THE SELF-ESTEEM MYTHS ■ IMMUNITY’S EARLY-WARNING SYSTEM Capturing Life under the Lens JANUARY 2005 WWW.SCIAM.COM Unbreakable Quantum Encryption Has Arrived Reanimating a Killer to Stop Flu Pandemics A Cosmic Midlife Crisis Computers That Learn Your Priorities COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. contentsjanuary 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume 292 Number 1 features LIFE SCIENCES 38 Immunity’s Early-Warning System BY LUKE A. J. O’NEILL The body’s fi rst line of defense against invading microbes may be the key to better ways of battling infections and infl ammatory disease. ASTROPHYSICS 46 The Midlife Crisis of the Cosmos BY AMY J. BARGER The cosmic fi reworks of the early universe have given way to quieter, more mature galaxies that still build stars and black holes with surprising effi ciency. INFORMATION SCIENCE 54 Considerate Computing BY W. WAYT GIBBS Feeling overloaded by intrusive digital technology? New attentive interfaces for computers, phones and cars will understand your priorities. BIOTECHNOLOGY 62 Capturing a Killer Flu Virus BY JEFFERY K. TAUBENBERGER, ANN H. REID AND THOMAS G. FANNING Researchers have resurrected the deadliest fl u in history to learn why it killed millions and how to prevent the next pandemic. SCIENCE IN PICTURES 72 Eye of the Beholder TEXT BY EMILY HARRISON Gorgeous entries in the Nikon Small World photomicroscopy competition reveal minute biological beauties that elude unaided vision. What is it? INNOVATION See page 6 78 Best-Kept Secrets BY GARY STIX Quantum cryptography, long touted as a theoretical fi x for data security problems, fi nally takes shape in commercial products. PSYCHOLOGY 84 Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth BY ROY F. BAUMEISTER, JENNIFER D. CAMPBELL, JOACHIM I. KRUEGER AND KATHLEEN D. VOHS Boosting students’ self-esteem has become a national preoccupation— but it does little to improve grades or discourage bad behavior. www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 5 COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume 292 Number 1 departments 8 SA Perspectives Catching the fl u—the right way. 10 How to Contact Us 10 On the Web 20 102 12 Letters 16 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago 18 News Scan 36 Insights ■ Eliminating polio: maybe this year. Hans Moravec of Carnegie Mellon University ■ Robots might fail Hubble. aspires for robots to be humanity’s successors. ■ A more sound way to count salmon. 92 Working Knowledge ■ Supersolid helium 4. The key to keyless entry. ■ Big mysteries on Titan’s surface. ■ Snakeheads are staying put. 94 Reviews ■ Data Points: Particulates all around. Collapse considers the choices that kill societies. ■ By the Numbers: The nurse shortage. Also, a shelf of new books on Albert Einstein celebrates the new Year of Physics. Roboticist Hans Moravec 36 columns 34 Skeptic BY MICHAEL SHERMER A hit fi lm justifi es hogwash with quantum mechanics. 102 Anti Gravity BY STEVE MIRSKY Why 12 ferrets watched The Matrix. 104 Ask the Experts How do hackers infi ltrate computers? Why do traffi c jams materialize for no reason? WHAT IS IT? Hamster kidney cells fl uoresce in culture. Photograph on page 5: Albert Tousson, University of Alabama at Birmingham, courtesy of Nikon Instruments. Cover image by Kenn Brown; photograph at left by Scott Goldsmith. Scientifi c American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientifi c American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111. Copyright © 2004 by Scientifi c American, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this issue may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offi ces. Canada Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40012504. Canadian BN No. 127387652RT; QST No. Q1015332537. Publication Mail Agreement #40012504. Return undeliverable mail to Scientifi c American, P.O. Box 819, Stn Main, Markham, ON L3P 8A2. Subscription rates: one year $34.97, Canada $49 USD, International $55 USD. Postmaster: Send address changes to Scientifi c American, Box 3187, Harlan, Iowa 51537. Reprints available: write Reprint Department, Scientifi c American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111; (212) 451-8877; fax: (212) 355-0408 or send e-mail to [email protected] Subscription inquiries: U.S. and Canada (800) 333-1199; other (515) 247-7631. Printed in U.S.A. 6 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN JANUARY 2005 COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. SA Perspectives Worth a Pound of Cure A global influenza pandemic is closer than at any fected with this season’s circulating human fl u strain, time in a generation. Klaus Stöhr, head of fl u surveil- whose healthy-looking pet duckling then gives her lance at the World Health Organization, made that H5N1. In the past year more than 40 people in Thai- uncharacteristically dramatic declaration back in land and Vietnam have already contracted the avian November, before convening an emergency summit virus, and more than 30 of them have died from it. of vaccine manufacturers and national health agency Beginning on page 62 of this issue, Jeffery K. offi cials. The reason was the escalating avian infl u- Taubenberger and his colleagues describe their resur- enza crisis in 10 Asian countries, which poses a direct rection, literally from the grave, of the virus that killed threat to human health. upward of 40 million people in 1918–1919. And they Because the avian virus, known offer a chilling conclusion about its origin. Although as H5N1, is lethal in chickens, iden- certain genes in that virus may have come from a bird tifying local outbreaks was easy. strain, the genes look as though they spent signifi cant Stöhr was alarmed by evidence that time evolving in yet another animal before the virus the virus is also widespread in the emerged among humans. This unknown source of the region’s domestic ducks, which show 1918 pandemic might even have been a type of bird no symptoms. With asymptomatic or animal that we don’t recognize as a fl u carrier. ducks waddling through barnyards, Systematic surveillance for infl uenza is currently backyards and kitchens shedding limited to humans, chickens, swine and horses, with virus, hope of stamping out this wild waterfowl and shore birds tested less regularly. largest avian fl u outbreak in history But few of these samples are closely analyzed, and has dimmed. And the likelihood of scientists do not know the dynamics or true scope of SUSPECT DUCKLING eyed human exposure to the virus, which the infl uenza ecosystem. The National Institutes of by Chinese health workers. could spark a pandemic, has in- Health just announced plans to sequence the genomes creased. “We know the recipe, and of existing fl u samples. In addition, the Armed Forc- all the ingredients are there,” Stöhr said. es Institute of Pathology, the Centers for Disease Flu pandemics are caused by viruses with surface Control and Prevention, and several partners want to proteins unfamiliar to human immune systems. In create a high-capacity laboratory network dedicated the pandemic strains of 1957 and 1968, such proteins to expanding fl u surveillance capability and molecu- came from fl u viruses that previously infected only lar analysis of infl uenza viruses. Studying how they birds. That was possible because fl u is a promiscuous evolve and move through human and animal popula- gene swapper. If an avian strain meets a fl u strain tions might identify new fl u reservoirs and enable the adapted to spreading among mammals, their proge- emergence of new strains to be predicted. ny may possess the deadly combination of protein Start-up costs would equal the price of the two mil- novelty and easy transmissibility between humans. lion emergency H5N1 vaccine doses the Department The exchange can happen inside animal hosts suscep- of Health and Human Services ordered in September. tible to both avian and human fl u strains, such as The money would be well spent for an ounce of pre- pigs. Or it might happen inside a farmer’s child in- vention against future fl u pandemics. PHOTOS/REUTERS/CORBIS CHINA THE EDITORS [email protected] 8 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN JANUARY 2005 COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. 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