WINTER 2009

CELEBRATING CHARLES DARWIN’S

BIRTHDAY

ACADEMY MEMBER & REVOLUTIONARY

Building communities, advancing science since 1817 • www.nyas.org

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:21:31:21:31 AAMM Board of Governors

Chair President Vice Chair JOHN E. SEXTON ELLIS RUBINSTEIN BRUCE S. MCEWEN

Treasurer Counsel Secretary JAY FURMAN VICTORIA BJORKLUND [ex offi cio] LARRY SMITH [ex offi cio]

Governors SETH F. BERKLEY KENNETH L. DAVIS MADELEINE JACOBS LEN BLAVATNIK ROBIN L. DAVISSON ABRAHAM M. LACKMAN KAREN E. BURKE BRIAN FERGUSON JEFFREY D. SACHS MANUEL CAMACHO SOLIS BRIAN GREENE MICHAEL SCHMERTZLER NANCY CANTOR WILLIAM A. HASELTINE DAVID J. SKORTON ROBERT CATELL STEVEN HOCHBERG PAUL STOFFELS GERALD CHAN TONI HOOVER GEORGE E. THIBAULT VIRGINIA W. CORNISH MORTON HYMAN FRANK WILCZEK MAREN E. IMHOFF DEBORAH E. WILEY

Honorary Life Governor TORSTEN N. WIESEL

President’s Council

PETER AGRE, Nobel Laureate & Vice Chancellor for Science and Technology, Duke Univ. RICHARD AXEL, Nobel Laureate & University Professor, Columbia Univ.; Investigator, HHMI LEE BABISS, Global Head, Pharma Research, Roche Pharmaceuticals DAVID BALTIMORE, Nobel Laureate & President Emeritus, Caltech ETIENNE-EMILE BAULIEU, former President, French Academy of Sciences On the cover: Bust of Charles Darwin, by William ELEANOR BAUM, Dean, School of Engineering, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art Couper, 1909. Owned by the Academy since PAUL BERG, Nobel Laureate & Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Biochemistry, Stanford Univ. 1960. Replicas can be found on the Galapagos LEN BLAVATNIK, Chairman, Access Industries Islands and elsewhere around the world. GÜNTER BLOBEL, Nobel Laureate & Director, Laboratory for Cell Biology, Rockefeller Univ. CHRISTIAN BRECHOT, Vice President for Medical and Scientifi c Affairs, Merieux Alliance SYDNEY BRENNER, Nobel Laureate & Distinguished Prof., Salk Inst. MICHAEL S. BROWN, Nobel Laureate & Prof. of Molecular Genetics, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center LINDA BUCK, Nobel Laureate & Investigator for HHMI; member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center KAREN E. BURKE, Dermatologist & Research Scientist THOMAS R. CECH, Nobel Laureate & President, HHMI MARTIN CHALFIE, Nobel Laureate & William R. Kenan, Jr., Prof. of Biological Sciences; Chair, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Columbia Univ. CECILIA CHAN, Vice Chairman, Immtech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AARON CIECHANOVER, Nobel Laureate & Distinguished Research Professor, Tumor and Vascular Biology Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech., Haifa, Israel VICE PRESIDENT, GORDON CONWAY, Chief Science Advisor, UK Department for International Development PUBLISHING & COMMUNICATIONS PETER DOHERTY, Nobel Laureate & Researcher, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN; Univ. of Melbourne Bill Silberg FRANK L. DOUGLAS, Special Fellow, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; former Executive Vice President, Aventis MARCELO EBRARD CASAUBÓN, Mayor, Mexico City EDMOND H. FISCHER, Nobel Laureate & Professor Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry, Univ. of Washington EXECUTIVE EDITOR RICHARD N. FOSTER, Millbrook Management Group, LLC Adrienne J. Burke CLAIRE M. FRASER-LIGGETT, Director, Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine ALAN J. FRIEDMAN, former Director, New York Hall of Science CREATIVE DIRECTOR COLIN GODDARD, Chief Executive Offi cer, OSI Pharmaceuticals JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, Nobel Laureate & Chairman, Molecular Genetics, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Ayman Shairzay PAUL GREENGARD, Nobel Laureate & Prof. of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience, Rockefeller Univ. PETER GRUSS, President, Max Planck Gesellschaft, Germany CONTRIBUTORS WILLIAM A. HASELTINE, President, The Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts; Janet Browne, Paul Ekman, Abigail Jeffries, Chairman, Haseltine Global Health, LLC Jamie Kass, Stuart Kauffman, ERIC KANDEL, Nobel Laureate & Prof., Physiology & Cell Biology, Columbia Univ. KIYOSHI KUROKAWA, Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan; Adjunct Professor, RCAST, The Univ. of Tokyo; Lord Robert May, Adelle C. Pelekanos, Professor, Research Institute of Science and Technology, Tokai Univ. Massimo Pigliucci, Charles Raison, LEON LEDERMAN, Nobel Laureate & Pritzker Prof. of Science, Illinois Inst. of Tech.; Alana Range, Chris Williams Resident Scholar, Illinois Math & Science Academy RODERICK MACKINNON, Nobel Laureate & John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Prof., Rockefeller Univ.; Investigator, HHMI EDITORIAL OFFICE JOEL S. MARCUS, Chief Executive Offi cer, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. GERALD J. MCDOUGALL, National Partner, Global Pharmaceutical & Health Sciences Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP 7 World Trade Center RICHARD MENSCHEL, Senior Director, Goldman Sachs 250 Greenwich St, 40th Fl RONAY MENSCHEL, Chairman of the Board, Phipps Houses; Board of Overseers, Weill Cornell Medical College New York, NY 10007-2157 JEAN-MARC NEIMETZ, Vice President, Global Life Science Group, Capgemini Phone: 212.298.8655 JOHN F. NIBLACK, former President, Pfi zer Global Research & Development Fax: 212.298.3665 PAUL NURSE, Nobel Laureate & President, Rockefeller Univ. ROBERT C. RICHARDSON, Nobel Laureate & Senior Vice Provost for Research, Floyd R. Newman Prof. of Physics, Cornell Univ. Email: [email protected] PETER RINGROSE, Chairman, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, UK; former CSO, Bristol-Myers Squibb EDWARD F. ROVER, President, The Dana Foundation MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR F. SHERWOOD ROWLAND, Nobel Laureate & Prof. of Chemistry & Earth Science, Univ. of California, Irvine David Smith BENGT SAMUELSSON, Nobel Laureate & Prof., Medical & Physiological Chem., Karolinska Inst.; former Chairman, The Nobel Foundation CHARLES SANDERS, former President, GlaxoSmithKline MEMBERSHIP & ANNALS ORDERS ISMAIL SERAGELDIN, Librarian of Alexandria, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandria, The Library of Alexandria, Egypt Phone: 212.298.8640 PHILLIP A. SHARP, Nobel Laureate & Director, The McGovern Inst., MIT Center for Cancer Research Fax: 212.298.3650 ELLIOTT SIGAL, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer, Bristol-Myers Squibb Email: [email protected] MICHAEL SOHLMAN, Executive Director, The Nobel Foundation PAUL STOFFELS, Company Group Chairman, World Wide Research & Development, Pharmaceuticals Group, Johnson & Johnson MARY ANN TIGHE, Chief Executive Offi cer, New York Tri-State Region, CB Richard Ellis ADVERTISING INQUIRIES SHIRLEY TILGHMAN, President, Princeton Univ. Phone: 212.298.8655 HAROLD VARMUS, Nobel Laureate & President & CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Email: [email protected] FRANK WALSH, Executive Vice President, Discovery Research, Wyeth GERALD WEISSMANN, Prof. of Medicine, NY Univ. School of Medicine Visit the Academy online JOHN WHITEHEAD, former Chairman, Lower Manhattan Development Corp.; former Co-Chairman of Goldman Sachs GEORGE WHITESIDES, Mallinckrodt Prof. of Chemistry, Harvard Univ. www.nyas.org TORSTEN N. WIESEL, Nobel Laureate & Honorary Life Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences; Secretary General, Human Frontier Science Program Organization; President Emeritus, Rockefeller Univ. FRANK WILCZEK, Nobel Laureate & Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, MIT ERNST-LUDWIG WINNACKER, Secretary General, European Research Council; former President, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany GUANGZHAO ZHOU, former Chairman, Chinese Association of Science & Technology

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lliam e Winter 2009 gos CContentsontents

2 EVOLUTION IN THOUGHT & DEED 14 COVER STORY: DARWIN’S DESCENDANTS by Ellis Rubinstein by Janet Browne, Paul Ekman, A letter from the president of the Academy Stuart Kauffman, Lord Robert May, Massimo Pigliucci, and Charles Raison Six leading scholars describe how the work of 3 INSIDE THE ACADEMY Charles Darwin continues to infl uence, inspire, Reports from the directors of Academy programs and inform scientists across all disciplines. and news about Academy activities 22 NATURAL SELECTION 6 ANNALS OF THE ACADEMY by Charles Darwin Featured volumes of the Annals of the New York A selection from the most famous chapter of On the Academy of Sciences Origin of Species, penned in 1859 by the legendary Academy member. 7 ANNALS FEATURE by Charles Finney Cox 26 ACADEMY CALENDAR Th e NYAS President’s address in 1909, the year of NYAS conferences and meetings in January, Darwin’s 100th birthday February, March, April, and May

8 MEMBER NEWS 28 DONOR PROFILE: PETER D. LAX Awards, appointments, and announcements about by Adelle C. Pelekanos Academy members A Darwin Society donor to the Academy refl ects on a career in mathematics, the Manhattan Project, and the paradox of education 10 MEMBER MEMOIR: TAKING THE ROAD THAT TRANSFORMS by Maria Freire, as told to Abigail Jeffries Th e President of the Lasker Foundation recounts her “peculiar career path” The Academy Celebrates the Year of Darwin Log on to our Web site to keep up to date on Darwin 12 eBRIEFINGS: MEXICO’S HIGH-TECH FUTURE, topics throughout 2009. www.nyas.org/darwin. EVOLUTION REPORTS, AND MORE by Chris Williams Summaries of recent Academy eBriefi ngs

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 3 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:21:56:21:56 AAMM Letter from the President Evolution in Thought& Deed s hundreds of millions of humans will learn this their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” including “Liberty.” February 12, precisely 200 years have passed since But nearly a century later, it took enormous courage for Presi- the birth of Charles Robert Darwin in Shrewsbury, dent Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. AShropshire, England. Darwin celebrations will commence world- One fi nal point: Even as the nation was passing the Th ir- wide beginning in February and culminating 10 months later on teenth Amendment which made Lincoln’s ban on slavery nation- The 2 a second landmark anniversary, November 24, the day 150 years al, this series of momentous actions was wrapped in the mantle Steve ago when the most important scientifi c treatise of the 19th cen- of religious-based morality rather than in scientifi cally inspired toral tury, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, was published. morality. Freeing the slaves was obedient to the intent of the Cre- MacK Th is issue of the Academy magazine is devoted to the topic ator, a supreme being who had made no appearance in Darwin’s Nurse of evolution, a term so controversial in its day that Darwin’s only opus of a few years before. allusion to human evolution was in the following phrase: “…light As we approach the bicentennials of the birth of Darwin will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.” Incredibly, and Lincoln and the 150th anniversaries of their observations a century and a half later in the United States of America, a Pew about natural selection and the equality of all humans, debates NA Research Poll revealed that 42 percent of the populace believes hu- have never been more heated about the relationship of religion mans never evolved but are as they were created. Moreover, of the and science. While many of our political leaders profess their al- Dr roughly 50 percent who expressed their belief in human evolution, legiance to a supreme being, our scientists attempt to separate Th e 2 of every 5 stated that they believe a supreme being infl uenced personal religious beliefs from the fi ndings of their profession. To ing o the process. Only 1 in 4 Americans believe in natural selection! Darwin and his progeny, whether one believes in a supreme being Octo No wonder scientifi c organizations the world over are hold- or not, it isn’t a “creator” who “endows” humankind with char- in en ing public events to discuss evolution: the AAAS at its annual acteristics of one kind or another, but a process of natural selec- Cice meeting in February, London’s Natural History Museum in April, tion—a process which produced an animal that could entertain exho Cambridge University in July, Barcelona’s CosmoCaixa on dates a remarkable, and sometimes frustrating, variety of views. Some globa to be announced, the Galapagos islanders in August, the U.S. members of the species support evolution; some deride it. Some energ National Academy of Sciences throughout the year, and so on. acknowledge the equality of all humankind; others use ethnic quan (For a calendar, see www.darwin-online.org.uk/2009.html.) origin, race, religion, and even science (genetic makeup) to assert a mu We at Th e New York Academy of Sciences are planning our the superiority of one group over another. A shockingly large part part own events—aft er all, Darwin was a member! (Check for details of the human species actually continues to practice slavery. whic at www.nyas.org/darwin.) And we’ve honored him by gather- How slow is the evolution of the human mind! Only the cove ing some special articles for this issue. On p. 14, six remarkable small victories keep our spirits up: the adoption by the United scholars refl ect on how Darwin continues to infl uence science. Nations General Assembly of a universal declaration of human and G On p. 7, we reprint an excerpt from a speech of my predeces- rights in 1948, for example, and, just recently, the election of optio sor by 100 years, Charles Finney Cox, who reminded Academy an Afro-American to the presidency of a nation that only three call f members in his time of the challenges Darwin faced when he score years ago practiced segregation. the u published Origin of Species. And, on p. 22, we give you an excerpt Th e scientifi c community must derive inspiration where it gave from the book itself. can be found, because the battle to enlighten the public—espe- fl uor A point made a century ago by Cox that still holds true to- cially in the U.S.—remains a major challenge. Th e coming cel- mad day is that the human mind has a diffi cult time accepting the ebrations of Darwin and his treatise represent a global eff ort by Dian full implications of natural selection. Darwin spent decades in the scientifi c community to rededicate itself to the struggle to tute painstaking observation of natural forms before daring to issue educate. Th e governors, staff , and 25,000 members of the Acad- his groundbreaking tome. emy support this noble eff ort. And we recognize that the hard Meanwhile, another equally grand idea was developing over work is on the ground in our schools, in our legislatures and, La centuries in the United States. An entirely coincidental but, to tougher still, in the hearts of our fellow citizens. my mind, eerily related second bicentennial will take place on . Pre February 12: the celebration of the birth of Abraham Lincoln in Ralp a log cabin in what is today LaRue County, Kentucky. Profe Lincoln’s public proclamation of his most consequential Phys view of humankind didn’t come easily either. Th e U.S. Constitu- organ tion had stated that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by Ellis Rubinstein, President held

