ENATAL LEARNIN

mmm\\W fl MAN BADE WOMB onnrui VOL. 8 NO. 3 DECEMBER 1985

EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EDITOR: GURNEY WILLIAMS III GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: PAUL HILTS ART DIRECTOR: AMY SEISSLER

CONTENTS PAGE OMNIBUS Contributors 3 COMMUNICATIONS Coresoondence 12

EARTH Environment T. A. Heppenheimer 20 22 SPACE Comment . James E. Oberg BREAKTHROUGHS Technology Scot! Kariya 32 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Computers Owen Davies 34

FILM The Arts Milch Tuchman 36 STARS Astronomy Terence Dickinson 38 CONTINUUM Data Bank 41 NEW BIRTH TECHNOLOGIES FIRST WORD Opinion Dr. Howard Jones 6 FORUM Dialogue 16

PRENATAL LEARNING Life Martha Nelson 24 MIND Behavior Paul Bagne 26

THE BODY Health Dr. Jeremy Cherfas 28

MALE Article Dick Teresi and 50 Kathleen McAulifte

THE DRAGON SEED Fiction Kate Wiihelm 58

MAN-MADE WOMB: THE NEW Article Doug Starr 66 SCIENCE OF NATIVITY

COSMIC CREATION Piclorial Owen Davies 74 ALAN TROUNSON Interview Robert Weil 82

BIRTHTECH: THE IDEAL Article Kathy Keeton 90 SPERM DONOR with Yvonne Baskin

CHOICES IN CHILDBIRTH Birth Poll Judianne Densen-Gerber 106

TRAvb. SIM THE INTERIOR Fiction Scott Russell Sanders 98

ANTIMATTER UFOs, etc. 113 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 146 and Phil Wiswell FROSTED DUNE Phenomena Kathleen Norris Cook 156 LAST WORD Humor Parker Bennett 158

Ar, ngg hovers over the vast, bieak terrain of Ingo Swann's 45-by-50-inch canvas. Salt Flais Vision. The eggshell is partially torn away to reveal the' cosmos Swann, a visionary surrealist, is a leader in this New Age art rr - '

'' M !::.;: ! ik>,~! . ii! -r'S- ingiy inefficient.' With norma; and regular •erlii-ved . Ttiese mv.m objections

i ,!!»,. :!! il . , ;! !,/! I to 'Vf have largely boor; maim.ed by trie expect to become] pregnant oriiy one bidh of more than -.000 babies who were monthof even/ throe 01 al: women woo conceived through this o-oeoss.

' ' .|i i ' . ::'!!!; . ' . !!! :,,'".'. .' v ! , i.. ii 111".; I p Op U IWl; I I

' ji only 60 percent will become pregnant . lion md ; n : '.. a: the oi ?n- after ihrse months of trying. tdc .eve; Remember I'ne bib-jiatic-.ns of

If •: Is so dlflicutUoriave'a baby why are' Gal "here now mom than'4 billion of lis? Trie methods ot reproduction would be mom-

':'' ,:- .' : .!.;,., answer is simple A woman's rep'odactve . i ! U "U I. sysiem operates 13 drnes a year. As a eihioa; yamsfiok For oentures. or /sc sna

result, the system can to I era IP some jneffi-'- have subscribod to [he Hlppocraiic oath

ci&ncy and i idood ty b: th. be' ei idi t. and when faced wilh medical diiemrnas. •[> To the reproductive sciential, however, have been gu:. eo I > ih \; . lo: ire fi

! (be ineifioiences i ' :: ot the human- re productive . leencohsid-

'' - : s i' i / . .. . tss ! ! i- 3 i : i : : i : :'al pose a . provid ' hebi n

... ,",i.i.i,i .' , ;! ii.: | . , &' /' '. lOSt thr ; treafoioi-;; omwelgh the risks r-o\ only

nunans. yoi aronal models seem made- for the pakon! but \v,-: yfhem involved. .'!. !..!:,.!.: .!:. i : : i' Oi i lend 3s ' res ir.i: l- vai I'in a

mdicatss that many human germ cei's ibeanlngiui society must reach, if not ; way

both male and , are genetically a oonse-ri •.-.. . , w :>... !';.! .i id i e gei e Ic about these issues,. Scientific endeavor ".

thai fail to survive. . does no: Nourish wllbout popu a' supoort. FIRST in tact. abnormal human embryos seem Because o- a vocal minor.ty me score-

' to be [-noro common loan norma; ones. tarv of the Docai trr-oor o! Health. Educator -XtiSi and.Welta'e ('HbVV'i in ^974 issued reguia- UUDRD s ;'.'.;; rely aoiiormal embryos sponta- :nted the neously, some.tmes sc early that a Naiionai Institutes of Health f'om Eupporiinc; By Q'. Howard Jones . pregnancy is. no! even suspected. On other research :n human iV'F and, by exrenson.

trie r i " .',.". •: occasions, rejection i : i woman's media: otht . m mArchconservatives nave ii'sm can fa. \i oped since the: tin'*;, in 1979 an ethics

i '. -= : voiced a blanket ' i :arric" -o biiih :orr"in in life .comnottee formed by Vie. socrelar/Oi HEW. !.„ :.: i ~a\ I'V'- research was not only complaint against the albsll sometimes a loving/burden, to the . rmure. Nonetheless -'amity ". "unnaturalness" ana soeem'as a whole. A child with i i' moral' 'no , : mo govern Qown s syndrome Is such funding remains, -Aiy of in vitro fertilization, but a case. withdrawn. money

ren ,. '.! ii ;. There ! !.: . ; a-e ni h h is yjack-of-government am effected c : ;.;.'..,'..' by hundreds genelm come j vide loung itio

i :> . . action-may be the: most abnormalities such as diabems that am u , -gesi mdiog gi v, nel nearly a:, sei'loas am iakrng their cue bom the covornmon! uneinical.actofaii* ' i i /i ': . imme Ivios people ano stay no oearof'a

' !:''! ". I :.: .-:. I " \ ni ; J Ii human embryos; ihai ail of us have many abnormal genes; Research on procrnbryonic development

smoe we nave :wo copies o; moor ger o i -i e us to oolormino wftiph one bom eaco parent— adefocl may no! embryos are viable and when are not. thus

oe expressed I! or m copy is normal. Mos; i eioiog increase thi lumoof

humans am oulte- normal, and the r genetic ':, igii :." Altnougii this kind structure acts to remedy any imbalances of -esea.reh nas oeen sanotoneo by the

i-hai ight ot'ierw be pi ; rr. HEW ethics committee, there persists

tl is perhap: ; rising thai r>:e a feeling c! uncas: ios-: uc:.:.'se fedliizec and Imperfect a mechanism as human are involved. Un-orlunaloly. reproduction may sometimes no! function .,! !! u :.' ... mused with ibottions en Ic :'." ii,'.. some of "ertiizedeg. aft; 15

fierce"!! of all ill coup;es wish lo mere- E . i - who i vith no; respond research on the p-oomtsryo. we wou^q

' ' ! i.i -:-, ! ;o traditional therapies; newer methods b e mi"' .'ii' :,n; r;6f . . are constantly oe:r;g oevoedvlr: vitro cios of human reproduction. Ni

feriiization in " . '. :!" ' .;. i| :, (IVI-!. i.ne ass of donor sperm or I. :! . Igl I v

eggs, the use of oonor-lemiizec. eggs, tile couples, they would also help us the arc surrogacy— temporary use of clev i

. another's reproduct , u. ve capacity "n venous ntrol fhe is r of govoim ,

ton in lac* be the most unethca act of all —

preserve .;. ..'..' Te embryo n are small w>u :l e

. has also been introduced ootential benefits to the individual and Most of these newer mpro auction society am great DQ techniques have ruffled some elhicai feamem. and each merhosi has its-own

,'. ;ps , ., m'm mor. have voiced a claime! mf against

1 fhe-'.'u-nnaiuralne'ss' of the entire field and CONTRIBUTORS Dnnruii

: j-:AGONS? = r;

cally possible. Some of the most striking mortality rate, with the greatest beneficiaries Human life starts deep within the female body, where, shrouded in evidence comes from experiments indicat- being the very premature. In "The New mystery, male sperm fertilizes ing the can support a fetus in Art and Science of Nativity" (page 66) author the female ovum. The miraculous result: a the abdominal cavity, outside the womb. Douglas Starr examines the spate of knowl- single cell that divides and differentiates, But what man would want to experience edge that has revolutionized preemie of yielding, nine months later, a fully developed childbirth? Not Dick Teresi. "Despite the care. "Meeting the parents these infants heart-wrenching experience," Starr fetus nestled in the shelter of the womb. fact that Kathleen McAuiiffe and I worked was a But human reproduction has long been iogether very closely," he protests, "there is says. "Some are devastated. For others it's salvation. It's hard deciding how inefficient. Some women are simply unable no truth to the rumor that I am carrying their only

- to conceive. Others produce defective her baby. We're just good friends." But to feel about this kind of intensive care." embryos'or normal premature infants that there's a glint in McAuliffe's eyes. "I don't Complementing the theme of human birth cannot survive. Today, however, with the think the idea of men carrying babies was is "Cosmic Creation" (page 74), this advent of birth technologies, the historic very appealing to him initially," she says, month's pictorial fe-iu.r ng artist Helmut Wimmer's the birth of the solar nature of human birth is aboui to undergo "but it may be starting to grow on him." work on highlight the radical change. It wouldn't be surprising if the firsl system. Wimmer's paintings The area most revolutionized by advances successful male pregnancy occurred In process that began some 14 billion years the in technology is conception itself. And in Australia, which boasts some of the greatest ago with an explosion that spread "Birthtech" (page 90). Kathy Keeton, presi- advances in birth technology. But such a seeds of stars over the space of light-years. dent of Omni, and Yvonne Baskin, describe procedure would not involve Alan Trounson, But genesis isn't relegated only to the embryo transfer, cryopreservation, and even though his research into in vitro vastness of the cosmos or the shadows of other alternatives to natural conception. "I fertilizatiomand the freezing of human the womb, "In the rain forest, where the believe birth technology is the most exciting embryos has made him one of the world's plant life grows on and over itself, and even and most important thing happening for top fertility pioneers. In this month's in the concrete jungle, where the grass women," says Keeton, whose article is an Interview (page 82). features editor Robert pushes through the cracks," says science- excerpt from her recently published book, Weil succeeds in getting fhe internationally fiction writer Kate Wilhelm, "there is an Woman of Tomorrow. These breakthroughs acclaimed sheep embryologist to speak incredible compulsion to reproduce and may even enable women to have children candidly about his work, something he has grow." In "The Dragon Seed" (page 58) this force in the character later in life, much like the biblical character rarely done. "The most exciting part," Weil Wilhelm embodies . Sarah, who at age ninety conceived and says, "was observing the in vitro fertilization of the seemingly retarded Cory, who delivered a healthy child. process in action and learning that possesses a mystical ability to creaie life. Perhaps the most controversial future Trounson is about to perfect a technique In our second fiction entry, "Travels in the

birth scenario is male pregnancy. At first, that will freeze unfertilized human eggs." Inferior" (page 98), by Scott Russell Sanders, consulting edi:o- Oct Teres! and contribut- But conception is only one arena in two men plunge intoscark ungle and head ing editor Kathleen McAuiiffe were skepti- which new technologies are altering the toward amysierious mountain. Hounded cal, but in "Male Pregnancy" (page 50) notion of birth. The field of neonatology has by scavenger beasts, one man comes they report that male mothers are theoreti- made great strides in lowering the infant to terms with the darkness in himself. CQ s OMNI Introducing aNikon for total beginners who dorit planto stay that way

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Robuttal Lab Athletes "Ultra Sports" [August Richard Wolkomir's "Careers of the Future" I read with interest [September 1985] does an excellent job 1985], by Mark Teich and Pamela Weintraub. oi outlining employment trends in today's Although sports technology has only emerging technologies. No technology recently been accepted in the United States, exists in a vacuum, however, and predictions it has been used extensively in Soviet- technology, that fail to consider potential areas of bloc countries for years. Such resistance invariably turn out to be wrong. including the use of steroids, produced Wolkomir's suggestion that plastics such wonders as middle-distance runners two will replace wood for construction is who continue to improve after decades reminiscent of the argument of several of competition, a fifteen-year-old world- years ago that cotton and wool would soon champion weight lifter, and sixteen-year-old be obsolete. Are we really likely to stop female gymnasts who appear to be no using wood, a renewable domestic producl, more than nine or ten. This performance for plastic, which is not? has a downside, however, as life expectancies of Although il makes economic sense for evidenced by the short expensive industrial robots to replace Soviet athletes. highly paid auto workers, (he same doesn't Barry Willis hold true for minimum-wage jobs. Further- Atlanta more, robots aren't consumers, and neither

will humans be if they're unemployed. Gesundheit The profitability of automaton could easily In addition to the seven possible experi- be eroded by government robot-use taxes ences one might have in puzzle solving

to pay for swelling welfare rolls. [Games, August 1985], I believe I have Roland H. Priebe discovered an eighth: sneezing. of Chicago I had cut the T puzzle out of my copy Omni, manipulated the pieces every

The Doubting Dowser possible way, but try as l might, I couldn't turn "Water Witches" [September 1985], by solve it. I was just about to give up and

Richard Wolkomir, reminded me of my first to the answer page when I sneezed, dowsing experience, in 1958, at Purdue scattering the puzzle pieces. Suddenly

University. My fellow fraternity members and everything came together, and I assembled

it I— all of us young, aspiring engineers a perfectly shaped T Could be that I and scientists—were faced with the problem have discovered the ac/ioo experience? of having to dig up a substantial area Ned Anson around our house to find an inoperative St. Louis sewer line.

We all laughed when the plumbing Omni TV Series Seen Worldwide foreman asked for two wire coat hangers, The United States Information Agency is bent them into L shapes, and proceeded to deeply grateful to Omni president Kathy walk around the property. But suddenly Keeton for her generous donation of the the wires moved, and the foreman instructed prestigious television series Omni: The the backhoe operator to "dig here." Within New Frontier. moments the line was exposed, and we U.S. embassies in 30 countries have of influ- all rushed to find our own coat hangers to screened this series for audiences in the sciences, industry, see if we too had the "power." ential people education, ihe media. Clearly our Thanks for bringing back the memory. I and FOREIGN EDITION: had been one of the biggest skeptics partnership with you has benefited both '/?,'- ::.-p/gfl Ediiic-m country our friends overseas. there that day. Now I think I'll go outside our. and ia Company, Ltd.. 55 dera-Cho. Shin; Leo Jaffe, Chairman kyo 162; Germany: R. ion Omni, Waile and see if my old "power" can be rediscov- ingerPresss AG.Pc h. CH-8021, Zu ered. and help me find my water line. Television and Film Acquisition Committee Sw Tom Pearson United States Information Agency DECEMBER Effingham, IL New YorkOQ OMNI — .

DIALOGUE FDRUfUl

Omni welcomes speculation, theories, Hepperheime' m^nitvns ihat it would the best men and women and combating commentary, dissent, and questions from benefit [he human race to let cloning the worst? It may take a bit longer, but it readers in this open forum. We invite you become a common practice, but it seems seems a sater bet in ihe dream of an to use this column to voice your hopes to me that two-parent reproduction is improved human race. about the future and to contribute to the infinitely superior from a genetic viewpoint. Laurie Wandtke kind of info:: irovokes It is also proposed that cloning would Roseville, MN thought and generates breakthroughs. be a wonderful way to study the extent to Please note that we cannot return submis- which behavior is biologically determined. T A. Heppenheimer responds. Ms. Stanciiff, sions and that the opinion:: expressed here Despite his or her genesis, a cloned why do you place such trust in psycholo- are not necessarily those of the magazine. person would still be a human being — not gists? Do people need psychological

a laboratory rat. To create a human being screening before being allowed to have Cloning Controversy purely for research is not so much unethical children? Clones will have quirks, but many

T. A. Heppenheimer's First Word [July as it is inhumane. relationships feature shared quirks. 1985] makes some interesting points in Gary Heidt Clones are only as close as identical

favor of human cloning, but I disagree with Seabrook, TX twins; so a room of the child's own should some of his suggestions. take care of any privacy problems. As mentality Heppenheimer describes delayed I don't have anything against cloning for the throwaway you speak of, a

still twinning, in which half of a divided female . humans, but I disagree wi!n Heppenheimer's clone is a human being, not a material embryo is frozen and—years iater thinking on the subject. His statement that possession. Delayed twinning would be a implanted in the womb of its sexually mature your clone is not only like you but is you sort of baby insurance We often carry twin, who then gives-birth to a child who is false and absurd. Only I can be me. A hie insurance, which offers monetary is a clone of herself. clone may be an indistinguishable duplicate compensation for the loss of a loved one.

it is for replacing lost I suggest that anyone considering such of me, but is not me. Cloning a method a

; a procedure should irst be tested to .see I also disagree with the conclusions loved one with a baby that will, in time, be that she is free of psychological problems. Heppenheimer draws from University of that person's duplicate.

If she weren't, she would not be a suitable Minnesota psychologist David Lykken's Mr. Heidt. genetic stagnation would candidate for cloning. Personality quirks are research on identical iwris roared apart. become a problem only if cloning were total another problem. The cloned child would That work may have shown "a strong sense and universal. Even a little sexual repro- share the same guirks as its parent/twin, thai vastly more of human behavior is duction would maintain genetic diversity. causing problems in their relationship. It is genetically determined or influenced lhan What I a behavioral the unknown in our children that leaves we ever supposed," but il doesn't take studies give insight mio cloning, not that room for hope that they will be better inio account the considerable role played clones should be used in behavioral studies. than we were. by one's environment. As for a clone that "actually is you, " a Yet another problem for the clone would Heppenheimer's hypothetical Karen clone would, in reality, be an identical twin. be privacy, which is necessary for any wouldn't be anything like her delayed-twin Mr. Rea's point is well taken. child's maturation. How would you feel if clone, because the two would have grown Although Lykken's research on identical your parent were an exact duplicate of up in different decades. Such a time twins did indeed fina expected influences yourself, someone so similar to you that he difference would see major changes in that were caused by environment, what was or she probaby knew exactly what you society and would translate into significant surprising were the strong similarities he were thinking and feeling at all times? differences in behavior. found in twins reared apart, even in widely Heppenheimer also says that delayed Gary S. Rea differing environments. twinning could offer parents insurance Oklahoma Ci:y Ms. Wandtke, cloning is one more way to against the heartbreak of a child's early make babies, and every baby born is a death. Each child could have a clone, t can't help but feel more apprehension potential Hitler or a potential Gandhi. No, waiting on ice. r Icppcrneimer tails to realize, than excitement in regard to the prospect we're not better off settling for what we however, that every child is unique and of human cloning. True, cloning would have in the- here and now any more than cannot be replaced; what he suggests could provide the comfort of knowing that such we would have been a century ago, before lead .to a throwaway mentality, such as people as Mahatmrj Gandhi and Martin pasteurization, antibiotics, or vaccines. we now have with material goods. Why take Luther King could live again. But you could Cloning can be viewed as a tool, and the any special'precauticns with the original, also clone such demonic forces as Adolf better our tools the more effectively we can child? There's another one waiting. Hitler and Charles Manson. solve our problems. Cloning may prove to

Barbara Stand iff Wouldn't we be better off by working be a most valuable tool in the dream of Houston with what we have here and now, nurturing improving the human race.DO

16 OMNI —

PERPETUAL MOTION EARTH ByT. A. Heppenheimer

J^^few years ago in Belton, Texas, an the case of the inventor Karl Aegerter and Chandler with fraud, theft, and conspiracy. #^^fc inventor named Arnold Burke his attorney, Jackson Chandler. Aegerter "We've had experts analyze the m % built a perpetual-motion machine. built a 1,600-pound "aegerter motor," machine, and in their opinion, it was worth-

He called it Jeremiah 33:3, after the biblical which he and Chandler claimed generated less," said prosecutor James Green. But passage: "I will answer thee and show more energy than it consumed. Essentially, despite the evidence, the so-called inventors thee great and mighty things, which thou the motor featured a long tube fed with were acquitted. "The jury, actually believed knowest not." His great and mighty thing compressed air from an outside source. The the machine delivered more power than was a 200-gallon water tank, 12 feet tall. compressed air turned a propeller, and went into it," complained Green. "I know Water spilling from the top turned an the energy produced by the propeller was because. they told me so." electricity-generating turbine. Then, to get siphoned off for use. But the latest and most successful of the water back into the tank, Burke relied Aegerter and Chandler described their these inventors is Joseph Newman, of on "energy-free submersible pumps," motor as "the power energy source of Lucedale, Mississippi. Newman has devel- the heart of his invention. With this, he the world for all times." But to those in the oped what his patent application calls an attracted $800,000 from investors." know, proof of that claim rested in the "Energy Generation System Having Higher After an investigation showed that a machine's true perpetual-motion ability Energy Output Than Input." Proficient in hidden wire led from the "energy-free the. ability to run itself. The means seemed neither math nor physics, he explains his pumps" to an electrical outlet, the state obvious: Why not forget about compressed machine with a unified field theory, he- attorney general charged Burke with theft air from an outside source and simply recently developed on his own: "All matier and perjury. But at his trial, Burke said connect the two ends of the lube so that is made up of one entity," says Newman, he had replaced his special pumps with the same air could travel around and around. "This ingenious principle is so simple it standard electrically driven ones only The air would run with energy produced befuddles ihe mind." to protect his secret from prying eyes. He by the machine itself. Newman calls this entity, which allegedly was acquitted. Even when the duo said they couldn't runs his machine, the gyroscopic particle. "We had reasonable doubt of the figure out how to connect the two ends of "There is no instrument made that can defendant's guilt." the jury foreman declared. the tube, investors, who put up $850,000, weigh or see it," he explains. What is this

"The Lord's will was done," said Burke. remained convinced. Not so the district particle's mass? "I haven't concerned

More recently, in Los Angeles, there was attorney, who charged Aegerter and myself with that," he says. "I don't give a hoot about maihematics."

The essence of the Newman machine is an electric motor powered by batteries and featuring a 600-pound rotating magnet. The gyroscopic particles slowly turn the magnet's mass into energy, says Newman. These particles, he adds, are also respon- sible for tornadoes, dowsing, and ESR Why hasn't Newman run the machine on ifs own energy, proving beyond the shadow of a dotot that is pcoetual-motion

capability is real? "That's an unthinking question," says the inventor, who insists the term perpetual motion does not apply to his generator. "The problem we have now is that the machine produces too much

energy— if it ran on its own power it would be overloaded or destroyed." Electrical engineer Karl W. Carlson, of Mississippi State University, has a different point of view. Carlson, who tested the

Newman motor in March 1983, found it to be between 55 and 76 percent efficient; most normal motors, he notes, are between 75 and 95 percent efficient. -macrynejnveri'O', conir-j v;:!h his brzincn.-d. But Newman has looked elsewhere for

CONTINUED ON PAGE 154 ISLAND MADNESS

By James E. Oberg

J^^ tiny speck in the vast Pacific and adding special shuttle guidance during the construction of such a base. #i^^l Ocean. Easter Island has become equipment. But the Soviet Union's reaction The Americanization of life on the island will M % the focus of a cosmic-scale has caused both the United States and inflict rreparable damage." dispute. One of the most isolated areas on Chile some concern. The Soviets have little— if any— basis for Earth—2,200 miles from Chile, the nearest From the moment this NASA project their arguments. The Chilean government land— it is still partially shrouded in the became public. Moscow papers and radio insists that laws protecting archaeological mists of its past. The origins of its giant stone stations fired a steady stream of accusa- areas will be strictly enforced. "None of statues remain a mystery to this day. But tions at NASA and the Chilean government. these modifications will affect the historical the island has recently been thrust into the The Soviets contend that the project is treasures for which Isla de Pascua is international spotlight. actually an effort to establish a nuclear- famous," says a NASA spokesman.

In mid-1985, NASA announced that it armed military base on the island. On July Furthermore, the guidance equipment to was negotiating with Chile—which owns the 11, Moscow radio commentator Igor Chari- be installed is hardly appropriate for

46-square-mi!e island it calls Isla de kov claimed that 'American experts have navigating missiles— the system is currently

Pascua—for the right to establish an determined that from there [Easter Island] used in civilian airliners. It will be installed emergency space shuttle landing facility it will .be very convenient to control the in the existing Mataveri Airport tower and there. The port's function would be highly accuracy of guidance of nuclear missiles." operated by Chilean officials. U.S. officials specitic: to accommodate shuttles launched The Soviets have even gone so far as will spend very little time on the island. from Vandenburg Air Force Base. If a to say that the setting up ot an Air Force Just prior to a launch from Vandenburg, a spaceship lost power during its ascent and base will turn the island into a U.S. colonial NASA team will arrive on Isla de Pascua to the mission had to be aborted, the crew enclave. According to a report issued check out the equipment and communica- could make an emergency dive to the by the news agency Tass, "Washington's tions link. As soon as the spaceship is prepared landing strip. encroachment upon the island cannot safely in orbit, they will pack up and go.

Within a few months, both governments be regarded otherwise than an encroach- The worry is that the Soviets' faulty reached an agreement, and according ment upon the asset of the whole of assumptions may unduly alarm other to official announcements, the Chileans mankind. . . . Invaluable monuments in the countries that have consented to act as promised to upgrade Easter Island's natural open-air museum will be destroyed. hosts for aborted shuttle missions. These Mataveri Airport by extending its runway and the island's ecology will be disrupted- include Argentina, Zaire, Turkey, and Japan. Such emergency-landing agreements are fundamental to the survival of the space program. In the event of a critical mechani- cal failure, human lives could depend on such cooperation. Thus far, the Chileans are continuing to honor their agreement, although a group of Chileans protesting the treaty did hold a demonstration in July. The first launch from Vandenburg is slated for spring 1986.

Airport modifications will still be under way at that point, but there will be navigation aids and lights to guide the shuttle should the launch be aborted. By the time the

second polar mission is made, next fall, the runway extension should be completed.

Although it's highly unlikely that astronauts will ever have to make an emergency landing on Easter Island, such preparations are easy to justify. And there's a rather simple way for the Soviets to finally assuage their fears of a U.S. military presence on the Isla de Pascua; They could send an inspection team to see whether the landing strip would be useful to cosmonauts as n calm the Soviets. well as to astronauts.OQ — "

LISTENING IN THE WOMB

By Martha Nelson

J of ter Parents have known for a long time result experiences a Dim. It looked vowel and consonant sound." In work now that kids find Dr. Seuss's classic as if whatever caused this preference under way DeCasper hopes to pinpoint iale. The Cat in the Hat, irresistible. was prenatal." which part ot the auditory experience Now the cat has found his way into science. To explore that possibility, DeCasper and babies are remembering. Using the verse to test babies' recall of Spence askeo pregnant volunteers to For the moment, though, the most prenatal expo no nee. psychologists Anthony read The Cat in the Hat aloud twice a day promising use oi the new "fetal psychology" DeCasper ane Iv'olanie Spsnce made during the last sx wee^s cf their oregnan- lies in the care of premature infants. Dr. some intriguing discover- es that may help cies. A few days after birth, the babies Norman Krasnegor, chief of the Human doctors learn how to better care for prema- were offered a choice of two tapes: the Learning and Behavior Branch at the ture infants. Their research also has some mother reading The Cat in the Ha! or another National Institutes of Health, sees ways in interesting implications for Ihe development rhyme with a different rhythm. Ten out of which DeCasper's research may aid of the . the 12 infants tested chose the story their neonatologists. More sophisticated medical DeCasper, a professor at the University mothers had read to them in the womb. technology has allowed tnsse specialists of North Carolina, in Greensboro, began to It appeared as if the babies had learned the to save babies who weigh as little as 2.2 work with infanls n [he Seventies, explor- s'tory, or more precisely, says DeCasper, pounds, infants who earlier could not have

; ing the auditory functioning of newborns, "somCtnhg registered be cro birth, and survived. "But." explains Krasnegor, "we who. he points out. "have a highly developed something was retained after birth." But he know only that babies who are born sense of hearing at birih." He and psychol- cautions, "This doesn't mean that the prematurely frequently have problems later ogist Earl Butterfieid designed an ingenious baby understood. It doesn't mean that the in life with perception, learning, or growth. communication system for "asking" babies baby can learn ABCs or that it learned What we don't know yet is which babies will about their preferences. An infant wears to understand what the cat did." In fact, he survive with minimal insult and which ones tiny headphones, which are attached points out, researchers have yet to will have lifelong deficits, if we can begin to

; to two different tape recorders, andis given discover just what aspect Of the poetry the understand tnat. we w i begin to know a pressure-sensitive nipple, also attached child recalled. It may be. he explains, "it what kind of care and attention to give to the recorders. By changing its pattern was simply the repetition of the word car, or premature infants." or timing of sucking, the newborn child- it may be the pattern of different words, DeCasper realizes that rghi-to-life groups not yet capable of speech, nodding, point- or the rhythm, the tempo, or some particular may use his work to support their political ing, or any more complex means of indicat- stance against abortion. But, says ing preference—can choose which tape DeCasper, "my research doesn't bear on it wants to hear. DeCasper and Butterfieid the question of abortion in any direct way. discovered that the babies they tested From a biological point of view there is showed strong preferences, preferring no doubt that the conceptus [embryo] is a instrumental music to white noise (a human one. That is not a moral position. nondescript static noise), and singing It's a fact. The political, social, and moral voices to instrumental music. concerns have to do with something less In another study, DeCasper, with factual: When does the biological being colleague William Filer began to test babies' develop a status such that we are willing to responses to their mothers' voices. He call t a oerson?" offered the newborns two choices: the DeCasper's work, however, may have mother reading To Think That I Saw It on direct implications for the creation of an Mulberry Street, by Dr. Seuss, and another artificial womb. "Imagine the typical day for woman reading ihe same verse. In signifi- the fetus inside the mother," explains cant numbers, the infants preferred the DeCasper. "She's lying down, she gets up, sound of their own mothers' voices. In she takes a bath, she talks, she sings, variations on the study, Fifer looked for she eats, she drinks. If all of this stimulation differences between infants who were produced by ihe mother's activity—gusta- breasl-ted or bottle-fed, between those who tory, auditory, visual, olfactory—plays a were separated from the mother after birth role in development, then substituting and those with her continuously. who were an artificial womb may be inadequate, I Despite the differences, the child's prefer- can't speak about the year 2000 or 2050, ence for the mother's voice was consistent. he continues, "but it does seem to me

It seemed, says DeCasper, "as if the that the best vessel for a human preference for the mother's voice was not a Scriift osfees may 'f.'coi: iovnds from tr,e womb being will continue to be a human being."DO 24 OMNI .

LIFE SIGNS nniruD

By Paul Bagne

centerpiece of a controversial surrounding environment or to pain; if tant oeierm na-n ir oecid.ag when life

Theanti film, Scream, doctors detect no spontaneous movement: begins. "The brain is the seat of human abort ion The Silent

is a ghostly image of a fetus as it and if the brain shows no electrical activity. consciousness and the controller of all other is being aborted. In (he ultrasound movie an The machine that helps determine the organs," argues Dr. John Goldenring, a abortionist's catheter draws close to the moment of death is the electroencephalo- professor of adolescent medicine at Mew twelve-week-old fetus and, bit by bit, sucks graph. With input from electrodes pasted to York Medical College "If the brain is

: out pieces of its tiny two-inch body. The a person's scalp, ihe instrument amplifies unct on:ng, you are alive." narrator, obstetrician Bernard Nathanson, the brain's eleotr city arc records it as Goldenring proposed a brain-wave says the fetus "does sense aggression" an electroencephalogram (EEG). a squiggly guideline in an article for the International and makes s "pathetic attempt' to escape. readout on graph paper. Depending on Journal o! Medical Ethics. He argues "Nonsense," challenges Clifford the individual and his age. the EEG may that science should decide once and for all Grobstein, a developmental biologist at the detect anywhere from 20 to 100 microvolts. on a consistent standard for when life

University of California, San Diego. When a person dies, the brain's ends and when it begins. Grobstein questions the film's suggestion synapses stop working, and electrical "I'm talking about a medical definition that that the electrical activity of the fetal brain activity drops below two microvolts. On can be used at any time," Goldenring can be interpreted to mean the fetus thinks paper/the squiggly pattern flattens out. says. 'At some point in utero, a live and and feels. 'At that stage of life the brain Medically, a flat EEG indicates brain death active brain is present." isn't developed enough to allow the embryo and signals doctors to unplug a patient's Because distinct electrical activity only to anticipate anything." He believes the life-support systems or to remove any begins after cell structures for all parts fetus withdraws from the catheter in a organs the patient had listed for donation, of Ihe nervous system are in place, he says reflexive action. Brody suggests that science use the the key to arriving at some definition of

"Nonetheless," he continues, "the same criteria as brain-life guidelines. If the lite is determining when brain waves appear. embryo-fetus reacts. There may be primitive patient is still responsive, in his brain In the growing fetus, the brain appears forms of sensitivity we don't know anything waves or any of the life signs, he is consid- to stir and to generate signals of activity as about." Grobstein is one of a small but ered to be neurologically alive. early as eight weeks after conception. growing group of scientists and ethicists Some have suggested that the presence But coherent, recognizable wave patterns who think it's time to study the developing of brain waves should be the most impor- do not seem to appear until seven or brain more intensively. Information like eight months alter concoct-on. By then, this could help answer one of the most basic researchers can tell from EEGs when the questions in science: When does a fertil- unborn chile s awake or aseep. They ised egg become more than just live tissue? can even decipher REM. or rapid-eye-

When is it considered human? movement. sleep wnich indicates dreaming.

"It's not a religious question," asserts (This also suggests that late in fetal life, Paul Ramsey, professor emeritus of religion the nervous system is advanced enough to at Princeton University. "It is a scientific construct and retain memories.) decision." And each advance in fetal and But brain waves alone cannot be used to reproductive medicine creates a greater decide when life begins, according to need for an answer. One fetus may be Grobstein. "They are gross characteristics aborted while another the same age is we do not fully understand," he says. delivered as a premature baby; some "One also has to look at when synapses, researchers want to operate on a fetus in neurons, and neurotransmitters appear." the womb, while others want to experiment Before researchers can offer the equivalent on embryos or to freeze them for storage of a brain-life standard, they have to learn in tertility clinics. more about fetal brain development. Some We need a definition of life as consistent information —when brain cells and nerve as the one we now have for death, accord- structures first appear, for example—can be ing to Baruch Brody. director of the Baylor gleaned from studying dead embryos. University Center for Ethics. His suggestion But researchers also must determine when is modeled after the brain-death guidelines these cells begin to function. "There is a established bylhe Harvard Medical School bit of a problem here." says Brody. "We can in 1968. According to these criteria, a do that kind of research only on a living person is considered medically dead if, for fetus, and in the course of doing those tests,

F-j-:'!i 'A'r,en :r- example, he does not respond to the : zed egg. we might find out that what we have

26 OMNI PACE \Z2 NO MORE MEN THE BDDM By Dr. Jeremy Cherfas

firs: genes essent for developing the A I iihin a population of male and men. The is the rncst w cey discussed: provides s II female animals happily repro- Remove the nucleus, with its genetic placenta, which, strictly speaking, is not U \m ducing by means of , a blueprint, from an adult woman's cell and part of the embryo, while the mother pro- itself. mutant female arises, one who can sidestep place it into an egg to develop again into a vides genes needed by the embryo males and still have young. Her offspring complete person. A second technique That might seem like the end of the line are all who can reproduce withoul involves fusing two separate eggs, each for asexual reproduction in humans, but sex— by a process called parthenogenesis with its half ration of genes, into a single, I doubt it. One technique being used (virgin birth). Because she produces no viable whole. The third one requires the for domestic animals, for instance, might sons, the lemale gives birth to iwice as genes of an unfertilized egg to double up overcome the problem by providing the egg many daughters as the other females do. A before proceeding to normal embryonic with a surrogate placenta. The placenta very few generations later every female development. Each of these methods has develops from the outer layer of the fertilized in the group is reproducing asexually. been the subject ol experimentation. egg. This external wall of the embryo is Males have become a memory. Already the research has uncovered at called the trophoblast. The embryo itself the males I'm referring to in this popula- least one major roadblock to cloning in develops from the inner-cell mass, contained tion are not men, but one day this fate humans. According to a team at the Institute within the trophoblast. may befall the males of our species. Already, of Animal Physiology, in Cambridge, Normally, of course, the trophoblast and artificial insemination by donor gives England, both maternal and paternal the inner-cell mass both grow from the scientists women who want it the freedom to avoid contributions are apparently vital to the same fertilized egg. Bl: have men entirely. In vitro fertilization offers development of ihe fetus. Eggs with two sets transferred the inner cell mass from a the same freedom to women whose repro- of maternal genes do develop, but they sheep zygote into the emptied trophoblast ductive equipment is not fully functional. fail to grow an adequate support system. of a goat, implanted the concoction into But both processes require men as sources The tissues thai make :he placenta, which a goat, and ended up with a perfectly not normal lamb. Ordinarily trophoblast of sperm. What I am talking about is nourishes the growing embryo, do a sheep cloning—women reproducing without any form properly. Eggs with two sets ol paternal would not form a placenta in a goat's contribution from men whatsoever. genes, by contrast, grow a functioning . But by hiding the sheep's inn.er-cell There are three basic cloning techniques placenta, but the embryo itself does not mass in a goat trophoblast, the researchers father hybrid in the that women might use to dispense with develop well. The conclusion: The . created a which goat placenta, attached to a goat uterus, nourished a sheep embryo.

What has this to do with cloning'' 1 believe that a similar process could enable a woman to clone herself. We know that a

purely maternal zygote would fail because

it would not develop a proper placenta.

If, however, one could slip the cloned zygote into the empty trophoblast of a normal fertilized egg. the result would be a cloned female embryo, supported by a

normal placenta: in other words, the successful cloning of a woman.

This would not be a "natural" process. It would require" costly high-tech medical

engineering. But it could be done. Of course, to get ihe trophoblasts, the women would need fertilized eggs, and that means a

supply of sperm would still be needed but not much of one. We men may not be

entirely dispensable (yet), but it is surely only a matter of time.DQ

Dr. Jeremy Cheries,. along w;;h Dr. John Gribhen, 'S Ihe. coauthor of T'ie Redundant Male,

If human maim; go :ne i-vffy .:;. ihe o':ncsaui and dodo h;:'d. vshere :v:ii t&biei, c published by Pantheon Books. 28 OMNI MENDING MYOPIA EREAHTHRDUEH5 By Scott Kariya

I ^* | hen Robert Mucci decided to 15 sessions spscec over a period oi several objects, the c iary muscle relaxes and the

' I I become a New York City tire months, patients look into the device and lens adjusts accordingly. Research mJ vv iighler, he knew one thing "train" their eyes to focus for longer distances indicates that prolonged contraction may could stop him. City regulations required simply by listening to the change in tones. trigger a muscle to spasm. The muscle firemen to have uncorrected vision of at Although Trachtman's technique does is unable to relax, and the person becomes least 20/40, Mucci's was 20/400. In desper- not eliminate the need for corrective lenses myopic. This explains why students, ation, he appealed for help from his lor all patients, clinical nessjrements of professors, proofreaders, and other people optometrist. Joseph Trachtman, a vision- more than 100 subjects confirm reduction who read frequently and for extended training specialist. After considering the of myopia in almost all cases. Many patients periods often report sudden deterioration problem, Trachtman put Mucci through a with tested vision of 20/200 ended their in their visual acuity. series ot tests with a machine he had sessions at 20/40, good enough to pass The Accommotrac provides audible invented while writing his doctoral thesis on driver's license vision tests in many states. feedback whenever the ciliary muscle reducing myopia, or nearsightedness. The system has already won over many relaxes. During the sessions, patients learn Twenty sessions later, Mucci passed the respected experts, including Paul Berman, how to control the relaxation of the ciliary vision test for fire fighters with a measured an eye consultant to the U.S. Olympic muscle, thereby gaining long-distance score of 20/40. Committee and the New Jersey Nets. vision. Although prevailing medical opinion Today, three years later, Trachtman has The second most common human affec- holds fhat myopia is most often the result patented the device, called the Accommo- tion next to tooth decay, nearsightedness of structural malformation, the overwhelming trac Vision Trainer, and has already sold often results from such structural defects as success of the Accommotrac suggests 20 units— at $18,000 each—to specially an elongation of the eyeball. This condition that the muscle control learned may even trained optometrists- and ophthalmologists. can be corrected only by surgery, if at compensate for physiological conditions.

