Discover-January 2018 PDF

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BEST NEW IDE AS & INSIGHTS

SCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS
TOP 100
January/February 2018
special
issue
Evolutions
Timeline
Toppled P.10
PLUS
Editing Human
Embryos P.16
Science Under Trump P.14
Cosmic Smashup P.13
The Great Dinosaur Debate P.26
Cassinis Death Plunge P.20

Display until February 6
BONUS
How Cats Conquered the World P.72
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CONTENT
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TOP 100 special
issue
NASAs Cassini space

probe spent 13 years
gathering information
on Saturn and its moons.
Read about its highlights
on page 20.
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VOL. 39, NO. 1 BECKY LANG Editor In Chief
DAN BISHOP Design Director
1 6
EDITORIAL
America Looks Up p.7 Living Drug Gets KATHI KUBE Managing Editor
GEMMA TARLACH Senior Editor
The solar event that transxed Green Light p.17 BILL ANDREWS Senior Associate Editor
Americans from sea to shining sea. The FDA approves a powerful gene MARK BARNA Associate Editor
BY BILL ANDREWS therapy to ght a resistant cancer. ERIC BETZ Associate Editor
BY KENNETH MILLER LACY SCHLEY Assistant Editor
2
DAVE LEE Copy Editor
Human Evolution
7
ELISA R. NECKAR Copy Editor
Timeline Topples p.10 Seven Whole New AMY KLINKHAMMER Editorial Assistant
Our ancestors origin story is being Worlds p.18 Contributing Editors

TIM FOLGER, JONATHON KEATS,
rened. BY GEMMA TARLACH A record-breaking number of Earth- LINDA MARSA, KENNETH MILLER,
sized planets orbit a faint star in a STEVE NADIS, ADAM PIORE,
3 nearby galaxy. BY JOHN WENZ COREY S. POWELL, JULIE REHMEYER,

Astronomers See STEVE VOLK, PAMELA WEINTRAUB,
and Hear the Cosmos p.13
8
JEFF WHEELWRIGHT,
Hominin Trackways DARLENE CAVALIER (SPECIAL PROJECTS)
A gravitational wave and a ash of
light open up a new eld of astronomy. in Greece? p.19 ART
BY ERIC BETZ

Fossilized footprints may change our ERNIE MASTROIANNI Photo Editor
ALISON MACKEY Associate Art Director
family tree. BY GEMMA TARLACH
4 Science Under Siege

But Surviving p.14
We break down the Trump 9 Cassini Is Dead;
Long Live Cassini p.20
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CARL ENGELKING Web Editor
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with science. BY GEMMA TARLACH years-long mission in a ery descent. MEREDITH CARPENTER, LILLIAN FRITZ-LAYLIN,
JEREMY HSU, ERIK KLEMETTI, REBECCA KRESTON,
5
BY SARAH SCOLES
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Human Embryo Gets SCISTARTER, AMY SHIRA TEITEL,
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AMERICA LOOKS UP

No.

TWO THINGS WERE INESCAPABLE THIS SUMMER: the Latin

single Despacito, and the looming eclipse. The rst total

solar eclipse in the continental United States since 1979,
it was also a uniquely American event, with no other countries

getting a peek at totality, and at least a partial eclipse visible in

all 50 states. As the moons shadow crisscrossed the country on

Aug. 21, about 154 million American adults saw the eclipse directly,
with another 60 million watching electronically 88 percent of the

adult population. It was the most-observed and most-photographed

eclipse in history.

In a time of so much bitter division, its remarkable that an
astronomical event just a few minutes long had the power to bring

us together, gazing in joy and wonder at the universe. BILL ANDREWS

XINHUA/ZHAO HANRONG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Solar eclipse parties, like this one

in Los Angeles, were popular all
over the United States on Aug. 21,
as millions gathered to watch a
partial or total solar eclipse.
January/February 2018 DISCOVER 7

Students The staffs of sister magazines
react Discover and Astronomy were all
as they
witness over the country during the eclipse.
totality in
Oregon Here, briey, is what they saw.
(left).
The sun
disappears
behind the 1. Thousands of people from all over the
moon, as
seen from world descended on SolarTown a
Wyoming
(below).
farmers field turned eclipse mega-party.
Favorable winds kept epic wildfire smoke
from ruining the spectacle on eclipse day,
when the moons shadow was met with
hoots and hollers and thunderous applause.
An equally epic traffic jam broke out minutes
after totality.
Eric Betz, Madras, OR
Pat
ho 2
2. What really f to
ta l i
ty 3
amazed me, and
perhaps it was
accentuated due
to our elevation,
was the color: A
brief glimpse of the
suns atmosphere
appeared strongly
pink, and we saw what
appeared to be a bluish
tinge with the diamond rings.
It was spectacular!
David J. Eicher, Jackson Hole, WY
3. Not a cloud crossed the powder
FROM TOP: PETER DASILVA; ERNIE MASTROIANNI/DISCOVER; JACQUELINE DORMER/THE REPUBLICAN-HERALD VIA AP;
blue sky, allowing a spectacular
view of a surprisingly large sunspot
group followed by several ruby
Eclipse glasses were
necessary to safely view red prominences during totality.
all phases of the eclipse
(above). Louis Serrano Shortly after the sun emerged,
LEROY BURNELL/THE POST AND COURIER VIA AP; ERNIE MASTROIANNI/DISCOVER

dons his own pair in
South Carolina (right). massive gridlock formed when
Terrible trafc jams thousands of vehicles funneled
began after totality in
Wyoming (below). into a handful of exits.
Ernie Mastroianni, Glendo State Park, WY
4. Despite lots of clouds, we saw first

and second contacts, the initial diamond
ring, the suns corona and fourth contact.
Hearing 25,000 people screaming at
the darkness and the appearance of the
corona is something Ill never forget.
Michael Bakich, St. Joseph, MO

12. It was super cloudy, but we went out anyway 11. Skies were partly

and stood around talking until the clouds would cloudy, but we had

a nice shot of the
get slightly less dense; then everyone would
eclipses early stages
quick! put on their glasses and try to catch a through maximum.

glimpse before the clouds filled in again. Those With the moon covering

few snatches were cool, but the coolest part was only 80 percent of

everyone on social media and texting, talking the sun, however, the
view was less than
about if theyd seen anything or not. Eclipses:
breathtaking.

The Great Unifier. Elisa Neckar, Waukesha, WI Rich Talcott,

Cleveland, OH

10. We watched the eclipse from a
steamy city park, which capitalized on

its perfect location in the shadows path.

Amid live music, tall trees and $3 hot

dogs, we saw brilliant diamond rings, a

diffuse corona and an inky black shadow,

accentuated by the shouts and ooh-ing of

12 hundreds. Bill Andrews, Gallatin, TN
11

4
5 6
8 9. I recall most vividly the jewel-bright ring

10 in the sky where the sun had been: science
fiction come to life. For just over two minutes,
Totality is imminent in Columbia,
7 the scale of the cosmos was laid bare.
9 South Carolina (above), as the
Nathaniel Scharping, Shawnee National Forest, IL
moons shadow slips in front of
the sun. Vacationing families in
Portland, Maine, (below) safely

observe the partial eclipse with
8. My dad and I traveled together to see our rst homemade solar glasses.

total solar eclipse. We were both blown away
pictures really cannot do it justice, from how the

quality of the daylight changes to the reactions of
the crowd sharing the experience with us.

Alison Klesman, Red Bud, IL

5. It was one of the 7. It was a sweltering day, but the sky was clear.

FROM TOP: CHRIS MCKAY/WIRE IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES; BEN MCCANNA/PORTLAND PRESS HERALD

strangest phenomena Excitement filled the air as we sat waiting for that

Ive ever witnessed. magical moment. As the eclipse began, I heard a kid

As darkness started to shout, It looks like Pac-Man! Suddenly we were in

envelop the city, our twilight, the cicadas chirping in confusion, gasps and

dogs started barking like cheers all around us. I understand why people chase

crazy. As soon as totality eclipses now. Its an experience like no other.
Alison Mackey, De Soto, MO
hit, I began jumping up

and down, laughing like

the Joker. I wasnt sure 16 6. That morning, we toyed with battling traffic and

hours of driving would crowds to watch from the famed St. Louis Arch, but

be worth two minutes with a 4-year-old niece in tow, we opted instead for
the closest wide-open space the parking lot of
of spectacle, but it most
VIA GETTY IMAGES
a Schnucks grocery store. Eclipse fever was real:

definitely was.
Jake Parks,
Checkout cashiers were handing out eclipse glasses!

Columbia, MO Becky Lang, Crestwood, MO

2

Human Evolution
Timeline Topples
FOR DECADES, SCHOOLCHILDREN ACROSS THE GLOBE were taught our origin story went something
like this: An archaic form of Homo sapiens evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. By about
100,000 years ago, the population had become anatomically modern humans who, around 50,000
years ago, headed across Eurasia and met up with our distant cousins the Neanderthals (and the closely
related Denisovans, not known to science until 2010).
Like a game of Jenga, however, researchers have recently been removing bricks and destabilizing that
towering timeline. In 2017, a few more bricks came out, and the conventional chronology of our origins
nally toppled.
What were left with: Homo sapiens have been around at least 100,000 years longer than we thought, and
left Africa much earlier than we believed. And whenever they ran into other hominin populations, well . . .
Sex happens, says Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. You can
draw lines of different lineages on maps, but real populations dont behave that way.
Trinkaus stresses that revising the timeline for human evolution isnt the same as starting from scratch:
The differences are of renement, not in the basic story. GEMMA TARLACH
1 THE BIG WOW We are not claiming that Morocco became

the cradle of modern humankind, Hublin
2
In the mid-20th century, during mining says, We think early forms of humans were
operations at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, present all over Africa.
workers turned up some old, possibly human And in the journal Science in late
bones. The haphazard nd made dating them September, a separate team offered additional
condently all but impossible. evidence of an earlier start date for our
Paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin species: By sequencing the ancient DNA of
and colleagues returned to the site recently to seven individuals from southern Africa, 1
excavate an area undisturbed by mining. They the researchers determined modern Homo
hoped to nd material that could help them sapiens emerged up to 350,000 years ago.
date the earlier discovery.
Instead, they found what Hublin calls
a big wow: the partial remains of at
least ve humans, plus tools and other
artifacts, most of which are about
300,000 years old.
The archaic Homo sapiens facial
SARAH FREIDLINE/MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE EVA LEIPZIG
Reconstruction
features and brain volume are essentially of an early
modern, says Hublin, though their skulls Homo sapiens
skull from the
shape is more primitive. Jebel Irhoud
During a June news conference, shortly site.
before the study was published in Nature,
Hublin noted its unlikely the Jebel
Irhoud individuals, the oldest known
Homo sapiens fossils by about 100,000
years, are our direct ancestors.

2 3

EASTERN MASH-UP

It Takes Two A pair of partial hominin skulls excavated in Xuchang,
China, are unlike any others.

For years, paleogenetic studies
Dated to more than 100,000 years old, the crania
have been turning up hints
have a unique blend of features: the internal ear
that our species interbred
structure and back-of-skull depression seen only in
with Neanderthals and
Neanderthals, which have never been found east of
Denisovans between 40,000
Siberia; a low and broad shape consistent with earlier
and 100,000 years ago. A
East Asian hominins; and an enlarged braincase similar
Nature Communications study
to other late archaic and modern humans.
published in July, however,
Trinkaus and colleagues, describing the partial
found evidence the hook-ups A top-down
skulls in March in Science, wont speculate on whether view of a
began much earlier: roughly partial skull
they belonged to Homo sapiens transitioning from
220,000 to 470,000 years ago. unearthed in

archaic to modern, the elusive Denisovans or an China. The
Researchers extracted
as-yet-unidentied hominin species. nd is more
maternally inherited than 100,000
People have been thinking in terms of lineages years old and
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
and discrete groups, Trinkaus says, These are not shows a blend
from a 100,000-year-old of Neanderthal
separate entities. Theres a unity to humankind now, and hominin
Neanderthal bone found in
and there was then. features.
a German cave in the 1930s.

The mtDNA is from a Homo

sapiens female who evolved
in Africa our homeland

and mated with a European-

evolved Neanderthal at least
220,000 years ago.
But the woman, who
4

passed her mtDNA down Turning Up Down Under

through the Neanderthal The conventional timeline placed our species

lineage, was not necessarily an in Australia at no earlier than about 47,000
anatomically modern human, years ago, despite some archaeological and
3
notes paleogeneticist Johannes genomic research hinting at a much earlier

Krause, a co-author of the arrival date. In July, however, a team reported

study. Although he agrees in Nature that thousands of artifacts from a
Northern Australia site were
recent evidence pushes back
the start date for our species, about 65,000 years old.

Krause said the denition And in August, also in

of a modern Homo sapiens Nature, a separate team

remains subjective. reported that they believe
The process of humans teeth found in an Indonesian
TOP: XIUJIE WU. BOTTOM: TANYA SMITH AND ROKUS AWE DUE

evolving into anatomically cave belonged to anatomically

modern humans started 4 modern humans who had

700,000 years ago, says occupied the site 63,000 to
Krause. Thats when genomic 73,000 years ago. A scan (bottom)
of a tooth (top)
models estimate the last That puts modern humans that suggests

common ancestor of Homo far from home tens of anatomically
modern
sapiens, Neanderthals and millennia before the now- humans were
Denisovans existed. Its a outdated human evolution in Australia

many millennia
gradual change. They didnt and migration timeline had before we
pop out of a box. us even leaving Africa. thought.

5
Stateside Stones and Bones
A Nature study published in April made a startling claim: Rounded
stones found beside fractured mastodon bones near San Diego
were evidence of someone processing the animals remains 130,000
years ago.
The current timeline for humans arriving in the Americas,
however, is a mere 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, via Siberia and the
now-submerged land bridge Beringia. Many in the eld are highly
skeptical of the Nature paper.
These are just naturally occurring rocks that, over time, have
broken along existing fractures, says Texas A&M University
archaeologist Michael Waters. The evidence for early human
occupation is not there.
A museum drawer full of fossils from a Southern
California site. The remains hint at the fact humans Found during highway
might have arrived in the Americas more than 100,000 construction in 1992, the
years earlier than we thought. Southern California site yielded
the stones and mastodon bones,
several of which were fractured
or in unusual positions. But the
items werent interpreted as
evidence of hominin activity until
recently, when they drew the
interest of Steven Holen, lead
author of the Nature paper.
My rst reaction was, This
is not possible, Holen says. His
team took a multidisciplinary
approach to analyzing the
material, from sophisticated
dating techniques to re-creating
the kinds of fractures such stones
FROM TOP: KATE JOHNSON/SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM; TOM DMRE/SDNHM; SDNHM
might have made, using fresh
5
elephant bones in Africa.
Holen argues uctuating Researchers argue that around
130,000 years ago, hominins used
sea levels exposed Beringia the stones above like a blacksmith
130,000 to 160,000 years ago, uses an anvil. But instead of
hammering metal, these archaic
when bison crossed the land
tool-wielders processed animal
bridge into the Americas. Its remains.
possible, he believes, that a
population of hominins Neanderthals, Denisovans or even
archaic Homo sapiens followed the animals.
Holen says he knew his paper would ignite controversy, and that
hed be the rst to admit you need to have more than one site if
youre going to have a paradigm shift. He hopes more researchers
will remain open-minded.
The most important thing for a reader to take away from this,
and also for young scientists in general, is that we dont have all
the answers, Holen says. Thats why we do science."

ASTRONOMERS

SEE AND HEAR

THE COSMOS

FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS, two city-sized

stars each outweighing our sun circled one
another in a fatal dance. They were neutron stars, the

collapsed cores left behind after giant stars explode into

supernovas. Then, 130 million years ago, the dance ended.

Their collision was fast and violent, likely spawning a black
hole. And a shudder a gravitational wave rippled across

the fabric of space-time. Light from the cataclysm followed

seconds later. Astronomers captured the

The space-time distortion and the light reached Earth merging of neutron stars
together on Aug. 17, making astronomical history. in various types of light,
TOP: ROBERT HURT (CALTECH/IPAC), MANSI KASLIWAL (CALTECH), GREGG HALLINAN (CALTECH), PHIL EVANS (NASA) AND THE GROWTH COLLABORATION; NSF/LIGO/SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY/A. SIMONNET
including ultraviolet, infrared

Astronomers announced the nding Oct. 16. and radio waves (above),

The gravitational wave rst reached Italys just-nished as well as via gravitational
waves a rst.
detector, Advanced Virgo, before stretching and squeezing

the two LIGO observatories in the United States. Orbiting
space telescopes and instruments on all seven continents

turned to watch the cosmic collision play out in all manner of

light: radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays.

It was extremely close to us, and so it was an extremely
strong signal, says LIGO scientist Jolien Creighton of the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In 2016, LIGO (short for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-

Wave Observatory) announced it had detected gravitational
waves for the rst time, conrming Albert Einsteins

predictions in general relativity. Astronomers compared it

to nally hearing the cosmos. But the real breakthroughs

would come from hearing and seeing the cosmos
simultaneously, or so-called multi-messenger astronomy.

Thats now happened.

This one event produced dozens of research papers

boasting thousands of scientists as co-authors. And it

uncorked a jug of other scientic feats, like a new direct
measurement of the expansion of our universe, and the best

evidence yet that gravitons gravity-carrying particles

have no mass, just like photons (light particles). Astronomers

even caught the collisions chemical ngerprints, revealing the
creation of 10 to 100 Earths worth of gold and other heavy

elements, ending decades of debate on their cosmic origins.

Weve created a new eld of astronomy, says Ryan

Foley of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the
optical discovery team. Weve been walking around for all

of humanity being able to see the universe but not being

able to hear it. Now we get both.

He adds: Its even hard to predict where this eld will go,
but I can tell you now its going to be exceptional. ERIC BETZ


4 Science Under Siege
But Surviving

FOR MANY WHO VALUE
SCIENCE, 2017 will be
remembered as the
dawn of a new era. January
saw the inauguration of a
FEBRUARY
17: The Senate conrms
Scott Pruitt as head of
the EPA, the same
agency the former
Oklahoma attorney
U.S. president who has denied
general and committed
climate change and lled his climate change denier
inner circle with anti-science had sued multiple times
in attempts to weaken
activists. But the year was as its regulatory reach.
much an awakening as an
annus horribilis: Researchers
and citizens alike, in the JANUARY
United States and beyond,
25: In response to
chose to speak out at rallies, a media blackout
on social media and even ordered for the
in the political arena Environmental
Protection Agency
unprecedented numbers of (EPA), entities such
scientists are considering a as TheAltEPA
run for ofce. and RogueNASA,
ostensibly created
In a year of surprises, by frustrated
setbacks and signs of federal employees,
hope, here are some of begin posting climate change
data and other science-based
the most memorable and information on social media.
consequential moments
from the rst several months
of the new administration. 2017
GEMMA TARLACH BEGINS
The Paris Exit melting ice. That would mean zero

greenhouse emissions by 2050 an
In 1992, some 150 countries signed the incredible feat. Every country but the
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate United States has since ratied the
Change (UNFCCC) with the goal of at- Paris agreement.
lining greenhouse gases. At the time, By June, reaching that goal seemed
the 1987 Montreal Protocol had already questionable after President Donald
kick-started the healing of the ozone Trump announced the U.S. would
T.J. KIRKPATRICK/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
hole, so scientists expected the UNFCCC withdraw, though pact rules dictate
would succeed, too. However, emissions a four-year wait. European nations,
continued to increase. plus China, are moving toward their
In late 2016, nations of the world goals regardless. And energy trends
convened again. Their optimistic goal: may help: Solar and wind power costs
keep global warming below 1.5 degrees have plummeted, and carbon dioxide
Celsius to avoid doomsday scenarios of emissions in the U.S. have dropped amid
rising seas, widespread droughts and shifts from coal to natural gas. ERIC BETZ

APRIL

22: A crowd of roughly 100,000 gathers to
March for Science in Washington, D.C.
MARCH
Nearly a million more individuals
2: The Senate conrms former Texas participate in local events in all 50 states
governor and climate change skeptic and on every continent.

