MISSION TO JUPITER

Contents .
PALEONTOLOGY p.44

In This
Issue
JANUARY/
With the help of cutting-edge imaging FEBRUARY In 50 years, astronauts could be trekking to the
technology, scientists make astounding 2008 outer solar system. What's required? Nuclear
discoveries about the beast's private life. rockets, artificial gravity and human hibernation.

Snake venom kills tens of thousands of people Icebergs are a treacherous source of informa-
every year, but new research is turning it into tion about our changing climate. Here's how
cures that may save the lives of many more. scientists track them.

: .
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'*"""'I""'"lIligh:to.d<to
hblM.Thtt1vlolo9Y
15sti1....:wlck~from

............,..
buI~"-rnutts'-

Building a
Bionic
.,=._---_._-

Ilii
An astonishing look at some of the universe's Tiny arrays of implanted electrodes aim to
most violent events: supernovae, gamma-ray achieve what was previously only adream:
bursts and collisions between galaxies. giving sight back to the blind.

HUMAN ORIGINS p.68 ANCIENT RIDDLES p.56

Genetic evidence pinpoints Africa as the A photographer reveals a natural fortress Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, was once
birthplace of the human species, and new whose limestone defenses have repelled one of the largest cities in the world. Then it
archaeological discoveries could prove it. destructive species for millions of years. disappeared. Scientists are still asking why.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 3

 Contents

.. I'
Departments
Bullis-Eye p.8
A sacrificial mummy, conjoined twins, a wall
of vapor and a look up the nose are all in this
issue's gallery of amazing images.

Science Update p.17

Gender-changing lizards, ant road crews, diag-
nosis vests, the brain on autopilot, an underwa-
ter observatory and the discovery of kryptonite.

Ask Us p.25
How do insects breathe? Did ostriches ever fly?
When will the Earth's poles flip? Our experts
answer your science questions.

World of Science p.88

What makes Mr. Bean funny, the shark that
swallowed a chicken coop, and other unlikely
nuggets of scientific knowledge.

From the Editor p.6

Trivia Countdown p.94
Brain Trainers p.96

4 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 From the Editor

ADazzling View SCIENCE

ILLUSTRATED
of the World Editor-in-Chief Mark Jannot
Creative Director Sam Syed
Deputy Editor Jacob Ward
Creating and publishing a new magazine is always Editorial Production Manager Felicia Pardo
Translator Jonathan D. Beard
a tremendous learning experience, but this one has Copy Chief Rina Bander
Copy Editor Jamie Scheppers
been even more fruitful in that regard than most. Staff Editors Doug Cantor, Bjorn Carey, Nicole Dyer, Seth Fletcher,
Mike Haney, Martha Harbison, Michael Moyer
Here, off the top of my head, is a small sampling of Fact Checkers Andrea Appleton, Maya Dollarhide, Katy Gagnon
Art Director Matthew (okeley
things I've learned in the process of putting together Designer Patrick Albertson
Photo Editor Kristine LaManna
the premiere issue of SCIENCE ILLUS1RATED: Web Editor Megan Miller

Publisher Gregg R. Hano

Humans will never get close to the surface ofJupiter, because the radia- Advertising Director Rich Rasor
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The most toxic snake venom in the world is far from the most deadly, 312-832-0626, Ad Assistant Krissy Van Rossum
because it's made in tiny quantities by relatively timid sea snakes. Los Angeles Advertising Office: Manager Robert Hoeck
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One gamma-ray burst releases as much energy as 10 million billion suns. Director, Single Copy Sales Vicki Weston
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other day I got to impress him with the satisfyingly specific "182 bacteria" nug- Human Resources Manager Kim Putman
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Because you're holding SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED in your hands, I'm willing to Production Assistant Yolanda Tribble
bet you're also enchanted by these sorts of facts, which is why I'm certain Prepress Manager Jose Medina
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YOU'll be as excited about this new magazine as I am. SOENCE ILLUSTRATED is a
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6 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 _ Bull's-Eye Nature

VAPOR TSUNAMI
A looming cylinder of water vapor tears across the Gulf of
Carpentaria in Northern Australia. These "roll clouds" can be
hundreds of miles long and stretch over a mile wide, zipping
over the land at speeds around 20 mph, but the conditions
required to create them are not well understood. The locals call
them "morning glories" because they form overnight to be
visible at dawn. During the high season-September to
November-several may form each week.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BARRY SLADE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCElllUSTRATED.COM I 9

Honored Vidim
Approximately 500 years ago, a fifteen-
year-old Incan girl was left to die on the
bitterly cold summit of Mount Llullaillaco in
Argentina. The frozen body of the young girl,
named liLa Doncella" (The Maiden)-shown
on display at the Museum of High Altitude
Archaeology in Salta, Argentina-was
discovered in 1999 along with two other
Incan children, their deaths part of a
religious sacrifice called capacocha, one of
the most sacred rituals in Incan society.
Recent analysis of La Doncella's hair
indicates that she was fed aristocratic food
such as maize and llama meat (potatoes
were the bulk of the common diet) during
the year preceding her death and that she
was drugged before dying of exposure.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY WALTER ECHAZU

10 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 Ing Up 5 Hard To Do
Four-month-old female conjoined twins were separated during an
II-hour operation at the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University in
Northern China. The girls were born prematurely in March 2007, and
began their lives with connected livers, hearts and abdomens. Because of
their condition, they suffered from congenital heart disease and
malnutrition, weighing only a combined 9.5 pounds. In July the twins
reached a collective 16.5 pounds and were finally separated. Surgeons
split their livers and hearts and reconstructed their breastbones. The girls
left the ICU and entered the regular hospital ward in early September.
PH010GRAPH BY YANG SHIYAO

.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 Bullis-Eye

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 15

Science U date
IN BRIEF English researchers
have built the world's first
artifici Ihuman stomach-a
high-tech box that simulates
digestion. Like areal stomach,
it secretes acid and can vomit
if given food it can'thandle.

ANew Definition
ofClimate Change
Hot weather turns lizards
from male to female
1:l[.n.ICSj Researchers at the
Institute for Applied Ecology at the
University of Canberra in Australia
discovered that the Australian
central bearded dragon lizard has
the surprising ability to change
sex when the climate is unusually
warm. The sex-shift happens only
to males, and only when they are in
the egg. The researchers incubated
35 eggs at abnormally high tem-
peratures, and the result was two
males and 33 females. At normal
temperatures, gender is evenly di-
vided. The shift occurs because the
heat turns off agene on the lizard's
so-called Z-chromosome.

During warmer seasons,

the central bearded dragon
brood is mostly female.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 17

 Science Update
Daydreaming
Is the Brain's
Default Mode
New research pinpoints
where in the brain it happens

liti'lt!:tt'NWI For most of

us, letting our thoughts wander
while performing fairly mundane
tasks is a common experience.
Until now, scientists knew pre-
cious little about what actually
happens when we daydream.
Now neuropsychologists from
Dartmouth College have demon-
strated that the same regions are
active in both daydreaming and
idle brains-specifically, clusters
of regions in the front part of the
When Is a Leopard Not a Leopard? brain's cortex. The results suggest
DNA tests nowshow that clouded leopards found on the islands ofBorneo and that daydreaming is a kind of
Sumatra belong to a different species than leopards found on the Asian main- baseline activity that the brain
land. According to U.S. researchers, the differences are so great that the two defaults to when it is less than
types are as genetically distinct from each other as lions are from tigers. fully engaged.
Thunderstorms' Effects Are Felt
Hundreds of Miles Up in Space
The storms create gas bands that can disrupt GPS signals back down on Earth
'ifUltlU.1M.. Tropical thunderstorms can,
according to new research, set off powerful storms
in space. In the ionosphere, hundreds of miles
above Earth's surface, the storms can disrupt radio
transmission and reception of GPS signals.
New measurements by a NASA satellite show
that enormous quantities of gas collect in the iono-
sphere over regions where there are thunderstorms.
One image shows four dense clouds of gas over
the Amazon, the Congo, Indonesia and the Pacific
Ocean-four places where thunderstorms were
raging when the photos were taken.
Physicists believe that electrical storms affect
the ionosphere indirectly. Thunderstorms create
shockwaves in the air that move up into
the ionosphere's E-layer. This'layer is
partially electrified during the day and
creates several characteristic plasma
bands that extend around the
Earth. Changes in the E-layer plasma
bands alter the electric fields they
generate, which, in turn, affect the
higher-level plasma bands.
Thunderstorms at the
equator create glowing gas
layers in the ionosphere.
" 2008
In Nepal, archaeologists have
discovered wall paintings with
scenes from Buddha's life.
Buddha/s Image
GracesaHidden
Mountain (ave
'MIl:riW1NCfI Ashepherd
from the tiny mountain kingdom
of Mustang in northeastern Nepal
recently led Western archaeolo-
gists to an exceptional find. The
shepherd had first seen colorful
paintings on the walls of a distant
cave when taking shelter from a
storm. After three weeks of search-
ing, the archaeologists and spe-
lunkers found the paintings nearly
buried by snow at an altitude of
11,000 feet. The murals, all of which
depict scenes from Buddha's life,
are approximately 900 years old.
One is about 25 feet wide, and
there are 55 smaller paintings mea-
suring about 14 by 17 inches.
IN BRIEF Italian researchers
havereconstructed afingerprint
from Leonardo cia Vinci's left in-
dexfinger. The pattern of arches
on the print suggests that da
Vine may have had Arabic
ancestry-lendingsupporttoa
theory that his mother was a
slave from the Middle East.
SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 19
 Science Update

rNBRIEF Itusedtobeundear This mummy,

whether a fever actually found in 1903
fought infection or was just in a humble
a by-product of the immune grave in the
Valley ofthe
system's activity. Now U.S.
Kings, has now
researchers have discovered
been confirmed
that fever boosts immune
haroah.
defenses by mobilizing white
blood cells.

Plankton FailsTest
as Climate Hero
Not an effective CO2 sponge
':l[t'!'I1" Plankton live close
to the surface of the ocean, where
they consume COl in their energy
cycle. When they die, they sink
toward the seabed. Scientists
have long believed that plankton
reduce levels of the gas in the
atmosphere by carrying it into the
deep. But now a team of biologists
working in waters off Hawaii has
debunked this theory.
The study showed that most
of the dead plankton sank only as
far as the "twilight zone;' about 300
to 3,000 feet below the surface.
Large quantities of bacteria live
in this zone and feed on the
plankton. As the bacteria digest
the plankton, they release the
greenhouse gas, which then rises
to the surface and qUickly reenters
the atmosphere.

Plankton, which suck CO2 out

ofthe air, are eaten by bacteria
that go on to release the green-
house gas again.