Sales are expected to double this year. all. But nearsightedness can also be caused According to Trachtman, fhe skill of

Built on biofeedback techniques, the by environmental influences that can be controlling the muscle is never lost, though Accommotrac consists of a harmless infra- reversed. Extendec c osc work, such a refresher course may be needed two red light system that measures the focus as reading, causes the ciliary muscle in the or three years after the sessions are of the eye, and a tone generator that eye to contract, thereby allowing the lens completed. Accommotrac success stories provides instant, audible feedback. During to focus on nearby objects. To see distant should be able to see their way clearly

to such a repeat performance, especially if

it means being able to see clearly without the aid of corrective lenses. NEW PRODUCTS

For storing both moving and still images.

optical voeoo : sKs are the wave of the future: A single disk can hold an astonishing 24,000 pictures. And any image can be retrieved instantly— in less than one second— at the touch of a key. Now Hitachi

is selling the first in a new generation of videodisk machines that not only play back but also record. A standard video camera

is used to take the picture. The recorder encodes the image— in either black and white or color— onto a blank eight-inch optical disk. The recordings have a 13- minute, 20-second maximum length. Two things, however, may keep the system out of the average home. First, this cutting-

edge technology is not cheap: $30,000; and second, you can't record over a used disk. (Available from Hitachi Ltd,, Hitachi Atago Building. Nishi-Shinbashi 2-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105. Japan. )OQ DEMYSTIFIED DATA ARTIFICIAL IfUTELLIGErUCE By Owen Davies

trouble with computers is that things they are. they require users to follow 600 databases, li charges for answers to online. Theusing most of them is sometimes as exact procedures, to phrase their your questions, not for time spent

it learn dozens complicated as it is helpful. Lately, questions in precisely the right way, before And spares you the need to though, companies have begun to demystify they'll yield up their secrets. These proce- of search procedures — or even one. one of the most confusing corners of dures and query languages can be Just call the database's toll-free number computerdom—the world of online enormously complex, and there are almost (1-800-EasyNet). You can tell EasyNet to search. can call databases. If you've ever had an important as many of them as there are databases. which database Or you expert that question you couldn't answer, it's a devel- Furthermore, to use a database, you for help from an system can question, decide which opment worth checking. must sign up for it with an online vendor, a study your database Online databases are computerized firm that specializes in marketing is most likely to hold the answer, and guide reference libraries that you can summon databases over the telephone. There are you to it through a series of well-planned with a telephone call. All it takes is your hundreds of them, and even the largest menus. EasyNet's computer automatically into computer, an inexpensive modem to link it offer access to only a small fraction of the translates your questions the language withthe phone lines, and a communica- databases being published. the database expects to hear. tions program to operate Ihe modem. And they are seldom cheap. Database EasyNet charges a fixed fee of eight Once online, you'll discover information on prices start at around $10 per hour of dollars per search. For this, you receive up an astonishing variety of topics, If you use and soar into the hundreds of dollars to ten bibliographic citations or 500 lines want to know about stocks and bonds, per hour. Suddenly, though, databases are ot full-text newspaper or magazine articles.

medicine, thoroughbred horses, or the best becoming cheaper, easier to access, If there is more, you pay another eight

restaurants in Dallas, you can find it in an and easier to use. The credit goes to two dollars for each ten citations or 500 lines of online database. The selection is growing new online services: EasyNet, from Telebase published material. But if the search rapidly. There are more than 3,000 Systems, of Narberth, Pennsylvania, and comes up empty, there is no charge. databases just a few keystrokes away, Business Computer Network (BCN), of San BCN charges only ten dollars per month triple the number only three years ago. Antonio. Each manages to cut the cost as a minimum fee, but subscribers must

The trouble is, they're all different. and complexity of information searching. learn the native languages of the databases Computers being the none -too -bright At last count, EasyNet offers about they use and pay their standard fees for time in use. The emphasis is on the conve- nience of having a single source for hundreds of bases and on ihe chance to avoid costly sign-up fees. BCN estimates

that signing up for all the databases they offer would cost more than S3, 500; most waive the fee for BCN subscribers. It's.clear that both these systems are only foretastes of wonders to come.

"Because we have all these databases available in one place we can do enormously

exciting things," says EasyNet's Marvin I, Weinberger. "We can build hundreds of

little information boutiques.

"For example, if you are an engineer who needs patent information, you would have had to go to Dialog, STC, Pergamon, Questel, and other vendors, each offering more or less unique pieces of the puzzle.

Now you can find them all with one call, "We can tailor an information boutique to individual needs," he concludes. "You've

heard the saying, 'Don't worry about a little

luxury; it'll become a necessity by and

by.' That's the way it will be with online

taperhuman skills. information services in just a few years. "DO —

FILM THE ARTS By Mitch Tuchman

The Defiant Ones it was a black convict human relations and the eternal verities. mankind travels effortlessly through space, In(Sidney Poilier) and a white convict The hidden assumption here is that although colonizing galaxies, mining their minerals (Tony Curtis) chained together, hating culture, period, or planet may change, the in compeiition with the Dracs, the only each other, compelled to cooperate in substance of morality does not. (The other known race of intelligent beings. The order to survive. For its year, 1958, it was a assumption ilself is culture bound, if not result of this competition is war. In a one- bold allegory of racism, written pseudony- earthbound, but then we are probably not on-one aerial dogfight, Davidge and Shigan mously by Nedrick Young, a blacklisted yet producing films for other planets.) plummet to inhospitable Fyrine IV, where screenwriter, and Harold J. Smith. In Hell in Brotherhood is an obvious theme. So is any their war continues. Ultimately, however, they the Pacific (1968) the tale about racism story in which the members of one cullure must make a truce, and that truce became a tale about war. Lee Marvin was observe or come into conflict with members becomes understanding: that understand- the American G.I. and Toshiro Mifune, of another: Gulliver's Travels, for instance. ing, friendship. the Japanese soldier stranded on a Pacific Indeed, almost any picture directed by After certain production difficulties, isiand at the end of World War II. Enemies, John Boorman— like Hell in She Pacific, director Richard Loncraine left the picture, they must cooperate in order to survive. The Deliverance, Leo the Last, or The Emerald and Wolfgang Peterson, director of Das plots vary slightly, but the allegory remains Forest—falls into this category. What does Boot, was hired in his place. "Peterson gave the same. not work are stories that lack these films' an interview in which he said quite plainly

And now there is Enemy Mine. Willis sociological conflict. Purely psychological that Enemy Mine was the best screenplay Davidge (Dennis Quaid) is the pilot from dramas, in which !he broader assumptions of he'd ever read in his life," says screenwriter

planet Earth. Jeriba Shigan (Louis Gossett, society are shared by all characters Ed Khmara. "I choose to believe that. I

Jr.) is the pilot from planet Dracon. Having soap operas, backstage musicals, and don't want to imply that this is a message pornography, would picture," destroyed each other's aircraft, they land among others— be Khmara continues, "and I don't simultaneously on the uninhabited planet pointless remade as . want to imply that it's a preachy story,

Fyrine IV, and, though enemies, they are The immediate source material for Enemy because it isn't, but this story ultimately is forced to cooperate to survive. Mine is an 85-page novella by Barry concerned with the fact that to have Remade motion pictures are by no means Longyear, published in 1982 in a collection enemies, we must dehumanize human unusual. Literary classics are especially called Manifest Destiny. One hundred beings. We must put them into a different apt to be remade. There have been half a years from now, according to that taie, mold before we can. kill, maim, and hijack dozen versions of Crime and Punishment, a them. There have been a lot of stories dozen of Camifle, and Hamlets without about that, but this takes a creature that is number. Transpositions from one genre to not human and shows that under the skin, another are almost as common. Dramas the scales, the strange body, he is very become comedies, and comedies become human after all." musicals. Pictures change period and Khmara was aware of the similarities gender (Cinderfeila). The early Seventies between his story and Hell in the Pacific were rife with remade melodramas in which when he began, and he has since been black actors were substituted for white. asked to write SF glosses of other standards, Crossovers to science fiction are not quite among them Treasure Island and The so common, but neither are they rare. Treasure of Sierra Madre. "It's an old idea. High Noon became Outland. Battle You can do Hamlet as a Western: The Beyond the Stars is recognizable as The king becomes a cattle baron, the drifter

Seven Samurai. The only aspect of Star comes to town to visit his mother. It's easy

Wars not widely publicized was its basis in to do that, but it doesn't necessarily add

Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. anything. What's imporfant is that science Undoubtedly best known to film buffs, fiction enables us to look at things in a however, is Forbidden Planet, a 1956 new way. If we did this story about an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. American and an Iranian terrorist, it would What kinds of slories are most amenable be called exploitation, but science fiction to translation to SF? In a word, the sim- objectifies those things. We were able plest: the journey, the quest, the battle royal. to do what you could never do in The Defiant Moby Dick is a natural. So is Rambo. Ones or Hell in the Pacific: We could go The second great category, of which in new directions because we didn't have Enemy Mine is an example, is the allegory, to obey the rules of physics or anything with its schematic, universalist view of Das Boot's Peterson Aliens c. else except dramatic continuity." DO 36 OMNI MOON MYSTERY

j Terence Dickinson

of ^^fter the Apollo astronauts brought system. If you undc-rstanc how these were years, the thousands asteroids had #^^fc nearly a ion of lunar material formed, then the origin of the moon is become concentrated into a swarm of some § » back to Earth, many astronomers something that is going to flow from them." 500 mountain-size bodies called planetesi- thought the long-sought answer to the Wetherill, director of the department of mals. Through repeated collisions, the riddle of the moon's origin was at hand. But terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie planetesimals continued to build into today, 14 years after the last moonwalk, institution of Washington, in Washington, increasingly larger bodies, protoplanets, the same three theories that were in vogue DC, arrived at his conclusion after perform- about the size of Mercury or Mars. prior to Apollo are still being debated. Is ing the most detailed computer simulation Some of these objects might have been the moon: (a) Earth's sister, born simulta- yet of the formation of the planets Mercury, gargantuan, having as much as three neously from the solar nebula in a process Venus, Mars, and Earth. times the mass of Mars. Any object that called coaccretion; (b) Earth's daughter. He began by simulating conditions that collided with the object that was to be a by-product fissioned from a rapidly existed some 4.6 billion years ago.Then Earth became part of the planet. rotating primordial Earth; or (c) our planet's ihe sun was a much younger, hotter star, The heat generated by impacts would adopted cousin, a stray object gravitation- having just recently contracted from a have melted substantial portions of whatever ally captured by Earth? massive cloud of dust and gas. The young hit the nascent planet. Debris from bofh By taking a different approach to the sun's radiant energy had pushed the the earth and Ihe impacting body would problem, a major study offers a fourth lighter gases from the inner solar system have vaporized and splashed into nearby explanation: that the moon is the final outward, while heavier particles, less space, that could have lingered in Earth's remnant of a collision between Earth and a affected by solar energies, settled into an orbit, says Wetherill, and eventually smaller planet. "Posing the problem [ot orbit around the sun. coalesced into the moon. the moon's origin] in terms of coaccretion, WetheriU's computer simulations, ten in There is some evidence to support ihe fission, or capture is not the right way to all, suggested that the heavier particles theory. The Apollo moon rocks reveal that address the question," says George coalesced gradually into increasingly larger while some of the lunar material is from Wetherill, who conducted the study. "The chunks of matter as they bumped into an unearthly source, some does resemble Formation of the moon should -be addressed one another in their orbits around the sun. the earth's crust. The unearthly elements,

in the framework of the formation of the After about 100,000 years a huge asteroid says Wetherill, could have come from terrestrial planet, if not the whole solar belt encircled the sun. After 10 million the projectile that hit our planet. So far his study has received generally good reviews from planetary scientisis. ("I've gotten a lot of requests for reprints, and no one has argued with me so far") But no one, including Wetherill, thinks the riddle has been solved once and for all. "It's possible that ten years from now,

planetary scientists will be arguing over

four theories, but I hope not." HALLEY'S HOT LINE

Science writer and amateur astronomer

Fred Schaaf is trying to get momentum behind a grassroots -xvement called Dark Skies for Comet Halley, or DSCH. Shaaf's aims: to get municipalities to turn down outdoor lights so that city dwellers can glimpse the famous visitor during March and April, and to increase awareness of how light pollution from outdoor lighting

is' crippling astronomy. Those interested can subscribe to the newsletter DSCH Journal (four dollars per year). For more information, write to the Astronomical League, Department DSCH, Box 12821. Tucson, AZ 85732. CM conjTiruuunn

THE ULTIMATE BRAIN TRIP

ack in the Seventies, Hollywood special-effects ex- public reaction to a movie like Indiana Jones and the Temple of

^P pert Douglas Trumbull set out on a mission to en- Doom, if Showscan were used one day for gory or violent films, *jfc hance the motion-picture experience. This master of there could be a clamor from parents for a new kind of rating sys- ItaMHP special visuals—who over the years has contributed tem. Today some theme-park thrill rides carry warnings to people his expertise to such movies as 2001, Close Encounters of the with heart problems. Will doctors suggest that some patients avoid Third Kind, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture—created a powerful Showscan's visual-roller-coaster effect? new image system called Showscan. Showscan also creates a feeling of voyeurism in its audiences. While tinkering with the film speed standard of 24 frames pet Voyeurism, along with stimulation—another Showscan effect—are second {fps), Trumbull discovered that motion pictures photo- the very responses that most "adult" moviemakers are trying to graphed and projected at faster speeds created some surprising achieve. So it would appear that Showscan and pornography would special effects on viewers. Subjects in lab tests reported that 60- make very likely bedfellows. But this is not likely to happen consid- fps images were mofe vivid and real than those offered by stan- ering Trumbull's reputation and the company's desire to limit the movies. Recalling early dard those experiments, Trumbull explains system to mainstream entertainment. But if such a movie were that "by substantially increasing the frame rate up to about sixty ever produced, the battle over pornography would no doubt heat fps, you can create tremendously increased physiological stimu- up even further, raising new issues relating to censorship—this lation of human beings." The evidence pointed to an important time of a technology. revelation: The 60-fps rate approximated the speed at which the Showscan also has a growing fist of applications outside the eye receives information and transmits it to the brain. This helps world of entertainment. It's not surprising that Trumbull has been explain why the space between the Showscan viewer and the approached by the defense establishment, which is interested in screen seems to disappear, making audience members feel as if using Showscan for its own purposes, So far, Trumbull has de- they have become part of the image. clined to work on battlefield simulations but acknowledges that Trumbull's discovery has been refined over the years, and today Showscan "could be used as a very manipulative medium." Showscan offers vivid, highly realistic images in 70-millimeter Trumbull is, however, encouraging the use of Showscan for ed- widescreen accompanied by a superb sound system. The pri- ucation. He is reaching out into the academic community to estab- mary goal of Trumbull and his financial backers is to move the lish nonprofit organizations that will test and later use his 60-fps system into the commercial motion-picture mainstream. system as a teaching tool. Showscan's creator even predicts that Movies that Trumbull would like to see shot in Showscan are tests "will prove that if you put educational material on Showscan "experiential adventure films that will either have a lot of special on a big screen with powerful sound, students will retain substan- effects or race-car driving or something that tends to exploit the tially more information than they would from any other way of medium," It's interesting to note that Trumbull had originally planned teaching." An enthusiastic supporter of Showscan in the aca- to shoot the brain-tripping sequences in his movie Brainstorm in demic community is Kenneth Brecher, professor of astronomy and Showscan, but the plan was eventually scrapped. More important, physics at Boston University. Brecher would like to see Showscan the powerful effect of Showscan leads to speculation as to how used to produce high-impact science-and-technology movies to viewers may react to other types of fifms that could exploit the draw students into the currently depleted ranks of university sci- in medium other ways. ence majors, This BU professor is especially interested in exam- What kind of effect would a Showscan horror movie, for exam- ining the psychological effects associated with Showscan and how ple, have on audiences? A Friday the 13th, Part 10 produced in "they can be used to excite kids" about a range of subjects. Showscan would probably be too overpowering. So would other But Showscan as an entertainment medium is here. It will be films with an overabundance of violence. Showscan may not be interesting to see how the public reacts to its first close encounter for the fairithearted and impressionable. Judging from the recent with a movie of the hyperreal kind.—MARJORIE COSTELLO "

coruTiruuunn

GOLD SUCK while Parduhn conducted a bacteria census around Prospectors, lake note: gold deposits in California, Your picks and shovels, your Nevada, and Colorado. ancient maps, and even Both researchers found your electronic sensing de- that counts of 8. cereus were vices may soon be replaced up to 100,000 times higher by the simplest metal detec- in the area over mineral tor of ail—a lowly bacterium deposits than they were in by the name of Bacillus surrounding topsoils. Even the cereus, which, according to depth of the ore seemed to U.S. Geological Survey make little difference: In

geom ic rob i olo g ists J h n one case, high B. cereus Watterson and Nancy Par- concentrations occurred over duhn, shows up in overabun- a molybdenum deposit that

dant numbers in the topsoil , was 3,000 feet underground. above large mineral deposits. The assay, says Parduhn,

It started in 1979, when costs only "a couple of bucks" ;

i requires nothing more How can you check on the unborn child? Now there's a new prenata, Watterson read reports and of bacteria in New York Har- sophisticated than test tubes, test for genetic defects that's safer than amniocentesis. j

bor that were tolerant of i petri dishes, and a small placenta," Miller explains, heavy metal pollutants in the centrifuge. Will the scientists i

1 "and into the mother's capil- water. Could it be that similar forsake the laboratory to laries"), the researchers bacteria might show up in become active gold diggers? At present, a pregnant | developed method for sort- association with mineral "Right now I'm enjoying just woman who wants to have a i

her fetus checked for possi- ing the fetal cells from the deposits on dry land? To test ! doing the research," says

ble birth defects has little mother's blood sample. this notion, he spent more Parduhn. "But," she admits, I choice but to submit to A chromosome map of the than two years counting "my mind changes every

amniocentesis— a technique cells is then prepared, and microorganisms above a ; couple of months." in which amniotic fluid is that map can be compared to copper deposit in Montana. —Bill Lawren withdrawn by inserting a known chromosomal profiles needle directly Into the uterus. of infants with such genetic Although usually safe, the defects as Down's syndrome method does carry some or spina bifida. risks, including infection and The advantages over spontaneous abortion when amniocentesis are obvious. the needle inadvertently "If we goof up," says Miller, nicks the fetus itself. "we've lost only a blood Soon, however, there may sample, not a fetus or a preg- be a noninvasive alternative nant woman." Miller hopes to amniocentesis. Developed to see FDA approval within a by Michigan State University year. "It all depends," he microbiologists Harold Miller says, "on how fast the gov- and Harold Sadoff, the new ernment wants to move." technique—called early —Bill Lawren prenatal assessment, or EPA— involves nothing more "The best guesser is the best dangerous than taking a prophet. normal blood sample, —Greek proverb Knowing that a few fetal cells are always found in the "Don't be so humble. You're mother's bloodstream ("they not that great." digest their way out of the —Golda Meir 42 OMNI drinks too much, the alcohol PERFUMED SEWAGE: concerned sanitation officials, in his bloodstream finds THREE GREAT SCENTS rather than spending a its way into the ear. couple of million dollars on a Alcohol, which is a com- Sanitation officials in high-tech odor-reduction paratively light liquid, mixes Duluth, Minnesota, are using system, hit upon the novel with the heavier canal fluids, cinnamon, bubble gum, idea of pumping various causing a tiny eddy. Both and pine-scented perfumes perfumes, or masking agents, the astronaut and the drunk to cloak the foul odor ema- in with the sewage fumes

I feel as though they are nating from that city's modern before they are vented to the

moving, even though their ! sewage-treatment plant. outside world.

eyes tell them they are not. I Because the plant is situ- After the fine points (such The conflicting signals even- ated right on the shoreline, as figuring out which scents j tually make sick. sanitation-department them | work best on hot days and That tiny eddy, Money i spokesman Kurt Soderberg which ones work best on

reasoned, could explain why says, winds blowing off cold days) are all resolved,

> the room seems to spin I Lake Superior have been sanitation officials think i after you've had one too : carrying noxious sewage 80 percent of the odor can J many. And. if your inner ear fumes into nearby residential | ; concealed. i be

! can sense the intrusion I neighborhoods and onto There is already an im-

of lighter liquid, it city's | a then would the commuter-clogged provement, claims Soder- j j also heavier liquid, freeway. ! sense a berg, who says he personally j which would create an eddy "We're talking very, "wouldn't i about a have any problem" in the ! opposite direction, very strong sewage odor," living downwind of the sew-

i making the room spin the he says. "I've heard every age plant "once all the bugs

The latesl spinoff of the other way. description of it imaginable, are j worked out."

program in fact, it space may be ! And, does. At a from 'foul hog barn' to the — Eric Mishara a hangover-free drink, ' recent seminar Money unprintable." Dr. Kenneth Money, one of showed a movie of an inebri- Naturally, the awful smell "What is now proved was first astronaut- Canada's i ated cat, its head held mo- has had the local citizenry once only imagin'd." trainees, was studying tionless in a brace. The cat's virtually up in arms. So —William B spacesickness, a malady eyes tracked left to right,

that afflicts astronauts during left to right as it watched the the first few days after blast- room spin. In the next cut, off, when he had a flash the cat, now sobered up, was of insight. injected with deuterium Spacesickness causes oxide—heavy water—a liquid dizziness, vomiting, and heavier than the fluids in disorientation. Sounds like a the ear. The camera panned heavy drunk, no? That's in, and the cat's eyes began

just what Money thought, and tracking right to left, right

his research shows that to left.

spacesickness and the HI The point? In theory, if you effects of too much alcohol combine alcohol and a may be related. heavier liquid in just the right Both disorders are appar- proportions, their effects ently caused by an unusual on the inner ear may cancel motion in the fluids of the each other out. You can semicircular canals, the bal- reach a happy state of intoxi- ance organs in the inner cation without the hangover. ear. In space, zero gravity "The point," concludes lets the fluids slosh against Money, "is that you should the walls of the canals. always mix your scotch with Aerial view ol a waste-treatment plant. Now you can get your sewage Similarly, when a person heavy water. "—Nick Engler in a variety ol luscious flavors: cinnamon, bubble gum, or pine. caruTinjuurm

NASA WALDO like a video game, except NICOTINE-FREE with millions of dollars of TOBACCO In the parlance of robotics, space hardware at stake. it's called a waldo, an autom- Rocketing between orbits To Jean Nicot, the six- aton capable of carrying to a maximum altitude of teenth-century French am- out the remote commands of 14,000 nautical mites, the bassador to Lisbon, belongs a human operator. NASA OMV would burn hydrazine the dubious distinction of now has one in the planning fuel. But around the shuttle, having introduced tobacco stages, namely fine orbiting the planned space station, or to France when he came maneuvering vehicle (OMV), contamination-sensitive home from Portugal in 1560 a free-flying spacecrafl payloads, the OMV would with several pounds of the designed to service satellites switch to a much cleaner plant's leaves stuffed into his in orbits too high for the cold-nitrogen propulsion sys- luggage. space shuttle to reach. tem. According to project For that accomplishment, Once released from the manager William Huber, the European scientists of the shuttle's payload bay, the vehicle's basic docking day named the highly addic- OMV could carry a satellite attachments could be re- tive alkaloid called nicotine into a higher orbit, wait placed in the future with after him. until the satellite proved it dexterous arms or other The substance has fasci- was functioning properly, and ! complex tools for remote nated physicians, agrono-

depending on the outcome, I servicing of satellites. mists, plant geneticists, to keep harmful insects off its return with or without its If all goes according to phytochemists, and the mod- leaves. j mechanical passenger. All schedule, one of the three ern American tobacco indus- Richard Larson and Karen docking and rendezvous aerospace companies now try ever since. So intrigued Marley at the University of I maneuvers would be con- competing for the NASA have they all been with Illinois believe that nicotine j trolled by an operator on the contract will deliver the fin- this particular form of plant may perform an oxygen- ground watching TV pictures ished $350 million OMV life that technical monographs cleansing function. But it is transmitted from the OMV's for its first flight in early with such baffling titles as James Chaplin, of the To- camera eye—something I 1990.—Randall Black "Quenching of Singlet Oxy- bacco Research Laboratory, gens by Alkaloids and Re- in Oxford, North Carolina, lated Heterocycles" are and a student of the weed for commonplace today in the years, who occasionally scientific literalure of tobacco addresses himself to the key research. consumer question; Can What particularly interests you smoke this odd marriage scientists like Edward Leete, of tobacco and tomato? a University of Minnesota Says the plant geneticist: chemist, is that perfectly "Why would you want to healthy, nicotine-free tobacco do that? Why would anyone

leaves can be grown by go to the trouble? If you grafting the tops of tobacco wanted to smoke tobacco plants to the roots of toma- without nicotine, you wouldn't toes, which makes sense, get the flavor or the aroma.

since the two plants are Without nicotine, it would distant cousins. be like smoking any other But why, he wonders, substance—corn silk, for in-

would the tobacco piant, if stance." left to its own devices, go to Says Reggie Lester, of the so much trouble to produce Tobacco Growers Informa-

an alkaloid it doesn't really tion Committee, in Raleigh, need? He thinks the answer North Carolina, "There's not a Artist's conception ot NASA's shuttle-launched OMV maneuvering is that nicotine could be a whole lot of demand for to make contact with a malfunctioning satellite in orbit. natural insecticide intended that."—George Nobbe OMNI M "

the doctor said, by "very last I'LL CPU IN MY DREAMS | pronation and flexion" of Latter-day Luddites have the left wrist—in other words, You wake up in the night been warning for years precisely the combined and your dreams've been a that video display terminals tuming-and-bending fright; j motion who ya gonna call? can ruin your eyes and the cashier was using to The Project: | Dream Net playing Space Invaders can get the laser pricer to read a computer that j database ruin your mind. Now you the bar codes. A minor aspires to be a benevolent can add "pricer patsy" to the ' operation solved the problem, Big Brother to the collective growing list of diseases and the cashier was back unconscious.

wrought on us poor savages at work in a few days. If you're online, you're in by the high-tech age. Wertsch is not sure whether luck. Instruct your modem to It started when a super- this case represents the tip dial 1 (303) 722-6210 and

market cashier checked : of an enormous iceberg. The you will enter the digitized in with Milwaukee rehabilita- standard doctor's test, portals j she of Dream Net, dream tion physician Jacqueline notes, is not sensitive enough child of Henry Reed, of Wertsch. Seems the checker to catch the kind of j pinched Virginia Beach, Virginia. There had developed a worrisome ! nerve brought on by pricer you may choose from Menu Scared? Why not tell your numbness in her left hand, palsy. At the is i moment, she 1 (which includes a premoni- nightmares to your modem? accompanied by an occa- , hoping to get support to tions registry, an open forum, sional dull ache. problem, The run a more delicate test on a and psi computer games), private reality into a universal she noted, got worse every large sample of cashiers. Menu 2 (dream news, lucid context. (Was that earth- time she passed a can or In the , meantime, she recom- dreams, psi anecdotes, quake nightmare telling me package the store's over ! mends that checkers de- the near-death column, and to leave L.A. or to settle a

1 electronic holographic pricer. velop a two-step motion, first the dream interpreter), or personal affair?) If you

On investigation, Dr. ' turning over each item so Menu 3 (parapsychological wished, your silicon servant Wertsch 1 found that the the price code faces down, information, bibliographies, a could help you contact woman was suffering from a then passing it over the dream newsletter, and statis- others with similar dreams. pinched nerve brought on, scanner—Bill Lawren tical evaluations). Though imaginary now, Sound otherworldly? This everything in the previous

is nothing compared with paragraph is possible, claims the collective dreams of Reed Reed, either now or with and his oneiric associates, computer systems of the not- who wish to confound your so-distant future. Reed computer's "'•*'-* CPU (central . likens his inner-space project W^t processing unit) with even to the initiation of the "; ^jla space • • % . ; - more nocturnal *£ ' ^ data. They program, "requiring the \jV- ™ 1— W;..-;h/''-- '%^\i:.. foresee the day when your coordination of different Pl : .:• many .: ; \- : : ': computer can interview projects under development Mr • •*, . ,;. 'i'-'rflSf you (as you relate your latest by many different people." reveries), remind you of —Roopa Morosani previous similar themes, help w you create an animated "A corporation cannot blush." cartoon of your dream, and —Howe! Walsh display text and pictures from previous intrapersonal "Children are aliens, and we adventures. That's not all: treat them as such. Your computer would gener- —Ralph Waldo Emerson ate at your command a

survey of dream themes and "To study the abnormal is the symbols collected over the best way ot understanding " One doctor recommends cashiers adopt a two-step motion: Turn past 24 hours from around the the normal. over each item, then pass the product over the holographic scanner. world, helping you fit your —William James Two men and two women TOP TA1LGATERS one foot of following distance mile per hour of being treated for depression for each cars tend to driving speed. One major all said yawning induced Subcompact subcompacts orgasm, a side effect that tailgate more than any other reason many vanished shortly after they class of vehicle on the road, tailgate, Doherty theorizes, smaller cars have were taken off the drug. One according to a Purdue Uni- is that the exceptionally short hoods, of the women claimed she versity study. "The image of which causes their drivers to could induce orgasm at the big-car bully or the tail- gross overestimate the distance will by deliberately yawning. gating truck may be a them and The other said she experi- exaggeration," concludes to the car in front of enced sexual urges she traffic-safety researcher thus inadvertently tailgate. again, perhaps small- simply could not resist. Michael Ooherty. Then drivers are just trying to Of one of the two men, the Doherly set up roadside car world. Canadian doctors wrote, cameras on busy Indiana get back at the Ac- "The awkwardness and em- roads in the Purdue vicinity cording to Doherty, the vehicles most often lailgated barrassment [of orgasm and videotaped the traffic were and ejaculation! was over- flow. More than 10.000 cars in his sludy subcom- come by continuously wear- and trucks were recorded by pacts.— Eric Mtshara YAWNS AND ORGASM ing a condom." The other the cameras; then the video- male subject taking Anafranil tape was studied so that "Imagination is more of tailgating important than knowledge." To the dismay of executives reported that he experienced the incidents couid be tallied. —Albert Einstein at CIBA-GEIGY. the interna- "such an intense sense "Subcompacts make up tional drug company based in of exhaustion that he had twenty-seven percent of "We do not know what to do Switzerland, three Canadian to lie down for ten to fit- just all vehicles on the road," with this short life, yet we psychiatrists from St. John, teen minutes after each the yearn lor another that will New Brunswick, claim that yawn." Doherty exp!ains,"yet in they were respon- be eternal." tour of their patients who took Odd side effects from our study for almost thirty-nine —Anatole France the antidepressant drug tricyclics are not unusual, but sible the tailgating." Anafranil constantly experi- the three New Brunswick percent of "Except during the nine enced orgasm whenever doctors, who no longer talk Other vehicle types lailgated in more moderate months before he draws his they yawned—whether they to reporters, have yet to much numbers. first breath, no man manages wanted to or not. say whether they have treated causes acci- his affairs as well as a tree No one seems to know any other cases involving Tailgating dents, so Doherty advises does." why, and what's all the more the antidepressant, yawning, drivers stay back at least George Bernard Shaw puzzling is that the more and the phenomenon of that — common side effect of taking orgasm. antidepressants is a de- CIBA-GEIGY spokespeople creased sexual capacity, not point out that while their an increased one. antidepressant is widely used Nonetheless, the four case in Canada and Europe, it studies were reported in not available in the United the Canadian Journal of Psy- States, adding, in a prepart chiatry by Drs. I. A. Kapkin statement, "We cannot com- validity of re- and J. D. McLean, of Regional ment on the Hospital, and R. G. Forsythe. ports associating the use of senior psychiatrist at Centri- Anafranif with a rare side care. Inc. They stress that effect of sexual stimulation." their paper merely presents They said the company some clinical findings and is was currently attempting to not to be taken as a full- determine if any of the Cana- scale study of Anafranif, a dian claims about the pre- looting tor revenge? In any case, tricyclic more formally known scription drugs were valid. Bad distance judgment or just the worst tailgating offenders are the owners of subcompact cars. as clomipramine. . —George Nobbe 46 OMNI and inspection stations at COLORFUL SMELLS various colored liquids. international-border crossing The interplay of color and points. Color has a powerful smell, Malcolm observes, Many fruits and plants may influence on our sense of alters everyday human not be brought into the smell, suggesls a fascinating perceptions. For instance, United States because of the Ohio State University study. when a woman wears darker- exotic insects or diseases "The purpose of this study colored clothing, her per-

they may be harboring. These was to determine if there is fume seems that much may pose a threat to Ameri- a perceived difference in stronger. And darker-colored can agriculture similar to odor when hue is varied," ex- prepared foods are per- the Mediterranean fruit fty plains Christine Malcolm, ceived as having a more infestation of California citrus who conducted the study for pungent aroma and spicier in 1980. Officials believe her undergraduate psychol- taste than they actually do. the infestation may have been ogy thesis. "The result was The tendency to associate

i triggered by Medflies invad- that darker hues of color stronger odor with darker

Evil fruit smugglers have a new I ing the country on smuggled generally caused people to color could be a learned re- adversary to contend with. fruit. That outbreak cost perceive a given odor as sponse to the many things in | million I nearly $100 to combat. smelling stronger but that r environment that are

FRUIT GUN The prototype of the car- lighter hues make it seem really correlated in just that

I bon dioxide sniffer has been weaker." way, theorizes psychologist People who try to smuggle fieid-tested during the past In the study, college | 27 Lawrence Marks, of Yale fruit and plants into the year at airports in Los Ange- students were instructed to University, a sensory-percep-

United States illegally soon I les, t\few York, Philadelphia, smell various liquids that tion expert. As an example,

may have a gun pointed and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It ranged in color from neutral the darker in color you make

at their luggage. The gun is proved to be 60 to 95 per- through progressively darker coffee, the stronger its aroma actually a sensing device cent accurate in the various shades of green. Even though and taste.

that can detect contraband i field trials. all of the liquids had an "Or it is possible," Marks plant material by sniffing Robert Duryea, of the identical lime scent, most of says, "that we are actually out carbon dioxide inside a Animal and Plant Health ln- the students insisted that born with some kind of cross-

I spection Service, in Hoboken, the odor became stronger as sensory connection?" Intact live plants and fruit New Jersey, says the main the shade of the liquids dark- — Eric Mishara produce carbon dioxide, drawback to the device ened. And the results were which builds up over time. at present is its lack of porta- the same when equal "Suffering isn't ennobling; j doses dioxide bility. The carbon can ! The prototype weighs of banana scent were substi- recovery is."

be measured by placing the : approximately 75 pounds tuted for lime in each of the —Christiaan Barnard

"sniffer" end of the detector : and must currently be against the seam of sealed plugged into an electrical ]

luggage, thus drawing out a . outlet. Duryea says the sample of the air inside. service is also working with | The device was developed private companies to improve j by chemist Paul Magidman the detector by reducing its and engineer Wolfgang weight and having it powered Heiland, of the U.S. Depart- by rechargeable batteries. ment of Agriculture's Re- —loel Schwarz search Service, to give cus- toms agents and animal "Thus science is much closer and plant health inspectors a to myth than a scientific new tool in reducing the philosophy is prepared to

amount of undeclared plant I admit, it is one of the many into material smuggled the , forms of thought that have United States. The device beeh developed by man, and j also is expected to speed up not necessarily the best." To the average nose, darker means stronger. Is it possible that baggage checks at airports —Paul Feyerabend humans are bom with some kind of cross-sensory connection? — .

COfUTirUUURJl

yard range, apparently don't name the title and author of mind being tracked. Only the original story and the one Delmarva has bothered year in which the story was to slip his collar. published?

