Download - Discover Magazine USA 2013-09
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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
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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
University of illinois and Beckman institUte
Online Content Code: DSD1309
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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.
p.64
p.26 p.58
p.22
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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%
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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
BEN
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The Stories Behind the Latest Science News
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CRUXthe
Te Cosmic Recipe for Earthlings
10 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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.
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September 2013 DISCOVER 11
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;
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12 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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
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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!
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37TH TREASURER OF THE
UNITED STATES
Hello, Im Angela Marie
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Co-Director, NCM Board of Advisors
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.
-
14 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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
-
16 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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
18 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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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22 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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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24 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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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26 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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?
by Elizabeth Svoboda. Copyright
2013 by Elizabeth Svoboda. Reprinted
by arrangement with Current, a
member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
28 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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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Starts with basic Newtonian parcles Derives conservaon of mass, momentum, and energy Derives Newtons equaons of moon Shows why Maxwell-Boltzmann gas parameters v
r and v
m
arranged as [(vr
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2 =1/137.1 is
fundamental to quantum mechanics Shows how neutrinos develop 106 newton thrust Proves that Newtonian parcles can form stable inhomogeneous states the neutrinos
Shows why fundamental angular momentum has one value Plancks constant
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Foundations of Physics
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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
30 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
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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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September 2013 DISCOVER 31
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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