S C I E N C E T H AT M AT T E R S ® EXPLOR E A LIEN WOR LDS ON E A RTH p.4 2 SECRET S O F T H E BHIDDEN OENEFITS F GVIDEO AMES p.62 INVASIVE SPECIES –T H E Y ’R E D E L I C I O U S! p . 3 4 HOW FONT S A FFEC T MEMORY p 10 W H AT YOU NE V ER KNE W A BOU T HOW THE Y LI V ED, WOR KED A ND FOUGHT p. 24 S E P T E M B E R /O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 BONUS ONLINE CONTENT CODE p. 5
Fo r ye a r s , A rc h a e o l o g i c a l Pa t h s ’ exc l u s i ve historical tours of Egypt have attracted trav e l e r s d raw n t o t h e c o u n t r y ’ s a n c i e n t p a s t
For many, cruising down the Nile, visiting the ancient tombs of the pharaohs, exploring the Pyramids of Giza, or marveling at the Great Sphinx are bucket list items But the challenge of ful lling a much longed for dream is that the experience must match or better, exceed expectations At Archaeological Paths, our approach to luxury travel differs from other companies We h ave c h a n g e d t h e w ay t h e t rave l i n d u s t r y o p e ra t e s by o f f e r i n g u n f o r g e t t a b l e , u n s u r p a s s e d , a n d u n i q u e ex p e r i e n c e s C o m b i n e d w i t h o u r p a s s i o n f o r h i s t o r y a n d exploration, this is one of the things that makes us distinct among tour companies. Our guests have exclusive access to exceptional sites. Imagine Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, or the entire Giza Plateau open just for you For most visitors, a distant viewing platform is as close to the Great Sphinx as they’ll get With us, you can touch the Sphinx and stand between its paws as you watch the sunrise, a time when no one else is allowed at the site You can enjoy a VIP tour of the Grand Egyptian Museum or private entry to the Great Pyramid of Khufu, including a visit to the Queen’s and Subterranean Chambers both closed to the public You’ll have special access to 19th century palaces that are official residences of the Egyptian president.
Archaeological Paths promises to completely change the way visitors explore the country as the company bene ts from an unparalleled level of access. Archaeological Paths takes you where the general public can’t go, in the com pany of the world’s foremost archaeologists. And, in true royal style, all of this is paired with stays at former palaces, cruises on luxurious ships, and meals at the most exquisite local restaurants Dr. Zahi Hawass the world’s most famous archaeologist
The Great Sphinx Enclosure The Presidential Abdeen Palace
Archaeological Paths’ guests are introduced to the latest discoveries at the Karnak Temple Complex “ WHAT WILL YOU EXPERIENCE WHEN TRAVELING WITH ARCHAEOLOGICAL PATHS?
Now it’s time to take a closer look at what makes these experiences extraordinary. From Founder and CEO of Archaeological Paths, r e or op awski “ E g y p t ’ s t r e a s u r e s a n d c u l t u r a l h e r i t a g e h a ve f a s c i n a t e d p e o p l e for centuries, and no one can tour E g y p t q u i t e l i ke A rc h a e o l o g i c a l Paths I do believe that the name o f t h i s c o m p a n y s h o u l d g o down in history, written in gold, for its contribution t o p ro m o t i n g t h e l e g acy of ancient Egypt ”
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Dr Mostafa Waziri shows the Temple of Khonsu, which is off limits to the public For example, in 2021, one of the best years for Egypt in terms of new archaeological discover ies, Dr Hawass found the “Lost Golden City” in Luxor. This is now regarded as the second most important Egyptian archaeological dis covery after Tutankhamun’s tomb. Our guests were there before the discovery was even an nounced Later that year, Egypt reopened the Southern Tomb of King Djoser at Saqqara after a 15 year renovation Archaeological Paths’ guests were in for a real treat as they enjoyed exclusive access to the site before its of cial opening. And in December 2018, the 4,400 year old tomb of Wahtye, a high ranking priest, was discovered at Saqqara The vibrant colors in the tomb were almost pristine, which even archaeologists found surprising The moment we learned that a new tomb had been found, we knew our guests had to witness it That very day, our guests, along with Dr. Waziri and Dr Hawass, explored this tomb Since then, Archaeological Paths is one of the only compa nies allowed to lead its guests there Imagine being one of the very few people in the world who have had the opportunity to enter this ancient burial chamber Taposiris Magna Temple We may take you to a tomb that was discovered literally a few days earlier or a temple that will remain closed to tourists for years to come.
Pristine colors in Wahtye’s tomb Tomb of Wahtye Another feature of our tours not offered by any other company is that we invite our guests to meet with individuals who shape history Hearing from these knowledgeable experts is an experience like no other These gures include the world’s most famous archae ologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, and Egypt’s Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, presently responsible for all antiquities and archaeological sites in Egypt. There is no one better equipped to tell you about the most recent discoveries. With us, you’ll visit active excavation sites such as Taposiris Magna, the possible resting place of Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, or the Tombs of the Pyramid Builders at Giza T h i s s i t e e n t i r e l y c h a n g e d t h e e s t a b l i s h e d understanding of how the pyramids were built. I m a g i n e v i s i t i n g t h i s p l a c e i n t h e c o m p a ny of the very person who discovered it, giving you unrivaled insight into Egypt’s ancient past In addition to special access to some of the m o s t i c o n i c a r c h a e o l o g i c a l s i t e s i n E g y p t Now you can be a part of Archaeological Paths’ exclusive experiences! tour archaeologicalpaths 724 2772
Don’t be surprised, then, when you are a part of a similar experience during your tour With us, you can expect the unexpected!
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a l r e a d y i n c l u d e d i n o u r t o u r s ’ i t i n e ra r i e s , there are always some surprises in store for our guests
Opportunities like this make our itineraries the most exclusive and luxurious you can find I always say that you might visit Egypt only once in your life, so you should have the richest experience possible and see things in the most intimate way. We want to create a trip filled with memories that will last a lifetime Whenever you hear about a new discovery in Egypt, we are there, together with our guests, providing the best access not only to ancient sites but also to all of Egypt’s hidden treasures. ”
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C O N T E N T S C O V E R L O R A D O / G E T T Y I M A G E S T H S P A G E : L I G H T P H O T O / G E T T Y M A G E S / I S T O C K P H O T O 24 34 W ho Were t he Vi k i n gs? Tod ay ’ s popu la r not ions of Norse sea fa rers ha rd ly touch t he su r face of t hei r t r ue ident it y or t hei r i n fluence a rou nd t he g lobe a nd across t he cent u r ies M O L L Y G L I C K & C O D Y C O T T I E R Inva sive Eats These n i ne pla nt s a nd a n i ma ls c ause bi l l ions of dol la rs of d a mage i n t he U S Luck i ly for t he eco m i nded , t hey ’ re a lso del icious. M A R I S A S L O A N S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 V O L 4 3 , N O 5 Ea r t h Is a Pl a net Too! As resea rchers st r ive to u nderst a nd ou r sola r system, t here’s a per fec t laborator y r ig ht u nder ou r feet . A L I S O N K L E S M A N A Pod ’ s Bond s A ra re i nterspecies adopt ion revea ls sper m wha le societ y is more soph ist ic ated a nd more play f u l t ha n prev iously t houg ht A S H L E Y W A R D 42 50 p. 24 S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 5 Website access code: DSD2210 Enter this code at w w w DiscoverMagazine .com/code to gain ac c e s s to exclusive subscrib er c ontent
C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P A L E X S R O S E N F E L D / 1 O C E A N / U N E S C O ; J U K K A J A N T U N E N / S H U T T E R S T O C K D A V D B U S T O S / N A T I O N A L P A R K S E R V C E C O N T E N T S Following in ancient footsteps , f inding fonts for information retention , and assessing the f uture of ar tif icial wombs . H O T S C I E N C E p. 9 C O L U M N S & D E P A R T M E N T S 7 E D I T O R ’ S N O T E O n t he Menu Inva sive species have t a st y possibi l it ies. 8 I N B O X W hat ’ s at t he center of a d i nosau r eg g fossi l? 20 V I TA L S I G N S A Bu r n i n g Ques t ion Chest pa i n, nausea a nd vom it i ng broug ht t h is g rad st udent to t he emergenc y room Her eva sive a nswers made it clea r t hat t h is wa s no rout i ne stomach problem. D O U G L A S G . A D L E R 56 H I S T O R Y L E S S O N S The Fi rs t Globa l Vacc i n at ion Ca mpa i g n How a m i l it a r y doc tor a nd t he k i ng of Spa i n used or pha ns a nd a r m to a r m vacci nat ion to fig ht sma l lpox H A N N A H S E O 62 P I E C E O F M I N D ( Vi r tua l) Rea l ity Check My son ’ s socia l isolat ion prompted me to reconsider v ideo games and some dated resea rch about t hei r i n fluence C A R E N C H E S L E R 66 # S C I E N C E I R L Deep Cora l A t h r iv i ng mesophot ic reef nea r Ta h it i is one of t he la rgest k now n to scient ist s. T I M O T H Y M E I N C H p. 66
F R O M T O P : P O R O T 5 5 / S H U T T E R S T O C K S W E E T M A R S H M A L
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Stephen C George, Editorial Director Feel free to send comments and questions to editorial@discovermagazine.com N N E C T W I T H U S L / U T T E R S T O C K
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During my years as a health and medical journalist, I once found myself in the unexpected role of editing a magazine devoted to healthy cooking. Each issue contained dozens of recipes, which all were tried by the staff, including me Once or twice a week we’d gather in the test kitchen and sample whatever new dish was in the works. Not all of the food that came out of the kitchen made the cut some of it looked and tasted supremely unappetizing But I always looked for ward to recipe test days because you just never knew that you’d get ser ved to you. Although I didn’t stay at that job ver y long, I thought about it a lot after reading “Invasive Eats,” which begins on page 34. When Assistant Editor Marisa Sloan first began writing this stor y, it never occurred to me that I could do my part against invasive species by simply eating them What would my old test kitchen comrades say if they were asked to prepare a dish of, say, fried murder hornets, with a side of kudzu? And that’s just two of the several invasive ingredients you’ll find in this inventive piece Obviously, we don’t expect you all to tr y these dishes (unless you really want to!), but Marisa shares a novel way to look at a common and growing problem In the U S alone, nearly 6,500 invasive species are thriving, posing a daunting ecological and economic challenge.
On the Menu
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BY S T EPH EN C . G EO R G E ’ O
What ’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten? (It doesn’ t have to be one of the species in our stor y!) Email us at editorial@ discovermagazine com with your answer.
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Even if you’d never tr y these dishes, we hope you enjoy devouring this stor y, as well as the others we ’ ve ser ved up for you in this issue. My tenure as a food editor may have been at another magazine entirely, but I like to think of each issue of Discover as a recipe we prepare for you, spicing the meal with a variety of ingredients. Some items on the menu may not always be to your usual or preferred tastes, but we hope they still satisfy your appetite
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This was a fun read; any time that my ignorance is challenged, my time is well spent. I learned several things about the importance of documentation and proof of origin along with custody control The one thing that I didn’t learn was when one or more of these eggs are opened to science, what do you expect to learn? My guess is that answer depends on what you find beyond the visible Richard Fy fe FE AT URES EDITOR TIMOTHY MEINCH RESPONDS: Great question, with a complicated answer As you guessed, what scientists expect to learn from Manning’s eg g speci mens depends on many factors, including what species they are analyzing In this case, scanning the dinosaur embr yos with a synchrotron (a massive par ticle accel erator with advanced X ray capabilities) would likely reveal preser ved soft tissues with detailed skin, muscles and car tilage In fact, at least one of Manning’s eg gs was analyzed with a synchrotron in France years ago in experiments that “went ver y well and the data are extremely good,” in the words of one scientist managing the facility But ensuing legal issues and controversies about the specimen and the collaborators prevented those findings from being shared publicly and generated such a fiasco that the scientist above prefers not to speak of the “lost for science” experiments
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C R A C K I N G T H E E G G (“ Waiting to Hatch,” Mar/Apr 2 02 2) F R O M T O P M A R K P E T E R M A N ; D A N / C C B Y S A 4 0 / W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S
AUTHOR ANDRIA GREENE RESPONDS: David and Jerr y, thank you for the necessar y corrections I appreciate you both! We all need science literate folks to hold us to the highest standards and keep us humble. As Jerr y notes, Elysia does belong to gastropoda, superorder sacoglossa Forgive me for group ing this sea slug with nudibranchs And David is correct; sponges do not have stinging cells. I hope you also forgive my mistakes I T ’ S A L I V E ! (“ Will Cr yonically Frozen Bodies Ever Be Brought Back to Life?” Mar/Apr 202 2) When working at the National Bureau of Standards Cr yogenic Engineering Laborator y in B oulder, Colorado, around 1960, I witnessed the following: While doing an outdoor experiment, we had a 5 or 10 liter portable dewar (think large Thermos bottle) of liquid nitrogen with an open top. We went to lunch, forgetting to cover the dewar with its foil cap; when we returned, a ver y frozen grasshopper was floating on the surface of the liquid nitrogen We poured the grasshopper out onto the ground Twenty or 30 minutes later, we noticed that the frozen grasshopper began to move its legs Five or 10 minutes after that, the grasshopper hopped away, probably never realizing what it had just experienced W. Harr y Prober t A W E A LT H O F C I T I Z E N S C I E N C E (“Science by the People,” Mar/Apr 202 2) Regarding citizen science, you should also refer people to Zooniverse org, which has a host of projects that people can help with online: tran scribing information from historical sources, analyzing data from tele scopes and microscopes, identif ying animals in camera trap photos, and more It certainly helped save my sanity during the pandemic! My favorites are the animal sites, which make me feel like I’m on safari in Africa, Australia, or wherever ever y day. They also have talk forums, so you can chat with other volunteers Lisa Yount FROM THE EDITORS: Thanks for the sug gestion, Lisa! We actually featured an ar ticle on Zooniverse in our April 2019 issue, written by Alison Klesman, senior associate editor at our sister magazine, Astronomy. Check it out here, and enjoy. Zooniverse Scan this code with your phone’s camera for more: A Citizen Science Success Stor y.