Reynolds's zeal about 1 The Day the Earth Stood preserving the Delmarva is St/// (1951) not always equaled by the 2. Blade Runner (1982) Delmarva peninsula home- 3. Forbidden Planet (1956) owners, whose concerns 4. The Thing (1951, remade lean more toward keeping 1982} squirrels out of chimneys and 5. Soylent Green (1973) attics. "There are so few of —Ben Bova them," says Reynolds of ANSWERS the threatened species, "that they're not expected to be 996L 'uosujbh Ajjbh Aq any problem." iwooy eyeyy iujooy ayew g In case the whole project BE6t euieu eu.) fails, Delaware wildlife peo- '(IJBnig v uoa ple plan to import some jepun) jr 'iieqduieo m uupr new Delmarvas from spots Aq „t,ej3Mi se-oo ou.m„ > on the Eastern Shore, south- 0t9L bdjio 'e-jeedsa^eiis •£ ern New Jersey, and eastern uje!i|[M Aq 'issdujei ouj_

1. Pennsylvania . . . just to 896 '>P!a make sure.—George Nobbe y djimd rtq tdaaus o/JPSQ jo ujbbjq spiojpuy orj 2

' "America has been discov- 0>6l sslea *JJBH Aq „'JSJSB|/\| 3U.) 0) ||eM3JBd„ Will a tour-Ion squirrel be [he star of Japan's next horror movie? ered before, but it has always I Probably not. Even the Delmarva hits only three pounds, been hushed up." —Oscar Wilde GIANT SQUIRRELS quife sensibly, moved out to Maryland. Virginia, and the "The brain is only one

It was 50 years ago that other exurbs. condition out of many on [he canny Delmarva fox This distressed wildlife which intellectual squirrel began to understand biologists like Kenneth Rey- manifestations depend." what was happening to his nolds, of Delaware's Fish and —Thomas Henry Huxley dwindling habitat and de- Wildlife Service. So last fall cided to move out of Dela- he trapped seven of the SCIENCE-FICTION ware altogether. His depar- endangered creatures^three QUIZ NO. 7 ture caused wildlife biologists males and four females to fear that the state might and gave them a relaxing Some science-fiction have seen the last of the big chemical that enabled him to movies, such as Cocoon and (up to three pounds), silvery slip tiny radio-transmitter Star Wars, are original storii gray squirrels. collars on them, In an attempt created specifically for the No one could have honestly to find out whether the chubby films. Others, like Planet blamed them for leaving. tree squirrels were reproduc- [ of the Apes and 2007; A

The government had begun ing, Reynolds began to track ', Space Odyssey, are based harvesting the mature wood- their movements. He'll find on previously written short lands in which they lived, out how successful the stories or novels. Here are the the types of cover they project was come fall, when titles (and years of release) relished were rapidly vanish- the second litters of the of five well-known science- ing, and the corn of which year" are due. fiction films. Each was based they were so fond was vir- The wired-up squirrels, on a previously published

tually gone. So the Delmarva, who cover a 900- to 1 , 000- work of fiction. Can you 48 OMNI Can men have babies? Research indicates they can, and volunteers are already lining up for MAL PREGNANCY

BY DICKTERESI AND KATHLEEN McAULIFFE

There it was. After all the fruit- SINGLE WHITE FEMALE. 38, less affairs, the callous re- successful businesswoman, buffs in singles bars, and the seeks warm, nurturing, ma- disbelieving looks of his ternal SWM, 25-32. Let's have friends, Jake found himself a baby: I'll pay the bills, you staring at his dream "woman. carry the child. Looks not im- She appeared in the form of a portant but ample abdominal blind advertisement in the cavity a plus. Send recent personal columns of The New photograph and histocompa- York Review of Books: tibility profile to Box 20035. PAINTINGS BY ELLEN GOING JACOBS fer- with vessels that hangs down in front At last, Jake thought to himself as he com- healthy five-pound baby girl. An errant blood apron. "It posed a heartfelt letter to the anonymous tilized egg had lodged in her abdomen, on of the intestines like a protective adequate blood supply and nourish- advertiser at Box 20035. / just hope she her bowel, where it received enough nu- got reports. with very doesn'l insist on natural childbirth. trients to grow to term- without the aid of a ment," Jacobsen "So uterus. Dr. Peter Jackson, Martin's gynecol- moderate chemical support, the male ba- told journalists that the birth boon was able to carry the pregnancy to- Okay, so maybe it won't happen quite like ogist, reportedly is, four months." will proved it was possible for a man to be made ward term—that well past that. But it will happen. Someday a man hardy have a baby. pregnant by placing a fertilized egg on his The experiment was testimony to the the Already, a male baboon has proved that bowel. independence of the embryo. One key to males can get pregnant. Male mice have also Tabloids the world over announced that embryo's integrity is its ability to produce a the organ that normally carried babies. And the medical literature is the era of pregnant men had arrived. The placenta, vascular to the uterus and draws nutrients filled with two dozen case histories of women story struck a nerve in many men. Scientists attaches who became pregnant after receiving hys- doing work on the cutting edge of human from the mother. Or in this case, the father terectomies—proving that you don't need a reproduction were barraged with letters from — as studies by Jacobsen and others show placenta is a versatile, oppor- womb to carry a baby. men who wanted to be mothers. Some were that the fetal indiscriminate Our ticiitious hero need not worry about transsexuals. But others were conventional tunistic, and perhaps even an organ. As neuroendocrinologist Roger natural childbirth, though. It will be anything men who si.mply wanted to experience the UCLA

it, placenta is "eroding but natural. What we're talking about is im- joysot pregnancy. Gorski puts the an blood ves- planting an embryo into a man's abdominal With this background, Omni decided to tissue." It seeks out and opens

of this, it that the fe- cavity, where the fetus would take nourish- check out the scientific possibilities for male sels. Because appears itself site ment, grow to term, and be delivered by an pregnancy. What we found may surprise you. tus may be able to attach to any operation similar to a cesarean section. The New Zealand case was not the first rich in blood and nutrients. Jacobsen's team But we're getting ahead of our story. Pub- evidence for male pregnancy. Back in the experimented with implanting fertilized eggs the and the spleen as well but had lic awareness of male pregnancy devel- mid-Sixties, Dr. Cecil Jacobsen, of George on kidney the oped six years ago, thanks to a remarkable Washington University Medical School, per- best results on omentum. did not result in the birth birth in New Zealand. In May 1979 Margaret formed an unusual experiment that com- The experiment baby. Ja- Martin, a twenty-nine-year-old Auckland manded little attention at the time. He and of a fully developed baboon When the woman who just eight months earlier had Dr. Roy Hertz transplanted the fertilized egg cobsen says the male baboon carried undergone a hysterectomy, gave birth to a of a female baboon to the abdominal cavity pregnancy "toward term," he means that the of a male baboon. The embryo attached it- fetus had reached a point at which it had Copyright ® 1985 by Dick feres/ self to the omentum, a 'atty tissue .oaded "survived embryonic development." The

One et the few men io truly understand Tney say the pa : n from Kidney stones sib:li!y in any even;. tnink lira! anyllrng tne k- approximates tine pain oi having a child. thai would ne^r; further that ordge o- un- abiy enough Grouchc Marx 'Uer al- tut I've neve- heard ot anvone saying derstanding between the would

' -i ex- .: " in > Nurturing is c:ea'!y not an ways complain that they can never know ! iv-

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accept' trie Jaw backache Pit breas The Fonz" Winkler giving oabies ins twenty- feed- if necess But labo pains ha e 'Men ontn \o m

; ' this lirst century" to if got to go, I've '- t enough rouble w Its stares'. 'nn that you asked me I'm ~mune cramps." because several years ago, In the play Stuart Bergen best-seiimg :> : oi 3eraer's ! . Polo actuaity author Or Immune i '.rig'-it o-ayoc v n pia Mmco Sings a Soio :

' - -t author of 7brc/"r Song Trilogy ho son of a man who gave birth to me. - - Power Diet

Needless to say. a' the kmo it seemed The closes; 'nine thai I've experienced like a :ota. fantasy. But here we are in "it's about timel' to. childbirth has been kidney stones. 1985 lalking about it in tne re?rn o- pea- —a

normal geslation period lor a baboon is neys of adult male mice. Kirby got the best growing inside the abdominal cavity. In Au- seven months. At four months, Jacobsen and results in the testes, where one embryo de- gust 1979, Dr. George Poretta attempted to Hertz "delivered" the fetus. "Had we wanted veloped in "perfect condition" for 12 days perform an appendectomy on a Michigan to," Jacobsen says, "we could easily have about half the normal gestation period for a woman suffering irom stomach cramps. "I taken the pregnancy to term, because em- mouse. Kirby, now deceased, theorized that opened her up expecting to find an appen- bryonic development was normal, and the the testicle capsule was simply not elastic dix," Dr. Poretta told the Associated Press, fetus was alive when we surgically removed enough to allow the embryo to mature fully. "and there was this #ny foot." Prematurely it from the male's abdomen. But we didn't The experiment did show, however, that tes- delivered, the "appendix" weighed three bring it to full maturity because that was not tosterone and other male hormones, found pounds, five ounces and was named Jo- the purpose of our study." in high concentrations in the testes do not seph Thomas Cwik. So what was Jacobsen trying to do? He thwart normal embryonic development— An is precisely the and female-cancer expert Hertz, who. is now positive sign for those males who want to kind of pregnancy the first man/mother will deceased, were by no means interested in have babies. have to endure. It is dangerous. Estimates allowing males to have babies. They were But perhaps the best hope for these men vary, but the maternal mortality rate is about concerned with pregnant women who de- comes not from animal studies but from 6 to 7 percent. Part of the danger stems from velop ovarian cancer. The ovaries produce strange in women. According the fact fhat such pregnancies are often not various female hormones. At what stage, they to the medical literature, there have been diagnosed until the woman is on Ihe oper- wanted to know, is it safe to remove the ova- some 24 cases worldwide in which women ating table. John Money, a pioneer of trans- ries without causing a miscarriage? "The became pregnant despite having had hys- sexual operations and professor ol medical question wasn't whether a male could bear terectomies. While 23 of these ectopic preg- psychology and pediatrics at Johns Hop- a pregnancy," Jacobsen explains, "but at nancies (ectopic in this case means outside kins Medical School, points out thai the "ex- what stage does the embryo make all the the uterus) didn't result in live births, they traordinary thing about the New Zealand hormones needed to maintain a preg- offer considerable evidence for the possi- case [Margaret Martin] was that the medical nancy? You can answer the question in two bility of wombless childbirth. Incontroverti- person in charge made the correct diagno-

ways. You can go ahead and take the ova- sis, I mean, it reallywasanA-plustobeablo ries out of different females and see how fo recognize what was going on wifh this lady many babies you lose. Or you can transfer and to realize that it was a healthy preg- a fertilized egg to the male animal and see nancy." Even so, Martin's pregnancy wasn't if the fetus can survive in different stages." diagnosed until 23 weeks after her hyster- without The experiment has striking, though con- ^Women ectomy. She had briefly considered that sho troversial, implications both (or men who want uteri have given birth. In was pregnant—her breasts were tender, and to have babies and for ihe field of obstetrics she had felt the baby move but refrained these rare cases, — and fetal development in general. Contrary from mentioning the symptoms, according to what many researchers at ihe time thought the fertilized egg works to her doctor, for fear of being ridiculed. In

still think— temale hormones may not of —and its way into the case men who purposely undergo ab- be required for normal embryonic develop- dominal pregnancy, however, the danger of the abdominal cavity, ment. The baboon operation implies that the misdiagnosis will obviously be eliminated. fertilized egg may be autonomous, produc- which expands Still, risks remain. In vitro fertilization pi- ing all the hormones it needs for its own de- oneer Dr. Landrum Shetiles has personally to accommodate the fetus.^ velopment. "That was the marvel of our dis- delivered two healthy babies that devel- covery," says Jacobsen. oped in their mothers' abdomens. Such ba- Not everyone is similarly impressed. Two bies, Shettles warns, cannot be delivered decades later, the study remains largely ob- normally. He cites the case of a colleague scure even to specialists in gynecology and who attempted to remove a baby that was obstetrics because Jacobsen never pub- ble proof, of course, comes from the twenty- attached to its mothers intestine. "He tried lished the results. "It was one small part of a fourth case: New Zealand's Margaret Martin to separate the afterbirth and the placenta much broader project," he says. Not unjus- and her five-pound daughter. from the bowel," recalls Shettles, "and the tifiably, this has raised doubts in the minds Then there are those women who despite blood gushed to the ceiling. The mother died of some of his peers. Says one critic, who having intact uteri have given birth without instantly." UCLA's Gorski reminds us that the asked not to be identified, "I'm dubious of using these organs. Ectopic pregnancies are womb is not without purpose: "When deliv- the veracity of that claim because it never fairly common, but in most cases this con- ery occurs, the uterus, which is just a mus- appeared in a bona fide scientific journal." dition refers to embryos that have implanted cular organ, contracts and shuts off the blood

Still, Jacobsen has some heavy credentials. themselves in the Fallopian tubes. Such vessels eroded by the placenta. " Blood ves-

Now director of the Reproductive Genetics pregnancies are doomed as well as life sels supplying the placenta in an abdominal Center, in Vienna, Virginia, he is credited with threatening to the mother. The expanding pregnancy, however, do not constrict, and developing and first using amniocentesis, a embryo can rupture the tube, and the pa- massive hemorrhage can occur if the pla- prenatal test that involves extracting am- tient can hemorrhage. centa is separated from the mother. As one niotic fluid from the womb to detect chro- In rare cases, however—about 1,000 have obstetrics textbook puts it, bleeding may be mosome abnormality in an unborn child. That been reported to date—the fertilized egg "torrential." was in 1967. Today physicians use amni- works its way into the abdominal cavity, Which is not to say you absolutely need ocentesis almost- routinely on older women which can expand to accommodate the the womb. "The point is," Shettles says, "if and others at risk for giving birth to babies growing fetus. This is an ectopic pregnancy you have an abdominal pregnancy, you tie wifh genetic defects, of a different color. Approximately 9 percent the cord off right near Ihe placenta and leave

Jacobsen is the only scientist on record of those women, with abdominal pregnancies the placenta in place. Don't touch it, and the who has experimented with male preg- have actually given birth to healthy babies, body will absorb it."

" nancy in primates. But he says ihaf similar It is a difficult condition to diagnose. In July Those are some of the dangers. But let's work has been done with fowl, rodents, sal- 1981 doctors prepared !c deliver a New Jer- say a man wanted to have a baby so badly amanders, and-other amphibians. sey woman's baby by cesarean section be- he was willing to take the chance. How would

In a series of experiments in the early Six-" cause ultrasound, studies indicated there was it be done? What experience awaits the first ties, for example, Dr. David Kirby, of Eng- a large tumor on top of her womb. The womb, man to carry a baby? After talking to Shet- land's Oxford University, transplanted mouse as it turned out, was empty. The "tumor" was tles, Jacobsen, and other experts both in the into embryos the testes, spleens, and kid- actually a seven-pound, ten-ounce baby United States and Australia, it appears the 54 OMNI "

lot of the steroids that are nec- : scenario. produces a procedure wou c go something like this: There are two alternatives to this conception could take place in the essary for fetal survival." Doctors would first perform standard in First, transfer, hor- body, most likely through artificial In vitro fertilization or embryo vitro fertilization to produce an embryo. Eggs woman's would then mones or no hormones, male pregnancy is would be surgically extracted from the wife's insemination. The fertilized egg the womb and implanted not a popular idea today in the medical es- ovary and fertilized with the husband's sperm be flushed out of tablishment. "It's an outlandish proposal," in the man. This is the method used in the in a petri dish. (In vitro fertilization is often called embryo transfer, when a fer- says Gary Hodgen, who is the scientific di- referred to as "test-tube baby" technology.) process Eastern Virginia Medical tilized is moved from one woman's rector of the In 30 to 50 hours, when the egg has matured egg Institute for Reproductive to another's. Shettles, for one. prefers School's Jones to the two- to eight-cell stage and is about womb the leading in vitro fer- in vitro method, however, because it al- Medicine, in Norfolk, tip of a needle, it would be the the size of the Hod- control. tilization clinic in the United States. placed in a flexible catheter for implantation. lows more objection to male pregnancy (he it is debatable whether hormonal gen's main At this point, however, the in vitro process Second, outlandish at least five times is needed. In January 1984, be- used the word would take an abrupt left turn. Instead of treatment sex researchers at a when interviewed) is that it's tantamount to snaking the catheter through the wife's va- fore an assemblage of life-threatening con- Institute symposium, John Money ectopic pregnancy, a into her uterus, the doctor would per- Kinsey gina have a pregnancy. He dition, "As a male, I obviously don't form a laparoscopy on the husband. A small raised the possibility of male the discussion period uterus, right? A male who would request the incision would be made in the abdominal was encouraged in his abdomen would afterward to hear Gorski say that the hor- transfer of an embryo to cavity, and the gynecologist would place the technology sufficiently in place be asking the medical personnel involved to embryo into the lower abdominal cavity monal was pregnancy. Today Gorski advocate him taking on a life-threatening against the omentum, the fatty, blood-rich to carry off such a condition that wouldn't even be to the ben- still maintains that on a hormonal level, male tissue in front of the intestines. With luck, the person," Hodgen em- is possible. But Jacobsen's ba- efit of another extant fertilized egg would implant in the omentum, pregnancy indicates that priming the male phasizes. "That's antimedicine." the placenta would develop from the em- boon study neces- Dr. Jack Hallatt, an expert in abdominal and begin drawing nutrients, and the with female hormones may not be bryo Medical says. "It pregnancy at Kaiser Permanente pregnancy would be under way. At this point, sary. "Maybe that's right," Shettles the male gets a new Center, in Los Angeles, says, "There's no way or possibly even earlier, an endocrinologist might well be that when adjusts." doctors could avoid the dangers of hemor- might be called in to administer hormones inhabitant, his body it would the embryo/fetus is a self-suf- rhage [during the pregnancy]. And to the male mother so that his hormonal sta- Or perhaps Richard Harding, a fe- be catastrophic. There's noway it would will- tus would mimic that of a pregnant woman. ficient alien within us. that physiologist at Monash University, in Aus- ingly be attempted." Hodgen agrees you Finally, nine months and several thousand tal "You know, can't eliminate the danger of male abdomi- dollars' worth of custom-made' maternity tralia, supports that hypothesis. endocrine basis, on a hormonal level, nal pregnancy. "Think a minute why," he says. clothes later, the baby would be delivered on an totally autonomous," "It's apparent. The placental sac and the from the man's abdomen in an operation .the fetus appears to be the or- generates its steroids baby, at term, are going to weigh on called a laparotomy, which would be similar Harding says. "It own the certain period of time. The placenta der of twenty-five pounds. And all of to a cesarean section. after 'a months this is growing, this bag may be twisting and turning." Cecil Jacobsen feels that the risk posed by an abdominal pregnancy has been «££$ greatly exaggerated. The condition, he says, lends to be lumped together with the much more common ectopic pregnancy in which the fertilized egg becomes lodged in the Fallopian tubes. 'Any type of ectopic pregnancy in the tube

is dangerous," Jacobsen says, "because it

is a closed cavity that can't expand. But the abdominal cavity can expand. It is a risky

condition, but if the pregnancy is watched carefully, the risk of death is low," Even so,

Jacobsen is not anxious to be the first phy- sician with a man/mother for a patient. "Sure,

it's feasible," Jacobsen insists. "But why in

heck would you do it? In my opinion it would be an abuse for males to use the technology of tech- in that way. I think the proper use the nology would be for women who have no uterus but want to have a baby. That's where

first it." I think medicine will do

Perhaps it would be an abuse of the tech-

nology to use it on men. Still, there will be

men who want it. Who are they? What kind of man would have a baby? Johns Hopkins's John Money originally envisioned only one kind of person —the transsexual. "If male pregnancy ever became possible," Money

says, "the first applicants would be male-to- female transsexuals, because it's so terribly important to them to experience everything

"And what appears 'to be a pretty girl is actually a woman can experience." a high-energy laser holograph. They're already lining up, In July 1984 a group of at least six male-to-female trans- CONTINUEDONPAGE11S ; "

' /' :/ -^::.

FICTION

It's always the same dream, of flames as red as the mysterious flower DRAGON

BYKATEWILHELM

Bruce Enfield has a seat on cisco, his actual destination. attention to her wonderfully the aisle and nowhere to put He will not see Cory. There made-up eyes. Beatrice has his elbows or his feet. Next is no reason to look her up; the loveliest eyes in the finds to him is a woman with , he is married, settled, rising world, he thinks, and he squatter's rights to the arm- in his world, he cannot summon an im- rest, and in the aisle the He twists and struggles to age of Cory's eyes. Pale stewardesses are hurrying extract his wallet from his lashes and brows, pale gray back and forth, pushing lre r pocket, gets a glare from his or blue eyes. The compari- heavy carts, delivering neighbor, and accepts his son of the two women is drinks and peanuts. He drink gratefully when the cruel, and again he feels huddles into himself, hating stewardess puts it before embarrassed that he is it all, hating the rest of the day him. In his mind he is seeing making it. He gulps his that will be just as bad with Cory side by side with Bea- scotch and thinks of the Lu- a two-hour wait in O'Hare, trice, and that is embarrass- cite in his coat pocket, another cattle car in the sky ing to him. wishes he had it in his hand. to Portland, another two-hour Cory in her jeans and He wants a cigarette al- delay, and finally the last lap, heavy boots caked with though he has not smoked twenty minutes to Eugene. mud, a man's flannel shirt for almost a year. He thinks

He is troubled because he over a sweater, an unbut- almost desperately that he is not certain why he is going toned, olive rain jacket over has to have a cigarette, be- back. Not to see her, he tells it all, her pale hair pulled cause in his head the com- himself again, and he wishes back carelessly with a string parison is continuing, and he he had taken the slim Lucite or a rubber band. And Bea- cannot stop it. Beatrice with piece from his pocket be- trice, elegant in a navy blue her quick intelligence, her fore he put his coat in the dressmaker's suit, high humor, her easy grasp of overhead bin. He will visit his heels, her nails and lips ex- everything she reads or parents and an old friend or actly the same shade of red, hears; and Cory, cowlike, re- two, sleep and relax, and on hair as soft and sweet as a tarded, or so near that it Sunday afternoon make the baby's, kept in a style that makes little difference. rest of the trip to San Fran- 'Idlers he iace and draws Whitman had put his ad in

PAINTING BY PIERRE LACOMBE heaps. Mrs. the paper on Sunday, and on Monday morn- around when he had time. There was always trees, marshaling them in untidy in cold from ing, when he opened his door before seven too much to do, not enough good people to Davenport had come wet and now sat drinking to start work, she was there on the back get it done. Don, his brother and partner in the weekly shopping and smell the doorstep. Whitman was a large, muscular the business, kept telling him to hire a full- coffee, thinking nothing, content to smells of growing plants instead of man in his late fifties, a widower for the last time manager, but he resisted. He had tried green vanilla yeast. When the six years. To him Cory appeared an empty- that. No one else did anything his way, and cinnamon and and got up to faced child that bright morning. his way was not the book way. He did things kitchen buzzer sounded, she make supper. Raymond had come home "I've come for the job," she said. when they needed doing, not when the One day find her sitting in there and had raged all "Worked in a nursery before?" books said it was time. Only one man, Hank to of course, at Cory. Some- She shook her head. She was tall, strong Valchak, might have worked out, but he had night at her, and, Davenport out of enough, and the fact that she was there that quit after a few years and opened his own times when Mrs. came she had been early meant that she wanted to work, Whit- nursery on the other side of Eugene. And Cory's room she found that memory of the tears or the man thought, studying her. "Where you live?" meanwhile Whitman's Nursery was growing, weeping with no Cory had a good job and She told him, one of the subdivisions ten business was expanding, and he, William cause. Now that it, longer any miles or more away. "How'd you get here?" Whitman, was atired, overworked man. But was doing well at there was no worry or cry over her, but still there She pointed to a bicycle leaning against at least the paperwork was Don's depart- reason to she wept. a tree, and he hired her. ment. Payroll, taxes, ordering, inventory, ad- were times when accept her, she He would have to teach her everything, vertising, all that he cheerfully left to his If only Raymond could thought at those times, that would make the but then he always did, and come fall, they brother, who in turn never set foot in one of difference, but he could not look at Cory always left to go back to school, and next the greenhouses or the long rows of seed- shrubs. without a shadow passing over his face, year he had to do it over again. ling trees and bushes and rec- his narrowing and a slight ridge He showed her how to take chrysanthe- It was Don, filling in the employment without eyes times he mum cuttings and how to space and plant ords, who discovered that Cory had left forming along his cheek. Most avoided looking at her. most times she the pieces and mark them for a fall crop of home to go to school that day and instead and out of his sight. blooming plants. She watched him silently stayed out of his way, Now that she was working, they never even ate at and then took over as if she had been doing the same time. He got home at four-thirty it for years. He supervised for a short while his supper, and Cory got in at six- before he went off to get his other tasks and had settled in front of the tele- started; he came back from time to time to thirty, after he had (He was vision for the rest of the evening. glance at her work. Neither of them spoke. man, she thought At ten-thirty he told her she could have a as cold, as rigid as stone, Raymond was a good as she peeled carrots. He was a good man it, that he didn't ex- break when she wanted will without with Cory. From the start pect anyone to work straight through, he in all ways except in her that drew wasn't a slave driver. She listened as atten- as he listened to Frank's there had been something out the devil in him. Mrs. Davenport knew tively as she had listened to his instructions voice, like a slow smiles from Cory about the cuttings, and he realized that she that one of those long, snare drawing tighter before giggles could not distinguish between kidding and was more important than hours of never the straight goods. The tone he invariably the victim from other girls, but Raymond had took with his employees was either a brusque learned that. could suspect its presence.^ directive or a banter that was meaningless; Tonight they would fight over their daugh- ter, the meat and vegeta- he knew no other way to address them. He she knew, stirring things, a new sweater, stood looking at the girl kneeling in the bark bles. Cory needed mulch along the row of chrysanthemums, new woolen socks, and he would act as if it were his money. Each week Cory's check and he did not know how to speak to her. It in the checking was a mistake to hire her, he thought, and had come to the nursery. She had dropped went to him, to be deposited where he guarded it jealously. felt a stir of self-contempt as he realized he out, he said, and only in the tenth grade. account, years did provide every- was shifting his own problem of noncom- Whitman tried to see Cory sitting quietly "How many we would yell. municativeness to her shoulders. at a desk, immersed in history lessons or thing, ask nothing in return?" he If her "When you get tired," he said, trying to math problems, and nothing came. He "It's her turn to help. she wants to keep she's gone, I voice, because she looked fright- shrugged. "Her business," he said. But Don money, let her move out! Once soften his " give what she does. ened, "go on over to the shed and get a drink. Whitman was concerned about it. He had don't a damn Rest a few minutes. Okay?" three grown children, and he knew teenag- Sometimes Mrs. Davenport fantasized She nodded and turned again to the ers sometimes did things their parents were about moving out with Cory, just the two of garden chrysanthemums, began to cut fast. ignorant of until too late. He called Cory's Ihem sharing a small house with a for Cory to work in. It was a pleasant reverie, "Cory, take it easy, girl. You're doing a fine mother that night and learned that Cory had frightening also, because she job, the best of anyone I've hired starting as a history of failing and that the school coun- but it was selor training school for her. cared for Raymond; It was only where Cory green as you. I don't expect you to finish all had advised a that became a cruel this in one day." The brothers dropped the subject and never was concerned he stranger. Sometimes Mrs. Davenport felt that She looked at him again as if trying to referred to it again, in her measure his words, to test his truthfulness. someone had planted a sharp knife And then she smiled, and he knew he had Cory's mother liked to go to her daugh- skull on the day of Cory's birth that day by (he sliced downward done right in hiring her, He walked away ter's room on her day off from the bakery day through years had little at time, neatly dividing her into thinking about her smile, not that it made her and just sit quietly awhile. The room was not a a neatly 'here halves. She imagined that the knife was even pretty or anything, but it changed her. At lirst messy, the bed always made; or with her heart by now and that if she had to her face was immobile, guarded; then it be- was no scattering of books records or decision leaving with Cory gan to soften, and very slowly, like the open- clothes to offend the most fastidious house- make the about to able to live with ing ofa tight, hard bud, the softening, relax- keeper, but there were plants everywhere, of driving Cory away be ing continued until her whole face was in pots, coffee cans, milk cartons, rusty veg- Raymond, (he knife would make the rest of cut very fast. transformed and was not protected at all, etable cans, Styrofoam cups. . . . In here the the During her lunch hour he saw her wan- light was soft and green, filtered through booth dering over the nursery grounds, and he re- leaves at both windows. Bruce Enfield has gone to the phone

it wiihout plac- membered that he had meant to show her A heavy rain was driving leaves from the twice and each time has left 60 OMNI — "

ing the call to his friends in Chicago. He sits cending in a column until a draft hits it. He He dressed, made coffee and eggs, and in a clattering coffee shop and stares out the stubs out the cigarette and is mildly sur- planned. He had to prune the two-year-old window at fitful snow that looks dirty even prised to see four others already in the ash- trees; he had it scheduled for early January, of ice. before it hits the ground. tray, all three quarters intact. but they would break under a load His friends would ask about Beatrice, and Yesterday he changed his reservation, And cover the evergreens. And the balled he does not want to talk about her. He sips added this side trip to Eugene. Beatrice did and burlapped trees, and if he had time, gel his coffee, wishing he had gone to the bar; not ask why. He wishes she would pretend to the year-old, dwarfed fruit trees. . . . The he hates coffee shops. The snow is stop- to be interested but understands that she radio was giving no eomfort at all, nof even ping again; it is like the ash-fall they some- won't play that game with him. From the start trying to predict when the ice storm would times have in Savannah. He remembers she refused games, then it did not matter pass, turn into ordinary rain, wash away the standing at the glass wall of his house, close because there was no game to play. But grief the ice always brought with it. to Beatrice but not touching her as they now. ... He hears again her indifference It was as dark as night when he was ready watch the powdery ashes settle on the lawn, when she asked how long he would be gone. to go out and start what seemed to be a day on the surface of the pool. He can't remember if she acknowledged his of futile effort. The ice was already a quarter in "Lovely," she says. "Your company?" answer or even if he answered. It mattered inch thick. For a moment he squinted "No." so little, they both seemed to say. disbelief as he stared at the toolshed, brightly "Have you made an appointment with a "Tell me about your mother," the doctor lighted. He hurried toward it; the gravel drive doctor yet?" Still looking out the glass, pre- says, trying to hide a smile. was already treacherous as ice smoothed tending nonchalance, or actually feeling it "Not my mother. Not my father. It's Cory. out the irregularities. Ihe hell are you doing here?" he no longer can tell which—she asks the And I can't tell you." Abruptly he stands up "Cory! What question as if she were asking for the time. and snatches his check and hurries from the She ducked her head and mumbled, and ."No." coffee shop. He can feel the hot breath on he drew closer to her. A 747 rolls past the window, and he his back, and he does not dare turn to look "How'd you get here?" her, said, on watches until it is at home in its own bay and for fear he will see the dragon in daylight. He Her mother had brought she the caterpillar mouth has attached itself to knows when that happens, he will be lost. her way to work. She had heard the rain and the giant body. knew it would turn to ice. He stared at Cory He imagines the scene with the doctor: One morning Whitman woke up before for another moment, and then they went to "You say you have nightmares, Mr. Enfield. daylight, listening to sleet hit the roof. Drows- work. Together they pruned the trees and About what?" ily he turned over, finding comfort in ihe covered the evergreens and got to the "Dragons. They are chasing me, breath- steady pattering of icy feei while his own feet grafted trees. sat up. Sleet. By late afternoon they had it all done, ing flames, and I can feel the heat touching were warm. Then he He me, spreading, consuming me." switched on the radio before he reached for everything they could do to protect the nurs- "Dragons! Very interesting, Mr. Enfield." the light. They were already talking aboul the ery stock. In exhaustion Whitman made his

r He lights a cigarette and watches the lip, weather conditions- "reezing am throughout way to the house, motioning her to follow. He the smoke curling slightly at first, then as- the valley, roads closed, schools closed. envied her young, strong body, her stamina, but even she was tired by then and hungry and half frozen. Their outer coats were cov- ered with ice; ice was an inch thick on every-

thing in sight, it had stopped failing an hour earlier, but the temperature had dropped throughout the day: there would be no thaw until the wind changed. At the door of the house Cory stopped and looked at the magic world, and she smiled her rare smile. Whit-

man nodded. It was truly beautiful, but he was too cold and tired to smile. He made coffee and got steaks from the deep freeze and made a fire in the fireplace.

They both sat very close to it, driven back gradually as the flames went from orange- yellow to blue. Neither talked. When Whit- man felt himself drifting off in a doze, he roused and went out to make their dinner. The telephone lines were down, and the ra- dio was nothing but chatter about the ice storm and its consequences. Nothing was moving. Whitman sighed. She would have to spend the nighl, he thought gloomily, and there might be talk. No one else had been able to get to the nursery that day, and he had not talked to his brother, who probably was iced in, Who would ever know? He pushed the thought aside and went about making dinner methodically, the way he did everything. And he wondered about Cory. f'ifi/ni-tv"* She always knew about the weather; no mat-

ter what it did, she was dressed for it or had clofhes to change into. Today she had brought rain pants and heavy enough "For tomorrow's weather, the-clouds: partly toxic with scattered clothes to get by on an Arctic expedition. late meteor showers by afternoon. When they had come in, she had gone into the bathroom and stripped off a layer or two little package, neatly tied ofl with a and had corriG out dry and clean. She never outdoor job :hat required muscles and no plump wire. she singled out were thin, lost plants to a drought or had them rot in a mind. Hetound it at Whitman's. The old man The ones told to theirs over and week of steady rain. She knew. asked few questions, put him and Frank scrawny. She them do She could not handle money, or take an Fredrickson to work the day they applied. returned to her own task. walk away. 'And how order; or talk lo a customer. She seldom "Cory,- show these two fellows how to ball Frank watched her did your Balling roses." He talked to the other employees; she man- up the roses," Whitman called. Across the you spend day? laughed. "I'm going to be in her pants within aged to take her lunch break atter the others drive, near a shed, a girl nodded and mo- tall wanna bet?" were back at work. Sometimes in good tioned to them to follow her. She was and two weeks, ." weather, she took her sack lunch out under could have passed for a young man, bun- "Her? But she's a . . Sure, she is. They make the one of the walnut trees and ate there alone. dled up as she was in jacket and boots and "A dummy? lays. They're grateful, you know? And She had not missed a day in a year and a gloves. It was a cold March day, misty, with best

tell . what you want them half, never had. a cold, an ache, a complaint. more rain threatening any minute. they don't They do

do. weeks.. I'll let you know how she In fact, he had had to tell her she could not Bruce ano Frank exchangee a glance and to Two

inside the and is. A side bet. She's a virgin. Am l on?" work seven days a week; it was the only thing followed her. She went shed terse, Bruce was revolted by the idea of taking he ever had to tell her more than once. And waited for them Her directions were like her, revolted by Frank's easy ap- when he had tried to pin her down about her almost mumbled, and she did not look at a girl experienced air. That winter vacation, she had said sullenly that she had them directly. praisal, his else to do, Within a few minutes they all walked to- Bruce had met Beatrice Langley, and al- . nowhere else to go. nothing and ward the rows of roses, pulling long wagons. though he looked at other girls, she was the if she couldn't work, she would just sit under thought of groping the trees and watch. On hers there was a box with labels, a stack one he always saw. The frozen-faced, slow-witted girl like Cory A few days later, when everything was of wooden flats, clipping shears, .scissors; a tall, sickening. back to normal, he told his brother he was Bruce's had a stack of burlap squares, a was eluding Frank all raising Cory's salary. large box of wet sawdust, a spool of wire, Somehow Cory kept expected to "Why? You know her father gets her and wire cutters, and Frank's had the spade spring. She was not where he entered when he money." tind her, or a third person thought he had her alone, or something else "You been telling me for years I should hire Bruce that he had the. myself another Hank Valchak, another man- happened. He told behind the last that place picked out, back ager. I been realizing more and more greenhouse, the one they called Cory's trial she's it. She does more than Hank ever did. 4/Ve went greenhouse. A grove of holly trees hid the And we set up a trust and don't tell her daddy. spot Frank in mind, and no one ever When this goes," he said, motioning vaguely closer and looked curiously had went back to her toward the grounds, the greenhouses, bothered Cory when she at it—just a greenhouse, That was where she got everything, "what's going to become of a girl own flower, pretty, unusual, strange grafts to take, where she hand-pol- like her? Set it up, Don." red get new colors, new vari- Don Whitman was sixty-three and had but nothing linated flowers to one knew what she did there be- begun to talk about training his own replace- eties. No more—and started to say it ever asked. ment. William Whitman would be sixty in the cause no one "Leave her alone," Bruce said sharply. fall of that year. Soberly Ihey nodded at each was just a flower trust was "She doesn't bother anyone." other and it was done, the fund nothing.^ but decided to say did bother Frank. Afrown established: Cory became the highest-paid But he knew she from her enough to make anyone have employee of the enterprise. was to do a day's work over again, and her a dummy, second in charge of a million-dollar Bruce Enfield tries to remember if he or- her; more, he dered chicken or the seafood casserole. He operation. Frank resented enough, feared her, because.if a retard could go up cannot tell by tasting. He is on a DC-10 this and fork. The work was mindless In couple of years, where did it time, seated by a window in the smoking Bruce decided guickly. Cory moved on like that a leave like him? It wasn't right, he section, T-he plane is two thirds filled, ser- ahead of them, pruning the roses that they someone little said; Whitman treated her like some kind of vice is prompt and efficient; already he has then dug out and balled up in bundles royalty, excusing her from anything had two drinks, and after he finishes his meal, with the roots packed in dirt and sawdust. special didn't want to do, things she couldn't do there will be plenty oi time for several more. The roses came out easily: Bruce learned she eight-year-old could handle. Beatrice travels more often than he does; later that they had been root pruned twice thai any normal Frank grinned at Bruce and mo- she is an assistant buyer for a department io lorce them to make a compact root sys- One day tioned for him to look at something. It was store, and her trips are to Mew York, Paris, tem, easy to dig, easy to transplant, almost London, even Hong Kong. guaranteed to suffer no shock when moved. an envelope. Frank opened it carefully and left Bruce. The food is taken away, and presently a He found himself watching the girl as she showed he said triumphantly. "She can't mellow voice suggests that the window-seat them behind. Her hands were so quick it was "Seeds," movies, or books, or television, or passengers pull down their blinds in order hard to follow exactly what she was doing. talk about

anything. All she is plants. I have the to view the movie. He pulls down his blind First she seemed to feel the rosebush, and knows ultimate my friend." and closes his eyes and remembers when then she clipped it so fast that he could not weapon, he went to work for Whitman. tell what she looked for, how she determined "What are they?" if old brought His master's degree was assured by the what needed cutting, what needed saving. "Damned T know. My man back from Africa ten, fifteen years ago. spring break, and in the fall he would report Some of the cuttings fell around the plants, them They've the house ever since. to MIT for Ihe eighteen-month grind toward to be cleaned up later by one of ihe younger been around

I Last night I remembered them and knew his Ph.D. That was already assured also; his boys; some of them she kept until she had a project had been accepted, the execution bundle that she tied together and labeled. had her." Bruce thought so. too. He had an impulse would be a matter of putting in the time it Her cuttings always grew, he learned that ' the to the envelope out of Frank's hand, took to. do the designing, the drawings, the spring and summer. The more she cut. knock mock-ups. He was a chemical engineer more plant stock they seemed to have. to grind the seeds into the earth, to yell out to hide, to run away. It was none of specializing in""plant design; there was a After a whi ; e sho came back to Bruce and to Cory himself, and went great need for him and the too few other's Frank to inspect their work. She shook her his business, he reminded like him. head over several of the burlapped roses back to work. when Frank wan- What he wanted for that summer was an and pointed to one she had done, It was a It was late afternoon 64 OMNI dered over to Cory's greenhouse. Bruce watched him helplessly and slowly followed, knowing he would nol interfere. He wished a storm would come up, lightning hit the greenhouse, set fire to the holly grove. At the screened door he stopped and listened. "I knew you'd be the only one to plant them." Frank was saying. "See that black one? It's almost like a stone, isn't il? And those little ones in the glassine envelope, they're more like grains of dust than seeds. And that red one. That must be the dragon seed." Her voice did not carry enough for Bruce lo make out her words. Frank laughed. "Sure they did. Where do you think dragons came from? Two ways: seeds like that and their own teeth. When you grow one, you save the teeth and plant Ihem. too. They'll grow. You want to borrow my book about dragons?" Bruce could no longer choose to move or not to move. He was as cold, as rigid as stone, without will as he listened to Frank's voice, then ihe wordless murmur that was her voice, Frank's voice again, like a snare drawing tighter and tighter before the victim

ever had a chance to suspecl its presence. He was moving her toward the back door, saying what a wonderful surprise she would have for Mr. Whitman when the seeds sprouted. Then he was talking about how much the seeds cost, how he had been will- ing to pay so much because he liked her. . Bruce could imagine his hands on her now, her bewilderment,

"When a man likes a girl and she likes him, it's Ihe most natural thing in the world to show each other." Bruce never saw him coming, but sud- denly Whitman was there, entering the greenhouse. "Cory, you run along home now." His voice was low and easy, the way he always spoke to her. She ran from the greenhouse clutching the envelope, ran to her bicycle and sped away. "You. you piece of shit! "Get your gear and clear out and don't come back." "You've right, got no Mr. Whitman. I wasn't going to hurt her." "You say another word and I'm going to whip you. Get out!" Frank came out blinking in the bright sun- light. He called over his shoulder, "She's got freewill, doesn't she? I was going to give her

a good time, a little fun. that's all." Bruce hurried back to the new green- house, where he was supposed to be caulk- ing windows. The next day when he met Whitman, he saw contempt on the old man's face. Bruce opens his eyes in order to stop

seeing that look. It is still there.

