In May 2019, Nature magazine invited readers between the ages of 18 and 25 to participate in a Young Scientist Essay Competition. The theme was to tell us, in no more than 1000 words, what scientific advancements they would most like to see in their lifetime and why it is important to them. Here are the three winning essays.
Beethoven's Dream#
Beethoven’s dream by Yasmin Ali
The composer hoped to cure his hearing loss. Soon, research might make this a reality for my brother and millions of others.
In June 1802, under the sunlight, 31-year-old Beethoven wandered around the countryside near Vienna. The sunlight filtered through the trees, and the hard ground creaked beneath his feet as the birds played in their own orchestra. But Beethoven was not amazed by these details; he was plagued by thoughts of suicide. A few years earlier, he had started losing his hearing, and although not severe, it still greatly troubled him. He wrote that living in a world without hearing made his life "miserable" and filled him with despair. He continued to persevere in his work and create timeless music, but he found little joy in the process.
I witnessed a similar struggle firsthand when my brother, Islam, started losing his hearing at the age of 18. I also noticed a change in his personality. He used to be an outgoing troublemaker, but now he became silent and introverted. Because his hearing loss was not obvious, I didn't know what he was going through, which made it difficult for me to support him.
According to data from the World Health Organization, there are 466 million people worldwide with severe hearing loss, and it is estimated that by 2050, over 900 million people will have this condition. Compared to other disabilities, hearing loss is often underestimated in its impact, but individuals with hearing impairment constantly face communication difficulties in their daily lives. They often mishear what others say and struggle to keep up with conversations. These misunderstandings can lead to feelings of isolation, ultimately causing them to become disconnected from society. As Helen Keller once wrote, "Blindness separates us from things, but deafness separates us from people."
To this day, there is still no cure for sensorineural hearing loss (the most common type, which Beethoven had). We have advanced technological devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants that amplify sound, but they still cannot restore hearing. In my and my brother's lifetime, I hope to see research that can achieve this.
Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the hair cells in the cochlea, the organ of hearing in the inner ear. In humans and other mammals, the damage to hair cells is irreversible. However, other animals such as birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles can spontaneously regenerate their cochlear hair cells, meaning any hearing loss they experience is temporary.
Scientists have been studying the process of hair cell regeneration in non-mammalian animals and have identified several key genes and proteins that play a central role. It is possible to stimulate the supporting cells in the cochlea, which can then generate more hair cells to replace the ones that have died.
Some of these cell therapies have successfully restored hearing in mice and guinea pigs: a breakthrough! These advancements have allowed for the development of more therapies, one of which is currently undergoing its first human trials. The international collaborative project called the REGAIN clinical trial, led by researchers from University College London, is testing a molecule called a γ-secretase inhibitor that has the potential to restore hearing by prompting supporting cells to transform into new hair cells.
If it proves successful, such scientific progress could completely change our understanding of hearing healthcare. My research explores the impact of hearing loss on people's mental health. Many individuals feel despair, like Beethoven, when they realize their hearing cannot be restored. Hope is an important factor in maintaining good mental health.
Members of the deaf community view themselves as a cultural minority rather than a disabled group in need of "cure." My research, along with that of other scientists, aims to help those inconvenienced by hearing loss and those who hope to hear sound.
Islam and I come from parents of different races, so we look different. I have freckled white skin, while his skin is olive (he tans perfectly, while I turn into a tomato). I have blue eyes, while his eyes are hazel. I have normal hearing, while his hearing is severely impaired. He and I share many chapters in life, and as his hearing declined, what helped us cope was being able to understand it together. Communication, self-expression, hearing and being heard (even through sign language) are basic human needs. I hope that in the future, when I express support to my brother, he can hear, accept, and no longer feel alone.
When Beethoven lost his hearing, he isolated himself from society, but one thing gave him strength: the hope that one day his hearing would be restored. However, every medical method he tried failed. In 1802, he wrote, "But imagine, for six years I have been tormented, foolish physicians made my condition worse, year after year deceived by false hopes of recovery, and finally forced to face the prospect of a long-lasting illness (cure may take years or even be impossible)."
Beethoven's dream of regaining his hearing did not come true, but with the scientific advancements in hair cell regeneration, 217 years after his wandering in June, this dream may become a reality. It is said that Beethoven's last words on his deathbed were, "I shall hear in heaven!" Fortunately, those facing hearing difficulties may soon be able to hear on Earth.
The Role of Energy#
Nuclear fusion power plants could be part of the solution to the climate crisis.
If you believe me, I conducted my first high-power energy experiment at the age of one.
On New Year's Eve 1995, I somehow got hold of two silver objects that I now know were screws, and as my gaze wandered, I was drawn to something snake-like protruding from the wall. At its end, I would soon discover, was the head of an extension cord with two tiny openings, the black interior standing out against a white plastic background. Completely unaware of the cautionary tale I was about to write, I acted without hesitation. I took one last deep breath, aimed, and inserted those two silver objects into those two small holes, thus beginning my newfound career—fortunately, not my last—with a negative outcome.
Twenty-four years later, having fully recovered from their initial shock, my parents and I find ourselves still playing with dangerous devices—now as a physicist at Harvard University in Cambridge. And the mishandling of energy has expanded to a larger scale, threatening not only my survival but also the survival of countless species worldwide. Unlike when I was a child, today we can no longer claim ignorance. Even if global warming remains at just 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned of "climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth." The IPCC estimates that warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius will further endanger hundreds of millions of people in vulnerable regions worldwide. Yet, the voluntary emission levels pledged by countries under the Paris Agreement would result in a warming of about 3.0 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, and it seems even these goals may not be met.
The failure of global political institutions to adequately address climate change has sparked a desire for some kind of breakthrough, be it political or technological.
