The other day I walked along the bank of the Potomac River upstream of Washington, D.C. The trees had shed most of their leaves, but they were vehemently alive. A giant sycamore, easily 4 meters in diameter, had sprouted new shoots from its base. A hickory that lost its top to a windstorm had produced nuts. The lone remaining leaf on an oak tree rattled in the breeze, as if refusing to succumb to winter.
It’s hard for me to grasp that this forest, and much of the life that blankets our planet (including me), probably arose from a single-celled microbe that developed a unique ability to evolve. For the last decade, researchers have been studying the Asgard archaea, microbes first identified in deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Arctic.
Scientists have since discovered them in multiple sites around the world, and are trying to reconstruct the backstory of how they could have given rise to the first complex cells on Earth. The existence of Asgard archaea also raises questions about how likely it is for similarly advanced life-forms to evolve on planets beyond our solar system. That’s a lot of big questions sparked by tiny blobs we can’t see without a microscope.
Also in this issue, we explore the science of two human behaviors: gambling and drinking. Dry January is upon us, and it’s part of a long trend, with American adults consuming less alcohol now than they have in almost 90 years. Alcohol poses health risks, social sciences writer Sujata Gupta notes, but history suggests that it may have long provided social benefits. She reviews research on whether social drinking contributed to the evolution of complex societies and how that may inform our present-day decisions about drinking.
And in a time when the legalization of online sports betting has made it possible to place wagers 24/7 on your phone, we report on how gambling came to be recognized as an addiction. In 1972, psychiatrist Robert Custer opened the first inpatient program for gambling disorder treatment. He used data to persuade the medical community that problem gambling was a treatable condition, not a moral failing. More research is needed, as is the need for more treatment options, at a time when an estimated 80 million adults worldwide have gambling problems. Custer’s pioneering approach, informed by empathy and compassion, is as relevant today as ever.