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the truth about prostate tests medicine what football does to brains neuroscience the future of chocolate agriculture february 2012 scientificamerican.com quantum universe could foamlike fluctuations rule spacetime at the tiniest scales the © 2012 scientific american

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© siemens ag 2011 all rights reserved growing up healthy in a growing city siemens answers for healthcare help people flourish today ­ and tomorrow it`s a typically sunny day in macarthur park the kids are playing tag a new mom is pushing a stroller senior citizens are doing tai chi like the 10 million other people who make up the richly diverse population of los angeles they all share a dream of good health and siemens is helping them realize that dream today in 75 of los angeles hospitals siemens medical imaging systems and laboratory diagnostics instruments diagnose patients at every stage of life fast accurately and with less need for invasive procedures our healthcare it solutions enable streamlined paperless workflow and in los angeles teaching hospitals we re training the medical leaders of tomorrow all across the country siemens helps turn growing cities into thriving cities somewhere in america our team of more than 60,000 employees spends every day creating answers that will last for years to come siemens.com /answers

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on the cover space appears to be smooth and continuous but at the smallest scales it may flake apart into discrete bits now a team of physicists is building an experiment that will look for evidence that space is at root digital the research could influence how we understand the relations among space time matter and information image by vault49 february 2012 volume 306 number 2 60 feature s p h ys i cs susta ina bl e agriculture 30 is space digital a team of scientists with a cheap setup are trying to do an end run around big physics to discover the true nature of information matter and space by michael moyer medi ci n e 60 the future of chocolate researchers are racing to fortify the embattled cacao tree to meet the world s insatiable demand for chocolate and to protect the livelihoods of cacao farmers by harold schmitz and howard-yana shapiro br a in sc ienc e 38 the great prostate cancer debate evidence shows that screening does more harm than good now what by marc b garnick envi ro nment 66 the collision syndrome football players diagnosed with lou gehrig s disease may suffer from the effect of repeated blows to the head by jeffrey bartholet a natomy 44 swept from africa to the amazon the journey of a handful of dust speaks volumes about our fragile planet by jeffrey bartholet pu blichea lt h 72 fetal armor the placenta does more than nourish offspring in the womb it actively shapes brain development by claudia kalb bioengineering 50 sleeping with the enemy can science halt the march of the bed bugs by kenneth f haynes ci tizen sci e n ce 56 all hands on deck volunteers are combing through the logbooks of world war i­era ships to help researchers fill holes in the earth s climate record by kalee thompson 74 the brittle star s apprentice to find exotic new materials with sought-after properties chemist joanna aizenberg looks to odd sea creatures such as brittle stars and sponges interview by gareth cook photograph by adam voorhes february 2012 scientificamerican.com 1 © 2012 scientific american

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department s 4 from the editor 6 letters 10 science agenda helmets are not enough by the editors 11 forum 11 why does the nih appear to be biased against africanamericans by david kaplan 12 advances the u.s and china cannot cooperate in space bioterror recipe for flu genetic clues to why monarchs migrate starcraft 2 s multitasking message diamond entanglement 26 the science of health the baffling worldwide rise of type 1 diabetes by maryn mckenna 29 technofiles a guide for predicting the future of technology by david pogue 82 recommended polar expeditions citizens of the net the science of cooking designs by nature by anna kuchment 18 84 skeptic lies we tell ourselves by michael shermer 86 anti gravity when the hunter becomes the hunted by steve mirsky 87 50 100 150 years ago 88 graphic science more college students are earning science degrees but where have all the graduates gone by mark fischetti on the web tech trends to watch in 2012 a report from the consumer electronics show the tech industry s annual las vegas spectacle examines the state of the art in the digital world and which companies are vying to sell you the next big thing go to www.scientificamerican.com/feb2012/ces 84 scientific american issn 0036-8733 volume 306 number 2 february 2012 published monthly by scientific american a division of nature america inc 75 varick street 9th floor new york n.y 10013-1917 periodicals postage paid at new york n.y and at additional mailing offices canada post international publications mail canadian distribution sales agreement no 40012504 canadian bn no 127387652rt tvq1218059275 tq0001 publication mail agreement #40012504 return undeliverable mail to scientific american p.o box 819 stn main markham on l3p 8a2 individual subscription rates 1 year $39.97 usd canada $49.97 usd international $61 usd institutional subscription rates schools and public libraries 1 year $72 usd canada $77 usd international $84 usd businesses and colleges/universities 1 year $330 usd canada $335 usd international $342 usd postmaster send address changes to scientific american box 3187 harlan iowa 51537 reprints available write reprint department scientific american 75 varick street 9th floor new york n.y 10013-1917 fax 646-563-7138 reprints@sciam.com subscription inquiries u.s and canada 800 333-1199 other 515 248-7684 send e-mail to sacust@sciam.com printed in u.s.a copyright © 2012 by scientific american a division of nature america inc all rights reserved 2 scientific american february 2012 © 2012 scientific american

