SPECIAL ASTRONOMY SECTION: Europa Mission, Imaging Exoplanets and More! P.57 DiscoverSCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS ® MARCH 2017

REVEALING THE PRIN MYSTERIESCESS OF THE

MUMMIES P.38

PLUS BONUS The Messy Science of Saving Bees P.30 ONLINE CONTENT Secret Life of Fat P.50 CODE p.5 How One Woman Stopped Thalidomide P.68 Changing the future

Combine a passion for scientific exploration with a commitment to student learning, and the results can be astounding. Dean Andrew Lyon’s energy and dedication foster that kind of growth within the sciences at Chapman University. The success of in a word: his faculty and students helped spur creation of the brilliant new $130M Center forscheduled Science and to openTechnology, in 2018.

Andrew Lyon, Ph.D. Dean, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University National Fresenius Award of chapman Phi Lambda Upsilon, 2005 in a word: Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 2003 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 2002 Beckman Young Investigator, 2000

chapman.edu Aurora, Culture, & Scenic Wonders Tour • October 10-22, 2017

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PACIFIC NORTHWEST & NATIONAL PARKS OF THE AMERICA’S SAN FRANCISCO AMERICAN WEST MUSIC CITIES August 17-26, 2017 August 16-28, 2017 August 14-22, 2017 • Enjoy 2 minutes and 2 seconds of totality at • View 2 minutes of totality in the stunning sky • Experience 2 minutes and 40 seconds of a specially selected viewing location in central above Jackson Hole, Wyoming. totality near Nashville, Tennessee, the best Oregon. • Visit Lowell Observatory, journey through viewing location in the country. • Discover some of the Pacifi c Northwest’s red rock country around Sedona, marvel • Enjoy 4-star accommodations in New Orleans, most notable cities, including Seattle, Bend, at the cliff s of Zion National Park, enjoy Memphis, and Nashville. Portland, and San Francisco. a storied lodge in Yellowstone, visit the Grand Canyon, pay your respects at Mount • Tap your toes to traditional jazz, go behind • Explore Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market, Rushmore, and much more. the scenes at RCA’s recording studios, visit nearby Mount St. Helens, the Columbia River Graceland and the Grand Ole Opry, and Gorge, Crater Lake and Redwood National • Enjoy the best of regional cuisine and much more. It’s a feast for the eyes — Park, and cross the Golden Gate Bridge. accommodations in Salt Lake City and and the ears! Jackson Hole. See all the tours at DiscoverMagazine.com/trips-tours Contents MARCH 2017 VOL. 38, NO. 2

Beekeeper Darren Cox inspects his hives at a Utah field. See page 30.

4 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Website access code: DSD1703 : Enter this code at: www.DiscoverMagazine.com/code SPECIAL ASTRONOMY SECTION Europa Mission, Imaging Exoplanets and More! P.57 to gain access to exclusive subscriber content. DiscoverSCIENCE FOR THE CURIOUS ® MARCH 2017

FEATURES

REVEALING THE 30 Buzzkill MYSTERIES OF THE While beekeepers across America fight for the survival of their winged charges, PRINCESS

political agendas threaten vital scientific progress. BY STEVE VOLK MUMMIES P.38

PLUS The Messy Science of Saving Bees P.30 38 The Eternal Princesses Secret Life of Fat P.50 Egypt isn’t the only resting place of mummies. Cultures across the world How One Woman Stopped Thalidomide P.68 preserved their dead, many of them women. Now, these mummified maidens are giving us a better picture of their ancient worlds. BY NATHANIEL SCHARPING ON THE COVER

46 Game Over Special Astronomy Section p.57 The end of the world as we know it could happen in myriad ways, and while Revealing the Mysteries experts can’t know for sure which scenario will pan out, one thing is certain: of the Princess Mummies p.38 When it comes, we won’t feel fine.BY YVETTE CENDES The Messy Science of Saving Bees p.30 Secret Life of Fat p.50 50 The Secret Life of Fat How One Woman Stopped Nearly everyone struggles to fend it off, but evolution and our genetics Thalidomide p.68 can put some of us at a disadvantage in that battle against the bulge. The Beauty of Xiaohe was buried in the western Chinese desert for more than 3,800 years. BY SYLVIA TARA (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press file photo)

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

6 INBOX decides he must risk his life in order with severe birth defects. Americans You give us a taste of what you to save it. BY DOUGLAS G. ADLER nearly faced the same fate. They were thought of our December issue. spared thanks to one woman with 24 NOTES FROM EARTH some serious know-how. 7 EDITOR’S NOTE Return of the Aurochs BY NANCY KRIPLEN Travels Across Time and Place Cattle breeders and geneticists Join us as we dive into the past and collaborate to bring back an extinct 74 20 THINGS YOU DIDN’T learn about the lives of those long bovine for a righteous reason. KNOW ABOUT . . . gone from this world. BY JONATHON KEATS Metabolism Your diet isn’t the only thing tied 68 HISTORY LESSONS THE CRUX to your metabolism. These processes 9 regulate all kinds of biological A scientist who studies spiders The Heroine of the FDA recounts the moment that In the 1960s, women from nearly systems — even artificial ones, like sparked a surprising discovery, 50 different countries bore children cities. BY GEMMA TARLACH ever-evolving robots might run nonstop manufacturing shops, and more. 57 OUT THERE SPECIAL BONUS SECTION Nowadays, amateur astronomers are making such detailed observations 20 VITAL SIGNS of exoplanets, they’re helping experts flesh out their own studies. And A Gutsy Call in our own solar system, our best bet at finding life might be on one A man suffering from extreme of Jupiter’s moons.

KIM RAFF bleeding in his gastrointestinal tract

March 2017 DISCOVER 5 Inbox

Lights Out? is nearly impossible. I was in my bed They also prove how similar they are I read the Prognosis column “Let with a house enclosing me. Surely early to us in daily life. Perhaps their social There Be Dark” by Dan Hurley in the humans, without the benefit of houses, similarities and acceptance by us have December 2016 issue (about the health would see much more light than I do. been the primary reason we continue effects of artificial light at night) on the Perhaps there is a difference between to find ways to expand their practical night of the most recent supermoon, moonlight, starlight and artificial light. value. Where will this lead? What are just before going to bed. But there is always light, and sometimes the limits of this partnership? We live in the country; we don’t have a lot of it. My dogs, like me, are growing any curtains because the closest house Lois S., Remus, MI old. But they have a better way of is three-quarters of a mile away. So I lay approaching old age than I do. They’re in bed looking out at the bright moon Man’s Best Friend not bothered by having to plan for shining right on my face. Even when “The Origins of Dogs” by Gemma tomorrow — each day is lived to the there is no supermoon, the full moon Tarlach in the December 2016 issue fullest, and each minute is relished. If often wakes me up in the night. And we provides wonderful insight. It makes tomorrow comes, it will be better and have commented on how bright the stars it apparent the history of dogs is more brighter. How wonderful is this gift to make it on a night with a new moon. complicated than we first believed and us, our dogs? So I have to question the conclusion will take time and study to discern. Donald C., Indianapolis researcher David Blask draws in this Of most interest to me, and likely Letters are edited for length and clarity. article that “we evolved to see bright many others, is the future of the blue, full-spectrum light during the evolutionary partnership between CORRECTION In the January/February 2017 issue, a story day and to have complete blackness dogs and humans. Dogs provide us on Greenland sharks stated they were at night.” Except when there is heavy with hundreds of daily examples of among the oldest invertebrates. They are among the oldest vertebrates. cloud cover, complete blackness at night their usefulness and amazing abilities.

6 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

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BECKY LANG Editor In Chief DAN BISHOP Design Director

EDITORIAL KATHI KUBE Managing Editor Travels Across GEMMA TARLACH Senior Editor BILL ANDREWS Senior Associate Editor MARK BARNA Associate Editor ERIC BETZ Associate Editor Time and Place LACY SCHLEY Assistant Editor DAVE LEE Copy Editor ELISA R. NECKAR Copy Editor I grew up roaming the halls AMY KLINKHAMMER Editorial Assistant of history. The exhibits of the Contributing Editors Montana Historical Society were TIM FOLGER, JONATHON KEATS, LINDA MARSA, KENNETH MILLER, so much more interesting than STEVE NADIS, ADAM PIORE, my dad’s office at that hulking COREY S. POWELL, JULIE REHMEYER, STEVE VOLK, PAMELA WEINTRAUB, building near the state Capitol. JEFF WHEELWRIGHT, I’d wander through the DARLENE CAVALIER (SPECIAL PROJECTS) re-created frontier town, ART Territory Junction, peering in at ERNIE MASTROIANNI Photo Editor the old saloon and the newspaper ALISON MACKEY Associate Art Director office. I’d admire the serene and DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM sacred white bison. But then I’d CARL ENGELKING Web Editor NATHANIEL SCHARPING Web Staff Writer stand and stare for a long time Bloggers at one particular diorama. It was MEREDITH CARPENTER, LILLIAN FRITZ-LAYLIN, a giant cliff. A lone American JEREMY HSU, REBECCA KRESTON, JEFFREY MARLOW, NEUROSKEPTIC, Indian stood at its edge, waving ELIZABETH PRESTON, SCISTARTER, a hide, taunting a herd of bison CHRISTIE WILCOX, TOM YULSMAN as they charged toward him. The ADVERTISING animals barreled over the rock’s STEVE MENI Advertising Sales Manager 888 558 1544 ledge, landing in a heap at the [email protected] bottom among men armed with Rummel Media Connections KRISTI RUMMEL Consulting and Media Sales spears. It was an example of how Plains Indians survived 608 435 6220 for thousands of years. [email protected] That diorama made me feel as if I could step right into another MELANIE DECARLI Marketing Architect BOB RATTNER Research time and place. That’s the goal, in 2-D, with our cover story DARYL PAGEL Advertising Services starring women whom we call the “princess mummies.” It’s KALMBACH PUBLISHING CO. especially visceral seeing a well-preserved hand, or a woman’s hair DANIEL R. LANCE Senior V.P., Sales & Marketing framing her face, her eyelashes still intact. STEPHEN C. GEORGE Vice President, Content JAMES R. MCCANN Vice President, Finance All these women and girls harnessed power, whether it was NICOLE MCGUIRE Vice President, Consumer Marketing societal or spiritual, or both. Researchers are still working to get a JAMES SCHWEDER Vice President, Technology ANN E. SMITH Corporate Advertising Director full picture of how they lived, ruled and worshipped. Come with MAUREEN M. SCHIMMEL Corporate Art Director us as we travel back to their worlds. KIM REDMOND Single Copy Specialist MIKE SOLIDAY Art and Production Manager

SUBSCRIPTIONS In the U.S., $29.95 for one year; in Canada, $39.95 for one year (U.S. funds only), includes GST, BN 12271 3209RT; other foreign countries, $44.95 for Becky Lang one year (U.S. funds only). CUSTOMER SALES & SERVICE Feel free to send comments and questions 800 829 9132 to [email protected] Outside the U.S. and Canada: 813 910 3616 Customer Service: [email protected] Digital: [email protected] Back Issues: [email protected]

EDITORIAL INQUIRIES CONNECT WITH US [email protected] 21027 Crossroads Circle, Waukesha, WI 53186 facebook.com/DiscoverMag twitter.com/DiscoverMag plus.google.com/+discovermagazine WILLIAM ZUBACK/DISCOVER

March 2017 DISCOVER 7 CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF AMERICAN SPACE EXPLORATION NASA MANNED SPACE MISSIONS COMMEMORATIVE PIN COLLECTION

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MERGING TIME This isn’t a fantasy depicting a distant planet — it’s a view from right here on Earth. Photographer György Soponyai created this 360-degree composite from hundreds of unretouched photos he took during an astronomy camp in Hungary last summer. To create the “tiny planet” effect seen here, he first used an extreme wide-angle lens and shot time-lapsed images uninterrupted for 33 hours, taking in both sunshine and starlight. Then he digitally stitched the frames together and warped that panoramic composite into a square, rendering everything from the horizon and below into a sphere. Soponyai captured a bonus detail in the process: The International Space Station created its own trail, the short arc moving across the stars just below the planet.  ERNIE MASTROIANNI, PHOTO BY GYÖRGY SOPONYAI

March 2017 DISCOVER 9 THE CRUX

PERSONAL Spidey Senses Investigating an arachnid’s visual sense leads to an eye-opening discovery.

JUMPING SPIDERS primarily IN HIS OWN WORDS . . . navigate their world through He was standing outside of sight, or so researchers the lab, and he clapped his have long thought. As a One day, I was doing visual hands and prrr, you hear the neuroethologist who studies recording and getting more spike. I said to Paul, “That’s how the nervous system data on the integration the spider.” I asked him works, Gil Menda of Cornell University’s Hoy Lab was between the eyes in spiders if spiders hear sound, intrigued by the challenge and how the information and he said no, it’s of figuring out a spider’s is being transmitted in the mainly vibratory, complex visual network. So brain. I was searching in that they “hear” a few years ago, he partnered with Paul Shamble, a spider the neurons, and I went to things that are behaviorist now at Harvard the border of the area of moving, that they University. the brain where the visual can feel. It was Menda developed a system is. While I was doing unexpected. And technique that allowed that, I didn’t get many we were really, them to insert a probe into an arachnid’s tiny brain and responses in that area, but I really surprised. discern activity: When a brain was moving my chair back, We knew at that cell fired, the researchers and when I did, I suddenly moment that we would hear a pop. But one heard a really strong spike. had something day, a pop sounded off So I listened and really big here. unexpectedly, shocking immediately heard very, very  AS TOLD TO LACY SCHLEY; the researchers and leading PHOTOS BY MICHAEL them to shift their focus of pronounced spikes, which OKONIEWSKI study from sight to sound. means something was going Turns out jumping spiders’ on. It’s almost like when you auditory systems are much fish and you feel a bite — it’s better at detecting noise than anyone thought. Not only the same feeling. I was just can they pick up sounds from feeling that strong at least 375 body-lengths pull when I heard away (about 10 feet), but that spike. And they’re also specially attuned to the frequencies produced when I did that, by the wing beats of their I asked myself, flying enemies, like the wasp. What’s going Menda relives the chance on here? I hadn’t moment that caused him done anything to to change course. the eyes. So I did it again, and there were more spikes. And then I clapped my hands and more spikes. Neuroethologist I called Paul, who was Gil Menda found jumping working in the next room. spiders (inset) I said, “Hey Paul, can you are much better at picking up come over for a second? sounds than Can you clap your hands?” anyone thought.

10 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM CLOSE-UP

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12 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM BIG IDEA calls “zero down time.” It’s a vision of a factory that never stops, not even for maintenance. The connected machines monitor themselves, spotting potential problems before they come up, like a Beware the car that knows it needs an oil change. Among the early adopters: GM.

OX AND BUGGY But the biggest leap in automation Blue-Collar Bots stems from perhaps its least sexy advancement — software. Peter Next-gen robots that see, feel and learn Gratschmayr is a senior engineer at are taking over factories around the world. Midwest Engineered Systems, a com- pany that takes robots like FANUC’s AT THE FOOT OF JAPAN’S Mount Fuji, painting themselves instead of cars. and designs systems so the machines a sprawling campus of large, yellow “GM pushed it harder than the can actually build a company’s product. buildings hides within a forest of pine technology could support,” says John He says today’s software makes robots trees. Inside, an army of robots toils Roemisch, a former GM employee and easier to set up, teach and maintain. night and day, holidays and weekends, a current FANUC corporate VP. “They “We’re just at the edge of it now making copies of themselves. were taking 10 steps instead of one step where the software is fast enough, is These bumblebee-yellow bots — at a time.” Robotics never stopped intuitive enough,” he says. “All these mostly big, sleek, intelligent arms — are advancing, but as the dream of fully different types of capabilities that strong enough to lift a Corvette and automated factories slipped further into weren’t available in the past are feasible nimble enough to pack heads of lettuce. the future, manufacturing moved to now.” That’s allowing industry world- The company behind this mechanical countries with cheap labor. wide to give remaining mun- kingdom, FANUC, has already built a dane factory jobs to robots. record of over 420,000 robots. American CYBER SENSES It’s a A recent Oxford University industry averages just over 1.5 robots for Then, about a decade ago, vision report predicts computers every 100 human employees. FANUC FANUC integrated cameras to could take over half of U.S. has 200 robots for every factory worker. give robots sight. That killed of a jobs in the next two decades. Even in 1960, John F. Kennedy the high cost of perfectly align- factory And in 2016, the World campaigned on retraining American ing production lines so robots that Economic Forum gathered workers who eventually would be got parts at precise times. international political and replaced by automated machines. Yet Next, engineers gave robots an never business leaders to discuss a technology is only now catching up with ability that previously required stops. future “world without work.” such visions. By 2019, robotics experts human hands: touch sensitiv- Some experts — like Andy predict more than a million robots will ity, so they could snap parts Stern, former president of hit shop floors worldwide in what some into place and create tight fits. the Service Employees International call the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Now the latest thing — and what Union — argue that American workers But these Asimovian achievements everyone is excited about — is driving will need a universal basic income to weren’t always as inevitable as futurists the robot to be able to learn, to be able survive in this post-work economy. would have you believe. to sense, to be able to communicate,” For now, America has seen some In the 1980s, General Motors’ failed Roemisch says. FANUC recently teamed “reshoring” — factories that return modernization attempt showed how with IT mega-company Cisco Systems stateside, as robots offset labor costs. difficult it was to get the tech right. and industrial powerhouse Rockwell But mostly the jobs they bring aren’t on Then-CEO Roger Smith tried to beat Automation on tech that connects the assembly line; they’re in software Japanese automakers with “lights out” robots, conveyor belts and vibration and robot maintenance. manufacturing. He wanted robots sensors into one well-oiled machine. “You’re going to need a high school automated enough to build cars in dark, The tech brings the so-called Internet education or better to be able to work lifeless factories. GM partnered with of Things into these manufacturing in today’s factory,” Gratschmayr says. FANUC to build the first generation of mainstays, linking devices to one “You can still plow fieldsusing an ox those yellow bots. But the tech wasn’t another and the internet. But the ulti- and a buggy, but why would you if you  ERIC BETZ FANUC AMERICA CORP. FANUC ready. Media accounts revealed robots mate automation goal is what FANUC could use a tractor?”