Rick Perry as Energy secretary, six
years after then-presidential 24: President Trump urges NASA to send
candidate Perry called for the a manned mission to Mars despite his
Department of Energys elimination.
proposal to cut the space agencys budget.

28: The president signs Executive A pro-science rally in Washington, D.C., drew
28: The EPA removes climate change data
roughly 100,000 participants; many more rallied
Order 13783, which calls for the and other information from its website.
at sister events across the world.
review and rescinding of many
environmental protections.

MAY
OCTOBER
18: Under Ajit Pai who was
10: The administration announces its appointed chairman by Trump

intent to kill the Clean Power Plan, an
the FCC votes to begin
Obama-era initiative to limit carbon dismantling net neutrality
dioxide emissions from power plants.
safeguards that were put in
place in 2015. The decision
31: EPA head Pruitt says he will bar opens the door to internet
any scientist who receives agency service providers controlling

grants from serving on its advisory which sites consumers access.
boards. The move opens the door for
industry-funded researchers to take NOVEMBER
23: A proposed budget
their place.
3: The White House released by the White House
releases a Climate slashes funding for both the
EPA and FDA by 31 percent.
Science Special
SEPTEMBER Report, part of a The Centers for Disease Control
congressionally and Prevention (CDC),
29: The FDA delays mandated Department of Energy and the
required revisions
assessment. The National Institutes of Health
to nutrition labeling conclusion? Human would also see signicant cuts.
by up to three activity is the
For a more complete
years. The updates, dominant cause of
timeline, visit
FROM TOP: ZACH D ROBERTS/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES; LUKE SHARRETT/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES; CHASE DEKKER/WILD-LIFE/GETTY IMAGES
which would have climate change,

gone into effect in DiscoverMagazine.com/ contradicting many
2018, include more ScienceUnderSiege JUNE
administration
realistic portion statements.
sizes and the 1: The president announces plans
amount of added to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris
sugar in a product. agreement. (See opposite page.)

8: Following up on President

Emmanuel Macrons June 1 offer
to make our planet great again
AUGUST by welcoming American scientists,
a French government website
15: Trump signs an executive order removing
requirements for federal properties to withstand offers foreign researchers
French residency and four-year
increased ooding and other climate
change-related challenges. grants of up to 1.5 million euros

(about $1.76 million).
JULY
23: State Department science envoy Daniel
22: The Department of the Interior
Kammen quits over the presidents decision to 19: Trump nominates Sam Clovis, (DOI) ends endangered species

leave the Paris agreement and his response to a who has no science background,
protection for Yellowstone
white supremacist rally in Virginia. Kammens to be the chief scientist of the
resignation letter includes an acrostic: The rst grizzlies despite a two-year decline
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
letter of each paragraph spells IMPEACH. in the population, paralleling
(Clovis nomination would be
other administration decisions to
withdrawn Nov. 2 after his name
remove protections for wildlife.
24: The DOI announces plans to downsize three surfaces in an ongoing probe
national monuments, including Bears Ears in Utah, into Russian inuence on the

despite pleas from Native Americans, Trump campaign.)
archaeologists and paleontologists to protect
culturally and scientically signicant sites. 20: Six months into the

administration, the president has
31: The DOI limits most environmental impact yet to nominate candidates for a
studies to a year in length and resulting reports to record number of key positions in

no more than 150 pages. The studies previously science-driven government
lasted for years and could run 1,000 pages or more. agencies such as the CDC and EPA.

5 Human Embryo Gets
CRISPR Treatment
In CRISPR-Cas9 gene
editing, a guide RNA
sequence (green)
helps Cas9 protein
(purple) cut DNA at
the correct spot.
Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University captured the development
of human embryos in images as part of their work using a gene-editing tool. Its the
rst time a U.S. lab successfully repaired a genetic mutation in a human embryo.

Scientists IN JUST A FEW SHORT potentially be used to prevent
YEARS, the gene-editing transmission of genetic disease
Urge Caution tool CRISPR-Cas9 has to future generations, says study
Researchers should tread infiltrated biology labs around the co-author Paula Amato. Once
lightly when it comes to world. This summer, scientists it is proven safe, researchers
editing the genes of human working in a U.S. lab announced hope to start clinical trials. That
embryos, according to theyd used CRISPR to modify would mean implanting the
guidelines handed down
viable human embryos, which gene-edited embryo into a woman
in February. The report
were kept alive just a few days. and studying the genetically
issued by dozens of experts
convened by the National The research is a first in the engineered child. If clinical trials
Academy of Sciences and United States, though scientists dont get FDA approval, study
the National Academy of in China have conducted similar leader Shoukhrat Mitalipov says
Medicine says so-called experiments. they would pursue them abroad.
LEFT: GUNILLA ELAM/SCIENCE SOURCE. RIGHT: OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
germline editing, in which This latest effort, led by Exactly how the mutation
genetic changes are passed researchers at Oregon Health and was fixed was surprising to
to future generations, Science University, also succeeded Mitalipovs team.
should happen only when in avoiding unintended effects They expected that their use
theres no reasonable
something thats plagued other of CRISPR would introduce a
alternative treatment.
researchers. The team fixed a template to guide the DNA to
Doctors already can remove
problematic embryos and
mutation by removing a disease- fix the faulty gene. Instead, the
implant healthy ones using causing gene from an embryo. embryo replaced the targeted
in vitro fertilization. The The repair, reported in August in bad gene with a healthy gene
panel also said the genes Nature, corrected an inheritable from the mother a conclusion
of embryos shouldnt be heart condition, passed down by thats been criticized by a group
edited for reasons other the embryos father, the studys of prominent scientists. They
than treating or preventing lone sperm donor. questioned the mechanism
disease or disability. E.B. This embryo gene correction involved in the repair of the
method if proven safe can mutation. ERIC BETZ
6

ESSAY

LIVING DRUG GETS

GREEN LIGHT

IMMUNOTHERAPY, pioneered by immunologist Carl June death. In clinical trials that Junes

THE HOTTEST FIELD IN and colleagues at the University of team initially launched in 2010,
CANCER RESEARCH, seeks Pennsylvania. First, an inactivated over 80 percent of children with

to supercharge the bodys natural form of HIV, the virus that causes recalcitrant ALL went into remission.
defenses against deadly tumors. Two AIDS, is packed with snippets of The therapy was also effective for

different approaches are driving the custom-designed DNA. Next, T cells several other types of blood cancer. It

buzz, and one of them got a big boost the immune systems foot soldiers was really extraordinary, says David
in August when the Food and Drug are harvested from the patients Porter, director of Penns blood and

Administration approved a living blood and infected with the virus, bone marrow transplant program.
drug to treat acute lymphoblastic which rewrites their genetic code to These were patients for whom

leukemia (ALL) in children and young recognize and destroy cancer cells. nothing else had worked.

adults whove stopped responding to Once the engineered T cells have The pharma giant Novartis, which
chemotherapy. The product, dubbed multiplied, theyre infused into the agreed to fund further research in

tisagenlecleucel (pronounced tis-a- patient, where they go to war. exchange for ownership of the results,
Like the other leading-edge will bring tisagenlecleucel to market
gen-LEK-loo-sell), is the rst gene
therapy of any kind to be approved in immunotherapy technique a under the trade name Kymriah. In

the United States. class of drugs known as checkpoint October, the FDA approved a second
More specically, tisagenlecleucel inhibitors CAR-T has shown CAR-T therapy, axicabtagene ciloleucel

is a type of chimeric antigen receptor unparalleled potency against cancers (developed by Kite Pharma and

T cell (CAR-T) therapy, a technique that once meant almost certain dubbed Yescarta), for patients with
relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin

lymphoma. Rival companies are racing

HOW TO BUILD BETTER T CELLS to develop similar products.

Researchers insert genes that CAR-T has its hazards. Many

patients develop severe whole-body
White recognize specic cancer cells into the
T cells, through an inactive virus. inammation that can last for days.

blood cells
called T cells (Trials of another CAR-T therapy,

are collected The genes by Juno Therapeutics, were halted
from the reprogram the in 2016 after ve patients died
patient's T cells to produce
from brain swelling.) But if the
blood. specic receptors
one-time procedure is successful,
that will target
proteins on the theyre spared the months or years
surface of a of side effects that often accompany

Once inside cancer cell. chemotherapy. The treatment can
the patient, the
also eliminate the need for a bone
T cells multiply.
marrow transplant, which carries a
They hunt cancer
cells displaying far greater risk of death.
the target
Researchers are now testing CAR-T
protein and kill
therapies against other cancers,
them.
including pancreatic and the deadly
The modied brain cancer glioblastoma. Theyre

T cells are grown trying combinations of CAR-T with
in a lab for
about 10 days. other treatments, and working to
make the technique safe enough

to use as an early stage therapy
The engineered rather than a last resort. Were at a
T cells are infused
back into the tipping point, says June. Someday,

patient. our current ways of treating cancer
JAY SMITH
will be looked on as barbaric.

Source: Novartis
KENNETH MILLER

7 SEVEN WHOLE
NEW WORLDS

IMAGINE LOOKING UP at the night
sky and seeing planets looming larger
than our moon. It sounds like science
ction, but astronomers discovered it could
be reality for the TRAPPIST-1 system, which
boasts seven Earth-sized worlds a record.
Some orbit almost as close to each other as
the moon is from Earth. ignite into a star. Such stars can have violent
In May 2016, members of the Belgian eruptions early on, but are extremely stable
TRAPPIST team announced their small afterward. So if the planets didnt cook,
telescope had turned up three potentially life could have later evolved. And research
habitable planets orbiting a star just announced in August shows TRAPPIST-1
40 light-years away. Then they turned to could be as much as twice our suns age. The
NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope to get more short distance between worlds also means
detail, and it revealed there were actually microbes could planet-hop on space rocks, as
a whopping seven. Three orbit in the stars described in a June study in the Proceedings
conservative habitable zone, the region of the National Academy of Sciences.
where liquid surface water might exist. The [The] TRAPPIST-1 discovery ofcially
results appeared in Nature in February. opened a whole new chapter of space
NASA/JPL-CALTECH
TRAPPIST-1 is a cool red dwarf barely exploration, says Julien de Wit, an MIT
bigger than Jupiter in diameter, but about 84 researcher who co-discovered the planets.
times heavier, giving it just enough mass to JOHN WENZ

Hominin Trackways

in Greece? The Game

Is Afoot

ABOUT 5.7 MILLION YEARS hominins including humans

AGO, on whats now the evolved. Trachilos study co-author

Greek island of Crete, Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at

something went for a stroll. Swedens Uppsala University, says
Walking on two legs, its clawless critics have accused the team of

feet left impressions. Instead of its trying to revive a long-debunked Is this a 5.7 million-year-old hominin

first toe sticking out thumblike, idea that our species evolved in footprint? A controversial study says yes.

as an apes would, this creatures Europe.
big toe was in line with the other Some people have suggested impressions, were present in this

four. This trait and other features that we are driven by a region at the time, but the team

preserved in the ancient prints Eurocentrism claim. We are compared the prints with only a

are unique to hominins, primates making no claim whatsoever, bears forelimb. The lack of claws
more closely related to us than to says Ahlberg. Its clear modern
is one of the traits cited by the
apes or chimps. humans evolved in Africa. authors as evidence a hominin

And in an analysis published Instead, he says, the Trachilos made the prints.

in August, researchers concluded prints show at least one branch Bears do rear up and move

controversially that these of early hominins was present in bipedally on occasion, Harcourt-
footprints at Trachilos, Crete, Europe, and that members of our Smith says. Im not saying thats

appear to belong to a hominin, family tree were walking efficiently what this is, but it was a major

walking where none was thought to on two legs more than a million omission not to include hind leg

set foot until millions of years later. years earlier than we thought. bear prints for comparison.
Other fossilized trackways have The technical side is well done. New things get discovered

provided valuable insight about The analysis itself is complex and all the time that challenge old

how our lineage evolved to walk sophisticated theyve thought it thinking, and thats wonderful, but

upright, but the oldest currently through, says William Harcourt- this is a big claim. It needs to be
accepted hominin trackway, at Smith, a paleoanthropologist at properly comparative. It needs to

Laetoli in Tanzania, is 3.6 million New Yorks Lehman College and be better, he adds.

years old. The Trachilos prints are the American Museum of Natural In a bizarre twist, in mid-

about 2 million years older. History. [But] the devil is in the September some of the impressions
The Greek tracks are also
details. were cut from the rock and stolen.
thousands of miles from For example, Harcourt-Smith Greek authorities quickly arrested

eastern Africa, where nearly all notes that bears, whose hind a man suspected of trying to sell

paleoanthropologists believe legs do not typically make claw the prints, which were recovered.

The site is now off-limits, under
a protective cover of tarps and

a great big heap of rubble, says

co-author Matthew Bennett of

Bournemouth University, one
of the worlds leading experts

on hominin trackways. Bennett

ANDRZEJ BOCZAROWSKI (2)
says research will continue using

the teams high-resolution digital
scans, a permanent record of the

trackways: No scientific data has
Trackways on the Greek island of Crete may have been made by a hominin millions of
years before most researchers believe possible, challenging our evolution story. been lost. GEMMA TARLACH

CASSINI
IS DEAD;
LONG LIVE
CASSINI

IN OCTOBER 1997, a Titan rocket
streaked across the sky and shot
a spacecraft called Cassini toward
Saturn. The road trip, minus roads, was
long, and Cassini didnt arrive until 2004.
But it stayed there till its mission ended
on Sept. 15, 2017 with a bang, and a
good deal of whimpering from Earth.
Early that morning, engineers at
NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent
Cassini down to meet the planet it had
spent 13 years studying. The greeting
was fatal for Cassini, which disintegrated
as it charged through Saturns
atmosphere. It was a planned death,
a self-sacrice that meant it wouldnt
crash into Saturns moons.
Scientists didnt want to contaminate
those satellites Titan and Enceladus
precisely because of what Cassini
had revealed: They werent barren balls,
but ones with oceans, water, internal
energy and nutritious chemicals. The
moons demonstrated that planets arent
the only habitable spots in this solar
system, and beyond.
Cassinis gaze at Saturn also revealed
more about the formation of giant
planets and regular solar systems.
By studying those rings up close and
personal, you could draw analogies
NASA/JPL-CALTECH//SSI/KEVIN M. GILL/CC BY-SA 2.0; CASSINI: NASA
to how solar systems might form
and evolve, says Scott G. Edgington,
Cassinis deputy project scientist.
There will be generations of scientists
who get their Ph.D.s and do research
with Cassini data, he says. Who
knows what they'll nd in those 0s and
1s? Thats why, despite the emotional
eulogies, Cassinis intellectual life will
continue long after its physical death.
SARAH SCOLES

10

Harvey Redesigns

Rainfall Maps

AS HURRICANE

HARVEYS

AFTERMATH

dumped rain on the
Houston area in August,

the staff at the National

Weather Service (NWS)

knew they were watching
history. And as the rain

totals were tallied, the

agency added not one,

but two new colors to its
rainfall map: purple for

20 to 30 inches and light

pink for over 30 inches.

Its difficult to predict

what has never happened,
says Greg Carbin, who

leads the NWS Forecast

Operations Branch in

College Park, Maryland. Over 30 inches

I hope we dont have to

use it again. The total? 20-30 inches

Nearly 52 inches in a week
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE; NICK OZA/USA TODAY NETWORK/SIPA USA; JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

in Cedar Bayou, Texas, a
record in the continental

U.S. DEVI SHASTRI

Water oods a Houston street (left) after Hurricane

Harvey landed in late August. Hospitals and care
centers, such as the Gulf Health Care Center in Port
Arthur, Texas (above), worked to evacuate patients.

