CarnegieScience The Newsletter of the Carnegie Institution SPRING 2015

EMBRYOLOGY „ GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY „ GLOBAL ECOLOGY „ THE OBSERVATORIES „ PLANT BIOLOGY „ TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM „ CASE: CARNEGIE ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION

On the Inside Cosmic Radio Burst: Caught in the Act 8 Gas or Coal: Which Has a Hotter Future? 15 What Plants Do at Night 17 Carnegie LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Science Why Study Extremes?

Hundreds of people enjoyed Doug CARNEGIE INSTITUTION Koshland’s Capital Science Lecture FOR SCIENCE at P Street on February 11, 2015, about how biologists use organisms with special properties to discover fundamental

1530 P STREET, NW aspects of biology that are found in many or all life forms. WASHINGTON, D.C. 2000 5-1910 His own research explores the ability of yeast, a single- 202.38 7.6400 celled fungus, to come back to life after it is dried—no mean feat and yet one that is taken for granted by all of us who President buy packets of dried yeast for making bread (or beer). Matthew P. Scott Doug was a Carnegie Embryology staff member for 20 ——— years before moving to UC-Berkeley to lead a department Director, Department of Embryology Allan C. Spradling there. He credited the genesis of his yeast desiccation work ——— to Carnegie’s freedom to explore. His research is leading to Acting Director, Geophysical Laboratory new ideas about how cells can travel across remote deserts George Cody without canteens. This is far from an academic exercise, ——— since it could be applied to learning how to better dry and Director, Department of Global Ecology Christopher Field recover blood cells, for example, to transform blood transfusion supplies or make seeds, often ——— foodstuffs, last longer. Or maybe single-celled organisms from space traveled to our “shores” Acting Director, The Observatories and survived desiccation. Doug referred to studies of tardigrade desiccation; these little Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair John Mulchaey animals can survive extreme temperatures below and above freezing, and the vacuum of ——— space. As so often happens, studying mysteries of fundamental biology may lead Director, Department of Plant Biology to new ideas for medicine, agriculture, engineering, and life’s origins. Wolf Frommer Biologists often study organisms with exaggerated features. For example, humans with ——— their overgrown frontal cortexes; bats that process sonar information with incredible speed; Director, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Richard Carlson elephant seals who dive to pressures of more than 200 atmospheres; squids with giant ——— neurons to record electrical impulses; flies and salamanders that have giant chromosomes; Director, Administration and Finance moths that detect single molecules of pheromones to find mates; worms and microbes at deep Cynthia Allen sea vents growing happily under enormous temperatures and pressures in seemingly toxic ——— chemicals; chess players who can win 25 games at once, blindfolded; and bacteria that survive Chief Advancement Officer Rick Sherman enormous pressures in the diamond anvils at Carnegie’s Geophysical Laboratory. These ——— organisms are heroes of a sort and tell us that much more is possible than we imagined. Chief Information Officer At Carnegie, developmental biologists, astrobiologists, geologists, chemists, evolution Gotthard Sághi-Szabó scientists, and ecologists share their fascinations with extreme organisms. Almost invariably, ——— Director, External Affairs the extremes are informative about more general properties of life. Giant chromosomes show Susanne Ga rvey the structures of normal chromosomes through a natural magnifying glass. Viruses deep in ——— the Earth suggest ways that genetic information was transferred and changed in ancient Editor times, and the chemistry and physics of extreme environments inform us about origins of Tina McDowell ——— Earth and life forms. In the future, I expect that Carnegie explorers, often with heroic effort, Science Writer will expand their use of natural extremes to obtain extremely interesting insights into Natasha Metzler extremely important aspects of who we are and how things work.

WWW.CARNEGIESCIENCE.EDU Matthew Scott, President 3

Timothy P. Doyle Joins Carnegie as COO

Timothy Doyle, Associate Dean for Finance and CFO for Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has joined Carnegie as Chief Operating Officer. Doyle has a unique blend of experience including complex administrative and financial Craig Barrett Elected organizations, private sector businesses, and most recently the research and education sectors. His to the Carnegie Board diverse financial and operations background spans the areas of strategic leadership, financial systems and controls, budgeting and planning, raig Barrett was elected to the Carnegie Board of and administration efficiency. This expertise is Trustees at the Board’s November meeting. He is combined with strong leadership skills, developed chairman and president of BASIS Schools, Inc., early while serving in the United States Army as an operator of charter schools in Arizona, Texas, a commissioned officer through ROTC. Doyle was then a director with Rand McNally, where and Washington, D.C., and he is a leading advo - C he led a staff of 240 to execute daily production cate for improving education in the United States. operations; he also oversaw capital management, Barrett retired as chairman of Intel Corporation in May 2009 plants assets, and employee development. after serving in a variety of roles there for over thirty-five years. Following the time spent in the military and publishing operations, Doyle moved into the Barrett earned a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D., ence of microstructure on the proper - financial services industry, where he served seven all in materials science, from Stanford ties of materials and wrote a textbook years as Vice President of Financial Operations University between 1957 and 1964. on materials science, The Principles of with Fidelity Investments. He then transitioned After graduation, he joined Stanford Engineering Materials published in 1973. into higher education working at Harvard University’s Department of Materials Barrett is heavily involved with University Press as Chief Financial Officer. Science and Engineering and re - many educational organizations Most recently, he became the Associate Dean mained there until 1974, rising to around the country. He is also vice for Finance and CFO in Harvard’s School of the rank of associate professor. From chair of Science Foundation Arizona Engineering and Applied Sciences. 1964 to 1965 Barrett was a NATO and cochair of the Lawrence Berkeley Doyle received a B.S. in Marketing from Boston Postdoctoral Fellow at the National National Laboratory Advisory Board, College, Carroll School of Management and an Physical Laboratory in the United among his numerous other leadership MBA with a concentration in International Finance Kingdom, and in 1972 he was a and advisory roles with organizations and Operations from Suffolk University, Sawyer Fulbright Fellow at the Technical Uni - across the science, technology, busi - Business School in Boston. „ versity of Denmark. He authored over ness, government, and education forty technical papers about the influ - spectrum. „ Touring the that can withstand changing conditions, TRUSTEES such as drought and salt stress. Geophysical Lab Josh Simon of the Observatories talked NOVEMBER about his research studying the chemistry of MEET 2014 the first stars from some 13 billion years ago he Carnegie Board of Trustees and the role of the Magellan telescopes at met at the Broad Branch Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory. He Road campus, hosted by the explained how the ages of stars can be de - Geophysical Laboratory, on termined by the elements they contain. The November 20. Much of the earliest stars had fewer and lighter elements. first session of the board was T Newer stars create more elements in their an orientation to current re - cores, which are then expelled into space as search at the lab. Anat Shahar talked about the star explodes. He described the search her work with stable isotopes, variations of for old stars in the Milky Way and in nearby elements with different numbers of neu - dwarf galaxies. trons that do not decay into other elements. Yixian Zheng from Embryology spoke She explained how the ratios of these dif - about her team’s finding that the gradual re - ferent isotopes could tell researchers about duction of a protein called lamin-B in the fat the pressure and temperature processes that bodies of aging flies is the culprit behind fat formed planetary interiors and other bodies. body inflammation and the aging of the im - Andrew Steele spoke about his work looking mune system. The results have potentially im - for life elsewhere in the Solar System and an - portant implications for humans (see p. 6). alyzing sources of carbon from samples such Ronald Cohen of the Geophysical Laboratory as meteorites. He also spoke about various discussed his work on solving problems in space missions he has been involved with, materials science and Earth science using so- including the European Space Agency’s called first principles calculations on some of Rosetta comet mission and NASA’s Sample the largest known computers. His predictions Analysis at Mars (SAM) mission. The trustees are substantiated with experiments. broke into groups to tour labs and the high- Geologist Steve Shirey spoke about dia - pressure facility. mond geology to understand Earth’s deep mantle, including aspects of Earth’s evolu - Sampling tion. Small impurities encapsulated in the stones are in preserved form and reveal Science many processes from the past. Finally Chris The second day of the board meetings took Field, director of Global Ecology, talked (Top) Andrew Steele describes some place at the administration building, and it about the acidification of Earth’s oceans and of his work with the Rosetta mission featured more scientific talks. José Dinneny their future. He described how more acidic to trustees on a tour. of Plant Biology spoke about understanding oceans are affecting corals’ ability to make (Bottom) Tim Strobel (far left) how plant root systems sense water, nutri - skeletons and Ken Caldeira’s experiments at compresses water into a different ents, and environmental stresses, particu - One Tree Island of the Great Barrier Reef to form of ice. Carnegie president larly the molecular process, and the new understand the rate of carbonate uptake. Matthew Scott (second from left) techniques his lab has developed. One tech - Carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater, watches the crystal formation on screen as trustees Christopher nique is a custom imaging system to view reducing seawater pH and carbonate con - Stone (second from right) and John root reactions over time. His research is im - centrations, the material necessary for shell Crawford (right) look on. portant for learning how to develop plants and skeleton creation. „