March 2017 DISCOVER 13 THE CRUX

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

In the Bag 1 Archaeology essentials for the field.

1. BRUSH Clears away dirt site grid. 10. TROWEL Primary when digging for deli- excavation tool that lets cate artifacts. 2. HAMMER you dig slowly though Crushes bones into pow- sediment layers. 11. PLIERS der for sampling and Collects bone fragments helps secure grid setup. for dating or DNA analy- 2 3. FACE MASK Shields against sis. 12. pH PAPER Measures 3 dust from cutting bone sediment acidity/alkalinity. as well as sediment dust. 13. LEVEL Ensures dig site 4. SAMPLING SPOONS Help layers are level. 14. HAND collect sediment or other LENS Gives a closer look small samples. 5. SCALPEL at tiny objects in the field, Delicately frees small samples such as beads or minuscule 4 that have been dug out of bone samples. 15. POCKET sediment layers. 6. DENTAL KNIFE 16. SCALE For use in TOOLS Help free smaller photos. 17. MEASURING TAPE artifacts from sediment. To lay out grid at the site and 7. DIAMOND-TIPPED DRILLS measure depth and location Cut bone. 8. RAINPROOF of artifacts. 18. HEADLAMP NOTEBOOK AND SHARPIE 19. CALIPERS Measures width For all-weather note- of bone and other artifacts. taking and labeling — LACY SCHLEY; TOOLS sample bags and tags. COURTESY OF BRIDGET ALEX, 5 9. BRIGHT STRING Creates HARVARD UNIVERSITY 7

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© 2017 SunSetter® Products THE CRUX Degrees of Separation TRENDING From egalitarian kids to STDs. BY LACY SCHLEY

Young kids are pretty good at respecting authority, but new research claims that by just Low on Iron? age 5, they’re already standing up to the Ditch the steak and eat a bug. man, as it were. And by age 8, they’re 5 & 8 rooting for the underdog when they realize Cricket the balance of power is off. Speaking of power, a seven-year study of 20* people in their 60s found that stressful, high-demand jobs can be good for you if you have control over your workflow: Those Mealworms with high-demand, high-control jobs saw a 34 percent decrease in the likelihood of 34% 40 death compared with folks in high-control, low-demand jobs.

Grasshopper And even though you’re a lot less likely to die of breast cancer these days, a 40 New England Journal of Medicine article contends that we’re pulling the trigger too early on treatment: For every one Sirloin beef case of a small tumor caught early that 1 in 5 would have been a health threat, about 56 five essentially harmless tumors also

receive the same treatment. WATCH FISHING GLOBAL OPPOSITE: SOURCE. (COLORIZATION)/SCIENCE TREADWELL BIN

Buffalo worms Other maladies really are growing in numbers. The CDC claims the total combined number of 76 chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases reported in 2015 reached a peak, at nearly 2 million. *Levels of iron uptake in human cells (unit is Looks like it’s time to break out the bananas 2 MILLION nanograms of ferritin per mg of total protein levels) again and demonstrate how to put on a condom.

Women Scientists of Antiquity Agnodike E Marie Curie. Rosalind Franklin. Ada Lovelace. Before these wonder women of modern science could make their marks, another group of females would leave their own scientific legacies in great, ancient civilizations.

2700 B.C. 2300 B.C. 1200 B.C. Third century B.C. First century A.D.

ELIN Merit Ptah Enheduanna Tapputi- Agnodike Miriam the The Egyptian physician A Sumerian woman Belatikallim Grecian law at the Jewess

M was the first woman appointed as high time forbade women in medicine, and priestess of the A Babylonian perfumer from studying or This alchemist lived perhaps all of science, moon goddess. Her considered the world’s practicing medicine — in Alexandria and is mentioned by name prestigious religious first chemist and first punishable by death. perhaps the first female TI in texts. Her son, a title included duties mentioned in cuneiform So Agnodike dressed scientist to have her high priest, called her related to astronomy, tablets. “Belatikallim” as a man to learn the work preserved in any “the chief physician,” such as establishing is a title suggesting trade. She established a form. Descriptions and her portrait observatories she might have been a reputation as an expert of her designs for appears in a tomb in and tracking the high-ranking scientist. in women’s diseases alchemical and chemical the Valley of the Kings. movements of the before revealing equipment were moon and stars. herself, which helped included in Egyptian overturn the law. encyclopedias compiled

in the third century A.D. RO IN-FINITY; DECENT/SHUTTERSTOCK; REDKOALA/SHUTTERSTOCK; IN-FINITY/SHUTTERSTOCK; EVGDEMIDOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK; TOP: FROM THIS PAGE

16 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Commercial Overfishing Commercial overfishing damages fish populations, marine satellite and land-based tracking technology, gives a near real- habitats and ecosystems — consequences that also affect people time look at commercial fishing across the globe. The watchdog who depend on the ocean for food and work. So Google tool can show several layers of data, including current fishing collaborated with nonprofits Oceana and SkyTruth to create activity (white spots) and the boundaries of restricted marine Global Fishing Watch, an interactive map that, through both areas (red outlines). Visit globalfishingwatch.org.

March 2017 DISCOVER 17 THE CRUX

SCIENCE SMACKDOWN Power Poses: Plus or Bust? Experts continue to quarrel over the stances' supposed benefits.

IN 2010, RESEARCHERS Amy Cuddy, Dana Carney and Andy Yap reported that people who adopted expansive postures — so-called “power poses,” like putting your hands on your hips — had higher levels of the “macho” hormone testosterone and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and were more likely to take risks than those who struck more timid poses, such as crossing your arms. People soon started assuming Superman-like stances to step up their game in high-stakes situations. And Cuddy — with a best-selling book, packed speaking engagements and a popular TED talk — has become a power-pose guru. But now, after a change of heart about the study’s controversial methodology, Carney is at odds with her former collaborator about whether there’s actually any power in the power pose. In Science Smackdown, we invited the former colleagues to go mano a mano over this debate. Instead, they mostly chose to go statement a statement.  AMY PATUREL

The Claim The Opposition

ADOPTING AN EXPANSIVE THE POSE IS POWERLESS POSTURE LEADS TO POWER But while people may In response to Carney, feel more powerful in a Cuddy, a business professor Superman-like stance, some at Harvard University, scientists think any behavioral argues her initial finding differences are, at best, — that people feel more grossly exaggerated. powerful after adopting an Carney, now a business expansive posture — has professor at the University been successfully replicated of California, Berkeley, in at least nine published writes, “I do not believe studies. that ‘power pose’ effects When people feel are real.” In addition to more powerful, the popular other investigators’ failed theory goes, behavioral replications on nearly every and physiological effects, power-pose effect, Carney like changes in hormone admits to manipulating the levels, blood pressure and original 2010 data to inflate heart rate, will follow. Over the link. Such so-called time, these basic posture p-hacking was generally tweaks can change accepted at the time, people’s lives, Cuddy particularly in studies (like the told Discover via email. one in 2010) without many She touts thousands of participants. Now, scientists testimonials from strangers view it as cherry-picking data who have reached out to to support hypotheses. her with stories of how To be fair, both sides feeling powerful has agree the reported changes helped them overcome in hormone levels haven’t rough patches in their lives. panned out in other research, They look at challenges but the jury is still out on Does posing like not as threats, but as how strong the case is for the Wonder Woman make opportunities. other supposed effects. you feel powerful? CBS PHOTO ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES CBS PHOTO

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By the time he landed in our →emergency department, Albert was having, by his own account, his 11th episode of gastrointestinal bleeding. He’d developed crampy abdominal pain and passed a large volume of bright-red blood. He felt weak and lightheaded, and on more than one occasion he fainted. Albert, who was in his late 50s, had been to several hospitals and clinics in the area. A slew of internists, gastroenterologists and surgeons couldn’t diagnose the problem. It was during a pill-camera examination and found CT scans and endoscopies, in nothing specific to treat. We then which a camera is inserted inside a conversation with elected to perform a deep endoscopic patient, weren’t revealing. Albert had exam of the top of the small intestine; even undergone a capsule endoscopy, him about his this also revealed nothing. We were at swallowing a camera the size of a pill waning patience square one. that essentially makes a movie of its Our strong suspicion was that transit through the intestines. These (and finances) that I Albert had bleeding somewhere in his images showed only some old blood in small intestine. Albert’s small intestine. They did not proposed a somewhat After two days in the hospital reveal a clear source to treat. unconventional without bleeding, Albert was preparing When I first met Albert in the to leave, girding himself for the next emergency department, he had approach to his episode. It was during a conversation already received several units of with him about his waning patience packed red blood cells and copious problem. (and finances) that I proposed a intravenous fluids. Although he was somewhat unconventional approach feeling much better physically, he was with GI bleeding usually have so-called to his problem: administering blood deeply discouraged. He had spent a upper bleeding — from the esophagus, thinners while he was in the hospital lot of time and money on his bleeding stomach or the beginning of the small to see if we could trigger a bleed and episodes, which were taxing physically intestine — or lower bleeding, which catch it in the act. and emotionally. arises from the colon. In between these One of the most frequent two locations lie 20 or so feet of the A DIFFERENT APPROACH consultation requests we receive in small intestine where bleeding develops Blood thinners have been used for gastroenterology is to evaluate and much less frequently. decades to treat conditions that treat patients with bleeding in the I dutifully repeated Albert’s upper predispose patients to clotting — the

gastrointestinal, or GI, tract. Patients and lower endoscopic exams and the opposite of Albert’s problem. Given AND REINHOLD LEITNER/SHUTTERSTOCK LTD/SHUTTERSTOCK SPOTMATIK

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&YUSBPSEJOBSZ™ Vital Signs orally, by injection or intravenously, the “If you don’t bleed After confirming he was stable and drugs inhibit the ability to form blood that the fluids and red blood cells clots. My idea was to give Albert an tonight, we can were keeping his blood pressure in intravenous blood thinner while a team the normal range, I sent Albert to of doctors stood ready to treat him if increase the dose in radiology for an angiogram. This the bleeding started. the morning. Everyone would give us a real-time, high- This approach wasn’t new, but it resolution map of the blood vessels was rare in the medical literature. The is still on standby, so by following dye injected into an upside was that this might allow us artery while he was given an X-ray. to find the cause of Albert’s troubles. let’s just wait and see.” Normal blood vessels appear as well- The downside was that his previous demarcated tubes, while bleeding sites episodes were massive and life- look like fluffy clouds as the blood threatening, and patients on thinners spills out of vessels and pools where can bleed extensively. it doesn’t belong. We kept the heparin I pointed out to Albert that, unlike running during the angiogram. his earlier experiences outside the hospital, this one would be closely BREAKTHROUGH monitored with an IV in place and Within a few minutes of injecting blood ready to be administered. the dye, we saw the bleeding — a “What happens if I don’t bleed even small artery feeding a portion of the on these blood thinners?” he asked. small intestine, known as the ileum, We could adjust the level of the just beyond where our endoscopic blood thinner to make the blood examinations could probe. as thin as needed, I told him. “But The bleed’s pattern and the look obviously the risk of a severe bleed of the blood vessels around it increases as we make your blood Blood cells when magnified appear tubular. suggested a tumor, the radiologist said. thinner and thinner.” I picked up the nearest phone and “OK,” he said. “I’ll do it.” Whenever my pager went off that called the surgeon involved in Albert’s We agreed that he would receive day, I was sure it was Albert’s nurse case. Everyone agreed: He needed heparin, a common blood thinner for saying he was bleeding. I stopped by surgery. people with blood clots or who have his room at the end of the day and A few hours later, we got the news. had heart attacks. The drug prevents found him watching television, looking The surgeon found and removed a the blood from clotting normally and dismayed. small growth in the ileum known as can be dosed so the extent of blood “Nothing happened,” he said. a carcinoid tumor. These often grow thinning can be closely controlled. This “Clearly,” I deadpanned. “If you in the small intestine and can widely would allow us to thin Albert’s blood don’t bleed tonight, we can increase the metastasize if left untreated. Albert as much or as little as needed. dose in the morning. Everyone is still had no other evidence that the tumor The following morning, we on standby, so let’s just wait and see.” had spread and made a full recovery started him on IV heparin. We had The next morning, we bumped up without any more episodes of bleeding already alerted the blood bank as the heparin dose, making Albert’s or signs of cancer. well as our colleagues in surgery and blood even thinner. By day’s end, still The practice of using blood thinners interventional radiology. Everybody no bleeding. But as I was preparing to to induce bleeding is still performed was standing by to intervene if needed. head home, my pager went off. It was only rarely in medicine. In Albert’s the nurses’ station on Albert’s floor. I case, it was the right idea at the right WAITING TO BLEED called back immediately. time. He literally had to risk his life to We initially adjusted his heparin dose “It’s started,” the nurse said. “He’s save it. D so his blood would take twice as passing blood from below right now.” long as normal to clot in the event of I asked the nurse to start IV fluids Douglas G. Adler is a professor in the bleeding. Albert was clearly anxious and packed red blood cells, and I Department of Internal Medicine at the about the procedure, and I was, too. sprinted to Albert’s room. He gave me University of Utah School of Medicine. The I wanted him to bleed at a particular a big grin and a thumbs-up. He was the cases described in Vital Signs are real, but

place and nowhere else. happiest bleeder I ever met. names and certain details have been changed. AND REINHOLD ANDRII VODOLAZHSKYI/SHUTTERSTOCK LEITNER/SHUTTERSTOCK

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Inscribed on rocks along the there are serious ecological reasons for aurochs grazing in various nature → riverbanks in Portugal’s Côa bringing aurochs back onto the scene. reserves in northwest Germany. Valley are figures of wild horses and “Agricultural land is being abandoned Extinction aside, the aurochs appears aurochs — the common ancestor to on a large scale in Europe, and natural to be thriving. all domestic cattle breeds — drawn by grazing is one of the key processes for Paleolithic hunters tens of thousands preserving biodiversity,” says Goderie. SUPERCATTLE of years ago. Archaeologists scrambled “We’re trying to re-establish a wild The petroglyphs of the Côa Valley to protect these petroglyphs in the bovine that can do the job. To be able are just one of many traces of ancient 1990s, as the Portuguese government to do this as well as possible, we think aurochs. The animals appear in the planned to flood the valley behind a these cattle should resemble the aurochs famous cave art of Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, giant dam. Within four years, Côa as much as possible.” where they were painted 30,000 years was listed as a United Nations World Goderie and his collaborators are not ago, depicted with hulking muscles Heritage Site, ensuring that this record alone in their belief that wild grazing is and great twisting horns. Encountering of prehistoric megafauna would necessary, and that the job calls for an some aurochs during the Gallic Wars, survive. All that was missing was the animal akin to the aurochs. As Goderie Julius Caesar was awed. “In size these wildlife itself. releases his first 40 animals in the Côa are little but inferior to elephants,” he Ronald Goderie intends to fill Valley, other breeders are raising back- proclaimed. “They spare neither men that void. A cattle breeder trained in bred herds. For instance, a conservation nor beast.” ecology, he’s working to reintroduce organization called Arbeitsgemeinschaft Yet the combined power of men aurochs to the Côa Valley. The problem Biologischer Umweltschutz (ABU) and their beasts ultimately proved is that the aurochs, Bos primigenius, has has more than 100 of their own faux unbeatable. The spread of agriculture been extinct since 1627. foreclosed the natural habitat of Goderie isn’t concerned. To revive aurochs, which once covered most of the aurochs, he’s collaborating Europe, Asia and northern Africa. with geneticists at Wageningen By the early 17th century, the final University and ecologists at a non- holdouts survived in the Jaktorów governmental organization called Forest of Poland, protected by Rewilding Europe. Together they’re noblemen who also liked to hunt them. “back-breeding” modern cattle to The death of the last aurochs in 1627 take on aurochs-like traits — like was also the world’s first recorded menacing horns and stripes along their extinction. backs — and then introducing herds After their demise, aurochs only grew of these doppelganger herbivores into in stature. They came to embody a Ancient humans carved this image of an landscapes where aurochs once roamed. aurochs along a wall in Portugal’s Côa Valley primeval ideal, and there was a longing

The project may seem whimsical, but Archaeological Park. to revive them. PHOTO STOCK PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMY NATURE BOTTOM: VIA GETTY IMAGES. ARCHIVE/UIG UNIVERSAL HISTORY TOP:

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The Heck brothers, Heinz and Lutz, were German zookeepers who re-created their own version of aurochs (above) in pursuit of an Aryan supercattle. More recently, conservationists have begun creating another aurochs-style breed, called tauros (right), which are less aggressive.