20 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

It's aBird, It's a. Squirrel?
New fossil evidence suggests that a mammal could have flown at about
the same time-or even before-the first birds
.gi'!#.'ii.)!,tf\j Who was the first to
conquer the air: birds or mammals? Chinese
paleontologists believe they have answered
this question aher finding a fossil that's at
least 125 million years old of a
squirrel-like animal called
Volaticotherium antiquus.
Kryptonite Found in Serbia
According to the researchers, the mammal
mastered flying at about the same time, or
even before, the first birds.
The prehistoric flying squirrel was
roughly the size of present-day bats. The
animal used a fur-covered skin membrane
as a wing and could glide through the air,
using its tail as a rudder. The world's first
bird, Archaeopteryx, took wing about 150
million years ago.
The squirrel is now the oldest
known gliding mammal.
Untit recently,
that title went to a
30-million-year-old
rodent relative.
species of bacteria live on
the body's largest organ,
the skin, new research re-
veals. The bacteria come
from four groups, propioni-
bacteria, corynebacteria,
staphylococcus and strepto-
coccus. The vast majority
are harmless-only a few
cause disease.
Geologists recently found a previously un-
known mineral in a Serbian mine. The
mineral was sent to the Natural History
Museum in London, which determined
its chemical makeup: sodium
lithium boron siticate hydrox-
ide. This is exactly the same
composition as the fictional
kryptonite, famous from
Superman comics. The real
mineral, christenedjadarite,
is harmless.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 21
 Science Update

Introdudng the
DiagnosisVest
LifeShirt helps pinpoint
psychological disorders
IMN[lIll~IJ Under certain
circumstances, it can be difficult
to determine whether a mental
patient is showing signs of schizo-
phrenia or bipolar disorder. Now
doctors have a new tool in their
diagnostic arsenal: the LifeShirt.
The LifeShirt is a computer-
ized vest that patients are asked
to wear into a room they've never
seen before. People with bipolar
disorder are known to react with
hyperactivity and avid exploration
in new environments, but patients
with schizophrenia are much more
reserved. Some patients' responses
aren't so extreme, though, so the
vest monitors changes in blood
pressure, breathing rate, sweat
production and other physiologi-
cal measures, while continuously
recording the patient's movement
patterns. The expectation is that if
a mentally ill patient dons the vest
Ant Road Crews Plug
and remains in a strange room for
some time, the doctor will have
enough data to make a diagnosis.
Potholes Wit Ants
':1["!tId.. What does a smart ant do when it plug" ants crawled down into holes appropriate to
finds a hole in the road that would slow down their size, so that the rest of the ants could move
the day's work 7 She fills the hole with her body. Re- onward. If the hole was too large for a single ant
searchers from the University of Bristol in England to fill with its body, several ants banded together
have discovered that army ants in the rainforests to create an adequate plug. Once the column had
of Central and South America, Eciton burel/i, happily passed, these ants jumped out of the hole and
sacrifice themselves so that the colony can move rejoined the group.
a bit faster. If there is a hole in the forest floor over Every day at dawn, army ants march off in
which the column of up to 200,000 ants is march- large swarms that span up to several yards wide
ing, some of the ants throw themselves into the to go out and capture other ants and spiders.
hole to plug it up. This creates a smooth path for They inject prey with crippling poisons and then
the rest, which can then qUickly bring home prey cut them into pieces. The small pieces of prey are
for the hungry larvae. carried home to the colony to feed their young.
In the lab, the researchers riddled a board Without the pothole plug ants, the quantity of
with large and small holes and forced the ants to food brought home each day would probably be
march across it. Experiments showed that pothole greatly reduced.

IN BRIEF University ofCambridge research shows that human bonesare stiff predominantly because ofspecialized
sugarr-not proteins, as previously believed. These sugars playa role in mineralization, which hardens new bone.

22 I SCIENCEllLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 AskUs
DO FINGERNAILS ON DEAD PEOPLE GROW?
Despite widespread belief that fingernails and
toenails grow on corpses, growth stops at death.
Acorpse's skin, however, does shrink, and that gives
the appearance of nail growth.

In the long jump,

the athlete's leap
releases energy
stored in the legs.

Can energy
become mass?
In Einstein's famous equation,
E = mc 2, energy and mass are on A long jump consists of four stages: run-up, off with great power-can be compared to
opposite sides. They are balanced takeoff, flight and landing. During run-up, the compressing a spring. The bending stores elastic
by a simple yet incredibly large jumper should run as fast as possible while energy in the muscles and tendons, and the
multiplying factor: the square of bringing his body into takeoff position. After extension transforms this energy into upward
the speed of light Measured in leaning forward while running, the athlete must motion. During flight, the jumper counters his
8 meters per second squared, this is straighten his body and push his hips slightly body's forward rotation by "running" through
~ a nine followed by 16 zeros. Mass is forward as he leaves the ground. Typically, a the air. When landing, his body should be
~ just an enormously concentrated jumper takes a long second-to-Iast step, lower- centered slightly forward of his heels to prevent
~ form of energy. ing his body's center of mass, followed by a a backward fall. The jump is measured from the
~ Particle physicists routinely short final step, making the takeoff as nearly ver- nearest mark in the sand. The current record,
:5
~ study how energy transforms into tical as possible. The takeoff-when the jumper 29.4 feet, is held by an American, Mike Powell,
~ 8 mass and vice versa. One basic takes his last step, bends his legs, and pushes who made the jump in August 1991 in Tokyo.
;: ':i example of this is called pair pro-
~~
:.:! t9 duction: A photon, which has no
~~ mass, will spontaneously split
~6
iii t;; into an electron and its anti-
"':=0
~~ pa rticle, the positron. Here the
.. <>.
~ ~ energy changes into mass. But
25 f2 if the electron and positron meet
a:?
'5i ~ again, they will annihilate each
~~ other and change from mass
~~ back into energy.
:=0
~~
=!u

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 25


In the late evening or early morn-
ing hours, it is not unusual to see
bright spots moving straight
across the sky that suddenly
disappear. These are passing
satellites. The sudden disappear-
ance takes place when the satellite
passes into Earth's shadow. From
the satellite's point of view, the
sun has just set and so there's no
sunlight to reflect.
Satellites follow many different
orbits around our planet, depend-
ing on their purpose. Generally,
the higher the satellite, the longer
it will take to orbit Earth and the
I
WHY DO DOGS LICK
I THEIR NOSES?
Ahealthy dog constantly
licks his snout. We do not
know exactly why, but
canine noses lack sweat
glands, so perhaps they
are shedding heat by evapo-
ration from their wet noses.
It is also possible that mois-
ture inaeases the nose's
ability to pick up smells.
Pet behaviorists think it's
harder it will be to see. A geosta-
also asignal used by dogs
tionary satellite, 22,000 miles up, to calm strangers.
is invisible to the naked eye, but
the International Space Station,
which is in orbit about 210 miles
up, is easy to spot. The ISS takes
only about 90 seconds to move
from horizon to horizon.

Were ostriches once able to fly?

Birds are in their element when airborne, and typically don't fare well that remind us they are descended from flying birds. They have
in encounters with carnivorous mammals or reptiles when grounded. wing structures not unlike those of other birds, but ostriches use
But some species have successfully adapted to life on the ground. This them in courtship and aggression displays. Ostriches are c1assifed
is the case for penguins, emus and ostriches. as ratites, because they lack the keel on their breastbone where
Researchers believe that modern, flightless ostriches flight muscles would attach.
descended from a flying ancestor of some kind. Ostriches developed other evolutionarily advan-
After studying the breastbones of various birds tageous traits that prob-
that lived between 45 ably made flying
and 65 million years unnecessary. They are
ago, they believe phenomenally fast
that the large runners, with long,
bi rd lost its strong legs and two
ability to toes, and can surpass
fly at least 40 miles per hour for
45 million short stretches. In
years ago. By addition, their
then, ostriches exception-
had developed into allygcxxJ
large, strong animals eyesight
capable of fighting off and long
or running away from necks allow
predators instead of them to spot
simpy flying away. predators at
Ostriches have long range.
several characteristics

26 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008


Why do most people prefer to drink cold water?
Physiologists define thirst as an appetite for water. This desire to drink
comes from receptors in the body that report to the hypothalamus-
the brain structure that regulates hormones that control certain sensa-
tions like thirst, hunger, body temperature and mood-when water
concentrations get too low. A dry mouth or throat is also a powerful
trigger for inducing the sensation of thirst.
Studies have shown that cold water is best for quenching thirst.
Ask Us
The reason is that cold water triggers receptors in the mouth and throat
that send signals to the brain to reduce the thirsty sensation. This is why
patients denied liquids before surgery are ohen given ice to suck on: It
can lessen the feeling of thirst. Overheated people may prefer to drink
water near the freeZing point, but they will not drink as much as they
will if given access to water closer to room temperature. This is another
indication that cold water slakes thirst more effectively.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 27
 When will the
Earth's poles flip
position again?
The Earth's magnetic field
changes orientation at regular
intervals, and although we can't
predict when it will happen, we
are certain that the poles move.
Measurements of the magnetic
field over the past 400 years
reveal that the North Magnetic
Pole has moved around the
Arctic north of Canada by as
much as six miles per year. In
the past 10 years, it picked up
speed and began to move north
at 25 miles per year.
The historical position of
the magnetic poles, going back
millions of years, can be read
from various magnetic minerals
WHICH RELIGION IS
THE OLDEST?
Even Neanderthals had a
primitive form of religion,
but Judaism, in existence
for 4,000 years, is the
oldest ofthe modem
monotheistic faiths.
l a damp piece of cloth wrapped
, HOW MANY MEN HAVE
BEEN ON THE MOON?
To date, 12 astronauts
have had the pleasure of
walking on the moon. The
astronauts got there on
six different U.S. Apollo
flights that were launched
in 1969, 1971 and 1972.
28 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
found in lava and other rocks.
The minerals show that the
magnetic field has reversed
direction about every 300,000
years and that more than
780,000 years have passed
since the poles last shifted.
This makes us long overdue for
another magnetic-pole reversal
from north to south.
It's not just the magnetic
field's orientation that changes
over time but also its strength.
Analysis of minerals found at The North Magnetic Pole has moved
the bottom of the ocean shows around quite a bit in the past 400
that the magnetic field has years. But researchers can't say if the
weakened 10 percent since magnetic field will reverse soon.
the 19th century.
1 How do we measure humidity in the air?
At any given temperature, air can hold only a certain Despite such modern technology, a mechanical
amount of water vapor-any more, and the water method invented in 1783 remains in common use. It
will condense and become clouds, fog, dew or rain. is based on the fact that hair expands up to 3 percent
Relative humidity is the percentage of the air's total as humidity rises. In a hair hygrometer, the expanding
water-vapor capacity that it currently holds. or contracting hair moves a lever on a scale.
Meteorologists traditionally use
two thermometers to determine rela-
tive humidity: one wet bulb with
around it, and one dry bulb. The evap-
oration of the cloth's moisture requires
heat, and this loss of heat cools the
thermometer, causing the wet-bulb
thermometer to show a lower reading
than the dry. The difference between
the two can be converted to show
the relative humidity in the air. This
method is gradually disappearing,
though, as remote satellites mea-
sure humidity on a global scale by
detecting water concentrations in Human hair and horsehair elongate with rising humidity.
the atmosphere. The hair moves a pointer on a dial.
 Ask Us

