discover magazine usa 2013-09

Flexible electronics that could change the shape of medicine forever p.30

tech on the Brain

Doorway to a cure Grassroots eforts are beating cystic fbrosis p.42

inside the mindoF a hero p.26

citizen

scientists Try THIS in your own backyard p.52

elysiumhollywood goestranshuman p.64

DiscoverSecret origin of the UniverSe revealed? p.36

coming one day to a brain near you: Flexible sensor arrays to thwart seizures

latest researchSeptember 2013

science for the curious

BonUS online content code p. 3

Features

30cover story

Stretchy, Flexy FutureUniversity of Illinois researcher John Rogers is designing a brave new bendy world of devices that could do for medicine what spandex did for bike shorts (in a good way).By Ed yong and ValEriE ross

36

Starting PointThe Big Bang kicked things off for our uni-verse, but what came before that? Cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin thinks hes found the answer.By stEVE nadis

42

Doorway to a CureMore than a decade after families affected by cystic fbrosis began a grassroots funding project to tackle the disease, some sufferers are breathing easier.

By Bijal P. triVEdi

52

The Urban BestiaryNeither exotic nor rare, our nearest furred and feathered neighbors too often escape our notice and appreciation. Heres a guide to what were missing, in a nutshell.

By lyanda lynn HauPt

FLEX TECH

university of Illinois technicians show off the stretch and ex of a rechargeable lithium ion battery. such innovations may one day power bionic eyes and other medical implants.

September 2013

Contents

september 2013 DISCOVER 3

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22 Big ideaSave Our SatellitesAn ambitious robotic servicing

mission could lead to cost-effective

repairs for satellites in orbit we just

hope theyre better at scheduling than

the cable guy. By Michael leMonick

26 mind over matterWhat Makes a Hero? Are some of us hardwired for hero-

ism? Are we a generally generous spe-

cies? New research into whats behind

acts of altruism fnds some surprising

answers. By elizaBeth SvoBoda

58 notes from earthDeep-Sea Secrets Ocean-foor CSI: Mysterious

ecosystems that live off the bodies of dead whales may date back to the time of the

dinosaurs. By Brian Switek

60 out thereHunting Season for Asteroids Catch them if you can, NASA: A growing number of privately funded projects arent

waiting for the government to fnd the next asteroid with Earth in its crosshairs.

By corey S. Powell

74 20 things You didn't know aBout ... FailureNext time you face the F-word, remember youre in good company: Alfred Nobel,

Henry Ford, the Large Hadron Collider and SETI have all suffered stumbles.

By Jonathon keatS

63 HOt Science Elysium writer and director Neill Blomkamp talks transhumanist haves and have-nots, phase change materi-

als go green, a citizen scientist takes to the cyberseas and much more, in-

cluding your science-centric calendar for the month and Urban Skygazer.

6 inboxReaders weigh in on

shark-fnning and pack

their bags for Mars.

8 editor's noteWelcome to the upgraded

DISCOVER.

on the Coveris this the brain implant of tomorrow? illustration: sciepro/getty images and Jay smith/discover.

9 tHe crux A slick solution to preserving historic buildings, renewable energy with a twist, seeing something fshy, a taste of a new

cosmic recipe, the man who hunts killer mushrooms and more.

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that we must focus on our

students strengths, and not

hold them back when they

have a known disability. Ask

me to write a news story any

day of the week I have

garnered over 30 journalism

awards. Just dont ask me to

count the plates needed for our

Thanksgiving dinner.

Ellen Smith

Pittsford, NY

Ivory Trade DebateJuly/Augusts Contrarian

suggested that making the

rhino horn trade legal would

prevent poaching.

The logic of selling rhino

horns brings to mind a parallel

case. I am sickened when

I see authorities in various

African nations set re to tons

of poached elephant ivory.

Why not ood the market with

this commodity, eliminating

or greatly reducing the prot

margin for poachers?

Donald Schmiedel

Las Vegas, NVJOIN THE CONvErsaTIONSend email [email protected].

Address letters to:DISCOVER21027 Crossroads CircleP.O. Box 1612Waukesha, WI 53187-1612

Include your full name, address, daytime phone number and email address.

More Tan Mail

The Top 6 Things Our Readers Write To Us About

1 Opinions on the GMO controversy: whos right, whos wrong, whos going to hell.

2 Theories about dark matter, the Big Bang and where the heck the universe came from.

3 Our font.

4 Our articles are too short.

5 Our articles are too long.

6 Extraterrestrial life.

ErraTa Junes Out There column incorrectly noted the Super-TIGER probes location as 82 degrees 14 minutes 69 seconds south, and 81 degrees 54 minutes 88 seconds west. The correct coordinates: 82 degrees 14.69 minutes south, and 81 degrees 54.88 minutes west.

Shark Hunt HatredErik Vance wrote about the

declining shark population

in our June cover story.

I read your great article,

Desperately Seeking Sharks.

Im 17 years old. I want to do

marine conservation biology. I

already know about shark-

nning, but after reading your

article I was upset at how

fast the shark population is

declining.

Tonight (6/5/13) on CNN

on Piers Morgan Live, I was

horried to see him glorifying

the capture and killing of

a mako shark for sport. I

hope your article will raise

awareness of the decreasing

population of sharks and help

to save the species.

Saoirse Keely-Zinkel

Madison, WI

Counting OffJuly/Augusts Mind Over

Matter column explained

dyscalculia, a math-

comprehension disorder.

Thank you for your article,

No Head for Numbers. I

am 53 and learned three years

ago from a radio program that

my horric math disability

was not from being lazy but

from dyscalculia. I struggled

in math in elementary school

and while I excelled in

reading, I could not even add

or subtract without using

my ngers. I have learned

Inbox

Dont be shy about sharing your opinions, whether via letters, email or our social media communities. Heres what youve been telling us lately.

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opposed legalizing trade in rhino horns.

65%

ConneCt with us

Te Cambodian zero proved that zero was an Eastern invention. But it disappeared during the Khmer Rouge regime, and no one knew if it still existed. I felt very strongly that it was important to recover the worlds oldest zero.

