A mother gives her baby her all: love, hugs, kisses … and a sturdy army of bacteria.
These simple cells, which journey from mother to baby at birth and in the months of intimate contact that follow, form the first seeds of the child’s microbiome — the evolving community of symbiotic microorganisms tied to the body’s healthy functioning. Researchers at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University recently conducted the first large-scale survey of how the microbiomes of a mother and her infant coevolve during the first year of life. Their new study, published in Cell in December found that these maternal contributions aren’t limited to complete cells. Small snippets of DNA called mobile genetic elements hop from the mother’s bacteria to the baby’s bacteria, even months after birth.
This manner of transfer, which has never been seen before in the cultivation of an infant’s microbiome, could play a crucial role in promoting growth and development. Understanding how a child’s microbiome evolves could explain why some children are predisposed to certain diseases more than others, said Victoria Carr, a principal bioinformatician at the Wellcome Sanger Institute who was not part of the study.
“It’s a big question: How do we get our microbes?” said Nicola Segata, a professor at the University of Trento in Italy who was also not part of the study.
Our bodies are home to about as many bacterial cells as human cells, and most of them live inside our guts. Each of us harbors massively diverse libraries of bacterial species and strains acquired throughout life. But babies start out almost sterile. The first major infusion of microbes is thought to come from the mother during birth as the infant exits the womb. That bacterial gift creates the scaffolding for a thriving microbial community in the body that sustains us for the rest of our lives. (Infants born by cesarean section don’t get the same initial infusion of microbes that babies get from vaginal birth, but they slowly gather them later.)
One of the microbiome’s effects, Segata explained, is to condition its host’s immune system and metabolism during the first couple of years of life. These initial training days “can have long-lasting consequences that are right now still difficult to comprehend,” he said.
That’s because the metabolites, or chemical products of metabolism, made by the microbiome are thought to influence a baby’s cognitive and immune system development, particularly during a sensitive period in the 1,000 days before and after birth, said Karolina Jabbar, an internist and researcher at the University of Gothenburg who is a co-lead author on the new paper.
In the new study, led by Ramnik Xavier, the director of the Klarman Cell Observatory at the Broad Institute, the researchers collected stool samples from 70 pairs of mothers and their babies, starting early in pregnancy and continuing for the baby’s first year. The researchers then surveyed the mix of microbes and compounds present in the samples and ran genetic analyses to determine which species and which strains of microbes were present. With this data, they could see how the microbiomes of the mothers and babies coevolved during that time.
As they expected, the infants’ microbiomes were different from their mothers’, and the influence of diet on their microbiomes was clear. The infants had hundreds of metabolites that their mothers didn’t.
The big surprise for the team was that even when a baby lacked useful bacterial strains present in the mother, the baby’s microbiome still had snippets of genes belonging to those strains.
“How could the species influence the infant microbial composition without even being part of it?” Jabbar said. She and her lab mates started to wonder if this could be explained by horizontal gene transfer, a quirky process in which genes from one species hop to another species instead of being passed down to an offspring. Horizontal gene transfers are common within communities of bacteria — they contribute greatly to the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes in a variety of pathogens, for example — and they’ve also been found to occur in multicellular organisms.
Still, the researchers weren’t prepared to see hundreds of genes hopping between bacterial communities — from the mother’s microbiome to the baby’s. “It’s one of those things that you don’t at first believe yourself,” said Tommi Vatanen, who is a research fellow at the University of Helsinki and co-lead author on the paper.
The researchers speculate that horizontal gene transfers may be most obvious when bacteria that thrive in the mother’s gut can’t survive in the unfamiliar environment of the infant’s gut. Maternal bacteria may enter the infant’s body through breast milk or as released spores that the infant swallows. Some bacteria will inevitably fail to colonize the child’s body and disappear. But they might last long enough for certain gene sequences to hop into more successful bacteria. If those genetic sequences take root in the genomes of bacteria inside the baby’s gut, they can bring over the functions they encode.