11 LIFE BENEATH
Q&A
Hunter Waite
Program Director of Space
ENCELADUS ICE?
ALIEN MICROBES COULD, IN THEORY, feast
beneath the icy surface of Saturns moon
Enceladus. In April, astronomers reported that
the Cassini spacecraft had discovered a chemical
brew erupting from Enceladus oceans the same
Science and Engineering kind that bacteria eat at Earths hydrothermal vents.
NASA Discover talked with Hunter Waite, Cassini researcher
and NASAs program director of space science and
engineering, to take us there. ERIC BETZ

12

Lufengosaurus

Protein in Dinosaur Rib

Is 195 Million Years Old
Q

What did we know about Enceladus

before Cassini? RESEARCHERS IN TAIWAN used an
A

innovative technique to find the protein
We knew nothing. We didnt know anything
collagen in a dinosaur rib thats a whopping
about the vents. We didnt know anything about
195 million years old. Other researchers had
the global ocean. We knew it was a small, icy moon
in the Saturn system. But the Saturn system is full of previously identified proteins in fossils less than

small, icy moons. half as old, but those efforts required destroying

Q
part of the fossil itself.
The new method,
What would it be like ying along
with Cassini over Enceladus? described in Nature

A
Communications in
The action happens pretty fast because youre
January, allows scientists
traveling at 7 or 8 kilometers per second. to read chemical

And [Enceladus] is pretty small it's like the
signatures present within
size of Arizona.
a specimen to identify
Youre getting pummeled by these little ice grains.
As youre ying over, youll see these geological fea-
proteins and other organic Hematite (shown as dark spots)
sealed blood vessels in the fossil,
FROM LEFT: SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE; MICHAEL BENSON/KINETIKON PICTURES; DEVIBORT VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CC 3.0; ROBERT REISZ

tures, these scars little channels, basically what remains non-destructively. helping preserve the collagen.
Most other material is
we call the tiger stripes. Within those tiger stripes
are the vents, straight from the global ocean. And extracted by dissolving the bone, says co-author

above the surface of the ocean, a splash comes up and paleontologist Robert Reisz of the University

you can imagine a splash from a wave that will in- of Toronto Mississauga. But if you did that
stantly freeze. Thats what creates these grains. These with this specimen, youd see nothing.

have information about the salt content of the ocean The team looked instead at tiny blood
and some of the organics that are present there.
vessels, about half the diameter of a human
Q

hair, within the rib of an Early Jurassic
How close did Cassini get?
Lufengosaurus specimen. There they found the
specific chemical signal of collagen, which is
A

We went really close. It was about 50 kilometers crucial to connective tissue.

the closest yby over the tiger stripes. We The specimen also contained hematite, likely

could look at the chemical balance and determine derived from the animals blood. The team
that the [hydrogen] we saw was sufcient to provide believes the hematite sealed the blood vessels,

food for microbes. The obvious message is lets go protecting the collagen from contamination
back and try to nd life.
and degradation.
Q

Researchers hope the process of reading
At this point, would you be surprised
the chemical signatures can be refined to
if we didn't nd life on Enceladus?
reveal details of dinosaur biology such
A

I would be a bit surprised, yes. But I would be
as thermoregulation that are difficult to

happy to nd the answer one way or the other determine from conventional fossils.
The point is that, if you look, you can
because I think both whether you nd it or not
will lead to a better understanding of how life arose actually find remains of soft tissues in deep time,

on Earth and what it really means. says Reisz. It opens up our eyes. GEMMA TARLACH

14
ESSAY
CLOCK
TICKING ON
SUPERBUGS

FOR YEARS, UNITED STATES public health officials have
watched nervously as drug-resistant superbugs marched
around the world, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Then in January, a report from the Centers for Disease Control
13
and Prevention revealed that an elderly Nevada woman had died
of a bacterial infection that defied even the biggest guns in the
infection-fighting arsenal. Thats when many U.S. experts sounded
the alarm: Time is running out to stop these deadly pathogens.
Were somewhere between total panic and a situation we feel
confident we can manage, says James Johnson, a professor of
medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota.
A Functioning Already, superbugs claim 23,000 American lives every year, and
over the past eight years, the number of hospitalized children who
Fake Womb are resistant to antibiotics has increased sevenfold.
Globally, the situation is much worse: More than 700,000 die

IN A POTENTIAL annually from drug-resistant infections, particularly in parts of
BREAKTHROUGH for human Europe, Asia and South Asia. These regions have inadequate
babies born prematurely, sanitary conditions that create breeding grounds for lethal
scientists announced this year theyd pathogens the Nevada
successfully removed lamb fetuses woman picked up her fatal
from their mothers wombs and bug in India. Some experts
raised them into healthy sheep. Their warn that new strains of
survival comes thanks to an articial drug-resistant bacteria, caused
placenta called a BioBag created by years of antibiotic use in
by researchers at the Childrens humans and livestock, are
Hospital of Philadelphia. as concerning as Zika and
The fake womb consists of a clear Ebola. The World Health
The superbug CRE, shown in a petri dish,
plastic bag lled with electrolytes. Organization identified a is resistant to almost all antibiotics.
The lambs umbilical cord pulls in dozen groups of bacteria that
nutrients, and its heart pumps blood pose the greatest threat.
through an external oxygenator. The It could get just as bad in the U.S., warns Johnson. Infected
success caps a decades-long effort international travelers can accelerate the superbug spread,
toward a working articial placenta. and domestically there is a large population vulnerable to
The BioBag could improve infection the frail elderly and people who have compromised
human infant mortality rates and immune systems. If antibiotics become less effective, even routine
lower the chances of a premature procedures like appendectomies and C-sections could be perilous,
baby developing lung problems or and could cause up to 6,300 deaths per year.
cognitive disorders. But there are Still, the U.S. situation has improved, mainly because of more
still challenges to scaling the device vigilance and better infection control techniques in hospitals
FROM LEFT: JAY SMITH; JAMES GATHANY/CDC
for human babies, which are much where drug-resistant bacteria can be endemic, says John Quale, an
smaller than lambs. The scientists infectious disease specialist at SUNY Downstate Medical Center
are also rening the electrolyte mix in Brooklyn. Were doing a better job because people are scared
and studying how to connect human enough now.
umbilical cords. They expect human Some promising antibiotics are in development and should be
trials in three to ve years. available soon, but none is considered the magic bullet. In the
NATHANIEL SCHARPING meantime, Johnson says, we need to find ways to get docs to be
Illustration source: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia better stewards of antibiotics. LINDA MARSA

15

Pinpointing a

Fast Radio Burst

ASTRONOMERS ARE FINALLY starting to

figure out fast radio bursts (FRBs). The The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and
other radio observatories saw the signal bursts.
milliseconds-long surges of radiation are rare
and sudden even 10 years after their discovery, we

know almost nothing about them. But in January, announcement. Astronomers also discovered weak,

astronomers announced theyd spotted a repeating long-lasting radio emissions coming from within
FRB and pinpointed its location to a small dwarf 130 light-years of FRB 121102, suggesting the two

galaxy 2.5 billion light-years away. Thats a first for are related though we dont know how, if at all.

astronomy. The findings appeared in Nature and While the finding confirmed long-standing

The Astrophysical Journal. suspicions that FRBs originated from outside our

Researchers observed a whopping nine bursts galaxy, many questions remain, including if any
JIUGUANG WANG VIA FLICKR, CC BY-SA 2.0

from the same source, dubbed FRB 121102, allowing others repeat, and what causes them. Potential origins

them to home in on its location. Another team of include highly magnetic neutron stars the collapsed

researchers announced in August theyd detected an cores of dead stars and unusual black holes. New

additional 14 bursts, and at higher radio frequencies mysteries in astronomy are somewhat rare, said
than ever observed before. The FRB was extremely co-author Sarah Burke-Spolaor of Western Virginia

generous to us, said study co-author Casey Law of University, so astronomers are relishing the chase.

the University of California, Berkeley, during the BILL ANDREWS

16
ESSAY
WHAT IF THE MOST BASIC
THING WE KNOW ABOUT
DINOSAURS IS WRONG?

FOR THE PAST 130 YEARS, paleontologists divided
dinosaurs into two groups, based on a handful
of anatomical features a split they believe
occurred early in the animals evolution more than
230 million years ago. The lizard-hipped saurischians
comprised meat-eating theropods such as T. rex and
long-necked, herbivorous sauropodomorphs, such
as Diplodocus. On the other side of the divide, bird-
hipped ornithischians included beaked plant-eaters
such as Triceratops.
In March, however, Nature published a proposal that
trashes the traditional family tree. Instead, researchers
placed theropods with ornithischians, forming a group
called Ornithoscelida, and put sauropodomorphs with
the early and primitive herrerasaurs.
Our new hypothesis has lots of exciting implications
about when and where dinosaurs may have originated,
as well as when feathers may have evolved, says
University of Cambridge paleontologist Matthew
Baron, lead author of the study.
Not all researchers are so enthusiastic: A number of
early dinosaur evolution experts have challenged the
proposed reorganization. But even some of the critics
are open-minded.
I dont think we can be quite sure whether the new
or the traditional arrangement is correct, says Steve
Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, but new
fossils will hopefully help us untangle it.
Baron and colleagues arent waiting for new fossils to
be found, however. In August, they published a reanalysis
of Chilesaurus in Biology Letters. The dinosaur, first
Chilesaurus described in 2015 as a bizarre, herbivorous theropod,
is actually a primitive ornithischian, according to the
study a placement that would strengthen the authors
argument for rewriting the entire family tree. JON TENNANT
SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE
Traditional dinosaur evolutionary tree Proposed revision
TOP: GABRIEL LO. BOTTOM: JAY SMITH
Ornithischia Sauropoda Theropoda Herrerasauridae Sauropoda Theropoda Ornithischia
Saurischia
?
Dinosauria
Herrerasauridae
Dinosauria

17 Fighting Politics With Math

Slightly tweaking congressional districts can reveal whether

the state in question Wisconsin here is gerrymandered.

IN MARCH, PENNSYLVANIA analyze districting fairness. Its important to have

MATHEMATICIANS proved The method tests districts by rigorous ways of demonstrating

a theorem that rigorously applying small, random changes to [gerrymandering], so the decision
demonstrates congressional their boundaries say, including that is not just another partisan

districts in their home state are neighborhood instead of this one. debate, says Wesley Pegden, a

gerrymandered, drawn to give one Such tweaks shouldnt consistently mathematician at Carnegie Mellon

political party an unfair advantage. change election outcomes, assuming University in Pittsburgh, who worked
Their work, which appeared in the boundaries started out fair. But on the theorem.

The Proceedings of the National if the changes lead to alternate The new work may also be useful

Academy of Sciences, supports outcomes, the mathematicians proved in other scientic areas that involve

an ongoing lawsuit demanding it meant the district was biased from random sampling, like how proteins
fold and statistical physics.
better boundaries and joins the beginning in Pennsylvanias
other mathematical efforts to case, in favor of the Republican Party. STEPHEN ORNES

18

Sea Level Rise: Slow But Inexorable

EVEN SHORT-LIVED atmospheric greenhouse
gases, like methane, leave an imprint in the

oceans that can last centuries, according to a

paper published in the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences in January.

A hotter atmosphere warms the oceans, which
TOP: WESLEY PEGDEN. BOTTOM: ZAKIR CHOWDHURY/BARCROFT MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

expand, leading to sea level rise. This can be a slow

process. Gases can take anywhere from a decade

(methane) to 1,000 years (carbon dioxide) to transfer

their energy to the oceans. And once gases arrive
there, its hard to get them out. The takeaway is

that if humanity stopped cranking out greenhouse

gases immediately, sea levels would still rise for

centuries before the heat dissipates through Earths
atmosphere and into space, says study co-author

Susan Solomon, an atmospheric scientist at MIT.

The study brings grim news for low-lying islands

like Tuvalu in the South Pacific and coastal cities
worldwide. Its not a tsunami, Solomon says of

Sea levels could rise for centuries, in part due to greenhouse gases
the watermark rise. Its very, very slow. But its transferring their energy to the oceans. This would contribute to
inexorable. ERIC BETZ ooding in coastal cities like low-lying Chittagong, Bangladesh.

20
Portable Detector Shakes
19
Up Neutrino World
Pig Cells That

Wont Go Retro

MORE THAN 100,000 Americans
need an organ transplant, and
roughly 20 die daily while waiting.
Since the early 20th century, scientists have
envisioned a workaround in which we
could use pig organs, but those so-called

xenotransplants have never been human- NEUTRINOS ARE THE BOO
compatible. This year, bioengineers at RADLEYS OF PHYSICS. These
Harvard University and technology startup tiny, electrically neutral
eGenesis reached an important milestone particles are shy to a fault. Sixty-
in making that vision reality. five billion of them pass through
Pigs carry retroviruses, which replicate every square centimeter of Earths
by permanently inserting their genes in surface each second, and nearly
the DNA of a host species. And in lab all exit the other side without
experiments, these porcine endogenous making their presence known.
retroviruses (PERVs) tended to leap from Catching them in flight typically Juan Collar helped make a
pig to human cells. In a paper published requires special detectors weighing portable neutrino detector
(top), a far cry from current,
in August in Science, scientists addressed thousands of tons. huge detectors (above).
this potential biohazard by knocking out They are harder to detect
the retroviral DNA with the gene editing than anything else we know in particle physics, says
FROM LEFT: PHOTOMASTER/SHUTTERSTOCK; JEAN LACHAT/UCHICAGO NEWS; FERMILAB

technology CRISPR-Cas9. After cloning astrophysicist Juan Collar of the University of Chicago.
PERV-free embryos, the team implanted Collar is part of a team called COHERENT that
them in sows and raised piglets. The little changed the game in August by making the first tabletop
oinkers were completely retrovirus-free. neutrino detector.
Now, the team is adapting the The instrument is 100 times more sensitive than previous
technique to make other essential genetic technology, Collar says. It works via an interaction between
modications, such as knocking out neutrinos and atoms theorized more than 40 years ago:
molecules that trigger immune systems As neutrinos bounce off atoms, they cause atomic nuclei
to reject organs. We are working to jiggle. The detectors first measurements confirmed this
on building a pig 2.0 with advanced predicted effect for the first time.
immune compatibility, says Luhan Yang, New discoveries could be in store as the device now
eGenesis co-founder and chief scientic checks other features of neutrinos, including their
ofcer. Humanized with a hand from electromagnetic properties. And Collar hopes that even-
CRISPR, their organs could match our smaller detectors could be useful for monitoring nuclear
needs. JONATHON KEATS reactors, which spew out neutrinos. DEVIN POWELL
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Q&A
Adrian Luckman
Glaciologist
DESTABILIZE LARSEN C
AN ICEBERG WEIGHING 1 TRILLION TONS calved from Antarcticas Larsen C
ice shelf around July 10, capturing global headlines. The iceberg, nearly
the size of Delaware, is among the largest ever recorded. The calving is
not directly linked to climate change, experts say; bergs break away naturally.
And the ice was already floating, so it wont raise sea levels. Of concern,
though, is the fate of the remaining 88 percent of Larsen C, which still spans
FROM LEFT: COURTESY OF ADRIAN LUCKMAN; NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY
SWANSEA UNIVERSITY some 17,000 square miles.

The event threatens to destabilize Larsen C, recent studies suggest. Since ice
shelves act like plugs, removing them lets inland glaciers flow faster into the
ocean and that will raise sea levels. Other massive ice shelves have experienced
destabilization after similar calving events. Larsen A, which is Cs Antarctic
Peninsula neighbor, crumbled in 1995. Larsen B collapsed seven years later.
U.K.-based glaciologist Adrian Luckman of Swansea University leads Project
Midas, which tracks Larsen C. He says the recent iceberg caught public attention,
but the real science is still to come. ERIC BETZ
22 Antarcticas Fiery
Underbelly

MUCH OF ANTARCTICA is covered with a thick sheet
of ice that obscures whats below, and its tempting
to consider the continent as geologically frozen as
its landscape. But in the land of snow and ice, theres a
hidden fire.
A giant Reporting their findings in May, geology student Max
iceberg
calved from Van Wyk de Vries and his colleagues at the University
the Larsen C of Edinburgh used radar surveys to reveal 91 previously
ice shelf
in July.
15.5 miles unidentified volcanoes in the West Antarctic Rift System, an
area where plate tectonics are tearing the continent apart.
Some seem to have erupted in the last few millennia.
Q What happens to the iceberg

now?
Scientists arent sure how, or even if, the volcanoes will
affect the overlaying ice sheet. Another pressing question:
Will eruptions increase in Antarctica as the ice thins, similar
A We don't have much information

to go on because this is such a
large iceberg. The Weddell Sea, which
to Iceland after the Ice Age? Whats clear is that no other
place on Earth contains as
many subglacial volcanoes,
is where all the action is occurring, is and thats a real wild card
choked with sea ice all year round, so its for researchers attempting to
not an open ocean that things can float model the ice sheets retreat.
ERIK KLEMETTI
free on. Icebergs have been known to exit
this area quite big icebergs and head
up into the Southern Ocean. How quickly Larsen
ice shelf
this one will do that is difficult to answer.
It might take years and years.
Q What can Larsen Cs response

to the calving teach us?
A Theres a natural experiment going

on here. What happens to an ice shelf
of this size when you take a large piece
Volcano
study area
ANTARCTICA
out of it?
Q Whats more scientifically

interesting: the iceberg calving
or what happens next? Elevation (m) Confidence factor
2
A
2,000
2.5
The thing that doesnt really interest 0 3
us is the calving. As soon as we saw 3.5
-2,000 4
this rift starting to cut through, we knew
FAR RIGHT: MAX VAN WYK DE VRIES
4.5
it was going to happen. But the rift itself -4,000
5
how fast that cut through and what
Researchers used radar to map
held it up is teaching us a lot about the landscape underneath
ice shelves. And now we have another Antarcticas ice sheet and then
rated how sure they were that
very interesting opportunity to study the a given feature was a volcano.
reaction of the ice shelf. (A rating of 5 is most confident.)

23 Juno Delivers
Jupiters Secrets

NASAS ONGOING JUNO MISSION, revealing what lies beneath
Jupiters cloud tops and in its atmosphere, has upended
many long-held theories about the king of the planets. In
many ways, its a new Jupiter, says Scott Bolton, Junos principal
investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
Many scientists had thought that by peering underneath Jupiters
visibly divided outer layers, they would uncover a uniform,
well-mixed planet. But according to a May study in Geophysical
Research Letters, Juno has spied strong bands of what appears to
be ammonia, indicating the planet is churning up material from its
depths and implying a more active and variable world. The probes
data also show polar regions swarming with unforeseen storms.
At the same time, Juno is busy sampling Jupiters magnetic field,
which is stronger than expected in some places and weaker in
others, astronomers announced in the May issue of Science. And
the auroras that light up its atmosphere arise not just from charged
solar particles slamming into the planets atmosphere, as on Earth,
but from Jovian moons spewing material toward the planet.
Photos from Junos orbit of Jupiter reveal So far, Junos discoveries raise more questions than answers, and
amazing vistas. Above, the gas giants northern
pole area roils with white clouds. Below, the scientists are eager to untangle them. Were slowly going to rewrite
stormy dynamics of the Great Red Spot are the book, Bolton predicts. KOREY HAYNES
visible during a low-altitude pass.
FROM TOP: NASA; NASA/JPL/SWRI/MSSS/GERALD EICHSTDT/ALEXIS TRANCHANDON/SOLARIS; NASA/JPL/SWRI/MSSS/BJRN JNSSON

24

Age Is Just a Number

(of Neural Stem Cells)

SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE IDENTIFIED how to The scientists also discovered that the stem cells

slow or even reverse our biological clock. Adult released tiny packets of microRNA, bits of genetic

neural stem cells in the hypothalamus a brain material that control how genes function. They injected

region that regulates hunger, sleep, body temperature the mRNA into the middle-aged mice that were missing
and other activities appear to orchestrate hypothalamic stem cells and into healthy

the bodys aging process, they found. mice of similar age. In both groups,

Research on lab animals has shown the treatment slowed aging.

that the number of hypothalamus The findings could lead
stem cells diminishes with age. To to better methods of

determine if this cell loss was treating age-related maladies

related to aging, scientists killed and prolonging life, says lead

off hypothalamic stem cells in author Dongsheng Cai of

middle-aged mice, according to a the Albert Einstein College
study that appeared in July in Nature. of Medicine. But it will take

The mice showed clear signs of aging, some time to translate this

such as loss of memory, endurance into humans, he says.

and coordination. Hypothalamus LINDA MARSA

25

CRISPR Goes to the Movies

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: CLAUS LUNAU/SCIENCE SOURCE; EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; SETH SHIPMAN
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGES and Cs of DNA. Then, using the molecular recorders genetically

The Horse in Motion was CRISPR-Cas gene-editing tool, they engineered cells with a time log of

an early demonstration spliced sequences corresponding their activities. These recorders could

of stop-motion illustration. In to individual video pixels into the someday monitor cellular activities
keeping with his pioneering spirit, genome. The bacteria strung these in our bodies like an airplanes

Harvard University researchers have snippets together in order and black box giving scientists insights

re-created the images by storing stored them in its DNA, letting into what cells are doing and when.

data in living bacteria. The results scientists replay the video. CARL ENGELKING

were published in Nature in July. Now that theyve shown
Geneticist Seth Shipman and its possible to encode
his team translated the pixels of and retrieve information

Muybridges moving picture into sequentially in bacteria,
a code made from the As, Ts, Gs, Shipman hopes to create
Researchers
encoded the
series The Horse
in Motion (right)
and stored the
data in a bacterial
genome for later
replay (left).

