Contents

JULY/AUGUST 2018
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VOL. 39, NO. 6

SPECIAL
FEATURE
SECTION
Starting on
page 28.

Got an itch to dive

into the essentials of
some newsworthy
science? We’ve
got the scratch. In
this special issue,
we cover a broad
range of topics that
will capture your
imagination. Learn
about the Giza
Pyramids, Clouds,
Neanderthals,
Personality,
Pigeons, the
Milky Way, the
Cloud, Human
Speed, Mass
Extinctions,
Octopuses, the
Science of Music,
Space Stations,
Autonomous
Cars, the
Standard Model,
Teeth and Fractals.
KELLIE JAEGER/DISCOVER

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 3

 Contents
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

6 EDITOR’S NOTE
Take a Road Trip
This issue’s special feature section is a
map to Everything Worth Knowing.

7 INBOX
Readers comment on wearable tech
and adjusting to an empty nest.

9 THE CRUX
Scientists sing the praises of
an unlikely food source; learn
about the connection between
neurotics and Brexit; kids are
having fun — but also getting
hurt — while riding a popular
two-wheeled toy; and more.
Read about the hidden
lives of salamanders
and their critical role
20 VITAL SIGNS in nature’s food web
on page 24.
Eye of the Beholder
A child’s history of bone fractures
leads pediatricians to a disturbing 94 HISTORY LESSONS
U L
S IA

Haunting Ghost Worlds The Psychology of Politics

E
IS EC

conclusion. BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN P.84 P.17

P
S

Cracking Listeria’s Secrets

Discover
SCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS

Scientists are learning more about July/August 2018

®

24 NOTES FROM EARTH a hardy microbe that can live years

he Salamander Army in soil and water, survive deep
You’ll never hear or see them, but freezes, and sometimes kill humans.
BY CLAIRE PANOSIAN DUNAVAN HUMAN SPEED
they keep forest ecosystems strong. NEANDERTHALS
CLOUDS FRACTALS
BY GEOFFREY GILLER SPACE STATIONS

98 20 THINGS YOU DIDN’T MASS EXTINCTIONS

PIGEONS PERSONALITY
GIZA PYRAMIDS
KNOW ABOUT … SELF-DRIVING CARS

90 PROGNOSIS ...AND MUCH MORE! P.28

Ants PLUS Hot Cracking Hidden

Summer Listeria's Salamander
A Double Whammy Reads Code
P.18 P.94 Army P.24

Some are slaveholders, others sip

Chemical exposure could play a role
blood and a few jump backward like
in the development of non-alcoholic
nobody’s business. BY ASHLEY BRAUN ON THE COVER
fatty liver disease. BY RACHEL CERNANSKY
Haunting Ghost Worlds p.84
The Psychology of Politics p.17

77 OUT THERE: BONUS ASTRONOMY SECTION Everything Worth Knowing p.28

Hot Summer Reads p.18
Learn how Chilean observatories play a five-star role in education and
Cracking Listeria’s Code p.94
outreach, and take a tour of the nonexistent worlds that astronomers
Hidden Salamander Army p.24
CHAD LANE

have thought they’ve discovered over the years.

COVER: Bryan Christie Design

4 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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 Discover
SCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS

Editor's Note ®

BECKY LANG Editor In Chief

DAN BISHOP Design Director
EDITORIAL

Take a Road Trip

GEMMA TARLACH Senior Editor
BILL ANDREWS Senior Associate Editor
ELISA R. NECKAR Production Editor
MARK BARNA Associate Editor
ERIC BETZ Associate Editor
LACY SCHLEY Assistant Editor
I love maps. Growing up in the DAVE LEE Copy Editor
isolated mid-mountain West, I’d AMBER JORGENSON Editorial Assistant
spend hours poring over one of Contributing Editors
those classic Rand McNally road TIM FOLGER, JONATHON KEATS,
LINDA MARSA, KENNETH MILLER,
map books of the states. Its cover STEVE NADIS, ADAM PIORE,
COREY S. POWELL, JULIE REHMEYER,
was tattered, not from years of STEVE VOLK, PAMELA WEINTRAUB,
cross-country car trips, but from JEFF WHEELWRIGHT,
DARLENE CAVALIER (SPECIAL PROJECTS)
my incessant perusing and my
ART
curiosity about life in the middle ERNIE MASTROIANNI Photo Editor
of New York City or Arizona ALISON MACKEY Associate Art Director
or Louisiana. DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
I’d imagine myself in the midst CARL ENGELKING Web Editor
of the street grids that made up a LAUREN SIGFUSSON Associate Editor
NATHANIEL SCHARPING Assistant Editor
city neighborhood or in the acres
Bloggers
of rambling forests depicted as MEREDITH CARPENTER, LILLIAN FRITZ-LAYLIN,
big blocks of green across much JEREMY HSU, ERIK KLEMETTI, REBECCA KRESTON,
NEUROSKEPTIC, ELIZABETH PRESTON,
of Appalachia. The road maps SCISTARTER, AMY SHIRA TEITEL,
CHRISTIE WILCOX, TOM YULSMAN
for each state were my portal
to a new place and my window ADVERTISING
STEVE MENI Advertising Sales Manager
into learning about what made 888 558 1544
smeni@discovermagazine.com
it tick — and I always wanted to
Rummel Media Connections
know more. KRISTI RUMMEL Consulting and Media Sales
Our crew of editors hopes you feel that way when you crack 608 435 6220
kristi@rummelmedia.com
open this third annual special issue, Everything Worth Knowing.
MELANIE DECARLI Marketing Architect
We aim to offer you a similar portal into an area of science that BOB RATTNER Research
might just pique your interest — and perhaps some areas you DARYL PAGEL Advertising Services

had no idea you were interested in. KALMBACH MEDIA

What makes a pop song rocket to the top of the charts? DAN HICKEY CEO
STEPHEN C. GEORGE Vice President, Content
Where can you witness Mother Nature as the ultimate NICOLE MCGUIRE Vice President, Consumer Marketing
mathematician? How is it that mass extinctions are essential for SCOTT REDMOND Advertising Sales Director
LIZ RUNYON Circulation Director
a surge of diversity? And just how brainy are octopuses? MICHAEL SOLIDAY Art and Production Manager
It’s summer, and that means more time to let your mind CATHY DANIELS New Business Manager
KATHY STEELE Retention Manager
wander and stick with it as it roams. KIM REDMOND Single Copy Specialist
We want to give you a few road signs to follow, and then the
SCIENCE GROUP
path of curiosity is all yours. BECKY LANG Executive Editor
DAN BISHOP Design Director

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July/August 2018 DISCOVER 7
THE CRUX T H E L ATEST S C I E N C E N E WS A N D N O T ES

PINPOINT PRECISION
A powerful laser beam points out from Hawaii’s 10-meter Keck telescope, creating a so-called artificial guide star in the upper atmosphere
that allows the scope’s optics to adjust for atmospheric distortion. Researchers led by UCLA’s Andrea Ghez used this system to precisely plot
the orbits of several stars circling the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. By observing stellar motion in such a strong
gravitational environment, astronomers will find out if the stars stick to paths predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
 ERNIE MASTROIANNI; PHOTO BY SEAN GOEBEL

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 9

THE CRUX

10 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 BIG IDEA the cricket-rearing process will be
automated, with highly skilled work-
ers doing the rest.

A New Animal Farm

Billions of people eat bugs. Entrepreneurs hope you will, too.
In a dimly lit warehouse in Austin,
Texas, a team of robots and scientists is of deforestation. Insects are about as
raising millions of six-legged livestock
every month. Once fully grown, they’re
roasted and seasoned, mixed into
granola or ground into lour.
The quarry? Crickets.
This semi-automated, commercial-
scale cricket farm is the brainchild of
Aspire Food Group founders Gabe
Mott, Shobhita Soor and Mohammed
Ashour. When they were MBA students
at McGill University in 2013, the idea
won them the $1 million Hult Prize for
social good.
To launch the farm, they had to
think big about Acheta domesticus, the
house cricket. No one had reared them
for human consumption on this scale
before. “We had to walk away from
everything in the scientiic literature,”
Mott says.
The group now runs constant tests
on every bin of food that’s produced —
and about a million crickets are raised
each day. Drops of water, hours of
light, bits of feed, changes in tempera-
ture — all are valuable data points that
help optimize the cricket life cycle, from engineers must optimize the cricket to
birth to cricket lour.
Pound for pound, crickets and other
edible insects offer the most bang for
the planet’s resources. Crickets pack
more protein than beef, more calcium
than milk, more iron than spinach
and as many fatty acids as salmon.
Crickets need just 2 pounds of food
for every edible pound they become.
BRAIN LIGHT/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
They’ve got a ways to go, though.
Next year, Aspire will scale its
25,000-square-foot operation into
an adjacent building 10 times larger.
Yet even this next-gen facility will
create just 300,000 pounds of cricket
powder annually, “a drop in the
greenhouse gas contributor and driver bucket,” Ashour admits. For com-
parison: Humans currently consume
clean as it gets. some 8.8 billion pounds of whey
As Earth’s population increases powder a year.
by billions in the coming From there, they’ll
decades, food production duplicate their design in
must double to feed everyone. Crickets connected facilities around
“The need for more protein is pack more the world. They’ve already
dire, and protein sources that started a pilot farm in
are resilient are particularly
protein than Ghana for palm weevil
important,” says Ashour. beef, more larvae — another tasty
That has entrepreneurs calcium than insect. Eventually, billions
betting big that entomophagy, and billions of bugs will
or eating insects, will be an milk, more feed data into more than
integral part of the world iron than 100 such farms.
hunger solution — and in That should be welcome
many places, it already is.
spinach and news in developing
Two billion people eat insects as many countries with high demand
regularly. But the edible bug fatty acids but little supply. But in
biz is expected to grow to a the U.S. and Europe, the
whopping $720 million by as salmon. problem is psychological.
2024. Among the companies Companies must remove
trying to ill the void are Aspire; Tiny the “ick” factor.
Farms, an agricultural tech company That’s starting to happen via
raising crickets in Silicon Valley; and protein-rich processed crickets tucked
Bitty Foods, a startup selling cricket into snacks and sweets. And last year,
lour and snacks around the country. Saison, a Michelin three-star restau-
But these entrepreneurs and rant in San Francisco, started serving
caviar with cricket broth alongside
meet demand. sea urchins and whole crickets. But
Aspire’s main concerns are scale and for an entire culture shift to occur,
eficiency, so they’re capturing troves of Ashour wants to change how we talk
data to maximize yield. And crickets about entomophagy. We don’t say
are perfect, chirpy little data generators. we’re eating mammals. We say beef
Their lives span just months, providing or pork. Ashour wants to similarly
ample opportunity to analyze every rebrand bugs.
moment to perfect production. The So maybe, entomunchies? Alterna-
company’s engineers designed feeder tive proteins? Whatever we call

This ratio, called the feed conversion
rate, is far better than their competi-
tion. For example, cows require 25
pounds of feed per pound of beef.
Because it demands so many resources,
the livestock industry is a signiicant
robots that patrol the aisles of cricket
bins, adding just the right amount of
food and water based on a formula
improved upon via billions of cricket
forebears. Over the next year or so,
Ashour expects 70 to 80 percent of
them, there’s a good chance more
bugs will soon hit store shelves.
And as we continue to reine our
palate, scientists hope to satiate our
eco-friendly appetites one cricket
at a time.  CARL ENGELKING

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 11

THE CRUX
THAT WORD YOU HEARD

Thixotropic
KETCHUP FAN? Then you know you’ve
got to shake that bottle of your
favorite brand before you squeeze it
onto your food of choice. Otherwise,
you’ll be met with a watery mess
followed by some gunky globs. That’s
because ketchup — along with a whole
host of other substances ranging from
clay face masks to printing inks — is
thixotropic. When it sits too long,
lonely and unused on a diner table or in
the dark abyss that is your refrigerator,
the concoction separates and the
tomato-y part thickens up, becoming
more viscous. But when you shake it,
everything mixes back up, thins out,
and you’re good to go.  LACY SCHLEY;
ILLUSTRATION BY CHAD EDWARDS

12 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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THE CRUX
FAR, FAR AWAY

SHARP SHOOTER
As the Curiosity rover climbs closer to the summit of Mars’ Mount Sharp (upper left), it paused in January to take a photo of the road ahead.
Researchers are eager for a closer look at the light-gray area where the terrain dips, at center right. These layers of clay and other sediment, which
Curiosity should reach in the coming months, may reveal more details about how water once shaped the terrain. If the view reminds you of an
earthly desert, it’s by design. NASA technicians adjusted the color balance away from Mars’ reddish hues so that the landscape would appear as if
illuminated by terrestrial sunshine — the better for Earth-trained geologists to recognize patterns.
 ERNIE MASTROIANNI; PHOTO BY NASA/JPLCALTECH/MSSS

14 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

New Arthritis Painkiller Works on
Contact and Numbs the Pain in Minutes
New cream works faster and is more targeted than
oral medications. Key ingredients penetrate the skin
within minutes to relieve joint arthritis pain.
Users report significant immediate relief.
By Robert Ward
Associated Health Press
BOSTON – Innovus Pharmaceuticals has in-
 MPWF IPX FBTZ "QFB[– JT UP
troduced a new arthritis pain relief treatment

that works in minutes.
Sold under the brand name Apeaz™, the
new pain relief cream numbs the nerves right
below the skin.
When applied to an arthritic joint, or
a painful area on the body, it delivers
immediate relief that lasts for hours and
NBLJOH
hours.
The powerful painkilling effect is created
 MJLF )FOSZ &TCFS
 BO
by the creams active ingredients, three
special medical compounds.
Anesthetics are used in hospitals during
surgery. They block nerve signals from the
brain so that patients don’t feel pain and
they work fast.
The anesthetic found in Apeaz™ is the
strongest available without a prescription.
The cream form allows users to directly
target their area of pain. It works where it is
 "SUISJ7BSY– JT XPSLJOH PO UIF JO-
applied. The company says this is why the
product is so effective and fast acting.
“Users can expect to start feeling relief
immediately after applying,” explains
Dr. Bassam Damaj, President of Innovus
Pharmaceuticals.
“There will be a pleasant warming
sensation that is followed by a cool, soothing
one. This is how you know that the active
ingredients have reached the affected joint
and tissue.”
Works In Minutes
For arthritis suffers, Apeaz™ offers
impressive advantages over traditional
medications. The most obvious is how
quickly it relieves pain discomfort.
The cream contains the maximum
approved OTC dose of a top anesthetic,
which penetrates the skin in a matter of
minutes to numb the area that’s in pain. This
relief lasts for several hours.
Published pre-clinical animal studies have
shown that the ingredients in Apeaz™ can
also prevent further bone and cartilage de-
struction.
There are also no negative side effects like
from oral medication. Apeaz™ delivers its in-
gredients through the skin. Oral medications
are absorbed in the digestive tract. Overtime,
the chemicals in pills can tear the delicate
lining of the stomach, causing ulcers and
bleeding.
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THE CRUX
TRENDING BY LACY SCHLEY
Degrees of Separation
From spotting moon craters to a rooster’s crow.

The number of new craters

It’s All Fun and Games

Until Someone Gets Hurt
Exciting new gadgets are fun to play with, but sometimes they
6,000 an artificial intelligence
system was able to spot
on our moon. That’s nearly
twice as many craters as we
mere mortals could pick out
on our own, saving astronomers time and resources.
can get us into trouble. Hoverboards are a prime example.

92%
How accurate another
The two-wheeled toys — sadly, more like fancy skateboards
AI-based approach was at
than true hoverboards à la Back to the Future — have led to
classifying the anatomy
injuries in thousands of kids since arriving on the market, of hearts depicted in
according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. echocardiogram scans.
The program could help
cardiologists — who were only 80 percent accurate
NATIONAL ESTIMATE OF INJURIES PER YEAR — get better at identifying specific sections
SKATEBOARD of the organ.
2015 64,562
2016 56,836 The time it takes for most

MINUTES
25
HOVERBOARD people’s blood pressure
2015 7,662 to stabilize, according
2016 19,192 to a recent study. Not
letting patients rest long
enough before taking
EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT INJURIES
measurements, the researchers say, could lead
FOR 2015 AND 2016 BY AGE
to overdiagnosis of hypertension. The condition
20,000
SKATEBOARD — often associated with age, stress and obesity —
18,000 involves elevated blood pressure, which then takes
HOVERBOARD
16,000 a toll on artery walls.
NUMBER OF INJURIES

14,000
The amount of calories volunteers

15%
12,000
in a recent diet study cut back over
10,000 two years. The decrease helped
8,000 protect the dieters from cellular
damage associated with aging.
6,000
4,000 Roughly how many
MILLION

2,000
0

LOCATION OF
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
AGE
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

NATIONAL
650 people the U.S.
could feed if farmers
switched from
livestock to plants.
By replacing resource-
gobbling cattle, pig and chicken farms with legumes
like soy, along with fruits and veggies, American
FROM TOP: SHURKIN_SON/SHUTTERSTOCK; SUNSHINE VECTOR/SHUTTERSTOCK (3)

HOVERBOARD INJURIES ESTIMATE OF INJURIES farmers could sustain more than twice as many
people as they currently do.
Head SKATEBOARD
14% GIRLS 30,371
DECIBELS

142
The volume a rooster’s
Forearm Wrist BOYS 98,752
14% 19% crow can reach — about
the same as what you’d
Ankle 7% HOVERBOARD hear standing just
GIRLS 12,978 100 feet away from a
Other
BOYS 13,872 running jet engine. So how do these ear-piercing
46%
poultry not go deaf? When roosters open their
beaks, their ear canals actually close, protecting
Source: ”Pediatric Hoverboard and Skateboard Injuries,” Pediatrics, 2018. their eardrums while they crow.

16 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 KRISTIN ALLEN
U.S. HALL OF FAME
ACROBATIC GYMNAST

The Psychology of Politics

In 2016, the United Kingdom said yes to Brexit and leaving the European
Union — a move that caught many political analysts off guard. The
campaign, designed to persuade voters to leave the international pact, ran
on themes that included fear, lost pride and loss aversion. These themes
also relate to neuroticism; people who score high in this personality trait
are more prone to anger, anxiety, irritability, sadness and hostility. So an
international team of researchers drilled down into the data to see if there
was a connection. Using local polling results and data from an online
personality survey, the team discovered that areas where residents tended
to score higher in neuroticism were also more likely to vote yes on Brexit.
These insights could help analysts better understand and predict evolving
geopolitical landscapes around the globe.

BREXIT FEAR
VOTES Highest
values
Highest
support

Lowest
values
Lowest
support
MICHAEL STUETZER

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 17

THE CRUX
BOOKS

SUMMER’S HERE, and the time is right WHAT TO

QUICK TAKES
for reading. So slather on the sunscreen, HUMAN ERRORS
sink your toes into the sand or soft READ THIS A Panorama of Our Glitches, From
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SUMMER By Nathan H. Lents
We are a mess. Every one of

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THE EQUATIONS OF LIFE
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READ By Charles S. Cockell
IN THE If a ladybug lands on
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provocative perspective, don’t
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uses the insect, along with assorted
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us is riddled with anatomical
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provides a funny, fascinating cat-
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CHASING NEW HORIZONS
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STILL WATERS
The Secret World of Lakes
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21st-century development.
LIFE ON MARS
What to Know Before We Go
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Don’t plan on any s’mores and
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many tasks still on the to-do list.
LOST IN MATH
How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
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While physicist and Backreaction
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of its sacred cows, her witty,
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18 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 
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 Vital
Signs

Eye of the Beholder CHECKERED FAMILY PAST

Pediatricians are always on the
lookout for injuries caused by
A boy’s mysterious injuries set off alarms at a pediatrics ward.
physical abuse or neglect of a child.
BY AMITHA KALAICHANDRAN
Obvious clues are bruises and broken
bones that don’t quite make sense.
Other signs, such as a child being

→ Bobby was an 8-year-old who

lived with his family in a small
town. His mother, Mary, took him to
their family doctor to examine a limp
the boy had developed. The doctor
My supervising
physician was worried.
He popped his head into
the room and motioned
for me to join him in the
suspected a broken bone and referred
him to a local emergency room.
X-rays showed he had a fractured
extremely underweight, wearing dirty
clothes or having unkempt hair, can
suggest parents aren’t tending to their
left shin, which doctors placed in a child’s basic hygiene and nutritional
cast. Bobby was then admitted to our needs. But it’s important not to jump
ward at a children’s to conclusions.
hospital because Bobby’s medical chart from his
of concerns about hometown doctor was disturbing.
possible child abuse. He had fractured the same leg when
His mother said he he was 1 year old after falling on a
was running and fell carpeted loor. He had also recently
on the carpeted living broken his left arm. It’s unusual for
room loor. But most even the clumsiest child to have several
boys don’t break their accidents resulting in fractures.
leg from that. Bobby’s family doctor was
Mary seemed also concerned about his small
concerned about size and appetite. It wasn’t clear
Bobby, but also a whether he was a picky eater or
bit scattered. “It’s was malnourished due to parental
happened before, but neglect. For children who have
not this bad,” she said. limited calcium and vitamin D
“When you say intake, perhaps from not drinking
it’s happened before, enough milk, bone formation can
what do you mean?” I be affected, increasing the risk of
asked. She responded fracture. And overall growth can be
vaguely, saying he had stunted by not receiving the right
broken at least one amount of nutrients.
bone before this that The child protection services (CPS)
had required a cast. covering the region where Bobby lived
In his hospital had been involved with the family
room, I examined since the boy was a month old. Mary
Bobby, who appeared was in her early 20s, and Bobby was
short for his age. Other than the her second child. She had no income
fractured shin, he had no bruises or to support the family and hadn’t
other injuries. inished high school. About six weeks
But my supervising physician was after Bobby’s birth, CPS had ordered
worried. He popped his head into the that she and the children live with
room and motioned for me to join Mary’s parents.
him in the hallway. “We need to page As a pediatrician in training, I
MEHAU KULYK/SCIENCE SOURCE

hallway. “We need to
page child protection,”
he whispered.
child protection,” he whispered. Most
children’s hospitals have an in-house
version of the service, which examines
suspected cases of child abuse and
neglect. I notiied them.
had seen several cases that suggested
neglect or physical abuse. None of
them was clear-cut. In one case,
there were concerns of nutritional
neglect, but we discovered that the

20 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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 Vital
Signs
family simply was not educated about
healthful foods.
But sometimes the opposite is
true. One infant with a skull fracture
and bruises also had bleeding at
the back of his eyes (called retinal
hemorrhages) and healed rib
fractures. It turned out his parents,
both courteous and well educated,
were physically harming the child.
When I examined Bobby, the
statistics somberly played through my
mind. In the United States, almost
700,000 children suffer abuse and
neglect each year, with four-ifths of
physical abuse inlicted by a parent.
Bobby’s mother seemed nice
enough, but as abuse seemed more
likely, I felt moments of anger and
sadness rise and release inside me,
like ireworks.
JUST LIKE MOM
After the hospital’s CPS was
contacted, I visited Bobby again
in his hospital room. I asked more
questions, focusing on the social and
family history. I learned that Bobby
was in fact a picky eater. He ate a lot
of hot dogs and macaroni and didn’t
drink much milk. But a history of
physical abuse wasn’t clear.
“Is anyone else involved with
Bobby’s care?” I asked Mary.
“No, just me,” she said. “I don’t
work, so we’re at home most of the
time when he isn’t in school.
“I don’t know what the big deal
is,” she added. “I had lots of broken
bones as a kid.”
“What do you mean? Did you get
injured a lot?”
“Yes. I would fall and hurt myself,”
she said. “I think my bones are just
sensitive.”
The family doctor had told her
she had scoliosis, or curvature
of the spine, and that one of her
legs was longer than the other. I
had noticed that Mary waddled,
so this would explain it. She was
also unusually short.
22 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
“So Bobby’s just like me, right
down to our blue eyes. That makes us
special, I think,” she said.
I was confused. Mary’s and Bobby’s
irises were brown. But looking closer, I
noticed the whites of their eyes, called
the sclera, were a soft baby blue.
BRITTLE BONES
We took X-rays of Bobby’s entire
body looking for healed fractures,
which conirmed the injuries
described in his medical history. The
I was initially
surprised that
so many doctors
hadn’t noticed
Bobby and Mary’s
blue-tinged sclera.
skeletal survey also revealed that
Bobby had wormian bones, which
appear on the skull as squiggles that
look like worms. We performed a
bone mineral density of the spine
to test how strong his bones were
compared with other children his
age. His bones were signiicantly
less dense. Bobby essentially had the
skeletal strength of a 3-year-old, not
an active 8-year-old running and
jumping around the house.
Our working diagnosis was
osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or
brittle bone disease, an extremely rare
condition that weakens bones. Bobby
had inherited the condition from his
mother. He did not have scoliosis, but
there can be an association between
the conditions, meaning Bobby was at
risk of developing scoliosis during his
adolescent growth spurts.
OI encompasses a range of genetic
diseases that result from faulty
collagen, a building block for healthy
bones. Without it, bones are weak
and prone to fractures. Wormian
bones are not harmful, but, like short
stature, can be signs of the disease.
Blue sclera, caused by light relected
off abnormally thin collagen ibers in
the eye, can be another telltale sign.
We wanted to build up Bobby’s
bone strength. To do this, we gave
him an intravenous bisphosphonate,
part of a class of drugs that ight
bone loss, and a daily dose of
vitamin D. We couldn’t change
his body’s ability to make normal
collagen, but we could optimize his
bone mineralization through this
treatment. Bone biopsies every six
months would chart his progress.
We felt conident we had solved the
mystery of Bobby’s condition. But
child abuse can happen to children
with OI, too, so social workers would
continue to monitor the family.
I was initially surprised that so
many doctors hadn’t noticed Bobby
and Mary’s blue-tinged sclera. But
then again, Mary had to tip me off to
it. The condition is subtle and hard
to notice under the luorescent lights
of a doctor’s ofice. It’s a good lesson:
Sometimes insight into a diagnosis
can arise out of the blue. D
Amitha Kalaichandran is a resident
P. MARAZZI/SCIENCE SOURCE
physician in pediatrics at the Children’s
Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa,
Canada. The cases described in Vital Signs
are real, but names and certain details have
been changed.
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 Notes
From
Earth

