Indice dei contenuti per July - August 2017 in Discover

It’s in my DNA — it’s just how I’m wound. How many times has that phrase run through your head? My hunch is more than a few. It’s an apt explanation for how you think, operate, get through life. It’s that essential nature of DNA that’s the thread of this special issue, Everything Worth Knowing. We’ve taken over the magazine’s feature section with 16 stories that give you the basics as well as the new research on a range of scientific disciplines. DNA is coursing through them all, from the latest forensic science on how to catch a criminal to the ingredients needed for surviving and prospering on Mars. DNA is crucial to figuring out our future food supply, with a planet that will be home to more than 9…

Who Will Give Lab-Grown Meat a Chance? A recent study surveyed nearly 700 people to suss out their attitudes toward meat created in a lab, so-called in vitro meat (IVM). Here's what researchers found: 65% of respondents would likely try IVM 33% would likely eat IVM regularly HOW MUCH ARE PEOPLE WILLING TO PAY FOR IVM COMPARED WITH TRADITIONAL MEAT?* 1% Much more 15% Somewhat more 34% No more, no less 10% No response 11% Much less 29% Somewhat less WHAT KIND OF IVM ARE PEOPLE WILLING TO TRY?* 45% Fish 63% Poultry 69% Pork 71% Beef 5.3% Horse 3.1% Cat / Dog *Note: Participants who indicated no interest in trying IVM did not answer these questions. — Once you get an idea in your head, it can be incredibly difficult to dynamite it out." — Simon Conway Morris, a Cambridge University paleobiologist, on…

After moving to Silicon Valley, science writer and new father Kravetz investigates a rash of suicides by teenagers in his community. He juxtaposes his personal journey into parenthood with the worries and rumors in the neighborhood about what led to the deaths. Using his background in psychology, Kravetz probes how humans’ inherent mimicry and social nature can create dangerously contagious behavior. His gripping narrative has the tension of a thriller, but the stories he shares are tragically real. — REVIEWS BY GEMMA TARLACH…

We get it. You’re bombarded with new information every single day — heck, every hour. If only someone were around who could sort through it all and give you the freshest, most legit stuff in science, a knowledgeable guide who could plow through the thousands of scientific papers published each week and just tell you what you need to know, and what you’d like to know. With our latest collection of Everything Worth Knowing, we aim to catch your curiosity with the story of how our distant ancestors left the oceans, help you learn the basics of talking to E.T. and make sense of the systems that affect how we make decisions — among other things. Consider this special section your knowledge curator, with its blend of shorter and longer…

System 1 That long-haired guy looks suspicious. The stock market is going down — I better sell NOW! This system generally offers preferences based on patterns picked up by our brains without our awareness. This is the source of both unconscious biases that may lead to bad judgments, and the insight from experts with significant experience in a specific situation. This system “tends to be fast, non-conscious and emotionally charged,” says Michael Pratt, a professor of organizational change at Boston College. Neuroscientists often call this implicit knowledge. According to Paul Reber, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, it is the result of connections between groups of neurons that form throughout the sensory cortex after repeated exposure to two or more stimuli together or in quick succession. QUALITIES Fast, Automatic, Associative ADVANTAGES…

Starting in the late 1960s, Kahneman and Tversky began a collaboration that would eventually overturn the way people thought about decision-making in medicine, economics and a wide range of other fields. They focused on heuristics — a series of unconscious rules or biases — and how they can consistently lead us in the wrong direction. The simplest and most powerful one is called the availability heuristic. Sometimes we grasp for the wrong answer on instinct, simply because it is easier to access and thus “feels” correct. Kahneman and Tversky designed and administered a series of questions to university students — and their answers consistently went against what one would consider rational thinking. Students listened to recordings of lists of 39 names read aloud. Some of the names were very famous…

