6 SC I E NT I F IC A M E RIC A N Augu st 2010

BOARD OF ADVISERSLESLIE C. AIELLOPresident, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

ROGER BINGHAMProfessor, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

G. STEVEN BURRILLCEO, Burrill & Company

ARTHUR CAPLANEmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

GEORGE M. CHURCHDirector, Center for Computational Genetics, Harvard Medical School

RITA COLWELL Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland College Park and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

DREW ENDYProfessor of Bioengineering, Stanford University

ED FELTEN Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University

MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGADirector, Sage Center for the Study of Mind, University of California, Santa Barbara

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

LENE VESTERGAARD HAU Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, Harvard University

DANNY HILLIS Co-chairman, Applied Minds

DANIEL M. KAMMENDirector, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

VINOD KHOSLAFounder, Khosla Ventures

CHRISTOF KOCHLois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, Caltech

LAWRENCE M. KRAUSSDirector, Origins Initiative, Arizona State University

MORTEN L. KRINGELBACHDirector, Hedonia: TrygFonden Research Group, University of Oxford and University of Aarhus

STEVEN KYLEProfessor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

ROBERT S. LANGERDavid H. Koch Institute Professor, M.I.T.

LAWRENCE LESSIGProfessor, Harvard Law School

ERNEST J. MONIZCecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor. M.I.T.

JOHN P. MOOREProfessor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell UniversityM. GRANGER MORGANProfessor and Head of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

MIGUEL NICOLELISCo-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University

MARTIN NOWAKDirector, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University

ROBERT PALAZZOProvost and Professor of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

CAROLYN PORCOLeader, Cassini Imaging Science Team, and Director, CICLOPS, Space Science Institute

VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

LISA RANDALLProfessor of Physics, Harvard University

MARTIN REESProfessor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge

JOHN REGANOLDRegents Professor of Soil Science, Washington State University

JEFFREY D. SACHSDirector, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

EUGENIE SCOTTExecutive Director, National Center for Science Education

TERRY SEJNOWSKIProfessor and Laboratory Head of Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies

MICHAEL SNYDERProfessor of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine

MICHAEL E. WEBBERAssociate Director, Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy, University of Texas at Austin

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

GEORGE M. WHITESIDESProfessor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University

NATHAN WOLFEDirector, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative

R. JAMES WOOLSEY, JR. Venture Partner, VantagePoint Venture Partners

ANTON ZEILINGERProfessor of Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics, Quantum Information, University of Vienna

JONATHAN ZITTRAINProfessor, Harvard Law School ET

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Mariette DiChristina editor in chief

Celebrating ScienceIn 1845 James K. Polk suc-ceeded John Tyler, Jr., as the 11th president. The U.S. an nexed Texas as the 28th state, and the young na-tion’s “manifest destiny” to

occupy all of North America became a popular ideal. The industrial revolution was burgeoning, easing people’s lives with mechanical marvels. By this time, for in-stance, Cyrus McCormick had created a labor-saving reaper for crops. And with a promise to explain “New Inventions, Sci-enti� c Principles, and Curious Works,” the painter and inventor Rufus Porter in-troduced the � rst issue of a broadsheet called The Scienti� c American on August 28, 1845.

Porter was “a mechanical Johnny Ap-pleseed sowing seed of new and inge-nious ideas as he traveled through New England and abroad through his jour-nals,” wrote Jean Lipman in Rufus Por-ter, Yankee Pioneer (Clarkson N. Potter, 1968); you can learn more about him at the Rufus Porter Museum in Bridgton, Me. Porter took out more than 100 pat-ents, but his best-known innovation is his revolver mechanism, which he sold in 1844 to Samuel Colt for $100. Scienti� c American re� ected his broad interests. The inaugural edition lists patents, de-scribes developments such as Samuel Morse’s telegraph and a � lter for locomo-tive smoke, comments on painting por-traits and even includes poetry. Find ex-cerpts in a special 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago, starting on page 12; other excerpts from the 1845 issue and a slide show ap-pear at www.Scienti� cAmerican.com.

True to Porter’s restless nature, he sold the publication after only 10 months to Orson Desaix Munn and Alfred Ely Beach, both in their early 20s. Beach was also an inventor—he designed New York

City’s � rst subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit (an 1870 issue featured the plans). Scienti� c American is included in an exhibit at the Newseum in Wash-ington, D.C., on the history of journal-ism in the 1800s. Munn & Co. had a successful patent agency that shepherd-ed more than 1,000 applications, and it ultimately held Scienti� c American for more than a century.

When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, Scienti� c Ameri-can covered it. Thomas Edison came into the of� ce and demonstrated his work for the staff. With editorials and silver tro-phies to reward � ights of increasing dis-tances, the editors goaded the Wright brothers to reveal details of their � ying machines. Albert Einstein once penned an article for our pages. The magazine saw the U.S. through its Sputnik moment and the start of the “space age.”

This is Scienti� c American’s 165-year heritage as the country’s oldest continu-ously published magazine. Yet in every issue, the magazine is new again, with its scientist authors, many of them Nobel Prize winners, and top journalists de-scribing the latest in science and technol-ogy. In this edition, feature articles cover everything from threats to the comput-ers we now rely on (“The Hacker in Your Hardware,” page 82) to devices that will make “fantastic voyages” in medicine a reality (“Robot Pills,” page 62) to extra-solar Earth-like planets that might har-bor life (“Planets We Could Call Home,” page 38). Fittingly, we include a special report on “Origins” (page 46).

So Happy Birthday to Scienti� c Amer-ican this month. We hope you will join us in celebrating the renewal and positive force of science in our world every day. ■

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