Board of advisers

6 Sc i e nt i f ic A m e ric A n Septem ber 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

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

from the editor

mariette diChristina editor in chief et

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After waiting in the long customs queue at JFK air-port in New York City a few years ago, I found myself before an agent with a dour expression.

He wondered: What kind of work, exact-ly, requires a trip to Europe and back in less than three days? As I drew breath to explain my job as an editor at Scientific American, his eyes dropped to the slim volume in my hand, and he suddenly beamed. “Oh, I read that book, and it was terrific.” He handed me back my passport. “Welcome home.”

The book? Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (W. W. Norton, 2003), by Mary Roach. I’d heard it was witty and thought it would be diverting for a long international flight. It was. In fact, I was well into the chapter on what hap-pens to bodies during airplane crashes before I noticed I’d been reading it at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. Af-ter a pause (in which I confess I thought about the wisdom of tempting fate), I read on. I was rewarded with fascinating scientific information and, more than that, a good story.

You just never know when a willing-ness to engage with possibly uncomfort-able topics might have an upside. Now that you have reached the beginning of “The End,” our annual special single-topic issue, we hope it will pro vide simi-lar benefits. As you read, you may come to appreciate, as I have, how an apparent finish can often be just another way to open a new door. Turn to page 38 for a thoughtful introduction to the feature section by staff editor Michael Moyer, who organized the issue.

That is not to say it is always easy to take a hard look at finales. When it comes to contemplating our own mortality, the

nature of our consciousness actually makes it impossible to imagine the world without us. Consider, as Jesse Bering, director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen’s University Belfast, wrote in our sister publication, Scientific American Mind, that you will never know you have died: “You may feel your-self slipping away, but it isn’t as though there will be a ‘you’ around who is capa-ble of ascertaining that, once all is said and done, it has actually happened.”

Partly for this reason—the difficulty and possible discomfort about some of the topics we wanted to cover—the edi-tors have mulled and then put aside this issue annually for the past few years. How would people react? Would it “die” on the newsstand? (Ouch, I know.) For my part, I find contemplating the future fascinating, whether it is my own, the planet’s or even the universe’s: this issue explores all three and then looks at what comes after the end in many related areas as well. The topic also seems the perfect alpha-and-omega bookend to our single-themed issue last year, “Origins.”

When you’re done with this issue, you can find more on the home page of www.ScientificAmerican.com, including a spe-cial interactive package about the feature article starting on page 74, “How Much Is Left?” which was developed with Zemi. And during the week of August 23, you can listen to several of the editors and oth-er experts in interviews and related stories on WNYC’s national morning radio news program “The Takeaway” (more at www.ScientificAmerican.com/TheEnd). As al-ways, let us know what you think. ■

Start of the End

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