E R R ATA “In Search of the Nudibranch” (Mar/Apr 2022) was an informa tive and interesting article. However, it contains an academic error : Having taught invertebrate zoolog y for three decades, I can assure the readers that sponges do not have stinging cells. Dav id Voth I enjoyed “In Search of the Nudibranch,” but would like to point out that Elysia, which can self decapitate, is not a nudibranch It belongs to another clade of gastropods: the saco glossa. Jerr y Villere
H O T S C I E N C E S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 9 T H E L A T E S T N E W S A N D N O T E S F 0 N T S , L E A R N I N G A N D M E M O R Y • E AV E S D R O P P I N G A N I M A L S • W H Y S I N G E R S A R E S O G O O D AT L A N G U A G E S • A R T I F I C I A L W O M B S F OS SILIZED F OOT STEPS Ancient humans mainly children and teenagers left these track s along the muddy shoreline of a former lake between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. That makes the 61 footprints, found in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park and repor ted in S cience last year, the oldest known in Nor th America. The finding is forcing some archaeologists to walk back by thousands of years long standing estimates of when humans first ventured to the continent from A sia. In fact , by the time the nex t wave of migrants arrived, the descendants of these earliest Americans might still have been around to greet them M A R I S A S LOA N ; I M AG E S BY DAV I D B U S TO S/N AT I O N A L PA R K S ER V I C E
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WHENE VER YOU read text, your brain processes the visual stimuli to create meaning and understand the content Chances are, you don’t pay much attention to the way the informa tion is presented particularly the font choice. That’s because your main objective is reading comprehension, not aesthetics. information also makes an impact Using font styles like bold or italics to indicate significance can also improve retention That’s because people are better able to remember informa tion they consider impor tant, says Oppenheimer Researchers found that bolded text has a higher recall than text in italic or regular styles, regardless of the font size However, if an entire document is bolded, the emphasis is lost, and readers can no longer spot vital passages. C A R L A D ELG A D O E X IMPOR TAN T COGNIT IVE CAN MAK E OR BRE AK ION RE T T ION G G E I S T C K P H T S T E P H E N B A N H A M E T L / R M I T U N V E R S I T Y B e havioral s c i e ntis t s at R M I T Univer sit y create d S ans F orge tic a , a f ont b uil t to invo ke d e e p e r p ro c e s ing Fonts Af fect Memor y H RD TO RE AD F ON T SUCH A S BODONI, COMIC SANS OR MONOT Y PE CORSIVA ARE BE T T ER F OR RE TAINING INFORMAT ION THAN F ON T S L IK E ARIAL OR T IME S NE W ROMAN, ACCORDING TO SOME S T UDIE S MONO T YP E CO R SIVA COMIC BODON I HARD TO AD
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Although typography is overlooked by most of us (excluding design enthusi asts), it’s crucial in rendering texts legible, readable and appealing for audiences B eyond the visual aspect, research shows that fonts play a significant role in the cognitive processes that transpire while we read A font’s impact on the way you learn and retain information might be hard to notice consciously, but your brain is certainly tuned in. Perhaps surprisingly, hard to read fonts such as B odoni, Comic Sans or Monotype Corsiva are better for retaining informa tion than fonts like Arial or Times New Roman, according to some studies Participants recalled more information from the mate rial they read when it was presented in a font that was difficult to read, according to a 2010 study “Difficulty can function as an alarm signal, giving the reader a sense that the task is challenging and will require mental effort,” says Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor of psycholog y at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the 2010 study authors Additionally, slowing down the reading speed to deal with the disfluenc y may increase the likelihood of spotting errors in a text Hard to read fonts, which make it harder to engage with a material but don’t actually distract the reader, therefore generate “desirable difficulty” and the resulting cogni tive burdens may improve performance because they require more mental effort Font characteristics such as style, size and color play a role in information retention or recall, as well, because font design is vital to our familiarity or unfamiliar ity with a given word, says Stephen Banham, a typog raphy lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Experiments have demonstrated a U shape relationship between font size and memor y : L arge font items may predict higher recall regardless of style, but ver y small font sizes can also introduce a desirable difficulty A document’s specific method of formatting
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M A R I S A S LOA N E A S T E R N G R AY S Q U I R R E L S are k nown to lis te n in on the alarm c alls o f c e r t ain s p e c i e s o f b ird s . H O T S C I E N C E F R O M T O P L I G H T P O E T / S H U T T E R S T O C K W R G H T O U T T H E R E / S H U T T E R S T O C K THROUGHOU T T HE ANIMAL K INGDOM , CRE AT URES K EEP AN E AR OU T FOR VALUABLE IN T EL E VEN FROM DIFFEREN T SPECIES
12 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M
WHILE HUMANS may have perfected the art of eavesdropping even at a great distance, if tapped phone lines or c yberattacks are any indication they aren’t the only animals listening in to the conversations around them Birds commonly eavesdrop on the alarm calls of other avian species to avoid danger, despite not fully under standing these “foreign languages,” or seeing the predator that triggered them in the first place. Wild superb fair ywrens (pictured on the right) can be trained to flee from unfamiliar sounds in just a few days Australian National University scientists achieved this by simultane ously broadcasting these noises with the alarm calls of fair ywrens and other birds, which the territorial fair ywrens quickly learned to associate with one another. But birds chatter when they feel safe from danger, too, and even land loving animals can take advantage of this behavior. In a 2019 study exam ining Eastern gray squirrels found in public parks and residential areas of Ohio, scientists monitored the squirrels’ responses to a perceived threat a record ing of the red tailed hawk followed by either natural songbird chatter or ambient noise from the environment. After monitoring the behavior of each squirrel for three minutes, the researchers found that the critters spent far less time freezing, LISTENING
SHH! E AVESDROPPING ANIMAL S MAY BE
looking up or fleeing if they’d also eavesdropped on the soothing sounds of the songbirds right after IN ADDITION to ensuring their safety and guarding against danger, sometimes a little listening can also keep animals from going hungr y In Panama’s rainfor ests, more than a dozen species rely on almond trees as a primar y food source. Yet the animals on the forest floor aren’t able to access this fruit until it falls or is dropped by monkeys in the trees above Biologists from the Natural Histor y Museum of Denmark spent nine months in an island rainforest in the Panama Canal, obser ving as coatis (raccoonlike mammals), agoutis (giant yet lovable rodents) and other scavengers took advantage of monkeys’ wasteful tendenc y to drop food after just a few bites The researchers attached GPS collars to a few dozen of the animals to track their movements; they also placed speakers, which played monkey sounds, and camera traps in the trees, as well as fruit fall traps beneath them to catch unripe almonds and record any passing coatis and agoutis. Their results, published last year in Biotropica, show that the grounded animals listen in on capuchin and spider monkeys to find out when and where they’re eating. As the monkeys are increasingly displaced from their local environments, typically due to hunting and deforestation, however, the entire ecosystem’s food chain may soon be put in jeopardy R asmus Havmøller, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural Histor y Museum of Denmark and co author on the study, said in a press release that the findings are a testament to the animal kingdom’s close knit ties: “Eavesdropping between species provides us with important knowledge about how much the disappearance of one species can impact an entire ecosystem ”
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H O T S C I E N C E I S A X A R / S H U T T E R S T O C K
SINGERS SEEM to have a talent for foreign tongues most notably when it comes to pronunciation and accent. That’s because, like parrots, they mimic what they hear It’s something that Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who couldn’t read music, did with his operatic singing. “ The singer is the best with the accent,” says Susanne Reiterer, a neu rolinguistics researcher at the University of Vienna in Austria “A foreign accent is a piece of cake for them ” Since talking uses the same biological makeup as singing, says Reiterer, the two must be related both biologically and neurobiologically “It’s almost like two sides of one coin ” Studies reveal that Heschl’s g yrus, a type of ridge on the brain’s surface that contains the primar y auditor y cortex, plays a significant role in both musical and language aptitude, especially when there are a higher number of g yri. Some researchers believe that, based on the structure of the brain, some people are simply born to be musicians Rehearsing and training over time have an impact on the brain, as well, but Reiterer says biolog y also plays a leading role “You can change a lot by rehearsing, but something is pre given as well,” Reiterer adds “It’s 50/50 genes and environment, and if you have a strong predisposition [musically], then you have more power basically in your auditor y areas You can discriminate sounds better.”
14 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M
Why Singers Have a Knack for L anguage
In a study by Reiterer, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in 2015, 96 participants cat egorized as instrumentalists, vocalists and non musicians were tested for their abilities to imitate a language unknown to them in this case, Hindi. Her team found vocalists had an advantage over instrumentalists, as they outperformed them in foreign language imita tion, but both vocalists and instrumentalists outper formed non musicians This research also suggested that vocal motor training may allow singers to learn a language faster What’s more, when children experience music early on in life, they’re able to achieve lifelong neuroplasticity, wrote Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, and co author Travis White Schwoch in a 2020 American Scientist study The team also found that the more musicians play, the more they benefit: Speech sound processing ability builds up across one ’ s lifespan Musicians exhibited better attention, sharper working memor y and better neural speech sound processing as the number of practicing years increased. Even in the early 2000s, research suggested that long term training in music and pitch recognition allows a person to better process the pitch patterns of a foreign language, a concept that Reiterer explored in a Annual Review of Applied Linguistics article published in 2021. Reiterer has also investigated how a person ’ s initial language aptitude develops due to factors such as biological maturing, sociocultural conditions and musical ability, to name a few, as reported in a 2021 study. The authors suggest that successful language learning depends on efficient connections between our speech and motor networks. “It’s the body that feels where I have to move my tongue,” Reiterer says “And this feeling has a correlation in the brain, proprioception. That is the key to good pronunciation and the key to a good singer ” A M A N DA F LO R I A N
MUSICIANS ’ BR AINS SEEM TO E XCEL AT TACK LING NE W TONGUES , T HANKS TO T HEIR MAST ERY OF SOUND. Rehearsing and tra ining over time have an impact on the bra in.
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SCIENCE FICTION often depicts babies grown in artificial wombs from start to finish, but in reality, much of the research focuses on later stages of development, when fetuses are on the brink of being able to sur vive outside the womb That threshold has moved as neonatal medicine has improved, and ever younger pre term babies are sur viving Matt Kemp, the head of the perinatal research laboratories at Australia’s Women & Infants Research Foundation, along with his colleagues at Japan’s Tohoku University, works with fetal lambs, since their development resembles that of humans. The researchers have built artificial wombs that can support lambs that are developmentally equiva lent to a 24 week old human fetus, called EVE therapy. (There are no artificial womb studies involving human fetuses ) According to Kemp, the artificial wombs look “ a bit like a wine bladder” the plastic bags that line containers of boxed wine But instead of containing a Zinfandel blend, these bags hold a liquid that mimics amniotic fluid, along with a hairless, pink lamb fetus about half the size of a smart phone, with tubes hooked up to its umbilical cord. While the set up might look strange and futuristic, says Kemp, “essentially all you ’ re doing is oxygenating a ver y small fetus.” In utero, the fetus’s heart pumps deoxygenated blood into the placenta via the umbilical cord. While the fetal blood is in the placenta, it picks up oxygen from the parent’s blood The newly oxygenated fetal blood then goes back through the umbilical cord to the fetus If a fetus is born too early, A R T I F I C I A L W O MB S: S C I - F I M E E T S T H E NI C U
16 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M H O T S C I E N C E
. O N D R O M / S H U T T E R S T O C K
SCIENTISTS ARE MOVING FORWARD WITH ANIMAL TRIALS THAT COULD SOMEDAY HELP HUMANS
The idea of artificial wombs might conjure up scenes from movies like The Matrix, but it’s something humans have been mulling over for a centur y English biologist J B S Haldane coined the term ectogenesis (from the Greek for “outer” and “origin”) in 1923, and the concept played into the 1932 novel Brave New World Scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet published diagrams on artificial wombs in 1958, and researchers in Japan and Korea made major strides in the following decades
IT SOUNDS LIK E something out of science fiction: fetuses suspended in fluid filled transpar ent bags, their blood flowing through a network of tubes hooked up to machines. But it’s not a speculative look at a dark future research into artificial wombs is already under way, as a means of hopefully one day saving babies born too soon
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Kemp is skeptical that the two disciplines will be bridged any time soon he says that the challenges of complete ectogenesis from start to finish as opposed to just focusing on helping a fetus that’s already largely formed, is “sort of like saying, ‘Well, you ’ ve built an airplane, what’s stopping you from building a rocketship to Mars? ’ ” He says that unless there are researchers out there “sitting on an Aladdin’s cave of data,” he can’t see ectogenesis moving into clinical use for humans within the next decade
• vasodilators
18 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M H O T S C I E N C E W O M E N A N D I N F A N T S R E S E A R C H F O U N D A T I O N its small, stiff lungs aren’t yet able to take up oxygen from the air That’s where artificial uteruses might someday come in. In the sheep trials, the fetus’s heart pumps deoxygenated blood through a tube in its umbilical cord to a machine that oxygenates it. The oxygen rich blood then flows back into the fetus’s body through another tube in the umbilical cord In lambs, the technolog y has been able to keep the fetus alive through the risky developmental stage when the lungs aren’t yet strong enough to go on a ventilator the 23 to 24 week mark in humans “It is a hugely important point that we do not intend to challenge the currently accepted standard for a viable infant,” says Emily Partridge, a researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a video about her and her colleagues’ work on artificial wombs for lamb fetuses “ The challenging age that we ’ re tr ying to offset is that 23 to 24 week baby who is faced with such a challenge of adapting to life outside of the uterus, on dr y land.”
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E VEN IF SCIENTISTS someday do find a way to grow babies in an artificial womb from start to finish, there’s still the lingering question: Should we? The concept has advocates who hope that an alternative to biological pregnanc y could help people without uteruses have children or might eliminate some of the inequality associated with motherhood But Chloe Romanis, a profes sor of biolaw at Durham University, is more cautious, and not necessarily for the dystopian reasons sci fi warns against She notes that shifting boundaries of fetus viability might call abortion rights into question, and that artificial wombs might not be accessible to the people who need them most. “We know that premature deliver y is associated with stress in pregnanc y We also know that it’s structurally associated with being poor, and also being discriminated against,” says Romanis With a treatment as wildly expensive as an artificial uterus is likely to be, accord ing to researchers like Kemp, Romanis stresses the impor tance of making sure that poor people and people of color get to reap the benefits of these technologies Kemp agrees that while artificial wombs might one day save the lives of premature babies, they’re not a panacea to the inequality surrounding childbirth and childrearing: “If you want to improve reproductive and gender equality, you need to fund public health education programs Those give you a much better return on investment than fanc y technolog y ” K AT E G O L EM B I E WS K I
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Other researchers are working at the other end of the developmental spectrum, like Jacob Hanna’s team at Israel’s Weizmann Institute. They focus on the earliest stages of embr yonic development, when organs first form. Again, no human embr yos are involved in the research Hanna and his team work with mice In March 2021, Hanna and his colleagues announced that they’d raised mouse embr yos about a third of the way through gestation outside of a uterus. He says of the time gap between his research and that of his colleagues working with later term lamb fetuses: “ The question is, with these two types of research, which are on both ends, will they ever meet? ”
If a fetus is born too early, its lungs aren’t yet able to take up ox ygen from the a ir Ar tif icial Womb E VE Therapy S terilized ar tif icial amniotic f luid OUT: Ar tif icial amniotic f luid to sterilization device INCLUDE: lipids antibiotic s amino acids glucose
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Re m e m b e r w h e n yo u we re a c h i l d a n d g o t yo u r f i r st b i cyc l e? I d o I t g ave m e a s e n s e o f i n d e p e n d e n ce I fe l t l i ke I co u l d g o a nyw h e re, a n d i t wa s s o m u c h e a s i e r a n d m o re e n j oya b l e t h a n wa l k i n g We l l , a t my a g e, t h a t b i ke wo u l d n ’ t d o m e m u c h g o o d . Fo r t u n a te l y, t h e re ’s a n ew i nve n t i o n t h a t g i ve s m e t h e f re e d o m a n d i n d e p e n d e n ce to g o w h e reve r I wa n t . . . s a fe l y a n d e a s i l y. I t ’s c a l l e d t h e Zo o m e r , a n d i t ’s c h a n g e d my l i fe. M y Zo o m e r i s a d e l i g h t to r i d e ! I t h a s i n c re a s e d my m o b i l i t y i n my a p a r t m e n t , my o p p o r t u n i t i e s to e n j oy t h e o u t - o f - d o o r s , a n d e n a b l e d m e to v i s i t t h e h o m e s o f my c h i l d re n fo r l o n g e r p e r i o d s o f t i m e. T h e va r i o u s s p e e d s o f i t m atc h my n e e d fo r s a fe t y, i t i s e a sy to t u r n , a n d I a m m o st p l e a s e d w i t h t h e f re e d o m o f m ove m e n t i t g i ve s m e. S i n ce re l y, A . M a co n , Wi l l i a m s b u rg , VA Af te r j u st o n e t r i p a ro u n d yo u r h o m e i n t h e Zo o m e r , yo u ’ l l m a r ve l a t h ow e a sy i t i s to n av i g a te. I t i s d e s i g n e d to m a n e u ve r i n t i g h t s p a ce s l i ke d o o r ways , b e t we e n f u r n i t u re, a n d a ro u n d co r n e r s . I t c a n g o ove r t h re s h o l d s a n d wo r k s g re a t o n a ny k i n d o f f l o o r o r c a r p e t . I t ’s n o t b u l ky o r c u m b e r s o m e, s o i t c a n ro l l r i g h t u p to a t a b l e o r d e s k– t h e re ’s n o n e e d to t ra n s fe r to a c h a i r. I t s st u rd y yet l i g h t we i g h t a l u m i n u m f ra m e m a ke s i t d u ra b l e a n d co m fo r t a b l e I t s d u a l m o to r s p owe r i t a t u p to 3 .7 m i l e s p e r h o u r a n d i t s a u to m a t i c e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c b ra ke s sto p o n a d i m e. Th e re c h a rg e a b l e b a t te r y p owe r s i t fo r u p to 8 m i l e s o n a s i n g l e c h a rg e. P l u s , i t s exc l u s i ve fo l d a b l e d e s i g n e n a b l e s yo u to t ra n s p o r t i t e a s i l y a n d eve n sto re i t i n a c l o s e t o r u n d e r a b e d w h e n i t ’s n o t i n u s e Why s p e n d a n o t h e r d ay l e t t i n g m o b i l i t y i ss u e s h a m p e r yo u r l i fe st y l e? C a l l n ow a n d f
L I E J A E G E R / D I S C O V E R
INGESTION OF caustic substances most commonly cleaning products, pesticides, and other chemicals happens more often than you might think In children, the ingestion of these agents is usually accidental, but in adults, especially young adults, these events are almost always intentional Sometimes when people get extremely bad news or are ver y upset emotionally, they will attempt to commit suicide in an impulsive manner In that situation, they might reach for the first toxic thing they can find and drink it usually, substances like household cleaners or other chemi cals Almost all commercial drain cleaners
Lowering my voice to a whisper, I leaned in a bit closer and asked, “Allison, did you drink something that’s not meant to be swallowed? Something from under the sink, or the bathroom, perhaps? ” Her eyes widening, Allison nodded slowly Nodding back at her, I could suddenly feel my own pulse start to rise I made an educated guess: “Was it drain cleaner? ” Allison started to cr y and, looking at her hands, whispered, “Yes,” between sobs Now we had our answer ; Allison was suffering from a caustic ingestion.
llison came to the emergenc y department late one morning complaining of intractable chest pain, nau sea and vomiting A 23 year old graduate student, Allison was half way through a Ph D program in molecular biolog y. Initially thinking she was having a heart attack, the ED physician obtained an electrocardiogram and a chest X ray, both of which came back normal Blood tests looking for signs of a drug overdose had also come back negative. With cardiac distress ruled out, the next symptoms to address were the nausea and vomiting. Thinking she may be suffering from an ulcer, the ED physician asked me to come down to evaluate the patient Nausea and vomiting are common complaints, usually related to gastrointestinal infections like food poisoning and rotavirus, among other causes. But as soon as I saw her, I knew that something unusual was going on with Allison She K E L was clearly in distress and writhing on a stretcher She looked like she couldn’t get comfortable in any position A quick glance at the monitor next to her bedside showed her heart rate was 120 beats per minute, a sign of an acute medical problem I introduced myself, and we began to talk “When did this start? ” I asked “A while ago, ” she told me, shrugging. “What do you think triggered this? ” “I’m not sure, ” she said with a grimace I pressed her a bit “Something you ate? ” “Maybe,” she said. I noticed that Allison’s answers were both vague and unhelpful, and when we were talking, she did not make eye contact with me and looked at the floor In the silent minutes that followed, she sat up a bit and spat a mouthful of saliva into a paper cup, which I had not previously noticed, by her bedside Getting a bad feel ing, I also noticed for the first time that the front of her gown was damp from drool.