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erty.” resi-

Th ir- tion- The 2008 winners of the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists were announced at the Academy’s annual Science & the City Gala on November 17. antle Steven Gubser, Laura Landweber, and Thomas Muir won awards in the faculty category; Andrey Pisarev and Andrew Houck won in the postdoc- pired toral competition. The winners are pictured here with Len Blavatnik (center), the fi nalists, and fi ve Nobel Laureates, left to right, Torsten Wiesel, Rod Cre- MacKinnon, Robert Engle (sixth from left), Paul Greengard (ninth from left), and Martin Chalfi e (fourth from right). Present, but not pictured, Paul win’s Nurse. Profi les of fi nalists and winners can be found at www.nyas.org/blavatnikwinners. PHOTO: MICHAEL IAN

rwin tions dendritic cells while he was a postdoc in the laboratory of Zanvil bates NAS President Urges Curiosity- Cohen has led to an explosion of research on these key initia- igion tors of the immune response. Many scientists hope that dendritic ir al- Driven Science at NYAS Meeting cells can be used in the design of new therapies and vaccines. arate Th e Academy’s Frontiers of Science program hosted a meet- n. To ing organized by the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation on being October 24, spotlighting the foundation’s support of new work Ten Young Scientists Attend char- in environmental chemistry. Among the speakers was Ralph Japan Science & Tech Forum elec- Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, who rtain exhorted scientists to go beyond identifying problems such as Th e Academy teamed with the Science & Technology in Society Some global warming and ozone depletion by taking steps to conduct Forum to select 10 up-and-coming scientists, age 40 or young- Some energy research and play a greater role in analyzing new options er, from the US, Europe, Asia, and the developing world to be thnic quantitatively. At the same time, Cicerone says scientists must do awarded expense-paid trips to the annual three-day, invitation- ssert a much better job communicating with leaders and the public, in only meeting of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science part part to make the case for undirected, curiosity-driven science, in Kyoto in October. Academy President Ellis Rubinstein, who which he says provides the “opportunity for unanticipated dis- has attended each STS forum since it began in 2004, compares y the coveries to lead to fantastic benefi ts overnight.” the gathering to a World Economic Forum for science and tech- nited Paul Anastas, director of the Center for Green Chemistry nology in society. “It is one of the few forums in the world that man and Green Engineering at Yale University, pointed out that some brings leaders together to talk about challenges in climate, health, on of options for addressing the energy crisis violate principles that and information technology,” he says. three call for the design of chemical products and processes without Th e 2008 STS Forum Future Leaders selected by the Academy, the use or generation of hazardous substances. Two examples he the STS, and the Th ird World Academy of Sciences were: Andrew ere it gave of “doing the right thing wrong” are energy-saving compact Houck, assistant professor of electrical engineering, Princeton espe- fl uorescent light bulbs based on toxic mercury, and photovoltaics University; Tapio Scheider, associate professor of environmental g cel- made from rare, precious, toxic metals. Other speakers included science and engineering, CalTech; Jan Wendelin Stark, assistant rt by Dianne Newman and Daniel Nocera of the Massachusetts Insti- professor of catalysis, ETH Zurich; Nicole Grobert, Research le to tute of Technology and James Anderson of Harvard University. Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford; James Whis- Acad- stock, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, Monash hard University, Australia; Huck Hui Nh, senior group leader and as- and, Lasker Award Winner Steinman sistant professor at the Genome Institute of Singapore; Benedict Molibeli Taele, senior lecturer of physics and electronics, Na- Presides at Cancer Vaccine Event tional University of Lesotho; Albert Th embinkosi Modi, associ- Ralph Steinman, Lasker Award winner and Henry G. Kunkel ate professor of agricultural sciences and agribusiness, University Professor and senior physician in the Laboratory of Cellular of KwaZulu-Natal; Junich Fujino, senior researcher at the Center Physiology and Immunology at Rockefeller University, was co- for Global Environmental Research at the National Institute for organizer of the 6th International Cancer Vaccine Symposium, Environmental Studies in Japan; and Noriko Otani, associate held at the Academy October 28-30. Steinman’s identifi cation of professor at the Musashi Institute of Technology.

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 3

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 5 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:08:22:08 AAMM Inside the Academy

want Univ raise advic Ne Wh In th the e cans’ But r say it poss Septe posiu can t of th ence Secti The 2008 Innovation in Industry Award winners, left to right: John Mikszta, Vince Sullivan, and Menelas Pangalos. PHOTOS: MICHAEL IAN fessio To le ers Jo profe Pharma and Computer Scientists Scientists Without Borders Links of Ps Honored with Innovation Award Up with UN’s MDG Monitor Site nyas Researchers from Becton Dickinson, Wyeth, IBM, and Philips Scientists Without Borders, the Academy’s initiative to improve Research North America were honored as the fi rst winners and quality of life in the developing world by mobilizing and coordi- NY fi nalists in the NYAS Innovation in Industry Awards competi- nating science-based eff orts, has established a partnership with tion in November. A panel of nine judges from the pharmaceuti- the UN Development Programme and its Web site, the MDG Cle cal, venture capital, and nonprofi t sectors selected the winners Monitor, which tracks progress toward the UN Millennium De- Last from a fi eld of diverse applications. Winners and fi nalists were velopment Goals. nano selected in two categories: individual innovation and innovation Evelyn Strauss, executive director of Scientists Without Bor- poten by a team. ders, says the relationship will enhance the initiative’s growth and phas For team innovation, John Mikszta and Vince Sullivan of success. “Th is is our fi rst partnership with one of the UN agencies. tion Becton Dickinson were recognized for the development of micro - We already have a terrifi c group of partners, but getting offi cial NYS needle and inhalable vaccine delivery technology for infl uenza recognition from the UN should really help with our outreach.” velop and anthrax. Finalists in the team category were Jochen Kruecker, MDG Monitor, at www.mdgmonitor.org, off ers country ident Sheng Xu, and Pingkun Yan, of Philips Research North America, descriptions that summarize current challenges and include in- by fo for breakthrough technologies to overcome image guidance limi- formation such as population, per capita GDP, and life expec- tech tations for prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy. tancy at birth. Th e site now provides links to the Scientists With- For individual innovation, Menelas Pangalos of Wyeth won out Borders “globe trekker” tool, a Google maps interface that ation an award for his work developing novel, innovative strategies for displays members’ locations and enables users to drill down to an ex creating viable therapeutic agents for neurological disorders. fi nd information about projects and individuals doing scientifi c throu Finalist Hendrik F. Hamann of IBM was honored for innova- development work on the ground in each country and region. inves tions in measuring real-time temperature and power distribu- “It’s a complementary and sensible partnership because we have IBM tions in operational microprocessors and large data centers. detailed information and they have high-level information,” says elect Th e awards, which recognize researchers in the private sec- Strauss. look tor, were presented by Pfi zer’s Senior Vice President for Global In late October, more than 800 individuals, projects, and Research and Development, Toni Hoover, at the Academy’s an- organizations had created profi les in the Scientists Without Bor- and nual Science & the City Gala. More about the fi nalists and win- ders site. And Strauss says anecdotes about connections made tervi ners is available online at www.nyas.org/about/innovation. through the database have begun to emerge. A Canadian im- indu To receive information about the 2009 Innovation in Industry munologist is now in Kumasi, Ghana, teaching immunology at IBM Awards competition, contact NYAS Manager of Business Devel- the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and from opment, Derek Brand at [email protected]. a Mexican diabetes researcher has heard from a company that

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 6 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:09:22:09 AAMM wants to help him develop genotyping strategies. Students at the great research in the clean tech space. Th e key will be developing University of Ottawa have collected equipment to send overseas, a robust innovation system to facilitate technology development raised funds to transport it, and used the site to gather logistical and movement to the marketplace. Th rough this project, the advice for getting it where it needs to go. Academy looks forward to helping to make this happen.” Th e next step in the NYAS-NYSTAR-NYSERDA initiative Neuroscience of Elections: will be to seek ways New York State can be competitive in clean tech. Ultimately, Baston says NYAS will present a straw man What Infl uenced Your Vote? model outlining the state’s path to excellence in this new area. In this year’s presidential election, pundits pointed to issues like the economy and foreign policy as factors that shaped Ameri- NYAS Teams with UK and FDA on cans’ decisions to vote for either Barack Obama or John McCain. But researchers in fi elds such as psychology and neuroeconomics Cytokines and Biomarkers Events say it’s not just issues but fundamental aspects of personality and Th e Academy’s Conferences Group will host Biomarkers in Brain possibly even neurology that may shape political attitudes. On Disease, a meeting at the Saïd Business School in Oxford, UK, September 18, three New York University researchers led a sym- in its second collaboration with the Global Medical Excellence posium focusing on what psychological and neurological studies Cluster of South East England (GMEC), a consortium of lead- can tell us about elections and decision-making, as well as some ing universities, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device of their limitations. Th e event was hosted by the Academy’s Sci- companies that aim to secure the global competitiveness of the ence & the City program together with the NYAS Psychology UK in medical research. Section, the New York University School of Continuing and Pro- Th e January 26-28 meeting has been organized by a high- EL IAN fessional Studies, and the Offi ce of the Dean of Sciences at NYU. profi le committee of scientists representing each of the GMEC To learn more about the presentations and work of event speak- universities—Imperial College London, King’s College London, ers John Jost, and NYU psychologist; David Amodio, assistant Oxford University, University College London, and Cambridge professor of psychology at NYU; or Elizabeth Phelps, Professor University—along with representatives of GlaxoSmithKline, Co- ks of Psychology and Neural Science, see the full report at www. lumbia University, and the Alzheimer’s Association. e nyas.org/election. Kathy Granger, program manger for life sciences at the Acad- emy, says the meeting will convene international leading experts prove from academia, industry, and regulatory authorities to discuss ordi- NYAS Helps New York Consider the identifi cation, evaluation, development and use of biomark- with ers for the prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment MDG Clean Technology Development of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophre- m De- Last year, the Academy identifi ed high-performance computing, nia, bipolar disorder, depression, Huntington’s, stroke, epilepsy, nanotechnology, biomedical sciences, and clean technology as and multiple sclerosis. Bor- potential areas for economic growth in New York State. Now, in Because biomarkers are already widely used in the fi eld of h and phase two of an engagement with the New York State Founda- oncology, the program includes a panel of cancer experts who ncies. tion for Science, Technology, and Innovation (also known as have been invited to share their experiences with the more than ffi cial NYSTAR), and the New York State Energy Research and De- 250 neuroscientists attending the meeting. ch.” velopment Authority (NYSERDA), the Academy is working to Th e Conferences Group is also collaborating with the US untry identify ways to improve New York’s clean technology strengths Food and Drug Administration on a meeting to discuss the e in- by fostering partnerships among public- and private-sector clean successes and failures of recombinant cytokines as therapeutic xpec- tech stakeholders. agents for treating human diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid With- NYAS Chief Business Offi cer Rene Baston points to the cre- arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and infl ammatory bowel disease. that ation of a new nanotechnology center at University of Albany as Th e meeting’s lead scientifi c organizer, Raymond Donnelly, is wn to an example of how a technological strength can be developed principle investigator of the Division of Th erapeutic Proteins, ntifi c through such a partnership. “Th e state and federal governments Offi ce of Biotechnology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drugs. gion. invested several hundred million dollars, and industry, led by Th is program will bring together scientists and clinicians from have IBM, invested over $1 billion. Now New York is a leader in nano- federal agencies, the biopharmaceutical industry, and academia says electronics,” says Baston. “Th at’s the kind of collaboration we’re to brainstorm new strategies to further move cytokine research looking to develop in clean technology for New York.” into clinical trials. Clinical trial researchers have been invited and Toward that end, Baston and NYAS Director of Innovation to discuss their experiences testing cytokines on various model Bor- and Sustainability Initiatives, Karin Pavese, have conducted in- organisms. Says Granger, “In the past, scientists have been able made terviews with various clean tech stakeholders in academia and to create cytokines, but not use them as true therapeutics. Th e im- industry in the upstate region, including Xerox, Kodak, and question now is, can we take cytokine therapy forward?” Th e gy at IBM, and will host a workshop to elicit ideas and commitments meeting, Cytokine Th erapies: Novel Approaches for Clinical In- , and from prospective partners. Says Pavese, “New York State has dications, will take place at the Academy March 26-27. that

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 5

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 7 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:14:22:14 AAMM Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Continuously published since 1823, the Annals has offered readers scores of papers on evolution’s impact across scientifi c disciplines by such important authors as Charles F. Cox, H Edmund P. Wilson, Henry Fairfi eld Osborn, Ernst Mayr, Noam Chomsky, and Nobel laureates Joshua Lederberg and Werner Arber. As we celebrate the Year of Darwin at the Academy, we’ll be highlighting selections from our Annals archives at www.nyas.org/darwin. We’ll also be offering important new volumes on evolutionary biology, like our annual review below.

… It in No to a tion the s This is the inaugural volume of a new annual review of the fi eld, itself offering 10 in-depth reviews and essays on the most timely and gust important issues affecting evolutionary biology today. the y had n Contents ever  Callahan et al., Phenotypic plasticity, costs of phenotypes, of it and costs of plasticity a lec  Rice, Theoretical approaches to the evolution of development book and genetic architecture eager  Hadany & Comeron, Why are sex and recombination so common? the m  Haloin & Strauss, The interplay between ecological communities and evolution and  Soltis et al., The origin and early evolution of angiosperms older sion  Zeh and Zeh, Consequences of reproductive mode for speciation  Badyaev, Maternal effects as generators of evolutionary change publ  Hughes, Near-Neutrality: the leading edge of the neutral theory of fi niti molecular evolution he w  Moller, Interactions between interactions: Predator-prey, parasite-host adve and mutualistic interactions and  Schlichting, Hidden reaction norms, cryptic variation and evolvability this m ous r Hook trans if he indic Also, you can still view online or purchase copies of one of our important earlier volumes: in 18 that Emotions Inside Out: 130 Years after Darwin’s sion The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals depe are o Edited by: Paul Ekman, Joseph J. Campos, Richard J. Davidson, and Frans B. M. de Waal this This volume offers a fresh look at an old theory that is still the reference point for research into emotions and unde facial expression. It updates and deepens our understanding of the emotional life of animals, the role of emotional ceive communication in human development, and the emotional underpinnings of normal and pathological social behavior. he di Topics covered include animal communication, and the development, expression, and physiology of emotion. his n ally, tion and at fi r Academy members have free, unlimited online access to thousands of full-text Annals articles. Members are also entitled to one free Annals volume each year. See insert for ordering information.