“The fact that even a transient existence of a donor cell can have such an impact to those persistent ones is really fascinating,” Carr said.
n","settings":{"socialLinks":[{"type":"facebook","label":"Facebook","url":"https://www.facebook.com/QuantaNews","__typename":"SocialMediaLink"},{"type":"twitter","label":"Twitter","url":"https://twitter.com/QuantaMagazine","__typename":"SocialMediaLink"},{"type":"youtube","label":"YouTube","url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/QuantaScienceChannel","__typename":"SocialMediaLink"},{"type":"instagram","label":"Instagram","url":"https://instagram.com/quantamag","__typename":"SocialMediaLink"},{"type":"rss","label":"RSS","url":"https://api.quantamagazine.org/feed/","__typename":"SocialMediaLink"}],"newsletterAction":"https://quantamagazine.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=0d6ddf7dc1a0b7297c8e06618&id=f0cb61321c","newsletterUrl":"http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=0d6ddf7dc1a0b7297c8e06618&id=f0cb61321c","sfNotice":"An editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation.","commentsHeader":"
n","channels":[{"title":"The Joy of Why","slug":"the-joy-of-why","description":"The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz interviews leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time.","featured_image":{"alt":"","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1-520x293.jpg","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1-160x160.jpg","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1-520x520.jpg","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1-1720x968.jpg","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1-768x432.jpg","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1.jpg","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"},"square_image":{"alt":"","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600.jpg","width":600,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600-520x520.jpg","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600-160x160.jpg","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600-520x520.jpg","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600.jpg","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600.jpg","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/Jaki-King-General-Quanta_600.jpg","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"},"subscribe_itunes_link":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-joy-of-why/id1608948873","subscribe_spotify_link":"https://open.spotify.com/show/2FoxHraQSKwxV2HgUfwLMp","subscribe_android_link":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkucXVhbnRhbWFnYXppbmUub3JnL2ZlZWQvdGhlLWpveS1vZi13aHk","subscribe_stitcher_link":"https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-joy-of-why","__typename":"Channel"},{"title":"Quanta Science Podcast","slug":"quanta-podcast","description":"Susan Valot narrates in-depth news episodes based on Quanta Magazine's articles about mathematics, physics, biology and computer science. ","featured_image":{"alt":"A human figure in a brain landscape stands at a fork in a road. One way goes to pleasant surroundings, the other to an unpleasant place.","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-520x293.jpg","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-160x160.jpg","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-520x520.jpg","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-1720x968.jpg","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-768x432.jpg","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/09/Memory_Valence_2880x1620_Lede-scaled.jpg","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"},"square_image":{"alt":"","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000.jpg","width":3000,"height":3000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000-520x520.jpg","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000-160x160.jpg","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000-520x520.jpg","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000-1720x1720.jpg","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000-768x768.jpg","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/logo_Quanta-Podcast-3000x3000-2880x2880.jpg","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"},"subscribe_itunes_link":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/quanta-science-podcast/id1021340531?mt=2&ls=1","subscribe_spotify_link":"https://open.spotify.com/show/7oKXOpbHzbICFUcJNbZ5wF?si=jdnj9sTHSD2bj4hDMFLKEA","subscribe_android_link":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucXVhbnRhbWFnYXppbmUub3JnL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC8","subscribe_stitcher_link":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/quanta-magazine-2/quanta-magazine-podcast","__typename":"Channel"},{"title":"The Joy of x","slug":"the-joy-of-x","description":"The acclaimed mathematician and author Steven Strogatz interviews some of the world’s leading scientists about their lives and work.","featured_image":{"alt":"","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1-520x293.jpg","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1-160x160.jpg","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1-520x520.jpg","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1-1720x968.jpg","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1-768x432.jpg","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoX_Spheres_1920x1080-1.jpg","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"},"square_image":{"alt":"","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600.jpg","width":600,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600-520x520.jpg","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600-160x160.jpg","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600-520x520.jpg","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600.jpg","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600.jpg","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JofX_podcast_logo-NEW-600.jpg","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"},"subscribe_itunes_link":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-joy-of-x/id1495067186","subscribe_spotify_link":"https://open.spotify.com/show/5HcCtKPH5gnOjRiMtTdC07?si=lFzCzat9QfuPU3hWuYibxQ","subscribe_android_link":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkucXVhbnRhbWFnYXppbmUub3JnL2ZlZWQvdGhlLWpveS1vZi14Lw","subscribe_stitcher_link":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-joy-of-x","__typename":"Channel"}],"editors":[{"name":"Bill