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enhancing super resolution in scientific imaging with new scmos camera technology going beyond optical resolution limits optical fluorescence microscopy has long been an essential tool for looking inside living cells but it can t resolve features smaller than 200 nm electron microscopy can but not on living cells so in recent years a new technique has been developed localization microscopy captures the flashes from fluorescent molecules even closely spaced ones individually over time these are then recomposited by computer to construct an image with unprecedented super resolution but capturing those faint single-molecule flashes requires extreme sensitivity and a high signal-tonoise ratio which is exactly what hamamatsu s the new frontiers of light orca®-flash series of scmos cameras provides advancing the technology in particular the new orca-flash4.0 camera uses second-generation scmos technology to achieve unprecedented quantum efficiency and sensitivity along with extremely low noise unmatched speed high resolution and a large field of view this unique combination of advanced features not only enhances fluorescence microscopy it also enables many new imaging capabilities for applications that previously could only be handled by ccd and emccd technology next-generation scmos technology it s just one more way hamamatsu is helping to open the new frontiers of light http jp.hamamatsu.com/en/rd/publication a stack of 2500 image frames was used to construct the upper conventional microscopic image of actin bundles which when magnified become indistinct the lower image is constructed from 2500 frames from an orca-flash camera it shows dramatically improved resolution and clearly reveals individual actin bundles scmos scientific complementary metal oxide semiconductor ccd charge coupled device emccd electron multiplying charge coupled device this data courtesy of prof dr zhen-li huang britton chance center for biomedical photonics wuhan national laboratory for optoelectronics huazhong university of science and technology hamamatsu is opening