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 8 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:15:22:15 AAMM Annals Feature es How Darwin Upended the World From the archive of the Academy’s Annals, ’ll the 1909 address of NYAS President Charles Finney Cox recalls the chilly reception to Darwin’s Origin of Species 50 years earlier.

… It was only when Th e Origin appeared, aft er the opening of the war, although he entifi c heresies. Although Ernst Krause at- in November, 1859, that the world awaked never gladdened Darwin’s heart by unre- tributes considerable infl uence to Häckel’s to a realization of the fact that the evolu- servedly accepting natural selection. Lyell, advocacy of evolution in his Radiolaria tion theory had to be reckoned with, and of all Darwin’s personal friends, gave him published in 1862, he says it was really in the scientifi c part of the world aroused the greatest grief by his hesitation, espe- 1863, when Häckel championed the cause d, itself no more quickly than the rest. Au- cially because he seemed in private more at the “Versammlung” of naturalists at nd gust Weismann says, “We who were then favorable than he was willing to appear in Stettin, that the Darwinian question could the younger men, studying in the fi ft ies, public. Worst of all, he confessed to Huxley be considered as having been placed “for had no idea that a theory of evolution had that he was held back more by his feelings the fi rst time publicly before the forum of ever been put forward, for no one spoke than by his judgment. His fi nal surren- German science.” In France, according to of it to us, and it was never mentioned in der was made in the tenth edition of his Huxley, the ill-will of powerful members a lecture.” He also declares that “Darwin’s Principles of Geology, published in 1869. of the Institute “produced for a long time book fell like a bolt from the blue; it was For fully 10 years then, Darwin was the eff ect of a conspiracy of silence,” and eagerly devoured, and while it excited in obliged to plead with his scientifi c ac- it was only in 1869 that Hooker was able the minds of the younger students delight quaintances to come even a little way with to say, “the evolution of species must at ution and enthusiasm, it aroused among the him, assuring them that if they would last be spreading in France.” Looking at older naturalists anything from cool aver- only admit the mutability of species, he the whole situation a year aft er the pub- sion to violent opposition.”1 would not urge them to go the length of lication of Th e Origin, Huxley says that Darwin knew that when he should accepting natural selection, thus proving the supporters of Mr. Darwin’s views were publish his denial of the separate and de- that the scientifi c world had by no means numerically extremely insignifi cant and fi nitive creation of each particular species, been led up to a recognition of the fact of that “there is not the slightest doubt that, he would have to face a nearly unanimous transmutation, much less to the recep- if a general council of the Church scien- adverse judgment, among the learned tion of any particular theory of its causa- tifi c had been held at that time, we should and the unlearned alike. His feeling in tion. Even as late as 1880 we fi nd Huxley have been condemned by an overwhelm- this matter was shown by his half-humor- apologizing to Darwin for having slighted ing majority.”3 ous remark, when announcing to Joseph or ignored natural selection in his lecture, Hooker, in 1844, his conviction as to the Th e Coming of Age of the Origin of Species, 1 “The Evolution Theory.” Thomson’s transla- transformation of species, that he felt as because, as he argued, it was still essential tion, p. 28. 1904. if he were confessing to a murder! … It is “to drive the fact of evolution into people’s 2 “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin.” Vol. 11, indicated also by his writing to Asa Gray, heads” leaving the exposition of its cause, p. 79. 1887. in 1856, “As an honest man I must tell you or modus operandi, to come later. 3 On the reception of Origin of Species in that I have come to the heterodox conclu- But English men of science were not “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin.” Vol. 11, sion that there are no such things as in- alone in their reluctance to adopt the evo- p. 186. 1887. dependently created species, that species lution theory. As Huxley said, “Germany are only strongly defi ned varieties. I know took time to consider.” Bronn produced Charles Finney Cox (1846-1912), served as this will make you despise me.”2 Darwin a poor translation of Th e Origin in 1860, NYAS President in 1908 and 1909. A life- underestimated Gray’s preparedness to re- but omitted from it, out of deference to long collector of Darwiniana, Cox amassed ceive the new doctrine, but he showed that popular opinion, numerous supposedly a nearly complete collection of the great or. he did not expect a respectful hearing for off ensive passages (as, for example, the naturalist’s books, papers, photographs, his novel ideas by men of science gener- sentence near the end concerning the drawings, and other artifacts. Th is essay is ally, and in this unfavorable prognostica- light likely to be thrown upon the origin excerpted from his address to the Academy’s tion he proved to be right. Hooker, Gray, of man) and added a critical appendix Annual Meeting, December 20, 1909. Th e and Wallace were his only staunch allies intended to expose Darwin’s weak points full text of his speech is available at www. at fi rst; Huxley joined the little band soon and to soft en the eff ect of some of his sci- interscience.wiley.com/journal/nyas-cox.

on. The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 7

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 9 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:17:22:17 AAMM Member News

Peter Agre Harold Varmus (top) and Josep Nancy Siraisi

NYAS Board Chair John Sexton spends a moment with NY Gover- Howard Bloom, a past program director at the National Science the fi nor David Paterson during a conference on clean energy issues at Foundation and one-time visiting scholar at NYU, was the cre- tions the Academy in September. The event convened government offi cials and energy experts from the northeast and mid-Atlantic United States ative mind behind a YouTube video imploring the next US Presi- polic to discuss how regional collaboration can better address clean en- dent to fund space solar power development. Th e video, which late t ergy concerns. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine also attended. was viewed more than 20,000 times in three months (view at PHOTO: NY GOVERNOR’S OFFICE energyfromspace.org), is the product of a collaboration among Th eo Bloom, retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and former NASA man- Worl ager John Mankins, to promote the development of long-term Pion energy solutions by deploying solar panels in outer space. Bloom Worl Peter Agre and Harold Varmus, both members of the NYAS notes that space solar power is an infi nite source that is available of th Presidents Council and Nobel Laureates, served on the fi ve-per- around the clock and that it is not impeded by obstacles such as build son science advisory committee to the campaign of President- weather anomalies or environmental impacts that make it less joine Elect Barack Obama. Asked if he would be working for the new practical on Earth. Bloom argues that space solar power could be the p administration, Varmus, who is president of Memorial Sloan a solution not just to the energy crisis, but to the US economic prog Kettering Cancer Center in New York and led the NIH under crisis. “Th e nation that controls a new technology rises as the comm President Clinton, said his role as chair of the Science Advisory technology rises and becomes the dominant force. If we are to Committee was confi ned to the campaign, and that “No one come out of this collapse we have to get into the technologies of Nanc knows about the future for me or anyone else!” Agre, who directs the future so we come out as a major power and save the rest of of Sc the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, also declined to the world,” Bloom says. spok comment, saying that the Obama campaign had requested that Disc advisors not speak to the press. Joseph DeRisi, professor of biochemistry at the University of Cal- Fello ifornia, San Francisco, and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator, Jose Morales Barroso, director of L&M Data Communications was awarded the $250,000 Heinz Award in Technology for his at Hu in Madrid, Spain, outlines his proposal for a Universal Ether- “extraordinary breakthroughs in detecting both new and existing sity o net Telecommunications Service in a white paper published in viruses.” DeRisi’s creation of a viral detection platform for malar- Alde the International Engineering Consortium’s Annual Review of ia and other infectious diseases has helped advance biomedicine’s Medi Communications, vol. 61, December 2008. His article, Th e Intel- ability to detect both existing and new viruses. Also known as in- naiss ligent Grid: Electric Power Grid and Telecom Convergence, off ers ventor of the microarray chip, DeRisi and longtime collaborator “met practical steps to realize the full potential of a new model for Don Ganem pioneered the development and use of the ViroChip, in wh convergence, with emphasis on technologically viable solutions a band-aid-sized glass wafer that contains a microarray of 22,000 theor based on sustainability principles. He also proposes converged DNA sequences from more than 1,300 viral families. services delivery over a single “intelligent grid,” a central role in Cell meeting the world’s growing electric power demands and broad- Maria C. Freire, past NYAS governor, past CEO of the Global tion, band adoption. A link to the white paper is provided in a recent Alliance for TB Drug Development, and current President of the prog edition of the IEC newsletter at www.iec.org/newsletter/octo- Lasker Foundation, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine. cal tr ber08_1/#tech_briefi ng. Freire (profi led on p. 10) is highly regarded for her leadership in neur

8 www.nyas.org

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1010 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:18:22:18 AAMM The Insider: A Former Pfi zer Exec Responds to Critiques of Pharma Aft er 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry, John LaMattina says he was tired of reading what he considers misinformation about the drug business in the press. So, upon retirement in late 2007, the longtime NYAS supporter and past president of Pfi zer Global Research & Development wrote Drug Truths: Dispelling the Myths About Pharma R & D (Wiley Blackwell, Nov. 2008). Th e book’s table of contents is a list of what the author says are common misperceptions about big pharma, including “Industry is more interested in ‘me-too’ drugs than in innovation;” “Industry spends more on advertising than on R&D;” “New Drugs Are Less Safe than Traditional Medicines;” and, “Industry Does Not Care about Diseases of the Developing World.” LaMattina tries to modify wide- PHOTO: FELIX ABURTO spread beliefs, for instance, that the most important drug discoveries Joseph DeRisi Sally Temple are made in academia and biotech, not industry—“nothing could be further from the truth,” he says—or that the drug industry invents the diseases it treats—“there would have to be a grand conspiracy.” ence the fi eld of global public health, and for her signifi cant contribu- LaMattina says he cre- tions to drug development for neglected diseases, public health wrote the book as much for resi- policy, technology transfer, and intellectual property as they re- the general public as for the which late to medicine and basic science. “science ambassadors” he w at left behind at Pfi zer, with mong Th eodore Rockwell was honored in September 2008 by the each chapter fi rst describ- man- World Nuclear Association in London. Rockwell received the ing and refuting what he term Pioneer’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Peaceful believes is a myth, and then sharing drug development stories in oom Worldwide Use of Nuclear Energy. John Ritch, Director General order to prove his point. Asked if his position as a former pharma lable of the WNA, praised Rockwell’s “immensely valuable role in exec and stockholder might get in the way of gaining the trust of lay ch as building the foundations and future of nuclear power.” Rockwell readers, LaMattina says he wrote from the point of view of a scientist t less joined the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge in 1943 and rose to who loves the synthesis of molecules, adding, “I’ve found that scien- ld be the position of Technical Director for Admiral Rickover in the tists have more credibility with readers.” omic program to develop Naval nuclear power and the world’s fi rst A native of Brooklyn, LaMattina earned a PhD in organic chem- s the commercial atomic reactor. istry from the University of New Hampshire and completed an NIH re to postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton before beginning his pharma es of Nancy Siraisi, a member of the Academy’s History & Philosophy career in 1977 at a Pfi zer lab bench. His career spanned advances in est of of Science Section steering committee, and Sally Temple, who technology that moved the industry from testing the eff ectiveness of spoke at a meeting of the Academy’s Neurodegenerative Diseases painkillers with a rat and a hotplate to using DNA microarray chips Discussion Group in March 2008, were named 2008 MacArthur to determine when proteins are up- or down-regulated by a com- f Cal- Fellows. pound. “In my career, unraveling the human genome opened up the gator, Siraisi, who was for more than 30 years a professor of history door to getting a fi rm handle on understanding disease and having r his at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City Univer- targets to go aft er,” he says. sting sity of New York, is the author of several books, including Taddeo In more than four years as head of the Pfi zer R&D operation, alar- Alderotti and His Pupils (1981), Medieval and Early Renaissance LaMattina saw the debut of the smoking-cessation drug Chantix, the cine’s Medicine (1990), and History, Medicine, and the Traditions of Re- AIDS drug Selzentry, the kidney cancer therapy Sutent, and Lyrica, as in- naissance Learning (2007). Th e MacArthur Foundation says her a drug acquired in Pfi zer’s merger with Warner Lambert that ad- rator “meticulously researched volumes elucidate the historical milieu dresses epilepsy, neuropathic pain, and fybromyalgia. “You remem- Chip, in which the physicians lived and the profound impact of medical ber where you were when you heard that a drug worked in clinical 2,000 theory and practice on Renaissance society, culture, and religion.” trials,” LaMattina says. “I remember being in the meeting when we Temple is the scientifi c director of the New York Neural Stem heard the Chantix results. People who had been smoking a pack a Cell Institute in Albany. According to the MacArthur Founda- day were down to three cigarettes.” lobal tion, “Th rough her basic research on the diff erentiation of neural What about one more “myth” listed in the table of contents: of the progenitors, Temple brings us closer to developing eff ective clini- “Big Pharma’s Day Has Passed?” Says LaMattina, “Th ere are 750 can- cine. cal treatments for central nervous system damage due to trauma, cer treatment compounds in the pipeline—in clinical trials—right ip in neurodegenerative diseases, malignancy, or stroke.” now. Imagine if just 10 percent of those make it?”