The Salamander Army

Crawling across American forests, a secretive horde of amphibians
protects vast ecosystems.
BY GEOFFREY GILLER

→ On a drizzly December afternoon

in western Massachusetts, U.S.
Geological Survey wildlife biologists
Evan Grant and Adrianne Brand
stop their car on the side of the road
and plod into the wet forest through
a break in the oaks and white pines.
It’s a bit late in the year to ind the
predators they’re searching for, but
this forest is teeming with them. In
fact, as soon as they walk past the irst
tree, they’re probably never more than
a few feet from one.
You’d never know it, though.
If you walk into almost any forest,
like this one in the northeastern United
States, and stand still, you’ll start to
hear animals. At irst, the songs of birds From coast to coast, salamanders are so abundant that they can influence ecosystems. This Ensatina,
from afar will reach you. Then, the common in the West, crawls across a redwood forest floor in Alameda County, California.
ones nearby that went silent at
your approach will start back he sheer weight LOOKING AFTER LEAF LITTER
up. After a while, you If you are an insect, red-backed sala-
might hear some rustling of salamanders is manders should indeed strike fear into
in the leaves nearby: your . . . open circulatory system. Their
chipmunks, squirrels or
greater than all the voracious nature and their numbers
other small mammals, and nearby birds and small make these salamanders crucial parts
maybe a snake or two. of the forest food web, according to
But as long as you stand, mammals combined. Cari-Ann Hickerson, who studies
and as silent as you may the small amphibians at John Carroll
be, what you’ll never hear down their backs. And in forests University in Ohio.
— and probably never from Nova Scotia to Minnesota “They have the ability to create
see — are these preda- and down south to North trophic cascades in the forest that ilter TOP: CHAD LANE. BOTTOM: NICK HAWKINS/NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY

tors, the most common
terrestrial vertebrates in
the woods.
Fortunately, unless
you’re a small bug,
you’re not in any danger. cinereus, the
The ubiquitous critters
are eastern red-backed
salamanders: skinny,
lungless amphibians a couple
of inches long with a rust-
colored racing stripe
Carolina, there are often more
Plethodon cinereus than any other
land animal with a backbone.
Their sheer weight is greater than
Plethodon
all the nearby birds and small
mammals combined. From
red-backed the East Coast to the West,
salamander.
those tremendous numbers
are showing scientists just
how important salamanders
are to the forests that sur-
round them.
all the way down to the level of the leaf
litter,” says Hickerson, referring to the
predators’ ability to shape populations
beyond those they directly feed on. By
eating the bugs that eat or break down
dead leaves, salamanders can alter the
low of nutrients and chemicals on
the forest loor. And they keep prey
populations under control, maintaining
a balanced food web.
But they’re not just predators. They’re
also protein-rich prey for raccoons,

24 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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 Notes
From
Earth

snakes, wild turkeys and other animals, to Baja California.

funneling nutrients from small insects to
larger forest critters.
Since 1975, scientists have known
about the staggering numbers of red-
backed salamanders living under rocks,
logs and leaves. That year, a study in
New Hampshire estimated there were
about 750,000 salamanders per square
mile, or about one salamander for
every 6-foot square of forest loor. But
Experimental enclosures in Northern
California help scientists study salamanders’
impact on forests.
— was, on average, eight times higher
“I like to think of them as the
stewards of the forest,” says biolo-
gist Michael Best of College of the
Redwoods in Northern California. He’s
studied Ensatina for over a decade, and
in 2014, found that one salamander in
an outdoor enclosure could slow down
leaf decay by about 15 percent.
The implication? These salamanders
could sequester 80 tons of carbon on

MICHAEL BEST AND HARTWELL WELSH, ECOSPHERE FEBRUARY 2014

researchers’ techniques, typical at the
time, weren’t up to modern standards.
So in 2014, University of
Missouri herpetologist Ray Semlitsch
re-evaluated salamander populations.
He was inspired after discovering that
salamander populations in the Ozarks
were signiicantly higher than the
1975 estimates. His team eventually
found that the density nationwide
— in forests where salamanders live
than what scientists reported in 1975.
“We really think that they’re playing
a greater role than we ever imagined
they’re playing,” Semlitsch, who died in
2015, said at the time.
KEEPERS OF CARBON
These woodland salamanders are
also out West. Ensatina eschscholtzii,
usually just referred to as Ensatina,
lives in forests from British Columbia
the forest loor every year. That’s equal
to a car driving 650,000 miles. And
overall, salamanders create stability
on the forest loor, Best says. The
amphibians stash nutrients, both in
their bodies and in the leaves whose
decomposition they slow down, and
keep the nutrients around until other
organisms can use them.
“They are moderating the swings of
chaos,” Best says.

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 There are some caveats to these
indings. Food webs are almost
endlessly complex, and not all studies
on salamanders have shown such
huge ecosystem effects. But Daniel
Hocking of Frostburg State University
in Maryland says that with over 5,000
salamanders in an area the size of a
football ield, “it’s hard to imagine
they’re not having any inluence on
food webs and ecosystems.”
Such a widespread species is not
in danger of extinction, but there are
troubling signs. Invasive earthworms
seem to be pushing salamanders from
their preferred habitat in some Ohio
forests, says Hickerson. And there’s
the recently discovered salamander-
killing fungus called Bsal (short for
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans),
which researchers worry could spread
to the U.S. from Asia.
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And, of course, there’s climate
change. Grant, the USGS amphibian
researcher in Massachusetts, is part of
a network of researchers throughout
the red-backed salamander’s range
hoping to igure out how they will
adjust. Climate change models predict
reduced snowfall. Without that
insulating layer, deeper forest loor
layers may freeze when extreme cold
sweeps down from the north, Grant
says. That could force salamanders
to burrow deeper in the soil, delaying
their emergence in the spring.
To emulate this, Grant has been
going into forests and shoveling off
snow from grids of wooden boards,
under which salamanders love to hide.
Keeping half the boards snow-free
in winter, and leaving the other half
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can show him how the salamanders
might fare in coming decades.
Grant and Brand are checking those
boards on this December day. Brand
lips a board over and calls out that
she’s found one. It’s a young red-
backed salamander — probably less
than a year old, Grant estimates, and
just an inch long from nose to tail tip.
Its large, dark eyes bug out from
a lattened head covered in faint
pale dots. It seems impossible that
something so tiny could make any
difference to the enormous forest
surrounding it. But its power sinks in
when you start to realize that it’s part
of an elusive army, tens of millions
strong. D
Geoffrey Giller is a science writer with
a special love for amphibians. He covers
biodiversity, wildlife and conservation.
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 27
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ILLUSTRATION: KELLIE JAEGER/DISCOVER. OCTOPUS BACKGROUND: SULJO/DREAMSTIME.COM. FORMULA: COMPILED BY THOMAS D. GUTIERREZ FROM DIAGRAMMATICA BY MARTINUS VELTMAN. MILKY WAY: ESO/B. TAFRESHI (TWANIGHT.ORG). NOTES: ABSTRACT/SHUTTERSTOCK
p. 30 Giza Pyramids
p. 34 Clouds
p. 38 Neanderthals
Knowledge really is power. The more we know, the
p. 40 Personality better we understand how the world works. With a
p. 44 Pigeons little context, we can igure out how things relate to
each other and spot hidden connections. And we can
p. 46 Milky Way win more trivia contests.
p. 48 The Cloud But there’s so much! Who has enough time to know
everything? How do you even know where to begin?
p. 50 Human Speed Look no further than our annual collection of
p. 52 Mass Extinctions Everything Worth Knowing. Get up to speed on when
autonomous cars will go mainstream, where your
p. 56 Octopuses digital treasures go when you save them to the cloud,
p. 58 Science of Music how the Milky Way has changed over the years, who
p. 62 Space Stations really built the Egyptian pyramids, why pigeons are
cooler than you think and more.
p. 66 Autonomous Cars Get in on the ground level of understanding for
p. 68 The Standard Model each topic with the basic truths, and stick around
for the latest research and other fun facts. We’ll give
p. 70 Teeth you the tools for basic fluency, and a road map for
p. 72 Fractals learning more.
Share your thoughts and ideas for what you’d like
to see next year: editorial@discovermagazine.com.
After all, there will never be a shortage of stuff worth
knowing. — THE EDITORS

28 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 29
 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

GIZA All in the Family

PYRAMIDS
Stairways to heaven.
The Giza pyramids were the brainchild of three
generations of Egyptian kings. Khufu, the
oldest of the three, was the father of Khafre.
And Khafre was the father of Menkaure. Each
pyramid is thought to be the final resting place
of the king who ordered it built.
BY MARK BARNA

Menkaure’s pyramid
Rising above a desert plateau near Cairo are c. 2510 B.C.
three giant pyramids. The most famous of Known as “Menkaure Is Divine”
during construction.
them is the Great Pyramid, and together, they’re Area: 2.9 acres
the only structure among the Seven Wonders of Height: 218 feet

the World that is still mostly intact.

Extraordinary feats tend to inspire extraordinary
explanations. Space aliens! Super-advanced lost
civilizations! But the truth is even more interesting.
Three Egyptian pharaohs overseeing tens of
thousands of workers built the iconic structures
at Giza within a 70-year span during the Fourth
Dynasty (2575-2465 B.C.), 4,500 years ago. Recent
archaeological discoveries, including the diary of
an inspector involved in pyramid construction,
explain more about how the pyramids were built
and who built them — but many questions remain.

Why Inspector Merer’s

Were They Journal
In 2013, Pierre Tallet, an Egyptologist at
Built?
LEFT: GAËL POLLIN/MISSION ARCHÉOLOGIQUE DU OUADI EL-JARF

the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and

The Giza pyramids were tombs his team found papyrus scraps stuffed
for royalty. Scholars say the shape was between stones in a building at a Red
meant to help the king ascend to the Sea harbor used during Khufu’s reign.
ABOVE: RAINER HACKENBERG/VISUM/REDUX

sun god and ensure immortality. The
pyramids’ angled sides might have
been inspired by the spectacle of
slanted sunbeams striking
the earth.
It was part of a day-to-day log by an
inspector named Merer, who oversaw a
cargo boat crew transporting limestone
from Tura to the Giza Plateau. Merer
refers to the Great Pyramid as “The Horizon of Khufu” and calls a harbor
at the pyramid site “Khufu’s pool.”

30 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Khafre’s pyramid Khufu’s pyramid
c. 2570 B.C. c. 2580-2560 B.C.
Known as “Great Is Khafre” Known as “The Horizon of Khufu” during
during construction. construction and later, the Great Pyramid.
Area: 11.5 acres With its base almost perfectly square and its
Height: 471 feet outer casing of stone precisely fit, Khufu’s
structure is not only the largest, but also the
best built of all Egyptian pyramids.
Area: 13.1 acres
Original height: 481 feet

PYRAMID EVOLUTION
Within about 500 years, grave markers in ancient Egypt
FROM LEFT: JON BODSWORTH; BLUE64/ISTOCK; GBARM/ISTOCK; JAVARMAN/ISTOCK

progressed from simple mounds to timeless architectural wonders.

Predynastic Early Dynastic Third Dynasty Early Fourth Dynasty 2613-2494 B.C.
4600-3000 B.C. 3000-2686 B.C. 2686-2613 B.C.
Bent Pyramid Red Pyramid
Dirt Mounds Mastabas Step Pyramids King Sneferu, father of Khufu Sneferu tries
The ancient The mounds grow into Builders begin stacking and the first king of the Fourth again at Dahshur,
Egyptians believe massive rectangular mud-brick mastabas one on top Dynasty, builds the so-called this time creating
that creation monuments called mastabas, the other, each smaller Bent Pyramid at Dahshur, the first true
sprang from a Arabic for “bench.” Mastabas than the one below it. 14 miles south of Giza. It is the pyramid, which
primeval mound. become the final resting Pharaoh Djoser builds first large-scale project to create boasts reddish
This might have place for Egyptian royalty, a six-step pyramid at a monument with sloping limestone on its
prompted them whose bodies are placed in Saqqara, 10 miles south triangular sides. But the ground exterior.
to bury their dead underground chambers beneath of Giza. is softer than expected, so
beneath piles the structures. Later, mastabas to avoid the pyramid’s collapse,
of dirt, perhaps are also built of stone. laborers reduce the slope’s
believing that this angle at the top, creating the
aids rebirth to the pyramid’s bent look.
afterlife.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 31

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING GIZA PYRAMIDS

Need a Lift?
How did the Egyptians stack multiple-
ton blocks to create a pyramid
hundreds of feet high? Scientists
and historians have proposed many
theories, from elaborate ramps to
pulleys tugging blocks up the slanted
sides and fulcrums maneuvering them
into place. But the exact methods
remain unknown.
Most researchers agree that the
construction involved ramps of some
kind, likely made of gypsum, clay and
limestone debris, especially since ramp
remnants are still on the plateau. But
there’s little agreement how the ramps
were used in pyramid construction.

Getting There
The pyramids’ blocks were cut at Giza quarries and sites along the Nile.
They were transported to the construction site in various ways.
. . . By Sledge
The cut blocks were likely placed on sledges and pulled by men or cattle. Water or some A Straight-on Ramp
other fluid poured on the sand in front of the sledges would have reduced friction. would have to be extremely long to
Researchers have simulated the labor many times. It’s doable with proper technique achieve the low grade necessary to
and enough muscle. One notable pyramid construction simulation, in 1991, used ancient transport the blocks, extending far
Egyptian tools and methods to build two sides of an 18-foot pyramid in 21 days. During beyond the quarries — an engineering
construction, about a dozen men pulled a rope attached to a sledge loaded with a feat in itself. This type of ramp also
2-ton block. “We had no trouble doesn’t solve how the blocks were
moving these blocks around,” moved to specific spots on the pyramid.
says Richard Redding, a research
scientist at the Kelsey Museum
of Archaeology at the University
of Michigan.

. . . By Boat
White limestone once covered
Khufu’s and Khafre’s pyramids.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LOOK AND LEARN/PETER JACKSON COLLECTION; JAY SMITH (3);
(Some still remains atop
Khafre’s.) “When the sun hit this
white polished limestone, the
reflection would’ve been seen
across the valley,” Redding says.
The white limestone came from A Switchback or Wraparound
REBEKAH MIRACLE/ANCIENT EGYPT RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

The Nile’s flood plain extended to the Giza Plateau, a quarry at Tura on the Nile’s
allowing workers to transport quarried blocks by boat.
Design is the most accepted. The ramp
east bank, 8 miles away. Granite likely was built up from the ground and
beams for inner chambers were hugged the pyramid. Workers would pull
quarried in Aswan, hundreds of miles south along the Nile. sledges loaded with stones up the ramp
The Tura and Aswan blocks were transported by cargo boat to the Giza Plateau. for placement.
Before dams were built in modern times, the Nile flooded its banks from August
through October. The water would lap up to the pyramid construction site. The Ramp Rubble was dumped
Sand contour analysis and 72 sediment core samples, collected in the late 1980s by a back into the Giza quarries after
British-American company, indicate that the Egyptians dug canals and harbors on the completing the pyramids. “They should
flood plain to aid passage of cargo boats. “They were cutting away the surface of the have been filled with blown-in sand,”
plateau to create these deep harbors, some deep enough to remain flooded during the Redding says of the quarries. “But
low season,” says Glen Dash, a surveyor of the Giza area. instead, they are filled with rubble.”

32 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Workers, Not Slaves
Judeo-Christian tradition characterizes the ancient
Egyptians as slaveholders. And the Greek historian
Herodotus, who lived about 2,000 years after completion
of the Giza pyramids, wrote that slaves built the pyramids.
But recent scholarship offers a different possibility.
Conscripted Labor
Hieroglyphic inscriptions and graffiti on monuments suggest
that masons, surveyors and other skilled laborers worked
continually at Giza. The grunt work of pulling and lifting the
stones was likely performed not by slaves, but by young men
from farming villages in the region, Redding says. But it’s
probable the men didn’t have much choice.
Ancient Egypt was more or less a feudal system. Nearly
everyone owed service, or bak, to citizens higher in the social
The remains of a two-story structure (illustrated above) discovered on
hierarchy, and that included service to the pharaoh. During the the Giza Plateau might have been living quarters for pyramid laborers.
rainy season, when the farming fields were flooded, men were
conscripted by the thousands to work on the pyramid projects,
says Donald Redford, a professor of classics and ancient Nearby is a workers’ cemetery; the skeletons show medical care
Mediterranean studies at Penn State. for injuries like fractures and no signs of abuse. “They took
great care of them,” Redford adds.
Cities and Cemeteries Were the unskilled laborers disgruntled? Perhaps not, some
Surrounding the Giza pyramids are remnants of worker researchers say. Being at a location bustling with action and
settlements and cemeteries. The Wall of the Crow, within thousands of people for a few months was probably exciting
walking distance of the pyramids, shows evidence of for young men from rustic villages. And because bak was
occupation during the Fourth Dynasty when Khafre and woven into the culture, some say laborers might have felt that,
Menkaure ruled, researchers say. Excavation has revealed bone through their work, they were improving their future. “By
piles of slaughtered animals, suggesting the workers were assisting the pharaoh in the afterlife, and making sure he could
well fed. “They got better food than what they would get in forever stand beside the gods and intercede for you … you
the villages,” says Redding, who did the site’s animal analysis. were acting in your own interest,” Redding says.

End
of an Era
TOP: WILMA WETTERSTROM/ANCIENT EGYPT RESEARCH ASSOCIATES. BOTTOM: WILL AND DENI MCINTYRE/SCIENCE SOURCE

The high point of Egyptian

pyramid construction ended around
2510 B.C. with completion of Menkaure’s
Pyramid, a mini-monument compared
with Khufu’s and Khafre’s. “They really
couldn’t muster the manpower or
finances to do it again,” Dash says,
“which is why from that point on
the pyramids got smaller and
simpler.”

Further
Reading
Giza and the
Pyramids: The
Definitive History,
by Mark Lehner
and Zahi Hawass
The pyramids overlooking Cairo are the only structures (University of
among the Seven Wonders of the World mostly intact. Chicago Press,
2017)

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 33

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

CLOUDS
Sailors of the sky.
BY ERIC BETZ

Drops. That’s all there is to clouds — they’re made from

countless water drops too small to see with the naked
eye. The atmosphere is actually full of these drops, which
scientists call water vapor. As the drops rise, they cool and
stick to things like dust, ice, sea salt, even pollution, creating
clouds. The vapors take on all manner of shapes — and
we don’t mean hearts or
mythical beasts, or whatever
else people imagine
seeing. The American
Meteorological Society,
oficial chronicler of clouds,
lists 10 cloud genera, 14
species and nine varieties.
The strangest of these
may be Earth’s highest, at
250,000 feet or more: thin,
wispy noctilucent clouds
(left), visible only at twilight.

Clouds and Climate

Clouds cover 70 percent of Earth’s surface any given time, so they play an
FROM LEFT: NASA/DAVE HUGHES; ROEN KELLY/DISCOVER AFTER JAY SMITH

important role in shaping climate. As the sun’s warming light hits our planet,
clouds reflect some of that energy back into space. They also trap some of the
energy in the air between them and Earth. So clouds both cool and warm our
world. In models, the largest source of uncertainty about how much our climate
will change stems from not completely understanding the impact of clouds.
Will they slow or quicken warming?
Most models predict that changing cloud patterns will add to the warming.
One pattern being watched: As tropical dry zones expand, mid-latitude storms
push toward the poles. In 2016, research published in Nature looked at cloud
observations from the past several decades and found that clouds were indeed
shifting poleward as predicted.

34 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

20,000 feet (6,100 m) above sea level
8,000 feet (2,440 m) above sea level
CLOUD GENERA
Cirrus
Wispy and thin, these are
composed of ice crystals
formed from supercooled
water droplets.
Cirrocumulus
These small pufs cover skies
in rows and can look like
fish scales, hinting at fair
but cold weather.
Cirrostratus
Made of ice crystals, these high,
sheetlike clouds can indicate
changing weather.
Altocumulus
Pufy and traveling in groups
or bands, altocumulus on a
humid morning can mean
afternoon thunderstorms.
Altostratus
These featureless sheets of
vapor and ice — clouds for a
“meh” day — form a gray veil that
may mean future precipitation.
Nimbostratus
In Latin, nimbus means “violent
rain,” and these moisture-rich,
dark gray clouds often deliver.
Stratocumulus
Earth’s most common clouds are
pufy and layered, often bringing
rain. Their abundance makes
them important for modeling
climate change.
Stratus
These moody clouds include fog
and mist. They form when warm,
wet air cools, enveloping coasts
and mountains.
Cumulus
Rising air can make these
fair-weather clouds, which
have flat bottoms with
big cotton ball tops, grow
upward into cumulonimbus —
thunderstorm clouds.
Cumulonimbus
These monsters can tower as
high as 60,000 feet, releasing
energy as thunder and lightning.
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 35
EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING CLOUDS

Anatomy of a Supercell
A supercell, an outsize cumulonimbus cloud with a rotating
updraft, is extremely dangerous to people, property and even flying
airplanes. Fortunately, supercells are rare, and a classic one is fairly 1
easy for storm watchers to spot, enabling warnings. It’s important
to avoid its most dangerous areas: the downdraft, where rain, now
too heavy to support, brings air back down; and the updraft, where
rising air feeds the storm’s hallmark rotating core. The downdraft
can bring heavy rain and hail. The updraft can spawn tornadoes.

1 Back-sheared anvil 5 Rain-free base 10 Tornado

A storm’s anvil top section
that extends upwind.
2 Rotation
Supercells have rotating
updrafts, caused by rising
warm air, which enable them
to develop fierce winds, large
hail and tornadoes. Unlike
supercells, which can last
hours, garden-variety storms
are short-lived because they
don’t rotate.
3 Flanking line
Cumulus clouds often extend
from a supercell’s most active
region.
Dark clouds, usually
without rain, can occur
at a thunderstorm’s updraft.
6 Overshooting top
Strong updrafts create
domelike protrusions.
7 Anvil
Where a cumulonimbus
cloud’s flat, spreading top
reaches the stratosphere
miles above Earth.
8 Mesocyclone
This rotating region spanning
several miles wide can be
picked up on Doppler radar.
A rapidly rotating
air column that touches
ground.
11 Wall cloud
Tornadoes sometimes form
from this fast-lowering
cumulonimbus section.
12 Shelf cloud
A low-level cloud, often
wedge-shaped and usually
tied to a gust front, forms
when the wind picks up right
before a thunderstorm.

4 Scud 9 Mammatus clouds

ROEN KELLY/DISCOVER

A low, ragged cloud group So-called “mammary clouds”

often tied to a thunderstorm’s form as pockets of cold air sink
cool outflow. under a thunderstorm anvil.