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from the editor i a sea of spacetime foam s space digital staff editor michael moyer poses this fundamental question in our issue s cover story we often speak of the fabric of space as if it were continuous but is it instead a kind of patchwork of jittering foamy quantized bits craig hogan a physicist at the university of chicago and director of the fermilab particle astrophysics center is hoping to find out he and his colleagues plan an experiment that will attempt to measure how information matter and spacetime behave at the tiniest of scales the planck scale if the experiment succeeds it will change what we currently think we know about the nature of space and time suggesting a new architecture of physics turn to page 30 you can find another lesson in how little things can make a big difference by contemplating the surprising and endless journey of a handful of dust around the globe as revealed in swept from africa to the amazon by journalist jeffrey bartholet starting on page 44 long underappreciated puny motes of natural dust turn out to have a tremendous influence on climate cloud formation and the fertilization of oceans and rain forests the story of dust bartholet writes is actually about the challenges of trying to figure out what is happening to the planet we inhabit indeed mariette dichristina is editor in chief of scientific american find her on twitter @mdichristina sciencein ac tion tell me and i forget teach me and i remember involve me and i learn benjamin franklin 1706­1790 kids are born scientists they ask great questions and as franklin one of the original scientific americans pointed out we should foster their efforts to learn the answers firsthand one such opportunity is the google science fair the online competition launched in 2011 drew more than 7,000 entries from 91 countries the fair has three age categories for 13 to 18-year-olds last july i was a finalist judge and master of ceremonies for the amazing awards event at google s headquarters in mountain view calif the grand prizewinner shree bose won $50,000 for her work in improving a cancer therapy [see her summer pastime cancer research by john matson advances scientific american september 2011 this year scientific american is delighted to help expand the awards honors by sponsoring a $50,000 science in action award for a project that addresses a social environmental or health issue to make a practical difference in the lives of a group or community we will also bring that winner to the awards event in california in july and establish mentoring for a year more information along with an inspiring video of a science in action­ style project by one of last year s finalists harine ravichandran of india is at www.scientificamerican.com and at www.google.com/sciencefair entries are due march 30 i can t wait to see what questions the young scientists of tomorrow have been asking this time around m.d board of advisers leslie c aiello president wenner-gren foundation for anthropological research david gross roger bingham co-founder and director the science network ceo burrill company frederick w gluck professor of theoretical physics university of california santa barbara nobel prize in physics 2004 mallinckrodt professor of physics and of applied physics harvard university co-chairman applied minds steven kyle professor of applied economics and management cornell university david h koch institute professor massachusetts institute of technology professor harvard law school carolyn porco robert s langer leader cassini imaging science team and director ciclops space science institute director center for brain and cognition university of california san diego professor of physics harvard university professor of cosmology and astrophysics university of cambridge michael shermer michael snyder publisher skeptic magazine professor of genetics stanford university school of medicine lene vestergaard hau vilayanur s ramachandran g steven burrill arthur caplan lawrence lessig ernest j moniz michael e webber emanuel and robert hart professor of bioethics university of pennsylvania director center for computational genetics harvard medical school danny hillis george m church daniel m kammen rita colwell distinguished professor university of maryland college park and johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health professor of bioengineering stanford university class of 1935 distinguished professor of energy energy and resources group and director renewable and appropriate energy laboratory university of california berkeley founder khosla ventures lois and victor troendle professor of cognitive and behavioral biology california institute of technology and cso allen institute for brain science cecil and ida green distinguished professor massachusetts institute of technology professor of microbiology and immunology weill medical college of cornell university professor and head of engineering and public policy carnegie mellon university co-director center for neuroengineering duke university director program for evolutionary dynamics harvard university provost and professor of biology rensselaer polytechnic institute lisa randall associate director center for international energy environmental policy university of texas at austin director theory research group department of physics university of texas at austin nobel prize in physics 1979 professor of chemistry and chemical biology harvard university director global viral forecasting initiative steven weinberg martin rees john p moore george m whitesides john reganold vinod khosla m granger morgan drew endy regents professor of soil science washington state university director the earth institute columbia university christof koch jeffrey d sachs nathan wolfe ed felten miguel nicolelis director center for information technology policy princeton university deputy director defense advanced research projects agency director sage center for the study of mind university of california santa barbara eugenie scott r james woolsey jr kaigham j gabriel lawrence m krauss director origins initiative arizona state university director hedonia trygfonden research group university of oxford and university of aarhus martin nowak executive director national center for science education professor and laboratory head of computational neurobiology laboratory salk institute for biological studies venture partner vantagepoint venture partners professor of quantum optics quantum nanophysics quantum information university of vienna professor harvard law school anton zeilinger michael s gazzaniga morten l kringelbach terry sejnowski robert palazzo jonathan zittrain 4 scientific american february 2012 illustration by nick higgins © 2012 scientific american

