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Cybercrime’s secret origins p.54
®®
SCIENCE THAT MATTERS NOVEMBER 2020
SOLVING THE
MIND-GUT
MYSTERY
» Probiotics, bacteria and
how they rule the brain p.40
» Autism’s puzzling link p.30
FARMING WITH FALCONS
p.60
QUEST FOR A
QUANTUM INTERNET
p.22 BONUS
ONLINE
CONTENT
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p. 3
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CONTENTS
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NOVEMBER 2020
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VOL. 41, ISSUE 7
subscriber content.
Feral chickens
rule the roost,
but what’s the
science behind
them?
K
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N of an ultra-secure web might look like. Experts are now testing psychobiotics
M1 I
E: DAN HURLEY as mental health remedies.
G
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S P 30 ELIZABETH SVOBODA
THI Bacteria and the Brain
K. 48
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ER behavior — in patients’ microbiomes. Things Crow
T
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SH ADAM PIORE There’s a man who loves chickens —
G/
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RI
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TS He’s probing the depths of evolutionary
H
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R:
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V benefits of feral birds.
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JOAN MEINERS
3
NOVEMBER 2020 . DISCOVER
CONTENTS
p. 10 p. 66
COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS
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6 EDITOR’S NOTE 18 VITAL SIGNS from field pests and ERS
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We’re Exploring Beyond the Blues foodborne pathogens. HU
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That Gut Feeling “Everything was fine” JEFF KRONENFELD ARI/
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The science behind the for this salesman, but he U
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phrase, “You are what couldn’t shake his funk. His 66 20 THINGS YOU DIDN’T SCIO
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you eat.” hormones may have had SA
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something to do with it. Wilderness RD
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7 INBOX DOUGLAS G. ADLER The great outdoors is good CK;
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Our readers chime in for our overall health, but S
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about the awesome and 54 HISTORY LESSONS this precious resource is UTTE
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the not-so-awesome. Cracking the 414s in danger. N/S
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In 1983, a group of young JONATHON KEATS RO
PII
adults from Milwaukee O
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became famous for hacking A
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into several high-profile C
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Saving the mangrove tree and introducing the country to U
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the white-cheeked gibbon, the the world of cybercrime. MA/
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first image from Solar Orbiter’s ALEX ORLANDO D IJ
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mission, meat’s role in humans’ A
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diets, the best science books to T:
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read now and much more. Farming With P LE
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Falcons T
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Trained raptors are FR
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protecting our produce WI
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DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
The Stauer Times
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EDITOR’S NOTE
BY BECKY LANG MAGAZINE®
BECKY LANG Editor In Chief
ELIZABETH M. WEBER Design Director
We’re Exploring That
EDITORIAL
TIMOTHY MEINCH Features Editor
Gut Feeling ELISA R. NECKAR Production Editor
ANNA FUNK Associate Editor
ALEX ORLANDO Assistant Editor
JENNIFER WALTER Assistant Editor
You are what you eat. How many of us have heard this phrase, rolled MCLEAN BENNETT Copy Editor
HAILEY MCLAUGHLIN Editorial Assistant
our eyes, said “yeah, yeah,” and moved on? Yet it’s a beautifully simple
ALLISON WHITTEN AAAS Mass Media Fellow
saying that cuts straight to the point: What you put into your body
Contributing Editors
has a direct effect on your overall health.
