BREAKTHROUGHS IN SCIENCE PART TWO

OCTOBER 23, 2015 JOHN BUSH

RISE OF THE CUBESAT • The “breakthrough”: Expanding use of small, low-cost

nanosatellites for a variety of scientific and commercial programs

• Cubesats are inexpensively launched, miniaturized satellites of standardized size that employ mostly off-the-shelf technology

• So what? – Enable high school and college participation in space research – Provide opportunities to expand low earth orbit surveillance – Potentially useful for extra terrestrial missions

ION THRUSTER

BREAK THROUGH CATEGORIES • Technology

– Landing on a comet – Rise of the Cube Sat – Robots that cooperate – Chips that mimic the brain

• Medical therapy – Young blood fixes old – Cells that might cure diabetes

• Knowledge/Technique – Enlarging the genetic alphabet – Manipulating memories – The birth of birds – Asian cave art

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

• ‘Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology: the synthesis of complex, biologically based (or inspired) systems, which display functions that do not exist in nature.’

• Synthetic biology will enable the design of ‘biological systems' in a rational and systematic way’

• For what purposes? • At what risks?

ENLARGING THE GENETIC ALPHABET • The “breakthrough”: production of living cells that are based on DNA strands containing synthetic nucleotides • Standard techniques of genetic engineering were

used to incorporate synthetic molecules compatible with the double helix structure of DNA to create a synthetic life form

• So What?: Many potential consequences—none demonstrated as yet

POTENTIAL

• To enable the production of useful proteins • To contribute to understanding DNA function • To enable the creation of new life forms • To clarify the origin of life • But! The conditions for translating the

information in these unnatural DNA sequences into proteins are unknown

IS THIS SAFE?

UNNATURAL CELLS NEED A FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT TO SURVIVE

MANIPULATING A MEMORY

• The “breakthrough”: specific memories can be implanted, removed or altered in emotional affect by stimulating specific groups of brain cells

• This has been accomplished by light activation of optogenetically labeled cells

• So What? A powerful technique for exploring memory

OPTOGENETICS

• Based on genetically engineered DNA that can express a light sensitive protein linked to a gene encoding a yellow fluorescent protein

• The engineered DNA is inserted into cells to be studied (neurons for example)

• By modifying experimental conditions the study cell population can be manipulated

CREATING A MEMORY

REACTIVATING A MEMORY

CREATING A FALSE MEMORY

SO WHAT?

• Supports a physical basis of memory • Supports the Engram model of memory • Potentially provides a means to develop a map

linking brain structure to brain function • Therapeutic possibilities?

– Optogenetic techniques have been employed with non-human primates

– Not likely to be therapeutically useful for humans

THE BIRTH OF BIRDS

• The “breakthrough”: elucidation of the sequence and timing of the evolutionary steps linking extinct theropod dinosaurs to modern theropod dinosaurs (birds)

• Resulted from analyses of features from over 20 years of remarkable fossil discoveries

• So What? Provides a consistent description of the evolutionary sequence responsible for birds

THEROPOD DINOSAURS

TAXONOMY RANKED HIERARCHY

Human House sparrow • Kingdom Animalia Animalia • Phylum Chordata Chordata • Class Mammalia Aves • Order Primates Passeriformes • Family Hominidae Passeridae • Genus Homo Passer • Species Homo sapiens Passer domesticus

CLADE

A group of organisms that are lineal descendants of a common ancestor

TAXONOMY CLADISTICS

T. Rex House sparrow • Clade Dinosauria Dinosauria • Order Saurischia Saurischia • Suborder Theropoda Theropoda • Division Coelurosauria Coelurosauria • Infradivision Tyrransauroidea *Maniraptora • Clade Tyrranosauridae Aviale • Clade Tyrranasaurinae Aves • Genus Tyrranosaurus Passer • Species Tyrranosaurus rex Passer domesticus

EVOLUTION OF BIRDS

MANIRAPTOR: ALVAREZSAURIA

Shuuvia deserti

EVOLUTION OF BIRDS

PARAVES

Scansoriopteryx heilmanni Sinovenator changii

EVOLUTION OF BIRDS

AVIALAE: ANCHIORNIS

EVOLUTION OF BIRDS

AVIALAE: ARCHAEOPTERYX

EVOLUTION OF BIRDS

ENANTIORNITHES

Shanweiniao cooperorum Sinornis

ORNITHURAMORPHA GANSUS YUMENENSIS

ORNITHURAE: ICTHYORNIS

EVOLUTION OF BIRDS

HOATZIN

ANDEAN CONDOR

HOUSE SPARROW

EMU

SOME MILESTONES

• Erect posture, bipedal gait 243 Ma • Wishbone, air-filled bones, nesting 231 Ma • Feathers, reduced size, larger cranium 165 Ma • Wings, pinnate feathers 160 Ma • Loss of hind wings, powered flight 140 Ma • Long keeled breast bone, beak, 131Ma modern tail feathers

REVERSING EVOLUTION?

THEROPOD DINOSAURS

EUROPE’S CAVE ART HAS A RIVAL

• The “breakthrough”: dates are established for figurative cave art in Indonesia that predates that in Europe

• Dates were established by dating speleothems associated with the art

• So What? Suggests that the artistic impulse was an attribute of homo sapiens prior to the dispersal from Africa

DATING CAVE ART

• Date charcoal using carbon 14 • Date rocks using uranium-thorium • Date using stylistic judgments

MAROS CAVES

CORALLINE SPELEOTHEMS: “CAVE POPCORN”

DATING SPELEOTHEMS • Uranium 238 uranium 234 • Uranium 234 thorium 230 ……

U234/U238

Th230/U234

MAROS CAVES

MAROS CAVE

FEMALE BABIRUSA

HOMO SAPIENS’ MIGRATIONS

• H. sapiens originates in Africa about 200,000 BP • H. sapiens migrates east about 75,000 BP • H. sapiens reaches South Asia* about 50,000 BP • H. sapiens reaches Australia before 46,000 BP • H. sapiens reaches Europe about 43,000 BP • H. sapiens reaches East Asia before 30,000 BP • H. sapiens reaches S. America before 15,000 BP • H. sapiens reaches N. America about 15,000 BP *100,000 BP?