From protein markers for hair, to microbial clocks for cadavers, to sprays for detecting fly gut enzymes in blood spatter, the tools and techniques of forensic investigation now extend beyond the expertise of any single investigator. As a result, the enzymes, microbes and proteins that could prove crucial to catching a criminal might easily be overlooked at the scene of a crime. Bringing in large groups of experts would be impractical, wasting precious time and potentially contaminating evidence. Working in collaboration with the Dutch National Police, researchers at the Delft University of Technology have come up with a solution that looks somewhat like Pokémon Go: arm CSIs with augmented reality (AR). Investigators wearing shouldermounted cameras allow off-site specialists to observe the investigation in real time. They can even annotate the…

Forget reality: In virtual reality, you can be whomever and wherever you want. VR makes the unreal real, using computer software and hardware that responds to our body’s movements to immerse us in a convincing alternate existence. There’s plenty of space to roam. VR places can be huge. In Second Life, an early pioneer of virtual worlds, you can attend university, own a blimp, have blue fur — whatever. It includes more than 600 square miles of otherworld existence. The worlds of Minecraft, another digital sandbox, could cover Earth eight times over. The possibilities are endless. VR movies offer new vehicles for narrative structure. VR classrooms may reach students who don’t thrive behind a desk. Soon, we may have virtual meetings, conferences, classes and parties. According to tech entrepreneur Philip…

What you see: VR goggles display 3-D landscapes using slightly different sideby- side images, one for each eye. Embedded sensors monitor head movements and shift the scene accordingly. Microsoft’s HoloLens even displays virtual objects overlaid on the real world; it’s often referred to as an AR, or augmented reality, device. What you taste: Epicures, rejoice! Researchers have unveiled devices that mimic the sensation of tasting foods. A “digital lollipop,” for example, stimulates the taste receptors with vibrations and electric signals to simulate flavors. Relish the meal, forget the calories. What you feel: Haptic devices use ultrasound to create midair illusions that you can touch and move. Can you hug someone halfway around the world? Not yet, but someday. What you hear: VR sounds have to line up with the visuals.…

1. Extraction: In a sterile lab, bones and other surviving tissues are cleaned, crushed into powder and dissolved with chemicals that isolate short DNA strands. 2. DNA soup: Despite cleaning, the extract is a soup of DNA from the sample and contaminated material, mostly microbes from soil where the remains were buried. Researchers add molecular tags that will later work like barcodes, selectively binding to DNA to inventory and find particular sequences. 3. Copies: To read the DNA quickly and accurately, computers must analyze millions of copies simultaneously. Geneticists make these copies by heating double-stranded DNA, causing it to separate; enzymes then build new double-strands from each half. Repeating the procedure makes two strands into four, then four into eight, and so forth, until millions of strands have identical DNA…

Humans have used marijuana, or Cannabis sativa, for thousands of years, for religious purposes, medicinal remedies or simply getting high. These days, 1 in 8 Americans ingest or smoke marijuana, and the drug faces renewed scrutiny as more states wrestle with legalization. While the legislative battles rage on, scientists continue to study the effects this plant can have on us, therapeutic and otherwise. But the work isn’t easy. The U.S. government hasn’t legalized marijuana and still classifies it as a Schedule I drug — with high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use and no safe use under medical supervision. To study it, experts must secure samples with a Drug Enforcement Administration stamp of approval. That makes for some serious restrictions for researchers, though they’ve made some headway. Know Your…

Brain function and mental health: Long-term use could lead to panic disorders and psychosis. If you’re a longtime user who started lighting up in your teens, your hazy days could predispose you to depression. To top it off, repeated exposure to THC can have a negative effect on areas of your brain that deal with forming memories, like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Heart health: Even minor use of cannabis can cause your heartbeat to ramp up, and mess with your blood pressure levels and blood flow. (Research has shown both increases and decreases in blood pressure.) Sexual and reproductive health: Men, if you’re looking for some action, best mind your marijuana habits: Chronic use can lead to erectile dysfunction and a decrease in overall sexual functioning (pleasure, orgasm, desire…