A Burning Question
CHES T PAIN , NAUSE A AND VOMI T ING B ROUGH T T HIS GR AD S T UDEN T TO T HE EMERGENCY ROOM . HER E VASIV E ANSWER S MADE I T CL E AR T HAT T HIS WAS NO ROU T INE S TOMACH PROB L EM .
V I TA L S I G N S 20 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M BY D O U G L A S G . A D L ER
But as soon as I saw her, I knew something unusual was going on with Allison.
Nairobi The Maasai had brought along an enormous chunk o f t a n z a n i t e a n d h e w a s l o o k i n g t o s e l l . H i s a s k i n g p r i c e ?
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Fifty dollars. But the gem cutter was suspicious and assumed that a stone so large could only be glass The cutter told the tribesman, no thanks, and sent him on his way Huge mistake It turns out that the gem was genuine and would have easily dwarfed the world’s largest cut tanzanite at the time Based on common pricing, that “chunk” could have been worth close to $3,000,000! The tanzanite gem cutter missed his chance to hit the jeweler’s jackpot and make history Would you have made the same mistake then? Will you make it today?
In the decades since its discovery, tanzanite has become one of the world’s most coveted gemstones. Found in only one remote place on Earth (in Tanzania’s Merelani Hills, in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro), the precious purple stone is 1,000 times rarer than diamonds Luxury retailers have been quick to sound the alarm, warning that supplies of tanzanite will not last forever. And in this case, they’re right. Once the last purple gem is pulled from the Earth, that’s it No more t a n z a n i t e M o s t b e l i e v e t h a t w e o n l y h a v e a t w e n t y y e a r supply left, which is why it’s so amazing for us to offer this incredible price break Some retailers along Fifth Avenue are more than happy to charge you outrageous prices for this rarity Not Stauer Staying true to our contrarian nature, we ’ ve decided to lower the price of one of the world’s rarest and most popular gemstones This stunning two total carat Sunburst Tanzanite Ring features marquise cut gems set dramatically in gorgeous sterling silver.
T his story breaks my heart every time Allegedly, just two years after the discovery of tanzanite in 1967, a Maasai t r i b e s m a n k n o c k e d o n t h e d o o r o f a g e m c u t t e r ’ s o f f i c e i n
following an ingestion of acid.) Either way, ingesting an agent of the opposite pH would only cause more discomfort and tissue injur y Anti inflammator y agents such as steroids have been tried in the past by physicians with patients in similar circumstances, but did not conclusively benefit the patients
A few weeks later, I saw Allison for a follow up. She was out of the hospital and doing well, both from a swallowing point of view and emotionally Fortunately, she did not appear to have developed any strictures and was making progress in therapy working with a counselor. A single decision on a bad day could have ended her life, but at least now she was headed in the right direction D Douglas G Adler is a gastroenterologist and director of the C enter for A dvanced Therapeutic Endo scopy in D enver The cases described in Vital Signs are real, but names and cer tain details have been changed. contain the same main ingredient: sodium hydroxide, or lye Sodium hydroxide is a potent alkali agent, the chemical opposite of an acid. Sodium hydroxide and other related alkali agents can literally dissolve living tissue and produce intense chemical burns Interestingly, people tend to swallow alkali agents more commonly simply because they can as in, they can literally get them down their throats In general, basic chemicals are easier to ingest than acids, as acids are more caustic on contact and cause people to spit them out before they can be swallowed Drooling is common after caustic ingestions; in Allison’s case, her spitting into a cup is what ultimately tipped me off.
K E L L I E J A E G E R / D I S C O V E R
Af ter an hour of intense cr ying, Allison found herself on the kitchen floor, rummaging through the bot tles under the sink
THROUGH TE AR S , Allison told me that she had awakened this morning to a text message from her boyfriend telling her he had found someone else and that their relationship was over. She was under the impression that they were soon to be engaged and was completely blindsided Alone in her apartment after an hour of intense cr ying, Allison found herself on the kitchen floor, rummaging through the bottles under the sink After deciding she wanted to die, she took five large swallows from an old container of liquid drain cleaner Within minutes, Allison felt extremely ill and started to have terrible chest pain as her esophagus began to burn Soon after, she was gagging and heaving uncontrollably Suddenly terrified, she quickly walked the few blocks to the ED of our hospital. Once she arrived, despite her distress, she was incredibly embarrassed by what she had done and feigned ignorance of the cause of her troubles
Other treatments used in some types of poisoning, like ingesting activated charcoal, don’t usually help much, either Allison was admitted to the intensive care unit for close obser va tion after being evaluated She was hydrated vigorously with intra venous fluids and not allowed to eat or drink The benefit of antibiotics to reduce the risk of infec tion and acid blocking agents such as omeprazole in caustic ingestion cases is unclear But, given the severity of the injur y, Allison was treated with both Over the next two weeks, and on several subsequent endoscopic exams I performed, the linings of her esophagus and stomach slowly began to heal Once these organs were on the road to recover y, Allison was transferred to an inpatient psychiatric hospital
FOLLOWING A LY E ingestion, patients are at risk for several long term troubles. The most common problem is the formation of narrow areas in the esophagus that make it hard to swallow These narrow areas, known as strictures, can arise as part of the natural healing process and are composed of dense scar tissue that can be ver y difficult to treat Some patients develop such severe strictures that they lose the ability to swallow and need to receive nourishment through feeding tubes or, in rare cases, have their entire esophagus removed. Patients who ingest lye also are at increased risk of developing esophageal cancer during their lifetime
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A little while later, I performed an upper endos copy on Allison and found evidence of severe chemi cal burns throughout her esophagus, with similar, although less intense, findings in her stomach Luckily, her esophagus had not been perforated and her vocal cords were uninjured Sometimes, patients with caustic ingestions burn their vocal cords and air way and require mechanical ventilation due to damage to their lungs Unfortunately, there is no antidote for patients following a caustic ingestion. While it seems intuitive that perhaps swallowing acid after an alkali ingestion could “neutralize” the offending agent, such is not the case (Nor is the opposite true
V I TA L S I G N S 2 2 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M
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Vik ing people (or Norsemen) have long been por trayed as cruel warriors whose way of life included litt le more t han pillaging and plundering. To be fair, t hey did engage in plent y of raiding: From A.D. 800 to t he 11t h centur y, many Scandinav ians depar ted what we now k now as Nor way, Sweden and Denmark in search of riches. Throughout much of Europe and as far as modern day Russia, Iceland and Nor t h America, t he nomadic sailors engaged in trade, exploration and war. But t he Vik ings a lso spent extended periods in foreign loca les, leav ing lasting marks of a rich cu lture t hat modern depictions often overlook. Marauders, brutes, barbaria ns: The fabled WERE THE E R S T ORY
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C OV
WHO
B O L D B U T perhaps not quite as bloodthirst y as legends (or pop culture) would have you think , V ikings were also great explorers and set tlers .
inland, or the “land of wine,” isn’t listed on any modern map A thousand years ago, however, it ser ved as the stage for a seminal moment in world histor y. Icelandic sagas record it as the place where, 500 years before Christopher Columbus ever sailed a ship, the Vikings became the first Europeans to set foot in the so called “New World,” even building a short lived settlement. By the late A.D. 980s, these Norse seafarers had already established colonies in Iceland and Greenland, the Atlantic steppingstones that brought them within range of the Canadian coast From there, according to the oral reports of the time (written down two centuries later in The Saga of the Greenlanders and The Saga of Erik the Red), the Vikings stumbled upon North America around A.D. 1000. O ver the next few decades, they made several expeditions to this new to them world They built homes, har vested resources, traded and clashed with the Native peoples Then, as quickly as they arrived, they abandoned Vinland The two accounts often differ. In The Saga of the Greenlanders, after the accidental sighting of unknown western lands, Leif Eriksson explores three distinct regions of Canada: Helluland, or “land of flat stones,” which was probably the barren Baffin Island; Markland, or “land of forests,” which was likely located A . D. 793 Firs t recorded V ik ing raid in England at Lindisfarne monas ter y. V ik ing Age begins . 834 The Oseberg V ik ing ship is buried at what later becomes Nor way ’s bes t preser ved ship burial site . 841 Norse V iking set tlers found Dublin . C . 860 V ik ings at tack Pisa, Italy. 862 As Francia’s defense increases in Wes tern Europe, V ik ing forces focus at tacks on England 866 During the time of the Great Army, Danish V ik ings take York in the nor th of England and es tablish a k ingdom . 872 Harald I claims kingship of Nor way A TIMELINE OF TRAVEL AND TERROR P
R E V O U S P A G E : L O R A D O / G E T T Y M A G E S T H I S P A G E L I G H T P H O T O / G E T T Y I M A G E S / I S T O C K P H O T O
V ik ing era ends . Atlantic Ocean Dublin Vinland Greenland Iceland Faroer Scandinavia Volga S taraya L adoga Novgorod Miklagard Normandy York K iev She tland 839 94 1 880 882 85 4 820 860 911 84 4 820 7 93 7 95 982 1000 N E W FO U N D L A N D ’ S L’Anse aux Meadows is the only verified V iking set tlement in Nor th America, but as the map at right shows , Norse explorers ranged (and raided) widely. VIKING VOYAGES
will
for nearly 30 more years . 1050 The
The first part of the word explains why this vast area so enticed the Vikings it was flush with wild grapes, the key ingredient in wine, which didn’t grow anywhere near their desolate homeland “A chieftain’s power in Norse society was based primarily on how he could show off and be ver y impres sive,” Wallace says. “Having wine would impress the hell out of anybody, because it was so rare. ” According to The Saga of the Greenlanders, Eriksson loaded his ship with grapes during his 911 Treat y grants the V ik ings a region of France k nown as Normandy, “land of the Nor thmen . ” C . 982 Erik the Red arrives in Greenland . As many as 3 ,0 0 0 V ik ings may have farmed here . 995 Olaf I as sumes the Nor wegian throne and at tempts to Chris tianize the k ingdom C . 1004 Thor finn Karlsefni journeys to V inland/ Nor th America to s tar t a colony (later abandoned) 1013 Danes led by Sweyn Fork beard conquer the k ingdom of England; his son and grandson rule cit y of K ris tiania later renamed Oslo Nor Conqueror
I C O N S B E L O W M O R E V E C T O R / S H U T T E R S T O C K M A P : K E L L E J A E G E R / D S C O V E R along the Labrador coast; and Vinland, a warm region in what is now the province of Newfoundland where Eriksson and a small crew wintered In The Saga of Erik the Red, Eriksson is por trayed as the accidental discoverer of Vinland, and an Icelandic merchant named Thorfinn Karlsefni is its explorer. Details aside, we now know these tales are at least broadly true: The Vikings did venture to North America in roughly the timeline the sagas describe, becoming the first people to bridge the world’s oldest cultural divide.
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way 1066 Bat tle of S tamford Bridge Anglo Sa xon K ing Harold is vic torious , but later defeated by Norman k ing William the
FOR CENTURIES , scholars lumped Vinland together with other fabled realms, like Atlantis or Avalon But archaeologists kept looking, and the search paid off in 1960 when Anne Stine Ingstad and Helge Ingstad of Nor way excavated a series of earthen structures located on Newfoundland’s northern edge, near the entrance to the Gulf of St Lawrence The site, L’Anse aux Meadows, proved to be of Norse origin To date, it’s the only verified Viking settlement on the continent It consists of eight timber frame buildings with thick walls of sod, built in the same style as Viking settlements in Greenland and Iceland. Some were dwellings, others forges and workshops. The digs uncovered evidence of iron production and ship repair, among other activities Experts estimate that this cluster of homes and workshops could have supported 70 to 90 people year round, and likely took at least two months to construct. Birgitta Wallace, a Swedish Canadian archaeologist who worked with the Ingstads and conducted further excavations for Parks Canada in the 1970s, is careful to note that there’s more to Vinland than this outpost. “Many people make the mistake of thinking that Vinland is just a point on the map, ” she says, “but it’s a land, the same as Greenland [or] Iceland It means a big area ”
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is founded in
WHAT RECENT TECHNOLOGICAL DE VELOPMENTS GUIDED YOUR RESE ARCH?
HOW THE VIKINGS TRANSFORMED ENGL AND
JR: The greatest impact has come about through metal detecting, which isn’ t a technology that archaeologists have traditionally used. Metal detectorists often know far more about where the Viking sites are than most archaeologists. Most of these sites are invisible on the sur face ; at Torksey, it was just sor t of six empt y fields. DH: We’ve done various t ypes of petrographic analysis of the potter y produced in Torksey, … when you take little slices out of the pot and look at its fine grained makeup under a microscope. We were able to make links with potter y industries on the [European] continent , in regions of nor thern France in the low countries where Viking army members had been before they came to England, and realized where the origins of that industr y came from.
More likely, a combination of factors forced the Vikings to sail back from whence they came Wallace notes that their home base in Greenland was meager itself, and it may have been unsustainable to use a far flung colony of just a few hundred to populate an even farther flung colony Climatic evidence has suggested their retreat also coincided with a cold snap and, likely, an advance of sea ice, making it difficult to travel between Greenland and Vinland.
THE NORSE ARMY’S EXTENDED RESIDENCE LEFT A PERMANENT MARK ON BRITISH LIFE.
He and his followers were also drawn to the timber, since Greenland has virtually no trees
Meanwhile, lake sediment samples collected near a former Norse farm hint that droughts prompted their sudden departure, according to a March 2022 Science Advances study. Either way, they were gathering resources from a location nearly as far from Greenland as Greenland was from Europe, their main source of trade Without the advantage of proximity, why reinvent the supply chain?
That, too, fits with the sagas the Vikings seem to have stayed at L’Anse aux Meadows for a few decades at most, then returned to Greenland For such a hardy culture that was capable of sur viving the harsh northern climate, it may seem strange that they failed in this relatively hospitable place. But experts have a few hypotheses to explain this
first voyage
L’ANSE AU X ME ADOWS , the only proof we ’ ve discovered that Vikings reached North America, matches the description of Straumfjord, the year round settlement that, according to The Saga of Erik the Red, the Vikings used as a launching point for deeper journeys into Vinland But if the saga rings true and there’s no reason to think it doesn’t, broadly speaking the Vikings built a second settlement and it remains undiscovered. Hóp (pronounced “hope”) was a seasonal site located
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GIVEN THE LONG -TERM architecture at L’Anse aux Meadows and the bounty surrounding it, Wallace says, “I think this was a place they intended to use for a long time But according to the archaeo logical evidence, they didn’t.”
One theor y claims that they were simply driven out by the Native peoples (whom they called Skraelings) a problem they never faced in uninhabited Greenland and Iceland Indeed, this is the reason given by The Saga of Erik the Red Though trade between the two groups began amicably, the situation quickly devolved, and it seems the Vikings more or less fled in “ a great shower of missiles.” After a deadly skirmish with the Natives, the saga states, they “ were now of the opinion that though the land might be choice and good, there would be always war and terror overhanging them, from those who dwelt there before them.”
Although the Vikings didn’ t reach the “New World” until nearly the turn of the first millennium A .D., they had already made their presence felt in the British Isles, beginning with sporadic raids in the eighth centur y and continuing in the ninth centur y with the arrival of a massive force the Great Army that occupied par ts of England for over a decade. Archaeologists Julian Richards and Dawn Hadley, authors of the book The Viking Great A rmy and the Making of England ( Thames & Hudson, 2021), discuss why the Vikings’ protracted stay in Britain between A .D. 865 and 878 transformed both medieval Norse culture and English life as we know it. Their research pieces together previous finds, including a wealth of objects recovered at the Great Army camp at Torksey in eastern England.
