As a kid in Cairo, Mo Sarwat first grasped the dangers of not understanding the natural world. It was 1992, and the city and much of northeastern Egypt were devastated by an earthquake. If you, like me, live in California, you’re used to the occasional shake, where you watch your glass of water shimmy and then go about your day. But this wasn’t a fleeting inconvenience: It was a nightmare scenario. In Cairo, Sarwat watched as an earthquake devastated the city—more than 500 people died in the cat...