Social interaction Avoids eye contact, prefers to be alone, avoids physical contact, irritable, anxious, might be interested in people but doesn’t know how to talk or relate to them. Communication Difficulty expressing needs with typical words or gestures, doesn’t look at objects when someone points to those objects. Repetitive behaviors Obsessive interest in limited areas, adherence to routine, repeats particular movements such as hand flapping or rocking back and forth. Sensory overload Unusual reactions or sensitivity to light, noise, smells, tastes and textures, such as the roughness of clothing.…

Genetic “Twin studies are one of the most important pieces of evidence for genes being involved [in autism],” says Abha Gupta, a pediatrician who also researches the genetics and neurobiology of ASD at Yale School of Medicine. Identical twins share nearly 100 percent of their genes, while fraternal twins share about 50 percent. So if identical twins have a disorder, it’s strong evidence for a genetic cause. Since the 1970s, these sorts of studies have revealed that both identical twins are more likely to have autism than both fraternal twins. A recent study has shown that, if one identical twin has ASD, the likelihood of the other twin having it is between 77 and 99 percent; for fraternal twins, the likelihood is 22 to 65 percent. Hundreds of genes are…

Pars opercularis Involved in language comprehension. Superior temporal sulcus Involved in perception of emotions and facial cues; shown to have structural abnormalities. Prefrontal cortex (includes the cerebral cortex) Responsible for cognitive and social learning; may cause faulty connections to other parts of the brain. Corpus callosum Connects the right and left brain hemispheres; onethird of people born without this structure are on the spectrum. Caudate nucleus Stores and processes memories, acting as a feedback mechanism to regulate future behavior. Amygdala Regulates emotions, especially those for survival, such as fear and aggression; there’s conflicting evidence that neurons in this brain area can be overor underconnected. Hippocampus Deals with memory and learning; in mouse models, it’s sometimes enlarged. Brain size About 20 percent of children between 18 months and 4 years old…

1 Big energy, little package: Batteries are often compared by their specific energies, measured in watt-hours per material mass. The higher the measure, the more pep packed into the unit. PREDICTED FUTURE PEP (Wh/kg) Magnesium-ion: 400 Lithium-air: 1,000 Lithiumion: 500-1,000 recharges 2 Cycles. How many times can you recharge a battery to its highest possible capacity? This is also a measure of how long your battery will last. Lithium-ion batteries are great cyclists, able to recharge hundreds of times. Adding nanoparticles to batteries can speed up recharge time, some studies have shown.…

Within a brain nerve cell, or neuron, the axon is the long, wiry extension that carries electrical impulses to a neighboring neuron. Just like household wires, these biological versions (shown in orange) need insulation to function properly; without it, central nervous system disorders can develop. A fatty substance called myelin (shown in yellow) serves this important purpose. In this view, magnified 10,000 times, myelin encases the axons of a mouse’s spinal nerve root, part of the spinal cord that communicates with the brain. Thomas Deerinck and Mark Ellisman of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at University of California, San Diego, took this picture while researching cellular architecture.…

Scott arrived in the emergency room by ambulance around 3 p.m., complaining of chest and abdominal pain. The medics described him as pale and sweaty, and said he may have passed out for a few minutes when the pain began. A seasoned triage nurse’s immediate reaction: “He doesn’t look right.” That’s the last thing an ER physician wants to hear when a patient arrives. Scott was a mostly healthy 48-year-old with untreated high blood pressure. His initial cardiogram showed possible signs of reduced cardiac blood flow and maybe even a heart attack. But after negative cardiac blood tests and improvement in Scott’s symptoms, the team agreed that nothing was immediately life threatening. Healthy middle-aged men complain of chest pain and upper abdominal pain for dozens of reasons, from indigestion to…