The first to try were a couple of years, they did so in a natural context, successfully sequence the first nuclear German zookeepers, brothers named and for the past 10,000 years, they did genome in 2015). Teaming up with Heinz and Lutz Heck, who managed so as livestock.” With their voracious Wageningen University molecular the zoos of Berlin and Munich in the appetites and propensity to trample geneticist Richard Crooijmans, 1930s. “They had in mind the idea everything around them, wild and Goderie surveyed how different of creating Aryan supercattle,” says domesticated bovines maintained an primitive cattle breeds were related to Goderie. They crossed some of the ever-shifting mosaic of ecosystems the aurochs in order to decide which most primitive and aggressive breeds ranging from deep forest to open animals to mix. (including Spanish fighting bulls), prairie. The removal of domestic cattle They started with six different types attaining a superficial resemblance and lack of wild alternatives could of cattle from three regions of Europe. to old depictions of aurochs. Few result, by Helmer’s reckoning, in a loss “You have to start with many breeds scientists took their efforts seriously. of half the landscape’s biodiversity. because most of them are highly But the Heck cattle excited Nazi To preserve open terrain in inbred,” explains Crooijmans. “Without Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, nature reserves, organizations such variation, you can’t select.” And since who supposedly set some loose on his as Rewilding Europe often enlist the goal is to breed animals for their estate for pleasure hunting. domesticated herds. In 2008, cattle ability to thrive in the wild, selection of breeder Goderie was providing that aurochs-like traits (or phenotypes) has LOSING EUROPE’S PASTURELAND service in the Netherlands — grazing been their initial focus. When the Heck brothers bred their parks with Scottish Highland cattle — They deduce those traits from supercattle, Europe was predominantly when he began thinking about more cave paintings and ancient skeletons. farmland, essentially equivalent to the suitable breeds. “In one of the nature Some, like menacing horns, have continental landscape when aurochs areas near ours, there was the idea of obvious advantages for animals living went extinct. Nine decades later, starting with Heck cattle,” he recalls. in the wild. Other characteristics, “there’s a geographic revolution in Concerned about their aggressiveness, such as stripes down the back, are Europe,” asserts Rewilding Europe he resolved to start over, seeking an not obviously important but might ecologist Wouter Helmer. “Almost animal as well adapted to the land as be genetically related to traits that 1 million hectares a year are being aurochs were in their time. Borrowing prove significant. And all of the abandoned by small-scale farmers.” the Greek word for “bull,” he dubbed characteristics must be considered Large swaths of land are no longer his creature the tauros. in terms of their potential risk to being cultivated. And that’s a problem, humans. (That’s why Spanish fighting says Helmer, because ungrazed land CAVE PAINTINGS COME TO LIFE bulls aren’t on the menu.) will rapidly grow forested, crowding The timing of Goderie’s quest Even with Crooijmans’ expertise, the out wildflowers and butterflies. “Large was auspicious. Researchers were breeding process is excruciatingly slow. herbivores have shaped the European sequencing mitochondrial DNA Each generation requires a couple of

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Use as directed. Individual results may vary. BetterMAN and BetterWOMAN are the trademarks of Interceuticals, Inc. ©2017 Interceuticals, Inc. March 2017 DISCOVER 29 The science and politics of saving America’s bees gets messy. And the bees continue to die.

BUZZKILLBY STEVE VOLK PHOTO BY ALEX WILD

30 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Dozens of dead worker bees lie headfirst in a hive. High mortality rates still affect bee colonies around the U.S. Despite all the years, and all the troubles, Darren Cox still likes to put on his bee suit. A big, block-shaped man in his 50s, Cox sports a bowlish blond haircut and serious demeanor. But when he slips into his protective gear, his netted hat in hand, he offers a rare smile. “Time to get out there,” he says. It’s a summer day in Cache Valley, an agricultural center set among the mountains of northern Utah. The skyline, composed of peaks popping with shimmering green, speaks resoundingly of life, vibrant and fertile. Several years ago, Cox and his wife built a beautiful house here, so high up that eagles soared within feet of the living room windows. But for Cox, a commercial beekeeper fighting for his livelihood, these days even his Valhalla strikes a sour note. “When we first got here,” Cox tells me, “there was so much wildlife. Fox and deer. Every bird you can imagine. You don’t Commercial beekeeper Darren Cox stands see wildlife like you did anymore. Where’d it all go?” among some of his hives in a bee yard in the Cox keeps his “livestock” in so-called bee yards placed rich Cache Valley north of Salt Lake City. Bees have been dying at faster rates than normal, throughout the area. Today he’ll visit them, winding through as a host of ailments weaken colonies. deep valleys, up tall mountains and into one of the most per- plexing questions in science: What is killing our honeybees — and can we stop it? playing a critical role in human health. Wild and domestic bees are both in The trouble started about 10 years ago, when beekeepers deep trouble. Colony losses among around the world began reporting a mysterious phenomenon: Queen bees commercial beekeepers reach 30, 40, Bees that had been healthy simply disappeared, leaving no today barely even 50 percent or more annually, a dead bodies for study. The crisis was called colony collapse dis- survive a third of pace that threatens the beekeeping order (CCD). And as scientific wisdom has it, the CCD crisis their normal and agricultural industries — and is over. Bees no longer just “disappear.” Instead, they die at far life spans everyone who eats. Bees pollinate faster rates than normal as a host of other ailments, such as some $30 billion in U.S. crops each year, deformed wing virus and deadly pathogens, exact a toll. including most fruits and leafy greens, Cox’s bees don’t produce the same honey yields they did before. Queen bees struggle to survive even a third of their normal life spans, leaving beekeepers in a constant battle to replace them. According to Cox and other bee- keepers, classic CCD is back, too.

A large queen bee (left), smaller, infertile female worker bees (center), In the summer of 2015, Cox showed

and male drones (right) all make up a functioning honeybee colony. me several hives that bore the standard ALEX WILD (3) LEFT:

32 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM signs: healthy brood; good stores of pollen and nectar, or scientific problem is rendered almost impossible to resolve by “bee food,” and little else; a few straggling workers, maybe the toxic influences of politics and money. 10 percent of the population he had last week; and a big queen, running around her now-empty castle like a mom, ENLIGHTENMENT AND PARADOX knowing that without her stable of workers she’ll be unable In the early years of the bee crisis, beekeepers looked to sci- to feed her babies. ence as their savior. “We believed that government, the media “Our bees are manifesting a bunch of different symptoms,” and, most importantly, scientists were focused,” says Cox. Cox says as he kicks a beat-up Ford flatbed truck into gear. “If a solution to this problem existed, we figured it would be “Bees are dying, but what people are missing is that bees are found and acted on.” also weakening.” Ten years on, however, beekeepers have grown frustrated As president of American Honey Producers, a trade asso- because the field seems stuck in the fact-gathering stage. ciation for beekeepers, Cox hears this from numerous mem- The reasons for overall bee declines are broadly understood: bers. In honeybee years, we are many generations on from the diminished bee habitat; the Varroa destructor, a nasty para- inception of the crisis, and bees themselves seem different, sitic mite; viruses and pathogens; and agricultural chemicals, weaker. “They don’t have as much vigor,” says Cox. including pesticides, fungicides and insect growth regulators For Cox and other beekeepers, the long, reasoned march of (IGRs). But the problem of declining bee health might actu-

ABOVE: KIM RAFF ABOVE: science looks more like a slow hair-pull, in which a difficult ally be getting worse, largely because the factor of agricultural

March 2017 DISCOVER 33 chemicals lies at the nexus of science, finance and different pesticides in each and as many as 39. politics. Much of the controversy, and concern, Numerous scientists I interviewed — from has centered around a particular class of neonic- entomologist John Tooker at Penn State otinoid pesticides (neonic for short), which yield University, to Galen Dively and prominent billions in revenue for chemical-makers. entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp at the The resulting conflict is best framed, reports “Bees are University of Maryland, to Pettis and others E.G. Vallianatos, a scientist retired from the — said the number of chemicals in our environ- Environmental Protection Agency, by what he calls dying, but ment is so vast that assessing all of their pos- the “Rachel Carson paradox.” Carson’s 1962 book, what people sible interactions is virtually impossible. Silent Spring, documented the pernicious effects “Just think back to your chemistry classes,” of agricultural chemicals and served as a rallying are missing Susan Kegley, a chemist and CEO of the envi- point for the modern environmental movement. ronmental consulting firm Pesticide Research But more than 50 years later, Vallianatos expresses is that bees Institute, told me. “You combine three chemi- disappointment. “Everyone acts like the book was are also cals and nothing happens, but if you introduce responsible for a new dawn,” says Vallianatos. “But them in a different order, you get a big reaction. did anyone actually read it?” weakening.” So as a scientist working on this problem of bee Carson’s argument was fundamental: Because declines, you have to choose which pesticides, pests and weeds quickly develop resistance, chemical pesticides how much and the order of introduction. Then you have to create a kind of arms race. We apply increasingly toxic concoc- acknowledge everything you might be missing if you’d changed tions in greater amounts, and bugs and weeds evolve and rally. even one of these variables, however slightly.” Time has proven her right. Today we pump roughly 2.5 times Scientists are doing what science does best: isolating specific more chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides into the interactions of chemical and bee in the lab while understand- environment than we did when Silent Spring was published. ing they might miss important synergies among other vari- But the number of regulatory labs has decreased, leaving more ables. Thus far, the scrutiny has settled on one particular class chemical inputs in the environment and far fewer scientists of pesticide, yielding significant results. But in a development to study them. that shows just how politics creep into science, the data hasn’t The standard rebuttal is that modern pesticides are better ruled the day. The result has been gridlock. targeted toward pests. But this doesn’t capture the plight of the bee, or government regulators. One of the most important A COMPLICATED PICTURE papers in the field of bee declines, co-authored by then-USDA The confidence beekeepers once felt that the crisis would be scientist Jeffrey Pettis in 2010, drew comb and wax samples resolved peaked in 2009 at Apimondia, the largest interna- from beehives in 23 U.S. states, finding an average of six tional gathering of beekeepers.

U.S. Commercial Honeybee Colony Loss The map below shows the results of an annual survey of beekeepers and their bee colony losses. The chart tracks winter losses in the U.S. in the past decade, as well as annual losses since 2010-2011. The Bee Informed Partnership, a research consortium based at the University of Maryland, tracks mortality rates, rather than overall population, to get a more accurate sense of colony turnover year to year. 44% of colonies 2015–2016 Loss by State were lost in 2015–2016

Average Loss by Year 50%

40%

30%

20% Total Annual Losses 10% Winter Losses ≥60% 0% ≥50% lost colony of Percentage ≥40% 16 –2014 ≥30% 3 ≥20% 2006–2007 2007–2008 2008–2009 2009–2010 2010–2011 2011–2012 2012–2013 201 2014–2015 2015–20 Reporting year (April– April)

SOURCE: Bee Informed Partnership/University of Maryland AFTER BEE INFORMED ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER

34 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Two of the world’s most respected entomologists — Pettis, then research Bees leader at the USDA’s Beltsville Bee pollinate some Laboratory, and vanEngelsdorp, then at Penn State — there revealed $30 billion the early results of an experiment in U.S. crops they’d just completed. In a conversation included in the each year documentary The Strange Disappearance of the Bees, both scientists appeared visibly excited. They had looked into the danger that a widely used class of pesticides, neonicoti- noids, might pose to bees. “We’re finding that virus levels are much higher in CCD bees,” vanEngelsdorp says in the film, “but since we are not finding a consis- tent virus or a consistent pathogen, that implies that something else is happening underneath

it. Something is breaking down their immune A worker bee gathers nectar from a purple coneflower. Scientists are trying to figure out system, or somehow challenging them so that which factors — viruses, pesticides or a combination — weaken bees’ immune systems. they are more susceptible to disease.” The pair fed neonics to bees, then exposed that group and encounter a dose that big? Sublethal effects are treated as a neonic-free control group to Nosema, a common gut patho- less urgent, yet neonics subject bees to a variety of sublethal gen in the honeybee. The bees fed neonics proved more sus- effects with long-term, fatal consequences. ceptible to Nosema. And the effect was consistent even when Neonics have been demonstrated to impair the honeybee’s bees received neonics in amounts too small to be detected in foraging capabilities, memory and navigation systems, under- their system. “The only reason we knew the bees had exposure mining their ability to survive and aid their hive. In one study, [to neonicotinoid pesticides],” says vanEngelsdorp, “is because led by French scientist Mickaël Henry, researchers tagged we exposed them.” honeybees with GPS trackers and released them. Some bees Beekeepers rejoiced. “They really sounded like they found received a dose of neonic equal to real-world exposures while something big,” says Dave Hackenberg, a central Pennsylvania the controls received no neonics. The bees fed pesticide proved beekeeper. “They were like, ‘This is it.’ ” two to three times more likely to die without returning to the “We really felt confident,” says Bret Adee, co-owner of Adee hive and sharing their food. Honey Farms in South Dakota. “These were the guys everyone Such deaths can add up. Honeybee colonies can total tens would listen to, and now we were going to get something done.” of thousands of bees, enough to withstand natural cyclical But nothing happened. losses. But foraging bees last only a few weeks at best. Early A confirming study surfaced quickly; a French team of sci- deaths force premature worker bees out to forage, leading to a entists actually beat vanEngelsdorp and Pettis into print. But weaker colony of weaker bees. neonics remained in wide use. The deluge beekeepers expected Worse, as Pettis and vanEngelsdorp demonstrated, expo- — of scientists, nailing down the problem, of regulatory agen- sure to neonics also appears to compromise the bee’s immune cies, rushing to act — never materialized. And today, the system. A recent scientific literature review conducted by neonic lies right at the heart of that Rachel Carson paradox. researchers in the U.K., Japan, France and Italy concluded Neonics are what’s known as a systemic insecticide, mean- that exposure to systemic insecticides, including neonics, ing they spread throughout the tissue, pollen and nectar of renders bees more susceptible to numerous diseases. Further, the treated plant. Companies, including Bayer and Syngenta, exposure increases the mortality rate from illnesses that hon- create varying formulas of neonics, which can be applied to eybee colonies usually shrug off. seeds or growing crops. The neonic entered broad use in the This causal link has eluded researchers because the factors U.S. in the late 1990s and quickly became ubiquitous, used on occur concurrently, according to the report. Diseases and par- millions of acres of corn, cotton, soybeans, canola and more, asites comprise the immediate cause of bee declines. Pesticides accounting for about $2.5 billion in sales. are a key underlying factor. The January 2016 paper, pub- Jay Vroom, CEO and spokesman at CropLife America, a lished in Environment International, identifies two popular trade partnership of seed and pesticide manufacturers, says neonics, clothianidin and imidacloprid, as disturbing immune studies measuring the effect of neonics on bees in field condi- signaling in the bee, promoting the replication of illnesses like tions “consistently demonstrate no negative effects.” deformed wing virus (DWV). This finding is key, the authors Scientists say the picture is complicated. Regulatory agen- write, because DWV is commonly found in collapsed colonies. cies devote most of their energy to answering two questions: Immune suppression also escalates over time, perhaps eluding How much of a given chemical is required to kill a non-target typical insecticide field studies.

ALEX WILD insect outright, and how likely is it that beneficial species will “We’re talking about synergistic effects,” says Pettis.

March 2017 DISCOVER 35 “Everyone wants an easy answer, a sole culprit, Those scientists remain anonymous, fearing but neonics don’t seem to be the single driver. career reprisals, but the allegations are seri- What they are is a significant factor.” ous: watered-down findings, retracted studies, This powerful data has generated conflict, how- indefinite delays in receiving agency approvals ever, both inside and outside the halls of science. to publish controversial papers. Four of those In recent scientists were working on issues related to pol- WHACK-A-MOLE linator declines, says Jeff Ruch, PEER’s execu- “We call it the ‘whack-a-mole’ theory of bee years, tive director. science,” says Hackenberg, the commercial bee- allegations Chavonda Jacobs-Young, USDA-Agricultural keeper in central Pennsylvania. “People who stick Research Service administrator, denies any such their head too far above ground on the subject of of scientific problem, saying that “scientific integrity and pesticides get whacked.” rigorous science are of the utmost importance This kind of talk smacks of conspiracy. suppression to us.” However, the alignment of self-interests leaves have grown The USDA inspector general, however, plotting and planning unnecessary. Big agricul- announced in early 2016 that she’d received a tural companies pay many millions annually louder. “significant volume” of scientific censorship in political donations and lobbying. The politi- complaints, enough to trigger an investigation. cians receiving all of this attention and money determine the Pettis himself may have been a victim. In summer 2014, dwindling budgets at agencies like the EPA and USDA. he was demoted, just two months after he testified before In late 2014, EPA scientists released a study showing that Congress. “I was asked by the [ag] committee to restrict my neonic seed treatments produce no significant increase in testimony to the Varroa mite,” says Pettis. But under ques- crop yield. The reason is simple, even predictable: Each year, tioning, he declared that neonics raise the danger for bees to soil-based pests, targeted by seed treatments, only pop up in “a new level.” about 10 percent of America’s cropland. But instead of dial- While no one at the USDA ever mentioned his testimony as ing back pesticide use, scientists at USDA publicly rejected the main reason for his demotion, Pettis says, he heard rum- the EPA’s findings. blings that he had angered people downtown. In recent years, allegations of scientific suppression have The controversy over bee declines has driven Pettis and grown louder. In fall 2015, Jonathan Lundgren, an entomolo- vanEngelsdorp — Batman and Robin, once poised to save the gist in the USDA’s Agricultural Research office who is now bees — to separate scientific corners. the director of the nonprofit research Ecdysis Foundation, Pettis even retired early from his post at USDA-ARS, in filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that his supervi- large part because he says he felt “muzzled” by government sors levied a pair of bogus suspensions on him to prevent policies that prohibit him from saying anything that might his publicizing the dangers of chemical pesticides. Attorneys even be “construed” as reflecting on policy. “Chemicals,” he for a group called Public Employees for Environmental says, “need to be used when indicated by signs or risk of pest Responsibility (PEER), an alliance of science professionals infestation, as opposed to prophylactically.” that represented Lundgren in court, alleged that an addi- I interviewed vanEngelsdorp, who sounded a different note tional nine USDA scientists also sought help. in 2015, in his office at the University of Maryland, where he runs the Bee Informed Partnership, a consor- tium that includes government, industry and beekeeping constituents. He says the Varroa mites are a big problem, and typified pesticides as a lesser concern. “As a scientist,” vanEngelsdorp says, “I am motivated by the data.” He recently published a pair of papers that deepen the debate. In the first one, published online last April in Apidologie, he surveyed beekeepers and samples over five years from 41 states. He found that the Varroa mite is more prevalent than suspected, even when beekeep- ers follow good practices, and a significant vector for disease. And in a September study in Nature Scientific Reports, he found that exposure to multiple chemicals in a colony cor- relates with high rates of colony deaths. The evidence, gathered from 91 bee colonies owned

Entomologist Jeffrey Pettis, who has since retired from the USDA, was demoted two months by three commercial beekeepers, showed just

after testifying before Congress about neonicotinoids and their effect on bee health. trace amounts of neonics but did find that STEPHEN AUSMUS/USDA-ARS

36 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM The parasitic Varroa mite feeds off of both adult honeybees and developing larvae. Originally native to Asia, Varroa mites were accidentally introduced to the U.S. in the 1980s.