HOMO SAPIENS’ ART • Blombos Cave S. Africa Engraving** 70,000 BP • Pilbara region Australia Rock painting** ~50,000 BP • Maros Caves Indonesia Rock painting * 35*-40,000** BP • Gorham’s Cave Gibraltar Engraving** ~39.000 BP • El Castillo Cave Spain Rock painting** >40,800 BP • Chauvet France Rock painting* 35,000 BP • Geissenkösterle Germany Flute 40,000 BP • Hohle Fels Germany Sculpture* 40,000 BP • Stadel Cave Germany Sculpture* 40,000 BP *Figurative **Abstract

Blombos Cave Gorham’s Cave

EL CASTILLO CAVE

MAROS CAVE

CHAUVET CAVE

THE CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS WERNER HERZOG

SCULPTURE 40,000 BP

SOME ANSWERABLE QUESTIONS?

• Why did Homo sapiens engage in art? • Did Neanderthals create art? • Was the practice of cave art invented more

than once by Homo sapiens? • Did anatomical and behavioral modernity

develop in tandem? • How do you identify modern behavior?

BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES 2014

• Agricultural drones • Ultraprivate smartphones • Brain mapping • Neuromorphic chips • Genome editing • Microscale 3-D printing • Mobile collaboration • Oculus Rift • Agile robots • Smart wind and solar power

BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES 2015

• Magic Leap 1-3 Years • Nano-architecture 3-5 Years • Car-to-car communication 1-2 Years • Project Loon 1-2 Years • Liquid biopsy Now • Megascale desalination Now • Apple Pay Now • Brain organoids Now • Supercharged photosynthesis 10-15 Years • Internet of DNA 1-2 Years

SCIENCE BREAKDOWNS 2014

• Breakdown of the year: Ebola • Others

– Stem cells made easy – Glimpse of creation – Lawmakers versus the NSF

EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE

• A viral hemorrhagic disease caused by a ribovirus • Average fatality rate 50% • Spread by contact with infected body fluids

HISTORY OF EBOLA OUTBREAKS

• First identified in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

• Statistics Cases Deaths • 1976 DRC 318 280 • 1995 DRC 315 250 • 2000 Uganda 425 224 • 2007 DRC 264 187 W. Uganda 149 37 • 2014 W. Africa 28,502 11,312

WEST AFRICAN OUTBREAK

WHAT BROKE DOWN?

• Locally – Public health systems – Public awareness and acceptance of appropriate

actions – Government actions

• Internationally – Delayed recognition of severity of outbreak – Insufficient and uncoordinated response

PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS • Liberia declared free of Ebola cases

• Containment reducing new cases in Sierra Leone and Guinea

• Equipment and training of doctors much improved

• Effective vaccine developed

THREATENING DEVELOPMENTS

• Post Ebola Syndrome • Is the virus hiding in survivors?

STEM CELLS MADE EASY?

• STAP: Stimulus-trigger acquisition of pluripotency

• Mature somatic cells converted to pluripotent stem cells

• Two papers in Nature Jan 2014 • Work performed at the RIKEN Center for

Developmental Biology—Kobe Japan • RIKEN investigation led to retraction of the

papers

PERSONAL CONSEQUENCES

• Haruko Obokata • Teruhiko Wakayama • Yoshiki Sasai • Koji Kojima • Martin P. Vacanti • Hitoshi Niwa • Masayuki Yamato • Charles A. Vacanti

HARUKO OBOKATA

INSTITUTIONAL CONSEQUENCES

• RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) staffing reduced from 400 to 260

• CDB director reprimanded and returned 3 months salary

• President of RIKEN resigned • RIKEN reorganized

WHAT BROKE DOWN?

• Peer review prior to publication • Supervision of a relatively inexperienced

researcher • Integrity of one (or more?) researchers

GLIMPSE OF CREATION

• BICEP: Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization

• Collaboration: Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Minnesota

• March 2014—reported B-mode polarization of cosmic microwave background

• Ascribed this to gravitational waves associated with cosmic inflation

RECONSIDERATON

• June 2014 Contention that scattering off cosmic dust could account for the observation

• September 2014 ESA-Planck results – Confirmed BICEP’s B-mode results – Found that cosmic dust was thicker than BICEP

analysis had assumed

• Corrected for dust there isn’t enough B-mode signal left to support BICEP’s interpretation

WHAT BROKE DOWN?

• Research process--Failure by researchers to secure relevant data

• Peer review prior to publication

LAMAR E SMITH CHAIRMAN HOUSE SCIENCE, SPACE, &TECHNOLOGY

COMMITTEE

STEM Education Act of 2015

LAWMAKERS VERSUS THE NSF

• Jan 2013 Smith became chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee

• 2013-2014 Increasingly critical of the National Science Foundation

• 2015 At least temporary public calming of the conflict

• Smith still wants to be able to reduce specific grants, especially in social sciences and geosciences

WHAT BROKE DOWN?

• Communication between House Committee and NSF administration

• Long-standing agreement concerning the relationship of scientific research to political actions

NATURE WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2015

• New results from the LHC • A multinational climate deal • The end of the Ebola epidemic • Trips to dwarf planets • New cholesterol-lowering drugs • Waves in space-time • Sequencing 400,000 year old nuclear DNA

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

Yogi Berra