[{"id":103515,"date":"2026-09-11T03:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T07:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/undark.org\/?p=103515"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:20:17","slug":"book-review-lethal-autonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undark.org\/2026\/09\/11\/book-review-lethal-autonomy\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: A Vision of a Future Where Machines Fight Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"article-share-actions\">\n\n  <a href=\"#\" id=\"share-by-email\" class=\"share-email\" aria-label=\"Share by email\">\n    <span class=\"bolded email-label\">EMAIL<\/span>\n    <span class=\"email-icon-wrap\">\n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n        src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/52221.png\"\n        alt=\"Email this article\"\n      >\n    <\/span>\n  <\/a>\n\n  <div class=\"article-sidebar-action cell\">\n    <div\n      class=\"comments-cta share-comment\"\n      data-toggle=\"comments-panel\"\n      aria-expanded=\"false\"\n      aria-controls=\"comments-panel\"\n      role=\"button\"\n      tabindex=\"0\"\n      aria-label=\"Add comment\"\n    >\n      <span class=\"bolded comment-label\">ADD COMMENT<\/span>\n      <img decoding=\"async\"\n        src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/comment.png\"\n        alt=\"Add comment\"\n      >\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<div style=\"clear: both; height: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n<style>\n  .article-share-actions {\n    float: right;\n    padding-right: 5%;\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    white-space: nowrap;\n  }\n\n  .share-email,\n  .share-email:hover,\n  .share-email:focus,\n  .share-email:active {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-email .email-label,\n  .share-comment .comment-label {\n    display: inline !important;\n    margin: 0;\n    padding: 0;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    display: inline-flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    justify-content: center;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap img {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: cover;\n    clip-path: inset(2px 0 2px 0);\n  }\n\n  .article-share-actions .article-sidebar-action.cell {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    margin-left: 12px;\n    padding-left: 12px;\n    border-left: 1px solid #000;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    cursor: pointer;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment img {\n    width: 25px;\n    height: 25px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: contain;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<script>\n  document.getElementById('share-by-email').addEventListener('click', function (e) {\n    e.preventDefault();\n\n    const articleTitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:title\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      document.title;\n\n    const articleSubtitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:description\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('.article-subtitle, .dek, .entry-subtitle, .subtitle')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      '';\n\n    const articleLink = window.location.href;\n    const subject = 'Sharing this Undark article';\n\n    const body = [\n      \"I thought you'd like this story:\",\n      '',\n      articleTitle,\n      articleSubtitle,\n      articleLink\n    ].filter(Boolean).join('\\r\\n');\n\n    window.location.href =\n      `mailto:?subject=${encodeURIComponent(subject)}&body=${encodeURIComponent(body)}`;\n  });\n\n  document.querySelector('.share-comment').addEventListener('keydown', function (e) {\n    if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') {\n      e.preventDefault();\n      this.click();\n    }\n  });\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"dropcap\">T<\/span><span class=\"bolded\">welve years<\/span> ago, Frank Kendall, then under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics at the Department of Defense, pulled up a PowerPoint slide to show a group of senior military officials who deliberate over budgets. It showed the choices he thought the military had to make in space, since China and Russia were working on weapons to take down American satellites that provide everything from intelligence to communications to navigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The country, Kendall said, could either keep building the relatively few hyper-expensive satellites of yore, easily attacked and hard to defend; dream up a more resilient satellite infrastructure; or lean back from dependence on satellites. \u201cBusiness as usual was not a viable choice,\u201d Kendall writes in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/Lethal-Autonomy\/Frank-Kendall\/9798895656679\">Lethal Autonomy: The Future of Warfare Whether We Like It or Not<\/a>,\u201d an account of a <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2024\/11\/26\/unleashed-autonomous-weapons\/\">military future<\/a> where vehicles and weapons operate largely on their own \u2014 including making some decisions to strike people or infrastructure. Spacecraft, living in orbit as they do, already work more independently than other systems. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\t\t<div class=\"wp-caption small-12 medium-5 large-4 alignright no-lightbox-images\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lethal-autonomy-cover.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"undark-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"\/\/undark.org\/category\/books\/\u201d\">BOOK REVIEW<\/a><\/span><strong> \u2014 <\/strong> \u201cLethal Autonomy: The Future of Warfare Whether We Like It or Not,\u201d by Frank Kendall (Knox Press, 288 pages).<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Ultimately, a study recommended reimagining military space, primarily through creating smaller, cheaper satellites that collaborate and can continue their job if a few are taken out, or can be relaunched quickly. The military is still working on that plan, and in Kendall\u2019s view, it\u2019s necessary: Conflict is coming for <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2018\/11\/23\/the-uneasy-alliance-between-astrophysics-and-warfare\/\">space.<\/a> \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Conflict, though, is also changing on the ground, and should change even more, Kendall\u2019s book argues. \u201cWe are living in an age of exponential technology development that is certain to have a profound effect on how any future conflicts will be fought,\u201d he writes. \u201cWe are also living in an age in which a brief period of American dominance in conventional warfare may be coming to an end.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The U.S. must change to maintain military superiority, Kendall argues, and in the book he lays out a way to reconstitute a military focused on what the book\u2019s title implies: vehicles and weapons that can operate mostly on their own, able to take lives and destroy other robots and infrastructure, while also saving human lives by subtracting soldiers from the battlefield. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  \u201cI continue to believe that the appropriate response is to master technological change rather than resist it,\u201d writes Kendall, who was secretary of the Air Force from 2021 to 2025. But the issues of whether that mastery is something U.S. residents and the military want, whether it\u2019s ethical, and how such a shift would change the nature of war, aren\u2019t settled yet.\n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Kendall envisions a future where vehicles and weapons operate largely on their own \u2014 including making some decisions to strike people or infrastructure.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  As innovations like self-navigating technology and automated image analysis have increased, the ability for weapons <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/24\/world\/europe\/russia-drones-autonomous-ai-kill-ukraine-war.html\">to kill<\/a> or destroy under their own power has become a nonfictional reality.  According to Kendall, the U.S. military has been reluctant to embrace and move forward with those possibilities.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  There are many arguments against lethally autonomous weapons: flaws in targeting, the potential for rogue behavior, and a lack of accountability for such mistakes. But humans also make those mistakes. \u201cIs there some good reason,\u201d Kendall argues, \u201cwhy we\u2019d prefer that humans kill and be killed in war as opposed to machines assuming these functions?\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  After all, he continues, history is full of unpleasant tasks being relegated to machines. \u201cIt may sound fanciful, but if we have to resolve our conflicts through competitive violence, why not let our machines do that for us?\u201d he writes. \u201cThis might strike some as ridiculous, but what is really ridiculous to me is that we still have a preference for sending humans out to kill each other to resolve our differences.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  If weapons systems are as reliable or more reliable than humans in war, and if human officials are held accountable when machines make mistakes, there is, Kendall argues, an ethical case for a largely robotic military, aided by humans.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  In \u201cLethal Autonomy,\u201d Kendall lays out what such a bot military would look like. The book is not pleasure reading \u2014 it parses more like a how-to manual. It\u2019s structured according to how different domains of the military would look, were it not centered around human combatants, then laying out the complications in each case. Its pages seem meant primarily for military strategists or those interested in the details of that strategy, and also, likely, as a warning for those in other countries, who can also buy books and see how retired American leaders envision the future of the world\u2019s most powerful military.