Varroa mites travel from hive to hive by attaching to an adult host Bees born with deformed wing virus emerge with crumpled, misshapen wings and die within days. The virus is one of several closely associated with Varroa infestations.

fungicides are more prevalent than thought and closely cor- hovered listlessly around their hives. Neonics are not so relate with bee deaths. The finding seemed to slightly push prevalent by Cox’s bee yards, but other chemicals are, includ- vanEngelsdorp, who commented in a news release at the time ing Lorsban, which attacks the nervous system. Further, as that we need to “make sure we only use the products we need, a commercial pollinator, Cox comes into contact with all the when we need them.” chemicals, including neonics, used in the areas he visits, and Former commercial beekeeper David Mendes, who serves those chemicals can wind up in his bees. with vanEngelsdorp on the Bee Informed Stakeholder Immediately after witnessing this dismal scene, Cox took Advisory Board, praises his ethics and rigor but says the poli- me to a bee yard where he keeps another trove of bees, up in tics are important. “I think Dennis would need the evidence to the mountains, away from any development or farms. There, be beyond incontrovertible before he could take any stand on the sound was unmistakable — a warm buzz. pesticides,” says Mendes. “That’s an even higher standard than The prospect of weaker bees, which fail to forage even in science usually requires.” abundant habitat, is not a product of beekeepers’ imagina- Darren Cox’s personal enlightenment about the ways in tions. Scientists like Pettis, Lundgren and vanEngelsdorp which science can be subverted reached full bloom when the seem to agree on this: Bees are less vigorous than before. USDA mounted a series of workshops on the stressors affect- Of course, they are also dying. ing bee health. The agency invited him to two meetings cov- Over the winter, 2015-2016, fellow beekeepers called Cox ering mites, viruses and bee nutrition. Agency representatives and reported record losses. Hackenberg lost 90 percent of assured him for months, he says, that a pesticides roundtable his stock, saying they “disappeared” just like they did dur- would follow. Then, he says, “They told us, ‘There isn’t going ing colony collapse. Cox is suffering, too. He recently had to to be any meeting on pesticides.’ ” make up the loss of 30 percent of his hives. Cox readily acknowledges that his bees are “afflicted by a The bad year, however, might actually turn out to be variety of stressors.” But talking about this decision, his frus- a good thing. tration shows. “The USDA’s own website, on the science of bee The price per hive for crop pollination continues to health, lists four stressors, including pesticides,” he says. “But increase. Soon the plight of the honeybee might force such that’s the one thing they wouldn’t hold a meeting about. Now, massive cost increases that angry citizens will demand why is that?” change. In April 2016, a group of Bayer shareholders publicly demanded that corporation executives “turn away” from “THE HONEY HUM” neonics because they are linked to bee declines. In addition, On the last day of my trip to Utah, at a peak time of day Cox and his fellow beekeepers have become increasingly for bee foraging, Cox took me to a bee yard wedged tightly political, writing letters of protest about Pettis’ demotion, between a farm and a major road. Arrayed before us were contributing significant funding to a new, private lab for at least three prime bee-attractors: milkweed, safflower and Lundgren — the whistleblower who has now left the USDA thistle, in full bloom. — and looking for ways to provoke action. I expected Cox to open the top box on one of the “bee Toward the end of a day spent checking on his suffering stacks,” to check on their health. But instead he walked right bees, Cox pointed his truck up a steep mountainside in the through the bee yard to the surrounding field. Cache Valley and expressed his newfound sense of place in “You hear that?” he asked. this scientific debate. “Whatever feeling we once had — that “Hear what?” I responded. this was all going to go smoothly or in some typical, orderly “Exactly,” he said. “The sky should be filled with bees, and process, and science was just going to figure this out and you should hear them. We call it ‘the honey hum.’ ” we’d get back to business — is long gone,” he says. “This The sky was empty, and the only noise was the sound is a fight.” D of the wind.

FROM LEFT: ALEX WILD (2); BEE INFORMED PARTNERSHIP WILD (2); ALEX FROM LEFT: His bees, many tens of thousands of them, crawled and Steve Volk is a contributing editor at Discover.

March 2017 DISCOVER 37 Her name lost to the ages, the mummy now known as The Beauty of Xiaohe is at least 3,500 years old. She was found in a tomb complex in western China, along with the remains of hundreds of other members of her lost culture.

38 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM They lived lives of prestige and power. In death, these women still command attention.

BY NATHANIEL SCHARPING

here is something disconcerting about looking at the face of someone who has long departed from this world and realizing that they look just like you. That connection to the past has long intrigued archaeologists, for whom mummies represent an opportunity to gain firsthand information about ancient cultures. Preserved tissues hold a treasure-trove of information: the diseases individuals had, their diet, their genetic information, the microbes they carried with them and, in many cases, clues about the politics and culture of their time. Our minds may leap to Egypt at the word mummy, but cultures across the world have developed techniques meant to forestall decomposition. For many of these peoples, mummification preserved the perceived connection between the physical body and the immortal soul — just as they needed each other in life, so too were soul and body linked in the afterlife. In many cultures, mummification was also a status symbol. Preparing a body took significant time and effort, which meant the process wasn’t available to just anyone. Receiving such lavish treatment signaled to others that you were revered and admired. While King Tut is arguably the most famous mummy, many of the others found around the world are women. Young and old, these eternal princesses have taken on a second life as cultural and scientific ambassadors for the civilizations they left behind. When they were alive, they were women of significance. In death, they may be even more so. SABINA LOUISE PIERCE

March 2017 DISCOVER 39 40 (right). recent autopsy enough fora skin were pliable her limbsand her extremities, appearance of the wrinkled (above). Despite looked inlife might have of howshe reconstruction along witha (top right), Hunan Province exhibit inChina’s popular museum mummy isa well-preserved Lady Dai’s

LAVISH LIFE DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM CHINA caught uptoher. the very end,when poorhealth maintained herlavish lifestyleuntil these ailments, Lady Dai a parasitic infection.Despite hypertension andschistosomiasis, included highcholesterol, diabetes, health complications that of 50, theautopsyrevealed alitany Although shewas only around Dai was anything but healthy. have beenpampered, but Lady it.Shemay took heroutof thegoodlifethat probablyof than 2,000years afterherdeath. able toperform anautopsymore well-kept that Chinesedoctorswere preserved mummies, Lady Daiisso theworld’slegs. Oneof best- were able and tobendherarms pliable enoughthat researchers soft tissuesare intact.Herskinis her with blood, andnearly allof and otherbirds. her favorite meals, includingswans beauty products andcontainersof lacquerware, dresses, slippers, her comfortable life:exquisite withtheobjectsthatfilled defined raid shelter. Thesmallroom is in 1972by workers digginganair preserved tombwas discovered south-central China,herperfectly century B.C. the HanDynastyinsecond aprovincial nobleman during of herrole asthewife trappings of They found that itwas alove Lady Dai’s veins are stillfilled Buried deepwithinahillsidein enjoyed thesumptuous but Lady Daiclearly he was aminoraristocrat, the environment. she was sothoroughly sealedfrom endured, however, simply because protect them from decay. Lady Dai notion theprecious stonewould underthemisguided armor suits of to rest injadecoffins or even jade themwere laid succeeded. Many of their bodiesafterdeath, but few period madeattempts topreserve tomb].” her seal [and her wrap to pains such took they why is …which decomposition about all you knew know, they nofools, were “They Higham. body,” the says preserve to had forever, you live and afterlife the gointo to you wanted if used asanantibacterialagent. that thetoxic metalmay have been mercury inhercoffin, indicating of Archaeologists alsofound traces and kaolinclay several feetthick. charcoal sepulcher inalayer of encased herentire cypress wood air andwater, thetombbuilders covered inlacquer. To keep out four nestedcoffins in aseriesof silkandlaidtorest in 10layers of well-preserved. Shewas wrapped though theirbodieswere notso contained herhusbandandson, Dai was buried inatombthat also extensively. Dai Lady studied whohas Zealand, New in Otago of University atthe researcher a Higham, of her,” Charles says end the was that and attack heart a had she then …and afeast in Most Chinese nobles of this this Most Chinesenobles of that idea the had Han “The In keeping withherstation, Lady perhaps overindulged, “She

FROM TOP: GARY TODD (3); HUNAN PROVINCIAL MUSEUM; ALL MAPS BY JAY SMITH CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY/SIBERIAN BRANCH OF RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (2); CHARLES O’REAR; RIA NOVOSTI/SCIENCE SOURCE with a fatal head injury, perhaps perhaps injury, head afatal with aman and ofateenager bodies the found also team excavation and gold-trimmed harnesses. The saddles with —complete Pazyryk nomadic the among sacrifice —acostly horses ofsix remains the found site atthe working ago. Archaeologists years 2,000 than more Siberia southeastern whoroamed people, Pazyryk ofthe member important an was maiden the indicate do indeed a legendaryprincess. they believed tobetheremains of themummy,removal of which body in1993,localsdecriedthe Natalie Polosmak exhumed her When Russian archaeologist offerings andvaluable possessions. tomb, surrounded by sacrificial lay for millenniainanundisturbed Finds at her burial complex complex burial ather Finds remains of the Ice Maiden theIceMaiden remains of Mountains, themummified ound inSiberia’s Altai THE SIBERIAN of tattoos crowdsof herskin.The than 30,aneclecticcollection body. her on ofmercury evidence detected also Researchers horsehair. up with sewn and grasses with stuffed was cavity body the before removed also were organs internal and cartilage rib breastbone, Her sinuses. and eyes cartilage, out pulled and body her from head her separated embalmers process, preserved her. Her mummification elaborate an as with cannabis. mirror andasmallpouchfilled With herwas anornate Chinese as theMediterranean coast. origin, possibly from asfaraway exotic India, stainedwithdyes of wrapped inasilktunicfrom afterlife. the to maiden the accompany to killed Even thoughshewas noolder well as permafrost, in A burial was The maidenherself debilitating pain. standing attempting tocopewith have high justbeenawoman of medicine woman —shecould she was necessarily apriestess or and Mayor doesn’t believe that were found buried withcannabis, World Warrior Women Across theAncient Amazons: Lives andLegends of wrote about themaidenin though, says AdrienneMayor, who tomb may notbethat meaningful, special status. her — may beanothersignof thegraveseparate partof complex other individuals were found ina that shewas buried alone—the according toPolosmak. Thefact her status asashamanorhealer, that likely resulted may have given pain, andthepsychedelic visions relied oncannabis tosootheher on healingat thefracture sites. before finally succumbing,based have hungontolifefor sometime then, researchers thinkshemay suffered ablow tothehead.Even right hipandshoulder; shealso her horse. Thefallinjured her malignant tumors—shefellfrom tissue growth that may have been MRI scansrevealed abnormal appears tobe breast cancer— and forensic analysis. on evidence from medicalimaging it,though,based several monthsof was probably inpainfor thelast was duringhertimeonEarth.She about who theIceMaidenactually her leftshoulder. fantasticaldeeradorning stylized, mythical andreal, includinga menagerie includesbeastsboth The presence of cannabis inher The presence of During thisperiod,sheprobably Possibly weakened from what Unfortunately, we know little . Most of thePazyryk people . Mostof RUSSIA The The March 2017 (lower left). permafrost burial inSiberia’s process before mummification an elaborate underwent Her body(left) Pazyryk culture. richly symbolic typical ofthe (below) are and wardrobe tattoos (above) Maiden’s of theIce Reconstructions

DISCOVER

41 42 ARGENTINA

DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM OF THEANDES and bagsoffood. such asacomb (below) anditems sacrificial victim near another discovered her Johan Reinhard (left). Researcher tallest mountains of SouthAmerica’s on Llullaillaco,one was foundin1999 peacefully. She to besleeping Doncella appears to thegods,La as anoffering after herdeath centuries Some five drought, the most perfect of the the drought, themostperfect of circumstances suchassevere ceremonies, orinextreme mountains inSouthAmerica. thetallest Llullaillaco, oneof of in 1999justbeneath thesummit He discovered LaDoncella’s body high-altitude archaeological sites. has doneextensive work on an independentresearcher who ritual items, says Johan Reinhard, cornbeverage,fermented andother aclla priests. Thesechosengirls, called compounds where theyassisted immediately; thegirls were sentto andsacrificed Cuzco capital of The boys were taken totheIncan chosen for theirbeautyandpurity. from amongthevillages, likely capacocha. Children were selected continued prosperity. gods by theIncainexchange for capacocha die. Some500years ago, she was a amountainandleftto the topof During annual religious Not justanyone wasa fittobe , helpedprepare the maiden,was taken to Argentina, LaDoncella, igh amongtheAndesin , asacrificeoffered tothe chicha , a , a to thegods. and worshipped asintermediaries sacrifices were ineffect deified the children who served as than final.According to Reinhard, have beenmore transcendental however, asacrificialdeath may slip intoafinalsleep. To theInca, deadly coldthat allowed her to cocaleaves,of alcoholandthe it was probably acombination trauma, and There isnosignof peacefully, inalllikelihood. sustained theircrops. signified thelife-giving water that the Inca,for whom itlikely to Ecuadorandhighly by prized mollusknative shell, atypeof silver. With herwas aspondylus goldand with ornamentsof woven alpacafurandadorned onto herchest. in therock, headslumpedsleepily discovered tucked intoa hollow in themountains. Herbody was some 22,000feetabove sealevel drugged compliance. the children remained inastate of were likely alsousedtoensure that enhance spiritualexperiences but substances were thoughtto a specialritualbeer. These cocaleaves andalcoholfromof in diet,aswell asregular doses hair shows adramatic change royalty. her Chemicalanalysis of would have beentreated like La Doncella,inherearly teens, sacrificial victim’s passage. the residents tocelebrate the each stopanopportunityfor to village through theempire, wound itsway from village a monthslongprocession that lengthy andsometimesinvolved capacocha andoffered astribute. aclla would bechosentobecome The young woman died She was dressed infinely La Doncella’s journeyended During thesefinalmonths, Preparatory ritualscouldbe

FROM TOP: JOHAN REINHARD; MARIA STENZEL/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE; REINHARD; STENZEL THE BEAUTY OF

CHINA

n the middle of the desolate So where did these desert Taklamakan Desert, on the dwellers come from? The clues we far western edge of China have only hint at their possible and surrounded by forbidding origins. DNA tests indicate mountains, a necropolis descends that their ancestry was a mix for five levels into the sands. of Eurasian populations. Mair Inside the Xiaohe tomb believes, based on their genetic complex are about 300 burials signatures and fragmentary dating to around 2000 B.C. The evidence about their language, bodies belong to an ancient that they came from somewhere society of farmers and herders between southeastern Europe and who once managed to eke out a the Ural Mountains. living in their arid surroundings. Over the course of generations, First found by a local hunter they must have worked their in the early 20th century but not way east across the windswept extensively excavated until 2002, steppes, moving herds from the burial complex’s extreme pasture to pasture. They settled environment was a boon to in the Taklamakan Desert, archaeologists. The low humidity Mair believes, because it offered and freezing winters spared some protection in the form of isolation. of the bodies from the ravages of Their surroundings were desolate, decomposition. And none endured he says, but they must have built better than the Beauty of Xiaohe, a vibrant society, as evidenced by whose body has survived even their richly symbolic burials. down to her delicate eyelashes. “Human beings are very “She’s stunning. I call her the adaptable and no matter where Marlene Dietrich of the desert,” they settle, no matter what says Victor Mair, a professor of difficulties they face, they try to Museum visitors got an up-close view of the Beauty of Chinese language and literature at create some quality of life,” Mair Xiaohe during a 2011 exhibit in Philadelphia, part of an international tour. The event also re-created part of the the University of Pennsylvania. says. “You don’t have to have tomb complex that preserved her, along with hundreds Her name lost to the ages, the luxurious conditions and material of other members of a lost culture, for 4,000 years. Marked by massive wooden posts, the necropolis (below) Beauty wore a tall hat of white wealth to have an interesting, extends deep into the sands and is still a forbidding sight felt and fur-lined boots. Her meaningful life.” in the arid Taklamakan Desert of western China. body was surrounded by grave goods, including an intricately carved wood phallus placed on her chest; in the harsh climate, fertility was likely highly prized, says Mair. Overt sexual symbolism adorns the graves, and both men and women were buried with wooden decorations representing sexual organs. Their erstwhile homeland falls within China’s borders now, but the bodies — many with red or light brown hair — have distinctly

TOP: MATT ROURKE/AP PHOTOS (2). BOTTOM: COURTESY OF VICTOR MAIR VICTOR OF COURTESY BOTTOM: (2). ROURKE/AP PHOTOS MATT TOP: Western features.