Of all the artifacts at L’Anse aux Meadows, only one may speak to the relations between Vikings and Native Americans: a single arrowhead lodged in the wall of a house Of course, it’s impossible to say whether it arrived there directly via bow, or whether it already existed within a piece of sod the Vikings used in building the house.
VIKINGS! Scan this code for more : Why Did Greenland’s Norse Colonies Mysteriously Vanish?
HOW DID THE VIKINGS’ TIME IN ENGL AND DIFFER FROM THEIR OTHER TRAVEL S?
HOW DID THE VIKINGS INFLUENCE THE GROW TH OF INDUSTRY IN ENGL AND? JR: Some of the later industrial developments, par ticularly metalworking, that had been happening in the urban centers were clearly using [ Viking] traditions. Our main evidence comes in the form of potter y because it sur vived so well archaeologically. Before the arrival of the Viking army in the ninth centur y, potter y making in Anglo Saxon England tended to be localized, handmade and fairly crude. … It can’ t be coincidence that a series of potter y industries appear in the late ninth and early 10th centur y in a number of English towns, almost all places that we know were visited by the Vikings. Torksey is the great example : We have this winter camp and apparently within a decade of that known date, this major potter y industr y develops. MOLLY GLICK
WHAT HA S YOUR RESE ARCH FOR THIS BOOK RE VE ALED ABOUT THE VIKINGS’ BROADER TRADE NE T WORK S? DH: It shows the interconnectedness of Viking trading networks The silver [found at Torksey] had been acquired from the Arabic world, perhaps in exchange for furs, amber or slaves, and made its way, presumably, through the trading networks of the Russian river system JR: One interesting factor is the speed at which some of these items were traveling. We’ve got dirhams [silver coins] which we know were minted in Asia and the Middle East The Viking Great Army arrived in England in [A .D.] 865. They ’re indicating continuing connections. It ’s not as if all that silver arrived with them.
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DH: Vikings seem to respond variably to the circumstances in which they find themselves. The Viking Great Army was minting coins [in England], but we don’ t see that in Ireland, Wales or Scotland at this time because Indigenous rulers there didn’ t use coinages WHY WERE THE TORK SE Y CAMP FINDINGS PARTICUL ARLY IMPORTANT FOR THIS BOOK , AND OUR BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF THE VIKINGS? JR: There’d been a view among some historians that the scale of the Viking Great Army had been exaggerated in the written sources [by Anglo Saxon clerics] that we had. The significance of Torksey is on two levels : It ’s par tly the scale of the camp, over 50 hectares, so it was a massive order of magnitude The other aspect is the t ypes of activities going on, that it wasn’ t just raiding. There was a lot of trading manufacture going on, and probably a presence of women and children in the camp. JR: It demonstrates the remarkable amount of wealth that must have been around in the form of gold and silver. It throws a ver y different light on the economy at the time.
H VA L S E Y C H U R C H , Greenland, represents some of the best preser ved ruins of a Norse set tlement . O ther V iking outposts , likely built of less sturdy materials , have been harder to find
J R P O L / W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S
Other researchers have proposed locations along the Atlantic seaboard, as far south as Maine, B oston and New York But wherever Hóp once stood, Wallace doubts any trace remains As a light, temporar y settlement, it likely wasn’t sturdy enough to be detectable centuries later In 2016, Sarah Parcak, a University of Alabama archaeologist who uses satellite imager y to locate buried structures, discovered what seemed like a promising lead at Point Rosee on the southwest end of Newfoundland. While digging, her team found iron, but it turned out to be the kind that develops naturally in bogs, rather than being smelted Since then, the search hasn’t brought any progress S o, Wallace argues, Hóp may continue to elude us. “I think it would be extremely hard to find any kind of physical evidence,” she says “And that’s a pity, but I certainly wouldn’t pay for an excavation ” Nevertheless, archaeologists amateur and professional are on the lookout, especially in New Brunswick and Nova S cotia And whatever future searches do or don’t reveal about the Norse in North America, one thing is certain: “People love Vikings,” Wallace says, adding that the subject is still ripe for research. Fifty years after she began work at L’Anse aux Meadows, she still keeps up on all the latest scholarly articles “Ever y day I find one that is absolutely worth reading ” CODY COT TIER
farther south, where the Vikings collected timber and grapes in the summer Archaeologists have found no sign of it, but the sagas offer a few clues: B esides grapes, it was rich in salmon, and the Natives made boats of animal hide Based on those criteria, Wallace is confident Hóp was somewhere in modern day eastern New Brunswick, likely in the area around Miramichi and Chaleur Bay It’s the northernmost extent of the wild grape range, along with the butternut trees whose wood has been found at L’Anse aux Meadows
V I K I N G S E M PLOY E D impressive handiwork in their garments , even embroidering them with silk , as shown in these reconstruc tions (based on samples from high status graves) .
S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 31 O P P O S I T E P A G E : R O B E R T O F O R T U N A / N A T I O N A L M U S E U M O F D E N M A R K T H S P A G E : S O F I E K R A F F T / M U S E U M O F C U L T U R A L H S T O R Y / U N I V E R S T Y O F O S L O
S T R I P S O F S I L K , found in the remains of the Oseburg ship burial mound, may have been purchased from Persia .
ovies and T V shows have popularized the view of Scandinavia’s Vikings as grimy combatants In the 1999 film The 13th Warrior, for example, you’ll find plenty who look like they could use a bath. The stereotype of grubby Vikings (and the movie’s plot) stems from an account by Arab traveler Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who may have exaggerated the “dirty” appear ance of Swedish Vikings to entertain readers And the pagan warriors’ attacks on Christian monasteries no doubt cemented their barbarous reputation. Meanwhile, screen depictions like Netflix’s The Last Kingdom series have gone too far in the other direction and overstate the opulence of the Vikings with highly decorated costumes. In real ity, most Vikings were Middle Ages farm ers who wore simple, durable clothing, says Ulla Mannering, an archaeologist who researches North European textiles and costumes at the National Museum of Denmark And while a select few enjoyed more ritzy lifestyles and engaged in ferocious battles and exciting trades abroad, even their appearances would seem fairly plain to today’s audiences. “I don't think the Viking Age or prehistor y itself was particularly fancy,” Mannering says. “It would probably not satisfy our modern eye. ” Here’s what we know (and don’t) about Norseman clothing, grooming and accessories
WHILE COSTUMES may look extravagant on screen, they don’t always align with historical evidence Most knowledge of Viking clothing comes from decayed, fragmented samples found in graves and bogs, but research ers do have a general sense of their style. Composed mostly of flax and wool, the clothing likely involved ver y basic shapes Hollywood has made the mistake of including modern looking knitwear, while recovered garments are far coarser than today’s weavings Unlike current fast fashion, these pieces were built to last. Garments were probably passed down from high class wearers to lower class counterparts, Mannering says or they were simply stolen and repurposed Most women stuck to thick, strap style dresses topped with a sturdy cloak. Men liked to layer, too, often with a long tunic and trousers under cloaks This was helpful when heat sources were scarce, Mannering says, and a layer of breathable linen under wool provided warmth while preventing excessive sweating As for footwear, Vikings may have donned leather boots that were fairly easy to manufacture, but it isn’t clear how often they actually wore these shoes (which may have been quite slipper y on the grass and dirt) The modest look held up regardless of class, as proven by a recent garment reconstruction from two 10th centur y high status individuals’ graves in Denmark The embroider y in these find ings were highly unusual, Mannering says, even for expensive clothing; it might have been rec ycled from a wall hanging O verall, be war y when shows like the Histor y Channel’s Vikings suggests that the most affluent Vikings strutted around with detailed stitching and tight, complex clothing patterns
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The Vikings reigned and roamed throughout the Middle Ages, a time known for its lack of sur viving written records Still, we can study other traces left behind from their settlements and conquests with the help of the latest technology.
Another modern technique archaeologists use to study Vikings is 3D laser scanning The process is non destructive and versatile , providing scientists with 3D models of ancient ar tifacts . Archaeologists used the technique to create models of ornate Viking Age brooches from Scandinavia and Russia, which help them analy ze how the brooches were made , what tools the Vikings used and the ar twork that adorns them 3DNA ANALYSIS This provide s some insight s into the Vikings ’ genetic inf luence within the countrie s the y visited. Re searchers sequenced the genome s of over 4 00 humans from archaeological site s acro ss Europe and Greenland to understand the inf luence of the Viking voyage s and settlement s , and found that a Viking expedition included clo se famil y members . The y also discovered an inf lu x of Danish gene s into England, Nor we gian gene s into Ireland and Swedish gene s into the Baltic all helping to confirm records of the Vikings ’ journe y s . LYDIA RIVERS D S C A ON R I G I N A L
C L O C K W S E F R O M T O P L E F T : E L L E N C H O L T E / M U S E U M O F C U L T U R A L H I S T O R Y / U N V E R S T Y O F O S L O R O B E R T O F O R T U N A / N A T O N A L M U S E U M O F D E N M A R K ; P R I N T C O L L E C T O R / G E T T Y M A G E S ; R O G E R H W H I T E A N D M A R T I N C O O P E R ( 2 )
MODERN TECH FO R VIKING DISCOVERIES
Researchers use 3D laser scanning to replicate and study ar tifac ts like this V iking Age grave marker.
The Viking Age was characterized by international trade , including that of ivor y, luxur y furs and skins . Mass spectrometr y, which can provide valuable analysis of molecular compounds in a given sample , makes possible the identification of the specific animals from which Danish Vikings made tunics and clothes This shows us that the Norsemen often crafted their garments from the skin of domesticated species . 2 3D L ASER SCANNING
The Scandinavians applied fine craftsmanship to their coats and cloaks, some of which were made of furs hunted from far northern regions, and were considered lavish. “ There’s a clash in visuals because we have an idea that if you are a tough Viking, you will look even tougher with a skin thrown over your shoulder,” Mannering says. “But Vikings, with the capacity of wearing a real fur garment, would never just have a half made item like that.” Unfortunately, it’s unclear exactly what colors the Vikings wore We have proof of red, blue and yellow dyes (which could also be used use to make green and purple), Mannering says. But researchers aren’t sure how commonly used each was and how they were sourced Some unearthed textiles no longer carr y traces of dye, which complicates the myster y. And while some portrayals give the impression that the Viking popula tion rejected baths, evidence shows that they likely prioritized hygiene. Archaeologists have uncovered artifacts like combs, razors, tweezers and ear spoons to clean ear wax. The Vikings also concocted an early form of shampoo ACCORDING TO both written sources and archaeological finds, Vikings were big on accessories. Many wore belts equipped with handy tools for either expeditions or farming They were also keen on bling, sporting necklaces and arm rings made of wood, glass and gold. In their burials, well traveled Vikings made sure to flaunt jewelr y brought from places like North Africa, the Middle East and India. M.G I N A D D I T I O N TO ornate swords , V ikings created luxurious accessories this wrist cuff includes silk , silver and gold threads and high qualit y leather boots , such as this 10 th centur y example.
1MASS SPECTROME TRY
They aren’t alone Today, tens of thousands of non native species thrive in U.S. lands and waters. Of those, nearly 6,500 are considered invasive meaning they cause ecological or economic harm as they spread These invaders, which often lack natural predators to keep them in check, wreak more environmental, health related and financial damage each year than all other natural disasters combined And it’s likely to get worse As regions ever ywhere become warmer due to our changing climate, they become more hospitable to invasive species, while expanding global trade perpetuates their spread
This daunting eco challenge has sparked a culinar y solution: Transform non native plants and animals into something delicious and add them to our menus The movement could put a dent in invasive populations while inventing some fun new meals too. Plenty of restaurants, food suppliers and adventurous eaters have heeded the call and shared some suggestions to get you started
T H I S P A G E D M T R 1 C H / S H U T T E R S T O C K O P P O S I T E P A G E : H L A V K O M / D R E A M S T M E 3 4 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M I NVAS IVE
EATS TH E SE N I N E PL AN TS AN D AN I MAL S C AUSE BI LLIO NS O F D O LL ARS O F DAMAGE I N TH E U.S . LU CKI LY FO R TH E E CO M I N D ED, TH E Y ’R E AL SO D ELICIO US .
BY MARISA SLOAN G athered in a vineyard near Wren, Oregon, hungr y guests eyed a buf fet littered with culinar y oddities: Wild nettle crescent buns featuring mustard blossom butter Fennel blackberr y gelato. French style ale brewed with the wildflower Queen Anne’s lace. Welcome to the Institute for Applied Ecolog y ’ s annual invasive species cook off Andrew Esterson, the institute’s habitat restoration program director, ser ved up his tried and true chile verde, but sidelined the traditional pork for something less expected: swamp rat, a semi aquatic rodent also known as nutria or coypu. “ The meat was actually lovely, it was this dark purple red color,” Esterson says of the novel protein “If you add enough spices and peppers to anything, it’s probably going to taste pretty good And it turned out to be delicious ” Delicious enough, in fact, to win first place in the savor y meat categor y of the 2018 competi tion But nutria (along with ever y other dish at the cook off ) shouldn’t be here, geographically speaking Native to South America, the rodents were introduced to North America by fur farmers in the 20th centur y. By the time the international fur market collapsed in the 1980s, nutria had gained a reputation as insatiable pests burrowing into irrigation structures, spread ing disease and destroying the eggs and nests of waterbirds
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T H E B R OW N garden snail is considered one of the most destructive pests in gardens and landscapes , with a preference for citrus trees and fruit
For thousands of years, pe ople hailing f rom Eas tern and S ou theas tern A sia have c onsume d i t s root s, which make up 4 0 perc ent of the total plant , as a s taple f ood and herbal me dicine today calle d “ longevi t y powder ” or “A sian ginseng.” S o long as they haven’ t c ome into c ontac t wi th herbicide s, tos s the leave s into a soup or salad; pickle the grape sc ente d purple f lowers or transf orm them into jellie s and syrups; or use the s tarchy root s as a glu ten f re e al ternative to wheat f lour in your favori te soup → TRY IT YOUR SELF ANNUAL DAMAGE FROM INVA SIVE S OVER THE PA ST DEC ADE IN THE U. S.
