Table of contents for March 2014 in Discover

My parents had no use for amusement parks. This was sometimes a source of shrill dismay for me as a child, especially as vacation time rolled around, when my father would produce a sheaf of brochures for a variety of national parks and natural wonders and instruct me to start dusting off the camping gear. Traveling with my folks was a strictly ground-level affair, and we didn’t set any land-speed records driving to our destination, either. Dad was forever pulling off at some scenic overlook or half-hidden hiking trail he’d spied along the road. It’s a funny thing, but as I got older, I came to see those side trips as the highlights of our vacations. Dad had a special knack for stumbling upon the most amazing fnds. He’d march…

By studying variations in tree rings in forests around the world, Neil Pederson and colleagues at the Tree Ring Laboratory at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York have created a record of droughts and wet periods dating back hundreds to thousands of years. In 2010, while researching the effects of climate change over the past 20 years in Mongolia, his team serendipitously stumbled across a stand of pines that has since revealed the longest-ever climate record in the region. Data from that trip — and another in 2012 — tell a 1,100-year story of rainfall in a land where water is often scarce, and where rain might have meant more vegetation, more herd animals and more meat, milk and cheese. Now, Pederson and his colleagues are discovering that…

Things get messier: Your office, the universe, even the air and dust in a room will become increasingly disorganized unless you or some cosmic force expends energy to clean it all up. This pesky fact of life — that disorder, or entropy, increases over time — is known as the second law of thermodynamics. In the 1860s, physicist James Clerk Maxwell floated the idea of a hypothetical “neat-fingered demon” who could break the law by sorting hot and cold gas particles without expending energy, effortlessly flicking open a door between two compartments in a box. A century and a half later, a research team at the University of Maryland has published a mathematical model that could turn Maxwell’s dream of order without effort into something real. The machine they envision…

It was a guerrilla assault worthy of the takedown of Osama bin Laden. But in this case, the assassins were intrepid viral invaders. In Andrew Camilli’s molecular biology lab at Tufts University in Boston, researchers found the telltale footprints of a startling attack against cholera, a deadly bacterial disease. They were analyzing the DNA sequences of tiny viruses called bacteriophages (literally, “bacteria eaters”) lurking in the stool samples of cholera patients. The phages’ DNA contained some of the genes from another bacteria’s immune system. Somehow, the tiny phages sneaked in and overpowered the much larger cholera cells, using a big chunk of this stolen immune system. “We were surprised because it’s the first known example of any virus that has captured and commandeered [an] immune system,” says Camilli. “The phages…

Molecular evolutionary biologist Masatoshi Nei says Darwin never proved natural selection is the driving force of evolution — because it isn’t. In a cavernous concert hall, before an eager audience of thousands, Masatoshi Nei is experiencing a technical glitch. The biologist has just received Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, honoring his groundbreaking exploration of evolution on a molecular level. The eyes and ears of international media, diplomats and dignitaries, including Japan’s Princess Takamado, are trained on the soft-spoken 82-yearold as he delivers his acceptance speech. Or tries to. On a massive screen above him, a slide show advances and retreats randomly as Nei attempts to present techniques he pioneered that have revolutionized his field — and theories that challenge some of its most deeply rooted ideas. “So sorry,”…

Sometime in 2008 a young male wolverine left his home in the mountains of Idaho. No one saw him go. He probably went west and then south, keeping to the highest ground and powering over obstacles, as wolverines tend to do. He forded a major river, the Snake, and a major highway, I-84, then had smooth sailing through the emptiness of eastern Oregon. Traversing a distance of 500 miles, he finally reached a forest near Truckee, Calif., in the central Sierra Nevada range. It had been decades since a wolverine roamed these woods. As the largest terrestrial members of the Mustelidae (weasel) family, wolverines are creatures of snow, cold and peaks, but especially of snow. Their thickly furred, bowlingball bodies are perfectly constructed to retain heat during blizzards. Their paws,…

