SCOPEScope RESEARCH AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ISSUE #1 / 2020

Enterprising Tech To Boldly Go Where No University Has Gone Before ABSTRACTING ART Hard tissue samples can reveal the beauty of patterns in nature, such as the stormy interior of the anomalous wisdom tooth root seen here. Find out more on page 32. Illustration by Tim McDonagh ON THECOVER: Illustration by Tim McDonagh IBS, andmore voices withbiofeedback, CBT for Seuss’s Lorax, training trans Divining theinspiration for Dr. 3 safe for theirown microbiomes Abu Dhabiare makingthewater Colonies ofcoral offthe coast of 2 DISTILLATIONS ZOOM IN SENIOR VPFOR UNIVERSITY RELATIONS ANDPUBLICAFFAIRS Lynne P. Brown VICEPROVOST FOR RESEARCHStacie Grossman BloomASSISTANT VPOFCOMMUNICATIONS JasonHollander No responsibility willbeaccepted for unsolicited manuscriptsandartwork. Bylined articlesreflect theviewpoints ofwriters andare not to be construed as expression ofofficial university policy. beams, andaspace-ready with theHolodeck,tractor anything ispossible leads program uncovers aheap of knowledge aboutNew NYU sets phasers to stun We Don’t Know Garbage Island Garbage Research Unit,believing to revolutionary science Star Trek Tech The Discard Studies Don’t Know In theHard Tissue York City’s trash What We Is Here submarine 30 26 EDITOR INCHIEF Renée DesignStudios, Alfuso DESIGNB&G bgdesignstudios.com FACT CHECKER Logan OrlandoCOPY EDITOR HeidiErnst Scope istheannualresearch magazineofNew York University. Email:[email protected]. Contents copyright 2019. All rights reserved. 18 Contents

disorders treating memoryandcognitive shows strong potential for A neuroscience breakthrough 14 HYPOTHESIS are dumberthanwe think computers, gadgets, andgizmos A data journalist explains why our 12 QUESTION

together to banish pollution Why countries must band 34 ZOOM OUT human touch high-tech analysis lacks:the art installation illustrates what An environmental engineer’s 16 EXPERIMENT

other funstuff bubble master onfluidfilmsand Our resident math whizturned 40 THESCIENCE BEHIND... firefighters, and first responders help surgical-implant patients, together to create new tools to Bright mindsputtheirheads 35 THINKTANK

SCOPE 2020 18

1 ZOOM IN

STAYING ALIVE Discovering that coral along the Abu Dhabi coast can alter their surroundings to help recruit healthy microbi- omes and keep parasitic microbes at bay has given Shady Amin hope for the future. “Even though with increasing ocean temperature we’re seeing a lot of corals dying, hopefully there will be corals that will be resistant,” says Amin, assistant professor of biology at NYU Abu Dhabi. “If we understand the types of molecules corals need to maintain a healthy surface microbiome, we may be able to predict when diseases and bleaching occur and perhaps even prevent them.” Courtesy of Dr. Seuss Enterprises; opposite page: IngredientsPhoto/iStock and mustached. Even thedescription ofthevoice tion fortheLorax,” hesays. “Theyboth are orange plausible thatthepatasmonkey was theinspira- provided toaddsupporttheideathatitis out thatthe“machineclassification was really were eitherblueor patas monkey. Highampoints database. Whenthesoftware was run,theresults outreach aboutpatasmonkeys andconservation.” recalls. “An opportunitytodosomeengaging it was afunandinteresting pieceofhistory,” he he created thatprovided theevidence. “Ithought it was thefacial-recognition database ofprimates resemblance totheregion’s whistling thornacacia. as even hisbeloved Truffula Trees beara striking eco-warrior mightbebasedonthepatasmonkey— haired, mustachioed buzzkill/soothsayer/ which ledtospeculationthatthetitularorange- written in1970 whileGeiselwas visitingKenya, professor ofanthropology. The primatologist James Higham,associate travels—according toarecent study by babies were rooted inreality—and hisown flooper-do surprise,atleast someofhisbrain Although itmay comeasasuper-zooper- stories withdelightful nonsense.Ordidhe? As Dr. Seuss, TheodorGeiselpopulatedhis Software! Facial-Recognition I Speakforthe I AmtheLorax, Higham added an image of the Lorax into his oftheLoraxintohis Higham addedanimage After theideacametoattention ofHigham, was Lorax was

Grinch!” personality, I’d probably beclassifiedasthe recognition,” based on Highamjokes, “but iverse twin? “Iamnot sure aboutfacial Does every specieshave aparallelSeuss- to beinformative. And thought-provoking: not meanttobedefinitive, theyare meant the patasmonkey.” Whiletheresults are of theLoraxsoundslike thealarmcallof Scope 2020 —Rory Evans SCOPE 2020 3 4 compound USb the uranium It incorporates at faster speeds. use less energy abling themto nologies, en- storage tech- enhance data the potential to magnet that has of singlet-based ered anew kind Wray hasdiscov Physicist Andrew MAGNETS MIGHTIER USb out ofexistence. fields popinand whose magnetic than uranium. less radioactive material that’s magnetism ina singlet-based to replicate Figuring outhow The next step? north andsouth. have amagnetic itself, always ing theEarth magnets, includ- Wray—all other conflicted,” says “internally NYU.EDU/SCOPE D 2 seems seems 2 - , easier. InMcAllister’s proof-of-concept study, she it takes significanteffortanda lot ofpractice.” McAllister. “Ifyou want theway tochange you talk, entire life. “Speech isa habitual behavior,” says thewaychange you’ve beendoingsomething your can beastrickyitsounds;it’s nosmalltask to resonating frequencies onthevocal tracks.” Which bands,” shesays. “You have tomake adjustments to cally feminine, there are characteristic frequency frequency. “To make atranswoman soundauthenti- voice). Butthekey toauthenticity isactually in talk like this”(shesays, withadeep, gruff,billy-goat “andmen (she makes hervoice high andsingsong) issue. People [thinkit’s] pitch.Women talklike this” Associate Professor Tara McAllister. Intervention Technology forSpeechLab, ledby research from theSteinhardt School’s Biofeedback through isnot thework oftheFab 5. It’s theresult of female andmatchesheridentity. Butthisbreak has eludedher—an authenticvoice thatsounds woman achieves theoneaspectoffemininitythat reveals onanepisodeofQueerEye : atransgender The results soundlike oneofthosehappy-ending Pitch Perfect Visual-acoustic biofeedbackmakes practice Trans voice, McAllister says, “isacomplicated - own practice.” around withthewave display, theycanuseitintheir sound, soit’s not optimal. Butiftheywant toplay developed forkids,” McAllister says. “[It’s] fortheR “I’ve hadafew transwomen askaboutanappI biofeedback, butforhomeuse.Inthemeantime, eventually creating anappthatgives thesame visual and in thelab(witheightto10weeks oftraining) start—she andKawitzky foresee longer-termstudy perceived tobemore feminine. speech withhigherresonant frequencies was indeed more consistent withfemale talkers,” shesays. The know ifoutsidelisteners would hearitassounding sounded typically maleorfemale.“We wanted to listeners they’d recruited andasked ifthevoices match atarget,” shesays. Thenresearchers calledin display oftheiracoustic signalandwere ableto they were abletolearnhow tointerpret thisvisual speakers. “Training was brief,maybe anhour, but frequencies akintothoseofcisgender female monitor. Thenthespeakers were given target the acoustic signal oftheirresonant frequencies ona women speakingintoamicrophone, letting themsee and coauthorDeannaKawitzky recorded trans McAllister allows thatthisresearch isjust the —Rory Evans

Illustration by Raul Arias Illustration by Richard Mia at homefor IBS. can practice CBT app sopeople developing an step could be toms.” The next reduce symp- to control and can be‘trained’ ate symptoms, it the gutto gener brain influences but “becausethe logical inorigin, IBS aspsycho- doesn’t thinkof Jaccard says he syndrome (IBS). table bowel refractory irri- treatment for promising effective and (CBT) isan ioral therapy cognitive behav has found that James Jaccard work professor body. Social heal thehuman the ability to much—including is capableofso The humanmind YOUR GUT KNOW ITIN - - are caregivers forchildren andfamily members). safety concerns(andanother $100forwomen who median increase of$26to$50amonth dueto extra moneywomen spendtogetaround—a can endupcosting money. It’s thePinkTax—the uncomfortable, personalsafety andpeaceofmind Because female-identifyingridersfeelunsafe or by theNYU RudinCenterforTransportation. It addsupfinancially, according toa recent survey also groping, lewd comments, andlecherous gazes. mances, andmanspreading. Butforwomen, there’s encounters delays, crowds, “showtime!” perfor City, thetollfarexceeds thefare. Everyone For many women ridingpublictransitinNew York Taken foraRide - some formofharassmentortheft. interestingly thesame thatexperienced percentage 75 percent offor-hire vehicle andtaxiriders, it’s just 8percent). Women make upabout take public transportationlateatnight(formen, 47 percent ofmen)and29percent ofwomen don’t experienced harassmentortheft(compared with The survey foundthat75percent ofwomen have of work. Iwanted toquantifyit,” says Kaufman. women dealingwithharassmentevery day, outside aside from thesehigh-profile cases, there were ment hadbeenpickingupsteam, butIknew that Associate Director SarahKaufman. “Themove- The survey was inspired by #MeToo, says Rudin SUBJECT —Rory Evans SCOPE 2020

D 5 6 blank screen. viewers at homewere leftwitha patible withblack-and-white sets, CBS’s color system wasn’t com- department stores—but because program inauditoriums and watched thehourlongvariety shown below). Thousands ning tricolor disc(like theone color wheelsystem withaspin- June 25,1951, onCBS,usinga aired at 4:30 p.m. onMonday, color broadcast inTV history The first large-scale commercial NYU.EDU/SCOPE D Education, and Human Education, andHuman School ofCulture, tion at theSteinhardt culture, andcommunica - professor of media, Susan Murray, associate (Duke University Press) by the bookBright Signals complex—as chronicled in color television ismore of Oz.Butthereal story of Technicolor landscape door andsteps into the when Dorothy opensthat the transition was like relatively smooth—that white to color TV was the switch from black-and- pace, you might thinkthat and updates at adizzying screens get new features At atimewhenour TV’s True Colors Development. It’s a tale of fits and tale offitsand starts, and starts, and advances

of 1956.” resounding industrial flop television “the most nevertheless calledcolor and advertisers, Time attempts to entice viewers to match. Despite such and red heldpoodlesdyed what else?—green, blue, pattern girls”dressed in— inside known as“test convention, whilemodels sets parked outsidethe loaded with1,000 color over thecity. Trucks air andcolor ontheair” planes wrote “Color inthe in Chicago, andskywriting broadcasters convention coincided withanational sales. The marketing push television andpromote widen thereach ofcolor events inaneffort to “spectrum spectacular” Chicago heldaseriesof that NBCandWNBQin in 1928, itwasn’t until 1956 demonstrated inEngland transmission was Although thefirst color CONVENTIONS COLORFUL of color, on-screen andoff. perceive thefullspectrum influenced how we affected visualculture and framing how ithas colorful history, while marked television’s traces thechallengesthat and manage.” Murray challenging to stabilize cumbersome, and expensive, technologically the start . . .considered too deemed impractical from Murray writes. “Itwas television was ahard sell,” our livingrooms. “Color TV to make itsway into how longittook for color especially surprisingis and setbacks. What’s