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JOHANNES KRAUSE, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY; RICHARD G. ROBERTS; SYLVIO TPKE, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY; GROUP OF PALEOANTHROPOLOGY MNCN-CSIC
26 Sifting Soil for
Human Ancestors

SCIENTISTS HAVE FOUND extracted hominin DNA.
ancient human DNA in It was no easy feat. The group
caves, no bones or teeth scooped soil samples from seven
required. Instead, an international European and Russian caves
team located genetic traces of known to have housed prehistoric
Neanderthals and Denisovans peoples. Using the latest DNA
both distant hominin cousins of filtering techniques, researchers
ours who died off about 40,000 sifted through trillions of genetic Caves like these in Croatia (top) and
Russia (above) housed the soil that
years ago just from dirt. fragments from plants, other researchers used to find genetic traces
Researchers have been able to mammals and modern humans of our ancient ancestors.
identify animal and plant DNA to pinpoint the ancient hominin
from soil samples since 2003, sequences. While they found several of the sites, Denisovan
but this is the first time theyve Neanderthal genetic traces at DNA turned up only in a
Siberian cave.
The work, published in Science
in April, opens up new possibilities
for researchers, says Viviane
Slon, a geneticist at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology in Leipzig,
Germany, and a co-author of the
study. Now, she says, they could
unearth evidence of prehistoric
occupation at sites where no
Viviane Slon (left), a co-author human fossils or tools have been
of the work, prepares a
soil sample (such as the one found, expanding our knowledge
above) for DNA extraction. of hominin history. MARK BARNA
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28
27
How to
Preserve Sperm Counts
a Dinosaur Plummet

ROYAL TYRRELL MUSEUM technician Mark Mitchell estimates
SPERM COUNTS have
he spent 7,000 hours chipping away at rock to uncover this
plunged 52.9 percent in
112 million-year-old dinosaur fossil, put on display at the
the past 39 years in North
Alberta museum in May. Described formally in August in Current
America, Europe, Australia and New
Biology, the animals name, Borealopelta markmitchelli, is a nod
Zealand, according to a July analysis
to Mitchells dedication.
in Human Reproduction Update. This
The plant-eating, tanklike nodosaur is unusually well preserved,
trend is worrisome because, besides
including its hefty body armor, large shoulder spikes and even pieces
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF THE ROYAL TYRRELL MUSEUM OF PALAEONTOLOGY, DRUMHELLER, CANADA; SCIENCE PICTURE CO/SCIENCE SOURCE; DAVIDE BONANDONNA/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
affecting male fertility, men with
of soft tissue. Only
lower sperm counts also have higher
the animals front
rates of heart disease and cancer.
half was found;
They also die at younger ages.
its partly exposed
The analysis involved 185 studies
innards include the
of 42,935 men conducted between
fossilized remnants
1973 and 2011. (Men in other parts
of a last leafy meal.
of the world werent included
Don Henderson,
because solid data isnt available.)
the Royal Tyrrells
Environmental factors are the
curator of dinosaurs,
likely culprits. For example, men
believes that soon
with low sperm counts might have
after death, the
been exposed in utero to cigarette
nodosaurs bloated
smoke or chemicals that disrupt
carcass floated down
crucial hormone levels.
a river out to the
This is the canary in the coal
ancient Albertan sea
mine, says Shanna H. Swan, a
where eventually the
study co-author at Icahn School of
body went pop, and
Medicine at Mount Sinai in New
he sank like a stone.
York, because it has large economic
Sediment must have implications about mens fertility and
then rapidly buried health. LINDA MARSA
the body, preserving
Extremely rare among armored dinosaur fossils, the it with lifelike detail.
remains of Borealopelta markmitchelli were preserved SYLVIA MORROW
with many of its spikes and bony plates in place
(above), providing a detailed guide to illustrating
what it looked like 112 million years ago (below).

29

Psychedelic Drug Tapped

for PTSD Therapy

A GROUP OF RESEARCHERS is one step closer Its known there isnt a perfect solution for PTSD,

to bringing an unexpected drug into the fray says Doblin. Various styles of therapy and some

to help treat mental illness: ecstasy. medications can fail for many patients. Time will tell

Psychotherapy that incorporates MDMA, if MDMA-assisted psychotherapy can change that.
the primary ingredient of ecstasy, was designated DEVI SHASTRI

in August as a Food and Drug Administration

breakthrough therapy for severe post-traumatic

stress disorder. In other words, the therapy is on
the fast track toward approval.

If you were to develop a drug to treat PTSD,

youd want it to do exactly what MDMA does, says

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS), which funds and conducts the research.

When patients use MDMA, their memories and

emotions become more vivid. And in this state,

patients experience less fear and anxiety attached to
their memories enough to begin talking about and

engaging with their trauma under the supervision of

a therapist in a safe environment.

MAPS phase 2 trial, which ended in 2016, found
that 68 percent of patients no longer had PTSD

diagnoses. The next clinical trials start in spring

2018. Over 12 weeks, patients will have three daylong

MDMA-assisted sessions and a dozen 90-minute
therapy sessions with no drugs.

30

A Charming New Particle

PHYSICISTS HAVE FOUND up quark and two of an uncommon them unlikely particle ingredients.
TOP: AUGUSTO ZAMBONATO. BOTTOM: DANIEL DOMINGUEZ/CERN
hundreds of particles made of quark flavor called charm. It took three years of high-energy

quarks over the years. Protons Theories predicted the new particle data collection to find enough c+c+

and neutrons, for example, are made dubbed c+c+ (pronounced ka-sigh- particles for physicists to be confident

from up and down quarks, see-see-plus-plus) more than 30 in the discovery.
the two most common and years ago, but charm quarks The insights into how the two

lightest of the six so-called are rare and about five charm quarks interact will lead to a

flavors of quarks. But the times heavier than better understanding of how these

latest particle discovery, up quarks, making tiny components of the universe
Charm
announced at CERN in quarks work together, including new

July, stands out because Meet the new predictions of exotic particles.

its composed of one Up quark particle, c+c+. SYLVIA MORROW

31

Octopuses Can Stray
From Their DNA
IF OUR DNA is a blueprint, then
RNA is the messenger, ferrying
instructions for biological tasks
theory is evidence that nautiluses,
a closely related shelled cephalopod
known to be less intelligent, dont
to our cells. If youre an octopus, possess the same editing capabilities.
though, that message can change There is a trade-off, however. To
en route. preserve their RNA-editing powers,
An international research team octopus genomes are much more
found that octopuses can edit their resistant to mutation, the driving
RNA, albeit unintentionally. This force of natural selection. This
ability may offer some of the same means that while individuals
adaptive benets as natural selection, can make relatively sweeping
but on an individual level. Writing in changes to their bodies,
April in the journal Cell, the scientists the species as a whole
said this ability allows octopuses to doesnt change much
reinterpret their DNA in a way that from generation
could grant them new traits, like better to generation.
cold adaptation. There were also hints NATHANIEL SCHARPING
that these RNA changes made the
animals smarter.
Octopuses are infamously clever,
and such RNA editing could help
explain why. Adding weight to this
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33

Ancient Antarctic
Ice Is Discovered
AMERICAN GEOSCIENTISTS have discovered
2.7 million-year-old ice the oldest ever by
1.7 million years, researchers announced at
carbon dioxide and methane levels. This latest
sample reveals Earths climate history beyond
a critical benchmark when, 1 million years ago,
the annual Goldschmidt conference in August. The glacial cycles shifted from 40,000- to 100,000-
sample was drilled from Antarcticas Allan Hills year periods. Understanding temperature and
blue ice area, where unusually old glacial ice is greenhouse gas shifts through those ice ages could
closer to the surface, making it more accessible. also offer insights into Earths future climate.
Trapped bubbles can offer snapshots of past KATHERINE MAST
Bubbles trapped in ice (above) hold ancient air, giving

geoscientists like John Higgins of Princeton University
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: YUZHEN YAN (2); PRESTON COSSLETT KEMENY/PRINCETON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES
(right) a way to date glacial ice in Antarctica. He
and his team drilled at three sites, hauling tents and
equipment, such as a drill bit lled with an ice core.
The team camped at Allan Hills (below), where old ice
is unusually accessible.

34

One Magnet to Bind Them All

A FRENZY FOR TWO-DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS

kicked off in 2004 with the creation of

graphene made from just a single layer, or

monolayer, of carbon atoms. Researchers have since
made monolayers of metals, semimetals, insulators

and more, but magnetism was the final holdout. In

June, Xiaodong Xu of the University of Washington

published results of the first isolated monolayer
magnet in Nature.

The new magnet, made of chromium triiodide

(CrI3), has some curious properties, just like previous
A single layer of chromium
2-D materials. A single layer of CrI3 crystals was triiodide (chromium atoms
magnetic, but two layers were not. Yet when a third in gray, iodine in purple)

layer was added, the magnetism reappeared. Future

applications could use this quirk to switch between evaporating within seconds of being exposed to air.

magnetic states in computers difficult using But Xu has high hopes the discovery will lead to new

current technology to improve computer memory. fundamental physics. What were really looking for
Its unlikely CrI3 itself will end up in commercial is anything beyond what we can imagine, he says.

devices. It reacts strongly with water and oxygen, Im sure its there. SYLVIA MORROW

35

Making Blood Cells in the Laboratory

SCIENTISTS HAVE TAKEN Adding seven transcription factors

A MAJOR STEP forward proteins that switch on genes
toward making articial the team then converted the IPSCs

blood by creating blood stem cells into immature HSC-like cells.

in the lab. The Weill Cornell researchers

In two studies reported in Nature process was more direct: Four

in May, teams at Harvard University transcription factors prompted
and Weill Cornell Medicine at Cornell adult mouse endothelial cells,

TOP: EFREN NAVARRO-MORATALLA. BOTTOM: DAVID M. PHILLIPS/SCIENCE SOURCE
University created hematopoietic stem which line the inside of blood

cells (HSCs). These mature into bloods vessels, to turn into HSCs.

essential components: platelets, Either approach could produce
white blood cells and red blood cells. enough HSCs to transplant and

HSCs also generate a lifetime of pending further safety testing

blood cells, which must be continually potentially treat leukemia, sickle

replenished. When the body fails cell disease and other severe blood
to restock, life-threatening forms of disorders. Says George Daley, a stem
Experts created articial blood stem cells,
anemia, lethal infections or serious cell biologist who led the Harvard
the precursors to white and red blood
bleeding disorders can emerge. cells (shown here) and platelets. study: Its a real scientic advance

To make the HSCs, the Harvard and brings us closer to making
group used human skin cells to genetically reprogram to an customized cells we can transplant

create induced pluripotent stem embryonic-stem-cell state, where without worrying about rejection.

cells (iPSCs), adult cells researchers they can grow into any kind of cell. LINDA MARSA

36

3-D PRINTING is now
tackling fertility. A team
from Northwestern
Mice Birth Pups
From Artificial Ovaries
University showed that mice
implanted with 3-D-printed ovaries
can birth healthy offspring a
medical rst that paves the way
to scale up the bioprosthetics
for humans.
The group printed the organs by
overlapping pieces of biocompatible
gelatin think of stacking Lincoln
Logs. Then, researchers inserted
up to 50 follicles into each ovary.
These structures produce hormones
and also contain eggs. Next, they
implanted two ovaries each in seven
sterile mice, and mated them with
male mice. After a normal gestation
of roughly three weeks, three
females gave birth to healthy litters. Researchers implanted
3-D-printed ovaries into
The study, published in Nature sterile female mice that later
Communications in May, also gave birth. Eggs housed in
the ovaries (circled, right)
noted that the new moms lactated, were engineered to glow
evidence of the follicles normal green under certain light
to make the pups (above)
hormone production. Though still easier to spot.
a long way off, the team hopes
similar methods for humans could
allow cancer survivors facing
chemotherapy-induced infertility
to become mothers. KATHERINE KORNEI
This gelatinous
articial ovary
(above) helps mouse
eggs (left) develop
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (4)
and survive inside

sterile female mice.
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37 Unraveling Mummies
Genetic Secrets

DESPITE WHAT JURASSIC
PARK TOLD YOU, DNA
doesnt last forever. Even
tissue to sift out any viable DNA
sequences.
In all, they recovered 90
though mummies can preserve mitochondrial sequences the
human tissues for millennia, tiny portion of our genome
most useful DNA doesnt make contained within mitochondria
it. Thats why it was a pleasant in addition to the three
surprise when archaeologists full genomes, as detailed in a
announced in May theyd found paper in Nature.
three full genomes from Egyptian The mummies were buried
mummies. Initial analyses are between 1400 B.C. and A.D. 400,
already suggesting that ancient a span covering ancient Egypts
Egyptians had much more New Kingdom and Roman
Middle Eastern ancestry than Period. The entire genetic
Egyptians do today, and more library comprises the most
TOP: JOHANNES KRAUSE/MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY. BOTTOM: BPK/GYPTISCHES MUSEUM UND PAPYRUSSAMMLUNG, SMB/SANDRA STEISS
insights likely await. reliable dataset from the area to
Working with 151 mummies date, and makes a case for the
recovered from a large burial site viability of DNA sequencing in
German researchers at the University of near Cairo, German researchers Egyptian archaeology.
Tuebingen (above) found a genetic motherlode
in ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the sampled bones, teeth and soft NATHANIEL SCHARPING
sarcophagus (below) of a young girl.

39

When Probiotics

Really Do Work

PROBIOTICS SEEM LIKE a good idea: Use products

38
that contain beneficial bacteria to fortify our immune

systems. But most studies, especially larger ones, had
not shown they actually do much good.

But now theres some proof. In a clinical trial in rural India

involving more than 4,500 newborns, a U.S.-led team and a

team from the Asian Institute of Public Health gave half the
babies a specially formulated probiotic concoction, while the
The Fastest Fluid remainder got a placebo. The team found the treated infants

had a significantly lower risk of developing sepsis, a life-

PROTONS AND NEUTRONS are threatening infection that kills 600,000 newborns globally
familiar as tiny solids, but particle each year. Only 5.4 percent of babies given the concoction

accelerators can melt them into got sepsis, compared with 9 percent who received a placebo,

whats called a quark-gluon plasma, or according to the study published in August in Nature.

QGP. Studies of the superhot material, What made this study different is, rather than using
rst done about a decade ago, have
off-the-shelf probiotics that cant gain a foothold in the
revealed QGP is the hottest, least viscous gut, researchers tested over 280 probiotic strains to find the

known liquid and is capable of forming right one. Their product contained a form of Lactobacillus

the smallest drop of liquid ever seen. And plantarum, bacteria that can colonize cells in the intestines,
now, its also the fastest known spinning
preventing the bad bugs from doing the same. Hopefully,
liquid, as reported in August by the STAR well figure out how the bacteria modulate newborns

collaboration in Nature. immune system, says Pinaki Panigrahi, an epidemiologist
TOP: BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY. BOTTOM: KUNAL PATIL/HINDUSTAN TIMES/GETTY IMAGES

In a single second, the authors (an who led the team. Because if we can give this to them early

international collaboration working with enough, it should protect against disease. LINDA MARSA
Brookhaven National Laboratorys STAR

detector) saw the QGP goop rotate a

mind-boggling sextillion times a billion

trillions. Getting even small pieces of new
information from these experiments is

always a challenge, so an experimental

measurement of an entirely new feature

like rotation speed is huge.
QGP production is sometimes referred to

as tiny big bangs because shortly after

the Big Bang, the universe consisted of

QGP. These experiments help us understand
the fundamental properties of our universe

and its origins, and lead the way toward
Indian newborns who received a specially concocted probiotic dose
testing emerging theories. SYLVIA MORROW were less likely to develop sepsis, a life-threatening infection.

40

A Titan for the
Record Books
THIS PAST SUMMER, paleontologists
announced a new contender for largest
dinosaur: Patagotitan mayorum. The
unearthed in Argentina in 2014. They estimate
the animal grew up to 122 feet long and weighed
roughly 69 tons about the same as 10 fully grown
100 million-year-old giant was a type of plant-eating, male African elephants, todays largest land animal.
long-necked sauropod called a titanosaur, and is Phil Mannion, a sauropod expert at Imperial
likely the largest creature known to have walked College London who was not involved with the
the planet. study, praises the nd. Whether or not Patagotitan
An international group of researchers described the is the largest known dinosaur, he says, it lls an
animal in August in the journal Biological Sciences, important gap in our understanding of these gigantic
after analyzing the partial skeletons of six individuals animals. JON TENNANT
Patagotitan mayorum,
reconstructed below, might be
the biggest known dinosaur.
This rendering, at left,
shows bones from different
16.5 ft. individuals, with missing
bones shown in light blue.
TOP: JOS L. CARBALLIDO ET AL./PROC. R. SOC. B 284: 20171219, AUGUST 9, 2017. BOTTOM: CHRISSTOCK PHOTO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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41
Dawn of the
Planet of the Apes
A 13 MILLION-YEAR-OLD SKULL from Kenya, described in
August in Nature, hints at what a common ancestor of all
living apes (including humans) looked like. The fossil, from
FRED SPOOR. INSET: ISAIAH NENGO, PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER KIARIE
an infant, is the lineages most complete skull between 7 million

and 17 million years old. The animal had a short snout, similar to
that of a gibbon but unlike other apes. Anthropologist and lead
author Isaiah Nengo says the fossil offers the best glimpse yet of The palm-sized infant skull is a
our distant ancestor: We now have a face. MARK BARNA link to our distant primate past.

43

The Sleepless Seven: First

Genes Linked to Insomnia

42

Genetic Roots

of PTSD

SPOST-TRAUMATIC STRESS

DISORDER (PTSD) affects about

24.4 million Americans annually.
Now, researchers have detailed evidence

that a persons risk of developing

the disorder which results from

experiencing traumatic events like rape
and war is inherited.

The work, published in Molecular

Psychiatry in April, pooled results from 11 LACK OF SLEEP hurts peoples concentration, mood

studies to analyze data from over 20,000 and health. And for those with insomnia defined
volunteers. Previous research suggested as three sleep-deprived nights a week for at least three

genetics might play a role in developing months life can become a nightmare.