Your Guide to Cool Culture, New Tech and What’s Next BIKE COP A reboot of the ‘80s classic RoboCop keeps the plot pitting a decent man against the sinister OmniCorp but upgrades the gadgets with cutting-edge tech. We Can Reboot Him Bringing a new version of a sci-fi cult classic to the screen is no easy task. Depart too much from the original, and fans will complain. Rehash too many scenes, and, well, fans will complain. When it was announced that the 1987 dystopian morality tale RoboCop was being remade, yep, fans complained. But the new movie’s production designer, Martin Whist, says he’s a fan of the first film with high expectations for RoboCop’s return (in theaters Feb. 12). Discover’s Gemma Tarlach talked RoboCop shop with Whist, who was in…

North Island, New Zealand 38S 51’ 0.9396" 175E 55’ 6.8838" geonet.org.nz/volcano/ Beneath New Zealand’s snow-dusted peaks and placid blue lakes, the planet is restless. The island nation sits atop an active subduction zone where the Pacific Plate slips below the Australian Plate. In the Central North Island, in a wedgeshaped region called the Taupo Volcanic Zone, tectonic forces stretch Earth’s crust dramatically. Elsewhere on our planet, continental crust has an average thickness of about 24 miles. But in the TVZ, it can be less than 10 miles thick. That thin skin gives researchers and tourists alike an unparalleled look at geologic forces. “We have some of the best geophysical surface features in the world,” notes Brad Scott, who has worked in the TVZ since 1974 as a volcanologist for GNS…

1. We’ve heard so much hype about the wonder of 3-D printers, but they aren’t really printers at all. They’re “additive manufacturers” more akin to Star Trek’s replicators, building incredibly complex three-dimensional objects by spraying materials in successive layers through special nozzles. 2. Unlike Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, you can’t yet order “tea, Earl Grey, hot,” but several foodstuffs are already in testing, including scallops, cookies and burritos. 3. Mmmmm, burritos. Thingiverse, an online community for sharing 3-D designs, has dozens of templates for print-at-home bongs, bubblers and other items that elicit the munchies. 4. From spaced-out to space itself: NASA is sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station so its crew can build spare parts — a far cry from the 1970 Apollo 13 misadventure when that crew…

Don’t be shy about sharing your opinions, whether via letters, email or our social media communities. Here’s what you’ve been telling us lately. Elemental Activity September’s issue included an infographic by Dolly Setton that explained the atomic elements that make up the human body. I loved “Cosmic Recipe for Earthlings” so much that I immediately used it in preparing an activity for two groups of Cool Girls Science and Art Club: grades one through three and four through five. We discussed the 60 atomic elements that help our bodies function, and the birth of the universe and how stars are born and die. Next, the girls paired up and drew outlines of their bodies on long pieces of paper, which they filled in with symbols of their own design representing…

Transplant surgeon John Roberts called his patient and told him the news: A liver was available that would be a good match, although it came from an older donor. The patient felt confident about his health and told Roberts no thanks — he’d take his chances waiting for a better one. Shortly afterward, the patient called Roberts back. “I’ve rethought this,” he began. By then, it was too late; the next recipient on the waiting list had accepted the liver and was heading into surgery. Scenarios like this one made Roberts and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco ponder whether seemingly healthy patients on the transplant list and their doctors may be too choosy for their own good. Thousands of patients are added to the liver transplant…

You see a man collapse right in front of you, then you dial 911 and suddenly forget everything you learned in CPR class. Yet for the best response, the 911 operator must have as many details as possible in the first 60 seconds — a challenging task during a crisis. A team of computer scientists thinks smartphones can help. Ram Dantu, an engineering and computer science professor at the University of North Texas, and his colleagues have developed a suite of smartphone applications to help people at the scene and the 911 operator. If a victim needs CPR, a bystander can strap her smartphone to the back of her hand with a plastic bag or T-shirt and get real-time feedback on technique. When Dantu had 45 CPR students and instructors…

During a pickup basketball game one afternoon, Daniel — healthy, fit and in his mid-30s — heard his friend utter the words he would never forget. “Dude, what’s that black blotch on the back of your shoulder?” A few weeks later, Daniel was diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma. Through a surgical procedure known as Mohs’ micrographic surgery, his doctors removed the cancerous cells. But about two months later, he noticed a lump in his armpit — the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes. He underwent intensive chemotherapy, but his disease relentlessly progressed, spreading to his lungs. Daniel began interferon-alpha therapy, a treatment that boosts the body’s immune system response against tumors, but it made him so ill that after the first round he declined…