Ifinsects don't have lungs,

how do they breathe?
Oxygen is a gas required by every animal for respi-
ration, a part of the chemical process that breaks
down food to utilize its energy. In respiration,
oxygen combines with hydrogen and produces
water and carbon dioxide as the end products.
All vertebrates that breathe air use lungs to
capture oxygen from the air. When air is brought
inside the body, oxygen is exchanged for carbon
The Milky Way is both the dioxide between the air and blood. But arthro-
name of a galaxy and of the pods-a varied group of related animals,
band of stars seen here. ranging from insects and myriapods to crus-
taceans and spiders-never developed
How can we take lungs and solved the problem of
respiration in other ways.
pictures ofthe They have in common
a basic body
Milky Way when plan, with
a rigid, jointed exoskeleton that supports their
body and protects those living on land from losing
too much moisture.
Larger, aquatic arthropods, such as crabs, have
evolved elaborate external gills with a large surface
area in contact with the water. On land, gills
don't work because they allow too much water
to evaporate. Instead, terrestrial arthropods have
developed an internal respiratory system, based on
tracheal tubes connected to spiracles-pores in
the exoskeleton. The air reaches the animals'
blood and internal organs by means of com-
plicated structures that use diffusion or
rely on pumping movements by various
muscles in the body.
Zoologists believe the arthro-
pod respiratory system is one

we're inside it? reason why terrestrial arthro-

The name"Milky Way" is used both
for the galaxy itself and for the
glowing ribbon of weak stars that
we can see on clear nights as a
band across the sky. This ribbon of
stars is part-but not all-of our
own galaxy. And because it is our
own galaxy, it is impossible to take
pictures showing its entirety.
The photographs of the Milky
Way that are taken from Earth or
from satellites clearly show that we
live far from the galaxy's center. It
Why don't people have red, yellow or orange eyes?
is precisely this location that gives
us a panoramic view of the Milky
Way-the Milky Way galaxy seen
from within. Ours is a view of the
spiral galaxy from the edge.
In these photos, we can see
the band of the Milky Way with
its myriad stars in front of the Milky
Way system's core, which lies in
the direction of the con~tellation
Sagittarius. It is not possible to
see into the galaxy's center at
optical wavelengths, but we
can do this with infrared and
radio telescopes.
pods are restricted from
growing as large as other
phyla in the animal kingdom.
The vertebrates' solution to
the problem of oxygen
supply-lungs-has no set
limits on how large they can grow.
This x-ray of a mealworm shows the tracheal tubes in
white. The insect gets oxygen through these tubes.
Most people have brown, blue, green or lengths of light and reflects others. The
gray eyes, while birds, for instance, can most important pigment found in hu-
have red, yellow or white eyes. The man eyes is melanin, which is black and
limited palette for human eyes is a causes brown eyes. The iris in blue eyes
direct result of the limited quantity contains only small amounts of melanin,
of pigment our iris can produce and green eyes have a moderate amount
as compared with other species of melanin, not a green pigment. If you
that have many different pigments examine a green eye very closely, you will
in their eyes. Colors appear in the eye see it is basically a blue eye with small
because the iris absorbs certain wave- spots of dark melanin in the iris.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 29

 Icebergs are beautiful and treacherous-not to mention a tremendous source
of information about our changing climate. Here's a look inside the high-tech
tracking systems scientists use to protect ships from Titanic-scale collisions and
to monitor the impact of climate change on the planet.

30 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 Fieldwork

Titanic's Fate Was Two Years in the Making

The iceberg that cut six small openings in the RMS Titanic probably origi-
nated in one of the ice fjords of western Greenland in 1910. For about two
years, currents carried the berg toward its fatal meeting with the liner in
April 1912. That particular year saw an unusually large number of icebergs
in the area, and many were identified as being the one that sank the Titanic
by rescue vessels who photographed the area the day after the disaster.

This iceberg, photographed by a U.S. Coast Guard ship, allegedly

showed visible traces ofred paint, the color ofthe Titanic.

he night of April 15, 1912, was cold

T and moonless. The lookout onboard

the Titanic, Frederick Fleet, was
watching for icebergs that other ships in
the area had telegraphed warnings about.
For unknown reasons, however, Fleet
had no binoculars, and he failed to spot
the jagged hulk towering ahead until it
was too late. In spite of the alarm, which
prompted First Officer William Murdoch
to change the ship's course, the iceberg
ripped through the side of the ship 37
seconds later. Two hours and 40 minutes
after that, the world's most extravagant
ship sank, and 1,517 people died.
The Titanic was by no means the first
ship to sink after colliding with an ice-
berg-such accidents were considered an
unavoidable risk at the time. But the scale
of the disaster led to the establishment
of an ice patrol in 1914 that would look
out for icebergs and warn ships in the
treacherous area east of Newfoundland.
The International Ice Patrol exists to this
day, and its warnings are indispensable
to ships in the heavily trafficked routes
between Europe and North America. But
it's just one of the many efforts under way
worldwide to keep tabs on these menac-
ing, unpredictable ice giants. ~

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM 31

.. "
ll!!'t,..---';~- Newfoundland

X Sinking of
the Tdanic

Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean

How to Move an Iceberg

Over time, the ice patrol has expanded its
service and vastly enhanced its technologi-
cal might. (The U.S. Coast Guard operates
the patrols, but 17 countries share the
Larsen Ice Shelf cost.) Some of the data comes from recon-
Antarctic Peninsula naissance planes flying at an altitude of
5,000 to 8,000 feet that constantly moni-
Amundsen Sea tor the 500,000-square-mile area. Large
icebergs are easy to spot, but dense fog can
often make it difficult to distinguish small
The Ross Ice Shelf icebergs from ships. In these cases, tlle
patrol members' experience is vital.
In addition to the planes, the ice patrol
Drygalski Ice gets reports from commercial ships and
Tongue
floating buoys that measure sea currents
in the area. This data makes it easier to
predict the icebergs' routes. Finally, ice-

Icebergs (an Almost Reach the Tropics patrol personnel fit GPS transmitters to
certain icebergs to track their movements
Normally, Arctic icebergs melt near Newfoundland, but in rare instances, some
via satellites. This is especially helpful dur-
may drift as far south as Bermuda before dissolving. Icebergs from the South
Pole can drift as far north as the tip ofSouth America, but are usually swept up by
ing inclement weatller.
Antarctic circumpolar currents and float counterclockwise around the pole. In recent years, the area's growing oil
industry has also had to take icebergs into
consideration. In the oil fields off New-

32 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 Satellites closely tracked B7SA, which
changed ocean currents and caused
problems for ships and penguins.

foundland, the foundations of new drill-
ing rigs are encased in a thick concrete
ring capable of withstanding collisions
with icebergs weighing up to 750,000
tons. If an iceberg is headed directly for
a platfonn, however, it is far better to
haul the berg away with a tugboat. The
boat encircles the iceberg with a rope
that is then tightened like a lasso. Slowly
and carefully, the tugboat pulls on the
behemoth to change its course and direct
it away from the platfonn.
Icebergs and Climate Change
While icebergs in northern waters are
monitored largely to protect shipping,
scientists have other reasons for keeping
track of icebergs in the Southern Hemi-
sphere. There are indications that fluctua-
tions in the size and volume of Antarctic
icebergs are related to climate change.
In the past 50 years, the temperature
of the ocean worldwide has risen about
half a degree Fahrenheit near the surface.
In 1995 the narrow Larsen A ice shelf to-
tally disintegrated, breaking into countless
icebergs in just a few weeks. In January
2002, over a 35-day period, the same
happened to 1,250 square miles of the far
larger Larsen B ice shelf, which had been
stable since the end of the last ice age.
The breakaway of an iceberg, known
as "calving," is believed to be the com-
bined result of two phenomena. Melted
surface snow fonns lakes that penetrate
the ice, while the shelf's underside
simultaneously melts. The collapse of an
ice shelf is not a disaster in itself. Because
most of the ice is already below the wa-
terline, the breakup doesn't cause any sig-
nificant rise in water level. But ice shelves
slow the glaciers that carry ice from the
inner continent toward the coast. So if the
large ice shelves of the Antarctic-Filch-
ner Ronne to the nortll and Ross to the
south-disappear one day like Larsen A
and B did, the ice cap could begin draining
faster than snowfall can rebuild it. If the
West Antarctic ice cap disintegrates, sea
levels could rise by 12 to 18 feet.
For the moment, the large ice shelves
remain out oftlle southern danger
zone, but many glaciers flowing into the
Amundsen Sea have accelerated sharply
in recent decades. Chris Rapley, director
of the British Antarctic Survey, recently
warned that global wanning is destabiliz-
ing the West Antarctic ice cap.
Tracking Bergs by Satellite
The last ice age showed tllat abrupt
climate changes can, in fact, cause ice
caps to collapse and launch annadas of
icebergs into the sea. During that age, pe-
riods of bitter cold alternated with periods
of milder weather when temperatures
rose suddenly, only to drop again slowly
over several thousand years. The abrupt
temperature increases have been linked
to the collapse of an ice cap that covered
Canada and the U.S., sending countless
icebergs down the Hudson Strait to the
North Atlantic. Stones trapped in the bergs
have been found as far away as England
and Bennuda. ~

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 33

 JANUARY 31,2002
The Larsen Bice shelf, which had been stable since the end ofthe last ice age, broke into icebergs in just a few weeks in 2002.
Since the last ice age, the largest
icebergs have calved from Antarctica. With
the help of the Envisat, Modis Terra and
Aqua satellites, the National Ice Center
observes and monitors all Antarc-
tic icebergs that measure more
than 11.5 miles long when they
calve. In 1997, satellite pictures
revealed cracks 1.5 miles long
near the fringe of the Antarc-
tic's largest floating ice shelf,
Ross, which covers an area
equal to France. The breakup
came in 2000, when the second-
largest iceberg ever observed
broke off the vast ice shelf. It
totaled more than 6,835 square
miles, an area larger than Connecti-
cut. Christened B15, the colossus was
183 miles long and 23 miles wide.
From 2002 to 2003, the giant broke
into six smaller icebergs, the largest of
which, B15A, has since been fitted with
GPS transmitters and weather monitors
watched 24 hours a day. In fall 2005, B15A
broke into still smaller icebergs following
a collision with Drygalski, an ice tongue
extending 44 miles into the sea from the
David Glacier in the Victoria Land area of
Antarctica. By then, though, it had already
wreaked considerable havoc.
The Forced March
of the Penguins
In summer, the sea ice in the Ross breaks
up, and during its first three summers,
B15A drifted east along the ice rim at a
rate of more than a mile a day. Then the
iceberg went aground off the McMurdo
34 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
FEBRUARY 17,2002
GPS transmitters fitted onto the ice-
bergs allow scientists to monitor them
even in the dark of winter.
Sound, where it disrupted prevailing
winds and sea currents. When spring
came in November 2004, the sea ice
broke up as usual, but the stranded giant
obstructed the ice's path out to sea. This
made it extremely difficult to bring sup-
plies to New Zealand's Scott Base and the
U.S.'s coastal McMurdo Station. Icebreak-
ers battled through 80 miles of pack ice,
twice as much as normal. The people
survived, but four large colonies of Adelie
penguins paid a high price.
MARCH 5, 2002
The adult penguins were forced to
make a 112-mile detour across the pack
ice to reach open waters where they could
find food. The long journey meant the
penguins had to eat much of the food
intended for the chicks, and thou-
sands of young penguins starved.
Parts ofB15A are still kept
under observation, but they are
unlikely to do any more major
damage. The most probable
scenario is that, as the pieces
enter open waters, they will be
swept up by Antarctic circum-
polar currents and continue all
the way around the South Pole.
This journey could take many
years before the last vestiges of ice
melt into the sea.
Triumph of Surveillance
Antarctic icebergs are normally flat, be-
cause they break off enormous ice shelves.
The icebergs of Greenland, however, are
entirely different. Calved in small fjords,
they are shaped by the landscape before
continuing out to sea.
The diverse shapes and sizes of north-
em icebergs make them unpredictable.
For instance, melting can easily cause one
of them to tip over several times during
its life, and the odd shapes coupled with
changing sea currents make it difficult to
calculate the routes the icebergs will take.
Constant surveillance is therefore cru-
cial. And here, the International Ice Patrol
has shown its worth: In the patrol's area,
not a single person has died as a result of
an iceberg collision since the Titanic sank. _
 iverse's most powerful explosions
are, without parallel, those of gamma-ray
bursts. A single such burst releases as
much energy as aten million billion suns.
Short gamma-ray bursts lasting only a
fraction of a second occur when two neu-
tron stars or black holes collide. Long
gamma-ray bursts of more than two
seconds happen in connection with very
powerful supernovae. This picture shows
a long gamma-ray burst-in the form
of ajet of gamma radiation- 10 seconds
after it was ejected by a heavy sta r that
collapsed into a supernova. The image
was created by a supercomputer at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The blue, red and yellow colors represent
gamma-ray density, with blue the lowest
and yellow the highest. The insets to
the left show a simulation of a short
gamma-ray burst.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 39

