introduced to support a resilient COVID-19 recovery, focusing on improving key areas of life such as health, social belonging, environmental quality, prosperity and public trust.As detailed in our report Feminist Climate Justice: A Framework for Action, moving towards this vision requires action around four pillars.First, we must recognize women's rights, labor and knowledge. To be effective, climate policymaking needs to take into account the expertise that women, including Indigenous and rural women, bring to bear on issues like preserving ecosystems and environmentally sustainable agriculture. This is essential to avoid the problem of maladaptationwell-intended adaptation projects that either dont work or cause more harm than good.We must redistribute resources away from male-dominated, environmentally harmful economic activities towards those prioritizing womens employment, regeneration and care for both people and ecosystems. The idea of a just transition, which is gaining prominence on the climate agenda, must extend beyond providing new jobs for men laid off from fossil fuel industries to address the longstanding economic disadvantages women and marginalized groups face: persistent wage gaps; vast inequalities in land ownership, labor force participation, access to education, training and technology; and inadequate or absent social protection.We must ensure representation of diverse womens voices in environmental decision-making, whether in social movements, environmental ministries or COP delegations. In civil society, women organizing collectively within and across movements have the right to be heard and see their interests reflected, without being threatened, harassed and even killed for their activism. Ending impunity for violence against human and environmental rights defenders is therefore also essential.And we must repair the impacts of environmental degradationacknowledging that the Global North bears the largest share of responsibility for historical emissionsand guarantee not to repeat those harms. Wealthy countries need to make good on long-standing climate finance commitments and ensure resources get to grassroots womens organizations at the forefront of this crisis. As campaigners chanted at COP28, billions not millions, make polluters pay. Taxing and regulating the corporations that are causing climate chaos in developing countries is necessary as part of reparations.As well as the what of feminist climate justice, the how is equally important. The vast gap between the demands for bold climate action and sluggish government responses raises urgent questions on how to ensure accountability. Given the tensions and conflicts between countries at the moment, the fact that every government comes together each year to negotiate on climate is an achievement not to be dismissed. But still, it feels like we are a million miles from where we need to be. The role of social movementsfeminists, environmentalists, indigenous peoples organizations, youthworking with allies in the UN, governments and progressive business to demand faster, more radical action will be critical. Our hope is that the feminist climate justice framework can help unite a common understanding of the urgency and direction of necessary action across these four pillars to demand a more sustainable future.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.Laura Turquet is deputy chief of research and data at U.N. Women. Follow Turquet on Bluesky lauraturquet.bsky.socialand LinkedInSilke Staab is senior research specialist at U.N. Women. Follow her on Bluesky @silkestaab.bsky.social and LinkedInBrianna Howell is research analyst at U.N. Women. Follow her on LinkedIn

December 20, 20242 min readRun, Lucy, Run! Human Ancestors Could Jog but Not Very Far or Fast3D models ofAustralopithecus afarensishint at the muscular adaptations that made modern humans better runnersBy Gemma Conroy & Nature magazine A sculptor's rendering of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis is displayed as part of an exhibition that includes the 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of "Lucy", the most complete example of the species, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, August 28, 2007 in Houston, Texas. Dave Einsel/Getty ImagesAncient human relatives ran on two legs, like modern humans, but at a much slower pace, suggest 3D computer simulations of Australopithecus afarensis a small hominin that lived more than three million years ago.The analysis offers a detailed snapshot of the hominins running speed and the muscular adaptations that enabled modern humans to run long distances, says Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Its a very thorough approach, he says. The findings were published this week in Current Biology.A. afarensis walked upright on two legs, making its fossils a favourite for researchers looking to unpick how bipedalism evolved in the human lineage. But few studies have explored the hominins running ability because it requires more than studying fossilized footprints and bones, says study co-author Karl Bates, an evolutionary biomechanics researcher at the University of Liverpool, UK.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Miceking/Alamy Stock PhotoA slow apeBates and his colleagues created a 3D digital model of the Lucy skeleton a near-complete 3.2-million-year-old A. afarensis specimen discovered in Ethiopia half a century ago. They used the muscular features of modern apes and the surface area of Lucys bones to estimate the ancient hominins muscle mass. The researchers then used a simulator to make their Lucy model run and compared its performance with that of a digital model of a modern human.The simulations showed that Lucy could run on two legs, despite lacking the lengthened Achilles tendon and shortened muscle fibres that are thought to benefit endurance running in modern humans. But speed wasnt Lucys strength: she could reach a maximum of only around five metres per second, even after the researchers remodelled her with human muscles. By contrast, the human model ran at roughly 8 metres per second. Even when the researchers removed body size from their modelling, Lucys running still lagged behind that of modern humans, suggesting that her physical proportions were the main culprit. Even if you jack up all the muscles, she was still slower, says Bates.Next, the researchers assessed whether certain muscles have a role in energy expenditure during running. When they added human-like ankle muscles to the Lucy model, the energy cost was comparable to that of other animals of a similar size. But running became more taxing for Lucy when the team replaced the human ankle muscles with ape ones. This suggests that adaptations in the Achilles tendon and surrounding muscles enable modern humans to run for extended periods.Bates and his colleagues are now planning to investigate whether fatigue and bone strain also influenced Lucys running.This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on December 19, 2024.

December 19, 202414 min readHow the U.S. Lost Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another PandemicAs the bird flu virus moved into cows and people, sluggish federal action, deference to industry and neglect for worker safety put the country at riskBy Amy Maxmen & KFF Health News Cows are milked at the Cornell Teaching Dairy Barn in Ithaca, N.Y. These cows are not infected, but the bird flu virus has spread among other cattle. Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesKeith Poulsens jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack.But the scale of the farmers efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They showed videos of systems they built to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In 14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus.It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating hundreds of wounded soldiers, he said.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 860 herds across 16 states have tested positive.Experts say they have lost faith in the governments ability to contain the outbreak.We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. I dont know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.To understand how the bird flu got out of hand, KFF Health News interviewed nearly 70 government officials, farmers and farmworkers, and researchers with expertise in virology, pandemics, veterinary medicine, and more.Together with emails obtained from local health departments through public records requests, this investigation revealed key problems, including deference to the farm industry, eroded public health budgets, neglect for the safety of agriculture workers, and the sluggish pace of federal interventions.Case in point: The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month announced a federal order to test milk nationwide. Researchers welcomed the news but said it should have happened months ago before the virus was so entrenched.Its disheartening to see so many of the same failures that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis reemerge, said Tom Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.Far more bird flu damage is inevitable, but the extent of it will be left to the Trump administration and Mother Nature. Already, the USDA has funneled more than $1.7 billion into tamping down the bird flu on poultry farms since 2022, which includes reimbursing farmers whove had to cull their flocks, and more than $430 million into combating the bird flu on dairy farms. In coming years, the bird flu may cost billions of dollars more in expenses and losses. Dairy industry experts say the virus kills roughly 2% to 5% of infected dairy cows and reduces a herds milk production by about 20%.Worse, the outbreak poses the threat of a pandemic. More than 60 people in the U.S. have been infected, mainly by cows or poultry, but cases could skyrocket if the virus evolves to spread efficiently from person to person. And the recent news of a person critically ill in Louisiana with bird flu shows that the virus can be dangerous.Just a few mutations could allow the bird flu to spread between people. Because viruses mutate within human and animal bodies, each infection is like a pull of a slot machine lever.Even if theres only a 5% chance of a bird flu pandemic happening, were talking about a pandemic that probably looks like 2020 or worse, said Tom Peacock, a bird flu researcher at the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom, referring to COVID. The U.S. knows the risk but hasnt done anything to slow this down, he added.Beyond the bird flu, the federal governments handling of the outbreak reveals cracks in the U.S. health security system that would allow other risky new pathogens to take root. This virus may not be the one that takes off, said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the emerging diseases group at the World Health Organization. But this is a real fire exercise right now, and it demonstrates what needs to be improved.It may have been a grackle, a goose, or some other wild bird that infected a cow in northern Texas. In February, the states dairy farmers took note when cows stopped making milk. They worked alongside veterinarians to figure out why. In less than two months, veterinary researchers identified the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus as the culprit.Long listed among pathogens with pandemic potential, the bird flus unprecedented spread among cows marked a worrying shift. It had evolved to thrive in animals that are more like people biologically than birds.After the USDA announced the dairy outbreak on March 25, control shifted from farmers, veterinarians, and local officials to state and federal agencies. Collaboration disintegrated almost immediately.Farmers worried the government might block their milk sales or even demand sick cows be killed, as poultry are, said Kay Russo, a livestock veterinarian in Fort Collins, Colorado.Instead, Russo and other veterinarians said, they were dismayed by inaction. The USDA didnt respond to their urgent requests to support studies on dairy farms and for money and confidentiality policies to protect farmers from financial loss if they agreed to test animals.The USDA announced that it would conduct studies itself. But researchers grew anxious as weeks passed without results. Probably the biggest mistake from the USDA was not involving the boots-on-the-ground veterinarians, Russo said.Will Clement, a USDA senior adviser for communications, said in an email: Since first learning of H5N1 in dairy cattle in late March 2024, USDA has worked swiftly and diligently to assess the prevalence of the virus in U.S. dairy herds. The agency provided research funds to state and national animal health labs beginning in April, he added.The USDA didnt require lactating cows to be tested before interstate travel until April 29. By then, the outbreak had spread to eight other states. Farmers often move cattle across great distances, for calving in one place, raising in warm, dry climates, and milking in cooler ones. Analyses of the viruss genes implied that it spread between cows rather than repeatedly jumping from birds into herds.Milking equipment was a likely source of infection, and there were hints of other possibilities, such as through the air as cows coughed or in droplets on objects, like work boots. But not enough data had been collected to know how exactly it was happening. Many farmers declined to test their herds, despite an announcement of funds to compensate them for lost milk production in May.There is a fear within the dairy farmer community that if they become officially listed as an affected farm, they may lose their milk market, said Jamie Jonker, chief science officer at the National Milk Producers Federation, an organization that represents dairy farmers. To his knowledge, he added, this hasnt happened.Milk samples to be tested for the bird flu virus.Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesSpeculation filled knowledge gaps. Zach Riley, head of the Colorado Livestock Association, said he suspected that wild birds may be spreading the virus to herds across the country, despite scientific data suggesting otherwise. Riley said farmers were considering whether to install floppy inflatable men you see outside of car dealerships to ward off the birds.Advisories from agriculture departments to farmers were somewhat speculative, too. Officials recommended biosecurity measures such as disinfecting equipment and limiting visitors. As the virus kept spreading throughout the summer, USDA senior official Eric Deeble said at a press briefing, The response is adequate.The USDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration presented a united front at these briefings, calling it a One Health approach. In reality, agriculture agencies took the lead.This was explicit in an email from a local health department in Colorado to the countys commissioners. The State is treating this primarily as an agriculture issue (rightly so) and the public health part is secondary, wrote Jason Chessher, public health director in Weld County, Colorado. The states leading agricultural county, Welds livestock and poultry industry produces about $1.9 billion in sales each year.In July, the bird flu spread from dairies in Colorado to poultry farms. To contain it, two poultry operations employed about 650 temporary workers Spanish-speaking immigrants as young as 15 to cull flocks. Inside hot barns, they caught infected birds, gassed them with carbon dioxide, and disposed of the carcasses. Many did the hazardous job without goggles, face masks, and gloves.By the time Colorados health department asked if workers felt sick, five women and four men had been infected. They all had red, swollen eyes conjunctivitis and several had such symptoms as fevers, body aches, and nausea.State health departments posted online notices offering farms protective gear, but dairy workers in several states told KFF Health News that they had none. They also hadnt heard about the bird flu, never mind tests for it.Studies in Colorado, Michigan, and Texas would later show that bird flu cases had gone under the radar. In one analysis, eight dairy workers who hadnt been tested 7% of those studied had antibodies against the virus, a sign that they had been infected.Missed cases made it impossible to determine how the virus jumped into people and whether it was growing more infectious or dangerous. I have been distressed and depressed by the lack of epidemiologic data and the lack of surveillance, said Nicole Lurie, an executive director at the international organization the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, who served as assistant secretary for preparedness and response in the Obama administration.Citing insufficient data, the British government raised its assessment of the risk posed by the U.S. dairy outbreak in July from three to four on a six-tier scale.Virologists around the world said they were flabbergasted by how poorly the United States was tracking the situation. You are surrounded by highly pathogenic viruses in the wild and in farm animals, said Marion Koopmans, head of virology at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. If three months from now we are at the start of the pandemic, it is nobodys surprise.Although the bird flu is not yet spreading swiftly between people, a shift in that direction could cause immense suffering. The CDC has repeatedly described the cases among farmworkers this year as mild they werent hospitalized. But that doesnt mean symptoms are a breeze, or that the virus cant cause worse.It does not look pleasant, wrote Sean Roberts, an emergency services specialist at the Tulare County, California, health department in an email to colleagues in May. He described photographs of an infected dairy worker in another state: Apparently, the conjunctivitis that this is causing is not a mild one, but rather ruptured blood vessels and bleeding conjunctiva.Over the past 30 years, half of around 900 people diagnosed with bird flu around the world have died. Even if the case fatality rate is much lower for this strain of the bird flu, COVID showed how devastating a one percent death rate can be when a virus spreads easily.Like other cases around the world, the person now hospitalized with the bird flu in Louisiana appears to have gotten the virus directly from birds. After the case was announced, the CDC released a statement saying, A sporadic case of severe H5N1 bird flu illness in a person is not unexpected.Local health officials were trying hard to track infections, according to hundreds of emails from county health departments in five states. But their efforts were stymied. Even if farmers reported infected herds to the USDA and agriculture agencies told health departments where the infected cows were, health officials had to rely on farm owners for access.The agriculture community has dictated the rules of engagement from the start, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. That was a big mistake.Some farmers told health officials not to visit and declined to monitor their employees for signs of sickness. Sending workers to clinics for testing could leave them shorthanded when cattle needed care. Producer refuses to send workers to Sunrise [clinic] to get tested since theyre too busy. He has pinkeye, too, said an email from the Weld, Colorado, health department.We know of 386 persons exposed but we know this is far from the total, said an email from a public health specialist to officials at Tulares health department recounting a call with state health officials. Employers do not want to run this through workers compensation. Workers are hesitant to get tested due to cost, she wrote.Jennifer Morse, medical director of the Mid-Michigan District Health Department, said local health officials have been hesitant to apply pressure after the backlash many faced at the peak of COVID. Describing the 19 rural counties she serves as very minimal-government-minded, she said, if you try to work against them, it will not go well.Rural health departments are also stretched thin. Organizations that specialize in outreach to farmworkers offered to assist health officials early in the outbreak, but months passed without contracts or funding. During the first years of COVID, lagging government funds for outreach to farmworkers and other historically marginalized groups led to a disproportionate toll of the disease among people of color.Kevin Griffis, director of communications at the CDC, said the agency worked with the National Center for Farmworker Health throughout the summer to reach every farmworker impacted by H5N1. But Bethany Boggess Alcauter, the centers director of public health programs, said it didnt receive a CDC grant for bird flu outreach until October, to the tune of $4 million. Before then, she said, the group had very limited funds for the task. We are certainly not reaching every farmworker, she added.Farmworker advocates also pressed the CDC for money to offset workers financial concerns about testing, including paying for medical care, sick leave, and the risk of being fired. This amounted to an offer of $75 each. Outreach is clearly not a huge priority, Boggess said. I hear over and over from workers, The cows are more valuable than us.The USDA has so far put more than $2.1 billion into reimbursing poultry and dairy farmers for losses due to the bird flu and other measures to control the spread on farms. Federal agencies have also put $292 million into developing and stockpiling bird flu vaccines for animals and people. In a controversial decision, the CDC has advised against offering the ones on hand to farmworkers.If you want to keep this from becoming a human pandemic, you focus on protecting farmworkers, since thats the most likely way that this will enter the human population, said Peg Seminario, an occupational health researcher in Bethesda, Maryland. The fact that this isnt happening drives me crazy.Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, said the agency aims to keep workers safe. Widespread awareness does take time, he said. And thats the work were committed to doing.As President-elect Donald Trump comes into office in January, farmworkers may be even less protected. Trumps pledge of mass deportations will have repercussions whether they happen or not, said Tania Pacheco-Werner, director of the Central Valley Health Policy Institute in California.Many dairy and poultry workers are living in the U.S. without authorization or on temporary visas linked to their employers. Such precarity made people less willing to see doctors about COVID symptoms or complain about unsafe working conditions in 2020. Pacheco-Werner said, Mass deportation is an astronomical challenge for public health.A switch flipped in September among experts who study pandemics as national security threats. A patient in Missouri had the bird flu, and no one knew why. Evidence points to this being a one-off case, Shah said at a briefing with journalists. About a month later, the agency revealed it was not.Antibody tests found that a person who lived with the patient had been infected, too. The CDC didnt know how the two had gotten the virus, and the possibility of human transmission couldnt be ruled out.Nonetheless, at an October briefing, Shah said the public risk remained low and the USDAs Deeble said he was optimistic that the dairy outbreak could be eliminated.Experts were perturbed by such confident statements in the face of uncertainty, especially as Californias outbreak spiked and a child was mysteriously infected by the same strain of virus found on dairy farms.This wasnt just immaculate conception, said Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It came from somewhere and we dont know where, but that hasnt triggered any kind of reset in approach just the same kind of complacency and low energy.Sam Scarpino, a disease surveillance specialist in the Boston area, wondered how many other mysterious infections had gone undetected. Surveillance outside of farms was even patchier than on them, and bird flu tests have been hard to get.Although pandemic experts had identified the CDCs singular hold on testing for new viruses as a key explanation for why America was hit so hard by COVID in 2020, the system remained the same. Bird flu tests could be run only by the CDC and public health labs until this month, even though commercial and academic diagnostic laboratories had inquired about running tests since April. The CDC and FDA should have tried to help them along months ago, said Ali Khan, a former top CDC official who now leads the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health.As winter sets in, the bird flu becomes harder to spot because patient symptoms may be mistaken for the seasonal flu. Flu season also raises a risk that the two flu viruses could swap genes if they infect a person simultaneously. That could form a hybrid bird flu that spreads swiftly through coughs and sneezes.A sluggish response to emerging outbreaks may simply be a new, unfortunate norm for America, said Bollyky, at the Council on Foreign Relations. If so, the nation has gotten lucky that the bird flu still cant spread easily between people. Controlling the virus will be much harder and costlier than it would have been when the outbreak was small. But its possible.Agriculture officials could start testing every silo of bulk milk, in every state, monthly, said Poulsen, the livestock veterinarian. Not one and done, he added. If they detect the virus, theyd need to determine the affected farm in time to stop sick cows from spreading infections to the rest of the herd or at least to other farms. Cows can spread the bird flu before theyre sick, he said, so speed is crucial.Curtailing the virus on farms is the best way to prevent human infections, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, but human surveillance must be stepped up, too. Every clinic serving communities where farmworkers live should have easy access to bird flu tests and be encouraged to use them. Funds for farmworker outreach must be boosted. And, she added, the CDC should change its position and offer farmworkers bird flu vaccines to protect them and ward off the chance of a hybrid bird flu that spreads quickly.The rising number of cases not linked to farms signals a need for more testing in general. When patients are positive on a general flu test a common diagnostic that indicates human, swine, or bird flu clinics should probe more deeply, Nuzzo said.The alternative is a wait-and-see approach in which the nation responds only after enormous damage to lives or businesses. This tack tends to rely on mass vaccination. But an effort analogous to Trumps Operation Warp Speed is not assured, and neither is rollout like that for the first COVID shots, given a rise in vaccine skepticism among Republican lawmakers.Change may instead need to start from the bottom up on dairy farms, still the most common source of human infections, said Poulsen. He noticed a shift in attitudes among farmers at the Dairy Expo: Theyre starting to say, How do I save my dairy for the next generation? They recognize how severe this is, and that its not just going away.KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

December 20, 20242 min readAncient Moon Melt Event May Explain 150-Million-Year Gap in Age EstimatesThe moon may have melted 4.35 billion years agoexplaining a lunar age mysteryBy Payal Dhar edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Javier Zayas Photography/Getty ImagesThe moon is Earths closest neighbor in space and the only extraterrestrial body humans have visited. Yet scientists are still unsure exactly when a Mars-size meteorite slammed into early Earth, causing our natural satellite to form from the debris. Lunar rock samples suggest the event happened 4.35 billion years ago, but planet formation models and fragments of zircon from the moons surface put it at 4.51 billion years ago.A new study published on December 18 in Nature offers a way to explain that 150-million-year gap. Computer modeling and analysis of previous research suggests the 4.35-billion-year-old rock samples may not date back to the moons formation but instead a later event in the moons history in which it temporarily heated up, causing its surface to melt and crystallize.The moon is slowly moving away from Earth, so its orbit isnt circular. As it moves, it is squeezed and stretched by Earths gravity, resulting in what is known as tidal heatingand one of these heating events likely happened 4.35 billion years ago. This early moon would have looked like Jupiters moon Io, says the new studys lead author Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz. It would have had volcanoes all over its surface, he says. This event would have also erased lunar impact basins caused by meteorite strikes, which researchers use to estimate age as well.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.This difference of 150 million years matters a lot to scientists, Nimmo says, especially for learning more about the early Earth. The moon is moving away from the Earth, and the rate at which that happens depends on what the Earth was like, he says. Was it solid? Was it liquid? Did it have an ocean? Did it have an atmosphere? For instance, really early Earth likely didnt have an oceanor it would have pushed the moon away too fast. The moons formation time is crucial to these calculations, and more complex models of tidal heating and the mineralogy involved could help refine our view in the future.No previous study has synthesized all the available evidence comprehensively, says Yoshinori Miyazaki, a geophysicist at the California Institute of Technology, who wasnt involved with the study. This paper provides a better view in resolving the discrepancies between different age estimates.Current hypotheses for when the Earth and moon formed, which put the date at anywhere from 30 million to 150 million years after the suns birth, suggest vastly different scenarios for planet formation. Resolving these uncertainties is essential for constructing a consistent picture of solar system history, Miyazaki says.

December 19, 20246 min readWhats in a (Stars) Name?With billions of stars in the Milky Way, some nomenclature standardization is necessaryBy Phil Plait edited by Lee BillingsA close-up photograph of the star Betelgeuse as it appears in an antique German sky atlas. Ilbusca/Getty ImagesBetelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!Did it explode? No? Okay, then.But it seems fair to ask: Why Betelgeuse? Its an odd-seeming name for a star. Thats because its a corrupted translation of the Arabic phrase yad al-jawzā, which roughly translates to the hand of Oriona decent moniker for the star that does represent the constellations upraised arm.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.A lot of star names we use today are in fact Arabic in origin; the Alexandrian astronomer Claudius Ptolemy created a star map of the sky for his wildly popular book Mathematical Treatise, written in Greek around C.E. 150. It was translated into Arabic more than 1,000 years ago and acquired a nickname, Almagestitself a corruption of the Arabized version of the Greek word for the greatestand many of those Arabic versions of star names were kept even when the map was translated into different languages. Rigel, Deneb Aldebaran, and many more of the brightest stars in the sky trace their names back to such quirks of ancient publishing.Others started more as nicknames, such as Polaris being named for its position in the sky near the north celestial pole, and ruddy Antares, which literally means rival of Mars. Still others are named after astronomers who studied them, such as Barnards Star and van Maanens star. This is obviously a less-than-ideal naming methodology, sometimes leading to confusion over what a star should actually be called.You might think wed run out of names quickly, too, because there are many thousands of stars visible to the unaided eye at night. Fewer than 1,000 stars have proper names, however, so that doesnt seem like a crisiswhich is a good thing because there are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way! So the problem isnt naming them so much as naming them consistently.Different ancient cultures had their own names for stars, but as the world became more interconnected astronomers tried many systems to standardize names and naming, with varying degrees of success.One of the first in the modern era, published in 1603, was dreamed up by the German astronomer Johann Bayer. He named each star according to its apparent brightness ranking in a given constellation, using a Greek letter and the genitive (possessive) case of its constellation name. So for example, the brightest star in Orion would be called Alpha Orionis, the next brightest Beta Orionis, and so on. There are two problems with this system, however. First, the Greek alphabet is only 24 letters, so that limits the names you can use this way. Second, stars can change brightness over time, wreaking havoc on the ordering of a constellations star names.About a century later the English astronomer John Flamsteed came up with the idea of using numbers instead of letters, which obviates one of Bayers problems. Also, instead of using stars sometimes-varying brightness, he designated them by their position in a constellation, starting with the western edge of the constellation and moving east. So for example, 1 Orionis is not the brightest star in Orion but the one closest to its western edge.This has problems, too. Constellation borders werent officially defined until the International Astronomical Union approved them in 1928, so Flamsteeds catalog occasionally listed stars as being in one constellation when they were actually in another. Also, Flamsteed only catalogued stars he could see from England, which excludes a large part of the southern sky thats invisible from that latitude.Then theres the Bonner Durchmusterung catalog and its updates, created by astronomers at the Bonn Observatory in Germany in the mid- to late 1800s. This was the last great catalog assembled before photography revolutionized astronomical observing. It covers stars down as faint as ninth magnitude, sorting them by their declination (like latitude, but on the sky). After that came the Henry Draper catalog of the early 20th century, named for the eponymous American amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. The Draper catalog included spectroscopic information on stars and thus gives more details on associated stellar characteristics (such as temperature, size and composition).As telescopes and photographic equipment got better, fainter stars could be seen, meaning catalogs got a lot bigger. There were also more attributes of stars to note, including their physical motions in the sky relative to one another, which are usually apparent only after many years of careful observing. All-sky surveys became possible, too, as bigger telescopes were built in the Southern Hemisphere, creating a need for even bigger and better catalogs. By the 1990s, the numbers had become, well, astronomical. One project, the United States Naval Observatory catalog, used observations made on thousands of wide-field glass plates to organize a staggering one billion objects made from more than three billion observations, listing stars as faint as magnitude 21 (about a million times fainter than the dimmest star you can see by eye).When the Hubble Space Telescope was being built, astronomers realized that to properly point it they needed a very accurate list of star positions and brightnesses, so the Guide Star Catalog was created, which currently includes nearly a billion stars. These are observed by special sensors on Hubble that then use the known positions of the stars to navigate where the telescope needs to be aimed.There are still more catalogs, but the newest and most complete is from Gaia, a European Space Agency mission whose purpose is to measure the brightness, positions, motions and colors of stars and other cosmic objects with phenomenal accuracy. The Gaia team releases a new dataset every few years as updated measurements hone in on stellar characteristics. The most recent release contains new information about nearly two billion stars in the Milky Way.These more modern datasets (and there are far too many to mention individually) have so many stars that using any kind of naming is hopeless. Instead, they generally identify an object using an alphanumeric designation combining the catalog name with the stars position in the sky; so for example you might see a star listed as 2MASS J05551028+0724255 in the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey, representing the coordinates 05 hours, 55 minutes and 10.28 seconds of right ascension and 07 degrees, 24 minutes and 25.5 seconds of declination. Another name for that star? Betelgeuse.Given that the holidays and their traditional gift-giving are fast approaching, I cant help but note the presence of multiple ad campaigns on social media and elsewhere from various disreputable star naming companies. These promise you the ability to name a star (sometimes of your choosing, sometimes not) that will go in a catalog somewhere or be used by astronomers orget thissaved in a vault. So fancy! To be very clear: this is nonsense. These are vanity sales, and no astronomer anywhere will ever know the star names purchased from one of these companies or use them. Many of these companies target grieving people to name a star after a loved one who has died, and I personally find such messaging disgusting. Dont fall for this egregious scam.Anyway, an unavoidable problem here is that any given star can have a lot of names, even sticking to the legitimate ones. A lot. Our old friend Betelgeuse, for example, has no fewer than 46 designations listed at SIMBAD, a database of astronomical objects beyond the solar system. Sure, in that case everyone just calls it Betelgeuse, because thats its recognized name (and its fun to say), but for other stars the name used can depend on which astronomer is observing it, and how its being observed. A star might have been discovered in an infrared astronomical survey, but also independently in a radio-wave observation, so different astronomers will call it different names depending on what part of the spectrum theyre most familiar with.But Im okay with this; it gives us a certain flexibility with naming, and its not hard to look up which names go with what star.And of course, in the end, a star by any other name would shine as sweet.