Trustee Emeritus and Laser Inventor Charles Townes Dies Nobel laureate and trustee emeritus Charles enabling or enhancing technology used in surgical Townes died January 27, 2015, at the age of 99. devices, consumer electronics, data encoding, and Townes joined the Carnegie board in 1965, one year communication networks. Townes received 31 honorary after he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Alexander degrees and 38 awards, including the 2006 Vannevar Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov for the development of the Bush Award from the National Science Board—the maser (acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated oversight body of the National Science Foundation— emission of radiation) and its better-known optical counter - and the 2005 Templeton Prize for contributions to “to part, the laser. He was dedicated to Carnegie and remained affirming life’s spiritual dimension.” Townes is survived very active until recently. Townes was a professor emeritus by his wife, Frances; daughters Holly Townes, Linda of physics at UC-Berkeley. Over the last half century, his Rosenwein, Ellen Townes-Anderson, and Carla Kessler; discoveries transformed the way we live our lives, by and six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. „ 5

Tiny Diamonds FORM ULTRATHIN NANOTHREAD A team including Carnegie’s Malcolm Guthrie and George Cody has, for the first (Above) “Diamond nanothreads” time, discovered how to produce ultrathin “diamond nanothreads.” These struc - promise extraordinary properties, including strength and stiffness tures promise extraordinary properties, including strength and stiffness greater than greater than that of today’s that of today’s strongest nanotubes and polymer fibers, and they have an array of po - strongest nanotubes and polymers. tential applications, from fuel-efficient vehicles to the science fictional-sounding space The threads have a structure that elevator. Nature Materials published their work. has never been seen before and differs from diamonds’ normal Benzene is a flat ring-shaped room temperature gave the car - cubic structure. molecule containing six carbon bon atoms the time they needed Image courtesy Vincent Crespi lab, atoms bonded to each other and to react with each other and to the Pennsylvania State University to six hydrogen atoms. During link up in a highly ordered (Left) Malcom Guthrie works with the compression process, the chain of single-file carbon tetra - the Energy Frontier Research in normally flat benzene molecules hedrons, forming these dia - Extreme Environments (EFree) stack together in a dense crys - mond-core nanothreads.” Center headquartered at Carnegie’s talline arrangement. After com - The team is the first to coax Geophysical Laboratory. Image courtesy Malcom Guthrie pression at high pressure, the molecules containing so-called resulting diamond-cored nan - aromatic carbon bonds to form (Below) George Cody, acting othreads are surrounded by a larger-scale molecular structures director of the Geophysical halo of hydrogen atoms. As the in the shape of long, thin nan - Laboratory, is shown in his lab. Image courtesy George Cody The team—led by John researchers slowly release the othreads. The thread’s width is Badding, a chemistry professor pressure, the benzene molecules phenomenally small, only a few at the Pennsylvania State Uni - unexpectedly react with each atoms across, hundreds of thou - versity, and his student Thomas other, forming new carbon-car - sands of times smaller than an Fitzgibbons—used a specialized bon bonds with the carbon con - optical fiber, and more than large-volume high-pressure de - figuration of diamond but 20,000 times smaller than aver - vice to compress benzene up to extending out as a long, thin age human hair. 200,000 times atmospheric nanothread. The team’s discov - The scientists confirmed the pressure. At these enormous ery comes after nearly a century structure of their diamond nan - pressures, benzene sponta - of failed attempts by other labs othreads using a number of neously forms into long, thin to compress separate carbon- advanced techniques. Parts of strands of carbon atoms that are containing molecules, such as these first diamond nanothreads arranged like the fundamental liquid benzene, into an ordered, appear to be somewhat less unit of diamond’s structure— diamond-like nanomaterial. than perfect, so improving their hexagonal rings of carbon “We used the large high-pres - structure is a continuing goal of atoms bonded together—but sure Paris-Edinburgh device at the program, as is figuring out organized in chains rather than Oak Ridge National Laboratory how to make the nanothreads in a full 3-D diamond lattice. to compress a 6-millimeter-wide under more practical and The long polymer threads are amount of benzene—a gigantic larger-scale conditions. Other made up of chains of carbon amount compared with previ - coauthors include Enshi Xu, atoms bonded to each other. ous experiments,” said Guthrie. Vincent Crespi, and Nasim The threads are less than a This research received financial “We discovered that slowly re - Alem of Penn State and Stephen support as part of the Energy Frontier nanometer in diameter, a leasing the pressure after suffi - Davidowski of Arizona State Research in Extreme Environments (EFree) Center and the Energy Frontier never-seen-before structure. cient compression at normal University. „ Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. 6 Carnegie Science | Spring 2015 ACHING AND AGING: Key Age-Related Protein Found