 n March 25, 2005, a previously unheralded American about the giant's lifestyle. Its hunting tech-
paleontologist named Mary Schweitzer sent shock niques, physiology, senses, brain, lifespan,
growth and even its vicious mating habits
waves through the dinosaur-research community.
are all coming to life.
She announced the first-ever discovery of dinosaur
soft-tissue remains, which she had found preserved Bones Betray the Beast's Age
in a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex bone. What scientists had Dr. Gregory Erickson and his colleagues at
Florida State University recently discov-
barely dared to hope for-a chance to study the ancient reptile's
ered that tyrannosaurus bones contain
flesh - was suddenly very much a reality. thin growth rings that, just like the rings
The foundation for Schweitzer's genetic data about the T. rex and its life. found in trees, tell scientists how much
discovery had been laid two years earlier, With an adult weight of six tons, a the dinosaur grew each year. Before this
when she received several bone fragments head the size of a bathtub, and teeth as work was published, paleontologists had
from her mentor, John Gack) Horner of long as daggers, the theropod inspired no idea how long T. rex might have lived.
Montana's Museum of the Rockies. Horner terror at the end of the Cretaceous Era 65 But now that Erickson can read the bones,
had been forced to break an enormous to 70 million years ago. Today this fear he has an open book on the animal's
thighbone into two pieces to make it fit has been replaced by fascination about life and death. The bones have revealed
on the helicopter that was lifting fossils the largest predator that ever roamed the that the beasts typically lived hard and
out of the Montana wilderness, and these Earth. The awe-inspiring killer is now a su- died young. The predators were not fully
fragments were left over after the pieces perstar and the darling of paleontologists. mature until they were 18 to 20 years old,
had been fitted back together. In her labo- No other ancient animal has been the focal but adulthood was short. The oldest T. rex
ratory, Schweitzer demineralized them point of as much research as T. rex has. found so far lived only 28 years.
in a weak acid solution for (depending on While Mary Schweitzer looks at T. During its growth years, the dinosaurs
the size of the piece) seven days to three rex's soft side, a host of other scientists were ravenous eaters and packed on four
months to remove some of the calcium have made additional trail-blazing to five pounds per day as teenagers. This
phosphate. To her astonishment, she discoveries in recent years. With the rapid growth during adolescence and
was left with a soft, pliable substance help of powerful computers, CT scanners cessation of growth as adults makes T. rex
after the acid bath. and other modern technologies, they much more like today's mammals than
The pliable mass turned out to be soft have shed new light on the world's most reptiles-crocodiles and snakes grow
tissue with blood vessels and various types famous dinosaur. These tools and the during their entire lives. T. rex's bone mi-
of cells. Miraculously, the soft tissue had researchers' creativity have opened a crostructure also reflects this accelerated
survived millions ofyears inside the fossil new era of inquiry into the dino- growth and has helped researchers solve
and is potentially a goldmine of new in- saurs' uncontested king. one of paleontology's big questions: Were
formation that may, in the next few years, Researchers have uncov- dinosaurs warm- or cold-blooded?
yield significant new biochemical and ered fascinating details Microscopic examination shows

Three-dimensional CT scans SHARP NOSE GOOD BALANCE SUPER-HEARING EAGLE EYES

of T. rex skulls with a five-
micron resolution have re-
vealed that the dinosaur was
an exceptional predator with
acute hearing, powerful eyes
and a superb sense of smell.
The olfactory lobe in the
brain, which processes sig-
nals from the nose, was
enlarged and apparently
gave T. rexthe abilityto
sniffout carrion or rivals
from great distances.
Longer inner-ear canals
mean a better sense of bal-
ance, T. reis ear canals
were quite long, and
helped the beast keep its
six-ton bodyweight bal-
anced and upright.
Examination ofthe bones The eye sockets were
in the inner ear shows placed so that the eyes
that T. rex had better looked straight ahead. This
hearing than its nearest gave T.rexbinocularvision
relatives. The giant may and the same abilityto
have been able to find gauge distance as today's
prey by listening. raptors have.

46 I SCIENCElllUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008


FINDING #3
THE MOST
POWERFUL
BITE
INTHE
WORLD
that T. rex's bones were constructed of a
dense network of protein fibers, minerals
and blood vessels that supplied food and
oxygen for bone growth. Fast-growing
mammals and large birds have similar
bone construction, but the bones oflarge
reptiles are made of neatly layered mate-
rial and far fewer blood vessels. Scientists
therefore believe that T. rex had the same
high metabolism as warm-blooded birds
and mammals.
In 2006, researchers James Gillooly,
Andrew Allen and Eric Charnov used cal-
culations based on bone growth to show
that T. rex maintained a constant body
temperature ofjust over 91F. But the di-
nosaur was not truly warm-blooded in the
same way as today's birds and mammals,
which regulate their body temperature
within very tight limits. Instead, its high
body temperature was a reflection of its
enormous body, which retained heat and
was only very slowly affected by environ-
mental conditions.
Breathed as Fast as a Bird
With its high body temperature, T. rex
had rich possibilities for being an active
hunter. In 2005, Patrick O'Connor and
Leon Claessens showed that one of the
dinosaur's closest relatives. Majungatholus,
possessed the same super-effective respi-
ratory system as today's birds, and was
thus equipped for activity. Birds have ex-
tremely high metabolisms, thanks to
an efficient system for extracting oxygen
from air. They supply air to their lungs
by means of a complex system of air
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 47
Paleontology
The strength of
I rex's bite has
been measured at
13,000 newtons,
which is the most
powerful bite ever
measured in an
animal. Each
chomp could shear
right through even
the strongest
bones, perhaps to
eat the marrow.
sacs that exist even within their hollow
bones. Just like birds, Majungatholus's bones
had air sacs, so researchers believe that
both it and T. rex were hyperactive hunters.
But not all researchers agree. Some
of them even doubt that T. rex was a preda-
tor at all. Among such skeptics is Homer,
who maintains that the giant was just a
walking vulture with tiny arms and a good
nose for carrion. He bases his theory on
the fact that T. rex used a large part of its
brain to process olfactory input, meaning
it had a highly developed sense of smell-
all the better to sense a rotting carcass
meal from far away.
At the same time, Emily Rayfield of
the University of Bristol, in England, was
testing T. rex's bite using a special tech-
nique called finite element analysis that is

Most paleontologists think that Tyrannosaurus rex was an active hunter that
wouldn't pass up an easy carrion meal if the opportunity presented itself.
usually employed by engineers looking
for weaknesses in bridges, buildings
and racecars. She discovered that T. rex's
bite was, at 13,000 newtons, the most
powerful ever measured. It could have
bitten through even the strongest bones,
which suggests a possible appetite
for bone marrow.
This impressive bite was so power-
ful that many T. rex skulls have missing
or badly worn teeth. Fortunately for the
hungry tyrannosaurus-unlike mam-
mals, whose missing adult teeth are not
FINDING#4
A VIOLENT
ROMANCE
Bruce Rothschild examined CT
scans ofseveral tyrannosaurus
skulls and found clear bite marks.
His theory is that the marks [cir-
cled] occurred during mating as
smaller males endeavored to "per-
suade" larger females to mate.
48 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
replaced-it replaced teeth on an ongoing
basis throughout its life.
Rayfield also discovered that T. rex's cra-
nium was composed ofloosely connected
bones that left large gaps between each
structural element. She believes that this
allowed the skull to absorb shock better, a
trait needed during violent attacks on prey
weighing several tons. Rayfield's discovery
points away from T. rex being a scavenger
and toward it being an active predator that
ripped large chunks of flesh out of living
prey-the same method that white sharks
use today when attacking large quarry.
Though the debate over the dinosaur's
hunting style continues to rage, most
paleontologists believe that it was both a
hunter and scavenger.
Hunting in Slow Motion
o one doubts that T. rex, at 43 feet long
and six tons, could bring down even very
large prey with brute force alone. But in
recent years, there has been bitter argu-
ment among paleontologists over whether
the giants could run and, therefore, catch
fast-moving prey.
Two Stanford University engineers,
John Hutchinson and Mariano Garcia,
concluded in 2002 that T. rex could not, in
fact, run-that it could not move in such a
way that, briefly, both its legs were off the
ground at the same time. Hutchinson and
Garcia determined how much strength,
and thus muscle mass, it would take for a
T. rex to run. A tyrannosaurus weighing six
tons would need leg muscles correspond-
ing to 86 percent ofits body weight-a
biological impossibility. A chicken,
they estimated, would need leg muscles
amounting to just 9 percent of its weight
to run. In fact, chickens today are about
18 percent leg muscle by weight. By the
researchers' calculations, a T. rex would
literally walk after prey, though at a fairly
speedy clip. The ratio between the femur
(thighbone) and tibia (shinbone) of a tyran-
nosaurus is the same as that found in the
largest land animals now. This supports
the theory that T. rex was specially con-
structed for a gait similar to an elephant's.
Its eight-foot-long legs would probably
have given T. rex a top speed of 11 to 25
mph. Movies like Jurassic Park that depict
a T. rex overtaking a speeding car are
apparently unrealistic.
Commonalities with Humans
Another reason it is far more likely that
T. rex walked rather than ran is that its
arms were too short to ward off falls. Un-
controlled running would result in a belly-
landing-an earth-shaking fall that may
explain the many broken ribs scientists
have found in tyrannosaurus fossils. The
fractures were discovered thanks to a new
research discipline, paleopathology, that
has brought medical techniques to fossils.
 Paleontology
show clear signs of bite-marks on the
head, and Rothschild thinks the bites were
FINDING #5 delivered during mating. His theory is
that males were somewhat smaller than
LIVED HARD, females and. therefore, had to exhibit ag-

DIED YOUNG gressive sexual behavior to convince their

larger partners of their redeeming quali-
ties. The result was love-bites exactly like
those today's lions deliver to lionesses.