March 2017 DISCOVER 43 44 THE SEARCHFOR

DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM (below). in 2015and2016 tomb, scanned Tutankhamun’s a wallof hidden behind and potentially the Queens(left) Egypt’s Valley of at inmurals mystery, hinted fate remains a beauty. Her legendary Nefertiti’s (above) captures the BerlinBust now knownas the sculpture her lifetime, Carved during in a side chamber of the tomb thetomb in asidechamber of Nefertiti. Themummy was found discovered in1898,isactually mummy called“the younger lady,” upempty-handed. come again has body for her search the that itappears however, and conclusions, his doubt on cast scans Further controversy. of astorm inciting Nefertiti, contain could room the that Hetheorized scans. radar on based Kings, ofthe Valley the in tomb Tutankhamun’s in chamber ofanother evidence discovered have to claimed Reeves Nicholas Egyptologist of Arizona 2015, in University when began often hotly contested theories. for decades, withcompetingand course. Thesearch hasgoneon of name. That’s trying, notfor lackof discovered atombbearingher questions, but we have notyet those would answer someof unknown. Identifyingherbody surrounding herdeath allremain mother andthecircumstances whether shewas Tutankhamun’s though. What herrole was inlife, museum. aGerman in resides now that lifetime her during created Thutmose sculptor the by piece iconic an Bust, Berlin the from like looked have might she ofwhat idea an wehave And 1300 B.C. around 18th dynasty, Egypt’s during ofsix mother and aqueen was she indicate that thanks to hieroglyphic writings long debate over herfate. political intrigueandadecades- beautiful woman, amissingbody, agoodmystery: a the elementsof Another theoryholdsthat a saga the in chapter latest The That’s about allwe know, existed, she We that know the world. Herstoryhasall famous missingwoman in efertiti may bethemost cold case for the ages. for the case cold It’s a herself. Nefertiti together: story her tie would that evidence of piece critical the missing still weare death, after her to happened have would what and queen inanantimicrobial shroud. linen around herbody, sealingthe layer resin-soaked uponlayer of Finally, theywould have wrapped her body withoilsandresin. in herbody cavities and anointed linen,resin andnatronpackets of soda. Theythenwould have placed ash similartomodernbaking natron, anaturally occurringsoda her body withasolutionof removed herorgans andwashed to tradition: Priestswould have have beenmummified according her royal status meantshewould year ortwo. have reigned for nomore thana name Smenkhkare. Shewould own right,possibly underthe came toruleasapharaoh inher Egyptologists believe that Nefertiti overturned. be ultimately would wrought he changes the and disarray, into country the swept This Thebes. capital, previous ofthe north the to 250 miles some city capital new a construct to as far so going even Aten, god sun of the worship the to Egypt converted and tradition ofpolytheistic centuries upended husband, her Akhenaten, pharaoh The life. in experienced she tumult ofthe extension an ways some in is place resting mother —but notNefertiti. the younger lady isTutankhamun’s a controversial DNA study, that other researchers believe, basedon a match totheBerlin Bust.But herfacialfeatures indicated of arms. Acomparative analysis her the symbolicpositioningof point toaroyal burial, including Its age isright,andotherclues Nefertiti’sgrandfather husband. of AmenhotepII,thegreat- of While we know that she lived, lived, she that weknow While When shedied,pharaoh ornot, During thistime, some Nefertiti’s over controversy The

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: VPC TRAVEL/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; SUPERSTOCK/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES. OPPOSITE: JAY SMITH Put simply, mummification is the full or partial preservation of soft tissues, accomplished by arresting the process of cell disintegration and bacterial growth that begins soon after death. The many ways to become a mummy share two characteristics: the absence of liquid water, and an environment free of, or at least hostile to, bacteria.

Natural Mummification DESICCATION In extremely dry environments, moisture leaves the body rapidly. Without water, the HERMETIC bacteria that usually ENVIRONMENTS begin to eat away NATURALLY If a burial chamber or coffin at tissues are unable ANAEROBIC is sealed tightly enough, to survive, and the water and foreign microbes formation of cell- ENVIRONMENTS cannot get in, leaving the and organ-destroying Some cultures in Europe corpse largely untouched. enzymes is halted, buried bodies in nearby leaving the body intact, peat bogs; the oxygen- if a bit shriveled. free environment kept microbes out as well.

FREEZING Bacteria cannot survive without liquid water; keeping a body below freezing halts microbial activity.

Artificial Mummification Although practices differed across cultures, most methods of artificial mummification involved removing the internal organs and replacing them with grasses or linens to re-create the body’s original shape. The body was then closed up and usually treated with some sort of chemical agent. This could be a salt solution, as in the case of the Egyptians, or mercury or some other mixture. Finally, the preparers wrapped the body in cloth and placed it in a sealed coffin.

The Ultimate DIY: Self-Mummification This rare type of mummification was practiced mostly by Buddhist monks who attempted to attain divinity by purposefully preserving their bodies. The process was long and painful, and involved surviving solely on a diet of tree bark, pine needles, nuts and berries for up to a decade. The ascetic diet of slow starvation eliminated body fat — which tends to decay faster than other types of tissue — and built up chemical compounds toxic to bacteria associated with decomposition. Just before death, the individual would bury himself alive with the help of other monks. D

Nathaniel Scharping is a staff writer at Discover.

March 2017 DISCOVER 45

BY YVETTE CENDES ILLUSTRATIONS BY OCTAVI NAVARRO

46 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Cosmology deals with the big questions of from us, with the farther ones moving the fastest. the universe, often the same questions that The only way this makes sense is if the universe keep philosophers up at night. When did the itself is expanding. Given all the matter in the universe begin? How did it start? Has the universe cosmos, the force of gravity should be slowing always been expanding? (For the record, the down that expansion. But when cosmologists answers are: about 13.8 billion years ago, in a high- calculated just how much it’s slowed down, they density state that rapidly expanded called the Big got a negative result — the expansion of the Bang and yes, but not always at the same speed.) universe is speeding up! But here’s a question they haven’t figured out yet: Nobody knows what’s driving the acceleration, How’s it all going to end? so cosmologists have dubbed that mystery dark It’s a big question all right, but we’ve made energy. It is so dominant (about 69 percent the surprising headway toward an answer. In the total content of the entire cosmos) that dark energy last years of the 20th century, the astrophysical quickly became a part of any discussions about the community was stunned to learn that the universe final end of the universe. And while there are no was driving itself apart. For decades, scientists definite answers yet, those discussions have come had known that distant galaxies all move away up with a few interesting possibilities.

No one knows what dark energy is, so Current theories predict that if this tells us about the universe’s resistance we can’t be sure how it will behave in so-called Big Rip is in our future, it will to accelerating expansion. The universe the future. In 2003, Robert Caldwell take another 22 billion years to arrive. is modeled as a fluid, in large scales, so of Dartmouth College proposed a new But there are still many details to fill in, Disconzi’s work proved instrumental in theory of the expansion of the universe and scientists like Vanderbilt University starting to understand cosmic viscosity. where the rate of acceleration keeps mathematician Marcelo Disconzi He showed for the first time that the increasing over time. will provide those details. His work driving force behind the Big Rip — if Imagine a driver who keeps a foot originally focused on bulk viscosity it happens — could be the universe’s on the gas pedal of a car with no top — the measurement of a fluid’s cosmic viscosity. acceleration. As the car goes faster resistance to expansion or contraction The results are interesting, but and faster — the speed of the velocity — and how moving fluids behave when Disconzi acknowledges that Big Rip change itself increasing over time — the approaching the speed of light. (That theories still require a bit of work to car would eventually fly apart in pieces can happen in extreme astronomical make sense, particularly the part about as friction took its toll. situations, such as an exploding star.) infinite energy being released. A similar thing happens to a universe No one had successfully modeled how “In physics, finding an infinity is with relentless acceleration: Galaxies a viscous fluid would act at relativistic likely an indication that we are missing would be destroyed, the solar system speeds, but working with colleagues part of the puzzle,” he says. would unbind and eventually all the in the Vanderbilt physics department, An improved theory might show that planets would burst asunder as the Disconzi successfully did it. the universe’s expansion rate doesn’t rapid expansion of space rips apart its For decades, scientists had been really go all the way to infinity, no very atoms. Finally, our universe would trying to link mainstream physics’ matter how large the Big Rip becomes. end in an explosion, a singularity of understanding of viscosity with a For now, as with many cosmological literally infinite energy. related concept: cosmic viscosity, which theories, we’ll have to wait and see.

March 2017 DISCOVER 47 Many current theories suggest dark energy is a cosmological do anything about it if it did, of course.) Trodden is a theorist constant, a kind of uniform energy that exists throughout for one such planned experiment at the Large Synoptic Survey space. “If the cosmological constant is the dominant thing Telescope, currently under construction, that will image the in the universe,” explains Mark Trodden, a co-director for entire sky every few nights at unprecedented detail. When the Penn Center for Particle Cosmology at the University of it “switches on” in 2022, the telescope will study billions of Pennsylvania, then instead of speeding up unsustainably and galaxies every night, giving astrophysicists an unparalleled tearing itself apart, the universe would just keep expanding — ability to test galactic behavior. forever. “If the cosmological constant continues to dominate, By analyzing how gravity affects galaxies’ light, and the universe will continue to accelerate and that’s it.” analyzing their three-dimensional positions and movements “That’s it” might not sound like much, but it’s a bleak in space, the scientists should have enough information to way to go. As the cosmological constant continues to drive finally unlock some of dark energy’s secrets. Does it arise the acceleration of the universe, all the galaxies outside our from quantum fluctuations in the vacuum of space? Is it just immediate neighborhood will be too far away to be visible in a part of gravity we’ll have to add to the laws of physics? a few trillion years — their light will simply never reach us. Understanding such details is crucial if we want to figure Entropy would continue to increase as well: Star formation out whether we’re heading for the Big Freeze — or itself will end in 100 trillion years as all the matter to fuel something else. them is exhausted. Black holes will evaporate, matter itself will eventually decay into radiation and the universe will be a cold, lightless, lifeless place for the rest of eternity. This dark future is known as the Big Freeze. Dark energy is so baffling that it has taken the better part of two decades to understand the theory enough to even design experiments to study it, let alone figure out if the Big Freeze lies in our future. (Not that we could

The Big Crunch The Dyson Scenario The Big Crunch is a classic scenario for One important question concerning the how the universe could end. The driving ultimate fate of the universe concerns idea: What if the expansion of the its inhabitants: Can intelligence and universe does not last forever? At some consciousness overcome entropy, the point, the universe might stop growing eventual wearing down of our universe? because of the gravitational pull of all In the 1970s, Freeman Dyson was one of the matter inside of it, and then it would the first physicists to contemplate the end Ask a theoretical cosmologist how start to collapse back into itself. of the universe using modern cosmology. the universe will end, and one of The final result would be a universe He proposed that in the distant future, the first things you’ll hear is how that reaches a tiny singularity, a dark intelligent beings might figure out a way to reflection of the Big Bang. There was “cheat” a Big Freeze-like scenario. First, as many options are still on the table. even some speculation that a “Big the end times approach, the beings would “It’s very difficult to tell how the Crunch” could produce a Big Bounce need to store a finite amount of energy in universe will end just from local right afterward, Big Banging a new the universe; they would then use half this universe into creation. Perhaps our energy to power their thoughts (the only measurements,” explains the universe was merely one iteration remains of their super-advanced lives). University of Pennsylvania’s Mark of an infinite string of Big Bangs, Once this was used up, the beings would Trodden. There’s little we know Crunches and Bounces. enter a state of non-energy consumption; Unfortunately, the discovery of dark they’d be in stasis, while the energy for sure; in a universe of infinite energy dealt the Big Crunch a deathblow, remained. The universe would continue possibilities, anything can happen. since it suggests the universe will expand to cool, running down, but after a certain But with the emergence of dark forever. Unless it turns out dark energy point another half of the remaining energy, a few of the previous can change its nature dramatically, the energy reserves would be released, thanks Big Crunch seems an unlikely way for the to an as-yet-unknown technology created contenders for our ultimate fate universe to end. by the beings, allowing them to think are now much less likely. once again.

48 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Of course, there’s always the chance that dark energy won’t actually matter. The other scenarios we’ve considered assume that our universe is all there is. But what if there’s more out there, and our universe is but a small part of a multiverse? Could these other universes affect the ultimate fate of our own? The short answer is yes. “Imagine you go to a very, very large scale — much larger than our current observable universe,” explains Jonathan Braden, a cosmologist at University College London. While our own universe is homogenous and roughly the same everywhere, taking such a large view might reveal that it’s just a tiny pocket with its own physical parameters and laws, different from the larger multiverse. If so, our universe would exist in a state known as a false vacuum, where we wrongly suppose that we exist in the most stable state, but it’s still possible to drop to another one suddenly. Braden explains this would result in a phase transition, a change similar to how water changes from liquid to gas at its boiling point — only for the entire universe. Basically, our cosmos might be like one of the bubbles boiling in a pot of water, he says, just one of many with their own sets of laws and constants. “Eventually these bubbles can run into each other, and from our viewpoint it would be like our universe … collided with another universe.” That would be as bad as it sounds. Such a collision would spell an immediate end to our They’d effectively come back to life, universe as everything changes to never aware of the break in their thoughts. Eventually, they’d use up their available a new state. It could result in a combination of the two universes, or energy and return to stasis, with more it could create something new entirely. There would be no warning, energy in reserve. They could keep this cycle and nothing we could do about it. going infinitely and, from their perspective, What scientists can do, however, is see whether a false vacuum never face the end of the universe. The ever existed in our own universe in the very distant past, which beings’ thinking sessions would slow over time, but there could be an infinite number could help tell us whether such a collision is likely to happen of them through this energy rationing. again. Such a prehistoric false vacuum would necessarily be much Who would mind slow thought processes if smaller than the scale of our universe (just a bubble within our time stretches on forever? bubble), but it might still leave behind a hint that something curious Dyson’s concept on eternal intelligence was a good attempt at tackling how the happened long ago. universe’s end might not be civilization’s, Braden is part of a research team trying to predict what such but like the Big Crunch, it can’t overcome a signature would look like. Their prime target is the cosmic dark energy’s implications. An accelerating microwave background (CMB), the oldest light scientists can see, universe means that eventually parts which dates back to when the universe was just 380,000 years currently in contact will be isolated from each other, and energy stored in these old. The team hopes that perhaps a little blip on the otherwise areas would be inaccessible. As such, while uniform CMB would betray the existence of such a false some theorists have speculated our future vacuum in the distant past, as well as provide the first concrete descendants could transfer information to evidence for a multiverse. new “baby” universes via wormholes or If we can’t ward off the end of our universe, the least we can do black hole formation, it appears inevitable D that after some point, intelligence in our is try to understand it. own universe will simply be impossible. Yvette Cendes is a Ph.D. student in astronomy at the Dunlap Institute, University of Toronto. See more of her writing at yvettecendes.com

March 2017 DISCOVER 49 The Secret Life of FAT Changes in our DNA can determine much more than the battle of thick versus thin.

BY SYLVIA TARA

50 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM was a breezy Friday evening me realize that we are not all created equal, at least It in the fall in San Diego. I was not when it comes to fat. Just as some people are a biochemistry Ph.D. student taller, or produce more sweat, or grow more hair, out to dinner with friends after there are some who simply produce more fat than a full week of research, classes and teaching. I’d others. And one of those people happened to be me. had a strong interest in biology since grade school, particularly in how the body malfunctions and THE THRIFTY GENOTYPE the inventive ways we treat it. The idea that tiny We have all come to accept that our genes determine molecules affected our health, thoughts and quality everything from the color of our eyes to the of life was fascinating to me. straightness of our teeth to our height, our talents, Keeping my fat in check had never been easy, and even our moods. But strangely, when it comes to fat, I watched my weight closely. On this day, like every we tend to underestimate the effect of genetics. For other, I had counted my calories since the morning. the most part, fat is considered a personal failing I ate a painstakingly balanced — a punishment for lack of combination of grains, proteins Fat is willpower, for eating too much, and vegetables. I abstained from and for being too lazy to exercise anything fun — no sugar, carb- considered and burn off those calories. heavy snacks or alcohol. I had a personal Fortunately, science has come run for 40 minutes, and lifted failing — a to the rescue by showing the weights. As I sat down to dinner many ways genes influence fat. with my friends, I held steadfast punishment This avenue of research is still — I ordered a small salad and for lack of new, since we have only recently water. My friend, Lindsey, begun to decode the mysteries ordered a beer and burrito and willpower. of the human genome, but devoured it all. Fortunately, studies are emerging every year. That seemingly trivial event science has A good example of how changed everything for me. our genes can determine Lindsey was 4 foot 11 inches come to the fatness is the story of the Pima and probably about 95 pounds. rescue by Indians who crossed the Bering She never went to the gym. Strait from northern Asia She drank sugary lattes and showing and settled in the Americas indiscriminately ate fast food. the many approximately 30,000 years She worked in the lab all day ways genes ago. One population of the like me, and hunched over a tribe settled near the Gila computer in the evening. Yet influence fat. River in Phoenix, Ariz., and somehow this petite woman was another kept migrating south, able to pack in a large steak burrito, with beans, rice, making their home in Maycoba, Mexico. The Pima sour cream, guacamole, cheddar cheese all wrapped sustained themselves by tilling dry soil to grow in a flour tortilla, and then down a beer as if all this squash, corn, beans and cotton, and by hunting were nothing unusual. She had no guilt afterward, no small animals and other game. This lifestyle appearance of worry, she made no comments about provided them a natural, well-balanced diet, and feeling sick after eating it or how she would need to required them to get plenty of exercise. run on the treadmill the next morning. Nothing. What worked against the Pima, however, was I felt as though nature was cackling in my face. drought, which occurred several times each

KENARY820/SHUTTERSTOCK This was one of the moments in my life that made century, destroying crops and reducing animal

March 2017 DISCOVER 51 populations. Famine would follow and only those included farming or hunting, and they became more who could withstand long bouts of hunger managed sedentary. Some started to work in nearby factories, and to survive. The Pima endured these conditions for others joined the armed services. Increasingly, they were millennia, and geneticists believe that, over time, their introduced to the American lifestyle, and the Arizona bodies evolved a “thrifty genotype” — a set of genes Pima started gaining weight — lots of it. that enabled them to subsist on very few calories by The encroaching obesity among the tribe was noticed increasing the efficiency of their metabolism and storing by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and as much energy as possible as fat. Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in 1963, while they were For centuries, this genetic adaptation helped to maintain doing an area survey. The rate of obesity and diabetes the population. Then, during the mid-19th century, the in the Arizona Pima was so high that the institute fate of the two Pima settlements in Phoenix and Maycoba established research programs focused on the group to started to diverge, with fascinating consequences. The understand why. Arizona Pima started encountering Caucasian migrants The institute measured the health of the Arizona in 1850 as they made their way to California in search of Pima every two years. Since 1965, tribe members have gold. The Pima assisted the weary travelers, offering food voluntarily undergone physical examinations specifically and protection. The outsiders, feeling welcomed, started looking at weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and staking claims along the Gila River, on which the Pima factors for diabetes. The population of overweight Pima depended to irrigate their farms. Indians was found to be more than three times higher With the ongoing gold rush in California, more settlers than the U.S. national rate. The Arizona tribe also had arrived, and the new farmers and ranchers started drastically higher rates of diabetes. Yet Caucasians diverting water and land from the Pima. Tensions arose, living nearby at the time led a similar lifestyle without eventually leading the U.S. government to resettle the the same ill effects. Native Americans on a reservation, though the Pimas’ The NIDDK researchers also became aware of new land didn’t include surrounding hunting lands or the Pima who lived in Maycoba, Mexico. As they water rights to the Gila River. Without sufficient water were genetically similar to the Arizona Indians, for their farms, the Pima faced starvation. the researchers wanted to know if both groups had the The government offered food assistance starting as same health problems. early as the 1930s. It included Western foods such as milk, bacon, cheese, canned meats and dry cereal, as well SHEDDING THE GUILT as flour and lard that the Pima used to make deep-fried Eric Ravussin of the Pennington Biomedical Research bread. The lives of the Native Americans no longer Center, based in Baton Rouge, La., was one of the first

Pima Chief Antonio Azul (far left) led his tribe in the late 1800s, an era before Western food supplemented their diets. By 1908, a book of medical observations on the Pima and other Southwest tribes noted increased obesity incidence, and included this image of a Ute woman (left). This Pima family (above) was photographed around 1900 outside their adobe home in Arizona.

