The Newsletter of the Carnegie Institution FA L L 2 0 1 4
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CarnegieScience_Fall2014_Layout 1 11/4/14 8:00 AM Page 1 CarnegieScience The Newsletter of the Carnegie Institution FA L L 2 0 1 4 EMBRYOLOGY GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY GLOBAL ECOLOGY THE OBSERVATORIES PLANT BIOLOGY TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM CASE: CARNEGIE ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION On the Inside 6 Sacrificing Eggs for the Greater Good 9 Meat Turns Up the Heat Peru’s Carbon Quantified: 10 Economic & Conservation Boon 12 Two Planets Orbit Ancient Star CarnegieScience_Fall2014_Layout 1 11/4/14 8:00 AM Page 2 CARNEGIE SCIENCE: A Beacon of L Carnegie LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Science Carnegie Institution for Science y first month at Carnegie Science has been full of great 1530 P Street, NW encounters with the scientists and staff at each of the six Washington, D.C. departments and at the P Street headquarters. Every one 20005-1910 of them is carrying on a rich tradition of American 202.387.6400 discovery. I am fortunate to be following in the footsteps www.CarnegieScience.edu of Dick Meserve; no one appreciates more than I how masterfully he guided Carnegie Science through times of President dramatic changes in the scientific enterprise and through Matthew P. Scott a devastating recession.He deserves our deep thanks and certainly has mine for all Director, the help he’s given me. Department of Embryology M Allan C. Spradling The description of Carnegie Science as a beacon of light and hope, from staff scientist Acting Director, Geophysical Laboratory Andrew Steele, exactly captures my own feelings as I join this amazing institution. The George Cody world has much to gain from people who are driven by values of free inquiry, risk- Director, taking, and deep, long-term thinking. Our Carnegie people have a fascination with the Department of Global Ecology history and evolution of the universe, the Earth, and life. Universities are often safe Christopher Field harbors for unfettered exploration, but Andrew Carnegie realized that even more was Acting Director, The Observatories possible by allowing superb scientists to pursue their hopes and dreams with few Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair distractions. He was right. The breadth of amazing discoveries from Carnegie Science John Mulchaey is astonishing: the recognition of DNA as the carrier of genetic information, the Director, expansion of the universe, the jumping genes that control plant pigmentation and Department of Plant Biology Wolf Frommer explain rapid transmission of antibiotic resistance, the dramatically altered properties and behaviors of elements squeezed by the depths of the Earth, the completely new Acting Director, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism mechanisms of gene control, the exoplanets that fill the universe, and many others. Richard Carlson Director, We can and should celebrate that history, but I am even more excited about what lies Administration and Finance ahead. The same social and organizational system of science that led to those Cynthia Allen successes is thriving. Some recently created research institutions strive to emulate Chief Advancement Officer exactly the Carnegian way of doing science: senior scientists who do experiments Rick Sherman and analysis themselves rather than delegating, small groups that vigorously debate Chief Information Officer ideas and approaches, the intellectual synergy of interdisciplinary teams, the Gotthard Sághi-Szabó invention of high technology, limited administrative and committee duties, and less Director, reliance on federal grant systems that sometimes impart short-term goals. Carnegie External Affairs Susanne Garvey scientists have been living this style of work since 1902. And free exploration works. The best way to cope with a brick wall is not to charge at it. The curious child, who Editor Tina McDowell takes a flashlight into the dark shed nearby, will find the ladder. Science Writer Natasha Metzler Hans-Lukas Teuber, a legendary researcher and teacher of psychology at MIT, taught that the most important questions in science are those a child would ask. Where in CarnegieScience_Fall2014_Layout 1 11/4/14 8:00 AM Page 3 f Light and Hope my head are my memories? How do airplanes stay up? Where do later won them a Nobel prize. We purified a gene that codes for a stars come from and what makes them fall down? What makes receptor protein called Patched that becomes located on the waves on the beach? What colors rainbows? Do dogs have surfaces of cells in embryos. When a signaling molecule excreted emotions? Since the world turns, why can't I feel it? Can I live by certain embryo cells comes along and binds to Patched, the forever? Why do I look like my parents, kind of? How come we receiving cell is changed and will divide or change its shape. don't know when earthquakes are coming? Why do I have to However, when the gene is damaged, the signal can’t get through sleep? Can I