Hi reddit! 2016 was an amazing year for science, and much of the breakthrough research appeared in the pages (both physical and digital) of Science Magazine. Now, we’re working on a special end-of-year issue that will bestow upon one scientific achievement the title of “Breakthrough of the Year.” Every December, Science magazine announces a Breakthrough of the Year and a short list of runners-up. We, the writers and editors, comb through the year’s scientific advances–with help from the Board of Reviewing Editors and other scientists–and judge which have done the most to benefit humanity, answer long-standing questions, or pave the way for fruitful new research. It’s a tricky task. Many discoveries take years to catch fire; others seem exciting but never fulfill their promise. And even when something big happens in science, it’s not always obvious exactly when and where the “breakthrough” took place. Here is our list of “greatest hits.” All that said, we also have People’s Choice award, and this year, we wanted to come to Reddit to talk about the year in science and what you think might deserve the Breakthrough of the Year award. Ask us anything! Participants, from Science Magazine: Tim Appenzeller, News Editor Adrian Cho, Science writer Catherine Matacic, Associate Online Editor Valda Vinson, Deputy Editor Lisa Chong, Deputy Editor We’ll be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask us anything!

Hi reddit! I am a disturbance ecologist (think fires, windstorms, landslides) that primarily studies the response of forested ecosystems to emerging disturbances triggered by climate change. I’m particularly interested in how resilient forests may be to these new stresses - and if that resilience is a good thing. Will our forests recover from future disturbances? What will that recovery look like? Does this recovery – or lack thereof – help or hinder species ability to migrate in response to climate change? What new disturbances are emerging? One striking example of all of these issues is the emerging mortality of species along the remote southeast Alaskan and Canadian west coast, where 400,000 ha (so far) of trees have died due to low snow conditions brought about by warming winters. The cause is surprisingly related to freezing – the soil is no longer insulated by snow, so cold snaps can kill. This is an emerging disturbance that we are just beginning to study, and it’s dramatically changing the forest community. But it also appears to be associated with migration in other, less climate sensitive species. So perhaps this disturbance, and others, are facilitating the migration of species into more favorable climates. It’s a complex ecological story of adaption/maladaptation and creative destruction (so to speak), and great fun to investigate. Most of my work involves a focus on either forest biodiversity, forest carbon, or water resources, and I’ve worked in Hawaii, the Rocky Mountains, and Alaska, and collaborated on projects around the world using a combination of fieldwork, remote sensing/satellites, GIS, and modeling. I am also the caretaker of what is believed to be the longest running permanent study plots studying primary succession in the world in Glacier Bay, Alaska (100 years and counting). So the data comes from a lot of sources, and I’m happy to discuss integration of methods as well. For more info, [check out this website.](www.brianbuma.com) I will be answering your questions at 1 PM ET, AMA! Edit: Thanks everyone! Some really interesting and thought provoking questions in here, and it’s humbling and exciting to see so many people concerned and interested in the state of the world’s forests. There were lots of great ideas for next steps, projects, etc mentioned here and I’d love to hear how those progress. I have to run for a meeting but I’ll check back in tonight (it’s only 1PM in Alaska right now, after all, lots of time) and keep on doing what I can. Edit 2: And I’m back for a bit. This is really fun. …off for dinner. Will log in later to reply further. In the meantime, most of my work is posted on my website, and for those great questions about coastal forests I would encourage you to check out the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center (http://acrc.alaska.edu/) for all things coastal forest related. Feel free to email with questions as well, I’m always looking for interested students and research collaborations, in addition to partners in management and policy. Alrighty, it’s late in Alaska, so I’m done (and Denzel is online…). Thanks so much for your questions!

Thanks so much everyone for your questions! I’m out of time now. I’m Carrie Jenkins, a writer and philosopher based in Vancouver, BC. I am a Canada Research Chair in Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, the Principal Investigator on the SSHRC funded project The Nature of Love, and a Co-Investigator on the John Templeton Foundation funded project Knowledge Beyond Natural Science. I’m the author of a new book releasing on January 24, 2017 on the philosophy of love, What Love Is And What It Could Be, available for pre-order now. I studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, and since then have worked at the University of St Andrews, the Australian National University, the University of Michigan, the University of Nottingham, and the University of Aberdeen. From 2011 to 2016, I was one of three principal editors of the award-winning philosophy journal Thought. I recently won an American Philosophical Association Public Philosophy Op Ed Contest award. This year I am also a student again, working towards an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. My philosophical interests have stubbornly refused to be pinned down over the years. Broadly speaking they include epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of logic and language, and philosophy of love. But I’m basically interested in everything. My first book was on a priori arithmetical knowledge, and my second is on the nature of romantic love. I have written papers on knowledge, explanation, realism, flirting, epistemic normativity, modality, concepts, dispositions, naturalism, paradoxes, intuitions, and verbal disputes … among other things! A lot of my recent work is about love, because in addition to its intrinsic interest I see some urgency to the need for more and better critical thinking about this topic. My proof has been verified with the mods of /r/philosophy. Some Links of Interest Amazon link to new book What Love Is And What It Could Be, available for pre-order now, releasing January 24, 2017 NPR 13.7 Interview - Exploring the Metaphysics of Love Globe and Mail article - What’s Love Got to do With Sex? Maybe Everything, winner, APA Public Philosophy Op Ed Contest 2016 Elle Canada - New Ideas on Love CBC podcast interview on love and sex ed Review of new book What Love Is and What It Could Be