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letters editors@sciam.com all the effort in developing alternative fuels could be better spent investing in effective mass transit david r witzling via e-mail october 2011 chemistry commentary in reading toxins all around us by patricia hunt [forum and the text pertaining to how the environment influences our genes in 10 unsolved mysteries by philip ball i wonder about the following if toxins in the environment are affecting our bodies in a negative way as hunt in particular asserts and if some genes that were heretofore inactive are now being reactivated in response to chemicals in the environment as ball refers to might these newly activated genes allow us to evolve to cope with all these toxic exposures perhaps that s what they are there for maybe our bodies of the future will be able to be healthy within this toxic mix john maas rua ernesto do oliveira são paulo brazil regarding the discussion of biofuels in 10 unsolved mysteries you seem just as unwilling as other publications to discuss the economic law of diminishing returns i don t know exactly when this law became taboo but technology-related reporting is especially notorious in this regard given the time and money spent researching biofuels hybrid engines hydrogen fuelcell technology and the like it seems reasonable to suppose that at some point all this effort could be better spent investing in something like effective mass transit david r witzling via e-mail darkness and light in the dark side of the milky way leo blitz states that what dark matter consists of remains as elusive as ever that the most conservative analysis is that it consists of an exotic particle not yet detected in particle accelerators and that it reveals itself solely by its gravitational influence a person familiar with the history of physics cannot help but think of the ether that equally mysterious substance scientists of the 19th century supposed must exist even though it could not be detected to explain how light then thought of exclusively as a wave could propagate through space the understanding of the dual nature of light made the ether s existence unnecessary we should thus not be surprised if a future more complete theory of the nature of gravity space and time will also render dark matter nothing more than a historic construct harvey smith carrollton tex blitz replies it remains possible that modifications to einstein s general theory of relativity could be responsible for the various phenomena that dark matter is invoked to explain nevertheless despite the example of the ether the history of astronomy is replete with dark objects that were later identified by other means these include neptune and the companion of sirius both of which like dark matter were first identified by their gravitational effects alone scent and sensibility while reading the scent of your thoughts by deborah blum i was somewhat startled to read a comment on university of chicago researcher martha mc clintock s friendly face and flyaway hair and later a description of her clothes she wears a tweedy jacket over a bright patterned shirt what has her appearance got to do with her considerable achievements as a scientist i suspect that if she had been male such comments would not have been written and they are irrelevant irrespective of gender if i had read this in my local newspaper i would have just rolled my eyes and sighed based on the usual standard of writing in scientific american such comments have no place in your journal sam vincent auckland new zealand waste not in afghanistan s buried riches sarah simpson discusses the availability of rareearth elements which are needed for high-tech manufacturing but are in short supply she does not however note that these minerals are present in nuclear power plant waste in roughly 50 years of operation the u.s has accumulated about 60,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel within that so-called waste stream one can find significant amounts of cerium samarium gadolinium and europium all rare-earth elements listed in the article one would also find actinides heavy radioactive elements such as plutonium and uranium that can act as future fuel that is the waste still contains around 95 percent of the energy that could have been extracted had the fuel put into the reactors been used properly as detailed in your december 2005 issue in smarter use of nuclear waste by william h hannum gerald e marsh and george s stanford van snyder la crescenta calif sync differently one of david pogue s points in big progress on the little things [technofiles is that the standardization of power cables is a highly desirable and long overdue trend in the gadget industry he rightly points out that usb has become the industry standard although he fails to emphasize that microusb not miniusb is becoming the de facto standard in the 6 scientific american february 2012 © 2012 scientific american

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waters.com what happens in laboratories becomes part of our lives the development of new ground-breaking drugs that make us healthier quality control for the food we eat the beverages we drink and the water we depend on solutions for the safety of plastics polymers and synthetics that become the clothes we wear the toys our children play with early detection and treatment of diseases higher standards for a cleaner environment it all begins with the analytical technologies from waters and the science of what s possible to discover what s possible in your world visit waters.com pharmaceutical life sciences food environmental clinical chemical materials ©2011 waters corporation waters and the science of what s possible are trademarks of waters corporation.