see dinosaurs somehow? How could ice cream and birth defects occur. This signaling system is one of more than possibly be bad for me? a dozen that work together to control the formation and growth of tissues and organs. Adult scientists frequently have traits of curiosity and enthusiasm reminiscent of a Having the fly gene in hand, we looked for and child exploring the wonders of her world. As found a related mouse gene and then the with children, or the young Darwin exploring corresponding human gene. With help from the world on the Beagle, absence of dogma “TOUCH A friends, we mapped the human gene to a provides freedom to explore. Carnegie Science chromosome location and discovered that is a place where kids of all ages explore, not SCIENTIST inherited birth defects and cancer syndrome was only during the wonderful teaching programs caused by mutations in that chromosome region. of Carnegie Academy for Science Education AND YOU We proved that the syndrome is due to mutations and Math for America, but during the adult that damage the human Patched gene. We then work of the research enterprise itself. found that mutations in Patched are responsible TOUCH A for basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common Exploration science always leads to something human cancer, and medulloblastoma, the most valuable. I heartily disagree with the common CHILD.” common malignant childhood brain tumor. These division of scientific goals into “basic” and discoveries, along with work done in many other “applied.” To make progress, there must be a —Ray Bradbury laboratories, led to the invention of an FDA- way to see and investigate something that was approved drug that is now used for BCC patients not accessible before. Whether they are novel who have metastatic cancer. Thus, studying how tools for engineering and controlling genes, insect bodies form led to a therapy for the most new microscopes, giant telescopes, diamond common human cancers. Who would ever have anvils, or satellites that watch forests from space, Carnegie has predicted such a thing? Imagine proposing to a grants agency always led the way. Our cell phones became a reality because “I want to cure cancer so I’ll go look at fruit fly bodies.” physicists explored properties of materials—an enterprise that continues to have immense potential and is a major feature of At Carnegie Science hundreds of people continue to explore, to Carnegie Science. In fact, the surest way to have dramatic impact follow their own beacons of hope and light. In doing so, they are on medicine, agriculture, and our technological devices is to laying the foundations of innovations in technology, medicine, and pursue intriguing mysteries that have a “handle” to gain entry. agriculture and discovering our own human history in deep time. We are proud that our Carnegie “kids”…are ok. My own experience provides a good example of how pure exploration research leads to useful outcomes. In 1980 I began isolating genes that control the body segmentation pattern of fruit flies, i.e., that striped pattern of segments so visible on the abdomen of a yellow-jacket wasp. The genes had been identified by Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus in work that Matthew Scott, President CarnegieScience_Fall2014_Layout 1 11/4/14 8:00 AM Page 4 4 Image courtesy NASA courtesy Image Image courtesy Robin Kempster Robin courtesy Image Carnegie’s Zhiyong Wang (left) was a coauthor on the study. Center, and U.C.-San Francisco, identified a A brake on this acceleration of new gene novel mechanism by which the strength of expression is necessary to restabilize the cells such an external signal is reduced, or attenu- at a new equilibrium. The research team dis- ated. Their work focuses on the tiny mus- covered a nuclear-localized, bimolecular sig- tard plant used as a model, Arabidopsis. naling configuration by which the braking Signaling attenuation is analogous to the mechanism is directly linked to the accelera- brakes on a car. While acceleration is desir- tor to provide simultaneous acceleration The tiny mustard plant Arabidopsis is used in able, without restraint it can be disastrous. and restraint. laboratories worldwide as a model organism. Cellular signaling triggered by external cues Light signaling in Arabidopsis involves the such as sunlight enables organisms to adapt binding of an activated photoreceptor mole- to the prevailing cule called phytochrome to a transcription conditions. When factor (a switch that controls which genes the organism per- are turned off or on) called PIF. This bind- Beletsky Yuri courtesy Image Putting the Brakes ceives something ing destroys PIF, switching off its target that requires a re- genes. However, the researchers found that on Cellular Signaling sponse, a bucket in imposing PIF’s destruction, phytochrome brigade of chemi- is simultaneously executed, thus reducing cal signals is acti- the incoming light-signaling intensity. A team of researchers studying vated. This signaling is generally very robust “Understanding such molecular mecha- a flowering plant has zeroed in on the at first.