Bones Betray Pregnancy

This sexual theory. however. can be proven
only if paleontologists can determine the
sex of the valious tyrannosaurus fossils.
Until recently. this was impossible except
for the few cases in which females with
eggs were discovered. Male and female
dinosaurs, unlike mammals, have the
same skeletal structure. But in 2005, Mary
Schweitzer showed that male and female T.
rexes can be distinguished by a special bone
layer that females, just like present-day
birds. used for calcium storage before creat-
ing eggs. Schweitzer found the calcium
layer when she examined a T. rex fossil
that had been nicknamed Bob. Bob. she
announced. was pregnant.
We will never expelience a living T. rex
and see how it moved in nature, attacked
prey. fought with other dinosaurs, mated,
Studies of growth rings in T. rex or raised young. But in the coming years,
bones-similar to annual rings in the combination of creative scientific
trees-show that these giants were thinking and modern technology will
not full-grown until age 20 and that breathe new life into fossils and bling us
they died a few years later. The oldest closer to understanding the plivate lives of
known T. rex fossil was just 28 years the world's oldest superstars. _
old. Here, the growth rings are indi-
cated with black arrows. Paleontologist Jack
Horner sent a frag-
The world's most eminent paleo- ment of this dinosaur
N pathologist is Bruce Rothschild, an bone to his colleague
5 arthritis specialist at clinics in Kansas and Mary Schweitzer.
~
Vi
Ohio. In his free time, he visits multi-ton When she studied the
w
52
u
patients at museums around the world. bone she found-for
oa: Rothschild uses his knowledge of human the first time ever-
w
I
..... bones to examine fossil dinosaurs, and he soft tissue.
15 finds lots of pathologies, from fractures to
;:;:
~
::0
cysts and arthritis. For him, dinosaurs and
;:;:
humans have two things in common: Both
~
Q.
of them age and get sick.
i2 For example, Rothschild interprets
;:;:
o healed fractures in T. rex arms as evidence
8:
w
V> of violent struggles with living prey. He

:.: believes he can even determine the

U
9
u giant's romantic life. Many T. rex fossils

Y/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 49

Tiny arrays of implanted
electrodes aim to achieve
what was previously only a
dream: giving sight back to
the blind. The technology
is still worlds away from
providing perfect vision,
but already the results have
been life-changing.

a

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CLAUS LUNAU

ome 10 years ago. Mark Humayun. professor of ophthalmology and

S biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California. sat

next to pop-music legend Stevie Wonder on-aptly enough-the
television show 20120 and dropped a few measured predictions that
instantly exploded into a hype bomb.
"There is the possibility that Stevie Wonder could see?" Barbara Walters
asked. "Certainly. there is the possibility." Humayun responded. "We believe
that something could be available for patients in the next two to three years:
Humayun quickly discovered the perils of dangling optimism before
patients desperate for treatment. Outraged colleagues and competitors
pointed out that no retinal implant had yet successfully restored even the
scarcest bit of sight in anyone. and accused him of giving false hope to the
blind and jeopardizing serious research with unreasonable expectations. The
general tenor of the reaction. as Humayun recalls it, was that there had been

50 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

Bionics
so many so-far fruitless efforts-what
made him think he would succeed?
Humayun hasn't restored sight to
Stevie Wonder, but his words have proved
remarkably prescient. In 2002, less than
three years after the Barbara Walters
interview that sparked the controversy,
Humayun and his team at the Doheny
Eye Institute at the University of Southern
California surgically attached the first
experimental Second Sight implant to the
retina of an anonymous male patient, one
of six who would successfully undergo
the procedure over the next couple years.
Though the device delivers extremely
rough images, the breakthrough has been
life-changing. "I can see where the kitchen
table is, and I don't knock glasses over all
the time," says a woman who was among
the first six patients. "I can also see who is
on the street when we take a walk in the
afternoon. And when my grandson gets a
hit in baseball, I can follow the game."
"It's amazing how much our subjects
have been able to do," Humayun says.
"We thought they would only be able to
distinguish between light and dark. The
brain is able to fill in a lot of informa-
tion." Since those first successful opera-
tions, Humayun's group and others in the
U.S. and Europe have developed artificial
eyes with greater resolution, and govern-
ment agencies here and in Germany have
authorized large-scale testing. Five differ-
ent teams have implanted such devices
in humans, and as many as 23 next-
generation technologies are in develop-
ment. And artificial eyes aren't the only
advances giving promise to the blind.
In the somewhat more distant future,
the frontiers of gene therapy and stem-
cell research offer two more avenues
to restoring sight.
Digital Processing
The eye is an extremely advanced organ,
and vision is the result of a long chain of
data interpretation. Light enters the eye
through the cornea and lens, and strikes
the retina's light-sensitive cells, which
are called rods and cones. These cells
transform light into electric signals. From
there, the signals travel along the optic
/lIt's amazing how much our
first six subjects have been
able to dO./I-MARKHUMAYUN
nerve to the brain-first into the primary
visual center in the thalamus and then
on to the primary visual cortex. Blindness
can arise at any step along this path, and
from a tremendous variety of causes.
Humayun's implant is designed to
work in patients who suffer from such dis-
eases as retinitis pigmentosa or macular
degeneration, both of which degrade
the rods and cones in the retina. The
implant takes advantage of the fact
that many of the eyes' nerve cells remain
intact even when a victim has become
completely blind. These cells can be
electronically stimulated to send signals
to the brain that correspond to images
patients see.
The blind "see" with the help of a
camera lens that's attached to a glasses
frame. The camera scans the surround-
ings as the patient's head moves, and
sends data to a tiny array of electrodes
implanted on the retina, producing a nar-
row field of vision in which patients can
make out a very rough representation of
light, objects and motion.
"It sounds pretty primitive to a sighted
person, but, for a blind person like me, it's
really amazing to see anything at all," says
Terry Byland, who lost his sight to retinitis
 Bionics

pigmentosa in 1993 and received one of
Humayun's six prototypes in 2004. Byland
describes what, to him, is the extraordi-
nary experience of flipping a light switch
and actually seeing the chandelier glow
on the ceiling, or following his 18-year-old
son's shadow on the sidewalk. "It was the
first time 1'd seen anything of him since
he was five years old," he says.
That first implant has just 16 elec-
trodes-16 small dots, almost like the
pixels on a computer screen-working
together to produce an image. But a sec-
ond-generation device with 60 electrodes,
called the Argus II, has been given the
green light for large-scale testing and
may be commercially available by 2009.
Although its resolution is increased, the
implant now covers only one square mil-
limeter instead of the original's five.
Humayun estimates that he'll need
to pack approximately 1,000 electrodes
into the array before a patient can begin
to read or to recognize faces. He expects
that such a device is not far off, and he's
not the only one working to advance the
technology. Intelligent Medical Implants,
a Swiss firm, is now testing a 49-electrode
model on 30 patients and is creating an
implant with 231 electrodes.
Another approach aims to more faith-
fully replicate the function of the rods and
cones that are lost to degenerative disease.
Two firms, Optobionics in Illinois and
Retina Implant in Germany, are devel-
oping chips featuring several thousand
microscopic light-sensitive electrodes, each
with its own light sensor, eliminating the
need for a hidden camera to create the
initial image. At Stanford University, work
is progressing on a chip with 640 photodi-
odes, which will use infrared video goggles
to process images.
Every one of these efforts aims to
restore function to a damaged retina. ~

The March toward True Artificial Vision

I~en I was with my son,

walking, the first time...
it was the first time I had seen
him since he was five years old.
I don't mind saying, there
were a few tears wept that day."
TERRY BYLAND, BLIND FOR 11 YEARS

The electronic glasses and eye implant

work together to allow Terry Byland to
cross a street without assistance.
~ Unfortunately, if a patient's blindness is
the result of a break in the transmission
system beyond the retina, such artificial
eyes will have no effect. But scientists are
working on fixes for this as well.
Biological Breakthroughs
In 1993, scientists at the National Eye
Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, identi-
fied and reproduced a gene called RPE65,
which they later linked to congenital
blindness. Cells require RPE65 to trans-
form vitamin A into visual-pigment cells.
Without the gene, or with a mutant
version that doesn't function, a person is
either born blind or gradually becomes
blind as the store of pigment is used up.
In 1998, researchers at Cornell University
tracked down the gene in the Swedish Bri-
ard, a breed of dogs disposed toward con-
genital blindness. Scientists have already
succeeded in restoring sight to blind dogs
54 I 5CIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
by injecting healthy RPE65 into their eyes,
and in 2007 researchers at the National
Eye Institute began gene-therapy trials to
do the same in human patients.
A different strategy consists of creating
light-sensitive cells themselves. Neurosci-
entist Zhuo-Hua Pan and his colleagues at
Wayne State University School of Medicine
have taken a gene from photosynthetic
algae and inserted it into the eyes of blind
mice. Soon thereafter, their rods and cones
began reacting normally to light.
A third method uses stem cells, which
have long been promoted as a treatment
with almost limitless potential-a way
to replace the body's destroyed cells with
healthy ones. Embryonic stem cells are
undifferentiated cells, found in embryos,
that have the ability to develop into any
part of the human body-from muscles
to hair follicles to the many types of cells
in the eye. Stem cells are also found in
adult tissue but are generally limited to
differentiating into cell types of their
original origin.
Mike May lost all his vision in an ac-
cident with explosives when he was three,
and it wasn't until 40 years later, in 2000,
that doctors were able to repair his outer
eye-the cornea and other tissues-with
implanted stem cells. Two years later, May
was able to see colors, shapes and move-
ment, although he still found it hard to
distinguish faces.
British researchers injected stem cells
into the eye of a blind mouse, reactiva-
ting the pupil's response to light.
 Most of the damage to May was "opti-
cal" in nature-it had to do with damage
to the lens itself-but it now appears that
stem cells may soon be able to help blind
people with lost function in their retinas
as well. In 2006, molecular geneticist
Robin Ali of University College London
published groundbreaking research results
in the journal ature. By transplanting
stem cells from a newborn mouse, he and
his team were able to make blind mice see.
This wasn't the first time research-
ers tried to implant stem cells into the
retina, but it was the first time they had
succeeded. Ali's work indicates why. Dur-
ing embryonic development, cells divide
and mature into increasingly specialized
tissues. Researchers had believed that the
earlier cells were removed, the better the
chances that they were not yet destined
to form a particular type of tissue. This
is true in general, but Ali's results show
that if one is attempting to use stem cells
to treat blindness, it's best to choose cells
that have progressed a long way toward
maturity. Where others used stem cells
from early-stage embryos, Ali took cells
from the retinas of newborn mice that
could not yet see.
Ethically, nothing like this could be
done with humans, but researchers at
Washington University in St. Louis have
now shown that it's possible to artificially
rear human stem cells until they are at
just the stage that Ali used. In the future,
stem-cell banks could be established with
immature cells that could be treated with
the same chemicals as a naturally develop-
ing eye to mature them before transplant-
ing. And if Ali's techniques can be success-
fully used in humans, it could open the
door to treating almost every eye disease,
whether age-related macular degeneration
or blindness caused by diabetes. _
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCElllUSTRATED.COM I 55
RA RIE
 or 500 years, beginning around
F
1000 A.D., one of the world's largest
dties lay less than eight miles east
ofwhat is now St. Louis. Cahokia, as
modern researchers refer to it, had
10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants-and then it
disappeared. Archaeologists have been dig-
ging into Cahokia's history for a century,
but the city still harbors numerous unan-
swered questions. Where did its people
come from, why did they construct some
of the world's largest earthen mounds, and
why did they suddenly erect a giant wall
around the city's center'? No one can say.
For many years, archaeologists won-
dered how such a primitive society could
feed such a large city. But close analysis
now shows just how ideal the city's loca-
tion was. When Cahokia was founded, the
climate was similar to what it is today. And
over the centuries, conditions for growing
food for Cahokia's burgeoning population
got even better.
The city was situated between three
mighty rivers: the Mississippi, Missouri
and Illinois. For the people of Cahokia, the
rivers were truly the key to survival. The
abundant water supply ensured that crops
and people would never go thirsty. The
rivers teemed with fish, migratory birds,
beavers and raccoons. They also provided
a means to transport construction mate-
rial and food from far away using canoes.
The Ozark Mountains to the southwest
provided the coveted types of stone that
Archaeologist William R. Iseminger
of Cahokia Mounds State Historic
Site has worked on the site for 36
years and is a leading expert on the
region. Now he is at work on an
excavation of the palisades sur-
rounding the city in hopes of fin-
ding new clues to their significance.
were turned into jewelry, tools and weap-
ons. Nearby white-tailed deer were prized
for their for hides and meat. The prairies
to the north offered grasses and reeds that
were woven into roofs and furniture. The
forests to the east sheltered small animals,
nuts and berries and were an excellent
source of wood for building.
Together with an extensive network
of footpaths, the rivers were used for
communication and trade and kept
Cahokia's people in contact with distant
tribes. Excavations show that the city's
people retrieved copper, for example,
from the Great Lakes region to the north,
mussel shells from the Gulf of Mexico to
the south, and muscovite, a mineral that
glitters with mica, from the Appalachians
to the east.
The Sun's Brother Was
the City's Chief
Archaeologists do not know whether the
Mississippians-the name for the people
who inhabited Cahokia-were descen-
dants of groups who came into the area
as the ice sheets receded about 10,000
years ago or whether they migrated from
elsewhere on the continent. Regardless,
their culture later expanded over much of
the eastern u.s. Cahokia was the religious
center, but because the city had virtually
disappeared before Europeans arrived, not
much is known about it.
Cahokia's civilization was at its height
from roughly 1050 to 1150. Back then, it
was larger than London, but by 1400 it
was completely abandoned. When Span-
ish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the
American South from 1539 through 1543,
he found many small villages whose in-
habtants were still living as people had in
Cahokia. From his descriptions and recent
excavations, researchers have been able to
piece together a picture of life in Cahokia.
The chief, "Great Sun," who the people
believed to be the sun's brother, ruled the
city. Under him, a group of elders helped
plan the city's development, organized crop
planting and harvesting, handled disputes,
and arranged hunting parties.
 ANCIENT RIDDLES Cahokia