August heat lay over the land like some- one opened ihe door to hell, Whitman thought, pulling up in the driveway of the Davenport house. He was not sure what he would say to Mrs. Davenport, but he had to say something, let her know Cory was vul- nerable. All summer he had worried about t for trying new Bill Blags Vo this, pondered what he should do, what he ;. ft>r a limited time only. See details at participating could do, and finally he had got in his truck retailers. Offer ends January 15, 1986. CONTINUED ON PAGE 120

'

bOne tone warns that the baby has stopped breathing. Others sound when the heartbeat has dropped or when oxygen levels are too low3

Victoria is one of the quarter million pre- mature babies born each year who are ben-

efiting from a revolution in neonatal care. That

revolution is due, at least in part, to a simple but crucial concept: Premature babies have nothing special wrong with them. Their or-

gans are simply underdeveloped and still adapted to the dark, cushioned environ- ment of the womb, where oxygen, food, and waste disposal are all provided by the pla- centa. Thus, the task doctors face is to nur- ture these ban es. Ngnlng damage while the preemies' fragile organ systems mature. Spurred by the notion of the preemieasa freeze-frame of human development, med- ical researchers have forged dramatic im- provements in care for the premature. They've used ultrasound and the three-di- mensional X-ray machine known as the CAT scan to understand the physiology of pre- mature babies. They've developed sophis- ticated respirators that produce rapid stac- cato puffs of oxygen fortiny, sensitive lungs. Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, They've adapted computer technology to weren't so sure. Kimble had lost two pre- monitor and sustain the babies' vital func- mature babies, and the chances for this one tions. They've even begun to probe the didn't look good. The child, weighing a mere minds of premature babies, learning how one and a half pounds, was born about 25 they respond to all this intensive care. And weeks after conception. She was at the very they have concentrated all these develop- edge of human viability, before which lite ments in special baby wards so modern that cannot be sustained. one expert says they look like "Hollywood Predictably, things soon went awry. In a portraits of intergalactic spaceships." few days doctors found a small hemorrhage "It's absolutely a product of the Space Age in the baby's brain. Then she became jaun- and microprocessors," says Dr. Lu-Ann diced, as broken red blood cells lingered in Papile, director of neonatology at the Uni- her skin. Her toes turned blue. She devel- versity of New Mexico Medical Center. The oped infections. She needed transfusions: progress in the last decade "has been ab- enough in her first week to replace all the solutely incredible." blood in her body several times over. Her Dr. Elizabeth R. Brown, director of neona- blood-sugar level skyrocketed, sending her tology at Boston City Hospital, agrees. "The brain into seizures. Her heart stopped twice. frontier of viability," she says, "has moved Both times a doctor did cardiopulmonary re- back. In the Fifties, it was unusual to save a suscitation [CPR] by pressing his thumbs thousand-gram (2.2-pound) preemie. Mow lightly against her chest. perature. They fought things they didn't even they survive all the time."

"I called the hospital, and the doctor said know how to explain, like the unusual swell- Indeed, survival rates, which depend on he didn't think she would make it," says Kim- ing and blue 'color of her stomach. size and age, have been rising in every cat- per- ble. "I just rushed right over there. But first I Days passed, then weeks. And with the egory. Twenty years ago, more than 85 asked him to go over to her and say 'God passage of time the child's underdeveloped cent of all preemies less than 1,500 grams

it after died: that survive. For bless you.' I knew that God would know organs began to mature. Finally, two now same percentage was coming from me." and a half months, she was strong enough larger preemies, the survival rate has jumped Once at the hospital, she continued to to be transferred out of intensive care. One into the ninetieth percentile. And the rate of pray. The doctors, meanwhile, used every month later she was ready to go home- severe handicaps—such as cerebral palsy technique they could muster. They admin- three days before she would have been born and mental retardation—has either dropped istered antibiotics, clotting agents, and sei- had she been the product of a normal nine- or stayed the same, depending on whose zure repressors. They used the latest tech- month pregnancy. studies you read. Increasingly smaller ba- nology to examine the baby's brain. They "She's come a long way," said Kimble as bies are remaining healthy. Though compli- tought infections and wild changes in tem- she prepared to take her baby home. "From cations from prematurity still account for the very beginning she was not supposed 8,200 infant deaths a year, the picture has

The neonatal unit at Cedars of Sinai Hospital, in to live." Indeed, from the outset the child changed. Los Angeles, is shown at top. Middle: Adult fin- seemed to merit her name—Victoria, an For most of human history, of course, gers cradle the tiny toot of a premature infant homage to the victory over death. preemies were considered weaklings and 68 OMNI "

given up for dead. Then, in the late nine- realized Iheir oxygen supplement was scar- Eventually, a former Air Force doctor de- teenth century, a French doctor named Ste- ring the immature blood vessels of the eye, signed a machine that kept babies' lungs phane Tarnier got an idea while visiting a preventing the retina from attaching and inflated with continuous air pressure while Paris zoo. Noticing how baby chicks were rendering the infants blind. By diluting the pumping in small puffs of air. The machine kepi warm and alive in incubators, he asked oxygen, doctors finally curbed the epi- also had an "air clutch," which allowed the the zoo statf to make one big enough for a demic— but not before thousands of pree- baby to override the machine if he started child. Voila—the world's first warm-air incu- mies had been hurt. breathing on his own. Thousands of the new bator was invented. And the Paris Maternite Olher dangers abounded in the Fifties. respirators were installed, and by the early Hospital became a world center for care of Then, as now, the leading killer of- preemies Seventies a majority of respiratory distress the premature. was respiratory distress syndrome. All that syndrome victims lived rather than died. Years later a young doctor from the hos- doctors knew about the syndrome was that "It [the new technology] was like a band pital displayed the incubators—babies and infants afflicfed with it spent fwo or three days starting up." says Dr. Jerold Lucey; profes- all—at the 1896 Berlin World's Fair. The so- gasping for breath, only lo give up and die. sor of pediatrics at the University of Vermont called Child Hatchery was such a hitthat Dr, Autopsies revealed that the lungs were col- and editor of the journal Pediatrics. "You'd

Martin Couney took it to London and then to lapsed, airless, and purplish-red. hear a toot, then a whistle, and soon every- America for a tour lasting several years. He Then, in the late Fifties and early Sixties thing was in motion." The progress was so went to Chicago, Omaha, Buffalo, and other Dr. Mary Ellen Avery, of Boston's Peter Bent rapid that in 1975 the American Academy of cities, displaying the hatchery at exhibitions Brigham Hospital, examined victims' lungs Pediatrics formed an entirely new medical great and small. Finally he settled near New with an electron microscope. She found that specialty, called neonatology. York's Coney Island amusement park, where they lacked a soapy coating, called surfac- Since then work has continued unabated, in the summertime he charged 25-cent ad- tant, that kept lung tissue pliant, much as giving insights into problems that scientists missions to all who wanted to see his Pre- mink oil can soften a shoe. With surfactant barely knew existed. In the late Seventies, mature Baby Exhibit. The show remained the air sacs in the lungs can expand easily, for instance, Dr. Lu-Ann Papile, of the Uni- open until World War II. like smooth-working bellows. Without it they versity of New Mexico, startled the medical Couney's approach may have seemed collapse, like small, dried-out balloons. community with her studies of preemies wilh sensational, but he's credited with saving Indeed, without surlactan! most preemies brain hemorrhages. Doctors had long known thousands ol "hopeless" preemies and ad- could not breathe on their own. The obvious that some preemies die;: ol bleeding in the vancing the cause of premature care. Cou- solution: pumping air into the lungs at a rel- brain but didn't think it was very common. ney's work influenced Dr. Julius Hess, who atively high pressure. Yoi high pressure could But Papile— using CAT scan machines to established the country's first hospital destroy the fragile lung tissue. examine the brains of 100 preemies in her preemie unit in Chicago. "There were a lot of abortive attempts," hospital — found this inkblotlike bleeding in

It was Hess who eventually pioneered the according to neonatologist Mildred Stahl- about half of all preemies who weighed less practice of giving oxygen to preemies, dra- man, a pioneer in the field at Vanderbilt Uni- than 1,500 grams, about half of whom died. matically improving their rates of survival. But versity^ "You'd try lo use high pressure, but Her work helped identify hemorrhage as one with the boon came a problem. Doctors soon it would blow out the lungs. of the leading causes of preemie mortality and the prime cause of cerebral palsy and mental retardation.

By the Seventies, it had also become

common knowledge that about a third of all preemies suffer the effects of an immature circulatory system. In the fetus, a small tube near the heart directs blood away from the lungs. That's because the fetus gets its ox-

ygen through the mothers placenta; its lungs don't need to be suffused with blood. After birth, the tube naturally closes, and circula-

tion adjusts to life outside the womb. In many preemies, however, the tube does not close.

If severe enough, this condition, called pa- tient ductus arteriosus (PDA), can cause heart failure. The standard treatment for PDA in the Seventies was to stitch the tube closed. But then doctors at Stanford University, looking at the circulatory system of fetal lambs, found that a body chemical called prostaglandin

keeps the tube open. If that's the case, they reasoned, why not use a drug to inhibit pros- taglandin? And so for the next several years, various teams of scientists used a chemical relative of aspirin to inhibit the production of

prostaglandin in premature lambs and then in human premature babies. Finally, in 1983 the National Institutes of Health reported that in a nationwide study involving 421 preemies, the recovery rate of the treated group was nearly Ihree times as high as for the untreated group. So positive were the results that this year the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for intravenous use, eliminating thousands of surgical procedures per year. —

These advances, moreover, have spurred tiny ones who require the most care. At the other end of the room a nurse dis- the advent of perhaps the most crucial fac- "it's all bone— skin and bone," says Law- connects a baby from a respirator. "Cute!" tor in preemie survival: the modern neonatal hon as, she repositions the baby, who at 24 he exclaims as he removes tubes and tape. intensive care unit (NICU). These high-tech weeks gestational age 'weighs a mere 600 The baby tests his liberated vocal chords facilities, the latest word in the treatment of grams. "It feels like you're touching a tiny with his first healthy scream. "He's being ex- premature babies, represent medicine's lat- Cornish hen." tubated," says Lawhon. "That's a big step, est attempt to simulate some of the functions As Lawhon speaks, monitors in the back- because now he can breathe on his own." of the womb. ground sound electronic alarms. One tone In a few weeks that baby may be sent

"We're not here to create something super warns nurses if the baby stops breathing. across the hall to the mid-level-care nursery. or to intervene in nature," says Dr. Michael (The condition, called apnea, arises be- Quieter and less high tech than the first room, Epstein, of the NICU at Brigham and Wom- cause the preemie brain may not be devel- the mid-level room houses those babies who en's Hospital, in Boston. "We're just trying to oped enough to "remind" the lungs to have come through the first critical few help with the functions until the baby comes breathe.) The treatment: Tickle the feet to months. The babies—no longer connected to full term. At each stage we try to pick the make the baby alert again. In serious cases to respirators or monitors— lie in incubators minimum intervention." doctors administer a chemical related to or in miniature cribs with clear plastic sides.

At first glance, the technology in the room caffeine. Other alarms warn that a baby's The atmosphere is brightened by stuffed seems to contradict him A baby girl sleeps heartbeat has dropped or that his oxygen animals, pictures, and brightly colored signs in one plastic incubator. Nearly lour months levels are too low. "Some of these kids are in the cribs. premature, she has no fewer than half a so sensitive that just touching them will cause But if the NICU and mid-level-care nurs- dozen tubes and wires connected to her. A the alarm to go off," says Lawhon. Nurses ery represent the state of the art, scientists clear plastic tube carries nutrients to a vein check the babies, then reset the monitors. around the country are pushing the tech- in her left ankle; another drips medication to Every corner of the room is alive with nology further still. Even though doctors in a vein in her left hand. Two tubes lead from drama. A nurse puts a needle into a baby's the late Seventies recognized the danger of the respirator behind her into her nostrils, arm. The baby tries to scream, but no noise hemorrhage, all they could do then was past her vocal chords, and down her tra- watch the bleeding with CAT scan and ultra- chea. Nurses explain that some babies sound, draining the fluids and hoping the

"fight" the respirator and breathe against it. leakage would stop. They may be completely paralyzed with Last summer, however, aWashington Uni- pancuronium, a synthetic form of curare, so versity team announced a new treatment. '•The lay in that the respirator can take control, forcing baby Using an ultrasound probe, they measured them to breathe. a frog pose—legs splayed the How in blood vessels around preemies' Three wires lead from computer-driven brains. The vessels, they found, lack an im- on either side monitors to small plastic bands on each arm portant feature of more mature capillaries. and one leg. The monitors display her of the head. A fine white Blood vessels in the adult brains maintain a pressure. Those of preemies breathing and heart rate in an ever-chang- fetal hair constant blood ing series of green numbers and graphs. are "pressure passive," according to Dr. Jef- the skin Other wires lead to a nickel-size disc on the covered body Her frey M. Perlman, and exert no control over baby's stomach. This transcutaneous oxy- hung in loose the blood pressure within them. As a result gen monitor heats a small patch of skin and they swell or collapse—sometimes enough wrinkles around the joints.^ then measures the oxygen that diffuses from to rupture. the capillaries. Because the disc heats the Perlman and his colleagues found that the skin slightly, nurses often shift it to avoid blood pressure changes occur in the first 48 causing a burn. A few mosquito-size red to 72 hours of life— exactly when respiratory spots show where the monitor has been. distress syndrome is most severe. They The whole body is warmed from a small comes out. She explains that the breathing suggested that the two are linked; as babies overhead" heater and bathed in an unearthly tubes passing between his vocal chords- struggle to breathe, their blood pressure blue light. Doctors have found that the light prevent them Irom vibrating and giving voice sometimes changes enough to cause hem- breaks down the old red blood cells that the to the scream. orrhages. As treatment, Perlman used the liver does not remove. To avoid eye dam- A mother who has just given birth is standard procedure for infants who fight age, nurses fit the baby with a blindfold. wheeled in on a stretcher to see her pre- respirators: giving synthetic curare until the "Here we go," says nurse Gretchen Law- mature daughter Still seds'.od. she is barely infant is 72 hours old. The result: 5 of the 14 hon as she reaches through two portholes strong enough to turn her head and gaze. test infants remained free of hemorrhages, in the side ofthe incubator. Avoiding the tan- "O-h-h-h-h," she says weakly. "Is it okay to while none of the 10 control infants did. in gle of wires, she removes a tube from the touch her?" fact, Perlman says that using pancuronium needle in an ankle and touches a capillary "Feel free," says a nurse. The mother ten- and other drugs has reduced the deaths due tube to the base of the needle to withdraw a tatively strokes a leg, afraid she might break to brain hemorrhage among preemies to blood sample. In a few minutes she'll have it. At the nurse's urging she caresses the about a third of the national average. a lab report, showing oxygen and carbon head. "She's so beautiful, so sweet," mur- He acknowledges that pancuronium is dioxide content and the pH of the infant's murs the mother. She stares dreamily at the harsh, causing complete paralysis while it is blood. She takes less than a tenth of a tea- baby while her husband stands behind her. applied. "The next step is to find a less nox- spoon. This preemie's body contains a bit "I've been through that before," laughs ious agent." more than a shot glass of blood; to draw more Carol Cardoso, rocking her baby a few feet Of course, there might be fewer hemor- would necessitate a transfusion. away. Her first preemie was "scary, " but with rhages if preemies did not have to struggle Lawhon explains that the vast majority of this one she seems almost nonchalant. to breathe. And so scientists have recently babies she sees are moderately prema- Dr. Epstein walks in and recognizes Car- developed a new kind of respirator ihat ture—31 to 36 weeks gestational age and doso from two and a hall years ago, when seems to take the struggle away. At first usually weighing from 1,500 to 2,500 grams he helped her keep" her first preemie alive. glance it's not apparent why this device (3.3 to 5.5 pounds). A small percentage— "How's the first one?" he asks. works. Conventional preemie respirators about 1 percent of -all births— are very pre-. "Oh, fine. Of course we want to give him deliver about 50 teaspoon-size puffs of air mature babies. Their gestational ages range up for adoption." per minute; this one puffs about 20 times from 24 to 31 weeks; their weight, from 500 "No returns!" says Epstein, in mock pro- faster, using far smaller volumes of air. It sets to 1,500 grams (1.1 to 3.3 pounds). It's these test. "We have a firm policy of no returns!" up thousands of tiny air swirls in the lungs

72 OMNI CONTINL IFD ON PAGE 13S hJ Wzsmm

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IT thing began with the Big Bang, some 14 billion years ago. No one is sure

it what caused or what existed before. But suddenly matter I a single point. Initially, the fireball was too hot, too dense for atoms to exist:

Neutrinos (elusive particles with no mass or charge) condensed first, then the more familiar atomic particles. Later hydrogen and helium formed. Only minutes old, the infant universe was already billions of miles across. Perhaps as many as 5 billion years passed during which gravity tugged

: of matter back together. As it condensed, the first r*— —

-..Jp*'

The cloud gradually shrank and organized (near right). Th

w were born. Acting as furnaces, they welded hydrogen and helium into heavier elements. Some stars died in violent

supernova explosions, which created still heavier atoms and spewed them forth to seed other clouds of stars.

a second generation of stars. Around them, matter dumped into smaller bodies— * ""i planets and moons, the "

I so dramatically that its points almost directly into the sun? Ar why are the paths of Pluto and Halley's

from the r

.-, «..j day discover the

to these puzzles but only if we are

> invest the necessary time and money in space exploration and the

; study of the universe.

~ jen rf the riddles stay with us forever, cosmic science has already tauqht its most important at our feet to the farthest star, all children of the White sperm and egg may meet in a glass dish, and frozen embryos can survive indefinitely, the first human birth on the far side of the galaxy will still come from a mother's womb irUTERV/IEUU

Epworth Hospital, run by of glass-dish conceptions and the sisters of the Uniting embryo freezing, the high-tech Church, lies in a residen- accoutrements or the antiseptic tial section of Melbourne, Austra- pleasantries so typical of American lia's second largest city. The hospitals are nowhere to be hospital is across the street from found. Instead, a modest gift shop a row of turn-of-the -century on the ground floor sells lilacs Victorian homes attractively and roses, while relatives cluster decorated with blooming gardens in a central lobby for news of and second-story latticework, their loved ones' operations. and its quaint appearance hints Like the hospital itself, the city little at its position as the leading in of Melbourne is a puzzling vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic in paradox. The capital of the state the' world. Despite Epworth 's of Victoria, Melbourne is a curious pioneering role in enabling mixture of old-fashioned morality hundreds of infertile couples to and repressed prurience. Its have babies through the practice divided sexual personality seems PHOTOGRAPH BY LEE McELFRESH the of sheep, Chilean Andes, leaving a legacy of two fer- entirely in keeping --i thi traditions estab- master's thesis on fecundity tilized eggs, a substantial financial estate, lished during the reign of Queen Victoria, and then into the first baby born from a frozen road from sheep and a scientific imbroglio with far-reaching Melbourne is both the most and the least embryo, in 1984. Yet the embfyologist to preeminent scientist was international consequences. The case be- likely place for the world's top I VF center. On extraordinary obstacles. In 1979 came a headline writer's dream; Right-to-life the one hand, this is Rupert Murdoch's na- paved with grueling race with groups from several ccriinons lobbied vo- tive land, a country where tabloids scream his team found itself in a and Robert Ed- ciferously for the embryos' protection, and of barmaids attacked in their pubs by ab- England's Patrick Steptoe the Melbourne clinie was besieged with re- originals, of surrogate "mums" refusing to wards, who had delivered Louise Brown, the quests from hundreds of infertile women give up another couple's baby, of prostitutes world's first test-tube baby, in 1978. For more hoping to adopt the abandoned embryos, needing AIDS tests, and of child molesters than a year, Trounson's team labored relent- British, legislature in Victoria became em- stalking the tidy gardens of the city's west- lessly to duplicate ihe success of the The wrath of broiled in an ethical controversy that still ern suburbs. and in finally doing so incurred the awaits resolution today. On the other hand, Melbourne has distin- Edwards, who charged that Trounson's in- IVF proc- "There's where the Rios embryos are kept." guished itself for decades as a world-class troduction of fertility drugs into the Trounson says, as he points to a silver vat at research center. The success of Australia's ess was highly unethical. The British,, in the research lab. The gleaming container re- sheep and cattle industries has led many of late Seventies, had applied their techniques his cycle. sembles a pasteurizing machine, yet its the nation's scientists to specialize in animal to only one egg from a woman's natural labeled human em- husbandry and reproductive biology. Trounson believed that using drugs to in- contents of rouyily 260 is quite a bit more precious than milk. Sparsely populated (15 million people) and duce superovulation — the release of as bryos after the initial Rios furor, geographically remote from the citadels of many as a dozen eggs during a single Almost two years at Epworth Hospital is decidedly Western science, Australia offers its re- cycle—would greatly enhance the woman's the mood

if Some procedures have become so searchers a laboratory environment less en- chances of pregnancy through IVF several low-key. husbands of IVF patients, for ex- cumbered by rank and hierarchy and more embryos were implanted at once. Following routine that ample, are given handout instructions on how conducive to achievement at an early age. Melbourne's first test-tube-baby birth in 1980. submit their semen samples, bring sam- By any nation's standards, the accom- to DOWN TO THEATRE GOMPLEX AT FAR END OF plishments of thirty-nine-year-old Alan Os- ple corridor, the instructions say. ring buzzer borne Trounson are remarkable. Working IF UNANSWERED LEAVE IT AT ST-;' LR S DESK IN "i 'L since 1977 with his mentor, Carl Wood, and middle of the ward. The doctors sound al- about two dozen brilliant researchers at '•Once you jocular, as if they are shooting an up- Monash University's Queen Victoria Medi- most dated segment of M'AS'H on an IVF locale. cal Centre, in Melbourne, Trounson has rev- get a lot of embryos and They joke about a patient leery of undergo- olutionized the field of IVF His contributions, tubes in those ing the IVF process in the first place, who ranging from the introduction of fertility drugs it look ended up pregnant with triplets. "The sperm into the IVF process to the development of incubators, can sample was pretty lousy," someone. says at human-embryo freezing, have transformed like a forest. meeting," in which the test-tube-baby research from the risky crap- the Sunday "hormone We can't have more patients staff goes over the medical merits of each shoot that it was in 1980 to a legitimate and laparoscopies tomorrow?" "No. increasingly accepted medical science. Next because the case. "Any just a frozen transfer at six." in Trounson's series of achievements will be crowded.^ incubators get so morning laparoscopy most of the an announcement that he has successfully After the staff gone home, but Trounson, dressed frozen, thawed, fertilized, and implanted a has jeans a sports jersey, huddles over human egg, a breakthrough that is antici- in and his equipment, examining the latest harvest pated in early 1986. The Queen Victoria unit of eggs to be mated with sperm about five alone is responsible for neary 300 test-tube- became widely ac- or six hours later. While his affable manner - baby births, more than all the IVF babies born Trounson's methods decisive often covers an intense personal drive, his in ihe United States. cepted, and the Australians took a - taken its toll on his personal Trounson's meteoric rise has been noth- lead in IVF research. ambition has life. Despite so many successes in the IVF ing short of spectacular, yet he's distinctly Yet if any one event placed Wood and remains uncertain of his fu- uncomfortable with such laudatory descrip- Trounson's group on the international map it field. Trounson millionaire ture not fully reconciled with his scien- tions. There's a modesty and a professional was his treatment of the American and LikeCincinnatus, the humility that more befits the sheep farmer couple Elsa and Mario Fiios. Arriving without tific accomplishments. senator, he harbors a wish Trounson thought he would be than the in- fanfare in 1981, the Rioses hoped that Troun- tamous Roman simple life of a ternationally acclaimed scientist he has be- son's IVF team could "replace" Mrs. Rios's to return to the land and the Such move would free him from the come. He's reluctant to take sole credit for only child, a daughter from a previous mar- farmer. a his research and bring him his breakthroughs and never fails to praise riage, who had been tragic^ 'y killed in a gun politics hindering that dominate the Aus- an associate or an assistant. accident. Submitting to an "egg collection" closer to Ihe sheep Given the ethical controversies and the or laparoseppy, Elsa Rios initially had five tralian countryside. editor Robert Weil traveled thicket of laws that now envelop IVF re- eggs removed from her ovaries. Since Mario Omni features to where he observed IVF op- search in the state of Victoria, Trounson does Rios was infertile, sperm from an anony- Melbourne, Hospital and inter- not seem entirely comfortable with the spin- mous donor was used to fertilize Mrs. Rios's erations at Epworth office at Queen Vic- ning reels of a reporter's tape recorder, yet eggs in a laboratory. Three of the embryos viewed Trounson in his toria Medical Center. his playful banter is evident both to col- were promptly inserted into Elsa Rios's leagues and patients. "You're pregnant, dar- uterus, but she miscarried after 14 days. The In the year 2000, how will our attitude ling," he guips to a woman lying on an op- other two were frozen in liquid nitrogen to be Omni: reproductive technology be erating table, after he and a colleague have thawed later and used in a subsequent em- toward birth and

different it is just finished an embryo-lransfer procedure, bryo transfer. from what today? inserting three embryos into her uterus While such a procedure today might seem Trounson: People will have a much freer through a long catheter. routine; human embryo freezing was, in 1981, choice about the type of reproductive op- For with As with other pioneers in this field, Troun- almost unthinkable— a concept conjuring up tions that will suit them. example, a defects, in- son's genius seems to be more intuitive than frightening visions of Aldous Huxley's Brave much better knowledge of birth basis of learned: He parlayed his childhood fasci- New World in the extreme. In April 1983, ihe stead of choosing a mate on the nation with goats and other animals, into a Rios couple died in a plane crash over the love and affection, a person might select 84 OMNI '

7 maluraf ci. "ert; >aiion, and em- someone who minimizes the chances of birth other animals' Er-'bryo transfer technology ters of egg two bryo freezing. The work was very compli- of was the only way I could sort out those defects. I believe that the actual process evolving technique, like I ap- cated—instead of a having children will be taken much more se- factors. So while still a student, proached Neil Moore; then senior lecturer in embryo freezing, we were trying to under- riously than it now is. Reducing the number University of Syd- stand how this very large cell, the egg, was of children in each family will shift much more animal husbandry [at the emphasis onto those few children and ney], suggesting we could solve the inter- being controlled within the ovary. relating to multiple births by Omni: When you joined Carl Wood's IVF whether they will be normal. esting problem technologies in group in 1977, did your goals shift? Omni: How did you first become interested using his embryo-transfer my Trounson: simply wanted to duplicate the I the experiment We in the field of reproductive technology? sheep. Neil and actually did Edwards and together at a field station in Hay, about four success, not the work, of the Trounson: I grew up In the country towns of experiment of 1978. Throughout New South Wales. My grandfather, with hundred fifty miles west of Sydney, way up Steptoe their work [in- before in the arid zone. We selected two types of 1979 I literally tried to repeat whom I was very close, was a farmer serting only one fertilized egg info a uterus], he moved to Sydney to become a fruit in- sheep, one kind that produced only single but it all wrong to me. I'd been raised spector. He had a tremendous interest in the lambs and another that .produced mainly seemed

twin- in the animal reproduction area, and I knew land, which he passed on to rne, my broth- twins. We transferred eggs from the and that you could use fertility drugs effectively ers, and my sister. We had chickens, ducks, bearing to the singie-ijoaiing sheep, with animals and that you were always much cats, dogs, and birds. We looked after ihem vice versa. Then we varied the number of if more than one egg and bred them. eggs that were being transferred in either better off you could get than one embryo. You'd really have Once my father turned up with two goats kind of sheep. We found out that the preg- and more better chance at success. he'd broughl to keep my mother company nancy rate was not determined by the type a much

in 1979 1 started working independent- while he was away. They were really the last of eggs but influenced by the number of So clomi- that were put in the uterus. The sheep ly on superovulation in women, using thing she wanted, but I was absolutely de- eggs either phene citrate as a fertility drug. It was in the lighted. We bred those kids, loo. when they that received three eggs produced of early Eighlies that we put all these tech- grew up. So my interest in farm life and ani- triplets or twins, regardless of the origin superovulation. de- agricultural high the In short, multiple births resulted nigues together using mals existed before I wenl to eggs. from Edwards and I sp'le a !o: or criticism Bob school. At the University of New South Wales from animals that produced multiple eggs. studying the ge- was quickly enraptured by this technology, others, who said that this was the wrong di- I did a master's degree,

I had rection to lake. netics of multiple births in sheep. realizing it could solve many problems first to in mind about the embryo and preg- Omni: Was the Melbourne group the While finishing my master's I wanted to my achieve a high success rate with IVF? I joined determine whelher the egg or the uterus en- nancy. When I finished my Ph.D.

With clomiphene, I got more abled some highly fecund sheep to pro- Moore's mentors, who had trained him at Trounson: Sure.

inleresi in cry- than two eggs per person, so I had more duce triplets and quadruplets. Did the uterus Cambridge. That's when my

implant. I had a better chance allow those embryos to develop, or did these obiology developed. embryos to elsotcootar pregnancies. Us- sheep produce more eggs on average than At Cambridge we were dealing with mat- than anyone

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"So much for 'it'll keep us in omelets for weeks. 3

takos suMicient numbers of cells at the Adoption, under such circumstances, ing clomiphene was a breakthrough:. Sud- there's still eight-cell place at the one-cell stage with the donated denly we had eight pregnancies that went time of compaction. But after the sixteen- or thirty-two-cell egg- to births. So other researchers switched to stage, at about the cells in the embryo Omni: How does a .vomari whom you ve ac- superovulation instead of using the women's stage [in humans], the actually move through the program? culture bind, or compact, to one another. Some of cepted natural cycle. I also allered the me- cells are internalized within a ball of What will her week be like? dium for egg matu^iior. aga'.n based on my these internalized cells that then Trounson: She calls the nursing staff at Ep- knowledge of what works in sheep. cells, and it's these her period has develop into the embryo proper. worth and informsthem that Once I'd goucn fertn ly drugs to work in go on to outstanding prob- doing most of our Ireez- started. If there are no 1980, there remained the problem of what to Right now, we're eight-cell lems, she'll come to the hospital between dowithsomary spare eggs. Sconer or later ing still at the two- and four- and have gotten an excep- the second and fourth day of her cycle and we'd be restricted on the number of em- stages, because we or she'll of But we can also begin taking tablets of clomiphene, bryos we could return to a patienf—women tionally high rate success. begin getting injections of human menopau- would otherwise have guadruplets, quintu- freeze at the blastocyst stage. derived from blastocyst is the last stage of the sal gonadotropin, a hormone plets, sextuplets, and risk serious compli- Omni: A postmenopausal women, which before it attaches itself to the uterine the urine of cations for mother and child. I felt that we embryo many cells does will stimulate the follicles to burst. had an ethical obligation lo develop a tech- wall. How old is it then? How She'll return each morning after the sev- nique to freeze those extra embryos so that it have? blood samples taken be- It's about five or six days; about enth day to have they weren't in the laboratory for people to Trounson: cells are cause by measuring the circulating hor- experiment on indiscriminately or just dis- sixty to one hundred cells. The can determine how many eggs could be thawed much smaller and easier to freeze at this mones we of. I argued that they pose measure are normally frozen at this are growing in her ovaries I" mst we out and given back to the patients. stage. Embryos reproduction. This requires the estrogen level, wh ch tells you how many Omni: How did you. pioneer the freezing stage in animal days in eggs are growing. We will also use ultra- technique? that you grow them for five or six get a picture of the number of eggs bor- culture. This is a habi'ity because conditions sound to Trounson: I started using techniques developing. Later on we check for two other rowed from sheep and cattle embryology in hormone [LH— go- freeze hormones, luteinizing a 1981 but soon found that I needed to nadotropin, a pituitary regulator of sex ste- a human embryo at .a much earlier stage. roids] and progesterone which tell us ovu- Toward the end of 1982 and after some ex- lation is about to occur. Then, around the perimentation, we were able, to get our em- •When you'd get to thirteenth or fourteenth day of her cycle we'll bryos to survive, The first pregnancy, unfor- admit the woman to the hospital. tunately, lasted only twenty-four weeks. The the other end of the universe We'll then take blood samples three times patient ruptured a membrane, and the infec- you'd need a a day. We want to drive these patients very tion went into the amniotic fluid. The, baby for embryos. close to their own ovulation pattern [to par- actually caught pneumonia and a serious in- uterus those allel the natural hormonal cycle] because fection in its lungs. Heavy doses of antibiot- Perhaps at then spontaneously release their first they may ics kept it alive for four or five days. Our that end of the universe there own luteinizing hormone and initiate their own healthy birth from a frozen embryo in Mel- ovulation without requiring an injection. Most bourne was in January 1984. I'd done the are creatures patients, though, will need an injection of hu- freezing and thawing. functional uteri who have man chorionic gonadotropin to produce the Omni: Is it true, as a newspaper once printed. same biological activity as the patient's own thai you tried to defrost a human embryo in natural LH. About thirty-six hours after the your home freezer? patients receive this injection, we go into the Trounson; Noway, because you can't freeze theater [operating room] for a laparoscope or thaw them in an ordinary freezer. They is done and. in vitro [in glass], are not Omni: Once the laparoscopy have to be stored ir icuicl n.-rogen. I've never 'in culture, that is, say, nine or len eggs have been collected, done any embryo work at home. Why would as good as those in vivo [in the womb],. does a patient go what's the next step? you, unless you wanted to do some cattle Omni: What basic steps Trounson: The husband and wife must de- embryo work on the side? We're not permit- through in embryo freezing? into the IVF pro- cide how many eggs to fertilize and whether ted to have human embryos out of the hos- Trounson: Prior to coming about their to donate. About six hours after the egg col- pital environment, anyway. gram, patients are counseled religious beliefs lection, the husband provides the semen, Omni: How many human embryos lie in fro- options. Somebody whose find egg either with the assistance of his wife or by zen storage at Queen Victoria Medical Cen- do not permit embryo freezing may also inform masturbating. We require that the semen be ter right how? freezing more compatible. We provided in the hospital since it must be fresh Trounson: We currently have about two hun- patients that well not implant more than three in the United and must be the husband's. dred to two hundred sixty, the temperature embryos, as do many groups deliveries and Omni: Is there a possibility 'or intrigue? of the storage vat being minus one hundred States. The risK ol premat. ire with mul- Trounson; Yes. mir.go.ng possibilities do ex- ninety-six degrees Celsius [-320.8°F]. abnormalities is greatly nccased freezing, we'll ist, though we don't necessarily believe that Omni: At the embryo incubator at Epworth tiple births. If a patient chooses they would happen, Most of the husbands Hospital, you once looked in and said, 'A full freeze the remaining embryos, and she can don't have any problem, but some would house today." have them thawed later on. provide their sample at home. If Trounson: Sometimes you get so many em- Omni: Basically, embryo freezing gives a prefer to to have several in- that's their real wish, then we'll accede. When bryos and tubes in those incubators that it woman the opportunity 7 finally prepare the semen, the prepara- if should fail we looks a bit like a forest. Incubators get sertions the first one ef- tion system very much depends on the se- crowded, and that limits the number of pa- Trounson: That's right. This procedure of preg- men quality of the husband. When we first- tients in our program, fectively increases her chances collection, or la- examine the semen, we look at everything . Omni: At what cellular stage is it best to nancy with only one egg of that's in the sample— normal and abnormal freeze a human embryo? paroscope This is what the majority percent, choose. Pa- cells, volume, and anything else that's per- Trounson: We don't, know yet. If you freeze a patients, some ninety tinent. Once, we've prepared the sperm two-, fpur-ror-even eight-cell embryo, .you tients not opting lor feezing can donate their two hundred sample for insemination, we also look at the can still destroy some of the cells without eggs to others. We have about no ovaries or no sperm's quality to make certain that we've damaging the viability of the embryo. It won't patients who either have gotten rid of a lot of the abnormal cells/The make a difference to the embryo, provided eggs or who have a familial genetic disease. CON 5INUH DOW PAGE 12J SB OMNI Do the mothers of tomorrow want test-tube babies and surrogate dads?

BIRTHTECH BY KATHY KEETON WITH YVONNE BASKIN

1999 Louise Brown, the world's Infirst test-tube baby, will turn twenty- one. Somehow it is fitting that the women ot her generation, the women of the twenty-first century, will be the ones to reap the full benefits of a technology taking shape today. Over the pasi ten years science has revolutionized the process of

human birth. It promises to put the very definition of mother, father, family lineage, and even human life in our hands. In Ihe past two years alone there has been news of: the first baby born from a frozen embryo; fhe first instance of a woman who carried to term an infant born from a donated egg; and the first birth of a child from an embryo transplanted trom one woman to another. In fact, so much has happened since Louise Brown was born that the techniques used to engineer her birth are

considered a little old-fashioned. Because women bear the heaviest burden of deciding which birth technologies to use. their opinions

will shape the development of repro- ductive science in the next century. To find out what those opinions are, Omni enlisted the prestigious research firm Yankelovich, Skeily, and White, Inc., and conducted an

Left: A technician examines a group of donor eggs. Above: Sperm meets egg in the glass womb of a petri dish. Already science has transformed the bio- international poll querying women in the logical process of becoming a parent. In ad- United States, England, Japan, and South dition to old-fashioned conception, men and Africa for their thoughts on the new birth women today have a variety of novel alter- technologies. (For Omni readers—women natives for bringing sperm and egg together and men—who would like to register their

. to produce baby: opinions on the implications of this technol- a • A couple can have a baby by artificial in- ogy, we have included in this issue a new semination using sperm from the husband poll, designed by Dr. Judianne Densen- or an anonymous donor. Gerber, on page 106. This will give readers They can choose to use a surrogate the chance to compare Iheir attitudes with mother, a woman who agrees to carry her those of the women of the world. And be- own or an implanted embryo to term for them. cause Dr. Densen-Gerber hopes to use the • The couple's own egg and sperm, or do- poll results to influence birth-technology nated egg and sperm, could be joined in a legislation in Michigan, this will also offer petri dish and later placed in a woman's readers the opportunity to have a specific womb, a process that is known as in vitro, or influence on how the technology is used.) test-tube, fertilization (IVF). Would women consider freezing their em- • Finally, an embryo conceived in the body bryos to save for later implantation? Given of surrogate can be flushed from her the choice, which would they adopt: a child a womb and implanted in another's a tech- or an embryo? Under what conditions would womb, nique known as embryo transfer. they choose to have a test-tube baby? If they Depending on a couple's fertility problem, had the opportunity to handpick the char- all sorts of combinations of these methods acteristics of an anonymous sperm donor, are possible. Donated sperm can be used what would they choose? When the results either to inseminate the biological mother of were in, the answers were often surprising surrogate mother and always enlightening. the desired baby or a cho- sen to bear the child. Similarly, the and These questions are more than academic. eggs

Opposite page: (near left) sperm being screened lor sex selection before fertilizing egg (far left). This page; tools of high-tech birthing include ultrasound scans of the womb (left), ultradeep-treeze storage tanks of liquid nitrogen (above), and the warm, nurturing world of an incubator (top and above left).