Kudzu hails from Asia but was introduced to the U S as an orna mental plant at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
3 6 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M C L O C K W S E F R O M T O P L E F T S W E E T M A R S H M A L L O W / S H U T T E R S T O C K M S N D E R / S H U T T E R S T O C K ; J I A N G H O N G Y A N / S H U T T E R S T O C K
For most of the next centur y, farmers cultivated the leaf y vine en masse to feed livestock and reduce soil erosion Government agencies even funded the effort and provided over 85 million seedlings, while danger lurked in their aggressive growth rate
Kudzu quashes native plant species, even entire trees, by smothering them from sunlight. Growing at a staggering rate of 1 foot per day, it didn’t take long for the killer vine to outgrow the farmland where it was first cul tivated. Although it’s known as “the vine that ate the South,” the species has so far been reported in forests across 31 states, as far north as New York and as far west as Hawaii, according to a mapping system developed by the University of Georgia K U D Z U 2
$26 BILLION E STIMATED
G A R D E N S N A I L I n t h e s o u t h e a s t U . S . o r a l o n g t h e W e s t a n d E a s t c o a s t s , g r a b a c l o t h b a g f o r a n e v e n i n g o r m o r n i n g s t r o l l t h r o u g h y o u r y a r d . S n a i l s f o u n d i n t h e f a l l a r e t h o u g h t t o b e t h e t a s t i e s t , b u t t h e y ’ r e a l s o a b u n d a n t i n t h e s p r i n g . J u s t r i n s e t h e m a n d b o i l f o r a f e w m i n u t e s t o a c c e s s t h e m e a t . → TRY IT YOUR SELF
The brown garden snail is native to the Mediterranean region and Western Europe. Now, however, the mollusk is one of the most widely spread land snails in the world and considered invasive in parts of the U.S. and Canada. In many cases, the living escargot was deliberately imported from Europe for food and farming (and for the occasional hobby ist’s snail collection). French immigrants, for example, introduced the snail to California as food during the 1850s Just a half centur y later, many Californians deemed the brown garden snail a pest in citrus orchards. It’s also a major threat to vineyards, garden flow ers, grain and other agricultural industr y sectors To combat them, farmers turn to pruning, poison and even the predator y decollate snail which carries the risk of introducing further harm to an ecosystem 1
3 T O P : P H O T O C E C H C Z / S H U T T E R S T O C K I N S E T : S T O C K C R E A T I O N S / S H U T T E R S T O C K W I L D B O A R
I f y o u a r e n ’ t m u c h o f a h u n t e r , p l e n t y o f b r i c k a n d m o r t a r a n d o n l i n e s h o p s o f f e r w i l d b o a r m e a t , s a i d t o b e m o r e d e l i c i o u s t h a n d o m e s t i c p o r k d u e t o i t s l e a n e r b o d y. Tr y i t i n r a g o u t o r h e a d l i n i n g a b a r b e c u e s l i d e r
→ TRY IT YOUR SELFWild boars are native to Eurasia, but can now be found on ever y continent except Antarctica. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the boar was introduced to the States in the early 1900s for private hunting. Similarly, domestic pigs were introduced by settlers as a food source in the 1500s Today, feral swine are typically hybrids of these Eurasian wild boars and pigs that have escaped captivity. The population, which is most concentrated across California and the southern U.S., is now estimated to exceed 6 million. Just keep in mind that this is not your typical pig. The tusked and perni cious porkers are responsible for over $1.5 billion in annual damage to U.S. grassland and forest ecosystems and crops, according to the U S Department of Agriculture. They can also host a huge variety of viruses, bacteria and parasites
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Nowadays, its invasion into more than 50 countries can be attributed to the international frog trade and the practice of frog farming the U S and European Union are some of the largest importers. It’s a big issue, mainly because the frog is also a vector for the chytrid fungus, implicated in the extinc tion of nearly 100 other frog species I f y o u ’ r e s e e k i n g a l e g t o n i b b l e o n , e x p e r t s r e c o m m e n d a g a i n s t b u y i n g f a r m e d o r n a t i v e f r o g . S e e k o u t a s t r e a m o r s w a m p w h e r e b u l l f r o g s a r e i n v a s i v e B a c k i n y o u r k i t c h e n , a d d t h e m e a t t o a w o k w i t h t e r i y a k i s a u c e a n d v e g g i e s , o r d r e d g e i t i n b e e r b a t t e r a n d d e e p f r y i t C a j u n s t y l e → TRY IT YOUR SELF I C A N B
F R O M L E F T S F / S H U T T E R S T O C K ; M O T H / D R E A M S T I M E 3 8 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M
Scattered from Brazil to New York, without any natural predators or parasites, lionfish populations reach concentra tions five to 15 times greater than in their native waters of the South Pacific and Indian oceans. En masse, they can obliterate communities of native fish Rumors persist that the invasion began with a shattered aquarium during Hurricane Andrew in 1992, but evidence suggests they were introduced no later than 1985 at a site along Dania B each, Florida. Today, hunting lionfish has become a recreation of sorts The international Reef Environmental Education Foundation has hosted annual “Lionfish Derbies” since 2010, awarding prizes to those who spear the largest and small est fish and the greatest quantity while diving and snorkeling. (Top catches have measured in just over 18 inches.) And ever since the Seafood Watch sustainability program gave a green light for consumption in 2016, grocer y stores like Whole Foods have offered tasty lionfish filets to their customers c i e s f o r a n y o n e c u r i o u s a b o u t e a t i n g i n v a s i v e s . I t s f i r m , w h i t e m e a t i s r e m i n i s c e n t o f g r o u p e r , w i t h a m i l d , b u t t e r y f l a v o r A n d y o u p r e p a r e i t j u s t l i k e o t h e r f i s h a f t e r a f i s h m o n g e r r e m o v e s i t s v e n o m o u s s p i n e s . ( T h e v e n o m c a n s t a y a c t i v e a f t e r t h e f i s h d i e s , s o h a n d l e w i t h c a u t i o n ! ) G r i l l i t , s t e w i t , b a k e i t i n b r e a d c r u m b s o r r o l l i t i n t o a r o u l a d e .
Frog legs were com monly eaten in Southern China as early as the first centur y A D On the other side of the world, the Aztecs partook as well. In Europe, the first mention of the food comes from the Catholic Church in 12th centur y France, when hungr y monks abstaining from meat catego rized the amphibian as a fish
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The American bullfrog is found natively in the lakes, ponds and wetlands of eastern North America To the west of the Rockies as well as parts of Central and South America, Western Europe and Asia the species is considered invasive There, the bullfrog ambushes and eats anything that will fit in its mouth: insects, crustaceans, fishes, birds, reptiles, even other amphibians
L I O N F I S H 4 C o n s e r v a t i o n b i o l o g i s t J o e R o m a n d e s c r i b e s l i o n f i s h a s a g a t e w a y s p e
The green iguana is native to Central and South America and parts of the Caribbean, but the pet trade is to blame for its invasion of Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands toward the turn of the 21st centur y. Young green iguanas are com monly purchased as pets due to their small size, affordable price tag and low cost of maintenance But the cute critters don’t stay small forever. They can grow up to 6 feet in length and quickly outgrow the homes that once wanted them. Turned loose and now running rampant (and reproducing) by the thousands in South Florida, the green iguana devours landscaping and digs burrows that degrade sidewalks, canals and seawalls Although primarily herbivores, they also threaten endangered species such as tree snails and the Miami Blue butterfly. In Puerto Rico, populations have been known to take over sunny airport run ways and cause flight delays or, in worse circumstances, damage aircrafts 6
T O P : K U R I T A F S H E N / S H U T T E R S T O C K I N S E T : K E A D P R A W A T S O N J O Y / S H U T T E R S T O C K
E a t i n g i g u a n a i s n o t h i n g n e w C o m m u n i t i e s i n S o u t h a n d C e n t r a l A m e r i c a h a v e e a t e n t h e n a t i v e “c h i c k e n o f t h e t r e e s ” s i n c e p r e c o l o n i a l t i m e s . I n F l o r i d a , n o h u n t i n g l i c e n s e o r p e r m i t i s n e e d e d f o r c a p t u r i n g a n d k i l l i n g t h e l i z a r d . I f y o u ’ r e h a n k e r i n g f o r a t a s t e , s k i n t h e i g u a n a o r d i p i t i n h o t w a t e r t o s c r a p e o f f i t s s c a l e s T h e n b o i l i n s a l t w a t e r f o r h a l f a n h o u r b e f o r e r o a s t i n g o r s t e w i n g t o y o u r h e a r t ’ s d e s i r e .
→ TRY IT YOUR SELF G R E E N I G U A N A
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T h e n e x t t i m e a d a n d e l i o n c r o p s u p i n y o u r l a w n , t r y t r a n s f e r r i n g i t t o y o u r k i t c h e n i n s t e a d To s s i t s a r u g u l a l i k e l e a v e s i n t o a s a l a d r a w, o r b o i l o r s a u t é t h e m . U s e i t s b r i g h t y e l l o w b l o s s o m s t o m a k e a d a n d e l i o n t e a o r w i n e , o r t r y i n f u s i n g t h e m i n o i l . E v e n t h e r o o t s a r e e d i b l e a n d c a n b e t r a n s f o r m e d i n t o a t a s t y d r i n k s i m i l a r t o c o f f e e
D
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→ BAL ANCING AC T OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND If you’re already itching to purchase some lionfish filets, remember that the goal is not to get hooked permanently on a new cuisine , says Mar tin Nuñez , an ecologist at the Universit y of Houston. He warns that a rise in demand could generate market pressure to maintain a species or even spread it to other regions . Even if consumers keep this in mind, some species looking at you, dandelions will likely never be eaten to total ex tinction. Yet functional eradication, or limiting invasives to levels that cause the least ecological harm, is feasible with a little public outreach, says conser vation biologist Joe Roman, founder of the educational website Eat the Invader s. He suggests newcomers to the invasivore movement forage for native and non native species in their own backyards before exploring supermarket aisles S T O P D U S A N Z I D A R / D R E A M S T I M E I N S E T L E D Y X / S H U T T E R S T O C K A N D E L I O N Step aside, flower crowns. There’s another use for dandelions, the perennial herb native to Europe and Asia and considered aggressively invasive in gardens, lawns and meadows worldwide In North America, the dandelion was introduced during European settlement both intentionally and accidentally. German physician and botanist Leonhard Fuchs described it in the 16th centur y as a miracle medication for ever ything from gout and diarrhea to spleen and liver issues More recent research identifies other health benefits of eating the plant, including antioxidant activity, anti inflammator y activity and blood sugar regulation. Despite its nutritious value and low ecological impact on native ecosystems, dandelions are now considered a nuisance by many The weed’s fluff y seeds are capable of spreading up to 60 miles via the wind; and once it has rooted, good luck removing the 10 to 15 feet of dandelion roots without spreading more seeds. NOT ALL NON NATIVE SPECIE S ARE INVA SIVE . IN FACT, CORN AND WHE AT, T WO OF THE HIGHE ST YIELD CROPS IN THE U. S., CAME FROM OVERSE A S, JUST LIKE MANY OF THE SE INVA SIVE S.
The crustacean was first seen thousands of miles from home near Delaware Bay in 1988, but it likely arrived years before then via ballast water of a cargo ship. O ver the next 15 years, the population exploded until it became the dominant crab along the intertidal coastline of the U S , from North Carolina to Maine
A S I A N S H O R E C R A B
Asian shore crabs originated in the temperate and subtropical regions of the western Pacific
F R O M L E F T : D A V I D E B O N O R A / S H U T T E R S T O C K ; M A R E M A R T I N / G E T T Y I M A G E S / I S T O C K P H O T O
The Asian shore crab is responsible for displacing a variety of other crab species, according to a 2003 study published in Nor theastern Naturalist, including mud crabs and the previously invasive green crab Biologists attribute its success to an impres sive spawning season (it breeds for twice as long as many native crabs) and its ability to outcompete other species for space and food. Although only about the size of a quarter, there isn’t much that the opportunistic glutton won’t consume if it’s physically capable of doing so, including mollusks and other crustaceans D
The Asian giant hornet, also known as the “murder hornet,” has made headlines as the world’s largest hornet It originates from parts of southeast Asia and eastern Russia, but was recently detected in North America for the first time; a 2020 study conducted by Tianjin Normal University and Washington State University researchers identified swaths of the Pacific Northwest as prime real estate for the hornets in the next two decades if left unchecked. No one knows how they were introduced, but it’s all hands on deck to prevent the insects from spreading further The U S Department of Agriculture allocated nearly $1 million to research and eradication efforts in its 2021 budget, and for good reason A group of 30 Asian giant hornets can wipe out a colony of 30,000 honeybees in less than four hours And one 2020 study in Pest Management Science predicted the invasive species could threaten as many as 100,000 honeybee colo nies and cost the U S an estimated $114 million in hive derived products and bee pollinated crops l i c a c y. A l o n g w i t h o t h e r w a s p s p e c i e s , i t s l a r v a e a r e o f t e n j a r r e d , p a n f r i e d o r s t e a m e d w i t h r i c e . T h e a d u l t h o r n e t s , c o m i n g i n a t a r o u n d 2 i n c h e s l o n g , a r e f r i e d o n s k e w e r s B u t f o r s o m e r e a l p e p , t r y a l i q u o r f e a t u r i n g t h e i r v e n o m m a d e b y l i v e h o r n e t s r e l e a s i n g t h e p o i s o n a s t h e y d r o w n i n a d i s t i l l e d d r i n k c a l l e d s h o c h u ( T B D i f A m e r i c a n s w i l l e v e r t a k e t o d u n k i n g t h e i n s e c t s i n t h e i r w h i s k y. ) → TRY IT YOUR SELF 9 To c u r b t h e i r p o p u l a t i o n , t a k e a p a g e o u t o f t h e i r b o o k . T h e A s i a n s h o r e c r a b c a n b e f o u n d i n c l u s t e r s u n d e r r o c k s a n d i n t i d e p o o l s a t l o w t i d e . A m e r i c a n a u t h o r a n d j o u r n a l i s t R o w a n J a c o b s e n h a s d e s c r i b e d i t , w h e n f r i e d w h o l e , a s a c r i s p y D o r i t o w i t h l e g s . T h a t ’ s r i g h t e v e n t h e s h e l l a n d a p p e n d a g e s a r e e d i b l e .
8 A S I A N G I A N T H O R N E T I n s o m e r e g i o n s o f J a p a n , t h e m u r d e r h o r n e t i s c o n s i d e r e d a d e
→ TRY IT YOUR SELF
As the most familiar planet and perhaps the strangest Earth gives us insight into the forces that shaped our solar system, revealing clues about how rocky planets form and evolve Studying Earth lets us walk before we run, testing techniques and technologies in a familiar setting before sending them to other worlds. But the more we learn, the more we see that our planet is one of the weirdest places we ’ ve ever encountered, uniquely shaped and forever altered by the life forms it sustains.
E VERY PL ANE T IN our solar system formed from the same ingredients: gas and dust in the solar nebula around our nascent sun. The inner planets assembled closer to our star, where temperatures were warmer, meaning volatiles elements that turn into a gas at low temperatures were rare As a result, these planets are largely rocky, with atmospheres and surface water that came much later, released through geologic processes or delivered by impacts
Although their sizes, compositions, and dis tances from the sun differ, the basic processes that formed and shaped Mercur y, Venus, Earth, and Mars can be read in the rocks right under our feet. “ The same physics apply on all the planets,” says Rebecca Ghent, a senior scientist at the Planetar y Science Institute whose current work focuses on the geolog y of Earth, the moon, and Mars. It’s the ways in which those physics play out, she says, as well as which ingredients are available on each planet, that create the differences that provide vital clues about planetar y evolution.
All the terrestrial planets, she says, are subject to gravity driven effects such as cratering, sedimentation, and landslides; interior driven processes such as volcanism; and processes driven by water on or below the surface. Taken together, “comparative studies of the planets can tell us lots more about the underlying processes than we can learn from studying a single planet in isolation,” Ghent says. Essentially, instead of starting from scratch to understand a given world, scientists can apply their knowledge of how processes work on one planet (say, Earth) to extrapolate how they work somewhere else. This is called comparative planetolog y, and it’s a valuable first step when looking out across the solar system “ Terrestrial analogues and how we can study specific locations on Earth and apply that knowl edge to places that seem completely unterrestrial, like [Saturn’s moon] Titan or certain places like Mars or Venus, are all really important,”
says A S RE SE ARCHER S S T R I V E T O UNDER S TAND OUR S OL AR SYS T EM, T HERE ’S A P ERFEC T L A BOR AT ORY RIGH T UNDER OUR FEE T. 42 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M N A S A EARTH PL ANET T OO! I S A BY ALISON KLE SMAN
n 2022, NASA celebrated 25 con secutive years of Mars exploration the longest humankind has continuously monitored another planet. But there’s a key phrase in that statement that’s easy to overlook: another planet Even as planetar y scientists strive to understand the fellow planets circling our sun, it’s worth remembering that we have the perfect scientific testbed right at our fingertips
I N H AWA I I , researchers simulate a manned Mars mission, collec ting geologic samples in landscapes similar to regions of Mars . Training on E ar th allows future astronauts to learn how to best achieve their goals before set ting foot on another world
GEOLOGY ISN ’ T the only feature researchers can compare between planets. On Earth, weather prediction and climate modeling have become integral to our daily lives O ver the past several decades, meteorologists have developed sophisticated models based on advanced obser vations of how our atmosphere works While Earth’s atmosphere certainly contains a different mix of ingredients than its neighbors, both near and far, the underlying physics that govern how an atmosphere acts remain the same “Climate models that have been created for the Earth are now increasingly being
E N R O U T E TO T H E M O O N , the Apollo 17 crew captured one of the most iconic images of our planet Dec . 7, 197 2 .
4 4 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M C L O C K W S E F R O M T O P : N A S A C A R L A T H O M A S / N A S A ; J I M R O O S / N A S A
Matthew Chojnacki, a research scientist also at the Planetar y Science Institute and a participant in the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, orbiting Mars SOME TIMES , PROCESSES are no longer active but have left signs of their presence, Ghent says Based on how the presence of water has changed Earth’s landscape over time, scientists have identified widespread evidence of flowing surface water on Mars in the planet’s past. One such place is the river delta preser ved inside Jezero Crater, where NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down in Februar y of 2021 John Mustard of Brown University chaired the Mars 2020 mission’s Science Definition Team and is one of many planetar y scientists studying the site Among other features of interest, Jezero contains the mineral magnesite, whose formation suggests the region has been altered by water Furthermore, “Some magnesite deposits on the Earth are tightly coupled to a biological setting,” Mustard says, making Jezero an intriguing location to search for signs of ancient life one of the rover ’ s four main science objectives Meanwhile, Perseverance’s predecessor, Curiosity, has shown researchers that Gale Crater, an ancient lakebed, once experienced conditions akin to modern day Iceland. To make the find, published in 2021 in JGR Planets, researchers compared soil formed in various locations on Earth to the readings sent back from the rover. “Earth provided an excellent laborator y for us in this study,” said co author Kirsten Siebach of Rice University in a press release announcing the discover y. “ The range of climates on Earth allowed us to calibrate our thermometer for measuring the temperature on ancient Mars ”
N A S A’ S A I R B O R N E obser vatories include a DC 8 (lef t), whose instruments can be swapped out for different missions; and the E R 2 (right) a modified U2 spy plane able to reach altitudes up to 70,0 0 0 feet
that are difficult or impossible to make from low
S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 4 5 R O E N K E L L Y / D I S C O V E R adapted to look at other planets: Mars, even the gas giants and exoplanets,” says Richard Eckman, program manager for NASA’s Atmospheric Modeling and Analysis Program Eckman also ser ves as the earth science representative to the cross divisional exoplanets science program at NASA. This group, he says, seeks to bet ter understand exoplanets by exploiting the similarities between obser ving our planet and, as technolog y progresses, obser ving planets around other stars. “We are able to test the models on Earth, and we have some confidence in [the] physics and parameterizations and so forth,” he says. “Obviously, for the gas giants and these other ver y different kinds of atmospheres, I think that there’s a lot of adaptation that’s done But for terrestrial like planets, certainly Mars and terrestrial exoplanets, the modifica tions are more straightfor ward.”