As animals age, their immune is the culprit behind fat body inflammation systems gradually deteriorate, and the resulting hyperplastic gut, all of a process called immunose - which falls under the umbrella of nescence. This is associated with immunosenescence. Lamin-B is systemic inflammation and chronic part of the lamin family of pro - inflammatory disorders, as well as teins, which forms the major with many cancers. The causes un - structural component of the derlying this age-associated in - material that lines the inside of flammation are poorly under - a cell’s nucleus. Lamins have stood. Work from Yixian Zheng’s diverse functions, and they are lab sheds light on one protein’s in - found in an array of tissues and volvement in suppressing immune organs. In humans, diseases responses in aging fruit flies. caused by mutations in lamins are Insects have an organ called the fat called laminopathies and include body, which is roughly equivalent to a premature aging. mammal’s fat and liver. It is responsible for B-type lamins have long been sus - many immune functions. Zheng and her pected to play a role in gene suppression, by team, Carnegie’s Haiyang Chen and Xiaobin Zheng, binding to segments of DNA. The team’s work re - (Above left) The fruit fly found that the fruit fly fat body experiences a great deal vealed that when the fruit fly fat body was depleted of (Drosophila melanogaster) of inflammation in aged flies. lamin-B, the normal suppression of genes involved in the is used extensively in These inflamed fly fat bodies secrete proteins that lead immune response is reversed, just as it would be in re - genetics research as a to a reduction in the immune response of the gut. This re - sponse to bacterial infection or injury, but in this case there model organism. duction causes the gut’s stem cells to undergo excessive di - is no apparent infection or injury. The unsuppressed im - vision and inappropriate differentiation, creating a con - mune response initiates the inflammation and resulting dition called hyperplasia that shares features with the gut hyperplasia. These findings have implications for precancerous polyps found in human guts. mammals as well as for insects, as lamin-B might play an Zheng and her team found that the gradual reduction evolutionary role in suppressing inflammatory genes in a of a protein called lamin-B in the fat bodies of aging flies variety of animal immune organs. „

Yixian Zheng

This image shows a comparison of lamin-B in the fat bodies of 10-day-old (left) and 50-day-old fruit flies. Cell published the Image courtesy Yixian Zheng work in November.

A Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation and the National Institutes of Health supported this work. Carnegie Science | Spring 2015 7

arnegie’s Dionysis cultured them onboard the oceano - Foustoukos wants a graphic research vessel Atlantis . direct view of life The Carnegie team designed ex - functioning in the periments that simulate the extreme extreme conditions conditions of the deep oceans. Us - of the deep ocean, ing the high-pressure bioreactor, as well as of the dis - microorganisms were grown at tribution of life in pressures of nearly 400 times nor - C the deep biosphere. mal atmospheric pressure and tem - He collects mi - peratures as high as 149 degrees croorganisms from submarine volcanoes Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius). and uses novel, shipboard experimental This is the first time that microor - tools and techniques, including a high-pres - ganisms from deep-sea submarine sure bioreactor that was invented at volcanoes have been sampled, trans - Carnegie’s Geophysical Lab, to culture them ferred, and cultured under such at extreme pressures—matching those high-pressure and high-tempera - found four miles deep in the ocean. ture conditions. Foustoukos’ findings offer a detailed look These technological advances, at the biological activity deep below the which allow microbial culturing at ocean’s surface, where life thrives despite conditions resembling those of ex - darkness and a scarcity of nutrients, as well treme environments, shed light on as at the chemistry cycles underlying the the mechanisms that living organ - distribution of those nutrients. His experi - isms use to thrive and function in ments simulate these conditions and the less-extreme terrestrial habitats. continuous flows of seawater along the Through a strongly interdiscipli - oceanic crust, where moving continents nary and multi-institutional research pro - (Top) The unmanned submersible sculpt the sea floor and form volcanoes, gram, Foustoukos’ future work aims to study Jason is deployed from the transferring both energy and raw materials the emergence and evolution of microbial research vehicle Atlantis. Image courtesy Dionysis Foustoukos to the ocean. metabolism on early Earth. In addition, fu - In January 2014 Foustoukos, along with ture industrial applications for his research (Bottom) Ileana Peréz-Rodríguez microbiologist and Carnegie postdoctoral could target the degradation of petroleum and Dionysis Foustoukos repair fellow Ileana Peréz-Rodríguez and under - by deep-dwelling bacteria, as well as the pos - the onboard spectrophotometer. Image courtesy Matt Rawls graduate student Matt Rawls of George Ma - sibility of synthesizing biofuels under the son University, collected microorganisms conditions that mimic Earth’s undersea oil from the volcanoes of the Pacific Ocean and reservoirs. „ Shipboard Lab Mimics Deep-Sea

The research vehicle Atlantis anchored at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Image courtesy Ileana Peréz-Rodríguez

Grants from the National Science Foundation funded this work. 8 Carnegie Science | Spring 2015 This schematic illustration of CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope is receiving the polarized signal from the new fast radio burst. Image courtesy Swinburne Astronomy Productions

COSMIC RADIO BURST Caught in the Act

Fast radio bursts are quick, bursts likely originated far outside of our bright flashes of radio waves galaxy. But the idea was controversial. from an unknown source in The team’s data indicate that the burst space. They are a mysterious phenome - originated up to 5.5 billion light-years away. non that last only a few milliseconds, and This means that the sources of these bursts until now they have not been observed in are extremely bright; they can perhaps be real time. An international team of as - used as a cosmological tool for measuring tronomers, including Carnegie’s John and understanding our universe once we Mulchaey, Mansi Kasliwal, and Yue Shen, come to understand them better. observed a fast radio burst happening live The observations allowed the team to for the first time. rule out some of the previously proposed There is a great deal of scientific interest sources for the bursts, including nearby su - in fast radio bursts, particularly in uncover - pernovae and long gamma-ray bursts. But ing their origin. Only seven fast radio bursts short gamma-ray bursts are still a possibil - have previously been discovered—the first ity. Gamma-ray bursts are high-energy ex - in 2007; all were found retroactively by This is an artist’s conception of a magnetar, neutron plosions that form some of the brightest ce - stars with extremely strong magnetic fields. combing through data from the Parkes ra - lestial events. Long bursts can signify Image courtesy the European Southern Observatory, L. Calçada dio telescope in eastern Australia and the energy released during a supernova and are Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. followed by an afterglow, which emits lower To observe the fast radio burst in real wavelength radiation than the original ex - time, the team mobilized 12 telescopes plosion. Another possibility still on the around the world and in space, including table is distant magnetic neutron stars Carnegie’s Magellan and Swope telescopes. called magnetars. Each telescope followed up on the original An interesting piece of information the burst observation at different wavelengths. team was able to gather about the burst is its Measurements of the interaction between polarization. The orientation of the radio previously detected fast radio burst’s waves indicates that the burst likely origi - flashes and the free electrons their signals nated near or passed through a magnetic encountered in space as they traveled to field, information that can help narrow John Mulchaey Mansi Kasliwal reach us had previously indicated that the down potential sources going forward. „ Images courtesy Tim Neighbors 9 Cell Architecture: Function Follows Form