Andrews - Senior CS Editor","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Ben Brubaker - Staff CS Writer","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Matt Carlstrom - Senior Engagement Editor","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Jordana Cepelewicz - Senior Math Writer","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Konstantin Kakaes - Senior Math Editor","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Thomas Lin - Editor in Chief","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Michael Moyer - Deputy Editor, Physics, Math, CS","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"John Rennie - Deputy Editor, Biology, Podcasts","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Yasemin Saplakoglu - Staff Biology Writer","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Samuel Velasco - Art Director","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Natalie Wolchover - Senior Physics Editor","__typename":"Editor"},{"name":"Charlie Wood - Staff Physics Writer","__typename":"Editor"}],"popularSearches":[{"term":"math","label":"Mathematics","__typename":"PopularSearch"},{"term":"physics","label":"Physics","__typename":"PopularSearch"},{"term":"black holes","label":"Black Holes","__typename":"PopularSearch"},{"term":"evolution","label":"Evolution","__typename":"PopularSearch"}],"searchTopics":[{"type":"Tag","label":"Podcasts","tag":{"name":"Quanta Podcast","slug":"quanta-podcast","term_id":"552","__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"Tag","label":"Columns","tag":{"name":"Quantized Columns","slug":"quantized","term_id":"551","__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"Series","label":"Series","tag":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"Category","label":"Interviews","tag":{"name":"Q&A","slug":"qa","term_id":"567","__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":"Q&A","slug":"qa","term_id":"176","__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"Category","label":"Multimedia","tag":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":"Multimedia","slug":"multimedia","term_id":"43","__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"Category","label":"Puzzles","tag":{"name":"puzzles","slug":"puzzles","term_id":"542","__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":"Puzzles","slug":"puzzles","term_id":"546","__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"Category","label":"Blog Posts","tag":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":"Abstractions blog","slug":"abstractions","term_id":"619","__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"news","label":"News Articles","tag":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"},{"type":"videos","label":"Videos","tag":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"category":{"name":null,"slug":null,"term_id":null,"__typename":"Term"},"__typename":"SearchTopic"}],"searchSections":[{"name":"Mathematics","slug":"mathematics","term_id":"188","__typename":"Term"},{"name":"Physics","slug":"physics","term_id":"189","__typename":"Term"},{"name":"Biology","slug":"biology","term_id":"191","__typename":"Term"},{"name":"Computer Science","slug":"computer-science","term_id":"190","__typename":"Term"}],"searchAuthors":[{"id":"38171","name":"Adam Becker","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"28087","name":"Adam Mann","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"29794","name":"Alex Kontorovich","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"39302","name":"Alexander Hellemans","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"56","name":"Alla Katsnelson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"47249","name":"Allison Parshall","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"29458","name":"Allison Whitten","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"73","name":"Amanda Gefter","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"39164","name":"Ana Kova","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"59","name":"Andreas von Bubnoff","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"8728","name":"Anil Ananthaswamy","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"11648","name":"Ann Finkbeiner","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"42689","name":"Annie Melchor","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"95","name":"Ariel Bleicher","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"15493","name":"Ashley Smart","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"450","name":"Ashley Yeager","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"36490","name":"Ben Brubaker","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"16315","name":"Bill Andrews","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"2752","name":"Bob Henderson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"15492","name":"Brendan Z. Foster","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"68","name":"Brooke Borel","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"62","name":"Carl Zimmer","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"13684","name":"Caroline Lee","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"13691","name":"Caroline Lee","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"50","name":"Carrie Arnold","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"15142","name":"Chanda Prescod-Weinstein","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"8084","name":"Charlie Wood","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"742","name":"Christie Wilcox","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"11543","name":"Claudia Dreifus","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"57","name":"Courtney Humphries","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"7262","name":"Dalmeet Singh Chawla","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"70","name":"Dan Falk","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"19918","name":"Dana Najjar","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"13695","name":"Daniel Garisto","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"32676","name":"Daniel S. Freed","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"13724","name":"David H. Freedman","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"26310","name":"David S. Richeson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"30207","name":"David