52 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM scientists to make the trek to Maycoba, high in the Bouchard, now at the Pennington Biomedical Research Sierra Madre. Ravussin remembers, “There were no Center, and his team executed two foundational studies paved roads. There was nothing there — no electricity, that upended the understanding of genetics and weight no running water, nothing. No one had cars.” between 1986 and 1990, before the Human Genome It took researchers eight to 10 hours using a four- Project was completed. The first study showed that our wheel-drive vehicle through the rocky terrain to get propensity to gain fat, and where the body stores it, are to the village. The Maycoba Indians still farmed and influenced by genetics. Bouchard put 12 male identical- rode bicycles in lieu of driving cars. For the most part, twin pairs on a diet of an extra 1,000 daily calories above they maintained the rural lifestyle their normal eating pattern for 84 followed by their ancestors. As a Compared days. As he expected, the young result, the Maycoba Indians were men put on a significant amount far healthier than their Arizona with the of weight — the average gain was counterparts. Maycoba 13 percent. Bouchard observed that Compared with the Maycoba related twins were three times more population, the Arizona Pima obesity population, likely to gain the same amount of rate was 10 times greater among the the Arizona total body weight, fat percentage men, and three times for the women; Pima obesity and subcutaneous fat — fat just diabetes was five and a half times beneath the skin — than unrelated higher among the tribe in Arizona. rate was test subjects. Clearly, the newly modernized 10 times For a weight-loss experiment, lifestyle was taking its toll. Bouchard again isolated male The tale of the two tribes illustrates greater identical twins in a research unit for the genetics of fat at work. The Pima among the four months. First, he measured the would not have survived the frequent men, and exact calories needed for the twins famines through the centuries without to maintain their current weights. evolving their thrifty genotype. three times He then imposed a standardized However, in the modern time of for the exercise routine of two hours per plenty, their genes are a liability, day, ultimately inducing a calorie leading to high rates of obesity and women; deficit of 53,000 per person over the diabetes compared with other races. diabetes duration of the study.

REAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 34 PLATE XXII/1908; GRANGER NYC XXII/1908; 34 PLATE AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN OF REAU Eventually, analysis of DNA from As the twins slimmed down the Pima suggested that they have was five from exercise, Bouchard looked variations on certain chromosomes and a half at body weight, lean mass and fat that are linked to fatness. Thanks to times higher distribution and found the amount their genetic inheritance, their bodies of energy burned during exercise was are storing away calories, anticipating among the also influenced by genetics. If one a famine that never comes. tribe in twin burned 80 calories compared We can’t change our genes, but with 100 burned by a comparator science is learning that we can Arizona. group during a workout, then the influence how they affect our health. Clearly, other twin would likely suffer the And, as the Pima prove, there may be the newly same metabolic shortcoming. extra measures we need to adopt to Bouchard found that our genes accommodate our genetic peculiarities modernized influence our resting metabolism, fat when it comes to fat. If we can’t lose lifestyle was mass, percent of fat and abdominal all the excess weight we’ve stored, at visceral fat, and cholesterol levels. He least we can shed some of the guilt taking its toll. and his colleague Angelo Tremblay associated with it. discovered one important exception, though — a vital piece of information for those seeking AMPED-UP METABOLISM to control their weight. They found that when subjects Claude Bouchard conducted some of the first studies performed vigorous exercise, genetics didn’t matter as showing that genes affect fat. After getting his Ph.D. much. Bouchard’s definition of “vigorous” was any in population genetics and physical anthropology exercise that caused metabolism to increase by six times in 1977 from the University of Texas at Austin, or more over resting metabolism (which can be achieved Bouchard returned to his native Quebec and started a by running about 4 to 6 mph or cycling about 12 to laboratory at Laval University where he and his staff 16 mph, or doing other activities that produce rapid

FROM LEFT: MASSACRES OF THE MOUNTAINS: A HISTORY OF THE INDIAN WARS OF THE FAR WEST/JACOB PIATT DUNN/HARPER & BROTHERS/1886; BU DUNN/HARPER & BROTHERS/1886; PIATT WEST/JACOB THE FAR WARS OF THE INDIAN OF A HISTORY THE MOUNTAINS: OF MASSACRES FROM LEFT: began studying obesity. breathing and sweat within a few minutes).

March 2017 DISCOVER 53 The lesson is clear: Once we enter a specific range HEAVIER, HEALTHIER of strenuous exercise, the body kicks in to lose fat, no Not all fat caused by genetics is a bad thing — and matter what our genes want. some of it may actually be protective. Ruth Loos is the director of the Genetics of Obesity and Related CALORIE HOARDING Metabolic Traits program at Mount Sinai Hospital in New technological advances are allowing for more New York. She’s slender, with short, wispy blond hair specific investigation of our genes. For example, that frames her angular features. individuals with variations in a gene called FTO tend Working with Bouchard, Loos grew fascinated to desire high-calorie foods more often and have more with the genetics of fat and metabolism, and eventually fat as a result. This genetic variation causes an almost went on to establish her own lab at Mount Sinai. As twofold increased risk of obesity compared with those she set out to design her research, she noticed that who don’t inherit it. many genes being identified were linked to high BMI, Colin Palmer at the University of Dundee in Scotland which simply compares someone’s weight with their conducted one study that shows the effects of the FTO height. Loos realized BMI isn’t the best measure of gene. He assessed almost 100 schoolchildren to see fatness because it doesn’t separate fat mass from lean whether they carried the FTO variant gene or the tissue like muscle. normal gene. He then evaluated what the children In other words, if you’re a bodybuilder with only ate by allowing them to take food from a buffet that 7 percent fat but a lot of muscle, your BMI will be high, included an assortment of fruits and vegetables, as well perhaps the same as that of someone who is obese with as higher-calorie foods such as chips and chocolate. lower muscle mass. When he analyzed what they consumed, he noticed that Loos wanted to tease out which sections of DNA children with the FTO gene variant had eaten more of had to do with fatness, not just weight. So her team the higher-calorie, energy-dense foods compared with conducted an analysis of the genetic data from 36,626 children with the normal gene. individuals to see which genes were “They had the same amount of The good associated with body fat. From this food, the same mass of food, it was research, Loos found that fatness just the higher-calorie foods,” Palmer news is, was significantly linked to variations says. Not surprisingly, children with unless you in the FTO gene and a gene called the variant gene also had about IRS1. It was already understood that 4 pounds more body fat. The FTO have one FTO variations were associated with gene is thought to be expressed not of the being overweight, encouraging kids only in the brain, where it increases very rare to seek fattier foods, for example. our desire to eat fattening foods, but But the linkage of the IRS1 gene to also in fat tissue. genetic fat was new. Harvard Medical School researcher mutations As the team analyzed the data, Melina Claussnitzer and her team they uncovered a mystery. One found that a single variation in the that variation of the IRS1 gene caused FTO gene caused fat cells that would undeniably lower fat in men. At first, this seemed normally become healthier beige to cause obesity, like a lucky gene to have. But as Loos turn into white fat cells instead. Beige analyzed the data further, she saw fat cells have the potential to turn your genes that while men with this variant into energy-burning brown fat cells are just one indeed had less fat in their arms, when activated by exercise. But in legs and trunk, they also had higher people with the FTO mutation, fewer factor in triglycerides — fat found in the cells become beige and more turn your weight blood — and lower good cholesterol into energy-storing white cells. So the profile. in their blood and increased insulin result of the FTO mutations is a drive resistance, all signs of ill health. to eat higher-calorie foods paired How could this be? They were with less calorie burning and more calorie hoarding — a thinner than men without the variant, and thinness challenging combination for any dieter. should lead to better health, not worse. More puzzling, Although individuals with variants in their FTO gene this variant didn’t seem to affect women in the same way. have almost double the risk of obesity compared with Loos and her team looked further. Perhaps this adverse those who do not inherit the gene, “having the FTO metabolic profile was linked to how fat was distributed. variant doesn’t mean one is destined to be fat. We can Her team reviewed measurements for subcutaneous fat, still control what goes in our mouths, though it may the healthier fat which sits under the skin, and visceral be more work for some than others,” Palmer explains. fat, the unhealthy fat that surrounds the organs. They

54 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Fat cells, or adipocytes, form an insulating layer that stores energy. Most of each cell’s volume is a large liquid droplet.

found that men with one IRS1 variant (let’s call it “Genes that increase your risk of obesity can also variant A) had lower subcutaneous fat and more visceral protect you from Type 2 diabetes [and] cardiovascular fat compared with those without the variation. disease and give you an optimal lipid profile,” Loos says. However, the men with variant B were fatter but also “These are what we call the healthy obesity genes. So healthier. Why would the gene that produces more fat these individuals who had the variant to increase fatness protect you against disease, Loos wondered. Slowly, she actually were good fat storers. They store the fat where and her team pieced together an answer. IRS1 contains it should be stored. And it protects their liver, it protects the code for a protein that’s involved in mediating cells’ their muscle, it protects against visceral fat. And that fat sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that helps the body protects them against disease as well. So these [good] use sugar and store fats. She found that IRS1 variant A genes, they do exist.” was associated with lower expression of this protein in You can undergo a diagnostic test to find out whether subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. So, cells in these areas you have any known gene variants that are associated weren’t as sensitive to insulin and weren’t internalizing with obesity. If you have such a variant, are you doomed glucose and fats. This occurred in men much more than to a life of flabbiness? The good news is, unless you have in women. one of the very rare genetic mutations that undeniably In addition, IRS1 variant A was inhibiting the cause obesity, your genes are just one factor in your expansion of fat tissue. With no place to go, more fat weight profile. was hanging around in the blood, causing health issues. In the end, daily actions matter more. How much we On the other hand, those with IRS1 variant B were able decide to eat, what we eat and how much we choose to to easily expand their fat tissue. So they were a little exercise will, in the majority of cases, trump our genes. chubbier because the fats in the blood went where they Fat genes like the FTO variant, however, make it harder belonged — into fat. to stay on track and keep weight down. Loos’ findings described a new kind of fat gene. Other “You may be genetically susceptible to become obese, gene variants — like mutations in FTO or the gene for but it doesn’t mean that you’re destined to become leptin, an energy-balancing hormone — had been linked obese,” Loos says. “Genes load the gun, and environment to overeating or fat cell type. But IRS1 was the first that pulls the trigger.” D was linked specifically to fat cell creation. When we don’t create new fat cells to house our circulating fats, we’re prone to more diseases. With less fat, we may appear to Reprinted from The Secret Life of Fat by Sylvia Tara. be healthier, but may actually be in danger of developing Copyright © 2016 by Sylvia Tara. With permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE SOURCE diabetes and other diseases.

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❑ SPECIAL BONUS SECTION OUT THERE A Look at the Universe and All Its Wonders Powered by

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SAILING EUROPA’S SEAS NASA’s planned Europa mission spacecraft will provide the best view we’ve ever had of Jupiter’s icy moon, home to a salty ocean under a thick shell of ice. The probe’s dozens of close approaches will take it as low as 16 miles above the surface, as in this illustration. The mission will return high-resolution photographs, determine the ice thickness with radar and investigate what look like icy plumes erupting from the satellite’s surface. Read the full story by Eric Betz on page 58, and find out how amateur astronomers are contributing to the search for worlds in other star systems, beginning on page 64.  ERNIE MASTROIANNI, ILLUSTRATION BY NASA/JPLCALTECH

March 2017 DISCOVER 57 SPECIAL BONUS SECTION OUT THERE

Inside the Historic Mission to Europa After decades of canceled missions and false starts, NASA is finally headed for Carl Sagan’s dream destination. BY ERIC BETZ

The first dives to the dark and even found signs of ancient oceans on → deep places of our planet revealed the dwarf worlds Pluto and Ceres. a moonscape. Beneath icy waters and But out of all these water worlds, far from the Sun’s nourishing light, the Europa is still the most enticing. It planet appeared dead. No plants. No packs more saltwater than Earth photosynthesis. No photons. and shows signs of geologic activity, But then scientists in submarines like potential underwater volcanoes, began exploring Earth’s single greatest and water vapor plumes spotted by mountain range, the Mid-Oceanic the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists Ridge, which occupies almost a quarter also suspect the surface ice mixes of our world’s surface. Explorers like with the water below, delivering the Robert Ballard call this great rift the nutrients necessary for life. Boundary of Creation. Here, our planet If we find life in only one other place bleeds molten blood through some in our solar system, it most likely will 10,000 active volcanoes and then cools swim in the seas of Europa, pulling Flyby Mission isn’t the first one on the to heal itself. chemical energy from hydrothermal books, but it does appear to be the one In the mid-1970s, Ballard was among vents. But the cost has remained too that will make it. the first to see this other Earth. (In ’85 high for that draw to translate into an “We’re all saying it looks like this he discovered the Titanic.) Along the one’s gonna stick,” says Europa mission Galapagos Rift, his team came across Deputy Project Scientist Dave Senske great white chimneys rising more than a If we find life in only of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory dozen stories. Instead of a desert, they one other place in our (JPL). “Everything’s moving in the found thriving ecosystems in tempera- right direction where we’ve got a lot of tures that would melt lead. No sunlight solar system, it most support from NASA, we’ve got support could reach such depths. But alien in Congress — the stars are aligning. It creatures abound in this abyss anyway. likely will swim in the is Europa’s time.” Great tube worms towered 10 feet tall seas of Europa, pulling alongside clams colonized by symbiotic LIQUID WATER ON EUROPA? bacteria. chemical energy from In 1977, the same year divers first And in decades of expeditions all explored Earth’s hydrothermal vents, over Earth, scientists continue to turn hydrothermal vents. two very different explorers of the up new forms of life that can replicate deep launched on a path to the first photosynthesis using only chemicals. actual space mission — until now. reconnaissance of another ocean Their energy source, their evolutionary In just five short years, NASA will world — Europa. origins — even their food chain is launch the first mission to explore Voyager 1 visited Saturn and Jupiter, distinct from ours. Europa and possibly even land on where it watched as the moon Io let These so-called extremophiles kindle it. After decades of false hopes and off a volcanic blast. And something hope that alien life is abundant and, well-conceived missions that proved strange was happening on neighbor- just maybe, nearby. Liquid oceans have too expensive, the space agency has ing Europa. Long, linear cracks been found on Saturn’s moons Titan, officially greenlighted a multibillion- crisscrossed its surface. But the probe Enceladus and possibly Mimas, as well dollar mission that could help answer couldn’t get close enough to see what as Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede the ultimate question: Are we alone was happening. Thankfully, Voyager 2

and Callisto. And scientists have now in the cosmos? The Europa Multiple was close on its heels. KORNMESSER NASA/ESA/AND M.

58 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Hubble caught water vapor plumes escaping from Europa’s south pole, shown here in an artist illustration using real images but enhanced ejecta.