BRIDGET ALEX, TIM FOLGER,
I was curious about the origin of the saying, which we’ve heard in the U.S. for JONATHON KEATS, LINDA MARSA,
KENNETH MILLER, STEVE NADIS,
much of the 20th century. The idiom’s original version first appeared in 1825 in
JULIE REHMEYER,
a famed French book about food, by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. He was a DARLENE CAVALIER (special projects)
lawyer and judge, as well as a celebrated food writer. His original line, translated
DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
into English: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” MEGAN SCHMIDT Digital Content Coordinator
At that time, Brillat-Savarin was com-
Contributors
menting on the connection between food,
BRIDGET ALEX, ERIC BETZ, ERIK KLEMETTI,
society and culture — how intertwined LESLIE NEMO, NEUROSKEPTIC,
COREY S. POWELL, SCISTARTER, TOM YULSMAN
food is in our sense of identity. Since then,
we’ve managed to boil that down (ha) to a ADVERTISING
SCOTT REDMOND Advertising Sales Director
clear connection between a diet of whole
888 558 1544, ext. 533
food and general health. In other words, [email protected]
DINA JOHNSTON Advertising Sales Representative
put junk in your body, and expect not-so-
888 558 1544, ext. 523
great things to happen. [email protected]
But our health goes far beyond just DARYL PAGEL Direct Response Account Representative
262 798 6618
food. As you’ll read in this issue’s cover
[email protected]
stories, researchers are discovering
KALMBACH MEDIA
just how much power is wielded by the
DAN HICKEY Chief Executive Officer
trillions of bacteria that populate our CHRISTINE METCALF Senior Vice President, Finance
NICOLE MCGUIRE Senior Vice President,
guts. Scientists have found that particular
Consumer Marketing
strains of bacteria in our intestines — STEPHEN C. GEORGE Vice President, Content
those that are part of the gut microbiome BRIAN J. SCHMIDT Vice President, Operations
SARAH A. HORNER Vice President, Human Resources
— can shape how we think, how we feel and how our brains operate. DAVID T. SHERMAN Senior Director,
We’re finding more evidence that this gut-brain axis can affect mental health, Advertising Sales and Events
LIZ RUNYON Circulation Director
such as depression and anxiety. The microbiome also may be linked to symp-
ANGELA COTEY Director of Digital Strategy
toms of autism. And preliminary studies show that replacing the microbiome MICHAEL SOLIDAY Director of Design & Production
KATHY STEELE Retention Manager
with specific bacterial strains affects an animal’s behavior.
KIM REDMOND Single Copy Specialist
So perhaps we could tweak that original phrase: Tell me what’s in your gut and
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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INBOX
SPECIAL BONUS CONTENT FROM ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE
OUT THERE
AWESOME A Universe
of Galaxies
C(“AOwNe-NStEruCckT,”I “OAN UnSiverse of TsbhoOuttmehaeTitglote lhtefideE uahoe nslai1Mogsirsehnbdsen hne 0caHeu n1rstcc ajghw ciooot0se1a0cgearl iauvpmseuliaecs-pprocu9nipi0os ,en eni.hH ola ntpbpei2t nanpttosud :rnThdgorir. u 0o lbetlicihnts s,td dyO goursHenc rsithhpbeiogm zyn Wshler,dolec tt enho tlue et H sdtroHhe iboyhko iwonc u etenoLenbsiitim tiesfooaaegatsdnrcluhoa dnreo en ebe, strs uioroaa el nptwnb ex rbrhgcshortcloioi aotkskde wezvhs lgobti ulieccpAenoueavfsse e e a i efvl ha hanl u tthprnsfettra;wesnathtnae eotaa .lh c igdilisphii giT ct dshcveoga ,sbguhrcania trhe h ee enhs ea.taehne bhiwxtsetnati cipel.klt.nolltlr am ua e:id tiad e A yecaSl eiteya t, “ntThtisantsr hn M ysr.un n on cvae asnhwt,t o .ele f aiHaoe e di sgjeai sosdieovnde oThsoottmls.snopbu dm v teiau ryuetiou uynHplbbledusgeoese aao erarfenaelp,olhstcrnrno lmc ue d uentahndb,ae ekotdOveo rl.hse sb thn resty ddecbe apeeoieW tdoIvt.-tb.u,cdegt”ngo de c nese hswy ea rH tl u stachroga s daie Thee.dth ethciealo on to,prsuino cnsa4 ettiatehwmsntamMrf onowiubhd r ,pgre a mpenynokt ar nom,brses 1 athe 3dhavponasnatmeetunel .er 9h 1ee alshksmt lel oaead eThreoitafm2 t k,a.oeadt demwxreh tg rmtab t3otThhdy ttl deu cone yeh,ntyhoMeeH,,naai ion e ns enohsle dt rordnirgaeaitsrd ey doetdv hioe3 sfeiuxn ertesidze—oga,da aa oerica1gm p ss aade svaoy th riu irseepk ab lhr loidmno y asotkoessdenntib eyn ue g r t roffi dria oardd ea roiaonsat ltist fgeehh clflnie tt -,t rneeeeo ae ghb d r, dnt e u o - t OUT THERE 63
Galaxies” and “Welcome to the
62 NWeeiglchobmoerh tooo tdhe SPECIAL BONUS CONTENT FROM ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE
Neighborhood,” June 2020) cTohlele Mctiiolkny oWf aay f eawnd d Aoznednro gmaeladxaie rsu.le over a motley
The June 2020 issue’s juxtaposition of “Awe-
Struck” with the two articles on galaxies is
A
an amazing example, intentional or not, of
70
one article demonstrating the unrelated
71
one before it. You can’t get more awe-inspiring
than the universe, and this section on galaxies did a beautiful job of
presenting galaxies in a way that puts a lot of stuff into perspective. As
I read the articles, I kept thinking back to our small place in all of that.