PTSD. But according to senior author and The cause of insomnia, which affects 10 percent of the

Harvard epidemiologist Karestan Koenen, population, has long been considered psychological. But a

those ndings only inferred heritability. June paper in Nature Genetics identified, for the first time, a
For this work, Koenen and her team genetic risk for the condition.

examined the entire genomes of those A team of international researchers looked for genomic

earlier studies participants. They found variations between insomniacs and sound sleepers among

LEFT: SCOTT PETERSON/GETTY IMAGES. RIGHT: AUGUSTO ZAMBONATO
evidence that not only can PTSD be 113,000 people in the U.K. and found seven genes linked
passed down through generations, but to insomnia. One of the genes had been identified as a risk

also that some related genes are linked factor for two sleep disorders: restless leg syndrome and

to schizophrenia. They further found that periodic limb movement. Individuals with the insomnia-

European-American women are about 30 linked genes also appeared predisposed to depression, obesity
percent more likely than men overall to be and cardiovascular diseases.

genetically susceptible to developing PTSD. Exploring what these genes actually do and why they

Knowing how the condition works on make people vulnerable for insomnia is the next step,

a genetic level could help experts identify says study co-author Eus Van Someren, head of the
those most at risk, and tailor treatment Sleep & Cognition Group at the Netherlands Institute for

to help them work through their Neuroscience. The research could lead to developing more

trauma. LACY SCHLEY effective drugs to treat the condition, he says. MARK BARNA

ke r
44
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RRITORY
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S o u th e rn R TICS
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to n s; b iz a
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body
fl att e n e d ITS
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Species E VA S IO N
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: R e se a rc
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th e fi sh
009, but
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it e it s m a
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y e a rs d e sp
STEALTH,
DISGUISE AND
SOME GOOD
HIDING SPOTS had CODENAME Sk ywalk
er
previously left these ho olo ck gib bo n
agents undetected. ing
NAME Ho olo ck tia nx
The species that SE D ar y
COMPROMI Ja nu
scientists exposed and ITO RY an ma r an d
KNOWN TERR
My
identified in 2017 had
so uth we ste rn Ch ina
been squirreled away RISTICS
PHYSICAL CHARACTE
in all kinds of places, ne d wh ite eyeb rows
Down tur
from the depths of ITS
remote oceans to NOTABLE SKILLS/TRA
AT US : Tu cked away in
right under our noses. EL ITE ST
kn ow n as
SYLVIA MORROW
iso lat ed mo un tai ns
ra re gibbo ns
sk y isl an ds, th es e
l tra ck ing
have taken ca re fu
. Bio log ist s
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th em , bu t
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THIS PAGE FROM TOP: CSAR VILLARROEL/EXPLORASUB; PENGFEI FAN; NICK KERHOULAS. OPPOSITE FROM TOP: RYAN RIDENBAUGH AND MILES ZHANG; JANNES LANDSCHO AND RAFAEL LEMAITRE, ZOOKEYS 676: 2145 (2017) BACKGROUND: SULEYMANKARACESME/SHUTTERSTOCK

NOTABLE SKILLS/TRAITS

STEALTH ASSASSINATION AND

IMPERSONATION: It wasnt
until one researcher happened

upon this wasps home on a

casual stroll that its cover was

blown. E. set lays its eggs in

the new, growing stems of oak

trees, in which another wasp,
the crypt gall wasp, has also

laid its eggs. Just as the new

generation of adult gall wasps

CODENAME Crypt-keeper wasp bores its way out of the tree,

NAME Euderus set newly hatched E. set wasps kill

COMPROMISED January their hosts, eating their way

KNOWN TERRITORY through their victims bodies
Southeastern U.S. and hiding in the corpse until

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS they reach maturity.

Iridescent exoskeleton

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Green

eyes; living shell composed

of anemones held together by

sand

NOTABLE SKILLS/TRAITS
EVASION/CAMOUFLAGE:

P. atkinsonae wasnt spotted

until 2012. It could have been

just another hermit crab, but

a researcher conducting a sea

life survey spied P. atkinsonae s
CODENAME Green-eyed signature green eyes. Much

hermit crab like M. tecta , it took experts

NAME Paragiopagurus atkinsonae another five years to root out

COMPROMISED May this agent.

KNOWN TERRITORY South African

coast


45
ESSAY
DIAGNOSING
FROM AFAR

IN THE HEAT of the 1964 presidential election
campaign between Lyndon Johnson and Barry
Goldwater, FACT magazine published a fiery
headline: 1,189 Psychiatrists Say Goldwater Is
Psychologically Unfit to Be President! Goldwater sued
FACT for libel and won.
The American Psychiatric
46
Association (APA), the worlds largest
association in the field, reacted to the
incident by declaring it unethical for
a psychiatrist to offer a professional
opinion unless he or she has
conducted an examination and has
been granted proper authorization for
such a statement. The 1973 change
became known as the Goldwater Rule.
The Equator
The guidelines remained largely
uncontroversial for decades, until Could Be
Donald Trumps presidential election
prompted some mental health
professionals to call foul and go
Uninhabitable

rogue. After he was elected, people in HEAT WAVES CAN KILL PEOPLE,
mental health started getting agitated and by 2100, half of Earths
about the restriction, says psychiatrist population could experience
Prudence Gourguechon, an APA 20 days or more of life-threatening
FROM TOP: ARIF ALI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; BOB GOMEL/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; FACT MAGAZINE VIA WIKIMEDIA
member and former president of the heat every year. And thats if humans
American Psychoanalytic Association. drastically reduce their CO2 footprint. In
A February letter to The New York the worst-case scenario if greenhouse
Times, signed by 33 psychiatrists gas emissions keep growing some
and psychologists, cited Trumps 75 percent of humans could feel that
inauguration speech as proof of grave emotional deadly heat, according to a June paper
instability and declared him incapable of safely serving published in Nature Climate Change.
as president. Several prominent psychiatrists resigned from The research team, led by University of
the APA to protest what they saw as attempted restriction Hawaii scientists, analyzed future climate
on their freedom of speech. trends by looking at studies of past heat
In response, the APA doubled down, reissuing a waves. They found that combinations
reminder to members that the rule remained in effect. of heat and humidity exceeding our
Meanwhile, the much smaller American Psychoanalytic ability to cool ourselves with sweat
Association made headlines when it told members they could regularly threaten large swaths of
were free to decide for themselves whether or not to humanity by 2100.
publicly comment on Trumps behavior. Whats more, the analysis indicates
Gourguechon argues the media interest in the ethics that many regions near the tropics in
rules of otherwise obscure professional associations may particular where billions of people live
be a symptom of something else entirely. Journalists would experience conditions regularly
feel troubled by the demands of their own profession for exceeding that limit, making the areas
neutrality, she says. I think journalists are displacing their effectively uninhabitable.
own conflict onto us. ANDREW CURRY NATHANIEL SCHARPING

47

Asteroid

Hits Reverse

IN MARCH, ASTRONOMERS IN

CANADA identied an asteroid unlike

any other: It travels the same orbit as

Jupiter, but circles the sun in the opposite
direction. Only a few other objects in the solar

system are known to have such a wrong

way orbit, and asteroid 2015 BZ509 alone

shares its path with a planet.
Astronomer Paul Wiegert, from the

University of Western Ontario, and colleagues

September tracked the object during late 2015. They
2029 February
2018 found that its gravitational relationship with
the sun and Jupiter keeps it in a safe, stable

orbit and its likely been there for around a

million years, they reported in Nature.

The questions now include guring out if
Earth orbit
2015 BZ509 is more like an icy comet or a rocky
asteroid and how it ended up going the wrong
Sun
way in the rst place. Those will help answer

what Wiegert calls the big question. The rst

asteroid discovered turned out to be one of
millions, he says. Is BZ509 unique or just the

Jupiter orbit tip of an iceberg? STEPHEN ORNES

Asteroid 2015 BZ509 orbit

This top-down view shows the shifting
orbit of asteroid 2015 BZ509 around the sun,

and how it overlaps with Jupiter's.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH; INSET: DAN BISHOP/DISCOVER

48

BACK IN THE 19TH
CENTURY, a French
criminologist named
I Can See What
Youve Seen
kind of bertillonage.
The discovery, reported in June
in Cell, completely breaks with
Alphonse Bertillon invented the standard model of facial
a technique for recognizing recognition, which claims each
repeat offenders by precisely face you recognize is represented
measuring convicts facial features. by a single neuron (one cell firing
Fingerprinting eventually when you see your grandmother,
supplanted his system, another when you see
but new research done Jennifer Aniston).
on macaques shows Instead, Caltech
primate brains can neuroscientist Doris
naturally keep Tsao showed that
track of faces individual primate
thanks neurons respond to
to a specific facial qualities,
such as bone shape and
skin color.
Inserting electrodes into
the brains of two macaques,
Tsao worked out which aspects
of a face were mapped onto
each neuron. Then she validated
her findings by showing the
macaques additional faces, and
accurately reconstructing what
theyd seen using only neural
recordings.
Tsao predicts that, with
advances in human brain-
monitoring technology, the
ability to decode faces by
neuronal activity can be used in LEFT: OLEG SENKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK. RIGHT: COURTESY OF DORIS TSAO
forensics, such as reading out a
criminals face from a witness
mind. Are you watching,
Monsieur Bertillon?
JONATHON KEATS
Researchers had macaques look

at faces (left column), while
recording electrical activity from
205 of the monkeys neurons.
Scientists then used that data to Actual faces Predicted faces
reconstruct those faces (right).

49

Weighing a White Dwarf

THREE YEARS AGO, ASTRONOMERS put

a white dwarf on a scale and watched the Real star position Observed star position

needle move. Not literally, says Kailash Sahu,
an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science

Institute, but their pioneering method of weighing

the star really is that straightforward. Their findings
White dwarf
appeared in Science in June.

When the dwarf, named Stein 2051 B, passed in
front of another star from Earths perspective, Sahus

team followed the position of the background star. As

general relativity predicts, light from the background

star bent around the white dwarf, distorted by its
gravitational field. Like the deflection of a scales
Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to learn a white
needle, the deflection of the background stars light let dwarf's mass by seeing how much it deected another star's light.

astronomers calculate the white dwarfs mass (roughly

67.5 percent the mass of our sun). The movement was Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1930. Previous
minute, but the results were stunning. I almost fell off attempts to confirm the theory had relied on shaky

my chair, says Sahu. assumptions, but Sahus group demonstrated

The white dwarfs mass was exactly in line Chandrasekhars accuracy while proving their own

with predictions made in a theory developed by new method really works. SYLVIA MORROW

50 Drug Treats Aggressive Form of MS

MORE THAN 400,000 The new-to-market drug takes a
AMERICANS are aficted novel approach. Whereas traditional

with multiple sclerosis, an MS medications target the immune

autoimmune disease that disrupts systems T-cells, ocrelizumab focuses

the brains neural signals to the on destroying the systems B-cells,

body. In March, the Food and which fuel the brain inammation
Drug Administration approved that causes the disease to worsen.

the drug ocrelizumab to treat not During clinical trials, MRI scans

only the milder form of MS, but showed that ocrelizumab reduces

also the primary-progressive form, new brain inammation in the
for which there was no treatment milder relapse-remitting form, and
TOP: NASA, ESA, AND K. SAHU (STSCI). BOTTOM: GENENTECH

until now. slows deterioration in the progressive

In both types of MS, immune and most aggressive form. Along

system cells attack and strip the way, the experiments have
away myelin, the fatty protective resulted in important information

sheathing that insulates nerve cells. on how MS attacks the body, says

This interferes with nerve signals, Stephen Hauser, a neurologist at

causing muscle weakness, lack of the University of California, San
coordination, blurry vision, bowel Francisco, whose lab spent decades

and bladder problems and foggy determining the critical role B-cells
Ocrelizumab is the rst FDA-approved
thinking. treatment for primary-progressive MS. play in the disease. LINDA MARSA

51

CANCER
CELLS ARE
NOTORIOUSLY
Mapping the
Monsters
Much
like biologists
ADEPT AT SURVIVAL, classifying living
organisms in ever-smaller
even exploiting groups based on shared
vulnerabilities within traits, all the way down to
genus and species, the new cancer
an individuals DNA dependencies map organizes
to multiply and spread. different genetic mutations by how
they allow cancer's development and
In July, researchers at spread. In this visual representation
the Broad Institute of the map, the inner ring
represents all identified
mapped these cancer-linked mutations.
cancer-linked genetic
mutations, called
cancer dependencies,
for the first time.
For decades, cancer
was a black box, and
we didnt know which
genes were important,
says research team
leader William Hahn
of the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute.
The goal with the
dependency map is The
inner ring's
to identify genes of different segments
consequence and each contain those
genetic mutations
reverse engineer what that facilitate cancer
their action is, to devise through a similar
better therapies. mechanism, such as
errors in making
The team uncovered proteins.
different kinds of
dependencies that
cancer cells exploit,
such as underactive Radiating
or overactive genes. from the inner
The Broad Institutes ring, mutations
are grouped by more
THE BROAD INSTITUTE OF MIT AND HARVARD
visualization of the specific shared traits,

map, simplified here, such as those that cause
errors in making the
illuminates both same kind of
the complexity and KNOW THINE ENEMY: Mapping proteins.
interconnectedness of genetic mutations based on
similarities in how they enable cancer
the genetic pathways can help researchers identify potential
that fuel tumor growth. targets for new therapies.
LINDA MARSA

52 Amber Preserves Ticks Last Supper

AN AMBER-TRAPPED TICK found in

the Dominican Republic contains

the oldest mammalian red blood

cells ever discovered. According to a study

in the Journal of Medical Entomology
in March, a grooming primate likely

punctured the ticks shell releasing blood

and betraying its presence to scientists

millions of years later and then flicked
the critter into tree sap, where it was

preserved for some 15 million to 45 million

years. The cells contain a parasite related

to a modern species commonly carried
by ticks, shedding light on the entwined

history of our ancestors and the organisms Close-up of fossilized

that preyed on them. NATHANIEL SCHARPING blood cells.

53

A Quick Start to Long-Lasting Memories

NEUROSCIENTISTS the brain cells involved in that outer layers, which house long-
THOUGHT long-term painful memory. term memories within just a day

memories took weeks The team identified memory of the shock. When the scientists

to form. But MIT researchers have cells in the neocortex the brains stimulated those cells with light,

discovered those the critters cowered in
memories can take fear, showing that the

hold in the brain long-term memories

much sooner. were already there.

The team used Along with
TOP: GEORGE POINAR JR./OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY (2). BOTTOM: LIGHTSPRING/SHUTTERSTOCK

a technique called furthering our

optogenetics, in understanding of

which light-responsive memory, the results,

proteins are published in April in
genetically inserted Science, also may help

into brain cells, explain what happens

allowing researchers during dementia.

to activate them with We are nothing

lasers to find out but memory, says
what they do. The senior author Susumu

group trained mice Tonegawa. So we

with these engineered want to understand

neurons to fear an how it works, and we
electric shock and, want to understand

with a blast of laser why it goes wrong.

light, could spot JESSICA MCDONALD

54 Ocean Test Plots Reveal
Effects of Warming

TO STUDY GLOBAL A group of small filter-feeding
WARMING, one group invertebrates had taken over
of Antarctic researchers on top of the heated panels,
ditched fancy models in favor of completely shifting the balance
a more hands-on approach: They of the tiny test ecosystem. The
heated the ocean themselves. scientists work, published in
British Antarctic Survey September in Current Biology,
TOP: GAIL ASHTON. BOTTOM: SABRINA HEISER
scientists placed panels equipped reveals the impact of the

with heating elements on warming predicted to occur over
the seabed in Antarctica and the next 50 years.
warmed the devices by either With such a loss of diversity
1 or 2 degrees Celsius. When the comes increased sensitivity to
researchers checked back a few disease and other potential threats, Divers (top) from the Rothera Research
Station in Antarctica monitor heated panels
months later, the effects were likely robbing ecosystems of their (above), designed to mimic ocean warming,
starkly apparent. resilience. NATHANIEL SCHARPING on the seabed near Adelaide Island.
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55
Stuck on You

TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
against predatory birds, some
slugs have evolved to produce
a defensive mucus that secures them
to virtually any surface. Strong, stretchy and effective even in
56
wet environments, the adhesive could be useful for surgeons
struggling to plug and patch patients slippery organs if
only the substance could be efficiently manufactured.
Harvard University bioengineer Jianyu Li has now
mimicked this slug mucus in the lab, making synthetic glues
using extracts from shrimp shell and algae. Our adhesives
are engineered to copy the essential biochemical and
microstructural characteristics of the mucus, he says. Mathematicians
Like defensive mucus, Lis concoctions can bond surfaces
chemically, physically and electrostatically. Initial tests,
See Within

reported July in Science, have demonstrated effective JULES VERNE MIGHT BE
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: NIGEL CATTLIN/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; MIKKEL JUUL JENSEN/SCIENCE SOURCE; WYSS INSTITUTE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
adhesion to animal hearts and livers, as well as cartilage and disappointed to learn that we still
arteries. The slime that saves slugs lives could do the same cant journey to the center of the
for humans. JONATHON KEATS Earth. But those curious about whats
down there metal or monsters? can
take heart from a mathematical proof
nearly four decades in the making.
The proof, posted online in February,
demonstrates that an objects insides
can be mapped exactly without
cutting it open. All you need to know
is how quickly waves travel between
every possible pair of points on the
objects surface.
Strictly speaking, the proof applies only
to certain mathematically perfect objects.
The Earth is far from mathematical
idealization, says Stanford Universitys
Andrs Vasy, one of three mathematicians
behind the proof. Still, he hopes their
work will lead to better tools for geology,
which already investigates Earths interior
by studying seismic waves, and medical
imaging, which infers the internal details
Bioengineers inspired by slug secretions (top) have created an adhesive
of bodies from electromagnetic waves
that sticks to even wet biological tissues (above). like X-rays. DEVIN POWELL

57

Our Neighbor, Homo naledi

THE 2013 DISCOVERY OF HOMO NALEDI in South Africas Rising

Star cave system added a new member to our family tree, but

researchers initially were unable to date the small-brained hominin.
In papers published in the journal eLife in May, anthropologist Lee

Berger and his team finally placed the remains between 236,000 and

335,000 years old, younger than many expected based on the hominins

primitive features. The relatively recent date suggests H. naledi might have
overlapped with archaic Homo sapiens in the region.

Bergers team also announced more H. naledi specimens including

Neo (below), the most complete individual found so far from an

entirely new chamber in the cave system. The story of H. naledi is far from

over. NATHANIEL SCHARPING

WITS UNIVERSITY/JOHN HAWKS

58

THOUSANDS OF POUNDS
OF COSMIC DUST known
as micrometeorites
The Pitter-Patter
of Cosmic Dust
researchers seek micrometeorites
in remote places like Antarctica.
But Jon Larsen, a Norwegian jazz
often collected from rooftops,
to Imperial College Londons
Matthew Genge, Larsen found his
arrive on Earth daily. Scientists musician turned micrometeorite first micrometeorite. The pair has
have long ignored the common photographer, managed to strike since identified hundreds more.
space stuff that surrounds us, space dirt among the diaspora of Research based on their catalog
however, since cities abound with human-made dust. After years appeared in Geology in February.
similar-looking particles. Instead, of sending photos of urban dust, SYLVIA MORROW
JAN BRALY KIHLE AND JON LARSEN

59 Go West, Young Tree

AMERICAN TREES are marching west,

and thats a surprise to ecologists.

As the climate warms, researchers

expected many plant species would move
farther north and to higher elevations

as they chase cooler climes. But more

trees have actually expanded west over

recent decades, according to a May study in

Science Advances.
A team led by scientists at Purdue

University examined about 30 years of

U.S. Forest Service data covering 86 types

of trees in the eastern United States. In
addition to the general westward migration,

their study showed the trees arent moving in

unison. While leafy deciduous trees, such as

oak and maple, were more likely to go west,
evergreen trees more often pushed north.

The researchers say their findings indicate

that moisture currently plays a more

important role than temperature for many

species. The trees are simply following the
rain. ERIC BETZ

60

A Flu-Fighters Fall From Grace

WHEN TAMIFLU came on the downgraded the drug on its list of

market in 1999, it promised core medications.