92 OMNI ovulation problems get preg- the womb thai are used could be those of tween the ages of twenty-six and thirty. For women with, cor- either the woman who wants a child or her women with higher incomes and those who nant. Others can have their problem surrogate chosen to carry the embryo. work, the ideal age was even higher. They rected surgically. One San Francisco sur- ovary Fallopian Various scenarios are possible. In the most would opt for childbirth over thirty as the geon transplanted an and identical complicated, a child conceived by IVF could ideal. For women who had not yet begun tube from one sister to her infertile actually have five parents: the woman who their families, delayed motherhood was also twin afflicted with endometriosis. con- donated the egg, the man who donated the considered desirable. Half of these childless For some women, none of the more sperm, a surrogate mother who carries the women said becoming a mother over thirty ventional solutions work. They would be the of other op- fertilized egg, and the "two nonbiological was their preference. As one womanexec- ones to take advantage new tions. IVF is becoming the most popular parents who finally adopt the child. utive put it: 'At ages thirty-five to forty you've And alternative birth technologies. Since In the not-too -distant future we can ex- got your life squared away and your values of the birth of the first test-tube in 1978, pect to see these techniques made avail- straightened out. And you're young enough the baby the world have able not only to couples who have fertility not to be an old parent." infertile couples around been problems or who are concerned about ge- Postponing pregnancy has its drawbacks clamoring for the procedure. By the end of conceived in netic diseases but also to women trying to as well as its benefits. The later the preg- 1984 more than 1,000 babies born. of 1985 there were coordinate family and career plans or to nancy, the riskier it is for both mother and lab dishes were As the .United evade the tyranny of the biological clock. child. Women in their late thirties or older have 115 in vilro clinics operating in For the past 15 years, more and more a greater risk of such complications as tox- States, 8 in Canada, and at least 50 others American women have been delaying the emia (pregnancy-induced high blood pres- around the world. today: A start of their families. Between 1970 and sure), stillbirth, premature delivery, and Here is how a basic IVF works Clomid or Per- 1982, the number of those who put off hav- lower-weight babies. woman is given fertility drugs diffi- hormones to stimulate her ovaries ing their first child until age twenty-five more Getting pregnant may be another gonal or instead of the than doubled. Among women thirty to thirty- culty. Some women fail to ovulate, a condi- into releasing several eggs usual one. To detect when her eggs reach four, first births have more than tripled in that tion that becomes more common as a same 12-year period. Demographers think woman gets older. Others may suffer from the peak of maturity, the IVF team gives her disor- ultrasound and hormone blood tests. Then, the trend is here to stay, and our survey sup- endometriosis, a pelvic inflammatory under general anes- ports that prediction. der sometimes called career woman's dis- while the patient is

it with thesia, a 'doctor inserts a laparoscope, a Half the women we polled felt that if the ease because progresses age. One the diameter of pencil, medical risks were the same at any age, the effect is that the lining of the womb spreads telescopic device a small abdominal in- ideal time for starting a family would be be- outside and attaches itself to the ovary, the into her ovary through a Fallopian tubes, or other organs. cision. Looking through the scope, a physi- But with standard hormone treatments or cian can identify the little blisterlike follicles Adapted from the book Woman of Tomorrow, by surgery, most women can get pregnant and that contain the eggs. He then inserts a long, Kathy Keeton with Yvonne Baskin. Published by child to term. For example, such fer- hollow needle to suck them up. St. Martin's Press/Marek Books. Copyright © carry a tiny are placed in a petri dish 1986 by Kathy Keeton and Yvonne Baskin. tility" drugs as Clomid and Pergonal help The eggs with a layer of liquid nutrients. A technician adds drops of sperm, and the container is stored in a body-temperature incubator. The eggs are left in the incubator until they have been fertilized and have divided to an eight- cell stage, usually after a day or so. The em- bryos are drawn up in a plastic catheter and deposited in the uterus. Two weeks later, a pregnancy test will tell

whether the embryo has taken. If one em-

bryo is used, a couple stands a one-in-five chance of a pregnancy in the most success-

ful clinics. If three embryos are used, the odds almost double. Yet even when a preg- nancy takes, a third of women will miscarry during the first three months. Now done in a hospital or clinic, out-of- body conception will eventually be per- formed in a doctor's office. Physicians have already taken the first steps in that direction at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center. Teams there no longer use a laparoscope but guide the retrieving needle to the egg with ultrasound. The UCLA team celebrated its first success with the method in 1984 when a baby girl was born to a thirty-five-year-old California woman. The women we polled were of two minds on IVF Most said they would prefer to adopt

a child if they could contribute neither their eggs nor their wombs to produce a child. Their preference for adoption faded, how-

ever, if doctors were able to use their eggs or their wombs to produce or bear a child. "Sure we have a long way to go, but let's Given the latter conditions, an overwhelm- give ourselves a little credit for getting up off all fours/" ing 88 percent of women say they would consider in vitro fertilization. As doctors make more use of cryopres- ervation—freezing embryos in liquid nitro- gen—some of the troubles and expense that are now part of IVF will be reduced. Couples will be able to store several embryos har- vested today for implant attempts some time

in the future. The freezing process is still im- perfect— only a half to two thirds of all em- bryos frozen survive the process— but an IVF team at Monash University in Mel- bourne, Australia, had the first successful birth from a frozen embryo in 1984. (For more information on their work, see the interview with Dr. Alan Trounson, of Monash Univer-

sity, on page 82.) The idea of beating the biological clock by freezing embryos and reimplanting them later does not have much of a following GREAT FOR among women yet, according to our poll. Only 11 percent said they would consider it. EXTRA- Some just didn't like the idea, describing it as "terrible" or "creepy," while others wor- ried about unforeseen complications: "What

I the line, I decided didn't CURRICULAR if, ten years down want children," asked one woman. "What would happen to the embryos?" ACTIVITIES. generated Another birth technology that strong interest among the women polled is embryo transfer. By this technique, an egg

is fertilized in the womb of one woman and English Leather implanted in another, who carries the After shave, cologne and toiletries for men. adopted embryo to term. Scientists have had Moke them part of your day. every day. a model for the procedure for years. Trans- female to another WEAR ENGLISH LEATHER OR NOTHING AT ALL ferring embryos from one is a million-dollar business in the world of cattle breeding. Only recently have re- SPECTACULAR PURCHASE! searchers figured out how to do the same for people. After five years of work, obstetricians Marie EL-5400 Scientific Computer Bustillo and John E. Buster at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center devised a safe, simple, non- A Powerful Scientific Computer with BASIC surgical transfer for humans. First, the men- command keys for Easy Computing UNBELIEVABLE LOW PRICE strual cycles of the prospective mother and the egg donor are synchronized, sometimes 535.00 with hormones. Then the donor is artificially sperm from the mother-to- WHILE QUANTITIES LAST inseminated with Mfr. Sugg. Rat. '67.95 be's husband. Five days later, when an egg Catalog No. 028320 has been fertilized, doctors wash out the womb. The embryo, now at about the 100- cell stage, is captured in a special catheter preprograr Id simplify key operator. The and transferred to the recipient's womb using the same procedures as in an IVF

We know it works. In 1984 the first two ba- bies were born to women biologically unre- lated to them. The process is simple and safe • 38 preprogrammed sc tor the recipient, but for the egg donor there

is a slight risk of an unwanted pregnancy if the embryo isn't recovered in the wash

process or if the washing pushes the em- bryo back into her Fallopian tubes. For women who are eligible, embryo transplants will be commercially available in CE 12SP 1986. Then Fertility and Genetics Research TrMfflMf Prfnfw/CMMM Inlai Inc., the Chicago company that sponsored Catalog No. 012S3O the Harbor-UCLA project, plans to open the

first of a network of embryo-adoption clinics. CALL TOLL FREE 800-621-12BB EXCEPT CANADIAN TOLL FREE B00-458-S133 Although the women we polled seemed to have more enthusiasm for IVF than for em- number were sax.'iaana>sasr™ bryo transplants, a significant still interested in the latter. Forty-two percent bear child but IS ELEK-TEK.i said that if they were able to a could not produce eggs, they would choose to carry another woman's eggs fertilized with their husband's sperm. For them being pregnant was part of the appeal. "I'd want to give the baby my environment, to feel the baby stirring." said a mother of two, When compared with adopting a child, HOLLAND BEER however, tradition won out. A slightly greater number, 47 percent, said they would prefer adopting someone else's child to carrying someone else's embryo to term. Some of-

fered medical explanations; "I wouldn't want to take the risk of receiving an anonymous embryo." Others were more pragmatic: "I'd * !1W much rather adopt than go through the trou- 0NEH"

' bleof being pregnant," one woman said. Women were even less enthusiastic about a more established birth technology, artifi- cial insemination by anonymous donor (AID). Conception through artificial insemination has been possible for 25 years. At least a quarter of a million children have been con- ceived by this method in the United States. Yet when given an either/or choice ot adop- tion or artificial insemination, half the women said they would prefer to adopt. And of those interested in AID, more than 80 percent wanted to know more about the fHOLLANrfl donor than his age, race, and general health. A BEER When asked what traits they would seek in P a sperm donor, women polled chose the top three: emotional stability, high intelligence, and pleasant personality. In declining order, these were followed by: good looks, lead- ership qualities, a'.Nedc ao iky. artistic talent, scientific ability, and tinancial success. As for professions for the father, the big- gest vote by far (almost half the women) went to businessmen. Distant seconds were law- yers, scientists, and scholars, each group garnering roughly 20 percent of the votes, Even more distant thirds were athletes, writ- ers, and teachers, with 12 percent for each ftA of those groups. These were followed by art- ists and musicians, religious leaders, politi- cians and statesmen, entertainers, and, at the very bottom, actors. Interestingly, priorities shifted once we put names to those general categories. Politi- cians and actors moved to the head of the line. John F Kennedy and Walter Cronkite took the largest vote, with Robert Redford, Albert Einstein, and Chrysler savior Lee la- 41 cocca close behind. For all their divergent opinions on birth technologies, one attitude was unchanging. Women as a group do not fear the future consequences of these new methods. Only

around a' tenth of the women surveyed w ried that future mother-child ^M relationships would be less personal and that "children will be ordered like consumer goods." Nearly half were convinced that because of the new birth technologies, the relationship between women and their children will change for the better in the future and that children will be better planned, wanted more, and loved more. Even as others talk about Brave New

World scenarios, most women today do not I see the future as ominous but as holding the promise of a new degree of freedom and choices in the way they will bring children into the world.OQ —

,^m% .>w»"^» &sfflli »S**#W»

FICTION

Under the snarled canopy of ash-gray trees, the ring watchers and shadow creepers feast on death

TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR BY SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS

Viewed now at twilight fall made it sound both

through the station's tri- hideous and holy. ple-paned windows, the With a slap on the arm forest seemed to rise up by way of warning, Kyle

like a cliff, solid and im- announced boisterously, passable. A million sea- "Look out, old buddy sons of leaves might have you're lost again."

fallen all at once, so thick Wrenching his thought were the shadows. Wire away from the forest and reinforcements in the its mountain. Garrett window glass superim- swung around to view the posed on the view a grid screen of the simulator, on of lines, giving the illusion which the two brothers

of order, as if the laby- were playing a game of .. * "

mapped, never photographed, The few explorers savage terrain; then he spied it, a blip of light astray

who had returned safely after penetrating its heart in a swamp, flickering toward extinction. He waved were reluctant to speak about how they had trav- at the screen dismissively, "Stupid, stupid, stupid." eled or what they had seen. "Some pathfinder you are!" said Kyle. "You get

When Garrett questioned these veterans about lost and die three times in twenty minutes. I hope the white mountain he had glimpsed while riding you do better when we get outside." the curve of gravity down from orbit, they fell silent. Exasperated with the game, with his high-spir- "Have you been to that dazzling white peak," he ited brother, with the cramped sleep-chamber in asked them, "the one that looms up through the which they ticked off the slow hours waiting for their forest canopy like the snout of a whale? How far is time of departure, Garrett declared, "Only a bear

it? What's it made of?" But the old-timers just stared of very little brain could play at this make-believe at him with the bruised look of refugees. Their se- with a real wilderness just beyond the wall." V<~' creliveness about the white mountain only inten- Kyle filled the chamber with his rowdy laughter sified his desire to go there. The few hints they let He was a big man and did not provoke easily, re-

PAINTINGBYH. R. GIGER

-':»

*• -. _JL fierce with self-restraint, he said. "It keeps sisting changes in mood as a boulder re- animal:;, passing along it. out a cry of triumph, me sharp." sists changes in temperature. Of the two Suddenly, Kyle let screen, flushed with "Sharp for what? The wilds aren't like that- brothers, he was younger by half a dozen turning away from the for shooting?" one threat after another. You make exploring years and heavier by some two dozen kilos. a kill'. "Bam! How's that look of rapture his brother's face seem like warfare." Both men were tall, but while there was a The on felt a kind "That's exactly what it is—war." Kyle stood good deal of meat on Kyle, there was very made Garrett uneasy. Yet he also rapture, thinking about tomorrow's jour- up and stretched his brawny frame, releas- little on Garrett. The older brother had to find of intricate woods—the sweet ing the tension from his muscles. "It's them his way around obslacles. wh'-le the younger ney into the cliff's edge. In honor against us, Garrett. One of these trips you're one bulled his way through, killing or intimi- dread a man feels on a

crew had going to see that as plainly as I do. You're dating whatever beasts stood in the way. And of these woods, the discovery Kentucky-2. Perhaps the going to quit imagining gardens outside and so in their wilderness treks they had fallen named the planet else had saved see teeth. Teeth and claws and pincers and into complementary roles, Garrett leading name more than anything for the Federation poison. And this is the meanest son-of-a- them into the uncharted zones and back the world from settlement, second bitching planet of them all. Why else do so again, Kyle keeping them alive. had been so taken by the idea of a Kentucky one incomparably vaster and many tough customers like you and me," he . 'Another round?" said Kyle. — the original— that they added, forcing a smile, "never make it back "No. I've had enough. You go ahead." more tangled than Kyle needed no encouragement. He declared the entire planet a wilderness pre- out of the Big Thicket?" permitted to maps Garrett knew the statistics —the number seemed fully alive only when taceup against serve. No one was draw the islands and continents wounded by animals, the number shriveled danger; and if he could not for the moment or even to name nicknames— Big by hunger, the number lost or crazed; and confront real danger, then imitation danger and seas. Apart from a few Alley— Kentucky- besides, it was an old argument between would do. Beast after beast attacked his Thicket, Ogre Pass, Tooth Gar- them so he held his tongue. Unless peo- player, shaggy forms bounding "across the 2 was bare of words. This appealed to — ple could die from going there, no place was simulator's glass face; but he shot each one rett—the land's muteness, Throughout the system, everyone who made a truly wild. On Earth death had retreated to before it struck. Between onslaughts, he human the intensive-care wards. Here, it still lurked leaned away from the console and said, abroad in the countryside and could meet "Why don't you go up on the roof and see if you anywhere. you can spy that mountain of yours?" The hammocks were quickly slung from "1 already tried. It doesn't show above the of their compartment, that- hooks in the walls horizon. It's west of here — I found out mn the position next to the win- much—and maybe twelve days of hiking." Garrett taking the dow. With an agility remarkable in so big a "You could go out in the lounge and milk darkness the forest looked man, Kyle swi.no gracefully nto his berth. a little more wisdom from the old-timers." more solid, "So get your sleep, trail sniffer," he muttered. "Why so anxious to keep me busy?" impenetrable weave of He soon lapsed into snores, butforalong "You just seem kind of all wound up," an

: while Garrett lay gazing with wide-open eyes "Well, I'm not," Garrett snapped. , branches. into the shadowy forest. In the darkness the "Not a bit, not one little bit tense." Kyle He must find a way through more solid than ever, an im- hummed a broken melody. Then he sug- woods looked weave of branches. Somehow he gested amiably, "You could check the gear." the tangled mass penetrable must find a way through that tangled mass 'All right." mountain.^ to the dazzling dazzling mountain. There wasn't much gear to check, and to the what there was had already been minutely closed behind them with a examined. Garrett went through the motions The air lock sucking noise even on a planet with anyway, to reassure his brother. Food to last — breathable air, the human system took no a month, tools, clothes, tackle for climbing with sly nature. The brothers hesi- rocks and descending caves, stove and fuel, profession or a hobby of exploration chances ninth- tated in the clearing just outside the station, lights, journals, books, guns— an easy load. dreamed of venturing here; but only scanning the forest wall for a point of compared with what they carried on most degree explorers were granted entry. Garrett entry, Kyle listening for the footpads of ani- expeditions. No cameras or recorders, for On all that wild globe the single human mals. Their shirnmersufis were opaque in the any device that could reduce the wilderness marks were the station and the rocket pad. the chief conti- early light, clinging to them like brown pelts, to images was forbidden. No signalers, since tiny scars on the margin of packs bulked high above their the brothers were ninth-degree explorers, the nent. Together with two dozen other explor- and their like of darkness. It was most austere and advanced, and would not ers who had earned the right to come here shoulders cargoes shortly before dawn, that ambiguous hour consider calling tor help. No breathing ap- through success in survival competitions on predators are yielding to paratus, because the atmosphere of Ken- tamer worlds, the brothers awaited their turn when nighttime those of the day. Nothing stirred. tucky-2 was close enough to E-normal to to enter the forest. At twelve-hour intervals, any door, big brother?" Even permit travel without airsuits. in groups of twos and threes, the explorers "You see Kyle whispered, his voice sounded Having finished his ritual inspection, Gar- slipped out through the air lock and disap- though in the stillness. rett paced back and forth along the outer peared into that unmapped immensity. Some huge

"Plenty. But I don'tsee ours yet." Garrett wall of their sleep-chamber, preparing his of them would return to the station after only this moment on the thresh- mind for the journey that would begin the a few hours, baffled and numb; some would always savored wild zone, the moment of deciding next day. Each time he passed the fortified return after a few days or weeks; some never. old of a length he chose a small window, he glanced out at the encroaching "Got you, big jaws!" Kyle bellowed, as he where to enter. At opening where two trees had fallen slant- forest. No movement, no glint of eyes. Abrupt undid another electronic phantom. wise against one another, their trunks form- and final as the flank of a continent or the "Will you quit that so we can get some ing an arch just high enough for crawling brow of a glacier. sleep?" their roots splayed in the air Big Thicket, the veterans calledit, a dense "Hey, hey, I'm cooking, brother. Just one through, bared upflung arms. on all fours. snarl of trees and brush, creepers and briars, more round." like He dropped stretching inland for thousands of kilome- "I'rrvsick of it!" Garrett cried, slamming his "Here it is." mercy, starting out on hands and ters. Even thechannels of rivers were roofed fist on the control, blanking the screen. 'All "OU grumbled, crawling after. with vines. The only trails through the forest this brutal make-believe!" knees," Kyle now they were those worn by animals; the more open Kyle swung around menacingly, eyes filled They soon wriggled through, and voice, belonged to the forest. They had to read the the trail, the larger and more dangerous the with his murderous game. In a quiet 100 OMNI tailed to stir. "Maybe you gave pattern of "What kind cvo you sec?" Garrett asked. the bodies tilt of land with their feet, read the dense undergrowth and interwoven "Haven't you noticed those silvery bags them too high a charge." over, their "It was nothing. A tickle." Kyle prodded branches with their eyes, obeying Ihe grain hanging on the trunks, bristles all holes through the bark?" the bodies with the rifle. The barrel thumped of the woods, Garrett in the lead, as always, snouts drilling things were some kind of against the scarlet plates. "I do believe the his senses alert to every detail of the way, "I thought those suckers are dead," he said in a lone of gruff Kyle, as always, lumbering behind, atluned epiphytes." wouldn't think - they're animals. Tree suck- amazement. "Funny_ you to danger; the two of them moved swiftly and "No, I expec: — o'h the oLlsde could be ers." Holding the rifle in one fist to use as a anything this lough in tandem, almost like a single one-legged overhead. "And those so weak on Ihe inside," With pliers from his beast, not talking, not needing to talk, put- pointer, Kyle gestured the fleshy strips onto slither through the roof I tool belt he dragged ting as much distance as they could be- snaky things that rock outcropping. "Might as well let tween themselves and ihe station before the call branch weavers." the iong tiiro before he could someth ng else oat them." next team of explorers was scheduled to de- Garrett peered a of scarlet creatures writh- Garrett felt the first nail marks of dread part. The ground was spongy, yielding be- make out one the slow, through the lattice- along his nerves, "Whatever they use for wir- neath their boots and then springing back to ing, serpentine and doiicate ""or of limbs. he discovered the first, ing must be awfully delicaie. too erase all marks of their passage. During the work Once perceived them everywhere. you to go blazing away with that damn gun." first few hours they paused only to allow he suddenly in fact crawling with these Kyle gave him a furious look. "I wasn't Garrett to backsight along the way they had The canopy was with wouldn't to be lac- blazing away. What I shot them come, memorizing the textures of leaf and snakelike animals, which seemed together, coiling and knot- have killed a rat back home." twig and root so that a month from now he ing the branches binding twig to twig. Why shoot at all? Garrett wanted to say- could lead them out again. ting their scaly bodies, do it? Some kind Instead he muttered, "Yeah, okay. Let's go," Then as the local sun climbed overhead "How do you suppose they The brotherS'had walked only a few paces and drove shafts of red light like fiery nails of secretion?" see." when there came a sou'io ol scratching and into the forest floor, both brothers halted, as "Let's Before Garrett could protest, Kyle had fired snarling from the rock where they had taken if on signal. They shrugged free of the back- their rest. Turning around quickly, they dis- packs, took off their goggles and helmets, covered a pack of cat-size animals tearing and sat side by side on an outcropping of the bodies of the branch weavers into shreds. rock. Garrett took a pinch of dirt and held it Within seconds, every last scrap of meat and to his nostrils. Must, mildew, iron—the sig- scaly hide and bone had been snatched up nature of this spot. ^Against and stuffed into slits in their shaggy flanks. "It's a mean son of a bitch, all right," said Weighted down. Ihe animals scurried back Kyle. His face was slick from sweat and bro- the darkening sky, they were into hiding in the network of roots. ken wide open at the mouth from panting. thickenings of Kyle whistled. "Hungry!" He kept one hand on the rifle, which lay arrayed in a crude 'And quick," said Garrett, disturbed by the across his lap. shadow, swift work of these scavengers. Did they eat To Garrett the tangled woods seemed not circle; two crept even the fur and bone? mean and not beautiful, but awesome. The in, then two more, arriving "Maybe they're the reason nobody ever leaves and vines and fernlike fronds were comes across the bodies of the guys who mostly in shades of red, the solid trunks in pairs till they get lost in here," said Kyle. nearly .black, giving a combined effect of an unbroken ring?> formed word tosr set Garrett in motion again. flames and ashes. Instead of growing up and The He picked his way among the arching roots up, as on Earth, the trees rose only about and ash-dark trees, trying to put these first three times the height of a man before

: k lls out of his mire. There would be others. branching horizontally, and these branches On recent expeditions, Kyle had become twined through those of neighboring trees, more and more trigger-happy, firing at any- the twigs seemingly fused together where a quick burst up through the canopy. An in- weavers fell thing that was even vaguely menacing, as if they touched. Flowers burned everywhere stant later, three of the branch out. ground and lay still, like he feared that their luck was running in this latticework of branches, fierce yellows clattering to the "Lead on, big brother," Kyle sang out. 'Just and serene blues, and creepers looped hanks ot rusty chain. "Why'dyoudothat?" don't forget to keep track of how we got here." down from 'it in festoons. Dead trees, some fallen creatures, Warmed from body heat, their shimmer- with their trunks rotted quite through, hung Bending over one of the in the midday Kyle said, "it won't hurt them. Half a minute, suits took on a ruby sheen suspended from it. The canopy appeared again," Examining sun. They wei; 1 saunter re; easily now, a pace so tightly woven, Garrett imagined a person and they'll be squirming all day, if need be, for scarlet turning it over and over with they could maintain could walk on it. The smaller animals prob- the body, about days on end, for weeks, like caribou migrat- ably traveled up there— might be up there the butt of his gun, he added, "How these plates mesh to- ing. Now and again Kyle would lay his hand right now spying on these two-legged in- that armor? See how kind of glue seeps on Garrett's shoulder and point wordlessly truders. "Have you seen any beasts yet?" gether? It looks like some all along its torso. It at some new beast in the canopy overhead 'A few," Kyle answered. "Nothing to sweat out beiweerr-the joints Garrett would most of musl smear the bark with this stuff, so when or in the undergrowth, and about, I don't think. We've scared off stare before seeing the creature- it the branches together everything stare and the littie brutes with all our hurrying. And the weaves of it; Garrett sticks. And the whole canopy becomes one twitch. This was always ;he way big brutes—the ones that don't scare— I ex- an eye for pattern, for the still matrix of pect they never come this close to the sta- gigantic web." had things, and Kyle had an eye for anything that tion. They're back deep in the woods, so the "To catch what?" what's moved against this fixed background, and old guys say." "'Anything that falls. Who knows each brother was nearly blind to what the This was about all that the old guys—the crawling around up there?" "If il jump or fly, veterans who had penetrated the Big Garrett leaned back to gaze at the solid other could see. can't run or it can't hurt you, "Kyle would say. "If it moves, Thicket—would say: You won't meet the killer mat Of limbs. He would have to climb up later to gel a you can't find your way by it," Garrett would beasts until you've hiked for two days or so; through the canopy sooner or counter. you can drink..the water; some of the plants bearing on the white mountain—.but he was fit- the local day was only a little are poisonous, eifher to touch or eat; Ihe meat in no hurry. He shouldered his pack and Because yet he did not want more than twenty E-hours long, the after- of animals will keep you alive, but what it ted goggles and helmet, re- noon passed quickly, the fiery shafts of sun- does to your stomach is not much more to leave until the branch weavers had in longer and longer slants preferable to starving. vived from'Kyle's shot. Seconds passed, and light burning

102 OMNI early red. While the brothers ate breakfast through the woods. They pitched camp be- campsite was enclosed in a blazing dome whim- inside the light-dome, scavengers outside side a stone-liltered creek. Kyle tested the of light. A chorus of guttural cries and voracious in the branches overhead, devoured the two carcasses. The water, shaking a slug of it in a toxi-vial to pers sounded the frantic scuffling of sluggish bodies. beasts evidently could not see in through make certain it was pure. Satisfied, he lay then a "Back into the flare, but Kyle and Garrett, with eyes shielded down and plunged his face into the stream Kyle let out a riotous laugh. hairy bastardsl eat some- by goggles, were able to watch the snarling to drink. Garrett dipped his out with a cup. night, you Go few minutes, where else!" banquet. It was overjn a The "I'll set up," Kyle said, water dripping from uneasily as his brother scavengers withdrew back among the ash- his beard. "You remember." Garrett watched dark roots, gorged and swaying. A single While the encampment took shape under shuffled in a heavy, lumbering dance around ot the light-dome. bone was all that remained of the ring Kyle's practiced hands—domed ten! blos- the circumference wa*chers on the stony bank of the creek. soming, sleep-pouches inflating, supper of his "Hide and hair and giblets—they eat it all," brewing on the cookstove. security flare Twice in the night Kyle wriggled out muttered at Garretl, "It's noth- said Kyle. curving in a great circle around the perim- sleep-pouch, disappeared out- Putting on his gloves and slipping out eter— Garrett sat on the creek bank with his ing—go back to sleep," said, "I'm in a minutes returned, through the light-barrier, Garrett bare feet in the water and his eyes closed, side the tent, and few daylight, the pur- going to have a look at what they left." He reviewing the day's trail. He recollected breathing heavily. Come for squatted down beside the bone. It was backward Ihrough every step of the path un- pose of his trips became clear, the bod- the color of ivory, the ies of two ring watchers lay sprawled near vaguely horseshoe shaped, til he reached the beginning point where riddled with sockets as if it were the meeting two fallen trees formed a crawlway. Then he Ihe entrance of the tent. explained. place for many joints. As he reached down turned about and worked his way forward to "They got too curious," Kyle Garrett said. and cautiously lifted it, testing its weight and this creek, returned again to the station, again "Did they attack you?" around the flare, and hardness, there was a frantic scuffling be- to the creek, retracing his steps back and "They kept nosing scaven- finally these started creeping Ihrough." neath the roots, and dozens of the forth along the trail, as if he were winding two grimly. Death al- gers came rushing at him, a wave of hurtling and unwinding a ball of string. Garrett set his mouth — bodies tumbled him over, terrible swarming At length he opened his eyes, and Kyle weight, Kyle shouting, claws gripping, the was serving out Ihe stew. bone turning in his grasp and jerking vio- "Grub, old buddy." lently away. A moment later he was sitting It tasted vaguely of catfish and potatoes, dazed on the creek bank, Kyle was crouch- but it was the same high-energy confection 4/f swung ing over him with gun at the ready, and there that would hide under the camouflage of was not a beast in sight. other tastes on other nights. Garrett swal- into position, then suddenly Kyle asked. lowed some, then spoke about what had dropped and "You hurt?" Garrett shook himself. He felt as if twenty been troubling him: "I can't figure out whether like fan, its fists had landed on him. but gently, as if tap- the old-timers have got a taboo on that white spread open a

ping a message. "No, I don't think so." mountain or whether it's just something pre- ribs unfurling a "Did they cut you? Bite you?" cious they're trying to keep secret." thick blanket of flesh, and "Not that I can feel." Kyle was not listening. Some movement The brothers scanned Garrett's shimmer- in the vault of limbs overhead had caught an instant later suit but could find none of the translucent his attention, and he was gazing upward, beastly weight buried fiim3 the smears that would have marked even the hands tight on the rifle, body tensed for a sliohlcst wound. leap. "Visitors," he said. "They were all over you before I even saw This time' even Garrett could easily see them," said Kyle. "I thought they'd rip you to the beasts. Silhouetted against the darken- pieces." ing sky, they appeared like thickenings of Rubbing his neck, remembering the grip shadowin the branches. There were at least ways more death. Shoving one of the car- twisting il over, re- of the claws on his body, the furious ten of them, arrayed in a crude circle direclly casses with his boot, he rolled of the bone from his grasp, Garrett said, "I above the camp. While he watched, two vealing a cluster of many-jointed legs sur- think they could have if they'd wanted to. But more crepl into the circle, then two more and rounding a bony hole that was lined with fit all they seemed to want was that bone." two more, and they kept arriving in pairs until spikes. A man's head would have into that Lure? "What in hell for?" their bodies formed an unbroken ring. The lethal opening. Was it a jaw? Weapon? under- "God only knows." Garrett could hear his limbs creaked faintly under their weight. They A thick and clumsy skeleton bulged voice shaking. "Maybe they didn't want were larger than the scavengers that had torn neath the pelt, which was covered with del- own messing with their booty," up the branch weavers, as large as wolves, icate silver hairs, like the pelt of an aged go- me easily? The "Could be they're pure scavengers and but thick and slow moving. rilla. Why did the beasts die so don't kill anything on their own." "Ring watchers," whispered Kyle, who al- only way of finding out would be to carry one shiver coursed through Garrett's ways named strange beasts immediately. back and let the biologists take it apart. But A last collect speci- body. "Let's hope so." Reaching, out to place a hand on his if explorers were allowed lo broke in silence. Pathfinding brother's thick forearm, Garrett said, "Don't mens, Kentucky-2 would soon become as They camp hard for Garrett that morning. The more shoot. Let them be." tame, as fully known, as any trampled world. came for wilderness. he thought about the attack, the more his "You want to sleep with that little party up- Ignorance was the condition inilial fear gave way to astonishment. Why stairs?" "Pretty, eh?" said Kyle. "I figured you'd beasts ripped him apart? What "Maybe they're just curious." want a look." hadn't the impulse, of mind or instinct, had restrained "Maybe they're just looking for supper," "Did you mean to kill them?" "I them? Puzzling over this, he kept losing the A tremor passed around the circle of long- "I meant to stop them," he said gruffly. trail. more often than usual to haired bodies, sending waves of harsh grat- hit them with about the right dose for a dog. He paused backsight along the path they had walked. ing noises out through the network of limbs. And thump—down they came—and never of the Again and again he found himself uncertain In a low voice, Garrett said, "See what the gave another kick." He grasped one whether to go left or right when he came up light does first." ponderous sacks of bones with gloved trees or a river or a "Tenderheart," Kyle hissed. But he slipped hands. "Here, grab hold of this thing." against a phalanx of He wet his cheek with a licked fin- a cartridge into the breech of the perimeter Together, they heaved the bodies out swamp. still ger to detect the faint motions of the wind, flare and twisted the fuse. There was an ex- through the barrier ol light, which blazed him no clear guidance. plosive release of gases, and instantly the with a fierce yellow glare against the sun's but this gave CO\TI-\'JSDONPAGE130 104 OMNI How do you feel about the new technology of conception? Your answers can help shape upcoming legislation BIRTH PDLL BY JUDIANNE DENSEN-GERBER

One of the mos: cha lenoing and provocative issues in science is how to deal with Ihe many startling reproductive aids coming into use. Artificial insemination has been avail- able for some 20 years, and we still haven't solved all the ethical and legal dilemmas

it raises. In vitro fertilization—so-called test-tube babies—and the use of host mothers—women who carry someone else's baby to term—are bringing further puzzles, both for prospective parents and for lawmakers. Take just one case that could happen today: Both members oi a married couple are sterile, so they obtain a donated egg and donor sperm. These are used to create an embryo in the laboratory The prospec- tive mother also cannot carry a child, and the couple pays a third woman to do so. When the baby is born, the host mother, who carried the child, the genetic mother, from high school who donated the egg, and the woman who paper. By September 1986 legislation will Did not graduate school graduate commissioned the creation oi the baby be introduced in at least ten states, and the High College graduate sue to obtain custody of the child. Who gets lawmakers are listening. for help. Advanced degree Ihe child? II the host or genetic mother Thank you your keeps the child, should she return her fee? PERSONAL DATA 7. Please check the total income earned Do the others have any parental rights or of your house- responsibilities? Please tell us about yourself. by you and other members hold in the last year. So far, there are no state or federal laws $10,000 to govern such cases, but Ihe need for 1. Are you male or female? Less than them has not been overlooked. Last summer Female Male $10,000-$19,000 the Michigan legislature asked Odyssey $20,000-529,000 Institute Corporation of Connecticut, the 2. What is your sexual preference? $30.000-$39,000 Bisexual Celibate $40,000-$49,000 research institute I founded and operate, to $50,000-$59,000 gather intormation to help them devise Heterosexual -. Homosexual policies to regulate the new reproductive $60,000-$69,000 or more technologies. Our birth-technologies poll is 3. How old are you? $70,000 one of the first steps in this project. Under 20 20-29 30-39 preference? Please give the following questions and 40-49 50-59 60 or over 8. What is your religious Jewish statements some serious thought, then Agnostic Atheist Catholic Other mark down your answers and send them to 4. What is your marital status? Moslem Protestant Married Single Birth Poll, Department 0. Odyssey Institute CONCEPTION UNDER GLASS Corporation, 817 Fairfield Avenue, Bridge- Separated/ Divorced/ Widowed Cited below are several high-tech port, CT 06604. give a couple Ihe child they Remember, this poll is a rare chance for 5. How many natural and/or adopted methods to circumstances in which private citizens to guide the course of children do you have? want and various techniques might be used. Assume for legislation on She of the most sensitive None 1 .. 2-4 5 or more these that the parents to be are legally issues in science and society. Your views now on the are important. Feel free to add whatever 6. What is the highest level of education married. Please indicate your views details you'd like to on a separate piece of you have attained? following statements: 106 OMNI 17. If a wife is infertile, a host mother may be fertilized with the husband's sperm. Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree PARENTAL RIGHTS

Some of Ihe most important queslions about artificial insemination, host mother- hood, and other forms of high-lech maternity are concerned wilh the legal rights of the donors, the host mothers, and couples seeking a child.