4
5

36 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Storm motion

6
10 16

14

9
8
8
12

10
2 6

Kilometers
Miles
8

4
6

Updraft
Rising air currents
Downdraft
Small-scale, rapidly 4
sinking air column
brought on by rain 2

Outflow 2
Inflow

11
12

10 Heavy rain and hail

0 0
Altitude

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 37

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

NEANDERTHALS
Our kissing cousins were close kin.
BY BRIDGET ALEX Lower, longer skull

Larger browridge

In 1856, quarry workers inadvertently

shoveled some bones out of a cave
and 65 feet down the steep slopes of Neander
Valley, Germany. Salvaged by the quarry
owner, the fossils would spark the study Larger shoulder joint
of human evolution.
The bones were human, have recovered bones from
but not quite: The limbs were about 350 Neanderthals,
thick, the ribs unusually 40,000 to 200,000 years old, Larger, broader
rib cage
rounded and the partial from much of Eurasia. New
skull had a protruding brow technologies have probed
and oblong shape. Some Neanderthal dental plaque
Larger
early scholars argued it was and DNA, illuminating their elbow joint
a malformed individual, diets, diseases and genetic
or even a Cossack soldier code. “Neanderthal research
with rickets. But geologist is just on ire,” says Duke
Shorter
William King named it University anthropologist forearms
Homo neanderthalensis, the Steven E. Churchill.
irst scientiically named Genetic studies have Larger
fossil hominin, albeit one conirmed that Neanderthals hip joint
held in low regard. In 1864, were our kissing cousins,
in the Quarterly Journal of evolutionarily speaking.
Science, King speculated Homo sapiens and
the creature’s “thoughts Neanderthals descended from
and desires … never soared the same group of ancestors,
beyond those of the brute.” likely in Africa, over 520,000
Since then, researchers years ago. Some members

Larger,
thicker knee

Shorter, more Neanderthals

flattened were, on
lower leg bone average,
shorter than
Homo sapiens.

Larger
ankle
joint

Despite differences such as a heavier brow and more oblong shape,

Neanderthal skulls (left) housed brains similar to our own in volume.

38 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

of this population migrated
to Europe, where they
evolved into Neanderthals,
while those who remained in
Africa gave rise to modern
humans. During this period
of geographic separation,
the lineages were on their
way to becoming different
species, accumulating genetic
differences over many
generations, which would
have eventually prevented
interbreeding. But before
that occurred, the groups
repeatedly met again and
mated during several periods
as modern humans spread to
Eurasia, beginning around
100,000 years ago.
Short and muscular,
Neanderthals had bodies
adapted to Ice Age Europe.
Their craniums were as
large as contemporaneous
H. sapiens and — contrary
to the brutish stereotype —
Neanderthals made complex
weapons, buried their dead
and used a range of resources,
from medicinal plants to
feathers from birds of prey.
They were “intelligent, well
adapted and lexible,” says
FROM LEFT: PASCAL GOETGHELUCK/SCIENCE SOURCE; ELISABETH DAYNES/SCIENCE SOURCE; EKLER/SHUTTERSTOCK
April Nowell, a prehistoric
archaeologist at Canada's
University of Victoria.
Yet Neanderthals may have
been differently intelligent:
proicient at utilitarian
tasks, but deicient in social
and aesthetic sensibilities.
Because Neanderthals rarely
made symbolic objects, like
beads, some anthropologists
argue they were incapable of
symbolic thought or language.
Others disagree, and note
that Neanderthals had many
possible adaptations for
speech, including sharing a
genetic variant with us that’s
linked to language ability.
Geographic Range
Fossil remains found so
far suggest Neanderthals
lived in much of Europe
and Western Asia.
Source: Krause, Johannes, et al.
“Neanderthals in Central Asia and
Siberia.” Nature 449.7164 (2007): 902.
What’s in a Name? The End of
Knowing that Neanderthals and modern humans Neanderthals
interbred, a minority of researchers now prefer sub-
The youngest conclusively dated
species classifications: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
Neanderthal fossils and artifacts
and Homo sapiens sapiens. The names don’t change
clock in at around 40,000
our evolutionary relations. While geographically
years old. Researchers have
separated, Neanderthals and modern humans evolved
enough differences to be easily distinguished by
put forth a range of possible
explanations for their demise,
DNA and physical traits, but not enough to make
including periods of extreme
interbreeding impossible. They were in the process of
cold, a volcanic super-eruption
becoming distinct species, but not quite there.
or competition with a whole
As for pronunciation, King named the first
rogues’ gallery of carnivores,
scientifically described specimen for where it was
discovered: Neander Valley, or Neanderthal — thal
from scimitar cats to cave
lions, that kept Neanderthal
being a spelling variation of the word for valley.
populations small. Other
When Germany standardized spelling in the early 20th
even less likely hypotheses
century, thal became tal. While the formal scientific
include illnesses similar to
name remains Homo neanderthalensis, scholars
mad cow disease, spread
diverge on the colloquial, writing Neandertal or
through cannibalism.
Neanderthal. But regardless of spelling, both tal and
However, most scholars
thal have always been pronounced with a soft “t” in
believe modern humans
German, similar to the “t” at the end of “thought”
played a role. “Neanderthals
rather than the “th” at the same word’s beginning.
go extinct right at the time
modern humans get there,”
says Churchill. “I don’t think
it’s a coincidence.”
Sex With Benefits, But Although Neanderthals had
survived previous encounters
Mostly Costs with modern humans migrating
In 2016, a genetic study of more than 50 Homo sapiens from Africa, the wave that
fossils 7,000 to 45,000 years old showed the proportion arrived roughly 45,000 years
of Neanderthal DNA in our species diminished over ago was different: They came
time. This pattern suggests that most Neanderthal armed with stone projectile
points that could be shot long
genes were harmful to modern humans and were
weeded from our gene pool: Individuals with those distances. Neanderthals, like
Neanderthal genes were less likely to survive and earlier H. sapiens, made thicker
reproduce. Some Neanderthal DNA persists today, points, better for thrusting
comprising roughly 2 percent of the genomes of all spears used at close range.
non-Africans, but it’s generally confined to “junk” And Neanderthals may have
already been on the brink. For
regions that do not contain vital genes.
However, Neanderthals do contribute a small number at least 80,000 years before
of our functioning genes. To understand their effect their end, Neanderthals had
on living humans, researchers have analyzed tens of extremely low genetic diversity,
thousands of modern genomes to determine whether suggesting they were a small
population heading toward
individuals with Neanderthal genes are more likely
to have certain traits. The results show that many extinction. Add competition
Eurasians have Neanderthal genes influencing hair, skin from projectile-wielding
tone and immune function, which may have helped modern humans, plus harsh
their African ancestors adapt to the colder, darker environmental conditions and
conditions of Europe. On the other hand, Neanderthal threats like cave lions, and you
have “just a whole bunch of
genes also increase risk for depression, obesity and
autoimmune diseases. But before blaming your ailments factors coming together that
on Neanderthals, remember these are complex traits, over time lead to their demise,”
influenced by many genes and lifestyle factors. says Nowell, “a perfect storm.”
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 39
 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

PERSONALITY
Who do you think you are?
BY LACY SCHLEY

Your personality is what

makes you, well, you
— even if experts can’t settle
on an exact deinition of the
word. Most agree, however, that
personality is the overall pattern
of how a person feels, thinks
and behaves throughout life.

Personal
Construct/
Cognitive THEORIES
Over the years, psychologists
George Kelly is responsible for this line of
studying personality have had no
thinking, which he published in 1955. He believed
shortage of theories about how it develops
the way people act and behave is tied to the
and how it affects an individual. Some haven’t
subjective ideas they use to interpret the world:
gotten much traction. Others once had a strong
their constructs. For example, you’d probably call
following but have since fallen out of favor. Take
something a chair if it had four legs, a seat and a
Sigmund Freud, for instance. In the early 1900s,
back, because those characteristics fit the “chair”
he argued that our unconscious drives who we
category in your mind. It was the first theory to
are. His take inspired others like Alfred Adler and
emphasize the way a person thinks as the root
Carl Jung to develop their own views. Although
of personality, which is why many modern
their contributions are important to the field’s
psychologists call it the cognitive theory.
history, modern personality psychologists
Although well known today, Kelly’s ideas
tend to focus on other major theories.
didn’t receive much attention when
Here, we’ll take you through just some
he initially published them.
of those, as well as popular tests
designed to reveal what
Social- makes you tick.
Cognitive
Albert Bandura and Walter
Mischel are the heavy hitters of
this theory. According to social-
cognitive subscribers, we develop our
personalities through both our thoughts
and our interactions with our social
environments. Unlike most other
frameworks, the social-cognitive
approach is more interested in
how we adjust our behavior
in different settings.

40 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

Trait-
Based
According to this school of
thought, we think, feel and act
consistently both over time and in
different situations; these consistencies
are called traits. Today, tests for trait-
based theories are relatively easy to use
and thus are pretty common. Instead
of a single founder, a handful of 20 th
century scholars made significant
contributions: Gordon Allport,
Raymond Cattell and
Hans Eysenck.
Phenomenological
Carl Rogers championed this theory
in the mid-20 th century. Unlike Freud, he
believed our subjective, conscious experience
— our phenomenological experience — and
our sense of self were key to personality. Rogers
thought our behaviors stem from a need to
have our everyday experiences align with how
we see ourselves. For example, if you think
of yourself as polite, you’re likely to behave
politely. One major flaw with his theory:
There aren’t many scientifically viable
ways to measure and test these key
concepts.
CHEREDNYCHENKO IHOR/SHUTTERSTOCK (2)
Gordon
Allport
Since publishing a first take in the
1920s, Allport continued to refine his
theory, which emphasized the importance
of the individual, rather than subscribing to
the idea that everyone fits into a universal set
of traits. For instance, Allport favored using
an in-depth case study of a person to develop
a personality profile, rather than having
someone take a standardized test. Although
his work has left a lasting impression, he
lacked the data to support his theory
and he, like Rogers, didn’t develop
measurements to test his
concepts.
Raymond
Cattell and
Hans Eysenck
Cattell, like most other trait theorists, largely
believed universal characteristics exist that apply to
everyone. After some statistical work in the late 1940s,
he defined 16 traits — such as reserved/outgoing, trusting/
suspicious and relaxed/tense — he thought represented the core
of personality. Cattell thought these traits were stable overall,
but he acknowledged people’s moods and social roles also influenced
their behavior. Although his theory was more testable than others,
16 variables made for a complicated analysis. Eysenck’s trait theory,
which he started publishing in 1947, overlaps with Cattell’s, but it has
a couple of major differences. Most importantly, he simplified things,
coming up with just three major traits: introversion/extraversion,
neuroticism and psychoticism. Eysenck also believed biology
influenced certain traits. For example, he argued that because
of differences in the brain, introverts were more mentally
stimulated than extraverts and thus avoided activities
like loud parties that would overload them. Overall,
while Eysenck’s theory was easier to test than
Cattell’s, many psychologists felt there were
traits that didn’t fit into Eysenck’s
framework.
Big
Five/OCEAN
Perhaps the most popular leaf on
the personality psychology branch is the
Big Five, which evolved out of late 20 th
century research. Not really attributable to
any particular founder, it centers on, as you’d
guess, five traits: openness, conscientiousness,
extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
(This theory also goes by OCEAN.) Many
personality psychologists subscribe to
the Big Five because it’s the Goldilocks
of trait theories — a manageable
blend of Cattell’s unwieldy 16
traits and Eysenck’s mere
three.
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 41
EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING PERSONALITY

TESTS
Personality tests are more
than just a fun way to kill some
time online. (Sorry, your “Which
Game of Thrones character are
you?” quiz doesn’t count.) They can
play an important role in anything
from identifying candidates who
are a good fit for a job to
Hermann Rorschach
helping therapists figure
out treatments for
their patients. For nearly a century, classic
Rorschach inkblots (left) have
been a popular tool (below)
for revealing how individuals
see the world through the
lens of personality.

Rorschach
Inkblot
The Rorschach is the most famous
projective test, a group defined by their
ambiguity: It’s up to the subjects to describe
what’s presented, revealing their personality
through their interpretations. In 1921, Swiss
psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach published 10
inkblot cards, developed through trial and
error with hospitalized patients. Answers
that aligned with the structure of the
blots indicated healthy psychological
function; those that didn’t
revealed abnormal
behavior.

Big Five INTROVERSION VERSUS EXTRAVERSION

FROM TOP: PUBLIC DOMAIN VIA WIKIMEDIA (2); ORLANDO/THREE LIONS/GETTY IMAGES
Silent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Talkative
Questionnaire Unassertive 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Assertive
This is one of most popular, and
ANTAGONISM VERSUS AGREEABLENESS
straightforward, of the trait tests.
Unkind 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kind
You simply rate how you usually Selfish 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Unselfish
act, rather than how you think
you might in the future, or how LACK OF DIRECTION VERSUS CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
you wish you would. Here’s a Disorganized 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Organized
sample from an abbreviated, Irresponsible 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Responsible
unofficial version of EMOTIONAL STABILITY VERSUS NEUROTICISM
the test. Relaxed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Tense
Contented 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Discontented

CLOSEDNESS VERSUS OPENNESS TO NEW EXPERIENCE

Unimaginative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Imaginative
Unreflective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Reflective
Very Moderately Neither Moderately Very

42 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Role
Construct SIMILAR
FIGURES
SIMILARITY
CONSTRUCT
DISSIMILAR
FIGURE
CONTRASTING
CONSTRUCT
Repertory Self, father Emphasis on Mother Emphasis on
George Kelly, founder of the personal happiness practicality
construct/cognitive theory, developed this tool, Teacher, happy person Calm Sister Anxious
commonly referred to as the Rep test. There are
two steps. In the first, you list 20 to 30 people Male friend, Good listener Past friend Trouble expressing
who fulfill specific roles in your life, such as mother female friend feelings
or friend. The second part is the crux of the test. Disliked person, Uses people for Liked person Considerate of
The proctor picks three people from the list and employer own ends others
asks you to describe how two of them are similar
Father, successful Active in the Employer Not active in the
to each other and different from the third person.
person community community
Each trio is supposed to reveal a construct you’ve
built and thus, according to Kelly’s theory, how Disliked person, Cuts others down Sister Respectful of
you think about the world. Thanks to its employer others
open-ended nature, the Rep test reveals
Mother, Introvert Past friend Extravert
twice as much information as the male friend
Big Five questionnaire.
Self, teacher Self-sufficient Person helped Dependent

Thematic
Apperception
Test (TAT)
Another projective test, TAT consists of a
series of cards with a variety of scenes on
them. The point, similar to the Rorschach
test, is to interpret the scenes and describe
what you think is happening. The test
is based on the idea, according to
co-creator Henry Murray, that when
a person interprets an ambiguous
social situation, that person's
personality is exposed.

Images from the original

TAT cards, developed in the
1930s, present ambiguous
situations that individuals
SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (3)

interpret, revealing aspects

of their personalities.
£

To learn more
and take a
Big Five quiz, go to
DiscoverMagazine.
com/Personality

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 43

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

PIGEONS
They’re really coo.
BY CHARLOTTE HU

Often dubbed “the rats of

the sky,” pigeons have a
bad — but mostly unearned —
rap in modern society. Despite
the stigma, these birds have
some impressive skills.

Birds of a Feather
Pigeons refuse to be pigeonholed. They
come in an eccentric array, with around
350 recorded breeds. All are part of the
family Columbidae, which also includes
doves. Here are some of the most popular
traits these birds are bred for.

Utility
Many pigeons are bred as a food source
in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Special Skills
Some birds are selected for their abilities,
such as homing pigeons, which have an
incredible knack for finding home. Or
SOME OF OUR FAVORITE LOOKS
there are flying tumblers and highflyers,
which can roll over backward in flight —
perfect for flying competitions and shows.

Display
Other pigeons are bred for superficial
looks. This includes color pigeons, which
have remarkable coloring and markings;
English Pouter German Helmet English Carrier Saxon Fairy Swallow Silver Fantail
pouters and croppers, which inflate their
crop to look like they’re puffing their
chests; frills and owls, which sport stunted
beaks and outlandish chest feathers; and
Asian feather and voice pigeons, which
have fancy feather-growth patterns and
strange laughs or voices.
Lahore Pigeon Nun Pigeon Capuchin Red German Modena African Owl Pigeon

44 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Bird Brained?
The uncanny intelligence of pigeons has been an obsession of
Brain many scientists. In the 1950s, psychologist B.F. Skinner, known
Beak for his work on learning and behavior, taught the birds to
Spinal cord play pingpong. He also trained them to guide missiles through
Trachea
Esophagus the sky by pecking at a screen when they saw the weapons’
Stomach intended targets. But military officials were skeptical of the
Lung feathered pilots’ reliability and accuracy, and scrapped the idea.
Still, the birds are one of the few species to pass the “mirror
OPPOSITE FROM TOP: MRS_YA/SHUTTERSTOCK; A7880S/SHUTTERSTOCK. THIS PAGE: ILLUSTRATION BY JAY SMITH; TIMELINE FROM LEFT: GRANGER NYC; BRITISH LIBRARY/GRANGER NYC; MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY; MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY/SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG PHOTO;

Crop
Heart test,” which assesses a critter’s ability to recognize its own
Liver
reflection, indicating it has a concept of self. Only about six
Hollow other animals have this ability. Pigeons also beat out babies
Kidney bones and toddlers in recognizing the letters of the alphabet and
lighten birds understanding categories. They can even distinguish different
Gizzard for flight human faces and understand certain facial expressions.
And harkening back to their missile-guiding days, in 2015,
Pancreas
scientists trained pigeons to spot cancer in medical images,
providing keen insight into how to improve cancer screening
technologies.

Fly Away Home

The Interesting Bits
CROP: Pigeons are one of only three avians that have a
crop, an enlarged extension of the esophagus used to
produce a nourishing secretion for their young.
BEAK: When most other birds drink, they throw their
heads back to swallow. Pigeons suck up water, using
their beaks like straws.
WINGS: Pigeons’ wing muscles are about 60 percent
of their total body weight, more than most other
birds, making them strong fliers. They can cover about
500 miles a day at speeds up to 50 mph.
FEATHERS: When predators attack, pigeons can easily
shed their feathers to escape — a phenomenon called
fright molt.
It’s no secret these avians are adept at finding their way home
— a skill known, fittingly, as homing. But how they do it still
stumps experts.
Some scientists think pigeons navigate using Earth’s
magnetic field. In 2012, a group reported that when pigeons
were exposed to magnetic fields, certain brain-stem cells for
their inner ears activated. The scientists theorized these cells
could signal the direction, intensity and polarity of our planet’s
magnetic field, giving pigeons a built-in GPS.
Because pigeons have sensitive hearing and remarkable
memory, some experts suspect the fliers actually create sound
maps, allowing them to navigate using specific audio signatures
as landmarks. Other research suggests they use the sun, certain
environmental cues or even their sense of smell for direction.
And yet another camp claims the birds can actually follow
roads. Maybe one day we’ll home in on the answer.

A FLIGHT THROUGH HISTORY

The closest living relative of the now-extinct dodo, pigeons
supposedly originated from the Mediterranean, India and the
Middle East. Now they live everywhere except the Sahara Desert,
Antarctica and the high Arctic. Our shared history dates back
further than you’d think.

About 10,000 About 5,000 About 4,500 1800s 1900s 2000s

years ago years ago years ago Businesses such In both world Nowadays, we use
The first hints of The first proof Records of pigeons as Reuters News wars, pigeons fly pigeons for biology
human-pigeon of pigeon performing special Agency in Germany messages from and anatomy
interactions domestication duties — as food, use the birds — the front lines to lessons — mostly.
date back to appears in writings messengers and more reliable than headquarters. A In May 2017,
the Pleistocene etched in ancient sporting targets telegraphs and few even become authorities intercept
era. Although Mesopotamian faster than any war heroes for
COSTA RICA MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND PEACE/REUTERS

— start showing pigeons carrying

evidence is scant, cuneiform tablets up in ancient transportation of ferrying critical bird-sized backpacks
archaeologists and Egyptian Mesopotamia. Even the time — to carry messages that full of drugs across
believe our hieroglyphics. their droppings are communications shape the outcome national borders.
ancestors bred used as ingredients about breaking of battles. In 1940,
them for food. in fertilizer and news and the stock many countries
gunpowder. market. In 1855, deploy camera-laden
Charles Darwin pigeons to capture
begins studying and above-ground
breeding pigeons, imagery.
informing his book,
On the Origin of
Species.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 45

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

MILKY WAY
Embraced in spiral arms.
BY BILL ANDREWS

The Milky Way is the galaxy

we live in, one of the countless
collections of stars and dust
Size
throughout the universe. It's a reality
For years, the Milky

ittari s Arm
so basic, grade school kids learn it. Way’s size was
But it wasn’t always so obvious.

u
relatively easy to
Just 100 years ago, the nature of remember: about
1,000 light-years

ag
the Milky Way — and the universe thick, 100,000 light- S
itself — was still a matter of debate. years across. But a
On April 26, 1920, astronomer Harlow 2015 study suggested
our galaxy might
Shapley claimed our galaxy was the
actually be at least
entire universe. Astronomer Heber 150,000 light-years
Curtis countered that the blurry star wide. That vast area
clusters seen with a telescope were would hold roughly
680 billion times the
“island universes,” separate from, but ute

O
sun’s mass. rA
analogous to, the Milky Way. rm
Within ive years, Edwin Hubble Population
produced a reliable distance to one
The Milky Way has
of the clusters we now know is our between 100 billion
neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. and 400 billion stars.
And each star likely

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: P. HORÁLEK/ESO; LYNETTE COOK; S. BRUNIER/ESO; ROEN KELLY/DISCOVER

His measurements showed that the
gulf is so vast, Andromeda must be
outside the Milky Way. Upon seeing
a note from Hubble describing the
results, Shapley said, “Here is the
letter that destroyed my universe.”
He wasn’t all wrong, though. In the
years since, his prediction that our
solar system is far from the Milky
Way’s center was proven true.
has an average of
more than one planet
— meaning we might
have over 400 billion
exoplanet neighbors.
The Name
On a clear night with no light pollution, the Milky Way appears to us as
a hazy band of light splashed across the sky. The ancient Greeks thought
the phenomenon was from the spraying of divine breast milk, when Hera
tore a suckling baby Heracles away from her breast.
Other cultures had their own name for it, but the Greeks’ is the one
that stuck. Even after learning about other galaxies, the mythological
origins remain in the word itself: Galaxias kyklos literally means “milky
circle” in Greek.

46 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Galaxy Anatomy
For astronomers on Earth,
taurus Arm figuring out what the
cu tum-Cen Milky Way looks like from
S
the outside is no easy task.
Nor But we’ve come up with
ma a pretty reasonable self-
portrait by mapping the

Arm
distribution of our galaxy’s
stars, and comparing that
data with the shapes of
other galaxies.

Central bar
Some spiral galaxies, like our
own, have a thick bar full of
stars and dust cutting across
the center; it’s typically a sign
of an older galaxy.

Center
p ur As with most galaxies, ours
Orion S has a supermassive black
hole in the center. It’s named
Sagittarius A* and weighs as
much as 4 million suns.

Perseus Arm Arms

Our galaxy has two
prominent arms, Perseus
and Scutum-Centaurus, and
a handful of fainter ones,
a difference mostly due to
uneven star distribution.

Us
Our solar system lies in an
offshoot of the Sagittarius
Side view arm known as the Orion Spur,
some 26,000 light-years away
from the galactic center.

Disk
Some Local Group Most of the Milky Way’s stars,
GR 8
galaxies
gas and dust lie in this flat
Sextans B plane.
Sextans A The Neighborhood Bulge
NGC 3109 Leo A The Milky Way bulges toward
Milky The Milky Way, which is 13 billion years old,
Antlia Leo II Way
1 million its center, with a roughly
Dwarf Leo I light-years
is among some 50 galaxies in the Local Group X-shaped distribution of stars
(left), which itself is part of the Local Supercluster. at its core.
NGC 6822 Andromeda (M31) Only the Triangulum and Andromeda galaxies
Pinwheel (M33) are close to ours in size; the rest are much smaller Halo
IC 1613 Surrounding the flat disk of
Tucana Pegasus Dwarf dwarf galaxies. In roughly 4 billion years, the
Dwarf Cetus Dwarf our galaxy lies an enormous
Milky Way will be even bigger. That’s because
WLM ball-shaped collection of hot
Andromeda, 2.5 million light-years away, is on a gas, spinning in the same
IC 5152 UKS 2323-326 collision course with us. The two will combine to direction as the Milky Way’s
become the so-called Milkomeda Galaxy. arms.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 47

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

THE CLOUD
Clearing the fog from our digital future.
BY LAUREN SIGFUSSON

Billions of people use the internet every day,

from posting Facebook photos to checking
their bank accounts. Much of that happens in the
cloud. But what is it, really?