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letters u.s for devices from cell phones to ereaders to mp3 players but what he should have added is except for apple apple continues to refuse to wholly conform to usb conventions but rather still mainly uses a proprietary 30-pin dock connector and instead of condemning the company he applauds it for being standardized within its own ecosystem for forcing customers who buy products outside apple to have multiple power cords and for adding to the stockpiles of proprietary apple cabling that grow the size of our landfills adam royce san diego errata two illustrations published in the special year of chemistry celebration articles contained errors the corrected versions appear below androstadienone established 1845 senior vice president and editor in chief mariette dichristina executive editor fred guterl board of editors news editor robin lloyd senior editors mark fischetti christine gorman anna kuchment michael moyer george musser gary stix kate wong art director ian brown art director information graphics jen christiansen art director online ryan reid managing editor ricki l rusting managing editor online philip m yam design director michael mrak associate editors david biello ferris jabr larry greenemeier katherine harmon john matson podcast editor steve mirsky blogs editor bora zivkovic photography editor monica bradley assistant photo editor ann chin information graphics consultant bryan christie contributing editors mark alpert steven ashley davide castelvecchi graham p collins deborah franklin maryn mckenna john rennie sarah simpson online contributor christie nicholson managing production editor richard hunt senior production editor michelle wright art contributors edward bell caitlin choi nick higgins winner of the 2011 national magazine award for general excellence letters to theedi to r scientific american 75 varick street 9th floor new york ny 10013-1917 or editors@sciam.com letters may be edited for length and clarity we regret that we cannot answer each one post a comment on any article at scientificamerican.com/feb2012 h o w to c o n tac t u s copy director maria-christina keller senior copy editor daniel c schlenoff editorial product manager angela cesaro editorial administrator avonelle wing production manager christina hippeli advertising production manager carl cherebin president copy editors michael battaglia aaron shattuck web production editor kerrissa lynch senior secretary maya harty prepress and quality manager silvia de santis custom publishing manager madelyn keyes-milch production coordinator lisa headley subscriptions for new subscriptions renewals gifts payments and changes of address u.s and canada 800-333-1199 outside north america 515-248-7684 or www.scientificamerican.com submissions to submit article proposals follow the guidelines at www.scientificamerican.com click on contact us we cannot return and are not responsible for materials delivered to our office reprints to order bulk reprints of articles minimum of 1,000 copies reprint department scientific american 75 varick street 9th floor new york ny 10013-1917 212-451-8877 reprints@sciam.com for single copies of back issues 800-333-1199 permissions for permission to copy or reuse material permissions department scientific american 75 varick street 9th floor new york ny 10013-1917 randp@sciam.com www.scientificamerican.com/permissions please allow three to six weeks for processing advertising www.scientificamerican.com has electronic contact information for sales representatives of scientific american in all regions of the u.s and in other countries bonded buckyballs steven inchcoombe sales development manager david tirpack promotion manager diane schube promotion art director maria cruz-lord marketing research director rick simone sales representative chantel arroyo director ancillary products diane mcgarvey custom publishing editor lisa pallatroni online associate director mike kelly online associate marketing manager carey tse online marketing product manager zoya lysack executive vice president michael florek vice president and publisher bruce brandfon vice president and associate publisher marketing and business development michael voss vice president digital solutions wendy elman managing director consumer marketing christian dorbandt senior marketing manager/retention catherine bussey senior marketing manager online david courage senior marketing manager/acquisition patricia elliott director global media solutions jeremy a abbate manager integrated media sales stan schmidt scientific american is a trademark of scientific american inc used with permission 8 scientific american february 2012 © 2012 scientific american