When the space weather is just right, one of nature’s grandest spectacles unfolds over Earth’s poles. Visible on clear nights, clouds of glowing green slowly morph into gyrating arcs that cover the sky — then vanish. And repeat. At times the lights appear straight overhead, falling as cosmic rain in shades of green, red and blue. It’s a phenomenon humanity has marveled at for millennia. Yet scientists are still unraveling its mystery. Carrington Event Our modern understanding begins on Sept. 1, 1859. British astronomer Richard Carrington was tracking sunspots when a group unlike any other he’d seen appeared. It sent out two intense flashes of white light and vanished minutes later. Those bright flashes signaled that an enormous eruption — the largest geomagnetic storm in history — was heading for…

Ancient Greece Plato compares the human will to a charioteer, driven by two horses, one representing our rational or moral impulses, and the other our irrational passions and appetites. Late 18th century Italian criminologist and economist Cesare Beccaria publishes an essay called “On Crimes and Punishments,” which would form the basis of what’s called rational choice theory: People will act in their own best interest. Beccaria argued for the principle of deterrence in dealing with crime. He contended that punishments should be just severe enough to offset any benefit from the crime. Beccaria’s ideas would establish the foundation of modern economic theory. 1890 Psychologist William James provides what some consider the modern origins of dual process theory, speculating that there are two ways that people decide: associative and true reasoning.…

In the 1980s, Klein wanted to know how people made really hard decisions under extreme time pressure and uncertainty. First responders and experienced military commanders seemed to make decisions — the right decisions — under pressure all the time. How did they do it? To get to the bottom of this phenomenon, Klein visited fire stations across the Midwest. When he started out, Klein suspected that expert commanders picked a limited range of options to choose from and then carefully weighed the pros and cons. Klein expected a rational, logical approach to unfold in every commander’s conscious mind — an approach based on System 2. To his surprise, Klein consistently found the commanders looked at just one option. They “knew” what to do. By the time they became aware of…

DNA profiling is universally accepted as the highest standard for identification in forensics, and it has been used successfully for decades to convict or exonerate suspects. In fact, a 2009 National Research Council report on forensic science eviscerated all other identification techniques, from fingerprinting to bite mark analysis, holding DNA as uniquely capable of reliably distinguishing between any two people on Earth. But DNA also has limitations. It can degrade and be difficult to extract from trace evidence, such as skin and hair. So Glendon Parker, a biochemist at the University of California, Davis, has been studying unique markers in the proteins made by DNA. “The major advantage is that protein, particularly hair protein, is more stable than DNA,” he explains. Protein-based identification relies on the mechanism that makes DNA…

In 2010, the apparent discovery of terrestrial tetrapod tracks in Poland’s Zachelmie quarry made headlines. At more than 390 million years old, the trackways would predate by tens of millions of years the period we thought tetrapods left water for land. In 2015, however, another study suggested the depressions were from a fish nest, or imprints of a fish feeding in a circular pattern. Until researchers find bones associated with the “trackways,” or at least from the same period, we can’t be confident about what animal made them, or how.…

Conquer fear. Afraid of flying, spiders or tight spaces? VR exposure therapy may help reduce anxiety through gradual, safe and realistic contact with what haunts you. Curb PTSD symptoms. VA hospitals and others have begun using VR treatments that allow soldiers to safely revisit traumatic memories. Manage prosthetics. Amputees can retrain muscles associated with lost limbs in virtual environments — and take new artificial limbs for a test drive. Avoid falls. A recent study showed a decreased risk of falling in people with Parkinson’s disease who engaged with a kind of VR. Patients walked on a treadmill while watching a real-time video of their own feet walking. In the six months after the exercise, patients who trained this way saw a 50 percent reduction in their rate of falls compared…

Don’t get your hopes up for dino DNA. Studies conducted in the 1990s, reporting genetic code from fossils over 50 million years old, have since been rejected as cases of contamination. Most aDNA has come from samples younger than 50,000 years, and from cold climates. Although paleogenetics is advancing technologically, it will always be limited by preservation: Researchers can’t extract DNA from specimens that no longer have any. When organisms die, their DNA decomposes. How long this takes depends on factors like temperature, burial conditions and the number of microbes making a meal of it. Calculations predict that in the optimal conditions — very cold ones — DNA could survive around 1 million years. To date, the title for oldest complete genome belongs to a horse unearthed from frozen ground…