OpinionDecember 20, 20245 min readWhy Six-Year-Olds Think Computing and Engineering Are For BoysEarly cultural exposure can influence kids ideas about gender and STEM in significant waysBy David Miller edited by Daisy Yuhas Skynesher/Getty ImagesSteve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezosmen dominate the tech industry. In 2021 men made up 75 percent of employed computer scientists and 84 percent of employed engineers in the U.S.And thats cause for concern. Consider the misuse of generative artificial intelligence tools for videos: deepfake pornography overwhelmingly targets women andalarminglysome teenage girls. Would you trust an all-male team of software engineers to make responsible and informed decisions about such tools? Though software engineers are a tiny sliver of the worlds population, the products they make can have enormous impact on the rest of society.Compared with men, women generally express more ethical and privacy-related concerns about AI and place a higher priority on safety and accountability. The tech industry needs more diverse perspectives to guard against the very real harms that AI technologies can bring into our world.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.My latest research as a psychologist and educational researcher unveils a major roadblock to achieving a more representative workforce, however: tech stereotypes that emerge remarkably early in childrens development. In research published this month, my colleagues and I found that by age six, kids already see girls as worse than boys at computer science and engineering.We also discovered that gender stereotypes are not the same for all STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math). In fact, math stereotypes are far less gendered than many researchers have often assumed. This nuance helps point to new ways to broaden participation in STEM fields. Most prior research to date has focused on stereotypes that girls are bad at math. But my colleagues at the American Institutes for Research and Cambridge University and I noticed mixed evidence as to whether children really hold that belief. Some studies do indeed show that kids have absorbed the stereotype that girls are worse than boys at math, but other studies find the exact opposite.We set out on a five-year-long expedition to synthesize more than four decades of past research on childrens gender stereotypes about abilities in STEM. We compiled a massive dataset of more than 145,000 children across 33 nations whose stereotypes had been measured in various ways. For instance, a study might ask kids, Are girls or boys better at computer coding?A clear pattern emerged: tech stereotypes are far more male-biased than math stereotypes. In other words, kids are more likely to see computer and engineering ability as for boys than they are to do the same for math ability.And this divergence across STEM fields begins early. For example, 52 percent of six-year-olds think boys are better at engineering, whereas 10 percent think girls are betteran early male bias of 42 percentage points. Computing also shows male bias at age six, though to a lesser extent. But for math, the fraction of six-year-olds who say boys are better (28 percent) is about the same as those who say girls are better (32 percent), showing no clear winner among young kids. (The remainder of kids did not see one group as better than the other.) These differences mirror related patterns among adults. For example, 40 percent of employed mathematicians but only 16 percent of employed engineers in the U.S. are women. Still, its surprising that kids as young as age six can have such nuanced beliefs about different STEM fields. Do six-year-olds even know what engineers are?In a broader context, the findings for math are less surprising. Girls earn better math grades than boys, for instance. Further, studies find that kids view success in school as being for girls, generally. These contextual features could reduce male bias in math, especially when it is perceived as a school subject.Kids tech stereotypes, meanwhile, likely come from cues outside the classroom, such as depictions of male computer nerds in films, news media and TV shows. Of course, young kids may also misperceive what computer scientists and engineers do. For instance, many English-speaking children assume that engineers fix car engines because engineer contains the word engine. Kids could then transfer masculine stereotypes about auto mechanics to engineers.At early ages, girls are somewhat insulated from these masculine stereotypes. Thats because of a phenomenon that developmental psychologists call in-group bias. Ever heard girls chant Girls rule, boys drool? Children aged five to seven tend to strongly favor their own gender. Math is one example: in general, boys favor boys and girls favor girls in early childhood when asked about who does well in that subject.This in-group bias even protects the youngest girls against tech stereotypes, to an extent. For instance, among six-year-old girls, 34 percent say girls are better at computing, whereas only 20 percent say boys areexhibiting a female bias.But this pattern rapidly changes with age, as cultural stereotypes replace in-group bias. At ages eight to 10, the number of girls who say boys are better at computing starts to outnumber those who say the reverse. This male bias further increases in middle school and high school. These sharp shifts could limit girls future aspirations for high-demand tech fields, such as AI.In contrast, boys of all ages consistently favor boys in all STEM areas, on average. Despite this relatively stable bias in STEM, boys rapidly learn stereotypes that can hold them back when reading and writing. By their senior year of high school, a clear majority of boys (72 percent) think girls have better verbal abilities, and only a small minority (10 percent) think boys have better verbal abilities.Our findings collectively indicate the need for targeted action. Initiatives for girls in math or girls in STEM may fall short of addressing the most entrenched stereotypes. Instead these efforts need a strategic focus on the most male-biased fields, such as tech.The tech gender gap isnt set in stone. In 1984 women were 37 percent of computer science college graduatesthe highest fraction compared to any other point in time. Yet today this figure hovers around 20 percent. Cultural changes, such as marketing computers to boys, may have driven girls and women out of the field. If the change was cultural, why cant we dial back the clock on that particular aspect?To address tech stereotypes, we need a national commitment to expand quality engagement with these fields in early childhood and elementary education. Research shows that early positive experiences with programming and robotics can ignite girls curiosity and interests before stereotypes set in and drive girls away. Free apps such as ScratchJr allow children aged five to seven to learn coding basics by programing interactive stories and games, for instance. But a lot more research is needed to be sure what early approaches will actually narrow gender gaps.With early positive exposure, girls might lean less strongly on stereotypes to guide their future decisions, such as when choosing high school course electives. That is, early engagement in tech sets a foundation for success in later grades and career stages.Rebecca Portnoff, head of data science at the nonprofit Thorn, who uses her computer science expertise to develop AI tools and safety-by-design guidelines that aim to stop the creation and spread of child sexual abuse images. AI technologies have tremendous potential to transform society. Having diverse voices in tech will help harness that power for social good.Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about for Mind Matters? Please send suggestions to Scientific Americans Mind Matters editor Daisy Yuhas at dyuhas@sciam.com.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

OpinionDecember 20, 20246 min readThe Forgotten History of the Discovery of Human BrainwavesThe centennial of the discovery of brain waves in humans exposes a chilling tale involving Nazis, war between Russia and Ukraine, suicide and the vicissitudes of historyBy R. Douglas Fields edited by Daniel VerganoGerman psychiatrist Hans Berger recorded the first electroencephalogram of human brain waves in 1924. Ullstein bild via Getty ImagesThis year is the centennial of the discovery of human brain waves. Few people know the story of that startling finding, because the true story was suppressed and lost to history. Almost two decades ago I visited the pioneering scientists labs in Germany and Italy seeking answers. What I learned overturned accepted history and exposed a chilling tale involving Nazis, brainwaves, war between Russia and Ukraine, and suicide. This history resonates with current eventsRussia and Ukraine recently passed a grim 1,000-day milestone of a conflict waged on a pretext of battling Nazisrevealing how history, science and society are intricately entwined.Human brainwaves, oscillating waves of electricity that constantly sweep through brain tissue, change with our thoughts and perceptions. Their value in medicine is incalculable. They reveal all manner of neurological and psychological disorders to doctors and guide neurosurgeons hands when extracting diseased brain tissue that triggers seizures. Only newly appreciated, their role in the healthy brain is transforming our fundamental understanding of how the brain processes information. Like waves of all types, the electrical waves sweeping through the brain generate synchrony (think of water waves bobbing boats); in the case of brainwaves, whats synchronized is activity among populations of neurons.Who discovered brainwaves? What did they think theyd found? Why was there no Nobel Prize?On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.In the most common accounts, a reclusive physician, Hans Berger, recorded the first human brainwaves from his patients in a mental hospital in the German city of Jena in 1924 (later part of East Germany). He told no one what he was doing, and he kept his momentous findings secret for five years. As the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s, mental hospitals became the epicenter of forced sterilization and euthanasia to promote racial hygiene. Some of the methods developed in these facilities served as a prelude to the industrialized killing in concentration camps. As head of the mental hospital in Jena, Berger would have been in the thick of it. Biographies at the time of my visit stated that Berger committed suicide in 1941 from Nazi persecutionBerger was no adherent of Hitler and so he had to relinquish the service of his University; not having expected this, he was gravely hurt. [This] bestowed upon him a depression which finally killed him, wrote psychiatrist Rudolf Lemke, in a 1956 memorial. Lemke had worked under Berger.To me this seemed odd. Wouldnt the Nazis have dismissed Berger just as they purged 20 percent of German academics in 1933, and ruthlessly expelled or liquidated disloyal politicians, administrators and others?In Jena I learned that Lemke was in fact a member of the NSDP (Nazi party). He worked at the ErbgesundheitsgerichtAfter World War II Jena came under control of the Soviet Union, and documents revealing the widespread cover-up were lost or destroyed. When I visited Bergers hospital I met with neuroscientist Christoph Redies and medical historian Susanne Zimmermann, who had recently obtained Soviet records after the fall of the Berlin wall. They revealed that Berger was, in fact, a Nazi sympathizer. He committed suicide in the hospital, not in protest but because he suffered from depression, she says. In taking his own life, Bergers death mirrored the suicides of many others at the time who were involved in Nazi atrocities.Leafing through his dusty laboratory notebooks containing the earliest recordings of human brainwaves, Zimmermann pointed out marginal antisemitic comments he had written alongside them. She then pulled out a stack of records of proceedings in the forced sterilization court where Berger served in an era when eugenics sought to cull the unfit from parenthood. Hearing them read aloud brought to life the horrors that had taken place there, as people pleaded with the court not to sterilize them or their loved ones. Berger denied every appeal, condemning them all to forced sterilization.The hospital in Jena, Germany, where Berger discovered brainwaves.R. Douglas FieldsBergers EEG research was not well received. A believer in mental telepathy, Berger thought brainwaves could be the basis for mental telepathy, but he ultimately rejected that idea. Instead, he believed that brainwaves were a type of psychic energy. Like other forms of energy, waves of psychic energy could not be created or destroyed, but they could interact with physical phenomena. Based on this, he surmised that the work of mental cognition would cause temperature changes in the brain. He explored this idea by stabbing rectal thermometers into his mental patients' brains while they did cognitive tasks during surgery.Bergers research remained little known outside Germany until 1934 when Nobel Prizewinning neuroscientist Edgar Adrian published his experiments in the prestigious journal Brain. Adrian confirmed that the so-called Berger waves do exist, but he implicitly mocked them by showing that they changed in a water beetle when it opened and closed its eyes, in the same way they did in the Nobel Prizewinners brain when he did the same. Adrian never did further research on brainwaves.Berger is credited with the discovery of brainwaves in humans, but studies in animals predated his work. Nor did Berger invent the methods he used to monitor brain activity. He applied techniques used previously in animal experiments by Adolf Beck in Lww, Poland, in 1895, and Angelo Mosel in Turin, Italy.In contrast to Berger, Adolf Becks animal studies were intended to understand how the brain functions when neurons communicate by electrical impulses. At the peak of his research a Russian invasion halted his scientific work. In 1914 Lww was taken by invading Russians and renamed Lviv. Beck was captured and imprisoned in Kiev, then part of Russia (now Kyiv, Ukraine).While in prison he wrote to the famous Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov appealing for his help, and Pavlov eventually won Becks release.Beck returned to his research in Lviv, and the next logical step was to search for brainwaves in humans, but in World War II Germans invaded. They established a concentration camp in Lviv where the Jewish population was exterminated. As an intellectual and a Jew, Beck was a target. When they came to take Beck to the concentration camp in 1942, he swallowed cyanide, ending his own life rather than having it taken by the Nazis.Remarkably, both pioneering brainwave scientists committed suicide from Nazismone as Nazi perpetrator, the other as Nazi victim.Bergers grave in Jena.R. Douglas FieldsUnknown to both Berger and Beck, they were notbrain was an enigma and the world was lit by gas lamps and powered by steam. Imagine how much further ahead brain science and medicine would be now if this scientific discovery made in 1875 had not been lost to history for half a century.The first person to discover brainwaves was the London physician Richard Caton. Caton announced his discovery of brainwaves recorded in rabbits and monkey at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh in 1875. He achieved this using a primitive device, a string galvanometer, in which a small mirror is suspended on a thread between magnets. When an electric current (picked up from the brain in this case) passes through the device, the string twists slightly like a compass needle near a magnet. The oscillating electrical currents detected in the brains were not measured in volts, but rather in millimeters of deflection of the light beam bounced off the mirror. The published abstract of his presentation The Electric Currents of the Brain shows that with this primitive instrument the physician correctly deduced the most important aspects of brainwaves. In every brain hitherto examined, the galvanometer has indicated the existence of electric currents. The electric currents of the grey matter appear to have a relation to its function.Ironically, I traveled the world to research the discovery of brainwaves, only to find that the first person to do so, Richard Caton, presented his findings in the U.S. in 1887 at Georgetown University while on a visit to his family in Catonsville, Md. The town, which was settled by his relatives 1787, is 30 miles from my home, next to the Baltimore-Washington Airport, from which I often embarked on my global search. But that fact, like his unappreciated brainwave research, was lost to history. Read my paper on the electrical currents of the brain, he wrote in his diary. It was well received but not understood by most of the audience.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

December 20, 20244 min readOur Bodies Are So Ready to Celebrate the Rebirth of the SunThe winter solstice is the culmination of a period every year when each cell in our body literally craves more lightBy Gary Stix edited by Dean VisserWinter solstice in snowy forest. Iryna Khabliuk/Alamy Stock PhotoThe moment when Earths Northern Hemisphere tilts farthest away from the sunthe December solstice, on the 21st this yearis not just a mark on the calendar. It is also defined by the way our bodies react to the event. The dimming of our daily ration of natural light leading up to the winter solstice produces a series of conspicuous physiological changes.These changes relate to circadian rhythms. The word circadian derives from the Latin circa diem, meaning about a day. It signifies the way animals, plants, fungi and bacteria react to environmental cues, including inputs of light, on a daily and seasonal basis.Sofia Axelrod is a chronobiologist at Rockefeller University who studies circadian rhythms and their impact on physiology and behavior. Her research in the laboratory of Nobelist Michael Young on circadian rhythms, sleep and longevity made her an ideal candidate to ask about how the solstice and the darkened days leading up to it affect creatures that range from fruit flies (the animals she began her studies on) to humans.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]What happens to our bodily rhythms at higher latitudes on the shortest day of the year?Our bodily rhythms are set by light. Your internal bodily clock can get out of sync with the real time when, say, you travel east to west and light exposure is shifted. That also happens with the shortest day of the year because your light exposure in the summer is four to eight hours earlier than in the winter. In Berlin, where Im from, sunrise is 3:45 A.M. on June 21 and 8:15 A.M. on December 21. So right now were not getting the daylight signal until hours after we have to get up to go to school or work, which feels horrible and is unhealthy for our circadian rhythm. And so you have this delayed onset of the circadian stimulus, which is supposed to tell your body through the eyes and a specialized brain structure that its time to start activating [transcribing and translating] a set of so-called clock genes that are basically like a secretary of all cells and tell other cells when to do what.On top of that, were also not getting enough sunlight throughout the day because it gets dark so early: 3:56 P.M. in Berlin, to stay with that example. Its dark hours before were supposed to get sleepy, and that can have detrimental effects on peoples mood, energy levels and sleep, and worsen sundowning in older people with dementiaengendering confusion, agitation and sleep disturbances.How do people with sleep disturbances react?What you see in the winter is that people, if left to their own devices, get out of bed later because theyre simply not getting this light stimulation to start the day for them. Also, with the effect of indoor illumination in our modern society, there are significant changes in our sleep-wake duration.We all experience this. Its very hard to get out of bed when its pitch black, and conversely, in the summer, its very hard to sleep when you are in a very bright room and are getting a lot of early sunlight at 4 A.M. Is all of this healthy? Is it not healthy? Nothing that I just described suggests either way.But light sensitivity varies among people. Generally, there is no problem with this unless it somehow interferes with your ability to function. A lot of people have trouble getting out of bed without light, and then they have a hard time functioning during the day. Thats when it gets tricky because there is a phenomenon of a lack of sunlight in the winter causing seasonal affective disorder, a circadian disruption that causes people to just feel really down. And that is a real thing that is entirely caused by the lack of light.Its not just the duration of the shortest day of the of the year in terms of when the sun comes up. Its also the overall light level in higher latitudes. In New York City, where I am, on some days, its just very dim. The light level never reaches the amount or the dose that is required to instruct your circadian rhythm. If that is a prolonged state of your environment, that causes significant disruption of the circadian clockwhich basically doesnt do its job of organizing your cellular functions anymore. And one output of that is depression.Is an effect such as depression particularly acute in the immediate period around the winter solstice?Yes, especially for people who get up early and then go basically to work in the dark, sit in a windowless office with indoor illumination that does not provide them with circadian stimulation, and then go home when its dark again. Basically, they have spent, potentially, weeks in complete circadian darkness. And, of course, all of this is most acute around the solstice because its the shortest day of the year, and then it gets better again. And people describe this in some cultures as a reawakening, and its really a reawakening of the circadian clock.Are there other effects besides depression? How does the solstice affect something such as resistance to infection?All cells have circadian rhythms. If you dont get enough light because its winter, the immune system dampens. You stop making immune cellsT cells, macrophagesthat you need to fight infections at certain times of the day. Less light means a less functioning immune system and lower resistance to infection.There has been talk about getting rid of daylight saving time, including from the incoming presidential administration. Would that be a good thing?We shift our body twice a year with daylight savings, and that causes jet lag. That may not be a big deal for any given individual, but it is a big deal statistically at the overall population level. Heart attacks and traffic accidents jump the next day. Its just an unnecessary thing that we subject our whole country to, and we should get rid of it.

December 20, 20243 min readWhat Gives Christmas Trees Their Crisp, Cozy Scent?Learn which molecules are responsible for giving Christmas trees their distinct, crisp-yet-spicy scentBy Meghan Bartels edited by Lauren J. Young Iuliia Bondar/Getty ImagesNothing smells quite like a Christmas treebut where does that magical woodsy-yet-cozy aroma come from? You can thank a ubiquitous category of chemicals called terpenes.Terpenes are the largest class of naturally produced chemicals in the world, says Justin Whitehill, a plant pathologist who researches Christmas trees full time at North Carolina State University. Theyre found in pretty much all plant species.Terpenes can play a wide range of beneficial ecological roles: they can protect plants from hungry predators and parasites, attract pollinators, and help plants tolerate stressful conditions. The specific terpenes producedas well as the purposes they serve and the aromas they createvary between different species.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.But terpenes can also be dangerous to a plant itself, Whitehill says, and so in firs, for example, these chemicals are sequestered away from the rest of the trees tissue in a protective liquid botanists call resin. The thick liquid is kept in specialized ducts in the outer bark and needles where it can be oozed out as the tree needs, such as to patch an injury and reduce the likelihood of infection. It hardens when exposed to air, and its what makes your hands sticky after handling a Christmas tree. Resin is often mistakenly called sap, which properly refers to the watery liquid that carries nutrients and sugars throughout a tree. Sap is present in all trees, whereas resin is only produced by certain species.Small terpenes have relatively low boiling points, at which they become a gas and create an odor our nose can detect, and its these smaller terpenes that produce the woodsy, characteristic scents of Christmas once a tree is placed indoors and warms up slightly, Whitehill says. But a tree has only so many terpenes to release, so the scent is finite. This is one reason why he recommends displaying a Christmas tree in a cooler part of your house, which can keep the treeand its scentfresher for longer.Sharp-nosed folks may also notice that their trees scent shifts over the course of its residence indoors, Whitehill notes. There are some individual compounds that have different boiling points, and so the bouquet of those trees will change over time from an intense pine aroma to one thats maybe a bit sweeter, he says.Whitehill is most familiar with the array of terpenes produced by Fraser firs, which dominate Christmas tree farms in North Carolina, where he works. And he says that careful sniffing can pick up on the slight differences in terpene profiles between these firs and other species of Christmas trees. One thing I have noticed that makes Fraser fir a little unique is that it has sort of a sweet aroma in addition to that holiday bouquet, Whitehill says. It has this kind of sweet, almost piney, woodsy aroma that is just really inviting.(Why do many of us like the scent so much? Whitehill says he suspects its thanks to a combination of the aroma itself and the memories it summons of holiday seasons past.)Although smaller terpenes create a trees scent, larger terpenes may help it last, Whitehill says. In balsam firs, scientists have found a particularly interesting large terpene called cis-abienol, which is surprisingly similar in structure to a chemical long used by the perfume industry to make scents linger. Whether cis-abienol plays a similar role in Christmas trees, and whether it could be harvested for the perfume industry, remains to be determined.Another terpene topic Whitehill and his colleagues are investigating is whether genetically modifying a tree can change its scent profile. Can we start developing trees that have not only that classic Fraser fir bouquet but maybe get a little crazy and develop something like a peppermint mocha or a minty Christmas tree? Whitehill says. How far can we go with it?

OpinionDecember 20, 20245 min readThis Years Nobel Prizes Are a Warning about AIUnless we pursue AI carefully, the Nobel committee will one day give a Peace Prize to the people cleaning up its terrible consequences, just as it did with nuclear physicsBy Y Cooper A man wheels his bicycle thorough Hiroshima, Japan, days after the city was leveled by an atomic bomb blast. The view here is looking west-northwest, about 550 feet from where the bomb landed on August 6, 1945. Keystone/Getty ImagesThe awards ceremony for the Nobel prizes took place in December this year, celebrating both work relating to artificial intelligence and efforts by the group Nihon Hidankyo to end nuclear war.It was a striking juxtaposition, one not lost on me, a mathematician studying how deep learning works. In the first half of the 20th century, the Nobel Committees awarded prizes in physics and chemistry for discoveries that uncovered the structure of atoms. This work also enabled the development and subsequent deployment of nuclear weapons. Decades later the Nobel committees awarded this years Peace Prize for work trying to counteract one way nuclear science ended up being used.There are parallels between the development of nuclear weapons from basic physics research, and the risks posed by applications of AI emerging from work that began as fundamental research in computer science. These include the incoming Trump administrations push for Manhattan Projects for AI, as well as a wider spectrum of societal risks, including misinformation, job displacement, and surveillance.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.I am concerned that my colleagues and I are insufficiently connected to the effects our work could have. Will the Nobel Committees be awarding a Peace Prize in the next century to the people cleaning up the mess AI scientists leave behind? I am determined that we not repeat the nuclear weapons story.About 80 years ago hundreds of the worlds top scientists joined the Manhattan Project in a race to build an atomic weapon before the Nazis did. Yet after the German bomb effort stopped in 1944 and even after Germany surrendered the next year, the work in Los Alamos continued without pause.Even when the Nazi threat had ended, only one Manhattan Project scientistJoseph Rotblatleft the project. Looking back, Rotblat explained: You get yourself involved in a certain way and forget that you are a human being. It becomes an addiction and you just go on for the sake of producing a gadget, without thinking about the consequences. And then, having done this, you find some justification for having produced it. Not the other way around.The U.S. military carried out the first nuclear test soon after. Then U.S. leaders authorized the twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9. The bombs killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians, some immediately. Others died years and even decades later from the effects of radiation poisoning.Though Rotblats words were written decades ago, they are an eerily accurate description of the prevailing ethos in AI research today.I first began to see parallels between nuclear weapons and artificial intelligence while working at Princetons Institute for Advanced Study, where the haunting closing scene of Christopher Nolans film Oppenheimer was set. Having made some progress in understanding the mathematical innards of artificial neural networks, I was also beginning to have concerns about the eventual social implications of my work. On a colleagues suggestion I went to talk to the then director of the institute, physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf.He suggested I look to J. Robert Oppenheimers life story for guidance. I read one biography, then another. I tried to guess what Dijkgraaf had in mind, but I didnt see anything appealing in Oppenheimers path, and by the time I finished the third biography the only thing that was clear to me was that I did not want my own life to mirror his. I did not want to reach the end of my life with a burden like Oppenheimers weighing on me.Oppenheimer is often quoted as saying that when scientists see something that is technically sweet, [they] go ahead and do it. In fact, Geoff Hinton, one of the winners of the 2024 Nobel prize in physics, has referenced this. This is not universally true. The preeminent woman physicist of the time, Lise Meitner, was asked to join the Manhattan project. Despite being Jewish and having narrowly escaped the Nazi occupation, she flatly refused, saying, I will have nothing to do with a bomb!Rotblat, too, provides another model for how scientists can navigate the challenge of exercising talent without losing sight of values. After the war he returned to physics, focusing on medical uses of radiation. He also became a leader in the nuclear antiproliferation movement through the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, a group that he co-founded in 1957. In 1995, he and his colleagues were recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize for this work.Now, as then, there are thoughtful, grounded individuals who stand out in the development of AI. Taking a stance evocative of Rotblat, Ed Newton-Rex resigned last year from his position leading the music generation team at Stability AI, over the companys insistence on creating generative AI models trained on copyrighted data without paying for that use. This year, Suchir Balaji resigned as a researcher at OpenAI over similar concerns.In an echo of Meitners refusal to work on military applications of her discoveries, at a 2018 internal company town hall, Meredith Whittaker voiced worker concerns about Project Maven, a Department of Defense contract to develop AI to power military drone targeting and surveillance. Eventually, workers succeeded in pressuring Google, where 2024 Nobel physics prize laurate Demis Hassabis works, to drop the project.There are many ways in which society influences how scientists work. A direct one is financial; collectively we choose what research to fund, and individually we choose which products coming out of that research we pay for.An indirect but very effective one is prestige. Most scientists care about their legacy. When we look back on the nuclear erawhen we choose, for instance, to make a movie about Oppenheimer, among other scientists of that agewe send a signal to scientists today about what we value. When the Nobel Prize Committees choose which people among those working on AI today to reward with Nobel Prizes, they set a powerful incentive for the AI researchers of today and tomorrow.It is too late to change the events of the 20th century, but we can hope for better outcomes for AI. We can start by looking past those in machine learning focused on rapid development of capabilities, instead following the lead of those like Newton-Rex and Whittaker, who insist on engaging with the context of their work and who have the capacity not only to evaluate but also respond to changing circumstances. Paying attention to what scientists like them are saying will provide the best hope for positive scientific development, now and into the future.As a society, we have the choice of whom to elevate, emulate and hold up as role models for the next generation. As the nuclear era teaches us, right now is the time to carefully evaluate what applications of scientific discovery, and whom among todays scientists, reflect the values not of the world in which we currently live, but the one which we hope to inhabit.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

December 19, 20243 min readMost Expensive Dinosaur Fossil Ever Could Reveal Stegosaurus SecretsThe huge Stegosaurus fossil Apex, bought at auction for $44.6 million, has debuted on loan at the American Museum of Natural HistoryBy Zane Wolf edited by Sarah Lewin FrasierA new stegosaurus fossil named Apex which was bought by billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin is unveiled while it is on loan for the next four years to the American Museum of Natural History, December 5, 2024 in New York, NY. Sipa USA/Alamy Live NewsMy first visit to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) involved a flurry of media cameras, a sea of press badges and no small amount of intrigue. We had all been invited to witness the unveiling of something. The museum made it clear we could expect to see a spectacular specimen that would rival the ranks of storied favorites such as Sue, the spectacular and beloved Tyrannosaurus rex specimen at Chicagos Field Museum.Suffice it to say the AMNH delivered. Following a countdown from a bevy of schoolchildren at the front of the crowd, curtains were drawn to reveal Apex, one of the most complete and largest Stegosaurus fossils yet discovered. The fossil was bought for a record-breaking $44.6 million last Julyits the most expensive ever sold at auction, according to APand is currently on a long-term loan to the museum.The Apex Stegosaurus on view in the American Museum of Natural Historys Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation.Alvaro Keding & Daniel Kim/ AMNHOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Apex (named, aptly, for its size) is 11.5 feet tall and 27 feet long, and it died around 150 million years agothe peak era for Stegosaurus in terms of species diversity and population density. A considerable amountroughly 80 percentof Apexs skeleton was recovered, and compared with other Stegosaurus specimens with similar amounts of skeletal material, this specimens fossilization process preserved its three-dimensional characteristics exceptionally well. The important thing for me is those bones come from all of the major regions of the skeleton, so were not missing important parts of this animal, says Roger Benson, Macaulay Curator of Paleontology and curator-in-charge of fossil amphibians, reptiles, and birds and fossil plants at the AMNH. Apexs completeness and size could give scientists a crucial opportunity to answer some outstanding basic questions.For instance, researchers still arent sure what the massive, iconic back plates of Stegosaurus were good for, explains Paul Barrett, a paleontologist and dinosaur specialist at the Natural History Museum in London. Were they used for thermoregulation or defense? And if it was the latter, how effective were they at fending off attacks? With a lot of well-preserved skeleton to work with, scientists are bound to find more clues about functionality.Thanks to Apexs completeness, it can be used to craft virtual models to study how this animal moved in comparison to smaller specimens, showing how locomotion gaits might have changed as the animals matured. Apex adds another really important point of comparison for all the other Stegosaurus remains that we already know about, and its particularly important in that its near the very top end of the size range, Barrett explains.The Apex Stegosaurus on view in the American Museum of Natural Historys Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation.Alvaro Keding & Daniel Kim/ AMNHApexs large size also suggests this dinosaur specimen died when it was relatively mature, which would be a rarity. Dinosaurs were living a kind of rock-star lifestyle of living fast and dying young, Barrett says, and the dearth of fully adult specimens creates a large gap in our knowledge about how and when these animals reached full maturity.Benson and Barrett describe two ways to determine biological age in a fossil. First, vertebrates are often born with more bones than they have when they die because some eventually fuse together. Human craniums are a prime example, consisting of five separate major bones that fuse into one structure after birth. In Apex, Benson explains, every single vertebra is fused, and thats one of the really clear signs of older age.Second, like tree rings, patterns of bone growth can indicate periods of fast and slow growth as well as overall age. By looking across bone samples from small, younger specimens and larger, adult specimens like Apex, its possible to construct a model of when and how rapidly Stegosaurus grew during different periods of its life. This can yield valuable information about its overall metabolism and the duration of various life stages.

