American Scientist

As humans, we often need help wrapping our minds around abstract concepts. We are visual, tactile creatures, so we are likely to best understand an idea when we can physically represent it. One medium that often works well for exploring complex scientific ideas is art, and in this issue, Robert Louis Chianese takes us on a tour of science-influenced sculpture (“Sculpting Science,” Arts Lab). The pieces that Chianese describes aim to uncover ideas relating to quantum physics, waste and recycling, force and motion, invasive species, and even the line between the living and the inanimate. As with most art, these pieces go beyond the concepts they directly address and draw the reader into an interaction with the piece, with the aim of evoking wider thoughts about the interplay between humanity and the natural world.

Indeed, when you look through this issue you will find other articles offering insights about how we affect the world around us. In the Perspective column, Asia Murphy discusses a shift in ecology, from studying how fear of apex predators affects the behavior of prey animals to analyzing how apex predators’ fear of humans changes their behaviors and ecosystems (“A Landscape of Fear of Humans”). As Murphy explains, exposure to humans causes apex predators to change not only where they go but when they go there, and how they eat as a result. Such behavior ripples out. For instance, it increases the activity level of smaller creatures at different times, which can affect seed distribution and even overall ecosystem composition over the long term. These and other effects can have wide-ranging consequences, even when we think we are conserving areas for wildlife.

Our own health as a species can also be altered by human behavior and tendencies. In “The History of Vaccine Uptake in Taiwan,” HungYin Tsai tells the story of how Japanese colonialism has affected that island, explaining that failure of the colonizers to consider local traditions and practices resulted in a great deal of resistance among the native population to public health initiatives during an epidemic of bubonic plague in which strong policing tactics were used. In later outbreaks of plague and cholera, when traditional practices were incorporated into public health responses, vaccination rates were much higher.

And human behavior can be purposely misleading. As Viviana Masia describes in “The Art and Science of Manipulative Language,” implied messages in language can influence how people think without them realizing it. This technique has been used in literary contexts—by Shakespeare, for example—but it’s also widely employed in advertising. By informing readers about various types of implied messaging and alerting them about what to watch out for, Masia aims to give people better tools with which to examine these messages in order to avoid being manipulated by them.

We hope these different perspectives on various types of human influence give you food for thought about how you are both influencing and being influenced by other people and the world around you. If you find that your awareness has changed after reading any of these articles, write to us and let us know. We appreciate the opportunity to be influenced by feedback from our readers. —Fenella Saunders (@FenellaSaunders)