— Joel Amromin, Chatsworth, Calif.
MINING RIGHTS
resources and then go as a percentage of the
(“Out of Our Mines,” on to deplete off-planet global population at the
Elizabeth
June 2020) resources. — time of the pandemic,
Rumley James,
I love Discover! However, because this is the
Marshfield, Mo.
I was disturbed by the figure that allows the
article “Out of Our reader to understand
CONTEXT, PLEASE
Mines.” While I am all the true impact that
for reclaiming those (“History of Pandemics,” the pandemic had on
essential elements from June 2020) society. Fifty million
tailings, waste dumps, Your infographic in deaths today (less
ocean water, et cetera, The Crux summarized than 1 percent of the
I am unhappy with various pandemics world’s population) is
the implied attitude across the ages — great very different than 50
that mining the moon, article, with wonderful million deaths 100
asteroids and the deep graphics to convey the years ago (2.7 percent
sea bottom are all information clearly. But of the population) or
acceptable in the name the death counts were 50 million deaths
of progress. It seems given in numbers; this in 1340 (12 percent).
Carlin Otto,
especially wrong to me information would be —
Palo Alto, Calif.
to use up all Earth’s even more useful if given
CORRECTIONS
• TIGERBALM.COM
In our May 2020 story “It’s Not That Easy Being Green,” readers were urged to
keep plastic bags, which can clog machinery, out of single-stream recycling bins. A
few readers reached out to inform us that some locales do accept plastic bags for
recycling, usually when bagged together. As always, check your local regulations
to be sure you’re recycling everything you can — and nothing more.
• NEW!
In “When the Fever Doesn’t Break,” from the July/August 2020 issue, we
indicated that Takeda’s new dengue vaccine, TAK-003, was based on an existing
yellow fever vaccine. This is incorrect; TAK-003 is built on a dengue serotype that’s
common to all four serotypes.
.
Deadly S.N.A.F.U.,
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
From the acclaimed investigative author who brought you the non-fiction
Railroad Collisions, A Deadly Story of Mismanaged Risk, George Swimmer returns
with a systematic playbook of understanding the exposure to water contamination faced
by about one million Marines, Sailors, their dependents and others who were stationed,
lived or worked at Camp Lejeune. As a Marine veteran, Swimmer’s evident passion for
and knowledge about the subject shine through. He does an excellent job of making
military reports and unfamiliar terms understandable of novices.
A thoroughly researched investigative journey, Swimmer’s non-fiction Deadly S.N.A.F.U., Marine Corp Base
Camp Lejeune, N.C. spells out the irrefutable scientific and medical evidence that connects the dots between
the decades-long exposure to water contaminants during military service at Camp Lejeune and the development
of certain diseases later on.
This is an impassioned indictment of the United States Marine Corps for its decades of mismanagement that
caused extreme quantities of toxic pollutants to enter the potable water supply, then followed by years of lies,
coverups, combined with an inept and infective notification process experienced by 100,000’s of Marines and
others. Yet, Swimmer prevails as he focuses on the human spirit that connects all Marines. Semper Fi!
Amazon.com/author/georgeswimmer
Paperback $14.99, Kindle eBook $3.99
HOT SCIENCE
THE LATEST NEWS AND NOTES
GIBBON GUARDIANS • SEEING SUNSPOTS • WANDERING STARS •
MEAT-EATERS • BOOK REVIEWS
MAN VS. MANGROVES
These trees love beachfront views. Mangroves live in the salty shallow waters between land and sea
across thousands of miles of the world’s coastlines — at least, for now. High carbon emissions are causing
sea levels to rise, and soon mangroves won’t be able to stay above water. Earlier this year, researchers
estimated that once the annual rate of sea level rise reaches just a quarter of an inch, mangroves will begin
to drown. Without changes to emissions, these forests of the ocean will be in grave danger by 2050. And if
they lose their homes, they may not be the only ones. The tropical trees protect coastal land and the people
who live there from natural disasters like tsunamis, by reducing storm surges and flooding. — ALLISON
WHITTEN; IMAGE BY DAMSEA/SHUTTERSTOCK
9
NOVEMBER 2020 . DISCOVER