Every drug of addiction must have its day. Morphine remains one of the most potent painkillers ever discovered. Cocaine’s chemical cousin lidocaine is still used by physicians and dentists as an effective local anesthetic. Even demon alcohol, when taken in moderation, cuts the risk of heart attacks, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and a hodgepodge of other ailments. Now comes nicotine, perhaps the most unlikely wonder drug ever to be reviled. If dozens of human and animal studies published over the past six years are borne out by large clinical trials, nicotine — freed at last of its noxious host, tobacco, and delivered instead by chewing gum or transdermal patch — may prove to be a weirdly, improbably effective drug for relieving or preventing a variety of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease,…

THE GREAT PYRAMIDS OF NAACHTUN lie shrouded in the emerald forest of northern Guatemala. They are part of one of the most remote, inaccessible sites in the entire ancient Maya world. At the height of Maya civilization, this prosperous city lay in a perilous heartland, caught between two clashing superpowers: Tikal and Calakmul. To study Naachtun and its alliances in treacherous times, University of Calgary archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor made her way to the site in 2004. For three months, she and an international research team mapped Naachtun’s architecture and recorded ancient texts inscribed on altars and limestone blocks (known as stelae). One of these, Naachtun Stela 18, a massive stone that once towered 14 feet in the air, depicts a fierce-looking Naachtun queen. (See sketch at right.) With a battle…

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION You and I are living amid a mass extinction. It’s just a question of timing and perspective: It may seem like a slow-motion crawl to humans, but it’s sudden death for thousands of species. Journalist Kolbert takes readers from the dying Great Barrier Reef to the Andes, documenting global warming’s toll on species diversity, and considers lessons to be learned from prehistoric megafauna extinctions. She grounds her stories in rigorous science and memorable characters past and present, building a case that a mass extinction is underway, whether we want to admit it or not. — BECKY LANG EXTREME MEDICINE From expeditioners perishing in an Antarctic icescape to World War II fighter planes exploding over Britain, dire situations can lead to crucial medical advances. Fong, a physician and…

Donate Blood to Honor Red Cross Month Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood, according to the American Red Cross. An estimated 38 percent of the population is eligible to give, but less than 10 percent actually do so. redcross.org 3/12 More Than Just Cookies Since first meeting on this day in 1912, Girl Scouts have fulfilled founder Juliette Low’s mission of getting out of the home and into the world, and even farther: Nearly all female astronauts, including Eileen Collins (below), are former Scouts. girlscouts.org 3/29–3/30 Dig Into Florida’s Past Everglades National Park celebrates Calusa Days and Florida Archaeology Month with pottery making, mask painting and spear throwing in the Gulf Coast Visitor Center area. Let us repeat: There will be spear throwing. tinyurl.com/FloridasPast 3/1 Engineering History…

The marine tardigrade (Actinarctus doryphorus ocellatus) is also known as a water bear or moss piglet, names that suggest size and heft. But this creature measures less than a millimeter long. The hardy tardigrades mostly inhabit freshwater environments and can survive in many places, from Antarctica to rainforests. To determine the animal’s position on the phylogenetic tree of life, researchers at the University of Hamburg-Zoological Museum Hamburg in Germany homed in on its nervous system and musculature, systems that may reflect evolutionary paths. Until this imaging, tardigrades were classified using external characteristics, leaving many questions unanswered. To get the best view, the team used a confocal laser scanning microscope, which creates sharply defined photographs with a shallow field of focus. Stacking several photographic layers, each assigned a different color, they…

The elite club of tool-making animals has a new member: a Goffin’s cockatoo named Figaro who lives in an aviary west of Vienna. After witnessing Figaro use a stick to retrieve a pebble, biologists placed a cashew outside his cage, just beyond his reach, and filmed what happened next. The bird chewed off a 2½-inch splinter of wood from a beam in his aviary and used it to rake the nut toward him until he could grab the treat through the wire mesh with his beak. The trick, which took him about 25 minutes the first time, was no fluke, the researchers found: Figaro repeated the same strategy in nine out of 10 trials. Many animal species use tools — otters crack oysters with rocks, octopuses build coconut-shell shelters and…