Tse","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"19266","name":"Devin Powell","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"13251","name":"Diana Kwon","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"17000","name":"Elena Renken","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"17149","name":"Elizabeth Landau","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"5279","name":"Elizabeth Preston","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"58","name":"Elizabeth Svoboda","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"32612","name":"Ellen Horne","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"27534","name":"Emily Buder","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"25173","name":"Emily Levesque","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"64","name":"Emily Singer","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"47","name":"Erica Klarreich","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"14784","name":"Erika K. Carlson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"98","name":"Esther Landhuis","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"5830","name":"Eva Silverstein","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"6793","name":"Evelyn Lamb","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"75","name":"Ferris Jabr","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"52","name":"Frank Wilczek","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"69","name":"Gabriel Popkin","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"77","name":"George Musser","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"19092","name":"Grant Sanderson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"20557","name":"Howard Lee","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"66","name":"Ingrid Daubechies","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"46418","name":"Ingrid Wickelgren","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"85","name":"Ivan Amato","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"37141","name":"Jake Buehler","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"44758","name":"James Dinneen","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"49403","name":"James R. Riordon","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"12170","name":"Janna Levin","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"32","name":"Jeanette Kazmierczak","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"51","name":"Jennifer Ouellette","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"44787","name":"Joanna Thompson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"72","name":"John Pavlus","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"16475","name":"John Preskill","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"91","name":"John Rennie","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"10351","name":"Jonathan Lambert","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"31716","name":"Jonathan O'Callaghan","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"1241","name":"Jordana Cepelewicz","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"8463","name":"Joshua Roebke","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"49","name":"Joshua Sokol","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"16815","name":"jye","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"67","name":"K.C. Cole","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"37462","name":"Karmela Padavic-Callaghan","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"87","name":"Kat McGowan","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"36139","name":"Katarina Zimmer","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"20556","name":"Katherine Harmon Courage","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"90","name":"Katia Moskvitch","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"39551","name":"Katie McCormick","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"27374","name":"Kelsey Houston-Edwards","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"40","name":"Kevin Hartnett","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"47633","name":"Konstantin Kakaes","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"45758","name":"Kristina Armitage","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"38413","name":"Lakshmi Chandrasekaran","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"12570","name":"Laura Poppick","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"38699","name":"Leila Sloman","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"23451","name":"Liam Drew","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"79","name":"Liz Kruesi","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"38","name":"Lucy Reading-Ikkanda","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"47180","name":"Lyndie Chiou","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"60","name":"Maggie McKee","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"2333","name":"Mallory Locklear","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"3569","name":"Marcus Woo","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"414","name":"Mark Kim-Mulgrew","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"20495","name":"Matt Carlstrom","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"47830","name":"Matt von Hippel","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"17147","name":"Matthew Hutson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"30953","name":"Max G. Levy","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"32437","name":"Max Kozlov","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"38705","name":"mcho","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"40613","name":"Melanie Mitchell","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"7186","name":"Melinda Wenner Moyer","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"14093","name":"Michael Harris","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"34","name":"Michael Kranz","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"23","name":"Michael Moyer","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"74","name":"Michael Nielsen","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"19093","name":"Michele Bannister","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"1472","name":"Moira Chas","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"6476","name":"Monique