On July 9, 1979, at 8:04 a.m. Pacific volcanism on Io. The trio reasoned planetary science textbooks despite Time, faint rays of sunlight that had that the moon always made its closest being plagued by one severe problem. bounced off Europa’s icy surface and approach to Europa at the same spot The spacecraft’s 16-foot-wide umbrella- met the passing Voyager 2 spacecraft in its orbit. This resonance creates an shaped high-gain antenna was supposed were received back on Earth. Those orbital eccentricity just big enough for to unfurl after traveling far enough first images traveled half a billion a tidal pull from the hefty nearby gas from the Sun. This would allow large kilometers to where Carl Sagan was giant. The approach also makes Io’s images to be sent back every minute for waiting, along with the rest of the volcanoes spew sulfur on Europa’s years. Instead, the motor got stuck, and mission team. surface — potentially a key factor for the antenna never raised. “At first glance, the world looks like any life under the ice. Galileo’s inadequate connection nothing so much as the canal network And, if the tugs from Jupiter could turned a data deluge into a trickle. Percival Lowell imagined to adorn heat Io, they could cause volcanism on Observations were forced through a Mars,” Sagan eventually wrote of the Europa too. Those aqueous allusions secondary dish using a signal 10,000 experience. He wondered if the lines have grown into a widespread assump- times fainter. With only a dozen close could be ridges or troughs, perhaps as tion that a global ocean lurks beneath flybys of Europa (the spacecraft went a result of expansion and contraction. many miles of ice. On the cover of the into safe mode on two of those), JPL Could they have something in common October 1979 Geophysical Research scientists had to make the most of with Earth’s plate tectonics? Letters, the same three astronomers also their opportunities. The single highest- “At the moment of discovery, the published a paper titled “Is there liquid resolution Europa image ever taken has vaunted technology has produced water on Europa?” It’s a question that just 6 meters per pixel resolution and something astonishing,” Sagan wrote. still needs a solid answer. isn’t even in color. “But it remains for another device, the Still, Europa’s first photo album was human brain, to figure it out.” GALILEO’S TANTALIZING FINDS startling. Galileo imagery seemed to In reality, the puzzle had been solved Almost all knowledge of Europa comes confirm what astronomers suspected: before Voyager even arrived. Three from a limited data set gathered by Europa was best explained as a astronomers — Stanton Peale, Patrick NASA’s Galileo mission to the Jupiter spinning shell of ice atop a large liquid Cassen, and Ray Reynolds — published system. Launched in 1989 after years water ocean. The surface also gave clues a paper in the journal Science just of delay due to the space shuttle to Europa’s history. Its fractured and before the Jupiter flyby suggesting Challenger disaster, Galileo rewrote icy terrain crawls around, breaking up

March 2017 DISCOVER 59 SPECIAL BONUS SECTION OUT THERE

and pushing together in a process akin to plate tectonics — the only known world other than Earth with such geology (See “Ice Tectonics,” p. 61). Galileo’s magnetometer also detected an induced magnetic field between Jupiter and Europa. The easiest way to interpret that is with a salty, global subsurface ocean. Ice simply isn’t conductive enough. The team only managed to gather enough data for a frustratingly low-resolution map of the moon, but the few high-resolution images were enough to whet scientists’ appetites. In 2013, a team of scientists on the British research vessel James Cook used remote-controlled Many of the current small crop of submersibles to explore hydrothermal vents 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) below the ocean surface. Europa scientists worked as graduate They found blind shrimp and abundant anemones. students using Galileo data. To them, a follow-up mission seemed obvious. But is planned to launch in 2022.) “I said Buffington worked miracles calculating in the years since Galileo’s 1995 arrival I’ll go to JPL and if after three years the extended Cassini mission trajec- at Jupiter, scientists watched NASA you don’t get a mission, I’ll go back to tory. Buffington’s colleagues compare launch 11 missions to Mars without a academics,” Pappalardo says. He didn’t the crackshot astrodynamicist to Rich single craft to explore Europa. give up. “After nine years, I’m still here. Purnell, the “steely eyed missile man” It was a little like Lucy and the football.” who saves the day in Andy Weir’s THE MOTHER OF INNOVATION The complicating factor in all these The Martian. Thanks to Buffington’s Europa mission Project Scientist Robert missions was that Europa’s orbit sits calculations, Cassini’s last seven years Pappalardo is among those scientists in have used the remaining 20 percent waiting. He figured his work on Galileo of fuel for 155 orbits that swoop by would lead to a job on an eventual Any spacecraft needs Saturn’s moons in daredevil flybys, Europa trip. And, around the turn of heavy radiation finding signs of hydrothermal vents on the millennium, that dream looked Enceladus, rainfall on Titan, and other likely to come true when a group of shielding to withstand new science. During its closest flybys, astronomers proposed the Europa Cassini scrapes within 16 miles (25km) Ocean Discovery mission. the deadly downpour of of the surface. Ultimately, the small craft was seen as high-energy electrons Buffington was asked for the same unrealistic and NASA moved in favor magic as mission designer for a Europa of New Horizons’ trip to Pluto instead. streaming off Jupiter at flyby spacecraft. He divided the moon Still, the decadal survey, a document into 14 overlapping regions that allow summarizing the planetary science nearly light speed. a global map in high resolution. The community’s priorities, ranked Europa best images will match those streaming near the top. Astronomers wanted a some 400,000 miles (644,000km) from from orbiters at Mars or the Moon. Europa orbiter. our solar system’s biggest planet. That’s And, because it doesn’t stay close to Eventually the space agency asked about twice as far away as the Moon Jupiter like a Europa orbiter would, Pappalardo and a team of JPL scientists is from Earth. Any spacecraft needs the flyby design doesn’t require for an intermediate-class mission. heavy radiation shielding to withstand intensive shielding. The team combined efforts with the the deadly downpour of high-energy “We have an architecture that is much European Space Agency’s mission electrons streaming off Jupiter at better tuned for a mission of discovery,” to explore Jupiter’s other icy moon, nearly light speed. says Europa mission Project Manager Ganymede. They called it the Jupiter Icy After the latest orbiter was rejected, Barry Goldstein. “By having a mission Moon Explorer — JUICE. This time, NASA asked its scientists to look at where we loop in and out . . . we’re able the astronomical community said the alternatives, and they found several. to observe Europa from afar, and if we concept wasn’t worth the cost. NASA One plan seized on something NASA see a plume while we’re far out, we can backed out, leaving the Europeans to had already mastered: studying adjust our flyby.”

build JUICE themselves. (That mission the moons of Saturn. JPL’s Brent If the moon has active plumes like OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE NATIONAL

60 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM the ones Hubble detected, the spacecraft could taste Europa’s ocean and deter- mine its composition, thanks to targeted flybys. The final proposal includes at least 45 flybys — radiation eventually will kill the spacecraft — almost all of which come within 60 miles (100km) of the surface. And it pulls it off for a low $2 billion. That’s half the expected cost of prior designs. The combination of imagery and topographical data will revolutionize Europa’s fractured crust shows clear signs of a young surface — one that’s perhaps still actively Europa science like the first 3-D data shifting. This high-resolution mosaic of the Conamara Chaos region is one of the few such from the Moon and Mars did, says close-ups gathered by Galileo in the 1990s. Europa Imaging System Principal Investigator Elizabeth Turtle of Johns Subsumption Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Ice Tectonics band Truncated Lab. But getting the photos isn’t easy. older features Cold, brittle Inner solar system images benefit from outer ice shell the Sun’s brightness, as well as steady orbits around their less hostile targets. The Europa flyby mission’s closest passes will skim the surface at a height Cryolavas equal to Earth’s best spy planes. The ground below will move fast under extremely low-light conditions. So, instead of borrowing technology In 2014, scientists treated Europa’s from Cassini, whose CCD cameras have crust like a jigsaw been challenged by similar conditions Liquid puzzle: They broke the ocean surface into many pieces at Saturn, Turtle’s team turned to and then fit them back Warmer, convecting together. But a chunk the New Horizons’ LORRI camera. Its Subducting plate portion of ice shell size of Wales was missing, denser than deeper, high-resolution flyby images of far-off implying plate tectonic activity warmer ice Pluto have stunned the public in recent Subsumption of plate pushed it under the surface like years. Instead of a CCD camera, the into shell interior Earth’s subducting plates. spacecraft uses CMOS, a detector that works better in low-light conditions. filmmaker James Cameron. There, he from volcanism recycling Europa’s “It’s a kind of detector that’s in a lot explored the Lost City Hydrothermal rocky seafloor. However, for life to be of digital cameras these days,” Turtle Field, which spews methane and widespread on Europa, vents aren’t says. “It’s good for Europa because it’s hydrogen into the saltwater in a process enough. The life-forms Hand saw at more radiation tolerant than CCDs and much different from the black smokers Lost City are actually dependent on it can do a much more rapid readout.” found by Ballard and other explorers oxygen dissolved in the water. On in the 1970s. There are no tube worms Earth, that oxygen is derived from THE BRINY DEEP or clams. Instead, vastly different living things that use the Sun. Hand Like his colleagues, Kevin Hand also life-forms persist like snails, mollusks, wanted to know if there was another learned Europa while working on and crustaceans. Many scientists believe way to get that oxygen on Europa. images from Galileo. But the data- similar sites served as the starting point He and his colleagues at JPL created starved years since then have driven for all life on Earth. what they call “Europa in a can.” NASA’s deputy chief scientist for solar “Obviously, NASA’s mantra has long The laboratory experiment allows system exploration to extremes in been ‘follow the water,’ ” Hand says of the astronomers to replicate Europa’s search of new discoveries. the space agency’s search for life. “We temperature, pressure, and radiation He trekked Alaska’s North Slope and think [Europa] is where the water is.” conditions on tiny ice samples. The explored Antarctica’s dry valleys. He But life requires more than that. It also Galileo spacecraft saw hydrogen perox-

also dove to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge needs energy. And it needs the elements ide (H2O2) in just one place on Europa’s

TOP: NASA/JPL/ORION MOON. BOTTOM: DISCOVER/ROEN KELLY, AFTER NASA/NOAH KROESE, I.NK KROESE, AFTER NASA/NOAH KELLY, DISCOVER/ROEN BOTTOM: NASA/JPL/ORION MOON. TOP: and East Pacific Rise with Hollywood to form life. Those things can come surface. So the scientists showed in the

March 2017 DISCOVER 61 SPECIAL BONUS SECTION OUT THERE

lab how the chemical could form on the icy moon and eventually decay to oxygen (O2). Finally, they used the twin W.M. Keck Observatory telescopes in Hawaii to map the moon’s hydrogen peroxide deposits. Hand’s group also examined the strange colors that stand out on Europa’s cracked surface. They showed the browning yellow streaks are actually a byproduct of what happens when salt is hit by Jupiter’s radiation. “I think part of the discoloration we see on Europa’s surface is damaged sea salt,” Hand says, implying ocean water reaches the surface.

HUNTING THE WHITE WHALE Mike Brown, perhaps better known as “Pluto Killer” for finding the new worlds that led to the dwarf planet’s demotion, teamed up with Hand on the Europa salt studies. The pair found ways to use the massive Keck telescopes to gather observations with better resolu- out to be the brightest such region, mission. But Culberson, who now tion than even the Galileo spacecraft. making it a prime place to land and controls the purse strings, forced the Brown likes to joke that they’re look around. This newfound knowledge issue. To do the Europa mission right, looking for Europa’s whales. And, in has helped a group of scientists push he argues, scientists must be able to October 2015, one of his students netted NASA to take a second look at sending directly detect life. So he funded a Moby Dick. a lander on the current Europa mission. JPL study to examine the feasibility This white whale leapt out when Another force for a lander is U.S. of attaching a lander to the current Caltech graduate student Patrick Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas). He’s flyby mission. Fischer turned innovative mathematical flooding the mission with cash. Culberson got Congress to set aside formulas loose on the Keck observa- $175 million last year for developing tions. Fischer asked his computer to A LOBBYIST FOR THE both a flyby spacecraft and a lander. search an arbitrary collection of spectra OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM Congress also designated money for for any strange signatures, and then As a member of the Commerce, the two prior years — before the White clump them into sets. Those were turned Science, and Justice subcommittee in House even gave the mission an official into maps. To his surprise, one of them charge of NASA funding, Culberson spot on its own budget. That helped perfectly mapped Europa’s bizarre says he watched as recent presidential NASA move its spacecraft from pre- chaos terrain — a result that shows it’s administrations refused to give the project to a formal project in 2015. And actually chemically different from the agency the funding it needs to complete instruments were recently announced. rest of the moon. What exactly is unique all its missions. So, when he took over But Culberson’s hands-on approach about the chemical fingerprint remains as committee chairman in 2014, the made him as much an opponent as an unknown. The team suspects that salt congressman made sure funds for a ally in the eyes of NASA headquarters was recently cycled onto the surface Europa mission were written into law. under the Obama administration. The there due to ice melt. He also holds regular meetings with Texas conservative is outspoken in his On our planet, this would be like a the mission scientists and engineers to criticism of what he sees as a bogged- salt flat in the deserts of the American understand what they need in order to down big-government bureaucracy. But Southwest. On Europa, these salts answer what Culberson calls “the most he was also the leading force behind a are likely interacting with rocks at the fundamental question we face.” recent 13 percent increase in NASA’s seafloor. Sampling the deposits could That last component, finding life Planetary Science budget. And he’s try- give astronomers a way to reach deep on Europa, has also caused conflict ing to give NASA administrators longer beneath the ice and see the processes within NASA. The space agency wasn’t terms that aren’t as dependent on the

below. Western Powys Regio turned planning to include a lander on this whims of the White House. But in the PICTURES KINETIKON NASA/JPL/MICHAEL BENSON,

62 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM inflated balloons would bounce the spacecraft into a safe spot. The Sky Crane keeps the surface ice from baking under rocket thrusters that would chemically alter the surface. The current design calls for a 10-day battery-powered mission, but scientists are considering adding solar panels to increase that life span. The instrument payload still has to go through a com- petitive application process; however, the “straw man” payload includes a gas chromatography mass spectrometer, which will be able to detect organics, as well as an infrared spectrometer. “You’ve gone a long way and invested a lot of money and a lot of time and talent to get there,” Culberson says. “Why would you just send one instrument to check if there’s life Michael Benson used some 40 images taken by Voyager 1 on March 3, 1979, to create this mosaic of Europa with Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. in that ocean when they’ve got the ability to double check it with two instruments?” meantime, to make sure NASA spends “From orbit and flybys, you can assess At press time, the space agency still the money on Europa as intended, he habitability, but to make a complete or hadn’t announced a decision on the pushed through a bill that makes it convincing case for detecting signs of lander’s fate. illegal for NASA not to send along a life, you really need to go down to the There’s a lot more than Europa lander. Culberson also mandated that surface,” says Hand, who’s in charge of science at stake in the decision. the mission fly on NASA’s titanic Space examining science from the lander. Culberson says he sees the first lander as Launch System (SLS), and that the However, the flyby mission only a “Daniel Boone precursor.” A decade launch take place by 2022 — the earliest succeeded because of its innovative and after this mission, a follow-up spacecraft opportunity. low-cost approach. NASA is cautious would actually attempt to venture into “SLS is essential because it has the about adding a lander that could Europa’s oceans and look for black payload lift capacity to take these possibly cost another $1 billion. smokers. The congressman says he’s complex, very large spacecraft out to “We’ve been the beneficiary of a already tapped an expert in underwater deep space in record time,” Culberson significant amount of funding from exploration: Robert Ballard. A handful told Astronomy magazine in a 2016 Congress, and we’ve been doing our of researchers from JPL and elsewhere interview. “The engineers tell me that damnedest at trying to spend that is examining how to melt through the they can achieve those goals.” money competently,” Goldstein says. ice. And the spacecraft developed for SLS is often decried for its high cost But mission scientists say they’re Europa will inform future missions that as a “rocket to nowhere,” but a less surprised so far by what the engineers will explore the other ocean worlds too. capable launch vehicle like the Atlas V have come up with. A lander might Culberson believes that developing that would take more than six years to reach not be as tough as previously expected. path is a crucial part of NASA’s mission Europa, and most mission scientists will Under one of the proposed designs, over the next decade. be near or past retirement age by the the lander would travel to Jupiter with “That’s all coming. That’s all a part time it arrives. “As a team, we love the the flyby spacecraft and then go into of what I’m envisioning for the future,” idea of flying on SLS,” says Goldstein, hibernation out near Callisto, away from Culberson says. “The groundwork I’m the project manager. heavy radiation. NASA would send in laying today brick by brick is intended the lander after the flyby spacecraft had to achieve these dreams, for the future THE DANIEL BOONE MISSION mapped the surface. and the far future, and it’s a wonderful Part of the newfound push is that, Then, the lander would make use of thing to contemplate.” D absent a lander, the Europa mission two successful technologies developed can’t answer the question astronomers for Mars. A “Sky Crane” would lower Eric Betz is an editor of Discover and a former and the public most want answered. the lander down toward the ice, where editor of Astronomy. He’s on Twitter: @ericbetz

March 2017 DISCOVER 63 SPECIAL BONUS SECTION OUT THERE

Seek Exoplanets From Your Backyard Learn how amateur astronomers can help professionals study worlds outside our solar system. BY DENNIS CONTI

The question, “Are we alone?” orbit’s period is known, the inclination, the first attempt to formalize the best → has endured since humans first or tilt, of the exoplanet’s orbit with practices of exoplanet detection. Today, looked up at the night sky. Indeed, respect to our line of sight. A planet most amateur exoplanet hunters post astronomers now believe that most whose transit just skims the top of its their results online as part of the stars have one or more planets orbiting star, for instance, will have a shorter Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) them. Considering that the stars we see transit than one that crosses the star’s project, which is sponsored by the at night with our naked eyes are all full diameter, even if their orbital Czech Astronomical Society (http:// members of just our home galaxy, and periods are the same. var2.astro.cz/ETD). Astronomers can given the billions of other galaxies that While other techniques for detecting use the same site to determine upcom- we now know exist, the number of exoplanets exist, the transit method is ing exoplanet transits at their locations. exoplanets must be truly stunning! the one most suited for amateur Exoplanet results will also soon be Amateur astronomers often apply astronomers’ skills and equipment posted to the American Association of their skills toward producing the abilities. Variable Star Observer (AAVSO) “stellar” pictures that grace the pages International Database. of Astronomy and other publications. With advances in CCD imaging and But is there any role that amateur Amateurs can now the development of supporting soft- observers can play in contributing to produce exoplanet ware, amateurs can now produce our knowledge of exoplanets? The exoplanet observations of sufficient answer is a resounding yes! observations of quality that professionals can use them to supplement their own studies. For FINDING EXOPLANETS sufficient quality that example, a science team led by noted So far, astronomers have confirmed professionals can use exoplanet researcher Drake Deming some 1,900 exoplanets, with more than from the University of Maryland, 3,700 others as candidates. The them to supplement College Park, is studying the atmo- best-known astronomical instrument their own studies. spheres of 15 exoplanets in near- for finding exoplanets has been the infrared wavelengths with the Hubble Kepler spacecraft, which uses an Space Telescope. In order to provide indirect way to detect distant worlds AMATEUR DETECTIONS refined timing predictions for the called the transit method. Just as a flea Backyard astronomers have been transits, a worldwide network of passing in front of a spotlight would detecting exoplanets successfully for amateurs is conducting ground-based cause a tiny dip in light, so too an more than a decade. In fact, in 2004, observations of those same targets in exoplanet passing in front of its host collaboration between professional and visible bands. Some of the amateurs star would cause a similar drop that amateur observers — the XO Project, participating in this collaboration Kepler detects. led by Peter McCullough from the include members of the AAVSO and Astronomers combine individual Space Telescope Science Institute the KELT follow-up team. measurements of the star’s light — resulted in several new exoplanet throughout the planet’s transit to create discoveries. Amateurs also are regular HOW-TO a light curve. They then use the collaborators with the Kilodegree Amateur astronomers use a technique duration and depth of the light curve Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) called differential photometry to track (and how often it recurs) to calculate exoplanet search, organized by the brightness of exoplanet host stars. important characteristics of the Vanderbilt and Ohio State universities. As the name implies, this technique exoplanet such as the period of its Bruce Gary’s 2007 publication of measures the relative change in bright-

orbit, the size of the planet, and, if the Exoplanet Observing for Amateurs was ness between the host star and one or CALÇADA ESO/L.