—Ellen Morrissey we are.” thousand milesandthere that something? Ten color. . . . Look at that! Isn’t “There istheEarthin Walter Cronkite exclaimed, Narrating thelive footage, fathomless black.” a background ofcold and green, andbrown against streaked withblue, white, Earth describedasa“ball travelogue ever,” withthe “the highest color Hartford Courant calledit was seenonTV, the color footage ofApollo10 interest. When thefirst groundswell ofpublic and generated a black-and-white cameras) crews were equippedwith mission in1969 (earlier program ontheApollo10 vital partofthespace Color television becamea FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE for thevery first time. full color, nearlyallofthem themselves on-screen, in where peoplecould see the center was thespot the most popularpartof cameras onevery corner, sticks andsecurity before thedays ofselfie exhibits orfood. Long or waited inlinefor visitors whilethey relaxed capture theattention of sets were placed to hundreds ofRCAcolor TV Across thefairgrounds, of promotional initiatives. performances, andahost of demos,celebrity complete withafulllineup Communications Center, the Color Television New York City featured The 1964World’s Fair in A SELFIESCREEN ALL THEWORLD’S

© National Museums Scotland James Steinberg (top); Benedetto Cristofani (bottom) “really, really smart,” thegirls selectedmore boys. However, whenthekidswere instructed tochooseteammateswhowere and girlschosefrom theirown gender, apracticeknown as“in-group bias.” 5to7werechildren aged asked toselectteammates foragame.Initially, boys IQ”or“naturalintelligence.”jobs requiring “high Inaseparateexperiment, same). Asaresult, nomatter whomade thereferral, menwere suggested for tently favored menwhenasked toconsiderintellectual ability(mendidthe bias isnot Intheexperiments, determined orage. by gender women consis- where brilliance isviewed as the key to success.” Most surprising isthat gender ments suggestthatwomen andgirlsmay still encounterbiasincircumstances “despite theirachievements intheclassroom andtheworkplace, ourexperi and musicalcomposition. fields,evident inso-calledgenius includingphysics, economics, philosophy, insult toinjury, thispervasive biasagainst women andgirlsisparticularly perceive intellectualability, almost everyone seesmalesassmarter. Adding tendtoagree ononething:whenitcomesto howfemales ofallages we toarecent studyAccording publishedinAmerican Psychologist , malesand Gender Bias Genius and In thestudy, associateprofessor ofpsychology Andrei Cimpianfoundthat —Ellen Morrissey - SYNAPSE DECISION consumer habits. like addiction, oreconomic, like making, whether they’re disordered, behaviors closelytiedto decision can now helpresearchers understand where andhow thisprocess happens the lateral prefrontal cortex. Knowing into actions inthelower section of subjective decisionsare translated has discovered for thefirst timethat cognitive sciences at NYUShanghai, assistant professor ofneural and away? A team ledby Xinying Cai, fresh stuff from aplace five blocks the store downstairs instead ofthe into choosingstale groceries from Which region ofthebrain prods us a choice to acting onadecision? How doourbrains gofrom weighing —Abhimanyu Das SCOPE 2020 D 7 8 mens,” Burlesonsays. higher-quality speci- surfacing may result in preserve DNAbefore depth. “Beingableto sensitive samplesat the habitat to process and geologists could use archaeologists, biologists, pressure change, so suffer when exposed a to Some scientific samples TRUER SCIENCE creatures. film—elusive sea eventually capture on them to wait out—and dry space could enable wildlife observation. The longer, deeperdives for natural historians make lets videographers and Quite simply, thehabitat BETTER SHOTS pics to Instagram. party—and uploadtheir an underwater tea stop for asnack—or even would bealltoo happy to says. Lots oftourists Reef,”Barrier Burleson habitats alongtheGreat scuba to aseriesof daylong tour where you breaks. “Imaginea caves sodivers cantake deepwater wrecks or up habitats near Tour companies could set COOLER VACAYS oxygen masks.Andfor itsrange ofuses,itseemsthesky—or outer space—is the limit. Ocean Space Habitat, aportable, inflatable shelter where divers can relax andbreathe withouttheir of Nursing, andMichaelLombardi, aNational Geographic explorer, developed andpatented the trolled rate—or riskgetting “the bends.” SoWinslow Burleson,associate professor at NYU’s College during theirascent to thesurface to let absorbedgasesrelease from theirbody’s tissues at acon In scuba,what goesdown must come upslowly: divers must make aseriesofdecompression stops DEEP THOUGHTS NYU.EDU/SCOPE D —Catherine Hong visual! Martian, you know the says. Ifyou’ve seenThe a windstorm,” Burleson planetary surface during an astronaut ona cally beusedto protect or itcould “hypotheti- shelter floating inspace, be usedasatemporary habitat could potentially tested, theportable Though ithasn’tbeen POP-UP INTERPLANETARY costs for suchwork. technical footprint and could alsoreduce the portable andinflatable, it Ocean Space Habitat is tunnels. Butbecausethe pipelines, cables,and repairing underwater habitats whenbuildingor already useunderwater Construction crews CHEAPER BUILDS rescues. complicated underwater they might helpinsimilar easy to move anddeploy, Because thehabitats are ter cave inThailand? stranded inanunderwa- of theboys soccer team harrowing rescue in2018 Who could forget the SAFER RESCUES -

© M. Lombardi 2012, courtesy National Geographic Waitt Grants Program Only D

of complaints5.7% against the Chicago Police % Department are of complaints1.9 by black Chicagoans were adjudicated sustained, compared with and sustained 20% for white complainants Black complainants were Controlling for % less41 likely to file an incident, officer, and affidavit after neighborhood, black submitting a Chicagoans were complaint 87% less likely to have their complaints sustained

Racial Disparity by the Numbers

Math doesn’t lie. Armed with data from tive means, so he crunched the numbers are “a very old American story of policing the Invisible Institute’s Citizens Police for his paper “Complaining While Black: communities of color versus protecting Data Project, Jacob Faber, assistant Racial Disparities in the Adjudication of white communities. I’m glad that we’re professor of sociology and public service Complaints Against the Police.” The able to show it in an, unfortunately, at the Wagner Graduate School of Public results were shocking: less than 2 percent dramatic way. That’s one thing that the Service, wanted to drill down deeper to of complaints by African Americans were math allows you to do—establish patterns see how complaints against the Chicago sustained, while almost 20 percent of of behavior.” Faber’s hope is that “this kind Police Department were being adjudi- complaints by whites were. According to of building knowledge is a way to affect cated. Faber’s training is to use quantita- Faber, racial disparities in such instances change.” —Nancie Clare

SCOPE 2020 9 10 exactly thatfrom happening. ing attheTandon toprevent School ofEngineering,isleadingthecharge part couldresult inadisastrous airplanecrash. could causeafatalheartattack orstroke; aflawed counterfeitjet engine opportunistic hackers could bedeadly formany: a faultyfake aorticvalve intellectual-property thieves, andcounterfeiters. Butsuccessforafew $12 billionby theendof2019. doing so, theyhave builtasectorthatanalysts expect willbeworth awhopping necklaces, prosthetic limbs, criticalturbineengineblades, andmore. And in rely onthree-dimensional printingtomake products includingplatinum In industries rangingfrom jewelry tomedicineaerospace, manufacturers the Fakers Foiling D “How do you create security inthesehardware heasks. parts?” “How doyou Nikhil Gupta, anassociateprofessor ofaerospace andmechanical engineer That’s alot ofmoney—enough tobetantalizingprofiteering hackers, NYU.EDU/SCOPE

- same themeofsecurityandtrustworthiness.” design isintactorhasbeentampered with. an appthatcanscanthecodeandreveal ifthe design filesintoaudiothatcanthenbe readby codes written intothem. graduates tryingtohackobjectswith3-DQR guard against them,Gupta hasagroup ofunder weaknesses inhisown innovation andways to andconstantlyto cybersecurity searching for intellectual property totake toarival company. coworkers whomay becomedisgruntled andsteal says Gupta—not hackers, orcounterfeiters, oreven by falsefacesofcodethatcreate decoys. read andunderstood; hackers willbemisdirected know how toorienttheobjectsoitscodecan be the layers oftheitem.Only trusted end userswill codes tobebroken upanddispersedthroughout during printing,Gupta’s teamdevised away forthe get theirtrust from thepartitself.” somewherehas thepartshouldbeabletogo and certification process insucha way thatwhoever patent forthistechnology. “You create aself- inside your part,” says Gupta, whohasappliedfora scan, anultrasound,orMRI. code isonly readable by theenduserwithaCT cannot copy whattheycannot see.Thesecurity then hidethecodefrom thenaked eye. Hackers object iscompleted, additionallayers ofmaterial metal, apolymer, orsomeother substance. Asthe used tomake theobject,whether that’s aprecious form builtintothelayers ofthematerialbeing developed istoconvert theflatQRcodeintoa3-D on anairplaneorconcertticket. Thesolutionthey codes andQuickResponse(QR)codes, like those about mistrust?” create trust inanindustry thatisfundamentally —Sara Ivry “It’s adifferent project,” he says,“but it’s the Next, Gupta isinvestigating how toconvert Mindful ofthecat-and-mouseelementinherent “The ideahere isthatyou don’t trust anybody,” To furtherensure thatthecodesremain secure “You just have alltheinformationencoded Gupta’s teamhasananswer onbar thathinges

