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THAT TALK WHY LSD STUDIES

STOPPED DIARY OF A CAVE WOMAN mmmm f is Dnnrui VOL. 11 NO. 9

EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT; KATHY KEETON EDITOR: PATRICE ADCROFT GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: STEVE FOX ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM

CONTENTS PAGE

FIRST WORD Adult Children of Charles L. Whitfield 6 Troubled Families OMNIBUS Dala Bank 10 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 14

FORUM Corporations in (he Classroom Karen Emmons 18

SPACF. Zero-Gravity Toilets Alceslis Oberg 20

MIND Brain-Grafting Fetal Tissue Douglas Stein 22

ARTIFICIAL Creative Computers Bill Lawren 28 INTELLIGENCE

BOOKS LSD Research Library A.J.S. Rayl 30 SPECIAL DOLPHIN ISSUE EARTH Saving Sea Mammals Kenneth Brower 26 CONTINUUM Sea World and the Oceans' 33

DAY OF THE DOLPHINS Marine Mammals in the Justine Kaplan 42 Service of Science

INTERVIEW Louis Herman: Communicating Justine Kaplan 76 with Dolphins

DIARY OF A Exclusive Interviews with Alcestis Oberg 50 CAVE WOMAN a Subterranean Pioneer

A WORLD OF Pictorial: Coral Reels Shari Rudavsky 58 CORAL HARMONIES

ROAD TO POWER Hydrogen; Alternative Energy Robert Keating 66 Source for the Next Cenlury

ANTIMATTER Protocol for Extraterrestrial 89 Contact, etc

LITTLE BOY BLUE Fiction Bruce McAllister 100 GAMES The Vanishing Leprechaun, Scot Morris 120 plus Political Computer Games Bob Lindstrom

STAR TECH Exercise Equipment for the Judy Feldman 124 Year 2000 LAST WORD Humor: High School Reunion Sharon Farber and 128 James Killus

Three artists collaborated to 014B-B711) is published monllily in the Uniled Stales and Canada by Omni P t!CLlH»l': Ir emalonal d.. 1965 Broadway. produce the portrait ol anges to Omni Magazine. Post Olflce Box 3041. Harlan. IA 51537-3041. Vol a literal spaceman on this r:~B >i in* USA rv'ciaMVBurda month's cover. Filmia International Lid. Printed i.v Corp. and disli -: . 'i.. , ..i- )-J i'-.o w :v.: |,. , AB, a Swedish firm, designed ibuted in IheUK by COMAG. ra, ,;;; :, Rcid Ws Drayton. London. UB7 tents copyrighted. the image, using art by Torkel Henriksson. special '- ' one year: Canada and eis-.vherr.. ;..,>« one yvi.r Single copies $3.50 in - "''• ' ; A ! Telephone 1-800- effects by Unichrome, and a photograph by Lars Lie. A OMNI I

is the What human condition" Research i a oner-: i | from several professions is beginning behavior— often hurling 'he cm c or to help us clamy this often- oomusing someone e^se term. Clinical professionals are focusing So now can adult child-'on ol anhealihy

their attention the "l.i seif" or : ! :. ; 1 or ue :he a iheii e ani gel m- I

1 " "child vv'thin. It Is believed ims personal needs mes? Millions of people are '!!. ' I ; lent ty i ii ii i b m i to discover true Idem lies oenavlor. To unravel -he concent of the They are healing their cniid within by

.' '! ' '. , . reccgn/ing themselves ss adult children

how the family af-ects each Individual. / working

According to Virginia Safe, a 'ounce? of on their recover 1 es in seii-beip groups family therapy, about 95 percent of such as Adult Children Anonymous.

U.t —troubled, Recovery ;s also obtained by grieving unhealthy, or unable to deal directly previously ungneved losses, hurts, wis Most households cr traumas, whet; up until now may nave are Iroubled because the parents came keoi these peopie locked info a -he of from unhealthy families. Until someone unhappness and compulsion.