Great Sun lived atop what is now
called Monks Mound, which some scien-
tists believe is the largest mound in the
U.S. In Cahokia's heyday, Monks Mound
faced a large ceremonial plaza and was
surrounded by a series of smaller mounds
and houses. A wooden wall, called a pali-
sade, surrounded the center of the city,
and Cahokia's "suburbs" stretched out for
miles in every direction.
Because the population did not have
draft animals, all the building materials
had to be brought in by human power,
including the thousands of tons of soil
used to build the great mounds. The city's

A 20,OOO-TREE WALL
In about 1150, Cahokia's inhabitants enclosed the city center
by constructing a palisade, or wall, two miles long. The wall
was built quickly. It crossed through occupied residential quar-
ters, but its function is still a mystery. No enemy could have
threatened the powerful society, so perhaps the wall separated
the nobility from commoners. In the following 150 years, the
palisade was rebuilt three times, each time with redesigned
fortifications called bastions, using a total of 80,000 tree trunks.
The intensive logging and its negative effect on the environ-
ment may be why the city was eventually abandoned.

First Wall
Small, round bastions,
open to the back

Smaller open
bastions Fourth Wall
Even smaller, open,
square bastions

In 1961, at an excavation site a little
west of Cahokia's center, diggers
found traces of four circles of
wooden poles. As the dig continued
over the next 17 years, they found a
fifth circle and uncovered more of
the first four, which date from bet-
ween 1100 and 1200.
Each circle consisted of 12 poles
more than its predecessor, so that the
first had 24 poles, and the fifth, which
was never completed, would have
had 72. Archaeologists soon discove-
Ifa visitor stands in the center ofthe giant solar calendar called "Ameri-
can Woodhenge," the surrounding wooden poles indicate exactly where
on the horizon the sun will rise over the course ofa year.
red that the poles were erected as a
kind of calendar. If you stood in the
circle's center, there would be a pole
in line with the sun during the sum-
mer and winter solstices and during
the spring and fall equinoxes.
Researchers believe that "Ameri-
can Woodhenge;' as they now call it,
told people when to sow and reap.
Why the calendar was constructed
and later abandoned, no one knows,
but today it has been rebuilt so that
visitors can observe its accuracy.
mounds are sophisticated constructions
that were created from soils of different
densities. Even so, the centuries have
worn them down. Today. Monks Mound
stands 100 feet high and covers an area
1,037 by 791 feet. (In comparison, the
pyramid of Cheops in Egypt measures
about 755 by 755 feet.) Before the Cahokia
area was preserved. many of the mounds
were razed, but there are still about 70 of
the original 120 left in existence.
The inhabitants believed in life after
death. which is clearly reflected in the
burials of high-ranking individuals. As
far as we know, Monks Mound contains
no tombs. but Mound 72. which was par-
tially excavated from 1967 through 1971.
contained 280 skeletons and thousands
of items buried for use in the next world.
One of the dead was an older high-status
individual who had been laid to rest atop
a bird-shaped bed of20,000 shell beads
brought from the Gulf of Mexico. Six ser-
vants had been sacrificed to follow him in
death. and 800 arrowheads, several long
shell necklaces and heaps of mica were
found near his body.
80,000 trees felled in 1SO years
The mounds are the first thing to catch
your eye when you visit Cahokia, but the

most impressive feat of construction has
long since vanished. The city's center was
once enclosed by a wall nearly two miles
long. First constructed around 1150, it
was rebuilt three more times over the next
100 years. This wall consisted of about
20,000 hickory and oak trunks, each 20
feet tall. The trees had been felled in the
forests around Cahokia with stone axes
and then dragged to the city. Buttresses
stabilized the wall, which was probably
coated with clay to make it fireproof.
Large defensive bastions projecting out-
ward from the wall would have made it
possible to rain arrows or stones down on
top of attackers.
Raising the wall required a tremen-
dous amount of work-which raises a
question today: Why did they build it?
Cahokia expert archaeologist William R.
Iseminger has estimated that it would
take 4,000 workers two weeks to build
the wall under perfect conditions. Even
for a large society, that would have been
a considerable burden. Some archaeolo-
gists believe the wall was a social barrier,
perhaps keeping clans who weren't part
of the Great Sun lineage out of the area.
But there is no explanation for its great
height. Researchers have also found
evidence that the wall cut right through
ANCIENT
a seized residential quarter. That suggests
that it was erected in a hurry, without
regard to otherwise careful city planning.
No signs of fighting have been found in
the city, and it is hard to imagine that
other tribes could have threatened the
mighty city-state. Iseminger and others are
at work excavating part of the palisade,
and they may soon find new clues. But
for now, they can't offer an answer to the
wall's significance, other than suggesting
it was a defensive feature that enclosed
the central ceremonial precinct.
Nothing indicates that Cahokia was
abandoned because of warfare, but the
wall may have indirectly caused its down-
fall. The key to Cahokia's success was its
ideal location in a fertile region. But chop-
ping down 80,000 trees over 150 years
to build and rebuild the wall had major
unintended consequences. Plants and ani-
mals were eradicated, and erosion and the
silting up of streams accelerated without
the tree roots to hold soil in place.
But too much logging was not the
only factor in the city's decline. Changes
in climate brought shorter, cooler sum-
mers that meant smaller harvests and
poorer conditions for prey animals. Or the
city may have simply reached a critical
mass. Excavations show that Cahokia's
RIDDLES Cahokia
people were plagued with the smoke from
their many hearths and also suffered from
disease and waste-disposal problems.
The great population density also
increased pressure on animals and other
natural resources, making the Indians
more dependent on raising com. Analysis
of skeletons reveals malnutrition and pe-
riodic famines that led to anemia, reduced
growth and high infant mortality. Poor
health, lean harvests and changes in the
environment may have caused the popula-
tion to lose confidence in Great Sun and
tum their backs on the big city.
Whatever the reasons, the result was
that tlle Cahokians left and migrated
to smaller settlements. Today the once
mighty city looks like nothing more than
a hill on the prairie.
66 I SCIENCEllLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
 -- ------ ----------------- ~ ~ - - - - ~-

Hofmeyr skull. This human cranium was technique worked. Experts in Canada and
originally found in 1952 during construc- England determined that it was between
tion of a dam near the South African town 33,000 and 39,000 years old. At first, that ViU
w
'"z
",u.
<
ofHofmeyr. At the time, anthropologists might not sound like anything special for "-U
.:...~

",0
zu.
did not attempt to date the skull using the a continent that has yielded a series of -::::J
0,,-
WV>
carbon-14 method, because all organic unique bones from our ancestral species ~o
ccZ
stretching as far back as three-million- "-
matter had been washed out of the bone. .:10::
Without a date, the old skull was no more year-old Lucy. But it is precisely in the ~~
:I:z
Uii:
than a curiosity. period between 75,000 and 20,000 years w'"
~u;
ago that there are few archaeological
~~
A World Away Yet Very Close finds of human remains in Africa. 1i:~
For many years, the Hofmeyr skull had Excitement grew when Katerina ~ ~~
OU
.... 0
ou.
served as a paperweight in Morris's Harvati of the Max Planck Institute for :I:::::J
~~B:;
lab-until the day Frederick Grine, a Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Zo
Wz
~
former college classmate of his, came to Germany, got her hands on the skull. V>
:I: W
visit. Grine, now at the State University of She used 3-D measurements to com- 0~
;;;
New York at Stony Brook, examined the pare it with examples of modern bones ......
1>:>-
z ....
skull and suggested trying to date it using from Europe, Asia and South Africa, as ow
~~
ccw
traces of the petrified mud in the bone's well as skulls of Stone Age humans and
~
eye and nose holes and braincase. The Neanderthals. Her results showed how :::!~
the Hofmeyr skull was surprisingly like
those farthest away-those of the earliest
modern humans in Europe.
This resemblance means that about
35,000 years ago, modern humans in
South Afiica and Europe shared a very
recent common ancestor, probably
from an East African population that
had explosively expanded 60,000 to
80,000 years ago. Pioneers from this
group did not just go south but northeast
as well, crossing the strait of Bab al-
Mandab to the southern Arabian Pen-
insula and then moving along the coast
toward India. At that time, sea levels
were considerably lower than now, and in
the course ofjust 10,000 years, descen-
dants of this East African population
managed to move through Indonesia all
the way to Australia. Finds of 45,000- to
.,
50,000-year-old skeletons discovered in
both southern Australia and in the Cave of
Niah, on Borneo, support this theory and
corroborate the DNA studies done in
2005 that showed that some of the
world's most primitive hunter-gatherer
societies-specifically the Orang-Asli
people in Malaysia and the people of the
Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean-
were established as populations approxi-
mately 60,000 years ago.
Some researchers have objected that
stone tools found with the skeletons in
southern Australia are not advanced
enough to be from modern humans. But
Mellars has evaluated these finds again
and says that although they are indeed
simpler than those known from modern
humans. they are still more advanced
than those from other species, such as
Neanderthals. He explains this apparent
paradox by arguing that knowledge could
have been lost during the rapid migration
period. Our light-footed ancestors moved
out at the speed of about a mile a year. As
they made their way to the Orient. they
clung to the coasts and lived on fish and
shellfish. This made progress far easier
since they did not have to adapt to new
landscapes and climates along the way.
They used stone tools less, partly because
they fished a lot and partly because it was
hard to find the quality of flint and obsid-
ian they needed. Australia, in fact, has
very little such stone.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM
Taking the Long Way Around
Scientists are also drawing a new map
of the routes humans took through
the Middle East. New DNA studies
published in Science last January show
that the first people on Africa's Medi-
terranean coast came there through
Western Asia. That is powerful evidence
that our ancestors took a huge detour
before settling this region. Instead of
traveling directly, from East Africa
north along the Nile, they populated
this area through the "back door" after
having taken the express tracks along
the Asian coastline. This occurred at
the same time that people from the
coastal belt were also beginning to
move north through the continent's
unknown forests. over mountains and
across plains to reach Europe in the
West and China in the East.
Everywhere our ancestors went,
they encountered new challenges:
new animal and plant species and,
most of all. other coexisting human
species-humans that, by this time,
had a several-thousand-year head start
in adapting to local conditions.
In other words. our ancestors man-
aged an almost incredible feat. and this
raises an unavoidable question: What
was it that made them suddenly able
to spread out over the continents and,
in just a few thousand generations,
totally dominate tlle planet? ~
71
~ A Brain-Power Explosion
Anatomically modern humans, Homo
sapiens, have existed for at least 195,000
years-the oldest skull was found in Omo,
Ethiopia. If modern people have existed
for so long, why did it take such a long
time for them to populate the planet?
What were they waiting for?
In one possible explanation, research-
ers speak of an "explosion of creativity,"
a change in the quality of the brain that
paved the way for a new way of thinking
that allowed them to better use available
resources and probably gave humans the
first complex language, along with some
new social structures. This may sound like
conjecture, but out of this uniquely suc-
cessful wave of migration 60,000 to 80,000
years ago, a number of other remarkable
pieces of evidence also indicate that other
changes affecting our species were at
work-changes not reflected in our bones.
The scratched criss-cross pattern, the
72 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
ostrich-eggshell beads and the carefully
made stone tools that Paul Mellars saw that
afternoon in Cambridge all indicate that
a big change has taken place. Comparable
items suddenly cropped up in South and
East Africa 75,000 years ago; they were
the first signs of a new advanced culture.
The finds include tools produced by a new
stone-shaping technique, new crescent-
shaped scrapers for processing skins, sharp-
er stone points for spears and some that
even look like arrowheads. The geometric
designs themselves demonstrate an ability,
not seen before, to think abstractly. Ar-
chaeologists also see signs that objects were
transported over long distances, evidence
that an early economy existed in which
ornaments, raw materials and food were
exchanged. And a new study published
in Nature by Curtis Marean, a paleoan-
thropologist from the Institute of Human
Origins at Arizona State University, details
the recent discovery of bladed tools used to
crack open shellfish 164,000 years ago, far
earlier than previously documented. Our
ancestors had many new tools in tow when
they set out to conquer the world.
Creativity Conquers All
Homo sapiens had tried their luck earlier,
but not with tlle same success. In Skhul
and Qafzeh caves in Israel, scientists have
found skeletons of anatomically modern
humans who lived there 90,000 to
100,000 years ago.
Both sites revealed ochre and orna-
ments, showing that ritual burials with
grave offerings were practiced. But despite
such signs of higher awareness, the tools
found are etched with tlle old, primitive
patterns, and these populations were
apparently unable to cope with the com-
petition. Relics from Neanderthals-found
in both earlier and later layers of soil-
show that modern man's stay in tllis part
ofIsrael was brief. They soon had to cede
to the Neanderthals again.
Things went very differently the
second time modern humans-with
better-honed creative talents-invaded
the Neanderthals' homelands. Over a
few thousand years, the descendants of
the people who took the coastal route
replaced the Neanderthal populations
who had lived in Europe for at least
300,000 years. These creative humans
found it astonishingly easy to adapt to
conditions farther north.
In fact, recent finds from Russia, from
Kostienki on the right bank of the River
Don, reveal that modern humans, recent
arrivals from the tropical sun, were able to
endure even harsher ice-age climates than
the Neanderthals. In a soil layer dated to
45,000 years ago, researchers discovered
tlle earliest-ever sign of decorative art-
a half-finished face scratched into mam-
moth ivory-as well as advanced tools.
The region had previously been domi-
nated by Neanderthals, but once the ice
age set in about 115,000 years ago, they
went south and never returned. Our an-
cestors' ability to survive in this area is
tlle best indication of their mental superi-
ority, which would later pave the way for
our unique success. _
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 13
WHICH IS DEADLIEST?
Based on a standard measure of a venom's effect
on mice, the Australian inland taipan might be
the deadliest snake in the world, able to kill an
adult male with a dose as small as 0.025 milli-
gram. This makes the taipan more deadly than
commonly feared rattlesnakes. Scarier still, the
taipan has about 2,000 of these fatal doses
stored in its venom glands at any given time.
_ _ _ _ 24 hours
=-5
Scientists determine venom toxicity by injecting it
into a number of mice. The quantity of poison that
kills at least SO percent ofthe mice within 24 hours is
called the fatal dose, and it is measured in milligrams
of venom per kilogram of mice.
INLAND TAl PAN (Oxyuranus microlepidotusl
Fatal dose: 0.025 mg
 s predators, snakes are missing He has discovered, with the help of DNA ferent proteins and enzymes, each with

