Scientific American 2021 04.pdf

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APRIL 2021
SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM
Telescopes on
the Far Side
of the Moon
How to Fight
Vaccine Myths
Dark Matter’s
Last Stand
THE MATH
OF MAKING
CONNECTIONS
The theory that illuminates networks
from cell-phone transmissions
to COVID-19 contagion
A pr il 2 0 2 1
VO L U M E 3 2 4 , N U M B E R 4
64
M AT H E M AT I C S
SCIENCE AND SOCIET Y
22 The Math of
Making Connections
Percolation theory illuminates
the behavior of networks
from cell-phone connections
to disease transmission.
By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
ENERGY
44 How to Counter
COVID Misinformation
We each have more power
than we may realize.
By Kathleen Hall Jamieson
BIOMECHANIC S
52 Flights of Fancy
A paleontologist and an illustrator
make mythical creatures follow
biomechanical rules.
By Michael B.
Habib and Terryl Whitlatch
S PAC E E X P LO R AT I O N
30 What to Do
about Natural Gas
The massive existing infrastruc-
ture could pose a barrier to
decarbonizing the energy system.
But it doesn’t have to. Here’s how.
By Michael E. Webber
A S T R O N O MY
60 The View from the
Far Side of the Moon
New lunar telescopes will peer
into the dark ages of the universe,
which hide the seeds of stars.
By Anil Ananthaswamy
PA R T I C L E P H Y S I C S
38 Seeing Clearly
A tool built for astronomy
finds new life combating
space debris and enabling
quantum encryption.
By Tony Travouillon,
Céline d’Orgeville and
Francis Bennet
ON THE C OVE r
A remarkable variety of real-world systems
involve networks. A versatile branch of
mathematics called percolation theory finds
that as the density of links within a network
increases, it suddenly becomes highly con-
nected: a message hops from phone to phone
across a city, or a disease becomes pandemic.
illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite.
64 Dark Matter’s Last Stand
A new experiment could catch
invisible particles that previous
detectors have not.
By Clara Moskowitz
ENRICO SACCHETTI
April 2021, ScientificAmerican.com
1
4 From the Editor
6 Letters
8 Science Agenda
Steps the U.S. must take against domestic
terrorists and white supremacy.
By the Editors
9 Forum
The U.S. needs a National Institute
of Climate Change and Health.
By Howard Frumkin and Richard J. Jackson
8
10 Advances
Rethinking dire wolves’ lineage. How making predictions
hinders memory formation. A bold plan to vaccinate tigers.
Models to rebuild forests after wildfire.
20 Meter
And now for a bit of poetic whimsy:
clerihews.
By William B. Ashworth, Jr.,
and Melissa Dehner
21 The Science of Health
Finally, there are rays of medical hope
for millions who are addicted to meth.
By Claudia Wallis
10
72 Recommended
Sweeping new digital series on whales. Profile of
the CRISPR discovery. An examination of fascinating
possible future realities. Concerning global sperm
count drop.
By Andrea Gawrylewski
73 Observatory
Scientists bring their values to their research—
and there’s nothing wrong with that.
By Naomi Oreskes
74 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago
By Dan Schlenoff
76 Graphic Science
73
Our bodies replace billions of cells every day.
By Mark Fischetti and Jen Christiansen
Scientific American (ISSN 0036-8733), Volume 324, Number 4, April 2021, published monthly by Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc., 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, N.Y. 10004-1562. Periodicals
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Scientific American, April 2021

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