\n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cI continue to believe that the appropriate response is to master technological change rather than resist it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  On land, for instance, Kendall envisions crewless aerial systems that can take off and land vertically. These drones, working together in small units, gather data for automated decision-making, detecting and identifying things the data suggests they should destroy, and then doing so. They\u2019re launched from a driverless ground vehicle that itself contains units of such aircraft.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The ability to identify appropriate to-be-destroyed objects and people, while avoiding collateral damage, Kendall writes, should be testably at least as good and probably better than human-driven intelligence. And it wouldn\u2019t be suitable for all situations \u2014 a no-go for, say, a place where children are throwing grenades. In that case, a remote human could get involved; in most of Kendall\u2019s plans, in fact, humans retain some decision-making power. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  On the sea surface, Kendall asks for the military to rethink what big ships are even for, since airplanes, satellites, and oceanic monitoring stations can do surveillance, and because land-based weapons can now reach enemy navies. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Under the ocean, Kendall believes crewed submarines are not long for this world, as new detectors make it harder for them to stay stealthy. \u201cTime and technology do not seem to be on the side of the submarines,\u201d he writes.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Instead, Kendall suggests groups of medium-sized autonomous, stealthy subs that can engage an enemy\u2019s submarine together, and \u2014 unpeopled \u2014 take more damage without loss of life while <em>doing<\/em> damage. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div 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\"9\", currentPage: \"current_page\", abort: function() { this.preventDefault(); } }]);        if (event && event.defaultPrevented) {                return;        }        const gformWrapperDiv = document.getElementById( \"gform_wrapper_9\" );        if ( gformWrapperDiv ) {            const visibilitySpan = document.createElement( \"span\" );            visibilitySpan.id = \"gform_visibility_test_9\";            gformWrapperDiv.insertAdjacentElement( \"afterend\", visibilitySpan );        }        const visibilityTestDiv = document.getElementById( \"gform_visibility_test_9\" );        let postRenderFired = false;        function triggerPostRender() {            if ( postRenderFired ) {                return;            }            postRenderFired = true;            gform.core.triggerPostRenderEvents( 9, current_page );            if ( visibilityTestDiv ) {                visibilityTestDiv.parentNode.removeChild( visibilityTestDiv );            }        }        function debounce( 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When he was secretary of the Air Force, he initiated the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, which is developing drones that autonomously fly next to piloted fighter jets and can take direction from the nearby pilot. It\u2019s a start, but Kendall depicts a future with even fewer pilots \u2014 focused partly on \u201cunmanned stealthy tactical aircraft\u201d that can take off without long runways and work together.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The difficulty there, he notes, is that automated flight systems are mostly used and will continue to be developed in a commercial or peace-like context. \u201cCombat-related automated behaviors will be much harder to verify,\u201d he admits. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  In the air, in and on the sea, and on land, Kendall\u2019s ideas for a robot military are obviously different from the status quo. But they also are basically new versions of conventional warfare. Where \u201cLethal Autonomy\u201d<em> <\/em>gets truly interesting is when it veers into orbit, a place Kendall also oversaw in the 2020s since the Space Force is overseen by the Department of the Air Force. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Space, as noted, is pretty autonomous already. But so far, there hasn\u2019t been much <em>lethality <\/em>in orbit. And there, lethality means killing capabilities that are key to life on Earth, harming satellites that provide essential data, communications, and navigation.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The country, in Kendall\u2019s view, should be space-lethal to adversaries\u2019 satellites when necessary, and able to protect its own spacecraft from attacks. For the former, he recommends anti-satellite weapons;  for the latter, perhaps a wartime reserve of satellites, ready to launch at a moment\u2019s notice if something bad happens to their cousins.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The book\u2019s<em> <\/em>final, and even less conventional, domain is cyber, where Kendall explores the idea of a new, focused, and independent organization. \u201cUnlike everything else I\u2019ve discussed so far for other domains, where autonomy removes emotion from the equation, this form of future warfare is all about psychological impact on the enemy\u2019s population and leadership,\u201d he writes. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The effectiveness of different kinds of attacks would be different in different countries. In China, for instance, the government is concerned about control of information. Decisions about what\u2019s most effective could be helped by an \u201cAI-aided psychological analysis of the targeted society and leadership.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  That, for sure, sounds dystopian. But so does a group of men sitting in a stuffy conference room deciding on operations themselves, as has happened for much of military history. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>\u201cI hate war,\u201d Kendall writes. \u201cIt is the most wasteful and cruel of human endeavors.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Flying, floating, submerging, orbiting, rolling, killing machines sound dystopian too. But Kendall\u2019s implied counterpoint has a point: Does a world full of similar vehicles operated by young people, making their own lethal decisions or carrying out those made above them, sound less dystopian \u2014 or just more familiar?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  In some ways, the concept of an autonomously lethal military demonstrates the ridiculousness of war: Machines owned by one country assert dominance over another country by killing its machines and people, demonstrating a power that perhaps has nothing to do with the substance of the actual conflict. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  And, in that, Kendall would agree with you. \u201cI hate war,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt is the most wasteful and cruel of human endeavors.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  In fact, he ends the book with the hope that his blueprint is not needed \u201cand the future of warfare is a null set.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Where might machine-on-machine conflict take us? Kendall asks near the end of the book. \u201cPerhaps the folly and irrationality of using violence to resolve our differences will become clearer and more compelling,\u201d he writes. \u201cI fear, however, that the result will be the opposite.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In &#8220;Lethal Autonomy,&#8221; Frank Kendall, a former top defense department official, envisions a military future where vehicles and weapons operate largely on their own \u2014 including making some decisions to strike people or infrastructure. And in his view, conflict is coming to space, making it all more urgent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":103723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_undark_gallery_title":"Book Review: The Future of Automated Warfare","_simple_subtitle":"Former Defense official Frank Kendall envisions a battlefield where vehicles and weapons operate largely on their 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2026."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/undark.org\/2026\/09\/11\/book-review-lethal-autonomy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/undark.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Review: A Vision of a Future Where Machines Fight Wars"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/undark.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/undark.org\/","name":"Undark Magazine","description":"Truth, Beauty, Science.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/undark.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/undark.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/undark.org\/#organization","name":"Undark 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It is published with generous funding from the John S. and James L. 