18. The donation of egg and sperm cells should be regulated by the government. Strongly agree Somewhal agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree

19. A sperm or egg donor should have 9. In vitro (test a. too; ionization, using the 13. If a woman is infertile, she may be such parental rights as visiting Ihe child. couple's own sperm and egg, should be implanted with a donated egg fertilized by Strongly agree Somewhat agree used to overcome infertility. her husband's sperm. Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Slrongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Strongly disagree 20. The recipient of a donated egg should be considered the child's legal mother. 10. Artificial insemination with donor sperm 14. If both the husband and the wife are Strongly agree Somewhat agree should be used when the husband is infertile, the woman may be implanted with Neutral Somewhat disagree infertile. a donor egg thai has been fertilized by a Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree donor sperm. Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree 21. A host mother carrying a fetus to term Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree for an infertile couple should have the Strongly disagree fight to visit the child. 11. Artificial insemination with donor sperm Strongly agree Somewhat agree should be used when the husband carries 15. A host mother should be allowed to Neutral Somewhat disagree a genetic disease. carry a couple's child when the natural Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree mother cannot. Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree 22. A donor's name should be kept on Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree record. Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree 12. Artificial insemination using sperm Neutral Somewhat disagree chosen tor the donor's high I.Q. or another 16. A host mother should be allowed to Strongly disagree desirable trait may be performed even carry a couple's child for the convenience— when the is fertile husband and free of not the" medical necessity— of the natural 23. The child, once grown, should be told genetic disease.. mother. the donor's identity, Strongly agree Somewhat agree' Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhal disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Slrongly disagree Strongly disagree Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral 24. The child, once grown, should have ac- disagree Strongly disagree Strongly cess to information about the donor—for ex- data— other than the do- ample, medical an alcoholic the 35. If a host mother becomes If host mother carries the child, nor's identity. 30. a should be or otherwise endangers her pregnancy and agree Somewhat agree woman who contributed the egg Strongly the prospective legal mother. a defective child results, Neutral Somewhat disagree considered the Somewhat agree parents should be able to break the host Strongly disagree Strongly agree or lor damages. Neutral Somewhat disagree mother's contract sue agree disagree Strongly agree Somewhat 25. Donors should be paid Strongly Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree mother should have some pa- Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree 31. The host rental responsibilities, such as providing Strongly disagree should If host mother miscarries, she child support. 36. a Somewhat agree receive full payment. Host mothers should be paid. Strongly agree 26. agree Somewhat agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly Strongly agree disagree disagree Neutral Somewhat Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly Strongly disagree Strongly disagree 32. The host mother should have some pa- mother miscarries, she should rental rights, such as partial custody of the 37. If a host 27. Donors should be able to offer their receive partial payment. sperm or eggs for sale. child. Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Strongly disagree Strongly disagree Strongly disagree

miscarries, she should host mother should be allowed to keep 38. If a host mother 28. Sperm and egg donors should undergo 33. A return her fee. child if decides to do so in mid-preg- screening tor genetic and other diseases that the. she Strongly agree Somewhat agree they could pass on to the child. nancy Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral disagree Strongly disagree Strongly im- 39. If a host mother is injured during should are paid should re- plantation surgery or pregnancy, she 29. A person should be allowed to set up a 34. Host mothers who keep the child. receive workmen's compensation. business as an egg and sperm broker. turn fees if they decide to Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree

" protective iead clothing on. -its for you, but don't open it tilt I get a chance to put this Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree machine, should it be allowed? agree Slrongly disagree Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat Neutral Somewhat disagree 49. Embryos should be tested tor genetic 40. A would-be host mother should be al- Strongly disagree defects before implantation occurs. lowed to offer her services on the open mar- Somewhatagree 45. A fetus should be transferred to a womb Strongly agree disagree conception if the par- Neutral Somewhat Strongly agree Somewhat agree machine shortly after Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disaareo ents wish to do so. agree Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat Neutral Somewhat disagree 50. Embryos should be used for scientific disagree 41. A host mother should be able to aborl Strongly Strongly agree Somewhat agree the fetus independently or io participate in not implanted into a Neutral Somewhat disagree deciding whether to aborl the fetus. 46. If an embryo is the Strongly disagree Slrongly agree Somewhat agree mother's womb, there should be alimit to is allowed lo Neutral Somewhat disagree amount of time that the embryo outside 51. Embryos should be used to test drugs Strongly disagree develop in a uleruslike environment toxicity or the body. for such harmful side effects as Strongly agree Somewhat agree deformities. 42. If it becomes, possible tor the husband Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree to carry the fetus to term, this should be en- Neutral Neutral Somewhat disagree couraged in a certain percentage of mar- Strongly disagree Strongly disagree riages, including cases in which the wife is EMBRYO'S RIGHTS career oriented or is infirm. 1 have ? 52. Parkinson's disease and various other Strongly agree Somewhat agree What rights does an embryo illnesses might someday be cured by trans- Neutral Somewhat disagree laboratory planting tissue taken from a fetus into the Strongly disagree 47. All-embryos produced in the should be implanted immediately into a patient; fetuses should be donated so these operations can be performed. 43. If male pregnancy becomes viable, a woman. Strongly agree Somewhat agree male should be permitted to be a host mother Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral ' Somewhat disagree even if he is not the donor father. Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree SEX SELECTION for such Strongly disagree 48. It is right to freeze embryos possible to predict or ma- medical purposes as improving a woman's It may soon be before im- ot conceiving at a later date. nipulate the sex of an embryo 44. If it becomes possible to carry a child chances plantation. from the four-month mark to term in a womb Strongly agree Somewhat agree

53. These techniques should be used when there is a known risk of sex-linked genetic

Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree

54. They may be used simply because par- ents have a preference as to the sex of their child. Slrongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree __ TRANS-SPECIES HYBRIDS

Techniques are being used to fertilize cow eggs with human sperm. Scientists wielding such technology have created what they call "trans-species gametes." How far should we pursue trans-species experiments 7

55. Scientists should be allowed to con- tinue to create and experiment with trans- species gametes in the lab. Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree

56. The U..S. government should determine how far trans-specios gametes may de- velop (the British have set the limit at the two- cell stage) and how such gametes should be destroyed. Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly disagreeDO ^When the

earth shifts on its axis at the turn of the century, only one in seven will survive. 9

Ruth Morn , and lectured him those not familiar with about the sorry state her 14 books, was of the world once a syndicated months he had closed columnist covering down a su Washington politics. advertising agency in Today, as one of the Tucson and moved to world's best-known Fort Collins, Colo- psychics, she is still rado. For the last four dispensing informa- years, he says, he has tion. Most of us will die spent much of his time in a planetwtde cata- building what he calls clysm, Montgomery a "chromosomic heal- contends, and the end ing devltr- is coming soon. structions received by Montgomery claims automatic writing;—in to learn such things which spirits move his from her Guides, hands across the "souls like ourselves typewriter and page, who have had many thereby sending mes- previous lifetimes but sages from beyond. are currently in the And in Manhattan, spirit plane, as we will there is an entire sa- be alter we pass lon of mystics who through the mysteri- claim to remember ous door of death." UFOupnm-E past lives on a planet For 25 years, Mont- in the star system Arc- gomery and her Guides offered only familiar occultisms on turus. The salon's leader: the fabulously wealthy thlrty-nlne- reincarnation and the so-called spirit plane: We ere all sparks year-old heir Frederick Von Melrers. Eight years ago, Von from God. was one message. We live many lives, which only Meirers says in Montgomery's book, he was lying In a Cali- a few can recall, was another. fornia hospital with a severe infection when "three beings Recently, though, the Guides have reportedly chivied materialized in my room and revealed secrets," including Montgomery to write about UFOs. The result is Aliens Among the need to help Earth prepare tor the cataclysm to come. Us (G P Putnam's Sons, 1985), a description of the "spiritu- That Is a mandate with which Montgomery agrees. At ihe ally advanced" aliens who have come to Earth. According turn of the century, "the earth will shift on its axis," she says. to the Guides, these "spacellngs" travel by breaking down Six out of seven will be sped toward reincarnation by falling their bodies and equipment into a formof energy that moves objects, freezing, or flooding. And the rest will rebuild civili- faster than light. They reassemble what they need upon ar- zation with the help of Montgomery and her Guides. rival and use flying saucers only to lug hardware around Of course, there is no way 10 prove any of this before the once here on Earth. world comes to an end—for most of us, anyway. But Mont- In Aliens Among Us. Montgomery claims to have found gomery does offer one test of her power. President Reagan, two dozen people who either have encountered UFOs or her Guides say, will leave office in poor health belore the lived as aliens themselves. Joseph Ostrom, for Instance, was end o( his term Given Montgomery's other forecasts, even vacationing in Crete In 1978 when he dreamed of meeting liberal Democrats are likely to wish the President a healthy an extremely tall, thin man who took him to a (lying saucer stay In the White House —OWEN DAWES " ' "

Memphis State and the family heirloom "We always chorus," says the engineer's

University ol Tennessee an- dealt with it as a curiosity wife, Donna. "There are nounced its findings: Appar- rather than a valuable arti- drums and whistles and some ently broken off from the fact," Austin says. "It was just things you've never heard rest ol the body at the shoul- something the children before. You can tell that ders, the head once be- could take to school occa- the inspiration came from ." longed to a woman between sionally for show-and-tell the music in Chariots ol Fire, thirty and forty years of —Sherry Baker but it's very different. It age Her naturally dark hair keeps getting better the had been dyed red during "Leap! Leap up, and lick the longer it plays." the embalming process, and sky." So far, Welker's music electron microscope —Herman Melville machine has attracted at least

'eated that it had been cut tentalive interest "It's hard

a two-inch length by "Two days before her period to evaluate it without more dull razor—probably to a woman can open that technical details about how it

;iiilate the wearing of crack and step through it into works." comments Robert iborate wigs another world. Moog, research director 'Unfortunately, the brain —Carlos Castaneda at Kurzweil Music and iad been removed through Speech, a Boston-area the left nostril, which was computer firm, and inventor a common Egyptian practice, of the famed Moog synthe- When Memphis Stale notes-Hugh Berryman, a Duane Welker's computer- sizer. "But Ihe idea is certainly University recently forensic anthropologist from ized music machine hasn't announced plans to host the the University of Tennessee the fidelity of a digital stereo. in fact, Welker says that

Ramses 1! exhibition coming Center for Health Sciences. It won't even lit on your the Air Force is experimenting

10 the United States in 1987, "We still have a lol of clues belt But Welker says that it with similar technology lo Claire Austin began thinking about the woman, however, you slip on the headband that control airplane and weap- about the strange thing and we suspect her death holds its electrodes m place, it ons. "I'd really like to tie this tucked away in her attic. may have been related can tap into your subcon- son of device in with brain Brought back from Egypt as to infection from her teeth." scious mind, learn whal you waves," he adds, "but I've a souvenir by her husband's Because of the gold coat- like, and tailor ils tunes to been working on the project great-uncle, amateur ex- ing on the mummy's face, fit your taste. only In my spare time, so I plorer Archibald Marvine, the researchers have concluded According to Welker, a haven't gotten around to curious object appeared to that she was well-to-do and Self-taught Kaysvilfe, Utah, that,"—Owen Davies be the decapitated head may even have been a engineer, his device is a kind of an ancient Egyptian member of royalty A rosette of automated stereo that Austin decided to take the on her left cheek provided must be programmed with

head to Memphis State's a way to place where and music before it is used. As the

Egyptian Institute of Art and when she lived. "Right now, It music plays, the electrodes Archaeology to see whether just looks like a wan but record the listener's heart there was any interest in thousands of years ago the and respiration rates as well exhibiting it there Not only rosetle was an attractive as the electrical resistance did the university's Egyptolo- decoration." Berryman ex- of the skin "The machine gists accept her offer, they plains 'And it was used only senses those responses as it were amazed at their good during a thirty-year period makes random changes in fortune. Says Memphis State in Akhmin, in Middle Egypt. the music," Weiker says

Egyptologist Rita Freed. "It So that places the mummy "and whenever a strain of

is one ot the best preserved during the Macedonian music evokes a particularly mummy heads m existence." kingship, between 331 and strong reaction, a microproc- After-examining the head 304 8,c essor just instructs the ma-

with CAT scans, dental X The mummy's owners are chine to do more of il." rays, and mass spectrometry, aamittedly surprised over The results are intriguing a team ot experts from all Ihe Interest surrounding the "Some of it sounds like a

114 OMNI — " " "

to me As soon as she saw body as it dies.

the car, it looked like her 'Although we cannot yet eyes would pop out By the measure and reproduce

: hanged, these fields," Slawinski says,

she was laughing. It jus: traveling at the speed of turned her around light, they might be able to —Owen Davies enter a dimension beyond the space-time ca

1 ' The power of tobacco to Research on radiations of sustain the system, to keep living systems provides up nutrition, to maintain a realistic basis for dealing and increase the weight, to with the problem of Ihe

brace against severe exertion, afterlife. It may also stimulate and to replace ordinary personal and social transfor- food is a matter of daily and mations toward a more " hourly demonstration creative and benevolent life —George Black Critics, however, disagree Experiments conducted jointly by Duke University and cosmic-ray helmets and the Psychical Research shirts festooned with costume Is human consciousness Foundalion were specifically jewelry, airline tickets, and an electromagnetic field designed to detect whether Remember when the fishing gear; and cosmic-tay- capable of surviving the consciousness, in the torm of fluorocarbons in aerosol deflection motor vehicles shock ot death? Maybe so, radiation, could leave the sprays were going to in Aswelt's case, a 1968 says physicist Janusz Sla- body Says psychologist S. the earth's ozone layer, Mercury station wagon lay- winski, of the Agricultural Keith Harary, who helped de- opening an atmosphenc hole ered with magazine clippings University, in Poznan. Poland. sign the project. "Our experi- for cancer-causing cosmic and dripping with earrings SlawinsRi bases his theory ments didn't suggest any- rays? American manufactur- bracelets, and beads On the on a real phenomenon known thing like what Slawinski ers have long since removed forward corners of the rool as the "death flash," m which is proposing. We didn't detect the fluorocarbons from their there are also Christmas a cell population emits a any electromagnetic radia- products, but according candles that, Asweri says, powerful burst o( electro- tion consistent with Ihe to Also Asweli, fluorocarbon- were "added for the , magnetic radiation as it dies. release of the mind based spray cans are still July. Traditional researchers — D. Scolt Rogo exported by the millions Says "We think that cosmic rays have proposed that the death Asweli. a chef and part- are semHnteiligenl," Asweli flash results from degenera- lime painter from Greensboro, explains "We celebrate tion of the cells' molecular North Carolina. "The danger Halloween on Valentine's Day order. But based on his has not gone away." and give out hearif computations, Slawinski con-

To deal with the threat, loween. It conluses them tends this burst Is powerful Asweli, whose real name is They have to pause and think, enough to encode reams Chuck Alston, formed the and thai gives us time to of complex information, Cosmic Ray Deflection Soci- getaway." including human memory ety back tn 1973. And he's Asweli admits that the and consciousness itself been spearheading an effort bizarre equipment may not The death flash, he says, to fend off cosmic rays ever actually fend off cosmic rays, could be temporarily released since. but he is sure it has seme while a person is still alive, Today, after more than a benefit. "When we wear our accounting for out-of-body decade of work, the 15- clothes or sit in our cars. experiences. And it could be member group has devel- we feel rejuvenated," he says. the physical corollary of oped protective equipment 'And one time, when i stopped the near-death experience, that, they say. shields the at a traffic light, there was a marking the physical release body and the brain, There are girl crying in the car next of consciousness from the I — "

two pet interests, Beckley producing the sound of male claims there is none, "You mosquitoes, said the French have to keep the physical as researchers, would thus well as the mental in shape," keep the biting females away. he says. "I'm sincere about Working with a group of what I'm doing. I'm not just scientists. Cote and his trying to make a buck," colleagues eventually came —Nancy Lucas up with a sound they say repels 30 ol the 44 local spe- "At last they are beginning to cies. Their program runs take me seriously. This im- from eleven to twelve in the poses a terrible burden morning and from four-

on me. I must redouble my thirty to eight at night. So far,

laughter it has met with mixed re- —Lawrence Durrell views. Some listeners have complained because the

"I had the feeling ol things sound is audible between having happened here when records. But others have high

l stood under the walls ot praise.

•-;.' and Zimbabwe—of blood and "One person called to tell AduA ,'..- tma Review "My cruelly, ol strange rites end us he was fishing comfort- plan tor Qpfer, * he says, sacrifices, of lust." ably on a lake with his radio

Driller is unique lis producer "was to add r ess a crossover —Stuart Cloete on." says Cote, "and he is Timothy Green Beckley. audience of liberal-minded wondered what would hap- a New Age prophet and people over twenty-one" pen il he turned it oft. When TV personality known to those who can comfortably he did, the mosquitoes friends as Mr UFO. And Its deal with a blend of hard core really started bothering him. cast ol characters Includes porn, camp horror, and a What can wake you up, So he turned** back on-, zombie women in spiderweb touch of the supernatural. put you to sleep, and keep and they went away." costumes, werewolves. "With werewolves and the mosquitoes away, all Despite such anecdotal hooded monks, a Quasimodo zombies running around, a without invading your con- evidence, entomologist Phillip look-alike with one eye on lot of the sex Is obviously not scious mind? The only openly S, CallBhan, of the U.S. his tor ahead and another in taken that seriously" Beckley subliminal radio statu-- Department of Agriculture his cheek, and the pop adds. "It's tor someone with North America, CIME-FM in and the University ol Florida, Star Mr J imagination, not for the Montreal, has his doubts. Controlling According to Beckley, raincoat crowd.' According to news director mosquitoes with sound Driller is loosely based on Beckley is editor of UFO Chris Cote, CIME-FM first has been an elusive goal ot Jaokson'8 video Review and Inner Light. introduced subliminal pro- entomologists for 25 years, he Thriller. 'Jackson seemed a compendium of paranormal gramming to help people rise says. The problem Is that above parody" Beckley tows items and advice He in the morning and relax at mosquitoes do not respond explains. "People ei has had a hand in dozens of night. Then it decided to to sound alone but to a almost as a new messlah. articles and books targeted go after something a little complex combination ol

Don't get wrong; l think at the spiritual community, more concrete: mos sound and odor in addition, me | he's a terrific per f s and he is a favorite guest on The idea emerged after females will feed on human But his pompous approach late-night radio and TV talk one of the staton owners blood even if mating has ye! and conservative attitude shows. This New Age Jack-of- traveled to France While to occur. toward flex ia H him open to all-trades says that his search there, she learned of a repel- 'The disappearance and spoor for "worldwide awareness" ling system based on the reappearance of those Why would a professional was prompted by "several notion that humans are mosquitoes could have been prophet get involved in UFO Sightings, an out-of- attacked only by female caused by a million things," porn? As it turns out, Beckley body experience, and living mosquitoes that have already Callahan asserts, "For In- regularly sees x-rated mov- in a haunted house," mated and want nothing stance, a solt breeze." ies and has even been a As for conflict between his more to do with males. Re- —Rick Bollng

116 OMNI were fond ot the slogan "A men who called seemed very normal," he ties feminists woman without a man is like a fish without a recalls. "I guess they just wanted to have the with male pregnancy on the PREGNANCY experience of having a baby." Shettles was bicycle." Now Steinem suspects the tables may also contacted, like Harding, by men whose horizon, nagging fear," wanted to "take be turned. "I have a small, admittance to the in vitro wives were iniertile and who sexuals requested car- confides, "that if we women lose our the tension off the wife." she fertilization program at the Queen Victoria giving birth, we could be even more Then, of course, there's womb envy. "If lit- tel on Medical Center, in Melbourne, Australia. They dispensable than we already are." tle want to have penises," says Dr. John wanted to have babies. The Melbourne cen- girls level, want the request. Munder Ross, "boys also, at some ter turned down to write breasts." Ross, a psy- An admission: We never wanted Garrett Oppenheim, a psychotherapist in to have wombs and result of a casual com- with Cornell Medical College, cites this article. It was the Tappan, New York, says male pregnancy chiatrist ment about John Money's work, unwittingly magnificent break- the phenomenon' of couvade syndrome, in "would be the most editors suffer the symptoms of uttered at an editorial meeting. Our through since the sex-change program which husbands backaches; nau- were as skeptical as we were but asked us director ot Confide- pregnancy—weight gain, came into effect." As took the as- while their wives carry the to at least explore the idea. We Personal Counseling Services, Inc., Oppen- sea, and so on— analyzed during signment with the assumption that after a few heim evaluates and counsels those who ap- baby. "Most of the men I've have expressed phone calls and a couple of library searches change, to help them decide their wives' pregnancies ply for a sex there was babies and have developed we could honestly report back that whether they should undergo the necessary wishes to have no real future in, or scientific basis for, male surgery. There are symptoms," Ross says. hormonal treatment and impor- comes for the pregnancy. We were wrong. Some 20,000 transsexuals in the In'any case, when the time approximately convinced us the idea was transfer into a man, there will be tant researchers world today. 'And most transsexuals want to lirst embryo of volunteers— and no short- altogether feasible experience womanhood in all its facets," no shortage Most researchers we Granted, many more animal studies are Oppenheim says. age of critics, either. the practicality of male talked to admitted that a huge stumbling needed to assess A social worker currently undergoing a pregnancy. As far as endocrinology is con- male-to-female transformation verified cerned, what little research has been done Money and Oppenheim's views. "If it were casts serious doubts on our current under- possible to become impregnated and have standing ot the roles of so-called female ababy," says Jerry (a pseudonym), "I would hormones and what kind of hormonal prim- all costs. I'd do it, without hesitation and at ^Scientists ing a man would need to support childbirth. it I to. If it came walk out on my man had pregnancy the cutting And the treatment of abdominal down to choosing between having a baby doing work on must be refined before a fertilized egg can I leave and staying with the man I love, would edge of human - be safely implanted in a man's omentum. baby." Jerry re- the man I love and have a reproduction were deiuged Then again, perhaps some renegade will mained undaunted by the prospect of ce- just go ahead and do it. sarean section, but he did have one reser- with letters In the early Seventies, Landrum Shettles vation about carrying a baby in the summer from men who wanted to was conducting pioneer work in in vitro fer- months "with the heat and all." tilization at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Transsexuals do have one advantage over experience Center, in New York City, when his boss told other males. They can nurse a baby—at least of pregnancy^ the joys him to discontinue his research, ordered that according to one doctor. Dr. Leo Wollman, a the test-tube culture Shettles had produced Brooklyn psychiatrist who has treated 2,800 be destroyed, and finally, in 1973, fired him. transsexuals, claims he hormonally primed Perhaps because of this attitude, both Eng- one of his patients so he could breast-leed land and Australia produced test-tube ba- his own child. This patient had remained male pregnancy would be ethical bies well before America did. Ironically, two married to his wife after transforming from block to the Michigan years ago Columbia-Presbyterian began its female. The wife was carrying their and moral objections Already, male to destroying sponsoring a study to assess own in vitro clinic, a decade after biological baby, and after she gave birth, state senate is toward new birth tech- Shettles's culture. The point is that suppos- both parents took turns nursing the baby. its citizens' attitudes male pregnancy. Pre- edly crazy, irresponsible ideas are often Wollman claims his patient had "a breast de- nologies, including ten years after they're in- everyone in Grand Rapids will warmly embraced rival wife's" and that he gave sumably, not velopment to his people who with the idea ot men in mater- troduced—often by the same him a drug to induce lactation. be overjoyed for nursing bras. condemned them originally. But men who want to have babies may not nity clothes shopping feel? they see We asked Shettles, who now runs his own necessarily want to mimic women in every But how do feminists Do when the first as their chance to escape clinic in Las Vegas, to estimate respect. They are not all transsexuals. When male pregnancy human male pregnancy would take place. a tabloid erroneously reported that Monash biological destiny? answer, Shet- ior one, believes that As a preface to giving us an University's Harding had transplanted mouse Gloria Steinem, colleague of could make men less violent. tles pointed out that a former embryos into male mice (he hadn't) and that pregnancy stated in medical jour- birth made women value life his, Dr. John Rock, a his research team was looking for human "Giving has says Steinem, an editor and nal in 1958 that the time had come for in vitro volunteers (it wasn't), he was deluged with more," it full 20 years before of Ms. magazine, "and we are far technology. But took a letters, mostly from men. He received phone cofounder Patrick Steptoe and Robert Ed- violent all measures." England's calls in his Australian lab from as far away less by feminist who pop- wards actually produced a baby. As for male as Alaska. Harding suspects that many of Flo Kennedy, the black Shettles says, "I don't think it's "If men could get preg- pregnancy, those who wanted to carry their own babies ularized the slogan in vitro also going to take as long as it did with the were homosexual. But others were hetero- nant, abortion would be a sacrament," really wanted "Certainly this is an opportu- program. I think anyone who sexual men who had infertile wives. Still oth- saw a benefit: it now could achieve suc- have a leg up, if she's to get on with ers were single men who wanted to fulfill their nity for a woman to brains and guts enough to take cess." And who will do it? need for a child. There were even letters from got enough if the Aus- should take a rest and "I think it would be really funny women who were interfile and who won- advantage ot it. She tralians, have an international reputa- carry their let the man do the work, It's a possible step who dered if their "husbands could world, gaining at least in tion for being the macho men of the baby. Shettles has received similar inquiries toward women on men, were the first to achieve a male pregnancy," through the years but says he has never re- terms of cocktail-party jokes." surprised."DO doubts remain. In the Seven- Shettles says. "I wouldn't be ceived a call or letter from a transsexual. "The But serious

. 118 OMNi . .

down nearly to her eyes. him the bronze-leaved geranium; it had yel- pulled happened? You have an acci- low flowers. "I'll be damned!" he said huski- "What Would have to dent?" The rain was cold and steady, al- DRAGON ly. "I'll just be damned!" They r>.'iF it his sweater, into his OjNT.NULO FRCIV if they were ready soaking through name it, protect the seeds as shoes. He remembered the day she had tears, see if they came true. ... He and started out to do something, but he still Christ's the roses; it had from the plant to Cory, and her smile taught them how to ball up did not know what. looked afternoon. brought tears to his eyes. rained that Mrs. Davenport was slightly built, pretty; She shook her he"ad and pointed to the she looked frightened, the same look that fiat. rain is falling in Portland. Bruce front tire, which was got now and then. "Is anything wrong?" A steady Cory station wagon, before glass wall and watohes the "Let's put the bike in the to scare you like that. I stands a "No, I didn't mean I'll give you a ride home." sure they did a water on the tarmac. Today is like a repeat and dropped in to . . . make just he spoke, he was afraid she home: It was raining that day, As soon as good job with the greenhouse. Been mean- of his last trip would remember that other day, connect him months. Too busy." too; he had the same flights, stood in this ing to check it out for She he wanted to sing and with Frank, but she did not hesitate. She relaxed and admitted him to the same spot. That day and wheeled the bicycle toward the the dance all through the terminal, tell every nodded house. It was cooler inside than out; Ph.D. and a job and station wagon. They put it in, she sat in the drapes were closed, and a fan moved the stranger that he had his he got in and started fiancee. ... The standing water has an oil passenger seat, and air. Whitman had never been here before; he a something to and turns, separates, re- to drive, and he searched for was surprised for a reason he could not put swirl that twists talk about. "You'll have todirect me," he said, combines; it has a violet sheen that changes a name to. He had expected poverty, maybe, glancing at her. She looked ahead with no green. . . and this was middle-class nice. Cory to blue, sign of unease. to He drove to all the places he had known, dressed as if every penny had be swilled beer af the She directed him, he assumed, the same weighed. The house was clean without being hiked some muddy trails, work, through back couple of his old girl- way she rode her bike to antiseptic; there were bookshelves and a old bars, saw a with pot- for a drink or lunch, nothing streets, secondary roads deep stereo and an oversize television. No plants, friends—just holes and no traffic. Because she waited un- with disappointment. he noticed to til they were at the corners where he was In Cory's room he nodded; this was what turn, he slowed down again and then again. he had expected. The greenhouse had been The wagon grated sickeningly as the left rear built next to her room, a door led to it. A min- wheel sank into a hole. iature rose in full bloom, each perfect yellow QShe shook Again he looked at Cory; she had not blossom smaller than a fingertip; half a dozen changed her position or expression. Damn hanging orchids enclosed in plastic bags to her head, and now he could her eyes, he thought, twisting the steering conserve moisture during this hot dry fatigue see the wheel hard, creeping along. weather; a bench covered with pots of her shoulders, "You ever plant those funny seeds Frank blooming flowers— lobelias, begonias, a hunching gave you?" he asked.

. . bronze-leaved geranium in bud. . drawing lines She nodded. He looked at the joints of the greenhouse under eyes waiting for him He had to drag it out of her. One was a and peered at the lights, the heater, while banana plant. There was a fuzzy bush that Mrs. Davenport hovered in the doorway. to tell her was too young to flower yet, maybe a tree, There was room for only one in here. to do, where to go. 9 what she didn't know. And one was a dragon plant, "Looks fine," he said then. 'Just fine. She's with a red dragon flower. enjoying it, isn't she?" "You're kidding." "You've been awfully good to her," Mrs. She remained silent until they had to turn Davenport said softly. "I've wanted to thank ." again, and suddenly they were at her house. you, but. . it?" asked. was too full of Beatrice for anything "You want to see she earned it," he said brusquely. "She more. He "She never already living together, and He wanted to get away from her, saved my business last winter. She's a good more. They were would be married and see her again, never think of her again, but worker, the best one I've got." in one month they he found himself nodding. She led him Mrs. Davenport nodded. "She's good with move to Savannah. glass wall watching the through the house; no one else was there, plants." He stands at the standing water, fingering the but lights were on, as it her parents would "With plants," he agreed, and now they rain, the uneasy took to her room, If only this could be back soon. She him each other. Lucite piece in his pocket. looked at and intervening time a bad through it to the small greenhouse, She knew he had come to tell her some- be that "day, the remembers. pointed to a bushy plant with a single red thing, to ask her something, to warn her. . . dream. He no intention of going into the flower and many tiny buds. She felt the knife in her chest come alive, He had at it curiously, property; it was He went closer and looked waiting. greenhouses or onto the just a red flower. Pretty and unusual, but no And he found he could not bring any more simply an act of finishing up the past that that Saturday. He more than that. The air in the greenhouse, in torment to this woman. He sighed. She had took him to Whitman's sharp, clean. good-bye to all the past, the her bedroom, was spicy, and done the best she could. Maybe she had wanted to say against the He drove by slowly, Beyond the glass walls, over his head even talked to Cory about boys, about drugs, good and bad. ceiling, the rain was beating, run- and left that part of his life for good. the glass about sex. If she hadn't and if he brought up waved, the world gray, and something A mile or two from the nursery he saw Cory ning down crazily; was any of it now,.she would know in here the light was green, there was a still- had happened, something that forced him pushing her bicycle on the shoulder oi the turned abruptly from the green- it she as soon as the ness. He to come here. He took a deep breath and road. He knew was the rain and mist and house and looked at Cory, who was stand- smiled at her and, using the voice he used figure emerged from shadow. He ing inside the doorway of her room. He with Cory, he said, "She's a good girl. Mrs. became human, not just a started to say it was just a flower, but he said Davenport. You've done a good job with her." slowed down, passed her, then stopped on nothing; he found he did not want to break The next day he talked to Cory himself. the shoulder and got out. the silence. I used to work What he said, quickly, almost roughly, was, "Hey, Cory, remember me? Whitman's;" He reached out and touched her cheek, "If any guy'around here bothers you, you at her face. peered at him awhile, then and a look of terror crossed He come tell me first thing. Understand?" It was She stopped, sake, don't toward him and said hello. She was wanted to shout, "For God's you all he could do. came on with a hood have to be afraid of me!" His hand left her For his sixtieth birthday that fall Cory gave encased in a long green poncho they must cheek and went to her shoulder, and she aborted, he thought, and he knew was moving backward, he was following, not do that, not to Cory. nniruD now with his hands on both her shoulders, when Bruce ar- and he knew she was not going to stop him It is only late afternoon impossible for on is a human being." and he was not going to stop himself. He- rives at the nursery. It seems been operating we now know fumbled with her clothes and his own, and such a long day to go on and on and never As it is, Brody says, what done. Every- neurological development of an then he was atop her, and she was moaning, turn into night, as this one has about the if little anyone doing re- then keening. And he heard a voice crying, thing looks exactly the same, as this embryo suggests that twelve weeks is "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God ..." pocket of the universe knows nothing of time search on a fetus older than change. already facing that problem. Brody hopes and finally realized it was his own voice. and himself He sees Whitman crossing the drive be- that medical science will devise nonrisky When it was over he pushed away the boiler house, and to study a living lotus. (ram her. She was staring dry eyed at the tween the toolshed and ways has to see Cory Court has ruled that the fe- ceiling. He grabbed his jeans and ran to the he starts to go to him. He The Supreme in legal rights until the third trimes- bathroom he had seen on their way in, He alone, have a private talk with her, maybe tus has no He cannot talk to her while ter. "So you can abort a fetus seventeen or slammed the door and leaned against il Whitman's house. roses, or potting eighteen into development," Brody shaking, and again he heard his strange, she's on her knees pruning weeks thing. He draws "when there is clear evidence of thick voice: "Oh my God! Oh my God!" up marigolds, or some damn explains, looks the same, neurological activities we use as indicators When he returned to the bedroom she was nearer to Whitman, who than before, less dying patient." not there. He looked in the greenhouse, but maybe even more vigorous of life in a the lired. Bruce starts to call him, then stops as Although learning about how fetuses de- it was empty. He hesitated, then pulled the potting : s essentia 1 to making difficult moral bloom from the dragon plant and left. a woman comes from around velop long wagons. A small and legal choices, current attitudes don't fa- Sitting in the plane, waiting for takeoff, he shed, pulling one of the

lo drag it. Antiaborlionists opoosS ho researci. watches the rain running crazily down the boy is sitting on the wagon, trying vor experimenting with live window, and he realizes at last what he has his feet on the ground. He is loo short to since it might involve embryos— considered by them to be un- come back for. He has to give the dragon reach. voice is a whisper that consenting humans. And the proabortion flower back to her. He has to face her and "Cory!" he says; his can hear, but she stops and looks at side is not interested either. "There isn't going make her take it back. He looks al his hand no one her smile vanishes, leaving him io be any sciont.tic advance that is going to and slowly opens it and stares at the Lucite him, and chilled. make the ACLU change its position," insists slab with a red flower embedded in it. She feeling himself. The boy jumps from the wagon and runs Janet Benshaw, director of the American Civil has to take it back, he says to across the drive to the boiler house, yelling, Liberties Union program on abortion. "We now. the fetus is, scientifically and bi- Mrs. Davenport had to tell him; she "Hey, Dad, we've got to go in Momma know what anything I has changed couldn't make such a terrible decision by .says it's going to rain real hard." ologically. don't think knew," Bruce whispers, look- in the last twenty years." herself. For days she put it off, trying to think "You always ing-at'her. She has not moved. His legs are This last observation might come as a her way out ot it, trying to will Cory back to his feet leaden, as he stumbles back surprise to physicians and losearchers. Our normal, bul it was no use, and finally she heavy, and gets in. current understanding of fetal development knew she had to tell him. They could take to the rented car back to his primarily from technological Cory away tor a week or two, a vacation, The rain starts as he drives has come letal parents' It is a hard, pounding rain breakthroughs like ultrasound, heart they would say, and have it aborted. People house. that windshield wipers cannot control. He monitoring devices, special scopes capa- did it every day. the the peering directly into the uterus each He turned ashen, and a low, wordless cry is forced to pull off the road and wait for ble of — available only since the Seventies. Baruch came from his tightly clamped lips. He rain to let up, he is driving blind. realize that himself "amazed" when told of rushed to Cory's room and banged the door Only after he stops does he Brody was on the position on fetal science. "They closed. Mrs. Davenport heard crashes, glass he is weeping. He puts his forehead the ACLU those can- breaking. She sat rocking back and forth on steering wheel and listens to the rain. His traditionally have defended who never have. their civil liberties. The fetus a kitchen chair, clutching her head, her arms son, the son that Beatrice will not protect own t'n-'oiign the rain, can't the late o! development might well tight over her ears. When Cory came home, He hears her voico "We at stage

If it physical, person. he pulled Mrs. Davenport away from the door go on like this, you know. isn't be such a "DO You have and stormed out to meet Cory at the back it's psychological. It's that simple. of the house, where she was parking her bi- to see a doctor." REDITS Doctor. About drag- it in both hands and "I have nighlmares, cycle. He grabbed eft. ..;:' m about dragons. And it isn't fair. Jj*p** ; "v"' hurled it through the last standing wall of her ons. Always i «g f!: l }:]::,, It worked out for her; she's happy," 22, greenhouse. Cory stared, then turned '% page around and walked away. Raymond held "Mr. Enfield, now that you know she's "V' $$%.: Mrs. Davenport's arm and would not let her happy, perhaps you won't need to torture "" 34, that is yo.u run alter their daughter. yourself with guilt. Perhaps why s-r page 38, 4.1 went back, to make amends, and you found '-,, ,'.m-er page are groans and starts the ae 43 bottom •'•: ':,-: It was nearly ten when Cory knocked on none needed." He ''' S page 44 top. Ol,"0 o[*il*-- o>:ge car. a doctor, he knows. There -|-.;lf. !' Whitman's door. He opened it and stood He won't see n, pa e 45 ton. A'. 'i.J' T-,.:-; J,;.:';.,,,; ! in. is ho way he can ever explain. back for her to come torn. O.ii, :(. what happened? It used to be so i^/> ;!? "What is it, Cory? What happened?" "Bruce, bOTion '.""'."'. She told him, and they looked al each good with us. What happened?" —:'.'" other. Whitman nodded and .motioned tor her "Cory happened, he thinks, and he feels ! '. ^tcUe,, s ! '*'. his F.v.iiii; to go into the living room. "You have any- the breath of the dragon on his back, in iirVSIar File; page 52 top -;,' in his loins. ' . thing to eat yet?" She shook her head, and chest, ;c 5 r nucvj pages 80-91, Ha.nk fatigue hunching her From the shelter of the porch Whitman and now he could see the Pafic< C-idis-Sy ma; page her eyes. "Sit the child in his arms watch as Cory reaches . r.s-.,> 5'j !.j shoulders, drawing lines under "-'" : '""*" ': vi .: »iJ5W3w>S. palm up, and then the other down. Cory, 111. get something hot for you." out one' hand, (: 'm " . page followed'hirn to the kitchen and sat at to the first drops of rain. She ;. , , '" the table while he heated up leftover pot She tilts her head back, and the rain falls »(!,! i!-j.'.!>a. aga 115 '. i..!. P l;|Hge t« VGA waiting for him to tell her what onto her face as she turns in a slow-dance, ' ': roast. She was pages 1 »M^ rain. to do, where to go. They would have it welcoming the DO 10? OMNI Rios? figure of seven percent to twenty percent, Omni: What kind of patient was Elsa lOITERVIELTU you get a success rate near thirty percent. Trounson: Elsie was really exuberant for life. quite significant. She would arrive from Los Angeles with gifts L.CM-|NUF-i==:OyHAyi Freezing then becomes s> through Omni: Are there also medical advantages for us all. Her excitement at going treatment cycle overwhelmed us. But preparation system depends very much on resulting from embryo freezing? an IVF thawed when something went wrong, for example, the quality of the semen. Bad semen sam- Trounson: Yes. When we transfer her eggs would not fertilize, she'd be ples require careful preparation, while good embryos, we have a uterus unaltered by fer- when which su- totally decimated and would want to destroy ones are prepared very easily by centrifug- tility drugs. A natural cycle, one in imposed, creates herself. Then, within a day, she'd be back on ing and removing the fluid. perovulation has not been [for the her feet—bright and cheery, saying, "Don't Affer this preparation procedure, we in- greater uterine receptivity embryo].