C. sativa has hundreds of chemical compounds, from fatty acids to the terpenes that give it its distinct smell. But the most studied are cannabinoids. Below are the most common cannabinoid subclasses and their general impact on the body. • Cannabidiols (CBD): Painkiller, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, anxiety reducer, antipsychotic, suppresses muscle spasms. • Tetrahydrocannabinols (THC): Painkiller, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, euphoriant, suppresses nausea and vomiting. • Cannabigerols (CBG): Painkiller, antiinflammatory, antibiotic, antifungal. • Cannabichromenes (CBC): Painkiller, antiinflammatory, antibiotic, antifungal. • Cannabinols and cannabinodiols (CBN, CBND): Anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, sedative, anticonvulsant. • Others: Includes cannabicyclols (CBL), cannabielsoins (CBE), cannabitriols (CBT) and other miscellaneous types.…

The universe emits many signals of its own. Black holes send out bursts of radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays. The dusty disks of forming planetary systems shine in infrared waves. Scientists must separate those so-called dumb signals from the smart signals that might come from extraterrestrials. Because of that necessary sifting, they assume that aliens would try to make their messages look different from the natural pings of the universe. In general, astronomers look for two hallmarks of technology. BONUS! Almost-but-not-quite-natural-looking: Astronomers also keep their telescopes’ eyes out for anything that looks nearly natural. When researchers discovered fast radio bursts — superquick bursts that release at least as much energy in milliseconds as the sun does in a month — they threw around “aliens” as a (dim) possible explanation.…

1960 Astronomer Frank Drake performs the first modern SETI experiment, called Project Ozma (after a Wizard of Oz character). With an 85-foot radio telescope in Green Bank, W.Va., he looks at two sunlike stars for signs of alien technology. 1961 A small SETI conference takes place in Green Bank, at which Drake presents what’s now called the Drake Equation, which scientists use to estimate how many extraterrestrial civilizations may exist in our galaxy. 1973 Ohio State University undertakes a SETI program with its Big Ear Observatory. 1979 The University of California, Berkeley, begins a long-lived project called SERENDIP — the Search for Extraterrestrial Radio from Nearby Developed Populations — at Hat Creek Observatory in Northern California. 1983 At Harvard University, astronomer Paul Horowitz launches Project Sentinel, using an 84-foot radio…

Autism was once separate from other developmental complications such as Asperger’s syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) and childhood disintegrative disorder. But in 2013, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the standard medical reference for mental disorders, merged Asperger’s, PDD and the old definition of autism and created the catchall term autism spectrum disorder. Many experts argued the new label would be more helpful; despite including a broader range of symptoms, the revised definition is worded more clearly and thus is more specific. But in practice, other medical professionals and families have criticized the change. Although the evidence isn’t cut and dried, there are several anecdotal accounts of some high-functioning patients — who met the old, more vague criteria but not the updated one —…

1911 Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coins the word autism — from the Greek autos, meaning “self” — to describe extreme self-obsessiveness and anti-social behavior in children. 1943 Leo Kanner at Johns Hopkins Hospital publishes the first case studies of autism as a medical condition. 1944 Austrian scientist Hans Asperger describes a disorder called Asperger’s syndrome, which, in older diagnostic criteria, had similar but milder symptoms than autism. 1964 Bernard Rimland publishes the book Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications, which asserts autism has a neurological cause rather than a psychological one. 1968 Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf and Todd Risley publish the defining paper on applied behavior analysis, a behavioral therapy that focuses on developing social skills and lessening repetitive behavior. 1980 The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical…