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height: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n<style>\n  .article-share-actions {\n    float: right;\n    padding-right: 5%;\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    white-space: nowrap;\n  }\n\n  .share-email,\n  .share-email:hover,\n  .share-email:focus,\n  .share-email:active {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-email .email-label,\n  .share-comment .comment-label {\n    display: inline !important;\n    margin: 0;\n    padding: 0;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    display: inline-flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    justify-content: center;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap img {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: cover;\n    clip-path: inset(2px 0 2px 0);\n  }\n\n  .article-share-actions .article-sidebar-action.cell {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    margin-left: 12px;\n    padding-left: 12px;\n    border-left: 1px solid #000;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    cursor: pointer;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment img {\n    width: 25px;\n    height: 25px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: contain;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<script>\n  document.getElementById('share-by-email').addEventListener('click', function (e) {\n    e.preventDefault();\n\n    const articleTitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:title\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      document.title;\n\n    const articleSubtitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:description\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('.article-subtitle, .dek, .entry-subtitle, .subtitle')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      '';\n\n    const articleLink = window.location.href;\n    const subject = 'Sharing this Undark article';\n\n    const body = [\n      \"I thought you'd like this story:\",\n      '',\n      articleTitle,\n      articleSubtitle,\n      articleLink\n    ].filter(Boolean).join('\\r\\n');\n\n    window.location.href =\n      `mailto:?subject=${encodeURIComponent(subject)}&body=${encodeURIComponent(body)}`;\n  });\n\n  document.querySelector('.share-comment').addEventListener('keydown', function (e) {\n    if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') {\n      e.preventDefault();\n      this.click();\n    }\n  });\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"dropcap\">S<\/span><span class=\"bolded\">tereotypes<\/span> die hard. If we\u2019re asked to picture a scientist at work, it\u2019s tempting to reach for an old stand-by: the astronomer at the eyepiece of an enormous telescope, or the chemist surrounded by test tubes. Even more entrenched, perhaps, is the notion that science advances by a chain of \u201caha\u201d moments, sparking one earth-shattering breakthrough after another: Think of Einstein figuring out that E=mc<sup>2<\/sup>, perhaps, or <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2021\/03\/05\/book-review-radiant\/\">Marie and Pierre Curie<\/a> discovering radium.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sourcebooks.com\/lost-in-curiosity.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sourcebooks.com\/lost-in-curiosity.html\">Lost in Curiosity: Field Notes From Scientists\u2019 Adventures Into the Unknown<\/a>,\u201d science writer Roberta Kwok sets out to smash those stereotypes, largely by taking us inside the everyday world of science and scientists, in all its painstaking monotony. Yes, breakthroughs may happen \u2014 but they are not, by any stretch, the norm.&nbsp;\u201c\u2018Eureka!\u2019 means \u2018I have found it!\u2019\u201d Kwok writes early in the book, \u201cbut a more fitting motto for science might be \u2018I can\u2019t find it,\u2019 \u2018Where is it?\u2019 or, most often, \u2018What the hell is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\t\t<div class=\"wp-caption small-12 medium-5 large-4 alignright no-lightbox-images\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lost-in-curiosity-book-cover_1000.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"undark-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"\/\/undark.org\/category\/books\/\u201d\">BOOK REVIEW<\/a><\/span><strong> \u2014 <\/strong> \u201cLost in Curiosity: Field Notes from Scientists&#8217; Adventures into the Unknown,\u201d by Roberta Kwok (Sourcebooks, 368 pages).<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In some cases, just getting to where the science is supposed to be happening is a challenge. Early in the book, we follow along as Kwok learns about the work of Jessica Mejia, a postdoctoral researcher in glaciology at the University at Buffalo and one of a group of researchers planning an excursion to Helheim Glacier on <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2025\/01\/23\/opinion-trump-greenland-ice\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2025\/01\/23\/opinion-trump-greenland-ice\/\">Greenland<\/a>, to study how water flows underneath thick sheets of ice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  There are no planes, trains, or buses that one can take to the team\u2019s research site, located some 65 miles inland, nor any roads. Helicopter is the only way in or out, and the team has just learned that the helicopter would not be available when they need it. They\u2019re also worried about the weather taking a turn, as it did back in 2018, when the team was stuck in town, waiting for conditions to improve so the chopper could fly. The previous year, a snowstorm forced them to stay in their tents for several days \u2014 and their current field work was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Helheim Glacier is more than just a massive block of ice. Kwok relates how researchers in 2011 struck water while drilling for an ice core \u2014 evidence of a giant aquifer hidden beneath the ice. Later measurements showed that Greenland\u2019s aquifers cover an area about the size of Massachusetts. Knowing how the ice (and any water beneath it) behaves can provide insights into the effects of global warming, particularly the impact of sea level rise. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>In some cases, just getting to where the science is supposed to be happening is a challenge.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Another chapter finds Kwok getting to know a poorly understood species known as the smooth guardian frog.  The location \u2014 a rainforest in Borneo \u2014 again presents difficulties, though the real challenge here is trying to figure out why these tiny frogs do what they do. The females vocalize in response to a male frog\u2019s call \u2014 which is unusual. Johana Goyes Vallejos, a Ph.D. student in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, wonders if these frogs represent a case of sex-role reversal, in which females compete for males, with males taking on child-rearing duties. If that\u2019s what was happening, it would be the first clear-cut case of such behaviour seen in frogs. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The idea that males rather than females might be caregivers gives Kwok a chance for a bit of humor: \u201cAs the mom of a then nine-year-old, I was dimly aware that being impressed by male frogs caring for their eggs was the equivalent of a well-meaning onlooker telling a man on a routine errand with his kids at the grocery store, \u2018You\u2019re such a good dad!\u2019,\u201d she writes. \u201cStill, I couldn\u2019t help but find something refreshing about behavior in other animals that flaunted our society\u2019s default roles.\u201d  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The more Kwok discusses the issue with biologists, the more she comes to question her own assumptions: \u201cShould sex-role reversal even be considered a thing? Should male and female sex roles be a thing? Why are we so obsessed with the differences between males and females anyway?\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr>\n<div style=\"display: flex; align-items: stretch;\"><div style=\"flex: 0 0 80px; margin-right: 10px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/compass.png\" alt=\"Newsletter Journeys\" style=\"width: 80px; height:80px; vertical-align:top;\"><\/div><div style=\"overflow: hidden;\"><p style=\"font-size:1.2em;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/newsletters\/\" style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span class=\"bolded\">SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER JOURNEYS: &nbsp;<\/span><\/a><em>Dive deeper into pressing issues with Undark\u2019s limited run newsletters. Each week for four weeks, you\u2019ll receive a hand-picked excerpt from our archive related to your subject area of interest. Pick your journeys <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/newsletters\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/div><\/div>\n<hr>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Even if sex-role reversal is a good description of what Vallejos has observed, puzzles remain. At one point she sets up a video camera to record the little frogs having sex and is startled to discover that the females kept calling throughout the 90-minute mating process, even continuing after the female and male had parted. As the chapter closes, Vallejos \u2014 and Kwok \u2014 remain stumped. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  A later chapter focuses on physics. Here the reader might expect heady discussions about dark matter or dark energy, but no: The researchers that draw Kwok\u2019s attention are trying to understand what happens when you crumple up a piece of paper. You get creases, of course; but how many, and in what pattern \u2014 or are they random? They also want to know how the creases change, if the paper is crumpled over and over again. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such research may seem like a waste of time and energy, but Kwok is sympathetic. She quotes a mathematician named Chris Rycroft: \u201c\u2018Even though we know all these incredible things about subatomic particles and the center of the galaxy and things like that, these everyday phases of matter\u2019 \u2014 like a crumpled sheet of paper \u2014 \u2018hold mysteries we don\u2019t really understand.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p> The \u201clone genius\u201d myth is long past its best-before date, as is the notion that science is all about breakthroughs.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The science of paper-crumpling involves some difficult mathematics, but once again Kwok is game, even if the various symbols and equations often go over her head, as she readily admits. \u201cSometimes everyone would laugh at an esoteric joke or nod vigorously in agreement, having shared a lightbulb moment, and I\u2019d pretend that I understood what had just happened,\u201d she writes. \u201cStill, there was something soothing about listening to them, like hearing people converse enthusiastically in Italian, enjoying the melodious sounds coming out of their mouths, and occasionally understanding a word like <em>pizza<\/em> or <em>ravioli<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  As it turns out, what the researchers learn from paper crumpling offers insights into the wider cosmos. A Harvard Ph.D. student named Madelyn Leembruggen tells Kwok that tiny fluctuations in the density of dark matter can help drive star formation, perhaps paving the way for planets and people. \u201cIt\u2019s been really cool to see those threads of the physics that unite the whole universe,\u201d Leembruggen says. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The most distant object that Kwok considers is a moon orbiting a planet which in turn orbits a star far beyond our own solar system. (\u201cExomoons\u201d orbiting \u201cexoplanets,\u201d in astronomy jargon.) She chats with Apurva Oza, a planetary astrophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Ca\u00f1ada Flintridge, California, who explains why he believes some of these moons may be highly volcanic, spewing jets of lava and perhaps nearly tearing themselves apart. The catch is that no such moons have been directly observed, with scientists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/news\/eso2610\/\">debating<\/a> how to define them. For now, astronomers are pondering indirect evidence that may point to these objects really being out there \u2014 and such tenuous evidence is open to interpretation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  As with crumpled paper and tiny frogs, exomoons, assuming they exist, have more to tell researchers than one might imagine: Scientists believe that our own moon helped to stabilize the Earth\u2019s axial tilt, keeping our climate relatively constant. So, if exomoons are common \u2014 which remains to be seen \u2014 it could boost our estimates of how prevalent life might be, beyond our own planet. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200 wp-block-undark-fade-in\">\n\t\t<div class=\"newsletter-block-shortcode\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"newsletter-signup background-light-gray padding-all large-padding-all-large\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"newsletter-content\">\n\t<h6 class=\"newsletter-signup-title\">Get Our Newsletter<\/h6>\n\t<span class=\"newsletter-tagline\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"newsletter-signup-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/themes\/undark-theme-2019\/dist\/img\/undark-u.png\" alt=\"Undark Logo\" \/>\n\t<\/span>\n\n\t\n                <div class='gf_browser_gecko gform_wrapper gform_legacy_markup_wrapper gform-theme--no-framework newsletter-signup-form_wrapper' data-form-theme='legacy' data-form-index='0' id='gform_wrapper_9' 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The reader needn\u2019t remember anything about the Greenland glacier, for example, to get a kick out of learning that coyotes will eat just about anything, from snakes, rabbits, turtles, and goose eggs to earthworms, and baby rats. Or \u2014 as Kwok discovered by chatting with researchers who worked in Antarctica \u2014 that it\u2019s apparently OK to eat a piece of fruitcake that\u2019s been frozen since 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  \tAfter nine science-adventure chapters, several messages are loud and clear: First, science is messy; unless you\u2019re a theorist, you\u2019re likely to get your hands dirty. As well, the \u201clone genius\u201d myth is long past its best-before date, as is the notion that science is all about breakthroughs. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Finally, we get a sense of the attributes that all of Kwok\u2019s interlocutors seem to share boundless curiosity, and a deep passion for discovery \u2014 slow as that process of discovery may be.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  <br>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In \u201cLost in Curiosity: Field Notes From Scientists\u2019 Adventures Into the Unknown,\u201d Roberta Kwok sets out to smash the stereotype of eureka moments as the main drivers of scientific knowledge, largely by taking us inside the everyday world of science and scientists, in all its painstaking monotony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":103697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_undark_gallery_title":"Book Review: The Messy Business of Making Science","_simple_subtitle":"Roberta Kwok\u2019s \u201cLost in Curiosity\u201d makes the case for luck and hard work over eureka moments in advancing 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height: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n<style>\n  .article-share-actions {\n    float: right;\n    padding-right: 5%;\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    white-space: nowrap;\n  }\n\n  .share-email,\n  .share-email:hover,\n  .share-email:focus,\n  .share-email:active {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-email .email-label,\n  .share-comment .comment-label {\n    display: inline !important;\n    margin: 0;\n    padding: 0;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    display: inline-flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    justify-content: center;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap img {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: cover;\n    clip-path: inset(2px 0 2px 0);\n  }\n\n  .article-share-actions .article-sidebar-action.cell {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    margin-left: 12px;\n    padding-left: 12px;\n    border-left: 1px solid #000;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    cursor: pointer;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment img {\n    width: 25px;\n    height: 25px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: contain;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<script>\n  document.getElementById('share-by-email').addEventListener('click', function (e) {\n    e.preventDefault();\n\n    const articleTitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:title\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      document.title;\n\n    const articleSubtitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:description\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('.article-subtitle, .dek, .entry-subtitle, .subtitle')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      '';\n\n    const articleLink = window.location.href;\n    const subject = 'Sharing this Undark article';\n\n    const body = [\n      \"I thought you'd like this story:\",\n      '',\n      articleTitle,\n      articleSubtitle,\n      articleLink\n    ].filter(Boolean).join('\\r\\n');\n\n    window.location.href =\n      `mailto:?subject=${encodeURIComponent(subject)}&body=${encodeURIComponent(body)}`;\n  });\n\n  document.querySelector('.share-comment').addEventListener('keydown', function (e) {\n    if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') {\n      e.preventDefault();\n      this.click();\n    }\n  });\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"dropcap\">\u201cD<\/span><span class=\"bolded\">on&#8217;t leave home<\/span> without sunscreen!\u201d \u201cNo Tan Is Worth the Risk!\u201d \u201cProtect the Skin You&#8217;re In!\u201d If you haven\u2019t heard these sun protection slogans, you\u2019ve certainly heard a litany of others. The current dermatological <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aad.org\/public\/everyday-care\/sun-protection\/shade-clothing-sunscreen\/practice-safe-sun\">guidelines<\/a> decree the sun\u2019s rays as a harmful carcinogen, so if you must be outside, slather yourself in a protective layer of sunscreen, wear protective clothing, and seek shade during mid-day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  But just how much sun exposure should you get? That\u2019s exactly the question that science journalist Rowan Jacobsen investigates in his new book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1668092166\">In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure<\/a>.\u201d And the answer is just as complex as our relationship with our shimmering star. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\t\t<div class=\"wp-caption small-12 medium-5 large-4 alignright no-lightbox-images\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sunlight-book-cover_1000.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"undark-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"\/\/undark.org\/category\/books\/\u201d\">BOOK REVIEW<\/a><\/span><strong> \u2014 <\/strong> \u201cIn Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure,\u201d by Rowan Jacobsen (Scribner, 288 pages).<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Humans evolved under the sun, and until the Industrial Revolution, lived most of their lives outside. Recent research shows that once we retreated indoors, we may have actually lost a number of health benefits bestowed by sunshine, and not just the natural source of vitamin D that our bodies generate in its rays. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  When the sun kisses our skin, the latter triggers the release or production of a series of other compounds vital to our health. One is nitric oxide, a tiny molecule that acts as a natural vasodilator that relaxes blood vessels, bringing down blood pressure.  It\u2019s \u201calso used by the brain to transmit signals, and by the immune system to kill pathogens,\u201d Jacobsen writes.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Some compounds set chain reactions in our bodies. \u201cWhen our skin cells are exposed to sunlight, they produce a large molecule called proopiomelanocortin,\u201d Jacobsen writes. Abbreviated as POMC, it\u2019s a precursor to three essential chemicals. One of them prompts the production of melanin, Jacobsen writes, the dark pigment that helps protect the skin from burning, and \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">which is also &#8220;a powerful antioxidant that excels at mopping up the damage caused by the sun\u2019s rays.\u201d The second compound raises the level of cortisol, the stress hormone that has a bad reputation, but only if your body produces it continuously and for a long time, Jacobsen clarifies.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>When the sun kisses our skin, the latter triggers the release or production of a series of other compounds vital to our health.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The third POMC-derived compound is \u201can endorphin that heads for the brain and suffuses it with natural opioids, triggering a blissful state similar to what we get from morphine or opium,\u201d Jacobsen notes. Plus, our skin contains a molecule called urocanic acid. Jacobsen highlights a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell\/fulltext\/S0092-8674(18)30507-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867418305075%3Fshowall%3Dtrue\">2018 mouse study<\/a> which found that when activated by sunlight, the molecule enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain, where it becomes glutamate, a neurotransmitter that increases brain activity, and improves cognition and mood. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-022-25336-6\">observational study<\/a> in humans a few years later, he writes, \u201cfound that those who had been exposed to more sunlight in the preceding few years had significantly better cognitive function than those who lived in darker region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  All that begs a question: How did science miss these important benefits? The answer may lie in our inability to do things in moderation \u2014 and Jacobsen walks us through several centuries of history to explain. Ancient civilizations used sunlight to treat skin diseases. Pliny the Elder recommended that \u201cthe most powerful, however, of all remedies, and one which is always at a person\u2019s own command, is the sun.\u201d In 19th<sup>&#8211;<\/sup>century Europe, plagued by rickets, a medical missionary posited that sunbathing could be an effective cure. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Physician Niels Ryberg Finsen built a UV-producing lamp to treat a type of tuberculosis, which gave rise to the concept of heliotherapy. In the early 20th century, Los Angeles-based naturopath Philip Lovell promoted the benefits of homes with flat roofs so that their dwellers could sunbathe. In 1926, an article in The Lancet called sunbathing \u201cone of Nature\u2019s greatest aids to maintaining and acquiring proper health.\u201d  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heliotherapy became trendy. \u201cA golden tan is the index of chic!\u201d Jacobsen quotes Coco Chanel. The manufacturers of the UV lamps, Jacobsen notes, listened and quickly flooded the market with UV machines that people could buy. \u201cWho needs the beach when modern technology allows you to get UV year-round in the comfort of your own home?\u201d he writes. The lamps became super popular and received \u201cthe blessing of American Medical Association,\u201d Jacobsen notes. One maker \u201curged parents to give children ultra-violet radiation in their playrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n\t\t<div class=\"undark-image-caption single-image images-1\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"undark-image-block grid-x small-block-grid-1 no-lightbox-images\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"cell\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2669608_2000.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"undark-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA 1930s-era sunbather uses a polished shield to reflect the sun&#8217;s rays and improve their tan.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<em>Visual: Gerry Cranham\/Fox Photos\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/em>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  But as scientists learned more about skin cancer, messages changed. In the 1940s magazines started warning zealous sunbathers about links between sun and skin cancer, but suntanning remained popular. By the mid-1980s dermatologists sounded an alarm because skin cancer diagnoses went from 300,000 per year in the 1970s to 500,000 in 1985, Jacobsen writes. Part of it was that we learned to diagnose skin cancer better, Jacobsen points out, but the numbers were concerning nonetheless. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Enter the sunblock. In 1940s, the U.S. military developed a physical sunblock to prevent soldiers from being burned by the South Pacific sun during World War II, but the tanning industry quickly turned it into \u201ca shield against death\u201d for your average consumer. In the late 1970s, when the the Food and Drug Administration began regulating the sunscreen market, business was booming.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  \u201cWhen it released its initial guidelines,\u201d Jacobsen writes, \u201cthe FDA assumed there would never be a need for an SPF higher than 15.\u201d Indeed, according to the book, in 1987, the agency\u2019s director of cosmetics division wrote, \u201cthere\u2019s not enough ultraviolet light on Earth to warrant an SPF\u201d higher than that. The public health campaigns to slather ourselves with sunblock with increasingly growing SPF levels have been on fire ever since. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Jacobsen doesn\u2019t suggest we <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2025\/10\/13\/anti-sunscreen-movement\/\">ditch the sunscreen<\/a>. He doesn\u2019t play down the <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2019\/06\/12\/science-sunscreen-public-trust-cancer\/\">dangers<\/a> of skin cancer either, but he cites a profound statistic. \u201cGlobally, skin cancer doesn\u2019t even make the list of the forty deadliest killers. It\u2019s responsible for about 120,000 deaths per year, which pales in comparison to the 20 million lives lost each year to cardiovascular disease,\u201d or the millions lost to other types of cancer. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr>\n<div style=\"display: flex; align-items: stretch;\"><div style=\"flex: 0 0 80px; margin-right: 10px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/compass.png\" alt=\"Newsletter Journeys\" style=\"width: 80px; height:80px; vertical-align:top;\"><\/div><div style=\"overflow: hidden;\"><p style=\"font-size:1.2em;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/newsletters\/\" style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span class=\"bolded\">SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER JOURNEYS: &nbsp;<\/span><\/a><em>Dive deeper into pressing issues with Undark\u2019s limited run newsletters. Each week for four weeks, you\u2019ll receive a hand-picked excerpt from our archive related to your subject area of interest. Pick your journeys <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/newsletters\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/div><\/div>\n<hr>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly 99 percent of skin cancer cases are basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas, which usually occur in places exposed to the sun \u2014 but they are highly treatable. The deadliest one, melanoma, is rare. Unlike other types of skin cancer, melanoma, Jacobsen writes, \u201c\u00a0isn\u2019t closely associated with lifetime sun exposure,\u201d but rather \u201cwith a history of sunburns, especially during childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Meanwhile, most studies aimed at showing that sunscreen reduces skin cancer have <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2019\/06\/12\/science-sunscreen-public-trust-cancer\/\">not found<\/a> that to be the case. In fact, Jacobsen notes, studies in the 1970s found a <em>higher <\/em>risk of cancer among sunscreen users. But later research found almost no difference, which \u201cpoints to problems with those earlier sunscreens that were fixed in later formulations,\u201d Jacobsen writes. He also cites a study that <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/32668607\/\">suggests<\/a> insufficient sun exposure may have contributed to an estimated 820,000 deaths per year in Europe and America. Another <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC6543772\/\">study<\/a> of more than 10,000 people in the U.K. and the Netherlands, found that exposure to bright sunlight was associated with lower insulin resistance and lower triglyceride levels.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Perhaps it\u2019s time to reevaluate our relationship with the sun once again.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Fluctuating between serious, sarcastic, and at times self-deprecating, Jacobsen upends everything we thought we knew about the science of our star and its powerful rays. Drawing on decades-long and recent research supplemented by interviews with scientists who challenge the existing scary sunscreen rhetoric, Jacobsen shows how easily solid science can be swayed by zealous marketing efforts in either direction. He does acknowledge that these new \u2014 or perhaps old and forgotten \u2014 views of the sun remain vehemently contested, but he hopes that finding a balance is possible. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Jacobsen shares a pithy bit of his own shiny wisdom. \u201cGet sun. Not too much. Go outside.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The book also ushers in a newfound appreciation for our skin. Generally, we view our skin as a tough outer membrane that protects us from pathogens and environmental toxins. Jacobsen\u2019s narrative makes us see it as \u201cthe organ that set the tone for the functioning of the entire body.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Another uncanny realization is that we, humans, aren\u2019t that different from plants, after all. We don\u2019t photosynthesize, but akin to plant cells, ours need the photons\u2019 energy to derive and forge crucial life chemicals and reactions.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Woven throughout the book is a persistent call to look beyond trends and fear-mongering tactics, for both consumers and public health authorities. People, when it comes to the sun, use common sense, Jacobsen pleads. Use moderation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Reminiscent of Michael Pollan\u2019s book, \u201cIn Defense of Food,\u201d which gave a seven-word advice, \u201cEat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants,\u201d Jacobsen shares a pithy bit of his own shiny wisdom. \u201cGet sun. Not too much. Go outside.\u201d\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite dermatological guidelines that decree sunlight a harmful carcinogen, Rowan Jacobsen argues in \u201cIn Defense of Sunlight&#8221; that the sun helps our skin produce many compounds vital to our health. How did science miss these benefits? The answer, he says, lies in our inability to do things in moderation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":103671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_undark_gallery_title":"Review: Our Conflicted Relationship with the Sun","_simple_subtitle":"Rowan Jacobsen argues \"In Defense of Sunlight\" that moderation \u2014 not fear \u2014 should shape our attitudes toward exposure.","_undark_photographer":"","_undark_photographer_link":"","_vimeo_id":"","undark_featured_video_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[354],"tags":[4160],"post_group":[5150],"undark_affiliation":[],"undark_issue_assignment":[],"coauthors":[7192],"class_list":["post-103559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-health-medicine","post_group-news-features","wpautop","end"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Book Review: Our Conflicted Relationship with the Sun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rowan Jacobsen argues &quot;In Defense of Sunlight&quot; that moderation \u2014 not fear \u2014 should shape our attitudes toward exposure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2026\/08\/28\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Our Conflicted Relationship with the Sun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rowan Jacobsen argues &quot;In Defense of Sunlight&quot; that moderation \u2014 not fear \u2014 should shape our attitudes toward exposure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2026\/08\/28\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Undark Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/undarkmagazine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-28T07:42:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2282750528_edit.