lant cells contain a divide using a process called mito - dynamic cytoskele - sis, during which duplicate copies ton, which is respon - of the cell’s DNA-containing chro - Psible for directing cell mosomes are separated into two growth, develop - distinct cells. A microtubule scaf - ment, movement, and division. Over fold is crucial for pulling the dupli - Monthly Notices of the time, changes in the cytoskeleton form cated halves of the chromosome Royal Astronomical Society the shape and behavior of cells and, ul - apart and directing them to each of David Ehrhardt published their work. timately, the structure and function of the new daughter cells. Image courtesy Robin Kempster the organism as a whole. Research led There is a major difference be - by Carnegie’s David Ehrhardt homes in tween microtubule-assisted cell divi - The Parkes radio telescope and the (Top) Microtubules, which help Australia Telescope Compact Array are on how one particular organizational sion in plants and animals. In animal part of the Australia Telescope National shape a cell’s architecture Facility, which is funded by the protein influences cytoskeletal and cel - (and yeast) cells, the microtubules as well as the structure and Commonwealth of Australia for lular structure in plants, a finding that that separate chromosomes during function of the organism as a operation as a National Facility and managed by CSIRO. The Australian may have implications for ani mals. cell division are usually organized whole, are composed of the Research Council Centre of Excellence A cell’s cytoskeleton features mi - around a central structure. In plant protein tubulin, which is for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) conducted parts of this research. The crotubules, which consist of a protein cells, the arrays of microtubules lack found in higher plants, Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope called tubulin assembled into long these central hubs. fungi, and animals. (GMRT) is run by the National Centre for Image by George Hodan courtesy Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute tubular polymers. Tubulin and tubu - How microtubules are properly publicdomainpictures.net of Fundamental Research. Research with the Australian National University’s lin-like proteins are old evolutionar - positioned to perform their func - SkyMapper telescope is supported in ily, shared by different lifeforms in - tion without the aid of a central or - (Bottom) Microtubules are part through an Australian Research labeled in red; the green dots Council Discovery Grant. Part of the cluding some bacteria, higher plants, ganizing structure is poorly under - funding for the Gamma-Ray Burst fungi, and animals, and they play stood and is the focus of the team’s are GCP-WD particles. The Optical/Near-Infrared Detector microtubule initiated from a critical roles in how their cells grow research. What they found is that a (GROND) was granted from a Leibniz location marked by GCP-WD. Prize. The Dark Cosmology Centre is and divide. The work from protein called GCP-WD, which supported by the Danish National Image courtesy Ankit Walia Research Foundation. Other support Ehrhardt’s team—which includes plays a key role in the central micro - came from a Curtin Research Fellowship; Exploring the X-ray Carnegie’s Ankit Walia (the lead au - tubule organizational structure in Transient and variable Sky (EXTraS), thor), Masayoshi Nakamura, and mammals, is also crucial in plants. funded from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Dorianne Moss—focuses on micro - GCP-WD is key for positioning the research, technological development, tubule involvement in the growth of formation of individual micro - and demonstration; Hubble Current Biology published Fellowships; a Carnegie-Princeton plant cells after cell division; they dis - tubules in plant cells, and it is im - this work in October. Fellowship; the Arye Dissentshik Career covered a new role for a protein cru - portant for the organization and Development Chair; the Willner Family Leadership Institute; Ilan Gluzman cial for cell division in mammals. function of plant cell skeletons over - (Secaucus, N.J.) the Israeli Ministry of Endowment funds of the Carnegie Science; Israel Science Foundation; The role of microtubules in animal all, beyond just the division process. Institution for Science and a Human NASA’s Minerva project; Weizmann UK; cell division is well understood. Cells „ Frontier Science Program fellowship and the Israeli Centers for Research for a post-doctoral fellow supported Excellence Program (I-CORE). this work. WELCOME

