Here’s to You

After 10 years, we're publishing our 50th print issue. Plus: this week’s Facts So Romantic; building superintelligence is riskier than Russian roulette; and more. [View in browser]( [Join Nautilus]( Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Thursday, your FREE member newsletter includes our 50th print issue Editor’s Note, below, by Kevin Berger. Enjoy! Then afterward, be sure to check out this week’s Facts So Romantic EDITOR'S NOTE Here's to You After 10 years, we're publishing our 50th print issue. BY KEVIN BERGER Happy Anniversary! Nautilus has been exploring the seas of science for 10 years. We’ve just sent paid subscribers our 50th print issue, our showcase that complements the website. In this omnipresent digital world, isn’t print great? A decade ago, Nautilus founder John Steele had an idea: a science magazine that dove into big philosophical questions. Sparked by John’s energy, we launched Nautilus from a midtown Manhattan dock in 2013. Our periscope had been aimed at other science magazines, institutions looking rusty to us. Our mission was clear. Let’s inject vitality into a science magazine. Let’s bring the incredible work being done in labs and the field with original writers and illustrators. Let’s send them into the world to cover science like an artist, interpreting subjects with individual voices and perspectives. Let’s spotlight how science reverberates in cultures and shapes societies and ourselves. Most of all, let’s show the world that science is an ongoing story. We’ll be the ones to tell it. MAIDEN VOYAGE: Issue 1 of the Nautilus print journal. Inaugural editor-in-chief Michael Segal envisioned Nautilus like no other magazine. Each month we’d present a theme, a big idea, like Uncertainty or Time, and present it like the title of a book. Each week we’d publish a new chapter, featuring articles on the theme from myriad fields of science. When you got to the end of the book, you could reflect on connections—among the different fields of science, among science and culture, among you and the environment. To counteract the sense that the world is fragmented, we created Nautilus to show it is connected. [Like the story? Join Nautilus today]( When I look back and remember our crew building Nautilus, and reflect on the territory we’ve now covered, I feel pretty darn proud. The surprising vantage points of our stories, and the daring verve in our prose, have won Nautilus top magazine and science media awards. But I see the waters we’ve covered as paths to new shores. While our website design and story presentation have evolved, our mission to delight and edify brims with the energy we had when we first set sail. We remain as independent as ever, determined to tell the ongoing story of science in our own fearless way. On our 10th anniversary, 50 print issues strong, we raise a glass to you, our readers. Your support is the fuel of Nautilus. Cheers! We’re so glad you’re with us. More from Nautilus: • [Building superintelligence is riskier than Russian roulette]( • [The BigPicture 2023 World Nature Photography finalists]( Experience the endless possibilities and deep human connections that science offers [JOIN TODAY]( [“I am deeply moved. This story pulls at my heartstrings and needs greater recognition.”]( [Nautilus reader Karen McDermott reacts to Terry Tempest Williams’ story “A Wild Promise.”]( FACTS SO ROMANTIC The Best Things We Learned Today We cannot explain—and nor can the AI—why the AI makes any particular decision or output. [Nautilus→]( Only around 15 percent of blind people have no light perception whatsoever. [Nautilus→]( In 2019, the CEO of an energy firm in the United Kingdom fell for a deepfake phone call and sent almost a quarter of a million dollars to a scammer. [Nautilus→]( Senior executives scored higher than more junior staff on measures of behaviors linked to psychopathic traits. [Nautilus→]( Living through horrific earthquakes and disasters leads only to a minority of victims experiencing predictable negative psychological effects like PTSD. [Nautilus→]( After surfacing off the coast of Norway in 2019 wearing a Russian harness and a camera mount, locals believed that the beluga whale Hvaldimir had been trained as a spy. [Nautilus→]( P.S. Yesterday, scientists [reported]( in Nature that they found a whale skeleton in Peru of “gigantic size” that “substantially pushes the upper limit of skeletal mass in mammals, as well as in aquatic vertebrates in general.” Imagine what it would be like to encounter one of those beasts stranded on the shore! Ben Goldfarb wrote about how [ecologically significant]( whale carcasses are. Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher BECOME A MEMBER At The Intersection of Art and Science “The best metaphor I can use for ideas is that they are like jokes which don’t have to be funny.” That’s what Nautilus cover artist James Yang told us about his creative process in a wide-ranging Q&A for our 50th print issue. The award-winning artist and self-proclaimed “science fiction nerd” has a style that’s simple and striking, rendering complex ideas in vivid-colored illustrations that range from poignant to whimsical. “I’ve always been drawn to simpler graphic ideas even as a child because they seemed so smart,” he said. As an acclaimed children’s book author, Yang has certainly held onto his childlike wonder into adulthood. “My wife jokes that she married a giant kid,” he said. “A lot of it is ‘seeing’ the world as you would see it for the first time without the standard preconceptions but with impressions that seem new.” To read more about Yang’s thoughts on the creative process, the rise of AI in art, and what scientists can learn from artists, check out the [full interview here](. As a bonus for our readers, we’re offering a limited number (12) of 50th Edition cover prints signed by James. Visit [the shop here]( to get your print now. [Explore Now]( Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, [browse our archive]( of past print issues, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. 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