December 18, 2024The Scientists Versus Dartmouth: Inside a Sexual Harassment Scandal That Shook Science to Its CoreIn 2017, a group of students at Dartmouth College filed a lawsuit that revealed an entrenched culture of power and abuse, and in doing so, they sparked a wider conversation about sexual violence in science.By Sharon Shattuck edited by Jeffery DelViscioTranscriptTEXT CARD: 2020Dartmouth College, N.H.Vassiki Chauhan: In September 2015, I arrived from the Boston Airport on the Dartmouth Coach that loops around the green.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.I felt hopeful about things that were going to happen here, things Id get to learn, and science Id get to do. But it doesnt feel very much like that anymore.Im Vassiki Chauhan. Im a Ph.D. student in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Im pursuing my Ph.D. at Dartmouth, and I specifically work on how humans perceive faces of other people.When I was in the ninth grade, I got my hands on a book about theory of relativity and Einsteins life, and how he became a scientist, and that just blew my mind.I became really intrigued by physics, I spent all my pocket money buying books about cosmology, general relativity and quantum mechanics, like I was really really really into it.Because I was interested in physics, I loved thinking about artificial intelligence and robotics...so it kind of all came together in the end.When I was pulling into Hanover, and I flew in from Mumbai, I was captivated by these red brick buildings. I felt like I was kind of walking into a dream when I got there.Once I got here, I noticed that in order to fit in, there was a certain amount of requirement to go together and get a drink.There were three tenured professors in the department of psychological and brain sciences. Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen. They brought in a lot of grants, they were very famous.The professors would be in the bar, and all of a sudden, you know, some women in the group would suddenly have new drinks in their hands that they didnt even choose, that they didnt pay for, and we knew that they were paid for by the professors.That was highly normalized, so uh, I just went with it.Kristina Rapuano: The mentorship was so heavily entangled in this drinking culture like, if there was a drink in front of you, like to turn it down almost felt like you were turning down advising.Sasha Brietzke: Either you go out to the bar and have a beer with him and hell read your papers, or you dont, and youre neglected.Annemarie Brown: There are now so many red flags. And none of them registered to me at all at the time as a red flag. They would try to keep us from talking to each other about our experiences, and it worked pretty well.Rapuano: Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen would routinely make jokes about our physical appearance, as though this were a competition.Andrea Courtney: I witnessed Paul Whalen kiss someone on the forehead, and there were just lots of hugs and inappropriate touching.Marissa Evans: The text messages went from like "Oh, what are you up to?" to "Oh, I've been drinking. Like a girl like you would never have a guy like me. Sending nude photos and telling me like what he wanted to do with meRapuano: When I entered graduate school with Bill Kelley, I experienced a lot of heavy grooming behaviors, from really day one. Until he physically took advantage of me at a conference. This being my advisor, I kind of just...I didnt push back, I didnt say anything. I felt trapped.Chauhan: Cumulatively it's like all consistent with, you know, how predators behave.One day Paul Whalen, he invited me to his house for a farewell party for one of his RAs and there were a bunch of other graduate students there. And then, we went to a bar and after that, I was like okay, if you want to get another beer, this place is closing down, we can go to your house.Id been to his house before, and I didnt feel like it was anything out of the ordinary.And I was trying to play music and he had gone to grab beers or something and I just . . . I felt his body behind me. And you know, you don't forget a thing like that. You don't forget that Oh my god, what's really happening right now?I always remember saying noI used the word, I used the action. I was explicit. And I, I know that to the core.He had so much power and influence and weight, and I was just this graduate student from India, like, early stages of my PhD.It was just this deep and insidious violation of trust and human behavior.Brietzke: I didn't know for a while the degree of wrongdoing that had happened. I'd heard rumors.I went to a conference, an academic conference, and Todd Heatherton came to like a post conference event at a karaoke bar, extremely intoxicated. Um, and he like summoned me over to where he was sitting, and kind of grabbed me by, um, the butt and sat me on his lap. I just remember feeling this intense sense of embarrassment and shame and that I would never be taken seriously as a scientist.I started just kind of raging really, in the hotel, in the conference hotel. And then, after that I just started talking to people.Courtney: To be honest, it took comparing my experience with the other women before I started to realize I wasnt the problem.Brown: We realized how eerie and startling the similarities were between the patterns of these women.We realized, these men meant to do this.Brietzke: At first it's just like oh, this is just my experience. And then it's oh, other people had these experiences with these three men. And it's like oh, a lot of women.Rapuano: So we sort of organized ourselves and met with the chairs of the department. Without even naming the professors they understood. They knew exactly who we were talking about and decided to launch a Title IX investigation.Brietzke: A committee determined that the three professors should be fired.But before that could be finalized, Bill and Paul resigned, and Todd retired.Chauhan: If you either allow three professors to resign or retire after a year-long investigation, you're not setting a precedent. You're just doing the easiest, least costly thing for the institution.At that point it just felt like okay, maybe what we need to do to effect real change is sue the college from our side.Because they need to treat us better.Rapuano: When we first decided to file a lawsuit, I did want to remain anonymous.Brietzke: I felt like I was detonating my career without really knowing the full extent of the damages.Chauhan: I was worried about not being seen as a scientist. Being seen as a victim.But in order to have our stories resonate with other women, in order to get institutions to take interest in what we had to say, we had to go all-in.We had to basically put our lives at stake for the impact we wanted to make.ABC World News Tonight archival: The stunning accusations from several young women, accusing three male professors at Dartmouth of turning their department into a 21st century Animal House, they say, calling it a predators club.Courtney: The response was overwhelmingly positive and that was, very, very encouraging.Rapuano: I've had faculty from other institutions reach out and ask for more information about our case so that they can make changes within their own departments.Chauhan: A lot of Indian women reached out to me and they're like given our culture I can't believe this is something that you decided to do, and it makes me feel like this is an option for me as well.TEXT CARD: In 2019 the plaintiffs and 70+ class members reached a $14-million settlement with Dartmouth.TEXT CARD: Under the settlement, Dartmouth invested $1.5-million to hire diverse faculty and support a nonprofit working to end gender-based violence.TEXT CARD: 2024Harlem, New York CityRapuano: During the lawsuit, I think it was really important for our names and our faces to be part of that, because it humanized what that case represented. But it's important to know that our narratives don't end with that case. It's a story that is constantly evolving and unfolding, and it is our lives, and we're not defined by that case, but it transforms who we are to this day.So I ended up becoming a research scientist at a startup. I'm really grateful that I've been able to land in a place where I can still do my science, but that has these more checks and balances, and I don't need to worry about that kind of abuse of power being wielded over me.One of the things that I started doing is actually weight lifting. So I lift heavy weights three to four times a week. I can squat much more than my body weight. Yeah, its really fun. It feels good to be in your own body and, like, feel powerful.Chauhan: I was a graduate student at Dartmouth when the lawsuit came out. So I had to finish my PhD in the aftermath of all of that. So in some ways there was a lot of hostility in that moment, in that environment.Given that so much unexpected stuff had happened, I felt like there was no way science would hold onto me. It felt like nobody would want me, in fact. But um, I kept following the path of my curiosity, and that brought me to New York City.So now I'm working as a postdoc at Barnard College.Chauhan (tape): I cant wait to show this to youI also work as a publisher now, or volunteer as a publisher, with Science for the People.This is the issue that I got involved with. Its about technology.We also have a robust, amazing New York City chapter where we engage in direct action together.It's a really fulfilling experience to not feel alone in wanting science to be more than a profession.Rapuano: I've been very fortunate to maintain a very close tie with my best friend Vassiki.She's fiercely living her life in every aspect, both in her science as a postdoc, her activist work. I'm just always in awe of her.Chauhan: What Ive learned is that if you want to make change, don't go at it alone. Try to do it with people who will share the burden, and have the same goals as you and as a result can keep you accountable.There are very few things I think of as permanent, but our friendship is one of those things.TEXT CARD: Scientific American reviewed the complaint filed by the interviewees as part of the lawsuit.TEXT CARD: In October 2024 we reached out to Dartmouth for comment on this story. The college replied:There is no place for sexual violence or harassment at Dartmouth. We work every day to ensure a learning and research environment that is safe, respectful, equitable, and inclusive for all students, faculty, and staff.Dartmouth had no prior knowledge of misconduct and applauds the efforts of the women who brought these concerns to light in 2017. Upon learning of the students concerns, Dartmouth promptly conducted a rigorous and objective review consisting of separate investigations of each of the former faculty members, led by an experienced external investigator who interviewed more than 50 witnesses and reviewed extensive documentation.Dartmouth took the unprecedented step to revoke the tenure and terminate the employment of all three faculty members after a careful investigation revealed conduct that was at odds with the Colleges values and violated its policies.

OpinionDecember 19, 20244 min readTrumps Pick for NIH Director Could Harm Science and People's HealthWith a possible bird flu outbreak looming, Donald Trumps choice of Jay Bhattacharya, a scientist critical of COVID policies, for the NIH is the wrong move for science and public healthBy Steven M. Albert edited by Tanya LewisJay Bhattacharya speaks during a roundtable discussion with members of the House Freedom Caucus on the COVID-19 pandemic at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday, November 10, 2022. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesPresident-elect Donald Trump wants Jay Bhattacharya, a physician-scientist and economist at Stanford University, to lead the National Institutes of Health. The NIH is a global powerhouse of science. Its mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.Most politicians, even when criticizing the agency, recognize the good it has done in building effective public health measures. Cancer death rates continue to decline, for example, because of the work NIH investigators have done around prevention, detection and treatment.Bhattacharya does not see the agencys successes this way. In his podcast Science from the Fringe, Bhattacharya recently said he is amazed by the authoritarian tendencies of public health. He struck a similar theme in a Newsmax interview: [We need] to turn the NIH from something thats [used] to control society into something thats aimed at the discovery of truth to improve the health of Americans."On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The scientists who apply for NIH funding, sit on peer review panels and administer grants would be surprised to hear they control society. They do science. The claims of authoritarianism are a screen for pushing a particular agenda that is likely to damage the NIH. Bhattacharyas science agenda is political: to set concerns for personal autonomy against evidence-based public health science. This is not appropriate for NIH leadership.Bhattacharya has never explained how the NIH controls society, given its role as a research institution, and it is hard to see how it does except perhaps in setting research priorities and awarding funding based on expert review. Is he against public health legislation that has controlled lead emissions in vehicles, enforced vaccine requirements for children attending public schools, and promoted folate fortification in bread and fluoride in drinking water? This legislation has improved population health in terms of cognitive performance, infectious disease burden, neural tube defects in pregnancy, and oral health, respectively. Is this the kind of control he fears?Public health authorities decide on a health promotion measure for a population based on the science, often for people vulnerable and unaware of health risks, when health benefits are clear. NIH research provides the evidence for these public health measures. It is fair to debate the quality of scientific evidence and benefit to population health relative to restrictions on autonomy and choice, but establishing mechanisms for population health risk and making recommendations based on this evidence are not authoritarianism, and making such a comparison is not the way to do good science or build trust.Bhattacharyas views are one more unfortunate legacy of the COVID pandemic, when he argued against supposed public health overreach in the Great Barrington Declaration back in 2020. The declaration claimed that isolating only people at highest risk and allowing continued spread of COVID among more healthy people would build herd immunity without substantial increases in COVID mortality. In response, public health officials and NIH leaders criticized Bhattacharya based on the science: In the setting of asymptomatic viral transmission, high contagiousness and inescapable population mixing, such a strategy of focused protection was unlikely to protect vulnerable populations. Bhattacharya called this censorship and unsuccessfully tried to convince the Supreme Court to weigh in against social media venues that dropped his messaging.This personal pique is a distraction and should not obscure the central focus of U.S. public health policy during the pandemic. Science supported school closures, work-from-home policies, large gathering restrictions in public spaces, and face mask requirements as effective ways to lower hospital surges and buy time for vaccine development. You can challenge the science, as many have; but it is not authoritarian to use science for policy. Likewise, you may value personal autonomy and resist vaccination or face mask mandates, but drawing on scientific evidence to support these measures does not mean scientists have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation, as Trump has falsely claimed to justify his nominees.Authoritarianism in science or public health was not responsible for the pandemics heavy toll in the U.S. Structural factors such as income inequality and access to health care were the key drivers of COVID mortality. To prepare the country for the next pandemic as NIH director, it would be far more effective to invest in pandemic preparedness and infectious disease research and, beyond that, to ensure everyone has access to health care.Indeed, the proposed remedies for making science less authoritarian, such as shifting NIH grant funding to states in the form of block grants (recommended by the conservative policy agenda Project 2025), will not promote nonauthoritarian public health but will almost certainly degrade the quality of American science. Will states be able to match the NIH peer review system, which is regarded worldwide as the exemplar of transparent, confidential, impartial evaluation based on merit and scientific consensus? It is hard to imagine how a decentralized state-level effort would produce a more fair review or science with greater impact. Will scientists in some states be barred from funding for research on family planning or womens health, for example?We dont know what other policies Bhattacharya might propose. Banning viral gain-of-function research? Eliminating research involving fetal tissue and restricting studies using animal models? Shifting funding away from infectious disease research, as RFK, Jr., Trumps pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has proposed? Giving peer review panels less influence in determining scientific merit?The best way to depoliticize science, if that is your concern, is to get out of the way and let scientific inquiry drive investigation and peer review determine priority for funding. The authoritarianism Bhattacharya rails against is often just the application of science to improve population health. Pitting personal autonomy against the application of science to policy is fine for vanity webcasts and think tanks, but inappropriate for NIH leadership. If he would rather focus on promoting personal autonomy in pandemic policy, perhaps he is being nominated to the wrong agency. Bhattacharya is not what the NIH needs.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

December 19, 20245 min readBiden Pledges Huge Climate Emissions Cuts HeCantEnforce.Heres Why It Still MattersPresident Biden strengthened the U.S.s commitment to slash climate pollution under the Paris Agreement knowing that President-elect Donald Trump could abandon it, but states and cities could still use it as a guidePresident Joe Biden strengthened U.S. commitments to lower climate pollution Thursday. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he will strengthen the United States climate target by aiming to cut planet-warming pollution 61-66 percent by 2035, in a move that his successor is certain to disregard.The new goal marks an increase over Bidens 2021 pledge to slash greenhouse gases 50-52 percent by 2030 over 2005 levels, but is a downgrade from what modelers say would have been possible under a future president who acts aggressively to slow rising temperatures.President-elect Donald Trump has indicated the opposite.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Instead, the target will likely be jettisoned after Trump takes office, reflecting his promises to expand fossil fuel production and dismantle Bidens climate agenda.Though the incoming administration could just ignore the target, the goal offers an ambitious marker that states, cities and businesses can aspire to meet, even as the Trump presidency attempts to roll back federal climate programs.President Biden's new 2035 climate goal is both a reflection of what we've already accomplished and what we believe the United States can and should achieve in the future, said John Podesta, senior White House adviser for international climate policy, in a call with reporters.The move comes amid increasing pressure on the Biden administration to make urgent environmental commitments in the waning days of the presidents term, even if Trump has no intention of honoring them. U.S. officials say it sends an important signal to the world of what the U.S. could do in the face of those challenges.American industry will keep inventing and keep investing. State, local and tribal governments will keep stepping up, Biden said in prerecorded video remarks for the announcement.It also includes at least a 35 percent reduction of methane, a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas that the Biden administration has prioritized tackling through regulations and global agreements.We're looking to governors, mayors, business leaders and more to carry this important work forward, said Podesta.The targets known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs are required under the Paris Agreement, the global deal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the postindustrial era. The White House said that it is formally submitting the new target to the United Nations climate change secretariat. Trump is expected to withdraw from the agreement.'A North Star'Observers argued that the new target showcases the ability of the worlds largest economy to tackle climate change without federal help.The 2035 climate target can serve as a North Star for states, cities and corporations that are committed to climate action, Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.Other advocates echoed that sentiment, saying it could help guide federal policy after 2028 or whenever a climate-focused president takes office.The 2035 emissions reduction target is at the lower bound of what the science demands, and yet it is close to the upper bound of what is realistic if nearly every available policy lever were pulled, said Debbie Weyl, acting U.S. director at the World Resources Institute.A fact sheet released with the announcement said the cuts to climate pollution could be achieved through a combination of surviving Biden-era policies; stronger state and local action; and technology advancements such as cheaper wind and solar energy, nuclear power and grid upgrades.But reaching those marks will not be easy.A bipartisan push in Congress to ease permitting rules, which could speed renewable energy installations, hasnt panned out. The Biden administration approved Californias plan to phase out gas-powered cars by 2035 on Wednesday, but Trump has threatened to roll it back.Members of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of mostly Democratic states, are on track to lower greenhouse gases 26 to 28 percent by next year but the U.S. is off track to meet Bidens initial goal to slash emissions in half five years from now.No one's hiding the ball on that. Our analysis is very clear that additional action is needed to achieve our 2030 target, but that there is a clear pathway to do so, said Casey Katims, executive director of the U.S. Climate Alliance.Hitting the new target will also depend on investments from the private sector. The clean energy tax breaks in Bidens signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, have unleashed billions of dollars for clean energy manufacturing across the U.S.Yet many of those policies are threatened by Trump and congressional Republicans, who have taken aim at government rebates used to lower the cost of buying electric cars and other clean energy incentives.Even discussion of repeal and tweaks or cuts have a chilling effect and delay and reduce the pace and scale of investment, said Zach Friedman, senior director of federal policy at Ceres, a business sustainability group. Tweaks to tax credits, timelines, restrictions, etc., has big implications for the amount of investment that comes back to American communities.Aiming highBefore the election, modeling from the University of Marylands Center for Global Sustainability showed that the U.S. could achieve emissions cuts of 65-67 percent by 2035. Studies by other groups showed a similar range.That would put the country on a trajectory to zero out emissions by 2050. But achieving that target relies on additional action at the federal, state and city level.An updated policy brief released this week by the Center for Global Sustainability assumes cuts of 54-62 percent based on no further federal action, but more at the state level.Senior administration officials who held a call with reporters to preview the announcement said such analyses show that its possible to cut pollution without aggressive federal action though they acknowledged that it would be harder.The pace is of course an issue, one official said.Robbie Orvis, senior director of modeling and analysis at Energy Innovation, said, Hitting the proposed target would definitely require states to strengthen and pass policy across many states at a level we haven't seen before.Other analyses looked at some potential worst-case scenarios.Energy Innovation estimated that the U.S. emissions would fall by just 36 percent by 2035 if the Inflation Reduction Act is fully repealed. The Rhodium Group predicted a range of 24-40 percent cuts based on rollbacks of federal climate regulations and a total repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act. Neither analysis accounts for additional action at the state level.Analysts say its unlikely that the Inflation Reduction Act will be completely unraveled, particularly as its benefits expand nationwide.But even with the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. is still short of reaching its 2030 goal of cutting emissions 50-52 percent Bidens original target. A July analysis by the Rhodium Group found the U.S. is on track to cut 32-43 percent of its climate pollution by 2030, putting it on a path to 38-56 percent cuts by 2035.Biden was laying down a marker with the new target, said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at the environmental think tank E3G.Everyone understands its going to be very hard to meet this target, given Trump will take us off the field for the next four years, Meyer said. But they understand it for what it is what the U.S. should be doing.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

OpinionDecember 19, 20245 min readThe UnitedHealthcare Tragedy Is Why Insurance Needs to Change NowI am a trauma surgeon and gunshot survivor who has experienced byzantine health insurance coverage firsthand. I understand why people are furiousBy Joseph V. Sakran edited by Megha Satyanarayana Fanatic Studio/Alamy Stock PhotoWhen I was 17 I was nearly killed when a fight broke out after a high school football game and someone fired a gun. A stray bullet struck my throat, tearing through my trachea and damaging my carotid artery.This near-death experience deeply traumatized my entire family. Yet my parents couldnt focus solely on my survival and healing. In the hospital, they were overwhelmed by a labyrinth of paperwork, billing inquiries and questions about insurance coverage. Even after I was discharged, the challenges continued. Instead of focusing on my recovery, we spent our energy addressing delayed approvals for follow-up care, denied access to physical therapy and endless requests to clarify reimbursements.Our health insurance system made a catastrophic time for me and my parents needlessly worse. Now, as a trauma surgeon, I have seen how pervasive such struggles are. And with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, long-simmering and widespread anger about the harm that health insurers have caused seems to be reaching a boiling point. After decades of public outcry over health care policies that prioritize profits over peoplepolicies that deny lifesaving treatments, cause bankruptcy over uncovered medical treatments, and leave entire communities behindthe demand for reform is growing too loud to ignore. For too many, health insurance is a brick walla bureaucratic gatekeeper that creates barriers instead of providing solutions.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.We cannot justify his killing; so how do we channel our collective grief and frustration into meaningful change? How do we build a health care system that offers healing, not harma system that values human life over corporate gain? It will take courage, accountability, and a willingness to reimagine a system where patients are seen as people, not as financial transactions.The average annual cost of health care in the U.S. is estimated at a staggering $15,074 per person.41 percent of Americans carry medical debt, highlighting the systems profound failure to provide financial security when its needed most.On top of these ruinous costswhich patients rarely know up front and have little time to understand during medical emergenciesinsurers also decide whether they will pay for care, regardless of whether a patients doctor says such care is necessary. The delay of care through bureaucratic hurdles like prior authorizations and denied claims are carefully designed to force people and their doctors to fight their way through outdated systems like fax machines and endless phone trees to ask for appeals or reconsideration of denied treatments or examinations. All too often the mental effort and excessive time required to navigate claims, denials and appeals wears people down, leading them to simply give up on getting the coverage they are owed. This isnt just inefficiency; its a predatory failure of empathy for people during their most vulnerable moments. And it perversely exacerbates anxiety and depression for the sick person and their caregivers alike, compounding the very challenges the system is meant to address.Ive spent countless nights fighting to save lives in operating rooms. Ive witnessed how gun violence intersects with healthcare inequities, leaving families to confront not only grief but insurmountable medical bills. Survivors often endure years of physical and financial pain as they battle not only their injuries but also insurance denials for necessary care. I know firsthand what my patients go through. Every step of my own recovery felt like a negotiationnot just for my health but for access to the care I needed. At times, I questioned whether I was viewed as a patient or a cost to be managed. These frustrations extended to my family, who bore the emotional and logistical burden of dealing with appeals and authorizations while supporting my recovery.For many, financial strain forces impossible choices: families forgo optimal treatments or rehabilitation plansnot for lack of understanding but because they simply cant afford them. These compromises lead to worse patient outcomes (and even greater systemic costs), compounding suffering that could have been prevented with proper access to care. Too often, hope is eroded by a system more focused on profits than well-being.To fix this system, we need to radically reconsider the principles of care, equity, accountability and cost that underpin it. Addressing cost is essential; it threatens the stability of our health care system, and the financial burden should not fall disproportionately on people needing health care and their families.Our policy decisions must reflect our values, and so we must ask ourselves: Are we ready to expand coverage so that every American has access to affordable, high-quality care? Can we accept higher premiums or shared costs to build a system that guarantees subsidies for those who need them most and still prevents unnecessary or wasteful medicine? Beyond coverage, we must simplify and streamline processes, eliminating the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that overwhelm patients and families. Equity must be a core pillarnot just in access but in the quality of care delivered and the financial protections offered.Mental health must be integrated and prioritized alongside physical health in care and coverage, recognizing the minds essential role in bodily recovery and overall well-being. Excessive profits in the insurance industry, rising drug costs and opaque billing practices demand accountability and shared responsibility among providers, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers. And finally, insurers and clinicians alike must be held accountablenot for short-term cost-cutting, but for improving outcomes, delivering compassionate care and ensuring within reason that no patients health journey leads to financial devastation. If we are serious about building a system that values human dignity over profit, these reforms are not just necessary; they are long overdue.With Donald Trump returning to the presidency, and Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, the likelihood of such sweeping health care reform over the next four years becomes more limited, particularly in expanding access through government programs. The focus will instead likely shift even further toward deregulation, market-driven solutions and reducing government involvement in health care, rather than pursuing universal coverage or expanding subsidies. Efforts to repeal or further weaken provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are likely to resurface, along with predatory policies promoting short-term health plans and inefficient state-level control over Medicaid.While reducing prescription drug costs may remain a bipartisan goal, broader reforms aimed at equity, simplicity and the expansion of mental health care may stall unless they align with cost-reduction strategies. The challenge will be ensuring that patient needsespecially for the most vulnerableare not sidelined amid policies that prioritize fiscal conservatism and market efficiencies over systemic change.We urgently need to create a more equitable system. Insurers must cap out-of-pocket expenses, eliminate lifetime limits and expand income-based assistance, so afflicted Americans can focus on healing and recovery.My own frustrations with the system shaped my resolve to drive positive change. This moment demands difficult reforms and introspection, but it also offers an opportunity for transformation. Our health care system should inspire hope, not compound suffering. Patients, clinicians, policymakers, and insurers must come together to prioritize care over complexity, outcomes over optics, and people over profit.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