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 9

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1111 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:30:22:30 AAMM Member Memoir I Taking the Road wher came scho By Maria Freire, bioph as told to was m That Transforms Abigail Jeffries in th cons

Capi Fello for th in th Mine Tech Rock a pie Tech ward labor prop cializ Dole univ to in feder to fo these derst techn

Hill, more Grad coup ed to techn asked I con thing chan fi rst It’s th tradi to un enor

Insti Offi c spon ment and Heal paten

10 www.nyas.org

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1212 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:41:22:41 AAMM was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and the Food and Drug Administration. where my extended family lives. Th is was a fabulous position, at a remark- Maria Aft er attending university in Lima, able point in history, tackling thorny is- FREIRE I President of the Albert and Mary where I received my bachelor’s degree, I sues such as the patenting of human genes, came to the US on a Fulbright Foundation which few had thought about before. Lasker Foundation scholarship to pursue my doctorate in At NIH, I wanted to assess success not NYAS member since: 2005 eire, biophysics at the University of Virginia. It only using fi nancial metrics, but also on was my good fortune to be able to remain the impact a commercial application or the PhD: Biophysics, University of Virginia es in the US and to embark upon what some transfer of technology would have on the Postdoc studies: Immunology and considered a peculiar career path. population. When it came down to a deci- Virology, University of Virginia and University Th e journey began when I went to sion between having NIH earn more royal- of Tennessee, respectively Capitol Hill as a Congressional Science ties on technology it had developed versus Fellowships and Awards include: Fellow from the American Association allowing the technology to move forward Fulbright Fellowship, two US Congressional for the Advancement of Science. I worked and benefi t people, the decision was very Science Fellowships, DHHS Secretary’s in the offi ces of then-Congressman Norm clear. At the end of the day, this was tech- Award for Distinguished Service, the 1999 Mineta, who was on the Science and nology the taxpayers had funded, and the Arthur S. Flemming Award and the 2002 Bayh-Dole Award Technology Committee, and Senator Jay benefi t to the taxpayers was to make sure Rockefeller. In this context, I realized that the new drug, vaccine, or diagnostic tool Outside interests: Furniture refi nishing a piece of legislation called the Federal was available to them. I am pleased to say and mystery novels Technology Transfer Act was moving for- we were able to achieve this balance, mak- ward. Th is legislation allowed government ing OTT the most successful technology both—aimed at identifying accomplish- laboratories to protect their intellectual transfer operation in the US government. ments that have profoundly infl uenced property and encouraged the commer- Th e transfer of technology for cancer a scientifi c fi eld and by honoring scien- cialization of these inventions. Th e Bayh- or diabetes or other indications for which tifi c, clinical, and public service careers Dole Act had already been passed to allow there was a large, profi table commercial that leave us in awe. Lasker is usually fi rst universities and businesses to retain title market, was entirely feasible. However, we at recognizing such outstanding work; to intellectual property developed with couldn’t manage to give away technology scientists tend to get the Nobel Prize af- federal funds and to license their rights associated with indications like malaria or ter they have received the Lasker, and if to for-profi t entities. Th rough exposure to cholera, in spite of the huge impact these one wins the Lasker, he or she has been these complementary acts, I began to un- would have on global health. I found this vetted by the brightest in the world. Th e derstand the transformational potential of extremely frustrating. In 2001 when the Lasker Foundation illuminates the paths technology transfer. opportunity arose to work on developing of where things came from and where we Aft er fi nishing my fellowship on the a drug for tuberculosis, I left NIH and be- believe they have the potential to go. Part Hill, the University of Maryland, Balti- came the fi rst CEO of the Global Alliance of my interest is in trying to present the more, recruited me to help start the new for TB Drug Development. Th ere were excitement and the transformational po- Graduate School. It was there that aft er a three of us, we had a seed grant of $15 tential of biomedical science to the next couple of years I let them know that I want- million from the Rockefeller Foundation. generation of students, through increased ed to focus on the up-and-coming fi eld of Over six years, we grew to a team of about funding of biomedical science, through technology transfer. Surprised, my boss 40 people with over $200 million and the the example of our Lasker Laureates, and asked, “What do you know about patents?” support of U.S. and European govern- through identifying areas of science with I confessed that I didn’t actually know any- ments and the Gates Foundation. Th is was global impact on which we have not yet thing about them, but they gave me the no longer technology transfer; it was the shone an appropriate light. chance and I established the university’s development of drugs for an underserved When I was growing up, the expecta- fi rst Offi ce of Technology Development. population, and it was inspirational. tion was for scientists to go into academia. It’s that kind of serendipitous path–a non- Once the TB Alliance was poised to Early on I realized this was not the route traditional approach to science–that leads succeed, I wondered, “What’s next?” Th at’s I wanted to take. Now scientists have the to unexpected opportunities. I learned an when the Lasker Foundation knocked on option of going into a vast number of enormous amount, and I loved it. my door. At Lasker, I can look at science fi elds, from biotechnology to the comput- From there, I went to the US National from the perspective of what has been ac- er industry—there are many alternative Institutes of Health where I directed the complished and the gaps that still exist, possibilities. My career choices seemed Offi ce of Technology Transfer. I was re- and I can try to focus the right sources odd for the times, but for me it wasn’t dif- sponsible for the development and imple- and support on what science can do fi cult to take this non-traditional route; it mentation of technology transfer policies that’s transformational. Lasker presents made all the sense in the world. and procedures for the Department of awards through a juried process—an ex- Health and Human Services, and for the traordinary panel consisting of 25 scien- Abigail Jeff ries is a freelance health and patenting and licensing activities for NIH tists, many Lasker or Nobel Laureates or science reporter based in Tolland, CT.

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 11

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1313 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:45:22:45 AAMM Academy eBriefi ngs EBriefi ngs are online multimedia reports documenting recent Academy events. Find the new and noteworthy ones previewed here and more at www.nyas.org/ebriefi ng. Compiled by Chris Williams

Zero Net Energy Buildings: Science & Innovation Week: No Reality or Fiction? Mexico City’s High-Tech Future Th

Gas-guzzling SUV’s might be most closely associated with prob- When politicians give speeches at scientifi c meetings, they too Auto lems of fuel effi ciency in the popular mind, but energy consump- oft en follow a disappointing pattern: many words of praise for the scler tion in U.S. buildings actually outpaces usage in transportation important work researchers do, some general speculation about body or by industry. Because much of this use is coal-derived electri- the future, and a non-binding promise to help. Opening Mexico tholo cal energy, buildings also contribute hugely to worldwide carbon City’s Science & Innovation Week on September 22, 2008, Mayor to re dioxide emissions. Replacing building energy consumption with Marcelo Ebrard departed radically from this approach. press non-emitting, renewably generated energy, is therefore consid- Th e leader of one of the world’s largest metropolises made arthr ered a critical step in managing climate change. a clear argument for the centrality of science in the city’s future, cess One green design goal is the “zero net energy building”—to and outlined a plan to get the area’s scientifi c and technologi- derly balance energy effi ciency and renewable energy generation at the cal infrastructure up to world-class standards. Th e centerpiece more level of individual buildings, where it can be evaluated during of Ebrard’s initiative is a set of four “knowledge cities” within drug design, construction, and operation. Since some energy use can Mexico City, each focused on a diff erent aspect of the innovation ously not be eliminated, these designs use local generation, oft en by economy: education, medicine, communication, and fi nance. photovoltaics, to bring the net energy usage to zero. Mexico City is already home to world-class life sciences Feld According to Paul Torcellini of the National Renewable laboratories, whose work could form the basis for a home-grown of Rh Energy Laboratory, “We want to have quantifi able goals” for ef- biotechnology industry. As one of the world’s megacities, it fac- that fi ciency improvements. As he explained at a recent NYAS event, es infrastructural challenges that, if solved, could be applied in heart “zero is not easy to defi ne” for a single building. Net energy us- many other places around the planet. Th e ability to leapfrog from later age depends on how the boundaries of the building’s impact are pre-industrial to post-industrial technology also puts places like deve defi ned, as well as how external usage is factored in and when Mexico City in a good position to fi nd new ways of reducing ies a the energy is used. A number of formulas have been proposed, humans’ environmental footprint. Feldm though no single approach has been adopted. At this event, organized by the New York Academy of Sci- Dr. P Getting to net-zero buildings will require attention to a host ences with support from Mexico City and the Mexican Academy in ho of details. As Paul Schwer of PAE Consulting Engineers, a me- of Sciences, renowned scientists and other leaders in science and temb chanical/electrical design fi rm in Portland, Ore., emphasized, innovation addressed a 300-strong crowd of policymakers, busi- setting aggressive goals is critical to achieving signifi cant sav- ness executives, teachers, and students. Th e morning sessions can t ings. Designing heating and cooling systems with an eye to local provided a sampling of scientifi c fi elds where Mexico City could To ta climate, and reducing lighting and other electrical use are the excel, including health and genomics, urban infrastructure, and sues most powerful tools for improving effi ciency. On-site renewable green science and technology. Th e aft ernoons focused on inno- in a generation to off set the remaining usage can include bio-derived vation, the diffi cult alchemy of turning scientifi c progress into now fuels in addition to photovoltaics. Both Schwer and Torcellini ac- practical and profi table technologies. cludi knowledged that for some types of construction or use, including Speakers included futurist Alvin Toffl er, Nobel laureates erosc high-rises, the zero-net-energy goal is impractical at the build- Rajendra Pachauri, Robert Engle, Harold Kroto, Robert Rich- ing level, and must instead be evaluated for a wider community. ardson, and Sherwood Roland; Mexican leaders Hugo Santana Stanf Considering projections that more than three quarters of the (CEO of IBM Mexico), Esther Orozco (president of the Science thrit U.S. building stock will be built anew or signifi cantly modifi ed and Technology Institute of Mexico City), and Julio Frenk (for- of th by 2030, the sector off ers an attractive opportunity for making mer Minister of Health of Mexico); and more than two dozen Lond strides in sustainability. See p. 26 for future events on this topic. other leaders in science and technology. mun

on the web on the web cytok See the full eBriefi ng at www.nyas.org/zero-net-energy. See the full eBriefi ng at www.nyas.org/siw08.

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1414 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:22:47:22:47 AAMM es Focus on Evolution fi nd these eBriefi ngs at www.nyas.org/ebriefi ng

Novel Anti-Cytokine Therapies: Evolution, Health & Disease: Darwinian Approaches to Medicine Evolutionary medicine can provide a long-term perspective on why dis- eases exist, and off ers fundamental insights that can help to treat them. e The Janssen Award Symposium www.nyas.org/darwinian

Convergent Revolution: Evolutionary Systems Biology Considered in tandem, evolutionary biology and systems biology could explain how evolution shapes molecular networks, or how those networks give rise to phenotypic fi tness. www.nyas.org/evosysbio y too Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple Teaching Evolution and the Nature of Science r the sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus occur when the Calls to “teach the controversy” surrounding intelligent design have bout body mounts an aberrant immune response that results in pa- made battlegrounds of science classrooms across the country. Th is exico thology. Th erapies for autoimmune disease have been designed eBriefi ng off ers teachers, parents, and education policy-makers ayor to reduce infl ammation, as corticosteroids do in asthma, or sup- scientifi c knowledge and practical tools to respond to the challenge. press the immune system, as methotrexate does in rheumatoid www.nyas.org/evolution made arthritis. But these nonspecifi c approaches have had limited suc- ture, cess in treating the diseases. A better understanding of the un- A Labyrinth to the Past: What Made Us Human? logi- derlying biology of autoimmune diseases was necessary before Recent additions to the fossil record are helping to identify the piece more successful treatments could be developed. And even then, crucial biological and cultural developments that led to the rise of ithin drugs based on basic biological discoveries have been notori- Homo sapiens. www.nyas.org/labyrinth ation ously diffi cult to develop. e. It was no wonder then, that the fi eld took notice when Marc Pseudogenes: Fishing for Clues to Genomic History ences Feldmann and Ravinder Maini, both of the Kennedy Institute Computational approaches are showing that some apparently rown of Rheumatology at Imperial College London, reported in 1988 nonfunctioning regions of DNA are not just preserved artifacts of t fac- that the cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) lay at the evolution, but might also perform important roles. ed in heart of the infl ammatory response in rheumatoid arthritis. Th ey www.nyas.org/pseudogenes from later made the rare jump from bench research to the clinic by s like developing an anti-cytokine therapy using monoclonal antibod- Evolution and Robustness ucing ies against TNF. In recognition of their landmark achievement, How do the complex networks of gene regulation, cellular signal- Feldmann and Maini were recently named winners of the 2008 ing, and cellular metabolism remain stable in the face of constant f Sci- Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. A symposium perturbations? demy in honor of the two scientists took place at the Academy on Sep- www.nyas.org/robust e and tember 10, 2008. busi- “Cytokines are important in every biological process you sions can think of,” Feldmann said of these crucial local cell mediators. ould To take just two examples, they coordinate infl ammation in tis- multiple sclerosis. While not a cure, they have off ered hope and and sues and stimulate B-cell and T-cell responses. “Th ey also change improved the quality of life of millions of people. But for other nno- in a major way in every disease process,” he said. Feldmann is conditions, researchers have found it diffi cult to identify a single into now looking at the role of cytokines in a range of diseases, in- molecule to target within the immune response. Th e recent trend cluding bird fl u, postoperative cognitive dysfunction, and ath- is to target multiple key players in diseases such as asthma and eates erosclerosis. lupus to halt the vicious cycle of autoimmunity. Th ough much Rich- Following lectures by the honorees, Lawrence Steinman of remains to be done, the anti-TNF therapy developed by Maini tana Stanford University, Peter Lipsky of the National Institute of Ar- and Feldmann gives researchers hope for the potential utility of ence thritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and Peter Barnes protein therapies, and continues to spur interest in the role of (for- of the National Heart and Lung Institute and Imperial College infl ammation in many diseases. ozen London spoke about anti-cytokine therapies in other autoim- mune diseases. on the web Th e symposium highlighted the eff ectiveness of anti- See the full eBriefi ng at www.nyas.org/janssen. cytokine therapies in diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and

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D D

e

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Six leading scholars THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION THAT CHARLES DARWIN FIRST articulated in print in 1859 is still the fundamental idea on which all modern biological refl ect on the studies are based today. But Darwin’s observations of evolution and sexual selection among humans and other species have reached far beyond the fi eld of biology, to infl u- enduring infl uence of ence, inspire, and inform nearly every scientifi c discipline. To ring in the year in which the world will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Dar- Charles Darwin and win’s birth, on February 12, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most famous work, On the Origin of Species, nine months later, we pay tribute to a legendary demonstrate how his member of the New York Academy of Sciences with a collection of essays. Th e NYAS Magazine invited six leading scholars—historian Janet Browne, psychologist Paul Ek- work continues to man, astronomist-physicist-biochemist Stuart Kauff man, theoretical physicist-envi- ronmental scientist Lord Robert May, geneticist-botanist-philosopher and “evo-devo” inspire scientists pioneer Massimo Pigliucci, and physician-behavioral scientist Charles Raison—to write about how Darwin’s observations infl uenced their own work or fi eld of research. across disciplines. Th eir respective comments illuminate the wide and varying infl uence Darwin contin- ues to have on science and on humanity.