Amir Aczel, in the crux blog post How i rediscovered

the Oldest zero in History, DiscoverMagazine.com/Zero

exchanging gift ideasIn the June issue, Editor in Chief Steve George asked readers to submit their ideas of Gifts from the Future the technological advances theyd like to see or predict will happen. Here are just a few responses:

That my consciousness be transferred to an android like Data from

Star Trek so I could walk on Mars without a space suit. THOmAs mAdden

Its 2013, where is my ying car that Ive been promised? (Honestly,

though, I would rather have a self-driving car.) dArryl suskin

I think all useful gadgets watches, cell phone, smartphone,

computer, radio, stereo, TV, e-books, registrator of temperature

and blood pressure, etc. will be concentrated into eyeglasses

(display) and their frame (circuits). igOr kuzmin

Id like to see everything we throw away being recycled instead

and salvaged down to every single atom. kATeH sHirk

In the future, mankind will dine on pills: a yellow one for breakfast,

a green one for lunch and half of a red one for supper (half because we

are required to watch our weight). T.r. THOmpsOn

from our Blogs

facebook.com/DiscoverMag

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september 2013 discOVer 7

We Asked: if a private space company were recruiting volunteers for a manned mars mission, would you sign up?

Heres What You Said:

DisCover reader ulrika suuronen in rome snapped this shot of the full moon at its closest point to earth this year on June 23.

For a heads-up on future polls and contests, follow us on social media.

55% YeS! im ready to relocatepermanently to the red Planet today!

20% Sure. id take a vacation there as long as i can come home.

11% Maybe. i wont be rst in line, but id consider it after others have gone.

14%No way.

id rather watch the broadcast

from the safety of my sofa.

Did You Spot the Supermoon?

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Editor's Note editor in chief Stephen C. Georgedesign director Dan BishopEDITORIALmanaging editor Kathi Kubeconsulting executive editor Pamela Weintraubsenior editors Siri Carpenter, Tasha Eichensehersenior associate editor Becky Lang associate editors Bill Andrews, Gemma TarlachLisa Raffensperger (digital)staff writer Breanna Draxlereditor at large Corey S. Powellcopy editor Dave Lee editorial assistant Elisa R. Neckarcontributing editors Tim Folger, Linda Marsa, Kathleen McAuliffe, Kat McGowan, Jill Neimark, Adam Piore, Darlene Cavalier (special projects director)ARTphoto editor Ernie Mastroiannisenior graphic designer Alison Mackey DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COMbloggers Meredith Carpenter, Lillian Fritz-Laylin, George Johnson, Razib Khan, Keith Kloor, Rebecca Kreston, Neuroskeptic, Christie Wilcox, Tom YulsmanADVERTISING SALES OFFICES

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Here at DISCOVER, we see change as a big part of

our job. Over the past few months, the team here has

introduced a variety of tweaks to the magazine and

website. But this issue heralds a bit of an upgrade,

with a new look and new elements that were eager to

share with our readers.

Whenever a magazine undergoes a redesign, this is

the spot where the editor starts justifying the revamp,

perhaps with a reference to Darwin, or by making use

of a handy pop-culture reference comparing the

change to, say, the regeneration of the Doctor from

Britains popular Doctor Who TV series. Same

character you know and love, just a new look and

some added personality traits!

I would never do that, of course. Instead, I will

simply say this: I hope you like what you see. Dan

Bishop, design director, and Alison Mackey, senior

graphic designer (and a DISCOVER reader from way

back), worked tirelessly to develop and implement a

crisp, clean design thats easy on the eyes, while Ernie

Mastroianni, our photo editor, scoured the planet to

fll our pages with images that are hard to ignore.

Still, I should call out a few changes. On page 9,

youll fnd The Crux, replacing the old Data section.

As the name suggests, Crux stories will tackle, in

brief, the vital points, puzzles and perplexities

emerging in the world of science. My favorite new

Crux item is Ask Discover (page 12), a regular place

for you, dear reader, to pose your most vexing science

questions. We also had readers in mind when we

modifed our Mail page (now called Inbox, page 6) to

include the broad range of your input, including

online comments, Facebook polls, even photos.

Meanwhile, 20 Things and your other favorite

columns are still here. The ever-popular Hot Science

section gets bigger and better; we just moved it to a

spot where it has more room to spread out. It starts

on page 63. Check it out.

Are there other improvements youd like to see?

Email us at [email protected]. Just

dont be surprised if we make those changes. That is,

after all, our job.

Welcome

to a crisp,

clean design

thats easy

on the eyes,

but hard

to ignore.

Stephen C. George, editor in chief

A Bit of an Upgrade

DiscoverScience for the curiouS

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September 2013 DISCOVER 9

CRUXthe

10 The Cosmic

Recipe for Earthlings

12 Road Map

to Save Artifacts

Ask Discover: Dreams and Dark Matter

14 On the Hunt

for Killer Mushrooms

16

Under-standing the Suns Energy

See a Fish Think

18 Tornado

Tech

20 Condiment

Conserva-tion

DYNAMIC DUO

A leafcutter worker ant carries a load with a passenger, a minor ant of the same species, to their nest in a Costa Rican forest. Each ant has a specic role: The worker clips a leaf section from live foliage, and the minor protects the worker against parasitic phorid ies, which can lay eggs directly onto the worker. ErniE Mastroianni

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The Stories Behind the Latest Science News

CRUXthe

Te Cosmic Recipe for Earthlings


Stars cook up nearly all of the approximately 60 atomic elements in peoples bodies. But exactly how that works remains a mystery. Astrophysicists have developed cutting-edge computer simulations (shown at right) to grapple with an array of related puzzles:

What were stars like when they rst appeared in the universe over 13 billion years ago, starting the process of modern element production?

What do we know about the nature of the death of massive stars signaled by Type II supernovae that fashion crucial elements such as calcium and oxygen?

How might the burned-out stars called white dwarfs be brought to ruin by other stars in so-called Type Ia supernovae, inciting the ery alchemy that yielded much of the iron in our blood and the potassium in our brains?

Scientists are still trying to gure out what triggers an individual Type Ia supernova and to determine the identity of the partner star to the exploding white dwarf. The Hubble Space Telescopes recent discovery of the earliest known Type Ia supernova from more than 10 billion years ago, plus other results, favor a scenario in which two white dwarfs merge.