A
a few key attributes. They have
no legs to chase down their
prey, no paws to knock down
quarry, and no claws to hold
their victims. But none of these deficien-
cies matters much, because evolution
has handed snakes the ultimate weapon:
venom. With it, the several hundred
types of venomous snakes can kill or
debilitate before their victims escape.
Their venom has given snakes the abil-
ity to be small yet effective hunters, and
they have spread to fill every ecological
niche-as long as the environment is wam1
enough for them to stay in motion. Snakes
live everywhere from treetops to the forest
floor, in deserts and in the oceans.
In general, scientists agree on how
snakes' venom glands evolved, but that's
not the case for the poisons themselves.
Some scientists think that venom is
composed of modified proteins from the
snakes' spit that already functioned to
break down and digest the prey. Some also
believe that the ability to produce poison
has evolved independently among the dif-
ferent species of snakes.
But Australian researcher Bryan Fry,
one of the world's leading experts on
venomous snakes, has another theory.
analysis, that the vast majority of the a specific function.
proteins and enzymes found in venoms Venoms can be roughly divided into
closely resemble substances found in three main groups: cytotoxins, neurotoxins
other parts of the snakes' bodies-sub- and hemotoxins. But the lines dividing
stances, for example, that have a func- these groups are fluid, and most species
tion in the liver, or in the digestive employ a combination of the three.
organs or some other system. The genes The type of poison and how fast it
that control the production of these works is adapted to the snake's lifestyle
substances in other organs somehow and that of its prey. Sea snakes, for in-
became activated in the salivary glands, stance, have extremely fast-acting venom.
where they produce substances that, They prefer to live around coral reefs, and
once modified and refined, are able to tl1eir most important prey are fish. If the
help kill the snakes' prey in an increas- fish they bite don't die almost instantly,
ingly effective manner. the snake's meal is likely to escape.
Fry also believes that tl1is ability Other species live in environments
arose a single time, well over 100 million where it doesn't matter as much if the prey
years ago, in one of the earliest ancestors is able to move a bit before the poison takes
g~
of modem snakes. It then spread to all effect. After the snake strikes, it lets the I
zZ
0-
snakes, but it was only highly developed prey run off. The physical activity ensures OZ
~g
and refined among the three taxonomic that the venom is quickly pumped through w
0 0
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families that we now consider poisonous. the animal's body. The snake then uses ~w
Q.I
wQ.
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snakes themselves. additional guarantee, some snake venom ~ <~
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contains a strong diuretic that causes the i=~
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Three Types of Venom prey to urinate while running away. This --'--'
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Snake venoms vary dramatically from makes it the easier for the snake to track f5~
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species to species, but they have one down its quarry. Oa:
a:
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thing in common: Everyone of them Many snakes produce only small ",,,,
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76 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

other snakes' venom can be deadly for
large animals-including humans. This
is certainly the case for the king cobra,
which is the world's largest poisonous
snake and might be capable of killing
an elephant with a single bite. The king
cobra preys overwhelmingly on other
snakes, which have developed resistance
to its venom. And that's the reason for
its powerful poison: It takes more venom
to bring down another snake than it
does a mammal.

Diabolically Sophisticated Syringes

All venomous snakes have specially
modified teeth that actively inject their
prey, but the variety among those snakes
is staggering. Most poisonous snakes fall
into one of three families-Colubridae,
Elapidae or Viperidae-and the injec-
tion system has developed differently in
each. The most primitive fangs are found
in colubrids-for example, the African
boomslang. Their fangs are located far
back in the mouth and are often very
short. This means they have to get their
prey into their mouths and start chewing
before the venom is injected.
Among the elapids, the category
that includes cobras, the front teeth
have developed into fangs. But the most
advanced system is found in the vipers,
a category that includes the American
rattlesnakes.
In vipers, the canine teeth in the
upper jaw have been modified into so-
phisticated syringes. When the snake's
mouth is closed, they lie folded back
against the roof of the mouth, but they
drop down when the snake is hunt-
ing. And when they stab into prey, the
venom shoots down from the salivary
glands, through the hollow fangs, and
into the prey.
The design of the fangs i just one
of the many factors that determine
how dangerous a snake is to humans.
Even the composition and toxicity of
the venom isn't always the deciding
factor-which is why lists of the world's
"most dangerous" snakes often don't
reflect reality. A snake's lifestyle and
temperament can be just as important.
Sea snakes, for instance, are thought
to have the most toxic venom of all
snakes, but they produce it in small
quantities. Although many people have
been bitten by them, few have died as
a result. They are not aggressive unless
immediately threatened, so they aren't
especially dangerous. African puff ad-
ders, on the other hand, have venom

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 77

 Poison: CNP-BPP Poison: MIT Poison: BNP
ASNAKE IS ONELONG Effect: acute low blood pressure Effect: convulsions
Origin: brain and
Effect: acute low blood pressure
Origin: brain Origin: heart
POISON FACTORY Possible treatment for:
hypertension
white blood cells
Possible treatment for:
Possible treatment for:
hypertension
Researchers have recently discovered
paralysis and muscle
that the poisonous proteins in snake weakness
venom originate in tissues throughout
the snake's body, not just in the venom
glands. By decoding the many proteins in
venom, scientists have gained insight into
what medical applications the various poi-
sons may have. Here we show a selection Venom
gland
of snake venoms, some of which offer
dramatic medical possibilities.
Poison: 3FTx
Effect: neurotoxin
Origin: brain
Possible treatment for:
convulsions
Thyroid
Trachea

of average toxicity, but they produce it in

large quantities and have extremely large,
long fangs. All in all, they are far more
dangerous than sea snakes.

Turning Deadly Venoms into Cures

It is hard to believe that substances that
have been so well designed for killing could
also be useful in medicine, but it's true.
The first medically active substance isolated
from a snake's venom came from a Brazil-
ian pit viper, Bothrops jararaca, in 1949. The
venom dilates blood vessels, causing prey
to lose blood pressure so that they react
more slowly or even collapse. The material
later became the basis for a popular family
of blood-pressure medications called ACE
inhibitors.
Another useful blood-disorder drug
comes from the Malaysian pit viper. In its
pure form, the venom causes prey to die
of massive hemorrhaging by preventing
blood coagulation. Among humans, it is used
to treat patients who suffer from blood clots.
Snake venoms often act only on certain
types of cells, and this specificity has led to
important research into treatments for can-
cer. Typical chemotherapy drugs cause many
undesirable side effects because they don't
discriminate between cancerous and healthy
cells in the body. Some research that is cur-
rently under way is experimenting with using
snake venom to destroy only those blood
vessels that carry nutrients specifically to the
 Herpetology
Poison: Cobra Venom Factor (CVF) Poison: Acetylcholinesterase
Effect: anaphylactic shock Effect: disrupts nerve impulses, causing
Origin: liver heart failure and suffocation
Origin: muscles
Lung
Poison: Kallikrein
Effect: acute low blood pressure, shock, de-
struction of the blood's coagulation ability
Origin: pancreas, salivary glands -----'-:::,=-,,....----- Stomach
Possible treatment for: blood clots