DESPITE THE many benefits of using Earth as a laborator y, the comparison eventually breaks down. “Venus, Earth, and Mars are on a continuum, where you have major changes in temperature, you have major changes in atmospheric pressure and atmospheric composition, and those bring some serious chal lenges to not just operating in those environments, but also in comparing the different geologic processes that are occurring there, because they’re not exact,” Chojnacki says. For example, Mars today experiences a carbon dioxide c ycle, while Earth supports a water c ycle But because water and carbon dioxide behave differ ently especially under martian and terrestrial conditions the two c ycles are similar but not directly comparable Similarly, while martian winds sculpt the landscape just as terrestrial winds do, Mars’ atmosphere is much thinner and its winds subsequently much weaker “You don’t see sand dunes migrating [on Mars] like they do in Eg ypt, for example,” Chojnacki says. On Mars, “ you have to wait a decade to see the kinds of changes that you might see in the African sand seas in just a month. There is a more muted effect because of the differences in atmosphere ” “As we study comparative planetolog y, you think, ‘Let’s study these terrestrial planets, the rocky ones They all should follow the same [evolutionar y] path.’ And they don’t,” Mustard says. “ There’s this stochasticity, this random ness that comes into play And I think that’s a fascinating part of it Earth is fantastic, we really know how it operates, but we can’t be naïve enough to think that ever y planet operates that way ” NASA’ S E ARTH SCIENCE Division seeks to understand our planet as a unique environment in its own right. “Studying the Earth from space has always been an important part of NASA’s mandate,” says Hank Margolis, program manager for NASA’s Terrestrial Ecolog y Program. “NASA and other space agencies have a large fleet of satellites that make obser vations of the Earth’s surface and its atmosphere ” E arth science research currently receives about $2 billion from NASA’s budget each year slightly more than the amount awarded to the agenc y ’ s astrophysics division, which studies the larger universe as a whole. As of early 2022, NASA operates around 30 space based E arth obser ving missions, including joint missions with other agencies By comparison, NASA has about half that many interplanetar y missions scattered throughout the solar system Earth scientists also have more than satellites at their disposal Airborne mis sions provide measurements close to the ground Earth orbit,
Eckman MERCURY VENUS E ARTH MARS 8% O ther 42% Oxygen 2 2% Sodium 2 2% Hydrogen 6% Helium < 0.1% O ther 96% Carbon dioxide 4% Nitrogen 0.7% O ther 95% Carbon dioxide 2 7% Nitrogen 1 6% Argon 0 9% Argon 78% Nitrogen 21% Oxygen 0 1% O ther (carbon dioxide , water, etc.) 0.984 D E N S I T Y M A S S D I A M E T E R A T M O S P H E R E 0 383 0 0553 0.815 1 1 1 0 107 0.951 0.949 0. 7 13 0 532 = 7,918 miles (12 ,742 km) = 1 31 7 x 1025 pounds (5 97 2 x 1024 kg) = 3 4 4 lb/ft 3 (5,513 kg/m3) The solar sys tem’s terres trial planets formed close to our s tar out of roughly the same ingredients . Many dif ferences today arise because of slightly dif ferent initial conditions , although general comparisons can s till be made . Here’s how the four terres trial planets s tack up; note that the mas s , diameter, and densit y of Mercur y, Venus , and Mars are all shown as ratios of E ar th’s values
objec tives , including monitoring climate, sea level, land use and
4 6 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M N A S A H E A D Q U A R T E R S & R O E N K E L L Y / D S C O V E R
health .
Many airborne missions provide a cost effective way to test technologies ultimately bound for space, whether aboard Earth orbiting satellites or a spacecraft destined for another world Cameras and other passive sensors record the amount of energ y, such as reflected sunlight, coming from the planet For Earth, Margolis says, that information can be related to “the biophysical properties of the land surface, such as the amount of leaves, the absorption of radiation by vegeta tion canopies, the types and the changes of land cover, the area of snow cover ”
NATUR ALLY, MOST Earth obser ving satellites orbit Earth, with many in geostationar y orbits that keep them above one region of the planet even as it rotates. One mission is different: Launched in 2015, the Deep Space Climate Obser vator y (DSCOVR) was originally proposed in the late ’90s by then Vice President Al Gore. But the spacecraft was put on hold for decades until the Obama administration resur rected it as a joint heliophysics and earth science mission, says Eckman Now operated by NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, DSCOVR is located roughly 1 million miles from Earth, positioned between our planet and the sun at a stable Lagrange point where the gravitational influences of our planet and our star cancel each other out From this vantage point, called L1, the mission studies the solar wind in real time, offering warnings as much as 60 minutes before solar storms hit our International Space Station Freilich address a variet y of science vegetation
OCO 2 L andsat 8 Aqua SORCE Aura CALIPSO CloudSat Suomi NPP Terra GPM Core Obser vator y L andsat 7 LIS SAGE III TSIS 1 GEDI OCO 3 ECOSTRESS NASA’S E AR TH- OBSERVING FLEE T N A S A C U R R E N T LY O PE R AT E S some 3 0 space based E ar th obser ving missions many shown here to
DSCOVR ICESat 2 GRACE FO CYGNSS SMAP Sentinel 6 Michael
Active sensors send out signals, such as radio waves (radar) or laser light (lidar), which bounce off land and water, reflecting back to the spacecraft. Scientists can then determine how the signal has changed and relate those changes to properties of the planet below. A recent addition to the Earth obser ving fleet, Sentinel 6 Michael Freilich, uses radar to measure sea level of more than 90 percent of Earth’s oceans to within just a fraction of an inch. Lidar allows researchers to visual ize the vertical structure of vegetation, while radar can characterize vegetation even through cloud cover, Margolis says Studying all these aspects of Earth allows researchers to understand how our planet is evolving and predict how land, water, and vegetation might change in the future
explains. These missions target a variety of areas, ranging from air quality and cloud formation to the amount of ice, coral, or vegetation on land or sea
PERHAPS IN PART because of all these factors, Earth is, thus far, the only planet we know of that hosts life. And that life has left its mark on our world “O ver geologic time periods, the Earth’s vegetation has played a major role in the evolution of the atmosphere,” Margolis says In fact, “vegetation is largely responsible for the current level of oxygen in the atmosphere: 20 percent.” Earth started out with an atmosphere rich in methane and carbon dioxide But photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy, releases oxygen as a byproduct. “There was life in existence as photosynthesis was getting going,” E CA D E S O F O B S E R VAT I O N S have revealed that the sur f ace of Mars was much wet ter in the pas t . The Perseverance Mars rover ’s landing site in Jezero Crater (right) shows the telltale features of an ancient river delta For comparison , at lef t is the Mis sis sippi Delta , photographed by NASA’s L andsat 7 in 20 01 ONG T ERM OB SERV ING CAMPAIGNS OF E AR T H HAV E TAUGH T S CIEN T IS T S ONE SURE HING : OUR P L ANE T IS UNIQUE AND BI Z ARRE
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S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 47 F R O M L E F T N A S A M A G E C R E A T E D B Y J E S S E A L L E N U S N G D A T A P R O V D E D B Y T H E U N V E R S T Y O F M A R Y L A N D S G L O B A L L A N D C O V E R F A C L I T Y ; E S A / D L R / F U B E R L N planet. But DSCOVR also looks back at Earth, snapping photos ever y two hours at 10 different wavelengths that include ultraviolet and infrared light (Those images are available to the public daily at https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov.) “But it’s way more than pretty pictures,” Eckman says of DSCOVR’s earth science contributions. “Amazingly, from a million kilometers out, we can measure ozone and aerosols and clouds and sulfuric acid droplets from volcanic eruptions and all kinds of cool stuff, useful stuff and looking uniquely at the entire Earth in a way that even geosynchronous weather satellites can’t ” E VEN AT ITS VAST d ista nce, DSCOVR’s camera can resolve areas as small as about 16 miles across. And because it regularly takes global pictures, Eckman says, DSCOVR can look at certain aspects of vegetation like the size of plant canopies or the amount of biomass present more easily than satellites closer to the planet Plus, DSCOVR’s pictures show diurnal, or daily, variations across the planet that can’t be obser ved from low Earth orbit. “DSCOVR has made the case of being a highly productive science instrument apart from the daily RGB [true color] visible images that are probably what most people think about,” Eckman says. Such long term obser ving campaigns of Earth have taught scientists one sure thing: Our planet is unique and bizarre, with unusual properties that don’t match those of any other world we ’ ve seen, either in our own solar system or beyond it Earth is the only planet with abun dant liquid water driving an active water c ycle. From weather to weathering, the effects of water are ever ywhere. Our home world is also the only known planet with active plate tectonics, in which distinct pieces of crust are constantly created and destroyed in a planetwide rec ycling program that drives phenomena like earthquakes and volcanoes Tectonic activity is even responsi ble for releasing volatiles from Earth’s interior, which helped create and now maintain our atmosphere. Then there’s the moon. “Without the catastrophic moon forming impact ver y early in the solar system’s histor y, the Earth would not be the way it is today, at all,” Mustard says That impact and the satellite it formed have affected ever y thing from the strength of Earth’s tides to the stability of our planet’s 23.4° tilt. Without the moon, our tides would be solely influenced by the sun and, given its vast distance, would consequently be much weaker This would have brought about ver y different landscapes at the interface where water meets land. And with no moon, our planet’s rotation axis would wobble unpredictably, destabiliz ing the climate on timescales of just a few thousand years
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ANOTHER CURIOUS charac teristic of our planet: Earth has a huge number of minerals Referencing work led by Robert Hazen of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Mustard explains that meteorites leftover planetar y building blocks have a small number of minerals “ Then on the moon, you ’ ve got an increasing number ” Finally, he says, “You go to the Earth and it’s just ridiculous ” Why is this? The prevalence of water isn’t enough to explain the disparity, Mustard says. But “if you look at Earth’s histor y, the number of minerals that we know exist increases with time,” he explains “You had these big explosions of mineral diversity something like 600 million years ago which coincides with the emergence of life on land [Life] just changes the chemical reactions, the environment, so much The coevolu tion of life and geolog y on Earth we can’t disentangle that, I don’t think.” But perhaps the clearest example of life shaping Earth’s land, sea, and air is much more recent and, in fact, currently playing out. “I’d say humans are among the dominant forces of change on the planet,” Mustard says Much of his career has been dedicated to obser ving how Earth’s surface changes in response to both natural and human forces And there are plenty of human forces at work We remove or replace vegetation We exhaust or reroute water supplies. We populate and reshape coastlines. And we produce or release massive amounts of atmosphere altering gases Fortunately, earth science is different from other planetar y science in one final, fundamentally important way : Earth science is actionable science By monitoring the changes our host planet undergoes, we can make choices and Ve nus and E ar th are stunningl y similar ; in fac t , Venus is o ften calle d E ar th’s sister planet At f irst glance , it ’s easy to se e why : E ar th is a mere 1.1 time s wider and 1. 2 time s more mas sive than Venus , and the y ’re made up o f largel y the same material in e qual amount s . Ye t , the t wo lo ok vastl y di fferent . It ’s an exp eriment in how small initial di fference s can snowball into huge e ffe c t s fur ther down the line , leading one planet to b e c ome the lush, water f ille d paradise we enjoy to day, while the other b e c ome s a broiling , tox ic waste land. Bu t re search sugge st s b oth may have star te d ou t with roughl y the same amount o f water So, what happ ene d ? That ’s the million dollar que stion. We do know that Venus rotate s re tro grade , or backward, compare d to it s orbital motion around the sun the onl y planet to do so. Although it s core is still hot , like E ar th’s , Venus has no plate te c tonic s It s oppre s sivel y thick atmo sphere is ab ou t 96 p erc ent carb on diox ide , 4 p erc ent nitro gen, and le s s than 0 1 p erc ent other gase s E ar th has a comparativel y light atmo sphere consisting o f 78 p erc ent nitro gen, E A R T H A N D V E N U S : S E PA R AT E D AT B I R T H N AT U R A L S E T T L I N G , human-built levees and canals , and sea level rise are all imprinted upon Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, seen in 19 8 5 (lef t), and in 2 02 0 As a result of both natural and human change, the region has lost as much as 4 3 0 square miles of land in less than 10 0 years
4 8 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L A U R E N D A U P H I N U S I N G L A N D S A T D A T A F R O M T H E U S G E O L O G I C A L S U R V E Y ; R O E N K E L L Y / D I S C O V E R ( 2 ) Mustard says. “But then, 2.5 billion years ago, Earth pivoted to an oxygen [atmo sphere] and it just killed off [nearly] all the early forms of life It was just a catastrophic moment for life at that time.” But that catastrophic moment paved the way for life and Earth as we know it today Y E T
Thus, it ser ves as a necessar y jumping off point when we turn our gaze outward NASA once trained the Apollo astronauts to become lunar field geologists by taking them to Hawaii or Arizona. Researchers today are setting up simulated Mars camps in Utah and Hawaii or traveling to Antarctica to test how easy or hard it will be to carr y out geologic research with rovers and in space suits “It’s useful to be on Earth and actually have a timeline and tr y to understand how you ’ re going to collect that many geologic samples in eight hours with your supplies when you ’ re in the field and how complicated that gets in reality,” says Chojnacki “Field studies and terrestrial applications are certainly going to pave the way for lunar and martian exploration ” And as Eckman points out, several exoplanets have been identified in recent years with at least some Earth like characteristics. Based on our understanding of the solar system, terrestrial planets all likely share at least a somewhat similar origin stor y. But, Mustard says, “Planets are built by chance And we should be grateful and thankful that the chances that came together that formed the Earth resulted in this. It just says it’s a special place and let’s not mess it up. ” D Alison Klesman is a senior associate editor at A stronomy 2 1 p erc ent ox ygen, and 1 p erc ent other gase s . De spite the s e di fference s , E ar th’s strange sister still has much to o ffer. Venus do e sn’ t lo ok much like modern day E ar th, bu t sc ientist s think the t wo were much more similar shor tl y after formation, p otentiall y making Venus a go o d analo gue for a younger E ar th.
S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 4 9 take actions that reduce or alter our effect on the landscape “What we learn from spaceborne measurements can have ver y practical applications to human society e.g., wildfire management, forest manage ment, disaster management, improving agriculture, managing air pollution, managing biodiversity, etc.,” Margolis says. And Chojnacki notes that the same remote sensing techniques researchers use to determine how humans are affect ing the planet can also show us how well mitigation efforts are progressing.
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Smre k ar also worke d on the Magellan space craft that orbite d Venus in the earl y 1990s . “On E ar th, plate te c tonic s is the fundamental pro c e s s that link s the interior heat engine to sur face ge olo gy and re lease s (and re c ycle s) volatile s from the interior to create the atmo sphere , ” Smre k ar say s . “ Yet this pro c e s s b e gan billions o f years ago, leaving onl y vague clue s ab ou t how it star te d. There are many mo dels bu t little data. By going to Venus we have a chance to se e pro c e s se s that shap e d the bir th o f our home planet in ac tion.” A K
Venus is the onl y planet that can teach us b oth ab ou t earl y E ar th and the bir th o f b oth plate te c tonic s and continent s t wo pro c e s se s that have pro foundl y shap e d li fe on E ar th,” say s Suzanne Smre k ar, princ ipal inve stigator o f the Venus Emis si v i t y, Radio Sc ience , InS AR , Top o graphy & Sp e c tro s copy ( V ERI TAS) mis sion, which was re centl y sele c te d as one o f t wo Venus mis sions to re ceive NAS A funding.
