Board of advisers

8 Sc i e nt i f ic A m e ric A n Ju ly 2010

LesLie C. AieLLoPresident, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

RogeR BinghAmProfessor, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

g. steven BuRRiLLCEO, Burrill & Company

ARthuR CApLAnEmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

seAn CARRoLLSenior Research Associate, Department of Physics, Caltech

geoRge m. ChuRChDirector, Center for Computational Genetics, Harvard Medical School

RitA CoLweLL Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland College Park and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

DRew enDyProfessor of Bioengineering, Stanford University

eD FeLten Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University

miChAeL s. gAzzAnigADirector, Sage Center for the Study of Mind, University of California, Santa Barbara

DAviD gRoss Frederick W. Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2004)

Lene vesteRgAARD hAu Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, Harvard University

DAnny hiLLis Co-chairman, Applied Minds

DAnieL m. KAmmenDirector, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

vinoD KhosLAFounder, Khosla Ventures

ChRistoF KoChLois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, Caltech

LAwRenCe m. KRAussDirector, Origins Initiative, Arizona State University

moRten L. KRingeLBAChDirector, Hedonia: TrygFonden Research Group, University of Oxford and University of Aarhus

steven KyLeProfessor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

RoBeRt s. LAngeRDavid H. Koch Institute Professor, M.I.T.

LAwRenCe LessigProfessor, Harvard Law School

eRnest j. monizCecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor. M.I.T.

john p. mooReProfessor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

m. gRAngeR moRgAnProfessor and Head of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

migueL niCoLeLisCo-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University

mARtin nowAKDirector, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University

RoBeRt pALAzzoProvost and Professor of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

CARoLyn poRCoLeader, Cassini Imaging Science Team, and Director, CICLOPS, Space Science Institute

viLAyAnuR s. RAmAChAnDRAn Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

LisA RAnDALLProfessor of Physics, Harvard University

mARtin ReesProfessor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge

john RegAnoLDRegents Professor of Soil Science, Washington State University

jeFFRey D. sAChsDirector, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

eugenie sCottExecutive Director, National Center for Science Education

teRRy sejnowsKiProfessor and Laboratory Head of Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies

miChAeL snyDeRProfessor of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine

miChAeL e. weBBeRAssociate Director, Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy, University of Texas at Austin

steven weinBeRgDirector, Theory Research Group, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979)

geoRge m. whitesiDesProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University

nAthAn woLFeDirector, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative

R. jAmes wooLsey, jR. Venture Partner, VantagePoint Venture Partners

Anton zeiLingeRProfessor of Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics, Quantum Information, University of Vienna

jonAthAn zittRAinProfessor, Harvard Law School

Mariette diChristina editor in chief

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As I type this letter, I am sit- ting in a hotel room in Bar-celona, Spain, having just completed an important but little-known meeting: the twice-a-year gathering

of editors and other members of Scientific American’s international editions. Reflect-ing the scientific enterprise itself, the pro-ducers of the 14 local-language editions are spread around the world. Although we are in frequent e-mail and phone contact through out the year, we also meet in per-son in various cities, the better to learn from one another.

Around the long table were representa-tives from Brazil, China, Japan, Kuwait, Russia and essentially every European na-tion. Our collective readership is a diverse audience that numbers more than one mil-lion, but they all share a passion for science and technology. And we, as editors, share a common mission to comb the globe for the science that matters, the better to serve those readers. Members of the editions traded intelligence on best practices and also shared new ideas. One initiative, which I expect to be under way on www.Scienti-ficAmerican.com by the time you read this, is to conduct global surveys about science topics, working together and also in part-nership with the journal Nature (which is in the same Macmillan corporate family). I will report further in the coming months.

Along with our global reach, we at Scientific American take pride in our unique inclusion of scientist authors, who collaborate with us on many of our feature articles and give us a distinctive perspec-

tive. More rarefied still are the scientists who have achieved the honor of winning a Nobel Prize, and 143 Nobelists have contributed a collective total of 232 pieces to Scien tific American, often years before their work was recognized in Stockholm.

Just as those Nobelists have provided their insights in our pages, they have also shared their wisdom and encouragement in lectures and conversations with young scientists at another important but under-appreciated assembly, the Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany. This year marks the event’s 60th anniversary, and it will include some 60 laureates and more than 600 young scientists. I will also be there, feeling humble among so many bril-liant minds but eager to listen, learn—and then to share with readers. Look for my blog posts about the meeting at the end of June on www.ScientificAmerican.com; we will also be posting videos and other cov-erage from the conference during that time and in subsequent months.

Last, but certainly not least, I direct you to the scientific marvels within this is-sue. You can explore the strange apparent “lost” energy of the cosmos, in “Is the Universe Leaking Energy?” by Tamara M. Davis, starting on page 38. Learn the lat-est about promising vaccines and medi-cines in “DNA Drugs Come of Age,” by Matthew P. Morrow and David B. Wein-er, starting on page 48. Watch robots re-

make the modern battlefield in “War of the Machines,” by P. W. Singer, on page 56. And delve into that most mysterious terrain: the in-fant mind. Turn to page 76

for “How Babies Think,” by Alison Gopnik. ■

A Global Affair

BAttLefieLD rOBOtS

are reshaping modern warfare.

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