Liver

---:=---:~- Spleen

'----'--'--- Gallbladder
'-----::,=,.-- Pancreas

tumor, thereby starving it to death. Poison: PLA2

Unfortunately, transforming snake Effect: infections and tissue
venoms into medicine can be very time- destruction
Origin: pancreas
consuming, because they consist of so
many different components. In many
..,....---- Large intestine
cases, venom from a single snake has
extremely diverse effects.
From the venom of the Siberian
moccasin, for example, scientists have
isolated three enzymes-phospholi-
pases-that are nearly chemically identi-
cal except for their acidity levels, yet they
do dramatically different things. The low-
acid phospholipase inhibits blood coagu-
lation, while the highly acidic enzyme
destroys red blood cells. The neutral type
is a form of neurotoxin.
Many neurotoxins work by inhib-
iting or completely blocking nerve
activity. so they are interesting research
targets for diseases. such as epilepsy, in
which there is too much electrical brain
activity; for the treatment of pain; or for Poison: Sarafotoxin
helping drug addicts trying to escape Effect: acute high
their dependency. Remarkably, other blood pressure
substances have been found in snake Origin: reproductive organs
Possible treatment for: preventing
venom that actually foster the growth loss of blood pressure during surgery Sperm ducts
of new neurons. These could be useful
for Alzheimer's and other diseases in Pasion: ADAM
which neurons in the brain die off. Pasion: Crotamin Effect: tissue destruction
Effect: destruction of tissues, Origin: sperm duct, intestines, lungs, lymph glands
Snakes may kill tens of thousands
muscles and nerves
of people yearly. but their deadly venoms Origin: pancreas, heart, liver, Poison: CRISP
have the potential to save many thou- brain, kidneys Effect: muscle paralysis, cooling ofthe body
sands more._ Possible treatment for: cancer tumors Origin: sweat, salivary glands, eggs, testicles

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 79

 ... EDGESASOIJlRP

In the deep crevices, the

water has eaten into the pin-
nacles'sides and left furrows
like those in old tree trunks.
There are plenty ofprojec-
tions to hold onto ifyou're
inclined to climb them, but
the furrows' edges are as
sharp as ax blades. Climbing
demands tough gloves and
thick-soled boots.

o
~
z Lemurs, like these white sifa-
a
a:
'"5= kas, are prosimian primates
15
found onlyin Madagascar.
~
v;
J:
Living on the big island has
0-
0( shielded them from unequal
~
J:
0-
competition with the more
advanced apes in Africa.
S
0(
z Tsingy Nature Park is an ideal,
:3 safe place for them to live,
'"
~

:5
u
with plenty offoodin the
:Z bushes and trees at the base
o
~
a: ofthe pinnacles.
t;;
~
...... DUSTYPUPAEDA GLEFRO THECEIUNGONSILKENTHREADS
A unique assemblage ofanimals-including still-unidentifiedspecies-lives
in holes beneath this hostile landscape. These conical pupae contain beetle
larvae. But Grunewald has yet to determine which beetles they belong to.

84 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

~ BATSCREATETHEIR
OWN SMALLCELLS
A colony ofbats has taken
up residence in a broad
hole with a low, flat ceil-
ing. They hang from the
roofby their feet, and their
activities have slowly bro-
ken down the Iimestone-
partly because the bats
have scratched away at
the stone with their claws,
and partly because acid in
their urine and excrement
have etched into it. In this
way, the bats have gradu-
ally turned the ceiling into
a fragile, porous surface.
The colony has divided
into small groups, each in
its own cell.
 THE UNKNOWN SIDE OF... CAUGHT ON THE NET
Protons

Ii OXYGEN Telescopic
History
~
o 1~
Most of life on Earth, very different
life-forms than those currently living,
perished 2.4 billion years ago
when blue-green algae filled the
http:Uamazing-space.stsci.
edu/resources/explorationsl
x
~

~

Neutrons T atmosphere with oxygen. groundupl ~

Atomic mass One of the most important tools in ~

Approximately two thirds of the science is the telescope. This Web ~
human body and nine tenths of the site has the entire history-from ~
mass of water is oxygen. Galileo seeing the mountains and 0
i:
valleys of the moon for the first
Oxygen is reactive and will attack time to the latest space tele-
l ~
2
other substances; that's what forms scopes. It's sprinkled with historical :;;
::;;
rust. Oxygen free radicals destroy DNA anecdotes and technical details ~
if it is not protected by antioxidants. about telescopes old and new. ~
o
z

~
LINGUISTIC HAIR-SPLITTING it
~
o
Talking, for Southern Africans, May Mean Clicking >-
t::
~
~
Z
In most languages, sounds are produced with breath, since the lungs are not involved. Even 2
a..
::::>
the help of the vocal cords and air from the our own language includes clicking, such as o
lungs. But in southern Africa, there are many the mild scold of tsk-tsk. '"
co
Vi
click languages, in which the sounds are entirely Click languages were once thought to be :J\
produced in the mouth and consist of primitive, but research has shown ~
x:
1>:
sharp sounds produced by the mouth, that they are just as complete and z

u
lips, tongue and teeth. Researchers advanced as the world's other nearly
have noted 48 different click sounds
~
z
7,000 languages.
~
co
in the !Xu language alone. z
One of the advantages of click Miriam Makeba, who was born in
languages is that a person can talk South Africa, is known for singing
away without ever pausing for a in Xhosa, a click language.

t, -ii t-1J.
. .' ~""":.'
"'-' i;( ~ {~ :;;
00::;.:' ~,~. ".~\
........

---I ( I . "

r 1,\ ~
..t
This map is made with a computer technique that makes each count1y larger ":
or smaller in relation to a single paramewr-in this case, alcohol consumptiO'ri
Isee "Our Lopsided World," left]. The method limits geographic distortion so
_~ """::~~L~~th:::a:.:,t;;.it.kisl..is~ti1Lpossible
to recognize~hewocldmap.

88 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

 DID YOU KNOW...

AT LEAST 2,000 washing-

machine patents were reg-

Little Siblings Are Funnier istered in the 19th century,

but an electric washing
machine did not go into
A survey by psychologist Richard Wiseman found that younger siblings production until 1906.

find it easier to make people laugh than their older brothers and sis- THE PHILIPPINE flag is
the only flag in the world
ters. Wiseman explains that younger children are more likely to feel the that is regularly flown two
need to compete for parental attention, leading them to be a bit more ways. In peacetime, the
blue stripe goes on top,
unconventional and, therefore, more entertaining. Case in point: Eng- but during wartime, the
flag is turned so that the
lish comedian Rowan Atkinson, a.k.a. Mr. Bean, is a little brother. red flies higher. The U.S.
and U.K. fly their flags
upside-down on naval
ships to signal distress.

Peace

War

ASTANDARD GOLF ball has

336 dimples, although the
list of United States Golf
Association-approved
balls ranges from 252 to
more than 1,000 dimples.
Dimples reduce drag by in-
creasing turbulence in the
surrounding air, allowing
the ball to fly farther.

TIGER SHARKS, which can

grow to more than 16 feet
long, are voracious eaters.
Some items that have been
found in the stomachs of
tiger sharks include an
overcoat, a cow's hoof,
deer antlers, and a chicken
coop still containing
feathery remains.

EGYPTIAN mummies were

covered with hundreds of
yards of linen bandages.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 5C1ENCEILLUSTRATED.COM I 89

 TRIVIA COUNTDOWN

In 1683, the wife of The tree genus was The drug is effective The drug was once The Incas called
the Spanish viceroy named Cinchona against a disease used to treat noctur- the tree quin-quina
of Peru was cured after the viceroy, whose name, nalleg cramps. It also in their native
by the bark of a who was the Count malaria, means gives tonic water its Quechua tongue.
local tree. of Cinchon. "bad air" in Italian. bitter tang.

This city, near Wadi Queen Rania is The brick-red build- Every year, thou- The city's name
Musa, was once the ecstatic that her ings were carved out sands of tourists means "stone" in
Nabataeans' capital. city made the New of sandstone cliffs. walk through the Greek. It is also a
It was rediscovered Seven Wonders of The city is 163 miles city's narrow gorges woman's name,
in lB12. the World list. south of Amman. to see Jordan's most the female form of
famous attraction. "Peter:'

He was born in As a child he was In lB36, he met He composed more The first letter of his
lBl0 in the town recognized as a French novelist than 200 works, last name is "C;' and
of Zelazowa Wola, prodigy. He lived in George Sand (born mostly for solo piano, it ends with "pin;' but
Poland, near Warsaw Paris for most of his Aurore Dupine) including mazurkas, pronounced more
and died of tubercu- adult life. and the two spent preludes, nocturnes, like "pan':
losis in Paris in 1849. 10 stormy years waltzes, polonaises
together. and concertos.

It is the 22nd British clergyman Because it is as This light, shiny This element was
element in the William Gregor strong as steel but white metal is also named for the strong
periodic table and discovered it in 1791 much lighter, the used to make sons of Gaia, a Greek
neighbors scandium while studying a aerospace industry prosthetic knee goddess. Its chemical
and vanadium. mineral he collected often uses it. and hip joints. symbol is Ti.
in Cornwall.

It is the first letter It is also the first This letter is used to This is the first letter It is the first letter
of the national epic letter of the city abbreviate tempera- of the capitals of of two famous
of Finland and of where Eric of ture in thermody- Afghanistan, the marsupials native
Hinduism's most Pomerania was namics. Zero degrees Democratic Republic to Australia.
misunderstood crowned king of Celsius is equal to of Congo, Nepal and
goddess. Scandinavia in 1397. 273.15 degrees in Malaysia.
this system.

SCORING:
Correct year 5 points
2 years 4 points
4years 3 points
6 years 2 points
8 years 1 point

Answers can be found on page 95

94 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008
 Places where millions of penguins once stood

Penguins on Thin Ice shoulder to shoulder are now lifeless and empty,
Scientists are racing to figure out why.

Volcano Hides the Key to History Learning to Be an Orangutan

The Greek island of Santorini exploded in apowerful
volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago, and archaeolo-
gists have used the disaster to determine dates for
aseries of subsequent events. But new evidence
indicates that the eruption occurred 100 years
earlier. History may need to be rewritten.
Awildlife refuge in Borneo receives
hundreds of orphaned orangutans
every year and teaches them the
skills they will need to live in the wild.

Answers
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SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED is published six times a year: J/F, MIA, MlJ, J/A, 5/0 and NID by Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016, No part of this magazine may be repro-
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM i 95

 Brain Trainers

D Carl and Steve ran a 1OO-meter race. B Which figure works?

Carl won, and he crossed the finish line
at the same time Steve crossed the
95-meter mark. In a second race, Carl
begins five meters behind the starting
Q ;sto
isto...

line, so that he is handicapped exactly

the distance he won by in the first race.
A BCD E
If both men run at the same speed
8> ~rnJ~1
they ran in the first race, who will win
the second race?

Which numbers n
EJ are represented by
A, Band C?
23

20
Neil shoots three ar-
. . . rows at the target,
and all of them hit.
How many combina-
24 tions are there that
would give him a
21 score of 13?
27

31 24 20 21 19

5 You toss three coins up in the air at the same time. What are the odds that at least two land heads up?

Headbreakers You put four balls in a bag-one

black, one white and two red.
You shake the bag and let some-
Which of the figures below can be one remove two balls. He looks
folded to make the die at right? at the balls and announces that
one is red. What are the odds
that the second is also red?
E :.:

Person Athinks of anumber between 13

Aman goes to the market and 1300. Person Bhas to guess it.
Which figure does not
to buy fruit. Three kinds are 1. Basks if the number is less than 500.
belong with the others?
on sale: pineapples for S10, Aanswers Yes.
apples for S1, and grapes, 2. Basks ifthe number is asquare.
which are sold in bags of Aanswers Yes.
eight for S1. He has S100, 3. Basks if the number is acube. "t
and needs to end up with Aanswers Yes and then adds:
exactly 100 pieces offruit. "Only two of my answers were correct,
What combination should and the number begins with a5, 7or 9:'

#.
he buy, given that he must Bcan now determine the number. ~;
buy at least one ofeach? Howwillhedoso? <.

Answers can be found on page 95

96 I SCIENCEILLUSTRATED.COM JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008