MARGARET MOERCHEN Joins Carnegie as Science Deputy

Astronomer and associate editor of S magazine, cience Margaret Moerchen, was appointed Science Deputy to the President. She will work on new programs for Carnegie Science, strategic planning, scientific reviews of staff and departments, organizing and monitoring ongoing scientific collaborations and teams, and partnerships with other organizations. She will also serve as liaison to all our scientists, increasing contact time between P Street staff and department scientists. At S since 2014, Margaret handled all astronomy cience and planetary science manuscripts. Her interactions with other editors at the journal enhanced her knowledge of other physical sciences including geophysics, climate science, chemistry, materials science, and physics—an excellent intersection for her duties as Science Deputy. Margaret’s work on instrument-building teams at the CARNEGIE world's largest telescopes has required strong leadership, active communication, and collaboration with diverse scientists and engineers. She recently served as a support astronomer at the Very Large Telescope in STANDS Chile, where she led the nightly operation plan of one of its 8-meter telescopes. There, she coordinated an international team and engaged on-call engineers in frequent problem-solving sessions. In a concurrent role as a scientific liaison, she was often called on to explain the mission to visiting officials and represented the OUT! observatory in a popular outreach event, a live webcast for “Around the World in 80 Telescopes,” for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. MARNIE HALPERN ANAT SHAHAR Named AAAS Fellow Awarded the Clarke Award of the Geochemical Society Biologist Marnie Halpern of Embryology was named a Anat Shahar of the Geophys - fellow of the American Asso - ical Laboratory was awarded ciation for the Advancement the Geochemical Society’s F. of Science (AAAS) for her W. Clarke Award. This award “fundamental contributions is given to an early-career to developmental biology, scientist for “a single out - particularly using novel ge - standing contribution to netic approaches to study geochemistry or cosmo - chemistry, published either TIMIA M CCLAIN patterning of the nervous as a single paper or a series Joins Carnegie as Scientific system.” of papers on a single topic.” Programs & Outreach Manager Using the tiny zebrafish, Danio rerio , Halpern Shahar blends high- explores how regional specializations occur within pressure techniques with isotope geochemistry to Timia McClain, in collaboration with other Carnegie the neural tube, the embryonic tissue that develops study interior materials under the extreme condi - scientists, will create and execute scientific into the brain and spinal cord. tions that exist there. Her goal is to understand conferences, lecture series, exhibits, and online how the Earth and other Solar System bodies presentations for scientific advancement and educating the public about science. formed, focusing on the composition and layering McClain recently completed her Ph. D. at UC-San ERIK HAURI history of the Earth’s core and mantle. Diego (UCSD) in chemistry, conducting her thesis work Elected Fellow of the Geochemical on reactive gases in the marine boundary layer of the atmosphere. She was instrumental in developing a Society and European Association SEAN SOLOMON (Top, on left) novel spectrometer used in the field to sample trace of Geochemistry gases in near-real time, looking at the sources and Awarded National fate of the gases and the implications for public health. Medal of Science During her graduate career she was heavily involved Erik Hauri of Terrestrial in external affairs, science education and outreach, Magnetism studies how plan - On November 20, former Terrestrial Magnetism di - and science policy. etary processes affect the McClain served as vice president of external affairs chemistry of the Earth, rector Sean Solomon received the National Medal and the cultural events coordinator in the UCSD Moon and other objects. He of Science from President Obama at a White House Graduate Student Association, valuable experience was made a fellow of both the ceremony “for creative approaches and outstanding for understanding how science and higher education intersect with policy. She served as an NSF graduate Geochemical Society and the contributions to understanding the internal struc - ture and evolution of the Earth, the Moon, and STEM fellow, developing lesson plans and teaching European Association of chemistry to high school students. Those experiences other terrestrial planets and for his leadership and Geochemistry in February. and her outreach activities added to her strong Hauri studies isotopic inspiration of new generations of scientists.” It is communication skills for translating science, and chemical evolution of the nation’s highest scientific honor. across a broad range of topics, to lay audiences. the Earth’s deep interior by modeling the flow and Solomon’s career has been characterized by an melting in deep Earth mantle plumes. He uses high- uncommon combination of science and leadership. pressure experimental petrology and secondary ion He established important new paradigms in the mass spectrometry. Earth and planetary sciences, while simultaneously leading the field of geophysics. 12

Richard Meserve (right) enjoys humorous remarks with the evening’s speaker, friend, and former Secretary of the Smithsonian Wayne Clough.

Trustees Bid Farewell to Richard Meserve

Carnegie president since 2003, guson, and Mike Gellert gave remarks about Right, top to bottom: Richard Meserve Meserve’s legacy, punctuated with humorous Meserve granddaughters are stepped down from entertained by sleights of hand the position in September. The trustees bade anecdotes. The cochairs then introduced a performed by magician Brian Curry him farewell with a recognition celebration on birthday cake and gift representing each area (right) during the cocktail hour. November 20, which happened to coincide of Carnegie science, contributed by the de ------with Meserve’s birthday. His family, friends, partment directors. Former Secretary of the Carnegie Board of Trustees Smithsonian and longtime friend Wayne cochairs Steve Fodor and and many, many colleagues attended the fes - Suzanne Nora Johnson presided tivities. Magician Brian Curry set the tone by Clough was the evening’s speaker. After the over the evening’s program. entertaining guests with sleights of hand dur - talk, the board cochairs announced the cre ------ing the cocktail hour and, later, at the podium ation of the Meserve Public Service Award in Secretary of Energy and longtime with Meserve assisting. After remarks by cur - his honor. The award will be presented annu - friend Ernest Moniz paid tribute to ally to recognize an individual who has made Meserve via video. rent Carnegie president Matthew Scott, board ------cochairs Steve Fodor and Suzanne Nora John - exceptional contributions to science through Carnegie board cochairs introduce son presided over the program. They intro - advancing public understanding of science the birthday cake; Meserve’s duced a video tribute by Secretary of Energy and its role in the betterment of humankind. granddaughters help blow out Ernest Moniz, Meserve’s longtime friend. The evening concluded with Meserve’s re - the candles. During dinner, trustees Rush Holt, Bruce Fer - marks and heartfelt thanks. „ Images courtesy David Keith Carnegie Science | Spring 2015 13

This artist’s conception shows the brown dwarf named WISE J085510.83-071442.5 where Faherty and her team found water ice clouds, the first observed on an object outside of our Solar System.

Water Ice Clouds Found Outside Solar System!

A team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Jacqueline Faherty has discovered the first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System. Water ice clouds exist on our own gas giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—but have not been seen outside of the planets orbiting our Sun until now. At the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, Faherty, along with a team including Carnegie’s Andrew Monson, used the FourStar near-infrared camera to detect the coldest brown dwarf ever characterized. Their findings are the result of combining 151 images taken over three nights. NASA’s Wide-Field In - frared Survey Explorer mission first saw the object, named WISE J085510.83- 071442.5, or W0855; its discovery was published earlier this year. But it was not known if W0855 could be detected by Earth-based facilities until now. Brown dwarfs aren’t quite very small stars, but they aren’t quite giant planets either. They are too small to sustain the hydrogen fusion process that fuels stars. Their temperatures can range from nearly as hot as a star to as cool as a planet, and their masses also range between star-like and giant planet-like. They are of particular interest to scientists because they offer clues to star- formation processes. They also overlap with the temperatures of planets, but they are much easier to study since they are commonly found in isolation. W0855 is the fourth-closest system to our own Sun, practically a next-door neighbor in astronomical distances. A comparison of the team’s near-infrared images of W0855 with models for predicting the atmospheric content of brown dwarfs showed evidence of frozen clouds of sulfide and water. „

The Astrophysical Journal Letters published their Jacqueline Faherty findings.