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lina Zeldovich\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@undarkmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@undarkmag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/\",\"name\":\"Book Review: Our Conflicted Relationship with the Sun\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/GettyImages-2282750528_edit.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-28T07:42:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Rowan Jacobsen argues \\\"In Defense of Sunlight\\\" that moderation \u2014 not fear \u2014 should shape our attitudes toward exposure.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/book-review-in-defense-of-sunlight\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/GettyImages-2282750528_edit.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/undark.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/GettyImages-2282750528_edit.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Applying sun cream from a bottle. 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height: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n<style>\n  .article-share-actions {\n    float: right;\n    padding-right: 5%;\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    white-space: nowrap;\n  }\n\n  .share-email,\n  .share-email:hover,\n  .share-email:focus,\n  .share-email:active {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-email .email-label,\n  .share-comment .comment-label {\n    display: inline !important;\n    margin: 0;\n    padding: 0;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    display: inline-flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    justify-content: center;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap img {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: cover;\n    clip-path: inset(2px 0 2px 0);\n  }\n\n  .article-share-actions .article-sidebar-action.cell {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    margin-left: 12px;\n    padding-left: 12px;\n    border-left: 1px solid #000;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    cursor: pointer;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment img {\n    width: 25px;\n    height: 25px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: contain;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<script>\n  document.getElementById('share-by-email').addEventListener('click', function (e) {\n    e.preventDefault();\n\n    const articleTitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:title\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      document.title;\n\n    const articleSubtitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:description\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('.article-subtitle, .dek, .entry-subtitle, .subtitle')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      '';\n\n    const articleLink = window.location.href;\n    const subject = 'Sharing this Undark article';\n\n    const body = [\n      \"I thought you'd like this story:\",\n      '',\n      articleTitle,\n      articleSubtitle,\n      articleLink\n    ].filter(Boolean).join('\\r\\n');\n\n    window.location.href =\n      `mailto:?subject=${encodeURIComponent(subject)}&body=${encodeURIComponent(body)}`;\n  });\n\n  document.querySelector('.share-comment').addEventListener('keydown', function (e) {\n    if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') {\n      e.preventDefault();\n      this.click();\n    }\n  });\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"dropcap\">O<\/span><span class=\"bolded\">n July 16,<\/span> the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/news\/2026\/07\/16\/trump-administration-issues-final-rule-end-foreign-student-visa-abuse\">new rules<\/a> governing student visas. According to the updated federal policy, people who enter the U.S. on a student visa must complete their degree within four years \u2014 whether pursuing an undergraduate degree, a master\u2019s degree, or a Ph.D. International students pursuing graduate studies at American universities will also not be able to change the subject of their studies or transfer between academic institutions. (Undergraduates may change or transfer after one year.) Within 30 days of completing their degree, they will need to arrange a new visa (sponsored, for example, by an employer) or leave the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, university groups and labor unions filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/daily-labor-report\/unions-college-groups-challenge-limits-on-foreign-students\">lawsuit<\/a> to try to block the new rules, arguing that they would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for higher education and the country at-large. But unless the court case succeeds, the rules are set to go into effect on Sept. 15 and apply across all fields of study and students\u2019 countries of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<div class=\"related-post related-post-small\">\n\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"illustration of four people putting together a puzzle of the planet Earth\" srcset=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-1480x833.jpg 1480w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-639x358.jpg 639w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-524x294.jpg 524w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-316x177.jpg 316w, https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1572925805_crop-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/>\n\t<h4 class=\"display-heading color-gold margin-top-small\">Related<\/h4>\n\n\t<a class=\"loop-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2026\/01\/01\/opinion-international-collaboration-trump\/\">Opinion: The Future of Scientific Collaboration<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The new requirements are certain to be disruptive for undergraduate students. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, <a href=\"https:\/\/nscresearchcenter.org\/yearly-progress-and-completion\/\">fewer than<\/a> half of enrolled students \u2014 just 44 percent \u2014 complete their (nominally four-year) undergraduate degree in four years. The problem will be more severe for doctoral candidates. The <a href=\"https:\/\/ncses.nsf.gov\/surveys\/earned-doctorates\/2024\">latest study<\/a> by the National Science Foundation reveals that the typical (median) time to complete a Ph.D. in the U.S. across all fields is nearly six years. Not a single field reported a median Ph.D. completion time shorter than five years.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Under the new rules, if a student on a visa requires more than four years to complete their degree \u2014 as the vast majority of Ph.D. students do \u2014 they will need to apply directly to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for a formal \u201cExtension of Stay.\u201d This marks a pivot from the current provision known as \u201cduration of status,\u201d in which full-time students who are making appropriate progress, as determined by university officials, can continue their studies through to completion. The shift would mean that government bureaucrats at USCIS, rather than academic advisers, will now have complete discretion over whether to grant extensions, according to (as yet) unknown criteria and procedures. This is the same agency that presently has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org\/blog\/uscis-immigration-processing-trends-2026\/\">backlog<\/a> of more than 11 million pending cases, and average processing times that stretch well beyond a year. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Meanwhile, the nation\u2019s Ph.D. programs include considerably higher proportions of international students than typical undergraduate programs do. This means that advanced research efforts across the country, which depend upon doctoral students\u2019 contributions, will be disproportionately affected. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>The new requirements are certain to be disruptive for undergraduate students. The problem will be more severe for doctoral candidates. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Averaged across all fields in the U.S., one-third of Ph.D. recipients in 2024 pursued their graduate studies on student visas. The proportion of international students is higher in fields that the current and recent administrations have prioritized as essential for national competitiveness: computer and information science (58 percent), engineering (51 percent), mathematics and statistics (49 percent), and physical sciences (39 percent) \u2014 areas in which young innovators are advancing research on artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, materials science, and more. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  For decades, the U.S. has prospered from a \u201cbrain gain,\u201d attracting talented students from around the world. Graduate students who entered the U.S. on student visas \u2014 such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan, and even Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who began a graduate program before deciding, two days later, to try to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2024\/10\/26\/elon-musk-immigration-status\/\">found his own company<\/a> \u2014 have bolstered the American economy. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The new rules risk losing future talent. Doctoral programs cannot instantly adjust students\u2019 timelines to accommodate the new rules. U.S. graduate programs typically require advanced coursework, capped by rigorous examinations. This breadth of training has long undergirded the quality of American Ph.D. programs, adding to their appeal for domestic and international students alike. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  More important, the research phase of a Ph.D. requires students to move beyond known material and to produce something new \u2014 to push past what today\u2019s textbooks already include. That sort of innovation rarely happens overnight. The benefits, however, can shape generations. Just think of transistors, lasers, <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2019\/03\/04\/artificial-intelligence-ai-alzheimers\/\">PET scans<\/a>, atomic clocks, and <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2025\/12\/24\/gps-attack-new-tech\/\">GPS navigation technologies<\/a>, let alone neural networks and quantum encryption protocols. Each of these wonders began as the subject of basic research, to which waves of creative young graduate students have crafted novel insights and improvements.\n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>The proportion of international students is higher in fields that the current and recent administrations have prioritized as essential for national competitiveness.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Why derail graduate education now? The reason certainly can\u2019t be lack of demand for highly trained specialists. Consider recent trends for H1-B visas, which are restricted to individuals with specific educational qualifications who can fill so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/working-in-the-united-states\/h-1b-specialty-occupations\">specialty occupations<\/a>.\u201d Despite the current administration\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/immigrant-health\/potential-impacts-of-trump-administration-h-1b-visa-policies-on-the-health-care-and-social-assistance-industries\/\">efforts<\/a> to limit access to such visas, U.S. employers have submitted more than 800,000 H1-B registrations since 2025, of which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/working-in-the-united-states\/temporary-workers\/h-1b-specialty-occupations\/h-1b-electronic-registration-process\">roughly a third have been granted<\/a>. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upon unveiling the new student-visa rules earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed \u2014 without citing evidence \u2014 that the new regulation was necessary in order to halt large-scale abuses of the U.S. immigration system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The student-visa system, which is now decades-old, likely could be improved. What is beyond doubt, however, is that the new student-visa policy is drastic, self-defeating, and just bad math.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His latest book is \u201cQuantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World\u201d (University of Chicago Press, 2020).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July, the Department of Homeland Security issued new rules that would make it harder for international students to complete their studies in the U.S. The policy threatens to be disruptive for students \u2014 particularly doctoral candidates \u2014 and self-defeating for the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":103656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-opinion.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_undark_gallery_title":"Opinion: New Student Visa Rules Don\u2019t Add Up","_simple_subtitle":"A recent federal rule change will soon place a strict limit on how long international students can study in the U.S.","_undark_photographer":"","_undark_photographer_link":"","_vimeo_id":"","undark_featured_video_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4163,1086],"post_group":[5150],"undark_affiliation":[],"undark_issue_assignment":[],"coauthors":[8017],"class_list":["post-103633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-academia","tag-science-policy","post_group-news-features","wpautop","end"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This 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height: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n<style>\n  .article-share-actions {\n    float: right;\n    padding-right: 5%;\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    white-space: nowrap;\n  }\n\n  .share-email,\n  .share-email:hover,\n  .share-email:focus,\n  .share-email:active {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-email .email-label,\n  .share-comment .comment-label {\n    display: inline !important;\n    margin: 0;\n    padding: 0;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    overflow: hidden;\n    display: inline-flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    justify-content: center;\n  }\n\n  .email-icon-wrap img {\n    width: 20px;\n    height: 20px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: cover;\n    clip-path: inset(2px 0 2px 0);\n  }\n\n  .article-share-actions .article-sidebar-action.cell {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    margin-left: 12px;\n    padding-left: 12px;\n    border-left: 1px solid #000;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment {\n    display: flex;\n    align-items: center;\n    gap: 8px;\n    cursor: pointer;\n    color: #000 !important;\n    text-decoration: none !important;\n    line-height: 1;\n  }\n\n  .share-comment img {\n    width: 25px;\n    height: 25px;\n    display: block;\n    object-fit: contain;\n  }\n<\/style>\n\n<script>\n  document.getElementById('share-by-email').addEventListener('click', function (e) {\n    e.preventDefault();\n\n    const articleTitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:title\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('h1')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      document.title;\n\n    const articleSubtitle =\n      document.querySelector('meta[property=\"og:description\"]')?.content ||\n      document.querySelector('.article-subtitle, .dek, .entry-subtitle, .subtitle')?.innerText?.trim() ||\n      '';\n\n    const articleLink = window.location.href;\n    const subject = 'Sharing this Undark article';\n\n    const body = [\n      \"I thought you'd like this story:\",\n      '',\n      articleTitle,\n      articleSubtitle,\n      articleLink\n    ].filter(Boolean).join('\\r\\n');\n\n    window.location.href =\n      `mailto:?subject=${encodeURIComponent(subject)}&body=${encodeURIComponent(body)}`;\n  });\n\n  document.querySelector('.share-comment').addEventListener('keydown', function (e) {\n    if (e.key === 'Enter' || e.key === ' ') {\n      e.preventDefault();\n      this.click();\n    }\n  });\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"dropcap\">W<\/span><span class=\"bolded\">hen the first <\/span>European settlers arrived on the east coast of North America in the 16th century, they found a land filled with astounding natural wonders and biological richness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Herds of elk and packs of wolves roamed through old-growth forests, and flocks of geese and sandhill cranes filled the air with raucous cries during their seasonal migrations. Salmon in vast numbers swam up the Connecticut River to spawn, the New Jersey Meadowlands were a paradise for beavers, and herds of American bison tramped across the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest and through the open meadows and treeless plains of Kentucky and Tennessee, some venturing as far south as Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\t\t<div class=\"wp-caption small-12 medium-5 large-4 alignright no-lightbox-images\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/beasts-of-the-east-cover-big-1200x1824.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"undark-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p><a href=\"\/\/undark.org\/category\/books\/\u201d\">BOOK REVIEW<\/a><\/span><strong> \u2014 <\/strong> \u201cThe Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America\u2019s Eastern Wilderness,\u201d by Andrew Moore (Mariner Books, 432 pages).<\/p>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But by the early 20th century, most of the large and charismatic animals that the settlers had encountered were functionally extinct. The wetlands that had supported massive flocks of water-loving birds had been largely drained for agriculture, while <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2026\/04\/17\/review-when-the-forest-breathes\/\">forests<\/a> and grasslands where elk and moose once roamed and cougar prowled were felled and plowed over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the East, our capacity for slaughter was prodigious,\u201d environmental journalist Andrew Moore writes in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/products\/the-beasts-of-the-east-andrew-moore?variant=43705534971938\">The Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America\u2019s Eastern Wilderness<\/a>.\u201d \u201cThe extractive culture that spread over the land after Europeans arrived would leave no stone unturned, and few animals breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Yet the memory of those wild creatures remained. And that memory eventually sparked a collaborative movement among unlikely allies \u2014 environmentalists, federal and state wildlife managers, and hunters \u2014 to restore lost landscapes and return megafauna like wolves, bison, and elk to their former ranges east of the Mississippi. This impassioned, if at times seemingly quixotic, effort lies at the heart of Moore\u2019s book, which is both a natural history of the East and an accessible account of the people who have dedicated their careers to restoring long lost species to what remains of their original habitats.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moore began his investigation in 2017 with a 2,600-mile bike trip from Montana to New York City to scope out the territory. In the years that followed he collected canid scat in Maine, camped out on former strip-mining sites in Appalachia, went to a public bison auction in Kentucky, and attended the release of wild elk in West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>By the early 20th century, most of the large and charismatic animals that the settlers had encountered were functionally extinct. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  He also watched as thousands of sandhill cranes \u2014 a species that had been brought to the edge of extinction in the East by commercial hunters and habitat destruction \u2014 darkened the skies above Indiana. By the 1930s, there were only an estimated two dozen nesting pairs in the Midwest. But then, Moore writes, something remarkable happened. Hunters joined forces with animal rights groups to push for federal legislation to protect the endangered birds. Today there are an estimated 90,000 eastern sandhill cranes, notes Moore. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  And it isn\u2019t just cranes that are returning to their former habitats. There are arguably more whitetail deer and black bear today than ever before, Moore writes. New England, which was substantially cleared for agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries, is now 80 percent forested, making the Northeast one of the few regions on Earth where forests are increasing. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The bald eagle, the symbol of America, has returned to locales that it had all but disappeared from. And vast flocks of ducks and geese have returned to the upper Midwest. By the turn of the 20th century, there were no elk left east of the Mississippi, but an ambitious reintroduction project took hold in the late 1990s in Kentucky at the behest of sportsmen who wanted a chance to hunt them and conservationists who wanted to extend their range. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Kentucky\u2019s deciduous forests are not an ideal habitat for elk, which are better suited to open country of mixed forests and grasslands where the large herbivores can graze. Moreover, Kentucky\u2019s farmers were not keen on having herds of voracious elk as neighbors. But Kentucky did have one region with plenty of grass, and few farms: the vast area in the eastern part of the state where mountaintop removal coal mining had created open grasslands in place of previously forested hill country. More than a thousand elk were trucked in from the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and several other regions of the West.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr>\n<div style=\"display: flex; align-items: stretch;\"><div style=\"flex: 0 0 80px; margin-right: 10px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/compass.png\" alt=\"Newsletter Journeys\" style=\"width: 80px; height:80px; vertical-align:top;\"><\/div><div style=\"overflow: hidden;\"><p style=\"font-size:1.2em;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/newsletters\/\" style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span class=\"bolded\">SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTER JOURNEYS: &nbsp;<\/span><\/a><em>Dive deeper into pressing issues with Undark\u2019s limited run newsletters. Each week for four weeks, you\u2019ll receive a hand-picked excerpt from our archive related to your subject area of interest. Pick your journeys <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/newsletters\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/div><\/div>\n<hr>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The reintroduction was a resounding success. By 2009, there were 10,000 elk grazing on former mine sites in Kentucky, attracting hunters from across the U.S. and pumping millions of dollars from tourism and hunting fees into the state\u2019s economy. \u201cIt is not a story of preservation, or ecological stewardship,\u201d Moore writes. \u201cIt is one of happenstance, opportunism, and for better or worse, transformation.\u201d The environment was not being returned to its former state, he maintains \u2014 it was radically reinvented.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The idea of using former strip mine sites caught on. Inspired by Kentucky\u2019s example, elk have also been reintroduced in Tennessee. But Moore questions whether managing vast tracts of land for elk does the best good for the most species. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  In the second half of the book, Moore looks at the effort to restore tallgrass prairies in the northern Midwest where fields of corn and other crops had replaced grasslands starting in the 1800s. In the mid-20th century, ecologists began wondering whether the isolated patches of remaining grasslands found in railway margins and pioneer cemeteries could be replanted with native grasses and bison returned to them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  While <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2021\/06\/02\/when-the-bison-come-back-will-the-ecosystem-follow\/\">bison<\/a> are mostly associated with the Great Plains, they also roamed in large herds east of the Mississippi. The Nature Conservancy, the global environmental nonprofit organization, in collaboration with local conservationists, wanted to see if the prairie<sub> <\/sub>\u2014 and the bison that once thronged it \u2014 could be brought back, even if in a small way. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Moore\u2019s book is both a natural history of the East and an accessible account of the people who have dedicated their careers to restoring long lost species to what remains of their original habitats.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  Beginning in the 1980s, the conservancy purchased plots of agricultural land in north central Illinois, named it the Nachusa Grasslands, and planted it with hundreds of Indigenous grass and wildflower species. Birds that had all but vanished from the area returned, including a stopover by a migrating pair of endangered <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2025\/12\/29\/whooping-crane-recovery-texas\/\">whooping cranes<\/a>. A small herd of bison was brought in to complete a tableau that had not been seen there in nearly two centuries. Today, having grown to more than 4,000 acres, Moore calls the Nachusa Grasslands \u201cone of the finest ecological restorations in the world.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The story is more complicated elsewhere, though. The reintroduction of elk and bison to wildlife preserves in the East was not appreciated by some farmers,  and bringing back <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2022\/06\/06\/a-fight-over-wolves-pits-facts-against-feelings-in-wisconsin\/\">wolves<\/a> was even more problematic, Moore writes. While gray wolves had been absent from the East for over a century, remnant populations of red wolves remained in remote areas of Texas and Louisiana. Luckily, when President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service was transformed from an agency that trapped and poisoned wolves to one that protected them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agency devised a program to return red wolves to the East. But protecting the red wolf, one of the world\u2019s rarest mammals, turned out to be highly controversial. A decision was made to reintroduce the predators to a peninsula on the coast of North Carolina, the haunt of alligators and black bears far from <a href=\"https:\/\/undark.org\/2025\/04\/28\/keep-wild-places-wild\/\">human population<\/a> centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  In 1986, eight red wolves were brought into the Carolina swamplands, where they were acclimated in captivity and released the following year. Despite assurances that the wolves were naturally shy creatures that wouldn\u2019t harm people, many residents of nearby communities were unconvinced, especially after the wolves were released. For some \u201cthe introduction of these snarling predators was yet another example of federal overreach and endangered species conservation run amok,\u201d Moore writes. \n<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"trigger-in-view in-view-delay-200\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>Despite having made \u201cimmense progress\u201d in restoring numerous creatures to their former haunts east of the Mississippi, \u201cconservation is work that never ends,\u201d Moore concludes.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The North Carolina red wolf numbers increased steadily for about two decades before a steep decline due to gunshot killings. A small wild population, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/project\/red-wolf-recovery-program\">currently<\/a> a few dozen animals, still persists. \u201cFor now, the wolves are home again,\u201d Moore writes. And so are the prairie bison, the elk, the cranes. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n  The author is not ready to declare victory. Despite having made \u201cimmense progress\u201d in restoring numerous creatures to their former haunts east of the Mississippi, \u201cconservation is work that never ends,\u201d Moore concludes. But, he adds, \u201cthis is the work of defining the kind of world we want to live in.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Richard Schiffman is an environmental reporter based in New York City. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and National Geographic, among other outlets.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In &#8220;The Beasts of the East,&#8221; journalist Andrew Moore charts the natural history of the East and the people who have dedicated their careers to restoring several long lost species to what remains of their original habitats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":103566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_undark_gallery_title":"Review: How Wildlife Is Returning to the East","_simple_subtitle":"In \"The Beasts of the East,\" journalist Andrew Moore charts the tumultuous history of wildlife east of the Mississippi.","_undark_photographer":"","_undark_photographer_link":"","_vimeo_id":"","undark_featured_video_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[354],"tags":[4157,5153],"post_group":[5150],"undark_affiliation":[],"undark_issue_assignment":[],"coauthors":[7484],"class_list":["post-103563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-environment-conservation","tag-fish-wildlife","post_group-news-features","wpautop","end"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Book Review: How Wildlife Is Returning to the East<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In &quot;The Beasts of the East,&quot; 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