Universal Access
Many believe the cloud is the internet, but it’s “really
nothing more than a connection mechanism,” says David
Linthicum, a cloud expert and chief cloud strategy
officer at Deloitte Consulting. Among information
technology circles, the cloud is simply shorthand for
“someone else’s computer.” You can manage and store
your content (music, photos, data) from anywhere, THREE LAYERS OF THE CLOUD
using the internet to access servers in vast data
centers — literally, other people’s computers.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Gone are the days of buying expensive software You interact with this one the most. SaaS lets users pay cloud
and worrying about having enough space on your providers to completely handle the back end part of their apps. Any
device. Rely on Uber for rides? Love scrolling through public website that can also be an app falls under SaaS, like Google
your grandkids’ Facebook pics? Without the cloud, such Docs, Gmail and Microsoft 365.
apps couldn’t exist. “Those don’t exist on your phone.
They exist in some data center,” says Linthicum. “That’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
the beauty of [the cloud] because you don’t even know This allows businesses to rent the equipment necessary to support
that it’s there.” the cloud. Companies maintain control over their software but leave
Best of all? You don’t have to understand it to use the equipment, storage and maintenance to IaaS providers like
it. You can leave that to service providers like Amazon, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Alibaba.
Google, IBM and Intel, which have invested heavily in
cloud computing for both individuals and companies. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Geared toward software developers, PaaS providers offer a remote
platform — free from a company’s own computers — to quickly build
the cloud services and apps we all enjoy. Engine Yard is one example.

ORIGINS OF THE CLOUD

Cloud computing didn’t come from a single
event or person. Several computer scientists
in the 1950s and ’60s laid out its basic concepts,
but it was the rise of accessible high-speed
MACROVECTOR/SHUTTERSTOCK (2)

internet in the 2000s and the drive for efficiency

that ushered in the cloud era. As for the name itself? Some
report Google and Amazon using the term cloud computing
in 2006, while MIT Technology Review discovered a 1996
Compaq business plan including the phrase.

48 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 FAST FACT
Running these cloud-powering
centers requires a lot of energy.
The U.S. is home to over 3 million
data centers, using enough
energy to power 6.5 million homes
— almost 2 percent of total U.S.
energy consumption.

Data Centers
All over the world, data centers
— some big enough to cover 10
football fields — house thousands
upon thousands of computers called
servers that act as the middleman.
When you click on a Facebook
post, they process your request
and serve up the content.

Above: Stacks of server racks line a Google data center in Mayes County, Oklahoma.
You tap into sites like this one when you search online or send messages through
Gmail. Below: Apple’s massive new data center is in Mesa, Arizona, not far from
Phoenix. These behemoth buildings are often built in places where real estate is Security
relatively cheap.
Storing data in the cloud means relinquishing
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JOZSEF BAGOTA/SHUTTERSTOCK; GOOGLE; MACROVECTOR/SHUTTERSTOCK; JIM TODD/REUTERS

control to “other people’s computers,” and

that’s scary. But the cloud is safer than you
think. Public providers like Google and Linux
employ hundreds of people just to maintain and
secure the cloud. So your data often is more
secure in the cloud than in the hands of smaller
companies that keep their data on-site. That’s
not to say the cloud can’t be hacked; serious
vulnerabilities called Spectre and Meltdown
made headlines earlier this year because they
affect virtually all computers, including servers.
Many cloud providers automatically turn
your information into code, called
encryption, before the data hits their
servers. If they don’t, you can find
third-party tools online that’ll
do the trick. And as a standard
rule of thumb, always create
strong passwords to avoid getting
hacked. “Security is only as good as
the brainpower of the people who
own the accounts,” Linthicum says.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 49

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

HUMAN SPEED
Born to run.
BY TEAL BURRELL

Humans are pretty quick. In 2009,

Usain Bolt lew down the track at over
23 mph; in 2014, Dennis Kimetto, the marathon
world record-holder, cruised along at 12.8 mph —
about a 4:42-per-mile pace — for 26.2 miles. Scientists
are uncovering what makes the Bolts and Kimettos of the
world tick, and how we evolved to do both. That knowledge
is redeining what’s possible and may help you speed up, too.

MUSCLE FIBER TYPES

Muscle fibers come in two general types, fast- and
slow-twitch, and everyone has a mix of both.
Fast-twitch fibers are for short, powerful bursts;
they contract quickly but also fatigue quickly.
Slow-twitch fibers have more mitochondria — the
cells’ powerhouses that use oxygen to make energy
— so they don’t fatigue as easily and are ideal for
longer activities.
As you’d suspect, sprinters have more fast-
twitch fibers, while endurance athletes have more
slow-twitch. Although partly genetic, there’s some
evidence we can train in order to change the
proportion of fibers our muscles have. For example,
distance running at a slow pace may increase a
person’s percentage of slow-twitch fibers.
LEG MUSCLE CROSS SECTIONS
The Anatomy of a Runner
FAST FACTORS: Sprinting
Everyone takes the same amount of time between steps and the same
amount of time to pick up their leg and put it back down again, but faster
sprinters propel themselves farther in that time. “The difference in speed
really comes down to what happens on the ground,” says Peter Weyand, a
physiologist and biomechanist at Southern Methodist University in Texas. “Fast
people hit with more force in relation to body weight.”
Elite sprinters use their legs to “essentially throw a punch at the ground,” he
explains. They get that extra force from their characteristic knee lift: Raising the
knee higher gives the leg more space to gain velocity before hitting the ground,
so it hits with more force.
To sprint faster, Weyand suggests two things. First, try to get the foot that’s
behind you off the ground faster. As the front foot lands, the back leg’s knee
should be even with the landing knee; if it’s still behind the landing knee, the
knee lift in front of the body can be compromised, weakening the punch. Second,
try to keep your body stiff when you land. Elite sprinters don’t let anything
collapse — no floppy ankles, buckling knees, or even head movement — so they
don’t lose any force as they pop back off the ground again.
TOP: BRYAN CHRISTIE DESIGN. BOTTOM: ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER (2)

More FAST-TWITCH More SLOW-TWITCH

fibers (light): better fibers (dark): better
for sprinting. for endurance.

To sprint faster, make

£

To learn more about how humans stack up sure your knees are
against runners in the animal kingdom, go aligned when your foot
strikes the ground.
to DiscoverMagazine.com/Humanspeed

50 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 FAST FACTORS: Distance Running
To run fast for a long stretch, energy supply is key. If you run faster Breaking Point
than your body can supply energy, you’ll have to slow down.
In December 2016, with the world
“So the game for the distance runners really is economizing,”
marathon record at 2:02:57, Nike
Weyand says. “The faster you can run at a lower rate of energy
announced an audacious goal: to
burn, the better off you are.”
break the two-hour barrier.
There are two ways to improve energy supply while
Experts initially balked at
maintaining a quick clip: either produce more energy or
the mission. But last May, Eliud
burn less. Producing more means increasing something
Kipchoge, a 2016 Olympic gold
called VO2max, the maximum amount of oxygen
medalist marathoner from Kenya,
you can take in and turn to energy while exercising.
ran 2:00:25 — just one second per
Having a high VO2max is partly genetic, but also
mile off the necessary pace.
somewhat trainable, especially for new runners. To
The sport’s governing body
boost it, run interval workouts: After a warm-up, run
doesn’t consider Kipchoge’s
hard for 3 to 5 minutes, then jog for 2 to 3 minutes to
run a world record because it
recover. Repeat about five times before a cool-down jog.
didn’t follow the regulations for
To burn less energy, you’ll need to improve efficiency, or running
official records. But physiologists
economy. Ways to do this are less fleshed out than methods of
are using it to devise ways to
increasing your VO2max, but Weyand says the typical approach of
cross the threshold on a record-
tapering before a big event — reducing mileage and running faster
eligible course.
workouts — can help. But Alex Hutchinson, author of Endure: Mind,
Hutchinson guesses there
Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, says
are a few factors that helped
the best thing is simply to run more. However, he acknowledges that
Kipchoge. Nike’s new shoe
most recreational runners are pressed for time and injury-prone.
technology, engineered for the
In that case, lessons gleaned from two-hour marathon attempts
project, probably shaved off a
(see "Breaking Point," right) may help: Optimizing nutrition, race
minute. He shed maybe another
strategy, and maybe even fancy shoes can help us do the best we can
minute by drafting — reducing
with what we’ve got.
wind resistance by running behind
someone else, pacers in this case —
and 30 seconds from other things,
ENDURANCE ADAPTATIONS like the flat course.
At last fall’s Berlin Marathon,
According to a theory runners had already adopted
made famous by the drafting strategy. Nike’s new
Dennis Bramble and shoes, the Zoom Vaporfly Elite,
Daniel Lieberman in are controversial; the company
a 2004 Nature paper, helped fund the only published
humans are born to study about them. But Hutchinson
run — and run far. thinks the evidence is strong
“There are a bunch enough to suggest they’re “not
of [adaptations] that just advertising hype.”
have nothing to do Weyand, also a member of a
with walking,” says
similar project, Sub-2, says efforts
Lieberman, a human A prehistoric cave painting in Libya depicts go beyond shoes and drafting.
evolutionary biologist a hunter chasing prey.
at Harvard University.
Scientists are also working to
“They’re just slam-dunk running adaptations.” The theory proposes that optimize how much energy
early humans evolved these adaptations, along with tracking, to chase runners can extract from fuel
antelope until the animals collapsed from exhaustion and heat stroke. sources. It will take perfecting a
Winning the footrace meant dinner. combination of factors to break
the barrier.
Keeping Cool In addition to being furless, we have far more sweat
glands than most other mammals, giving us an advantage over fuzzier
animals that have to stop and pant to cool down.
RIGHT: ROBERT J PRESTON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO.
FAR RIGHT: PIER MARCO TACCA/GETTY IMAGES

Baby Got Back A large gluteus maximus muscle — a big butt — is

a distinctive human feature. We rely on it minimally for walking, but it’s
crucial to stabilizing us when we run.

Springy Tendons Our legs have long tendons — such as the Olympian Eliud Kipchoge sports Nike’s
Achilles — that act like springs, helping generate force and reducing the Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoe, designed to
energy cost of running. And they don’t seem to provide much benefit to help him and other elite runners break
walking, another piece of evidence that our bodies are made for running. the two-hour marathon barrier.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 51

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

MASS EXTINCTIONS
It wasn’t all bad news.
BY GEMMA TARLACH

Congratulations, you’re part of the 1 percent. That is, the 1 percent of species on
Earth not yet extinct: For the last 3.5 billion or so years, about 99 percent of the
estimated 4 billion species that ever evolved are no longer around.
Many evolutionary family trees got the ax, so to speak, these events are sometimes unclear, large-scale volcanic
during a mass extinction. These events are deined as the activity, spread across an entire region, is a usual suspect.
loss of least 75 percent of species in the geological blink Theories that asteroid strikes initiate the massive die-offs
of an eye — which can range from thousands to millions remain largely speculative: Only one space rock has been
of years. Researchers have enough data from the fossil conclusively linked to a mass extinction.
record going back just over half a billion years to identify Each mass extinction ended a geologic period —
ive such mass extinction events, and many scientists that’s why researchers refer to them by names such
believe we’re in the middle of a sixth. as End-Cretaceous. But it’s not all bad news: Mass
Great die-offs result from a perfect storm of multiple extinctions topple ecological hierarchies, and in that
calamities, such as ocean acidiication coupled with vacuum, surviving species often thrive, exploding in
a spike in land temperatures. While the catalysts of diversity and territory.

JONATHAN BLAIR/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

Synapsids, such as
this dinogorgon from
South Africa’s Karoo
Basin, were nearly
wiped out 251 million
years ago during the
End-Permian mass
extinction.

52 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Millions of years ago

End-Ordovician End-Devonian
450 440 430 420 410 400 390 380 370 360 350 340 330 320 310 300

END-ORDOVICIAN: THE 1-2 PUNCH Trilobites

(foreground) got
WHEN: About 443 million years ago their start more
than 520 million
WHY: In the first pulse of a double whammy, ice sheets years ago, but
advanced, radically changing ocean currents and faced their first
creating a harsh climate in the equatorial and mid- decline during the
End-Ordovician
latitude regions. Many of the species that survived this
mass extinction.
first hit adapted to their new world, only to succumb to
the second pulse: a sudden melt, another climate shift
and another ocean circulation switch-up.
HOW BAD: About 86 percent of species and
57 percent of genera — the next-higher taxonomic
division, which may be a better gauge of biodiversity
loss — went extinct.
WHAT DIED: Animals that didn’t make it include most
trilobite species, many corals and several brachiopods,
a hard-shell marine invertebrate often mistaken for a
clam today.
WHAT THRIVED: Sea sponges did well in the aftermath
of the End-Ordovician — a pattern repeated in
subsequent mass extinctions. A 2017 Current Biology
study suggests these humble marine animals may assist
in the recovery of entire ecosystems. The sponges
stabilize sediment, creating a favorable environment for
brachiopods and other suspension feeders.

END-DEVONIAN: THE LONG ROAD TO OBLIVION

TOP: ESTEBAN DE ARMAS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. BOTTOM: SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

WHEN: 359 million to 380 million years ago

The placoderm lineage of ferocious-looking armored fish,
such as Dinichthys herzeri, ended during the End-Devonian
mass extinction, a long downward spiral in biodiversity.
WHY: While the term mass extinction may suggest instant global
catastrophe, these events can take millions of years. The End-
Devonian, for example, consisted of a series of pulses in climate
change over 20 million-plus years that led to periodic and sudden
drops in biodiversity, including the Hangenberg Crisis, which some
researchers consider a separate mass extinction event. The changes,
possibly the result of significant volcanic activity in Siberia, reduced
oxygen levels in the oceans and caused other environmental shifts.
HOW BAD: About 75 percent of species and 35 percent of
genera went extinct.
WHAT DIED: Sadly, those awesome-looking armored fish known
as placoderms were wiped out. Many species of coral and more
trilobites bit the dust, too.
WHAT THRIVED: Little guys fared best, particularly vertebrates less
than a meter long (about 3.3 feet). Survivors included tetrapods,
four-limbed animals that were transitioning from sea to land and
would eventually evolve into reptiles, amphibians and mammals.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 53

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING MASS EXTINCTIONS
Millions of years ago

End-Permian End-Triassic
290 280 270 260 250 240 230 220 210 200 190 180 170 160 150 140 130 120

END-PERMIAN: THE BIG ONE

WHEN: 251 million years ago
WHY: Volcanic activity in Siberia is considered
the main culprit for this mightiest of mass
extinctions. Regionwide eruptions spewed toxic
gas and acidified the oceans. The disruption may
have even shredded the ozone layer, allowing
in deadly ultraviolet radiation. A 2014 study
suggested the apocalypse unfolded over a span
of about 50,000 years.
HOW BAD: About 96 percent of species and
56 percent of genera went extinct.
WHAT DIED: So many forests were destroyed,
apparently during wildfires, that afterward
there was nothing left to burn; researchers have
identified a “charcoal gap” in the geological
record. Among the animals that met their
doom: many amphibians and several synapsids,
a diverse group of animals that included several
apex predators of their day.
WHAT THRIVED: Several species of fungus
weathered the event well, possibly because they
fed off all the decaying organisms that didn’t.
The loss of many top-of-the-food-chain synapsids
may have cleared the path for the earliest Widespread volcanic activity across Siberia likely caused the largest
dinosaurs — and the first mammals, descended mass extinction documented in the fossil record, the End-Permian.
from one lowly synapsid branch that survived. Oceans acidified, and massive wildfires consumed entire ecosystems.

END-TRIASSIC: HISTORY NEARLY REPEATS

TOP: JULIUS CSOTONYI. BOTTOM: O. LOUIS MAZZATENTA/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

WHEN: 201 million years ago
WHY: Volcanoes were at it again, but this time we can’t blame
Siberia. Instead, massive eruptions in a hot spot at the center
of what would eventually be the Atlantic Ocean created
another bout of climate calamity. And it played like an echo of
the End-Permian.
HOW BAD: About 80 percent of species and 47 percent of
genera went extinct.
WHAT DIED: This was not a good time to be a conodont.
Already in decline, the last of these ribbonlike fish, as well as
Keichousaurus hui many reptiles, were among the hardest hit.
was a common marine
reptile during much of WHAT THRIVED: Dinosaurs really hit their stride after the
the Triassic Period, but End-Triassic, exploding in diversity, as did their archosaur
it didn’t live to see the relatives, the crocodylomorphs, descendants of which include
Jurassic that followed. modern crocodiles.

54 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 End-Cretaceous PRESENT AND FUTURE?
110 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
SIXTH EXTINCTION
In the 1990s, paleontologist and famed
conservationist Richard Leakey warned
that human activity was causing a “sixth
extinction.” In the decades since Leakey’s
END-CRETACEOUS: IT REALLY MADE AN IMPACT observation, with piles of new supporting
WHEN: 65.5 million years ago evidence, many more researchers have
signed on to the idea.
WHY: The cause of the End-Cretaceous extinction remains hotly
Across time and around the planet,
debated. No one disputes that a chunk of space rock slammed into the
planet near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula at the time. But researchers extinctions of one or another individual
disagree on whether the asteroid strike caused or merely contributed species are always occurring. Known as
to the die-off. Large-scale volcanic activity in India’s Deccan Traps was the “background rate” and documented
already underway before the impact, and a Science Advances study both historically and in the fossil record,
published in February suggests both the asteroid hit and Deccan Traps
these extinctions are like low-volume static
activity coincided with a general uptick in planetwide volcanism.
Whatever the catalyst, it appears a spike in carbon dioxide and a drop compared with the sudden cymbal crash
in ocean oxygen levels were followed by a rapid post-asteroid cooling. of a mass die-off. Determining extinction
rates as they are unfolding is difficult, but
HOW BAD: About 76 percent of species and 40 percent of genera
went extinct. a 2015 Science Advances study, using a
range of conservative estimates, placed the
WHAT DIED: The sun finally set on the Long Day of the Dinosaur,
current pace at up to 100 times the normal
though many other organisms were also wiped out, such as
ammonites, mollusks with distinctive spiral shells. background rate.
Human activities are to blame, including
WHAT THRIVED: Mammals quickly adapted to exploit newly vacated
population growth, increased resource
ecological niches, as did the sole surviving branch of dinosaurs, better
known today as birds. consumption and climate change spurred
by fossil fuel burning and the release of
greenhouse gases.
In the journal PNAS in 2017, scientists
concluded that focusing on species
extinction may actually underrepresent
the severity of what one team called
“biological annihilation.” The global
extinction of a species is, after all, just
the final nail in the coffin.
The downward spiral begins with
the destruction and fragmentation of
habitat, and the introduction of invasive
species and pathogens. The killing of
individual members of a species through
overhunting or poaching also takes its
toll. Just ask any rhino, if you can find
one. All of these activities can result,
over time, in local extinctions known as
extirpations. Even before global extinction
of a species occurs, these extirpations
reduce biodiversity and can destabilize
MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE SOURCE

ecosystems, leading to more extinctions.

As Leakey observed in his landmark
1995 book on the topic: “Homo sapiens
The End-Cretaceous mass extinction event claimed nearly all the dinosaurs, might not only be the agent of the sixth
including the iconic T. rex. Only one lineage, now known as birds, survived.
extinction, but also risks being one of
its victims.”

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 55

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

OCTOPUSES
These boneless brainiacs
play by their own rules.
BY NATHANIEL SCHARPING

A Hawaiian creation myth suggests

that our world emerged from the ruins
of another. Everything we see was formed
anew, but for one survivor from a previous age:
the octopus.
Technically mollusks, with large brains that are
organized in a distinctly different way from ours,
octopuses may be the
planet’s smartest
invertebrates.
Many-limbed, totally
boneless and with skin
color and texture that
can change in a heartbeat,
octopuses seem downright
otherworldly. To meet one is
to come as close as we can get
to an intelligent alien.

DAVID FLEETHAM/NATUREPL.COM

NOT EASY AS PI
One octopus, two octopi? That spelling is actually incorrect
because it’s based on Latin grammar. The word octopus is A common reef octopus
derived from ancient Greek, so the proper plural is octopodes. (Octopus cyanea) does
If that’s a bit too formal, octopuses is also acceptable. its thing somewhere
off the coast of Hawaii.

56 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
Armed With Eight Facts OCTOPUSES WE LOVE

Self-Editing It Takes Brains Friendly-Looking Flapjack

Octopuses can make
significant changes to their
RNA — the messengers that
ferry instructions from DNA
to cells. This ability helps
them adapt to the cold, and
may even play a role in why
they’re so clever.
Octopia?
In 2017, researchers
reported that members of
one octopus species lived
in close proximity to each
other, the first time
such behavior
has been
documented
among the
famously
solitary
creatures. The
octopuses apparently
gathered to exploit ample
food resources: scallops. So
numerous were the emptied
and discarded scallop shells
that they could be mistaken
for mini-cities on the ocean
floor. But it was no utopia —
Not to Tangle
Octopus arms are filled
with neurons. In fact, more
brain cells reside in their
eight arms than in their
entire brain. Their bodies
are so complex, argues one
researcher, that they need
significant brainpower just
to control their endlessly
malleable limbs.
Hide in Plain Sight
An octopus can become a
strand of seaweed or a rock
pile, or melt seamlessly into
the sand within seconds.
They’re masters of disguise,
thanks to sacs of pigment
in their skin controlled by
muscles, as well as cells that
reflect and scatter light.
Squishiness
Being boneless has its
advantages. Because they
can rearrange their bodies
into almost any shape, large
octopuses have been known
to squeeze through openings
Some octopuses are downright cute,
like this deepwater species, about the
size of a baseball, found in California's
Monterey Bay. Researcher Stephanie
Bush proposes a fitting moniker for
the still-unnamed species of flapjack
octopus: Opisthoteuthis adorabilis.
Helicopter Parenting
Dedicated octopus moms stop eating
after their eggs are fertilized; they
simply stand guard until the eggs
hatch. The process normally takes a
few months, but one species endures
a much longer vigil. One Graneledone
boreopacifica octopus was observed
with her eggs for 53 months — about
four and a half years — making it by
far the longest recorded brooding
period of any animal.
Inky’s Great Escape
Octopuses are known to be smart and slippery creatures, but Inky, a
former resident of a New Zealand aquarium, is downright legendary.
The common New Zealand octopus managed to pick apart the lid
of his tank in the middle of the night, crawl out and escape down
a drain hole that led to the sea. He was never seen again.

evictions by larger octopuses
were common.
Tasty!
Octopus arms are muscular
and boneless; the best
human analog would be the
tongue, and the comparison
is especially apt. The
hundreds of suckers that
line each of the arms are
covered in chemoreceptors
similar to our own taste
buds — octopuses can “taste”
everything they touch. The
ability is likely what allows
them to recognize their own
arms and prevent them from
getting stuck together.
FROM TOP: MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE (2); NATIONAL AQUARIUM OF NEW ZEALAND; DAVID FLEETHAM/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
of just a few inches. Any
space larger than their beak
— one of the only hard parts
of an octopus — is fair game.
Humble Beginnings
The last common ancestor
we shared with octopuses
lived over 500 million years
ago, and probably looked
something like a worm.
Although octopus fossils are Master of Disguise
rare (because the animals One minute it’s a flatfish, the next a sea snake — shape-shifting
lack bones), their lineage Thaumoctopus mimicus, the mimic octopus, also can impersonate sea
anemones, jellyfish and lionfish. Although octopus camouflage usually
goes back at least 300 million
involves just the skin, the mimic octopus has learned to copy a range
years, meaning they predate
of motions from other species. It raises and curls its arms like a sea
dinosaurs.
snake or undulates like a flounder, likely defenses against predators.
Ranging Far and Wide
Octopuses have adapted
to a broad range of ocean
environments, from coral
reefs to the deep sea, and
from equatorial waters
to Antarctica and the Gulf
of Alaska.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 57

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

SCIENCE The Deskford

Carnyx
The carnyx was
a terrifying

OF MUSIC
Listen up!
instrument.
Brandished in
battle against
Roman invaders,
the Celtic horn
was taller than a
horse, resembled
the head of a boar
and produced “a harsh
BY JONATHON KEATS
sound which suits the
tumult of war,” in the
words of one ancient
Some 40,000 years ago, a slender bone lute was historian. But Scottish
archaeologists studying
abandoned in a Central European cave. Carved with ive one of the most complete
inger holes and a tapered mouthpiece, the instrument dates surviving examples —
excavated from a bog
from around the dawn of human settlement on the continent. in 1816 — wanted to
actually hear it. So they
Humans have been making music for a very long time. commissioned metalsmith
Even that lute is probably a recent example of our musical development. John Creed to craft a
replica in bronze and
Its sophisticated design suggests knowledge of acoustics, likely drawing on
brass. Four hundred
long-standing musical customs. But earlier practices are elusive because the irst hours of meticulous
music was most certainly made with the body work, using Iron Age
and voice, dying with its creators. Charles techniques, resulted in
Darwin considered our musical behaviors to an instrument that would
do a Celt proud. Musician
be “amongst the most mysterious.” At least
John Kenny now plays the
in terms of origins, his words still resonate. facsimile Deskford carnyx
One way of exploring musicality before (named after the site
Ancient bone flute Stone Age lautists crashed Europe is to where it was found). Its
study hominid anatomy. Fossils show our ample size and intricate
design, including a
australopithecine ancestors had vocal structures akin to gorillas, which lack the hinged jaw and a wooden
ability to carry a tune. But Homo heidelbergensis, likely our last common ances- tongue on a spring,
tor with Neanderthals, had vocal physiology very similar to modern humans. afford musical flexibility
Given that H. heidelbergensis evolved at least 500,000 years ago, music may rivaling any modern
have a 500-millennium history. instrument: Covering a
range of five octaves, the
Of course, the capacity to make music is not proof that music was carnyx can overpower a
actually created. And it certainly doesn’t answer the question of why. trombone or sing as softly
Was music important enough to drive evolution — offering selective as a flute, and even emit
advantages to the most musical? Or was it just an accessory to other special effects such as
voicelike ululations. The
developments, like language?
re-creation of the carnyx
At one extreme, Harvard University cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker
LEFT: DANIEL MAURER/AP PHOTO. RIGHT: HUGH BEAUCHAMP

may be the closest we’ll

has dismissed music as “auditory cheesecake.” As counterpoint, Oxford ever come to hearing
University evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar has suggested that Iron Age people speak.
among primates, singing may have been as important as grooming in
fostering social cohesion. Potentially even more eficient than picking
8 Listen to the
Deskford carnyx at
lice, this “grooming at a distance” may have facilitated the harmoniza- DiscoverMagazine.com/
tion of large hominin groups. Carnyx
Music certainly helps reinforce present-day cliques, especially
the auditory cheesecake that dominates teens’ playlists. Taylor Trombonist John Kenny
plays the carnyx.
Swift may be the pinnacle of human evolution. Just don’t try to
convince Steven Pinker.