64 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM Transits, when planets cross their stars from our point of view, are the best way for amateurs to study exoplanet systems.

March 2017 DISCOVER 65 SPECIAL BONUS SECTION OUT THERE

The Basic Transit Light Curve Transit of WASP-12b LEFT RIGHT 0.96

0.92

Predicted Predicted

Normalized flux ingress egress 0.88

0h1h 2h 3h 4h UT Time (January 6, 2016)

By fitting a model to a light curve, an observer can learn valuable information about the exoplanet itself and pass that information 1 to professional astronomers. 2 3 is important to spread the FWHM over Brightness Time several of them. So, if the star’s

As a planet crosses in front of its star, it blocks some of the light. By plotting the amount of light FWHM falls on only one or two pixels, against time, astronomers create a light curve. the observer may actually have to defocus the star so that the FWHM more nearby comparison spans a larger number — ideally, three stars. For ground-based to five. This approach is, of course, observers, this means contrary to the sharp pinpoint stars that atmospheric that deep-sky imagers strive for. effects, such as thin After all the raw images are cali- passing clouds, brated, exoplanet observers can use should have a off-the-shelf software to conduct the similar effect on both differential photometry. Two of the the host and comparison more popular packages are AIP4WIN, stars. However, during the which comes with the Handbook of exoplanet’s transit, the host star’s Astronomical Image Processing, by brightness will change, but not the Richard Berry and James Burnell, and brightness of the comparison stars. AstroImageJ (AIJ), freeware main- During image acquisition, the tained by Karen Collins of the KELT observer measures just a few key stars, team. AIJ is an all-in-one package that which typically range in brightness includes everything from image from 8th to 13th magnitude. The calibration to exoplanet model fitting. exoplanet observer’s objective is to Both software choices will produce accurately capture the brightness of the several data items for each image: a host star prior to, during, and after the timestamp, the change in brightness of predicted time of the exoplanet’s the host star relative to one or more transit. It is important that the comparison stars, the change in observer’s CCD detector never reaches brightness (if any) of each comparison saturation (its maximum detection star relative to the other comparison level), or else changes in the host star’s stars, and error estimates for these brightness could go unrecorded. measurements. The observer then fits Although a star’s photons spread out the data to a model of what an over multiple pixels of a CCD’s exoplanet transit should look like. Two The author’s detector, the majority of them — a popular sources for performing such a home setup includes star’s so-called full-width at half- fit are AIJ and the ETD website. an 11-inch maximum (FWHM) — fall on just a The difference between observed data Schmidt- Cassegrain small number. Because each pixel can and what a model predicts is a measure

telescope. capture only a small amount of light, it of how “good” a particular fit is. The DENNIS CONTI BOTTOM: (2). ROEN KELLY/DISCOVER TOP:

66 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM N

c b

E

e

The XO Project, a collaboration between amateur and professional d astronomers, discovered five exoplanets using only twin 200mm lenses. DO IT YOURSELF A Practical Guide to Exoplanet Observing is available at www.astrodennis.com for readers who are interested in 20 AU exoplanet observing, as well as for veteran observers who 0.5" want to use AstroImageJ as their exoplanet-modeling program. The AAVSO also has its Exoplanet Observing Using the largest telescopes on Earth and advanced imaging systems like adaptive optics, professional astronomers can directly image exoplanets, Manual, which describes how AAVSO resources can be like this multiple-planet system around the star HR 8799 (obscured at center, of use to exoplanet observers. with planets labeled b-e). For amateurs, transits will have to suffice for now.

goal is to minimize this difference; users Hubble study. Joey Rodriguez of the deep-sky imager needs multiple filters can do so by changing certain inputs to KELT team combines multiple amateur to obtain a great-looking picture; an the model. For example, they could observations into one “global model fit” exoplanet observer typically uses only a eliminate comparison stars that are not for the science team’s use. single filter for an observation. A of the same magnitude or stellar type as Second, the professional community deep-sky imager may spend hours the host star, or they could make may rely on amateur observations to processing images while an exoplanet changes to the number of pixels used in confirm the existence of an exoplanet observer can typically conduct model the differential photometry process to candidate as well as develop initial fitting in a shorter time period. determine the star’s inherent brightness. orbital information about possible Will amateur astronomers ever be The result is a light curve that delivers transits. Amateur astronomers partici- able to directly image worlds outside the beginning and end times of the pating in the KELT project are per- our solar system? This is hard to transit, its depth, and a set of key forming this role. imagine, though attempts are under- parameters such as the planet’s size and way. However, the precision with which the inclination of its orbit. OBSERVING VS. IMAGING they can conduct transit observations Exoplanet observing is in some cases will continue to provide professional THE VALUE OF AMATEUR DATA more challenging than deep-sky astronomers with valuable data to The final data from amateur transit imaging, and in other cases more supplement their studies. modeling is valuable to professional forgiving. Because even a sub-pixel shift Beyond contributing to real science, astronomers in at least two ways: First, of a star on the CCD detector might the satisfaction an amateur astronomer when professional astronomers are result in an apparent change in bright- can take in witnessing a planet transit- conducting their own studies of exoplan- ness, exoplanet observers must employ ing across a star light-years away is its ets, they might be missing information some form of autoguiding and ensure own reward. D such as the midpoint of the transit or the that their telescope mount is accurately ratio of the exoplanet’s orbit to the polar aligned and they have minimized Dennis Conti, chairman of AAVSO’s radius of the host star — key measures or corrected any periodic error. Exoplanet Section, is leading a worldwide that amateur astronomers can provide. As stated earlier, a deep-sky imager collaboration of amateur astronomers working

NRCHIA/CHRISTIAN MAROIS/W.M. KECK OBSERVATORY. RIGHT: XO PROJECT This, in fact, is the case for some of the wants pinpoint stars, but an exoplanet with a Hubble science team, and is a member

LEFT: LEFT: exoplanets in the aforementioned observer may desire defocused ones. A of the KELT exoplanet follow-up team.

March 2017 DISCOVER 67 DeptHistory OverlineLessons The Heroine of the FDA One woman was all that stood between thalidomide and America. BY NANCY KRIPLEN

The president was beaming. The →woman beside him — a brunette wearing proper gloves and hat — also smiled, shyly. She was tall, her dark hair lightly streaked with gray. This was the hero who saved the United States from the tragedy of thalidomide, a drug often prescribed to pregnant women that could result in serious birth defects such as short, flipper-like arms and legs. The year was 1962, and in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, Frances Oldham Kelsey had just received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from John F. Kennedy. But Kelsey’s body of work goes well beyond thalidomide. Scientists still benefit from changes she and her colleagues set in motion. Countries communicate more efficiently about common medical problems thanks to her, and researchers know that drugs — and viruses — that appear to have little or no side-effects on pregnant women can be devastating to their developing babies. Her importance in medical history can’t be overstated. “Dear Mr. Oldham,” began the letter INADVERTENT TRAINING offering her a position, assuming that Frances Oldham was born on this “Frances” was a man. “Perhaps Vancouver Island, Canada, in 1914. I should set him straight,” she said, The daughter of a retired British according to her Autobiographical army officer, “Frankie” went to Reflections. “Don’t be ridiculous,” said schools in both Canada and England. her McGill adviser. “Accept the job, Her interest was in the sciences — sign your name, put Miss in brackets first biology, then biochemistry and afterwards, and go!” finally pharmacology, the study of Oldham earned her Ph.D. in how chemicals act on the human pharmacology in 1938, and five body. She received bachelor’s and years later she married Fremont Ellis master’s degrees from McGill Kelsey, with whom she worked on President John F. Kennedy honors FDA medical University in Montreal. At her officer Frances Kelsey (top) in 1962 for her the massive World War II project to mentor’s suggestion, she applied to work blocking U.S. approval of thalidomide. find a substitute for quinine to fight A kindergarten student in Great Britain born the new pharmacology department at with short limbs, a birth defect from the drug, malaria. Now Frances Kelsey, she next

the University of Chicago. uses a pencil-holding device to learn to write. enrolled in the University of Chicago LEONARD MCCOMBE/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES BOTTOM: ADMINISTRATION. AND DRUG FOOD U.S. TOP:

68 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

History Lessons

medical school solely for the extra credentials. “As a woman, I needed the extra credentials. Let’s face it, I needed all the help I could get to obtain a job,” she wrote in her autobiography. Upon graduation, she was hired as an editorial assistant at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), verifying the scientific accuracy of submitted papers. In 1952, when her husband became head of the pharmacology department at the University of South Dakota, the family (which now included two young daughters) moved to the small college town of Vermillion in the southeast corner of the state. Kelsey continued her research and commuted Kelsey’s body of work by overnight train to Chicago to study goes well beyond the new field of nuclear medicine. Kelsey’s wide-ranging experience in thalidomide. Scientists the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s would serve her still benefit from well in the 1960s to recognize the threat of thalidomide. From her pharmacol- changes she and her ogy work, she knew the importance From top: At the FDA, Kelsey determined of animal studies and of carefully that thalidomide studies were incomplete colleagues set in motion. scrutinizing new drugs. From the and did not support the maker’s claims. The drug, marketed as Distaval in the U.K., anti-malaria studies, Kelsey saw that was prescribed for pregnant women with determined the submitted clinical mothers and their unborn babies did morning sickness. studies were incomplete and, not necessarily react the same way to therefore, the drug’s claims were drugs. And from her JAMA work, she market under the trade name Kevadon. not adequately supported. Many of had learned the names and practices Generically known as thalidomide, it the submissions from doctors (she of doctors who kept appearing on was a mild sedative often prescribed recognized a few of the names from less-than-scientifically robust articles. for pregnant women with morning questionable JAMA papers) read When she landed a job as a medical sickness, and it was already available in more like advertising testimonials officer at the Food and Drug Admin- some two dozen other countries. than well-designed, well-executed istration, she was uniquely prepared. As was FDA procedure, a scientific studies. The Kelseys were ready to leave small- three-person team studied the While awaiting Merrell’s response town life and return to the big city, so thalidomide application: a chemist, a in early 1961, Kelsey read a letter when Fremont Kelsey also received pharmacologist and a medical officer, in the British Medical Journal a job offer in Washington (from the in this case Kelsey. If no one filed any mentioning a possible side effect of National Institutes of Health), they objections within 60 days, the drug thalidomide: peripheral neuritis, a made the move. would receive automatic approval. painful tingling in the arms and feet. Each of the team members Merrell had never mentioned it — the THE THALIDOMIDE CRISIS found problems. The chemist found company later claimed it didn’t know. Kelsey had been at the FDA only mistakes in the translation of the Immediately, Kelsey wrote to Merrell a month when a fateful application original German documents. The asking for more information and in four thick volumes landed on her pharmacologist felt the animal studies additional proof of safety. desk in September 1960. The William submitted were not a good indication As the approval time stretched S. Merrell Co. of Cincinnati was of possible toxicity in humans, into more than a year, Merrell’s requesting approval to sell a German- since animals absorb thalidomide representatives grew increasingly

developed drug on the American poorly. Kelsey, in the medical area, impatient, complaining to Kelsey’s IMAGES AND SOCIETY PICTURE LIBRARY/GETTY SCIENCE BOTTOM: RICKERBY/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES. ART TOP:

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superiors and relentlessly badgering story about America’s close call with her by phone and memos to urge thalidomide appeared on the front approval. Merrell even called Kelsey’s page of The Washington Post, under complaints “slightly libelous.” (Today, the headline “Heroine of FDA Keeps this sort of continual contact with Bad Drug Off Market,” with a photo Exclusively from FDA reviewers is discouraged.) of Kelsey. (Supposedly, the story had Meanwhile, reports of startling been leaked to the Post by a Kefauver Astronomy Magazine birth defects in babies born to commission staffer, with the senator’s mothers who had taken thalidomide encouragement.) were surfacing in Germany, Australia The Rose Garden award ceremony and other countries where the drug for Kelsey followed in August, was legal — including Kelsey’s native and an omnibus bill tightening Canada. It was the beginning of the regulations on the pharmaceutical end. By November 1961, thalidomide industry and drug trials passed the Senate two weeks later. After reconciliation with a similar House Kelsey’s wide-ranging bill sponsored by Rep. Oren Harris experience in the 1930s, of Arkansas, President Kennedy signed the Kefauver-Harris Drug ’40s and ’50s would Amendments bill into law in October serve her well in the 1962. Standing in the half-circle of invited officials looking on was 1960s to recognize the Frances Kelsey. The Kefauver-Harris bill “changed threat of thalidomide. the face of drug regulation,” says #81075 • $99.95 Swann, who knew Kelsey. Companies was taken off the market in Germany, now had to prove drugs were effective Display Pluto, the little planet with and other countries soon followed. as well as safe, based on rigorous, the big heart, in your home, offi ce, Four months later, Merrell withdrew well-controlled studies by qualified or classroom! This 12” injection- its application from the FDA. researchers. Further, the FDA molded globe, developed by Even though Kelsey and her team would establish (and monitor) good Astronomy magazine and the kept thalidomide off the American manufacturing practices, and control New Horizons team, features: shelves, many doctors had dispensed of prescription drug advertising would • Gorgeous images from the “investigative samples” of the drug. be transferred from the Federal Trade New Horizons spacecraft. Because of this, and because some Commission to the FDA. • 65 features identifi ed and mothers had obtained the drug Later in 1962, Kelsey was named labeled. overseas, the U.S. saw an estimated head of the FDA’s new investigational • High-resolution images. 17 births of deformed babies. drug branch. For the next 43 years, Still, compared with the numbers she stayed at the FDA. On Aug. 6, • Long-lasting and durable plastic. worldwide — more than 10,000 2015, Frances Oldham Kelsey, now children in 46 countries — it’s clear frail, white-haired and living with a • Just a single seam between that what FDA historian John Swann daughter in southern Ontario, was hemispheres. calls Kelsey’s “persistence and grit” visited by the lieutenant governor of • Clear acrylic base. averted a disaster. Ontario, who presented her with the Order of Canada medallion. The next A JOB WELL DONE day she died, at the age of 101. D LIMITED Elsewhere in Washington, Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver had been holding Nancy Kriplen is a freelance journalist QUANTITIES intermittent hearings for more than and author of several biographies, including two years, originally on drug pricing The Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur

P29436 and marketing, but expanded into — Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY AT drug safety. In July 1962, a detailed Relentless Adversary. MyScienceShop.com/plutoglobe Sales tax where applicable.

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Metabolism BY GEMMA TARLACH 1 Let’s get meta about metabolism: It’s so much 12 Metabolic diseases, more than the thing you’re trying to boost to banish which are typically those pesky extra pounds. The term refers to all of genetic, cause the body the chemical reactions within an organism that to produce one or more keep it alive. 2 Derived from metaboleˉ, Greek for enzymes insufficiently or not change, metabolism is about power: how it’s acquired at all. Metabolic syndrome and how it’s spent. Scientists have been using the (MetS), however, is a more word since the late 19th century, but the concept complex constellation of conditions. 13 MetS factors was around much earlier. 3 The 13th-century Arab include increased abdominal fat, high blood pressure, physician Ibn al-Nafis, for example, observed that insulin resistance, abnormal blood coagulation and “both the body and its parts are in a continuous state cholesterol levels as well as elevated C-reactive protein, of dissolution and nourishment, so they are inevitably an indicator of inflammation.14 The causes of MetS undergoing permanent change.” 4 Metabolism isn’t are not fully clear, but genes, inactivity and obesity just for individual organisms: Researchers apply all play a role, leading to significantly elevated risk of the term to the processes through which entire heart disease, diabetes and death. 15 We all know that natural ecosystems acquire and maintain (or lose) being active and fit will make us healthier — and we’ve resilience, such as predator-prey balance and levels all heard the sales pitches that we can achieve that of photosynthesis. 5 Researchers also study the goal by revving up our metabolism with certain foods. metabolism of some less-than-natural ecosystems — Scientific support for many marketing claims is mixed, large cities — in terms of how urban areas consume however. 16 Green tea extract, for example, has been resources and generate waste. 6 A primitive kind shown to increase energy expenditure in some studies, of metabolism was present in single-celled organisms possibly by inhibiting certain enzymes. A 2011 meta- more than 3.5 billion years ago. Due to low levels analysis, however, found that the modest results varied of atmospheric oxygen, the process may have been both by individual and origin of extract used. 17 A fermentative, still found in microbes such as yeast 2012 review showed that green tea’s boost is even more today. 7 As oxygen increased in Earth’s atmosphere of a bust: Its use resulted in “statistically insignificant” and organisms became more complex, different forms weight loss and no significant effect on weight of metabolism evolved, from plants’ photosynthesis management. 18 And sorry, but your metabolism will to the lesser-known chemolithotrophy. 8 Many never match that of the ruby-throated hummingbird, bacteria and archaea, another type of single-celled which has the highest metabolic rate of any vertebrate organism, use chemolithotrophy to get their energy when active. 19 To maintain body temperature and from inorganic compounds such as ammonia beat its wings up to 200 times a second, the metabolic in anoxic, extreme environments. No air, no sun, record-setter, like other hummingbirds, needs Metabolic rate varies no problem! 9 Regardless of an organism’s energy enormous amounts of energy. The small birds typically widely among source, its metabolism is a balance of catabolism, consume their body weight in nectar every day. So vertebrates, with zippy breaking energy down into usable units, and much for thinking you can diet by “eating like a bird.” hummingbirds anabolism, using those units for vital building 20 On the other hand, in 2016 researchers found that and slow-moving 10 sloths at opposite projects such as bone growth. The grunt work the three-toed sloth had the lowest metabolic rate of extremes. of metabolic processes is done by enzymes. These any mammal, an adaptation that evolved to reduce fuel proteins act like crowd control, ensuring molecules needs in the energy-poor forest canopy environment reacting catabolically or anabolically are where they where it lives. Slothfulness isn’t one of the seven deadly need to be. 11 The enzymes themselves are constantly sins — it’s just smart evolutionary strategy. D losing stability and being replaced, which means metabolism is a product of … metabolism. Whoa. Gemma Tarlach is senior editor at Discover.

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