Celebrating Science
Transcript of Celebrating Science
6 SC I E NT I F IC A M E RIC A N Augu st 2010
BOARD OF ADVISERSLESLIE C. AIELLOPresident, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
ROGER BINGHAMProfessor, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego
G. STEVEN BURRILLCEO, Burrill & Company
ARTHUR CAPLANEmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
GEORGE M. CHURCHDirector, Center for Computational Genetics, Harvard Medical School
RITA COLWELL Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland College Park and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
DREW ENDYProfessor of Bioengineering, Stanford University
ED FELTEN Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University
MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGADirector, Sage Center for the Study of Mind, University of California, Santa Barbara
DAVID GROSS Frederick W. Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004)
LENE VESTERGAARD HAU Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, Harvard University
DANNY HILLIS Co-chairman, Applied Minds
DANIEL M. KAMMENDirector, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
VINOD KHOSLAFounder, Khosla Ventures
CHRISTOF KOCHLois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, Caltech
LAWRENCE M. KRAUSSDirector, Origins Initiative, Arizona State University
MORTEN L. KRINGELBACHDirector, Hedonia: TrygFonden Research Group, University of Oxford and University of Aarhus
STEVEN KYLEProfessor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University
ROBERT S. LANGERDavid H. Koch Institute Professor, M.I.T.
LAWRENCE LESSIGProfessor, Harvard Law School
ERNEST J. MONIZCecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor. M.I.T.
JOHN P. MOOREProfessor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell UniversityM. GRANGER MORGANProfessor and Head of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
MIGUEL NICOLELISCo-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University
MARTIN NOWAKDirector, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University
ROBERT PALAZZOProvost and Professor of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
CAROLYN PORCOLeader, Cassini Imaging Science Team, and Director, CICLOPS, Space Science Institute
VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego
LISA RANDALLProfessor of Physics, Harvard University
MARTIN REESProfessor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge
JOHN REGANOLDRegents Professor of Soil Science, Washington State University
JEFFREY D. SACHSDirector, The Earth Institute, Columbia University
EUGENIE SCOTTExecutive Director, National Center for Science Education
TERRY SEJNOWSKIProfessor and Laboratory Head of Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
MICHAEL SNYDERProfessor of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
MICHAEL E. WEBBERAssociate Director, Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy, University of Texas at Austin
STEVEN WEINBERGDirector, Theory Research Group, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979)
GEORGE M. WHITESIDESProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University
NATHAN WOLFEDirector, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative
R. JAMES WOOLSEY, JR. Venture Partner, VantagePoint Venture Partners
ANTON ZEILINGERProfessor of Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics, Quantum Information, University of Vienna
JONATHAN ZITTRAINProfessor, Harvard Law School ET
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Mariette DiChristina editor in chief
Celebrating ScienceIn 1845 James K. Polk suc-ceeded John Tyler, Jr., as the 11th president. The U.S. an nexed Texas as the 28th state, and the young na-tion’s “manifest destiny” to
occupy all of North America became a popular ideal. The industrial revolution was burgeoning, easing people’s lives with mechanical marvels. By this time, for in-stance, Cyrus McCormick had created a labor-saving reaper for crops. And with a promise to explain “New Inventions, Sci-enti� c Principles, and Curious Works,” the painter and inventor Rufus Porter in-troduced the � rst issue of a broadsheet called The Scienti� c American on August 28, 1845.
Porter was “a mechanical Johnny Ap-pleseed sowing seed of new and inge-nious ideas as he traveled through New England and abroad through his jour-nals,” wrote Jean Lipman in Rufus Por-ter, Yankee Pioneer (Clarkson N. Potter, 1968); you can learn more about him at the Rufus Porter Museum in Bridgton, Me. Porter took out more than 100 pat-ents, but his best-known innovation is his revolver mechanism, which he sold in 1844 to Samuel Colt for $100. Scienti� c American re� ected his broad interests. The inaugural edition lists patents, de-scribes developments such as Samuel Morse’s telegraph and a � lter for locomo-tive smoke, comments on painting por-traits and even includes poetry. Find ex-cerpts in a special 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago, starting on page 12; other excerpts from the 1845 issue and a slide show ap-pear at www.Scienti� cAmerican.com.
True to Porter’s restless nature, he sold the publication after only 10 months to Orson Desaix Munn and Alfred Ely Beach, both in their early 20s. Beach was also an inventor—he designed New York
City’s � rst subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit (an 1870 issue featured the plans). Scienti� c American is included in an exhibit at the Newseum in Wash-ington, D.C., on the history of journal-ism in the 1800s. Munn & Co. had a successful patent agency that shepherd-ed more than 1,000 applications, and it ultimately held Scienti� c American for more than a century.
When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, Scienti� c Ameri-can covered it. Thomas Edison came into the of� ce and demonstrated his work for the staff. With editorials and silver tro-phies to reward � ights of increasing dis-tances, the editors goaded the Wright brothers to reveal details of their � ying machines. Albert Einstein once penned an article for our pages. The magazine saw the U.S. through its Sputnik moment and the start of the “space age.”
This is Scienti� c American’s 165-year heritage as the country’s oldest continu-ously published magazine. Yet in every issue, the magazine is new again, with its scientist authors, many of them Nobel Prize winners, and top journalists de-scribing the latest in science and technol-ogy. In this edition, feature articles cover everything from threats to the comput-ers we now rely on (“The Hacker in Your Hardware,” page 82) to devices that will make “fantastic voyages” in medicine a reality (“Robot Pills,” page 62) to extra-solar Earth-like planets that might har-bor life (“Planets We Could Call Home,” page 38). Fittingly, we include a special report on “Origins” (page 46).
So Happy Birthday to Scienti� c Amer-ican this month. We hope you will join us in celebrating the renewal and positive force of science in our world every day. ■
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