Brouillette","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"42264","name":"Mordechai Rorvig","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"10","name":"Natalie Wolchover","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"37605","name":"Nick Thieme","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"43298","name":"Nicole Yunger Halpern","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"37428","name":"Nima Arkani-Hamed","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"19962","name":"Nola Taylor Redd","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"24","name":"Olena Shmahalo","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"1816","name":"Patrick Honner","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"84","name":"Peter Byrne","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"55","name":"Philip Ball","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"31","name":"Pradeep Mutalik","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"24011","name":"Puja Changoiwala","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"100","name":"Quanta Magazine","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"2784","name":"R. Douglas Fields","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"26114","name":"Rachel Crowell","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"9412","name":"Raleigh McElvery","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"820","name":"Ramin Skibba","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"1666","name":"Rebecca Boyle","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"20950","name":"Richard Masland","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"48","name":"Robbert Dijkgraaf","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"80","name":"Roberta Kwok","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"15681","name":"Robin George Andrews","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"24577","name":"Rodrigo Pérez Ortega","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"78","name":"Sabine Hossenfelder","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"23845","name":"Samuel Velasco","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"83","name":"Sarah Lewin","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"35441","name":"Scott Aaronson","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"76","name":"Sean B. Carroll","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"15680","name":"Sean Carroll","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"7239","name":"Shannon Hall","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"44197","name":"Sheon Han","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"65","name":"Siobhan Roberts","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"5944","name":"Sophia Chen","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"61","name":"Steph Yin","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"63","name":"Stephanie Bucklin","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"26311","name":"Stephanie DeMarco","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"71","name":"Stephen Ornes","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"17148","name":"Steve Nadis","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"13356","name":"Steven Strogatz","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"17150","name":"Susan D'Agostino","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"39768","name":"Tamar Lichter Blanks","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"2960","name":"Tara C. Smith","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"14785","name":"Thomas Lewton","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"3","name":"Thomas Lin","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"54","name":"Tim Vernimmen","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"88","name":"Tom Siegfried","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"12964","name":"Vanessa Schipani","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"53","name":"Veronique Greenwood","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"86","name":"Virginia Hughes","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"3244","name":"Viviane Callier","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"89","name":"Wynne Parry","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"15913","name":"XiaoZhi Lim","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"42263","name":"Yasemin Saplakoglu","__typename":"AuthorList"},{"id":"45757","name":"Zack Savitsky","__typename":"AuthorList"}],"adBehavior":"everywhere","adUrl":"https://www.simonsfoundation.org/","adImageHome":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/08/HP-Design-E-.png","adImageArticle":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/08/Article-Design-E.png","adImageTablet":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/08/Newsletter-Design-E.png","adImageMobile":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/08/HP-Design-E-.png","trackingScripts":"rnrnrnrnrnrnrnrn"},"theme":{"page":{"accent":"#ff8600","text":"#1a1a1a","background":"white"},"header":{"type":"default","gradient":{"color":"white"},"solid":{"primary":"#1a1a1a","secondary":"#999999","hover":"#ff8600"},"transparent":{"primary":"white","secondary":"white","hover":"#ff8600"}}},"redirect":null,"fallbackImage":{"alt":"","caption":"","url":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default.gif","width":1200,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default-520x260.gif","square_small":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default-160x160.gif","square_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default-520x520.gif","medium":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default.gif","medium_large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default-768x384.gif","large":"https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2017/04/default.gif","__typename":"ImageSizes"},"__typename":"Image"}},"modals":{"loginModal":false,"signUpModal":false,"forgotPasswordModal":false,"resetPasswordModal":false,"lightboxModal":false,"callback":null,"props":null},"podcast":{"id":null,"playing":false,"duration":0,"currentTime":0},"user":{"loggedIn":false,"savedArticleIDs":[],"userEmail":"","editor":false},"comments":{"open":false},"cookies":{"acceptedCookie":false}},
env: {
APP_URL: 'https://www.quantamagazine.org',
NODE_ENV: 'production',
WP_URL: 'https://api.quantamagazine.org',
HAS_GOOGLE_ID: true,
HAS_FACEBOOK_ID: true,
},
}