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science agenda by the editors opinion and analysis from scientific american s board of editors unschooled in hard knocks concussion in children is a serious problem that deserves more attention the dangers of life in the national football league made headlines in 2009 when a study commissioned by the nfl found that retired players were 19 times more likely than other men of similar ages to develop severe memory problems the obvious culprit continued play after repeated head injuries indeed head injury can imitate many types of neurodegenerative disease including parkinson s disease and as journalist jeffrey bartholet reports in the collision syndrome on page 66 perhaps even amyotrophic lateral sclerosis commonly referred to as lou gehrig s disease the problem is not unique to professional sports about 144,000 people aged 18 and younger are treated every year in u.s hospital emergency rooms for concussions according to a december 2010 analysis in the journal of pediatrics nearly a third of these injuries occur while kids are playing organized sports forty percent of pediatric concussions seen in emergency rooms involve high school students the figure is slightly higher 42 percent for younger children overall concussions are most common in football and ice hockey followed by soccer wrestling and other sports and slightly more boys than girls suffer concussions scientific american online comment on this article at scientificamerican.com/feb2012 10 scientific american february 2012 © 2012 scientific american erik isakson getty images despite the prevalence of brain injury from kindergarten to high school relatively little research on the long-term health consequences of concussion has been conducted on child athletes compared with those in college and in the pros scientists have an incomplete understanding of what happens when a child s brain slams up against the inside of the skull during a blow to the head and how this affects neurological development as participation in sports continues to grow 1.5 million youngsters now play on football teams in the u.s more head injuries are inevitable making pediatric concussions an emerging public health crisis doctors and public health experts are concerned about the effect of repeat concussions that occur before the brain has had a chance to heal from a prior impact more research on how they affect younger brains is urgently needed in addition coaches parents and school officials need to pay closer attention to what is already known about the hazards of concussions and how best to prevent permanent damage visit www.cdc.gov/concussion for comprehensive information including videos on the topic most people assume for instance that loss of consciousness is the defining feature of all concussions yet seeing stars headache nausea dizziness confusion irritability and an inability to remember events before or after the injury are the most common symptoms because people don t recognize these warning signs however youngsters may continue to play when they should not similarly because the most obvious symptoms usually disappear within a few minutes to hours children often return to normal activities too quickly which overtaxes their injured brain depending on age and symptoms children should not take part in intense physical activity for several weeks to months after a concussion even the added neural exertion from mental activities like reading and video games can interfere with the cerebrum s ability to heal particularly in the first 24 hours after injury some efforts to protect young brains may actually backfire in football hockey and other contact sports protective headgear seems to have increased the risk of concussion by providing a false sense of security that encourages athletes to hit harder with their head helmets do however protect against skull fracture to address the concussion problem more states could follow the example of minnesota legislators there passed a law which took effect in 2011 that requires coaches to undergo training to recognize concussions and mandates the immediate removal from a game of any player at the first sign of dizziness or confusion he or she can return to sports only with a doctor s authorization the law could have the unintended effect of giving kids an incentive to hide their symptoms the way around that problem of course is for schools sports leagues and other organizations to join public health experts in raising ever greater awareness among coaches parents and children to play it smart and take brain injury very seriously.