Q For years, I have been asking why nuclear waste cannot be rocketed to the sun, where I assume its presence would cause no problem. Could you satisfy my curiosity? — Peggy Day Seagoville, Texas A The sun would indeed make a heck of a landfill, burning up any refuse dumped into it. More than a million Earths could fit inside this superhot ball of charged gas, which boasts a surface temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — about five times as hot as a hazardous waste incinerator. The hitch, however, is getting trash to the sun economically and safely. NASA’s next-generation rocket, the Space Launch System, has a maximum payload of 130 metric tons. Joonhong Ahn, a specialist in nuclear waste disposal at the University of California, Berkeley, ballparks the…

Desk-bound comic character Dilbert would probably relate to the legions of headset-wearing operators who worked in the typical Bank of America call center back in 2009. They labored in row upon row of low-walled cubes, fielding calls from customers who were often demanding, sometimes angry, occasionally rude. Burnout and turnover were high and productivity often lagged — and company executives couldn’t figure out what was wrong. As intractable as these problems seemed, the company found an easy way to turn things around — just by allowing co-workers to take breaks with others on their “teams.” Today, if you enter a Bank of America call center where this simple change has been made, you’d likely see teams of operators huddled together swapping stories or heading off to lunch, cracking jokes like…

Chris McKay likes to travel, preferably to exotic, faraway lands. Mars is the usual destination, but Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan are also on his itinerary. McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, ventures to some of Earth’s most extreme environments to study the closest facsimiles he can find to Mars and other distant outposts, on a mission to learn how life might exist beyond our planet. Over the past 30 years, McKay’s adventures have included an invigorating swim in an Antarctic lake beneath more than 10 feet of ice. He’s endured black clouds of mosquitoes in the Siberian permafrost zone and prepared for polar bear attacks in the northernmost reaches of the Canadian Arctic. He’s squirmed through tunnels no wider than a watermelon…

In the heart of North Carolina’s bucolic wine country, east of the Great Smoky Mountains, lies Loyd Ray Farms — a factory farm that turns pig poop into energy. From the road, the sprawling site looks like a typical concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, with nine elongated metal barns housing nearly 9,000 hogs and an open lagoon that stores liquefied manure. But next to the lagoon is a bizarre basin covered by an inflated tarp: the biodigester. Every week, this swollen structure turns 400,000 gallons of liquid hog waste into biogas that fuels the farm. Loyd Ray Farms is the first to tap a new energy market created under North Carolina’s unique renewable energy law, which took effect in 2012. Whereas many states have renewable energy laws requiring utility…

Acoustic engineer and University of Salford professor Trevor Cox knows noise. He worked for years to eliminate aural no-no’s such as unwanted echoes and dead spots in concert halls and other man-made spaces. Along the way, however, he developed a deep appreciation for sounds of all sorts, a passion he shares with readers in The Sound Book (review, left). Cox spoke with Discover’s Gemma Tarlach from his home in Manchester, England, about his mission to make sound tourism the next big thing. Q Where should someone interested in sound tourism begin? A There’s real merit in taking your iPod off now and then and just listening to what’s around you, the snippets of gossip, the bustle of trams passing by, birdsong, the sound of children playing nearby. Q Your map…

Deep-space distances are so enormous that familiar measures are useless. That’s why astronomers reckon by light-years — the distance that light, racing at 186,282.4 miles per second, travels from one of your birthdays to the next. The best way to link cosmic and human scales is to embrace that weirdness and think like a beam of light. The nearest bright star visible from northern locations (Sirius, blazing in the southwest after sunset this month) lies just 8.7 light-years away. The light from Sirius you see tonight matches the age of a third-grader. Capella, the yellow dazzler in the northwest, is the star of middle age, 43 light-years distant. Many people on Earth have outlived the 78-year-old light from Mizar (the middle star of the Big Dipper’s handle). None can match…