The Australian Research Council supported this work. The team made use of data from the NASA WISE mission, a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech, funded by NASA. They also made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by JPL and Caltech, under contract with NASA. 14 Carnegie Science | Spring 2015 opment and in cancerous cells. Genes and provide new insight into the epigenetics of Development published their work. cellular development. The way that the molecules that package Using a variety of tools and techniques, a cell’s chromosomes are organized to con - they focused on cells in the fruit fly ovary trol gene activity is known as the cell’s “epi - and were able identify a gene called Lsd1 genetic state.” The epigenetic state is funda - that is needed for ovarian follicle progenitor cientific dogma is often mental to understanding Spradling and cells to mature at their normal rate. The re - overturned. Most de - Lee’s findings. To developmental biologists, searchers found that the amount of the pro - velopmental biologists, changes in this epigenetic state ultimately tein that is encoded by this gene, which is for instance, have as - explain how the cell’s properties are altered present in follicle progenitors, decreases as sumed that young cells, during tissue maturation. the cells approach differentiation. What’s Srecently born from “In short, acquired epigenetic changes in more, changing the levels of Lsd1 protein stem cells and known a developing cell are reminiscent of the could shift the onset of differentiation. They as progenitors, are already competent at in - learned changes the brain undergoes during deduced that differentiation begins when tercommunication with other cells. Not so. childhood,” Spradling explained. “Just as it Lsd1 levels fall below a critical threshold and that this likely corresponds to when genes can be stably expressed. “The timing of differentiation is very im - How Baby Cells portant for normal development,” Lee said. “Differentiation onset determines how many times progenitors divide, and even small per - Learn to Communicate turbations in Lsd1 levels changed the number of follicle cells that were ultimately produced, New research from Carnegie’s Allan remains difficult to map exactly what hap - which reduced ovarian function.” Spradling and postdoctoral fellow Ming-Chia pens in a child’s brain as it learns, it is still Previously, it was thought that the follicle Lee shows that infant cells have to go through very difficult to accurately measure epige - cell progenitors started to differentiate based a developmental process involving specific netic changes during cellular development. on an external signal they received from an - genes before they can take part in the group Not enough cells can usually be obtained other kind of ovarian cell known as germ interactions that underlie normal cellular de - that are at precisely the same stage for sci - cells. Lee and Spradling found that while this velopment and smooth functioning. The ex - entists to map specific molecules at specific germ cell signal was essential, it was already istence of a childhood state where cells cannot chromosomal locations.” being regularly sent even before the progeni - communicate fully has potentially important Lee and Spradling took advantage of the tors responded. Instead, it was the Lsd1-me - implications for our understanding of how unsurpassed genetic tools available in the diated change in their epigenetic state that gene activity changes during normal devel - fruit fly to overcome these obstacles and timed when progenitor cells started to re - spond to the signal and began differentiating. Once they become competent, however, dif - ferentiating follicle cells communicate exten - sively with their neighbors, and continue to do so throughout their lives. As is frequently the case, the molecules and mechanisms studied here are found in most multicellular animals, so the researchers’ con - clusions are likely to apply broadly through - out the animal kingdom, including in humans. In addition to the importance of this re - search for understanding how animal chro - mosomes change during normal develop - ment, it may also help clarify alterations in the epigenetic state that take place in some cancers. A minority of cells in such cancers (Left) This micrograph shows fruit fly begins to express high levels of Lsd1 and to ovarian follicle progenitor cells. behave like undifferentiated progenitors. Different colors mark a specific kind of “Studying fruit fly follicle cell differentia - activity (red), specific gene expression (green), and nuclear DNA (blue). tion can teach us at a deeper level what Lsd1 Image courtesy Ming-Chia Lee is doing in both normal and cancerous progenitors,” Lee added. „ (Above) Allan Spradling has been the department director since 1994.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded this work in part. The top chart shows a 15 comparison of temperature increases between the best natural gas plant and the typical coal plant. The bottom chart shows a comparison of temperature increases between the typical natural gas plant and the typical coal plant. Images courtesy Ken Caldeira

(Above) This natural gas plant was converted from coal in Moss Landing, California. Image courtesy Carnegie President Matthew Scott

(Below, left) Ken Caldeira GAS OR Image courtesy Robin Kempster Which Has a COAL: Hotter Future?

There is an ongoing debate among people concerned with power perature change caused by the benefit to shutting down the plants and the future of energy policy and greenhouse gas emis - carbon dioxide and methane re - coal plant instead of the natural sions. Does it makes sense to replace old coal-fired power plants leased by a particular plant. gas plant, the team found. But if with new natural gas power plants today, as a bridge to a longer-term They found that because methane leakage were greater transition toward near zero-emission technologies such as solar, natural gas plants are overall than 2 percent, there would be wind, or nuclear power? A key issue in considering the decision has more efficient than coal plants, less warming in the near term if been the potential climate effects of natural gas versus coal. producing more energy per the natural gas plant were shut unit of carbon, they could down instead of the coal plant. New research plants with new natural gas cause less warming in the long Regardless, the team empha - from Carnegie’s plants could cause climate term. However, it all depends sized that meeting upcoming Ken Caldeira and damage to increase over the on the amount of methane greenhouse gas emission targets Xiaochun Zhang next decades. leakage that occurs. Natural will require deeper emissions and Intellectual The research team aimed to gas plants that leak a substan - cuts than just building natural Ventures’ Nathan identify the key factors that are tial amount of methane dur - gas plants with low methane Myhrvold com - responsible for most of the dif - ing their supply process can leakage. If natural gas is to be a pared the temper - ference in greenhouse gas emis - produce more warming than part of a future near-zero emis - ature increases caused by dif - sions between individual gas comparable coal plants. sion energy economy, methods ferent kinds of coal and and coal plants. The key factors, If faced with the choice of for capturing and storing car - natural gas power plants. They they found, are power plant effi - shutting down either a typical bon from gas-fired power plants found that, unless the methane ciency and, in the case of natu - coal plant or a typical gas plant, will likely be necessary. „ leakage rates of natural gas ral gas plants, methane leakage and methane leakage from the plants are very low and the during the supply process. They natural gas plant is below about plants are very efficient, re - used these factors to derive a 2 percent of total fuel, there Environmental Research placing old coal-fired power simple model for resulting tem - would be a short-term climate Letters published their work in December. Asteroid A NASA Planetary Astronomy grant funded this research. Chadwick Trujillo is supported in part by the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., on behalf of the international Gemini partnership of Reclassified Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom (U.K.), and the U.S. This research used the facilities of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre operated by the National Research Council of Canada with the support of After Tail the Canadian Space Agency. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5- meter Magellan telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. This project used data obtained with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which was constructed by the Dark Energy Discovered Survey (DES) collaborating institutions: Argonne National Laboratory; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Cambridge; Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, A faint tail can be seen in active asteroid 62412. Medioambientales y Tecnologicas, Image courtesy Scott Sheppard Madrid; University of Chicago; University College London; DES-Brazil consortium; University of Edinburgh; ETH Zurich; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Institut de Ciencies de l’Espai; Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat; University of Michigan; National Optical Astronomy Observatory; University of Nottingham; Ohio State University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Portsmouth; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Stanford University; University of Sussex; and Texas A&M University. The U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation (NSF), Spain’s Ministry of Education and Science, the U.K.’s Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Higher Education Funding Council, Sheppard and Trujillo discovered an unexpected National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Kavli Institute for tail on 62412, an object believed for over a decade Cosmological Physics, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Fundacao Carlos to be a typical asteroid. Their findings reclassified Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa, 62412 as an active asteroid. The reasons for the loss Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico and the of material and subsequent tail in active asteroids Ministerio da Ciencia e Tecnologia (Brazil), the German Research are unknown, although there are several theories Foundation-sponsored cluster of such as recent impacts or sublimation from solid excellence “Origin and Structure of the Universe,” and the DES-collaborating A institutions provided funding for DES, two-person team of to gas of exposed ices. Sheppard and Trujillo were including DECam. Observations were Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo able to make their discovery because of the depth partly obtained at Cerro Tololo Inter- of the Gemini Observatory has discovered a new American Observatory and the National of their survey. Optical Astronomy Observatory, which active asteroid called 62412 in the Solar System’s Discoveries such as this one are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. can help researchers determine under contract with NSF. Active asteroids are a newly recognized phe - the processes that cause some nomenon. 62412 is only the 13th known active asteroids to become active. They asteroid in the main asteroid belt, and it is the found that 62412 has a very fast first comet-like object seen in the Hygiea family rotation that likely shifts mate - of asteroids. Based on their discovery, Sheppard rial around its surface. The tail and Trujillo estimate that there are likely about may be created by material 100 active asteroids in the main asteroid belt. ejected off the fast rotating nu - In the past asteroids were thought to be mostly cleus or by ice within the aster - unchanging objects, but an improved ability to oid subliming into water vapor Scott Sheppard observe them has allowed scientists to discover after being freshly exposed on Image courtesy Scott Sheppard tails and comas, the thin envelope of an atmos - the surface. They also found phere that surrounds a comet’s nucleus, on them. 62412’s density is typical of primitive asteroids Like other asteroids, active asteroids have stable and not consistent with the much lower-density orbits between Mars and Jupiter. However, un - comets. Further monitoring of this unusual object like other asteroids, active asteroids sometimes will help confirm the activity’s source. have the appearance of comets, when dust or gas Sheppard presented these findings at the Amer - is ejected from their surfaces to create a sporadic ican Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary tail effect. Sciences meeting in November. „ 17