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Illustration by Dan Page Nagaiets/iStock updated Forsythe’s videos of extrapolation. Yin platform that requires alot though it’s limited by a modern dancers even still partofthecanonfor Technologies CD-ROM— 1999 rapher William Forsythe’s to expand uponchoreog- modern dance. Yin sought aid to improvisational movement practice and So shedesigneda interactive technologies. underserved by existing but Yin felt that dance was with musicandvisualarts, already widelyintertwined (NEA). Interactive mediais Endowment for theArts grant from theNational that hasearnedhera provoking visualartform ultramodern, thought- projections—creating an and interactive floor combines choreography teacher’s research munications Program The Interactive Telecom- time dancingwithlight. Mimi Yin spendsalotof Dance theLightFantastic Improvisation direction. What happens on thefloorintheir moving, shiftthespaces and then,once they start certain amount oftime dancers to stand still for a logic might wait for the the light. For instance, one choices onhow to project coded logicto make a computer appliesa dancers’ movements, and above thestage tracks the A camera suspended How ItWorks projections reveals itself. choreography andthe a relationship between the also move. Asyou watch, dividing line, thespaces and away from the the two spaces, andupto move withinandbetween red andblack.Asdancers black andwhite, say, or divided into two colors— Imagine afloor starkly What ItLooks Like easier for dancers to use. technology, makingthem with 21st-century mirror.” likea asprungflooror “another tool for dancers, dance studios—becoming commonplace aspect in could someday bea sees it,thetechnology class,” Yin says. Asshe part ofherimprovisation projected ontheflooras animated visualgraphics exercises usingsimple Pamela Pietro to develop Arts dance professor] with [Tisch Schoolofthe departments. “I’mworking toolkit for dance material into aninteractive grant to rework this Yin isnow usingherNEA How ItWill BeUsed like aconversation. the projection) feels much also improvise basedon of predefined steps but (who notonlyfollow aset own) andthedancers and make decisionsonits respond to thedancers (which iscoded to between thesoftware during aperformance —Lisa Arbetter in healthcare dothisevery day.” trying tohelpsomeoneout,” he says. “Thoseofus he couldnever have foreseen it.“Iwas simply and thestory madeheadlinesaround theglobe— McGuinness appeared onGoodMorning America, As forthephenomenonthishasbecome—heand very well withappropriate treatment,” Voigt says. Now ayear later, “Iamhappy tosay sheisdoing her own doctors, thediagnosiswas thyroid cancer. Just asVoigt suspected,whenshe got checked by McGuinness ofMorehead City, North Carolina. Nicole’s family,” herecalls. Thewoman was Nicole “magically, itwas seenby someonewhoknows and hopeit’s benign.#beachfrontbargainhunt.” gram andfineneedlebiopsy. I wonder ifsheknows left thyroid mass,” hewrote. “She needsasono- watching aTVshow andnotice thiswoman hasa Facebook, posting aphoto from theepisode.“Iam with thisknowledge was impossible,sohetookto problem andmightnot know it.” Just sitting tight and my gutinstinct mademefeelasifshehada “The massinherneckstruck my eye immediately recalls ofthewoman only identified asNicole. thyroid canceronawoman shoppingfor ahome. Beachfront Bargain Hunt onHGTV, hediagnosed memorable evening when,relaxing withalittle head injuriesorlost teeth. There was alsothat teammates andopposingteammemberswith playing icehockey, hehashelpednumerous at awedding (whilewearing atuxedo). Andwhile the clock.There was thattimeheperformedCPR expertise hasbeentappedwhenhe’s very faroff commitment,” Voigt says. Indeed,hismedical still adoctor. “It’s not a9-to-5 job, it’s alife moment tocutloose.Buteven whilerelaxing, he’s busy otolaryngologist findsaspare andsurgeon ball andRollerbladesinhiscar, just incasethe NYU Langone’s ErichVoigt always keeps asoccer EAGLE EYE,MD The post was shared, andinabouttwo weeks, “There was asubtleinherneck,” bulge he —Rory Evans SCOPE 2020 D 11 QUESTION By Lauren Mechling / Portrait by Kate Lord

the one people had been telling them- selves. When you use computational Do Alexa and Siri tools, you can challenge conventional Really Know Best? wisdom and you can find more insights. One of the main themes of your book is Journalism professor—and former computer scientist—Meredith how feelings and nuance tend to get Broussard explains why you shouldn’t put your faith in the lost in a society that over-relies on superiority of machines technology. It’s important to remember that both qualitative and quantitative factors We follow routes our phones plot for us. We read news stories generated by computers. matter. For instance: you can’t write a We have Jetsons-style fantasies of getting into our own little hovercraft bubbles and program that measures love, but love being whisked off to work during a very relaxing commute. And we often do so without matters greatly in the world. We make so much as a nanosecond of doubt or misgiving. knuckleheaded mistakes and we end up But our blind faith in the superiority of our gizmos, gadgets, and computers gets discriminating. When we attribute too (rightfully) rattled in Meredith Broussard’s engaging and often alarming book, Artificial much agency to a dumb machine, we Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World (MIT Press). Diving into the make a worse world. troubles with things such as AI software and driverless cars, she illuminates how the machines we revere are often glitch-riddled—and even stupid. A computer scientist and One of your chapters focuses on the journalist, Broussard has worked as a software developer at AT&T Bell Labs and the inefficacy and danger of self-driving MIT Media Lab, and she is now an affiliate faculty member at the NYU Center for Data cars. Why has our society become so Science and an associate professor at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. obsessed with them? It’s an enchanting idea. People have been talking about flying cars since at least the I was fascinated to read in your book known discipline, I switched over 1950s—it’s probably keyed into our fanta- that the AP uses computers to write because it allows me to do journalism sies of space travel and our visions of some of its articles about sports and and computer science simultaneously. what the future would look like. It’s really business. important not to get too carried away The branch of AI being used here is What does “data journalism” mean? with these old-fashioned visions of the called natural language generation. It’s It’s the practice of finding stories in future and trying to make science fiction really cool, but it doesn’t do as much as numbers and using numbers to tell real. Self-driving cars don’t work as well people imagine. It’s not thinking; it’s stories. The story that kicked off the as marketers would like people to more like Mad Libs. field—the first time the tools of quantita- believe. For example, GPS technology tive social science were applied to doesn’t operate on the Z axis, so self- Your background is in both computer journalism—was a [Detroit Free Press] driving cars can move around a flat plane, science and journalism? story by Philip Meyer in 1968. There was but can’t automatically navigate a I studied computer science and English a race riot in Detroit, and he performed a multistory parking garage. as an undergraduate at Harvard, and I survey of people who were involved in started out as a computer scientist. I the riot. By analyzing the results on a How severe do you think our mania for couldn’t hack the sexism in the field, so mainframe computer, he found that the technology has become? I left to become a journalist. Journalism people who participated in the riots came We need more computational literacy is a much friendlier place to be female. from varied social classes—which gave a overall, and we should make careful Once data journalism became a well- different story to tell about the riots than choices about when it is appropriate to

12 NYU.EDU/SCOPE use computers and when it isn’t. It turns software, for example, we’re more my book. I love building things, and it’s out, human interaction is something we vulnerable to being hacked. Paper ballots thrilling how human ingenuity can take need—look at people in solitary confine- might seem like a pain, but they are much care of so many mundane tasks. But we ment, they go crazy from a lack of social harder to hack. need to be judicious. interaction. People think they love the Watch Broussard discuss the idea of technology that replaces a lot of And what is the good side of MORE ON THE human interaction, but a totally friction- technology? unintelligence of AI at WEB nyu.edu/scope/broussard less world is dangerous. In election I love technology—that’s the first line in

SCOPE 2020 13 HYPOTHESIS By Jenny Comita / Illustration by Adrià Fruitós

age-related memory loss; in mice, IGF2 reversed many deficits associated with Gray Matters Alzheimer’s. Benefits go beyond memory improvement: Alberini saw a reversal of Neuroscientist Cristina Alberini is charting the course for future cognitive and motor symptoms, as well as cures, while nursing professor Abraham “Ab” Brody improves a drop in repetitive behaviors, all current care for dementia patients associated with Angelman syndrome. What these diseases have in common, she explains, is an overaccumulation of Imagine an injection that reverses brain. Alberini and her team discovered proteins in neurons, preventing the brain Alzheimer’s, a nasal spray that stops that by increasing levels of IGF2 in rats from functioning properly. IGF2 is like autism, or a pill preventing the debilita- immediately after teaching them the brain’s cleanup crew, and because it tion of certain genetic syndromes. It’s not something new, the rats learned faster mops up the whole range of proteins— wishful thinking; it’s the work going on in and memories of what they learned were not just a specific protein built up by a Cristina Alberini’s lab at the NYU Center more persistent. specific disease—it has the potential to for Neural Science. That discovery made big news back in treat a wide range of disorders. Alberini has studied the biological 2011, but for Alberini, creating super- Still, considerable research is needed molecular mechanisms of memory and powered minds is less interesting than before clinical testing—and Alberini is learning for three decades. Early in her currently looking for investors to fund career, she says, brain science was so the necessary studies. “I don’t really underdeveloped that—despite her know how long this is going to take,” she fascination with the biological basis of Insulin-like growth factor 2 says, when asked about getting IGF2 to human behavior—she got discouraged patients. “First we want to be safe, but I and decided to study immunology. But is a tiny protein with huge hope we aren’t going to delay too much. “the brain kept calling me back,” she says, potential for how a host of Because if it works, it’s going to be really and in the early ’90s, she returned to it. brain disorders are treated. great.” That, to be sure, is an under- Driven by the belief that “we are what statement. we learn and what we remember,” In the meantime, another NYU Alberini began determining how exactly, repairing damaged brains. “It’s great to researcher is working to improve the on a molecular level, the brain stores and be able to enhance normal memory— lives of those currently suffering from retrieves long-term memories. She everyone wants to be able to work less dementia. Abraham “Ab” Brody (CAS started with sea snails. “There was and learn more,” she says. “But the most ’02), associate director of NYU’s literally nothing known, so using very exciting use for IGF2 would be in Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, simple systems was the way to go,” she treating memory and cognitive disor- recently received a $6.1 million grant says. Mice and rats followed, with which ders.” She and her collaborators are from the National Institute on Aging to Alberini and her team focused on insulin- looking into applications for Alzheimer’s, fund studies of his Aliviado program, like growth factor 2 (IGF2), a tiny Parkinson’s, and autism, with Alberini’s which educates caregivers about how protein with huge potential for how a current focus being on Angelman best to address the harrowing and often host of brain disorders are treated. syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that difficult-to-manage symptoms of the “In the most basic terms,” says causes intellectual and physical disabili- disease. Alberini, “IGF2 is a potent memory ties as well as seizures. “Aliviado means ‘relief’ in both enhancer.” The peptide, involved with The results in the lab have been Spanish and Portuguese, and this sums both learning and long-term memory extremely promising. Rats treated with up the program’s goal: relief for the storage, exists naturally in the human IGF2 saw significant alleviation of patient and caregiver, and an overall

14 NYU.EDU/SCOPE improvement in quality of life,” says [treating patients], and they were can be met—rather than overmedicating Brody, who is also an associate professor frustrated because they didn’t have the them or lashing out in frustration at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing. knowledge they needed.” themselves. “Unlike in my role as a nurse It was while treating dementia patients Currently, Aliviado is working with practitioner at the medical center, I’m as a nurse practitioner that Brody saw home health and hospice agencies, and not touching patients directly,” says the need for the program. “I realized Brody hopes to soon expand the program Brody, “but it’s a force multiplier. The there was a real lack of understanding of to nursing homes. The major goal, he idea that I can help thousands of how to work through and understand says, is helping clinicians understand the clinicians and therefore potentially pain and behavioral symptoms,” he says. causes of patients pushing back, hundreds of thousands of patients over “I would talk with clinicians from home screaming out, or otherwise resisting my lifetime to get better care, that’s both health and hospice agencies when I was care so that patients’ underlying needs my vision and my drive.”