DESPITE ITS STR ANGENES S , Earth is the planet we are most familiar with and are best suited to sur vive on
A pod’S
A R AR E I N T ER SPE CI E S AD O P T I O N R E VE AL S SPERM WHALE SO CI E T Y IS M O R E SO PH IST I C AT ED AN D M O R E PL AYFU L T HAN PR E VI O USLY T H O U GH T. BY A SHLE Y WARD ILLUSTR ATIONS BY KELLIE JAEGER B o n d s
S E P / O C T 2 0 2 2 D I S C O V E R 51
I dropped with my buddy into the Atlantic Ocean, its floor thousands of feet below us. A moment later, the boat was gone We were alone The water was as clear as the air above us; I felt a sense of vertigo as I floated above the abyss. All I could do was wait and hope. Then a huge shape appeared on the edge of my vision against the blue, and another, and another Gradually the shapes became more distinct as they headed straight at me I hung in the water, electrified by the sight the largest predators on the planet, the fearsome protagonist of perhaps the most famous seafaring novel of literar y histor y, Moby Dick I was face to face with sperm whales I was in the Azores to study the social behavior of whales, and had gone there with some trepidation Although this group of mid Atlantic islands has a resident population of sperm whales, making it one of the best places in the world for biologists to study them, the Azorean relationship with whales has not always been a harmonious one Whaling was for many years an important part of the culture here, continuing until 1984 Although 27 years had passed since the end of whaling in the Azores, it was likely that adult sperm whales in the region would have experience of humans as hunters Reason enough, I supposed, for these intel ligent beasts to be cautious, or even aggressive, when encountering us in the water
L egs trailing in the water, I gripped the side of the boat, alert for my cue As we rose to the top of a swell, the skipper spotted something in the distance and killed the engine “Go, go, go!”
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O ver t he past half centur y, t here has b een a s e a change in t he way we appreciate w hales as well as t heir fellow cet ace ans, dolphins and p or p ois es Alt houg h our histor ical relationship as predators and pre y is regrett ably continuing in s ome par ts of t he g lob e, most p eople now have s ome underst anding of how complex and fas cinating t hes e cre atures are, and know t he y are imbued wit h an intelligence t hat over re aches t hat of almost e ver y ot her sp ecies on t he planet. In t heir s o cieties, we s ee comp elling and endur ing relationships, s ophisticated interac tions, and strong e vidence of an animal c ulture W H E N O U R T E A M of four headed out from the Port of Madalena for the first time, however, we had only the most tantalizing glimpses of the whales as they disappeared into the blue The small boat we were using was maneuverable, but it didn’t cope well with the large swells, and finding whales is challenging in rough seas. Each day of that initial period was a carbon copy of the last, washing up and down the Atlantic rollers, eyes peeled on the horizon, the only soundtrack my companion Romain’s periodic, heartfelt retching. Our prospecting was aided by the gimlet eyes of an ancient mariner, Joao, employed as a lookout and ensconced in a hut half way up the volcano that originally gave birth to Pico Island. Strange to think that Joao had learned his trade and sharpened his skills by being the spotter for whalers years before Times had changed, even if his job hadn’t But for four days, even the experienced Joao struggled to spot any whales in the surging sea
The telltale sign of the whales is their spout, the steamy exhalation of air and bits of other, less agreeable things that are fired out of its blowhole at the end of a dive A decent sized whale might launch its gust of moist air above the surface, but amid rough seas, you still need good luck to detect it.
Far below the waves, the whales were feeding. They’re prodigious divers, capable of descending more than a mile into the darkness of the midnight zone for more than an hour at a time. Generally, however, they don’t need to push themselves so hard it all depends on where they can find their food To tip the balance in their favor, especially when hunt ing larger and more elusive prey, sperm whales coordinate and cooperate. They descend to their feeding grounds in pairs or small groups to form a search cordon, a line of whales spaced over half a mile of ocean, a smart solution for locating clusters of prey Finding a dense patch of squid is only part of the battle, however Traces taken from under water GPS devices mounted on the whales show that they divide to conquer one whale dives below the squid to cut off their escape to deeper water, allowing the other whales to attack the flanks of the prey group Nonetheless, our understanding of their hunting, like so many aspects of sperm whale behavior, is in its infanc y. Finally, on the fifth day of our trip, the waves relented At last, we had a chance Sure enough, it wasn’t long before
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we heard the radio crackle into life and an excited voice reeling off directions in Portuguese The skipper shifted course and told us that a pod of sperm whales lay just over a mile to the northwest. If the whales decided to change course, or to dive, then that was just bad luck. If there were to be encounters, these would be entirely on the whales’ terms So we expected, at best, a few precious seconds with the whales as they passed enough, if we were really lucky, to notice a few things, such as identif y ing marks or scars But it wasn’t only the ocean swell that had calmed; the whales, too, seemed in less of a hurr y R ather than cruising past, they lingered, and suddenly we found ourselves at the center of a family frolic. It was a phenom enal experience, greater by far than I’d dared to dream of I couldn’t simply hang at the water’s surface and enjoy it passively, though; the cavorting whales kept coming perilously close, forcing me to scoot out of their way each time a mighty tail threatened to knock me spinning The pod was made up of four whales: a huge matriarch more than 30 feet long, a slightly smaller individual about three quarters her size, and two calves. Wonderful as all this was on its own, there was a cherr y on our cetacean cake with the pod was an adult bottlenose dolphin The two species are tolerant of one another, but their different lifestyles and prey preferences mean that they seldom associate. What might have decided the issue was that the dolphin had a pronounced cur vature of the spine, twisting its body just behind the dorsal fin It didn’t look like an injur y (there was no scarring), but rather some thing the dolphin had carried since birth Nonetheless, it had sur vived, against the odds, to reach adulthood It’s possible that the condition hampered its ability to swim at the relentless pace at which bottlenoses typically travel. If so, it would be isolated from the intensely social life of its own kind, and perhaps, as a surrogate, it had joined the whale society For the next 20 minutes, the whales kept up a constant dialogue with one another, making their ethereal creak ing, knocking, and clicking sounds, while periodically the higher pitched call of the dolphin could be heard The whales rolled around in the waves at the surface, the smaller members of the pod circling the huge matriarch.
Then, even more astonishingly, the whales began some strange kind of game The matriarch would open her oar like lower jaw, and one of the smaller whales would swim into her mouth, its head protruding from one side and its tail sticking out the other. The matriarch would then seem to ver y gently nibble the smaller whale for a second or two The nibbled whale would swim clear and circle around to join the back of the queue, and another would maneuver into place for a little of the same treatment.
The bottlenose joined in the fun as well, swimming into the matriarch’s open jaws for its turn and receiving a toothy squeeze I remained mesmerized by the encounter long after I’d left the whales to their play ; it was an incred ible privilege to get a close up perspective of the remark able social behavior of this little understood animal A C K O N L A N D , I pondered what it meant for the whales to be held in the matriarch’s mouth for a moment. May be there was some parallel with the grooming behavior of primates. While the immediate role of grooming might be to keep the fur glossy and bug free, more important is what underlies it, the act of building and securing relationships L acking dexter ous limbs, of course, the whales can’t do this. Perhaps this was their creative way of physically expressing themselves
TO T I P T H E BA L A NCE I N T H EI R FAVOR , ESPECI A L LY W H EN H U N T I NG L A RGER A N D MOR E ELUSI V E PR EY, SPER M W H A L ES CO OR DI NAT E A N D CO OPER AT E .
From THE SOCIAL LIVES OF ANIMAL S by Ashley Ward Copyright © 2 02 2 . Available from Basic Books, an imprint of Hachet te Book Group, Inc
Sperm whales live in matrilineal social groups, the core of which is formed by related females, often comprising a grandmother, her daughter, and their offspring. Sons, on the other hand, live in these groups only as juveniles. As they approach sexual maturity, the males break from their social group and adopt a more solitar y existence although it’s not unusual for males to form into loose bachelor groups with one or more other males
The group we s aw t hat day was a fairly typical example of sp er m w hale s o ciety, s o it could b e t hat w hat I’d witness ed was s ome mater nal attention b eing paid to t he family in t he for m of a strange cet ace an embrace That t he dolphin joined in sug gested t hat it understo o d no t hre at was involved, w hile t he fac t t hat t he matr iarch lavished s ome attention on t he dolphin sug gests it was an accepted, t houg h p erhaps temp orar y, memb er of t he group I N M A N Y W A Y S , t his unusual par tner ship rais ed more questions t han it answered For example, how did t he dolphin manage to forage, enc umb ered as it was by its s coliotic spine? B as ed on its app e arance, it was cer t ainly well fed. It couldn’t b e foraging alongside t he w hales, b ecaus e t he dolphin couldn’t match its adopted family’s pro digious dives Was it catching its own fo o d? Or were t he w hales providing for it in s ome way? S ometimes, sp er m w hales br ing t heir s quid pre y to t he sur face wit h t hem. Perhaps t he dolphin was able to help its elf to mors els This s eems a stretch, but howe ver it was nour ishing its elf, t he dolphin app e ared to b e an accepted memb er of t he group. It’s a demonstration of t he unusual str uc ture of sp er m w hale s o ciety t hat t his could happ en Among many similar mammal groups, to b e accepted into t he fold you have to b e a blo o d relation While kinship is imp or t ant to sp er m w hales, it’s not t he s ole deter minant of t heir ass o ciations. G enetic examinations of t heir s o cial b onds re ve al t hat t he y for m long ter m relation ships wit h b ot h family memb ers and outsiders Alt houg h t he dolphin mig ht have b een t aking t his to an extreme, it sug gested a remarkable flexibility on t he par t of b ot h sp ecies. On t he final day of t he tr ip we made one last s or tie to t he w hales Luck was on our side it had b een four days since we’d first met t he sp er m w hale group wit h t he dolphin, and here t he y were again, t he dolphin still ver y much par t of t heir s cene. Weeks later, after we had left t his mar itime paradis e, we he ard t hat our guides had again s een t his group, complete wit h dolphin This was a longer ter m ar rangement t han I’d imagined; t he dolphin was interac ting wit h t he w hale s o cial group to a sur pr ising degree. If not hing els e, it gave us s ome ide a of t he extent of t he s o cial tendenc y of b ot h sp ecies, t he deep s e ated dr ive to s eek and remain in company D Ashley Ward is a profes sor and director of the A nimal Behavior Lab at the Univer sit y of Sydney, where he researches social behavior, learning , and communication acro ss the animal kingdom. His work has been published in top journals including PNAS, Biological Re views, and Current Biology
5 4 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M
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He conceived of a grand mission, the Royal Philanthropic E xpedition of the Vaccine, which would save his people. MIL I O T HE K ING OF SPAIN USED ARM TO ARM FIG A L L P
VACCINAT ION TO
The world was then riddled with smallpox, which killed one third of all infected Though Edward Jenner had discovered in 1797 that pus from a cow ’ s cowpox blisters could be used as a vaccine, the majority of the world had no access to the inocula tion. Cowpox was such a local disease, mostly found in England and occasionally France or Italy, that it was unclear how anyone could scale vaccination to more people Scientists had yet to discover germ theor y, so no one knew what a virus was. They did know that they needed to spread cowpox in order to keep the vaccine alive, but prior methods, like putting active disease material (in other words, pus) from an infected person onto cloth or in a vial and rubbing that into the wound of a recipient, didn’t work over long distances Taking a whole cow to disease hotspots was equally impractical. Today, such viral material is kept alive by refrigeration tech nolog y and know how scientists just didn’t have back then C L O C K W S E F R O M T O P L E F T : F R A N C I S C O P É R E Z / W K I M E D A C O M M O N S ; M O R P H A R T C R E A T I O N / S H U T T E R S T O C K W K I M E D A C O M M O N S
He conceived of a grand mission, the Royal Philanthropic Expedition of the Vaccine, which would take the vaccine to the Americas, save his people, and make the Spanish Empire the first with a robust plan against the pox. But the king needed someone to helm the mission, someone who could turn those ideals into reality a tall order Balmis was the perfect candidate The then 50 year old was a militar y physician who had spent years abroad studying alternative medicines in Mexico and Central America He also had just translated the book The Historical and Practical Treatise on the Vaccine by J.L. Moreau de la Sarthe, the most comprehensive study of vaccines First Global Vaccination Campaign
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Eventually, Jenner came to the realiza tion that he could remove the cow from the vaccination equation He discovered that by taking the pus from a vaccinated person ’ s cowpox blisters and putting it into the arms of others, he could create a “ warm chain”: arm to arm vaccination
C TOR AND
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As Jenner was making and publiciz ing his discoveries, King Charles IV of Spain was watching in horror as family members and millions of people in his colonies were felled by smallpox
The
On Nov. 30, 1803, militar y physician Francisco Xavier de Balmis set off from the port of La Coruña in northwest Spain on what would become a three year mission On board with him were 22 orphan boys Their goal: to complete the first global immunization campaign.
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ORPHANS AND
Francisco Xavier de Balmis K ing Charles IV of Spain
T H E MA R IA PITA lef t Spain in 18 03 on a first of its kind mission to vaccinate the world or at least the Spanish held por tions of it against smallpox
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H I S T O R Y L E S S O N S 5 6 D I S C O V E R M A G A Z I N E C O M BY H A N N A H S EO
The Balmis E xpedition
1806 Cochabamba
colonists. Balmis and his staff would also distribute copies of his translated book to help educate physicians on the updated science, train doctors to administer the vaccine, and assist in the formation of central vaccination boards at ever y location. Balmis paired off the boys, vaccinating the first two lads right before the ship disembarked Their ship, the Maria Pita, then took to the seas Nine days or so after vaccination, the boys developed the typi cal cowpox lesions on their bodies. Balmis and his medical crew took the pus from those two children and used it to vaccinate the next two boys, cycling through this routine with each successive pair to keep the vaccine alive. With such a high stakes mission at hand, Balmis had to vaccinate two boys at a time as insurance that, should something happen to one child, the vaccine would not be lost
BUT BALMIS couldn’t take adults Smallpox was so incredibly infectious that any adult alive probably had already lived through the disease, and anyone with existing immunity would fail to develop the blisters needed to har vest more pus and propagate the vaccine Children were the only subpopulation that could keep the vaccine alive, so Balmis recruited 22 orphan boys, aged 3 to 10 years old King Charles announced that the crown would take care of all these boys as compensation for their braver y, taking on all expenses related to the boys’ wellbeing and ensuring their schooling until they were old enough to support themselves. In addition to the boys and the regular sailing crew, Balmis had three assistants, two physicians, three nurses, a secretar y, and Isabel de Zendala y Gomez, the director of the La Coruña orphanage who ser ved as the boys’ primar y caretaker. The expedition would sail to all of Spain’s colonies, but the plan went beyond simply inoculating the F R O M T O P K E L L I E J A E G E R ; J L M O R E A U D E L A S A R T H E / W E L L C O M E C O L L E C T I O N
1810
B A L M I S C I R C L E D T H E G LO B E and deputies José Salvany and Manuel Grajales traveled through South America, each inoculating the public and distributing copies of The Historical and Practical Treatise on the Vaccine (below at lef t), to educate local physicians But Balmis couldn’ t take adults: Smallpox was so incredibly infec tious that any adult alive probably had lived through it .
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1804 Quito
Combined Balmis S alvany Grajales
1804Mexico
The Maria Pita made its way to Puerto Rico, stopping en route at the Canar y Islands to vaccinate the Spanish colonies there, and landed on Feb 9, 1804 It was anticlimactic By some luck, others had managed to sail active disease material, in the form of encrusted lymph fluid, from England to other nearby islands and then on to Puerto Rico. Most of the population was already vaccinated So the expedition set off for Venezuela, docking in the nick of time only one of the vaccinated boys still had active pus blisters from which to draw. Balmis rushed out as soon as they landed, immediately vaccinating 28 local children to at the time, into Spanish from the original French Balmis heeded the king’s call, and when he learned of Jenner’s arm to arm method, knew it was exactly what he needed. He would take the vaccination to the Americas through human bodies.