The results indicate that crucial elements in people formed later in the history of the universe than many had expected, says David Jones, the lead astronomer on the Hubble study. It took (very roughly) about 750 million years longer to form the rst 50 percent of the iron in the modern universe.

About 500 million years after the Big Bang, one of the rst galaxies in the universe formed, containing stars of about the same mass as the sun which can live for 10 billion years as well as lighter stars. The green and whitish regions depict elements such as carbon and oxygen.

This simulated image shows the rst half-second of an explosion of a star 15 times more massive than the sun. Called a core collapse supernova explosion, one example of which is a Type II, these are a source of about a dozen major elements in people, including iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur and zinc. The sphere in the center is a newly born neutron star, the superdense corpse that remains of the former star. The scale from top to bottom is 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles.

BY Dolly SeTTon illustration BY kellIe jAeger

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out of the primordial hydrogen and helium created in the Big Bang, clouds coalesced within 100 million years, eventually forming the rst stars. This simulation shows light from an early star 100 million years after the Big Bang. When this reball millions of times brighter than the sun dies in a titanic explosion called a supernova, it hurls out elements such as oxygen, carbon and magnesium.


OOxygen

65.0%Critical to the conversion of food into energy.

(Percentage of body weight. Source: Biology, Campbell and Reece, eighth edition.)

About one-and-a-half minutes into a Type Ia supernova explosion, elements created in the blast iron (red), surrounded by silicon and sulfur (green) are spat out with typical velocities of about 6,214 miles per second. Some oxygen (blue) is left after the explosion, but little carbon remains.

A star the size of the sun becomes a red giant toward the end of its 10-billion-year life span, a phase in which its outer atmosphere expands a great deal. The white region at the center is the dense, hot core where hydrogen and helium are still burning in two concentric shells. Between those two shells, carbon is combining with helium to form oxygen.

CCARBOn

18.5%The so-called backbone of the building blocks of the body and a key part of other important compounds, such as testosterone and estrogen.

HHydROgen

9.5%Helps transport nutrients, remove wastes and regulate body temperature. Also plays an important role in energy production.

nnITROgen

3.3%Found in amino acids, the building blocks of proteins; an essential part of the nucleic acids that constitute dnA.

Other Key elements

Human Body IngredientsThe four ingredients below are essential parts of the bodys protein, carbohydrate and fat architecture.

Potassium 0.4%

Sulfur 0.3%

regulates metabolism.

Iron (trace amount) Part of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in red blood cells.

Zinc (trace amount) Forms part of some enzymes involved in digestion.

Calcium 1.5% Lends rigidity and strength to bones and teeth; also important for the functioning of nerves and muscles, and for blood clotting.

Phosphorus 1.0% needed for building and maintaining bones and teeth; also found in the molecule ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which provides energy that drives chemical reactions in cells.

Important for electrical signaling in nerves and maintaining the balance of water in the body.

Found in cartilage, insulin (the hormone that enables the body to use sugar), breast milk, proteins that play a role in the immune system, and keratin, a substance in skin, hair and nails.

Chlorine 0.2% needed by nerves to function properly; also helps produce gastric juices.

Sodium 0.2% Plays a critical role in nerves electrical signaling; also helps regulate the amount of water in the body.

Magnesium 0.1% Plays an important role in the structure of the skeleton and muscles; also found in molecules that help enzymes use ATP to supply energy for chemical reactions in cells.

Iodine (trace amount) Part of an essential hormone produced by the thyroid gland;


CRUXthe

Q Why dont we know when were dreaming, especially when we interact with dead characters? My dad

died a long time ago, yet when he inhabits

my dreams, it seems perfectly normal. Do

we all become morons when dreaming?

Alan Schertzer

A This is a very good question. The dreaming brains activity is largely similar to that found when awake, but

some areas of the brain are less active in

dreams. In particular, activity in a region

called the precuneus is lower and

this area has been linked to conscious

experience. In one study, activity in the

precuneus was higher during lucid dreams

(in which you are aware of being asleep)

than normal dreams. So the precuneus,

and perhaps other connected areas, might

generate the self-awareness and insight

thats often lacking in dreams but how

this happens is unknown. NeuroSkepTIc

Q Does dark matter affect the navigation of the spacecraft we launch to explore the solar system?

Richard Rosing

A The effect of dark matter on spacecraft is basically zero much smaller than the subtle effects of sunlight

and solar wind. The inferred density of

dark matter, based on the motions of

nearby stars, is equivalent to about ve

hydrogen atoms per cubic inch. Thats

not much, and its spread out evenly so

its not even pulling a spacecraft all in

one direction. Astronomers would love to

study dark matter by measuring its pull on

a space probe, but nobody has gured out

how to do that yet. Corey S. Powell

Ask Discover

Downtown Tucson and the Santa catalina

Mountains loom in the distance in this october

2000 photo showing an excavation at Julian Wash

in Arizona. once dismissed as a probable trash

heap, the site is now recognized as a large Hohokam

village from about A.D. 750 to 1150, and it is a

shining example of preservation archaeology, in

which sites are excavated and preserved in concert

with development. After Arizona made plans to

rebuild an interstate exchange at the Julian Wash

site, archaeologists and the state established a two-

stage preservation plan. Researchers rst excavated

a strip of land that held hundreds of dwellings as

well as other artifacts, according to William Doelle

of Desert Archaeology Inc. The interstate was

subsequently built over these parcels, and nearly

17 additional acres near the site were preserved for

future exploration. Fred Powledge TOP TO BOTTO

M: adreil heisey; dOUGla

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r/deserT arChaeOlO

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The jar above, from the Middle Rincon phase, A.D. 1000 to 1100, is among the nearly 60,000 artifacts excavated from Julian Wash site in Arizona.

An interstate exchange was built atop Julian Wash, shown in 2002 (below); in return, 17 acres were preserved for archaeological investigation.

Road Map to Save Artifacts

Archaeological Preserve

Area of Archaeological Investigation

2002

2011

Visit DiscoverMagazine.com/Ask for expanded answers. To submit a question, you can send an email to [email protected]

Two of DiscoVers bloggers answer

our rst round of questions.