December 18, 202434 min read78 Books Scientific American Recommends in 2024A collection of nonfiction and fiction books Scientific American editorial staff and contributors read and recommend in 2024By Brianne Kane edited by Dean Visser Francesco ZorziEvery story is a science story, even the ones that sound more like science fiction. This year Scientific American introduced readers to real discoveries that sounded a bit like science-fiction, such as the crime rings trafficking sand around the world and the physicists searching for evidence of negative time. The U.S. governments former UFO hunter told readers about a past (and very real) search for such unidentified objects; and our editors described what to do when space junks falls into your yard. We watched the Great American Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 with our families and learned from neurologists how memories remain in the brain for a lifetime. After doing all that, we also read, shared and discussed some amazing books.This collection offers some recent staff favorites in fiction and nonfiction, a selection of titles we recently reviewed and some by familiar faces weve worked with this yearas well as a bountiful backlist to keep your to-be-read list stuffed.Happy reading! Jump to your favorite section here:On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.NonfictionOn Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Serviceby Anthony FauciViking, 2024(Tags: Health, Memoir)Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famousand most revereddoctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid (and through the torrents of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history.... His crucial role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises, make him truly an American hero, the publisher says.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir by Americas doctor. He writes candidly and engagingly about winning the trust of the HIV/AIDS activist community after being the target of its understandable rage at global inaction. He reminds us of the fearful days when bioterrorism and the anthrax scare were keeping some of the countrys top public health officials up at night. And he chronicles the COVID pandemic from the inside of one of the most erratic and dangerous administrations ever to occupy the White Housea time in which he became first a hero and then a target. Yet throughout it all, his devotion to furthering public health and serving his country are never in doubt. Tanya Lewis, Senior Editor, Health and MedicineThis memoir is inspiring, and the behind-the-scenes stories of the major public health events of the past four decades are riveting. Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, Space/PhysicsVanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creaturesby Katherine RundellDoubleday, 2024(Tags: Nature, Animals)This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyesto see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures. Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, the publisher says.Its a beautiful book, both in writing and in illustrations, that shares stories and trivia about some of the most magnificent animals on earth. It skews heavily toward the charismatic (the more than 50,000 species of spiders must share a single chapter). But despite this narrow lens, Rundelldoes an admirable job reminding us of the richness of the natural world. Meghan Bartles, Senior News ReporterThe Secret Life of The Universe: An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Lifeby Nathalie A. CabrolSimon and Schuster, 2024(Tags: Astrobiology, Astrophysics)Celebrated astrobiologist and the director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute Nathalie A. Cabrol takes us to the frontiers of the search for life.... This dazzling interplanetary tour [illuminates] the likeliest places for life in our neighborhood: While Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn are among the top contenders, recent missions are redefining the limits of habitability to include unexpected worlds. Finally, we seek life beyond our solar system, becoming witness to a revolution in the night sky: the realization that there are as many planets as stars in our galaxy, the publisher says.Cabrol takes us on a whirlwind trip around the solar system, describing how life could have evolved on a variety of planets, moons and asteroids within the Milky Way. It almost has the feel of a mystery whodunitperhaps the culprits are the hydrocarbons in the subsurface ocean on Titan. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024What I Ate in One Year (and Related Thoughts)by Stanley TucciGallery Books, 2024(Tags: Memoir, Food)Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tuccis life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between scene rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime. Now, in What I Ate in One Year Tucci records twelve months of eatingin restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself, the publisher says.To match the authors tone, Id say this book was a pleasant, appetizing read. Ill soon be testing out his Tucci Minestrone recipe from page 107. Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egyptby Lloyd Llewellyn-JonesBasic Books, 2024(Tags: History, Ancient Egypt)The Cleopatras were Greek-speaking descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters, and nieces. Each wielded absolute power, easily overshadowing their husbands or sons, and all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. Styling themselves as goddess-queens, the Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth, the publisher says.I was a classics major in college, so I thought I was prepared for a deep dive on the Ptolemies, but I was not! The Cleopatras is a wild ride but an enjoyable oneand surprisingly easy to follow despite the uncreative names and the deeply tangled family tree. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterTheres Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascensionby Hanif AbdurraqibRandom House, 2024(Tags: Memoir, Cultural Criticism, Sports)Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others werent. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling, the publisher says.Abdurraqibs profoundly moving narrative requires absolutely no interest in basketball for the reader to find something of beauty in it. It is a gorgeous and heartbreaking account of his childhood through early adulthood, a disquisition of that which binds him to the place he calls home. Hector Coronado, EngineerA Small Miracleby Tessa VenellSelf-published, 2024(Tags: Memoir)My book is about my experience recovering from a traumatic brain injury, when I came back to college, and the time immediately following my graduation from Brandeis University. It delves into the symbiotic relationship between medicine and the patient's environment, and how both elements can work together in unexpected ways. My story demonstrates these unexpected intersections of the medical profession and the patient's environment, and shows how these intersections provided key support to my ability to recover," says the authors in her description of the book.This is an astonishing, moving, profoundly authentic first-person account of my friend Tessas recovery from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). In her generous retelling of her struggle to become herself again, Tessa offers instructive insights for other TBI survivors, their loved ones or anyone interested in this fascinating field of study. Amanda Montaez, Associate Graphics EditorBecoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Lifeby Ferris JabrRandom House, 2024(Tags: Science and Technology)One of humanitys oldest beliefs is that our world is alive.... Acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr reveals a radical new vision of Earth where lush forests spew water, pollen, and bacteria to summon rain; giant animals engineer the very landscapes they roam; microbes chew rock to shape continents; and microscopic plankton, some as glittering as carved jewels, remake the air and sea, the publisher says.Reading Becoming Earth feels like being taken by the hand and shown worlds you never knew existed. Its given me a newfound appreciation for the parts of this planet that are too big or too small for me to appreciate with my own eyes. Allison Parshall, Associate News EditorThird Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsenseby Saul Perlmutter, John Campbell and Robert MacCounLittle, Brown Spark, 2024(Tags: Psychology)In Third Millennium Thinking, a physicist, a psychologist, and a philosopher introduce readers to the tools and frameworks that scientists have developed to keep from fooling themselves, to understand the world, and to make decisions. We can all borrow these trust-building techniques to tackle problems both big and small, the publisher says.In dark times, this ones like a candle. If you want to learn how to avoid being fooled and how to make smarter, better decisions, reading this book is a great start. Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space/PhysicsThe Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choiceby Simon ParkinScribner, 2024(Tags: History, Science, War)In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningradnow St. Petersburgand began the longest blockade in recorded history.... At the center of the besieged city stood a converted palace that housed the worlds largest collection of seeds.... After attempts to evacuate the priceless collection failed and supplies dwindled amongst the three million starving citizens, the employees at the Plant Institute were left with a terrible choice, the publisher says.Parkin weaves together an incredible accounting about the sacrifices and resolution of the scientists overseeing the seed bank during the Siege of Leningrad. Underneath the siege, the suffering, the political machinations and the military stratagems, there is the story of one manNikolai Vavilovwhose knowledge, passion and charisma inspired numerous scientists to follow his example in placing the safety of these seeds above everything else. This book is emotionally heavy but worth readingitll surprise you to learn just how big a role these tiny seeds played in World War II and our agriculture today. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024Native Nations: A Millennium in North Americaby Kathleen DuValRandom House, 2024(Tags: History, Indigenous Peoples History)Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal vividly recounts, when Europeans did arrive, no civilization came to a halt because of a few wandering explorers, even when the strangers came well armed.... Power dynamics shifted after the American Revolution, but Indigenous people continued to command much of the continents land and resources, the publisher says.This is a great exploration of the ways Indigenous Americans thrived before and despite European colonization. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterInto the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphereby Rob JacksonScribner, 2024(Tags: Climate Change)In Into the Clear Blue Sky, climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project Rob Jackson explains that we need to redefine our [climate] goals. As he argues here, we shouldnt only be trying to stabilize the Earths temperature at some arbitrary value.... Restoring the atmosphere means reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the air to pre-industrial levelsstarting with super-potent methaneto heal the harm we have done, the publisher says.This is a wonderfully written book about our path to a cleaner climate, greener technology and overall better relationship to the natural world. I was fascinated by the developing technology Jackson was able to see firsthand and learned some terrifying truths about in-home gas emissions I will never forget. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerThe Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural Worldby Robin Wall KimmererScribner, 2024(Tags: Indigenous Studies, Economics)As ... Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most...? Meanwhile, the serviceberrys relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealthits abundance of sweet, juicy berries. And this distribution ensures its own survival, the publisher says.This is a breezy read about ecology and economics that offers a beautiful vision of what our world can be if we have the courage to put aside constant self-interest and a scarcity mindset. It will inspire you to reach out to a neighbor, share what you have and glory in the joys that dont come with price tags.Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterFictionJames: A Novelby Percival EverettDoubleday, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River, the publisher says.The author mingles the voices and lives of Jim and James to give us a truly engrossing look at how racism is always just below the surface in American society, more than 100 years ago and today. Maria-Christina Keller, Copy DirectorHouse of Flame and Shadowby Sarah J. MaasBloomsbury, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Romance)Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again.... In this sexy, breathtaking sequel..., Sarah J. Maass Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunts world is brought to the brink of collapse, the publisher says.This is such a fun look at a modern world full of faeries, angels, demons and shady overlords. The series starts with a murder and ends with interplanetary travel. Its a good and quick read (or listen)! Megha Satyanarayana, Chief Opinion EditorMoonboundby Robin SloanMCD, 2024(Tags: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction)It is eleven thousand years from now.... Ariel is a boy in a remote village under a wizards rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of eye-popping discoveries and challenges: unknown enemies, a mission to rescue the world, a girl.... Ariel encounters an entity from an earlier civilization, a sentient, sensitive artificial intelligence with a special perspective on all of human history, the publisher says.Theres something really special about this book. It wanders through a far-future society full of wizards, talking animals, award-winning bogs, ancient buried spaceships and dragons on the moon. Its a mash-up of concepts and the narrative dips into each of them just long enough to get a taste of something alien but not long enough that the most bizarre ideas overstay their welcome. It feels like sitting cross-legged and listening to a storytellers yarn, forgetting the outside world. Sarah Lewin Frasier, Assistant News EditorIntermezzo: A Novelby Sally RooneyFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction)Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirtiessuccessful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their fathers death, hes medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women.... Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined, the publisher says.Rooneys ability to bring to life such complicated relationships mesmerizes me in a way no author has before. Touching upon grief, love, family bonds, societal pressures, Intermezzo is just so well done. I could go on and on! Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthurby Lev GrossmanViking, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Literary Fiction)A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place at the Round Table, only to find that hes too late. King Arthur died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.... They must reclaim Excalibur and make this ruined world whole againbut first theyll have to solve the mystery of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell, the publisher says.King Arthur is gone, and the Round Table is a hollow shell. Though the few knights who remaina refreshingly diverse cast for an Arthurian sagaare broken and flawed, theirs is a story about hope. The book is long and meandering, but the plot is brisk, helped along by monsters and fairies and skull-cracking knight-on-knight combat. Ben Guarino, Associate Editor, TechnologyPlastic: A Novelby Scott GuildVintage, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Humor, Dystopia)Erin is a plastic girl living in a plastic world.... If you cut her, she will not bleedbut she and her fellow figurines can still be cracked or blown apart by gunfire or bombs, or crumble away from nuclear fallout.... An attack at her place of work brings Erin another too-intimate experience, but it also brings her Jacob. Exploring the wild wonders of the virtual reality landscape together, it seems that possibly, slowly, Erin and Jacob may have a chance at healing from their trauma, the publisher says.This is a rollicking good time with a surprisingly deep message about families, the future, our environmental impact and where we stand in the middle of it. Ive recommended this book to more people than I could ever count! Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerBury Your Gaysby Chuck TingleTor Nightfire, 2024(Tags: Horror, Science Fiction)Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, for the algorithm, in the upcoming season finale.... Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that hes just put a target on his back. And whats worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles, the publisher says.Bury Your Gays is a delightfully and chillingly meta novel that deals with queer identity and creativity in the age of algorithmic entertainment. Yes, there are literal monstersand theyre terrifying. But the studio executives trying to convince our hero to kill his queer characters offor straighten them outare somehow even scarier. Rachel Feltman, Host of Science QuicklyLet Us Descend: A Novelby Jesmyn WardScribner, 2023(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical)Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the readers guide. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother.... While Annis leads readers through the descent, hers is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation, the publisher says.This is a beautiful, devastating story of American slavery. A young girl is separated from her mother and forced on a brutal trek through the Deep South. Ward is one of my favorite authors, but she will not spare your heart. Be prepared to feel. Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter EditorEnlightenment: A Novelby Sarah PerryMariner Books, 2024(Tags: Historical Fiction, Gothic)Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spiritstorn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community.... Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit, the publisher says.Few books can reflect the devotional love between a stargazer and the night sky. I was pleasantly surprised by how this novel explored longing through romantic love, spiritual fervor and a complicated, decades-long friendshipall while a ghost story peaks its head around every chapter! This is a surprisingly philosophical and fast-paced read. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerRoman Storiesby Jhumpa Lahiri. Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd PortnowitzKnopf, 2023(Tags: Short Stories, Literary Fiction)Romemetropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysicalis the protagonist, not the setting, of these nine stories.... [The] stories [are] steeped in the moods of Italian master Alberto Moravia and guided, in the concluding tale, by the ineluctable ghost of Dante Alighieri, whose words lead the protagonist toward a new way of life, the publisher says.In multiple short stories, all taking place in or around Rome, were given snippets into the daily lives of Italians and foreigners of different ages, classes and colors, who find their experiences and emotions intertwined. The vulnerability of the stories makes them all memorable, yet each makes the next story more humbling, heart-wrenching and raw. These stories feel very authentic to the human experiencewhich is probably the reason it hits so close to home. Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Familiar: A Novelby Leigh BardugoFlatiron Books, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Historical Fiction)In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion.... What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Prez, the disgraced secretary to Spains king, the publisher says.A servant reluctantly becomes famous for performing minor miracles in a world where the Inquisition decides whose magic is good and whose is evil. This is gorgeous historical world-building from the author of the Shadow and Bone and Ninth House series! Rachel Feltman, Host of Science QuicklyTabitha, Get Upby Lee UptonSagging Meniscus Press, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction)Tabitha is a lonely fifty-year-old biographer who, in order to restore her self-respect and pay her rent, attempts to write two biographies simultaneously: one about an actor so famous his face is on the side of buses, and the other about a popular writer of childrens books recently outed as an author of erotic fiction. Is Tabitha ready to deal with interviewing an actor so handsome and charismatic...? Can she form a genuine friendship with a cult novelist who pressures her to compromise her values? the publisher says.This book is delightful for readers and would-be writers alike. The main character is trying to kick-start her career as a biographer, and her ups and downs are unexpected and entertaining. Think Diane Keaton in the 2003 movie Somethings Gotta Give. Maria-Christina Keller, Copy DirectorMiranda in Retrogradeby Lauren LayneGallery Books, 2024(Tags: Romance, Humor)Practical-minded Miranda Reed plans her life with minute precision. But thats before shes denied tenure and the promotion she thought was guaranteed.... With her faith in science shaken, Miranda turns to a practice shes long dismissed as preposterous: astrology. Determined to figure out why her life has suddenly gone sideways, Miranda commits to a year of letting her horoscope guide her. Soon shes taking on new home improvement projects, adopting a new pet, and studying what the stars have to say about her ideal love match, the publisher says.This is a breezy rom-com that would be enjoyed by anyone in grad school or working in academiaor just someone who was type A enough to obviously need a sabbatical. It has just the right amount of astrology and astronomy and is open-minded enough to balance the two. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerThe Book of Love: A Novelby Kelly LinkRandom House, 2024(Tags: Fantasy, Literary Fiction)Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearanceand what has brought them back again, the publisher says.After years of writing award-winning, deeply experimental short stories in the weird fiction/horror genre, Kelly Link has produced a thrilling novel about the cost of immortality, the power of friendship and the complexities of sisterhood. Rachel Feltman, Host of Science QuicklyFamiliar FacesBooks published this past year by Scientific American contributors from this past year.Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weaponsby Sarah ScolesBold Type Books, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Science, Physics)Drawing from years of on-the-ground reporting at the nations nuclear weapons labs, Scoles interrogates the idea that having nuclear weapons keeps us safe, deterring attacks and preventing radioactive warfare.... Through a sharp, surprising, and undoubtedly urgent narrative, Scoles brings us out of the Cold War and into the twenty-first century, opening readers eyes to the true nature of nuclear weapons and their caretakers, the publisher says.Scoles is a frequent contributor to Scientific Americans physics section. In two of her latest articles, she explored why its so hard to get back to the moon and gave readers a behind-the-scenes look at how nuclear bombs are built.Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacaos Soulby Rowan Jacobsen Bloomsbury, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Food)When Rowan Jacobsen first heard of a chocolate bar made entirely from wild Bolivian cacao, he was skeptical.... Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate, the publisher says.In our February 2024 issue, Jacobson explored why brains arent required when it comes to thinking: some flatworms can even remember things after theyve been beheaded. (Dont worry; their head grows back.)Midlife Calculus: Poemsby Britt KaufmannPress 53, 2024(Tags: Poetry)Britt Kaufmann set out to take calculus for the first time at age 47 so she could cross it off her bucket list. She did not expect it to lead to her first full-length collection of poetry: Midlife Calculus. Calculus is the study of how things change, so its a fitting title for poems about midlife, about learning something difficult and new, and the state of public education post pandemic, the publisher says.Kaufman shared the poem Midlife Calculus in our February 2024 issues Meter column.The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kidsby Kavin SenapathyHanover Square Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Parenting)In this lively, accessible exploration of modern parenting, Senapathy guides readers through the complex cultural, environmental, economic and political issues facing all families today. Equipped with practical tips and research-driven advice for parents of kids from infancy to early teens, she helps readers build a more fulfilling relationship with their children and themselves by addressing pressing questions, the publisher says.This year in SciAm, Senapathy profiled five advocates and researchers revolutionizing sickle cell care and wrote an opinion article on why its okay not to breastfeed.Our Moon: How Earths Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Areby Rebecca BoyleRandom House, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Astronomy)Many of us know that the Moon pulls on our oceans, driving the tides, but did you know that it smells like gunpowder...? Mesopotamian priests recorded the Moons position in order to make predictions, and, in the process, created the earliest known empirical, scientific observations. In Our Moon, Boyle introduces us to ancient astronomers and major figures of the scientific revolution, including Johannes Kepler and his influential lunar science fiction, the publisher says.Space and physics editor Clara Moskowitz sat down with Boyle earlier this year to discuss her new book foran episode of our podcast Science Quickly, and it was reviewed by Erica Berry in our January 2024 issue as well. Among Boyles many articles for the magazine, this past March she explored how April 2024s total solar eclipse will change solar science forever.Leaving Fossil Fuels Underground: Actors, Arguments and Approaches in the Global South and Global Northedited by Joyeeta Gupta, Barbara Hogenboom, Arthur Rempel and Malin OlofssonAmsterdam University Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Environment and Sustainability, Geology)How can the world move away from a century-old global system based on fossil fuels...? This book examines the role of key actors, arguments and approaches in promoting the much-needed rapid phase-out of fossil fuels.... In addition to local resistance, the book explores initiatives for national and international policies and financial mechanisms carried out by actors ranging from social movements to governments and large investors, the publisher says.In our March 2024 issue, Gupta outlined how different types of boundaries can protect people and preserve natural resources, with graphics by Angela Morelli and Tom Gabriel Johansen/InfoDesignLab.The Well-Connected Animal: Social Networks and the Wondrous Complexity of Animal Societiesby Lee Alan DugatkinUniversity of Chicago Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Behavioral Biology)In this tour of the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin reveals a new field of study, uncovering social networks that existed long before the dawn of human social media. He accessibly describes the latest findings from animal behavior, evolution, computer science, psychology, anthropology, genetics, and neurobiology, and incorporates interviews and insights from researchers he finds swimming with manta rays, avoiding pigeon poop, and stopping monkeys from stealing iPads, the publisher says.This year in SciAm, Dugatkin reported on animal evolution thats being driven by human activity. He also wrote about the work of geneticist Lyudmila Trut, whose decades-long experiments on silver foxes solidified the science of domestication.Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math behind Modern AIby Anil AnanthaswamyDutton, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Philosophy of Science)We are living through a revolution in machine learning-powered AI that shows no signs of slowing down. This technology is based on relatively simple mathematical ideas, some of which go back centuries, including linear algebra and calculus, the stuff of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mathematics. In this enlightening book, Anil Ananthaswamy explains the fundamental math behind machine learning, while suggesting intriguing links between artificial and natural intelligence, the publisher says.Ananthaswamy is a regular contributor to our space and physics section, including a feature in our July/August 2024 issue that asked: If quantum mechanics depends on observations, what happens if AI is the observer? The Hunger Habit: Why We Eat When Were Not Hungry and How to Stopby Judson BrewerAvery, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Self-Improvement)The Hunger Habit is based on Judson Brewers deeply researched plan proven to help us understand what is going on in our brains so that we can heal the guilt and frustration we experience around eating.... The step-by-step program focuses on training our brains to tap into awareness to change our relationship with food and eatingshifting it from fighting with ourselves to befriending our minds and bodies, the publisher says.Brewer contributed to our July/August 2024 issue alongside Matthew D. Sacchet. Their article delved into the emerging science of advanced meditation that could transform mental health and our understanding of consciousness.The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Scienceby Dava SobelAtlantic Monthly Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, History)For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in [ve Curies] later recollection, discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world. With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileos Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, the publisher says.Sobel edits Scientific Americans Meter column. Space and physics editor Clara Moskowitz also interviewed Sobel about her new book earlier this year.Kids Field Guide to Birdsby Daisy YuhasCool Springs Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Kids and Teens)Featuring a bright, illustrative design, this guide offers accessible species profiles along with birding basics and a selection of activities to help you and your kids learn more about the birds found in cities, backyards, and various ecosystems. Fun facts appear throughout, and spotlights cover everything from protecting birds from window collisions to a fun bird-beak experiment. The species inside include many of North Americas most common birds in all sorts of settings, the publisher says.Yuhas edits SciAms Mind Matters column and is a contributor to our Opinion section, where she recently interviewed social neuroscientist Dylan Wagner about parasocial relationships in a Mind Matters piece.Absolution: A Southern Reach Novelby Jeff VandermeerMCD, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Science Fiction)All told, the [Southern Reach] trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature. And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to the story of Area X.... There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coastbefore Area X was called Area Xhad never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseen the world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem? the publisher says.Vandermeer reviewed a novel by Anton Hur for our September 2024 issue. And in our October, contributing editor Amy Brady interviewed Vandermeer about Absolution.Selections from Reviews SectionThe following excerpts from our Reviews column have been edited for brevity.A Quantum Love Story: A Novelby Mike ChenMIRA, 2024(Tags: Fiction, Romance)Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pinedas ready to give up everything to start anew.... Except the strangest thing happens: a man stops her and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning, why she's there, the publisher says.Although the science of memory and the brain comes across as well researched and intriguing, the realm of quantum mechanics remains a cosmological question mark. Readers..., however, will appreciate how Chen builds a skiff made of paper to sail through the storm. Meg Elison, January 2024How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Niteedited by Chris Balakrishnan and Matt WasowskiSt. Martins Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Humor)For 20 years, Nerd Nite has delivered ... the most interesting, fun, and informative presentations about science, history, the arts, pop culture, you name it. Finally, after countless requests..., co-founders ... Matt Wasowski and Chris Balakrishnan are bringing readers the quirky and accessible science content that they crave in book form. The resulting range of topics is quirky and vast, from kinky, spring-loaded spiders to the Webb telescopes influence on movie special effects, the publisher says.In How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi, I have found my new holy bible: a scattershot blast of science-y, math-y, tech-y micro essays that span a dizzying array of subjects.... The book succeeds in making its diverse subject matter immediately accessible. Chuck Wendig, February 2024Annie Bot: A Novelby Sierra GreerMariner Books, 2024(Tags: Science Fiction, Psychological)Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. True, shes not the greatest at keeping Dougs place spotless, but shes trying to please him.... But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annies relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself? the publisher says.For all Annie Bots provocations, [Greer] never loses sight of the fact that this is not a love story. Instead it's a coming-of-age thriller, a sexbot bildungsroman page-turner.... Its a pained and moving study of a consciousness preparing itself for the moment when it will at last face what makes humans human: the burden and opportunity of choosing what it wants. Alan Scherstuhl, March 2024Fowl Play: A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plateby Sally CoulthardApollo, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Animals)Of all animals, chickens perhaps best represent the contradictory way we humans treat other species; both beloved pet and cheap commodity, symbol of a sustainable good life and brutalised object of factory farming. The chicken is also a bird we feel deeply familiar with and yet know very little about. As informative as it is entertaining, Fowl Play tells a remarkable tale of evolutionary change, epic global travel and ruthless exploitation as well as of companionship, ingenuity and the folly of human nature., the publisher saysFowl Play ... offers stories about the way chickens have shaped the human world, including the strange effects that domestication has had on chickens and humans alike. Tove Danovich, April 2024The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earthby Zo SchlangerHarper, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Botany )It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents. The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into ... this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence, the publisher says.In an age when we often feel alienated from a living world in crisis, it is good to be reminded that other species have agency and acumen. Plants have thrived on Earth for half a billion years. They embody not only intelligence but wisdom about how to flourish in the face of change. David George Haskell, May 2024The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippiby Boyce UpholtW.W. Norton, 2024 (Tags: Nonfiction, Nature)In this landmark work of natural history, Boyce Upholt tells the epic story of ... centuries of human attempts to own, contain, and rework the Mississippi River, from Thomas Jeffersons expansionist land hunger through todays era of environmental concern.... Upholt reveals how an ambitious and sometimes contentious program of engineeringgovernment-built levees, jetties, dikes, and damshas not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer, the publisher says.There was a time when humans had a more intimate relationship with the river the Ojibwe people called the Misi-ziibi, which Upholt translates as the Great River, and in this fascinating and troubling book, he argues that we could choose this path again. Meera Subramanian, June 2024by Jim Baggott and John L. HeilbronOxford University Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Physics)As Quantum Drama reveals, science owes a large debt to those who kept the discussions going against the apathy and indifference of most physicists before definitive experimental inquiries became possible. Although experiment moved the Bohr-Einstein debate to a new level and drew many into foundational research, it has by no means removed or resolved the fundamental question, the publisher says.This meticulous account of the tumultuous evolution of quantum physics spans more than a century.... Science writer Jim Baggott and professor of history John L. Heilbron balance depth and sophistication with sportscasterlike enthusiasm. Dana Dunham, July/August 2024Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavittby Anna Von MertensMIT Press, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, History)Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of about 100,000 light yearsa figure we can calculate because of the work of Henrietta Leavitt (18681921), who spent decades studying glass plate photographs of the night sky. Visual artist and researcher Anna Von Mertenss Attention Is Discovery is a fascinating portrait of this remarkable woman who laid the foundation for modern cosmology.... Ushering us into the scientific community of women who worked alongside Leavitt..., Von Mertens describes the inventive methodologies Leavitt devised to negotiate the era's emerging photographic technology, the publisher says.Blending complex science with human-interest stories, Von Mertens celebrates the constellation of women scientists who discovered how to calculate galactic distances and classify stars by chemical composition.... This deeply researched book is ultimately an homage to the process of observation and meaning making in science. Lucy Tu, September 2024Pillars of Creation: How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmosby Richard PanekLittle, Brown, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Astronomy)Pillars of Creation tells the story of one of the greatest scientific achievements in the history of civilization, a $10 billion instrument with a staggeringly ambitious goal: unlocking the secrets of the cosmos. Award-winning science writer Richard Panek stands us shoulder to shoulder with senior scientists as they conceive the mission..., and, now, use its unprecedented technology to yield new discoveries about the origins of our solar system ... all the way back to the birth of the first stars, the publisher says.Like any good profiler, Panek gets up close and personal with his subject, describing each layer of its sunshield as the length of a long tennis lob and the width of a tissue. Woven into the narrative is the importance of the public in shaping the missions trajectory, from electing leadership who fund the nations space agency to bestowing Internet virality on JWSTs first-released images of other worlds. Maddie Bender, October 2024Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Futureby Lauren E. OakesBasic Books, 2024(Tags: Nonfiction, Ecosystems and Habitats)In Treekeepers, Lauren E. Oakes takes us on a poetic and practical journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet ... scientists, innovators, and local citizens.... Their work isnt just about planting lots of trees, but also about understanding what it takes to grow or regrow a forest and to protect what remains, the publisher says.Treekeepers is an ambitious memoir of Oakess boots-on-the-ground research under old-growth canopy and a rigorous exploration of forests and climate change. Most of all, its a hopeful profile of the people working to restore, retain and nurture strong forests. Lyndsie Bourgon, November 2024End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland: A New Translationby Haruki Murakami. Translated by Jay RubinEverymans Library, 2024(Tags: Literary Fiction, Fantasy)Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws readers into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect, the publisher says.First translated from the Japanese in 1991 by Alfred Birnbaum, Haruki Murakamis award-winning 1985 novel is a tale of two worlds. Although the relative limitations of English occasionally risk reduced complexity, the resulting language often still moves, as when one narrator pledges his emergent dream-reading skills to help his romantic interest recover her lost heart.... As it is when Murakamis two storylines finally come together, its where mind, heart and morality converge that End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland is at its best. Matt Bell, December 2024Bountiful BacklistMy Brilliant Friendby Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann GoldsteinPublished in English by Europa Editions, 2012(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)Terrifying at times but never without heart. I read this in a book club. We pretty much mourned (and celebrated) our collective dwindling girlhood every meeting. Cynthia Atkinson, Marketing and Customer Service AssistantA Discovery of Witchesby Deborah HarknessPenguin Books, 2011(Tags: Fiction, Romance)Its a fun book about a witch and a vampire and also alchemy and old manuscripts. What could be better? Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterYellowfaceby R. F. KuangWilliam Morrow, 2023(Tags: Literary Fiction, Satire)All the hype is spot on. But it was so much more twisted and fun than I expected. Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerDoppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror Worldby Naomi KleinFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023(Tags: Memoir, Politics)This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why it has become so hard to tell whats real from something else that looks very similar but differs in a sinister way. Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, Science and SocietyWar in Val D'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 19431944by Iris OrigoFirst edition, Jonathan Cape, 1947; Reprint edition, NYRB Classics, 2018(Tags: Nonfiction, Memoir)The diary mixes mundane life with awful peril to deliver moments both more immediate and more dreadful than any melodrama. Dan Vergano, Senior Opinion EditorThese Are the Words: Fearless Verse to Find Your Voiceby Nikita GillMacmillan Childrens Books, 2022(Tags: Poetry, Feminism)I needed something comforting and short, and These Are the Words fit the bill perfectlya pep talk combined with a big warm hug, even as it faces the very real challenges of our time. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterBirnam Wood: A Novelby Eleanor CattonFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023(Tags: Literary Fiction, Suspense)I normally dont read much suspense, but this made me laugh out loud and cover my mouth in shockeasily one of my favorite reads this year! Brianne Kane, Editorial Workflow and Rights ManagerGo as a Riverby Shelley ReadSpiegel and Grau, 2023(Tags: Environment, Historical, Literary Fiction)This is a beautifully written epic set in a Colorado mountain town in the 1960s. A young woman is dealt numerous challenges surrounding her broken family, forbidden love, chance of motherhood and, ultimately, survival. The book is inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola, Colo. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be exceptional. Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerThe Poison Squad: One Chemists Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Centuryby Deborah BlumPenguin Press, 2018(Tags: Nonfiction, Politics)A gobsmacking look at what the U.S. food supply was like prior to laws that required food safety testing and regulated the practices of the food industryas well as the sheer lengths it took to get those laws enacted Andrea Thompson, Associate Editor, SustainabilityThe Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our Worldby Max FisherLittle, Brown, 2022(Tags: Nonfiction, Sociology)A harrowing account of the roles played by WhatsApp, YouTube and other social media platforms in deadly conflicts. Ill never look at Facebook-the-system in the same way. Ben Guarino, Associate Editor, TechnologyBunny: A Novelby Mona Awad(Tags: Literary Fiction, Fairy Tales)Viking, 2019This book is incredibly intense, funny and just bizarre. Simply put, its a fever dream I woke up from too quickly! Isabella Bruni, Digital ProducerTrustby Hernan DiazRiverhead Books, 2022(Tags: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction)In the 1920s in NYC, this novels three narrators delve into how relationships, power and bias impact perspective and memory. Kimberly Lau, PresidentVera Wongs Unsolicited Advice for Murderersby Jesse Q. SutantoBerkley, 2023(Tags: Mystery, Womens Fiction)This is a very cozy mystery with a delightfully enthusiastic amateur detective sleuthing her way to a found family. Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterThe Nutmegs Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisisby Amitav GhoshUniversity of Chicago Press, 2021(Tags: Nonfiction, Environmental History)This is a powerful and beautifully written meditation on the colonial underpinnings of climate change and the destruction of biodiversity and cultures. Its also a great read. Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, Science and SocietyWish You Were Here: A Novelby Jodi PicoultBallantine Books, 2021(Tags: Literary Fiction)A woman in her 30s is stranded in the Galpagos Islands as the COVID pandemic takes hold. The narrative brings back vivid fears and feelings as the world came to a halt. It explores the strange juxtaposition of devastating loss amid vibrant life and love. Kimberly Lau, PresidentNeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversityby Steve SilbermanAvery, 2015(Tags: Nonfiction, Psychology)Im sad that I only learned of this book after Silberman passed away this year. This is a deeply researched, elegantly written book about the history of autism and our understanding of it. A warning: the historical accounts of the treatment of autistic children are often gut-wrenching. But it is also a richly personal homage to autistic people. Amanda Montaez, Associate Graphics EditorInvisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Menby Caroline Criado PerezAbrams, 2019(Tags: Nonfiction, Feminism)Its not an over-exaggeration to say I think about this book multiple times a day as I go about my life. This book will make you angry, and you should read it anyway. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converseby Howard FishmanDutton, 2023(Tags: Memoir, Music History)This is a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic life, haunting music and enduring mystery surrounding the talented singer-songwriter Connie Converse. Highly recommended! Liz Tormes, Associate Photo EditorNinth Houseby Leigh BardugoFlatiron Books, 2019(Tags: Literary Fiction, Occult and Supernatural)I was hooked from the first scene, with its abrupt, graphic tour of Yale Universitywhere, by the way, all the secret societies practice ritual black magic. Its a blast, at once laugh-out-loud funny and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. Jason Goldstein, Product and Technology DirectorEve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolutionby Cat BohannonKnopf, 2023(Tags: Nonfiction, Science)So much of our existence is male-centered, and it was incredibly empowering and revolutionary to realize just how fundamental and influential female biology has beenand how much it has been wrongly overlooked. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witchby Melinda TaubGrand Central Publishing, 2023(Tags: Fiction, Fantasy)In this take on Pride and Prejudice that stars the much-maligned Lydia Bennet, Wickham is a demon, and Kitty is a literal cat. I loved the way this book plays within the confines of Jane Austens plot while concocting a completely different story around ita really fun read! Meghan Bartels, Senior News ReporterLady Tans Circle of Women: A Novelby Lisa SeeScribner, 2023(Tags: Historical Fiction, China, Womens Health)This novel follows the true story of a female physician in Ming Dynasty China. Its a fascinating view into a provincial but familiar world where womens access to careand those daring to give itwere frequently life-or-death experiences. Kimberly Lau, PresidentThe Bangalore Detectives Club: A Novelby Harini Nagendra Pegasus Books, 2022(Tags: Mystery, Historical Fiction)This fun whodunit set in 1920s Bangalore gives a fascinating peek intro prerevolution India and how society is beginning to change for a smart woman. Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, Space/Physics Demon Copperhead: A Novelby Barbara KingsolverHarper, 2022(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)Loosely based on Charles Dickenss classic David Copperfield, Kingsolvers latest book is another tour de force. Her characters are, as usual, beautifully drawn and painfully realistic, and she's able to capture the tragedy, beauty and complexity of Appalachia perfectly. Tanya Lewis, Senior Editor, Health and MedicineKnow My Name: A Memoirby Chanel MillerViking, 2019(Tags: Nonfiction, Memoir)The title of this book is apropos because when I mentioned to people that I was reading Millers memoir, the name typically didnt resonate. Then I would clarify that the author is the sexual assault survivor from the Brock Turner case. As one might guess, its a heavy read. But I found it incredibly valuable to hear from Miller. The story is haunting because its true. Amanda Montaez, Associate Graphics EditorHomegoingby Yaa GyasiKnopf, 2016(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)Gyasis writing is so brisk and economical that each moment is rich with emotional depth, drawing you in and making you deeply invested in every character. Carin Leong, Contributing Multimedia EditorA Master of Djinnby P. Djl ClarkTor Books, 2021(Tags: Fantasy, Historical Fiction)Magical fantasy meets mystery meets steampunk meets historical political intrigue, with a healthy dash of LGBTQ representation thrown into the mix. This book is such a fun, bizarre and easy read. It comes out guns blazing in the first chapter and doesnt slow down for a second. Zane Wolf, Graphics Intern, JuneDecember 2024Mary Toft; Or, The Rabbit Queenby Dexter PalmerPantheon, 2019(Tags: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction)An 18th-century doctor and his apprentice encounter a woman who claims to be giving birth to rabbits, kicking off a national scandal. Of course, its a hoax, but how did all these people fall for it? Its captivating writing and almost enough to make you wonder if youd have been duped, too. Jason Goldstein, Product and Technology Director

December 18, 20243 min readWill the World's First Nuclear Fusion Power Plant Be Built in Virginia? Here's Why We're SkepticalThe fusion power plant would go live in the next decade and produce 400 megawatts of electricity, says Commonwealth Fusion SystemsBy Ben Guarino edited by Dean VisserCommonwealth Fusion Systems new fusion power plant is expected to come online in the early 2030s and generate about 400 megawatts of clean, carbon-free electricity enough to power large industrial sites or about 150,000 homes. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a company with origins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it will build the worlds first fusion power plant in an industrial park near Richmond, Va., within a decade. The plant is expected to go live in the early 2030s, according to a news release issued by M.I.T. on Tuesday, and the reactor will produce about 400 megawatts of electricity. Though estimates vary, one megawatt can power about 400 U.S. homes.Various parties have described this development as momentous. They include Virginias governor Glenn Youngkin, who issued a statement saying, This is an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large. And Dennis Whyte, CFSs co-founder and an engineering professor at M.I.T., said in the news release that this will be a watershed moment for fusion.But lets hold our nuclear horses for just a moment: there are several steps that must be completed before this fusion plant, named ARC (for affordable, robust, compact), could be plugged into Virginias power grid. For one, CFS has not finished its demonstration machine, SPARC (smallest possible ARC). The company says it expects the completed SPARC to show net energy production in 2027. That alone would be a feat.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Remind me, whats a fusion reactor?Fusion, in which atomic nuclei combine and release gobs of energy, is a natural feature of the suns plasma. To mimic that process on Earth, a fuel pellet (often consisting of isotopes of hydrogen) is ignited inside a machine called a tokamak. A tokamak generates doughnut-shaped magnetic fields to control the resulting superhot plasma, which is prone to flaring. The outcome, in theory, is energy production without the long-lasting radioactive waste of nuclear fission and without the global warming contributions of burned carbon.Failed promises litter the path to workable fusion. But this time there is a sense of excitement, of rapid acceleration after decades of plodding, among certain fusion experts. In 2022 physicists at the National Ignition Facility in California showed that it is possible to exceed whats called scientific breakeven, in which a reactor makes more energy than what is required to kick off the fusion reaction.Commonwealth Fusion Systems tokamak fusion reactor design, pictured, makes use of a new kind of high-temperature superconducting magnet. The approach was first explored in a graduate class taught by co-founder and MIT Professor Dennis Whyte.Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)The Virginia plants tokamak, based on designs produced by M.I.T. graduate students, will be especially compact and economic because it will use a new kind of superconducting magnet, Whyte said in the news release.Why is the location in Virginia?Virginia is home to Data Center Alley, where the current boom in artificial intelligence, streaming services and other tech has manifested what is among the worlds densest concentration of server farms. These are energy-hungry facilities, and demand is projected only to grow. CFSs chief commercial officer told the New York Times the fusion plant will probably serve industrial customers.Havent I heard all of this before?Fusion, which has been studied since the middle of the 20th century, is the kind of technology that always seems to be just 15 years away. Constructing an artificial star is difficult; materials in fusion reactors must withstand temperatures of millions of degrees Celsius. And it is expensive. The biggest fusion project on the planet, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, is behind schedule and over budget, ballooning from an initial estimate of $6.3 billion in 2006 to $22 billion in 2023, as journalist Charles Seife reported in Scientific American last year. AndITER, whose fundamental goal is to prove that fusion energy is feasible, is not intended to power anything.CFS, meanwhile, has secured about $2 billion in investments. If it succeeds, it will have done so where previous attempts by well-financed tech companies have failed. Lockheed Martin began working on a small fusion reactor in 2010. In 2014 it said it would develop a reactor compact enough to fit on a truck before 2019. But by 2021, Lockheed Martin had quietly shelved the project.