Our greatest hope for the former—a movement that has already been expressed globally in the wave of climate action—may be an unprecedented political movement that greatly increases the pressure for action on the crisis.
Our greatest hope for the latter is nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion is the process of combining light atomic nuclei to release tremendous amounts of energy. It is the energy source of the sun and other stars and has long been the principle researchers have hoped to harness in building fusion power plants. In theory, such power plants could use hydrogen isotopes as fuel from sustainable sources for thousands of years, while being safer and producing no long-lived nuclear waste compared to nuclear fission power plants. Unfortunately, building such power plants has proven to be extremely challenging.
This is because fusion on Earth requires temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Celsius, at which fusion fuel exhibits wild plasma behavior. Despite over six decades of extensive research, fusion energy power plants have yet to be realized, primarily due to the difficulty of controlling the behavior of plasma. However, the research in these years has yielded many valuable insights, and now, with fusion energy seeming more realistic than ever before, additional breakthroughs, such as deep learning, are driving the field forward (J. Kates-Harbeck et al. Nature 568, 526–531; 2019). Considering all of this, I hold hope that working fusion power plants can be built and fusion energy can greatly help mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis by the end of this century.
Despite the crisis at hand, there are many other reasons to be excited about fusion. As a physicist, I am humbled by the idea of taming plasma that is hotter than the core of the sun. As a researcher, I am amazed by the complexity required in designing every aspect of a fusion power plant. And as a writer, I am in awe of the prospect of emulating stars rather than just gazing at them.
But as a human, thinking of other humans, I feel that the breakthrough of controlling fusion may transcend all of this. After all, the costs of human-induced climate change—rising sea levels and temperatures, more frequent droughts and extreme weather events—must ultimately be paid. And the first to bear this cost will be those who are most impoverished and at the bottom, who should not have been caught up in this crisis, just as a one-year-old boy cannot be blamed for being electrocuted.
Fusion power plants, more than any other technology, have the potential to be a unique and powerful tool in reducing this cost.
That is why I hope to see them in my lifetime.
Rethinking Reproduction#
Reproduction, rethought by Matthew Zajac
Same-sex partners should one day be able to co-parent a biological offspring.
One afternoon during my sophomore year, I called my parents from my dorm room. For them, it was a routine call home, but for me, it was a conversation long overdue. I had rehearsed with my closest friends how to start; my words needed to be confident yet gentle. Like protecting them from the blast of a grenade I was about to throw.
"Well...actually, I do have something romantic in my life. With a boy."
I had rehearsed the typical questions parents ask when they find out their child is gay: "Are you sure?", "Why didn't you tell us?", "Didn't you used to like girls?" But those questions never came, and I wasn't prepared for the one my mom asked: "What about children?"
Whether out of sympathy for my desire to have children or because she had plans to dote on grandchildren, my mom quickly realized that my sexual orientation could potentially threaten my ability to form a family. And she wasn't wrong; according to a 2013 survey, 74% of adults in the United States are parents, but only 35% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults are parents, despite 51% expressing a desire to have children. As of 2015, two-thirds of children living with same-sex couples were from previous heterosexual relationships. But this is changing. As homosexuality becomes more accepted in certain parts of the world, people are realizing their sexual orientation earlier and may not enter into heterosexual marriages. Therefore, while there are fewer same-sex couples raising children, these children are more likely to be born into same-sex relationships.
This trend is partly due to the increased opportunities for same-sex couples to parent through adoption and other means. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy provide partial genetic relatedness for same-sex women and men. However, neither of these options can provide complete genetic relatedness. While there is no evidence that genetic relatedness is necessary or sufficient for raising children, studies of heterosexual couples who are physiologically unable to conceive have shown its importance. A 2017 study found that over 97% of respondents preferred having a genetically related child (S. Hendriks et al. Hum. Reprod. 32, 2076–2087; 2017).
Now, as a graduate student in chemical biology at the University of Chicago in Illinois, I often contemplate the intersection of my sexual orientation and scientific interests. Gene-editing technologies are changing our ability to study basic biology. But for me, more importantly, they offer a glimmer of hope that one day I may be able to co-parent a biological offspring with my partner.
The path to same-sex human reproduction has been considered insurmountable by many. Beyond ethical and socio-political barriers, there are fundamental biological challenges.
Parthenogenesis, reproduction without fertilization, occurs naturally in birds and sharks. But the reproductive process in mammals is influenced by genomic "imprints," where certain genes are modified or silenced in either the sperm or the egg, and their alleles are expressed, like the two halves of a zipper coming together. To address this, researchers have obtained "imprint-free" stem cells. A 2018 report in Cell Stem Cell described a method of deleting imprinting regions from the mouse genome using CRISPR, effectively removing the teeth from the biological zipper (Z.-K. Li et al. Cell Stem Cell 23, 665–676; 2018). Using this technique in combination with eggs from female mice resulted in healthy, fertile offspring. However, using sperm from male mice with this technique did not result in adult offspring. While this is a significant breakthrough, the low birth rate is seen by many as evidence that mammals can only reproduce sexually (embryos from two mothers are 14%, embryos from two fathers are 2.5%). However, this technology offers hope that same-sex human reproduction may be possible, given further advances in understanding imprinting and other breakthroughs.
The development of same-sex reproduction technology may still be science fiction in 2019 and its use will be controversial. But in 1869, in the spirit of academic liberalism and bold science, Nature set sail with in vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage as unimaginable concepts. The disruptive innovation of same-sex reproduction is merely a continuation of that effort, providing capable parents with children, provided that sufficient research is conducted to mitigate risks, make it economically feasible, and regulate it responsibly.
For me, when my partner and I are ready, I yearn to give my parents a grandchild in any feasible way. But to raise a child with a genetic connection to both me and my partner? That is a dream I will always hold.