I'll be back in three months. See you seminate the designated number of eggs, There is also another advantage to embryo forget, suggest that then," as she left lor the States. Elsie Rios of which up to three will be inserted by cath- freezing. The data available of birth de- was loved by everybody in the program. eter into the woman's uterus, and we freeze there is a much lower incidence Everybody had to know Elsie: she was that or donate the others, depending on the. cou- fects. The genetically defective embryos freezing thawing type of personality. ple's preference. cannot survive the and Omni: What was the reaction when the siaff Omni: Does embryo freezing improve a process as ably as yenoticaliy normal ones. learned of the plane crash 9 woman's odds of getting pregnant? Omni: What aboul the nonmedical advan- embryo for a Trounson: Oh, it was like losing a very good Trounson: You firsi have to consider that with tages? Would you freeze an friend. After their deaths, it was embarrass- straightforward fVF the success rate is just thirty-five-year-old female corporation head ing that the situation became as contentious over twenty percent. About one woman in who merely wishes to delay childbirth? solv- only we- already as it did. We were already on the way to five will get pregnant. When we freeze the Trounson: No, but because couples on ing the legal dilemmas when the news of Elsa embryos remaining after the first implanta- have three and a half thousand the inheri- list have genuine fertility Rios's two existing embryos and tion, we expect to lose about forty perceni our waiting who to people who tance problem got to the press. The story of them during the freezing and thawing pro- problems. It's unethical add was leaked by one of my postgraduates, who cedure. We know thai they're unusable be- don't have difficulties. in was on a bit of a high and couldn't conirol cause many of the ceil membranes have Omni: What was your involvement the cel- very angry. But you I , of course, was been broken, and the embryo does not have ebrated Rios case? himself. Rios couple came here for could not have created a more exotic situ- enough cells left to compact. There's too Trounson: The con- it in the ation this drama stretched over three much damage to enable us to warrant the. treatment because they ecu cn't gel — very early tinents. We didn't have any idea how much transfer back into the patient With freezing United States. This was in 1981, their estate was worth. We just knew them we end up with a pregnancy rale of twelve in our development of IVF and they both both as the most generous people. and a half percent when we thaw and im- agreed to have some embryos frozen as an Omni: Elsa Rios's embryos already plant the surviving embryos, and a rate of experimental procedure. They were, in fact, Have ' given for adoption? seven percent when you count the embryos among the first half dozen or so patients who been up Trounson: No. not yet; they're still in the liquid that have not survived. So if you add this agjeed to contribute embryos. shll wahing -o ad- nitrogen storage, I am be vised by the Ministry ol Health after a proc- lamation of -the law in Victoria. The hospital

will then be informed that we.are to thaw out the embryos and provide them for another recio-ent couple. Omni: Your clinic has been successfully

freezing embryos for years. Why is it tougher Ao to freeze eggs? Trounson: We con know al the answers, but let me give you some possibilities. The egg is a very large cell—twice the size of a cell in a two-cell embryo, four times the size of a four-cell embryo, and eight times the size of a cell of an eight-cell embryo. So first of all, [here's a size problem. We have to dehy- drate the cell, and dehydrating a large cell

is more .difficult than dehydrating a small cell. We also have to protect the membrane o!

the'egg. In a two-cell embryo, if we get dam- age across the membrane of one of those

cells, we still have one intact If we get dam- age across the membrane of any part of the egg', the whole egg is destroyed. Another

factor is that the chromosomes of the egg are set up on the meiotic spindle [the deli- cate skeletal arrangement of the egg's twenty-three chromosomes]. It's an ar- rangement of chromosomes especially de- signed for fertilization by the sperm. We're very concerned that the spindle won't be re- farmed properly when the egg is thawed out. Chromosomes might drop off the spindle, resulting in genetic abnormalities. ol "Ladies and Gentlemen, before I continue to shower my largess on the peoples Omni: Is your team close to perfecting a

this earth, I demand formal recognition by the United Nations!" technique for egg freezing? Trounson: Yes. but here comes one of the —

might see them as fro- Omni: How will IVF-Australia help your clinic big binds of our current situation. Everybody Trounson: Well, they frozen financially? zen peas, but I don't see them as peas believes that it is more ethical to ireeze eggs frozen embryos. Abso- Trounson: Vicky bakers realization was that than embryos. But the laws of the state of at all, 'I see them as the United States was relatively deficient in Victoria forbid us to do research on, or -ana- lutely, frozen embryos, about a half dozen Victoria is tougher state, in terms successful clinics. Only lyze for genetic abnormalities, embryos that Omni: If a other states, clinics in the U.S. have produced more than have resulted from Irozen eggs. of restrictions, than Auslralia's six five babies. We could set up a successful Omni: Should you perfect a technique for why doesn't your research team move? clinic in the" States and get some human eggs and overcome legal Trounson: It's a lithe o't ike Chief White Half- satellite freezing would always liv- money back, in terms of royalties, that snags, what kinds of patients will beneiit? oat, in Catch 22, whose tribe was be paid io the Monash University and could Trounson: With any form of radiation or ing near where oil was discovered. "After a underwrite our research. chemotherapy, ovaries or testes are af- while, they'd predict where this Indian tribe of up a then put down the oil wells. We're in ihe process setting sat- fected, and the patient is normally rendered would move and York area be- whole tribe was surrounded by ellite clinic in the greater Mew sterile. In 1986 we will be prepared to offer Finally, the cause there are relatively few IVF clinics young women before they undergo these people with oil derricks. If we moved year. Since legislature would there. II should open early next chemotherapy—the service of taking some to another place, another then always be on the we can operate IVF only under Victorian law, of their eggs and freezing them. This paral- be formed, and wed surrogacy [using like Ghief. The only thing thai was we will not be able to do lels the service we offer young men run, the surrogate mothers] or experimentation on undergoing chemotherapy. We offer to pre- left for him to do was to join the army. escaping from Australia particularly supportive embryos. They didn't wart me serve their sperm in liquid nitrogen so that Omni: Is a do the political system so that I could do re- should they recover from their treatment, they country for your kind of research? How compare with elsewhere? search elsewhere. may utilize these gametes. freedoms here more freedom to Omni: Recently, your clinic had io reject sev- Omni: Theoretically, how long can a human Trounson: We haven't any eral applications from transsexuals wanting embryo be frozen? do research here than in the United Slates. to term. Is is that in the United to carry a transplanted embryo Trounson: Inoetiniloly. tre-e's no known limit. The major difference such aihing possible? David Whittingham and Mary Lyons in the Trounson: Theoretically, the patient doesn't U.K. exposed mouse embryos to the equiv- have to be a transsexual. Presumably, you alent of a hundred years' worth of ionizing could ask the same question about a man. radiation [a kind of natural radiation that ex- There's very little differenee. except one of ists in the earth's stratosphere and can have ^You'd have to them, the transsexual, has been casirated. damaging effects on the cells over time]. work currently being Bui I don't know of any They looked carefully at the mice that were provide the transsexual done using male animal models. The only exposed as embryos to this radiation and with hormonal in the Six- experiments I know oi were done found no alteration in their characteristics. therapy, and ties. When transplanted embryo tissues were Omni: Let's take that thought further. Inter- replacement put .under the iesies capsules in mice, they galactic travel may require voyages of hun- you'd have formed carcinoma cells, not embryonic cells. dreds or thousands of years, voyages thai to put the embryo in the But lei's take a mouse, a male mouse. people couldn't survive. One way to seed Omni; No, let's take a human. distant universes might be to place frozen appropriate Trounson: No. no. No one's going to do those embryos aboard. Is this feasible? spot. That spot is the bowel* experiments on humans! Trounson: It's bio ogica:'y possible, but the Omni: But lei's hcoreticaliy ".ake a human. problem is: Who would raise the children Trounson: I'll describe the mouse, and then born of the thawed embryos? When you get you can translate it. You would have to cas- to the other end of the universe, you'd need trate the mouse, which brings us to ihe a functional uterus for those embryos to de- have to provide back in the mid-Seventies, the NIH transsexual. You would then velop in-. Perhaps down the other end of the States replacement it the transsexual with hormonal cosmic universe are creatures with func- [National Institutes ol Health] decided that progesterone support IVF work, It has- therapy [at leasi estrogen and tional uteri. Creatures with, well, surrogate was not prepared to the female hormonal environ- wombs could perhaps understand a mes- never changed its position despite the pro- to simulate result, the ment], and you would have to put the em- sage sent from this end of the universe, but tests of many committees. As a bryo in the appropriate spot. The anterior these propositions are most unlikely, United States, as compared with Scandi- chamber of ihe eye is a very privileged spoi Omni: Could a time capsule, filled with hu- navia, the U.K., France, and Australia, is quite the body, so an embryo could develop man embryos, be used during a nuclear primitive in IVF research. Butcompared with in very well there. If you were going holocaust? that of any other developed country, Aus- functionally work, you'd then have to choose a think Ovaries cannot tralia's financial support of medical research to do the Trounson: Yes, I so. are starved for funds. more desirable place in the body, presum- survive all of the resulting radiation, but in general is lousy. We holo- to develop our own funding sys- ably, for example, on the bowel. maybe, if some women survived the We had pressure forced us to con- Omm': So you would have to remove ihe em- caust, they .would still have uteri. You would tems, and that bryo from the eye after it has taken hold? need, however, the whole of NASA to have sider IVF-Ausiralia. a concept developed by put it in eye in the Vicky Bald- Trounson: l wouldn't an survived the holocaust io retrieve the time an American businesswoman, firsi .place. I'm just saying it's very difficult to capsule or satellite with the embryos aboard. win. She was a patient with us who ended get embryos growing in any place but a But again, there's this monumental problem up having two children by IVF She couldn't standing in the uierus, excepi for some models that have of having the maternal componenl around believe that a group with our scene was actually been used in the eye of the mouse. for the embryos. It's really- a big problem. international medical cakes. Omni: Why the eye? There's no chance at the present time that surviving on selling raffle tickets and Trounson: Because it's isolated from the res! embryos can be grown outside the body in And that still goes on. natural cavity. personally to. ouf and of the body, and it has a an artificial womb [ectogenesis]. Omni: Do you have go Omni: The eye—wouldn't ii be damaged Omni: Ectogenesis is not a pre-2000 event? sell raffle tickets? I'm often buy- upon removal? Trounson: No.-I think it's more likely to hap- Trounson: No, the patients do. - of raffle tickets for the pa- Trounson: Yes, It would be. It depends on pen near 2500— it's not a close event. ing a whole book if let long you left it there. I mean, you Omni: An Australian right-to -life group has tients, The money helps us buy incuba- how an embryo implant in there, it's going to accused you of reducing unborn children to tors—the. very things that enable the work to the eye— point being that there "frozen peas." How do you respond to this? go'on. damage my

126 OMNI .

scien- events in the genes possibly producing very are rather few privileged -lies in the body in birth," or "miracle happening." The which an embryo can develop, and the eye tists are put up on pedestals. Nationalism is weird effects that are then inheritable, righi? greater dangers right now chamber was certainly found to be one of engendered because it's the world's first. We face much from and genetic or biological warfare those sites. Developing a male pregnancy, Then a reaction sets in, because people AIDS nuclear holocaust than we ever have to then, would depend on whether you could soon realize that this is a departure from what and fear reproductive technology. find other privileged sites. has been going on before. The press will feed trom Did ever anticipate your meteoric Omni: The brains also privileged, isn't it? this reaction, and then people will believe Omni: you they're heading in the wrong direction. success in the IVFfield? Trounson: The brain'? Well, I don't think any- that

Trounson: No. As a child, I visualized myself one has put embryos in there. There's been a tremendously negative re- farmer haven't ever turned off that. Omni: You know, like Athena popping out of action from people: associated with religion, as a and

I to return to the farm the head of Zeus. particularly the Roman Catholic Church. would very much like

hysterical reaction, and it's life, to have my own farm someday. I hope Trounson: If we come back to the difficulties There's almost a Finally, there's certain it's not too distant, because it's difficult to go of putting an embryo on a bowel. It involves very predictable. a life when you're too old. a certain amount of danger. And a great deal oscillation until the community manages to back to afarming not quite convinced that you could of trouble. This isn't technically, impossible, gain a total perspective. Omni: I'm because some women have survived with Omni: Are we gaining a better perspective abandon the inter naiienai spotlight of IVF and ectopic pregnancies on the bowel, but right now? go off to a sheep ranch. into Trounson; Well, we can assess that only when practically, it's a huge technical problem, and Trounson: No. Societies in general are a

I it. that I've never ethically, a major dilemma. sort of moral crusade. Perhaps it's some- do The big problem is of work as a mem- Omni: Are male pregnancies medically not what greater in the U.S. than in Australia. I made any money out my salaries have feasible? expect another pulse forward, a progres- ber of Monash University. The been low that we've only just been Trounson: While it's not something we enter- sion engendered by the silicon chip, which always so survive. Somebody, family or friend, tain, that doesn't stop a transsexual popu- will provide a lot of assistance in the house- able to is going to have to be benevolent. lation, or even men married to women who hold and liberate many people. If gave you the funds to- are totally infertile, from approaching us. We Omni: someone buy the farm? have been approached in the past, we have morrow, would you Trounson: I'd be delighted. talked about it, and we've rejected such techniques. [For another perspective on Omni: Before your retirement to the farm, remaining professional goals? male pregnancy, see page 5D.] what are your 6j/fs much easier Trounson: The main goals of my own re- Omni: Chromosomal ly, would It ever be pos- not the goals of the sible for a human to carry a fetus oi another to program people through search—and they're Center—are, first, to freeze an egg. Second, animal species? psychiatric modes to surgically inject sperm under the zona Trounson: 1 think the possibilities are almost than using reproductive pellucida [the protective outer membrane of zero. Even ii you were to consider such by This treatment would be for men things, you'd be limited to very few primates. technologies. the egg]. sperm that do not fertilize eggs and But again, this is purely science fiction. having You can psychologically involve taken directly Omni: Currently, all your work involves ma- would using sperm lure eggs aboul to emerge *'roTi follicles. But control people trom the testes. The third major goal focuses on genetic in the future, would it be possible for you to in any way as a group3 take a wedge of the ovary and preserve defects. We've already begun using a thal- [thalassemia is a hundreds of immature eggs? assemia mouse model Trounson: Possibly, but right now eggs have congenital blood disease-., which has a gene identify those gene de- to be at least normal in size before we can deletion, hoping to preimplantation get them to develop further in culture. That fects in early, mouse em- before Omni: Aldous -'uxley suggested in 1932 that bryos. In the future, we can perhaps offer . only occurs about five or six days Currently, ovulation. When eggs are in a very primor- the embryo-production process could be such early detection to humans. have dial state, they are much, much smaller than used for social and "political manipulation. detection-techniques require you more mature eggs. We have no mechanism now Could your own work ever be used in a po- than one thousand cells, but we believe that that iden- to increase the size of these immature eggs. litically unscrupulous way? we can develop techniques would We're limited to collecting eggs that are in Trounson: We are a long way irom Brave New tify these defects in the very early embryo. con- the follicles, those ol normal size with fluid World, Even though Huxley predicted that While I'm uncertain whether we can in the field of human reproduc- surrounding them. If you've treated a patient we could grow embryos in a test tube, many tinue to work with some gonadotropin, you may get five or of his other propositions are untenable in our tion, I'm quite prepared to develop all the fifteen of those immature eggs, but this is present society. To create a Huxley-like sce- appropriate technology, say. in the mouse, people in relatively inefticient compared with getting nario, you've got to have cloning; without it, and then put it on the doorstep of thousands or hundreds from a wedge. you've pulled out some of the major building medicine, and say: "There's the technique.

it if wish." Omni: A baby girl is born with all the eggs blocks of his propositions. You can apply in the human you she'll ever" have. In the future, will we be able It's much easier to program people Omni: Assessing the last eight years, how to create more eggs for a woman? through psychiatric modes than within re- would you do things differently?

I technologies. .By isolating a group Trounson: I would certainly alter the way Trounson: No, I don't think so. It's all finalized productive

in letal development. The complete comple- Of people and then working on them psy- led my private life, particularly in the years ment of egg formation has occurred before chiatrically. you'll get a much more pro- between 1979 and 1981. Those years really there group of people than you would contributed very much to the breakdown of birth. I don't see that s any mechanism grammed available to us at the moment to alter that, ever have by selective breeding. You can my marriage. I've always regretted that. critical in of particularly when you're dealing with fetal lite. psychologically conlrol people in any way These years were terms the Omni: Do you think society will become in- as a group. progress that we made, but there was a ma- creasingly more tolerant of the accomplish- Another more dishoresi. form of manipu- jor cost to many of us in our personal lives.

If I ments of this "brave new world"? lation Is genetic engineering —the insertion I had that time again, would try to accom- Trounson: Yes.- There's a logical series of of DNA into mice or other animals. This is an modate some of my family's needs. The rest

events occurring in these areas. First, the absolute no-no in human reproduction and of it, the science, I wouldn't want to do over

it I technology is termed a "miracle," with the should be prevented, at all cost. DNA inser- again. I don't think I could get as right as press trumpeting such phrases as "miracle tion may trigger absolutely unpredictable did the first time around.DO

128 OMNI " "

"Not fast, just right straight at me like a he wondered. Pale limestone upthrust trom low gear, grinding along. When I an ancient seabed? Mineral crystals? truck in trees." it, the others headed for the TRAVELS From below came the whine of the rifle. nailed descent from his vision of the crystal- CCNTINUEj-nrAIPAC- IGi "Kyle!" Garrett swung down through the The left line mountain down to this grisly scene hit the ground, and braced him- he was in such a state of branches, By midmorning shaken. He slipped the pistol back against a tree with pistol drawn. A few Garrett thai he realized he must over- self bafflement but left the flap unfastened. Kyle was bending over the in its holster dread and climb up into the can- meters away, come his on." saidKyle, hefting his pack. "I body of a gray, hairless animal. "Come Leaving his pack with Kyle, he shinned sprawled opy. don't expect they'll stay scared for long." for brother?" said Garrett anxiously. of the slimmer trees, grabbing "Hey up one All afternoon the ash-gray shapes okay." Still holding'ihe rifle that handholds on the vines that twisted around "I'm okay, I'm stole along behind them, gliding from tree to his heaving chest, Kyle kept staring racket of small feet scampering over the across it. A The brothers made though it might tree in the shadows. and receded. As at the beast. It looked as leaves broke out overhead forest was older here, its shape was good time, since the brighter, and weigh as much as a man. but he rose, the somber light grew the undergrowth manlike. dozen or more the shade deeper, and wriggled up through the inter- not even vaguely A then as he sparse, and since Garrett now had a legs protruded from the squat torso, each more woven branches the full dazzle of sunlight clear sense of direction. But no matter how one ending in a pad of flesh as broad and made him squint. creepers— as For scrambling over fast they walked, the shadow Kyle shouted. thin as a dinner plate. "See anything?" lurking beasts— never tell skin ash-gray mottled Kyle named the the water from his eyes. the treetops? The was Garrett blinked niah:, secure inside the blazing black, closely resembling the bark of behind. That my Lord, yes," he murmured. Thickly with "Oh hun- light-dome, Garrett said, "How did you know and it was perforated with strewn with flowers, the canopy of leaves the trees, it meant to harm you?" of red dreds of slits. spread away in vast, undulating plains undis- Kyle said, "1 didn't." Kyle poked at a chunk of enormous His breath still coming in gulps, in all directions. Further inland, "But I couldn't for eyes and solved powder in his stew. were grazing on the "These gashes must do them herds of dark animals of to find out." of the slits wait until it grabbed hold me lone beast loped ears and mouth." He pried one treetops. Here and there a you could. Only—" "No, 1 don't suppose around the edges o! a herd. The open with his knife. stealthily here "Only what?" the Scanning the woods, Garrett noticed only break in that rolling scarlet plain was "1 thinking about that pack of scav- tree that looked unnaturally thick keep mountain, gleaming white against the and there a solitary wrapped engers; the way they held me just long soon as he glimpsed near the base, as if something had western horizon. As then let me go. there more of enough to take the bone and down excitedly itself around the trunk. 'Are that snowy peak, he called being careful not to It was as if they were right on course." them out there?" to Kyle, "I can see it. We're Kyle stood up from the ashen hurt me." move it!" Kyle hollered. "The "A bunch." "Good. Let's smell dead enough." "They kept sniffing closer and closer "You didn't company down here's getting a little friendly" body. Ignoring his brother's sarcasm, Garrett in- were up top. Then this one came Through the binoculars, Garrett took a while you sisted, "But what about all those other right at me." hasty bearing on the peak. At this latitude weavers, the ring ' beasts— the branch "It charged you?" the white surface could not be snow. Sand? watchers, that gray bag of guts you shot- why do they ease up on us so slowly if they trying to mean to kill us? They could just be scare us, to drive us out of their territory. Or maybe they just want to find out what sort of animals we are."

"It could be they want to discuss meta- physics," Kyle scoffed. said. "The point is we don't know," Garrett "They're as deep a mystery to us as we are think to to them. And the only thing we can is kill them." do if they get too close to they'd die so easily? "How was I to know circuits go haywire. A little poof, and all their "Thai's what I'm saying—we don't know anything. We're pig ignorant, and it bothers the hell out of me. We never stay in any wild zone long enough to learn how the animals are made, how the plants grow. We're al- ways pushing on. out and back, and every- thing's hidden from us, as if we're burrowing through a cloud." Kyle fixed him with an amused glare. "You're not turning into a scientist on me, are you?" — "No, it's just

"1 me, too. know what it is, and it bothers bother But not half as much as it would me to get stuck in a laboratory or out in some crowded patch of woods with other scien-' lists behind every bush, studying the same is to bug for fifty years. What I want keep

before. I don't want seeing things I never saw to plod along in .bootprints that other guys have made." so all been naughty." we miss so much, and we make "It finally happened. This year they've "But many mistakes," iight. Staring out at drew his knife and began hacking away at Kyle set down his dish and said earnestly, have been drawn by ino until he them, the brothers spoke rarely and then only the flesh, chopping a hole through "If you couldn'l budge until you understood But conjecture led could see a boot. Then more cautiously, to everything, you'd never get away from Earth. in whispers, conjecturing. brothers avoid cutting his brother, he chopped the And then you'd never see that roadway of nowhere, for the gulf between the beasts was deeper than thick muscle and pried the ribs apart, until limbs up there, or those orchids growing in and these lurking from any species he had carved a way of escape. Kyle was the crotches of the trees, or your white the gulf dividing humans to crawl * stunned, but with help he managed mountain." on Earth. the wil- out through the ragged opening. "Or the butchered animals." "Here's your peace at the heart of after a day For a long while the brothers panted for "Why does that keep nagging you? A few derness," said Kyle one evening breath. Then Kyle lifted his dirt-blackened beasts dead?" of almost constant battles. could answer face. "You can put that knife away." "There's more of them every trip," Garrett There was nothing Garrett hold himself Garrett stared at the fist holding the knife said sharply. to that. He was just trying to horror until they as if it belonged to a stranger. The knuckles "That's because we keep going to wilder together, subdue his sense of mountain and could turn back. were still white from the fierceness of his grip. places. What do you expect? A picnic?" Kyle reached the out of keep- His arm was smeared to the elbow with the prowled around inside the perimeter of light, The glistening peak seemed so murderous that creature's oil. Slowly he loosened his fin- shoving pieces of gear aside with his boots. ing with this dark and woods cleaned the biaco agams: the fabric of it become in his imagination a kind of gers, "There you sit—all you've got to worry about had his reassurance. his shimmersuit. and sheathed it again at is the trail. Fine. That's a hard job, and I mecca, a the tenth day out from the station they waist A darkness came over his mind, the couldn't do it. I'd get lost in an hour. But I've On larger beast. They darkness of utter revulsion. "Let's turn back," got to keep us alive." He stopped in front of encountered an even trying to the tremor it well before they ac- he said carefully, keep Garrett, looming dark against the blaze of could hear coming

tually spied it, for the weight of its body set out of his voice. the dome. 'And if you wandered off by your- like lightning through the "Turn back? ltd take more than that to stop seli for an hour, something would get you— off sharp cracKs himself the chest. it swung ponder- me." Kyle thumped on believe me— no matter what your tender interwoven branches as "Look, I'm right as rain. Nothing's broken." heart tells you about the wilderness." Shaking uncontrollably now, Garrett said, Garrett did not answer. Leaving of! his "I just want to go back." goggles, because he did not want to see Kyle-gave him a searching look, "What's what was slouching around outside, he to get worked up about? Nobody's hurt, stared through narrowed eyes at the fiery •The watchers right? Next time one ol those roof swingers barrier that arched in a blinding curve around comes along, we'll bag it before it gets close and above the camp. overhead kept still; below, in enough to drop on us." Proiected from the night beasts inside this every direction, "No!" Garrett roared. "I don't want any simulacrum of daylight, he lulled himself to crept from more killing! I'm sick of it!" sleep by summoning up his vision of that stealthy shapes "Hey— easy, brother, easy." Kyle rested an pale, tranquil mountain. tree to tree on arm on his heaving shoulders and spoke

the forest floor; drawing soothingly, "How about If we just hike on a Each time they stopped for a rest, for a little ways, leave this pile of meat behind," drink, for Garrett to climb up through the his pistol, he was beast, "and set on the white gesturing at the butchered canopy to check his bearings too hard to aim$ shaking up camp? Well both unwind, and things will in It was as if mountain, the beasts closed : look better in the morning." stillness were an invitation to attack. Or to Garret! waited until he had regained con- inquire? Converse? What did the creatures trol breathing and his body had ceased want? There was no way of knowing—no of his to quake, Then he agreed to camp, As he way, short of a lifetime's study, to find oul. Its trudged away from the scene of his butch- Usually Kyle shot the boldest animal, and ously toward ihem under the canopy. body clusters of ery, he was aware of the offending hand the others drew back. But sometimes he had was like a huge jackkhife with skin sullen red dangling at his side. He could hear the scav- to shoot several. The scavengers, following pincers at each end, the a massive bones. if smeared with oil. It held engers gnawing at the along in packs behind the brothers, no longer and gleaming as pincers, its hinged The bout with the roof swinger must have even waited for Ihem to leave a kill before on by one set of snapped could seize scared away many of the stalking beasts, for falling ravenously on the carcass, clearing length forward until the other end like trapeze that night the woods outside the light-dome away every last scale and bone. hold, and so whipped along a troubled artist. There was a hectic scramble among were still. Yet Garrett slept poorly, "I don;t see how they can still be hungry" suffocating dreams. In the morning things said Garrett on -the morning of the seventh the ring watchers on top of the canopy and by creepers in the did not look better, and he said so. day, watching a band of scavengers swarm among the skulking shadow in Kyle was losing patience. "Look, how over the body of a shadow creeper, remem- underbrush, the lesser beasts giving way farther is it to your blessed mountain?" bering how the fierce pack of them had panic before this newcomer. much mountain his mecca lost now. swarmed over him with that odd gentleness. "Looks like trouble," said Kyle, shrugging His — — and bracing himself to Garrett shrugged. 'A long day. Maybe a day "I expect there's fresh ones coming along free of the backpack pausing, the creature swung into and a half." all the time." Kyle watched the feast with fire. Without if we. double time we could make stony eyes. "The news gets out through the position directly above them and dropped, "So go like a fan, heavy it by nightfall?" forest. It's like sharks in the ocean— the ru- its body spreading open flesh. Garrett "I'm not going!" mor of blood." ribs unfurling aihckbianw.'l of burst Giving way to his anger, Kyle said, "I'm the Despite the frequent kills, the ranks ol leaped to the side. Kyle fired a and an got smothered under that hunk of shadow creepers stalking them through the instant later was smashed to the ground and one who . meat, and you don't hear me talking about woods kept swelling. At night these pur- buried under the beast. the matter? Are you break- suers were visible outside the light-dome as Garrett bellowed, tugging furiously at the quitting. Whal's seized Garrett by the shoulders. an ashen crowd several bodies deep com- horny, lip of the body, trying to pry it loose, ing?" He the "After all the bad things we've been through, pletely encircling the campsite. They might to peel it away and free his brother. But desert now?" have been ambassadors gathering for a muscle was- rigid, the ribs would not give. are you going to me Garreft could feel the waters of hysteria parley; or dumb beasts lured by instinct to The pincers were clamped tightly around tree churn in him, and he forced drive out predators, the way songbirds will roots. He bellowed again, but Kyle lay mo- beginning to he himself to speak calmly. "I don't think it's mob an owl; or like moths, they might simply tionless under the smothering weight, so 132 OMNI 1

© ART CUMINGS L<2"b'e see which

is mightier

Come on /

' - "* .

worth the cost anymore." "What cost?"

"The cost in lives." Kyle let out a scoffing

breath, but Garrett kept on: "It's like we're two blind men stumbling forward, carving our way through the guts of the wilderness, and the deeper we go, the deeper we cut. I'm not just thinking about last night. I'm thinking about everything we've killed—here and in the other wild zones. It's a road of corpses." After giving him a last brutal squeeze on the shoulders, Kyle let him go. "So where

can we go and not be intruders? You tell me

, that? Tell me where you're going to live with- out destroying whatever threatens you. Where? Earth? The job's already finished there. An asteroid, maybe. Or one of the stony

desert planets. But if you go anywhere that's

got life on it, you're going to have to kill some

of it to make room for yourself." Quietly shouldering his rucksack, Garrett faced back in the direction from which they ESPIONAGE had come. He would never get to that tran-

quil mountain. "I justdon't have the stomach for it anymore."' Washington and Kyle slung his own pack into position and set his face in the direction they had been Moscow

traveling, "Well, I still do. And by God I'm going to finish what we started." London and Havana li\T PARADISE Neither moved to take a step. They stood East versus West with shoulders brushing, eyes averted, island paradise that offers Finally Garrett said, "If you don't come with The Third World War A you total relaxation plus the me, how are you going to find your back way thrill of discovery. Stroll to the station?" Sabotage and pristine beaches. Go fishing for 'Til just have to take my chances on that." Infiltration the big ones. Sun yourself by our Although it would mean breaking a wil- pool or scuba in waters renowned derness code, Garrett offered, "You want me Crap shoots and to leave markers?" for the splendor of their tropical Kyle spat In the dirt, then scraped his boot Double-dealing fish. On Forbes Magazine's across the stain. "You worry about making Missions and Escapes Laucala. Island, all the choices friends with the beasts. I'll worry about the are yours. trail."' Ciphers and Satellites JUST FOR A FEW ... They touched hands briefly, roughly. Kyle BUT Spies 1 glared at him with eyes bruised by a sense and Moles Forbes loves its private Fiji of betrayal. island, and we think will, too. Garrett took the first step. A mo- Traitors and Heros you ment later he could hear his brother's boots So we've put out the welcome retreating away behind him. Fast-paced, Subtle mat, but only for a few at a tune. After less than an hour of solitary hiking, Sometimes brutally We'll take up to 12 guests, for 7 while the animals prowled around him in nights and 8 days. Cost is S 1,650 ever-tightening circles, Garrett staggered to blunt per person, which includes 4 a halt, overcome by guilt and fear and the days of tropical fishing plus all weight of his own ignorance. He leaned Past, Present and meals, lodging and a round-trip against a tree —at least nothing could lunge Future flight between Laucala at him from behind. What did they want? Just and Nadi International food? With so many, they would get only a Fact and Fiction Airport (on the mouthful of him apiece. And suppose they main island]. It's the "in" place to merely wanted to touch him, speak to him go, away from the cold, the traf- through their pincered and padded limbs? fic, the noise, the hassle. Service If he could bear to stand still and let them with a smile and no tipping. swarm over him, as the scavengers had, For information please write: perhaps they would be satisfied and go ESPIONAGE Noel Douglas, Forbes Magazine, away, perhaps they would imprint a mes- 60 Fifth sage on his body. Ave.,New York, NY 10011 or call 212/620-2461, He squeezed his eyes shut, but fear im- mediately forced them open again. "Go For a one year subscription (6 issues) away!" he shouted. His heart was clenching send your check/money order,

and unclenching like a fist. payable to "Leo 1 1 Publications, Ltd," for They crept nearer. He could actually smell S15 In U.S. funds (S17 in Canada, 320 tc-'&gn; Id; i3-'IO\AGE them, sour and hot. There was no sound ex- Magazine Jeccr-:e'T 5::. «OE 957.4 Wimnc-cn cept the occasional creaking of a limb or the DE 19599. scrape of heavy bodies over the ground. ^,3P^ : —

Frontme his belly, rifle and ments, the Roman and Nazi and Stupid brutes. Because of them he had the dirt, where he lay on would ex- in Garrett's direction. holocausts—but nothing earthly abandoned his own brother—four hundred helmet-lamp aimed I've back! Kyle!" Be- plain the raising of this deathly monument. kilometers away from the station and no map. "Kyle, it's me! come scavenger resumed of the light, Garrett could not see his After a moment the He might just as well have shot him. cause stood up anyway, arms climbing, its passage rousing a faint clatter. "Leave me alone!" brother's face, but he beyond the repeated uncertainly, as he The brothers watched it labor up The beasts watching him from the canopy lifted. "Kyle?" he of their lamps, up into the sights of the gun. canopy, beyond the range thickened into a solid mass of dark bodies stepped did not waver in skyward into the darkness. overhead. Picking up a heavy stick, he flung For a long while the rifle Releasing his breath with a hiss, Garrett the underside of its aim. Then Kyle rose onto his knees and it at them. As it clattered on voice, "Back from the said, "Think of all the deaths it took." the limbs, the mass of animals stirred briefly called in a jubilant Flinging down the gun, "Damn near everyone on the planet, I'd but soon drew togethei again, like !he murky dead, big brother?" his feet and came running. guess," waters of a pond regathering. Kyle surged to wouldn't talk such force thai they "I see now why the old-timers He roared— a sound raw and wordless. The two collided with it." fell sprawling and wrestled over and over in about The watchers overhead kept still. Below, in "Would you?" every direction, stealthy shapes crept from the dirt, growling joyfully. they finally rose and dusted them- "No." tree to tree on the forest floor He drew the When silent, their twinned headlamps off, laughing, hooting until the woods They fell pistol but was shaking too hard to aim it. What selves on the silvery debris. Then at the to rang with their cries, they held one another glaring did it matter where he aimed? He wanted siared long and hard, as same moment confessions burst out of them, spray the entire forest with death, murder at arm's-length and Kyle saying, "If you hadn't come back I was if each needed to reassure himself that the everything, drive it back, erase those men- found. Then Kyle a dead man, lost in here. I had no idea which acing shadows, clear a highway through the other had actually been "Come here. You've way was home," Garrett saying, "I went crazy wilderness. He fired wildly, squeezing off suddenly grew serious. wanted to blow this." with killing, I was pure hatred, burst after burst, firing in a blind passion while got to see clean." dark. The brothers fol- everything away, erase it, and start bodies rained down from the canopy, fired It was now quite Again there was a shocked silence. at the creatures shambling away through the. At length, turning his light away from the maze of trees, shooting until he could see slope, Kyle bent down and retrieved the rifle no living beast anywhere, no least quiver of from where he had flung it, "You want to wait flesh, no threat. Then he stopped, horrified and explore it in daylight?" by what he had done. ^Dusk was In a hushed voice Garrett said, "I'd like to Still shaking, he pushed away from the tree sit down and study it and not budge until I where he had been leaning. The scaven- gathering like black fog could make sense of it. But I'm afraid I'd go gers were hustling out from beneath the tree the among mad." roots to glut themselves on his slaughter. He ' when he saw his brother "I'm more scared of beasts than mad- nearly fired on them as well, but he re- trees ness," said Kyle. "I say we head back now. strained himself and holstered the gun. Blind motionless, What do you say?" with shame and loathing, sobbing out loud, his fighter's body starkly Garret! nodded silently, never taking his he wanted to drop the gun and rucksack, ' eyes off (he mountain. peel away the shimmersuit, wander naked visible against the "Good." The straps of Kyle's pack creaked into the woods and give himself to the beasts. gleaming white mountain.^ as he put it en, "Can you find the way with But no—he had to find Kyle—lead him to just the lamps? Maybe go a couple of hours safety—tell him about this horror. to give us a little breathing space?" Facing about, he set off at a trot. Imme- Garrett took a last dazed look at the ivory diately he feli better, as if joining with Kyle slope. He had been coming to this place for again would be the healing of a wound. He jiggling of their helmet lights a long time. Here and there, scavengers were arrived at the place they had separated, then lowed the beams the talus while they were still a hauling new trophies onto the heap, he pushed on, stooping every now and then to the clearing. Even Garrett could of skeletons shifting beneath them with the study Kyle's bootprints, oblivious to the good distance from the slope, to un- this hill gleam so crackling sound of ice about to give way beasts that were skulking again in his wake, tell that whatever made rustle of scurrying hot. stone. And not jewels or derfoot. Enveloped in this his breath coming in rags. Several times Kyle brightly was its shiny offering, the realized what it must be. bodies, each with had stopped to climb a tree— doubtless to metal. Then he moun- mountain of bone possessed a terrible make sure he was headed toward the "Bones," said Kyle softly, "a whole beauty. Was it the beauty of instinct, like that mountain— but Garrett did not need to stop tain of bones." it the vision cleared he gazed of a termite hill or bird nest? Or was or even slow down, and so he fell certain he As Garrett's jumbled slope. The beauty of intellect, of pyramids and cities? was gaining on his brother. By late afternoon numbly at the glittering, its inhu- shapes were not familiar, but the color was And if the work of mind, what was the trail was so fresh that the trampled grass calcium sheen polished silver-bright by air man meaning? He did not know. was still unbending, and bootprints stamped a weather. "Yes," Garrett said, "I can find the way." in the sandy bank of a creek were still col- and He guided them unerringly. Perhaps be- lecting water. "Where'd they come from?" point some few cause they moved so swiftly or because Dusk was gathering like black fog among Kyle aimed his lamp at a "The scavengers haul news of their slaughter had spread through the trees when Garrett finally saw his brother, meters up the slope. the forest, the brothers were rarely stalked standing motionless in a clearing up ahead, them here." cat-size on this return journey, and they left no new the unmistakable bulk of his fighter's body Transfixed by the light, one of the ascent. Pro- carcasses in their wake. The trek into the wild starkly visible against the gleaming base of slinking' beasts paused in its flanks sev- zone had taken them eleven days. In only the mountain. The rucksack lay at his feet. truding from slits along its were station, eral gleaming bones. From one of my kills? nine days they were back inside the The rifle was cradled at a slant in his arms. the suf- the air lock sealed behind them, three thick- He seemed to be contemplating the moun- Garrett wondered. He remembered of bodies, the bone twisting vi- nesses of glass protecting them from the tain while the lamp on his helmet struck bril- focating tide hand. long had they been foresi. Even in that human sanctuary, Garrett liant reflections from the glittering slope. olently in his How the mountain of building this pile? And why? He thought of could not rid his mind of Knowing it would be suicide to sneak-up suicide of bone. The peak rose in his memory, up and on him, Garret! slipped free of his pack, elephant graveyards, the mass a glistening monument, piercing the sky ducked behind a boulder, and gave a shout. lemmings, the antler heaps of deer, the mid- up, of understanding. DO Kyle spun halfway around before hitting den of skeletons near Eskimo encamp- 136 OMNI a nipple, for example; one with arms and ing detail. They mounted a portable com- flailing was surrounded with a cotton puter on a stand that could be wheeled up legs for containment. The results: The NATIVITY and connected to the baby's electronic bunting treated this way had j es w ho were monitors. The machine' also had a keyboard p reem significantly shorter stays on the respirator into which nurses could type their observa- a more efficient, less damaging way to the infant's activity level, color, than others. oxygen. We don't breathe that way tions, such as transport Als says the improvement came from lim- and other behaviors. it takes a lot of energy. But naturally because sensory input. "Like Gorski, she con- After nearly 5,200 separate observations, iting machine providing the effort, it might with a cludes that preemies' brains lack the ability Gorski found that preemies react differently be a good way to keep preemies alive. doesn't say that care thought- Many to block out stimuli. Als tried to handling than previously "We stuck tubes down our throats and timing should being handled, should be withheld: only that its of the Toronto doctors ihink preemies like it," says Dr. Charles Bryan, geared to preemies' behavior. is good. Gorski's enormous be Hospital, one of the devel- that stimulation Sick Children's you look at a preemie, you're really database shows otherwise. He found that "When of the machine. "It feels like you're get- opers looking at a fetus displaced into an environ- several minutes after routine chest mas- internal body rub." ting an ment for which it's not evolutionary hundreds sage, preemies often showed depressed Bryan has used the machine on "His autonomic nervous oxygen in adapted," says Als. respirators heart rates and lowered levels of of preemies whom conventional technol- is at the mercy of medical the blood. Social interactions such as strok- system might not have helped. So encouraging are We have to observe preemies rather ing or hugging cause similar distress. In- ogy. his others' results that the National Insti- and than just act on them." deed, many routine interveniions caused tutes of Health have recently begun trials to experimental technol- grimacing, irregular breath- Even when all the machine with 1,500 babies in blotchiness, evaluate the and techniques have been perfected ing—all signs of physical stress. ogy ten hospitals in the United States and Can- impossible nervous system and put in place, survival will be about a year. Gorski explains that the ada. Results are expected in than 24 weeks. Before "poorly organized." At 24 for preemies younger approach, pioneered by Dr. Tet- of preemies is still Another lungs just aren't developed enough. the preemie's brain is undifferen- that the of the Iwate Province Medical weeks suro Fujiwara, But suppose the preemie didn't need Japan, is to supply preemies with Center, in lungs? Theoretically, that's possible with a surfactant they lack. To accomplish the lung technology called extra corporeal mem- Tetsuro obtained surfactant from that feat, brane oxygenation (ECMO). Essentially a lungs and then treated it to remove calves' new kind of heart-lung machine, ECMO is (Protein might react with most of the protein. '•Several minutes an apparatus that removes blood from the the infant's immune system, while the fatty and chest massage, body, pumps oxygen into the blood, of the surfactant benefits the lungs.) after routine portion sends the oxygenated blood back in. In this with He gave the substance to ten preemies preemies often providing oxygen way it acts like the womb, distress syndrome. Eight severe respiratory on its own. The showed depressed heart rates to a feius that can't breathe of them survived. ba- technology is used on some full-term of experi- levels Thai success sparked a series and lowered of anticlotting bies, but it requires the use results of which are now coming ments, the of oxygen. Socialinteractions, compounds that would surely cause brain of doctors from the Uni- in. Last June a team Still, a few ex- stroking hemorrhages in preemies. California in San Diego and Chil- such as versity of perts say that with years of refinement, Hospital, in Helsinki, Finland, re- distress.^ dren's and hugging, caused ECMO might someday be used in the care ported that they had isolated surfactanl from of premature babies. cesar- the amniotic fluid of women who had ox- Still others talk about giving preemies sections. Over a period of two years, ean ygen through the skin. In the lungs, gases treated with that surfactant had the infants pass from thousands of tiny air sacs across disease than the con- significantly less lung capillary beds. That transfer general shape but not the membranes to the Univer- tiated: It has the trol group. In August doctors at lungs because the full-term human is impossible in immature infants given creases and folds of the sity of Toronto reported thai and capillaries has cortex—the center of junction between air sacs lungs relied less on brain. The cerebral surfactant from calves' formed. But preemies have thin, conscious thought— is not yet been control group did. The nervous control and respirators than the covers their bodies. With brain cells migraling capillary-rich skin that had fewer mild brain still being formed. treated group also that ii pree- intricate Thus, some doctors speculate Uni- at a rate of 100,000 a day, the whole hemorrhages. In October doctors at the high-pressure cham- connected, like the wir- mies were placed in reported similar results. circuitry is still being versity of Rochester oxygen might be absorbed directly by giant built-at-home computer. The bers, "The present attiiude of many neonatolo- ing of a preemies below a the skin. enthusiasm," according result, says Gorski, is that gists is one of great only organs unable to func- to filter out stimuli. Lungs are the Shapiro, who, with Dr. Robert certain age lack the ability to Dr. Donald preemies 16 to 20 weeks of age. Thus, Too much unfiltered noise, light, or handling tion in H- Hotter, did the Rochester work. chambers or functions. with either high-pressure are working on completely can disrupt physiological Other groups the plateau of viability would take "-easily overwhelmed, and they ECMO, testing it on ani- "They're man-made surfactant and down. "I've had babies so another step Meanwhile, Abbott Laboratories, the crash," says Gorski. mals. eye Nonetheless, most experts say that med- has acquired the overtaxed by the social interaction of giant drug company, never replace the first crucial contacithat they go limp. What seems kindly icine will American patent to Fujiwara's formula and months a fetus must spend in the womb. The to may not always be best." plans to start clinical trials in a few monihs. us exper- placenta provides the fetus with oxygen, Gold, His work is buttressed by ongoing "If the tests work out," says Dr. Alan J. food, and hormones while removing all its iments at Harvard Medical School. Working of Abbott Labs, "it could be on the market in doc- psy- waste. The process is so complex that other NICU nurses, ' years." with Lawhon and four or five won't even discuss the possibility of re- preemies—who chologist Heide Als has shown that minimiz- tors With all the intervention, Even though doc- preemies placing it with technology. are- ing disturbances can make would be isolated if still in the womb— based on be- tors can create a lest-tube baby by fertilizing another research fron- healthier. The experiment was bound to react. Thus, outside the body, there's no observations: A researcher would the human egg learning what preemies feel havioral tier involves- around the fact that in a few days watch a procedure, record how the baby re- getting during intensive care treatment. At the Uni- woman. how to make the they must implant it in a Francisco Medical Center, Dr. acted, and then suggest versity of San even think about keeping a more comfortable. A baby who was "It's silly to Peter A. Gorski and his colleagues spent two baby alive during the first trimester," says something to suck on was given preemie years recording preemie behavior in exact- looking for 138 OMNI Durenberger (R- Minnesota), is technically alive. What should doctors do? Dr. Jay R Goldsmiih, chairman of pediatrics Senator David prenatal care. "Now it's time No single policy exists. It's determined hos- at the Ochsner Clinic, in New Orleans. "What an advocate of about prevention." pital by hospital, doctor by doctor. goes on in terms oi organogenesis is so crit- to do.something administration,, which For example, Dr. Lu-Ann Papile of New ical that any change in the environment could Yet the Reagan life 'las consistently cut or Mexico says she told the doctors who do result in deformed babies or miscarriages." claims to support therapeutic abortions ai her hospilal not to Even now, some doctors wonder how far opposed nutritional and prenatal care—the would keep more babies send her any fetuses at all. "If you're doing they should go in saving babies who are very very programs that everything possible" to abort a ietus, don't premature. alive, That, say the experts, is why the infant the tell in the next moment to save it. Already "Some of these physicians say, 'Give us mortality rate, which dropped sharply in me -decline so much has been set in motion that it doesn't Ihe money and we'll make anything lhai Seventies, has virtually ceased its and is rising in some poor areas. have a chance." moves stay alive,' " complains pediatrician nationally this country's rank of sev- Other doctors take a less rigid view. At and medical historian Dr. William Silverman. It contributes to Boston City Hospital any fetus over 350 We should accept, the fact that "there are enteenth for infant mortality, according to re- grams whose heartbeat continues for more biological errors" that naturally cause cer- cent United Nations statistics. We're behind a few minutes is sent to the NICU—just . . . even places like than tain fetuses not to survive. "The error rate Finland. Sweden, Japan and Kong. in case the fetus is viable but more often to has never been zero. It's not zero for any Singapore Hong it dies. any- keep it warm and comfortable until species on the planet." "Weight for weight we do better than draining," Dr. Brown. "It's very ' care to "It's says "We don't want to get biological errors to one: We use high-tech and expert Graven. "But difficult to watch a perfectly iormed yet zero," argues Boston City Hospital's Eliza- keep preemies alive," says Dr. previable baby try to breathe." She adds thai beth Brown. "We want to get mechanical er- we have many more very low-birth-weighi stand for our in ten years at the hospital she saw just one rors to zero." By that she means many pree- babies. Other nations wouldn't aborted fetus survive, when the mother was mies are biologically perfect but are born level of prenatal care." likely to have an mistaken about the stage of her pregnancy. too early because of a "mechanical" prob- Other issues seem less the Supreme The child was later adopted. "This was not lem in the womb. "In many cases you're sal- answer. A dozen years ago an evil woman." she says. "She was very vaging a person who would have been fine." happy mat the child lived." As for those preemies who develop serious If all this sounds depressing, remember handicaps, she says, "If the majority do well, if the that it would not be an issue not for I'm willing to live with the ten percent who recent turnaround in premature care, Sci- don't," (Estimates for severe physical and '•The line has brought life to thousands of babies menial handicaps among preemies range ence who otherwise would have died. Bui prog- From 5 to 20 percent, depending on gesta- between abortion and preemie ress brings choices. Do we rescue the pree- live times as high as tional age. That's two to is care becoming mie who seems destined to be handi- in full-term babies.) increasingiy siim. Many capped'' Do we keep marginally viable "If we as a society keep an eighty-five- children alive? How much should we spend? year-old with cancer alive," she adds, "why hospitals abort How do we make decisions in an area in can't we save someone who is just starting in one wing and save forward is rife with contro- . fetuses which every step his life?" versy? And who should make the decisions: One reason may be that NICU care is one preemies just a officials? hospital parents, doctors, or government of the most expensive services a oider in another.^ few weeks Perhaps nothing illustrates Ihe double- can provide. The costs may exceed $1,000 edged nature of premature care more than a day. Antoinette Kimble says Victoria's Victoria Kimble, the child who was sustained treatment will cost "eighty thousand dollars at the very edge of life. Shortly before she or more." Her Blue Cross medical insurance was due to go home. Antoinette, her mother. will cover the payments. Poor people rely on ran into one of her doctors in the hall. The -publicly funded Medicaid. Court upheld the rights oi women to have A'.th the doctor had bad news. He had just come from Perhaps there's a cheaper way. Prematur- abortions. The choice rests woman formed until onset of letal viabil- examining the child, Her retinas— not ity results from a cluster of causes, including and her doctor the intervene. at the age she was born—had not properly smoking, diabetes, alcohol and drug abuse, ity; afler that the state may The have attached to the eye. It was sad but not sur- multiple births, and teenage pregnancies. trouble is that.the limits of viability now prising, given Victoria's extreme prematur- But the major factors relate to poverty: in- dropped. In 1973 it was about 28 weeks; ity. The baby would almost certainly be blind. adequate nutrition and a lack of prenatal it's anywhere Irom 24 to 27. The line be- is be- "It hit me like a boom," Kimble recalls. care. That care could include early exami- tween abortion and lifesaving care Three months of struggle, and now this. But nations, advice on living habits, and making coming increasingly slim—so slim that many wing while she stopped for a minute before entering the arrangements for delivery— all for S500 lo hospitals abort fetuses in one older NICU. She-thought about the child and how $800 per pregnancy. saving preemies just a couple of weeks not the nurses had worked so hard to help her. Dr. Stanley Graven, professor of maternal in another. Most keep a safety margin by She knew they had grown fond of Victoria and child health at the University of South- aborting fetuses older than 20 weeks. are pro- would be nearly as devastated as she ern Florida, studied prenatal programs for Most neonatologists we spoke to and issue of by the news. As she entered the NICU and the state of Minnesota. He found that for choice, arguing that abortion is an nurses Gretchen and Lisa and Brenda every hour you prolong a pregnancy be- religion or personal conscience. Studies also saw permit and Pat she could tell they were barely hold- tween 24 and 28 weeks, you save $150 in indicate that many countries that rales ing back tears. She got their attention. hospital care. Others have shown that nutri- abortion have lower infant-mortality any of you up- painful that "Now I don't want to see tion and prenatal care could save.the coun- than we" do. Still, the issue is so them. "I don't want to avoid it. sel," she commanded try $360 million per year in the trealment of most medical people you remember how think I hear one sad word, Don't low-birth-weight babies, most of whom are "In my entire time here I don't ever always had io battle? How when her preemies. Recently, the National Academy heard the abortion service mentioned by she's toes turned so black we'd thought they'd tall of Science's Institute of Medicine recom- name," says nurse Lawhon. "It's a little too off? And her stomach swelled up? And her mended that.the country "undertake a broad, close to home." fe- heart stopped?" Some of Ihe nurses wept national commitment to ensure that all preg- It's especially close when an aborted heartbeat that lasts for more than openly now. "There were so many times we . high-quality care." tus has a nant women . . receive she would make it. But only one "Technology has done just about every- a few minutes. The fetus may be only 18 didn't think important. baby's aliveV'GO It chance of surviving yet thing is My thing it can," says Lynn Blewett, an aide to weeks old. has no MARS OR BUST!