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ation of science, from the fi rst stirrings of new concepts in an neve individual’s mind, followed by the careful documentation and few l experiment that usually supports a scientifi c claim, on to the For w eventual publication and public response to fresh ideas. Biogra- assoc phy can, in fact, illuminate what historians are beginning to call socie the circulation and accreditation of ideas. for t It seemed to me that this modern rethink provided a good num opportunity to explore the movement of Darwin’s evolutionary ideas from the privacy of his own mind, as expressed in letters comp and notebooks during his most creative years on the Beagle voy- age and immediately aft erwards, to the extraordinary public agree Documenting the Life of the controversy that erupted aft er he published the Origin of Species. the m th From private to public, from the Beagle years to the Origin of Spe- tion. Enigmatic 19 C. Scientist cies: Darwin’s intellectual trajectory provided me with a way to toget investigate the generation and acceptance of new ideas. nece BY JANET BROWNE Over the years Darwin has become a real person to me. As a Janet Browne is Aramont Professor of the History of Science at lows historian of science and as one of his several biographers, I Harvard University, and author of the highly acclaimed two-vol- reviv have spent some 15 years in his company, oft en on a daily ba- ume biographical study, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, published even sis. Th rough his letters I accompanied him on his Beagle ad- in 1995, and Charles Darwin: Th e Power of Place, published in ferin ventures, followed the development of his theories, observed his 2002, which won the James Tait Black award for non-fi ction in at th anxieties about marriage, watched his family grow up, worried 2004, the W.H. Heinemann Prize from the Royal Literary Society, poin with him about illness, and felt heartbroken at the death of his and the Pfi zer Prize from the History of Science Society. She was least daughter Annie. also associate editor of the early volumes of Th e Correspondence Darwin was a traveler, a family man, a thinker, a much- of Charles Darwin. foun loved husband, father, friend, and neighbor—a likeable and vanc genial fi gure, as expressive in his letters as he must have been comm in life. Although his theories were fi rst conceived in the smoky that atmosphere of London, just aft er his return from the Beagle in the m 1836, his major books and articles were all researched and con- to hi structed in the domestic setting of his home at Down House in path Kent. Th ere he lived for 40 years with his wife Emma Wedgwood such and 10 children, of whom only seven survived to adulthood. Th e ance house still exists and is now a museum restored to show how it is be was in Darwin’s time. It is an inspiring place to visit, quiet and yond rural, and one can almost imagine Darwin stepping in through a seem doorway. Visitors used to record how he would greet them with of th an outstretched hand. Charles Darwin, the Dalai dent So behind that large white Victorian beard, there existed a diff u friendly, stimulating, oft en enigmatic personality, who still in- Lama, and Sentient Beings trigues all those who come into contact with him. How could Darw such a modest and retiring fi gure come up with the theory that BY PAUL EKMAN made the modern world? A few years ago I had a series of conversations with the Dalai Lama Paul Writing about the famous has many advantages. Darwin about the nature of emotion and compassion reported in our book Calif was an eager and regular correspondent with a wide variety of Emotional Awareness.1 I explained recent research in which a mon- Ekm people, and left a copious record of his activities, both personal key could get food only by delivering a shock to another monkey. evan and scientifi c. By the time of his death he had become an in- If it was a familiar monkey, the hungry monkey did not attempt to na ternational celebrity and many manuscripts were preserved by to get food for many days. Th e amount of delayed gratifi cation co-au friends and family. Encountering this rich and varied archive— decreased if it was an unfamiliar monkey, and even more if it was press now primarily located in Cambridge University Library—was a a monkey from a diff erent species.2 Nevertheless, even when the of th major infl uence on the way that I began to reconceptualize the monkey who would suff er was unfamiliar and from another spe- in M role that biography might play in the history of science. cies, there was still some delay in responding to hunger. Acad For too long, scientifi c biographies have been regarded as Th is is consistent with Darwin’s report of such compassion- 130 Y the lighter end of history, suitable mostly for bedtime reading. ate actions: “Many animals, however, certainly sympathize with and A Instead, biography can also tell us much about the actual cre- each other’s distress or danger. … I have myself, seen a dog who

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 1818 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:23:32:23:32 AAMM n an never passed a great friend of his, a cat, without giving her a and few licks with his tongue, a sure sign of a kind feeling in a dog. o the For with those animals which were benefi ted by living in close ogra- association, the individuals which took the greatest pleasure in o call society would best escape dangers. Whilst those that cared least for their comrades and lived solitarily would perish in great good numbers.”3 nary Importantly Darwin draws our attention to the benefi ts of etters compassionate behavior, what de Waals calls reciprocity.2 voy- Th e Dalai Lama responded to these examples saying: “I fully ublic agree … in those animals, like turtles, [that do not interact] with ecies. the mother, I do not think they have the capacity to show aff ec- Two Deep Issues in f Spe- tion. … Aff ection [between mother and off spring] brings them ay to together. Without aff ection, there is no force to develop … [the Evolutionary Theory necessary] willpower to face diffi culties.”1 Darwin explained the origin of compassionate actions as fol- BY STUART KAUFFMAN ce at lows: “Th e sight of another person enduring hunger, cold, fatigue Charles Darwin made what may be the greatest change in West- -vol- revives in us some recollection of these states, which are painful ern thinking. With him, history and historical processes emerge ished even in the idea. And we are thus impelled to relieve the suf- as a central focus for scientifi c thought. With Darwin, heritable ed in fering of another in order that our own painful feelings may be variation, and natural selection, we have for the fi rst time a start on in at the same time relieved.”1 Th e Dalai Lama completely agreed, for understanding the becoming of the biosphere. In this short ciety, pointing out that when he acts compassionately it helps him at article I want to discuss two features of evolution that remain e was least as much as he helps the person suff ering. largely outside mainstream discussion of evolution, yet are of ence Darwin also expressed exactly the same ethic that can be central importance to the evolution of the biosphere. found in Buddhism scripts from centuries earlier: “As man ad- First, Darwin did not know of self-organization. Today, vances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger in part due to the sciences of complexity and the computer as communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual a kind of “macroscope,” we begin to see such self-organization. that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all Does it play a role in evolution? If so, how does it mingle with the members of the same nation, though personally unknown selection as interwoven sources of order in organisms down the to him. … there is only an artifi cial barrier to prevent his sym- evolutionary pathways? pathies extending to the men of all nations and races. If indeed Second, what is the physical basis of the historical processes such men are separated from him by great diff erences in appear- of which Darwin made us aware? We shall see that we are led to ance or habits, experience, unfortunately, shows us how long it issues of the “open universe.” is before we look at them as our fellow creatures. Sympathy be- yond the confi nes of man, that is, humanity to the lower animals I. SELFORGANIZATION seems to be one of the latest moral acquisitions. Th is virtue, one Darwin did not know about self-organization. Physicists do, of of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to arise inci- course, as in Benard cells and the Zhabotinski reaction. Snow dentally from our sympathies, becoming more tender and widely fl akes show six-fold exquisite symmetry without benefi t of natu- diff used, until they are extended to all sentient beings.”1 ral selection. Cholesterol dissolved in water forms liposomes, bi- Hearing this, the Dalai Lama pronounced himself a lipid-layered vesicles that must be the origins of cell membranes, Darwinian! but arise without selection. For many years I have studied mod- els of genetic regulatory networks, where I have modeled genes Lama Paul Ekman is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of as binary, on/off devices and studied random Boolean nets. book California, San Francisco, Medical School and director of the Paul More than 40 years of work shows that such networks be- mon- Ekman Group, a small company that produces training devices rel- have in either an ordered or a chaotic regime, separated by a crit- nkey. evant to emotional skills, and is initiating new research relevant ical phase transition. Th e ordered regime and the critical phase empt to national security and law enforcement. Ekman is author and transition demonstrate astonishing order. I will not describe it ation co-author of numerous books on the evolution of human facial ex- here, other than to say that our intuitions about the require- t was pression, and was editor of Darwin and Facial Expression (1973), ments for dynamical order have been drastically wrong. And I n the of the third edition of Darwin’s Th e Expression of the Emotions add two thoughts. Such networks have dynamical attractors. I spe- in Man and Animals (1998), and of the Annals of the New York have long thought that cell types correspond to attractors. I have Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1000, Dec. 2003, Emotions Inside Out: also hoped that cells are dynamically critical, poised at the edge sion- 130 Years aft er Darwin’s Th e Expression of the Emotions in Man of chaos. Some recent evidence suggests this may be true. with and Animals, (www.nyas.org/annals/detail.asp?annalID=622). If cells are critical, then we have before us an example of the who

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marriage of self-organization and selection. In a parameter space few minerals, making natural games by which all live and evolve. such concerning features such as the mean number of inputs per gene, Th e ground of our existence, then, is not to be found in physics the b the input distribution, biases on Boolean functions used in the alone, but also in the partially lawless becoming of the biosphere, term network and so forth, critical networks are extremely rare, occur- econosphere, culture that we self-consistently co-construct. (See say t ring on a critical surface in parameter space separating ordered Reinventing the Sacred, Kauff man, 2008.) repre from chaotic behavior. But if cells are critical, this suggests both Darwin, it appears, started us down a path now beyond his obse that the generic self-organized behavior of complex non-linear stunning dreams. dynamical systems such as genetic regulatory networks may a cen readily aff ord “ordered” and critical dynamics without much se- Stuart Kauff man is Professor in the Department of Biological Sci- tive a lection, but that substantial selection is required to achieve and ences and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary. He of su maintain critical behavior. is also Director of the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics, tions Th is means that we must rethink evolution. Selection as well as an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University gathe is not the sole source of order in organisms. Neither is self- of Pennsylvania, a MacArthur Fellow, and an external professor at divid organization. We must understand both and their marriage. the Santa Fe Institute. Originally a medical doctor, Kauff man’s pri- gan, Somehow I think Darwin would have been delighted. mary work has been as a theoretical biologist studying the origin whic of life and molecular organization. He is the author of Th e Origins today II. THE OPEN UNIVERSE of Order, At Home in the Universe: Th e Search for the Laws of Consider fi rst the set of all possible proteins with a length of 200 Self-Organization, Investigations, and Reinventing the Sacred: A years amino acids. Since there are 20 kinds of amino acids, there are 20200 New View of Science, Reason, and Religion. ecolo such proteins. We can easily now synthesize any one of them. enfol Now consider that the universe is 1017 seconds old and has And about 1080 particles in it. It is easy to calculate that, were the uni- huge verse doing nothing on the Planck time scale of 10-43 seconds but diver making proteins length 200, it would take 1039 times the current man lifetime of the universe to make all these proteins just once. comp Th is means that once we are above the level of complexity uitab of atoms, where all possible atoms exist in the universe, the uni- verse is on a unique trajectory. We will never make all possible the s proteins, complex molecules, organs, organisms, social systems. Trag Th e universe is indefi nitely open “upward” in complexity. More, er’s D when the space of the possible is vastly larger than the space of cial g the actual, history enters. Here is the root of Darwin’s historicity. smal Now, suppose reductionism were right. Suppose that, when Cooperation Among Nations in chea the science shall have been done, there really is some fi nal theo- costs ry as Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg hoped, and perhaps still A Crowded & Changing World in th hopes, despite 10500 string theories. Th en all that exists in the uni- verse would be entailed by that fi nal theory, and the existence of BY ROBERT MAY ies ev all that exists would be explained. In his own time, Darwin’s theory of evolution had serious scien- Once What if reductionism fails? What if the becoming of the tifi c diffi culties. For one thing, the physics of his day put a limit dream biosphere is partially lawless? Th en the very existence of many of a few million years both on the life of the sun, and for planet its an things becomes a matter to conjure upon. Consider a humming- Earth to have cooled from a molten ball to a frozen mass. For an- to he bird and a fi eld of fl owers. Th e hummingbird puts her beak into other, prevailing ideas about “blending inheritance” were irrec- zatio one fl ower to eat the nectar, some pollen rubs onto her beak and oncilable with preserving variability within populations, upon strik sticks to it. She fl ies to the next fl ower, eats some nectar, and the which his theory was based. Happily, the former diffi culty was from pollen from the fi rst fl ower rubs off on the stamen of the second resolved by our discovery of nuclear forces (which fuel the sun, a com fl ower. Th e hummingbird pollinates the fl ower. and warm the earth by radioactive decays within its core) and the socie Suppose before the hummingbird left the fi rst fl ower, all the latter by rediscovery of Mendel (and consequent understanding L. M pollen fell off her beak, or she regularly fl ew to a nearby tree to of particulate inheritance by Hardy and Weinberg). migh eat the nectar. Pollenization would not occur. Darwin, however, arguably saw his most important unsolved all-se Th us it is by the quixotic fact of the stickiness of the hum- problem as explaining how cooperative behavior among animals mingbird’s beak that both the hummingbird and the fl owers exist evolved. At fi rst glance, the answer seems easy. You pay some tially and, with insects, have co-evolved for millions of years. Th ey are small cost to gather a much larger cooperative benefi t. For exam- inter conditions of one another’s physical existence in the universe by ple, a prairie dog takes a personal risk in giving an alarm call, but ing r virtue of a mutualism. But the biosphere as a whole is a vast mu- all the colony benefi ts and, by taking turns as alarm giver, each tualism in the sense that all in it exist with only sunshine and a individual’s group benefi t exceeds the occasional risk. But any erativ

