 |  | Dear Friend of Scientific American,
Why is it so hard to go back to the moon? After many delays, NASA's Artemis program aims to send a crewed mission to orbit the moon, possibly as soon as late 2025 (but don't mark your calendar). Shouldn't it be faster and easier to make the trip now than in the 1960s? It turns out there are a lot of interesting reasons why Artemis is taking longer than Apollo did.
Few birds are as cute as a chickadee. They're so perky and curious, and I appreciate a bird that tells you what it is ("chick-a-dee-dee-dee!"). But some chickadee species are fiendishly hard to tell apart. It turns out they don't always make much of a distinction themselves—they interbreed regularly, making hybrid offspring. Long-term studies of their mating patterns are showing how species bend evolutionary boundaries.
A new way of understanding addiction could help more people recover. People who have experienced trauma are at greater risk of addiction, and people with addiction are more likely to have experienced trauma. Treating the trauma seems to be more effective than a lot of classic interventions like 12-step programs.
Our math column in this issue covers a delightful and deceptively simple question: What is 1-1+1-1+1… ? Mathematicians started grappling with this question in 1703 and argued about it for at least 100 years. One mathematician claimed the problem explained how God created the universe.
Our special report on sickle cell disease celebrates the progress in treating and even curing the first disease to be understood at a molecular and genetic level.
Enjoy our October issue and more with our special offer: 90 days of unlimited digital access for $1!
Best wishes,
Laura Helmuth Editor in Chief
| | | NASA's Artemis moon program faces challenges the Apollo missions never did. | When different chickadee species meet, they sometimes choose each other as mates—with surprising results. | A new generation of treatments addresses the trauma that often underlies addiction. | Why a mathematician thought this infinite series explained how God created the universe. | The promise and challenges of new gene therapies for sickle cell disease. | To view this email as a web page, go here.
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