TOP: AUGUSTO ZAMBONATO. BOTTOM: MATTHEW BAKER/PRESS ASSOCIATION VIA AP IMAGES
to curtail severe influenza Critics blasted both WHOs delay

symptoms and even save lives, and Roches failure to release all

especially among the frail elderly of the clinical trial data, including

and the chronically ill. some of the largest studies.

In 2010, in the midst of the University of Georgia epidemiologist
H1N1 swine flu pandemic, the Mark Ebell, who analyzed some

World Health Organization of the unpublished data, echoed

(WHO) designated Tamiflu as an an editorial in The British Medical

essential medication, encouraging Journal when he called the
governments to stockpile it. As a unpublished research, in 2012 situation a multisystem failure

result, the drug has generated over and 2014, found no evidence that that diverted public health dollars

$9 billion in sales worldwide just Tamiflu reduced hospitalizations into buying a marginally effective

from government purchases. or deaths; it also caused adverse drug instead of using them for
But Roche, Tamiflus maker, had effects. That should have been research into better treatments or

buried the results of several clinical the end of Tamiflu. But it was more pressing health care concerns.

trials. Independent reviews of this not until June that WHO finally LINDA MARSA

61

Spotting Autism
Sooner
DIFFICULTY COMMUNICATING,
repetitive behaviors, sensory overload
all suggest autism spectrum disorder
(ASD). These hallmarks generally appear by
the time kids are 2 years old, and doctors cant
start treating the neurodevelopmental disorder
until these symptoms show up. But now, a
June paper in Science Translational Medicine Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS)
describes a computer model that predicted Social communication
which 6-month-old infants would display
symptoms at the 2-year mark.
U.S. researchers scanned the brains of 59
high-risk infants and waited 18 months to
see which babies were diagnosed with ASD.
The team then compared neural connectivity
between the two groups and developed a
model that correctly identified using only
the infant scans nine of the 11 children who
ended up with symptoms.
If you can start therapy before these
symptoms show up, you have a chance of
improving many of the issues that lead to
Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL)
autism, says neuroscientist Robert Emerson Cognitive ability
of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and a co-author of the paper. MARK BARNA
LEFT: OLGA LISTOPAD/SHUTTERSTOCK. RIGHT: R.W. EMERSON ET AL., SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE (2017)
Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R)

Repetitive behaviors
Each of the images above shows connectivity levels during different

behavioral tests in brains of infants who would eventually be
diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Blue lines signify
more connectivity than non-ASD infants while red lines signify
less connectivity. These behavioral tests and the corresponding
connectivity levels were likely contributing factors to how a
computer algorithm was able to go back through these infants
brain scans and accurately predict nine out of 11 babies who
would go on to be diagnosed with ASD by age 2.

62

Ice Storms

63
on Mars

A NEW WEATHER SIMULATION predicts nighttime

snow flurries on arid Mars, shedding light on

how the Red Planets scarce water supplies move
through the atmosphere.
In 2008, the Phoenix lander observed snowfall in Mars sky.

But scientists believed the snow, falling under its own slight
Positive Proton

weight, would take hours to drift down, and would probably Loses Weight

evaporate before hitting the ground.
The new research, published in August in Nature THE PROTON GOT a little lighter

Geoscience, shows nighttime air currents are turbulent, with this year, thanks to measurements
of its mass that are three times
convection strong enough to churn the snow down in a
matter of minutes, resulting in more reaching the ground. more precise than the best previous effort.

While the amount of snow is minimal, that precipitation This tweak to one of the building blocks

would be a crucial step in Mars water cycle, both of matter, good to 32 parts per trillion,
should help refine measurements of
present and past.
other phenomena and test fundamental
Lead author and planetary scientist Aymeric Spiga at the
Universit Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris says that the snow symmetries in nature.

in his model is more like an ice storm of tiny particles than To reweigh the proton, scientists in

Earths intricate, fluffy flakes. Standing on Mars early in Germany trapped the particle within
magnetic and electric fields. Using
the morning, you would see it as a very thin and sparse
frost, he says. KOREY HAYNES phenomenally sensitive detectors from

Japan, they compared the particles

vibrations, which are related to its mass,
with the vibrations of a carbon atom (the

CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: ISRO/ISSDC/KEVIN M. GILL/CC BY 2.0; MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS (2)
mass standard-bearer for atoms).

Students everywhere hope they dont

have to memorize the mass calculated by
the researchers and published in July in

Physical Review Letters: 1.007276466583

atomic mass units. DEVIN POWELL

While astronomers
knew Mars was home
to the occasional light Physicists set up a Penning Trap, which
snowfall, they recently manipulates electric and magnetic fields,

learned the Red Planet to study a single proton in isolation. They
may also host more found its mass was actually a little lower
intense precipitation. than was previously estimated.

OUR TRASHY LEGACY

8.3 BILLION METRIC TONS. Thats how much plastic humanity
has produced thus far, according to a study published in July in
Science Advances. Of that, nearly 80 percent has been thrown
out (as opposed to recycled or burned), which means over 6 billion
tons of plastic waste is strewn about our planet. A portion of it ends
up in the ocean, where it can float for years or wash ashore on pristine
islands. One remote South Pacific island had accumulated an estimated
38 million pieces of plastic trash as of 2015. Heres a breakdown of how
we use plastics and where they end up. NATHANIEL SCHARPING
HOW HEAVY IS
8.3 BILLION
METRIC TONS? MILLION
CUMULATIVE PLASTIC METRIC
WASTE GENERATION TONS
AND DISPOSAL
25,000
New plastic waste
generated*
Discarded
20,000
Incinerated
Recycled
296,000,000,000,000
20 OZ. SODA BOTTLES 15,000
10,000
1,660,000,000,000,000
CREDIT CARDS 5,000
0
YEAR 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
* Plastic created from virgin, non-recycled materials
3,150,000,000,000,000
BOTTLE CAPS
GLOBAL TRENDS IN RATE
PLASTIC DISPOSAL PAST FUTURE PROJECTIONS
100%
ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER; ILLUSTRATIONS BY PANDA VECTOR/SHUTTERSTOCK

90%
Discard
6,150,000,000,000,000 Incinerate 80%
2X2 LEGO BRICKS Recyclee
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
SOURCE: PRODUCTION, USE, AND FATE OF ALL YEAR 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
PLASTICS EVER MADE, SCIENCE ADVANCES, 2017

65

Earths Hot

Pockets

A COUPLE OF DECADES AGO,

seismologists noticed some strange

behavior below Earths surface. Seismic
waves that normally pass through the planets

inner layers with ease got caught up in the rocky

lower mantle, roughly halfway to Earths center.

The waves slowed down by as much as 30 percent.

Scientists surmised the ripples had hit partially
molten pockets and dubbed the areas ultra-low Ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZs), shown in red, are pockets
of molten rock roughly halfway to Earths center. Seismic
velocity zones (ULVZs). waves slow down by as much as 30 percent when passing

In August, geologists reported in Nature through them.

Communications that they overlaid ULVZ locations
with computer models of the heat flow through the studys lead author. Although the regions precise

the mantle and spotted something interesting. The composition remains unknown, their geological

pockets arent situated in places hot enough to melt distinctiveness suggests mantle materials never fully

the lower mantles rock. Therefore, they must be mixed, even over billions of years. Deciphering this
made of minerals with a lower melting point, says mystery undoubtedly holds a key to understanding

Arizona State University geophysicist Mingming Li, the evolution of our planet, Li says. JONATHON KEATS

66

TOP: MINGMING LI ET AL./NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 8, ARTICLE NUMBER: 177 (2017) CC BY 4.0. BOTTOM: MEDICAL WRITERS/SCIENCE SOURCE
A Better Way to Control Pain?

TODAYS PAINKILLERS the brain and spinal cord.
Painkillers could
target the brain and one day target But the team noticed that in

spinal cord. But in April, our peripheral rodents, neurons near the spine used
nervous system
neuroscientists reported that there a neurotransmitter called gamma-
(purple) instead
might be a way to block pain before of our central aminobutyric acid (GABA) to dial

it makes it to those central systems. nervous system back pain signals before sending
(red) thanks
An international team of to one cell them on. When the researchers
types newly
researchers found that peripheral administered GABA to those neurons
discovered
nerves play an unexpected role in role in pain. in rats, the animals hardly reacted to

processing pain. a painful injection into their paws.

Experts had thought these cells The finding, published in the

merely relayed information to the Journal of Clinical Investigation,
spinal cord, which integrates other might radically change how we

incoming pain signals and sends treat pain, assuming it holds

them to the brain for interpretation. up for humans, too, says senior

During this process, both the author Nikita Gamper. Painkillers

brain and spinal cord use chemical that act on peripheral nerves, he
messengers, or neurotransmitters, says, would have far fewer side

to turn pain up or down. Scientists effects and shouldnt be addictive.

believed this ability was limited to JESSICA MCDONALD

67

ACCORDING TO AZTEC
BELIEFS, gods died to
create the world, and
A Towering Aztec
Ritual Uncovered
tzompantli, or skull rack, at
Templo Mayor, the Great Temple.
The colonists exaggerated the
people owed them a debt to death tolls, but sacrifices and
be repaid through large-scale tzompantli were real. Some of the
human sacrifices. Accounts by victims resurfaced in July, when A 16th-century illustration captures
the scale of a tzompantli, a large rack
16th-century Spanish colonists archaeologists uncovered a tower on which the Aztecs displayed skulls
painted a grisly picture: miles-long made from more than 650 human of sacrificial victims.
lines of victims awaiting such skulls near the ruins of Templo
a fate, and more than 100,000 Mayor in Mexico City. tower after public display on the
severed heads strung along a Skulls were likely added to the nearby tzompantli, indicated by
rows of 10-inch holes that once
held wooden posts supporting the
skull rack.
Of the 171 skulls studied so
far, most victims were young
men, likely captured enemy
warriors, but some were women
and children. DNA and isotopic
analysis, currently underway,
should determine where in Central
America the victims originated.
BRIDGET ALEX
Researchers (upper left) are

analyzing more than 650 skulls
found in the ruins of Templo
Mayor, the great Aztec temple.
The skulls formed a tower and
FROM TOP: DURAN CODEX VIA WIKIMEDIA; RAUL BARRERA (2); HECTOR-MONTANO/INAH
were caked in lime (left). They
were carefully removed (below).
69
Famous Galaxy
Hosts Bonus
Black Hole

CYGNUS A IS A GALAXY
FAMOUS FOR harboring in
its center one of the most
active black holes we know of.
Astronomers have watched that
galaxy for decades, so imagine their
surprise when an observatory
New Mexicos Very Large Array
spotted a new source of radio waves,
68
reported in June in The Astrophysical
Journal. The most likely explanation?
A second, dormant black hole had
awoken, flaming suddenly into view.
The two black holes are just
1,500 light-years apart, one of the
closest known pairs of supermassive
black holes. They are also likely
approaching each other and will
eventually merge into a single entity.
Cellular Atlas Paves Way If our conclusion is correct, this

offers a new pathway to understand
for Precision Medicine the process by which large black

holes coalesce in galaxy centers,

says lead author Daniel Perley of
THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT, the audacious map of Liverpool John Moores University in
our genetic code that was completed 15 years ago, was the U.K. YVETTE CENDES
inspired by another genetic map that of a tiny worm.
Scientists are hoping a new catalog of gene expression in each
cell of the same worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, will herald the
same kind of cellular atlas for humans. LEFT: AUGUSTO ZAMBONATO. RIGHT: PERLEY, ET AL., NRAO/AUI/NSF, NASA
To create the catalog, scientists extracted cells from thousands

of C. elegans larvae and chemically processed them in a way 1989
that assigned a unique barcode to each cell. The method
revealed which genes were turned on or off. When the scientists
categorized the cells by this so-called gene expression, they
spotted 27 different types, including muscle, skin and intestine
cells, the team reported in Science in August.
2015
This cellular atlas allows researchers to look for patterns.
A similar human atlas, already in progress, could spot signatures Something has changed in the central
region of galaxy Cygnus A. The new area
linked to disease, enabling medical treatments tailored to emitting radio waves is likely a dormant
individual patients. KATHERINE KORNEI black hole waking up.

70

When Did

Life Appear?

AS A FAINT, YOUNG SUN Earth is older than we thought. In

shone on our freshly formed September, Japanese geoscientists,

Earth around 4 billion years publishing in Nature, said theyd

ago, primitive creatures, each less also found traces of 3.95 billion-
than half the width of a human year-old life-forms in different

hair, were thriving around volcanic northern Canadian rocks.

vents. Some critics doubt the age Tiny tubes of the mineral hematite, found

Thats the conclusion of an claims of both studies and say around hydrothermal vent deposits,
might be the oldest microfossils on Earth
international team of geoscientists the samples need more rigorous and evidence for when life on our planet
who announced in March testing before anything can be came to be.

in Nature theyd unearthed confirmed. But the findings fit an

these creatures remains. emerging consensus that life began craters helped create hydrothermal

The microfossils, potentially the around 4 billion years ago, a vents that set the stage for life
oldest discovered, were locked period when comets and asteroids to emerge.

inside rocks in remote northern bombarded Earth. This makes life appear to be

Canada that were 3.8 billion to Until relatively recently, a relatively easy process to kick-

4.3 billion years old roughly scientists thought such impacts start on the planet, says Matthew
when scientists think life started. wouldve sterilized our world until Dodd of University College

But that wasnt the only finding roughly 3.8 billion years ago. But London and lead author on the

this year that suggested life on new evidence is suggesting those March paper. ERIC BETZ

TOP: MATTHEW DODD. BOTTOM: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE SOURCE

A glimpse of what our primitive
planet might have looked like

when it was forming, more than
4 billion years ago.


71
ANCIENT EGYPT has
Curiosity Killed the Cat
But Ancient DNA
Revealed Its Backstory
long been considered the
domestic cats cradle. But
pest-control agents aboard ships,
hence their global dispersal.
The success of cats in
when researchers sequenced DNA spreading across long and short
FROM TOP: PONGTORN SUKGASE/SHUTTERSTOCK; MAP ADAPTED BY PERMISSION FROM MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD: C. OTTONI ET AL./NAT. ECOL. EVOL. 1, 0139 (2017); ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, UK/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
from more than 200 ancient cats, geographical ranges was linked
they discovered that, while Nile to a strong relationship between
natives formed the most broadly them and humans, Ottoni says.
distributed lineage, they were not Evolutionarily speaking, cats
the first. are one of the most successful
Paleogeneticist Claudio Ottoni, species, but it happened
lead author of the June study in because humans really liked
Nature Ecology & Evolution, says, them. GEMMA TARLACH
according to DNA records, the
first wave of feline domestication
occurred about 6,400 years ago in North
southwest Asia through southeast Sea
x
Europe, but it remained a regional x
affair. x x x
Egyptian cats conquered x Black Sea x
x
the household sometime after x
x xx x x
that, Ottoni says. By the eighth x Mediterranean Sea x
x
century B.C., theyd spread rapidly x x x
via trade routes throughout the x
x
Mediterranean and across x x x
Asia and the Indian Ocean.
The study also showed Arabian Sea
x
that, unlike domesticated
Indian
animals seen mostly as Ocean
sources of meat or labor, cats
served as companions and useful
x x
x
x
MODERN WILDCAT RANGE &
x ANCIENT DNA SAMPLE AREAS
European wildcat
(Felis silvestris silvestris)
African wildcat
(F. s. lybica)
Asiatic wildcat
(F. s. ornata)
Researchers studied remains Southern African wildcat
of F. s. lybica, whose modern (F. s. cafra)
territory is shown above in
Chinese Mountain cat
orange, and found that humans
Ancient Egyptian cats, like the one depicted above, were first domesticated felines in (F. s. bieti)
not the first line humans domesticated, as experts had southwest Asia and southeast x DNA sample site
previously thought. Europe, not Egypt.

73

24-Hour

Watch

EARLY BIRD OR NIGHT OWL, you

can thank evolution: Staggered

NORMAL BRAIN SLICE natural sleep patterns, or chronotypes,

may have kept our species alive.
Having a few members of a group awake

at all times can protect everyone from

predators and other threats. This idea,

known as the sentinel hypothesis, was
proposed in the 1960s and demonstrated in

some birds and rodents.

In July, in Proceedings of the Royal

Society B, researchers described the first
evidence for the sentinel hypothesis in

CTE BRAIN SLICE humans. The team used wrist monitors to

track the sleep patterns of 33 members
Sections of a normal brain (top), compared with a brain with severe
chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE (above), show the extent of the of Tanzanias Hadza people, whose
brain-shrinking damage CTE can do. New research finds the disease affects environment and hunter-gatherer lifestyle
football players at nearly every level, including high school.
are similar to those of early humans.

72
The findings: During more than

Footballs Latest 220 hours of data collection, there were

only 18 one-minute increments when all
participants were soundly asleep. Age had

Injury Report the strongest influence on chronotype;

participants aged 50 and older were more

LEFT: VICTOR ALVAREZ, MD, VA BOSTON, BU CTE CENTER. RIGHT: MATTHIEU PALEY/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

ITS HARD-HITTING NEWS: Of 111 former NFL players likely to be early birds than those 30 and
younger.
brains, 110 showed signs of chronic traumatic
Were incredibly different from our
encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a brain disease
caused by repeated hits to the head that leads to memory ancestors in so many ways, says Duke

loss, and mood and personality changes such as increased University evolutionary anthropologist
Charles Nunn, a researcher involved in
impulsivity, violence and depression.
the study. Yet understanding that past
The study, published in July in the Journal of the
American Medical Association and the largest of its kind, can help us understand our behavior and

examined the brains of 202 people who had all played physiology today. GEMMA TARLACH

football at some point in their lives. The disease permeated

all levels of the sport; 48 of 53 college players and three

of 14 high school players brains showed signs of CTE.
However, because the sample included a number of brains

donated by family members who noticed symptoms, it isnt

representative of all former football players.

Still, Ann McKee, the studys senior author, thinks the
results warrant changes, such as introducing kids to the

sport when theyre older and limiting the number of games

and full-contact practices.

Even though this is a biased sample, the sheer volume
of the numbers indicates that the problem is more The Hadza hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania

took part in a study that supported the sentinel
prevalent than previously considered, McKee says. Its hypothesis, the idea that having someone
concerning. TEAL BURRELL awake at all times protects against threats.