The aquatic, single-celled alga Chlamydomonas propels itself through the water with flagella, shown in green. The cells are stained with fluorescent dye. Image courtesy Arthur Grossman WHAT PLANTS DO AT NIGHT

curring. When this happens, tial to dark, low-oxygen fer - work, especially if we are going some organisms such as the mentation in Chlamydomonas . to understand the ways in single-cell alga Chlamy - The pathways are dependent which the day-night cycle and domonas are able to generate on four proteins—PAT1, environmental oxygen levels cellular energy from the break - PAT2, ACK1, and ACK2. impact the productivity of down of sugars without taking ACK1 and PAT2 are located photosynthetic organisms on up oxygen. They do this using in a part of the plant cell called our planet,” Grossman added. a variety of fermentation path - the chloroplast, which is the „ ways, similar to those used by compartment where photo - yeast to create alcohol. Many synthesis takes place. ACK2 of the details regarding this and PAT1 are located in the low-oxygen energy creation mitochondria, the organelle in process are poorly understood. plant and animal cells where Plants need New work from a team in - sugar breakdown takes place. cluding Carnegie’s Wenqiang “Surprisingly, we found that light, right? Yang and Arthur Grossman, in the chloroplast pathway is The process of converting light collaboration with Matt Pose - much more critical than the energy into food, photosynthe - witz at the Colorado School of mitochondrial pathway for sis, is probably the most well Mines, homes in on the bio - sustaining fermentation me - known aspect of plant bio - chemical pathways underlying tabolism, even though gener - chemistry. Photosynthesis en - the special flexibility of ating energy from the breaking ables plants, algae, and certain Chlamydomonas in respond - down of sugars is generally bacteria to transform sunlight’s ing to zero- and low-oxygen considered a mitochondrial energy into chemical energy conditions. Other Carnegie process,” Grossman said. (sugars and starches, and oils coauthors include Claudia What’s more, they found that and proteins, too); it involves Catalanotti, Tyler Wittkopp, although the PAT- and ACK- taking in carbon dioxide and Luke Mackinder, and Martin controlled pathways are indeed Carnegie’s Arthur Grossman releasing oxygen extracted Jonikas. The Plant Cell pub - crucial to generating energy un - (above left) and Wenqian Yang (above) were among the from water molecules. During lished the work. der these conditions, and to coauthors on the study. the night photosynthetic or - In an arduous and exacting producing an important Images courtesy Robin Kempster ganisms undertake other bio - step-by-step process, the team metabolite called acetate, there chemical reactions: They gener - used a series of specially cre - appear to be other undiscov - ate energy by breaking down the ated mutants to determine the ered biochemical pathways that

sugars and starches they stored importance of two identical are participating in this process Chemical Sciences, Geosciences during the day. branches of the fermentation as well, which are capable of and Biosciences Division, Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences, Cells often face low-oxygen pathway that are located in dif - picking up at least some of the U.S. Department of Energy grants; a National Science Foundation conditions at night, when ferent compartments in the slack in the system. Award; and the South Carolina cell, both believed to be essen - Experiment Station funded this there’s no photosynthesis oc - “The system needs more work. It is designated as technical contribution of the Clemson University Experiment Station. The team emphasized that exploration, cattle ranching, the low cost of their project oil palm plantations, and gold means that the same approach mining,” Asner said. “The good can be used in any country to news is that our high-resolution support national and interna - mapping was able to identify tional commitments to reduce three strategies for offsetting and offset carbon emissions. these upcoming emissions.” Proceedings of the National The team determined that Academy of Sciences published there are opportunities to es - their findings. tablish additional protected ar - Many of the geographic de - eas in some lowland Amazon - tails about the carbon that’s ian regions of Peru, where they stored in tropical forest ecosys - found very high carbon densi - tems remain unknown. Details ties, as well as in the so-called on which areas would make the submontane region, which ex - best targets for protection are ists between the lowland Ama - necessary for conservationists. zonian and the Andean high - This means understanding each lands. Together the lowland landscape’s climate, topography, Amazonian and submontane geology, and hydrology. forests offer about 74 million Using advanced 3-D forest acres (30 million hectares) for Breakthrough in Preserving mapping data provided by the potential, new protected Carnegie Airborne Observatory forests, which may be able to Carbon Stocks (CAO), integrated with satellite store close to 3 billion metric imaging data, the team was able tons of carbon. to create a map of carbon den - “Research is necessary to de - Carnegie’s Greg Asner’s team developed a new high-resolution ap - sity throughout the 317 million- termine the exact state of our proach that can prioritize carbon conservation efforts throughout acre (128 million-hectare) forests,” stated Manuel Pulgar- tropical countries. The new high-resolution mapping system has re - country of Peru, at a resolution vealed billions of tons of carbon in Peruvian forests that can be pre - of 2.5 acres—one hectare. served to sequester carbon stocks in the fight against climate change. “We found that nearly a bil - Tropical forests convert more carbon from the atmosphere into biomass lion metric tons of above - than any other terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. However, when land is ground carbon stocks in Peru disturbed by agriculture, as a wood source, or for mining, carbon is are at imminent risk for emis - released into the atmosphere; this annually accounts for about 10 sion into the atmosphere due percent of the world’s carbon emissions. to land uses such as fossil fuel