National Collectors Mint announces aspecial limited release of 3,085 MorganSilver Dollars 92-135 years old at $39 each.Several prominent national dealers charge upto $28.75 MORE for a comparable MorganSilver Dollar. These Morgans are among thelast surviving originals still in existence, andeach coin is guaranteed to be in mostlyBrilliant Uncirculated to Fine condition. Dueto volatile fluctuations in the precious metalsmarket, price can be guaranteed @ $39 eachfor one week only!

MARKET CONDITIONSThe last time silver hit $50 an ounce, China

was a poor, underdeveloped nation. Now, theChinese are rich and using over three times asmuch silver! Will this drive the price of silverback to $50 or even higher? One thing is cer-tain dramatic increases in silver investmenthave seen silver prices rise over 129% in the lastfive years, and as much as 29% in one monthalone! But you can still get these Morgans forjust $39 each!

INVESTMENTIncreasing prices of precious metals make

every Morgan Silver Dollar more valuable. Butacquiring your own private cache of MorganSilver Dollars is a long term investment in somuch more... in history... in Americanheritage... in the splendid rendering of MissLibertys profile by designerGeorge T. Morgan,whose M mark onevery Morgan SilverDollar identifies hismasterwork. And, ofcourse, Morgan SilverDollars have not beenminted for 92 years and areno longer in circulation.

Phone orders will be filledon a first-come, first-servedbasis and a limit of 100 coins percustomer will be strictly adhered to. Due to

Direct from Locked Vaults to U.S. Citizens!

Original U.S. Govt Morgan Silver Dollars

A message from the

37TH TREASURER OF THE

UNITED STATES

Hello, Im Angela Marie

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2013 NCM, Inc. R7-R52

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the extremely limited nature ofthis offer, mail orders cannot beaccepted. THIS OFFER MAY BEWITHDRAWN AT ANY TIMEWITHOUT NOTICE AT THESOLE DISCRETION OF NCM.

You may order 1 Morgan SilverDollar for $39, plus $4 shipping,handling and insurance, 3 for $124ppd., 5 for $204.50 ppd., 10 for$403 ppd., 20 for $799 ppd., 50 for$1980 ppd., 100 for $3935 ppd. Ifyoure not 100% delighted withyour purchase simply send us yourpostage paid return within 60 daysfor a refund of your purchase price.Dont wait. ACT NOW!

National Collectors Mint, Inc. is an independent, private corporation not affiliatedwith, endorsed, or licensed by the U.S. Government or the U.S. Mint.Offer not valid in CT.


Since the late 1970s, more than 400 people of all ages in remote areas of Chinas southwestern Yunnan province have dropped dead sometimes in midsentence from a mysterious cause, mostly during the summer. The so-called sudden unexplained deaths (SUDs) seemed to be the result of heart attacks, but no one was sure what was prompting them as only half of the autopsies revealed underlying heart disease. In 2010, Chinese health offcials warned that, based on preliminary tests of the victims, the culprit was a dangerously high level of barium in a local edible mushroom, Trogia venenata. The little white mushroom isnt valuable, but exports of other fungi, including matsutake and porcinis, are a major source of income for Yunnans native people; fears of barium poisoning could hurt the regions economy. Not everyone was convinced that barium was the killer, so from 2009 to 2011, biologist Jianping Xu of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, collected samples of the mushrooms to investigate. as told to jennifer abbasi

On the Hunt for Killer Mushrooms

Summer in southwestern China is the

monsoon season, with heavy rain at

unpredictable times throughout the day.

The area has many deep gorges, rivers

and steep mountains. Most villages

with SUD cases are in very remote

and hard-to-reach areas, requiring

long walks or hill climbs.

For one of the trips, in 2010, we

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A specimen of Trogia venenata, a fungus originally thought to be the cause of illness in southwestern China.

Jianping Xu, a fungus specialist, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

walked for ve hours over 18 miles in

the rain on muddy clay paths to reach

the village. Because the mushroom is

not common, we had to ask many locals

before we found someone who knew

a spot where it grew. By the time we

nished collecting the mushrooms and

in the process we were bitten by many

leeches we were hungry and thirsty,

and there was no way we could have

walked all the way back.

Fortunately, we found someone with a

motorbike who was moved by our efforts

to solve one of the villages problems

and was willing to take us to our car.

With three of us on the one bike, it took

almost two hours to get back, and my

graduate student was taken to the hospital

because of severe fatigue.

In the end, we found that the mush-

room didnt have high concentrations of

barium. Other mushrooms from Yunnan

had normal levels of barium, too. We

concluded that barium in this mushroom

is not the cause of SUDs, as had been

suggested. There are likely multiple fac-

tors contributing to these deaths: other

toxins in this species of mushroom, the

genetics of the victims, contaminated

food and other environmental factors.

I hope now that people will not be

concerned about barium in wild edible

mushrooms in Yunnan.

in His Own wORds


FROM LEFT: N

ASA

; NASA

/MARSH

ALL SPA

CE FLIGHT CENTE

R; M

uTO

ET AL., C

uRRENT BIOLO

Gy (2013)

CRUXthe

The solar corona, our suns energetic

atmosphere, has long bafed scientists

who dont understand how it gets all that

energy. We call it the coronal heating

problem, says Jonathan Cirtain, an as-

trophysicist at NASAs Marshall Flight

Center in Huntsville, Ala. Why is the

surface of the sun 6,000 Kelvin while

the corona is 7 million Kelvin? Cirtain

and a team of researchers have helped

solve the mystery using the highest-res-

olution images ever taken of the corona.

In July 2012, the researchers launched

a telescope less than 10 inches in di-

ameter dubbed the High-Resolution

Coronal Imager, or Hi-C 174 miles

above Earth. The Hi-C spent only ve

minutes observing the sun before para-

chuting back to White Sands Missile

Range in New Mexico, but it yielded

remarkable results. The team captured

images of solar braiding, the trans-

fer of energy from the suns magnetic

elds to the corona, theorized in 1983

but never observed.

Astronomers have long seen loops of

magnetic eld lines extend from within

the sun out into the corona. These get

twisted and tangled and release energy

into the corona while unraveling. Braid-

ing is a similar, but far more complex,

process. It apparently involves a lot

more magnetic eld lines, Cirtain says.