December 18, 20242 min readU.S. Has a First Case of Severe Bird Flu, CDC Confirms in H5N1 UpdateLouisiana reported a person hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1, and the USDA has begun bulk milk testingBy Tanya Lewis edited by Dean VisserA person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with severe H5N1 influenza after having contact with sick backyard birds. The virus is similar to that found in wild birds and some poultry. Getty ImagesThe ongoing bird flu outbreak in the U.S. just got a bit more concerning: a person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with the first severe case of infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in a statement issued on Wednesday.A total of 61 human cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in the U.S. this year. Most of them have occurred in dairy or poultry farm workersand most of them have been mild. The recent Louisiana case, initially reported by the Louisiana Department of Health last Friday, is the first known instance in which a person has been hospitalized for an with the H5N1 infection in the U.S. this year. An investigation is under way, but the involved person appears to have had contact with sick or dead birds from a backyard flock. The viral strain is different from the one currently circulating in dairy cows. Preliminary genetic sequencing revealed it is likely related to the D1.1 strain that is now circulating in wild birds and poultry in the U.S. and to a human case in Canada.In addition to the Louisiana case, Delaware recently reported a probable H5N1 case that was detected by routine state influenza surveillance. The infected person did not have known contact with sick animals. The CDC could not confirm the type of influenza A virus after multiple tests and has classified it as a probable case. There have been at least two previous cases with no known exposure.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.These two cases do not change CDCs current risk assessment for the general population, which remains low, said Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a group call with reporters on Wednesday. Nevertheless, the large number of animalsbirds and mammalsinfected with H5 bird flu increases the risk of the virus potentially infecting people and potentially adapting to cause human-to-human spread.H5N1 continues to infect dairy cows in at least 16 states, with 860 herds affected as of December 17. On December 6 the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a new federal order for bulk testing raw milk from dairy cows. The order will be phased in starting with six states: California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Other states will be added as resources allow, Eric Deeble, the USDAs deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, told reporters on Wednesday. Several field trials for bovine H5N1 vaccines are underway at locations around the country, he added.Also this week the company Labcorp announced it will now offer a human H5 bird flu test that physicians can order.

December 17, 20244 min readTo Monitor Greenhouse Gas Emissions Nationwide, U.S. Enlists Passenger PlaneUnited Airlines is partnering with NOAA as part of a wider federal strategy to better keep tabs on the countrys greenhouse gas emissionsBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsInformation gathered by a passenger plane can help scientists verify emissions measurements gathered in the same places by other methods, such as satellites or on-the-ground instruments. Michal Krakowiak/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | A new partnership between NOAA and United Airlines will soon help federal scientists keep better tabs on domestic greenhouse gas emissions.The project, set to begin next year, will equip a single Boeing 737 with scientific instruments designed to monitor carbon dioxide, methane and other climate-warming gases. As the aircraft zigzags across the country, stopping in as many as five cities a day, it will collect valuable data on emissions over both rural and urban landscapes, scientists say.That information can help scientists verify emissions measurements gathered in the same places by other methods, such as satellites or on-the-ground instruments. And it can help cities and land managers pinpoint locations where they may be underestimating their own emissions.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Its a real opportunity to go to where all the action is in terms of understanding the emissions, said Colm Sweeney, associate director of science at NOAAs global monitoring laboratory and lead scientist at the labs aircraft program. Were not trying to regulate any emissions were just trying to understand what those emissions profiles look like.The project is part of a wider federal strategy to coordinate and improve greenhouse gas monitoring efforts across federal agencies. That effort is intensifying in the final weeks of the Biden administration, amid fears that the incoming Trump administration will deprioritize or dismantle the so-called national greenhouse gas monitoring strategy.The partnership between NOAA and United Airlines , which was announced at a White House super-pollutants summit in July, is known as a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. That means NOAA provides staff and equipment but no funding.NOAA already conducts a variety of data-collecting missions using research aircraft, but federal scientists say partnering with commercial airlines opens new doors for greenhouse gas monitoring efforts. Research flights are expensive, and aircraft are limited, while installing sensors on commercial aircraft enables researchers to easily gather continuous measurements from flights that would be taking place regardless."This collaboration represents a significant leap forward in U.S. efforts to monitor and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions," said Sarah Kapnick, NOAAs chief scientist, in a statement. "If we can harness the capabilities of commercial aircraft we will be poised to make rapid advancements in the understanding of greenhouse gas emissions that can inform policies."The ship is already sailingIn 2023, the Biden administration issued a road map for a new national greenhouse gas measurement, monitoring and information system.The national strategy established a data portal known as the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center, designed to consolidate emissions observations from a wide range of sources. It also included a variety of recommendations to expand, consolidate and coordinate greenhouse gas monitoring efforts across federal agencies and private sector partners.Coordination is key to improving national greenhouse gas data, experts say. Most of the federal science agencies, including NASA, NOAA and EPA, have their own initiatives for monitoring and estimating emissions in different ways across different sectors of the economy. The new NOAA project is just one example.But until recently, theres been no streamlined effort to consolidate these efforts and combine the data.We have so much information, so much diversity, sources its kind of acronym soup, said NASA climate scientist Lesley Ott. And even for scientists, that can be difficult to navigate.Thats changing now, as federal scientists work to coordinate their monitoring programs, synthesize their data and partner with private companies and NGOs to improve their data collection efforts. Theyre doubling down on these efforts even as President-elect Donald Trump who has repeatedly disavowed the science of human-caused climate change prepares to take office for his second term, calling the future of national greenhouse gas monitoring efforts into question.Trump has promised to increase oil and gas development in the U.S. and withdraw from the Paris Agreement for a second time. Project 2025, a policy plan for Trump's second term spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation, also calls for dramatic cuts and reorganizations of federal science agencies, including NOAA and EPA.While Trump has previously distanced himself from the policy blueprint, he recently named a number of the plans architects as nominees for positions within his new administration.But federal scientists say theyre committed to the mission regardless of a change in administration and theyre cautiously optimistic that a combination of economic forces and global momentum on emissions reduction efforts will continue to push their efforts forward over the next four years.I think what were all focused on is really not speculating, not getting too far out, because you dont know, Ott said. I think what were really focused on is doing the mission that we have.Riley Duren, CEO of the greenhouse gas monitoring nonprofit Carbon Mapper, added that federal regulation is just one aspect of efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions.My opinion is that to some extent the ship is already sailing on the use of data-driven regulations and market mechanisms around the world, and there's momentum behind that shift, he said. And I think a lot of policymakers if they think critically about it theyll see their motivations to get on board to support those things, because that's where industry and civil society is heading.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

December 17, 20244 min readThe Unbelievable Slowness of ThinkingThe brain is sometimes called the most complex machine in the known universe. But the thoughts that it outputs putter along at a trifling 10 bits per second, the pace of a conversationBy Rachel Nuwer Aitor Diago/Getty ImagesPeople tend to have the sense that their inner thoughts and feelings are much richer than what they are capable of expressing in real time. Elon Musk has spoken publicly about this bandwidth problem, as he described it to podcaster Joe Rogan. Musk is so bothered by this, in fact, that he has made it one of his long-term goals to create an interface that allows the human brain to communicate directly with a computer, unencumbered by the slow speed of speaking or writing.If Musk succeeded, he would probably be disappointed. According to new research published in Neuron, human beings think at a fixed, excruciatingly slow speed of about 10 bits per secondthey remember, make decisions and imagine things at that pace. In contrast, human sensory systems gather data at about one billion bits per second. This biological paradox, highlighted in the new paper, likely contributes to the false feeling that our mind can engage in seemingly infinite thoughts simultaneouslya phenomenon the study authors deem the Musk illusion.The human brain is much less impressive than we might think, says study co-author Markus Meister, a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology. Its incredibly slow when it comes to making decisions, and its ridiculously slower than any of the devices we interact with.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Meister and co-author Jieyu Zheng, a doctoral candidate in neurobiology at Caltech, also highlight in their paper that our brain can only do one thingslowlyat a time. So even if Musk managed to hook his brain up to a computer, Meister says, he still wouldnt be able to communicate with it any faster than he could if he used a telephone.The new research builds on decades of psychology studies showing that humans selectively perceive only a small portion of information from their sensory experience. We can only pay attention to so much, and thats what becomes our conscious experience and enters memory, Meister says. What has been missing from past studies, he continues, is any sense of numbers. He and Zheng undertook their new review paper to try to fill that quantitative gap.Meister and Zheng collated data from studies across different fields, including psychology, neuroscience, technology and human performance. They used those various datafrom the processing speed of single neurons to the cognitive prowess of memory championsto run many of their own calculations so they could make comparisons across studies.From research spanning nearly a century, they found that human cognition has repeatedly been measured as functioning between about 5 and 20 bits per second, with a ballpark figure of around 10 bits per second. This was a very surprising number, Zheng says. Based on this finding, she adds, she and Meister also calculated that the total amount of information a person can learn across their lifetime could comfortably fit on a small thumb drive.Human sensory systems such as sight, smell and sound, on the other hand, operate much faster, the authors foundabout 100,000,000 times the rate that cognition does. When you put these numbers together, you realize, oh my god, theres this huge gap, Meister says. From that paradox comes interesting new opportunities for science to organize research differently.The rich information relayed by our senses also contributes to a false notion that we register the extreme detail and contrast all around us. But thats demonstrably not true, Meister says. When people are asked to describe what they see outside of the center of their gaze, they barely make out anything, he says. Because our eyes have the capability of focusing on any detail around us, he continues, our mind gives us the illusion that these things are present simultaneously all the time, even though in actuality we have to focus on specific visual details to register them. A similar phenomenon occurs with mental ability. In principle, we could be having lots of different thoughts and direct our cognition in lots of different ways, but in practice, we can only have one thought at a time, Meister says.Another problem that contributes to our overinflated sense of our own mind, he adds, is that we have no marker of comparison. Theres no way to step outside ourselves to recognize that this is really not much to brag about, he says.The findings raise questions across many domains, from evolution and technology to cross-species comparisons, the authors write. One of the questions Meister and Zheng are most curious about, though, is why the prefrontal cortexthought to be the seat of personality and behavioral controlhouses billions of neurons yet has a fixed decision-making capability that processes information at just 10 bits per second. The authors suspect that the answer might have something to do with the brains need to frequently switch tasks and integrate information across different circuits. But more complex behavioral studies will be needed to test that hypothesis.Another important unanswered question, Meister says, is why the human brain can only do one thing at a time. If we could have 1,000 thoughts in parallel, each at 10 bits per second, the discrepancy wouldnt be as big as it is, he says. Why humans are incapable of doing this is a deep mystery that almost nothing is known about.Tony Zador, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, who was not involved in the work but is mentioned in the papers acknowledgments section, says the wonderful and thought-provoking paper presents what seems to be a newly recognized fundamental truth about the brains upper limit of roughly the pace of casual typing or conversation.Nature, it seems, has built a speed limit into our conscious thoughts, and no amount of neural engineering may be able to bypass it, Zador says. Why? We really dont know, but its likely the result of our evolutionary history.Nicole Rust, a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania, who also was not involved in the research, says the new study could reshape how neuroscientists approach some of their work.Why can our peripheral nervous system process thousands of items in parallel, but we can only do one thing at a time? she says. Any theory of the brain that seeks to account for all the fascinating things we can do, like planning and problem solving, will have to account for this paradox.

December 17, 20243 min readHear How Baby Humpback Whales Burp and Bark to Beg for FoodThe burps, barks and snorts humpback whales make when asking their mother for milk are the first recorded instances of begginglike behavior in a baleen whaleBy Jack TamisieaAerial view of a humpback whale mother-calf pair off Sainte Marie Island, also known as Nosy Boraha. Ctamada AssociationNewborn humpback whales can measure more than 15 feet from nose to tail fluke and weigh as much as full-grown giraffes. But these hefty calves still need to pack on the pounds quickly to reach their parents even more prodigious proportions. Each day, a humpback calf guzzles hundreds of liters of its mothers milk, which is as thick as toothpaste and loaded with fats.And just like a human baby shows off its impressive lung capacity when hungry, a baby humpback whale with a hankering for milk lets its mother hear it. According to a new study published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, hungry humpback calves produce low-frequency vocalizations to signal their nourishment needs. These noises, which sound like burps, barks and snorts, are the first recorded instances of begginglike behavior in a baleen whale.A newborn humpback whale calf resting on its mother's back.Ctamada AssociationOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Humpback whales possess an impressive vocal repertoire that helps them communicate over long distances and through murky waters. Adult males compose haunting songs to woo mates. And all humpbacks produce less structured calls that they use in a variety of social situations.Scientists have studied these calls for decades, but relatively little research has focused on the vocalizations between humpback calves and their mother, says lead study author Maevatiana Ratsimbazafindranahaka, who studies bioacoustics and conducted the research as a doctoral student at the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience in France. This obscures a major aspect of a humpbacks social upbringing. These early interactions likely play a significant role in shaping the social behaviors of humpback whales, even beyond weaning, he says.To listen in on such interactions, Ratsimbazafindranahaka teamed up with researchers in Madagascar to study humpback calves swimming near Sainte Marie Island, also known as Nosy Boraha, which sits along a thruway for migrating whales. The team outfitted eight humpback calves with video cameras and hydrophones, devices that recorded their vocalizations. Back in the lab, the scientists sifted through nearly 33 hours of recordings and isolated the calves vocalizations. They then synced up the calls to the various behaviors, including playing, traveling and resting, that the calves exhibited during the corresponding videos.The researchers identified more than 500 social calls among the cadre of whale calves and found that the calves were mostly silent during activities such as resting and traveling and louder while playing.The whale calves were particularly noisy before nursing. On average, suckling sessions produced the most calls of any of the behaviors the team examined. These vocalizations were usually low-frequency burps, barks, snorts and grunts, which surprised the researchers. We expected that young animals would use high-pitched, whining sounds to communicate their needs, Ratsimbazafindranahaka says.The researchers posit that the calves use these rumbling vocalizations to beg for milk from their mother. Anyone with a pet dog is familiar with begging, but the behavior is common across the animal kingdom and seen in everything from beetles and poison dart frogs to fledgling birds. Other marine mammals, including bottlenose and Araguaian river dolphins, have also displayed begginglike behaviors.Ratsimbazafindranahaka says its likely that humpback calves are not the only whales wailing for milk. He predicts that other baleen whales exhibit begginglike behavior, albeit with different vocal elements. For example, blue whale calves may voice their hunger with even lower-frequency rumbles because of their mind-boggling size: newborn blue whales are more than twice as heavy as baby humpbacks.According to Julia Zeh, a research biologist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who studies humpback whale acoustics, humpbacks expansive vocal repertoire makes it difficult to link their calls with specific behaviors. But she thinks the new findings help improve our understanding of how these whales communicate during an important chapter of their lives.Detailing the complexity of mother-calf communications also underscores how these creatures are threatened by anthropogenic disruptions, such as shipping and seismic surveying, that are making oceans noisier. Whales need to continue to be able to hear each other and effectively communicate to survive, Zeh says.

December 17, 20243 min readApe Jokes, Vagus Nerve Hopes and a Mystery PlanetThe searches for Planet Nine, bat viruses, life on Jupiters moon Europa and lucid dreamsBy Laura Helmuth Scientific American, January 2025One of the things I enjoy most about Scientific American is learning about how scientists do their workthe inspirations, the questions, the insights, the collaborations, the hmm, thats strange moments. Anthropologist Erica Cartmill recounts how she came to study the evolutionary origins of joking. We humans are all just great apes, no matter how fancy we dress up, and she finds that young orangutans and chimps play the same kinds of tricks and peekaboo games that we do.Another thing I appreciate about Scientific American is how our writers distinguish between hope and hype. As social media becomes increasingly fractured and fast and full of misinformation, its more important than ever to have trustworthy publications that share the best evidence for health claims. Research on the vagus nerve is at an interesting point right now. Its the most meandering nerve in the human body, connecting the brain with most of our internal organs. A full-spread graphic by Mesa Schumacher shows just how elaborate its influence is. Charlatans with gadgets to sell will claim that stimulating the nerve can cure whatever ails you. Thats not true ... but a growing body of evidence suggests the vagus nerve is a good candidate for treating a range of health conditions. Author Jena Pincott outlines what we know, what we dont and what it all means.We should know soon whether a hypothetical distant planet is orbiting at the edge of our solar system. Planet Nine (also called Planet X), if its really there, is five to 10 times the mass of Earth and has been distorting the paths of smaller objects. Volcanologist and science writer Robin George Andrews tracks the evidence and the growing enthusiasm among some astronomers that well soon have a ninth planet to replace poor Pluto. (One of these astronomers is the person who knocked Pluto out of the planetary pantheon and is hoping for atonement.)On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.People can learn to control their dreams and even communicate while dreaming. Sleep researcher Michelle Carr details the dream adventures of people who have participated in research studies in her laboratory, along with tips about how to practice lucid dreaming, which may help some people manage nightmares and improve sleep.Bats carry a lot of nasty viruses that dont bother them but do endanger other species, including humans. New research explains how their odd immune systems are tied to their evolution of flight. Science writer Jane Qiu warns that deforestation and climate change make us more vulnerable to spillover pandemics. Photojournalist Doug Gimesys images of gigantic bats called flying foxes are gorgeous and surprisingly endearing. Read more about Gimesy in our Contributors column.NASAs Europa Clipper mission launched on October 14, 2024, toward one of Jupiters most intriguing moons, with a briny ocean that is one of our best chances for finding life elsewhere in the solar system. The space probe is scheduled to arrive in 2030. Science writer Nadia Drake was there for the launch, and she shares the excitement of the mission and the rich history of the search for life, which is guided in part by the work of her father, astronomer Frank Drake.Enjoy the two new columns in this issue: a crossword by Aimee Lucido that features clues related to articles in the issue and The Science of Parenting. Please let us know at feedback@sciam.com if you have a question related to parenting that youd like our experts to answer.

December 17, 202415 min readWe May Be on the Brink of Finding the Real Planet NineIf theres a hidden world in the solar system, a new telescope should find itBy Robin George Andrews Ron MillerMost astronomers would love to find a planet, but Mike Brown may be the only one proud of having killed one. Thanks to his research, Pluto, the solar systems ninth planet, was removed from the pantheonand the public cried foul. How can you revise our childhoods? How can you mess around with our planetariums?About 10 years ago Browns daughterthen around 10 years oldsuggested one way he could seek redemption: go find another planet. When she said that, I kind of laughed, Brown says. In my head, I was like, Thats never happening.Yet Brown may now be on the brink of fulfilling his daughters wish. Evidence he and others have gathered over the past decade suggests something strange is happening in the outer solar system: distant subplanetary objects are being found on orbits that look sculpted, arranged by an unseen gravitational force. According to Brown, that force is coming from a ninth planetone bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Nobody has found Planet Nine yet. If its really out there, its too far and too faint for almost any existing telescope to spot it. But thats about to change. A new telescope, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, is about to open its mechanical eyes. When it does, it should catch millions of previously undetected celestial phenomena, from distant supernovae to near-Earth asteroidsand, crucially, tens of thousands of new objects around and beyond Pluto.If Browns hidden world is real, Rubin will almost certainly find it or strong indirect evidence that it exists. In the first year or two, were going to answer that question, says Megan Schwamb, a planetary astronomer at Queens University Belfast in Northern Irelandand, just maybe, the solar system will once again have a ninth planet.Pluto was discovered in 1930 and always seemed to be a lonely planet on the fringes of the solar system. But in the early 2000s skywatchers found out that Pluto had company: other rime-coated worlds much like it were popping up in surveys of that benighted frontier. And in 2005, using Californias Palomar Observatory, Brownan astronomer at the California Institute of Technologyand two of his colleagues spied a far-flung orb that would change the way we perceive the solar system.That orb was Eris. It was remarkably distant68 times as far from the sun as Earth. But at roughly 1,500 miles in diameter, it was just a little larger than Pluto. The day I found Eris and did the calculation about how big it might be, I was like, Okay, thats it. Games up, Brown says. Either Eris was going to become a new planet, or Pluto wasnt what we thought.Finding a ninth planet would be huge. Such a discovery could change what we know about our solar systems past.In 2006 officials at the International Astronomical Union decided that to qualify as a planet, a body must orbit a star, must be sufficiently massive for gravity to squish it into a sphere and must have a clear orbit. Pluto, which shares its orbital neighborhood with a fleet of other, more modest objects, failed to overcome the third hurdle. Pluto became a dwarf planetbut its demotion didnt make it, or its fellow distant companions, any less beguiling to astronomers.Pluto and Eris are members of the Kuiper belt, a roughly doughnut-shaped torus of icy shards left over from the solar systems formative days. There are countless worlds just like them, known as trans-Neptunian objects, but they are very hard to see.Still, in the early 2000s Brown, along with his two co-discoverers of Eris, Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University and David Rabinowitz of Yale University, found their fair share. They announced one of these, named Sedna, in 2004. The closest it gets to the sun is 76 astronomical units, or AU (1 AU is equivalent to the average Earth-sun distance), which is so mindbogglingly far-flung that a person standing on it could obscure the furious light of the sun with the head of a pin. Back then, it was the most distant object ever detected in the solar system. In fact, it resides beyond the Kuiper belt and was viewable only as a fuzzy little dot shifting between the stars. Some refer to Sedna as an extreme trans-Neptunian object, or ETNO. Though poorly defined, ETNOs are key players in the saga of Planet Nine, which is also referred to as Planet X. Sedna was our first clue to Planet Nine, although we didnt recognize it at the time, Brown says.In 2014 Trujillo (then at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii) and astronomer Scott S. Sheppard of Carnegie Science in Washington, D.C., published a paper on Sedna and another remote object called 2012 VP113, whose closest approach to the sun was a staggering 80 AU. Both dance back and forth across the heliopausethe putative boundary of our solar system that separates the magnetized wind of the sun from the gas and dust found between stars, beyond which interstellar space begins. Those two objects are in a class of their own, Sheppard says. They seemed inexplicable.Sedna and 2012 VP113 (along with a few other, similarly odd objects) are on orbits so stretched out and distant that the gravitational influence of something had to have positioned them there and paved their strange orbital highway around the sun. But what was that something? At these distances the immense gravitational fields of the giant planets, including Neptune, dont have any significant effect on them; the only thing that should be influencing their orbits is the sun.Those objects are in a dead zone, Sheppard says. He and others figured an invisible gravitational actor had to be invoked to explain these aberrant wayfarers. In 2014 Sheppard and Trujillo suggested that Sedna, 2012 VP113 and company may have those outlying orbits thanks to a hidden planetone anywhere from two to five Earth masses in sizethat is pulling at them and gradually changing the shapes and positions of their original orbits over time.The best way to find out if thats true is to use these ETNOs and their orbits as gravitational probes of the outer solar system, Sheppard says. The idea appealed to Brown, who took Sheppard and Trujillos 2014 study down the halls of Caltech to astronomer Konstantin Batygin. Whereas Brown is more of an observer of the night sky, Batygin is a theorist, someone who wants to know why the cartography of the solar system is the way it is. I take deep joy in taking on observational puzzles, he says. For me, the thrill is in putting the calculations out there and battle-testing them with data.Brown and Batygin ruminated on six ETNOs and noticed something weird was going on. Unlike the eight known planets, whose orbits are approximately circular and are oriented along the same flat plane, known as the ecliptic, these six objectsincluding Sednahad elliptical orbits and were tilted about 20 degrees with respect to the ecliptic. The six also made their closest approaches to the sun in the same region of space. They were all too far out to be within Neptunes gravitational reach, but something appeared to have crafted their orbits.Brown and Batygins computer models suggested the only reasonable possibility was a hidden planet with a mass five to 10 times that of Earth orbiting as far as 700 AU away. This world, perhaps one exiled from the warmer confines of the solar system during its chaotic earlier years, managed to cling to the suns gravitational ropes. And as it whirled through the distant darkness, it wielded its own gravitational influence on those passing six orbs, herding them into similar, strange new orbits.Since Sednas discovery in 2004, the notion of a huge, incognito planet had come up on several occasions. But Brown and Batygins 2016 paper announcing their calculations was a clarion call: We are confident that Planet Nine is out there. Now all we need to do is find it.The hunt for a missing planet is inherently peculiar. How many planets are in the solar system? Schwamb asks. This should be an easy question, right? But its not!Finding a ninth planet would be huge. Beyond consoling those in the public who still mourn Plutos demotion, such a discovery could change what we know about our solar systems past. Any objects in, and beyond, the Kuiper belt are relics left over after planet formation, Schwamb says. They tell us about that hidden history that basically has been erased from the solar system. Did planets manage to form that far from the sun, or did they migrate out there? Most orreries of planets moving around other stars include a mini Neptune of some variety. It is very odd that we dont have one, she says.If it exists, Planet Nine is big compared with EarthBrowns best guess is that it hovers around seven Earth masses. But its so far away that its beyond the detection capabilities of most telescopes. In general, observatories have a choice: have a wide field of view to see more of the night sky in one go or a big mirror to collect more light from a smaller area and see distant, faint objects. Space is rather expansive, so trying to zoom in on one minuscule patch of it in the hope of finding a single object is extremely unlikely to succeed.Jen Christiansen; Source: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) (ETNO and Planet Nine orbital reference)Many astronomersnot just Brown, Batygin, Sheppard and Trujillohave tried looking. Several more ETNOs have been found, including the Goblin (discovered around Halloween 2015), Farout and FarFarOutmore gravitational probes for Planet Nine hunters to study. But to date, Planet Nine itself has eluded them.There is, of course, a chance that they cant find it not because Planet Nine is stealthy but because it doesnt exist. Over the past decade various alternative hypotheses have sprung up to try to explain Sedna and its cohorts weirdly clustered orbits.One possibility is that there is a Planet Nine but not the canonical one; instead its something considerably punierMars-sizeand it sits elsewhere on the solar systems outermost boundary. In 2017 Kathryn Volk, an orbital dynamics researcher at the University of Arizona, thought the orbits of various trans-Neptunian objects hinted at the presence of a Mars-esque world within the Kuiper belt. Additional observational data on other distant objects has since undercut her teams hypothesis, and although the possibility of a Mars-like Planet Nine has come up at astronomy conferences, Volk is now skeptical. Much like the more standard Planet Nine, theyre probably both wrong, she says. I dont think any of the existing predictions are correct.In 2020 scientists suggested that an icy ring of primordial debris, if massive enough, could also be sculpting the orbits of several ETNOs. Brown notes that we see inclined frosty rings around other stars, but those rings are thought to be held in place by the gravitational influence of another hefty planet, making this a more complicated explanation than Planet Nine alone.Its also been suggested that perhaps a passing star or a rogue planet zipping through space could have dragged Sedna and its friends onto their weird orbits long ago. In 2019 researchers even wondered whether a tiny black hole might be the culprit. When I raise this possibility to Brown, he grins. I have it! he says. He disappears for a moment, then reemerges holding a sphere about the size of a volleyball. This is a seven-Earth-mass black hole. One of my students 3D-printed it for me.Brown chuckles. What we know is that there is a seven-Earth-mass object out there. What it is, we dont know, he says. It could be a planet. It could be a black hole. It could be a cat or a burrito. All of these are possibilitiessome make more sense than others. He puts down his tiny black hole. A planet is a really mundane explanation. After all, he says, we see planets like that on distant orbits around other stars all the time.Trujillo is a little more circumspect when considering alternative explanations. Sure, he says, they could be right; those theories deserve to be explored. We still dont really know how Sedna and the other ETNOs got out there, he says. But the fact remains that an undiscovered large planet is a real possibility.Though not as adamant as Brown, Batygin is certainly bullish. In astrophysics, most theories are wrong, he says. The most surprising thing Ive encountered over the course of the past eight years for this particular problem is that there hasnt been a compelling other alternative.Arguably, the greatest challenge to the Planet Nine story is the suggestion that Sedna and company may not have strange orbits at all. Astronomers cannot see every region of space clearly. If an observatory is afflicted by bad winter weather, then data will be lacking for that corner of the night sky. ETNOs also spend most of their unfathomably long orbits so far from Earth that they glint in sunlight only when they reach their closest approach to the sun. Then theres the Milky Way. Our solar system is perched on one of the arms of our spiral galaxy, and when we look inward, all we see is starlight. Its beautiful but bothersome to astronomers. Nobody finds [trans-Neptunian objects] where the Milky Way is, says Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada. Youre looking for a small, fuzzy, moving dot, and when there are so many stars in the background, its harder to find them. Because astronomers know about only a small number of Kuiper belt objects and ETNOs, some scientists skeptical of the Planet Nine hypothesis think we simply do not have enough information to know whether worlds like Sedna really are on strange orbits or just look like they are for the moment.Each year we dont find [Planet Nine], the probability of it actually existing goes down dramatically. Mario Jurić University of WashingtonThink of it this way: imagine youre in the dark, and you have a flashlight. You shine it on one patch of the floor ahead of you, and you see a handful of marbles in that one spot. (Thats Sedna and friends.) With that information alone, you may think there must be a special reason those marbles are in that spot. But there could be plenty of other marbles all over the floorand if you could see all those other marbles, you would realize that the first seeming cluster of them isnt a cluster at all. Instead its just a random group of marbles on a floor covered in haphazardly placed marbles. The problem is that, for now, your flashlight isnt bright or wide enough to let you see the rest of them.This misperception is caused by whats known as an observational bias. To see whether the case for Planet Nine was afflicted by one, Lawler and her colleagues turned to the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS). Between 2013 and 2017, OSSOS used the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to scan eight patches of the night sky and ultimately identified more than 800 new Kuiper belt objects. Eight objects had average distances from the sun greater than 150 AU, making them ETNOsthe kinds of objects that could be used as gravitational probes for Planet Nine. And their orbits were not clustered at all.If a giant hidden planet is influencing these eight objects, they should exhibit the same type of clustering as those being used to invoke Planet Nine. But they dont. The OSSOS data cannot rule out Planet Nine, but they do suggest that what may look like clustered orbits sculpted by an invisible world could, in fact, be an illusion. Authors of another bias-checking study, using the Dark Energy Survey, came to the same broad conclusion in 2020. Why say theres something more complicated if you cant rule out the null result? Lawler says. Thats our argument.The soon-to-open Vera C. Rubin Observatory stands atop the Cerro Pachn mountain range in Chile.NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/F. BrunoThe crux of the debate is that we are dealing with small-number statistics: there are too few known trans-Neptunian objects for astronomers to confirm one way or the other. The agnostic perspective now is that we do not have enough data either way, says Pedro Bernardinelli, an astronomer at the Institute for Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Washington. I am fairly convinced that its probably not there. But I also think its silly to not search for it.Thankfully, that search is about to get a lot easier.In May 2024 a nearly 7,000-pound, car-size camera was moved from its construction site in California to a mountaintop in Chile. After a 10-hour flight and a several-day, winding, bumpy drive to an 8,700-foot-high peak in the Cerro Pachn mountain range, the 3,200-megapixel camerathe worlds largestarrived without a single scratch. Like the prize jewel for a monarchs crown, the $168-million camera was then almost ready to be set in place within the nearly finished Vera C. Rubin Observatory.The observatory will see its first light sometime in early 2025. Thanks to its enormous field of view, Rubin will take images of the entire night sky viewable from the Southern Hemisphere night after nightand its house-size nest of mirrors will gather up remarkably distant starlight, meaning nearly everything that shimmers or shifts about will be photographed.Rubina venture funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Department of Energyis named after the late, great astronomer who, by looking at the way stars and galaxies stuck together more than could be explained by the gravity of visible matter alone, uncovered compelling evidence for dark matter. Her namesake is aptly set to find a cornucopia of concealed objects, from faraway collapsing stars to millions of asteroids and even a bunch of interstellar objects in our own solar system.The Kuiper belt, whose population and structure are only vaguely known, stands to be greatly illuminated by Rubin. After nearly four decades of searching, astronomers have found about 4,000 objects out there. With Rubin, it should go up to about 40,000, says Mario Jurić, an astronomer at the University of Washington. I bring that up with Brown, who laughs. Ah, who cares about those? he says with a grin. But ultimately, he has his eyes on Planet Nine. And, he says, Rubin is probably going to find it.Heres how: To fulfill Rubins myriad science objectives, astronomers are putting together a strategy for the observatorys survey of the night sky, which will essentially be automated. Astronomers cant just ask for time on Rubin as they do on other telescopes. Instead algorithms will process Rubins nightly images to produce catalogs, which will then be released to the community.For solar system science, astronomers will see a list of moving objectsthose known and those previously unidentifiedwith orbital parameters based on the current crop of Rubin observations. Researchers seeking Planet Nine can then use the newly discovered trans-Neptunian objects to see whether the case for the planet is stacking up or collapsing.When lots of ETNOs have been found, Brown says, it will become clear whether the clustered orbits one would expect to be caused by a hidden planetlike those of Sedna and companyare present. And because Rubin will see the entire southern sky, any observational bias will be quickly ruled out. If the clustering is there, Planet Nine is there, Brown says.Its also possible that among the moving objects Rubin detects will be Planet Nine itself. If its more like Uranus or Neptunea hydrogen-enveloped orb with plenty of iceit will reflect a lot of light, making it easier to spot. (Even in that best-case scenario it would probably look like a pinprick of light in a Rubin image.) Pessimistically, Batygin says, its a bare rocka superdark world, practically invisible. Undeniably, that would suck. But that might be the reality of it. Well get what well get, and we wont get upset. Well, some of us will get upset.If its hanging out in front of the Milky Way, that would be the nightmare scenario, Bernardinelli says. It will be very hard to find. Jurić notes that Rubins software will do its best to subtract that bright conflagration of starlight, revealing, he hopes, anything concealed within it. Will that work? Jurić thinks so, but you dont know until you try it, he says.Worst-case scenarios aside, astronomers expect that the mission to find Planet Nine will be over in a few years. In just one, Earth (and Rubin) will have circled the sun once. Only inclement weather will prevent us from seeing whats out there; a bad winter month may take one month of full-sky coverage away, but the telescope should be able to capture it the next year.Each year we dont find [Planet Nine], the probability of it actually existing goes down dramatically, Jurić says. And after a couple of years, the existence (or nonexistence) of Planet Nine will be, to most astronomers, unequivocal. Rubin is the ideal planet hunter, Schwamb says. I dont think theres any other telescope in the world that could manage to do this.Most astronomers are happy to wait and find out what Rubin reveals. Schwamb, whose Ph.D. adviser was none other than Mike Brown, treads carefully. I will be pleasantly excited if there is a planet, she says. I will not be so surprised if there isnt one.But Brown and Batygin have never been surer. In a 2024 study, they analyzed the orbits of 17 trans-Neptunian objects, each with a bizarre feature: their closest approaches to the sun can get as near as Jupiter. Objects that cross Neptunes orbit like that should get ejected from the solar system, so how can these objects on these orbits exist today? Something is grabbing orbs that linger at the very edge of the solar system and putting them on orbits that take them far closer to the sun than they would otherwise get, the scientists surmise.Their study used virtual re-creations of the solar system and tried to see what kinds of objects had the gravitational influence to sculpt these orbitsincluding passing stars, the Milky Way itself and Planet Nine. According to the researchers, the versions of reality without Planet Nine make no sense. This outcome is the strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet Nine is really out there, Batygin says.If the planet does exist, theres a good chance that Brown and Batygin might not find it first. Rubin may detect it autonomously, Jurić says, whereupon another group of astronomers reading the data will confirm that it is genuine. Alternatively, Rubins software might not detect it automatically, but an astronomer may find Planet Nine by using their own software to go through the imaging data or by perusing a list of moving objects that Rubin found but did not autonomously flag as Planet Nine candidates. Batygin, ever the theorist, says the discovery is what matters most, regardless of who claims it. I just want to know the answer, he says.If Planet Nine is real, my instant reaction might be relief, Brown says. He admits that should he not be the one to first cast eyes on it, he would feel an initial gut punch of frustration. I would love to discover it, he says. But hed be satisfied if he and his colleagues were proved right all along, and he met his daughters challenge of redemptionand he would be thrilled that the history of the solar system would change, once again, partly because of his research.Theres a very good chance that we could be sitting around studying Planet Nine in just a couple of years time, he says. Every telescope, on Earth and in space, might be zeroing in on its secrets. Whatever its like, Brown says, it will be the best planet in the solar system.