58 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 A LYRICAL
LEXICON

Tone
A single musical sound
of specific pitch, also
known as a note.

Pitch
The musical quality
of a tone, sounding
higher or lower based THE EVOLUTION OF POP
on the frequency These 13 headers
of its sound waves. Every week since Aug. 4, 1958, Billboard has compiled a list encompass the gamut
of the 100 most popular songs based on record sales, airplay of musical styles from
Resonance and, more recently, streaming listens. For Armand Leroi, an 1960 to 2010. They’re
Amplification of a evolutionary biologist at Imperial College London, the chart is sorted in groups
musical tone by the cultural equivalent of a fossil record. Leroi and colleagues based on similarities
interaction of sound have enlisted audio analysis techniques to sort a 50-year in patterns of chord
vibrations with a surface sample of 17,000 songs into clusters, much as field biologists change and tone.
or enclosed space. might group species. Standard genre names
such as “country”
Volume often appear in more
riter

The pressure of sound than one category.

ongw

vibrations, heard in terms

piano

Leroi’s analysis shows

ock
abilly

of the loudness of music. that some country

ssic r
ger-s

nce
ong/

/rock

ic
e

songs may be more

ol

town
v

ctron
Tempo

p/da
scho

w wa

e/cla
folk

ck/sin

similar to certain rock

ock
s

y/folk

The pace of a
e

B/Mo
/soul/
v

ip-ho
tunes than they are to
p/ele

r
p/ne
/old

nativ
lo

composition’s lues
tr y/ro
ntr y/

other songs marketed

ountr

&

performance, not tied

disco
ngsta

oul/h
ve/po
l
k/po
jams

ce/b
u
op/R

as country.
e

o
u

to individual notes.
lt
n

s
c
o

/
k/cou

ic roc

f unk/
ing/c

rock/
p/ga

/jazz
lassic

oul/s
/dan

Often measured in
/slow

w wa
cal/p

beats per minute.

These spindles
op/ra

blues

blues
ic roc

R&B/
listen

class

ern s
hard
tr y/c

e/ne
le vo
song

show the relative

Rhythm
nor th
rock/

rock/
hip-h

funk/

funk/

soul/
class
coun

danc
fema
easy

popularity of
love

An arrangement of
2010 musical categories
tones of different
on an annual basis,
durations and stresses.
represented as
2000 width. Changes in
Melody
A succession of individual shading mark major
1990 transitions. The most
TOP: ABSTRACT/SHUTTERSTOCK. BOTTOM: MAUCH ET AL./ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE, MAY 6, 2015

tones arranged to musical

effect, aka a tune. dramatic transition
takes place in 1991,
1980 when hip-hop begins
Chord
Two or more tones to take over America.
sounded simultaneously. 1970 The two earlier
Chords are the ingredients musical revolutions
of harmony. are the mid-’60s,
1960
with the explosion
Harmony of rock ’n’ roll, and
The musical arrangement the mid-’80s, with the
of chords. Harmony is arrival of synthesizers
the organization of tones and drum machines.
played simultaneously. These new instruments
had such a wide-
Vibrato spread effect that
A small, rapid modulation The branches of this tree show higher-level relationships among the 13 1986 was the least
in the pitch of a tone. categories. For instance, there are greater parallels between blues rock musically diverse
The technique may and electronic music than between either of those genres and hip-hop. year on record.
express emotion.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 59

EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING SCIENCE OF MUSIC

What Makes Music Popular THE SEMANTICS OF MUSIC

Georgetown University neuroscientist Norberto Grzywacz can predict
the popularity of a pop song without ever listening to it. By analyzing
hundreds of hits from the Billboard Hot 100 between 1958 and 1991, he
and colleagues discovered a factor they call harmonic surprise, which
seems to account for the success of songs by everyone from Elvis to
The Police. The researchers are now using it to experiment with their own
computer-generated compositions.
Listeners who can get caught up in the beautiful
sadness of a ballad or the intense anger of death
metal know music carries meaning. But linguist
Philippe Schlenker of France’s National Center
for Scientific Research thinks music isn’t just a
way to convey emotion. By mimicking how we
experience sound in everyday life, composers
embed extra nuance to help tell their stories.

Q: What is harmonic surprise? 8 Listen to these songs at

DiscoverMagazine.com/MusicSemantics
A: It’s the use of chords that are rare. Musicians use a large number of
chords to compose their melodies. Some chords are used often, and some
When the pitch of an instrument is lower
are used rarely. Harmonic surprise is a mathematical way to measure how
than surrounding sounds . . .
often rare chords appear in a song.
Meaning: The sound source is larger.
Reason: Larger sound sources have larger
Q: How does this relate to a song’s popularity? resonance chambers.
A: We found two types of links between harmonic surprise and song Real-world example: Trumpeting elephants
popularity. In the first, songs with many surprising chords tended to reach Musical example: “The Elephant” in The
near the top of the Billboard Hot 100 rankings more often than songs Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns
with less harmonic surprise. In the second, what helped the popularity of
songs was the change in surprise across sections of the song. The two main When the pitch of the music decreases . . .
sections of a song are verses and choruses. The verses carry the story of Meaning: The sound source is losing energy.
the song. The choruses are those parts that have repeated lyrics and that Reason: Slowing movement produces
lower-frequency sounds.
everybody sings together. We found that in successful songs, the harmonic
Real-world example: A tape player
surprise of the verses tended to be higher than in the choruses. Therefore,
with a dying battery
in the transitions from verses to choruses, the amount of harmonic surprise Musical example: The last two measures of
tended to drop. The same drop in surprise did not tend to happen with Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2
songs that did not reach the top of the Billboard.
When the volume of an instrument is
Q: What pop songs show the ideal combination quieter than surrounding sounds . . .
of surprise and predictability? Meaning: The sound source is less energetic.
Reason: Lower-energy sound sources produce
A: In The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night,” the introductory chord is one less sound pressure, thus lower volume.
of the most highly harmonically surprising chords in the entire corpus Real-world example: A gently-blown whistle
of songs that we analyzed. Then, when the song transitions from the Musical example: The last bars of Frédéric
introduction to the chorus, the drop in harmonic surprise is huge. In other Chopin’s “Raindrop” prelude
cases, there is a large drop in surprise from the bridge to the chorus. (A (Prelude Op. 28, No. 15)
bridge is a musical tool that interrupts the repetitive pattern of a song to
grab the attention of the listener.) This is most demonstrably the case in When the volume of the music
“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” by The Police. increases . . .
On the other hand, there were several songs that were relative flops Meaning: The sound source is approaching.
for otherwise successful artists. Examples of these songs include “Judy” Reason: Greater sound pressure (volume) will
by Elvis Presley, “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” by The Beatles and “Till reach the listener when the source is closer.
Real-world example: An approaching car
the End of the Day” by The Kinks. Our results perhaps explain why these
Musical example: “Frère Jacques” in the 3rd
songs may have “failed.” They had low harmonic surprise and low drop in
movement of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony
surprise between verses and choruses.
When the tempo of the music
Q: Could your formula help artists write catchier songs? is slower than before . . .
A: I often joke that we can become rich advising musicians on how to make Meaning: Sound source is moving more slowly.
their songs popular. However, the path to a hit song involves more than just Reason: Sounds are indicative
exploring harmonic surprise. Rhythm, lyrics and other factors play important of the source’s actions.
roles for the success of a song. Nevertheless, our laboratory Real-world example: Slow footsteps
has been conducting a series of experiments with computer- Musical example: “Tortoises” in The Carnival of
the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns
generated “melodies” that vary in surprise. We have asked
subjects to rank these songs in order of preference. Although
When the vibrato increases . . .
COURTESY OF NORBERTO GRZYWACZ

these melodies were computer-generated, the preferences

Meaning: The source is more emotional.
that people displayed agreed well with the principles that we Reason: Vibrato in voice seems to be
had discovered on harmonic surprise. indicative of decreased vocal control
in emotional circumstances.
8 Listen to examples of harmonic surprise Real-world example: Shaky speech
at DiscoverMagazine.com/HarmonicSurprise Musical example: Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch

60 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 3

1
5

THE ACOUSTICS OF A CONCERT HALL

Acclaimed as the world’s greatest concert hall, the Musikverein in Vienna owes its acoustic excellence largely to accident.
The architecture is a byproduct of the stylistic preferences and engineering constraints of the 1860s. Aalto University acousticians
Tapio Lokki and Jukka Pätynen have analyzed this famous “shoebox” concert hall to understand why the music performed there
is universally praised.

1 The Side Walls 3 The Ceiling 5 The Stage 6 The Organ

Sound is enriched when it’s
reflected around the room, so
it doesn’t reach people’s ears
all at once. The Musikverein’s
side walls, which are narrow
and peppered with statues, are
especially helpful at increasing
sound reflections from the
side. This creates reverberation
that makes listeners feel fully
enveloped in sound.
2 The Balconies
TOP: JUKKA PÄTYNEN. BOTTOM: ABSTRACT/SHUTTERSTOCK
The Musikverein’s high ceiling
affords another delay, even
longer than the walls and
balconies provide. Because
gilded surfaces reflect high
frequencies effectively, the
ceiling’s surface treatment may
also contribute to the overall
brilliance of the music.
4 The Floor
Many modern concert halls
optimize sight lines with stadium
An elevated stage with flat
flooring can diminish the
audience’s view of musicians,
but the visual disadvantages are
outweighed by the positive effect
on hearing. The extra height
prevents the audience from
hearing the sound reflected from
the stage, which can change
the “feel” of the music. And the
hardwood stage floor enhances
bass tones by not resonating; a
resonant stage absorbs energy
Even when no one’s playing the
organ, it serves an important
role. The instrument is perfectly
situated to diffuse sound in all
directions, and shuttle more of
the sound energy toward the side
walls to maximize the enveloping
reverberation. This diffusion
also prevents sound waves from
bouncing around the room for
too long after a note has been
played, when it could become
distracting.

The low-frequency sound waves
of bass instruments measure
several yards between each
crest. These sounds require
very broad surfaces to reflect
properly. Deep side balconies
provide enough space for low
frequencies to scatter and
bounce. Together with the side
walls of the auditorium, the
balconies ensure circulation of
the full spectrum of sound waves.
seating, but the stepped floors as it vibrates, decreasing sound
are detrimental acoustically, as energy elsewhere in the room.
are bulky chairs. High-backed
seats block sound waves
reflected from around the room,
preventing the music from fully
enveloping listeners. The flat
flooring of the Musikverein
and space under the chairs
also allow the audience
to hear low frequencies that
enliven big crescendos.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 61

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING
SPACE STATIONS
The first step toward the final frontier!
BY KOREY HAYNES
From the irst space
station, the Soviet
Union’s Salyut, in 1971,
to the International Space
Station (ISS) still circling
Earth, these bastions provide
safe harbor for human —
and plant, insect and rodent
— adventurers beyond our
atmosphere.
In a nutshell, space station
science revolves around what
the station largely lacks:
gravity. Decades into the
space era, we’re still iguring
out the harm and help that
microgravity can offer, from
bone loss in astronauts to
ink low in pens and printers.
Stations also let us test
technology longer than the
two weeks at a time the
space shuttle program could
manage. That’s a necessity
before we take the long trip
to Mars and beyond. And
solving space’s challenges
can also beneit life back on
terra irma: For instance,
research into astronaut bone
loss can help non-space
farers with osteoporosis.
62 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
INTERNATIONAL
SPACE
STATION
SPACE X'S DRAGON
is a routine ISS visitor.
After docking and
delivering its cargo,
which will soon KIBO
include humans, the (the Japanese
reusable capsule can Experiment Module)
ferry loads home to is the station’s largest
start the process over. habitable module. It
holds experiments both
inside and outside to
study everything from
medicine to astronomy
to materials production.
ABOVE: ILLUSTRATION BY NASA; BACKGROUND STARS: SON GALLERY/SHUTTERSTOCK
The Future of ISS
By 2024, NASA hopes to divest itself of ISS and turn the station over to private
companies. These companies could do research and launch experiments
into low-Earth orbit much like they do now, though potentially with more
advertising and commercialization. The plan, considered since the Obama
administration, became the Trump administration’s preferred choice in
February. But there are arguments on all sides against giving up the most
expensive object ever built — a project that’s cost taxpayers more than
$100 billion. NASA already collaborates with industry, from the research
conducted aboard ISS to the cargo now ferried by SpaceX and Orbital ATK.
However, transferring the mammoth project would allow the space community
to continue reaping the station’s benefits while letting NASA redirect its
multibillion-dollar annual ISS budget toward the space station of the future.
 The
MOBILE SERVICING
SYSTEM
consists of three
robotic components: a
mobile work platform
for spacewalks, a
56-foot-long robotic
arm and Dextre, a robot
maintenance worker.

BEAM
(the Bigelow
Expandable Activity
Module) is an
experimental section
testing the idea of
The inflating a capsule
CUPOLA in space. It's cleared
is the observation area. safety tests and still
From seven windows, performs admirably, but
crew members can currently serves as a
help control the glorified closet.
station’s robotic arms,
or just brush up on their
photography skills.

FIRST STEPS
Dec. 21, 1968 Feb. 19, 1986 2022 2024
Apollo 8 launches, The Soviet NASA plans to SpaceX aspires
becoming the first Union launches launch the first to use its Big
FROM LEFT: NASA; SOVFOTO; NASA (2); CMSE; SPACEX

crewed spacecraft April 19, 1971 Mir — later a component — a Falcon Rocket
Nov. 20, 1998 Sept. 29,
to leave Earth’s Russian project. power supply — to deliver
The Soviet Union The first 2011 China
orbit. It circles launches Salyut 1, It becomes the for Deep Space humans to the
component of launches its first
the moon 10 humanity’s first first continuously Gateway, a surface of Mars.
the International space station,
times, during space station. occupied space station orbiting
Space Station Tiangong-1, a
which astronauts station. the moon.
enters orbit. prototype for
snap the famous
Space agencies a permanent
“Earthrise” photo.
from the station to be
U.S., Russia, built by 2022.
July 20,1969 Tiangong-1
Japan, Europe
Neil Armstrong crashed to Earth
and Canada
sets foot on the in April 2018.
contribute.
moon.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 63

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING SPACE STATIONS
Gateway to the Moon
— and Beyond
If humans are to explore
beyond Earth’s orbit, they’ll
need a place to test new
technologies and a base of
operations. A station orbiting
the moon can provide both.
It would be far enough
away to serve as a trial run
for upcoming deep-space
missions, like crewed trips
aboard NASA’s Orion capsule,
a new spacecraft that could
travel as far as Mars. And
lunar orbit is close enough to
home for repairs and rescues,
should anything go amiss.
These goals are driving
NASA and fellow space
agencies around the globe to
build Deep Space Gateway,
the first lunar space station.
The mission is still being
planned, but NASA hopes
to launch the power and
propulsion systems as soon
as 2022, with a pressurized
habitation module to follow
in 2023 and an airlock
64 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
and additional
pressurized modules
afterward.
Orion holds four crew
members, so Gateway has to
accommodate at least that
many. However, this station
won’t be continuously
inhabited like ISS, and it
is unlikely to match ISS’
football-field size. Instead,
NASA envisions small crews
staying one to two months,
with most maintenance and
resupply work likely done by
robotic missions.
In this way, Gateway’s
name and intended use
become clear. It will not be a low gravity, Gateway would to change its orbital path to
home away from home, like allow radiation tests from suit various mission dictates.
ISS, but a true space station, outside Earth’s protective That might mean low orbits
akin to a train station. Van Allen belts — a more to support astronauts or
In some ways, Gateway realistic test for the more robots exploring the lunar
would continue ISS’ work distant and irradiated surface, or flying high to
as an all-around science missions of the future. rendezvous with deep-space
lab, featuring projects But the real value would flights, including those NASA
ranging from cell biology to come from Gateway’s hopes to send to Mars by
astrophysics. In addition to prime location and ability the 2030s.
 A Red Footprint
Humans won’t stop at the moon. Someday, we’ll go
to Mars. And to make Martian trips commonplace —
for the same reasons Gateway makes sense — we’ll
need a station circling Mars, too. That’s why Lockheed
Martin is working on what it calls Mars Base Camp,
which might launch as early as 2028. There, astronauts
would prepare to set foot on the Red Planet.
ABOVE: BOEING. RIGHT: LOCKHEED MARTIN

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 65

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

AUTONOMOUS CARS
Bots on wheels.
BY LAUREN SIGFUSSON

Most car crashes are due to human error. Remove drivers, and the roads get safer.
Self-driving vehicles have a lot to master, though. They must “see” and “think” in
real-world road situations, reacting to their surroundings. That might mean swerving around
a child who suddenly runs into the street, or gauging whether to cross an intersection on a yellow
light. And polls show that people are nervous about riding in a driverless vehicle, despite the
claims that roads will be less dangerous with bots in charge. But ready or not, driverless cars are
coming soon to a street near you.

GPS
Seeing . . .
Take a glance at the primary sensors that enable
driverless vehicles to know their surroundings.

LIDAR (light detection and ranging)

LIDAR emits lasers that bounce
off objects to measure distance.
It’s especially good for long-range
detection; some systems sense objects
nearly 1,000 feet away. And these aren’t
blurry images. LIDAR creates high-
resolution 3-D maps of shapes, including
pedestrians, curbs and other vehicles.

Cameras
Cameras are the most cost effective
of the three sensors. They have decent
range and are good at spotting lane Computer systems
markings and traffic lights. But they’re
not as accurate as radar and LIDAR.

TOP: CHOMBOSAN/SHUTTERSTOCK. BOTTOM: ALEKSOREL/SHUTTERSTOCK

Radar
Radar uses radio waves to detect the
position and speed of other objects. Police
officers use it to catch speeding drivers,
and air traffic controllers use it to track
planes. As adapted for robo-vehicles,
the technology can detect objects from
a few feet away to hundreds of feet away.
But radar can’t determine shapes.
Thinking . . .
Self-driving vehicles must quickly understand
and interpret what they see. Software and
algorithms make this happen. One way is
through artificial neural networks, which
are computer systems that mimic the human
brain. These neural networks let robot cars
understand, react and learn in real time
from sensor data. This artificial intelligence
is the mind of the self-driving vehicle.

66 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 LEVELS OF AUTOMATION Race to Market
In 2014, SAE International, an association By 2040, annual sales of self-driving cars could exceed 33 million. Currently,
of tech professionals, created the
only cars up to Level 2 are available to the public. By 2021, BMW says it will
standard classification for vehicle
autonomy levels. They range from a be selling Level 3, and Ford says it will be selling Level 4 to consumers.
human in full control to the car in full That’s all great, but regulations will need to keep pace. Since 2011, 21
control. Levels 1 and 2 include advanced states have passed autonomous vehicle legislation, and five others have
driver assistance systems (ADAS), which governor-issued executive orders. In general, the laws limit the vehicles
offer a helping hand, like watching
on public roads to Level 2, though some states have opened roads to
your blind spots. Levels 3 to 5 involve
automated driving systems (ADS), researchers to test cars at Level 3 and higher. At the federal level, existing
upping the ante of bot control. laws were written with human drivers in mind, but the U.S. Senate is
considering a bill that would provide some regulatory framework for
Level 0 autonomous cars.
You’re driving. Antsy? Ride-sharing companies Lyft and
Uber offer autonomous-car trips on the
Level 1 streets of Boston and Pittsburgh — with
You’re driving, but ADAS helps with a driver at the wheel in case something
SKEPTICAL PUBLIC
acceleration and steering. goes wrong.
Would you be comfortable riding in In the meantime, save your
Level
a driverless car? 2
Fifty-six percent pennies. The first generation of truly
You’re driving, but
of Americans ADAS
say no,can fullylack
citing control
of driverless vehicles is expected to cost
An Uber driverless vehicle
trustacceleration,
and safetybraking and steering
concerns, according hundreds of thousands of dollars.
under some circumstances.
to a 2017 Pew Research Center
LEFT COLUMN, FROM TOP: CHOMBOSAN/SHUTTERSTOCK; DARPA. RIGHT COLUMN, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: FORD MOTOR CO. (2); TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE; GENERAL MOTORS; WAYMO

survey. Another study, using machine 1 2

Level 3the language
learning to analyze
ADSin
used fully
morecontrols
thanthe car in some
1 trillion social
circumstances, but you’re ready to take over.
media posts, found that Americans
are most afraid of autonomous cars
Levelby
being hijacked 4 hackers.
ADS performs all driving functions in certain
situations, and you don’t need to pay attention.

3 Companies planning to bring

Level 5 driverless cars to market include
The vehicle drives, and you sit as passenger. (1) Google’s company Waymo,
(2) Ford, (3) GM and (4) Lexus.
First-generation vehicles are
expected to cost six figures.
4

Robo-car tech heated up in the 2000s,
when the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched
a challenge to create fully autonomous
vehicles for the military. Several races were
held in California and Nevada deserts.
SKEPTICAL PUBLIC
Would you be comfortable riding in a driverless car? Fifty-six percent of
Americans say no, citing lack of trust and safety concerns, according to a
2017 Pew Research Center survey. In March, an Uber self-driving vehicle
in Tempe, Arizona, hit and killed a woman crossing a street, further
stoking public fear. Another study, using machine learning to analyze the
language in more than 1 trillion social media posts, found that Americans
are most afraid of autonomous cars being hijacked by hackers.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 67

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

THE STANDARD FIELD DAY

You may have heard that
matter is, at its smallest

MODEL
scales, made of tiny dots —
electrons and such — called
particles. According to the
Standard Model, you weren’t
told the whole truth.
A theory of mostly everything. “Particles are not very
interesting,” says Weinberg.
BY DEVIN POWELL “If you’ve seen one electron,
you’ve seen them all.”
Particles arise from
something even more
The math that describes nature can be simple, even elegant. fundamental: ields. Fields
Consider Einstein’s beloved E = mc2. A mere three letters tell are invisible and everywhere.
us that matter and energy are, essentially, the same. Heisenberg’s You’ve encountered ields
before, the last time you
uncertainty principle, which sets limits on what we can know about tried to push two magnets
reality at small scales, its neatly on a coffee mug. together. That uncanny
And then there’s the Standard Model. This sprawling equation ills half a page in pressure you felt came from
12-point type. It’s held together by “renormalization” — the mathematical equivalent of magnetic ields pushing
duct tape — and contains a bunch of arbitrary numbers with no pattern, illed in by hand back. Fields behave like
to it the results of experiments. It’s an awkward theory only a physicist could love. liquids and can ripple, like
But beauty isn’t everything. For all its ungainliness, the Standard Model just happens the surface of an ocean.
to be the best theory ever devised for answering a question humans have been asking for When they form a wave,
millennia: What is the universe made of ? a particle is born.
“There’s a degree of ugliness to the Standard Model,” says Nobel laureate Steven In the 1940s, physicists
Weinberg, one of its architects. “But I think an elegant theory is one which leaves put the inishing touches
you with a sense that something has been explained, and we’ve made real progress in on a theory that cast the
explaining nature using the Standard Model.” electromagnetic force as
quantum ields: quantum
electrodynamics (QED). It
suggested that every electron
is a ripple in the same
electron ield, and every
particle of light is a ripple
in a photon ield.
Ripples in one ield can,
like a gust of wind that
creates waves in a lake,
set off ripples in the other
JEFF WILSON; BACKGROUND BY AGSANDREW/SHUTTERSTOCK

ield. Understanding how

electron and photon ields
play together can explain
not only the electromagnetic
force and the interaction of
charged particles, but also

Physicist Steven Weinberg helped

shape our current understanding
of the universe.