Plus, those eld lines break, reconnect

and interweave, he says.

Solar braiding is also known as

Parker Braiding after Eugene Parker,

the astrophysicist credited with weaving

the theory together, Cirtain says. Parker,

86 and retired, says its gratifying that

his 30-year-old theory has nally been

observed. I always hoped the resolution

would creep up on this thing, Parker

says. He adds that the new study may

help researchers understand not just our

sun, but other stars. jay r. thompson

The High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) captured a range of solar activity (top), including the rst observations of solar braiding. The Hi-C team, posing with the orbital telescope after its mission (above), suggests the braiding helps explain why the suns corona is so unexpectedly hot.

See a Fish ThinkIn a rst, researchers in Japan have captured the brain activity of a living animal as it pursues its prey.

Seeing is believing, says Koichi Kawakami, a molecular and developmental biologist at Japans National Institute of Genetics. In the past, he says, researchers have had to infer brain processes indirectly, by watching behavior and surmising what the brain must be doing. That makes his feat a big improvement. Nothing is better than direct observation, he says.

For years, researchers have regarded the ability to watch an organisms neurons re at high resolution, as the animal behaves naturally as the pinnacle of brain observation. In humans, neuroimaging techniques show brain activity, but the methods arent fast or ne-grained enough to give a clear picture, Kawakami says. Attempts on mice and rats have been challenging: Their brains must be opened, which is invasive and makes it difcult to capture brain activity in natural conditions.

In most animals, including humans and rodents, the biggest problem is that skulls and brains are opaque. Kawakami and his team cleared that hurdle by choosing the zebrash as their model. Zebrash embryos and larvae are transparent, and their genetics are well-known.

The researchers tinkered with the shs DNA so that a protein present only in neurons would uoresce when the neurons were ring. They then watched the neuronal activity of the developing sh at high resolution as it moved about its natural environment, eyeing and attacking its prey.

The fundamental brain functions are conserved between sh and human, says Kawakami.

We hope that we can understand the processes at cellular and molecular levels by studying the sh brain, he adds. susanne rust

A zebrashs neurons activate (shown in red) as it watches prey nearby.

Understanding the Suns Energy

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1. Warm water is pumped into heat exchanger

2. Water warms ambient air, which is directed from exchanger into tower

3. Cooled water is discharged

Warm air circulating in tower creates vortex, drawing in more air and turning turbines to generate power


Tornado TechExcess heat from power plants or seawater

could be twisted into a renewable energy source.

CRUXthe

Tornadoes may be destructive,

but even funnel clouds have

a silver lining. Inspired

by the process that creates

natural twisters, electrical

engineer Louis Michaud of

Canadas AVEtec Energy

Corp. designed a nonpolluting

source of swirling power he

calls the Atmospheric Vortex

Engine. The device can spin

waste heat from power plants

into usable energy.

Instead of directing excess

heat into conventional cooling

towers that simply disperse

it into the air, power plants

could usher the heat into the

hollow, open-topped tower

of a vortex engine. A heat

exchanger outside the tower

transfers the extra heat (piped

in as warm water) to ambient

air. When this warmed air is

directed into the tower at an

angle, it encounters cooler

air and produces a circular

current. This current funnels

air upward into a controlled

twister whose low-pressure

center draws more air into the

tower, turning turbines at its

base. These turbines drive a

generator much like a wind

turbine does, except, as Mi-

chaud says, Youve got more

oomph to push it with.

Michaud has already

demonstrated working models

of the engine up to 15 feet

across, but the real deal

would measure 300 feet wide

and half as tall, capable of

producing tamed twisters that

stretch nine miles high. When

hooked up to the average

500-megawatt natural-gas or

coal power plant, the vortex

engine could produce an extra

200 megawatts of energy just

by putting the excess heat to

use. At a cost of less than 3

cents per kilowatt-hour, tor-

nado energy is cheaper than

burning coal (which rings

up at 4 or 5 cents per kwh)

and produces no additional

greenhouse gases.

The vortex engine could

also run on heat sources other

than power plants. Youve

got to have warm air, and

youve got to have spin,

Michaud says. Solar heat or

warm ocean waters t the bill.

If theres enough energy in

warm seawater to produce

a hurricane, Michaud says,

theres enough energy to run

a vortex engine.

Breanna Draxler

JAY

SM

ITH

/DIS

CO

VER

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CRUXthe

What does salad dressing have

in common with building

conservation? Olive oil.

Researchers led by Karen Wilson

in Cardiff, Wales, discovered that

oleic acid, a component of the food

staple, has just the right properties

to make an excellent coating to help

preserve historic structures.

Some great historic build-

ings, such as the York Minster

cathedral in England (pictured),

are made from limestone, a

popular material because it was

cheap, plentiful and easy to build

with. Unfortunately, limestone

DAN

BIS

HOP/

DISC

OVER

; SHU

TTER

STO

CK

Condiment

Conservation is also extremely vulnerable to pollution, especially acid rain. Previous attempts at creating

protective coatings failed because

they were too thick: They blocked

pollutants, but also prevented lime-

stone from expanding and contract-

ing with changes in temperature,

leading to structural damage.

The new oleic acid coating is

inherently hydrophobic, repel-

ling water and any pollutants, and

it allows the material to react to

temperature uctuations naturally.

In the words of the researchers, it

allows the stone to breathe.

The oleic coating is also remark-

ably thin, just about a nanometer

thick, allowing it to conform to

even the smallest cracks and imper-

fections in the structure. Many con-

servation groups are now interested

in putting this historic food supply

to use protecting historic buildings.

Mary Beth GriGGs

Babies born by

cesarean section are

5 times more likely to develop

allergies than natural-

birth babies when

exposed to dogs, cats,

dust mites and other

common allergens in

the home, according to

a recent study at Henry

Ford Hospital in Detroit.

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The Canadian-built Dextre, a two-armed robot aboard the International Space Station, could be a predecessor to a eet of robots capable of repairing defunct orbiting satellites.

Earlier this year, as astronauts

busied themselves inside the

International Space Station, engineers

on the ground conducted their own

experiment just outside the craft. Oper-

ating from a control room in Houston,

they directed a nearly 60-foot-long,

Canadian-built robotic arm to grab

a smaller, two-armed robot called

Dextre, before moving it into position

in front of a washing machine-size

module attached to the station.