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forum by david kaplan david kaplan is an attending physician at university hospitals case medical center and a professor of pathology at case western reserve university commentary on science in the news from the experts science and prejudice the nih may be biased in ways that harm not only african-american researchers but any whose ideas fall outside the mainstream biomedical research scientists send proposals to the national institutes of health in the hopes of being funded a recent study of this process published in science by the university of kansas s donna ginther and her colleagues revealed that proposals from black applicants are significantly less likely to be funded than proposals from white applicants this disparity was apparent even when controlling for the applicant s educational background training publication record previous research awards and employer characteristics the authors conclude that racial bias is not a likely explanation for these findings because the race of the applicants is not provided to the reviewers in an accompanying article in science several prominent black biomedical scientists also express doubts about racial bias concluding that the nih peer review grades only the science but what aside from bias can explain the racial discrepancy the study s lead author admits she has no idea understanding what causes bias is essential for developing a program to address it one possible explanation is that nih peer review is structured to promote bias not so much against a racial group as against the unfamiliar and unconventional expert reviewers are asked to provide detailed assessments of long highly complex extraordinarily technical documents and they are given little time to do it the reviewers are usually conversant with the specific area of research that the proposal addresses which means that they come to the application with preconceived notions short deadlines encourage them to rely on established knowledge and sensibilities in this scenario reviewers are more comfortable with proposals from scientists they are familiar with scientists they either know or know of black researchers at least in the biomedical sciences are often unfamiliar to reviewers and their ideas may tend to be unconventional this situation is in part because of their typical background for instance blacks and whites have different prevalence rates for some illnesses such as end-stage kidney disease and malignant melanoma therefore blacks may propose studies involving a different set of diseases than whites do breaking into the ranks of funded investigators supported by the nih is increasingly difficult the data show the average age of recipients of a first major grant from the nih had climbed to 43 years in 2007 from 35 years in 1970 black scientists also tend to make up smaller and smaller minorities in higher branches of science in the period ginther and her colleagues studied blacks submitted 1.4 percent of total proposals compared with 69.9 percent for whites this statistic conforms with data collected by the national science foundation that indicate only 2.6 percent of doctorallevel biological scientists in the u.s in 2006 were black my sense is that the underrepresentation of blacks in biomedical research is even more definitive at the upper echelons department chairs research award winners editorial board members study section reviewers and members of the national academy of sciences because blacks have not shared proportionally in the power structure it stands to reason that funding has been uneven too nih directors have recognized their failure to fund unusual proposals and have initiated awards such as the nih director s new innovator award and pioneer award program in response these steps though have not gone far enough one solution might be for the nih to establish multiple distinct mechanisms for making funding decisions a lottery for instance would not result in racial disparity in grant awards neither would having rigorous sampling procedures for reviewers or peer review by crowdsourcing supplementing traditional peer review with new ways of screening grant applications may be the only way to eliminate the racial gap once and for all scientific american online comment on this article at scientificamerican.com/feb2012 photoillustration by o.o.p.s february 2012 scientificamerican.com 11 © 2012 scientific american

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advances dispatches from the frontiers of science technology and medicine s pace tensions over taikonauts during the cold war the u.s found ways to collaborate with the soviet union on space missions should it do the same with china the next time humans set foot on the moon they may well plant a five-starred red flag there the chinese space program is developing rapidly and further progress should come this year when taikonauts a colloquial term for chinese astronauts visit the tiangong-1 space module the president s chief science adviser john holdren has said the u.s would benefit from cooperation with china the two countries could tackle the problem of space debris and possibly lay groundwork for a joint mission to mars his thinking fits with the obama administration s so-called asian pivot a shift in focus from the middle east to china s growing influence the idea is that science and technology cooperation could be a useful lever in negotiations but federal legislation now prohibits nasa from pursuing any such joint efforts the relevant clause first popped up last april in a stopgap funding bill and in november it reappeared in the legislation funding nasa for 2012 the author of the provision is representative frank wolf of virginia who cites china s human-rights record and the threat of espionage the wolf clause has already had a visible effect journalists from the state-owned xinhua news agency were barred from a shuttle launch last year one widely held concern is just who would be on the chinese end of a hypothetical manned mission with the u.s it is clear that the people s liberation army plays a major role in china s space missions says dean cheng a research fellow at the heritage foundation in washington d.c it begs the question of whether there is a civilian manned space program in any meaningful sense of the word he says many believe that limited collaboration such as on unmanned missions would be constructive we found ways to cooperate with the soviet union during the cold war says scott pace director of the space policy institute at george washington university i don t see why we couldn t do similar types of things with china so the white house is pushing back trading legal memos with congressional investigators on the constitutionality of the wolf clause which also binds holdren s office of science and technology policy although a court battle seems unlikely a spokesperson says that wolf plans to keep a close eye on holdren and his colleagues in the coming year and hold their feet to the fire to ensure compliance john matson liftoff china s shenzhou-8 spacecraft which has helped pave the way for manned missions this year 12 scientific american february 2012 © 2012 scientific american getty images

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more than words drive you test yourself daily learning a new language gives you an advantage it s the game-changer for all that comes next start learning a language today 877 204-9817 · rosettastone.com ©2011 rosetta stone ltd all rights reserved rosetta stone and other trademarks logos product names or service names used herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of rosetta stone ltd in the u.s and other countries.

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