MARSCAPE: This rocky stretch of Mars' surface

is coated with thin ice. There is enough water on Mars to support one million people,

The Mars Colony Needs a Few Good Men — and Women

Today's first graders w$, graduate Jroni college in the 21st century. Will the) be ready to pioneer the solar system, or to settle on Mars? Mt it we don't start training them AT ONCE!

The Young Astronaut Program is helping our schools and com, the crisis in science and math leaching. The progrMtH'-wiH pi

the greatest adventure mankind has ever undertaken,: the coi..,.

' ; universe! - ... Tomorrow's Columbuses and Magellans need your help. You can start them on their way to the stars by encouraging youngsters to enlist inWjjgi, Young Astronauts. Better, you' can help form a Young Astronaut chapter in your neighborhood. Go to your local elementary orjunior high school and offer to help organize a chapter. If you have a background in science or math, you might help tutor the Young Astronauts.

Perhaps the children you help won't go to Mars after all. But all of them will have to live in tomorrow's high-tech world. Unless • we do something about it, an appalling 90 percent won tbe able to cope. They are graduating from high school today woefully illiterate in science and technology. They wont be able to operate the computers, robots and lasers that will be standard equipment in just a few years.

The problem is urgent! Encourage youngsters to sign up in the Young Astronaut Program. Or send for more information yourself. Please write:

YOUNG ASTRONAUT COUNCIL P.O. Box 65432 • Washington, D.C. 20036 ;

The 20 best games of the year

By Scot Morris and Phil Wiswell

of the it's time again for our annual roundup year's best new games and diversions. We'll give our choices for the ten best general games first, then the best computer and video games. Two features characterize this year's best general games. First is the rise of the lone inventor. Good ideas can make it on the market without the imprimatur of a big game company: Six of our top ten choices this year go to "first-shot" producers (Aerobie, Chase, Football Fever, Megiddo, Mental Blocks, and Supremacy], The second trend is the fade-out of electronic games (not a single battery- powered item made the list this year) and the rise of party games, in which the whole family plus friends and neighbors get involved. Trivia games inspired by Trivial Pursuit (one of our choices for best of '82) have mushroomed, the new generation ranging from Solid Gold Music Trivia to Sexual Trivia to Bible Trivia. Mystery party games, arising from Who Killed Roger left: Football Fever, A Question of Scruples, Aerobie, Ellington? (a best of '83 choice), have also Best genera/ games, clockwise from top Megiddo, Supremacy. Not pictured: Clue VCR Mystery Game. blossomed. How to Host a Murder Stage II. Chase, Last Word, (Decipher) has three games (each priced Beta) showing why you didn't think of if minute videotape (VHS or at $25.95). Murder to Go (Ideal) has another simple you wonder the principals yourself. But you didn't. Tom Kruszewski selected scenes between three (all in one package for $35), and about the grid using dice Watch it closely for imporiant facts more are on the way. Murder-mystery parties did. Play is on a hexagonal green dice for me; red dice murderers, victims, rooms, and weapons. are now rumored to be more popular than as pieces: along hex rows Later you may learn that "the person who spoon-bending parties in Washington, for you. The dice move conserva- number of spois they show carried the rope was killed in the DC, or wine-tasting parties in Mill Valley. according to fhe (you start tory." and a good memory will put you Within each category below, the winners uppermost. Your team of dice Didit, the total 25. The object is to capture well ahead. The butler, introduces are listed alphabetically, not by preference. with 9) must that his rules and leads you through a sample Prices quoted tend to be on the high five of your opponent's dice so different four remaining can't add up to a total of 25. game on the tape. There are 18 side; shop around l or discounts. played On any turnr.you may move a die or cases to solve, so the game can be TEN BEST GENERAL GAMES exchange the "speeds" of two dice— many times. One problem is that first- find themselves at a distinct turning a 2 into a 5, and a 4 into a 1, for time players will 1, Aerobie (Box 2025, Dallas, TX 75221 exciting dimension: disadvantage against those who have $7.95). Reviewed in this column last July, this example. This adds an that are powerless on seen previous parts of fhe tape and already is the flying ring that can be thrown farther A pair of pieces next. recognize the lead characters. And you'll than any other man-made object. With a this turn can become deadly on the Chase has have to do without playing with the traditional distance record of nearly one fifth of a mile For a game with such simplicity, and unexpected levels models of weapons, such as the wrench (1,047 feet), the Aerobie is a superb airfojl surprising depth between the and the lead pipe. that anyone can throw farther (and some say of strategy. The similarity not accidental. 4. Football Fever (two players; Orbus more easily) than a Frisbee. Invented by name Chase and chess is or more Marketing, 450 Lakeviile Street, Suite 225. a Stanford aerodynamics engineer, the toy 3. Clue VCR Mystery Game (two Petaluma, CA 94952; $39.95—543.45 creates one main problem: finding a park players'; Parker Brothers; $40). Those pick (his game old favorites are back—Miss Scarlet, by mail). We are tempted to big enough for 3 simple game of catch. . Professor Plum, and fhe merely for its production values; For the 2. Chase (two players; Blue Dolphin Games, Colonel Mustard, you get a felt-covered, backgam- Box 9632, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33310; rest. This is an updated version of the price, 60- monlike board, a varnished wood $15.95—517.95 by mail). This game is so classic board game but now with a p

146 OMNI —

opponent that so he can't make a word around the painting to look at any part. You and you can—the last word. This is an can lake any face of any cube and desig- imaginative isu&r and original idea, with typical nate it left as the top corner, say, and Milton-Bradley high-quality production then place the other 15 cubes appropriately, and a reasonable price. so there are a total of 6 x 16, or 96 differ- 6. Megiddo (two or three players; Global ent windows. Games, East 8112 Sprague Avenue, The inventors of Mental Blocks, Jacklyn Spokane, WA 99212; $17.95—$20.45 by Lambert and Jeffrey Samborski, of mail). nr We like games thatare simple to learn Richmond, Virginia, originally hand-painted and to teach, this and one qualities.. It is their puzzles on solid maple blocks. With reminiscent of go-moku or Pente. You can prices in the $200 range, they were out Mental Blocks: a combination of puzzle and win by either getting six stones in a row of reach for all but serious collectors, This or by capturing six opponents' stones. On version on stiff paper is an affordable the circular board you can place six introduction to this novel idea. The cubes stones along a spoke, in a circular orbit come preassembled, packed correct- around the center, or in a spiral that starts side up in a box, with an instruction booklet at the center and moves out one orbit that includes suggested games and varia- along and one spoke each step. You capture tions and a copy of the master painting opponents' stones Pente-wise, by flanking on the cover. two at a time, then replacing them with 8. A Question of Scruples (four to eight your own. A revised rule allows you to players; Maruca Industries; $18). This isn't assume that the board is doughnut shaped a game in the usual sense, but it is a hell and that opponents' stones can be of a conversation opener at parties. You are captured by a "wraparound" along the dealt one answer card no, say (or yes, Eight of the ten best computer games of the spokes of the torus. or depends)—and five question cards, year. Reviews lor all ten start on page 148. 7. Mental Blocks (Perigee Books. 200 posing such dilemmas as: (1) A friend asks Madison Avenue, York, New NY 10016; you to write a letter of reference. You feel in which to place timekeeping pieces, and $17.50—$19 by mail). Don't look for months he's poorly qualified for the job. Do you a of multicolored bag 4-, 6-, 8-, TO-, 12-, of entertainment from this "puzzle and refuse? (2) Would you tell a friend that his and 20-sided dice with which you simulate game." After you show it to a few deserving or her fiance or fiancee is making advances the vagaries of a real football game. The friends you may decide to leave it on the at you? (3) $9 in quarters come spilling rule book is long—29 pages— but most of shelf. But it's an absolutely new and original out of a pay phone. Do you report it? the rules turn out to be easily memorable if concept in geometry and art, and we Your job would be to pick the opponent you know the rules of real football. The can't resist plugging it. You start with 16 most likely to give you a "no" answer. If game is very well thought out, with contin- small paper cubes, each colored on all an answer is challenged, players debate gencies provided for such events as a sides, in a 4-by-4 arrangement on the. table. whether a question was answered truthfully blitz, bomb, fake field goal, punt, onside They make a coherent picture all with and decide by a vote. The fun is in kick, and fumble recovery, all with proba- pieces fitting,together. If you pick up the discussing those little moral dilemmas that bilities that are remarkably close to those of entire top row of blocks exerting, (by finger we face every day but don't often talk a real game. pressure on the two outermost blocks), about. That subject matter can be absolutely 5, Last Word (two to four players; Milton- give it a quarter turn toward you, and addicting. There are only 245 questions, Bradley; $12). This . word game/strategy replace it at the bottom of the design, you so a second edition is called for. game is a combination of Boggle and will extend the picture down a row. You 9. Stage ft (two or more players; Milton- Isolation. Real word-game fanatics may can repeat this three times, more each time Bradley; $30). The title is well chosen: This think there is too much strategy and not exposing a new view. Then you can move is the second trivia enough stage of games (the word knowledge involved. Imagine the columns from left to right, again with instruction booklet even says, "Once you've a 10-by-10 Boggle board on which you a quarter turn each time, to extend the played Trivial Pursuit, you're ready can begin making for words from any square "picture in that direction. In effect, there is a Stage II"), and the object is not only to get on your side, moving orthogonally or large 8-by-12 painting (called The Block the answers right but to figure out a theme for diagonally, and that you remove letters Party), ingeniously designed so that it ail six trivia answers in a ' given round. from the board as soon as you pass over wraps around top to bottom and left to right, Answer a question correctly and take them. a The object is to collect as many and the blocks give only you a 4-by-4 one-point chip from the pel (no penalty for letters as possible and to isolate your "window" at any time, which you can move wrong guesses), then guess the theme America. is FOR AMIGA. The Amiga is so new that there correctly and ;;iko whaievei .s left in the pot rope, Africa, or South The game equal is no game software yet. We previewed Ihe (with a one-point penalty for guessing set in the future; all powers start with players, the un- following pair of very playful and exciting wrong]. For example: What kind of ball is a strength. With fewer than six neutral. programs, however. baseball pitched at the batter's head? What's used areas of the world become The sell are all beauti- GraphiCraft, which Commodore will the last name of the cowboy who chased game box, board, and logo specially for the Amiga, is a free-form draw- villains on his faithful horse Topper? What "i.lly designed. ing/painting program and the flagship of ihe magazine does Larry Flynt publish? Which This is a game of military and/or eco- in tradi- system, reflecting Ihe "increased power of the author of one of the Gospels studied medi- nomic conquest. You can win the conquering, or next generation of home computers. cine and was known as the beloved physi- tional way by invading and shrewdly buyingor sell- Unique to this program, you can custom- cian? What's the first name of the author who more subtly and by or minerals, driving ize a palette of 32 active colors from the wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird? What's ing supplies of oil, grain, necessities for Amiga's range of 4,096. So, for example, to the abbreviation of Ihe department of gov- up or down the price of these bankrupting the build yourself a palette of 32 Caribbean ernment that's been headed by George future rounds of play, thus can simply enter two different Romney and Samuel Pierce? opponents. As with real warfare, you need pinks, you shades of pink for the extremes, and the After a few rounds we gained great re- grain to move an army over land, you need airlift to a program does the rest. spect for the writers of these questions. They oil to move a navy or to an army GraphiCratt contains many singular fea- inspired very few arguments (and magazine new territory, and you need minerals to build tures that help to automate the creative editors are notorious know-it-alts}., and their new forces and weapons. This is Ihe sort of evening process. The most interesting option —cycle "theme" answers seemed fair and satisfy- game that can easily take a whole and to play the draw lets you draw with a brush that ing. In the case of the series above, the writ- just to get the rules straight — out changes color automatically. ers had to come up wilh questions that would first few rounds. After that, you can try you Harmony (£80, from Cherry Lane Tech- lead to these answers: Bean(ball), (Hopa- various strategies long enough to make nologies), is a brilliant program that makes long) Cassidy, Hustler, Luke, Harper (Lee), eligible for a cabinet post. the Amiga into a musical accompanist. It's and HUD, That task isn't easy, but it's nec- BEST COMPUTER GAMES like sitting in with a quartet of musicians who essary if anyone is to get to Stage II —that of computers, there were fewer never lose patience with the clams you oc- all answers are title characters played by Inthe world casionally hit. Paul Newman. The writers should have got- games from which to pick Ihis year's top ten, doubled. For The fun begins when you select a part to ten a byline. yet their quality seems to have systems— Amiga, play, and the other parts play along with you. 10. Supremacy (two to six players; Suprem- each of the five computer PC. and When you speed up. the other four musi- acy Games, Box 533, Buffalo, NY 14209; $36 Apple II, Commodore 64, IBM Ma- cians speed up to match your tempo. Play plus $2.50 postage). This board game will cintosh —we have chosen two programs as ma- softer and they all play softer. appeal to lovers of Risk or Diplomacy. The being the most fun to play with on those It's a great teacher, too. Harmony is based players control up to six superpowers; the chines. Many of these are available for the on the principle that when you don't sound United States, the Soviet Union, China, Eu- other computer systems, too.

" Mommy. Daddy. ' (jc-ila go bathroom. TELL HIM WHERE TO GO.

photo sensor And what to do and he'll react to when he gets there. movement. Or / And what to say infra-red / Omnibot2000isthe the sensor. And hell/ state-of-the-fun robot ;| react to with a mind all your own obstacles. Exercise remote control Then there's the and hell deliver cocktails or jmputerinterface.lt breakfast in bed. Hell even walk the dog. you limitless program- Program his 7-day 24-hour memory and allows ming potential off your own the alter ego-driven Omnibot 2000 will wake home computer. i you up, pour your coffee and recite the day's —5 agenda on In Omnibot 2000,high high- 1 his built-in technology selves its est purpose: You. \ tape system. 1-800-822-OMNI Of course, For the nearest retailer, call California call 1-800-421-8496). We'll tell you I he's always (in go. | open to self- where to | improvement his 2000 1 Add OMNIBOT FROM TOMT I optional THE STATE-OF-THE-FUN-ROBOT « .

observation, good, the rest of the band ain't so hot either. discover them through careful VISION is exactly the way irue-to-life hackers HE HAS INNER So it's practice or stink. which must go about things. of Project: Space Station ($40, from Hes- FOR APPLE II. Under the category Best Fantasy Role-Playing Computer Game of the Ware) is an authentic science simulation in- launch, Year comes Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar volving the planning, design, and operation of a manned space station— in ($60, from Origin Systems). It is a strategic quest, filled with battles and magic and short, a mission simulator. involves getting a shuttle - strange adventures in a mythical land. The first stage by NASA. Your personality is part of the game. Ini- mission approved and funded You'll to stick to budget in your selec- tially, you are asked a series of difficult ques- have space-station tions, such as, "You are entrusted on a royal tion of crew, equipment, and actually and control mission to deliver a targe bag of gold when modules, then launch you meet a poor beggar asking for a single the shuttle's flight into orbit. And every detail to the personalities of in- coin. Do you toss him one or remain faithful counts, right down to your mission?" dividual crew members. funding Once you've answered the questions, the You will return to Earth for extra computer determines your characteristics, and to pick up one of 40 different research to earn even more money. Unlike and for the rest of the game it keeps tabs on projects is no single traits such as compassion and loyalty. most computer games, there there necessarily an Everything you do affects these traits, though structured goal, nor is

if plan things you have no way of knowing how close you end to your space odyssey you are to solving the puzzles until you actually effectively enough. Ancients called it The solve them. Golden Ol- Hardball ($35, from Accolade) is a two- FOR IBM PC/PCJR. Software CONSCIOUSNESS title COSMIC player computer baseball game with such dies ($30, from Software Country). The like easy-to-refuse realistic strategy and graphics that you may may sound something an There are no physical limita- it's actually an find yourself standing on your feet and offer from K-Tel Records, but

inner vision. . .the psy- tions to cheering your men along. excellent bargain, a collection of four popu- chic faculties of man know no programs, The batting screen displays a view from lar games. And each of the four barriers of space or time. A world university main- just behind the pitcher, plus a small window originally developed on of marvelous phenomena awaits very showing fielders and base runners. To pitch, frame computers, is enjoyable in its own your command. Within the you first select from an extensive repertoire different way. natural—but unused—functions Adventure, of deliveries, including off-speed, slider, For $30 you get the original of your mind are dormant powers are change-up, or curve. Then you add an op- Eliza, Life, and Pong. Yes, the programs which can bring about a like old Elvis tion of high, low. inside, or outside. The result old, but they're classics, and transformation of your life. timeless. Besides, Software is a range of 16 pitches that you can throw, 45's, they seem original code for Know the mysterious world from meatballs to garbage. Golden Oldies contains the only such collection. within you and learn the secrets Once the ball has been hit, the screen the programs, the Adventure and Pong started the com- of a full and peaceful life! pans the field to pick up the action, and the revolution, the former player nearest the ball is automatically un- puter video-game Rosicrucians (not a The der joystick control. Throwing puts the bur- being a test of mental prowess that begat religion) are an age-old brother- fiction, the lat- den of coordination on you, however. The an entire genre of interactive hood of learning. For centuries dexterity that led to the rise of winner is not necessarily the player with bet- ter, a test of they have shown men and ter reflexes, but the one who knows more coin-op arcades. women how to utilize the fullness pro- about baseball strategy. Eliza is the early artificial-intelligence of their being. This is an age of gram that turns the computer into a crude

daring adventure . . . but the silly FOR COMMODORE 64. Hacker ($30, from and often humorous psychiatrist. It's a greatest of all is the exploration gets kick out of it. Activision) is a clever program that straddles program, but everyone a of Self. is the fine tine between game and reality. The Life (see Games, October 1984) more a demonstrating meth- FREE BOOK scenario reads like a story from today's serious effort, visually newspaper about teenagers cracking cor- ods of generating random patterns. Neither Determine your purpose, porate computer systems. is a game as much as a puzzle or an amuse- function powers as a human equally enjoyable alone and The screen is blank at the start except for ment, but both are of being. Write for your free copy one message: logon please. You don't know and in social situations. —Today! en- the Mastery of Life what to do, but you try typing hello, or your A more solitary endeavor but no less from name, or something else. The computer re- grossing is Wizard of Wall Street ($45. simulation of trading The ROSICRUCIANS sponds with your first clue: logon password Synapse), a real-time HAS BEEN CHANGED—CURRENT PASSWORD IS in the stock market. Warning: If you have no San Joso, California 95I91U.S.A. or in LOCATION OF TEST SITE. particular interest in financial matters SEND THIS COUPON '- You don't know much more when, after re- how money is used to make more money by , com- investing it in paper, don't bother with Wiz- Seribe KDH peated guesses at the password, the Street. . . ard of Wall The Rosicrucian Order (AMORC) puter begins to disconnect you. But . mir- Before you know it, you'll be buying on . . . security system San Jose, California 95191, U.S.A. acle of miracles their malfunctions "and you slide in undetected. margin, selling short, and conducting elab- Please send me a copy of the You know you shouldn't be here, but as long orate market research on a company's BETA Mastery of Life. or you won't be making much . numbers as you are. . — Name . You can remain undetected by security money. for only a short time, though you can learn Three skill levels increase the challenge Address _ tricks to fool the system into thinking that you by giving you access to more money at are an authorized operator. There are no in- greater degrees of risk, though the begin- structions included with Hacker. You must ner's game is difficult enough for most peo- pie without experience in the speed and complexity ot brokering. constantly travel along the EARTH StoGk prices ;>' OMNI CQ'NTINUED FFCrv -Al,i. ticker at the top oi your screen. Meanwhile, news headlines appear, and you must buy support, Milton Everett, an engineer with the TIME CAPSULES im- up the good deals and sell off the losers as Mississippi State government, was water-pumping test: "We fast as yourfingers can learn to operale the pressed with a keyboard. Rub your eyes and you can lose compared his device with a conventional same amount of work with a fortune. motor. It did the one tenth the energy." To Jerry Miller, a li- FOR MACINTOSH. VideoWorks ($90, tram censed electrical contractor, tests with os- key: "I measured fit- Hayden Software) isn't a game, but it's cer- cilloscopes were the coming out than tainly one of the most enjoyable programs teen times more power in." Roger Hastings, a physicist with for the Macintosh. You use it to create high- going fell that Newman was work- quality animations—and if you've ever seen Sperry-Univac, the theory the high-resolution "graphics of the Mac, you ing as a proper scientist: "He had magazine of the future Now the can imagine how realistic things look when first; then he built the motor." can be kept for the future. Store your sessions, Newman you can direct a cast of up to 24 characters Following the test issues of OMNI in o new affidavils. Only around the screen. asked his guests to sign Custom Bound Library Case made later did Lawrence Wharton, a NASA It the Macintosh is "the computer tor the much of black simulated leather. It's tests. "The experi- rest of us," as Apple suggests in its adver- physicist, evaluate the built to last, and It will keep 12 Issues definitely the ments have not been done under properly in mini condition indefinitely. tising, then VideoWorks is of us. controlled conditions," he said. "I don't think The spine is embossed with a gold computer-animation tool for the rest evidence that the machine puis OMNI logo, and in each case No other program o! its kind is at once so there's any transfer for than it takes in." there is a gold recording powerful and so easy to use. out more energy dale. the atfidavits, the VideoWorks requires no programming; in But it was too late. Using mouse. Newman had already convinced Energy Send your check or fact, everything is controlled with the of char- Resources Unlimited, ot Sacramento, Cali- money order (S6.95 each; To select an actor from your "cast invest in his effort to per- 3 for S20; 6 for S36) acters," you roll the mouse on your desk until fornia, to $500,000 postpaid. USA orders only. Foreign the pointer rests on iheone you want, then fect the machine. doing with orders (add S2.50 for press the mouse button. And what has Newman been per case) a postage and handling Characters and objects tor your anima- the funds? He's recently developed new to: OMNI Library Case. is 700 to 1 ,400 per- tions can be drawn, transferred from pre- prototype, which he says P.O. Box 5120, Philadelphia, PA 19141, his drawn images, or "grabbed" from existing cent efficient. According to Newman, motor at a rea- Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. MacPaint graphics, yielding tremendous dream is manufacturing the price the world. 'This de- power not only to those who can draw but sonable around to bring world also to those who can't. vice," he says, "will do more Construction Set peace than all the kings, queens, and poli- I realize that Pinball (S40. ever lived." from Electronic Arts) is not a new program. ticians that have Crilics point out that the notion of a per- In fact, it was on our list last year. The Macin- direct contradic- tosh version of PCS, however, is unique, with petual-motion machine is in incredible graphics and sound effects that tion to the second law of thermodynamics, demanded inclusion again. When you're which states that energy is neither created irre- talking "most fun on the Mac in '85," you're nor destroyed and that some energy is trom one talking PCS. trievably lost when it is converted But, add, this time- The point is to design your own computer form to another. they pinball tables and play them. You control tested rule cannot offset the desire to sus- propels everything from placement of targets to pend reality, the same sentiment that betting. gravity. As with the older versions of this pro- Las Vegas casinos and offtrack technical training, sup- gram, you work from a split screen. One half So if you have little shows an empty pinball table; the other ple ingenuity, and flexible morals you may machine shows the parts you can use to build and be able to build a perpetual-motion theory, store your personalized games. Using the of your own. Start with a real physical im- mouse, you drag flippers, bumpers, rollov- not .a home-brewed one; it will be most is work of a repu- ers, and other parts onto the table, place pressive if this theory the them wherever you wish, "wire" the targets, table physicist whom even the experts can- of and set the scoring values. not understand. The quantum physics book. The graphics and sound effects of the David Bohm, as described in his Macintosh bring this game close to real pin- Wholeness and the implicate Order will do. sayit gets its energy ball. The MacPaint program can be used to Next, build a motor and decorate the playing board and the back from the implicate order—who would dis- Finally, ask technical types glass with incredible detail. And if you have pute you? some fhem beer and a 51 2K Mac. your ears will think they've gone to study the machine. Feed questions; collect their to the local arcade because the four-voice popcorn; answer their channels pump out some remarkably real- statements. and sent to istic digitized pinball sounds.DO Even if you should be indicted

trial, your attorney will provide you with a jury background. Following For their' help in suggesting nominees for in- devoid of technical retire to the Baha- clusion in this- year's list, we would like to your acquittal, you can nation thank John Di Menna, Abigail Reifsnyder, mas. As long as America remains a game expert Sid Sackson, and Games of technical illiterates, its citizens are your magazine's Wayne Schmittberger. lawtul prey.DO '

PHEniOrUlERJA

Arizona's Monument Valley sparkles with the luster of morning frost in this picture by landscape photographer Kathleen Norris Cook. "I was on a predawn photo :e of the area," Cook explains o breeze that morning; so every grain of sand was still in place from the evening before, when the wind had "' ""' the face of the dui and the light

i her camera i photographing this ephemeral scene. "T frost was evaporating before my eye minutes all ol

a Pentax 6 x camera loaded with Ektachrome 64 film to record what she describes as "this special gift from nature."DO " :

dovei-ler;. even costlier I; bapooned somehme m the cijxe; lagnots :r pure cadone. Sore, it Maybe ii was :he UFOs. Or a communist cos: DioL No one is- sure, but somehow uu" at ieasi twice !ne zip q- regu ; ar favorite products began to unoergo subtle, taste and

wortn :l nideous chances. They go! Ighlar leaner. coffee. ;i vvi-; be Is it a cereal'' is i; a canciyV 'i :i SUGAROOS. . . . no:, lev. ::.' irno these decaffeinated T's ha;d to ieltwhen you o:fe

- , h „ .:: .; swe. i rings of sugar-- i!, -!., :,.; . hoi sterol sugar Peope can! soom io get it made cm tavorite frosted

. . surge —were rsmove'd, i ,vhicl .m! :u..v a huge .viien NuiraSwee: is banned educed, cr replaced. In popu-anty Ccngress. But now/than;^; :o Ramoo anc men like dv an act of ' Si ...i. .. .' the :: - in.:, i see :,.,. :. ! ... ! : -i ' oi giucoso ! with tne goioen goodness not' gang to ake it anymo'e. W:moy -ortined with 12 essentia! oroducts am cut Americans are demanding a\-c they're Any time is area: for Saga-cos.. newer; gutsier, "heavier" products, and sweeteners. > ; i :,.,'. i m i" .'manufacturers have .,.

postsweerern.M \< . -ate research iaos'to satisfy this demand. GRANOLA-FREE CANDY For the past 'A sampling of seme of the newer p-oducts q-'anoia has insidiously crept into- r.an look decacle Tnuitipiylng ano mutatng HATE COLA Although ihe cc-ia wars have the oanov aiste

. i .. nbioc ii Iv i .* I I!'.; . Il'l , , I"

-.-j -"0- !! w:th i setoff a new rouno ol bathes because o' p u:

: : .....'. lOW . its special formula and its unique sales fgntlng back Candy bars campaign. "You eon: need caffeine bin candy inoiiStry :s

LAST i ...-., ?-;:=: pro-

.. . .Ma , hop. :b. ducing Hate. the cola you hafe io love .:.:. tne fight and that future generations vvii! :; !.! :;... in UUORD ./... , ho and 30':'imes tne caffeine o! iv-e ro a*:oen i"C he '"..'' earbonatlcm

; ly ru oi grandia.' .. By Parker Bennett ...... regular do etis VvibTH- WATCHERS FROZEN DINNERS; thscafieine yon enjoy o< ralnc: and a

i at . it \:i, ueh b unless .1 nas enough • Hate cola, the cola jus! srd a: co a

|l:. ' M ...... ! IBUSO .-. | ,! I'.:.: I" pro; ess o sugar r, "cola you hate to love;- .. !.' " . Od-ocncen ;ng napooa! nightmare i .a, s me Lkthrc

; :...;.: . : VVcifn Watcl e: has twice the oack. = ho Irghf beers

. ,.|- . ol ., .....I n. i-; the o r nC an gn -v.« ,:!!! .; . IIS il : sugar five times- the course o n ea! and twice 'he minimum daily LIS

: carcohydratcs and choles- carbonation, .. ' ri: reguirem en;s oi rur .r / .' :; m .r : 3 and thirty timesi Beer isGocdhooo. terol. :entyoTsat;', too.. and Potatoes Saecial. for And so mere wd be Dense bee-. Croat Take the Meat "the caffeine '..: .. .i .; entree bu: exa-r'ph in . no / '/';'. : ' gid -wrenoh-ng feast. If comes . fuli-oiown. cola3. . of regular .always wanted :rt a deer . and hern . ml! . . ; itiariifi uvm some Dense beer is made with 30 percent

: drunker ^ed dye numbers one arid two) mashed . para cra.n alcohol— to gei you oificrent desserts ' and four faster— and plenty of real beer sediment, potato t-eipe:: either natca: substances giving you 42 limes (none made with

.'. ! . O" will rea iy : ! ';- 'In. inders beerf Bssr-of a; . Cense deer

i ..yi! icing . , [trod with !., ii ,. c fiii you up because it is brewed neavy dinners: Moan Cu : s : ne. Massive water piped direchy to the orewery horn oinor heavy Dinner, ano :tro Two R:vers nuclear-power plan;. V.onu. the Angry Mans

: ."-' rn Buraeori'na Gorernc:. ,0OTCi I :OOLb"RS II had counter-pan Ihe sec lCLA3-SPF€e GASOL :NF. Goo for casohne to t.:e un-eaded. he cooler ino scotch cooler is a refreshing. meani ' .vouidrVt have createri the 7-8 engine. .• ' ,:l % i arl .ii c ho:n : etch Furtnermor' arcan :: i no only e.tch. an sod --2- Corvette, Tie Mustang ; en sciecars the anri-omy a :ii.le soda In a convenient V-i2 C'neve- regi; : ar gas. even . :: :-oli cap m GT the premium, just doesi'T make it. That's why ;s -ust Ino bepionng of a new lino of i':as oroduceci new lead i tuel i -schnobgy i. i' c.i. ii :: : !.: ; i n i =iei , r

' : :'..;;.; boilemiarsr coolers, and e.ouDie martini 'Li:

coosts the octaoe : coolers to hauclv six-packs Tnia h:gn-lead :ue; engine knock ano ihe fumes alone RECAFFEiNAIED COFFEE, if .you love trie reduces are enough tc shield you from radianon in .: " I: i : : . i .!.: :afl

1 event r.ueioa.- olast.DCj I ,., rfer e. :h: . ino ..'i ee 'oi /on me Through a costly and ume-oonsaming proc- r: ess, the cade, ne is rsl removed from the beans rc r lha; iight, decaffeinated ilavor Cater while the beans are being grcuno. ar