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2020 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:23:43:23:43 AAMM olve. such arrangement is immediately vulnerable to cheats who enjoy society, it could be Bad News. Th at is because, although such ysics the benefi ts without paying the risk-taking dues. In evolutionary authoritarian systems seem to be good at preserving social co- here, terms, such cheats have a selective advantage (today we would herence and an orderly society, they are, by the same token, not (See say their survivorship advantage means their genes are more good at adapting to change. Diamond’s book, Collapse: How So- represented in the next generation). So it is unclear how such cieties Choose to Fail or Survive, provides striking examples. d his observed cooperative phenomena can arise or be maintained. A fundamental principle emerging from the Neo- Following work on “kin selection” by Hamilton and others Darwinian Revolution of around a century ago is Fisher’s Funda- a century aft er Darwin, we now understand how such coopera- mental Th eorem, which states that a population’s potential rate l Sci- tive associations can evolve and persist in relatively small groups of change of gene frequency (which measures its ability to adapt y. He of suffi ciently closely related individuals. Moreover, these condi- to changing circumstances) is proportional to the variance in atics, tions could apply to humans when we were small bands of hunter- gene frequency, which will be small if essentially all individu- ersity gatherers. But for large aggregations of essentially unrelated in- als are well-adapted to their current environment. Th at is, there or at dividuals, as developed once agriculture appeared and cities be- is an inherent tension between adaptedness and adaptability. If s pri- gan, the origin of cooperative associations—with group benefi ts there is any substance in my speculations about the answer to rigin which exceed the “cost of membership”—remains as puzzling Darwin’s problem in explaining cooperation in human societies, igins today as it was for Darwin. we again have a fundamental tension—at the level of the entire ws of Nor is this some abstract, academic problem. Th e past 150 society—between, on the one hand, “ties that bind” and permit ed: A years had seen the human population increase sevenfold, and the stably cooperative aggregations, and, on the other hand, ability ecological footprint of the average individual also increase sev- to respond eff ectively to changing environmental circumstances. enfold, for an overall 50-fold rise in our impacts on the planet. It could even be argued that the recent rise of fundamentalism, And still these impacts are increasing. Th ere are consequently in both East and West, is an illustration of this meta-level version huge and global problems—climate change, loss of biological of Fisher’s Fundamental Th eorem, as complex faiths are reduced diversity, pressure on water supplies, and much else—which de- to intolerant ideologies to resist the challenge of societal change. mand globally cooperative solutions. Th ese problems are further It is a pity that Darwin is not here to help us. compounded by the fact that nations must cooperate, but in eq- uitable proportions. Robert, Lord May of Oxford, holds a Professorship jointly at Ox- Th ese problems have recently received much attention in ford University and Imperial College, London, and is a Fellow of the scholarly literature, employing a variety of metaphors: the Merton College, Oxford. He was President of Th e Royal Society Tragedy of the Commons; the Free-Rider problem; the Prison- (2000-2005), and Chief Scientifi c Adviser to the UK Government er’s Dilemma; and others. Th ese metaphors are allied to artifi - and Head of the UK Offi ce of Science and Technology (1995-2000). cial games in which the subjects (usually undergraduates) trade He has also served as a Personal Chair in Physics at Sydney Uni- small sums of money to test limits to altruism and tolerance of versity, Professor of Zoology and Chairman of the Research Board in cheating. Incidentally, essentially none of this work involves the at Princeton, and Royal Society Research Professor at Oxford and costs and benefi ts varying among the players, as it usually does Imperial College. He is recognized for his research into how popu- rld in the real world. lations are structured and respond to change, particularly with re- My own speculation about how cooperative human societ- spect to infectious diseases and biodiversity. ies evolved is both less academic and analytic, and more gloomy. cien- Once we move out of the mists of pre-history, we fi nd stories of limit dreamtime, creation myths, ceremonies and initiation rites, spir- lanet its and gods, with a unifying theme that all seek simultaneously r an- to help explain the external world and also to provide a “stabili- rrec- zation matrix” for a cohesive society. Th ere are, moreover, some upon striking and unexplained similarities in belief systems and rituals y was from diff erent times and places. Conscience, a simple word for sun, a complex concept which helps foster behaviour in accord with d the society’s professed norms, has been memorably defi ned by H. ding L. Mencken as “the inner voice which warns us that somebody might be looking.” And how helpful it is if that somebody is an olved all-seeing, all-knowing supernatural entity. mals Common to these conjectured “stabilizing forces” in essen- Darwin, Evolution, Development some tially all earlier societies are hierarchical structures, serving and xam- interpreting the divine being or pantheon, along with unquestion- BY MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI l, but ing respect for authority. In such systems, faith trumps evidence. Charles Darwin had a diffi cult job in 1859: although a few peo- each But if indeed this is broadly the explanation for how coop- ple before him had fl oated the idea that living organisms evolve, t any erative behaviour has evolved and been maintained in human no known mechanism for their alleged change over time was

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known, and little compelling evidence was available in favor of it. netic variants that can be selected. But recent discoveries in de- Indeed, the dominant paradigm among naturalists was William velopmental biology have presented us with the intriguing possi- proh Paley’s inference from biological complexity to supernatural in- bility that natural selection may favor the evolution of particular are a telligent design. molecules (called “capacitors” of evolution), or arrangements of not p Darwin met the challenge by amassing an impressive amount gene networks, that make it easier for a population to evolve in reach of observations that pointed to two conclusions: all living organ- response to new environmental challenges. not, isms share common ancestors, and the chief mechanism respon- Th e implications of these views are still being worked out, on ea sible for the appearance of a “fi t” between organisms and their and both theoretical and empirical biologists feel the excitement Arizo environment is natural selection. Part of the evidence brought of the opening up of new vistas on the process of evolution, a wand into play by Darwin and other early evolutionary biologists in prospect that would have delighted Darwin. As he famously put gress favor of the view of evolution came from developmental biology, it: “Th ere is grandeur in this view of life … that, whilst this planet cial, and consisted in showing that organisms of the same type (say, has gone cycling on according to the fi xed law of gravity, from lutio vertebrates) have very similar stages of development before they so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most anyth diff erentiate into the variety of adult forms that distinguish birds wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” the f from reptiles and from mammals. Th is similarity in development strate was the result of their evolution from a common ancestor. Massimo Pigliucci is a Professor of Ecology and Evolution and of Incre Despite its early central role in evolutionary biology, devel- Philosophy at Stony Brook University in New York. He holds doc- erati opmental biology remained a separate fi eld of inquiry for most torate degrees in genetics, botany, and philosophy, and is known as givin of the 20th century, especially during the 1940s, which brought an outspoken opponent of creationism and staunch supporter of natu us the mature version of evolutionary theory known as the Mod- science education. In 1997, he received the Dobzhansky Prize from ern Synthesis. For decades biologists drew a sharp distinction the Society for the Study of Evolution, which recognizes the accom- ous I between proximate and ultimate causes of the phenomena they plishments and future promise of an outstanding young evolution- of m studied: proximate causes deal with how living organisms are ary biologist. His essays can be found at rationallyspeaking.org. on in built (e.g., the molecules and developmental mechanisms that unre form the eye), while ultimate causes inquire into why they are chos built in a particular way (e.g., the eye’s function to capture in- whet formation about the environment aids survival and reproduc- tima tion). Developmental biology (as well as genetics and molecular by a biology) was thought to address the fi rst type of question, while prox evolutionary biology remained focused on the second one. Th is neat distinction between types of causes would have and seemed strange to Darwin, and it is being rejected by modern sense evolutionary developmental biologists, who are inspired by Dar- natu win’s comprehensive approach to understanding life’s history pathw and diversity. During the 1990s a new fi eld of research, nick- pred named “evo-devo” for “evolution of development” emerged with ing, b the declared goal of once again joining the two disciplines. Th e An Evolutionary View of the ever, fundamental idea was that knowing how organisms develop also need gives us invaluable clues to how they evolved: the “how” ques- Anti-Infl ammatory, Compassion beca tion informs the “why” question. tling My own interest in this area has been spurred by the pos- BY CHARLES RAISON infl a sibility that taking development seriously will usher in an ex- During recent lectures, I’ve found myself invoking the old saying ing b panded version of evolutionary theory, one where new phenom- “all roads lead to Rome” as a way of embarking on discussions sorts ena—unknown to Darwin and to 20th century biologists—play of the multiple ways in which innate immune, autonomic, and the c an hitherto unexpected role. Take for instance the idea of “evolv- neuroendocrine pathways converge to promote depression in mod ability.” Th e term refers to the fact that the ability of diff erent response to stress and sickness. Th is old chestnut about Rome shou lineages of organisms to evolve itself changes over time; that is, is also profoundly true in regards to evolution. Th e great Roman the very capacity for evolution evolves! We have known for some edifi ces of evolution are survival and reproduction: as long as the train time that populations of organisms with diff erent amounts of road a species is on eventually passes through these portals, that tive genetic variation respond at diff erent rates to natural selection, road is a viable path, regardless of the length of the journey or respo some evolving faster than others because they harbor more ge- the variety of scenery on the way.

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2222 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:23:49:23:49 AAMM n de- An immediate implication of this truth is that all things not had without an evolutionary perspective. But we reasoned that if ossi- prohibited by the twin mandates of survival and reproduction people could be encouraged to see the social world as being less cular are allowed. Indeed, some theoreticians suggest that all things threatening and more supportive they would be less likely to acti- nts of not prohibited must be manifested somewhere across the vast vate danger pathways that trigger infl ammatory responses, result- ve in reaches of universal space and time.4 Whether this is true or ing in reduced wear and tear on the body and brain over time. not, even a cursory look at the manifold pathways walked by life To test this idea my colleagues and I selected what appears out, on earth makes the head spin. As I type this I am sitting in the to me to be the most radical program ever designed to change ment Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and just from the last hour of how we view our social connections—Tibetan Buddhist com- on, a wandering I have seen species that have survived by being ag- passion meditation. And indeed, data from our group do sug- y put gressive or being peaceful, by being solitary or being highly so- gest that when people learn through compassion meditation to lanet cial, by killing other beings to eat or eating sunlight directly. Evo- see the world more realistically (i.e. as a safer, more nurturing from lution is not mandatorily about egregious selfi shness. It is about place) than our old danger pathways would advise, infl amma- most anything that works, and even our one fragile planet testifi es to tory responses are reduced and people become less upset in the the fact that almost anything—done well—can represent a viable face of the types of social stressors that provide such rich fodder strategy through the vast labyrinth of evolutionary design space. for illness in the modern world.9 Of course, to tolerate reduced nd of Increasingly, evolutionary scientists are recognizing that coop- infl ammation safely we must keep civilization in tact, which in doc- eration, connection, and reciprocity represent one such strategy, turn links compassion to odd bed partners like waste disposal wn as giving the lie to older simplistic ideas that evolution mandates a and vaccines. But I am far over my word limit and these realities, ter of natural order that is unremittingly “red in tooth and claw”.5 alas, represent other roads to Rome. from My realization of this truth while reading Darwin’s Danger- com- ous Idea, by Daniel Dennett, permanently altered the direction Charles Raison is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psy- tion- of my research.6 Prior to this realization, my professional work chiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Co-Director of Collaborative rg. on infl ammatory processes and psychiatric symptoms seemed for Contemplative Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. He is a unrelated to my hobbyist’s interest in the health benefi ts of psy- physician whose research ranges from immune system eff ects on chosocial connectivity.7 Aft er the realization, I began to wonder central nervous system functioning to the application of compas- whether social integration and infl ammation might not be in- sion meditation as a strategy to prevent depressive symptoms in timately locked in a struggle for the soul of humanity. Fueled college students via reduction in stress-related infl ammatory activ- by a hunger to bring evolutionary causality into my work with ity. He is also internationally recognized for his expertise in the proximal mechanisms, I retooled my life’s work. diagnosis and treatment of interferon-alpha-induced depression My idea of an unsuspected evolutionary link between love and anxiety. and immunity seems odd at fi rst blush, but makes much more sense when seen against the backdrop of our phylogeny, in which 1. Emotional Awareness, Dalai Lama & Paul Ekman, New York: Henry natural selection has favored robust brain-body danger response Holt, 2008. pathways (including infl ammation) to protect individuals against 2. Primates and Philosophers, Frans B.M. de Waal, Princeton, NJ: Princ- predators and pathogens—whether encountered through kill- eton University Press, 2006. ing, being killed, or being infected.8 In the modern world, how- 3. The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin, New York: Appleton and Com- ever, with its laws, medical expertise, and sanitary practices, our pany, 1871. need for such hair-trigger infl ammatory pathways has waned, 4. Deutsch D. The Fabric of Reality. New York: Penguin; 1997. on because civilization has become an extended phenotype for bat- 5. Wilson DL. Evolution for Everyone. New York: Delacorte Press; 2007. tling pathogens against which our one reliable defense used to be 6. Dennett DD. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings infl ammation. Nonetheless, the old biology persists, with noth- of Life New York: Penguin Science; 1995. aying ing better to do most of the time than fi re off in response to all 7. Cacioppo JT. Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social sions sorts of novel situations against which it is of little use. Hence Connection. New York: W.W. Norton; 2008. and the contribution of stress-induced infl ammation to all the major 8. Raison CL, Capuron L, Miller AH. Cytokines sing the blues: infl am- on in modern maladies—and the potential for social embeddedness to mation and the pathogenesis of major depression. Trends in Immunol- Rome shoulder at least some of its burden. ogy 2006;27(1):24-31. man Th is line of reasoning made me begin to wonder whether 9. Pace TWW, Negi LT, Adame DD, Cole SP, Sivilli TS, Brown T, Issa s the training people to re-envision their social surround in more posi- MJ, Raison CL. Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, that tive terms might enhance health by attenuating infl ammatory innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stress. ey or responses to psychosocial stress—a thought I never would have Psychoneuroendocrinology 2008; Epub.

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 21

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m

Charles Darwin c. 1855

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2424 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:23:57:23:57 AAMM 2009 brings the HOW WILL THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE … ACT IN REGARD TO VARIA- tion? Can the principle of selection, which we have seen is so potent in the hands of 150th anniversary man, apply in nature? I think we shall see that it can act most eff ectually. Let it be borne in mind in what an endless number of strange peculiarities our domestic productions, of the publication of and, in a lesser degree, those under nature, vary; and how strong the hereditary tenden- cy is. Under domestication, it may be truly said that the whole organisation becomes Charles Darwin’s On in some degree plastic. Let it be borne in mind how infi nitely complex and close-fi tting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical condi- the Origin of Species. tions of life. Can it, then, be thought improbable, seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being Here we republish in the great and complex battle of life, should sometimes occur in the course of thou- sands of generations? If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more a selection from the individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating most famous chapter their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. Th is preservation of favourable variations and the of the book by the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection. Variations neither useful nor injurious would not be aff ected by natural selection, and would be left a fl uctuating ele- Academy’s most ment, as perhaps we see in the species called polymorphic. We shall best understand the probable course of natural selection by taking the revolutionary case of a country undergoing some physical change, for instance, of climate. Th e pro- portional numbers of its inhabitants would almost immediately undergo a change, and member. some species might become extinct. We may conclude, from what we have seen of the intimate and complex manner in which the inhabitants of each country are bound to- gether, that any change in the numerical proportions of some of the inhabitants, inde- pendently of the change of climate itself, would most seriously aff ect many of the oth- ers. If the country were open on its borders, new forms would certainly immigrate, and this also would seriously disturb the relations of some of the former inhabitants. Let it be remembered how powerful the infl uence of a single introduced tree or mammal has been shown to be. But in the case of an island, or of a country partly surrounded by bar- riers, into which new and better adapted forms could not freely enter, we should then have places in the economy of nature which would assuredly be better fi lled up, if some of the original inhabitants were in some manner modifi ed; for, had the area been open to immigration, these same places would have been seized on by intruders. In such case, every slight modifi cation, which in the course of ages chanced to arise, and which in any way favoured the individuals of any of the species, by better adapting them to their altered conditions, would tend to be preserved; and natural selection would thus have free scope for the work of improvement.