SCOPE 2020 15 EXPERIMENT By Jenny Comita

of Farman being correct about the ozone makes clear, blind faith in machine The Art of Unintended wisdom can be a dangerous state of affairs—and one that Brain dramatically Consequences demonstrates with Deep Swamp. For the work, Brain recreated wetlands What happens when you let artificial intelligence full of local plant species in three alone determine the fate of wetland gardens? oversized aquariums. Each tank was Hint: it doesn’t end well assigned an artificial intelligence system that controlled conditions including light, water levels, nutrients, and With Deep Swamp, the provocative three guys with a clunky old meter humidity, and each had unique photo experimental art installation by Tandon question the best technology money input parameters that continually School of Engineering artist/environ- could buy? informed how the AIs chose to adjust mental engineer Tega Brain, comes the But the NASA computers, it turns out, their environments. The first AI system, question: How much faith should we put were programmed in such a way that any dubbed Hans, was fed thousands of in the wisdom of machines? To under- readings that strayed too far from photographs of wetlands culled from the stand that question and Brain’s installa- expectation were seen as outliers and internet and instructed to keep his tank tion, it helps to know the story of how the looking as similar to those images as ozone hole was discovered—or, to be possible. Meanwhile, his virtual col- more accurate, how it almost wasn’t. league Harrison—apparently a highly In the early 1980s, Joseph Farman, a One of Tega Brain’s goals is “to cultured guy—was trained on images of British scientist who’d been conducting landscape paintings from the history of research in Antarctica for decades, was counter the loud voices com- Western art. Finally, Nicholas—an AI for measuring atmospheric ozone with a ing from Silicon Valley,” where the Instagram age if there ever was one— not-particularly-sophisticated device companies are aggressively was designed simply to optimize called a Dobson spectrophotometer pushing to integrate AI into attention. “Whenever there were a lot of when he noticed a precipitous falloff— environmental research. people around,” says Brain, “Nicholas around 40 percent—in the readings. The would reinforce those settings.” In short, decrease was so drastic that Farman was the AIs were deliberately, almost convinced that his machine was broken. considered unreliable. “Basically,” says comically, single-minded, resulting in But a new meter provided even more Brain, “the ozone hole had been written mini-environments that were, by the end startling results, and Farman spent the off as a sensor error because whoever had of the show, a bit of a mess. next couple of years painstakingly programmed that satellite had assumed And in that mess lies her point: AIs are researching the alarming phenomenon. there was no way ozone levels could drop only as good as they’re trained to think, Finally, in 1985, Farman and two 40 percent. And this sort of thing and the humans training them inevitably collaborators published their findings in happens all the time. A lot of assump- have their own viewpoints and biases. a top scientific journal—and were almost tions go into how we build computational Deep Swamp “is not about demonstrating laughed out of the scientific establish- models, but their version of reality what the tech can do, but trying to ment. Why? Because NASA satellites had becomes really compelling because approach it from a more critical perspec- also been monitoring ozone levels—using computers can collect data on a scale that tive,” explains Brain, who says one of her much more advanced sensors coupled humans can’t. The result is that we tend goals is “to counter the loud voices with high-tech computer analyses—and to believe machines more than we do coming from Silicon Valley,” where had found no such problem. How could human observation.” Which, as the story companies like Microsoft and Planet

16 NYU.EDU/SCOPE Courtesy of Tega Brain when you seecompanieslike Google and problematic,” shesays. “It’s most obvious decision making,andthatcanbe hugely social, there’s anattempt toautomate “In alot offieldsthatare inherently judicial system, andpredictive policing. incorporated intosocialservices, the computational modelinghave been problems thathave arisenwhenAIand to ecology. Brainpointstothemany biased technology isinnoway exclusive and management. integrate AIintoenvironmental research Labs are aggressively pushingto The issueofoverreliance oninherently Art Center. at Shanghai’s Chronus Swamp, whichdebuted A tankfrom Deep Simulator)—a website thatforwards pieces like theGoodLife(Enron York, where shebegan tocollaborateon in artschoolandeventually cametoNew shift herprofessional focus. Sheenrolled environmental engineerinAustralia, to Brain, whostarted hercareer asan we’retechnical tothechallenges facing.” more responses thataren’t necessarily another There have algorithm. tobe we can’t necessarily fixthemwithjust really deeppoliticalconsequencesand producedthe technologieshave they’ve YouTube struggling tounderstand that It was thatrealization thatcaused of other thingstoo.” need culturalandpoliticalwill and alot “We needtechnology absolutely, butwe have questions,” toaskbigger shesays. situation thatwe’re facing,we’re to going address thevery, very dire environmental began to seethatinorder tosuccessfully description more neatly thanmost. “I engineering,” andherAIpiecefitsthat technology collidewithart,as“eccentric hybrid practice,inwhich scienceand based solely onscent.Braindescribesher and SmellDating,amatchmakingservice available emailsfrom Enron archives— willing participantsall500,000 publicly SCOPE 2020 17 STAR TREK TECH IS HERE (250 YEARS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE)

t’s been 50 years since the Starship Enterprise ended its original 79-episode run across our massive, rounded, and mostly remote-free TVs. And yet, in 2019 we’re still not us- ing transporters to beam us up wherever we want to go. No warp speed, either. Nor are we gleaning wisdom from any ultralogical, pointy-eared extraterrestrials. Granted, Star Trek was set in the 23rd century—so we do have some time to catch up. Mean- while, we can raise our hands in a Vulcan salute to the many NYU researchers who are helping to transform the science fiction of the past into 21st-century reality. For instance, there’s an NYU Holodeck, though so far it bears only passing resemblance to those aboard Starfleet ships. There is a working tractor beam. (Ditto). And other members of the NYU commu- nity are reaching for the stars—and moons. May they live long and prosper.

BY LINDSY VAN GELDER ILLUSTRATION BY TIM MCDONAGH

18 NYU.EDU/SCOPE

“BEAM ME UP,

along the line [of the beam] like they were supposed to, the particles ended off in one corner,” Grier recalls. “We were bummed, because SCOTTY” our experiment wasn’t working, and so we sat down and tried to understand these forces.” But beyond being bummed out, he and HOW A FAILED EXPERIMENT IN THE his colleagues also realized that they’d stumbled upon something LAB LED TO A SCI-FI-INSPIRED interesting—even something they’d seen before, if only on TV. “One PHYSICS BREAKTHROUGH of the reasons we were inspired to follow up is that the first time the particle moved the wrong way up the beam and we were perplexed, the first thing we said to each other is, ‘It’s a tractor beam, just like Star Trek,’ ” says Grier. “Star Trek had primed our minds to be ready for it.” avid Grier didn’t set out to invent a Star Trek It ultimately dawned on them that if particles were going off in tractor beam, that famous graviton carpet of the “wrong” direction, their motion could be manipulated by light that can reel in a giant spaceship as if it changing the shape of the hologram into a curlicue instead of a were a fish on the end of a line. straight line. “Our first one looked like a Fritos corn chip,” Grier Back in the early ’90s, Grier, professor of admits, but eventually a Slinky-like helix shape emerged as the physics and director of the Center for Soft Matter winner. “It doesn’t look like any beam of light you’ve ever seen. It’s Research, did postgraduate work at Bell Labs in New Jersey, where like a twisted coil of brightness,” he says. “In theory, the beam goes he met Nobel Prize winner Arthur Ashkin, inventor of optical on forever, and that means that [anything that is trapped in it] will tweezers, a technique that uses the power of a laser beam to pick up be pulled upstream in the wrong direction forever. And that’s a a microscopic object. (The approach held promise for data tractor beam.” processing and signal processing—of particular interest to AT&T, The beauty—and the irony—is that the concept marries two very which owned Bell Labs.) simple things, he adds: consumer electronics and “a basic principle Grier continued to work with optical tweezers after leaving Bell that’s taught in every high school physics class,” Newton’s third law Labs, but as his research interests expanded, he realized he needed of motion, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. to trap more than one micro-scopic particle at a time. Studying the “We use holograms to create bizarre-looking beams of light whose concepts of attraction and repulsion, he says, “I needed dozens, intricate structure ensures that objects always scatter the light’s maybe hundreds, of traps to assemble lots of things into interesting momentum into the downstream direction,” Grier explains. structures that hopefully would reveal some of nature’s organizing “Because momentum is conserved—Newton’s third law—the object principles.” recoils in the upstream direction so that its ‘backward’ momentum He and his graduate student, Eric Dufresne (now at Yale), came cancels the extra ‘forward’ momentum imparted to the light. . . . We up with the idea of using a computer-generated hologram rather were lucky enough to have gone through the right sequence of than a single beam of light. Their initial attempts entailed some mistakes that this revealed itself to us.” decidedly humble supplies: “We started out with a plastic hologram Today the tractor beam physically exists on an optical table that we bought for five bucks from the back of the American Science & Surplus catalogue. It was one of those things where you shine your laser pointer through it, and you get Your Company Logo Here. And hey, presto, it worked.” Hoping that they were onto DAVID GRIER REALIZED THAT HIS a technique that could have applications in medical diagnostics and TEAM HAD STUMBLED UPON SOME- other commercial areas, they continued to experiment with THING THEY’D SEEN BEFORE, IF ONLY different shapes of holograms and their effect on groups of ON TV: “STAR TREK HAD PRIMED OUR microscopic particles. But then a crucial experiment failed. “Instead of drifting nicely MINDS TO BE READY FOR IT.”