68 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 n u clear f a gne n u cl e ar fo
ro m ti
ng ct

FUNDAMENTAL
ak

or

El e

sm
o

rc
We
FORCES
S tr

ce

e
how light interacts with Gluon Photon W and Z
matter. It may sound crazy,
but QED has passed every
test with lying colors.

BEYOND ELECTRICITY
The creators of the Standard
Model extended QED by
tacking on ields for other
forces: the strong nuclear
force (which binds the
pieces of an atom’s nucleus
together) and the weak
nuclear force (which describes
how atoms fall apart and give
off radiation). These ields
have their own particles.
The Standard Model
also added a slew of ields
responsible for the particles
that actually make up matter,
including the quarks that
comprise the nuclei of atoms,
and neutrinos, which barely
interact with other matter.
The most famous
prediction of the Standard
Model today may be the
existence of the Higgs boson.
Have you heard that this
particle, irst spotted inside
the Large Hadron Collider
in 2012, gives mass to other
particles? You were misled.
The Higgs field is the mass
BACKGROUND: COMPILED BY THOMAS D. GUTIERREZ FROM DIAGRAMMATICA BY MARTINUS VELTMAN
MATTER Electron
Quark Muon Neutrino
Tau
THE STANDARD MODEL
aims to explain what the universe
is made of, and how most of Higgs field
its fundamental forces interact
with tangible particles of matter.
THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MATTER
AND THEIR FIELDS
Quarks
Strong nuclear force are found in atomic nuclei and experience
(gluon field) holds together the hearts of atoms. all four fundamental forces.
Electromagnetism Electrons
(photon field) gives rise to electric (and their cousins the cosmic-ray muon
and magnetic fields. and the supermassive tau particle) ignore
the strong nuclear force.
Weak nuclear force
(W and Z fields) causes radioactive decay. Neutrinos
barely interact with the rest of the
Gravity material universe because they experience
is missing from the Standard Model. only the weak nuclear force.

giver. It rubs elbows with the

ields of particles that have
mass (particles of matter, as
well as the W and Z bosons
responsible for the weak
nuclear force ield), but not
with ields associated with
massless particles (like the
photon).
STANDARD DEVIATIONS
For all its successes, though,
the Standard Model is not
complete. Why the Higgs
ield gives different particles
different masses remains
a mystery. The model also
The Higgs field interacts with all the building blocks of matter; it gives them their mass.
has nothing to say about
the dark matter and dark
energy thought to exist out
in the cosmos. Perhaps most
strikingly, it leaves out one of
nature’s four forces entirely
— gravity. The Standard
Model can’t explain how
gravity works, or why it’s so
much weaker than the other
THE HIGGS FIELD
three forces.
Some researchers have been
trying (unsuccessfully) to add
even more ields that could
solve some of the problems
of the Standard Model, an
idea called supersymmetry.
Others believe that ields may
be made of something even
more fundamental — tiny
vibrating strings — but
testing string theory has
been problematic.
“We all agree that there
has to be something beyond
the Standard Model, but
we don’t know what that
something is,” says Weinberg.
For now, this ugly theory is
the best we have.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 69

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING
TEETH
Brace yourself.
BY CHARLOTTE HU
Our teeth say a lot. They reveal everything
from our eating habits to our social habits.
So open wide, and let’s dive in.
A mature human has a complete set of 32
teeth. Four types of teeth are nestled into our
jaws: molars, premolars, canines and incisors,
plus the optional wisdom teeth. Our array of
teeth types means we are heterodonts, like most
mammals. Homodont animals, by contrast, have
the same type of teeth throughout their jaw,
making their bite imprint look mostly uniform.
Teeth, which grow in treelike rings, are made
of enamel, the hardest substance in the human
body. More than 300 types of bacteria live in the
mouth, many of which can be found in dental
plaque on the surface of the teeth.
Teeth don’t come with a lifetime guarantee,
though. Because humans are diphyodont, we
get only two successive sets of teeth throughout
life. Other animals get way more: If they’re
polyphyodont, like sharks, their teeth are
replaced continuously.
Enamel
Crown
Dentin
Neck
Pulp cavity
Root canal
Root
Gum tissue
Cementum
Bone
Nerve,
blood vessels
70 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
Incisors
Harbingers of Health
That toothy grin you see in the mirror can shed light on
some surprising links among oral health, genetics and
overall health.
Although there aren’t many direct genetic variables that
control oral health, specific genes may raise the risk of gum
disease and tooth decay. For example, a sweet-tooth gene
was discovered by scientists in Denmark in 2017. According
to Matthew Gillum, associate professor of metabolic
genetics at the University of Copenhagen, people with a
specific variant form of the FGF21 gene tend to crave and
consume more sugar on average than those with the normal
form of the gene.
“It does have some association with more body fat
on your hips,” says Gillum. “It’s likely to be the case that
individuals with sweet-preferring genes drink more [alcohol]
than average.” He thinks it has something to do with the
liver protecting itself from too much sugar or alcohol.
“FGF21 acts as a brake on sugar overindulgence from the
liver for self-defensive reasons,” Gillum says.
Teeth that can’t function properly will spur a cascade of
effects. Left untreated, a decaying or abscessed tooth can
lead to potentially life-threatening complications. In 2007,
a 12-year-old boy died after bacteria from an abscessed
tooth spread to his brain. If a toothache is preventing you
from eating normally, it can adversely affect your diet and
physical health, while misaligned teeth can cause headaches,
sinus problems, facial deformities and even obstructed
breathing. On top of that, oral health is highly correlated
with cardiovascular and nervous system health, since the
harmful microorganisms on the teeth and gums and in the
mouth can easily travel throughout the entire body.
Teeth can also act as mirrors to our internal health,
giving clues to sometimes hidden disorders. For example,
congenital syphilis can interrupt tooth formation. The
upshot? Don’t put off that trip to the dentist.
 A Bite of Biodiversity
Canines Premolars Molars Wisdom teeth
What do toothy smiles look like across the
animal kingdom? Some are familiar, others
more alien. Teeth in nature come in all
shapes and sizes.
The spiraling tusk of the narwhal inspired
illustrations for the horn of the mythical
unicorn. However, this horn is actually
an overgrown tooth that projects from
the whale’s jaw. The narwhal has no
teeth inside its mouth — unexpectedly,
since its diet is mostly fish. Even more
surprising: The tooth functions as a sensory
organ, with millions of nerve connections
running through it. Because the tusk can
sense changes in seawater salinity, it can help
narwhals navigate through different marine
environments. They can also use their tusk
like a club to stun prey.
The Chinese water deer is the only deer
species without antlers, but don’t worry —
they have a different defense mechanism
going for them. The male deer brandish
Bite-Sized tiny tusks — 2 inches long, on average
— that protrude from their mouths.
Facts The animals are a more primitive form
Incisors are front On the Record than your average white-tailed deer. Most
experts believe that antlers evolved after
and center, and they
are for biting. They’re Teeth collect a wealth of tusks, although both are used to defend
the first baby teeth information throughout a against predators.
to emerge. person’s lifetime — our individual
Sea urchins have teeth made of
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: SOPHIE JACOPIN/SCIENCE SOURCE; BSIP SA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; ERIC BACCEGA/NATUREPL.COM; ROLAND SEITRE/NATUREPL.COM;

dental records are as unique as

Canines are sharp calcite crystal that are strong enough
fingerprints. A bite mark can be
and used for to chew through rocks. The structure of
as useful in identifying someone
shredding and ripping the crystal matrix in the teeth gives them
as DNA from a tooth. In modern
apart food. stability and durability; they continuously
forensics, scientists can predict with
PAUL KAY/NHPA/PHOTOSHOT; WATERFRAME/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; NEIL BROMHALL/SHUTTERSTOCK; STEPHEN DALTON/NATUREPL.COM

Premolars are more grow and self-sharpen.

high accuracy age at death, sex,
substantial than ethnicity, habits and sometimes
canines or incisors, even occupation using only
and they are used dental records.
for grinding and Archaeology benefits from
chewing food. tooth tales, too. Scientists can
Molars tend to be reconstruct microbiomes from
flatter and wider than the microbes trapped in plaque.
premolars, but their These mini bacterial microcosms
function is the same. can offer clues to ancient lifestyles,
Wisdom teeth might behaviors, habits, culture and
have been molar even social conventions, such as
teeth in the days shared kisses and meals. Bacteria
before agriculture, in plaque can also tell us about
when human jaws ancient human seasonal migratory
were bigger because patterns based on tracking how
raw, wild plants and bacteria changed in genetic
meat were tougher structure over time.
to break down. Teeth can divulge lifetime
Changes in culture exposure to metals, toxins and
and diet caused jaws other pollutants. And tooth tales
to shrink, leading to aren’t limited to humans. In 2016,
overcrowding and an examination of hippo teeth by
impacted wisdom scientists from the University of
teeth, which may then Utah and Universität Braunschweig
grow in sideways due unearthed data about changes in
to lack of room. past environment and climate.
Parrotfish also have impossibly strong
teeth, allowing them to chomp on coral
and grind it into fine sand. A network of
different interwoven biominerals (such as
fluropatite) and crystals mean the teeth
are tough and don’t wear down.
The naked mole rat can maneuver
each of its teeth independently, similar to
chopsticks. Like most rodents, the mole
rat has teeth that are always growing
and need to be ground down. The
chompers are outside the mouth,
keeping them from swallowing dirt as
they dig. Their teeth can also be used
for moving objects, social interactions
such as fighting for dominance, and, of
course, feeding. Additionally, a vast portion
the mole rat’s brain’s somatosensory cortex
signals — pain, pressure, temperature — are
relayed via the teeth.
The fangs of a snake come in two
forms, both efficient at delivering venom.
In grooved fangs, the venom gland runs
in an indentation along the fang. In
hollow fangs, the venom gland runs inside
the fang as though running through a tube.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 71

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING

FRACTALS
Infinity, contained.
Fractal
Fabrication
A fractal is like an infinite version of
a Russian nesting doll: Zoom in on
one, and you get a smaller version,
more or less, of what you started
BY JULIE REHMEYER with. A coastline is a fractal because
at any scale, you’ll find coves and
bays — well, at least until you get
How long is a country’s border? That’s the down to atoms.
In the realm of pure mathematics,
seemingly simple question mathematician Lewis though, there are no such practical
Fry Richardson asked himself more than 75 years ago. limitations. Consider, for example,
The thing that puzzled him was that the length of the “Koch snowflake” (below,
in red), named after Swedish
the measuring stick mattered. Let’s use Great Britain mathematician Helge von Koch.
as an example: Use a 100-mile ruler, and you get one Start with an equilateral triangle,
answer for total coastline. But if you reduce that ruler and then on each side erase the
middle third and replace it with a
to a mile, it will it inside bays the larger ruler missed, smaller equilateral triangle. Do it
and the answer will be far larger. An inch-long ruler again and again — forever.
will give a still-larger result. What you get has a similar
quality to a real-life coastline —
Indeed, Richardson realized, the answer depended
and the more steps you complete
entirely on the length of the measuring stick. The in constructing it, the longer the
shorter it is, the longer the measurement. Taken to its perimeter gets. Do it forever, and
conclusion, the answer was striking: The coastline of you’ll end up with an infinitely long
border — though all that infinitude
Britain is ininite. still contains a finite area. It’s like a
He didn’t know it, but Richardson had just stumbled mathematical version of a saying by
on a previously unrecognized type of geometric the 13th-century poet Rumi: “You
are the entire ocean in a drop.”
object, one that was destined to revolutionize
traditional mathematics. He’d found a fractal.

SNOWFLAKE: ALEXEY KLJATOV/SHUTTERSTOCK. ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER

Snowflakes form fractals

in real life, not just in
Koch’s mathematical
imagination. Ice crystallizes
around a speck of dust
in the atmosphere, and
the shape of the water
molecules results in
six-sided symmetry. The
precise atmospheric
conditions at each moment
Unexpectedly, the length of a country’s coastline depends on your
ruler. As the measuring stick gets shorter (left to right), it can better of creation determine
fit within Great Britain’s nooks and crannies. The shorter the ruler, whether the snowflake will
the longer the coastline. form a branch at each point.

72 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Other Famous Fractal Figures
THE MANDELBROT SET
In 1978, mathematicians Robert
W. Brooks and Peter Matelski
— in the process of answering
a very different mathematical
question — defined a new object
based on an equation that is, by
their standards, quite simple. But
the wonders of this object didn’t
become clear until March 1, 1980,
when mathematician Benoit
Mandelbrot programmed a
computer to draw it.
He discovered an object unlike
any he’d ever seen. At the largest
scale, it’s a kind of heart shape
with a circular tail. Zoom in, and
you’ll find worlds within worlds
within worlds, with shapes
resembling sea horses, galactic
whorls and mandalas. But
within each of these fantastical
shapes, the original heart-
shaped figure also hid. A single
equation contained an entire
mathematical universe.

THE SIERPINSKI TRIANGLE Here’s another you can make

yourself. Start with an equilateral triangle and divide it into four equal-
sized, smaller equilateral triangles, then remove the center one. Repeat
that process with the three remaining triangles — forever. You’ll end
up with a Sierpinski triangle, named after Polish mathematician
FROM TOP: WOLFGANG BEYER VIA WIKIMEDIA (4); ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER

Wacław Franciszek Sierpin’ski. Amazingly, its area is zero.

Fractals often have the rare
property of existing between
our ordinary dimensions.
The Koch snowflake, for
example, consists of ordinary
one-dimensional lines, but
with more and more iterations,
it appears fuzzy, as if it had
breadth. The Sierpinski triangle
INTERDIMENSIONAL REALITY
is built from an ordinary two-
dimensional triangle, but with
all the area carved out, it doesn’t
quite have the heft of two
dimensions.
Mandelbrot captured this
through the idea of a fractional
dimension — hence the name
fractal. Essentially, it captures
how complex and squiggly
a fractal is. Think again of a
coastline: As you shrink your
measuring stick, the apparent
length of a craggy coastline
will grow much faster than
that of a smooth beach, so it
will accordingly have a higher
fractal dimension.
The Koch snowflake has a
fractal dimension of about 1.26,
and the Sierpinski triangle is
a bit higher at 1.58. And the
boundary of the Mandelbrot set
has fractal dimension of 2 —
meaning it is as rough a coastline
as it could possibly be. It took
until 1991 to prove that.

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 73

 EVERYTHING WORTH
KNOWING FRACTALS

Nature’s Favorite Patterns

Mandelbrot titled one of the books in which he introduced these ideas
The Fractal Geometry of Nature. While Mother Nature doesn’t form
patterns that perfectly repeat forever, the way mathematical fractals
do, she does create some gorgeous approximations.

Romanesco, related to
broccoli, is a particularly
striking and beautiful example,
with spirals made of spirals
made of spirals made of spirals.

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP RIGHT: A.T. WILLETT/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; CHAMP008/SHUTTERSTOCK; LEONID A. MIRNY AND MAXIM IMAKAEV; CLAUDIO DIVIZIA/SHUTTERSTOCK; DESIGN PICS INC/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; SCISETTIALFIO/ISTOCK
Lightning forms a fractal pattern with its branching
branches, which means that it has a fractal dimension
— one study approximated it at 1.51. When people are
struck by lightning, it can form a lightning-shaped mark
as the electricity travels across the skin, damaging
blood vessels — which themselves form a branching,
fractal-like pattern.

The stock market is itself a fractal, with occasional

huge crashes or bubbles, and far more frequent smaller
rises and falls.

DNA is packed into a cell

using a fractal pattern.
The DNA in a human cell
Ferns provide is 6.5 feet long — longer
another fractal than the average
example. human. But it has to be
Mathematician folded up to fit inside
Michael Barnsley a tiny cell nucleus, and
created a fern-shaped the cell must be able to
mathematical fractal (right) unfold any bit of it that
that could be mistaken for might be needed. A fractal
the real thing. pattern does the trick.

74 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
LEFT COLUMN, FROM TOP: GSFC/NASA; KEITH WHEELER/SCIENCE SOURCE. RIGHT COLUMN, FROM TOP: CICLOTRAMA 20 (WIND) ROPE SCULPTURE BY JANAINA MELLO LANDINI, PHOTOGRAPH BY GUI GOMES; INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC/TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX/EVERETT COLLECTION; ASHISH GUPTA; ARNERO VIA WIKIMEDIA
It’s not only nature that loves fractals. Human beings have picked up on nature’s tricks,
making use of fractals in our own technology.
Clouds form fractals, likely
because wind turbulence
operates similarly at a variety of
scales. Large flows of warm, moist
air rise in thermals, but within
those are smaller columns of air
twisting in their own shapes. So
large- and small-scale formations
end up looking alike.
Human breast tissue has a
fractal structure, with the cells
aligning into squiggles with
squiggles in their squiggles. A pair
of researchers at the University
of Alberta analyzed nearly 8,000
images of healthy and cancerous
tissues, and found that the fractal
dimension of the cancerous tissue
was consistently lower.
PUTTING FRACTALS TO WORK
Ropes: One of the earliest examples of using fractals to solve a problem involves ropes, as
demonstrated in this sculpture by Janaina Mello Landini, titled Ciclotrama 20. Fine fibers are
wound together into threads; threads are wound together into cords; cords are wound into cables.
Original image
Animation: Since nature uses fractals, animators can exploit the
blueprint to create good imitations. Animated films use fractals to
create waves, snow or landscapes. The technique created a realistic
simulation of lava in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.
Fractal antennas: The different
scales of a fractal can be used to pick
up different ranges of wavelengths of a JPEG compression
signal, allowing a more powerful antenna
in a small space.
Fractal compression: Because high-quality photographs require
so much data, we often use “compressed” versions that aren’t quite
perfect, but are close. One such method looks for repeated patterns
at different scales of a picture. It typically generates higher-quality
images than the industry standard, a JPEG file, but isn’t common
because it requires extra processing time.
Fractal compression
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 75
 BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI

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OUT THERE POW E R E D BY ASTRONOMY M AGA Z I N E

CIRCLES OF LIGHT
Chile’s Atacama Desert is high, dry and tough on life — paradise for ground-based astronomers. Because of the clean air and clear skies, along
with an ideal near-equator location allowing for Northern and Southern Hemisphere observing, many of the world’s largest telescopes are
here. No clouds or light pollution mar this view — showing the movement of stars across the sky over time — near a high mountain lake in the
Atacama. On page 78, Astronomy editor Alison Klesman reports from Chile on the unique collaboration between U.S. and Chilean astronomers.
Then, on page 84, John Wenz explores the many “phantom planets” astronomers have confused for bona fide worlds.
 ERNIE MASTROIANNI; PHOTO BY ADHEMAR DURO

July/August 2018 DISCOVER 77

OUT THERE

Sharing the Skies

Above Chile
The Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program explores the
unique collaboration forged by U.S. astronomy observatories in Chile.
BY ALISON KLESMAN

CHILE IS HOME TO SOME OF THE WORLD’S of Universities for Research in

BEST SKIES — and some of the world’s
most advanced instruments to observe
them. From the radio telescope array
charting complex chemistry in Titan’s
atmosphere to the telescopes that
pinpointed the neutron star merger
last year, Chilean observatories play a
starring role in today’s groundbreaking
discoveries.
Many of these world-class facilities
are partially or fully funded by the
United States. Public enthusiasm
and appreciation underpin successful
projects such as these, ensuring the
support necessary for future growth
and continuing scientiic discovery.
Although astronomy excites many
Americans, most are unaware
of the substantial investments
made by the United States and
Chile — together — in pursuit of
understanding our universe.
The Astronomy in Chile Educator
Ambassadors Program (ACEAP) aims
to change that. Now in its fourth year,
Astronomy, the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory (NRAO),
the National Optical Astronomy
Observatory, and Gemini Observatory.
ACEAP is supported by the U.S.
National Science Foundation (NSF).
Participants go behind the scenes
at some of the world’s premier
astronomical observatories. This
amazing opportunity comes with
the responsibility to return home
and spread what they have learned
throughout their communities.
INFORMED MESSENGERS
ACEAP gathers individuals from across
the U.S. and transforms them into a
group of informed communicators and
advocates for astronomy, with a focus
on the scientiic partnership between
the United States and Chile. Each year,
the program selects nine ambassadors,
and the ACEAP team — and family — with as many people as possible,”
grows. Past ambassadors remain active says Charles Blue, NRAO’s public
in the program, creating a foundation information oficer and co-principal
M. DIETERICH (@MATTDIETERICHPHOTOGRAPHY) (ACEAP/NSF)

ACEAP brings American astronomy
educators to Chile to demonstrate
irsthand how astronomical facilities
function, how they make their data
and discoveries accessible to the public,
and how astronomy and science
beneit communities on a local and
global scale. The program represents
the collaborative efforts of Associated
Universities Inc. (AUI), the Association
of support and sharing resources with
each other and future ambassadors.
Although the destination is always
the same, ACEAP differs each year
because each group of ambassadors
is unique. “Every group that comes
to Chile as part of this program takes
away something different. But, to a
person, there is the same infectious
enthusiasm to share their experiences
investigator of the program.
I traveled to Chile in 2017 as
ACEAP’s irst media liaison. The
other ambassadors were planetarium
directors, astrophotographers, teachers,
and research assistants. One was
a Chilean educator leading K-12
astronomy education in her school.
Many members of the diverse group
have their hands in multiple projects:

78 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

spearheading efforts to preserve dark
skies, providing the public with pop-up
telescope viewing, and leading local
astronomy clubs and events.
FIRST STEPS
Our nine-day program oficially began
June 18, 2017, in Chile’s capital,
Santiago. Each day was packed,
typically beginning at 7 or 8 a.m.
E. TING (ACEAP/NSF)
and wrapping up in time for dinner
around 8 p.m. (Eating late is common
in Chile.) We took three lights and
The southern Milky Way arches
over the stone and metal sculptures
of Observatorio Cerro Mayu near
La Serena, Chile.
Below: The 4m Víctor M. Blanco
Telescope at CTIO is part of the Dark
Energy Survey; the black cylindrical
Dark Energy Camera sits in place of a
secondary mirror. This telescope was
among the first to observe the optical
afterglow of the neutron star merger on
August 17, 2017.
several long car trips to reach not only
the observatories, but also nearby
towns and unique landscapes unlike
any I’d seen before.
We visited Cerro Tololo Inter-
American Observatory (CTIO), the
Gemini South Observatory, and
the Atacama Large Millimeter/
submillimeter Array (ALMA). We also
stopped at Observatorio Astronómico
Andino (OAA) near Santiago and
Observatorio Cerro Mayu near La
Serena — two observatories that are
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 79
OUT THERE
2 3
part of a growing astronomical tourism
industry catering to people who want to
travel to and within Chile to experience
the spectacular skies.
Just outside OAA’s rustic but high-
tech lodge, many of us got our irst
look at the Southern Hemisphere night
sky. Globular cluster Omega Centauri
and the Carina Nebula were stunning
through telescopes, while Alpha and
Beta Centauri, along with nearby
Crux the Southern Cross, stood out
brightly to the naked eye amid the rich
southern Milky Way. Some familiar
constellations remained — Scorpius,
for example — but appeared oddly
misshapen, backward and upside
down from their Northern Hemisphere
apparitions.
“What I’ll always remember is
the feeling of seeing the Southern
Hemisphere stars and not knowing
what the heck I was looking at,” says
ambassador Amy Jackson, an educator
from Austin, Texas, and founder and
director of Starry Sky Austin. “For
someone who knows the constellations
and sky so well, to look up and feel
lost is the most disorienting feeling. It
80 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
really helped me to understand how
the students and public I teach in my
classes and programs must feel.”
The Observatorio Cerro Mayu
marries Chilean culture with the
beautiful dark sky. Cerro Mayu’s
large outdoor sculptures carry both
astronomical and cultural signiicance,
highlighting Chileans’ deep relationship
with their sky. Although we were blown
away at OAA the night before, the
weather was better and the sky even
darker at Cerro Mayu, prompting an
evening of excited astroimaging.
WORLD-CLASS OBSERVATORIES
We spent two nights at CTIO, touring
the observatory by day and forgoing
sleep to stargaze at night. ACEAP
encourages ambassadors to document
their trip every step of the way; we illed
much of our scheduled “downtime”
with image processing, blogging,
or posting on social media. Some
spoke with students back home via
webcam. The experienced astroimagers
generously shared tips — and even
equipment — with those of us new to
night-sky photography.
4
1. M. DIETERICH (@MATTDIETERICHPHOTOGRAPHY) (ACEAP/NSF); 2. A. OSTERMAN MEYER (ACEAP/NSF); 3. ALISON KLESMAN (ACEAP/NSF); 4. ALISON KLESMAN (ACEAP/NSF)
We toured the 4m Víctor M. Blanco
Telescope and the Yale 1m telescope,
part of the multinational Small
and Moderate Aperture Research
Telescope System.
Our visit also took us to nearby
Cerro Pachón, where the 4.1m
Southern Astrophysical Research
Telescope and the 8.1m Gemini South
Telescope reside, along with the
construction site for the Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope. We climbed the
steps alongside the towering Gemini
Telescope to see its silvered primary
mirror up close, and craned our heads
back as telescope operators opened
the dome and moved the telescope, the
entire dizzying process smooth and
nearly silent.
In the Atacama Desert, we visited
local schools in San Pedro and Toconao
with two 2016 ambassadors who’d
returned to Chile for outreach. We
observed science classes and gave live
demonstrations on topics such as
infrared light and safe solar viewing.
(Chile lies in the path of totality for the
July 2, 2019, solar eclipse.) We handed
out eclipse glasses, maps of the Moon,