74 Valhalla or Bust

ARCHAEOLOGISTS STRUCK GOLD or at 1,000-year-old spears, swords, whetstones and
least iron, silver and bronze in Dysnes, a jewelry. Among sites unearthed nearby over the past
town along a northern Iceland fjord, in June. century, Dysnes takes the prize for the boats, the
Six Viking Age graves, two of them boat burials, weapons, and the size and scale and complexity, says
held both human and animal remains, including archaeologist and dig team member Howell Roberts.
horses and a dog. The dig also uncovered roughly GEMMA TARLACH
75 Ticking Time Crystals

IN 2012, NOBEL LAUREATE magnets, if its easier to picture) around regularly, and at Harvard, its
Frank Wilczek envisioned a flipping back and forth in unison, a million nitrogen atoms.
new kind of matter based on like a crystalline clock. While the crystals would need to
a crystal. The ordered framework Some physicists thought it sounded last longer, their ticking could prove
of a crystal is basically a pattern ridiculous, but now two groups have a solid way to store information,
of atoms that repeats in space. In created versions of the matter in even possibly serving as memory for
AUUNN NELSSON
Wilczeks time crystals, motion also their labs, publishing a pair of papers quantum computers. Meanwhile, we
repeats. Imagine a material with in Nature in March. At the University have a whole new kind of matter to
millions of electrons (or tiny bar of Maryland, 10 ytterbium ions flip explore. SHANNON PALUS

76

Lost Flights Legacy:

Stunning Seafloor Maps

IN 2014, MALAYSIA AIRLINES

FLIGHT 370 disappeared en route
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A

massive, 34-month-long international

search effort found no signs of the

plane. But something positive still came
of it: Survey ships involved in the hunt

collected an enormous amount of data

about a 100,000-square-mile strip of the

southeastern Indian Ocean, and researchers
turned that information into high-

resolution seafloor imagery.

Over 85 percent of our worlds oceans

have yet to be explored in such detail, says
Geoscience Australias Kim Picard, whose

team processed the data. And the MH370

search region is particularly remote and

unexplored.

Picard says the seafloor maps, released
in July, may enable new discoveries about

plate tectonics, ocean currents and unique

sea life habitats. ERIC BETZ

IND
ONES
IA

Ind ian Ocean

MAP: ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER. SEAFLOOR RENDERINGS: GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA

are
Specific AUSTRALIA
search
rch

areas
ea
Perth
ls

ra
ne
Ge

1,000 miles

Depth
The massive search area for the missing MH370
(in meters)
flight covered a particularly remote region about
1,000 miles off the western Australian coast (above). High: -3,500
Tragically, the international hunt found no sign of
the lost aircraft. But data collected during the search Low: -4,800

effort allowed researchers to map the ocean floor at Outline of
a much higher resolution than ever before, revealing new image
numerous features for the first time (right).

77
TO THE MOON AND BACK:
An Astronauts Loving Tribute
Finally Acknowledged
IN 1968, AS NAVIGATOR ON APOLLO 8 the
first mission around the moon Jim Lovell
carefully documented his path above the Sea
For nearly half a century, astronomys official
nomenclature group, the International Astronomical
Union (IAU), wouldnt make any of the names official;
of Tranquility, where NASA would land Apollo 11. He scientists used an asterisk if they cited them. But in
spotted a small, pyramid-shaped mountain July, after multiple applications by Lovell and
near the landing site and named it Mount Arizona State University astronomer Mark
Marilyn, after his wife. Lovell knew he Robinson, the IAU reversed course for
wouldnt forget the landmark. three of the landmarks, including
Mount Marilyn proved vital on Mount Marilyn, without explanation.
Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong Lovell, who kept the campaign
Sea of
relied on it for navigation during a secret from Marilyn, enjoyed
Tranquility
a harrowing landing. And yet revealing it at last. She was
the mountain is among dozens of quite amazed, Lovell says. In
Apollo 11
features named by astronauts but exploration theres romanticism,
landing site
not on official moon maps. too. ERIC BETZ
CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: NASA (3); RALPH MORSE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES; RON GALELLA, LTD./WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES; NASA
The love of astronaut Jim Lovell for his wife, Marilyn,
shown together above in 1965 and 1995, was immortalized
in 2017. During the Apollo 8 mission, Lowell (bottom, at
far right) named a pyramid-shaped mountain (left) after
Marilyn. The name was officially recognized in July.
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78
Super Solar Speeds
OUR SUN MAY literally be young at heart. New
evidence suggests its core spins nearly four
times faster than its outer layers. This finding
is a noisy place, and global pressure waves more
prominent and numerous mask the gravity waves.
Astronomer Eric Fossat and colleagues used
sheds light on the initial conditions that formed some 16 years of data from the orbiting Solar and
the sun, which spun much faster overall when it Heliospheric Observatory to study these clamoring
was a young star. pressure waves, reporting their findings in August
The window into the suns core comes from in Astronomy & Astrophysics. By measuring tiny
measuring elusive gravity waves that wash back changes in how long the pressure waves take to
and forth through the solar interior like a sloshing race through the sun, scientists could reconstruct
bathtub. (These are unrelated to cosmic gravitational the sloshing motion of the gravity waves, and
waves; for more on those, see page 13.) But the sun through them, scour the solar depths. KOREY HAYNES
Pressure wave path
Gravity wave path
Quickly
spinning
core
Quiet inner
envelope
Turbulent
outer layers
By studying the
ROEN KELLY/DISCOVER
sloshing of the suns

interior, astronomers
learned its core spins
much faster than its
outer layers.

79

Going

Deep

DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION is a

valuable therapeutic tool, allowing

experts to target specific brain cells

to help treat disorders like Parkinsons
disease and obsessive-compulsive

disorder. The catch? Activating specific

buried neurons requires sticking

electrodes directly into the brain a
technique that involves risky surgery. At Chicagos Field Museum, researchers were able to scan the entire
5-foot-long skull of famous T. rex specimen Sue in just a couple of minutes
In June, an international team of using a new and affordable imaging technique (above). The approach

researchers reported it had developed pairs free software with a video game camera.

a noninvasive way to stimulate neurons
deep in the brain using electrodes placed

on the scalp. Their method relies on

whats called temporal interference.

Essentially, the electrodes are set at two

different frequencies that are normally
too high to activate neurons. But in the

spots where the currents cross paths, that

CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: JAY SMITH; JOHN WEINSTEIN/THE FIELD MUSEUM; DAS, AJ ET AL./DOI.ORG/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0179264, JULY 5, 2017 CC BY 4.0
interaction generates a lower frequency

80
to which neurons respond. Since these
slivers of low-frequency currents depend

on the electrodes placement, researchers
can easily arrange them on the scalp to
Scan Is Fast and

get at those hard-to-reach neurons while
leaving other neurons untouched.
Budget-Friendly

The work, published in Cell, has only
SOMETIMES, TACKLING a large project on a small
been tested on mice, but if it proves budget leads to a huge innovation.

viable in humans, it could open the door Forensic dentists wanted close-up scans of the jaw of
to therapy for people struggling to cope
Sue, the famed T. rex that resides at Chicagos Field Museum.
with neurological disorders. LACY SCHLEY
But their equipment wasnt big enough to scan Sues 5-foot-

long skull, so the dino dentists turned to the group Camera
Culture, part of MITs Media Lab.
Electrodes at Electrodes at
frequency #1 frequency #2 Their fix, announced in July: a video game camera, about

the size of a can of tennis balls, that creates a 3-D map

called a point cloud, plus some free software to analyze it.
The cost: $150.

An image from the new technique, which uses a Microsoft

Kinect/Xbox One camera and MeshLab software, isnt

the best quality: Its resolution stops at 500 micrometers.
(Thats just a bit bigger than the average grain of table salt.)

High-end scanners, which cost $30,000, can go as low as

50 micrometers. But Camera Cultures approach is cheap and

fast scanning Sues entire skull took just two minutes.
Museums can now create virtual models for outreach and
Neurons respond
education without busting their budget, and possible research
where frequencies
cross paths applications abound. STEVEN POTTER

81
Roman
Neighborhood,
Frozen in Time

LATE IN THE FIRST CENTURY
A.D., a fire struck a
neighborhood in the Roman
city of Vienne, 20 miles south of
Lyon, France. The fire baked the
buildings bricks and spread so quickly
that inhabitants abandoned their
belongings. Several other fires struck
the area over the following centuries.
Two millennia later, the same spot was
selected for a housing development. As
mandated by the French government,
the land underwent archaeological
inspection in April by a private
company, Archeodunum, which found
structures several meters below grade.
The intensity of the first
conflagration had preserved many
aspects of the neighborhood, since
fired brick doesn't crumble and heat
treatment protects iron from corrosion.
Archaeologists found ancient streets,
mosaics, shops and multistory houses.
TOP: ROBERT PRATTA/REUTERS. BOTTOM: JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Personal belongings like wine jugs and
a wooden chest containing a Roman
soldiers armor were also unearthed.
This is an exceptional chance to
analyze the houses of rich and poor
alike, and study the architecture
of multistory buildings, says
Archeodunum archaeologist Benjamin
Clment. JONATHON KEATS
Archaeologists excavate the ruins of an ancient

Roman neighborhood (top and right) unearthed
during construction of a housing development in
Vienne, France. Wine jugs, mosaics and personal
items are among the discoveries.

82 Do You Need a Brain to Sleep?

FALLING ASLEEP: So easy,

you dont even need a

brain. Jellyfish, brainless

creatures with clusters of

neurons throughout their bodies,
display the same behavioral sleep

traits as we do.

Caltech researchers put the

jellyfish Cassiopea through a
series of tests to see if they

fulfilled three requirements

for a sleeplike state: lowered

activity levels, slower reaction
times and impaired performance

after sleep deprivation. They

achieved all three, according

to an October paper in Current
Biology.

The findings indicate the

behavior isnt the sole province

of brains, suggesting sleep

is important enough to have
survived the hundreds of

millions of years since we

diverged from jellyfish. In

fact, sleep may be an intrinsic
property of neurons themselves.

NATHANIEL SCHARPING

83

Fetuses Track Facelike Shapes

TOP: CALTECH. BOTTOM: REID ET AL., 2017, CURRENT BIOLOGY 27, 18251828, CC BY 4.0

NEWBORNS TEND to favor that penetrates maternal tissue,

facelike patterns, such as showing the fetus an image of a
top-heavy triangles, and drifting triangle made of three red

researchers have now shown that dots. When observed with a 4-D

third-trimester fetuses have similar ultrasound in which a 3-D image

preferences. Lighting conditions 1 2 is in motion not only were 39
inside the womb have only recently fetuses able to see and track the
1. An illustration depicts lights outside
been explored, so despite extensive image, but they also preferred to
of the womb. 2. How those lights likely
research on fetal reaction to other appear to a third-trimester fetus. watch the triangle when it was top-

sensory stimuli, visual response had heavy, in the facelike orientation.
remained unseen until now. psychologist Vincent Reid of Researchers now aim to replicate

In a study published in June in Lancaster University and his team in fetuses newborn studies that have

Current Biology, developmental carefully designed an LED array had visual aspects. SYLVIA MORROW

84
Breathless
Wonders
85
A New Look
at Mega-Eruptions

INDIAS DECCAN TRAPS geologically defined as
a large igneous province (LIP) formed when a
massive volcanic eruption spread lava over hundreds
of thousands of square miles. The event also released toxic
gases and altered Earths temperature, helping to kill off the
dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.
But the Deccan Traps are not unique. Remnants of
FROM TOP: ARCTIC IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; THOMAS PARK/UIC; JAY SMITH, ADAPTED BY PERMISSION FROM MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD: NATURE NEWS 543, 7645, MARCH 16, 2017
similar LIPs, spawned during world-altering eruptions, exist
from Siberia to Australia. In March, researchers released

SOMEHOW, NAKED MOLE a new map of them, including previously unknown sites.
RATS got even weirder in 2017. To create the map, Carleton University geologist Richard
It turns out the coldblooded, Ernst documented telltale signs of LIPs: large fractures in
cancer-resistant, pain-immune and Earths crust. He then dated the volcanic events using rock
conspicuously long-lived rodents also samples from colleagues.
can survive for extended periods of time My lesson from this is that the Earth can go through
without oxygen. dramatic changes, he says. The planet doesnt particularly
In tests at the University of Illinois at care about the biology on it. ERIC BETZ
Chicago, biologists (carefully) deprived
naked mole rats of oxygen for 18 minutes;
8 10
in a separate test, the researchers 4
2 9
kept them for more than ve hours at
dangerously low oxygen levels. Both times, 15
6
the naked mole rats were unharmed. 11
13
Most animals need oxygen to survive 5 14
because it helps convert blood sugar, or 12
glucose, into energy no oxygen, no

life. In the study published in April in 3
1 7
Science, researchers found that naked
mole rats use glucose this way, too,
but it turns out their bodies can switch
things up and efciently metabolize
fructose. Its a different kind of sugar
that doesnt require oxygen to provide Largest eruptions, showing extent of lava ow
life-sustaining energy. 1. Widgiemooltha 2.42 billion years 9. Kola-Dneiper 370 million years
These insights into oxygenless survival 2. Ungava 2.22 billion years 10. Siberian Traps 252 million years
3. Bushveld 2.05 billion years 11. Central Atlantic Magmatic
could one day help stroke and heart 4. Timpton 1.75 billion years Province 200 million years
attack patients, for whom every minute 5. Essakane 1.52 billion years 12. Ontong Java 120 million years
6. Dashigou 920 million years 13. Deccan Traps 66 million years
without oxygen is critical. 7. Gairdner 820 million years 14. Afro-Arabian 30 million years
NATHANIEL SCHARPING 8. Franklin 725 million years 15. Columbia River 17 million years

86 Zika Kills Brain Cancer Cells

ZIKA RECENTLY PROMPTED A GLOBAL

HEALTH PANIC, but the virus could have a

silver lining as an effective combatant

against brain cancer in humans.

Mostly spread by infected mosquitoes, the Zika
virus caused near hysteria in 2015 after cases of

microcephaly which impairs brain function

were reported in infants. The condition is a result

of Zikas ability to target developing brain cells
in fetuses. Because it homes in on young cells,

the virus may be effective against glioblastoma, a

deadly form of brain cancer in adults.

Zika seems to attack the still-developing cells
that cause glioblastoma, while leaving mature

brain cells unharmed. Researchers reported

in September in the Journal of Experimental

Medicine that Zika extended the lives of mice
with brain tumors and killed tumor cells in
Twins Heloisa and Heloa Barbosa of Brazil were born with
human brain tissue in a lab. NATHANIEL SCHARPING microcephaly after their mother contracted Zika during pregnancy.

87

Sweet Science: A Cross-Cultural

Marshmallow Test

THE UNIVERSAL non-Western participants, about
STRUGGLE: choosing 200 kids total.

between immediate The team found that 4-year-

gratication and long-term olds from Cameroonian farming

rewards. families in West Africa bested
The marshmallow test, their German middle-class

a psychology classic from the early counterparts. Only 28 percent of

70s, evaluates this skill, called the German children earned an

self-regulation, in children. A extra treat, whereas 70 percent
researcher asks a child to sit alone of the Cameroonian children
TOP: MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES. BOTTOM: FLOORTJE/ISTOCK

in a room with a treat. The kid can scored a second one; 10 percent

eat it right away, but waiting 10 even fell asleep waiting.

to 15 minutes for the researcher These children differ in many
to return will grant the child a ways, so the dramatic results,

second treat. reported in Child Development,

Previously, experts tested likely stem from a blend of

primarily Western children. But inuences. Next, the researchers

in June, German psychologists say they want to investigate
published the rst marshmallow strategies the children used to

test using Western and help them wait. SYLVIA MORROW

88 I Saw the Sign

COMMUNICATING IN AMERICAN
SIGN LANGUAGE takes considerable
dexterity. Even the letters of the
alphabet, gesticulated with one hand, require
precise coordination of all five fingers. Already
looking for ways to develop low-cost electronic
gloves to interact with computers, University
of California, San Diego, nanoengineer
Darren Lipomi saw ASL letters as the perfect
proof of concept for a smart glove. He and
colleagues described the completed project in a
paper in July in PLOS ONE.
Lipomis glove made entirely from off-
the-shelf components at a cost of under $100
calculates joint position based on electrical
fluctuations in stretch-sensitive polymers.
With an accelerometer reading hand
movement and a microprocessor, the glove
can translate ASL letters into characters on
a computer screen.
For Lipomi, understanding sign language
is only the first step for a glove that will soon
also include tactile feedback simulated
touching. We want the user to be able to
interact with virtual objects, he explains,
to feel a cold Coke can or the biological
TOP: TIMOTHY O'CONNOR/UC SAN DIEGO JACOBS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING (5). BOTTOM: MIT/EVELYN WANG LABORATORY
milieu inside a virtual patient during surgical
training. JONATHON KEATS
89 Pulling Water From Thin Air

A NEW MATERIAL can suck drinking. This makes it an attractive
drinking water out of thin option for developing countries with
air, no power required. little infrastructure. Researchers have
The mesh, called a metal-organic proposed similar water collectors
framework, contains tiny spaces before, but most need electricity or
perfect for grabbing and holding high humidity to function.
onto water molecules. By further ne-tuning the tiny
Fabric
Just a couple of pounds of the spaces, the projects engineers hope
stuff can draw nearly a gallon of one day to harvest even more water.
water from the air each day even The work, led by researchers at MIT
in conditions drier than most deserts. and the University of California,
Researchers have built a water harvester
Better yet, the suns heat is all thats that can pull quarts of the liquid from the
Berkeley, appeared in Science in
needed to retrieve the water for air using only sunlight. April. NATHANIEL SCHARPING

90

Our Oldest Ancestor

TOP: JIAN HAN/NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY, CHINA. BOTTOM: S CONWAY MORRIS AND JIAN HAN

VIEWED THROUGH AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPE,

the newly discovered Saccorhytus coronarius is the oldest
and most primitive deuterostome, a major branch of

the animal kingdom that includes all vertebrates. At about

540 million years old, the millimeter-long specimen from

China (top), described in January in Nature, pushes back the
deuterostome record by tens of millions of years. Co-author and

Cambridge University paleobiologist Simon Conway Morris

believes an unusual chemical environment in its seabed home

preserved the saclike animal in jaw-dropping detail. Structures

around its large mouth may look like eyes and nostrils, but
the researchers believe these body cones (better seen in the

illustration) may have been early precursors to gills, flushing out

water that Saccorhytus swallowed. GEMMA TARLACH

91

Music to
My Brain
AS A JAZZ MUSICIAN and
neurologist at Swedish
Medical Center in Seattle,
Human Neuroscience. Its the first
device to translate electrical brain
activity directly to a musical scale,
Thomas Deuel has always allowing performance without After studying musicians brain activity
(above), Thomas Deuel (top) created a
been sensitive to the plight of physical movement. new instrument played entirely with the
performers paralyzed by brain Patients control the mind: the encephalophone.
and spinal injuries. He also encephalophone by imagining
has a lot of experience with their right hand grasping and the University of Washington.
TOP: ALIBI PICTURES. BOTTOM: ALAN BERNER/SEATTLE TIMES
electroencephalography (EEG), releasing; a sensor cap detects The encephalophone may have
a noninvasive way of measuring the changing brain patterns, its greatest impact on physical
brain activity, which can be which alter the frequency of a therapy, potentially benefiting
harnessed to control wheelchairs. continuous tone on a synthesizer even non-performers. The hope
Several years ago, he started to speaker. The sensation is very is that there will be accelerated
wonder: Could the technology bizarre at first, but competence recovery of the motor cortex,
apply to musical instruments, too? improves with practice, Deuel Deuel says. The stimulation of
Thus was born his new says. Hes already planning playing may help stroke patients
instrument, the encephalophone, for his patients to perform live regain motor control.
described in April in Frontiers in alongside ensemble musicians at JONATHON KEATS