20 NYU.EDU/SCOPE several feet away from the person who is controlling it with points But you don’t feel the light show. So the idea is to develop new and clicks, and it can pick up micrometer-scale objects. Even techniques of acoustic holography and imaging so that we can though it’s still far from ready to slurp up a spacecraft, Captain shape sound fields to take advantage of everything we’ve learned Kirk–style, NASA is interested in its potential to gather up comet about light fields.” He envisions devices that could assemble dust, ice crystals, and other particles in space. components, do environmental sampling, or handle dangerous Grier, meanwhile, is continuing his research into beams that materials at a distance. It might sound like the stuff of sci-fi, but in can haul things—although he has expanded his focus. “Sound the immortal words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard: “Things are only travels slower than light, which means that it packs a million impossible until they’re not.” times more punch per watt. That means bigger objects, more

force,” he says. For the layperson, he likens it to music: “When you MORE ON THE Take a look inside the lab with a real-life

Illustration by Ivan Canu Ivan by Illustration go to a club, you can feel the sound—boom! boom!—in your chest. WEB tractor beam at nyu.edu/scope/star-trek

SCOPE 2020 21 “MAKE the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences; the Rory Meyers College of Nursing; the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; and the Tandon School of Engineering. Each Holodeck faculty member “brings a different flavor,” says IT SO” Perlin, and collaborations are common. His group’s focus at the NYU Future Reality Lab “is asking what extended reality will be in IF YOU CAN IMAGINE IT, the future, when it’s just reality. [Music associate professor of music THE HOLODECK CAN TURN IT technology] Agnieszka Roginska’s group is focused on spatial audio. INTO A (VIRTUAL) REALITY Jan Plass’s group is interested in how to assess these things, because they’re cognitive scientists. R. Luke DuBois [associate professor of integrated digital media] is interested in assistive technologies and artistic performance. Win Burleson is interested n Star Trek, the Holodeck was an R&R playpen in health applications and education. Claudio Silva [professor of where the Enterprise crew went to unwind in computer science and engineering] is interested in applying these virtual reality worlds, from sports to travel. future technologies to urban planning. What we have in common is The NYU Holodeck experience—developed that we are building together an instrument—a combination of through an interdisciplinary collaboration— hardware and software—that allows us to look into the future.” usually involves goggles and headsets that The most Holodecky projects (that is, the most authentically connect to augmented or virtual reality, and it often like Star Trek) are those that plunge participants into full-on includes fun and games. But unlike its eponym’s inspiration, the immersive VR. “We can be in The Lord of the Rings’ Shire, we can NYU Holodeck is primarily educational. In fact, Winslow be on Tatooine, we can be in Hogwarts, we can be robots on the Burleson, associate professor of nursing, has called it “the moon, or we can be shrunk down to the size of a cell and doing classroom of the future.” microsurgery, whatever the application is,” says Perlin. One project For instance, Jan Plass, the Paulette Goddard Professor in had audiences following a rabbit down an Alice in Wonderland hole Digital Media and Learning Sciences, used motion capture and then shrinking to mushroom size. (Roginska’s group orches- technology to create a set of four VR Magic Bongo drums designed trated all the sounds—like raindrops and cricket chirps—to resize to teach kids the rewards of impulse control: When kids correctly accordingly, and to sound the way they would in “real” reality, follow instructions about a drumming sequence, the trees in the depending on one’s distance from the noise source.) forest around them light up; when they don’t, the forest darkens. Last year, Perlin’s group put on another VR production about a Plass also collaborated with Ken Perlin, professor of computer young woman in 10,000 BC. As she tells her spirit ancestors—that science, to create an augmented reality learning simulation for is, the audience—about her journey to become a shaman, animated middle school science students who work together to assemble the drawings dance on the cave walls and a woolly mammoth lumbers nucleus, mitochondria, and other components of plant and animal by. In addition to screenings at academic computer graphics cells. These and other Holodeck educational games “not only venues, Cave hit the art circuit, including the Tribeca Film Festival. measure learning outcomes,” says Plass; they also use sensors to A new augmented reality production from Perlin’s team, Mary and gauge “learners’ emotional response to virtual and augmented the Monster, debuted this past summer. It transports participants reality.” The immediate result? The kids’ educators get real-time into the year 1816, when Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, her fiancé feedback on how to teach better. Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others were trapped indoors by Now in the third year of a five-year project funded by a horrible weather caused by the previous year’s eruption of the $2.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation (with Tambora volcano, half a world away. To pass the time, the group another $1.2 million from NYU), the physical Holodeck is spread competed at writing ghost stories, and Godwin’s tale of a mad around three different locations (two in Manhattan and one in scientist named Frankenstein blew the rest of them out of the Brooklyn). It also operates under the auspices of four NYU schools: frozen ash cloud. The AR production has a cast of five and brings

22 NYU.EDU/SCOPE the audience into Lord Byron’s literary drawing room as well as other stress indicators of the test-takers, to determine which Dr. Frankenstein’s lab. scenarios are most exciting or most nerve-racking. But Holodeck projects don’t necessarily involve every bell and “The Holodeck is a telescope into the future,” says Perlin. As whistle in the toolkit, says Burleson. The group’s expertise in sensor such, staying ahead of the present curve is essentially part of the job usage recently attracted the attention of Yale’s School of Medicine, description. In 2014, when the group had not yet received its grant, and the two universities are now jointly training Yale medical he and DuBois bought a $50,000 motion-capture lab in order to students in a project with no augmented or virtual reality. Instead, create what were then cutting-edge wireless VR headsets, which students perform emergency care on a lifelike robot, who, for allowed users to walk around freely and see each other as accu- instance, has supposedly been bitten by a black widow spider. The rately positioned avatars on the Holodeck. “Now flash forward five trainers can then introduce challenging complications into the years and the Oculus Quest [$399 on Amazon] is out,” he says, “and patient care scenario, according to NYU-X Lab senior research with the right software, it does a lot of what we did five years ago.” scientist Jeremy Rowe. “Say, they’re trying to call the doctor and The question now, he adds, is what the Holodeck team should be the phone system is out, or they’re trying to see the results of a test inventing in 2020: “Because it’s going to be the thing you can order and it’s not available,” he says. Sensors measure the heart rate and online in 2025. That’s the way we think about things.” Illustration by Frank Stockton Frank by Illustration

SCOPE 2020 23 autonomous submarine that is a candidate to navigate two primordial seas there. Launched from a spacecraft, it would be the “SPACE: first planetary probe in history to land in extraterrestrial liquid. Titan has long intrigued scientists because its chemical THE FINAL composition and its topography seem to resemble early Earth—and therefore may offer tantalizing clues to our own origins. “It’s one of the very few planetary bodies where there’s a liquid surface,” says FRONTIER” Sahin. “And we’re not talking about drops of water. These lakes, or seas, are huge.” Connected by a narrow waterway that the subma- ENGINEERING A SUBMARINE rine would negotiate, the two seas, Ligeia Mare and Kraken Mare, CAPABLE OF EXPLORING EXTRATER- are larger respectively than Lake Superior and the Caspian Sea. RESTRIAL SEAS FOR THE FIRST TIME They are also deep. But their resemblance to any sea that has ever hosted whales, lobsters, and surfers pretty much ends there. The waves “are liquid carbon, not water, mixed with cooled, compressed methane,” Sahin explains. “There is no oxygen in the atmosphere at tar Trek’s original three-season run coincided all, above the seas or under it.” with the peak of the space race: show creator Sahin’s design work was part of an ongoing research collabora- Gene Roddenberry wrote the treatment for tion between Tandon’s Space and Fluids Group and NASA’s Glenn the show in 1964, a year after NASA’s last Research Center in Cleveland. Sahin, who has a background as a Mercury mission. It premiered just after the Naval architect/ship designer and academic specialties in fluid Gemini 10 flight. And the original series finale mechanics, heat transfer, and marine hydrodynamics, headed the aired less than two months before the Apollo 11 NYU team. “We did the computational work for the hydrodynam- moon landing 50 years ago. More recently, NYU research has been ics and power requirements and drag,” he says. involved with yet another moon shot, of Titan, Saturn’s largest One of the challenges of their calculations, Sahin explains, is the moon: Iskender Sahin, industry professor of mechanical engineer- temperature on Titan. “This is nothing like Earth, because it’s ing at the Tandon School of Engineering, helped design an extremely cold,” he says. “We are talking minus hundreds.” And yet,

STARFLEET: THE NEXT GENERATION NYU RESEARCHERS BREAKING NEW GROUND ELSEWHERE IN THE SKY •Benjamin Pope, NASA Sagan as the stars orbit each other. stars. Led by research associate gigantic planetary waves of Fellow at the Center for The rate of expansion of the Othman Benomar, the team vorticity similar to those that Cosmology and Particle Physics, pinwheel is a predictor that learned that while the equator of influence weather on Earth also was part of an international when one of the stars eventually our sun rotates about 10 percent exist on the sun. While these team that discovered a new explodes, it will produce a faster than its midlatitudes, Rossby waves are close relatives binary star system 8,000 light gamma ray burst—a phenom- those of stars similar in size and of those in the Earth’s atmo- years away. Named Apep—after enon that has never yet been age to our sun rotate up to two sphere and oceans, they are the ancient Egyptian god of observed in the Milky Way. “It’s and a half times faster. Their extremely difficult to detect on destruction—the pair of massive almost certainly one of the most findings have implications for the sun because they have such Wolf-Rayet stars are among the exotic star systems in the the study of magnetic fields. small flow amplitudes. But the hottest and brightest stars in the galaxy,” Pope says. waves are an essential part of universe. When the rapid winds •An international team of the sun’s internal dynamics, as produced by the two stars •Researchers at the NYU Abu scientists—led by Laurent Gizon, they contribute half of its collide, which Pope likens to Dhabi Center for Space Science coprincipal investigator of the large-scale kinetic energy. Their “two dragons fighting,” it creates have found a new way to Center for Space Science at NYU discovery was published in the rare pinwheeling clouds of dust calculate the rotation of sunlike Abu Dhabi—has discovered that journal Nature Astronomy.