Americans love ice. We make desserts out of it, put it in drinks and expect motels to provide it by the bucketful. But before ice-making technology, it was a precious commodity laboriously harvested from nature. In the early 19th century, American entrepreneur Frederic Tudor began shipping ice cut from New England ponds to warm climates like the West Indies. He eventually became the “Ice King,” selling thousands of tons of ice throughout the U.S. for iceboxes, which preserved food. Natural ice remained profitable until a century ago with the arrival of electric refrigerators, which exploited the cooling properties of evaporating liquids. Those white boxes with clumsy cooling units have evolved into sleek stainless steel models, but we still harvest ice. High-end drinkers want premium, artisanal ice in their craft cocktails…

Say the universe is a restaurant entrée. Astonishingly, everything that we can discern on the plate, so to speak — protons, paramecia, people, planets, pulsars, you name it — altogether adds up to a mere sprig of parsley. To a cosmic garnish such as ourselves, the vast majority of the universe is invisible, an empty plate dominated by “dark” matter and a “dark” energy. The effects of these phenomena are writ large in space, yet their true natures have frustratingly evaded every instrument we’ve brought to bear. DARK MATTER How Do We Know It’s There? › The cosmos would fling itself apart were it not for a gravitational glue provided by tremendous, yet unseen, amounts of mass. Factoring in all the ordinary matter we cannot see — contained in exoplanets,…

Quantum action. In the past few years, physicists have investigated ways to produce energy from qubits, or quantum-mechanical systems like subatomic particles. Their reasoning goes something like this: As particles drop into their lowest energy state, they release energy. If we can collect that energy, we can use it in batteries, and recharge by returning them to a higher state. There’s an additional predicted quantum quirk that doesn’t happen with ordinary batteries: The more qubits you have, the faster they recharge. Biobatteries. What about batteries powered by living organisms? Some bacteria produce electric currents when they eat or convert sugars into usable energy. Last December, physicists at the State University of New York-Binghamton unveiled a disposable paper battery that generates a trickle of power from trapped bacteria. Self-destructing battery. Scientists…

In 2018, when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) opens its enormous eye on the universe and begins collecting data, the astronomers who envisioned it and the engineers who designed and built it will celebrate and cheer. But even as the first waves of data beam down to Earth, another team of scientists will be hard at work designing its replacement. In fact, they have already begun. Conceiving of, researching, and building science’s biggest, most valuable tools of inquiry — the Large Hadron Collider, or the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes — requires dozens of years, hundreds of expert panels and team meetings, and billions of dollars, and the gears that march these projects through the bureaucratic assembly line turn slowly. So it should come as no surprise that,…

1 Yoga today is a mainstream fitness activity; 1 in 5 American adults participates in what most people believe is an ancient practice. Surprise: The yoga you’re going to the mat for isn’t that old. 2 What we generally think of as yoga began in late 19th century India, when leaders of an anti-colonialism movement sought to rally their countrymen to their cause. 3 Some of these men saw yoga, then more of a philosophy, as a non-sectarian, indigenous symbol of India that transcended divisions of religion and language: a handy tool to have when you’re trying to unify a nation. 4 These Victorian-era gurus, notably Swami Vivekananda, spread their version of yoga worldwide as a proudly Indian way to achieve a higher level of understanding through contemplation. 5 Modern…

ATOP EARTH’S LARGEST active volcano, an alarm bell has tolled unheeded for six decades. In 1958, Scripps Institution climatologist Charles Keeling began making precise measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at Mauna Loa Observatory. Back then, Earth’s atmosphere clocked roughly 310 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide. It took just a year for Keeling to spot a now-familiar upward trend. “You can think of it as taking planetary vital signs,” says Ralph Keeling, who continues his father’s work at Scripps today. The news isn’t good. In April, carbon dioxide hit 410 ppm, a 50 percent increase from pre- Industrial Revolution levels. And it’s been increasing roughly 3 ppm per year, a record rate. Last year, 175 countries agreed to reduce emissions via the Paris Agreement, which — optimistically —…