5 exploration with young students eager
6 7
and photosensitive beads to primary
and high school students.
Our visit to ALMA began at the
Operations Support Facility (OSF)
at 9,500 feet (2,900 m) in elevation.
It contains staff ofices, labs, and
the telescope control room where
5. D. DEMETER (ACEAP/NSF); 6. ALISON KLESMAN (ACEAP/NSF); 7. ALISON KLESMAN (ACEAP/NSF); MAP: ROEN KELLY/ASTRONOMY
astronomers observe. In one lab, we
saw several of ALMA’s front-end
receivers, which digitize and amplify
signals received by the dishes.
The general public can visit the
OSF, but few people — astronomers
included — visit ALMA’s Array
Operations Site (AOS) 17 miles
(28 kilometers) away, where the
antennas sit on the Chajnantor
Plateau 16,500 feet (5,000 m) above
sea level. We were invited to visit the
AOS, provided we pass a mandatory
physical and observe a two-hour time
limit. Traveling to high altitude raises
both heart rate and blood pressure, so
our vitals were checked that morning.
We were all cleared for the trip.
The day was clear and crisp with
a deep blue sky, and the often-windy
plateau was relatively calm with
scattered piles of crystalline snow and
1. ALMA’s 100-ton antennas stand scattered
against the deep blue sky. This backdrop
is visible only at the extreme altitude
necessary to ensure perfect observing
conditions at millimeter and submillimeter
wavelengths.
2. ACEAP ambassadors Alice Few (left)
and Amy Jackson consult a planisphere as
they get ready to view the southern sky
for the first time from the Observatorio
Astronómico Andino near Santiago.
3. While taking a self-portrait with the
Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, I
serendipitously caught a shooting star.
4. At the Toconao school near ALMA, the
ambassadors engaged in a morning of
to learn more about astronomy, physics,
and biology.
5. This colorful panoramic view captures
several of the telescopes and other
buildings atop Cerro Tololo at the Cerro
Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
6. The design of the Gemini South
Telescope dome includes 33-foot-wide
(10 m) vents to allow airflow and regulate
the temperature inside the dome for better
image quality. These vents also provide
a stunning view of the surrounding
mountains during the day.
spiky ields of ice. Each of us carried 7. On the drive to ALMA’s Array Operations
Site at nearly 16,500 feet (5,000 m), we
an oxygen tank; at that altitude, the spotted several vicuñas. These relatives of
atmosphere contains only about the llama don’t mind the high altitude.
55 percent of the oxygen it does at
sea level. First, we toured the AOS
Technical Building, the world’s second-
SOUTH
highest building, which houses the AMERICA Calama
correlator supercomputer. Capable of ALMA
Observatory
performing 17 trillion calculations per Atacama
second, it combines signals from the Desert
observatory’s 66 radio dishes, allowing
ILE
them to work as a single telescope.
Next, we drove out to walk among
s
A
CH
PACIFIC
ain
the 100-ton antennas, some rotating
IN
OCEAN
nt
— swiftly and silently like their optical
NT
ou
Copiapó
counterparts — in testing mode. We
s M
GE
marveled at the engineering, ingenuity, Las Campanas
Observatory
de
and perseverance required to build and
AR
An
La Silla
operate a telescope array in such an Observatory
extreme environment. La Serena Cerro Mayu
Cerro Tololo Observatory
Inter-American
ASTRONOMICAL COMMUNITY Observatory
ACEAP ambassadors don’t spend all Cerro Pachón
Observatory
their time inside domes or atop high-
altitude plateaus. We also attended
science and engineering presentations Valparaíso
Santiago Observatorio
on how the observatories work and the Astronómico
Observatories on Andino
process astronomers follow to observe. our itinerary
Education and public outreach oficers
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 81
OUT THERE
8. A stunning sunset viewed from CTIO
paints the mountaintops red and pink.

9. Two ambassadors line up the perfect shot

inside the dome of the 8.1m Gemini South
Telescope — a space so large that a fisheye
lens works best for capturing the entire
telescope. The cameras and instruments
seen at the bottom of the pier are roughly
the size of refrigerators.

10. Flamingos search for an afternoon meal

at the Atacama Salt Flats in the Reserva
Nacional de Flamencos. 8
11. The dark Coalsack and bright Carina
Nebula stand out against the Milky Way’s
diffuse background. The photographer
captured this scene from a farmer’s field
near San Pedro de Atacama.

12. Just before descending from Chajnantor,

our group stopped for a photo, complete
with personal oxygen supplies.

13. Our tour of the ALMA Operations

Support Facility included one of the on-site
labs. On the left are several of ALMA’s
front-end receivers, which are installed in
the radio antennas to amplify and digitize
incoming radio waves. On the right is
a component of Band 5, which covers
163–211 gigahertz. Each front-end receiver
is designed to hold a total of 10 bands. 9 10

14. ACEAP ambassadors get their first

glimpse of the Southern Hemisphere sky
from the Observatorio Astronómico Andino
near Santiago.
spoke about STEM education and
outreach throughout Chile. We learned
how to use ALMA and Gemini data in
classrooms, planetariums, and lecture
halls back home. Panels featuring CTIO
and ALMA administrators, engineers,
telescope operators, and more drove
home the point that astronomers
are only one part of a much larger
community standing behind these
successful observatories.
year. “During our ACEAP trip, I
asked a couple of our speakers . . .
the value of putting our money
into astronomy,” he says. “I heard
basically this: Humankind has always
been searching the big questions.
Where did we come from? Where
are we going? Where are we in a
larger perspective? We’re always
looking for greater understanding
of the biggest possible picture. So
we as a society of humans should
inancially support what we’re deeply
called to do and try to answer those
very profound questions.”
similarities to the surface of Earth’s
satellite. Much of the ground consisted
of deep-red sand dunes or sat beneath
a blanket of white — salt, not snow.
Ambassadors shopped at San Pedro’s
craft markets before our light back to
Santiago and our last day together.
A CONTINUING JOURNEY
The ability to share data and
knowledge instantaneously across
continents makes it easier than ever
for the public to access cutting-edge
science. A love of science often starts
early, putting educators in the unique

8. E. TING (ACEAP/NSF); 9. E. TING (ACEAP/NSF); 10. A. OSTERMAN MEYER (ACEAP/NSF)

That community includes U.S. and
Chilean citizens. Each observatory
dedicates signiicant resources to
promoting science and astronomy. “In
more than 40 years of doing outreach
at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American
Observatory, we have reached more
than 100,000 people just here in the
visitors center,” says Juan Seguel,
coordinator of Education and Public
Outreach (EPO) at CTIO.
Ambassador Rich Lohman
explored the reasons why the
ACEAP group comes to Chile each
ACEAP ambassadors also
experience the culture and natural
beauty of Chile. In Santiago, several
of us visited the La Chascona house
built by Nobel prize-winning poet
Pablo Neruda. We took in panoramic
views of the city and the snow-covered
Andes from the top of San Cristóbal
Hill. In the Atacama Desert, we visited
the Reserva Nacional de Flamencos,
a sprawling salt lat ringed by distant
volcanoes. We drove through the
stunning Valle de la Luna (Valley of
the Moon), named for its striking
and vital position to nurture and
support it.
The trip to Chile is only part of
ACEAP. Ambassadors must also
complete seven outreach projects
associated with their experience
that highlights astronomy in Chile.
That inal day in Santiago, we talked
about outreach goals, some spanning
continents to include returning to
Chile for future outreach.
Among the projects are public
lectures, classroom activities, blogs
and print articles, and planetarium

82 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

11
shows. Angela Osterman Meyer is
incorporating data from Chilean
observatories into high school
science classes in Culver, Indiana.
Alice Few of Tacoma, Washington,
spoke about ACEAP and STEM at
the 2017 Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.
national convention in Columbus,
Ohio. “Additionally,” she says, “it
looks like I will be leading a group
11. E. TING (ACEAP/NSF); 12. E. TING (ACEAP/NSF); 13. ALISON KLESMAN (ACEAP/NSF); 14. D. DEMETER (ACEAP/NSF)
of Girl Scouts back down to Chile
for STEM exploration and the 2019
eclipse! I’ll be working with María
Rebeca Lopez [the 2017 Chilean
ambassador] on that project so my
girls, her students, and the Chilean
Girl Guides can have a joint project.”
Jackson turned her awe at the
sheer size of the telescopes into a
scale model of the 8.1m Gemini
mirror using mylar emergency
blankets. “Since most of the people
I come in contact with will never
get to go to Chile, I hope getting
to experience the enormous size of
the Gemini mirror will spark some
interest. It also serves to discuss the
light-gathering power of telescopes
and spark interest and questions
12
13
about research being done in
Chile,” she says.
But ACEAP ambassadors are
not, by nature, satisied to stop once
their initial outreach projects are
complete. They want to continue
inspiring interest in astronomy,
science, and technology — now
not alone, but as part of a larger,
coordinated effort. “We don’t take
the trip; the trip takes us,” says Ed
Ting, an amateur astronomer and
astrophotographer from Manchester,
New Hampshire. “I went to Chile
hoping to learn about astronomy,
telescopes, and to try out some
astrophotography techniques. While
those things did happen, I also
immersed myself in the Chilean
culture and made friendships that
will last a lifetime.”
Tim Spuck, ACEAP principal
investigator and STEM education
development oficer for AUI at
NRAO, has now guided three
groups through Chile. “For each
ambassador, in many ways, ACEAP
is its own unique journey,” he says.
“I’ve discovered over the years that
14
while there is much in common
with the ambassadors, each has a
special reason for taking part. This
collage of motivations and passion
for astronomy results in a unique
work of art for each ACEAP cohort.
It has been a joy and a privilege to
travel this road with each of them.”
The 2018 ambassadors are
now preparing for their trip. The
ACEAP family grows, and with it
the resources for cultivating new
opportunities for partnerships
across the United States and Chile.
Thanks to the support of the NSF,
its superb facilities and their staff,
and programs like ACEAP, more
of America’s astronomy educators
and enthusiasts are becoming part
of a network dedicated to bringing
astronomy down to Earth and
kindling in people around the world
a love of the sky we all share.
ACEAP, like astronomy in Chile,
is about people. D
Alison Klesman in an associate editor of
Astronomy who is excited about promoting
STEM outreach and education.
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 83
OUT THERE
Phantom Planets
The wild and woolly menagerie of ghost worlds that once haunted
the halls of astronomical history. BY JOHN WENZ
OUR GALAXY IS LOUSY WITH
PLANETS. NASA’s exoplanet archive
lists more than 3,400 conirmed
planets outside our solar system, with
more added every day. Nearly 4,500
planetary candidates from NASA’s
Kepler spacecraft await conirmation,
meaning thousands more could make
the list in the near future.
Before 1995, there were only 11
known planets. There were the nine
classical planets in our solar system,
from Mercury through Pluto (then
still a planet), and two bizarre
objects that had been found around
a distant pulsar.
But in 1995, we discovered 51
Pegasi b, the irst conirmed planet
around a Sun-like star. It was a weird
one. It circled its star every four days
84 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
and was eight times more massive
than Jupiter. At the time, it received a
lukewarm reception.
“In 1995, 51 Pegasi b was
found, and about 50 percent of
the astronomers or fewer believed
it was an exoplanet,” says Debra
Fischer, a professor of astronomy at
Yale University.
Why did it take so long to ind
a world circling another star in
the irst place?
“You have to picture the size and
the mass of the star and then a little
planet like the Earth. And if you
set them side by side, Earth has a
diameter that’s 1/100th the size of
the Sun and [a fraction of] the mass,”
Fischer says. Thus, astronomers
can’t directly see exoplanets, as even
at “the edge of [their] solar system,
[they] are drowned out by the light
of the star.” To ind planets, astrono-
mers must employ other methods,
many of which have only just come
into their own.
With that in mind, it was a long
road to get to 51 Pegasi b. The right
technology had to reach maturity at
the right time. But it wasn’t the irst
planetary claim. In fact, the history
of claims of planets outside our
solar system stretches back more
than a century and involves outsized
personalities, outright fraudsters,
befuddled scientists, brown dwarfs,
numerous retractions, bitter back-
and-forths, and more.
Here are the tales of the planets
that never were.
 THE GRAND FRAUD
Thomas Jefferson Jackson See
(1866–1962) was a lot of things.
He was a brilliant astronomer — at
least, if you asked him. But his peers
saw him as something else: arrogant
and prone to plagiarism. Thomas J.
Sherrill, a Lockheed engineer
and astrophysicist,
wrote in a 1999
paper published
in the Journal
for the History
of Astronomy Thomas
that few Jefferson
Jackson See
scientists of
the early 20th
century “inspire
a degree
of rancour
comparable to that
evoked” by See.
Sherrill states that although
See had a “solid background in
celestial mechanics,” his work
“[diverged] from his astronomical
colleagues in striking ways.”
An 1895 paper published in The
Astronomical Journal was especially
audacious. “Since August 20,
when I irst announced to you the
existence of peculiar anomalies in
the motion of the companion of
F.70 Ophiuchi, I have succeeded in
showing conclusively that the system
is perturbed by an unseen body,” See
said, his arrogance readily apparent.
When an 1899 paper by Forest
Moulton challenged the indings
— claiming that the three-body
problem proposed by See would
ling a planet out of the binary star
system — See wrote a letter to the
journal so vitriolic that most of it was
ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: KELLIE JAEGER/ASTRONOMY
redacted, and he was nearly banned
from further publication. (The editors
instead said See would be heavily
censored in future communications.)
See attempted a second career as
a geologist before publishing books
about the formation of the solar
system, which Sherrill says had a few
correct assertions, but “many more
were speculations presented with
little justiication, and others were
borrowed from his contemporaries.”
See’s eventual undoing was a
supposed biography written by a
journalist who turned out to be See
himself, playing up his own brilliance.
By the time he had taken to
writing bitter letters (a few
of which appeared in
The New York Times)
about Albert Einstein’s
theories, few, if any,
members of the
science community
heard him out.
“See was indeed
a most colorful
person, and probably
quite brilliant, but he
seemed to be extremely
paranoid and double-dealing,” says
David DeVorkin, senior curator
of astronomy at the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum.
See was also not the irst person
to propose a planet around 70
Ophiuchi. William Stephen Jacob
of the Madras Observatory put
forth the idea in 1855. After See,
astronomers Dirk Reuyl and Erik
Holberg brought it back in
1943. A. Vibert Douglas
wrote in a 1955 article
in the Journal of the
Royal Astronomical
Society of Canada
that the planet is
“more remote from
its star than Jupiter
from the sun.
Jupiter is believed to
be wholly incased in
ice, so that the likelihood
of life on 70 Ophiuchi C is
negligible.”
But to date, no planet has
been conirmed. So why has this
binary star system so entranced
astronomers?
DeVorkin says it’s because
70 Ophiuchi is a “close-by low-mass
system that’s relatively easy to
observe.
“Old ideas die hard,” he adds.
THE MAN OF WONDER
See had no standing left in the
astronomical community by 1905.
He was eventually, as DeVorkin says,
“banished to Mare Island,” a small
observatory in San Francisco.
Astronomer Peter van de Kamp
(1901–1995) was nothing like
See. While See was arrogant and
unscrupulous, van de Kamp was
gregarious and popular. While See
failed to make lasting contributions
to the ield of astrophysics, van
de Kamp wrote the book on
20th-century astrometry.
But both had one thing in
common: planets that vanished upon
further scrutiny.
Van de Kamp was a popular
professor known for dynamic
lectures, a love of classical music,
and his amiable demeanor. As the
director of Sproul Observatory at
Swarthmore College, van de Kamp
became a trusted adviser to several
students, teaching them astrometry, a
technique that measures the precise
position of stars.
“Peter van de Kamp
was one of the irst to
push this work down
to much cooler
and less massive
stars,” says Eric
Jensen, a professor
Peter
van de of astronomy
Kamp at Swarthmore.
“So the work that
he and others did
at Sproul Observatory
over many years, measuring
orbits for systems with low-mass
stars, was fundamental for our
understanding of cool, red stars,
which we now know to be by far
the most common kind of stars.”
This work led to 61 Cygni.
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 85
OUT THERE
Van de Kamp and his graduate student A 1966 paper on interstellar travel new Sproul Observatory head, Wulff-
Kaj Strand irst proposed a planet in focusing on Barnard’s Star kicked off Dieter Heintz. Another observatory
this binary system in 1942, what became Project Daedalus, employee, John L. Hershey, published
based on their astrometry one of the irst modern a paper in The Astronomical Journal
measurements. 61 Cygni engineering studies in June 1973. Hershey had studied
A and B seemed into interstellar travel the tiny M-dwarf star Gliese 793, and
to wobble slightly within a human as he pored through photographic
as they orbited lifetime. A robotic plates, he noticed something: It had
each other, as probe would use the exact same data discontinuity
if tugged by an nuclear explosions to as Barnard’s Star.
unseen object. Van propel a spacecraft But the United States Naval
de Kamp added toward Barnard’s Observatory and Allegheny
to his planetary Sarah Lee Star at 12 percent the Observatory at the University of
claims in 1951, this Lippincott speed of light. Pittsburgh found no shift in the motion
time announcing, with But by 1973, a new of Barnard’s Star.
graduate student Sarah Lee view on these planets was “When his work was checked over
Lippincott, a proposed planet emerging: Sproul Observatory’s by other observatories using the more
around Lalande 21185. telescope was lawed, and none powerful plate constant method, his
But 1963 saw van de Kamp’s most of the planets actually unseen planetary companions to
explosive announcement: There was existed. Speciically, the Barnard’s Star vanished,”
a planet around Barnard’s Star, an M photographic plates were DeVorkin says.
dwarf just 6 light-years away. It was a underexposed, and That didn’t deter
cold, inhospitable planet larger than when the telescope van de Kamp, but
Jupiter, in a 12-year orbit. Later, van was calibrated a it did damage
de Kamp added a Saturn-sized world certain way, some his friendships
in a 20-year orbit, based on further stars appeared to Project with Heintz and
assessment of the star’s motions. move artiicially. Daedalus George Gatewood,
“His work was focused on measuring “Astrometry, it the astronomer
the orbits of stars,” Jensen says. “But turns out, is just at Allegheny who
once you measure an orbit, you get tough to do from the conirmed the lack
masses for the orbiting object. And he ground because we’re of perturbations in the
thought he had found, from the orbit looking through Earth’s motion of Barnard’s Star.
he measured for Barnard’s Star, that atmosphere and the stars are As late as the 160th Meeting of
it implied an orbiting companion of twinkling,” Fischer says. the American Astronomical Society,
planetary mass.” One of the law’s discoverers was the held in Troy, New York, in 1982, van de
Kamp was still pushing for his planets.
“Current analysis for one orbit
clearly yields a perturbation with a
Modern Ghosts period of 12 years,” his abstract read.
The early years of planetary detection sparked debate as discoveries accumulated.
Of the first 19 planets discovered, half were actually brown dwarfs. The problem “As before, a desirable improvement
persists today, as more accurate mass measurements of hefty planets reveal instead is made by an additional perturbation
brown dwarfs. with a period of 20 years.”
In 2009, the Kepler telescope inundated astronomers with new data. Previous Incidentally, at this same conference,
false detections were relabeled candidates, while some candidates became
van de Kamp’s protégé Lippincott
false detections. But only one confirmed Kepler planet has ever been retracted:
Kepler-32e, the result of a clerical error. presented the possibility of planetary-
The Gliese 581 system has seen quite the volley back and forth. In 2010, mass companions around three other
astronomers found two or three potentially habitable planets: Gliese 581b, c, and stars. One of those stars, Luyten’s Star,
e. But the proposed Gliese 581f was soon ruled out, while the status of Gliese 581g, has been recently conirmed to host
the most potentially habitable planet, has long been cast in doubt.
planets. However, Lippincott suggested
Alpha Centauri Bb, discovered in 2012, was such a weak detection that it became
a high-profile retraction. Many of the planet’s discoverers joined the Pale Red Dot two long-period gas giants, whereas
team, which successfully found the Earth-mass planet Proxima Centauri b in the the planetary companions found in
same system in 2016. — J.W. March 2017 were a super-Earth and
an Earth-mass planet. These planets