24 NYU.EDU/SCOPE Illustration by Taylor Callery tanks that would be brought from Earth. tanks thatwould bebrought from Earth. equipped withacomplex system ofneon-powered external ballast cold,” says Sahin.Instead, the20-foot-long submarinewould be their weight. “Butthisisvery difficulttodoinliquidthat’s very downand go by takinginorpurgingseawater asballast toadjust in anextreme environment. Traditionally submarineshover, up, go also neededtofigure outhow tomaneuver toandfrom thesurface warm enoughsothatyou cangettheequipmenttowork.”) They Sahin, isthat“theheatcomingfrom thepower supply keeps it equipment andother devices insidethevehicle. (Thesolution,says tors: theyneededtofinda way toprotect thesensitive electronics posed anumberoflogistical problems toSahinandhiscollabora- from our own planet. nothing freezes becausethechemicalcompositionissodifferent These unearthly super-frigid-but-not-frozen temperatures I feelprivilegedtohave worked onthis. Thiswas supercool.” opportunity, heremains dazzledhimself:“Ihadthesame reaction. me,” hesays. Whenpeople inhislifeexpress dazzlementathis We were basically just brainstorming, andthatwas fascinatingto to throw ideasbackatthem.Whatifwe didthis,what ifwe didthat? these little Jules Vernes—were throwing ideasatus. We were able my PhDstudent toCleveland, where allthesebrainsatNASA—all was amazing was theyinvitedcareer high forSahin.“What meand alive,” says Sahin.“Thisisforthefuture.” orbit thesun.)“Theengineersare allsaying we probably won’t be (Seasons are long,sinceittakes Saturnmore than29Earthyears to when lightingconditionswillbeoptimal forscientificobservation. ground until 2047—to coincidewith Titan’s next summer period,

The experience ofworking ontheproject was nonetheless a Granted, theproposed pr oject would literally not getoffthe SCOPE 2020

25 OME THINGS ARE JUST BETTER NOW. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, New York City had much-needed laws forbidding residents from dumping chamber pots or letting privies overflow into the streets. After all, denizens could legally dump effluent into the rivers after 10:00 p.m. in winter and 11:00 p.m. in summer. Given Show often residents ignored those time constraints and the apparent lack of interest in schlepping their chamber pots and privies to the East or Hudson rivers, “night soil” was a constant problem. So that part is better now. To understand our history and ourselves, we tend to look to architecture, art, literature, film, fashion, poetry and documents, tools and machines, and even coins and stamps. And they’re instructive, sure. But can anything tell us more about who we are than the waste we produce, what happens postconsumption, and how and where we discard or store what’s left behind? That we leave things behind to begin with? How we’re so often willing to pretend that our garbage is not really of us? DiscardStudies.com launched a decade ago: a thoughtful, trailblazing, important look at “how we generate waste, what qualifies as waste, how it’s managed, what its environmental consequences are,” says NYU professor Robin Nagle, cofounder of

New York’s White Wings earned hero status in the early 19th century. Named for their bright white uniforms, the sweepers kept the streets cleaner than they had ever been. Niday Picture Library/Alamy (far left); NYC Municipal Archives (left) Municipal Archives left); NYC (far Library/Alamy Picture Niday

26 NYU.EDU/SCOPE A history of waste in New York City—and why it’s so worth studying

By Andrew Postman

the blog, as well as anthropologist-in-residence for the New York things we throw “out” or “away.” Discard Studies aims to “shine a City Department of Sanitation and a person endlessly fascinated light on the second half of a picture that has remained obscure.” by garbage. The serious study of waste is nothing new. But Nagle “When I give talks,” says Nagle, “I’ll pull a prop from the brought to it a more anthropological approach when she taught a audience—a plastic water bottle destined for the recycling bin—and graduate seminar in 1995 titled Garbage in Gotham: The do a life-cycle analysis: where it came from and how it’s used and Anthropology of Trash. The curriculum committee recognized what happens to it next. What discipline would not have a node in the value in the rich subject matter, and soon there were courses Discard Studies? It includes things like labor, and how do we like Discard Studies: Exploring the Abject, Discarded, and construct meaning, and why am I never going to put this plastic Disposable; Oral History, Labors of Waste and the Value of water bottle on the mantlepiece as a heritage heirloom. Where did Knowledge; and Waste, Water, and the Urban Environment. Now we learn to become so oblivious to the transcendence and imper- Nagle, who teaches anthropology and environmental studies, is manence” of these objects? extending her decades-long interest in refuse and giving it a Nagle is developing this burgeoning field of social science at 21st-century spin. NYU’s Center for the Humanities provided NYU with program codirector and Gallatin associate professor funding to solicit relevant works in progress, run a teaching Rosalind Fredericks, who has explored the politics, economics, and workshop, and help crystallize a community around the topic. cultural dynamics of garbage in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nagle champions the Discard Studies collaborative as “an Senegal. Like Nagle, Fredericks sees in waste, well, everything. “As inherently interdisciplinary field” that touches on economics, an urban geographer, I’ve been considering waste and its politics aesthetics, philosophy, politics, urbanism; on “laws, labor, and for some time, because it’s the nexus of people, society, and land.” Nagle’s interest in garbage began at an Adirondacks environment,” says Fredericks, who points to the centrality of the campsite, where a teenaged Nagle and her dad found the “production-consumption-discarding triad.” otherwise pristine location spoiled by the refuse left behind by Fredericks and Nagle are organizing a major three-day Discard previous campers. Incensed, Nagle wondered, Who did they think Studies conference at NYU this April during Earth Week that would clean up after them? “That question marinated—or they’re hoping will be a game-changing moment for the field. composted—into adulthood” and through her graduate studies, she says, until she could give it more direction. Beyond her own fascination with the subject is a desire AGLE IS FASCINATED BY WHAT NEW YORK to awaken others to the profoundness and urgency of City’s history of waste says about New Yorkers. She asking questions that rarely get asked; about helped to explore that in an exhibit held last year at the City Reliquary Museum, titled NYC Trash! Past, Present, and Future. “Solutions to the Nproblems of trash shaped the city’s geography, economy, and fortunes from the earliest days of European settlement,” Nagle wrote in the exhibition text. Pieter Stuyvesant, director-general of the Nieuw Amsterdam colony, decreed in 1657 that residents couldn’t toss “any rubbish, filth, oyster shells, dead animal [sic], or

SCOPE 2020 27 anything like it” into the streets; they were directed to deliver their memory, Waring’s white-clad sweepers earned hero status.” waste to dump sites along the East River. Perhaps the biggest change of all: it became impossible for any Stuyvesant’s edicts apparently were ignored. After the British New York politician, post-Waring, to claim that the city’s garbage— took over in 1664, enacting their own street-cleaning laws, citizens now close to 40,000 tons per day—was unmanageable. largely disregarded those, too, despite the growing problem. Still, the last century-plus of New York City’s garbage history is “Effluents from noxious trades,” wrote Nagle, “such as slaughter- uneven and often ugly. houses, tanneries, and breweries, mashed with myriad animal and Mountains of garbage persisted; in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott household wastes, lingered in the streets and along the waters’ Fitzgerald writes of the “ash heaps,” located somewhere on Long edges. Mayors, constables, and laborers charged with the task of Island, which represent decay, poverty, and neglect. cleaning the streets had little impact. The stink was nauseating.” Despite Waring’s attempt to stop the dumping of public waste For more than two centuries, the story of waste in New York City into open water, it continued until 1934, when it was finally halted may be oversimplified as: more people, more waste, no organized by a US Supreme Court ruling. trash removal, and little willingness by citizens to do their part. “By A booming post–World War II economy saw a proliferation of 1700, when the city’s population neared 5,000,” wrote Nagle, consumer goods and an explosion of plastic, some of it single-use, “rubbish seemed permanently beyond the capacity of household- which meant that New Yorkers got into the habit of throwing away ers, cartmen, constables, scavengers, laborers, or mayors. Again and a whole new category of waste, one generally not biodegradable. again, householders were enjoined to sweep in front of their homes The irrational exuberance—and arrogance, and irresponsibility—of so cartmen could collect the piles.” industry’s diabolically profitable “planned obsolescence” of its It didn’t happen. goods made matters worse for us; then, now, and in the future. As Nagle explains, failed solutions shifted from government to Robert Moses, for good or bad the master builder of much of business. At first the city paid the cartmen. Then private contrac- New York, didn’t help. As Nagle wrote, “When buildings were in his tors employed the cartmen and directly charged householders. Then carters partially charged households themselves and kept some of what they collected, including profitable manure. Then cartmen started picking up only manure. After Waring cleaned up the streets, At the end of the 19th century, famously corrupt Tammany Hall politicians lamented that the city was uncleanable. (They also it became impossible for any New conveniently neglected to mention that money set aside for street York politician to claim that the cleaning had somehow found its way into their pockets.) And then New York got its hero. city’s garbage—now close to 40,000 If we made a list of the people who helped make New York New tons per day—was unmanageable. York, we should find a place to include Colonel George E. Waring Jr. Waring, a Civil War hero and sanitary engineer, was appointed to be head of the Department of Street Cleaning by William way, especially if they were in ethnically diverse working-class Lafayette Strong, the reformer who upset the Tammany-backed neighborhoods, he razed them. The resulting rubble was added to mayoral choice in 1894. Waring helped bring to New York “a level the mounting piles of household trash that he dumped on marshes of cleanliness that no one alive had ever seen,” wrote Nagle. “He and wetlands all over the city.” reorganized the workforce along military lines . . . cleared the In 1948, Fresh Kills, another Moses legacy—one whose size streets of snow in record time and vowed to stop the city’s long would dwarf the pyramids of Egypt—opened on Staten Island. The practice of dumping at sea.” By requiring householders to use three locals were unhappy to hear that the landfill would “take trash” for separate barrels for their discards—for ash, rubbish, and garbage— three years. Moses misjudged, or lied: it lasted for 53. he established one of the country’s first curbside recycling For the museum exhibition, Nagle wrote eloquently about the programs. In just three short years on the job (he died of yellow meaning of this looming monument (the size of nearly three fever in 1898), Waring made profound changes in the what and how Central Parks) to modern life. Fresh Kills, in her words, “is us. It of New York City’s refuse and—no small thing—the way in which came into existence because of cultural dynamics that demanded trash collectors were perceived by the public. Waring’s men wore lifestyles of easy consumption, that depended on casual connec- uniforms, with the sweepers in bright white trousers, jackets, and tions to material objects, that loved plastic and paper and the ability helmets, which Nagle calls “a brilliant choice”: As “the initially to let go without worrying about what happened next. Anyone who skeptical public saw that the streets of the city were made and lived in New York between 1948 and 2001 contributed something stayed clean even in the poorer quarters for the first time in to Fresh Kills. Archaeologists in a distant future will one day

28 NYU.EDU/SCOPE Everett Collection Historical/Alamy (top); NYC Municipal Archives (bottom) of thecentury. shovels at theturn with brooms and men equipped garbage cartsand horse-drawn city deployed sweepers, the mechanical street trucks and of sanitation Before theadvent

it getsmoved out andaway toother distant lands. until theydecidedwanted nomore ofit.So toChina Much ofithadgone train, andbarge. within thecity. We senditelsewhere, by truck, of squandered abundance.” nence whobuiltanenormouspermanentrecord will learnofapeopleobsessedwithimperma- intimate details aboutus, aboutourtime.They unearth Fresh Killsandencounterinfinite Today ourwaste hasnopermanenthome W public orprivate, say thanks.” officers,” “butwhenpeopleseeasays sanitation worker, Nagle, difference. “Taking nothing away from firefighters andpolice streets swept withrelative consistency.” water inanddirtywater upoffthe out,andgarbage streets andthe the street becauseyou needtwo thingsforacitytothrive: clean impressed. “Ibelieve it’s themost importantuniformedforce on York City (Farrar, Straus&Giroux), andcameaway humbledand Streets andBehindtheTrucks withtheSanitation Workers ofNew worker, chronicling herexperience inthebookPickingUp: Onthe policing orfirefighting. Nagle worked asa New YorkCity sanitation dangerous, according totheBureau of LaborStatistics, than servants tobeunionizedandrespected, even asthejobisfarmore for alongtime,sanitation workers were thelast key urbanpublic responsible andproactive,” sheadds. these thingsnever away. go We would bemore environmentally about waste inamore holistic manner, [we’d understand that] because oftherefusal tolookatwhatwe’re “Ifwe think generating. attitude breeds problems like . . .