CAESAR’S LAST BREATH: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Arou nd Us By Sam Kean With sly wit and boyish wonder, Kean’s vignettes about key events in the understanding of air include numerous entertaining detours, such as the work of “William McGonagall, probably the worst poet who ever lived,” and Le Pétomane, a flatulence artist. THE ENDS OF THE WORLD: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions By Peter Brannen As a rising tide of research suggests we’re at the start of a sixth mass extinction event — the first caused by human activity — science writer Brannen walks us through the previous die-offs, gleaning clues about what may be around the corner for us. ATOMIC ADVENTURES: Secret Isla nds, Forgotten N-Rays, a nd…

When we’re presented with a choice, we carefully weigh the alternatives and choose the option that makes the most sense — or do we? Only recently has science begun to unravel how we really make decisions. In the face of stress or time pressure, or even seemingly unrelated cues, our assessment of situations and the choices we ultimately make can be colored by innate biases, flawed assumptions and prejudices born of personal experience. And we’re clueless about how they influence our judgments. These unconscious processes can lead us to make decisions that, in fact, don’t really make much sense at all. If you’re not convinced, go to a group of people and offer each person a dollar. Do this five times, each time asking if the individual wants to buy…

In 1953, a patient named Henry Molaison underwent an experimental brain surgery that halted his seizures. But then Molaison couldn’t form new long-term memories. His misfortune made him famous. By studying “H.M.” and other amnesiacs, neuroscientists were able to prove the role of the hippocampus and related structures in long-term memory formation. Molaison’s experiences also shed light on unconscious, or implicit, learning. Molaison was given a battery of tests, which confirmed his complete inability to form long-term memories. But one test contradicted the other results. Given the test 10 times across three consecutive days, he traced a star on paper using a barrier and mirror. His speed increased steadily, but each day when he arrived at the lab, he had no memory of learning to trace the star. Years later,…

SYSTEM 1 The basal ganglia, which helps strengthen the speed of circuit formation, and the sensory cortex are major players. In the sensory cortex (shown in detail above), groups of neurons develop patterns of firing that are re-established more easily with repeated exposure to stimuli. This is key to those split-second decisions, made under pressure. SYSTEM 2 The prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of the brain’s executive function, and the hippocampus — crucial to memory storage and recollection — work together as the foundation of explicit, rule-based decision-making.…

1935 “Pygmalion’s Spectacles,” a short story, features a holographic immersive experience. 1950s Sensorama, a phone-booth-like machine combining 3-D film, sound and smells, amounts to little more than a fad. 1984 William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer introduces the “matrix,” a VR space populated by humans and artificial intelligence. 1989 VPL Research introduces the data suit, which includes sensors all over the body and a bulky headset that turns sensory data into an immersive virtual experience. 1990s Online users flock to text-based virtual worlds. Early VR games, including Dactyl Nightmare, begin appearing. 1992 Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash showcases the Metaverse, a virtual mega-reality where people connect through the internet. 2000s Engineers create room-sized boxes that combine sound and projected images with headsets to make immersive virtual spaces. 2003 Launch of Second Life,…

In 1984, geneticists recovered 229 base pairs of genetic code from a quagga, a subspecies of zebra extinct since the late 1800s. The achievement proved DNA could survive in dead things and spurred a new field of science: paleogenetics. Today, technological advances allow scientists to read billions of letters from the genomes of ancient humans and other organisms, transforming our view of history and evolution. The genetic record is “like a lost library . . . and we’re just starting to learn the language of all those books that we have uncovered,” says Johannes Krause, director of archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. For anthropologists, ancient human DNA (aDNA) provides insights that could not be gleaned from fossils or artifacts. It’s…

Scores of studies have found that cannabinoids can help with specific disorders and diseases, but not all studies are created equal. Many of them use different doses, administer those doses differently and can use combinations of cannabinoids with different ratios. So a lot of the results are hard to compare and don’t always agree. Below are some disorders and diseases where cannabinoids seem medically helpful. PSYCHIATRIC/ NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS Anxiety and panic disorders CBD reduces symptoms. Schizophrenia CBD reduces psychotic symptoms. Parkinson’s CBD alleviates psychotic symptoms and some issues with motor control. Heart function THC and CBD combination relaxes some arteries. Digestion complications THC eases chemorelated nausea and vomiting, helps improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Immune system complications THC and CBD combination alters growth and function of certain immune cells.…