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Hi Reddit, My name is Hui-Chen Lu and I am a Professor at Indiana University Bloomington. My research focuses on how neural circuits wire up during development and how to keep neurons healthy despite various insults and with aging. The majority of neurons in the brains are born prenatally and have to stay healthy throughout our lifespan. My name is Yousuf Ali and I am an assistant scientist in Dr. Lu’s lab. My research focuses on understanding the underlying mechanisms that disrupt cellular homeostasis and serve as a basis of disease in different proteinopathies, specifically Alzheimer’s disease and tauopathies. My name is Hunter Allen and I am a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Hui-Chen Lu at Indiana University Bloomington. I currently head-up operation of our multi-photon microscope as well manage lab IT functions and assist with technical and computing activities such as Matlab, Python, and other programming for data analysis. My name is Hugo Bellen and I am a Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and a HHMI Investigator. Our research interests include neuronal communication/maintenance and development of scientific tools allowing large scale and efficient scientific discoveries. We recently published a paper titled “NMNAT2: HSP90 Complex Mediates Proteostasis in Proteinopathies” in PLOS Biology. NMNAT2, or nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyl transferase 2, is becoming recognized as a key neuronal maintenance factor. By examining NMNAT2 levels in brains donated by more than 500 elderly people whose cognitive function was tested annually before death, we found higher levels of NMNAT2 in people who had greater resistance to cognitive decline. People with lower NMNAT2 were more likely to suffer from dementia, suggesting that the protein helps preserve neurons related to learning and memory. NMNAT2 exerts both an enzyme function to protect neurons from stress caused by over-excitation, and a ‘chaperone’ function to combat the misfolded proteins produced in the brain during aging. Many neurodegenerative disorders are caused by accumulation of “misfolded” proteins that “clump up” in the brain in forms often referred to as “plaques,” or “tangles.” Using mouse and cell culture models, we found that NMNAT2 act as a molecular chaperone and binds to misfolded proteins to prevent or repair the errors that cause these clumps. Interestingly, its enzymatic function is required to defend against excitotoxicity. Our work here suggests that NMNAT2 uses both its chaperone and enzymatic functions to combat different neuronal insults in a context-dependent manner. We will be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Us Anything!

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Hi Reddit! I’m Dr. John M. Newsam and I serve as CEO of Tioga Research is a contract research organization (“CRO”). Our specialty is formulations applied to the skin. We undertake research and early development programs for pharmaceutical, cosmetic & personal care, and medical device clients. We have particular expertise in formulations innovation and in screening skin permeation and delivery. We use proprietary high throughput experimentation (“HTE”) platforms to increase the efficiency with which we can screen formulations for their ability to enhance delivery of an active molecule into and through the skin. We work with a spectrum of companies, in the US and also in Europe, Japan, India and beyond, and we help these clients in a broad range of R&D projects. I am a chemist, a materials chemist by training. After my BA, MA and DPhil degrees in Oxford I spent nearly two years doing neutron scattering research in the Physics Department of Tohoku University in Japan. Deciding then to come to the US, I had to decide first between an academic or industrial track. Choosing the latter, I joined ExxonMobil Corporate Research in New Jersey, where I was fortunate to be able to work on inorganic materials for a range of interesting applications, including ceramics, catalysts, zeolites, and oxide superconductors. I got interested in computer simulation and was then recruited by Biosym Technologies, a molecular simulation software company in San Diego. I had various executive roles, including Chief Scientific Officer, as the company was acquired by Corning, merged with Molecular Simulation, and was acquired by Pharmacopeia (now Biovia DS). I then became more interested in start-up and early phase companies, co-founding FreedomVoice Systems, hte AG, fqubed, Integrated Discovery Sciences, Bio4Front and, in 2011, Tioga Research. I also serve as an ACS Expert an AAAS Fellow and a RSC Fellow; I enjoy teaching entrepreneurship to undergraduates at UCSD and discussing with local middle- and high-schoolers interested in chemistry. I will be back at 1 pm EST to answer your questions, so, ask me anything about the skin and materials applied to the skin. You can also ask me about my research background, and anything about founding, building, and experiences working for a small company. I need to leave again - but as there are so many questions I was not able to get to, I will work to schedule some time tomorrow to field a few more. Thank you again for your interest. I am back online to field some more questions (although I have realized that some of my earlier responses were apparently not posted as a result of my internet access issues - I will try to re-answer) Apologies - we have apparently had an internet outage, so my replies and comments have been delayed; I’m still online Good morning (at least in California time) . . . I am now online to answer any questions you might have. Apologies - we have apparently had an internet outage, so my replies and comments have been delayed; I’m still online Wow - so many interesting questions and comments. Thank you. I have to leave now due to other commitments, but I’ll try to connect again later in the day to field a few more questions. I have enjoyed the dialog with each of you, even for you that asked questions that I haven’t gotten to. Many thanks for your interest. Please check out www.tiogaresearch.com for more information, if you are interested. Video produced by ACS released 11/15/16 on acne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrMbwDil1hc -ACS edit

Hi Reddit! I’m Stephen Puryear, assistant professor of philosophy at NC State University. I’m interested in the history of philosophy (esp. early modern philosophy and the German philosophical tradition, Leibniz and Schopenhauer above all), and in metaphysics and ethics. I’ve written a number of articles in these areas, which you can download for free from my PhilPapers page. I’m also working on a book on Leibniz’s idealism and a number of articles, including one on the idea of a moral law and another on consent theories of political obligation. I’m looking forward to this, so let’s get started. Go ahead, ask me anything! Proof pic

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