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 23

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2525 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:24:52:24:52 AAMM Book Excerpt

peaty these if no coun prey so, th whit can s eff ec in ke Nor anim shou destr down We have reason to believe ... that a change in the conditions der well-suited conditions of life. Man keeps the natives of many botan of life, by specially acting on the reproductive system, causes or climates in the same country; he seldom exercises each selected hear increases variability; and in the foregoing case the conditions of character in some peculiar and fi tting manner; he feeds a long ed St life are supposed to have undergone a change, and this would and a short beaked pigeon on the same food; he does not exercise a cur manifestly be favourable to natural selection, by giving a better a long-backed or long-legged quadruped in any peculiar man- more chance of profi table variations occurring; and unless profi table ner; he exposes sheep with long and short wool to the same cli- disea variations do occur, natural selection can do nothing. Not that, as mate. He does not allow the most vigorous males to struggle for other I believe, any extreme amount of variability is necessary; as man the females. He does not rigidly destroy all inferior animals, but feren can certainly produce great results by adding up in any given di- protects during each varying season, as far as lies in his power, ies, a rection mere individual diff erences, so could Nature, but far more all his productions. He oft en begins his selection by some half- strug easily, from having incomparably longer time at her disposal. Nor monstrous form; or at least by some modifi cation prominent ence do I believe that any great physical change, as of climate, or any enough to catch his eye, or to be plainly useful to him. Under down unusual degree of isolation to check immigration, is actually nec- nature, the slightest diff erence of structure or constitution may essary to produce new and unoccupied places for natural selec- well turn the nicely-balanced scale in the struggle for life, and cies, tion to fi ll up by modifying and improving some of the varying so be preserved. How fl eeting are the wishes and eff orts of man! be qu inhabitants. For as all the inhabitants of each country are strug- how short his time! and consequently how poor will his products prob gling together with nicely balanced forces, extremely slight modi- be, compared with those accumulated by nature during whole more fi cations in the structure or habits of one inhabitant would oft en geological periods. Can we wonder, then, that nature’s produc- laws give it an advantage over others; and still further modifi cations tions should be far ‘truer’ in character than man’s productions; isatio of the same kind would oft en still further increase the advantage. that they should be infi nitely better adapted to the most complex accu No country can be named in which all the native inhabitants conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher cause are now so perfectly adapted to each other and to the physical workmanship? conditions under which they live, that none of them could any- It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scru- appe how be improved; for in all countries, the natives have been so tinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slight- sprin far conquered by naturalised productions, that they have allowed est; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that varie foreigners to take fi rm possession of the land. And as foreigners is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever and c have thus everywhere beaten some of the natives, we may safely opportunity off ers, at the improvement of each organic being in poul conclude that the natives might have been modifi ed with advan- relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. We see horn tage, so as to have better resisted such intruders. nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time of na As man can produce and certainly has produced a great re- has marked the long lapses of ages, and then so imperfect is our ify o sult by his methodical and unconscious means of selection, what view into long past geological ages, that we only see that the forms varia may not nature eff ect? Man can act only on external and visible of life are now diff erent from what they formerly were. age. I characters: nature cares nothing for appearances, except in so Although natural selection can act only through and for semi far as they may be useful to any being. She can act on every in- the good of each being, yet characters and structures, which ing e ternal organ, on every shade of constitutional diff erence, on the we are apt to consider as of very trifl ing importance, may thus incre whole machinery of life. Man selects only for his own good; Na- be acted on. When we see leaf-eating insects green, and bark- his c ture only for that of the being which she tends. Every selected feeders mottled-grey; the alpine ptarmigan white in winter, the larva character is fully exercised by her; and the being is placed un- red-grouse the colour of heather, and the black-grouse that of from

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2626 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:25:23:25:23 AAMM peaty earth, we must believe that these tints are of service to tions will no doubt these birds and insects in preserving them from danger. Grouse, aff ect, through the if not destroyed at some period of their lives, would increase in laws of correlation, countless numbers; they are known to suff er largely from birds of the structure of the prey; and hawks are guided by eyesight to their prey,—so much adult; and prob- so, that on parts of the Continent persons are warned not to keep ably in the case of white pigeons, as being the most liable to destruction. Hence I those insects which can see no reason to doubt that natural selection might be most live only for a few eff ective in giving the proper colour to each kind of grouse, and hours, and which in keeping that colour, when once acquired, true and constant. never feed, a large Nor ought we to think that the occasional destruction of an part of their struc- animal of any particular colour would produce little eff ect: we ture is merely the should remember how essential it is in a fl ock of white sheep to correlated result of destroy every lamb with the faintest trace of black. In plants the successive changes down on the fruit and the colour of the fl esh are considered by in the structure of many botanists as characters of the most trifl ing importance: yet we their larvae. So, ected hear from an excellent horticulturist, Downing, that in the Unit- conversely, modifi - long ed States smooth-skinned fruits suff er far more from a beetle, cations in the adult rcise a curculio, than those with down; that purple plums suff er far will probably oft en man- more from a certain disease than yellow plums; whereas another aff ect the structure From Th e Origin of Species by Charles e cli- disease attacks yellow-fl eshed peaches far more than those with of the larva; but in Darwin. Copyright © 2008 by Simon & e for other coloured fl esh. If, with all the aids of art, these slight dif- all cases natural se- Schuster, Inc. Reprinted by permission of , but ferences make a great diff erence in cultivating the several variet- lection will ensure Simon & Schuster, Inc. ower, ies, assuredly, in a state of nature, where the trees would have to that modifi cations half- struggle with other trees and with a host of enemies, such diff er- consequent on oth- nent ences would eff ectually settle which variety, whether a smooth or er modifi cations at nder downy, a yellow or purple fl eshed fruit, should succeed. a diff erent period of life, shall not be in the least degree injuri- may In looking at many small points of diff erence between spe- ous: for if they became so, they would cause the extinction of the and cies, which, as far as our ignorance permits us to judge, seem to species. man! be quite unimportant, we must not forget that climate, food, &c., Natural selection will modify the structure of the young in ducts probably produce some slight and direct eff ect. It is, however, far relation to the parent, and of the parent in relation to the young. whole more necessary to bear in mind that there are many unknown In social animals it will adapt the structure of each individual for duc- laws of correlation of growth, which, when one part of the organ- the benefi t of the community; if each in consequence profi ts by ions; isation is modifi ed through variation, and the modifi cations are the selected change. What natural selection cannot do, is to mod- mplex accumulated by natural selection for the good of the being, will ify the structure of one species, without giving it any advantage, gher cause other modifi cations, oft en of the most unexpected nature. for the good of another species; and though statements to this As we see that those variations which under domestication eff ect may be found in works of natural history, I cannot fi nd one scru- appear at any particular period of life, tend to reappear in the off - case which will bear investigation. A structure used only once in ight- spring at the same period;—for instance, in the seeds of the many an animal’s whole life, if of high importance to it, might be modi- l that varieties of our culinary and agricultural plants; in the caterpillar fi ed to any extent by natural selection; for instance, the great jaws rever and cocoon stages of the varieties of the silkworm; in the eggs of possessed by certain insects, and used exclusively for opening ng in poultry, and in the colour of the down of their chickens; in the the cocoon—or the hard tip to the beak of nestling birds, used e see horns of our sheep and cattle when nearly adult;—so in a state for breaking the egg. It has been asserted, that of the best short- time of nature, natural selection will be enabled to act on and mod- beaked tumbler-pigeons more perish in the egg than are able to s our ify organic beings at any age, by the accumulation of profi table get out of it; so that fanciers assist in the act of hatching. Now, if orms variations at that age, and by their inheritance at a corresponding nature had to make the beak of a full-grown pigeon very short age. If it profi t a plant to have its seeds more and more widely dis- for the bird’s own advantage, the process of modifi cation would d for seminated by the wind, I can see no greater diffi culty in this be- be very slow, and there would be simultaneously the most rigor- which ing eff ected through natural selection, than in the cotton-planter ous selection of the young birds within the egg, which had the thus increasing and improving by selection the down in the pods on most powerful and hardest beaks, for all with weak beaks would bark- his cotton-trees. Natural selection may modify and adapt the inevitably perish: or, more delicate and more easily broken shells r, the larva of an insect to a score of contingencies, wholly diff erent might be selected, the thickness of the shell being known to vary at of from those which concern the mature insect. Th ese modifi ca- like every other structure.

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 25

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2727 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:25:46:25:46 AAMM Academy Calendar Inter topic Meetings & Conferences to su

January this meeting of the Biochemical Pharmacology Luis Campos, of the Drew University Department Wedn Discussion Group and Predictive Toxicology of History, speaks at this meeting of the History & The Discussion Group that will emphasize targeted Philosophy of Science Section taking place at the Inno Monday, Jan 12 • 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM therapeutics designed to attack genetic alterations CUNY Graduate Center. The Science of Vision: that drive the onset and progression of disease. Prop Science of the Five Senses Series Th ursday, Feb 26 • 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM Danie Librar Christof Koch, a cognitive neuroscientist at CalTech, Wednesday, Jan 28 • 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Molecular Diversity in Chemical this m and Apollo Robbins, an “ex-magician,” share re- Reducing HIV Among Injecting Biology and Drug Discovery ence S search into and demonstrations of visual perception. Drug Users John A. Porco, Boston University; and Kip Guy, St. Cente Th e History & Philosophy of Science Section hosts Jude Children’s Research Hospital, speak at a meet- Th ursday, Jan 15 • 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM keynote speaker Susan Chambre, Bernard M. ing of the Chemical Biology Discussion Group. Mar 2 The Solid State: Transistors, a Baruch College, City University of New York for Cyto History of Digital Technology and the her lecture, “Science, Culture and the Evolution of a Stealth Social Policy.” App Information Revolution March A foru Joel Kirman speaks at this brown-bag lunch iting t meeting of the Lyceum Society, comprised of the Monday, Mar 2 • 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM peutic Academy’s retired and semi-retired members. All February Future Prospects for Vaccination and and fa Academy members welcome. Lunch at 11:30 AM, Screening to Prevent HPV-induced tic age lecture and discussion at 1:00 PM. Monday, Feb 2 • 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM Cancer variou provid Genome Integrity Doug Lowy, National Cancer Institute; Maura Tuesday, Jan 20 • 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM basis o Discussion Group Meeting Gillison, Johns Hopkins University; Philip Castle, to dev From Idea to IPO: The Technology Featuring lectures by Xiaolan Zhao, Memorial National Cancer Institute; Laura A. Koutsky, Venture Course (13 weeks) Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Ginger Zakian, University of Washington; and Eduardo L. Franco, David Anthony, a partner at 21 Ventures LLC, Princeton University; Simon Powell, Memorial McGill University speak at this meeting of the leads a course for those in science and technology Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Rodney Roth- Emerging Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Ap who want to know how to take the right idea from stein, Columbia University; Tim Bestor, Columbia Discussion Group and Vaccine Science group. Fo- the bench to the marketplace. Th e class, hosted University. cus is on current understandings of HPV-induced Wedn by the Academy’s Science Alliance, will meet one disease, the science and performance of vaccine Ribo day per week over a 13-week period and is open to Wednesday, Feb 4 • 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM and screening approaches, how this information Marin nonmembers. Zero Net Energy Building: Reality or may be used eff ectively to reduce the incidence and H Fiction? The “Near” Zero Building of HPV-induced disease, the gaps in knowledge, Schoo Wednesday, Jan 21 • 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Green Buildings, a PS&E program, and Skanska barriers to implementation, and future advances to Chem Powering Up Cities for Plug-In Hybrids host a lecture by Chris Garvin, Cook + Fox Archi- overcome them. Mark Duvall, Electric Power Research Institute; tects at the second of a four-part series focused on Th ur Arthur Kressner, Con Edison; and Richard Drake, achieving zero net energy in buildings. Renewable Mar 12 - Mar 14 App NYSERDA speak at this Green Science and energy technologies, global best practices, and how Hypoxia and Consequences: Qua Environmental Systems meeting to explore what to retrofi t existing buildings are just a few of the From Molecule to Malady Jim Br New York City must do to smooth the transition to topics to be covered, plus examples of completed An exploration of transcriptional and pathophysi- meeti plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. projects that strove for zero net energy. ological responses to hypoxia, and of the sensing Acade mechanisms responsible for detection of oxygen Acade Th ursday, Jan 22 • 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Th ursday, Feb 12 • 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM level changes in the body. lectur New York Structural Biology The Science of Taste: Discussion Group: 4th Winter Meeting Science of the Five Senses Series Th ursday, Mar 19 • 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Mond Th is full day meeting will include short talks and a At the fourth event in the Science of the Five Senses Current Theories of Aging, Part II Gen poster session featuring local structural biologists. series, Science & the City hosts the nation’s leading Arline Cohn speaks at this brown-bag lunch Disc scientist on taste, Linda Bartoshuk, of the Univer- meeting of the Lyceum Society, comprised of the Brian sity of Florida, and the well-known food writer Academy’s retired and semi-retired members. All Jan 27 - Jan 28 • Oxford, UK Cente Harold McGee, to explain the science of taste. Academy members welcome. Lunch at 11:30 AM, Biomarkers in Brain Disease Cance lecture and discussion at 1:00 PM. Presented by the New York Academy of Sciences David and the Global Medical Excellence Cluster of Th ursday, Feb 19 • 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Unive South East England at the Said Business School, Science Turns to a Tuesday, Mar 24 • 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM this two-day meeting, will gather international Morphological Analysis Therapeutic Inhibition of BACE1 Wedn experts to discuss the latest advances in biomarker Hillel A. Schiller speaks at this Lyceum Society for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s technologies and biomarker development for brain Citiz meeting, a brown-bag lunch gathering of the Acad- Disease: Separating the Fantasy State disorders, as well as the logistical, regulatory, and emy’s retired and semi-retired members, where all funding challenges experienced by scientists work- from the Reality Unce Academy members are welcome. Lunch at 11:30 David Riddell, Wyeth Research, moderates this ing on clinical trials for biomarkers. AM, lecture and discussion at 1:00 PM. Debor meeting of the Biochemical Pharmacology Discus- Unive sion Group and the Brain Dysfunction and Neuro- Tuesday, Jan 27 • 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Wednesday, Feb 25 • 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Philos immunology Discussion Group to review the cur- CUNY Accelerating Drug Development with Life by Design: Genetic Engineering, rent knowledge of the role of BACE1 in Alzheimer’s Innovative Discovery Platforms From the Experimental Garden to disease pathogenesis and provide an update on the George Zavoico of Cantor Fitzgerald moderates Synthetic Biology progress of drug development eff orts.