92

The Moons

Magnetic Personality

93

Watery Weirdness

WATER IS STRANGE, says Anders

Nilsson, a physicist at Stockholm
University in Sweden. It expands

NEW TESTS ON A MOON when it cools, for example, and it has a

ROCK brought back by strangely high boiling point. In a June

Apollo 15 reveal surprising paper in the Proceedings of the National
evidence for a magnetic field baked Academy of Sciences, Nilsson and his team

into the rock between 1 billion and described a new oddity they discovered:

2.5 billion years ago. Water can exist in at least two distinct

Scientists knew the moon hosted liquid states, each with different physical
Sonia Tikoo (top) studied
a powerful magnetic field until properties.
pieces of a moon rock
about 3.6 billion years ago, when it It takes some coaxing to witness.
obtained during the
seemed to abruptly shut off. But the Apollo 15 mission (above) Nilsson has to bring water well below its
FROM LEFT: NICK ROMANENKO/RUTGERS UNIVERSITY; NASA; MATTIAS KARLN
to learn how long the

new finding, published in August in moons magnetic eld freezing point and then ddle with the

Science Advances, extends the moons really lasted. pressure, eventually resulting in a liquid
magnetic life by more than a billion that gets less dense as heat is added

years, though at a shadow of its former self. proof that liquid water can take on a

The work of Rutgers University researcher Sonia Tikoo different physical form.

and her team was twofold: They argon-dated the rock, and Nilsson even thinks this newly
separately used a magnetometer to measure the magnetic discovered form of water may exist

field recorded within the rock at the time it formed. naturally in tiny, shifting pockets within

Researchers speculate that one activity perhaps Earths ordinary room-temperature water. Now

tidal tug might have powered the moons young and hes gathering more evidence. Even
strong magnetic field, while a different mechanism such as humble water, essential for life and

the moons slow cooling could have taken over and caused thoroughly studied, still has secrets to tell.

the moons dim but persistent field later on. KOREY HAYNES SHANNON PALUS

95
Sniffing Out
the Truth

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
NEUROSCIENTIST John
94
McGann, an olfaction researcher,
has long been puzzled by claims that
people have a feeble sense of smell.
In his lab, humans perform as well as
rodents and dogs in some tests. Research
by his colleagues suggests our species
can distinguish a trillion different odors.
In a May review published in Science,
McGann nally sniffed out the source of
the foul-smelling rumor.
Does This Dust The main culprit is Paul Broca, a

leading 19th-century anatomist, who
Make Me Look Fat?

observed that the brains olfactory
bulb where we detect smells is
proportionally puny compared with

DUST BUNNIES may be more than a nuisance that other mammals. He accepted the near-
irritates your allergies and adds to your chore list universal belief in human exceptionalism
they may also be making you chubby. and looked in the brain for evidence
House dust is full of pollutants, including industrial of it, says McGann. For Broca, a weak
chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA), that can leach sense of smell elevated us above brute
from containers of household products. Researchers animal instinct. His beliefs were adopted
tested 40 substances commonly found in the home
LEFT: AUGUSTO ZAMBONATO. RIGHT: SCHANKZ/SHUTTERSTOCK
by others even Sigmund Freud.

that they suspected have some sort of impact on What Broca missed, McGann points
metabolic health, says Duke Universitys Christopher out, is that relative bulb size doesnt
Kassotis, a co-author of the study, published in July matter. Bigger animals have bigger
in Environmental Science & Technology. Although the noses, but that doesnt mean they also
research was limited to mouse cells in a petri dish, need bigger olfactory systems.
Kassotis says the team found that two-thirds of the When it comes to smell, were animals.
chemicals tested drove fat cells to develop and proliferate. And knowing that could help scientists
However, researchers need more testing before we better understand human behavior,
know the effect on humans and if we can trade in our emotion and even memory.
gym memberships for a dust mop. STEVEN POTTER JONATHON KEATS

96

Human-Caused Minerals

Make Case for New Epoch

OF THE WORLDS 5,000- have occurred naturally we just The list, published in March in

PLUS MINERALS, 208 are happened to tip the scales. American Mineralogist, adds more
unique: Theyre the result Most minerals on the newly evidence for the Anthropocene,

of human activities. Without compiled list come from mine the age of humans. New

us, geologists discovered, they tunnels and slag heaps, where minerals are appearing much

wouldnt exist. byproducts of the industry mingle faster than ever before, and the
To be a mineral, a compound in unconventional ways. Others, authors say its a sign of how

must be inorganic, chemically however, were found in a shipwreck much weve rearranged and

distinct and naturally occurring. and even a museum cabinet, again recombined Earths surface.

So these stretch the definition a representing situations that betray Even the rocks are different now.
bit, though technically they could the hand of humanity. NATHANIEL SCHARPING

1 2

1. Simonkolleite, found
in an Arizona copper mine.
2. Nealite, recovered from

an ancient Greek seaside
slag site. 3. Chalconatronite,
formed at a quarry in Quebec.
4. Abhurite, discovered

at an English shipwreck.
5. Metamunirite, from
a mine in Colorado.

5 4 3

RRUFF (5)

97

WITH A PUFF OF AIR, this
vine-inspired robot can
nose itself into a number
Tubular
Technology
to those water snake toys from
the 90s. Another version of the
bot has a chamber on either side;
of tight situations. inflating just one enables it to turn. This robot carries cameras (above) and
winds around corners (below), just two
Created by researchers at The tube-bots design enhances of its helpful skills for scenarios like
Stanford University and reported its versatility, as its outer layer search-and-rescue situations.
in July, the contraption is remains stationary rather than
essentially a plastic tube connected needing to slide over surfaces. it, such as a length of wire to serve
to an air pump. It moves In early tests, the robot could as an antenna or water to put out
by turning itself inside extend from a compressed a fire. Researchers say it could
out, drawing material length of just 11 inches search through rubble, serve as
from the inside to extend to over 200 feet and a catheter or even deliver devices
Water
the tube farther similar snake toy could carry objects inside inside the body. NATHANIEL SCHARPING
FROM TOP: SANTIAGO MEJIA/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/POLARIS.; ERNIE MASTROIANNI/DISCOVER; L.H. BLUMENSCHEIN

98 Birds Egg Shapes Eggs-plained

THE EGGS WE SCRAMBLE AND FRY
typically span a humdrum range of

colors, sizes and shapes. But the avian

kingdom lays eggs of vast variation.

When it comes to shape, biologists have
long wondered why, say, murres have pointy

eggs, yet ostrich eggs are rounder. Aristotle

suggested males come from rounder eggs,

and others suggested elongated eggs
wouldnt roll off cliffs.

In a June paper in Science, researchers

finally cracked the case. Princetons Mary

Caswell Stoddard and her team examined

some 50,000 eggs from 1,400 species
provided by the Museum of Vertebrate

Zoology at Berkeley. They found no nesting

habit links, but did see a pattern correlating

with flight ability.
Frequent fliers, like murres, have

streamlined bodies and more elliptical eggs,

while birds who like their feet on the ground

say, ostriches have rounder ones. So
Mary Caswell Stoddard (left) and her team
studied thousands of bird eggs, nding a link
overall its the bird that shapes the egg,
between egg shape and ight ability. forever proving which comes first. ERIC BETZ

99

FROM TOP: DENISE APPLEWHITE/PRINCETON OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS (2); HERV SAUQUET AND JRG SCHNENBERGER
The First Bud

NO FOSSIL? NO PROBLEM!

Without any preserved
evidence, researchers hunting

for the elusive ancestral ower

the rst owering plant from which

all others evolved had to get
creative. A team collected data on

nearly 13,500 oral characteristics,

the largest such data set ever

assembled, and ran it through
sophisticated statistical analysis to

model what the rst ower looked

like more than 140 million years ago.

The result, published in August in
Nature Communications: a bisexual,

radially symmetric bloom.

GEMMA TARLACH

100 Century-Old Pentagon
Mystery Solved

FACT: TILES MADE OF REGULAR PENTAGONS equal angles,
equal sides cant completely cover an innite at plane, no
matter how you spin them. But squish and stretch the shapes a
little, and things get interesting. In 1918, German mathematician Karl
Reinhardt described ve irregular pentagons that could each tile a plane.
His work raised the question: How many such pentagons could there be?
In July, French computer scientist Michal Rao of the cole Normale
Suprieure in Lyon, France, posted a solution online to that century-old
pentagon puzzler. Using a computer algorithm to digitally scour all the
possible misshapen pentagons, he showed that only 15 types work, with
the last discovered just two years ago. Raos process took two years, but
without computers, it would have taken more than a decade. There are
some problems which resist a nice, short proof, he says.
Because mathematicians had already gured out all possible tilings for
every other convex polygon shapes where all vertices point outward
this discovery effectively closes the book on the subject. STEPHEN ORNES

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15th Annual Discover
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IMAGE
OF THE
YEAR
i
FOR ITS MISSION to study Jupiters May 19 and produced by German mathematician
composition, magnetic eld and other Gerald Eichstdt, shows remarkable detail in
characteristics, NASAs Juno probe Jupiters southern polar region (in blue at left).
technically did not require a camera. But principal Planetary geologist Justin Cowart of Stony Brook
investigator Scott Bolton pushed to have one University then built on Eichstdts picture by
on board anyway as an education and public adjusting the color to match how Jupiter appears
outreach tool. Plus, he just didnt want to miss through a telescope eyepiece. He also enhanced
the views from Jupiter. other details, like the violent and enormous
Ever since Juno entered the gas giants orbit storms that blanket the planet. ERNIE MASTROIANNI
in 2016, its photos have been uploaded to an
online public gallery where citizen scientists can For more on the missions ndings and the questions
download the raw images and process them into they raise, see Juno Delivers Jupiters Secrets, page 32.
compelling pictures. This image, originally taken

NASA/SWRI/MSSS/GERALD EICHSTDT/JUSTIN COWART. INSET: NASA/SWRI/MSSS

In their rawest form, Junos images are
a cipher, delivered as long, shallow strips taken
through red, green and blue lters. It takes

artists like Gerald Eichstdt and Justin Cowart
to tease out their beauty. The Juno probe
orbits Jupiter every 53.5 days and skims as
close as 2,600 miles above Jupiters swirling
clouds, screaming along at nearly 130,000 mph.


INDEX
Archaeology/Paleontology/Anthropology
#2 Rening the origin story of our ancestors ................................ 10 #13 Articial placentas grow healthy lamb fetuses ......................... 24
#8 Fossilized footprints could change hominin tale ....................... 19 #14 Era of superbugs arrives ....................................................... 24
#12 Collagen identied in 195 million-year-old fossil........................23 #19 CRISPR knocks out retroviral DNA in pigs................................ 28
FROM BOTTOM: TIMOTHY OCONNOR/UCSD JACOBS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING; CHRISTOPHER KIARIE AND ISAIAH NENGO; BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY; YUZHEN YAN/PRINCETON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES; GABRIEL LO; NSF/LIGO/A. SIMONNET/SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
#16 Rewriting dinosaurs family tree ............................................ 26 #25 Storing data in living bacteria ............................................... 33
#26 Ancient human DNA extracted from dirt ................................. 34 #28 Global sperm counts drop precipitously .................................. 36
#27 Well-preserved dino fossil turns heads.................................... 36 #35 A step closer to articial blood .............................................. 41
#37 Full genomes of Egyptian mummies recovered......................... 44 #36 Mice with printed ovaries birth healthy young ......................... 42
#40 100 million-year-old dinosaur could be largest ever .................. 46 #39 Probiotics treatment ghts infection in newborns ..................... 45
#41 Skull could be common ancestor of all living apes .................... 48 #43 Genetic factors for insomnia identied ................................... 49
p.13 #52 Tick carries oldest blood ever found ....................................... 57 #50 Multiple sclerosis drug takes novel approach ........................... 55
#57 H. naledi, contemporary of archaic H. sapiens .......................... 61 #51 Finding genes that cancer exploits ......................................... 56
#67 Aztec skull towers show evidence of mass human sacrices ...... 68 #68 Cellular map of humans in the making ................................... 70
#70 Microfossils push back timeline of lifes emergence .................. 71 #72 Postmortems show brain disease in most NFL players ............... 73
#71 The rise and global dispersal of domesticated cats.................... 72 #83 Human fetuses are drawn to face shapes ................................ 81
#73 Staggered sleep patterns helped keep early humans alive .......... 73 #86 Zika ghts brain tumors ....................................................... 83
#74 Icelandic Viking discovery best in a century ............................. 74 #94 Is house dust making you fat?............................................... 88
#81 Ancient Roman neighborhood unearthed ................................ 80
#90 540 million-year-old animal fossil .......................................... 85 Neuroscience/Behavior
#99 Scientists model the rst ower ............................................ 91 #24 Stem cells in brain region orchestrate aging ............................ 33
#42 Genetic risk for PTSD ........................................................... 49
Earth/Environment/Energy #48 Neurons respond to specic features to recognize faces ............ 54
p. 26 #10 Two colors added to rainfall chart after Texas storm.................. 21 #53 Long-term memories can form in one day ............................... 57
#18 Slow but steady sea rise predicted ......................................... 27 #61 Model predicts which infants will develop autism .................... 64
#21 Antarctic ice shelf calves massive berg ................................... 30 #66 Blocking pain before it hits a nerve ........................................ 67
#22 Scores of volcanoes discovered under Antarctic ice ................... 31 #79 Noninvasive brain electrode stimulation ................................. 79
#33 Oldest ice discovered in polar region ...................................... 40 #87 Culture matters in famous marshmallow test........................... 83
#46 Deadly heat in forecast for Earths tropics ............................... 52
#54 Tests reveal future marine impact of oceanic warming .............. 58 Policy
#59 Species of trees spread westward .......................................... 63 #4 Science takes hit under Trump administration .......................... 14
#64 Billions of tons of plastics discarded on Earth .......................... 66 #29 Treating PTSD with help from psychedelic drug ........................ 37
#65 Mystery of Earths molten pockets revealed ............................. 67 #45 Goldwater Rule revisited during Trumps presidency.................. 52
p. 40 #76 Seaoor map created from Malaysian airline search ................. 75 #60 A u drug falls out of favor................................................... 63
#85 Mapping Earths biggest volcanic eruptions............................. 82
#96 Humans create over 200 minerals.......................................... 89 Space/Cosmology
#3 Gravitational wave is relic of ancient star collision.................... 13
Living World #7 Earth-sized worlds orbit star in nearby galaxy .......................... 18
#31 Octopuses self-edit their RNA for survival advantage ................ 38 #9 Space probes 13-year study of Saturn ends............................. 20
#44 New species show abilities for staying out of sight ................... 50 #11 A Saturn moon could theoretically support life......................... 22
#82 Jellysh do sleep................................................................. 81 #15 Radio bursts coming from distant galaxy ................................ 25
#84 Naked mole rats survive with no oxygen for extended periods .... 82 #23 NASA probe reveals Jupiters mysteries .................................. 32
#95 A trillion reasons to praise the human nose ............................. 88 #32 Space sperm produces healthy mice ....................................... 39
#98 Birds egg shapes suggest ight ability ................................... 91 #47 Asteroid travels wrong way in Jupiters orbit ........................... 53
#49 Astronomers weigh distant star............................................. 55
p.45
Math/Physical Sciences #58 Space dust falls like rain on Earth .......................................... 62
#17 The math behind gerrymandering .......................................... 27 #62 The cold truth about Martian precipitation .............................. 65
#20 Tabletop device detects neutrinos .......................................... 28 #69 Galactic surprise: Cygnus A home to second black hole ............. 70
#30 Physicists identify new particle .............................................. 37 #78 Probing the suns spinning inner core ..................................... 78
#34 2-D magnet made from single layer of carbon atoms ................ 41 #92 Moons magnetic life gets an extension .................................. 87
#38 Hottest liquid is also the fastest spinning ................................ 45
#56 Math proof offers way to map an objects interior .................... 60 Tech/Entertainment/Culture
p.48 #63 A building block of matter loses a little weight ........................ 65 #1 Solar eclipse captures Americas attention ................................. 7
#75 Time crystals: A new kind of matter to explore ......................... 74 #55 Snail slime inspires synthetic adhesive.................................... 60
#93 Water can exist in two liquid states at once............................. 87 #77 Moons Mount Marilyn becomes ofcial ................................. 76
#100 Closing the book on irregular pentagons ................................ 92 #80 Creating 3-D models of fossils on the cheap ............................ 79
#88 Smart glove translates sign language to screen........................ 84
Medicine/Genetics #89 Material harvests water using sunlight ................................... 84
#5 Gene editing tool modies human embryos in U.S. ................... 16 #91 Making music with only the brain .......................................... 86
#6 FDA approves immunotherapy for resistant cancer ................... 17 #97 Vine-inspired robot snakes into tight places ............................ 90
DISCOVER (ISSN 0274-7529, USPS# 555-190) is published monthly, except for combined issues in January/February and July/August. Vol. 39, no. 1. Published by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027 Crossroads Circle, P.O. Box
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Science Under Trump P.14

Cosmic Smashup P.13

The Great Dinosaur Debate P.26

Cassinis Death Plunge P.20

NASAs Cassini space

CONTENTS Enter this code at:

Our ancestors origin story is being Worlds p.18 Contributing Editors

3 nearby galaxy. BY JOHN WENZ COREY S. POWELL, JULIE REHMEYER,

4 Science Under Siege

Transform The Ceiling Of Your Darkened Room

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 7

3. Not a cloud crossed the powder

LEROY BURNELL/THE POST AND COURIER VIA AP; ERNIE MASTROIANNI/DISCOVER

4. Despite lots of clouds, we saw first

a Schnucks grocery store. Eclipse fever was real:

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 9

1 THE BIG WOW We are not claiming that Morocco became

passed her mtDNA down Turning Up Down Under

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 11

SEE AND HEAR

including ultraviolet, infrared

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 13

The Paris Exit melting ice. That would mean zero

which would have climate change,

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 15

LIVING DRUG GETS

will be looked on as barbaric.

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 17

in Greece? The Game

says research will continue using

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 19

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 21

Protein in Dinosaur Rib

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 23

Ornithischia Sauropoda Theropoda Herrerasauridae Sauropoda Theropoda Ornithischia

17 Fighting Politics With Math

Sea Level Rise: Slow But Inexorable

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 27

Pig Cells That

FROM LEFT: PHOTOMASTER/SHUTTERSTOCK; JEAN LACHAT/UCHICAGO NEWS; FERMILAB

S he was a Danish Baroness. He, a rugged British adventurer.

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Stauer 14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. EON159-01,

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY some 17,000 square miles.

Q What happens to the iceberg

A We don't have much information

Q What can Larsen Cs response

A Theres a natural experiment going

Q Whats more scientifically

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 31

FROM TOP: NASA; NASA/JPL/SWRI/MSSS/GERALD EICHSTDT/ALEXIS TRANCHANDON/SOLARIS; NASA/JPL/SWRI/MSSS/BJRN JNSSON

Age Is Just a Number

(of Neural Stem Cells)

CRISPR Goes to the Movies

his team translated the pixels of and retrieve information

January/February 2018 DISCOVER 33

Cell phones have gotten so small, Monthly Plan $14.99/mo1 $19.99/mo1

Call toll-free to get your

Psychedelic Drug Tapped

for PTSD Therapy

A Charming New Particle