Then, Dextre reached into the mod-

ule, grabbed one of four toaster-size,

custom-made, high-tech tools there,

and proceeded to snip two safety wires,

unscrew two fller caps on the outside

of the module and pump a few liters of

ethanol into a small holding tank.

The Jan. 25 exercise wasnt especially

dramatic it made no headlines. But

the maneuvers, formally known as the

Robotic Refueling Mission, represent

what could be a revolutionary step

in space science and commerce. Its

part of the larger Notional Robotic

Servicing Mission (thats Notional,

not National, because so far its only

an idea) that would send fully au-

tomated repair robots to survey, fx

and refuel aging orbiters.

If it works, the project, run out of

NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

in Greenbelt, Md., could save federal

and commercial satellite owners billions

of dollars. A single communications

satellite can generate tens of millions

in revenue every year, so keeping even

a few of them operating a few years

longer could make a huge difference.

InItIal Costs

The decision to explore the idea is

a no-brainer, says Benjamin Reed,

Save Our Satellites Sending maintenance robots on orbital servicing missions may no longer be the stuff of science ction.By Michael leMonick

deputy project manager of NASAs

Satellite Servicing Capabilities Offce

(SSCO). Right now, there are about a

thousand satellites operating in space.

Of those, just two were designed to

be serviced in orbit: the Hubble Space

Telescope and the International Space

Station, he says. So we began think-

ing about the other 998. What could be

done for them?

The we in this case was the team

that masterminded the multiple servic-

ing missions that refurbished and up-

graded Hubble designing the tools

shuttle astronauts would use, training

the spacewalkers how to use them and

offering real-time guidance during the

missions themselves. Reeds team also

consulted on other satellite repair op-

erations, including a Challenger fight

in 1984 that fxed the ailing Solar Max

satellite. When the shuttle Columbia

disintegrated in 2003, killing all seven

astronauts, Reed recalls an all-hands

meeting a couple of days later where

team leader Frank Cepollina said,

Were going robotic, right?

The agency hadnt decided this yet,

says Reed, but Frank knew we would

still be servicing Hubble, so by God,

lets do it with robots instead of risking

the lives of astronauts. For the next 15

months, the team worked on the design

for a robotic servicing vehicle, only to

have NASA decide in the end to let

astronauts carry out the ffth and fnal

Hubble repair after all, in 2009.

Having put in the work already,

If it works, the project

could save federal and

commercial satellite

owners billions

of dollars.

NASA

BigIdea

Reported by J. Page

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Reed says the team fgured, Heck, we

know how to do things robotically. So

they began thinking about those other

998 satellites. Do they have servicing

needs? we asked. Well, obviously they

do. Just to begin with, he says, most

of the satellites carry fuel for the small

rockets that nudge them back into the

proper orbit when they begin to drift.

When they run out of fuel, says

Reed, theyre replaced. And whether

its the private communications satel-

lite that carries your phone calls or a

government satellite that tracks the

weather, we all end up footing the

bill for that replacement one way or

another. With costs running into hun-

dreds of millions of dollars for replace-

ment satellites, and with replacements

needed every 12 to 15 years, extending

a satellites life beyond the average

could result in billions in savings. Sim-

ply topping off the rocket fuel would

keep many otherwise dead satellites

operating for years. Thats what the

January test was all about.

GoinG Farther

It wouldnt be practical to refuel satel-

lites in low-Earth orbit. There are lots

of them, admits Reed, but theyre all

going in different directions. Its tough

to create a servicing mission thats

dedicated to more than one satellite.

So the engineers at Goddard began

focusing on servicing satellites in geo-

synchronous orbits, in the band about

22,500 miles above the planets surface

where one orbit around Earth lasts

exactly one day. About 400 satellites

are in geosynchronous orbit today, says

Reed, and the vast majority of satel-

lites are on the same highway. Theyre

on the same belt. Theyre all going in

the same direction.

That makes it relatively simple for a

servicing robot to fit from one satel-

lite to the next, pumping in fuel here,

replacing a battery there, pulling a

stuck solar panel out to full extension,

even dragging the satellite to a different

spot on the orbiting belt or into a safe

graveyard orbit if its beyond repair.

Unlike Hubble, however, none of the

geosynchronous satellites was designed

for mid-orbit maintenance, so they

have no special tabs or knobs for a

repair robot to grab onto. And since

nobody ever expected to refuel the sat-

ellites, the fueling ports arent standard-

ized. Thats why the practice module

used in the January Robotic Refueling

Mission test has an array of different

fller caps studded along its surface.

Its also why the SSCO has outftted a

warehouse-like structure at the edge of

the Goddard campus with robot arms

and mock-up satellite parts. Here, the

engineers can develop the tools, tech-

niques and software that robotic repair/

refueling missions could someday use in

space. The tools wielded by the Dextre

robot in January came from here.

the new reality

Someday, Reed, Cepollina and the oth-

er team members hope manufacturers

will agree to build their satellites with

orbital servicing in mind, but that clear-

ly wont happen until robotic repair

satellites are much further developed.

Its a chicken-and-egg problem, but that

doesnt mean the manufacturers arent

interested. The aerospace industry has

already looked into what small changes

it might make to future satellites.

They dont want something that

costs a million dollars, says Reed.

But they might be willing to use a

Velcro-like closure, instead of tape,

for attaching insulation around their

fll-and-drain valve. That way, when a

robot goes to push it back, its a simple

peel job, its not a cut and you can

reattach it afterward. Or they might

slap a small patterned decal on the

satellite, so that when the robot sidles

up, it can tell instantly if everythings

lining up properly. Its a teensy bit

of extra work for the manufacturer

teensy compared with the building of a

$100 million satellite.

For now, the main task is to keep

practicing with the International Space

Stations module, using the various

fller caps they have to work with.

Then, a couple of years from now, the

plate holding those caps will be taken

off and replaced with two more busy

boards, as Reed calls them, that will

help develop other kinds of repair

functions. Naturally, the change-out

will be done robotically. D

One of Dextres tools approaches a sealed cap it must try to open, a likely obstacle in a mission to repair satellites that were never intended to be serviced.