Here’s where one individual onesmallchange can The associationbetween waste andrevulsion alsomeansthat, they’re gone.” Thisout-of-sight,out-of-mind throw thingsaway atthecurb, we think of ourminds,” says Fredericks. we “When thinking aboutourown waste, sowe putitout aste disgust. engenders “We don’t like more waste and pollution, precisely SCOPE 2020 make a make a

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And biomaterials professor Timothy Bromage is working to change that

By Alison Gwinn Portraits by Kate Lord

30 NYU.EDU/SCOPE

the wholeenvironment by only fourelementswas thattheyonly science: “Thereason somepeoplethoughttheycouldexplain break thatopen.” most ofwhichare required forlife.Ithoughtwe really hadto Becausetheinorganicspectrumincludes92 elements,reality?’ “ButIaskedBromage. myself, ‘How canthatbeanything like the elements couldtellusalot abouttheenvironment,” says carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, andphosphorous. encountered hadever beentested formore thanfourelements: subject’s scientificname,anddiscovered thatnothing they literature theycouldfindonecological stoichiometry, the simple glassofwater hadnever beenevaluated thatway.” “Noly? onehadever donesuchathing,” says. Bromage “Even a periodic table’s elementsinaliquidbemeasured instantaneous- doInot know question: Idon’t How know?” “What canallthe Royal Society ofChemistry’s Advances RSC , cameaboutfrom a purchase onwhatwe’re interested in.” to any aspectoftheworld thatcouldpossibly have some efficient way. “We openourselves to everything, not beingclosed testing liquidsforinorganicelementsinamuchfaster andmore know,” says whorecently Bromage, developed anew method of Dentistry. “We endeavor toknow whatwe don’tknow we don’t head oftheHard Tissue Research Unit of intheCollege passing curiositytohiswork asprofessor ofbiomaterialsand was irrelevant.” bringsthatsame Bromage voracious, all-encom- the social,biological, andphysical sciences—everything. Nothing 32 medieval human,azebra tooth, andahuman molarwithenamel-deficient tufts. Bromage creates abstract artfrom hard tissue samples,such as(from left)agnarledwisdom tooth root from a A ? It was, hesays, aperfectexample of“perceptual bias”in “Knowing thedistribution andconcentrationofthosefour So Bromage’s teamofscientists started reading allthe Bromage’s recent water-testing discovery, publishedinthe ? NYU.EDU/SCOPE ? Charles Darwin:“He read economics, geology, phy, andhequickly citeshisreverence for anthropology—to describehisscientificphiloso- working inthefieldsofpaleontology, biology, and sk Timothy hard Bromage—a tissuebiologist ecological stoichiometry by collectingwater samples from all metabolism of your city, your country, andthecontinent. you getthemetabolism ofyour neighborhood,andthenthe all have metabolisms oftheirown. You addallofthoseup, and neighborhood thathastrees, grass, dogs, cats, andpeople,who in allofyour organs, anditfinally becomes you. But you livea in metabolic output. You addupallofthecellsintissues swab, lookatitunderamicroscope andactually evaluate its cells inyour body. We cantake, say, asinglecheekcellwith consider thescalingofmetabolism, itworks like this:there are the University ofToronto, are inbiological anthropology. “Ifyou geology, andanthropology, andwhosemaster’s andPhD, from degree, from CaliforniaStateUniversity, Sonoma,isinbiology, metabolism of a place,” says whose undergraduate Bromage, the liquidsbacktotheirorigins. Oregon, thescientists were totrace abletocreate “fingerprints” from allover theworld, from Mongolia tonationalparksin collected at14,000 feet intheItalianAlps.” Intesting samples elements inthehighest concentrationswas asample ofsnow water. Andguesswhat?Thefreshwater sample thathadthemost at wine,beer, milk,bottled waters, seawater, lake water, river we couldpeeintothemachineorspitit,we did.We looked about 90seconds. They thenappliedittoavariety ofliquids—“If measuring method, whichdetects 71inorganicelementsin next two years heandhisteamdeveloped (andpatented)the dropped. We realized we hadrunintoabrickwall.” crazy? asked thecompany, ‘So how Theysaid, ‘Are dowe doit?’ you entire periodictable.“After themachinearrived inourlab, we manufactures amassspectrometer capableofmeasuringthe picture” technology,“bigger hetracked down acompany that had thetechnology todothat.” Knowinga heneededtofind “At every scale,there isa metabolism; we’re doingglobal Why isthatimportant?Becauseithelpsus“understand the seesbrickwallsBut Bromage asopportunities, soover the We don’t know! We just said itwas possible .’ Ourjaws

Images by Timothy Bromage over the world. You choose at what scale you want to interrogate, and you learn about the metabolic ecology of a place, how it works in every single way, and that provides a foray into climate change science, nutrition—a million subjects. It’s a completely new field.” So far, the NYU machine is the only one in the world that can do this examination, but the method has innumerable uses. “For instance, the United Nations fully funded us to do a project on the water chemistry of Samoa in the South Pacific,” Bromage says. “The coral reefs there are dying, and they thought perhaps there was some element contamination coming from chemicals used in agriculture. Another forensic scientist used our method and machine to sample the chemistry of the bones and teeth of people whose life history is known, and then go to the places where they lived and sample the water there to determine to what extent their consumption patterns are imprinted into their own tissues.” The new water-testing spectrometer—what Bromage describes proudly as “a perfect ‘I don’t know what I don’t know’ machine”—dovetails with his other work in paleoanthropology. To study the 3.2-million-year-old bones dubbed Lucy—the

“After the machine arrived in our lab, we asked the company, ‘So how Bromage with the do we do it?’ They said, ‘Are you mass spectrometer that can instanta- crazy? We don’t know! We just said neously measure the periodic table. it was possible,’ ” Bromage recalls. oldest and most complete remains of a previously unknown Bromage has also turned work from his lab—specifically, ancestor of mankind—Bromage invented a portable confocal microscope slides of hard tissue samples—into art and exhib- microscope, since Lucy could not be moved to an existing large ited it around the world, including a permanent installation at microscope from the Ethiopian National Museum, where she the American Museum of Natural History. “We have an adage in resides. His goal: to look at the orientations of collagen in her the lab: every image we produce must have all of the aesthetic bones to confirm that she did, indeed, walk upright. and scientific properties that our proficiency allows,” he says. “I Bromage is also known for his own paleontological discover- started looking at the images we had created in the lab and ies: in 1991, he unearthed a jaw from the oldest known sample of realized that if I optimized their scientific and aesthetic the human genus, Homo rudolfensis, as well as its contemporary, properties, it became extremely abstract. You don’t know if you Paranthropus boisei, both 2.4 million years old, at Africa’s Lake are looking at something close up or an image of the galaxy taken Malawi. He hopes to use the new water-testing method to by the Hubble Telescope.” Consider that another unusual examine the ecology of that same lakeshore habitat. “Doing the discovery by Bromage: that the left brain and right brain can metabolic ecology of a 2.4-million-year-old habitat takes us into collaborate quite beautifully. the time dimension,” he says. “Now we’ll be studying climate change not by predicting the future but actually going into the past, where we can measure climate change quite clearly and MORE ON THE What was Bromage surprised to find in our bottled waters? absolutely.” WEB Find out at nyu.edu/scope/bromage

SCOPE 2020 33 ZOOM OUT

SMOKE SIGNALS One of the biggest threats to global health is also an invisible one, according to a recent report by the nonprofit Pure Earth. Harm from transboundary pollution reaches far beyond its origins, as toxins spread from countries lacking substantive pollution controls to the world. The solution? Preventing pollution at its source— not on a country-by- country basis. “Banning a toxic chemical agent in a high-income country offers an imprecise and illusory sense of global safety,” says Jack Caravanos, clinical professor at the College of Global Public Health and head of research for Pure Earth. “The world needs to come together and work unilaterally to remove these agents.” Scope 2020

Bigger Fires. Better Firefighting. Tandon’s ALIVE program helps the nation’s firefighters keep up with deadly blazes

Fires—from blazes in city high-rises to wildfires in Kumar, a professor of mechanical engineering and the tinder-dry West—are getting more severe and the group’s founder. “Our interest is in translating harder to combat. Structures, now built of more the available science-based knowledge to the lightweight, flammable materials, burn faster than practice of fighting fires.” they used to. This is the bad news. ALIVE grew out of a research project Kumar The good news is that the Fire Research Group and his team conducted in 2008. Partnering with at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering has the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and created an innovative, interactive online teaching the National Institute of Standards and Technol- tool called ALIVE (Advanced Learning through ogy (NIST), fires were set in vacant apartment Integrated Visual Environments) to get ahead of buildings on Governors Island to see how the firefighting curve. The goal is to train firefight- wind-driven high-rise conflagrations behaved, and ers to combat today’s fires with today’s—not to discover better methods for controlling them. yesterday’s—strategies. “Current firefighting Fire Research Group member Prabodh practice is rooted more in tradition than in Panindre had years of experience researching heat

Toa55/iStock; opposite page: ESOlex/iStock opposite Toa55/iStock; modern scientific advances,” explains Sunil conduction but was still amazed by the power of