December 16, 20245 min readFerns Backward Evolution Reveals Lifes Meandering PathEvolution is often depicted as a steady forward march from simple to complex forms. But new research shows that certain ferns can evolve backwardBy Jacob S. Suissa & The Conversation USUnfurling fiddlehead of the Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides). Danita Delimont/Alamy Stock PhotoThe following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Imagine a photograph of your great-grandparents, grandparents and parents side by side. Youd see a resemblance, but each generation would look distinct from its predecessors. This is the process of evolution in its simplest form: descent with modification.Over many generations, a staggering amount of modification is possible. This is how the diversity of life on Earth came to be.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.This idea, though, has long been misunderstood as a path that leads in one direction toward higher or better organisms. For example, Rudolph Zallingers famous 1965 Time-Life illustration The Road to Homo Sapiens shows humans evolving in a stepwise fashion from ape-like ancestors to modern man.Extending this perspective beyond humans, early paleontological theories about ancient life supported the idea of orthogenesis, or progressive evolution, in which each generation of a lineage advanced toward more sophisticated or optimized forms.But evolution has no finish line. There is no end goal, no final state. Organisms evolve by natural selectionacting at a specific geologic moment, or simply by drift without strong selection in any direction.In a recently published study that I carried out with Makaleh Smith, then an undergraduate research intern at Harvard University who was funded by the National Science Foundation, we sought to study whether a one-way model of reproductive evolution always held true in plants. To the contrary, we found that in many types of ferns one of the oldest groups of plants on Earth evolution of reproductive strategies has been a two-way street, with plants at times evolving backward to less specialized forms.The path of evolution is not linearSelection pressures can change in a heartbeat and steer evolution in unexpected directions.Take dinosaurs and mammals, for instance. For over 150 million years, dinosaurs exerted a strong selection pressure on Jurassic mammals, which had to remain small and live underground to avoid being hunted to extinction.Then, about 66 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid wiped out most nonavian dinosaurs. Suddenly, small mammals were relieved of their strong predatory selection pressure and could live above ground, eventually evolving into larger forms, including humans.In 1893, Belgian paleontologist Louis Dollo introduced the idea that once an organism progresses to a certain point, it does not revert to a previous state in the exact way in which it evolved even if it encounters conditions identical to those it once experienced. Dollos law, as it came to be known, implies that specialization is largely a one-way street, with organisms accumulating layers of complexity that make backward evolution impossible.While Dollos law has been criticized, and its original idea has largely faded from popular discourse, this perspective still influences aspects of biology today.Plants and the march of progressMuseums often depict animal evolution as a straight-line progression toward higher stages, but theyre not the only sources of this narrative. It also appears in teaching about the evolution of reproduction in plants.The earliest vascular plants those with tissues that can move water and minerals throughout the plant had leafless, stemlike structures called telomes, with capsules at their tips called sporangia that produced spores. The telomes did both of the plants big jobs: converting sunlight to energy through photosynthesis and releasing spores to produce new plants.Fossil records show that over time, plants developed more specialized structures that divided these reproductive and photosynthetic functions. Moving through plant lineages, from spore-bearing lycophytes to ferns to flowering plants, reproduction becomes more and more specialized. Indeed, the flower is often diagrammed as the end goal of botanical evolution.Across the plant kingdom, once species evolved reproductive structures such as seeds, cones and flowers, they did not revert to simpler, undifferentiated forms. This pattern supports a progressive increase in reproductive complexity. But ferns are an important exception.Evolving, but not always forwardFerns have multiple reproductive strategies. Most species combine spore development and photosynthesis on a single leaf type a strategy called monomorphism. Others separate these functions to have one leaf type for photosynthesis and another for reproduction a strategy called dimorphism.If the patterns of specialization seen broadly across plants were universal, we would expect that once a lineage of ferns evolved dimorphism, it could not shift course and revert to monomorphism. However, using natural history collections and algorithms for estimating evolution in ferns, Smith and I found exceptions to this pattern.Within a family known as chain ferns (Blechnaceae), we found multiple cases in which plants had evolved highly specialized dimorphism, but then reverted to the more general form of monomorphism.Lacking seeds gives ferns flexibilityWhy might ferns have such flexible reproductive strategies? The answer lies in what they lack: seeds, flowers and fruits. This distinguishes them from the more than 350,000 species of seed plants living on Earth today.Imagine taking a fertile fern leaf, shrinking it down and wrapping it up tightly into a tiny pellet. Thats basically what an unfertilized seed is a highly modified dimorphic fern leaf, in a capsule.Seeds are just one highly specialized structure in a suite of reproductive traits, each building on the last, creating a form so specific that reversal becomes nearly impossible. But because living ferns dont have seeds, they can modify where on their leaves they place their spore-producing structures.Our findings suggest that not all reproductive specialization in plants is irreversible. Instead, it may depend on how many layers of specialization plants have acquired over time.In todays rapidly changing world, knowing which organisms or traits are locked in could be important for predicting how species respond to new environmental challenges and human-imposed habitat changes.Organisms that have evolved down one-way paths may lack the flexibility to respond to new selection pressures in particular ways and have to figure out new strategies to change. In lineages such as ferns, species may retain their ability to evolve backward, even after specialization.Ultimately, our study underscores a fundamental lesson in evolutionary biology: There is no correct direction in evolution, no march toward an end goal. Evolutionary pathways are more like tangled webs, with some branches diverging, others converging, and some even looping back on themselves.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

December 16, 20244 min readWhy Its a Bad Idea to Shoot at New Jersey Mystery DronesSurging reports of strange drones in the skies over New Jersey and other parts of the northeast U.S. have spurred calls to shoot down the unidentified objects. But thats a very bad ideaBy Lee BillingsA small drone silhouetted against a full moon. Flyby Photography/Alamy Stock PhotoAs reports of mysterious drones flying over the northeast U.S. continue to surge, so too does a seemingly common-sense response: Well, why not just try shooting one down?The sightings, which reportedly started about a month ago in the skies over northern New Jersey, have now spread to surrounding states including New York State, Pennsylvania and Marylandand the seeming lack of satisfactory answers from local, state and federal authorities has left many public officials and ordinary citizens alike feeling frustrated and powerless. In response, a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers has begun calling for more aggressive measures. Even President-elect Donald Trump has weighed in, writing in a Truth Social post last Friday that in the absence of proper explanation from the government, the next step should be to shoot them down!!!Dear reader, at the risk of being considered politically biased or in on any number of drone-related conspiracy theories, its our duty to inform you that trying to shoot down one of these unidentified flying objects is a truly terrible idea. Please dont do itand not just because if the drones are emissaries from some alien supercivilization, shooting at them might be interpreted as an act of interstellar war.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Heres why:Many of these drones arent drones at allWhile some number of the sightings are almost certainly real drones being operated by unknown parties for unclear reasons, according to the FBI, most of the thousands of New Jersey drone reports are consistent with witnesses misidentifying crewed aircraft. In overlaying the visual sightings reported to the FBI with approach patterns for Newark-Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia airports, the density of reported sightings matches the approach patterns of these very busy airports, with flights coming in throughout the night, FBI officials noted in a White House media briefing Saturday. This modeling is indicative of manned aviation being quite often mistaken for unmanned aviation or UAS [uncrewed aerial systems].To illustrate just how easy it is for most anyone to make this sort of mistake, look no further than New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, who met with concerned constituents at Round Valley Reservoir last Thursday night to see the phenomenon first-hand. Kim and his fellow observers noted multiple sightings, many of which were captured on video. More detailed analysis revealed, however, that the potential drones were in fact mere airplaneswhich Kim helpfully explained in a series of social media posts. Similarly, the following day former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan posted about dozens of drones flying over his home the night before; seemingly all of them were subsequently identified as ordinary celestial objects, such as the planet Mars and the bright star Sirius.Physics isnt on your side, and what goes up must come downGranted, taking a potshot at another planet from your backyard may seem innocuous. Your bullets, slugs or pellets wont reach escape velocity, let alone be able to navigate interplanetary space to reach their far-distant targets. But precisely because they cant break Earths surly bonds, all ballistic projectiles fired upward will fall back to the surfacewhere they can easily cause very real and potentially deadly harm.Firing on an actual object flying in Earths atmosphere is of course a dangerous proposition, tooespecially in this case, when so many reports are clearly misidentifying crewed aircraft flying relatively low and slow after taking off or during landing approaches at nearby airports. Generally speaking, although such circumstances are more favorable for conventional firearms hitting their mark, the odds of a bullseye are still lowbut would you want to be the one responsible for a rifle bullet striking, say, a commercial passenger plane about to land in Newark?If youre especially physics-savvy, you might think to try firing something far faster and seemingly more innocuous at a suspected dronelike a laser beam. But while most lasers wont blow a hole in a fuselage, they can still disorient aircraft crew, as well as sensors on uncrewed vehicles, creating hazardous situations. (And, alas, it seems the spate of drone reports has already caused this sort of laser-based dazzling for aircraft flying over New Jersey, presumably from people on the ground targeting them with laser pointers.) Outside of lasers, other electromagnetic effects, such as blasts of radio waves, can also disrupt aircraft navigation systems and are often used in military-grade drone-jamming technology. But these can have dangerous results, too.Via bullets or photons, in a worst-case scenario such external influence could result in an aircraft (whether a passenger-packed plane or some sort of clandestine drone) crashing in an uncontrolled descent. This would turn what was otherwise most likely a safe-but-spooky object in the sky into a genuine threat: effectively a fuel-filled (or battery-packed) missile plummeting toward the ground, potentially colliding with other aircraft as it goes or sparking a fire where it lands.The law isnt on your side, eitherBecause of all these very real risks, its a criminal offense in the U.S. for private citizens to interfere with, damage or destroy any flying aircrafteven if its unidentified and moving over private property. And shooting a gun into the air is typically unlawful, too, considered as the reckless discharge of a firearm.So please, dont try to shoot down any dronesor at least leave such tasks to the authorities. And while youre at it, consider becoming more familiar with the wonders of the night sky, whether natural or humanmade. Youll find most of them are rather beautiful and not at all threatening.

OpinionDecember 13, 20245 min readNeuroaesthetics Reveals How the Arts Help with Dementia and TraumaAesthetic experiences can improve health and well-being at any stage of lifeBy Susan Magsamen Robert Kneschke/Alamy Stock PhotoMany of us do not have to look much farther than our family, circle of friends, or co-workers to know someone who has been touched by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a neurological disorder such as Alzheimers disease. And that doesnt even take into account the acute daily stress, sometimes reaching toxic levels, that we all experience.In fact, one in four people will be affected by a mental health issue or a psychological disorder at some point in their lives, anxiety and depression being the most common. Neurological conditions are the leading cause of poor health and disability across the globe, with cognition disabilities affecting approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population.Fortunately, just as our brains and bodies respond negatively to trauma, stress and disease, so do they also respondin a positive senseto the arts and aesthetic experiences. Over the last 30 years, advances in technology have allowed scientists to noninvasively get inside our heads, allowing them to prove what artists and lovers of art have known intuitively for millennia: we are wired for art.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The late evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson placed our desire to create and commemorate our lives through artistic expression as far back as the time when humans were first beginning to harness fire. He believed that what could have begun as restorative gatherings around a nightly fire grew into the creation of stories, songs, dance, myths and cave drawings, bonding us to one another like nothing else. Over the ensuing millennia, those gatherings around the fire have evolved into the incredibly diverse array of cultures that span our globe.Recent research as well as insights into humankinds artistic past have led to a new scientific discipline known as neuroaesthetics, so named by neuroscientist Semir Zeki in the late 1990s. Neuroaesthetics is the study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably changes our brains, body and behavior and how this knowledge translates into practices that advance health, well-being, learning and flourishing. The discipline functions at the intersection of the arts, health, medicine, the sciences and technology, and is highly interdisciplinary.In 2023 Ivy Ross, chief design officer for consumer devices at Google, and I published Your Brain on Art. Now in its 11th printing, the book is the culmination of four years of writing and interviewing more than 120 researchers, artists, community organizers and others with the goal of bringing to the public information about the power of neuroaesthetics. We wanted to share that the arts are accessible, immediate, and affordable, and, importantly, that a talent or gift for any type of art is not required to reap significant benefits from engaging with the arts. Working on an art project for just 45 minutes, regardless of your skill, can decrease stress and has been shown to reduce cortisol levels in up to 75 percent of people.One of the books chapters focuses exclusively on restoring mental health through the use of neuroaesthetic principles and goes into detail on the brain mechanisms for processing stress and trauma, chronicling how a traumatic event may trigger PTSD. Dutch psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk used fMRI scans to show how the Brocas area of the brain (one of the regions responsible for language and speech) shuts down in response to a traumatic experience, making it very difficult or impossible for the person experiencing the episode to talk about it. The arts interventions can help people who have experienced trauma make sense of what has happened to them and enables them to restore their ability to share their memories with less emotional dysregulation.One such interventional program is named Creative Forces, co-developed by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and state-supported art agencies. Creative Forces launched in 2010 as an intensive, month-long program of what is called creative arts therapy for service members with traumatic brain injury and PTSD.Among the creative arts therapies offered, the program includes mask-making, an ancient art form that has proven to be an effective form of art therapy. In these projects, service members make masks that represent aspects of an experience they wish to explore, allowing them to externalize their thoughts in a nonjudgmental setting. The finished masks depict a wide range of feelings, from symbolically depicting deceased friends, to the representation of battle wounds and even patriotic icons. Making these pieces of art has enabled service members to open up to their families, speak about their experiences, diminish the occurrences of flashbacks and restore a sense of control to be able to process their darkest, most horrific memories and not let those remembrances take over their current lives.Another arts-related therapy involves dance, which can yield significant benefits to physical and mental well-being, even for a person at risk for or diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. In one study, researchers looked at the effects of 11 different types of physical activity, including cycling and swimming, but found that only dance lowered older adult participants risk of dementia. The researchers noted that the benefits may stem from the fact that dancing involves both music, which stimulates the brains reward centers, and movement, which activates its sensory and motor circuits.They also observed that dance combines mental effort and social interaction. Unlike other types of movements, dance involves the entire body and requires the brain to coordinate all muscle groups at once to engage in a particular sequence of movements. Dance can make a particular difference in the lives of those with movement disorders. One example is the Mark Morris Dance Companys Dance for PD program, a global initiative that invites people with Parkinsons and their families to participate in free virtual or in-person dance classes. Neuroaesthetics research findings in more than 40 peer-reviewed journal publications have shown how dance can help people with Parkinsons improve their gait, mood, sleep and cognition.Singing, playing and listening to music also help people with dementia improve cognition and quality of life. For those in the early-to-mid stages of dementia, taking part in the arts and aesthetic experiences can reduce agitation and other behavioral issues.Since 2020, the number of scientific articles on neuroaesthetic research has marked a steady increasefrom 700 papers in 2020 to 900 three years later, according to data compiled at the University of Pennsylvania.[KS3] And there is increasing recognition for neuroaesthetics. I worked with the Aspen Institute and a diverse group of researchers and practitioners to launch the NeuroArts Blueprint in 2021 to build awareness of the field and expand research and funding for it.Ultimately, the arts offer transformative benefits accessible to everyone, regardless of skill. By embracing an aesthetic mindsetimbued with curiosity, sensory awareness and playfulnesseach of us can experience the profound effects of the arts and aesthetics on our well-being. These practices are as important as exercise, sleep and good nutrition.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

December 13, 20244 min readStorm-Hunting Planes Are Taking on Atmospheric Rivers to Improve ForecastsBetter forecasting would help communities prepare for the extreme weather from atmospheric rivers that causes an average of $1 billion in damages a year on the West CoastBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsA resident looks over a flooded road on November 22, 2024, in Forestville, California. A powerful atmospheric river brought heavy rains and wind to the San Francisco Bay Area for several days. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | New England was still recovering Friday from a bout of extreme weather that dumped rainfall across the region and left tens of thousands of residents without power.The midweek storm, fueled by a weather system known as an atmospheric river, produced wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour and likely gave Providence, Rhode Island, its wettest winter day on record with as much as 5 inches of rain, according to preliminary reports.Atmospheric rivers arent new to meteorologists, but they are notoriously difficult to predict.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Like their earthbound counterparts, atmospheric rivers move massive amounts of water. They can carry through the air a volume of water vapor thats equivalent to more than 10 times the water flow at the mouth of the Mississippi River.The extreme moisture goes hand-in-hand with heavy cloud cover, which is a big reason its hard for satellites to accurately observe them and for meteorologists to develop forecasts.But now scientists say theyre making strides in predicting their behavior.Researchers with the National Weather Service and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego have teamed up on a project known as the Atmospheric River Reconnaissance Program, or AR Recon.The program skirts the satellite issue by collecting direct measurements from buoys and in the ocean and from special instruments dropped by planes including NOAAs weather-monitoring G-IV jets and the Air Force Reserves famous Hurricane Hunters.The on-site data already have led to marked improvements in atmospheric river forecasts. Models using these measurements have shown as much as a 12 percent improvement for forecasts in Central California and a 6 percent improvement for the continental United States as a whole.These improvements are moving the needle for the first time ever in the last couple of decades, said Vijay Tallapragada, a senior scientist at NOAAs Environmental Modeling Center.Tallapragada is a co-principal investigator with the AR Recon program alongside Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps.The advances in forecasts are a big deal especially for the West Coast, where research suggests atmospheric rivers cause an average of $1 billion in damages each year.Accurate information on the timing and location of an atmospheric rivers landfall and the amount of moisture its carrying also helps western water managers strategically release supplies from their water reservoirs in advance, reducing the risk of damaging floods.Plans for expansionThe AR Recon program kicked off in 2016 with three aircraft missions. These flights are carefully plotted by scientists in real time each winter as weather systems develop, with aircraft directed to fly in patterns specially designed for atmospheric river data collection.The program has continued to expand in the years since, now launching dozens of flights each winter. This year will mark its most ambitious season yet.From early January through early March, two Air Force Reserve aircraft will be stationed in California and fully assigned to AR Recon, while a NOAA jet will be stationed in Hawaii. And two more aircraft will be stationed in Japan for the first time from late January through mid-February to collect new observations in the western Pacific.Ships and planes also will deploy around 80 drifting buoys across the ocean this season. And scientists will release weather balloons from stations in Washington and California for additional measurements.In future seasons, AR Recon scientists plan to expand their work and deploy flights from the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast.And theyre starting a new partnership with U.S. universities this year too aimed at expanding weather balloon observations across the country. The pilot will kick off this winter with five university partners, with the goal of expanding to 25 universities by February 2026.The program also will rope in European partners for a one-month experiment in early 2026, flying European aircraft alongside U.S. aircraft for improved data collection over the Atlantic.At the moment, atmospheric river forecasts are most accurate about three to five days out, Tallapragada noted. The programs goal is to improve those forecasts to the seven-to-10 day range, a time period that will give emergency officials and water managers more time to plan for heavy precipitation events and try to mitigate flood risks.I think it is possible with concerted efforts across multiple agencies and the assets that we have, Tallapragada said. The plan is to make significant advancements in our prediction technologies and bring the big changes in the stagnant precipitation forecast skill.The threat of atmospheric rivers recently has drawn the attention of lawmakers. Last year, Congress passed the Atmospheric Rivers Reconnaissance, Observation and Warning Act through the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024, requiring winter season monitoring of atmospheric river systems off the West Coast.And U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a new bill in November known as the Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act, which would require NOAA to establish a new observation and forecasting program within the National Weather Service.For the past several years, California communities have witnessed firsthand the ongoing threat of destructive flooding caused by intense and frequent atmospheric river storms, Padilla said in a statement. California scientists have led the way in improving our understanding of these storms, and this bipartisan bill will strengthen forecasts to both reduce flood risks and bolster our water supply and drought resilience.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

December 14, 20245 min readCreating Mirror Life Could Be Disastrous, Scientists WarnBreakthroughs in synthetic biology could create mirror versions of natural molecules, with devastating consequences for life on EarthBy Simon Makin Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty ImagesA category of synthetic organisms dubbed mirror life, whose component molecules are mirror images of their natural counterpart, could pose unprecedented risks to human life and ecosystems, according to a perspective article by leading experts, including Nobel Prize winners. The article, published in Science on December 12, is accompanied by a lengthy report detailing their concerns.Mirror life has to do with the ubiquitous phenomenon in the natural world in which a molecule or another object cannot simply be superimposed on another. For example, your left hand cant simply be turned over to match your right hand. This handedness is encountered throughout the natural world.Groups of molecules of the same type tend to have the same handedness. The nucleotides that make up DNA are nearly always right-handed, for instance, while proteins are composed of left-handed amino acids.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Handedness, more formally known as chirality, is hugely important in biology because interactions between biomolecules rely on them having the expected form. For example, if a proteins handedness is reversed, it cannot interact with partner molecules, such as receptors on cells. Think of it like hands in gloves, says Katarzyna Adamala, a synthetic biologist at the University of Minnesota and a co-author of the article and the accompanying technical report, which is almost 300 pages long. My left glove wont fit my right hand.The authors are worried about mirror bacteria, the simplest life-form their concerns apply to. The capability to create mirror bacteria does not yet exist and is at least a decade away, they write, but progress is underway. Researchers can already synthesize mirror biomolecules, such as DNA and proteins. At the same time, progress has been made toward creating synthetic cells from nonmirrored components. In 2010 researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in California installed synthetic DNA into a cell to create the first cell with a fully synthetic genome.Further breakthroughs would be required to create mirror life, but they are achievable with substantial investment and effort. Were not relying on scientific breakthroughs that might never happen. I can draw you a list of things that need to happen to build a mirror cell, Adamala says. Its not science fiction anymore. Adamala previously worked toward creating mirror cells, but she now fears that if mirror bacteria are created, the consequences could include irreversible ecological damage and loss of life. The articles authors, who include experts in immunology, synthetic biology, plant pathology, evolutionary biology, and ecology, as well as two Nobel laureates, are calling for researchers, policymakers, regulators and society at large to start discussing the best path forward to better understand and mitigate the risks the authors identify. Unless evidence emerges that mirror life would not pose extraordinary dangers, they recommend that research aimed at creating mirror bacteria should not be conducted.The initial enthusiasm for creating mirror versions of bacteria began with simpler imaginings. Researchers considered the prospects of working with mirror versions of proteins and other molecules Proteins and other moleculesMany immune system mechanisms also rely on handedness. T cells, responsible for recognizing foreign invaders, for example, might fail to bind to something with the wrong handedness. So these therapies could also avoid triggering immune reactions in patients. A mirror peptide will not be readily degraded, which is why they could be great as therapeutics, says co-author John Glass, a synthetic biologist at JCVI. We see absolutely no reason to prohibit this.A potential application of mirror bacteria is might be bioreactors, biological factories that use cells or microorganisms to manufacture various compounds, such as antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals. Bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) can wipe out bacteria-based bioreactors, costing huge amounts of time and money, but it is likely they wouldnt infect mirror bacteria, because they wouldnt recognize their molecules. Similarly, natural predators, like amoebae, which consume normal bacteria, would fail to recognize mirror bacteria as food.It is these supposedly advantageous properties that gave rise to the scientists concerns. All the practical applications that drew us into this field are the reasons were terrified of it now, Adamala says. The ability to evade immune responses could allow bacteria to cause lethal infections as they multiply unchecked. Unlike viruses, bacteria dont need to interact with specific molecules to infect an organism, and mirror bacteria could infect a broad range of hosts, including humans, other animals, and plants. And a lack of predators could enable mirror bacteria to spread widely through ecosystems.Many of the authors initially thought mirror bacteria would not survive outside of a lab, given the lack of mirror nutrients, Glass says, but the report concludes that there are enough nutrients that would nourish mirror bacteria to sustain them. The researchers discuss possible biosafety measures, such as developing mirror phages viruses that could infect and kill mirror bacteria, but conclude that they are not likely to be a sufficient defense. None of the [authors] have been able to come up with a countermeasure we think would be effective enough to save the biosphere from these organisms, Glass says.Not everyone agrees that mirror bacteria pose such huge risks. Id argue a mirror-image bacteria would be at a gross competitive disadvantage and isnt going to survive well, says Andrew Ellington, a molecular biologist at the University of Texas at Austin, who develops synthetic organisms. He is unconvinced that raising an alarm so far in advance of any threat, or even the existence of technology that could be used to directly create it, is appropriate. This is like banning the transistor because you're worried about cybercrime 30 years down the road, Ellington says. He is also concerned governments and regulators may not respond as the authors expect, potentially stifling beneficial research. Im not particularly worried about a mostly unknown threat 30 years from now versus the good that can be done now, he says.While the exact risks may be uncertain, what is certain is that any threat remains remote. The technologys not here yet, so the risk scenarios are hard to tell, but this paper can start that discussion, says Sarah Carter, a science policy biosafety consultant based in California and former JCVI policy analyst, who works on biosecurity and policy implications of emerging biotechnologies. So I applaud this group for looking into the future and drawing attention to this.

