FROM THE EDITOR ■

2 SC I E N T I F IC A M E R IC A N November 20 0 9

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From the SourcesThe headlines were different when the biweekly broad-sheet began, but the engine of innovation behind them was the same as it is today: sci-

ence. Readers of Scientifi c American’s fi rst issue, dated August 28, 1845, must have been struck by the front-page story on “Im-proved Rail-Road Cars” that were “calcu-lated to avoid atmospheric resistance.” They may have marveled at the item about Morse’s telegraph, which speculated: “This wonder of the age, which has for several months past been in operation between Washington and Baltimore, appears likely to come into general use through the length and breadth of the land.”

Refl ecting the profound changes in sci-ence and society in the past century and a half, the top stories today have changed—

global warming, stem cells, and technolo-gies for energy independence, to name a few. But science is still at their roots. In-deed, it is clearer than ever that it is not some remote endeavor that occurs in walled-off ivory towers, removed from the concerns of humankind. Far from it. Sci-ence, and the technologies that grow out of it, touches the lives of all people. And as advances have arisen, Scientifi c American has been there to explain and enlighten.

We could not do so without the gener-ous amounts of time provided by our sci-entist sources and contributors. The re-

searchers who author articles for us are at the pinnacles of their fi elds; more than 120 Nobel laureates are among them. The sci-entists spend hours explaining their re-search and fi ndings to our reporters and editors. They help to check the accuracy of informational graphics, charts and tables. And they, along with our expert journal-ists and editors, suggest ideas for stories that deserve coverage in the pages of the magazine and online at Scientifi cAmeri-can.com. That working relationship has always been implicit in everything we do.

Continuing in that tradition of close col-laboration, we have now expanded our board of advisers. At the left, you will see the names of people who have agreed, as friends of the magazine, to assist in our mission of being for you, our readers, the best source for information about science and technology advances and how they will affect our lives. The advisers give us feedback on story proposals and manu-scripts from time to time. We may tap their expertise for planning. I personally hope that they will critique and challenge us as well, holding us up to the kind of scrutiny that every endeavor requires to excel.

In responding to my invitation, many of the advisers reacted with warm words about Scientifi c American, telling me how it had inspired them as readers or remind-ing me of its critical role in informing the public. That is a daunting level of expecta-tion to live up to, but in those same scien-tists and experts we also have a powerful

tool toward that end. Our goal, of course, is to better serve you, our readers. ■

LESLIE C. AIELLO

President, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

ROGER BINGHAM

Professor, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

G. STEVEN BURRILL

CEO, Burrill & Company

ARTHUR CAPLAN

Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

SEAN CARROLL

Senior Research Associate, Department of Physics, Caltech

GEORGE M. CHURCH

Director, 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 ENDY

Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University

ED FELTEN

Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University

MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGA

Director, 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. KAMMEN

Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

VINOD KHOSLA

Founder, Khosla Ventures

CHRISTOF KOCH

Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, Caltech

LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS

Director, Origins Initiative, Arizona State University

MORTEN L. KRINGELBACH

Director, Hedonia: TrygFonden Research Group, University of Oxford and University of Aarhus

STEVEN KYLE

Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

ROBERT S. LANGER

David H. Koch Institute Professor, M.I.T.

LAWRENCE LESSIG

Professor, Harvard Law School

JOHN P. MOORE

Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

M. GRANGER MORGAN

Professor and Head of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

MIGUEL NICOLELIS

Co-director, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University

MARTIN NOWAK

Director, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University

ROBERT PALAZZO

Provost and Professor of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

VILAYANUR S.

RAMACHANDRAN

Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

LISA RANDALL

Professor of Physics, Harvard University

MARTIN REES

Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge

JOHN REGANOLD

Regents Professor of Soil Science, Washington State University

JEFFREY D. SACHS

Director, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

EUGENIE SCOTT

Executive Director, National Center for Science Education

TERRY SEJNOWSKI

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

MICHAEL SNYDER

Professor of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine

MICHAEL E. WEBBER

Associate Director, Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy, University of Texas at Austin

STEVEN WEINBERG

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

GEORGE M. WHITESIDES

Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University

NATHAN WOLFE

Director, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative

R. JAMES WOOLSEY, JR.

Senior Executive Adviser for Energy and Security, Booz Allen Hamilton

ANTON ZEILINGER

Professor of Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics, Quantum Information, University of Vienna

JONATHAN ZITTRAIN

Professor, Harvard Law School

BOA R D OF A DV IS ER S

MARIETTE DICHRISTINA acting editor in chief