SCOPE 2020 35 the blowtorch effect, which occurs when strong Seal, who worked on three of the modules, winds blast through open windows and doors, explains how fires have changed: “Fifty years ago, fueling fires. “We got to see up close how wind- you had a house made out of wood, filled with driven fires can increase temperature to deadly furnishings made from natural materials. Now levels in just a matter of seconds,” Panindre says. they’re made of composite materials that contrib- The tactics that the FDNY, NIST, and NYU Fire ute to early structural failure and rapid fire growth. Research Group developed during these high-rise They’re filled with furniture made out of plastic, burn experiments were so effective that the FDNY and this contributes to a much faster fire growth wanted to teach them to their entire force, but and production of smoke and poisonous gases.” He there wasn’t an efficient way of packaging the points out that in order to be effective, his information to train thousands of firefighters. So firefighters have to understand how to adjust their the FDNY asked Kumar’s team to come up with a “Current fire- tactics to address such changes. scenario-based online training program, and the fighting practice Each module takes about two years to create, idea for ALIVE was born. Support from the is rooted more and Tandon’s team works with subject matter Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to in tradition than experts and firefighters for a uniquely powerful Firefighters Grant program helped transform the in modern educational experience. “We strive to make every idea into reality. module scientifically accurate but also firefighter- As effective as the FDNY’s success with ALIVE scientific ad- friendly,” says Panindre. was, it was even more exciting that this training vances,” says In the last 10 years there have been an average would be available to departments everywhere. Sunil Kumar. 10 mega-wildfires (larger than 100,000 acres) “Urban departments are usually better funded, “Our interest is annually. So Tandon and its partners decided equipped, and trained than suburban and rural in translating ALIVE’s most recent modules should cover ones,” Kumar explains. A program like ALIVE can science-based wildfires, be geared toward first responders, and be close the gap between science-based interventions focused on addressing wildfire behavior, terrain, and less-effective firefighting practices for the knowledge to and changing environmental conditions. Pete 70 percent of the nation’s 1.1 million firefighters fighting fires.” Scully, who had a long career with Cal Fire and not in urban areas and working on call or as worked as an expert on the wildfire modules, was volunteers. impressed with their usefulness to all firefighters, Ten ALIVE training modules cover topics like regardless of their level of wildfire expertise. high-rise fires, fire dynamic, lightweight structure In an effort to mitigate the risk of cancer among fires, and firefighter health and safety. The firefighters and save lives, ALIVE is hoping its next modules have two main components: firefighters module will be about proper storage of PPE describing (through text, images, and videos) (personal protective equipment). One important real-life fires and the strategies that worked or fact learned so far: firefighters should keep their didn’t, followed by multiple-choice questions PPE enclosed in zippered duffel bags or sealed pertaining to the situation and tactics. storage bins—not loose in the trunks of their cars, “The modules give you feedback immediately as many do—before proper washing, cleaning, and and don’t let you move on until you understand decontamination to avoid off-gassing of carcino- why your answer was incorrect,” says Ulysses Seal, gens. “Researchers have made substantial progress the fire chief in Bloomington, Minnesota, who has in developing technologies and tactics to improve been training his team with ALIVE since 2008. firefighter safety,” Panindre says. “But firefighter “This is how ALIVE makes sure firefighters walk training and dissemination must keep pace with away with the knowledge they need, and that they that research for it to truly make a difference.” retain it.” —Sarah Miller

36 NYU.EDU/SCOPE ChooChin/iStock but itcomeswithadownside: it’s not absorbedby mending jaws andknees)becauseofits strength, implants andsurgicalfixation procedures (suchas be oneofthem. remove hardware rejected by thebodyshouldn’t many to thingstodeal with—butasecondsurgery has craniofacialsurgery A patientundergoing Implant A Better Bone new alloy tohelpsurgicalpatients Three schoolsjoinforces tocreate a Titanium metal hasbeenthego-to forbone confidence. agrees with—andnow itcanbemadewith major facialfracture,” hesays. It’s aclaimeveryone procedure toremove hardware, especially fora degrading inamore favorable way. on theresults, Coelhosays, NYU’s alloy “is as extensive ascraniofacialreconstruction. Based orthopedic fixations, althoughnot forprocedures different from theoneNYUistesting inminor Doctors inEurope are usingmagnesiumalloys the alloy takes toresorb completely. experiments ofgreater duration,toseehow long limited riskofinfection.Theteamisrunning bone, appearstohave noriskofrejection, andhas Coelho. Thealloy hasproperties very muchlike some property tohelpany sortof fixation,” says months tobe50percent resorbed, “soitstill has the new alloy, T-5 magnesium,takes uptosix performed invivo experiments insheepwhich Torroni, andDentistry’s Witek, Lukasz have Gupta, Medicine’s Eduardo Rodriguez andAndrea will take placearound the[implant].” the humanbody, soboneformationandhealing wayproperties “todegradein inamore ‘friendly’ researchers have triedgetting magnesium medical andengineeringschools. For sometime, ofDentistryCollege whoalsohasaffiliationsatthe Coelho, theDr. Leonard I.Linkow Professor inthe to behighly corrosive,” says bioengineerPaulo “Magnesium alloys have beenknown fordecades compound that’s strong andslower toresorb. that offsets the weakness of eachmetal, creatinga a promising solutiontotheconundrum. Dentistry, Engineering,andMedicine—is yielding tion amongresearchers atthree NYUschools— formation ofhydrogen bubbles. Now acollabora- quickly thatithasitsown complication: the strength) safely biodegrades, butitdegrades so Magnesium (analternative thatlackstitanium’s skin orother tissue,whichcanleadtoinfections. “We want toavoid apotential secondsurgical When willthisalloy beready forhumans? The researchers, includingEngineering’s Nikhil The teamhasbeentesting amagnesiumalloy —Andrew Postman SCOPE 2020 37 with robot arms at their belly. They allow us to lift Help from heavy payloads,” he says, or to have “those drones What if it were come in contact with structures, with the environ- ment. Then you can do some sensing, which is autonomous on High contact-based sensing versus contactless. You can drones—not measure cracks, you can do painting [of placards humans—that NYU Abu Dhabi is spearheading and marks that communicate the extent of performed research into autonomous drone damage to rescuers]. You can do a whole bunch of disaster technology for search and rescue different things.” assessments? In addition to its lifesaving potential, this Picture a disaster zone: maybe a tsunami has technology has applications in the more workaday For search-and- struck or a nuclear reactor has melted down (or civilian sphere. For example, Tzes is working with rescue opera- both, as was the case in Fukushima, Japan, in administrators at the Abu Dhabi airport on using tions, such 2011). Noxious gases pollute the air, and destroyed these autonomous drones to assess and clean the technology buildings obscure survivors. Then, after the initial facades of the airport’s terminals. could save lives. calamity, the ensuing hours, days, and weeks are Military uses are also possible. An autonomous full of their own unique peril for the first respond- drone with a stereoscopic camera could identify ers who arrive to assess damage, rescue the living, an invading enemy drone, make sure it’s not a bird, and recover the dead. These responders are at and then use its robot arms to “throw a net on top increased risk of injury, death, and potential of the invader drone and capture it, or force it to illness caused by invisible pollutants. drop to the ground,” he says. But what if it were a fleet of autonomous But as far as Tzes is con- drones—not humans—that performed disaster cerned, the greatest potential is assessments and identified and evaluated the in fighting pollution and ongoing dangers? For those who conduct search- conducting search-and-rescue and-rescue operations, such technology could save missions. To that end, he and lives. his team have outfitted their drones “If a building has just collapsed in an earth- with barometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and quake, we could send these drones inside a chemical sensors. building so they can provide mapping,” says “We want to smell odors, and we want to detect Professor Anthony Tzes, head of electrical and fumes from biohazards and things like this,” he computer engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, who is says. “If you have leakage of methane, it may be an spearheading research into such autonomous indication of an upcoming explosion in an oil drone technology. pipeline” or, in search-and-recovery situations, of Tzes’s team has recently been mounting sensors decomposing bodies. and affixing robot manipulators—bionic arms, if Having worked on drone technology for the past you will—to a crew of five large drones that can lift nine years, Tzes has no intention of stopping objects weighing roughly 40 pounds. These drones anytime soon. In addition to everything else, his can communicate with one another and do not team is now developing surgical manipulators for require any human piloting or directing. They can minor operations that a nonautonomous drone detect and maneuver around objects in their path could perform. “The surgical operation has been and gather all kinds of essential environmental tested,” Tzes says. “The drone on its own has data—critical information during disaster relief. been tested. Now we want to put those together.” “Imagine we have several aerial manipulators —Sara Ivry

38 NYU.EDU/SCOPE LeArchitecto/iStock SCOPE 2020 39 THE SCIENCE BEHIND... 40 a study onbubble-blowing methods that driven scientist” whowas inspired to lead Ristroph, aself-professed “curiosity- assistant professor ofmathematicsLeif ties towatch bubblemakers,” says the lab, sothere are plentyofopportuni- through theparkevery day toandfrom (aka math)ofmakingbubbles. “Iwalk from the park,have researched themagic Applied MathematicsLab, just ablock scientists insidetheCourantInstitute some dowels, andstring. Meanwhile, blimps ofbubblesfrom asudsy liquid, Park are coaxingbig,baroquely shaped Street performersinWashington Square the AppliedMathLab for arecent study in Science turnedsudsy Blowing Bubble NYU.EDU/SCOPE scientific arrived attheAppliedMath and toofundamentaltopassup.” flow, Ithoughtthisissomething toofun fluid films getpushedintobubblesby when Irealized noonehadstudied how think abouttheobjectbeingafilm,and elastic,” hesays. “Itwas nobigleap to think aboutanobjectbeingflexible or influence oneanother, where we often interactions, how objectsandflows pressure/air. airflow withshortand rapidbursts of compared slow andsustained pressure/ By RoryEvans And so a mashup of the whimsical and And soamashupofthewhimsical and “I’ve beeninterested influid-structure mathematics andphysics here too!” surface area, sothere isbeautiful boundaries inways thatminimize bubbles infoamslike toreorganize their joined together,” hesays. “Thelittle sions springtomind. products like sprays, foams, andemul- applications couldbe—thoughconsumer is not sure whatthecommercial process was captured onvideo. Ristroph create underwater bubbles. Theentire pressed onathinspanofolive oilto make the perfect“wind”ofcurrent that Lab, where awater tunnelwas to rigged “Suds andfoamsare many bubbles

Viorika/iStock; opposite page: Sesame Workshop IN FOCUS

PLAY MATTERS Steinhardt professor Hirokazu Yoshikawa believes in the life-changing power of child’s play. As codirector of NYU’s Global TIES for Children, he leads research efforts on child development among some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, where opportu- nities for play-based learning are scarce at best. His findings confirm that access to play benefits not only children, but families, communities, and local economies as well. After partnering with Sesame Workshop and the Interna- tional Rescue Committee, Global TIES is now expanding its work in humanitarian settings to include Syrian and Rohingya refugees—thanks to a $100 million grant from the LEGO Foundation. TK Credit Here TK Credit

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In This 30 Issue Can you guess from which part of the body this art was extracted? Image by Timothy Bromage Timothy Image by