December 13, 20246 min readUltraprocessed Foods High in Seed Oils Could Be Fueling Colon Cancer RiskA new study suggests certain lipids, particularly omega-6 fatty acids, which are commonly found in seed oils used to make ultraprocessed junk food, may promote inflammation in colon cancer tumorsBy Lauren J. Young fcafotodigital/Getty ImagesClimbing rates of colon and rectal cancer among people under 50 years old is a striking recent trend that has alarmed and puzzled clinicians racing to figure out why. Now a new study published in Gut offers what might be a crucial insight: specific lipids, or fatty acids, that are abundantly found in ultra-processed foods may be promoting inflammation that causes cancerous colon cells to run amok.Colorectal cancer tumor samples from 81 people in the U.S. had excessive amounts of inflammation-boosting lipids, called omega-6 fatty acidsand lacked helpful lipids called omega-3 fatty acids, which help stop inflammation.Inflammation is a normal defensive response that the immune system switches on to heal wounds or fight off infection. But researchers in the 1800s found that colon tumors under a microscope looked like poorly healed wounds, says Timothy Yeatman, a co-author of the study and a professor of surgery at the University of South Florida. Rampant inflammation over long periods of time damages cells and hampers their ability to fight potentially cancerous cell growth. Omega-6 fatty acids often come from our diet, and Yeatman suspects ultraprocessed food is likely a major source of them.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.We don't know the full effects of these ultraprocessed foods on our body, but we do know that thats a major thing thats changed from 1950 onward, Yeatman says. Young people today, particularly rural and impoverished people, are being exposed to more of these processed foods than anybody else because theyre cheap and theyre in all the fast-food restaurants.Many ultraprocessed foods and fast foods are prepared with seed oila cheap, common type of vegetable-based cooking oil that is chemically processed from seeds such as canola (rapeseed), corn, grapeseed and sunflower. These oils contain high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids. The study was not able to definitively connect the lipids detected in the colon cancer tumors to any specific food or oil, however.I think the study confirms that diet is important but probably one of many factors, says Andrew Chan, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the new research. Chan and other researchers note that genetics, exercise, lifestyle and chemical or environmental exposures may influence colon cancer risk, too. Additionally, theres a lot of complexity to the food we eat, how its converted, how its metabolized and how it might eventually lead to tissue changes around things like lipids, Chan says. So there are still some pieces that need to be filled in before we can really tell a cohesive story about it.Scientific American spoke further with Yeatman and Chan about the findings and the potential role of ultraprocessed foods in inflammation and colon cancer.[An edited transcript of the interviews follows.]What has past research shown us about the relationship between diet and colon cancer?CHAN: There has been research in the past looking at the association of colorectal cancer risk and specific dietary patterns that we know are associated with inflammation. Some of those dietary patterns are enriched with specific types of oils, such as those that include omega-6 fatty acids, that are known to be proinflammatory. In contrast, there have been data to show that dietary patterns that are enriched with healthier oils, for example, Mediterranean dietary patterns, or so-called prudent dietary patterns, seem to be linked with lower risk. And in addition, there have been some specificstudies that have looked at the effect of types of omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish oils, and their ability to potentially have a preventive effect on colorectal cancer risk. Thats been mostly shown in animal models, but there have been some clinical trials that suggest theres potentially a benefit to supplementing ones diet with fish oil, for example. Those sorts of studies are still inconsistent, so I think there needs to be more work done in this area.Our group and others have also been interested in the idea that some of these lipids that are responsible for inflammation that can lead to cancer could also be inhibited by drugs like aspirin. Aspirin is a drug that is an anti-inflammatory and also specifically has effects on lipids such as prostaglandins, which may promote cancer. These are helpful steps to developing novel cancer prevention strategies that are focused on altering the balance of these lipids and the balance of inflammatory mediators that could be related to some of these lipid pathways.How do the lipids affect inflammation?YEATMAN: When you get a wound on your hand or your skin, it swells and turns red initially because of inflammation, and then it gets better, and thats because of the resolution inflammation. Resolving lipids, or proresolving lipids, were only recently discovered by Charles Serhan of Harvard University. And he described something called lipid class switching, which means that the body, when it undergoes normal healing, will switch from the inflammatory phase to the resolving phase. He basically found that there are a number of these lipidsprimarily omega-3 derivative lipidsthat lead to resolution of inflammation. But inflammation, unchecked, can lead to cancer.How does this inflammation influence cancer development? CHAN: Inflammation leads to alterations in the tissue, which may lead to the development of cancer. The tissue may be more likely to grow in an uncontrolled way where its difficult to have cells turn over normally, and so that abnormal cell turnover and that overexuberant dividing of cells can ultimately lead to the formation of tumors. We know inflammation also can create an environment that makes tissue more prone to develop changes in the DNA, such as mutations that could lead to cancer. There also may be some effects of inflammation that impair the way the bodys able to naturally fight off the development of cancers.I think that these different lipids and oils may have specific effects and pathways related to inflammation and the ability of tissues to repair in a normal way. That may lend itself to an environment in which some of these tissues may develop into cancers because of uncontrolled cell growth.Why might this imbalance in proinflammatory and proresolving lipids happen? YEATMAN: The source of these lipids is ultimately dietary. So proinflammatory lipid excesses in the tumor microenvironment is the smoking gun that this potentially relates to lipids were consuming. The levels of omega-6 lipid, which is the inflammatory side, in human body fat has increased dramatically from the 1950s to today. And probably thats because of the Western diet changes. And you go back to what those changes are, well, theyre ultraprocessed foods. Now, ultraprocessing involves more than just lipids, but lipids are in many seed oils, such as soybean oil, canola oil, cotton seed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, that have been processed and are used in foods. Seed oils are inexpensive, but the consequence of that is: theyre in almost everything we eat that comes packaged. For example, if you go to the store and get bread off the shelf that hasn't been baked by a local bakery, youll find theres a whole list of ingredients in that bread that are hard to even recognize..., and one of them is generally soybean oil. Its in everything: bread, chips, hummus, salad dressing, cookies, cakes, pies.Its not just seed oil. If you have corn-fed beef, the omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio [can be much higher than that of grass-fed beef]..., so that simple change from corn-fed to grass-fed makes a huge difference in the ratio. But it can be very hard to find grass-fed beef at the grocery story. And the reason is that it costs money; I think it takes three years to bring a steer to market thats grass-fed and maybe one year for corn-fed. So its a lot less time for the cheaper approach.Are omega-6 fatty lipids bad for health?YEATMAN: Omega-6 is an essential fatty acid. Youve got to have itbut you dont need it at [a ratio of] 30 times to 1, [compared with omega-3]. So its like everything else: it should be in moderation. But the problem is weve massively overdone the amount of seed oil in foods. And I dont think seed oils are necessarily good for you because we get omega-6s from all sorts of other sources.Not everybody with seed oil exposure will probably suffer a problem from it. But I think theres some link there. These links are hard to prove because wed have to have a dietary history on people for years. More investigations are needed, and someone needs to prove that seed oils, taken in the excess amounts theyre given to us, are truly safe. And that hasnt been proven yet to me, so I think the default should be reduce them until you know.

December 13, 20245 min readLuigi Mangiones Alleged Ghost Gun and Other Antisurveillance Tech, ExplainedInvestigators allege that the suspect in the recent UnitedHealthcare CEO killing used a ghost gun, an untraceable firearm made with 3D-printed partsBy Ben GuarinoLuigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, was recorded in a taxi in New York. ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Live NewsLuigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk, allegedly took several sophisticated-sounding steps to thwart detection. Thompson was killed in a highly surveilled urban setting, but his assailant wore a mask and hood and used a pistol equipped with a silencer to suppress the noise of gunshots. When Mangione was arrested a few days later at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pa., officers say he showed them a fake ID. And his backpack contained a functional handgun made with 3D-printed parts: a so-called ghost gun.Investigators also say Mangione was carrying a handwritten note explaining his motivation. In that document Mangione described his plan as fairly trivial, requiring some elementary social engineering plus basic CADcomputer-aided designand a lot of patience. CAD can be used for 3D printing gun parts, and it can also help make a tremendous number of other objects. The New York City Police Departments commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters on Wednesday that the gun in Mangiones possession matched three bullet casings that were recovered from the crime scene. Officials have not publicly said whether they believe Mangione built the gun.The suspect faces forgery and weapons charges in Pennsylvania, where he has been denied bail, and has been charged with second-degree murder in New York State. The latter hopes to extradite him, a move he is challenging. Thomas Dickey, an Altoona-based lawyer, who represents Mangione, told Good Morning America this week, I have not been made aware of any evidence that links the gun that was found on his person to the crime. These are things were looking to see. (Dickey did not immediately reply to Scientific Americans request for comment.)On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.However elaborate Mangiones alleged evasive measures may seem, if investigators are correct, they ultimately failed. Here is a rundown of the techniques that investigators say Mangione usedand the ways they were allegedly overcome.Escape amid SurveillanceNew York City is dense with camerasmore than 25,500 public and private ones watch over traffic intersections, according to an Amnesty International estimate. Mangione was allegedly recorded in multiple places: at a hostel where he stayed, at a coffee shop, on the sidewalk during the killing, on an electric bike while fleeing the scene and in a taxi.Despite all those imagessome of which revealed most of his faceit is improbable that algorithms quickly identified Mangione from camera footage. Hollywoods depiction of Jason Bournestyle, real-time biometric-based surveillance and tracking is a skewed view of whats really possible, says Anil Jain, an expert in facial recognition at Michigan State University. Lacking a criminal record, Mangione was unlikely to be in the forensic databases against which the images would be compared. Social media companies have cooperated with law enforcement to help track people down by matching surveillance images with photographs posted on their platforms, but it takes time to legally secure those permissions, Jain adds.Paired with a widely publicized, low-resolution image of the suspects face and a $50,000 reward offered by the FBI, what seems to have resolved this case was an old-fashioned phone tip, Jain says, referring to an employee at the McDonalds in Altoona who notified authorities about Mangione. You cannot give up on human intelligence.It remains unclear whether Mangione was following a plan after he left New York City. Just being on the run is pretty much a dead end, says journalist Evan Ratliff, who tried to vanish for a monthwith a $5,000 bounty offered to the first person who found himin 2009 as an experiment for Wired. They're going to catch you eventually, if youre just going from place to place and you dont have any idea where youre going to end up.Ratliff says that before he went on the run, private investigators told him that being a successful fugitive requires perfection. The mistakes that you can make are just endless, he says. After 25 days, Ratliff, who has celiac disease, was tracked to a restaurant selling gluten-free pizza in New Orleans. (Ratliff says that what interests him is the tension between a committed seeker and a person who does not want to be found. I do not approve of someone planning and executing this type of crime, he adds, referring to the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.)Whats a Ghost Gun?This may be the highest-profile U.S. killing to date that allegedly involved an unserialized ghost gun. Such weapons, however, are far from rare. In 2021 U.S. law enforcement reported 20,000 ghost guns to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Thats an increase by a factor of 10 since 2016.Ghost firearms are made of metal and plastic parts that can be machined or printed at home using legally available equipment. A criminal complaint in Pennsylvania describes the weapon in Mangiones possession as a black 3D-printed pistol, loaded with nine-millimeter rounds in a Glock magazine, with a handle made of plastic and a slide and a threaded barrel made of metal. The complaint notes Mangione was carrying a 3D-printed silencer as well.Ghost guns come without serial numbers and often without other identifying marks, particularly if theyre truly homemade, says Garen Wintemute, an emergency department physician, who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis. They have no history and are untraceable; this is where the name comes from.It's unusual for such guns to be produced from scratch by 3D printing, Wintemute says. More commonly, Glock-like pistols are assembled from kits that, he says, provide a nearly finished frame, as well as instructions on how to complete the finishing work and the remaining parts to produce a functional firearm. Completing a gun can take a matter of minutes.Although Mangione has a masters degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania, technical sophistication is not required to produce ghost guns. Thats the concern, Wintemute says: instructions are available to anyone with an Internet connection.In 2022 the Biden administration cracked down on ghost guns. The ATF clarified that the kits count, for regulatory purposes, as firearmsso the agency required manufacturers to serialize ghost gun kits. That rule has since entered legal limbo: In November 2023 it was invalidated by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Now it is with the Supreme Court, where it may stand, considering the justices reaction to oral arguments in October.Cash, a Faraday Bag and a Fake IDMangione purportedly used a fake ID when he stayed in New York City in late November and early December. Investigators further say that when he was arrested, he was carrying thousands of dollars in cashpresumably because cash transactions are harder to trace than electronic payment methods. He may have also had a bag with the properties of a Faraday cage, the term for an enclosure (or even a small room) that uses a mesh of conductive material to shield enclosed objects, such as a smartphone, from sending or receiving electromagnetic signals. Whether that was meant for concealment is unclear. Mangione, for his part, told a judge the bag was simply waterproof.According to court documents, his New Jersey drivers license (with a false name, Mark Rosario) was quickly discovered to be a fake after officers approached Mangione in the fast-food restaurant. When an Altoona police officer asked Mangione why he lied about his name, according to the criminal complaint, Mangione replied, I clearly shouldnt have.Additional reporting by Lee Billings

December 12, 20244 min readWhen Did Neandertals and Humans Interbreed? Genomics Closes In on a DateThe oldest human genomes ever sequenced reveal that our Neandertal ancestry came from one pulse of interbreeding and pins down the timingBy Stephanie PappasIllustration of Zlat kůň, who belonged to the same population as the Ranis individuals and was closely related to two of them. Tom BjrklundScientists have long known that humans outside of Africa owe 2 to 3 percent of their genome to Neandertal ancestors. But now, using the oldest modern human DNA ever analyzed, two separate studies have traced this ancestry to a single surge of interbreeding that occurred between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago.Neandertals (Homo neanderthalensis) and modern humans (Homo sapiens) encountered each other many times over tens of thousands of years: modern human DNA is found in Neandertals who lived more than 200,000 years ago, and some human populations mingled further with Neandertals until the latter species went extinct 39,000 years ago. But not all of these interactions left a shared imprint on all non-African populations today. The moment that left this near-global genetic fingerprint happened over a period of a few thousand years, occurring between Neandertals who were established in Europe and humans who were newly arriving in their territory.The height of this interaction was, we think, 47,000 years agowhich also gives us a rough estimate of when this out-of-Africa migration might have happened, says Leonardo Iasi, a postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and lead author of one of the studies, which was published on Thursday in Science. He is also a co-author of the other paper, which was published concurrently in Nature.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Multiple waves of humans left Africa, where the Homo genus originally evolved, over thousands of years and established populations in the Near East and Europe. There they encountered and sometimes bred with Neandertals, descendants of an earlier human ancestor who had left Africa hundreds of thousands of years earlier. The last common ancestor of Neandertals and modern humans remains unknown, but that species likely lived between 650,000 and 500,000 years ago. Researchers still cant quite say exactly where the Neandertal-human intermingling occurred, but the two new studies narrow down the question of when considerably.In the Nature study, biochemist Johannes Krause, archaeogeneticist Kay Prfer and doctoral student Arev Smer, all at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and their colleagues sequenced genomes from six individuals discovered in Ranis, Germany, and one from the Zlat kůň site in the Czech Republic. These people, who lived between 49,000 and 42,000 years ago, included some of the oldest modern human genomes ever sequenced. They also turned out to include the oldest known family of modern humans, Smer says. The people in Ranis included a mother and her young daughter, plus another female individual from the same extended family. Even more surprisingly, the person from Zlat kůňa female individual known from her skull boneswas a more distant relative to this Ranis family.These linked populations, which probably consisted of only about 300 members spread across Central Europe, also shared 2.9 percent Neandertal ancestry. By looking at the length of the Neandertal gene segments in these human genomes, the researchers were able to gauge when Neandertal ancestry was introduced. (Longer segments are more recent additions because genetic recombination hasnt had a chance to scramble them. Shorter segments come from a more distant interbreeding event.) The scientists found that these Central Europeans were removed by about 80 generations, or between 1,500 and 1,000 years, from ancestors who mixed with Neandertals.In the Science study, researchers looked at a larger dataset of 59 ancient human genomes from between 45,000 and 2,200 years ago, plus the genomes of a diverse group of 275 present-day humans. We were interested in estimating the timing of the Neandertal ancestry and also checking if this happened over a short duration or over an extended period of time, says Priya Moorjani, a population geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who, with Benjamin Peter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, was co-senior author of the paper. (Peter is also a co-author of the Nature paper.)Like Krauses team, Moorjani and her colleagues found evidence of a single pulse of Neandertal genetics entering the human genome between approximately 50,500 and 43,500 years ago. The scientists also saw evidence of natural selection in these genes: within about 100 generations, the human genome looked a lot like it does today, in terms of which segments had lots of Neandertal genes and which had very few. For example, the modern X chromosome has few Neandertal genes.This genetic change is fascinating, says Joshua Akey, a Princeton University genomicist, who was not involved in the new studies, because it points to places on the human genome where Neandertal genes may have either boosted survival and reproduction and become permanently incorporated or caused harm and disappeared. Everyone is innately fascinated by what makes us potentially different from other types of humans that existed, Akey says. And if there are genetic substrates that define differences, then these are the places on the genome where they reside.The researchers also found that the people in Ranis and Zlat kůň, despite their connection to the out-of-Africa population that spread across the world, left no descendants behind. There are multiple lineages that we have identified now that did not contribute to modern people, Krause says, which also tells us that the human story is not just a story of success. We also went extinct.Additionally, these findings raise new questions about the dispersion of modern humans and the way humans gradually replaced Neandertals as the dominant species in Europe, says Isabelle Crevecoeur, a paleoanthropologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Bordeaux in France, who was not involved in the new studies. Now the big challenge for us, as paleoanthropologists or prehistorians, is really to try to connect the genetic results with the cultural or archaeological dataand try to make sense of it, she says.

December 12, 20242 min readMysterious Drone Sightings Illustrate Just How Many Fill Americas SkiesMysterious drone sightings over New Jersey and New York State are underscoring the high number of these vehicles in the U.S.By Meghan Bartels Joel Papalini/Getty ImagesFor weeks, residents of New Jersey and neighboring states have been baffled by high numbers of mysterious drone sightings, and the reports are an eye-catching reminder of just how many of these small vehicles fly in the U.S. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates civilian drones in the country, is no stranger to investigating reports of uncrewed aircraft sightings, tallying more than 400 such incidents between July and September 2024 alone.Despite this baseline, the New Jersey incidents, which began in mid-November, have gained particular attention, with ongoing investigations by a range of local and national officials. The FAA continues to support interagency partners to assess the situation and the ongoing reported drone sightings, a representative of the agency told Scientific American.But just how many drones are operating in the U.S. to potentially cause such strange sightings? Drone owners are supposed to register craft that weigh more than 0.55 pound with the FAA. For recreational flyers, however, the agency doesnt require every individual craft to be registered, leading to inconsistencies and uncertainties in tallies of these vehicles in particular.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.According to FAA regulations, recreational drone owners are currently allowed to fly only for personal enjoyment, and such drones must stay within eyesight of the pilot, steer clear of airplanes and remain at or below 400 feet of altitude, among other restrictions. People flying drones for other purposesincluding commercial reasonsare required to become certificated remote pilots with the agency.Based on 2023 data, the agency forecast 2024 would see some 1.8 million recreational drones flying in the U.S. In the same report, the agency forecast that nearly one million commercial drones would be in operation this year.The drones reported over New Jersey appear to be relatively large, potentially belonging to the FAAs larger class of such vehicles that weigh more than 55 pounds. (This is the agencys only size-related division in its monitoring of drones.) These large drones are much less common than their smaller brethren, with perhaps 2,300 of them flying by the end of 2023. Regardless of size, drones are expected to become ever more common in the coming years. As numbers of these vehicles have increased in the past decade, the agency has worked to regulate them and their impacts on airports and commercial airplanes in particular.The U.S. is also home to military dronesabout 11,000 of them, according to an undated Department of Defense webpage. That said, in a recent press briefing, a Pentagon official confirmed that the sighted activities had not involved U.S. military drones. She also said they are not currently believed to be the work of a foreign entity.

December 11, 20245 min readMysterious Disease X Outbreak Might Be Malaria. What We KnowAuthorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are racing to identify a deadly illness that is affecting malnourished childrenBy Paul AdepojuDemocratic Republic of Congo Health minister Samuel-Roger Kamba addressing a press conference in Kinshasa earlier this year on the ongoing mpox crisis. The country is currently also dealing with an outbreak of an unknown disease. HARDY_BOPE/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is confronting a health crisis in the remote Panzi health zone of Kwango Province, where an undiagnosed illness has infected more than 400 people and killed at least 31, predominantly malnourished children under the age of five. The mystery Disease Xwhich may or may not be a new diseasecauses symptoms such as fever, headache, cough, runny nose and body aches. The World Health Organization said in a press briefing on Tuesday that 10 out of 12 samples have tested positive for malaria, but its possible more than one disease is involved. The outbreak has raised pressing questions about the DRCs ability to respond effectively to health emergencies in isolated areas.Accessing Panzi is a formidable challenge, with poor road infrastructure requiring a multi-day journey from Kinshasa, the nations capital. This is really the definition of remote, says Placide Mbala, a virologist and head of epidemiology at the DRCs National Institute of Biomedical Research. He explains that limited connectivity and delayed sample collection have hampered diagnosis efforts. Specimens collected initially were unsuitable for analysis, but a team from the DRCs Ministry of Public Health has now gathered higher-quality samples, says Mbala, who is part of the team.A Complex Response Hindered by UncertaintyOn supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The DRCs Ministry of Health, supported by the WHO and Africa CDC, has deployed a multidisciplinary team to investigate and respond to the outbreak. But the delay in confirming a pathogen has complicated efforts to implement targeted interventions. Its difficult to have a targeted response when you dont know exactly what the pathogen is, Mbala notes. Instead the response has focused on isolating sick people, communicating risks and taking general preventive measures while providing supportive care for affected individuals.While the deployment of health care workers has improved the situation, delays in action have attracted criticism. Mbala emphasizes that the issue is not related to a lack of diagnostic capacity but rather logistical challenges. He admits the outbreak also highlights systemic vulnerabilities, including vast geographical barriers, weak infrastructure and recurring violence, that make the DRC particularly susceptible to health crises.ThankGod Ebenezer, founder of the research effort African BioGenome Project, emphasizes the critical connection between animal and human health, particularly in the context of zoonotic diseases. He explains that most diseases that affect humansincluding HIV/AIDS, SARS and likely COVIDoriginated in other animals, highlighting the importance of maintaining biodiversity and understanding genetic diversity to prevent transmission.When it comes to Disease X in DRC, one thing we often forget is that most diseases come from animals. Theres a transmission from animal to human. And what that means is that we dont often make peace with nature, Ebenezer says. He further notes that human interference with biodiversity creates vulnerabilities that allow diseases in animals to spread to humans and that genomics can play a vital role in addressing this. We can use genomics and biodiversity genomics to know how to maintain genetic diversity, prevent transmission and ensure were not [encroaching on] biodiversity conservation space, he adds.Global Support and Local ResilienceInternational organizations, including the WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are playing a crucial role in logistics and field investigations. Their support has enabled the deployment of resources to Panzi, although uncertainty over the pathogen involved has limited the scope of assistance they can provide. Grassroots communication has also been a key element of the response, with local leaders urging calm and educating communities about preventive measures. The Ministry of Health is working to understand the situation and has sent its best people to investigate, Mbala says.The DRCs response draws on its extensive experience managing outbreaks such as Ebola and mpox. Mbala expresses confidence that the countrys seasoned public health responders can leverage this expertise to contain the outbreak quickly. If we include all the experienced people who have coordinated past responses, we should be able to manage this effectively, he says.Scientific American spoke with Mbala about the outbreak and response. (The conversation took place before the WHO confirmed that many of the samples tested positive malaria.)[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]Can you provide an update on the current situation regarding Disease X in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?The outbreak began in the remote Panzi health zone in southwestern DRC, an area difficult to access because of poor roads and lack of reliable communication. The region is heavily affected by malnutrition, making the population more vulnerable. Initial media reports claimed more than 100 deaths, but our teams first investigation confirmed 27 fatalities, 17 of which were children under five.What measures are currently in place to manage the outbreak?The focus is on isolating the affected patients, conducting risk communication and implementing general preventive measures. We are providing supportive care, such as basic medication and assistance for the affected population. Once high-quality samples are analyzed, we hope to tailor the response more effectively.Despite the DRCs robust diagnostic capabilities, why has there been a delay in identifying the pathogen?The delay stems from the remote location of the outbreak and the initial lack of clear information. It wasnt until the media spotlighted the issue that action was expedited. Its not a matter of lacking diagnostic capacity but a challenge of mobilizing teams quickly to such isolated areas.Has the national and international attention improved the response?Yes, the situation has significantly improved since the Ministry of Health deployed a multidisciplinary team to investigate. Delays in response can create the perception of incapacity, however, even when the real issue lies in logistical and bureaucratic hurdles.How are international organizations, such as the WHO and the Africa CDC, contributing to the response?Their support has primarily been logistical, ensuring that investigation teams can reach the site and conduct fieldwork. But because the pathogen [has not been fully identified], its challenging to provide targeted assistance beyond general outbreak management.What role does grassroots communication play in controlling the outbreak?Communication is critical. The Ministry of Health is urging calm and reassuring the public that experts are investigating the situation. Educating local populations on preventive measures and maintaining trust are essential components of the response.From an epidemiological perspective, how does this outbreak compare with other disease outbreaks in the DRC?The DRC frequently faces outbreaks because of its vast size, challenging infrastructure and ecological conditions. While this outbreak poses unique challenges, the country has considerable experience responding to health crises. Leveraging this expertise, we are confident in our ability to contain this outbreak quickly.Why do such outbreaks repeatedly occur in the DRC?Its a combination of factorsgeography, infrastructure deficits, malnutrition and health system weaknesses. Additionally, social insecurity in certain regions complicates both outbreak response and broader health interventions.What are the next steps in containing Disease X?Once the samples are analyzed and we understand the pathogen, we will design a targeted response plan. In the meantime, our teams will continue providing supportive care and improving risk communication to manage the situation effectively.

December 11, 20244 min readA Rapidly Warming Arctic Looks Dramatically Different Now Than It Did 20 Years AgoRising temperatures, increasing precipitation, thawing permafrost and melting ice are pushing the Arctic outside its historical normsBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsAn aerial view of icebergs and ice sheet in the Baffin Bay near Pituffik, Greenland on July 19, 2022 as captured on a NASA Gulfstream V plane while on an airborne mission to measure melting Arctic sea ice. Kerem Ycel/AFP/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | The Arctic continued its relentless transformation in 2024, experiencing its wettest summer, its second warmest permafrost temperatures and its second hottest overall year on record.Its the continuation of a long-term pattern and serves as the latest evidence the Arctic has shifted into a new state of being, according to the latest installment of NOAAs annual Arctic Report Card. Temperatures, precipitation patterns, ice melt, permafrost and other factors have moved beyond the regions historical norms. Change is constant.The Arctic exists now within a new regime, in which conditions year after year are substantially different than just a couple of decades ago, Twila Moon, a scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center and lead editor of the report, said at a press conference Tuesday announcing the findings. Yet climate change is not bringing about a new normal. Instead, climate change is bringing ongoing and rapid change.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The Arctic Report Card, issued annually since 2006, provides regular documentation of the Arctics evolution. The first installment warned of melting sea ice and thawing permafrost and pointed to hot spots across the region. It also raised concerns about the stability of the Greenland ice sheet, where exact melt rates at the time were still uncertain.Nearly two decades later, studies have indicated the Arctic is warming at least three times faster than the global average. Sea ice has continued to sharply decline, while permafrost has thawed across large swaths of Alaska, Canada and Siberia. Wildfires are on the rise. And scientists have confirmed the Greenland ice sheet is losing tens of billions of tons of ice every year.An important starting point for the Arctic report card is recognizing that human-caused warming of our planet is amplified in the Arctic, Moon said. The Arctic continues to warm more quickly than the globe overall, and the last nine years in the Arctic are the nine warmest on record.Not every year is a record-breaker. The past year saw sea ice hit its sixth lowest minimum extent. The summer was the second warmest on record behind 2023. Permafrost temperatures were also at their second warmest levels.Meanwhile, Greenland saw its lowest levels of mass loss since 2013. And snow accumulation was above average across the Eurasian and North American Arctic.But all these factors still fall in line with the long-term pattern of changes the Arctic has seen in recent decades. Temperatures are swiftly rising, even if they dont bring all-time records every year. Sea ice is steadily dwindling. And the Greenland ice sheet has been contributing to global sea-level rise for 27 years in a row.Meanwhile, 2024 still saw a few records broken.An August heat wave broke daily temperature records in some communities across Alaska and Canada. Summer precipitation was the highest on record. And even though snowfall was higher than average in many places, the snow season was its shortest in at least 26 years over parts of central and eastern Arctic Canada. Thats largely due to the combination of later snow onset in the fall and early melt in the spring, driven by rising temperatures.Wildlife populations are affected too, the new report notes although not always in the same ways.Ice seal populations across much of the Arctic remain largely healthy. Thats despite the fact that Arctic cod, their historically preferred food source, have declined in the wake of rising temperatures. Instead, studies suggest that ice seals have pivoted to preying on saffron cod, which prefer warmer water and are expected to increase in the coming years.Thats a good sign for the ice seals, said Lori Quakenbush, a scientist and marine mammal expert with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.Although ice seals are highly adapted to sea ice, which is declining, we have not yet seen evidence that their adaptive capacities are limited by current ecological changes, she said.Caribou, on the other hand, arent faring as well. Migratory tundra caribou populations have declined by 65 percent over the last 20 to 30 years, down to 1.8 million from a peak of 5.5 million in the 1990s and 2000s. While some small coastal herds have shown signs of recovery in the last decade, the larger inland herds have rapidly declined.Thats a consequence of rising temperatures too, the report notes. Warmer winter weather increases the odds of freezing rain events, which can cover up the plants that caribou depend on for food.These declines are a major concern for many Indigenous communities across the Arctic.Declining caribou are critical concerns for local people whose food security has been tied to these animals since time immemorial, Quakenbush said.The new report card highlights the continued need for rapid global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say.While we can hope that many plants and animals will find pathways to adaptation, as ice seals have so far, hope is not a pathway for preparation or risk reduction, Moon said. With almost all human-produced heat-trapping emissions created outside of the Arctic, only the strongest actions to reduce these emissions will allow us to minimize risk and damage as much as possible into the future. This is true for the Arctic and the globe.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

December 9, 20246 min readNASAs Artemis Program Hits Another DelayAnd Looks to the FutureWhile contending with lingering hardware issues for its crewed lunar plans, the U.S. space agency projects confidence and urgency in a time of transitionBy Michael GreshkoThe damaged heat shield of NASAs Orion crew spacecraft, as seen after the Artemis I lunar test flight. The scorching temperatures of atmospheric reentry eroded the heat shield more than expected, contributing to delays for the Artemis program. NASAWith its Artemis program, NASA aims to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. And on the eve of a new presidential administration, agency officials have announced both a delay to the programs next major mission and their intent to make that mission more ambitious in scope.At a press conference last week at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., agency leadership announced that lingering hardware issues have forced NASA to push back Artemis IIa four-person crewed flight in an Orion spacecraft around the moon and back to Earthfrom September 2025 to April 2026.Most observers had already considered a 2025 launch unlikely. That Orion crafts ride into spaceNASAs Space Launch System (SLS) rocketisnt fully assembled at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That places it behind the pace set by its predecessor, the uncrewed Artemis I mission. Artemis I launched in November 2022, after its SLS had been fully assembled about a year in advance.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The safety of our astronauts is always first in our decisions; it is our North Star, said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a press conference at the agencys headquarters. We do not fly until we are ready. We do not fly until we are confident that we have made the flight as safe as possible for the humans onboard. We need to do this next test flight, and we need to do it rightand thats how the Artemis campaign proceeds.That said, agency officials are also thinking bigger about the programs planned missions.As originally conceived, Artemis II was a 2020s version of the 1968 mission Apollo 8, a no-frills journey around the moon and back to Earth to prove out NASAs ability to send people safely to and from the lunar vicinity. But now that development of SpaceXs Starship rocket is progressing rapidly, NASA officials are considering increasing the scope of Artemis II. Starship is intended to land NASA astronauts on the moons surface during the subsequent Artemis III mission, making the private rocket a crucial pillar of the public space agencys ambitious plans for crewed lunar return.NASA is now exploring the possibility of launching a Starship in parallel with Artemis II, with an eye toward possibly rehearsing the sorts of maneuvers that will need to be performed between Starship and Orion during Artemis III, which would be the first crewed moon landing attempt since 1972.We always want to look for ways to exploit new technology [and] new capabilities that, even five years ago, seemed like they were a bit out of reach, said Reid Wiseman, Artemis IIs commander, at last weeks press conference. Youre going to ask an astronaut to do more on their mission? Bring it on.Feeling the HeatThe delay of Artemis II stems from lingering hardware issues with the missions Orion spacecraft, the home away from home for its four astronauts. The big-ticket item: an investigation into the main material of Orions heat shield, an epoxy resin called Avcoat that misbehaved during Artemis I.What struck me the most was the level of detail that they provided. These are very complicated missions and very complicated technologies, and you dont often get down into the nuts and bolts of why things are not working, says Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, who models spacecraft thermal protection systems. Certainly, part of it is messaging to Congress and other stakeholders across the enterpriseto convey that they know what theyre doing.Avcoat is extremely well characterized: it played a key role in the heat shields used during the Apollo program and underwent major testing ahead of its use in Artemis. Samples of Orions heat-shield materials went through more than 1,000 ground tests, the overall design went through many supercomputer simulations, and a test version of Orion successfully flew to space in December 2014. Even so, at the press conference, agency officials said that the material still contained surprises.Although slated to launch no earlier than April 2026, engineers and technicians are already stacking the solid rocket boosters for NASAs Artemis II crewed lunar mission.NASA/Glenn BensonDuring Artemis Is reentry, Orion screamed through Earths atmosphere at a blistering speed of nearly 25,000 miles per hour (40,000 kilometers per hour), subjecting the heat shield to temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat shield did its job, keeping conditions clement inside the spacecraft, but unpleasant surprises still arose in those hellish conditions. Postflight inspections revealed more than 100 places on that Orion crafts heat shield where material wore away differently than expected, in some cases leaving pits roughly as wide as baseballs on the shields surface.At the briefing, NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy announced that this pitting stemmed in part from the Artemis I flight plan, which included whats known as a skip reentry, in which Orion dipped into and out of the upper atmosphere to help slow its descent. This flight plan caused gas-generating thermal energy to accumulate within the heat shields outer layer. Extensive testing revealed that the Avcoat across the Artemis I Orions heat shield was unevenly permeable to gas outflowsand that, in areas that were less permeable, gases built up to the point of cracking the material.In response, the agency is modifying future Orions reentry trajectories to lessen the heating that caused the gas buildup. Future heat shields, NASA officials said, will be built with Avcoat of the proper permeability.Just because our bottom-line temperatures were within four factors of safety, just because our guidance was right down the middle, just because we had the right amount of virgin Avcoat material left, it is tempting to believe that that means the spacecraft ... performed with margin, added Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator for NASAs Moon to Mars Program. But everything we've learned in our history tells us that that's not what margin means.A Path Forward and a Changing of the GuardThe Avcoat investigationand the messaging around its technical excellencealso represents a swan song for the Biden administrations NASA leadership. Nelson, a former U.S. congressional representative and a former U.S. senator from Florida, announced previously that he would be leaving the agency at the end of the year. The day before the press conference, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate billionaire technology CEO and philanthropist Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Isaacman has commanded two private SpaceX orbital missions: Inspiration4, back in 2021, and Polaris Dawn.Isaacmans extensive ties to SpaceXs human spaceflight program could portend major shifts to Artemiswhich is still contending with delays on key hardware. For example, to accommodate planned upgrades to the SLS for Artemis missions now slated for the late 2020s, NASA needs a new mobile launch tower. In 2019 the agency estimated that the project would cost less than half a billion dollars and would be done in 2023. It will now be delivered in September 2027 at a total cost of $1.8 billion, according to an August report by NASAs Office of Inspector General.The pieces of what is now Artemis have dealt with delays for years; the SLS was originally supposed to fly in late 2016. And with the latest delay of Artemis II, roughly three and a half years will have elapsed between Artemiss first two major launches. Thats a far cry from the roughly annual cadence that NASA hopes to achieve with the program by the early 2030s.That said, the SLS and Orion have long enjoyed strong support from Congressa key reason why Artemis is the only U.S. moon program since Apollo to have survived largely intact across two presidential administrations. If Isaacman intends to revamp Artemis by minimizing or entirely removing these costly components, he may well face hostile questions and stiff opposition from the powers that be during his Senate confirmation hearing next yearand into his notional tenure as NASAs latest leader.We are handing to the new administration a safe and reliable way forward for us: which is to go back to the moon, to get there before China, to have presence in cislunar [space] ... and to be on the way [from the] moon to Mars, Nelson said at the press conference. I think weve got that wrapped up with a bow.