The decision to explore

the idea of sending

repair robots to fx

satellites is a no-brainer.

BigIdea

Michael Lemonick is a senior science writer

for Climate Central and DISCOVER contributor. nasa

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It was a sunny summer day in

2010 just outside Houston, and

54-year-old Shirley Dygert was getting

ready to skydive for the rst time. Though

nervous, she felt at ease after meeting

her instructor, Dave Hartsock the man

shed be strapped to as they executed

a tandem dive from a plane. When she

asked him how often hed done this, he

reassured her, Hundreds of jumps.

But problems started as soon as Hart-

sock opened the parachute to stop their

free fall. The chute didnt open all the

way, and the backup parachute got tan-

gled up. As the two neared the ground,

Hartsock made a fateful decision, using

control toggles to rotate himself so his

body would cushion Dygerts fall.

Hartsocks action dramatically altered

the course of both their lives. While

Dygert incurred some injuries, Hartsocks

spinal cord suffered a severe blow, para-

lyzing him from the neck down. A man

whod just met Dygert sacriced his own

well-being so she might keep hers. I was

absolutely amazed, Dygert says, blinking

back tears. How can somebody have that

much love for another person?

The question that still preoccupies

Dygert is the same one that echoed in so

many peoples minds after the story of

Hartsocks feat went public: Why? Why

did Dave Hartsock going against every

What

Makes

a Hero?Although generosity may often

be self-interested, research

suggests true selessness and

compassion can also be taught.By ElizabEth svoboda

self-preserving impulse that must have

screamed through him propel his body

in a direction he knew would put him

in harms way? Can anybody learn to

build on natural biological endowments

to become such a model of selessness?

That question has recently spurred a wave

of research exploring how biology and

experience intersect to produce seless

behavior, which runs along a broad con-

tinuum from everyday generosity to acts

of extraordinary self-sacrice.

An IntrInsIc rewArd

A few years ago, economist Bill

Harbaugh of the University of Oregon

wanted to know what rational calcu-

lations play into peoples charitable

giving choices. He and psychologist col-

league Ulrich Mayr presented subjects

with opportunities to donate to a food

bank from a fund of $100. An fMRI

scanner recorded what areas of their

brains were activated as they chose.

When subjects decided to donate

their money, Harbaugh and Mayr

found, brain areas involved in process-

ing rewards lit up more than they did

when the decision to donate was not

their own, but was instead dictated by

the experimenters. One such area was

the nucleus accumbens, which contains

neurons that release the pleasure chemi-

cal dopamine. This area keeps track

of rewards, whatever kind they are,

Harbaugh says. Some subjects, whom

he calls egoists, showed less such

activity at the prospect of seeing their

money go to charity. Those he calls

altruists showed more. The results,

he says, suggest that at least for some

people, giving money to others provides

an intrinsic reward that is neurologically

similar to ingesting an addictive drug. MAR

JOR

IE T

AY

LOR

, C

OU

RTESY

OF J

IM A

ND

REO

NI

MindOverMatter

This fabric rendering, titled Warm Glow, is accurately modeled after fMRI scans from research by University of Oregon economist Bill Harbaugh and colleagues. Colored areas are brain regions that show heightened activity associated with making charitable decisions. The artwork was created by University of Oregon psychologist Marjorie Taylor, who is married to Harbaugh.

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Adapted from What Makes a hero?

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Compassion is a musCle

Harbaugh and Mayrs results raise the

question of whether it might be possible

to stoke the brains reward system. Can

reinforcing generosity make people

especially those who lean toward the

egoist side of the spectrum start to

crave the pleasure of giving? Harbaugh is

optimistic. You can change your taste for

all kinds of things, he says. For example,

if charities ask donors for relatively small

amounts of money at rst, the neural

reward from giving may outweigh the

pain of giving up money. Having had a

pleasurable experience on balance, donors

might be more apt to give again.

People may also be able to train

their minds to be more seless through

meditation focused on compassionate

thinking. In one study, University of

Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Rich-

ard Davidson put long-term meditators

and people with no meditation experi-

ence into fMRI scanners and piped in

either emotionally charged sounds,

such as the cry of a woman in distress,

or neutral sounds, such as background

chatter in a restaurant. When listening to

emotionally charged sounds, the long-

term meditators showed greater activity

in brain areas involved in experiencing

emotion and empathy.

Davidson believes his results support

the theory that consistent compassion

meditation makes it easier to understand

what other people are going through,

and may motivate us to intervene when

someone else is in distress.

Another recent experiment in his lab

suggests compassion is like a muscle

that can be conditioned. In the study,

Davidson, graduate student Helen Weng

and colleagues recruited 41 participants,

none of whom were experienced medita-

tors. The researchers trained a group of

participants in compassion meditation,

a form of Buddhist meditation, for 30

minutes daily for two weeks. The prac-

tice involved focusing ones thoughts

on a particular person and repeating

phrases such as, May you be free from

suffering. May you have joy and ease.

Participants in a control group practiced

a different technique known as cogni-

tive reappraisal, in which they learned to

generate fewer negative thoughts.

After the training, participants in both

groups played an online game in which

another person was treated unfairly.

Wengs team found that people who

practiced compassion meditation were

more willing to shell out money to help

the unfortunate victim, compared with

those in the control group. Whats more,

in a neuroimaging study in which the

participants were shown images depict-

ing human suffering, those who gave

most generously during the online game

also showed greatest activation in brain

areas involved in empathy, emotion regu-

lation and positive emotion.

Other research bolsters these nd-

ings. Stanford psychologist Jeanne Tsai

and colleagues found, for example, that

after taking a brief compassion medita-

tion course, people were less fearful of

showing compassion to themselves and

others and of accepting compassion. And

People may also be able

to train their minds

to be more selfess

through meditation.

researchers at Emory University found

that such training enhanced peoples

ability to correctly interpret other

peoples facial expressions.