The team’s approach com - (Above) An image from the bines satellite and geographic Peru-wide, high-resolution information data, with Light carbon map shows the effects of deforestation on a Detection and Ranging (Li - more local level. The colors DAR) and field plot calibra - range from blue, where there is tions. The information is no more carbon remaining, to red, modeled to develop maps of a region of ultra-high carbon stocks aboveground carbon density. in the surrounding forest. Massive losses are apparent in the bustling This schematic shows LiDAR city of Pucallpa on the bottom and in data being collected by the the thousands of small farms spreading Carnegie Airborne Observa - into the forest. tory. The system sends out laser pulses. The laser light (Right) Carnegie and Peruvian researchers quantified the carbon stocks throughout interacts with the foliage be - the entire country of Peru, shown here. low and then returns to an Red is highest carbon, dark blue lowest. onboard sensor. The return - Images courtesy Greg Asner ing light allows the vertical (Far right) Greg Asner is working on the distribution of the canopy to fixed-wing Carnegie Airborne Observatory. be measured. Image courtesy Robin Kempster Image courtesy Greg Asner Carnegie Science | Spring 2015 19 Vidal, Peru’s Minister of Envi - ronment. “For that, the Carnegie Institution, with the support of the Peruvian Envi - ronment Ministry, has devel - Solar-Friendly oped the first high-resolution map of Peru’s carbon stocks. Silicon Shines This new map provides the evi - dence needed to start negotiat - ing in the carbon market at a Silicon is the second most abundant element in bigger scale. Our government is the Earth’s crust. When purified, it takes on a di - amond structure, which is essential to modern also studying carbon stocks in electronic devices. Carbon is to biology as silicon the soil and is doing a forest in - is to technology. A team of Carnegie scientists led ventory, and we have a forest by Timothy Strobel synthesized an entirely new investment program. These ini - form of silicon, one that promises many future tiatives will better prepare us to applications. face changes in land use.” Although silicon is incredibly common in to - The team also asserted that day’s technology, its so-called indirect band gap semiconducting prop - there are further opportunities erties prevent it from being considered for next-generation, high-ef - for offsetting future emissions ficiency applications such as light-emitting diodes, higher-performance by improving enforcement in transistors, and certain photovoltaic devices. areas that are already desig - Metallic substances conduct electrical current easily, whereas in - sulating (non-metallic) materials conduct no current at all. Semi - nated for carbon stock protec - conducting materials exhibit mid-range electrical conductivity. tion. According to their re - When semiconducting materials are subjected to an input of a spe - search, the majority of already cific energy, bound electrons can move to higher-energy, conduct - protected carbon stocks exist ing states. The specific energy required to make this jump to the con - only in 10 parks and reserves, ducting state is defined as the “band gap.” While direct band gap and just four of these are fully materials can effectively absorb and emit light, indirect band gap enforced. materials, such as diamond-structured silicon, cannot. For silicon to “Transitioning partially pro - become more attractive for use in new technology, its indirect band tected preserves to fully pro - gap needed to be altered. tected ones would help to The team, which also included Carnegie’s Duck Young Kim, counterbalance a great deal of Stevce Stefanoski, and Oleksandr Kurakevych (now at the Sor - bonne), was able to synthesize a new form of silicon with a quasi- the carbon that is expected to direct band gap that falls within the desired range for solar absorp - be lost due to land use in the (Top) A view through the tion, something that had never before been achieved. near future,” Asner said. channels of Si 24 . This new The silicon they created is a so-called allotrope, which means it is a Other suggested measures zeolite-type allotrope of different physical form of the same element, in the same way that di - include reducing forest distur - silicon has an open amonds and graphite are both forms of carbon. Unlike the conven - framework comprised of bances that occur in the wake tional diamond structure, this new silicon allotrope consists of an open 5-, 6-, and 8-membered of logging and oil operations. sp3-bonded silicon rings. framework called a zeolite-type Reduced-impact logging and Image courtesy Timothy Strobel structure, which is comprised of restricting road access to areas channels with five-, six-, and Nature Materials published where oil is being extracted Small atoms like sodium eight-membered silicon rings. their work in November. (yellow) and lithium (green), could make a major difference They created the allotrope us - and potentially molecules ing a novel high-pressure pre - to the net carbon emissions like water (red), can readily cursor process. First, a com - DARPA and the Energy Frontier from the country. „ diffuse through the channels pound of silicon and sodium, Research in Extreme Environments (EFree), an Energy Frontier Research of Si 24 . Possible applications Na Si , was formed under high- Center funded by the U.S. of this ability include 4 24 pressure conditions. Next, this Department of Energy (DOE), Office electrical energy storage and of Science, supported this work. molecular-scale filtering. compound was recovered to am - Portions of the work were performed at the High Pressure Collaborative An interinstitutional working Image courtesy Duck Young Kim bient pressure, and then heated Access Team (HPCAT) at the agreement between the Carnegie Advanced Photon Source, Argonne Department of Global Ecology and under a vacuum to completely National Laboratory. HPCAT the Dirección General de (Above right) Tim Strobel remove the sodium. The result - operations are supported by the Ordenamiento Territorial, Peruvian Image courtesy Natasha Metzler DOE’s National Nuclear Security Ministry of the Environment, made ing pure silicon allotrope Si has 24 Administration and Basic Energy this study possible. The John D. and the ideal band gap for solar en - Sciences, with partial funding by the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation National Science Foundation. The funded this study. Avatar Alliance ergy conversion technology and Advanced Photon Source is a DOE Foundation, Grantham Foundation Office of Science User Facility for the Protection of the can absorb, and potentially emit, operated for the DOE by Argonne Environment, John D. and Catherine light far more effectively than National Laboratory. The WDC T. MacArthur Foundation, Gordon Research Fund supported, in part, X- and Betty Moore Foundation, W. M. conventional diamond-struc - ray diffraction studies performed at Keck Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill tured silicon. „ the Geophysical Laboratory. Some Foundation, Mary Anne Nyburg experiments were performed at the Baker and Leonard Baker, Jr., and ID06 beamline at the European William R. Hearst III support the Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Carnegie Airborne Observatory. 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