SUPER PRO Douglas Vakoch President, METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International “One of the assumptions we typically make is that if there are civilizations out there, they will take the initiative in letting us know they’re there. But if they do what we’re doing, we’ll never make contact. I want to send an intentional message letting other civilizations know that we want to engage in the conversation.” PRO Seth Shostak Senior astronomer, Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute “I’m in the pro-transmitting camp!” says Shostak. In one position paper, he explains that if an alien society wanted to destroy us, keeping quiet wouldn’t keep us hidden anyway: “Any putative extraterrestrials who are in possession of technology that would allow them to threaten our world will also be able to…

There is no cure. The causes are only partially understood. And treatments are limited to tackling symptoms, not the condition itself. One in 68 school-age kids in the U.S. have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a range of developmental conditions usually marked by social, behavioral and communication issues. While researchers are making progress in figuring out ASD’s causes and developing better treatments, there’s still a long way to go.…

Medications Antipsychotic, anti-anxiety and stimulant medications can, to some degree, control ASD symptoms such as repetitive behaviors, anxiety and irritability. But they also can cause side effects and don’t alleviate anti-social behavior, says Darold Treffert, an autism expert who runs a clinic for children with developmental disorders in Fond du Lac, Wis. “The time will come when we can do a genetic profile to determine the kinds of medications that would be helpful to a patient with autism,” Treffert says. Autism in the U.S. 1 in 42 Boys 1 in 189 Girls 44% Children on the spectrum with average or above-average intellect (IQ higher than 85). 10% Children who also are savants, or patients showing remarkable memory and skill in a specific area, such as music. 20% Children with enlarged…

Hundreds of humans have orbited Earth since space exploration began more than half a century ago. In that time, astronauts have walked on the moon and even endured more than a year in microgravity. But becoming a multiplanetary species — whether to flee a dying world or just explore the unknown — means learning to live without easy access to Earth’s resources and conditions. The first space settlers will face some challenges as old as life itself, while other problems will rear their heads for the first time. Humans must solve them all if we want to survive beyond Earth’s warm embrace. THE PROBLEM Astrogrub While our technology has advanced beyond spears and ceramic jugs, food and water remain an eternal challenge. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) and…

SUCCESSES 1800: Voltaic pile. Italian physicist Alessandro Volta builds the first electric battery by layering plates of different metals (anodes, cathodes) separated by brine-soaked cloth (electrolyte). The battery creates a weak but steady current. 1859: First rechargeable battery. French physicist Gaston Planté’s lead-and-sulfuric-acid battery can be recharged with a reverse current. This type is still found in today’s cars. The technology hasn’t changed, but the recipe has been improved. 1957: Alkaline battery patented. Alkaline batteries use alkaline electrolytes instead of acid, and they remain the workhorses of the battery world. These are most of the AAs, AAAs, Cs, and Ds bought everywhere. 1979-80: First commercially viable lithium battery. Engineers demonstrate rechargeable, efficient batteries that use lithium ions and have cathodes with cobalt. Today, they’re the battery of choice in electronic…

Canan Dagdeviren’s biomedical device, which is built on a flexible foundation, would generate enough power to run a pacemaker or other implanted device — no batteries required. Can we improve medical devices by designing them to translate the language of the body? Materials scientist Canan Dagdeviren, who just launched a new research group at MIT, thinks so. Ever since she was a child growing up in Turkey, she’s turned tragedy and loss into research that speaks to hope. Her inventions suggest that scientists can harvest electricity from the movements of our organs, pick up the first hints of disease from subtle changes in physiological patterns, or track changes wrought on the brain from neurodegenerative conditions. When Canan (pronounced JAHnaan) was a child in the early 1990s, she learned that her…