86 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
don’t account for the magnitude
of Lippincott’s possible detection.
Another 1982 paper by Lippincott
suggested — but far from asserted —
that a planet could cause lare activity
on EV Lacertae.
“In general, people have been
skeptical about planetary discoveries,
often for good reason — [van de
Kamp’s] is far from the only claim of a
planetary discovery that turned out to
be incorrect,” Jensen says. “And even
the initial discoveries of exoplanets
in the mid-1990s were met with some
skepticism initially, though of course
now we have overwhelming
evidence of the rich
diversity of planets
around other stars.”
Luyten’s Star is
the only star in van
de Kamp’s cadre
with a conirmed
planetary system.
To date, no planets
have been found
around Barnard’s
Star, Lalande 21185, or
61 Cygni.
Gatewood did present a
paper in 1996 claiming that he
had found several planetary-mass
companions around Lalande
21185. This result, too, was based
on astrometry. Gatewood’s planets
also were cast in doubt and remain
unconirmed. A February 2017 paper
suggested evidence of a 3.8-Earth-
mass planet, though it also remains
ambiguous. Lalande 21185 just can’t
catch a break.
Still, van de Kamp’s work left him
“highly respected” at the end of his
career, according to DeVorkin. And
Sproul Observatory has since been
replaced at Swarthmore with Peter
van de Kamp Observatory. As part
of the Kilodegree Extremely Little
Telescope program, the observatory
has turned up planets — this time,
real ones.
“Our collaboration has published
discoveries of about 15 exoplanets so
far, and many of the discovery papers
include data from our telescope here,”
Jensen says. “Although van de Kamp
was wrong about Barnard’s Star, he
made important contributions to
astronomy, and I’m pleased that we
can honor and remember his work by
having his name on our observatory.”
VAN BIESBROECK 8B
When astronomers discovered an
object around van Biesbroeck 8
(vB8) in 1984, they weren’t quite
sure what they were seeing. The
New York Times ran the headline
“Possible Planet Found
Outside the Solar
System,” with author
John Noble Wilford
stating, “If this is
indeed a planet,
the discovery
would be a clear
breakthrough in
the long search for
extrasolar planetary
systems and the
irst direct evidence
to support a premise
underlying theories of possible
extraterrestrial life, which is that
planetary systems are not unique to
the Sun and may even be common in
the universe.”
But there was a problem with the
puff of gas that had been spotted in
the infrared: Although it was the size
of Jupiter, further studies showed an
outsized inluence on its parent star. In
fact, this is a common problem in the
hunt for planets. There are objects that
are neither stars nor planets, called
brown dwarfs, which can be easily
mistaken for planetary companions.
Mass estimates on vB8’s companion
were hard to nail down — somewhere
between 30 and 80 Jupiter masses. To
several astronomers, this indicated a
brown dwarf.
Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute
irst gave brown dwarfs their name.
Brown dwarfs accumulate matter
in the same way as stars, but fail to
attain enough mass to ignite hydrogen
fusion. Stars fuse hydrogen into
helium, which can only occur above
a certain temperature and pressure.
Objects above that threshold are stars.
Brown dwarfs initially produce heat
by fusing an isotope of hydrogen
called deuterium into helium-3, which
can occur at lower temperatures and
thus, lower masses.
TRAPPIST-1, an ultra-cool dwarf
star, is 84 Jupiter masses. The largest
known brown dwarf is 90 Jupiter
masses. In other words, the realm of
large brown dwarfs and small stars is a
bit murky.
Astronomers discovered the irst
brown dwarf in 1995, the same year
they conirmed the irst planet around
a Sun-like star. So, what happened to
vB8’s companion 11 years earlier?
The vB8 discovery sent shock waves
through the astronomical community;
a conference was convened in 1986 on
the topic of brown dwarfs. According
to New Light on Dark Stars by
I. Neill Reid and Suzanne L. Hawley,
that very conference torpedoed the
case for vB8’s companion, as other
infrared observations failed to ind
it. “The only conclusion possible is
that the original detection was an
observational artefact, probably
due to the chromatic effects of
atmospheric refraction,” they write.
The irst planet — or possibly
the irst brown dwarf — evaporated
almost as quickly as it had emerged.
PULSAR PLANETS
In 1992, astronomers oficially found
the irst planetary system when they
discovered two (later found to be
three) objects around PSR B1257+12,
a pulsar 2,300 light-years away.
Pulsars — a type of rapidly rotating
neutron star — are often too small to
be seen in optical light, so the planets’
presence was inferred from subtle
changes in the normally precise radio
signals coming from the pulsar.
Pulsar planets are weird — neutron
stars are formed in supernovae or
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 87
OUT THERE
stellar mergers, violent events
that tend to consume or
sweep away materials
from any planet
in the vicinity,
destroying them.
Thus, the scant
few pulsar planets
discovered to date
are likely to have
formed after the
supernova in a second
planetary genesis.
A year earlier, in 1991,
there were claims of a planet
around PSR B1829−10, a different
pulsar 30,000 light-years away.
The progression of papers in the
journal Nature tells it all. In August
1991, a trio of astronomers published
their results: “A planet orbiting the
neutron star PSR 1829–10.” But a
January 1992 paper by two of the
three original authors was titled “No
planet orbiting PSR 1829–10.” The
planet detection had been a simple
miscalculation created by failing to
model Earth’s orbit accurately when
assessing measurements of the star.
The 1991 claim wasn’t even the irst
possible pulsar planet that never was.
In a November 1979 Nature letter,
Mieczysław Prószyński and Marek
Demiański of Warsaw University
found timing variations in pulsar
PSR 0329+54 suggesting something
was affecting the dense star husk. They
proposed a change in shape, a change
in magnetic ields, or a planet half the
mass of Earth (or less) orbiting it. A
1995 article by Tatiana V. Shabanova
in The Astrophysical Journal tried
to bolster the case, but subsequent
investigations found the signal
variations are likely a consequence of
the star’s variable rotation rate.
There is also an October 22, 1969,
article in The New York Times asserting
a planet orbiting the Crab pulsar, based
on a “wobble” observed in the pulsar
that could be like the wobble that
occurs in the Sun as the planets orbit.
The results were published in Nature in
88 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
1970, but subsequent papers
on the wobble observed
in the Crab and Vela
pulsars suggested that
it was instead caused
by stresses and
friction in the star’s
crust, leading to
starquakes.
GAMMA CEPHEI
Some planet stories
have a happy ending.
Gamma (γ) Cephei A was
initially thought to have a planetary-
mass companion in 1988, though the
evidence was only tentative. At the
time, the emerging technology of radial
velocity was just barely reined enough
to detect planets.
The 1988 data did conirm one
thing: Gamma Cephei was a binary
star system with a low-mass red dwarf,
Gamma Cephei B, circling Gamma
Cephei A. Even after accounting for
the companion’s effects, Stephenson
Yang and his associates still saw
evidence in their signal for a low-
mass, possibly planetary
object in the system.
But a 1992
follow-up study
cast doubt on the
tentative planet.
Gamma Cephei
B dominated the
radial velocity
measurements,
making the supposed
planet’s signal
scientiically unreliable.
“We had a very weak signal,
one and a half sigma,” says Yang, a
professor at the University of Victoria
and a principal investigator.
Also, Gamma Cephei A was believed
to be much younger than it actually
is. “We thought we were looking at
a much more variable star than one
that was main sequence,” Yang says.
They chalked up their weak signal to
variations in the star and retracted their
planetary claim.
Fast-forward to 2003. A planet
around Gamma Cephei A was
announced with roughly the mass and
orbit suggested by the 1988 results.
Yang and his compatriots had, in fact,
found the irst exoplanet. They just
hadn’t been able to conirm it.
In 1992, Gamma Cephei B wasn’t
well constrained. By gathering more
data, it was possible to extract the
signature of the smaller star from the
wobbles of Gamma Cephei A. And
from that information, a Jupiter-
sized world with a 2.5-Earth-year
orbit emerged.
“When you look at the radial
velocity of the star, you do see a large
radial velocity change because it has a
companion,” Yang says. “If you took
out the changes, you see ripples, which
[are] caused by the planet.”
And thus, a planet called Gamma
Cephei Ab was found around a future
North Star, based on the small changes
it makes to its star’s orbit, which had
been drowned out by the tug of a
much larger star.
“I still remember the irst time
we looked at the ripple and
said, ‘Oh wow, it its so
nicely to the orbit,’ ”
Yang says.
So 51 Pegasi b
got the glory. But
Gamma Cephei
Ab was there irst.
Stephenson (Fischer also points
Yang
out HD 114762b,
which was discovered
in 1989 and conirmed in
2012. Technically it could be
considered the second, bumping
51 Pegasi b to third.)
A nearly 150-year hunt had drawn
to a close. Now armed with a few
conirmed planets, astronomers could
begin to build a real catalog of stars
with planetary systems. All it took
was a handful of phantom planets
to get them there. D
John Wenz is a former associate editor
of Astronomy magazine.
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P32436
 Prognosis

A Double
Whammy
Exposure to certain chemicals
may be a quiet culprit in the
global increase of liver disease.
BY RACHEL CERNANSKY

→ Paul Coater has never been

much of a drinker. The retired
Marine igures that in three decades,
his drinks maxed out at two beers
a year, with a few special occasion
celebrations thrown in. “I might have
really wahoo-ed it and drank two
glasses of wine on New Year’s,” he says.
So he was surprised when he was
diagnosed in 2010 with stage-four
cirrhosis, the scarring of liver tissue
often associated with excessive alcohol
consumption. Coater was referred to
Matthew Cave, a liver health specialist
at the University of Louisville. Cave
took Coater on as a patient, but at irst
it wasn’t necessarily clear to him what
could have caused the disease.
Shortly after, reports started coming
out about contaminated water at Camp
Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North
Carolina where Coater served in the
late 1970s. Now, Cave thinks that
exposure probably played a role.
While fatty liver disease often results
from too much alcohol, it also affects
people who don’t drink, and at an
increasing rate. A 2016 study estimated
1 in 4 people globally have non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Doctors had largely thought that
increase was tied to soaring obesity
rates — and it is related. But research
indicates that certain chemical
pollutants may play a role as well. Cave
says that in some cases, chemicals by
In 2010, a diagnosis of liver disease came out of the blue for retired Marine veteran Paul Coater
of Falls of Rough, Kentucky. Contaminated water at Camp Lejeune may have been a factor.
While fatty liver
disease often results
from too much
alcohol, it also
afects people who
don’t drink, and at
an increasing rate.
THE LIVER EXPOSED
Liver disease can be hard to detect.
There’s no easy way to test for it, and
it’s typically asymptomatic until it’s
advanced — and at that point, there’s
no cure. Juliane Beier, a toxicologist
also at the University of Louisville,
describes liver disease as a spectrum
of diseases. Because it’s a resilient
for example, a few drinks in one night.
The next day, you will have fatty
liver. But if you stop drinking, it will
revert,” she says. Eventually, though,
the liver loses its ability to revert.
“That’s why the study of liver disease
is so important right now, because you
can’t do anything against it.”
The liver seems to be more
vulnerable when faced with more
than one of those risk factors for
liver disease. This “two-hit” theory
is not new for the liver — it’s been in
the scientiic literature for over two
decades — but previous research has
mainly focused on factors like obesity
and the environment. There didn’t
seem to be much thought about the
possibility that chemicals may also
play a role.
And to be sure, diet and exercise, as
well as genetic susceptibility, are by far
LUKE SHARRETT

themselves can cause liver disease, but organ, the irst several stages are all the biggest factors in NAFLD.
in other cases they compound the risk reversible. “Let’s say you’re exposed to “I don’t want someone to think
already posed by obesity. anything known to cause liver disease, that they’re feeding their kids chicken

90 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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P33081
 Prognosis

nuggets and letting their kids play
the Xbox all day — and somehow
they have fatty liver because they got
exposed to a chemical. By and large,
lifestyle is the dictator,” says Angela
Slitt, a toxicologist at the University of
Rhode Island. “The question becomes,
is chemical exposure a risk factor?”
Research so far suggests that it is.
Exposure to speciic chemicals seems
to act as a second hit that, combined
with obesity, could start the liver
down a path where damage may not
be reversible. Cave has demonstrated
the effect with industrial chemicals
including vinyl chloride and PCBs,
which were banned in the 1970s but
don’t break down easily, and continue
to contaminate air, water and soil
around the world. Slitt focuses on
luorinated chemicals, which have
been used in everything from carpet
treatments to microwave popcorn.
Researchers elsewhere are inding that
dioxins and other chemicals may also
play a role.
“We’ve conirmed it a couple times
now, that the exposures by themselves
really didn’t seem like they did a lot
of bad things to the liver,” says Cave.
“It was only when the mice were fed
a poor diet, a hyper-caloric diet, and
then got the chemicals, that the liver
disease got worse.”
Likewise, he says, a poor diet alone
did not cause a more advanced form
of liver disease called steatohepatitis
Exposure to specific
chemicals seems
to act as a second hit
that, combined with
obesity, could start
the liver down a
path where damage
may not be reversible.
in mice, but did so in conjunction
with chemicals.
Beier and colleagues recently found
that vinyl chloride disrupts metabolism
and can increase the liver disease risk
of a high-fat diet, even at levels below
what the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has deemed
safe for workers.
AN INDUSTRIAL LEGACY
While most of the research around
the two-hit hypothesis has taken
place in animal models, Cave and
colleagues are attempting to collect
the epidemiological research. A
community in Alabama has had
decades of exposure to PCBs released
by a former Monsanto (and now
Eastman Chemical-owned) facility.
The federal Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry
has funded a study on the long-term
health effects of those exposures.
“[Cave] has a cohort of highly
exposed people from an old industrial
population, and they’re inding very
high levels of liver problems, and
they’re able to also associate those
problems, using his animal models,
with dietary factors,” says Thaddeus
Schug, a health science administrator
with the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS) who oversees Cave’s work.
“He seems to be showing that there
is a relationship.”
For the researchers involved, their
work is urgent because it affects
everyone. “Exposure to VOCs [volatile
organic compounds] in general is
unavoidable. One hundred percent of
the population is exposed to them,”
says Beier. What she and her team
are studying is the role that lower —
everyday — levels of exposure may
play in developing liver disease.
Slitt recently launched a ive-year
study exploring whether different
kinds of chemicals can act as unique
“hits” against the liver. And Cave
hopes that with a new National
Institutes of Health (NIH) program —
he is one of eight scientists chosen to
start it — he and colleagues can work
to ill in some of the research gaps,
such as which other chemicals may
have similar effects.
Schug says metabolism and obesity

STAGES OF NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE

A 2016 study
Healthy liver Fatty liver Liver fibrosis Cirrhosis Cancer estimated
1 in 4 people
globally have
non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease
Reversible Lipid Scar tissue (NAFLD).
buildup forms
ELLEPIGRAFICA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease — often tied to

obesity, poor diet and genetic susceptibility — also
may be the result of exposure to industrial chemicals,
according to animal studies. Researchers have found
that a combination of just two factors can overload
the liver to a point of no return. Scientists now are
attempting to measure the effect in people.

92 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
 Water wells at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina, were contaminated with
vinyl chloride and other industrial chemicals from 1953 to 1987. Veterans who were based there
during that time now receive expanded health care benefits.
have been a research priority across
NIH, which is NIEHS’ parent agency.
NIEHS has also been supportive of
research on the exposome, a relatively
new ield studying the breadth of
environmental exposures in a person’s
lifetime, and how those affect health.
“[Cave’s] work falls right in line both
with the exposome and metabolism,
and trying to igure out if chemical
exposures are leading to the obesity
epidemic, leading to the rise in liver
problems,” says Schug.
NO CLEAR ANSWERS YET
Coater, the retired Marine, recalls being
perplexed when he was irst diagnosed
with cirrhosis. “I know it wasn’t alcohol
that gave me cirrhosis, and I’m pretty
sure it wasn’t Southern fried food,”
he says, while walking his dog one
February afternoon.
The Department of Veterans
Affairs has acknowledged that several
water wells on Camp Lejeune were
contaminated between 1953 and
GERRY BROOME/ASSOCIATED PRESS
1987 with vinyl chloride and other
chemicals known to cause health
problems, including several types of
cancer. Veterans who were based there
or at a nearby air base are eligible for
expanded health care beneits. Coater
says he was based at Lejeune from July
1976 until January 1978.
Cave cannot say for certain
that the vinyl chloride exposure
is behind Coater’s cirrhosis, but it
seems a possible culprit. Coater isn’t
necessarily a picture of health — he
has a weakness for fried foods, though
not more than the average person,
he says. He once ate them without
guilt because he felt he was exercising
enough to compensate for it. Now
he walks his dog four times a day
and swims and bikes, in an effort to
keep his weight in check and diabetes
under control.
But the chemicals at Camp Lejeune
may have been another hit on his
liver. To Cave, it illustrates the reality
of how we live today. “Fatty liver is
caused by different things that we’re all
exposed to simultaneously,” he says.
Today, Coater focuses on doing the
best he can to stay on top of his health.
He tries not to get hung up on what
may have caused the disease. “People
today,” he says, “we’re just looking
for answers all the time that aren’t
necessarily in black and white.” D
Rachel Cernansky is a journalist who covers
health and the environment.
July/August 2018 DISCOVER 93
 History
Lessons
Cracking
Listeria’s
Secrets
We know a lot about the
crafty and resilient microbe,
but it remains a deadly threat.
BY CLAIRE PANOSIAN DUNAVAN
→ One day in August 2011, Penny
Hauser spied a bin of fresh
cantaloupes at a grocery store in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. “Mike
loves cantaloupe,” she thought. While
recovering from a grueling bone
marrow transplant, her 68-year-old
spouse had dropped 30 pounds. Now
he was on high-dose corticosteroids
and eager to eat. So as Mike enjoyed
the melon later that day, Penny
inwardly cheered.
But weeks later, something was
wrong. “It was a Saturday night, and
Mike was watching college football,”
Penny recalls. “I went to bed.” By
2 a.m., he still hadn’t joined her. She
found him on the couch in agony. “My
head is killing me,” he groaned, taking
a half-tab of Vicodin. For the rest of
the night, the retired podiatrist stared
at their bedroom ceiling.
The following morning, Mike
vomited and felt warm to the touch.
Soon he couldn’t walk, and then
he stopped talking altogether. He
landed in the ER, where a spinal tap
showed meningitis — inlammation
usually caused by an infection. He
received intravenous antibiotics and
was taken to the ICU.
Meanwhile, doctors needed to
determine the cause of his illness. They
took a sample of Mike’s spinal luid and
streaked a few murky drops on a plate
of agar infused with blood. Twenty-four
94 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
Listeria monocytogenes lives in soil, streams, rotting vegetation and the guts of farm animals.
It loves cold temperatures. When transmitted to humans, the bacterium can kill.
hours later, its ruby surface sported
grayish bacterial clumps surrounded
by pale yellow halos. Something in
Mike’s spinal luid was digesting blood.
Further tests revealed it was Listeria
monocytogenes, a mysterious microbe
whose transmission eluded experts
until the 1980s.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Listeria’s name is a history in itself.
In 1924, after an unknown epidemic
suddenly felled six laboratory rabbits,
Cambridge University bacteriologist
E.G.D. Murray isolated the killer,
calling it Bacterium monocytogenes.
Sixteen years later, physician J.H.H.
Pirie renamed the bug in honor of
Lord Joseph Lister — the irst surgeon
to routinely sterilize instruments and
disinfect wounds. Over a four-year
Joseph Lister
period in the 19th century, Lister
slashed post-operative fatalities
from 45 percent to 15 percent in
a Glasgow trauma ward. He soon
became famous.
During the 20th century, the more
scientists learned about the microbe
bearing Lister’s name, the more the
19th-century surgeon would have
marveled. Listeria was ubiquitous,
living in soil, streams, rotting vegetation
and the guts of farm animals. It also
seemed to thrive in the cold.
But its true dangers weren’t evident
until 1949, when an outbreak in
Germany killed scores of infants;
autopsies showed the bacterium in their
livers, spleens, lungs and brains. Listeria
also sickened people with weakened
immune systems, such as pregnant
women and medically fragile adults.
By the 1970s, it was no longer TOP: GARY GAUGLER/SCIENCE SOURCE. BOTTOM: WELLCOME COLLECTION
surprising to ind Listeria in a
desperately ill newborn, transplant
patient or chemotherapy patient. But
even then, one mystery remained: How
did these high-risk hosts “catch” the
bug in the irst place?
TO CATCH A KILLER
Walter Schlech, then of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention,
was on the case. In 1981, the young
ield epidemiologist oficer arrived in
 History
Lessons
In 1981, Walter Schlech tracked Listeria to a cabbage farm on Prince Edward Island near
Nova Scotia. He soon proved that the bacterium entered humans via contaminated food.
Nova Scotia to investigate a listeriosis
outbreak that eventually claimed
18 lives.
Soon after Schlech’s arrival, Listeria
infected an elderly stroke victim.
After trawling the patient’s fridge
for potential clues, Schlech cultured
several foods, eventually inding the
bug in an open bag of coleslaw. Bingo!
The coleslaw’s shredded cabbage
came from a Prince Edward Island
farm whose owner fertilized with
raw manure from sheep (a source
of Listeria). The owner stored his
cabbages in a cold shed, a setting
guaranteed to spur the bug’s growth.
Local veterinary records offered
one more piece of evidence: Two years
earlier, a couple of the farmer’s sheep
died of Listeria. In 1983, Schlech
published a landmark paper in the
New England Journal of Medicine
proposing a mode of transmission
that was practically irrefutable:
Listeria entered humans through
contaminated food.
After learning how Listeria spread,
epidemiologists investigating outbreaks
spent the next few decades identifying
a wide array of Listeria-tainted foods,
including queso fresco (a Mexican
cheese), alfalfa sprouts, chocolate
milk, smoked ish, deli meats — even
ice cream.
96 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
Although Listeria
is killed by cooking,
the bug is hardy,
surviving weeks
to years in soil
and water.
In the early 1990s, government
regulations helped lower cases of
foodborne listeriosis by requiring
routine surveillance of food-
processing sites. But Listeria is still
inding its way into new edibles. Since
2010, outbreaks have been linked
to fresh produce: chopped celery,
chopped and bagged romaine lettuce,
and caramel apples.
Despite sensitive genetic tools that
link cases and solve outbreaks faster
than ever, in our modern world of
refrigerated and ready-to-eat food,
Listeria continues to thrive. That’s
because — unlike other
foodborne baddies
like Salmonella,
Campylobacter
and toxin-bearing
E. coli — it happily
blooms in the
cold. Even frozen
vegetables can harbor the menace.
Listeria also loves bioilms, the
invisible layers of slime often lurking
in processing plants like the one
that packed Mike Hauser’s melon.
That facility’s dripping condensation
lines, pools of water and secondhand
washers (previously used to clean
potatoes) was Paradise Found for
damp-loving Listeria.
LISTERIA LIVES
Though medical scientists have
cracked many of Listeria’s secrets, the
disease continues to harm. In the U.S.
alone, 19 percent of the roughly 1,500
contaminated-food related deaths
per year are caused by the bacterium.
And Listeria’s long incubation
from ingestion to illness (measured
in weeks to months) hinders early
detection of outbreaks.
Thanks to our natural host
defenses, most of us who consume
Listeria never know the difference.
Usually our bodies’ immune systems
neutralize the intruder. But it still
lurks pretty much everywhere.
Although Listeria is killed by
cooking, the bug is hardy, surviving
weeks to years in soil and water. So
even though we have increasingly
sophisticated ways of tracking the
microbe, and there are proprietary
sprays (used in industrial settings)
that curb its growth, we shouldn’t
be complacent when it comes to
food safety. Nor should government
regulators and third-party auditors be
complacent when inspecting food-
processing plants.
TOP: COURTESY OF WALTER SCHLECH. BOTTOM: NORTONGO/ISTOCK
Just ask Penny Hauser. On Feb. 12,
2012, his 69th birthday, Mike died
after months of sickness unleashed
by Listeria riding the rind of a
Colorado melon. D
Claire Panosian Dunavan is an
infectious diseases specialist at the
University of California, Los Angeles.
She’s currently writing a book about
modern foodborne infections.
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 20 Things You Didn’t Know About …

Ants BY ASHLEY BRAUN

Linepithema humile ants
formed a supercolony
in Europe that stretches
for 2,500 miles.

1 At home on every continent but Antarctica, the survive solely on the lifeblood, or at least the hemo-
ant family, Formicidae, has more than 15,000 species. lymph, of the young. 12 If you’ve ever squashed
2 Their habitats range from rainforest canopies the “odorous house ant,” a common intruder of
to the Sahara Desert, with most ants living North American homes, your nose will know. When
in hierarchical colonies with a single egg- smooshed, the ants release a chemical from the same
Daceton armigerum
(above), the arboreal laying queen. Males’ sole job is mating, and family of methyl ketones that gives blue cheese its
trap-jaw ant, could female workers do everything else. 3 Ants may be distinctive funk. 13 The Kaingang tribe of Brazil
probably make
short work of a
stereotyped as picnic pests, but they’re an important wouldn’t dream of squishing an ant. They believe
hot dog, as many cleanup crew: A 2014 study of New York City their ancestors’ spirits go on to live another life in
ants do (below). streets estimated that every year, arthropods pick up the form of these humble arthropods. 14 Speaking
the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs in dropped food of ancestors, a 100 million-year-old piece of amber
waste just along the road medians of 150 city blocks. found in Charente, France, contains the oldest
4 Sometimes ants end up on the menu themselves. ant fossil ever found. 15 The ants don’t always go
When in Colombia, try the delicacy hormigas culonas marching. Tree-dwelling Melissotarsus can’t walk
(literally “big-bottomed ants”): fertilized queens of on lat surfaces. The widespread but elusive African
a large leafcutter species, served brined and toasted. ants evolved a middle pair of legs that projects
5 Considered an aphrodisiac, the crunchy queens upward rather than downward — awkward for lat
are given as wedding gifts there, as well as in surfaces but perfect for navigating the tunnels they
Venezuela. 6 Tribes in Kerala, India, treat dig for their nests. 16 While walking is off the table,
swollen joints and infected skin with a spinning isn’t. Melissotarsus workers are the only
medicinal oil of crushed weaver ants. ants that can spin silk, which they use to seal their
7 We don’t recommend rubbing your tunnels. 17 Trap-jaw ants are quite the acrobats. In
body with ants, but if you do, watch addition to jumping forward, members of at least
out for the formic acid found in the one species can also catapult themselves backward
venom of many species, including by quickly snapping shut their spring-loaded jaws on
ire ants. 8 Naturally antimicrobial, a hard surface, propelling themselves over 100 times
formic acid is good for more than the length of their body. 18 Also going to great
giving bites and stings their zing, lengths: Researchers have documented Argentine

FROM TOP: ALEX WILD (2); LAUREN NICHOLS/YOUR WILDLIFE.ORG; AMNH/D. GRIMALDI AND P. BARDEN; MARIA CUELLAR
whether you’ve got six legs or two: ants forming supercolonies around the world. Ants
Humans put it in laundry detergents in these massive, interconnected nests collaborate
and hand soaps, while wood ants rather than compete with other colonies. 19 The
mix it with tree resin to create a kind largest supercolony ever found spans roughly 2,500
of hygienic paint for their nests. 9 A miles. It follows irst the Atlantic coast and then the
tidy nest takes lots of work, and around Mediterranean, from northwestern Spain to north-
60 species of ants “enslave” other species to ern Italy. Researchers estimate the supercolony’s
do their bidding, often by stealing brood and population boasts tens of millions of queens, and
Ants! They’re raising them as their own workers. But sometimes worker ants in the billions. 20 Ants from a nest
everywhere, from slave ants revolt, attacking their overlords, attempt- in Portugal that’s part of this super-supercolony
100 million-year-old
amber (above) to ing to mate and lay eggs, and even making a run are just as friendly to each other as they would be
the Colombian snack for freedom. 10 “Dracula ants,” a range of species to their supercolony compatriots in France. That
hormigas culonas
(below). found across the world, earn their name by drinking sounds like a social network we can all learn from. D
the hemolymph (essentially, ant blood) of their own
larvae — but without killing them. 11 The queens Ashley Braun is a freelance journalist based in Seattle.
of one such species, Stigmatomma silvestrii, seem to Find her at ashleybraun.com

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