December 10, 20243 min readHow the Santa Ana Winds Are Stoking the Malibu FireDry weather and an extreme Santa Ana wind event have contributed to the explosive growth of the Franklin Fire in Malibu, Calif.By Andrea ThompsonA firefighter pulls a water hose as the Franklin Fire burns palm trees near a building on December 10, 2024, in Malibu, Calif. Mario Tama/Getty ImagesThe Franklin Fire, which erupted on Monday night north of Pepperdine University in the Malibu area of Los Angeles County, rapidly grew to burn more than 2,200 acres in a matter of hours because of extremely dry weatherand an unusually strong bout of the regions infamous Santa Ana winds.The Santa Ana winds are a common driver of fast-moving, damaging fires in the area because they can rapidly fan and spread the flames. Some gusts near the latest fire have reached more than 50 miles per hour.The Santa Ana winds are the result of a particular meteorological setup: Usually what happens is: theres a low-pressure [atmospheric] system that goes up over California and into Washington State and Oregon and then drops southward through Nevada and Arizona, says Mike Wofford, a meteorologist at the National Weather Services office in Los Angeles. We call that an inside slider. As that low-pressure system moves out, an area of high pressure moves in behind it. And its that high pressure over Nevada and lower pressure over California that drives those winds, Wofford explains, because the winds go from high to low.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The stronger the difference between the high and low areas, the faster the winds will beand the high-pressure system over Nevada right now is relatively strong, Wofford says. As the winds move into southern California, they are funneled through its many narrow mountain canyons; this causes the winds to speed up. Its like squeezing a balloon and just having the air squirt out, Wofford says. (The Santa Ana winds actually take their name from Santa Ana Canyon, which lies between the Santa Ana Mountains and the Chino Hills.) In some parts of the mountains around Los Angeles, gusts above 70 miles per hour have been reported. A 93-mile-per-hour gust was recorded at Magic Mountain Truck Trail. The current wind event is similar to one in early November that fanned the flames of the Mountain Fire, which burned several hundred structures in Ventura County.Santa Ana wind events are common at this time of year, but yesterdays and todays windspeeds are unusually strong. And because they are, by nature, hot and dry, these winds also particularly help fuel fires. As the winds move downslope over the deserts, the air compresses and warmsand as it does so, it also dries out. Those dry winds can further desiccate already-parched vegetation, further priming it to ignite from the slightest spark.Were marginally a desert even in normal years, Wofford says. Vegetation in the area of the Franklin Fire was already dry after months of almost no rain. Cold-season rains have usually arrived after the regions hot, dry summers, reducing fire risk. But this years rains have not yet started in this area.Forecasters had issued a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning for the area for Monday night through Tuesday afternoon because of the winds and dry conditions. Relative humidity levels were reaching as low as 3 percent, Wofford says. Everything is very crispy.The winds are expected to die down later on Tuesday and into Wednesday, but conditions are still ripe for further blazesand the further spread of the Franklin Fire. Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of the coast, and part of the Pacific Coast Highway is closed, as are Malibu schools. The fire is currently 0 percent contained.

December 8, 20245 min readGoogles Quantum Computer Makes a Major Breakthrough in Error CorrectionGoogles new chip, Willow, has achieved the exponential suppression of errors. The advance is substantial, but Willow remains far from delivering on any practical applicationsBy Dan GaristoArtists concept of a quantum computer chip. Alfred Pasieka/Science Photo Library/Getty ImagesQuantum computers are a little like librarians: both abhor noise.Compared with their classical counterparts, quantum computers are finicky and need a serene environment to perform their calculations in peace. But even the quietest space in the universe reverberates with quantum noisethe inevitable movement of electrons and other atomic effects. If physicists could quell quantum errors caused by noise on a large enough quantum computer, they could perform some computations, such as exact simulations of molecules, that are intractable for classical computers.While improvements to hardware help, an essential ingredient is quantum error correction (QEC), a set of techniques to protect the information from this quantum din. We need our qubits to be almost perfect, and we cant get there with engineering alone, says Michael Newman, a quantum computing researcher at Google.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.On Monday Google published its latest research on error correction in the journal Nature and showed, for the first time, that errors can be suppressed exponentially as a quantum computer increases in size. As you make a bigger and bigger system, you get better at correcting errors, but youre also causing more errors, says Daniel Gottesman, a quantum information theorist at the University of Maryland, who was not involved with the study. When you pass this transition, where you can correct errors faster than theyre caused, is when making bigger and bigger systems makes it better.Researchers at Google created a silicon chip with 105 qubits, quantum counterparts to classical bits. Then they linked up multiple physical qubits to form a conglomerate called a logical qubit. The logical qubit lasted more than twice as long as any individual qubit it was composed of, and it had a one-in-1,000 chance of error per cycle of computation. (For comparison, the rate of error in a typical classical computer is about one in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000essentially zero.)The results were first posted on the preprint server arXiv.org in August, but today Google shared additional details about the technology that enabled the advance: a new quantum processor called Willow (an upgrade to its arboreally named predecessor, Sycamore). Really good qubits are the thing that enables quantum error correction, says Julian Kelly, director of quantum hardware at Google and a co-author on the new paper.Google is not the only company to have made strides in error correction. In September a joint team of researchers at Microsoft and Quantinuum, a quantum computing firm based in Broomfield, Colo., posted results to arXiv.org that showed that, using qubits made from ions trapped by lasers, they could encode 12 logical qubits that had a two-in-1,000 error rate.Even with advances in error correction, practical applications for quantum computers are unlikely in the near term. Estimates vary, but consensus among many researchers is that to solve useful algorithms or perform robust simulations of chemistry, a quantum computer would need hundreds of logical qubits with error rates below about one in a million.All That NoiseTwo main types of error plague quantum computers: bit flips and dephasing. A bit flip, which also occurs in classical computers, switches a qubit from 0 to 1, or vice versa. Dephasing yanks qubits out of their delicate quantum state, like taking a pie out of the oven before its ready. Either error can ruin a computation.Classical error correction often preserves information via redundancy. If Alice wants to send Bob the message 1, she could send it in triplicate, copying the 1 two times to transmit 111. In this way, even if a bit flipsleading to 101Bob can still surmise Alice meant to send 1. But copying information in this manner is forbidden by the laws of quantum mechanics. So in the 1990s researchers had to develop error correction for quantum computers. We have to spread the information out in such a way that there is redundancy but theres not copies, Gottesman says. With the information spread out as a logical qubit, it can be preserved even if one physical qubit is lost to error.Researchers have been implementing codes that can detect and correct errors for decades, but until recently, there simply werent enough high-quality qubits. Now the hardware has finally reached the point where it merits the impressive software. In 2022 Google used error correction on its Sycamore processor to lower the overall error rate. But the rate was still shy of a key threshold, so adding more physical qubits to a logical qubit produced diminishing returns. As the logical qubits are getting larger, theres more opportunities for error, says Newman, who was a co-author of the new study as well as a preprint paper about the 2022 results.The latest advance is largely thanks to Willow, which improves on Sycamore in three key ways. First, Willow simply has more physical qubits105, compared with Sycamores 72. More physical qubits mean larger logical qubits. Its not just the number of qubits, Kelly says. Everything has to be working at the same time. By refining their fabrication processes, Kelly and his colleagues were able to improve individual qubit quality: Willows qubits are more robust than Sycamores: they maintain their delicate quantum state five times as long and having lower error rates.To test error correction, Google researchers encoded larger and larger logical qubits: they were first composed of a 33 grid of physical qubits, then made up of a 55 grid and finally represented a 77 grid. As the logical qubits grew, the error rate dropped precipitously. I saw these numbers, and I thought, Oh, my god, this is really going to work, Newman says.Sense of ScaleExperts were broadly impressed by the Google results. Scientific American examined the peer review reports from four anonymous referees. I think this is a fantastic achievement that has excited the community, one concluded. Another concurred, writing that this is one [of] the most important results of the year (if not of the decade) in experimental quantum information.Graeme Smith, a quantum information researcher at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, is impressed by the result because it doesnt cut corners. Focusing on the error correction is the right thing to do, he says. It is a real improvement. Many previous error correction results relied on postselection, or the practice of throwing away error-ridden runs to create an artificially lower error rate.There are still caveats to be made, even with Googles result. Krysta Svore, a quantum computing researcher at Microsoft, points out that by another metric, the error was not one in 1,000 but one in 100. Responding to the critique, a spokesperson from Google said that the exact number ... is not as important as the increase in performance with increasing size. Thats the key thing that makes this scalable.What everyone seems to agree on is that recent advances in error correction are a sea change. What's absolutely thrilling right now is the progress in quantum error correction, Svore says. For Gottesman and others who helped develop the theory behind error correction decades ago, a long wait is over. It's about time were finally seeing these demonstrations of fault tolerance, he says.The hype around quantum computers has been enormous. In its most extreme form, it includes claims that the devices will cure cancer or solve climate changeor even that they have created a wormhole. Responsible researchers frequently bemoan that hype will lead to unreasonably high expectations and may even lead to a quantum winter, in which funding will dry up. The latest error correction results reveal another potential casualty: genuinely impressive advanceslike this onecould be dismissed out of hand.

December 9, 20243 min readWhat Are the Mystery Drones Reported over New York State and New Jersey?Reports of unidentified flying objects in the northeastern U.S. are on the rise, but so far officials have few answers for alarmed residentsBy Lee Billings Rensburg/Alamy Stock PhotoWhats bright, flying and reportedly swarming the night skies over northern New Jersey?The answer is apparently drones, but no one seems to knowor, at least, to be able to disclosemuch more than that.The past several weeks have seen surging reports of strange unidentified aircraftsome allegedly as large as a carover parts of the Garden State. Eyewitnesses and videos suggest that some have been rotorcraft and others have been fixed-wing aircraft. Some have purportedly flown solo and erratically, while others have seemed to operate in an orderly formation. All, however, have appeared to show no signs of stealth; theyve been described as conspicuously bright lights. And according to a December 5 social media post by New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, the spate of sightings is being seriously investigatedbut there is no known threat to the public at this time.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Many of the reports initially clustered in New Jerseys Morris Countywhere strange objects were seen apparently maneuvering over major waterways, municipal reservoirs and even sensitive military facilities such as the U.S. Armys Picatinny Arsenal. Some of the latest sightings have been from other surrounding counties, however, and have stretched as far south as the outskirts of Philadelphia. The sightings have come amid fresh reports of alarming drone activity elsewhere, including at four military bases in the U.K. that are used by the U.S. in recent weeks and around Langley Air Force Base in Virginia in December 2023.The uptick in reports in New Jersey has spurred a patchwork of responses from local, state and national authorities. About 20 elected officials in Morris County signed and sent a letter to relevant federal agencies, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily banned drone flights over Picatinny Arsenal and the Bedminster, N.J., golf club owned by President-elect Donald Trump. In a joint statement last week, the FBI, the New Jersey State Police and the states Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness announced they were seeking information related to the drone sightings. The advisory asked eyewitnesses to submit their reports via an FBI hotline (1-800-225-5324) or the agencys webpage for tips.In the interim, many eyewitnesses have instead turned to local news organizations, as well as to Enigma Labs, a New York Citybased start-up that allows users of its smartphone app to submit geolocated reports and recordings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). According to Christine Kim, Enigma Labss head of marketing, the company processes thousands of sightings each month and has received dozens of related reports (including some with video) from users in the region in the past three weeks, with 16 percent of its U.S. submissions in that time related to the New Jersey drones.This is an active investigation where whats needed is more eyes on the sky, Kim says. For us, this is like a stress test of getting our users to film and report on what theyre seeing so that we can crowdsource this and investigate together.... We dont have clear answers yet, but by getting more data we can try to find and figure out patterns in what were seeing.So far, Kim notes, the content and quality of the reports have been so variable that certainty is elusive. One person wrote they saw a large, triangular craft, with three lights on its corners, not flying high or fast, shining too bright to be a conventional aircraft, she says. Another one reported seeing several craft night after night, flying really fast, with different ranges of brightness and looking relatively small next to other helicopters and planes.... Some of the photos Ive seen floating around out there, were like, Yeah, thats what a plane looks like in the clouds. So were sort of debunking some of these ourselves, too.Writing on X (formerly Twitter) on early Sunday EST in response to the sightings, UAP skeptic and investigator Mick West posted a smartphone video of a supposed drone he had recorded near his home in California and noted that it was in fact an ordinary aircraft passing overhead, as confirmed by flight-tracking data. Many of the New Jersey sightings, his post suggested, are likely to be similar cases of mistaken identityin large part because of how poor most smartphone optics are and how easy it is for even experienced observers to misgauge the sizes, distances and motions of objects in the sky.Even so, to attribute all these latest sightings and the wealth of recordings to mere mass hysteria seems implausible, especially given the resulting responses from multiple echelons of law enforcement. Something strange is indeed in the air over northern New Jerseybut what, exactly, remains to be seen.

December 5, 2024Could Menstruation Be Causing Low Iron Levels?Underdiagnosed iron deficiency and anemia could be leaving people without affordable fixes for their concerns.By Rachel Feltman & Fonda Mwangi Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanSUBSCRIBE TO Science QuicklyApple | Spotify | RSSRachel Feltman: Picture the teens in your life. Are they getting enough sleep? If not, you might assume theyre just falling prey to late nights on social media and school-related stress. But research suggests that for a huge percentage of kids and young adults, low iron levels may be to blame for their fatigue. It turns out that menstruation poses a bigger risk to iron levels than many doctors realize.For Scientific Americans Science Quickly, Im Rachel Feltman. My guest today is Angela Weyand, a pediatric hematologist and clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. Shes here to explain how iron deficiency can affect everything from energy levels to mental healthregardless of whether it leads to full-blown anemiaand why doctors so often miss it, especially in adolescents.Thanks so much for coming on to chat today.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Angela Weyand: Thanks for having me.Feltman: So lets start with a pretty basic question: What is anemia, and why is it important that its properly diagnosed?Weyand: Sure, so anemia is when your hemoglobin is low or kind ofwe think about that as, like, the number of red blood cells, which are important cells that carry oxygen to all of your tissues. Its incredibly prevalent and can cause a lot of problems; as you can imagine, its important that we get adequate oxygen to all of our tissues, and so when were anemic and it impairs our ability to do that, we can have a lot of different symptoms. Probably the most common that people think of is fatigue.Feltman: So, when did you start to suspect that some cases of anemia were flying under the radar?Weyand: Yeah, so I mentioned Im a pediatric hematologist, and I see a lot of adolescents and young women who have heavy menstrual bleeding, and that is one way that you can become quite anemic. So I see atI work at a large academic medical center, so I see pretty severe cases but was thinking that if Im seeing as many patients as Im seeing with pretty severe anemia that theres probably a lot of people out there that have less severe anemia that arent necessarily being identified.Most of that is iron-deficiency anemia, which I think is a whole nother issue that is very undiagnosed and often dismissed. And iron deficiencyactually, a lot of people conflate iron deficiency with anemia, but theyre actually two different things. And iron deficiency, even when youre not anemic, also matters and can cause a lot of symptoms and problems.Feltman: Yeah, so how did you go about investigating that?Weyand: Yeah, so we did a big study that [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has, kind of national study that they do called NHANES [National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey], where they collect data on kind of the general population and they get a lot of demographic data, medical history data; they get labs from them; and then its available to researchers to use for free.And so we just took that database and looked at adolescents between 12 and 21 years of age that were female because a big risk factor for iron deficiency and anemia is menstruation cause thats how you lose iron. And so we looked at that and kind of tried to weed out a number of patients who had other diseases or kind of other co-morbidities that would affect our prevalence to try to really get at what we would consider a healthy population to determine the rate of both iron deficiency and then also iron-deficiency anemia.Feltman: Yeah. Well, what exactly has your research found?Weyand: Yeah, so overall we found that aboutit was 38.6 percent, so almost 40 percent of those 12- to 21-year-old females who were kind of otherwise healthy were iron-deficient ...Feltman: Wow, yeah.Weyand: And a smaller proportion, around 6 percent, were iron-deficient and anemic, because iron deficiency is kind of a spectrum, where you can be iron-deficient for quite some time and then kind of the severe end of iron deficiency, you become anemic.Feltman: So how is it that doctors are, you know, so routinely missing these signs of iron deficiency and anemia in patients?Weyand: I think its just really tough because the symptoms are so nonspecific, right? So if you think about other medical conditions: people talk about if you have chest pain, like, youre having a heart attack, right? But a lot of the symptoms of iron deficiency and anemia are things like trouble sleepingokay, well, theres lots of causes for not sleeping well. Fatiguetheres lots of reasons for people to be fatigued, especially in todays day and age, where people are so busy and not necessarily getting adequate sleep or have time to exercise or eat healthy. So fatigue isyou know, can be caused by lots of things, and I think most of the people I see, even though Im seeing adolescents, theyre all tired, right, so ...Feltman: Mm-hmm.Weyand: That doesnt necessarily point you in a specific direction. Other things that its associated with, like depression and anxiety, are also really common and can be associated,or due to other things outside of iron deficiency.It can also cause things like hair loss, which also, you know, people dont necessarily have a good sense of, like, how much hair you should be losing. Or even, like, fatiguelike, how do we rate fatigue? Like, if you talk to a lot of people, theyre like, Yeah, Im tired, but when is it actually a problem versus just, Okay, maybe you need to, like, sleep a little later on the weekend?Feltman: Yeah. I understand that anemia or iron deficiency were more prevalent in certain groups; is that correct?Weyand: Yes, thats correct. So the most affected kind of worldwide are women of reproductive age, or, you know, people who menstruate or can get pregnant, as well as kind of toddlers is another kind of age group where it can be more prevalent as well.Feltman: And what are sort of the, the main takeaways for both doctors and patients from what you found?Weyand: So I think for a doctor specifically, you know, in medical school, were really taught iron deficiency is important because it causes anemia, right? And anemia, as I mentioned, is, like, the latest stage of iron deficiency, so you have to be very iron-deficient before your body stops making enough red blood cells. But we know that iron is actually involved in all of these different other areas, right, that cause the other symptoms, like poor sleep and anxiety and depression and fatigue. And so I think its really important for doctors to remember from way back in med school that actually theres a lot of different other processes in the body that matter, and so even if your patient isnt anemic, if theyre iron-deficient, they may feel much better if they can get that corrected.And I think for patients, its really hard because I think, especially the population thats affected by this, when you think about reproductive-age people who menstruate, they may not recognize their symptoms as something that should prompt them to go to the doctor or thats fixable. And then oftentimes when they do go to their health care provider, they may have been dismissed previously as like, Okay, well, eat better or sleep more, exercise more.And so I think just having this knowledge of this is very prevalent in people who menstruate and can cause all of these kind of wide-ranging symptoms thatI dont ever think its bad to go to your doctor and say, Hey, you know, I read this article that said 40 percent of people, you knowand we looked at a young age, right, so you can imagine that if these patients arent identified, its not like this problem is gonna get better on its own. And so its probably even higher in older ages.So I think just being aware that this is a problem and it is a very correctable problem; it's not something, like, that we say, Oh, well, now we know why youre tired, but sorry, nothing to do about it. Theres very effective treatments that are widely available and inexpensive and oftentimes make people feel much, much better.Feltman: What else do you think it's important for people to know about iron deficiency and anemia?Weyand: I would say, as someone who sees a lot of adolescents, they come inand as I said, I see, like, the most severe cases, where theyre very anemic and, like, sometimes require blood transfusions and being hospitalized, which is a big deal. But I think so often the root cause is their periods, and I think thats something we dont talk about enough: thatlike, what a normal period is. So Ill have people tell me, like, My periods are normal, but they bleed for three weeks out of the month, cause I dont think that we, as a society, do a great job of talking about that; its so stigmatized.So I would just say kind of being aware of what a normal period is can be so helpful for patients, I think. And it really shouldnt be bleeding more than seven days a month. It really should be: you should go multiple hours without having to change a product. And you shouldnt be having accidents at school or at work because you cant get up to change or having to wake up overnight to change things.Those would all be signs that youre bleeding too much. And thats another area of medicine where we have a lot of options that can help people, but its important to identify that its abnormal so that you can avoid things like severe iron-deficiency anemia.Feltman: Well, thank you so much for coming on. This has been really informative.Weyand: Thank you so much for having me. Im glad to get the word out.Feltman: Thats all for todays episode. Well be back on Monday with our usual news roundup. Then on Wednesday were going to do a deep dive on Googles new podcast-generating AI feature, which, as Im sure you might imagine, I have a lot of feelings about. Then well be wrapping up the year with a special Fascination series on the new science of animal conservation. In other words, weve got a lot of great episodes to share with you before we officially enter lets circle back in the new year season.If youre enjoying Science Quickly, do us a favor and take a second to like, follow, subscribe, rate, review or commentwhatever your favorite podcast platform lets you do to say our show is neat. If youve got any questions or suggestions for us, drop us a line at ScienceQuickly@sciam.com.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great weekend!

December 5, 20245 min readWhats Inside Our Galaxys Darkest Place?Barnard 68 is often mistaken for a hole in space, but its actually a dense, opaque cloud of dustfor nowBy Phil PlaitA view of Barnard 68 (B68), a dark and dusty nebula some 500 light-years from Earth. ESORight now, people who love looking at the wonders of the heavens have it better than ever. Every day brings some new jaw-dropping snapshot from at least one of the myriad observatories now operating on the ground or in space, each offering a new view of alien worlds, exploding stars, colliding galaxies or any number of other astrophysical phenomena. Most of these images are paeans to cosmic forces and inconceivable scales that carve stunning beauty from epic violence.But not everything in our galaxy (or beyond) is the outcome of such ostentatious chaos. Some of the most visually captivating celestial objects are quiet, steady, even calmand so dark that they not only emit no visible light but actually absorb it, creating a blackness so profound they seem to be a notch cut out in space.These shadowy expanses have many sobriquetsdark nebulae, dust clouds, knotsbut I prefer to call them Bok globules, a name they received in honor of Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok, who studied them.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.A Bok globule is a small, dense clump of cosmic dust; millions of them are scattered around our galaxy. They are cold and opaque to visible light, so much so that until quite recently the only way to see them was in silhouette against brighter background material. While not as splashy as their star-factory cousins, such as the Orion Nebula, Bok globules can still make stars, albeit in a more artisanal way: they make one or a few at a time that are largely hidden from our prying eyes in the dusts abyssal depths.Of all the dark globules we can see with our telescopes, my favorite beyond a doubt is Barnard 68, colloquially called B68. Located about 500 light-years from Earth, its a vaguely comma-shaped and coal-black cloud a mere half light-year wide, spanning some five trillion kilometers. We see it easily because its in the constellation Ophiuchus, with the star-packed center of our Milky Way galaxy as its backdrop. B68 appears to us as negative space, an absence of stars.Why is it so dark? Although mostly made of hydrogen gas (like pretty much everything else in our galaxy), B68 also has an abundance of carbon. Some of this element is locked up in small molecules such as carbon monoxide, but much of the rest instead resides in long, complex molecules that make up what astronomers generically call dust. One distinguishing (or extinguishing) characteristic of dust is its capacity to block visible light.And dust clouds can be dark indeed. In the case of B68, any star located on the other side from us will have its light diminished by a factor of 15 trillion. To put this in perspective, dimming the sun in our sky by this much would reduce it to a fourth-magnitude star difficult to spot in even mildly light-polluted skies. If you were on one side of B68 and the sun on the other, the suns light would be so attenuated across that half light-year that it would become invisible to the naked eye.Such extreme darkness makes B68and Bok globules more generallysubject to continual mistaken identity. Some years ago astronomers discovered the existence of huge volumes of space largely bereft of galaxies; these are called cosmic voids and can be many millions of light-years across. Alas, Ive seen quite a few breathless videos and articles about them illustrated with an image of B68. Its irritating to me as an astronomer to see this mistake because these are very different objects, but its also rather amusing because the actual voids being discussed are millions of times larger than our friendly nearby Bok globule.B68s prodigious ability to absorb light relies upon a surprisingly modest amount of dust. Even in its center, where its densest, B68 has less than a million particles of matter per cubic centimeter. That may sound like a lot, but here on Earth it would rate as a laboratory-grade vacuumat sea level our planets atmosphere packs about 1019 molecules per cubic centimeter, making the air you breathe some 10 trillion times denser than B68 at its best.Despite its all-encompassing darkness, we can discern B68s density because, like any cloud, it becomes more tenuous toward its outskirts. This creates an interesting situation: from our viewpoint, we can see some background stars through the relatively thinner material at its edges, but the closer we view to the center, the more that light is absorbed. Stars appear bright at the clouds perimeter but grow progressively dimmer as we look closer to the center. Because dust tends to absorb bluer light better than rays of red, which can pass through more easily, such stars dont just fade; they also redden. And infrared light traverses B68 more easily yet, so telescopes tuned to those wavelengths can see even more stars. Astronomers can use that reddening and dimming to measure how much dust is inside the cloud.Using other techniques, they can also measure B68s temperature. Bok globules are terribly cold, and B68 is no exception, registering a bone-chilling 256 degrees Celsius at its edges that drops to only 265 degrees C at its center. This is barely above absolute zero!Yet that whisper of warmth is enough to support the globule against its own gravity. B68 is not terribly massive, containing only about three to four times the mass of the sun, but thats still typically more than enough to cause a gravitational collapse. The meager amount of internal heat keeps B68 inflated much like a hot air balloon, however (or, more accurately, a bitterly cold, near-vacuum balloon).But this fragile impasse cant last forever. Careful observations of B68 show what seem to be two distinct cores of higher-density material, one near its center and another in the stubby tail near its southeastern edge (to the lower left in the photograph above this article). Radio-wave observations suggest this tail was once a separate, smaller cloud that is now merging with B68, upsetting the delicate balance of gravity inside the cloud. Consequently, B68 may now be collapsing, which means this dark cloud may literally have a bright future ahead: it will form a star.As the material collapses in on itself, the density in the center would increase and the temperature with it. This would continue for hundreds of thousands of years until, at the clouds core, a star is born (perhaps more than one, given theres enough material in B68 to form a couple of sunlike stars). If that happens, almost all the matter remaining in the cloud will be blown away by the light of the newborn star or starsall, that is, save perhaps for a meager fraction caught in the stars gravitational clutches, which could condense and collapse in turn to create a disk of material destined to form planets.And who knows? In some few billion years more, perhaps life and eventually intelligence might arise on some of those worlds, so that one day in the far future alien astronomers will peer out and wonder about the universe they see, a vista they could not possibly have glimpsed through B68s youthful, starlight-devouring haze. Perhaps Earth and the sun will be long gone by then, and the galaxy will have transformed into a very different place. But even so, theres comfort to be found in such an end, knowing that once upon a time we began in much the same way; our sun was born in a huge, dust-darkened nebula that eventually lit up with thousands of other stars, a stellar nursery that, like its cosmic children, has long since dispersed.Everything in the universe is ephemeral, and much of it cyclical. We are privileged to be able to observe what we can now, even if what we see is something that is very difficult to see at all.