The helpers high

Some researchers speculate that the brain

is so readily trained for compassion and

generosity because those traits carry

adaptive value. Some research hints that

selessness yields both mental and physi-

cal rewards. When Allan Luks, direc-

tor of Fordham Universitys Center for

Nonprot Leaders, surveyed thousands of

volunteers across the country, 95 percent

of respondents reported a pleasurable

physical sensation associated with helping

what Luks refers to as the helpers

high. In a study of 423 older couples,

University of Michigan researchers found

that those who reported providing no help

to others were more than twice as likely to

die during the ve-year study period than

those who reported helping others.

But it might be counterproductive to

help others exclusively with such benets

in mind. In one study, researchers found

that the people who experienced the most

signicant longevity gain from helping

were those whose goal was to help for

its own sake. People who volunteered in

hopes of escaping their own troubles or

feeling better about themselves were no

better off than those who didnt volunteer

at all. Perhaps, then, its most constructive

not to think of the helpers high as an

end in itself, but as a fringe benet.

The personal effects of more extreme

heroism are likely more complicated. For

example, taking extraordinary risks can

mean bucking social norms, which can

cause distress as, of course, can conse-

quences such as injury. On the other hand,

the knowledge that youve demonstrated

moral courage when it counted carries

enormous power. Just ask Dave Hartsock,

who suffered terrible injuries to save Shir-

ley Dygert. He insists he wouldnt have

done things any other way. D

Elizabeth Svoboda is a freelance science journalist who writes for DIsCoVer and Psychology today. She lives in San Jose, Calif. Ba

rcroft M

edia/Landov

MindOverMatter

Dave Hartsock and Shirley Dygert meet for the rst time after the skydiving accident that left Hartsock paralyzed.

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Materials scientist John Rogers can coax electronics into surprising new forms, allowing them to bend, warp and buckle or even disappear.

By Ed Yong and ValEriE ross

Electronic monitors now in development could mold to the brains surface to sense aberrant electrical activity.

cover story


Anyone who has tried and failed to swat a fy can

appreciate the benefts of its wide feld of view and keen

ability to detect movement. The advantage derives from

insects compound eyes, which scoop up visual informa-

tion through hundreds or thousands of visual receptors,

called ommatidia, covering the eyes curved surface. The

more receptors, the more information the brain can as-

semble, and therefore, the more acute the insects vision.

Building on earlier work modeling a camera on the

shape of a human eye, Rogers and his team recently

unveiled a camera inspired by an insects compound eye.

Instead of making a single curved lens to focus light onto

a fat surface, they built a camera packed with tiny lenses,

each connected to an individual photodetector. The

uniqueness of this design, Rogers says, is that it sees in

all directions at once.

The camera also renders both close-up and faraway

objects in perfect focus. And because each lens needs to

process only a narrow feld of view and therefore a

small packet of data the camera responds quickly to

moving objects, just like insects do. If youre interested

in a surveillance system, those properties are important,

Rogers says. Compound cameras could also be useful in

medical procedures, such as endoscopy, that require a

close-up view inside body cavities.

Rogers current camera has only modest resolution, akin

to that of a fre ant or bark beetle, insects with relatively

few ommatidia. He plans to scale up to higher resolutions,

mimicking the ocular prowess of a praying mantis or a

dragonfy. And eventually, he hopes to achieve resolutions

that exceed anything that has ever existed in biology.

Bugs-Eye View

Rogers and colleagues compound camera lens is modeled after the eye of an ant (shown to scale in this composite illustration), giving it a wide eld of view and acute motion-sensing capability.

ull apart any electrical device

and you will nd a riot of right

angles, straight lines and at,

uncompromising silicon wa-

fers. John Rogers is changing

that. The 45-year-old materials

scientist has spent more than 15 years developing

electronics that can bend and stretch without break-

ing. His devices, from surgical sutures that monitor

skin temperature to biodegradable sensors that dis-

solve when their useful life is done, share a unifying

quality: They can slip seamlessly into the soft, moist,

moving conditions of the living world.

Other scientists construct exible electronics from

innately bendy materials such as graphene, a lattice

of pure carbon only one atom thick. From his lab at

the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rog-

ers has bucked the trend, building most of his devices

from silicon, a normally rigid material but one

that, due to widespread use and desirable attributes

such as outstanding thermal conductivity, has a track

record of efciency and low cost.

Rogers team has tapped silicons rep for reliabil-

ity by tricking it into a more malleable form. Rather

than making transistors from conventional silicon

wafers, they slice the material into sheets several

times thinner than a human hair. At this scale,

Rogers says, something that would otherwise be

brittle is completely oppy.

Riding this approach, Rogers has led dozens of

patents and launched ve companies to get his prod-

ucts off the ground. His Cambridge, Mass., company

MC10 is developing sensors that can t the contours

of the brain or heart to monitor for early signs of epi-

leptic seizures or heart arrhythmias. North Carolina-

based Semprius is making ultra-efcient solar cells as

thin as a pencil tip and exible enough to roll into a

tube or print on plastic or cloth.

With all his devices, including the ve spotlighted

here, Rogers goal is to make a lasting impact. If we

were successful beyond our wildest dreams, he says,

its important that people would care.

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Fits Like a Glove

Imagine that one day years from now, a peculiar pattern

of electrical activity courses through your heart, causing it to

beat erratically. But before you develop full-blown arrhyth-

mia, which can be life-threatening, a network of hundreds of

sensors steps in. Conforming to the shape of your heart, the

network delivers its own set of electrical pulses, resetting the

normal rhythm. And you barely feel a thing.

Rogers has moved toward this futuristic vision by creating

sensor arrays that can precisely mold to the shape of body or-

gans. Heart sensors made of stretchy, lightweight material and

embedded with electronics envelop the heart like a thin sock,

providing real-time measurements of cardiac activity. The goal,

Rogers says, is to detect early signs of arrhythmia and deliver

coordinated voltages across the entire organ, rather than

delivering massive, painful shocks at a few points, as current

defbrillators do. His collaborators at Washington University

in St. Louis have tested the device, which he calls an artifcial

pericardium, on rabbits and on human hearts removed from

transplant recipients, and trials in live patients could be close.

Another of Rogers devices is designed to detect early signs

of epileptic seizures. But unlike other brain implants, which

either sit on the scalp or have to be jabbed into brain tissue,

this one sits on the surface of the brain. And while modern

electrodes can scan the brain either over a large area or in great

deta

discover magazine usa 2013-09

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