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1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2828 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:25:59:25:59 AAMM Interested in proposing a conference on a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary, scientifi c topic? The Academy invites you to contact Dr. Kathy Granger at [email protected] to submit a proposal or get more information on organizing a conference. Meetings Policy Policy

ment Wednesday, Mar 25 • 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Monday, Apr 27 • 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM DATES, TIMES, AND TOPICS OF ry & The Apples of Our Eyes: The Damon Runyon Cancer EVENTS LISTED HERE ARE SUB- the Innovation, Art, and Intellectual Research Foundation Clinical JECT TO CHANGE. For up-to-date Property in American Fruits Investigator Symposium information, including ticket prices, Daniel J. Kevles, Yale University (New York Public A symposium commemorating the 10th year of the please visit our online calendar at Library Cullman Fellow, 2008-2009), speaks at Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award will www.nyas.org/events. this meeting of the History & Philosophy of Sci- feature distinguished awardees and alumni of the ence Section taking place at the CUNY Graduate program who will speak about their groundbreak- Registration is required for most and y, St. Center. ing discoveries in the area of translational cancer strongly encouraged for all events. To meet- research. Th e day will culminate with a panel dis- register to attend an event, please use p. cussion entitled “Moving from Discovery through Mar 26 - Mar 27 the Academy events calendar online Cytokine Therapies: Novel Development – Th e Evolving Relationship between Academia and Industry.” at www.nyas.org/events or contact the Approaches for Clinical Indications meetings department at 212.298.3725 A forum to critically assess the factors that are lim- Tuesday, Apr 28 • 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM or [email protected]. iting the clinical development of cytokines as thera- Protein Kinases: Structure-Guided peutic agents, this meeting will cover the successes Unless noted otherwise, Academy and and failures of recombinant cytokines as therapeu- Drug Discovery events are held at: d tic agents for treating human diseases, including Ken Jones, Lundbeck Research USA, moderates various cancers and autoimmune diseases, and will at this meeting of the Biochemical Pharmacology Th e New York Academy of Sciences provide a forum to review the scientifi c and clinical Discussion Group about new methods that have 7 World Trade Center basis of both successful and unsuccessful attempts recently permitted the successful determinations of 250 Greenwich St. at Barclay, 40th Fl stle, to develop cytokines as therapeutic agents. key structures from G-protein coupled receptors, New York, NY 10007 ion channels, and other transmembrane proteins. Photo ID is required for entry. anco, Th is full-day symposium will be divided into three April sessions covering transmembrane proteases, GP- gy CRs, and ion channels. Fo- uced Wednesday, Apr 1 • 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM Wednesday, Apr 29 • 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM ne Ribosomes and Protein Synthesis on Marina Rodnina, University of Witten-Herdecke, The Science of Hearing: e and Hani Zaher, Th e Johns Hopkins University Science of the Five Senses Series Th ursday, May 21 • 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM ge, School of Medicine, speak at this meeting of the At the fi nal event in the Science & the City Science Is Copernicus the ces to Chemical Biology Discussion Group. of the Five Senses Series, psychologist and author Daniel Levitin of McGill University, and Rosanne Victim of a Bum Rap? John Snygg speaks at this brown-bag lunch meeting Th ursday, Apr 16 • 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Cash, the Grammy-winning musician, explain how the brain processes aural information and how our of the Lyceum Society, comprised of the Academy’s Apply the Principles and Methods of perception of sounds can inspire emotion. retired and semi-retired members. All Academy Quality Control to Your Life members welcome. Lunch at 11:30 AM, lecture and Jim Browne speaks at this brown-bag lunch discussion at 1:00 PM. hysi- meeting of the Lyceum Society, comprised of the May ng Academy’s retired and semi-retired members. All Tuesday, May 26 • 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM en Academy members welcome. Lunch at 11:30 AM, The Role of Angiogenesis Inhibitors in lecture and discussion at 1:00 PM. Tuesday, May 12 • 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM RNA in Stress Response the Treatment of Solid Tumors: New and Longevity Perspective of Treatment? Monday, Apr 20 • 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM Guy Lagaud, Ptc Th erapeutics, moderates this Genome Integrity Frank Slack, Yale University; Ramanjulu Sunkar, Oklahoma State University; Anthony Leung, MIT; symposium of the Biochemical Pharmacology Discussion Group Meeting Discussion Group to discuss new data that enables the Evgeny Nudler, New York University; and Irina Brian Tsou, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer scientists to better utilize and identify angiogenic All Groisman, Center for Computational and Intergra- Center; John Petrini, Memorial Sloan Kettering therapies for treating cancer. AM, tive Biology, speak at this meeting of the RNAi Cancer Center; Eric Greene, Columbia University; Discussion Group. David Stern, Yale University; and Craig Bassing, Wednesday, May 27 • 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM University of Pennsylvania speak. May 15 - May 16 • Beijing Astrolabes from the Adler Planetarium: an Evening in Honor of Marjorie and Wednesday, Apr 22 • 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Regenerative Medicine Together with the Chinese Academy of Medical Roderick Webster, and David Pingree Citizens of the Most Probable Sciences, and the Chinese Ministry of Health, the Bruce Chandler, City University of New York; Kim State: The Science and Politics of Academy convenes experts from academia and the Plofk er, Union College; Bruce Stephenson, Th e Uncertainty in fi n-de-siècle Vienna pharmaceutical industry in Beijing for a two-day Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum speak at s Deborah R. Coen, Barnard College & Columbia event. Regenerative medicine represents a frontier this meeting of the History & Philosophy of Science scus- University, speaks at this meeting of the History & fi eld in medical treatments and in China. Section taking place at the CUNY Graduate Center. euro- Philosophy of Science Section taking place at the cur- CUNY Graduate Center. imer’s on the web n the For further details on meetings and conferences, check our calendar at www.nyas.org/events.

The New York Academy of Sciences Magazine • Winter 2009 27

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 2929 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:25:59:25:59 AAMM Donor Profi le A Mind for Math A Darwin Society donor to the Academy refl ects on a career in mathematics, the Manhattanattan Fr Project, and the paradox of education By Adelle C. Pelekanos S Th auded for his numerous con- mathematics that was fostered from an In 1958, Lax became a professor at tributions to pure and applied early age. “In Hungary, there was the tra- NYU, and he has remained at the Courant and mathematics and physics, and dition to mentor talented young people, Institute ever since. Th roughout his ca- Lhis integral role in the development of so at every step I got advice and help,” he reer, he has contributed to both pure and exc modern computational mathematics, Pe- says. Prominent mathematician Rozsa Pe- applied fi elds in math and science, making ter D. Lax is one of the greatest minds in ter was his primary tutor. notable discoveries in fl uid dynamics and Att his fi eld. He has earned the highest hon- In 1941, the Lax family caught the last shock waves, integrable systems, solitonic ors a mathematician can receive for his boat to leave Lisbon, two days before the physics, and computational mathemat- versatility and ability to connect abstract bombing of Pearl Harbor, to settle in New ics, among others. Among his numerous mathematical knowledge with real-world York City. Th e gift ed 15-year-old Peter awards and honors are the 1986 National L problems. Among the many major math- briefl y attended Stuyvesant High School Medal of Science, the 1987 Wolf Prize, the ematical results and numerical methods before winning the opportunity to study 1992 Steele Prize, and the 1995 NYU Dis- JA to his credit are the Lax-Milgram Lemma, with Richard Courant at New York Uni- tinguished Teaching Award. In 2005, he Ac the Lax Equivalence Th eorem, the Lax- versity. “Courant was known to be very achieved the highest award in mathemat- Di Friedrichs Scheme, the Lax-Wendroff good with young people, and that was a ics, the Abel Prize, for his “groundbreak- Scheme, the Lax Entropy Condition, and wonderful experience,” Lax says. ing contributions to the theory and appli- JA the Lax-Levermore Th eory. About his At 18, Lax was draft ed and, aft er basic cation of partial diff erential equations and Sy extraordinarily nimble mind, he is quite training, sent to Texas A&M to study engi- the computation of their solutions.” humble: “In mathematics, your brain is neering. In 1945, he went to the Los Ala- Lax is presently at work refashion- FE wired somewhat diff erently,” he says. mos Scientifi c Laboratory to participate ing a textbook he fi rst wrote 40 years ago, RN Lax is an Honorary Life Member of in the Manhattan Project. Working there with his late wife, mathematician Anneli the Academy and served on the Board of with some of the greatest minds of the time Cahn-Lax. “It was the fi rst calculus book FE Governors from 1986 to 1987. He has con- was “like living science fi ction,” he says. He with applications and computing, and it M tinued his support of NYAS as an active stayed at Los Alamos for a year, fi nished had lots of good ideas, but it was spec- Di member of the Charles Darwin Society. his degree, and returned to NYU to pursue tacularly unsuccessful at the time,” Lax Born in Budapest in 1926, Lax dis- a PhD with Courant as his thesis advisor. says. With the help of collaborator Maria MA Fu played a natural aptitude and interest in In 1949, Lax went back to Los Alamos, and Terrell at Cornell University, he hopes the Pr throughout the 1950s spent almost every revamped text will be better received. summer at the lab as a consultant. Lax is passionate about the need for MA It was at Los Alamos, under the di- education reform. “I’ve seen for a long Th rection of fellow Hungarian mathemati- time what I call the paradox of education: Al cian John von Neumann, that Lax was fi rst Science and mathematics are growing by Re exposed to computational mathematics. leaps and bounds on the research frontier, “Th e development of computers was in a so what we teach in high school, college, AP THE CHARLES DARWIN SOCIETY large part motivated by the needs of the and graduate school is falling behind by Ri atomic weapons program,” Lax says. “You leaps and bounds.” But by fostering inti- Though the Darwin Society, the Academy can’t build an atomic bomb just by trial and mate cooperation between research math- recognizes a select group of donors who AP demonstrate generous philanthropic error—you have to be able to quickly cal- ematicians and educators, he says, we can Pr commitment to the Academy. To learn more culate how the design will work. Von Neu- “simplify the teaching of old topics, and about the Charles Darwin Society please mann was very broad-minded—he saw it make room for new ones.” MA contact Katie Thibodeau, Major Gifts Offi cer, was important not only for the atomic pro- RN 212.298.8669 or [email protected]. gram, but for other engineering and tech- Adelle C. Pelekanos is a freelance science nology projects, and also for pure science.” writer in New York City.

28 www.nyas.org For

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 3030 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:25:59:25:59 AAMM Frontiers of Science Discussion Groups SPRING CALENDAR The Frontiers of Science programs offer interdisciplinary discussion groups or at urant and conferences led by prominent researchers working in some of the most s ca- e and exciting areas of the sciences. aking s and Attendance for all NYAS members to discussion group meetings is free! tonic mat- erous ional Life Sciences Physical Sciences + Engineering e, the Dis- JANUARY 27 JANUARY 29 5, he Accelerating Drug Development with Innovative Soft Materials: High Resolution Microscopy and mat- Discovery Platforms Imaging for Biological Materials reak- ppli- JANUARY 28 APRIL 16 s and Systems Neuroscience and Brain Circuitry Quantitative Finance Texas Hold’em: Algorithmic Trading hion- FEBRUARY 24 APRIL 23 ago, RNAi: A New Class of Biological Therapeutics Soft Materials: Smart Materials nneli book FEBRUARY 26 nd it Molecular Diversity in Chemical Biology and Drug Green Science + Sustainability Discovery spec- JANUARY 21 Lax Urban Sustainability: Powering Up Cities for Plug-in Maria MARCH 2 Future Prospects for Vaccination and Screening to Hybrids s the Prevent HPV-induced Cancer . FEBRUARY 4 d for MARCH 24 Zero Net Energy Building: Fiction or Reality Examples: long Therapeutic Inhibition of BACE1 for the Treatment of The “Near” Zero Building tion: Alzheimer’s disease: Seperating the Fantasy from the ng by Reality MARCH 3 ntier, Urban Sustainability: Reducing Emissions with lege, APRIL 1 Sustainable Buildings d by Ribosomes and Protein Synthesis inti- APRIL 22 math- APRIL 28 Zero Net Energy Building: Fiction or Reality e can Protein Kinases: Structure-Guided Drug Discovery Recommendations from the WBCSD Report and MAY 12 MAY 13 RNA Stress Response and Longevity Control Urban Sustainability Shortening the Food Chain: Agriculture in Urban Centers ience

For a full listing of events in the Frontiers of Sciences programs, please visit www.nyas.org/events.

1172426_NYAS_R1.indd72426_NYAS_R1.indd 3131 112/8/20082/8/2008 77:26:04:26:04 AAMM for

Celebrating the best of a new generation of faculty and postdoctoral scientists and engineers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Prizes consist of $25,000 for faculty awards and $15,000 for postdoctoral awards, both in unrestricted funds. Faculty fi nalists will receive $10,000 and postdoctoral fi nalists $5,000.

Nominate today at www.nyas.org/blavatnikawards.

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1172426_NYAS_R2.indd72426_NYAS_R2.indd 3232 112/11/082/11/08 3:02:323:02:32 PMPM