1806 Santiago
1804 Cuba
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H I S T O R Y L E S S O N S Manila Apr 15, 1805 La Coruna Nov 30, 1803 ~ Canar y Islands Dec 9, 1803 Madrid Sep 7, 1806
Puer to Rico Feb 9, St. Helena island Jun 12, de Chile Jan 21, Mar 28, May 26,Cit y Aug 9, Jul 16, May 2 3, Jul 21,
1808 Caracas
1805 Lima
Balmis spent the following months in Cuba, and then different regions of Mexico Some pockets of the population were already vaccinated, some communities were skeptical of the foreign vaccine, and some regional leaders butted heads with the strong willed Balmis this was just seven years before the start of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, and the people in the New Spain territories were reluctant to cooperate with the Spanish crown At times it looked like the cowpox vaccine would run dr y and the expedition would be cut short. But despite close calls due to stormy weather and travel delays, Balmis persevered with the vaccine intact At ever y stop, he made sure always to instruct physicians on how to schedule vaccinations to best keep the reser voir of vaccine alive After administering the vaccine to a reported 12,000 individuals in Venezuela, Balmis was torn There was so much more land to cover, both further down in South America, in Mexico to the north, and beyond For expediency, he decided it best to split the voyage into two: His deputy, José Salvany, would travel down to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and the rest of Spanish South America Balmis would head to Cuba, Mexico, and the Spanish colonies in Asia. And so the Balmis Expedition branched, and the two leaders embarked on their separate legs with new groups of boys rounded up with the cooperation of local officials, the Catholic Church and family volunteers as carriers for the vaccine. E DWA R D J E N N E R discovered cowpox could be used to vaccinate against smallpox . Pre refrigeration, that meant taking pus from one person’s blisters and put ting it in another ’s arm n a l m e s s a g e s p r o g r a m s yo u r m i n d to g i ve yo u m o r e c o n t r o l a n d fi r m e r e r e c t i o n s PE A R L + PLU S F E M A L E L I B I D O B O O S T E R Wo m e n of a ll a g e s c a n a c h i eve t h e u l t m a te s exu a l p l e a s u r e M o r e b l o o d fl ow c a n i n c r e a s e s e n s i ti v i t y M o r e s a ti s f y i n g o r g a s m s B L I S S F E M A L E S E X UA L E N H A N C E M E N T C R E A M H e i g h te n s t h e s exu a l r e s p o n s e w i th m o r e i n te n s e s a ti s f y i n g o r g a s m s I n c r e a s e s d e s i r e, s e n s i ti v i t y a n d li b i d o S e n s a ti o n s a r e m o r e i n te n s e a n d exc i ti n g Pr o m ote s s ti m u l a ti o n a n d n a tu r a l l u b r i c a t i o n L iquid i s s h ow n t o w o r k f a s t e r t h a n pill s o r lub e H oweve r s o me me n p r e f e r P R O + P L U S pill s o r lub e a s a n exc elle n t a l t e r n a t i ve Pe r m a n e n t L i f e t i m e R e s u l t s . Pr o Pl u s U l t i m a te fo r M a x i m u m E n h a n c e m e n t New Discover y! Dr. Bross All Natural Herbal Liquid Can Work Faster Than The Blue Pill P R O + P L U S X T R E M E L I Q U I D C a n Wo r k I n 3 0 M i n u t e s E f f e c t i ve U p To 12 H o u r s . Pr o + Pl u s Xt r e m e i s a p r ofe s s i o n a l s t r e n g th li q u i d fo r m u l a th a t d i g e s t s q u i c k l y fo r i m m e d i a te e r e c ti o n s , i n c r e a s e d b l o o d fl ow a n d c a n h e l p yo u m a i n t a i n a fi r m e r e c ti o n P R O + P L U S U LT I M AT E L I Q U I D T h e Pr o + Pl u s U l t i m a te L i q u i d i s o u r n ewe s t fo r m u l a a n d c o n t i n u e s to h ave o u r h i g h e s t s u c c e s s r a te D o c to r B r o s s r e c o m m e n d s th i s fo r m u l a fo r a ny m a n a n d li q u i d c a n wo r k i n 1 to 2 m o n th s , p ill s 2 3 m o n th s U p to 5 0 % g a i n i n l e n g th a n d w i d th C o n ti n u e to u s e D r B r o s s p r o d u c t s to r e a c h yo u r m a x i m u m p ote n ti a l a n d to m a i n t a i n yo u r r e s u l t s fo r a li fe ti m e M A X E R S I Z E M A L E E N H A N C E M E N T AU D I O C D S u b li m i n a l m e s s a g e s a r e p r o g r a m m e d fo r m a l e e n h a n c e m e n t S u b li m i n a l f r e q u e n c i e s e n te r yo u r s u b c o n s c i o u s m i n d to h e l p yo u b e l o n g e r a n d w i d e r S E C R E T PA S S I O N S S E X UA L S E D U C T I O N AU D I O C D Ca n m a ke wo m e n d e s i r e yo u S u b li m i n a l a u d i o C D fo r s exu a l s e d u c ti o n S u b li m i n a l m e s s a g e s s e n d c o m m a n d s i n to t h e s u b c o n s c i o u s m i n d, i n fl u e n c i n g d e s i r e F o r mo r e t ha n t hir t y ye a r s D r B r o s s ha s s a t is fi e d m li o n s o f men I’m Brenda, My boyfriend takes the Pro+Plus Ultimate Liquid while listening to the Maxer Size Subliminal Audio CD and he sat sfies me ever y time
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The Royal Philanthropic Expedition of the Vaccine is a storied journey that tells a lot about the histor y of vaccination campaigns, Soto says, but it also reveals all the lessons we have not learned Vaccine hesitanc y, for example, is not new, which is why clear and proactive science communication is paramount. “If we have the vaccines and people don’t take them, then vaccines are useless,” he says Soto adds that there are a few parallels between the Balmis Expedition and COVAX, the United Nations’ effort to produce and disseminate COVID 19 tests, treatments, and vaccines globally and equitably. It’s bewildering, he says, that our technolog y has advanced so much since the 1800s, yet international collaboration and philanthropy is still so difficult to pull off TO THIS DAY, smallpox is the only infectious disease in humans that has ever been eradicated a feat managed only through the initiative and action taken by a few pioneers who understood that properly tackling an infectious disease means protecting ever yone. The stor y of the Balmis Expedition is little known, says Soto But, it should be talked about more, Esparza says, “because the people involved are heroes, and those nurses were the first global public health nurses in histor y. It is such an amazing stor y ” D Hannah Seo is a science journalist , writer, and poet based in Brookl yn Her work can also be found in Scientific American, WIRED, Popular Science, and the podcast 20 Thousand Her t z, among others . keep the cowpox alive. He also helped local authorities set up vaccination institutions to over see and track the administered doses. Versions of some of those vaccine boards still exist. While records are incomplete, experts today believe the team managed to vaccinate 100,000 to 150,000 people in North and South America. Balmis then headed to the Spanish colonies in the Philippines in Februar y 1805. After repeating his efforts there, he was ready to go home; he sailed east with a small crew and three new boys, stopping to vaccinate Macau (a Portuguese colony) and Canton, and was finally Europe bound by 1806.
At the time, the Spanish Empire was the largest in the world They took the vaccine to territories across three continents and two oceans an amazing example of what can be accomplished when higher income countries mobilize to help lower income countries, says Enrique Soto, a geriatric oncologist at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán in Mexico City, who has written about the Balmis Expedition.
AF TER A BRIEF stop at St Helena island, the worn physician reached his homeland in September. Back in Spain almost three years after he left, Balmis received a warm welcome from King Charles, and mass praise for his efforts. “Balmis conceived of vaccina tion as public health, and there are people who refer to the Balmis Expedition as the first global public health vaccination campaign,” says José Esparza, a Venezuelan doctor and virologist at the University of Mar yland who has researched the expedition extensively “At that time, vaccination was seen mostly as a means to prevent individual diseases in people, not as a public health enterprise.”
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Of course, the Balmis Expedition was not done purely out of philanthropy losing masses of people to smallpox was an economic detriment to the Spanish crown, and by vaccinating non Spanish territories, Balmis hoped to better international relations. But the vaccine was always free. Often, Balmis even paid families to vaccinate their children “At that time, vaccination was seen mos tly as a means to prevent individual disease not as a public health enterprise.”
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A SCULP TUR AL MONUMENT to the Balmis E xpedition stands in the por t of L a Coruña
The vaccine had often preceded Balmis in differ ent communities, yet none of the places he visited had established mass vaccination initiatives There had been isolated initiatives, but not an organized vaccination campaign. “Maybe the lesson here is that we must pursue both goals of vaccination,” says Esparza “Protection of individuals, but also the protection of societies ”
Some fifty years ago, on December 14, 1972, human beings left the moon for what turned out to be the final time in the 20th century. The 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing and its successors had fulfilled President John F Kennedy’s goals “to put a man on the moon,” The successful yet bittersweet Apollo 17 mission was the grand finale of the era of one small step for man ... one giant leap for mankind. Now you can honor the 50th anniversary of Apollo 17 with The Apollo 17 $2 Bill from The Bradford Exchange Mint Scarce collector favorites, genuine U.S. legal tender, $2 bills are rarely seen. They make up fewer than 1% of all currency produced in the United States today. This exclusive limited edition $2 Bill is even more rare
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We vowed not to buy our son an elec tronic device until he’s 30. So far we’ve s tuck to that agreement .
My husband and I were eating out with our son, Eddie, who was then 2, when a couple came in with a young boy wearing headphones and staring at an iPad as he walked For the entire meal, the boy was glued to his screen while his parents chatted amicably as if he wasn’t there. “What’s the point of having a kid if you ’ re not going to talk to him? ” I said to my husband We vowed not to buy our son an electronic device until he’s 30. And video games, one of the main reasons children want these devices, would be verboten So far we ’ ve stuck to that agreement, though it has not been easy When other parents would go out for a meal and hand their child a phone, we had to entertain our kid. We brought a knapsack filled with crayons, markers and spiral sketchpads with thick paper We lugged around Jenga, Uno and Yahtzee
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We drew pictures and built mini forts out of jelly packets anything to keep our son off video games, which I saw as the devil’s poison. Indeed, there’s a body of research, like a meta analysis from October 2018, that shows that kids who play violent video games are more aggres sive. Another paper, from September 2020 in The International Encyclopedia of Media Psycholog y, indicates that repeated exposure can cause desensiti zation to violence, making people less empathetic. Video games can also be addictive, so addictive that the World Health Organization included a condi tion called “gaming disorder” in its International Classification of Diseases; the American Psychiatric Association considers it a condition warranting further study. And one 2020 study published in Developmental Psycholog y tracked 385 adolescents over six years
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SOME 76 PERCENT of American kids play video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group for the U S video game industr y For my son, not only did he miss out on playtime, but he didn’t know how to play. During the pandemic, a classmate had a virtual birthday party, where ever yone was invited to play Roblox My son and I couldn’t even find the virtual room where the game was being played As I frantically texted other mothers, asking them how we could find his classmates, my son grew angr y and then upset Since then, he has found a way around my ban: He plays video games at friends’ houses. I was initially annoyed, until he came home one day and told me how happy he was to be in the fold He began to cr y, recalling how much he had felt like an outsider “Now I can play with ever yone, ” he said I was out last week with a fellow parent and lamented how I can’t raise my son the way I would like If I forbid him from playing video games, he
wouldn’t be able to go to friends’ houses because that’s what they do after school, or he would be isolated next to them as they played Either way, he’d miss out on important bonding. “Don’t do to him what my parents did to me, ” my friend said Her parents forbade her from watching T V and eating sugar, prohi bitions that left her clueless about all kinds of cultural references. “ They made me feel like a weirdo,” she said. Video games are now such an integral part of the social fabric, not playing them is akin to growing up without a T V, says Nick B owman, a gaming researcher at Texas Tech University When people talk about their childhood these days, their memories include playing video games with their parents and siblings. “It’s a family ritual. It’s a friend ritual. The data suggests that those are the things people are going to remember 40 years from now, ” he says B owman also notes that game research has evolved. For the first 20 years, studies were focused on the potential harms, like addiction and aggres sion Today, games are viewed for their art, their teaching potential and their ability to make people feel things It’s not that video games have no ill effects. But the myopic focus on those ill effects now seems overblown and dated, he says “ They don’t match the reality of the millions upon millions of people who play games ever y day and don’t experience any of those negative effects,” B owman says I DUG DEEPER into the research and saw studies illuminating the benefits of gaming People who play video games can learn how to make good choices, says James Paul Gee, a linguist at Arizona State University and author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy Most games involve simulations where choices must be made, and players can see the conse quences of their decisions, Gee adds: “It turns out that teaching people to make good choices correlates with knowledge If they know how to make good choices in life or in problem solving, you can give them [any] knowledge test, and they will ace it ” to find that 28 percent of the gamers were prone to increased levels of depression, aggression, shyness and anxiety at the end of that period That shouldn’t be surprising, says Douglas Gentile, who has studied developmental psy cholog y and media violence for 30 years. Games can have significant influence, and children are impressionable So whatever the content of the game is, kids are likely to learn it, Gentile says. If it’s a violent game, they may learn aggression skills And yet, the same is true for beneficial video game elements, such as reading or math. If it’s a pro social game, they’ ll probably learn pro social skills “Whatever they practice, they will learn, whether or not they want to,” Gentile says But the worst problem with gaming, at least for our child, is one I didn’t anticipate: alienation. It took a while for Eddie to make friends at school Now, in fourth grade, he’s finally forged some bonds, mostly through sports But in their free time, all his pals play video games, and my son does not. He felt like an outsider before finding these friends, and now my ban is inadvertently keeping him isolated not just from his classmates but from the rest of modern society, it seems.
Playing ac tion games can enhance one’s abilit y to pick out impor tant information in a clut tered scene.
Different games have different effects on players, some good and some bad. Action games, for instance, can help how we perceive and respond to stimuli around us, his research shows B ecause action games require players to react to stimuli anywhere on the screen in a matter of seconds, playing them can enhance one ’ s ability to pick out important information in a cluttered scene Players also learn to toggle more quickly from one task to another, a process that can take as much as 200 milliseconds, Green says. “Basically what your brain is doing is switch ing tasks,” he says “Playing these types of games diminishes that cost of switching ”
C. Shawn Green, a cognitive researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison, says question ing whether video games are good or bad is like asking, “What are the effects of food on the body? ”
ON A RECENT GROCERY RUN , I noticed how the young man at the counter was packing my groceries into paper bags He did it with such care, making sure he chose the right item and placed it in the bag in the direction that would achieve maximum efficienc y “Do you play Tetris? ” I asked “I do,” he said He added that he plays a lot of video games. So I asked him the thing I fear most about my son play ing: Are the games so exciting and overstimulating that ever ything else in life seems boring in com parison? He thought about it for a moment, with a pause. Then he said he really wants to become a surgeon a goal far more important to him than any video game Interestingly, he added that gaming may help, as his fingers are now so nimble that it has enhanced his suturing skills. Studies bear this out. As I left the store, I wondered if my son had something in life he liked more than video games, something that made real life as exciting as the virtual ones I knew immediately what it was It was the company of friends. He’s not addicted to video games. He’s addicted to companionship. But aren’t we all? D Caren Chesler is a writer and es sayist based in New Jer sey Ques tioning whether video games are good or bad is like asking, “ What are the effec ts of food on the body ? ”
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BY TIMOTHY MEINCH A L E X I S R O S E N F E L D / 1 O C E A N / U N E S C O Hopeful news about coral is hard to come by these days. That’s part of the reason images of this extraordinar y reef in French Polynesia made the media rounds early this year. Located off the coast of Tahiti, its rose shaped colonies stretch continuously across nearly 2 miles of seafloor But at a depth around 150 feet in the South Pacific, the reef DEEP CORAL DISCOVER Magaz ne (ISSN 02 74 7529, USPS No 555 190) is publ shed b monthly ( Januar y/Februar y March/April May/June July/August , September/Oc tober, November/December ) by K almbach Media Co 2 102 7 Crossroads Circle P O Box 1612 Waukesha , WI 53187 Periodicals Postage is paid at Waukesha WI and addit onal off ices Postmaster : Send address changes to Discover, PO Box 8520 B g Sandy, T X 75755 Canada Post Publication Mail A greement #40010760 Back ssues available All rights reser ved Nothing herein contained may be reproduced without written permission of K almbach Media Co 2 102 7 Crossroads C rcle P O Box 1612 Waukesha WI 53187 1612 Pr nted n the U S A remained mostly uncharted until last year, when coral biologist L aetitia Hédouin paid it a visit after a tip from a local dive shop. The combination of its size, depth and pristine quality was startling “It’s like a treasure,” Hédouin says, describing the mature coral as virtu ally untouched by climate change. “ The question is: How long will it sur vive? ” Studies indicate that coral coverage globally shrunk by half between the 1950s and early 2000s, and some 14 percent of the world’s coral died off between 2009 and 2018, largely due to warming seas and ongoing bleaching events. Hédouin partnered with UNESCO to document and study this thriving Tahiti reef in late 2021 Notably, the team of researchers and photographers documented some of the same species that are threatened in shal lower reefs, suggesting these lesser explored, mesophotic reefs those deeper than 100 feet, where sunlight is limited could play a vital R E S E A R C H E R S say this thriving reef near Tahiti is one of the largest healthy mesophotic reef s known to scientists role in preser ving coral. And scientists don’t really know how many healthy mesophotic reefs are hiding in our oceans ’ depths Advancements in dive technolog y are shifting that. Hédouin says rebreather gear in this latest expedition allowed divers to rec ycle their air and extend time at depth four times longer than conventional diving Changes in the affordability and safety of such tools are expanding ocean research possibilities D # S c i e n c e I R L
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