; ' '.!!' the cycle, parents 1 i i breaks ,, i , , pass on r, ,v. v,' mi, this painfi.il legacy. .results. First, individuals wiit know ; ". 'vi,n prin :>.. iese of a themselves barter and leel more alive, bV fulfilled, and cea!;ve Second, they self." This pari then pass this aliveness, tuifiUmenl sponsible and creativity on to their children. .'!! .! '•• - (Or I ;:': ".I ''...::! .. Jhi majority of individuals current y sive disorders such as alcoholism and seeking this healing process are between ;:;> '.: .,,...: , Ihirfy and fifty years old. and one in recognized problems associated with ,-c ilfly IAJDRD eating yea disorders, compulsive gair.biiug more elderly will have found their Irue By Charles L. Whitfield religious acclction wor-kahplism, mental identities, thus providing a large' i icaithv illness, and family volence. support group for our children and

: '•People are beginning From the second we are born we grandchildren. to find their true identities by have needs. These needs are healthy As society progresses and the nuclear and normal. In a healthy family trie family changes (through divorce, recognizing themselves parents are able to got their own needs homosexual parents, and single-parent

. as adult children of troubled :..;.:-.' , . a heel families, by working then capable and free to provide many each individual. The rising divorce rate, of the child's needs. They also act as however, is often a mixed blessing. on their recoveries in self-help models lor Tie child, h-eiplng :he child Whilo kids ideally need both parents, if learn : how to meet ma own- needs c is or bo i pi ronl:- aren heallt:' : groups, and by grieving The more wounded the parents and the is better for the child to grow with 'he previously ungrieved losses.^ up more troubled the family. -the less tho parent who Is iess wounded. : • m,:

chilci w:|i be able to get his reeds fulfilled The loss oi trie true self >s the human Inside each of us are a variety of condition t has been with us since subpersonalities (the. hero, the victim, the beginning o' hum I

;.' i :: .» the nurtured rhat contribute to how oin !' dil ma: : il 1 we respond 'o lite experiences. The two we bereai.i or should we befalse?.The- thai rnovO'T:er:i ;c heal Sh^ child wi'mn has cr an unhealthy development are the accelerated in recent years as a result true self" or the "child within" and Ine of the growing awareness among "faiso is self." faise self I . The who wo i nure and'

to be. it aifows survive :..:.;. pretend us :o moie paiients through the healing piroc- . mistreatment 01 neglect from-withih'or, '. ess

...,. later, outside the ferny. Ti :! i: in. . 'ugh moverm o; ,i q .

Growing up -r- a troubled family arid self-nealing tne tutu a? oi the :

.! i !! the I'm i wounds true sel such thai to survive. iam.ik hi hi.- i i

goes nfo g nd th i.. ! cnaos- Is indeed hoptru: Parents of hmpoi fan" only as an aid to some life the present and the tut/are who hee : ehav-or themselves win Pe breaking the vicious

II ' .' -:". .v ...;...: :f any I cycle of passing their dysfunctions how to su-vt- on to their children.. Rathe- than teenage does not suoport a chid thai exhibits tils pregnancy and suicide, anc'ioaons, true self. The child is humiliated or corruption, m c m rne al a ievelso! punisned and thus -orced to react to lire society, we may begin to see more only through the false self. harmony and

I believe once wounoed, "he I rue set' peace on 'his earth .DO goes into hiding and the lalse self emerges to hem 'he child survive The Cha'/es L Wh.-tfiei^. M.D.. is !ne a,./ ma. cnild w-thin stin has needs, and from eai:nruheCi-.i-:i if tii i Within. Hn, new bcvik. A rril: ::; show itsoil fully through an unhealthy he available in me tail .

On October 21, 1966, Wendy foster smooth and cold against his shoulder. discover the mysterious purpose of

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ROADTOPOWEH

program and the co- developments in dolphin research around 8,000 years ago our journalist-in-space Living on the country. How intelligent are Somehuman ancestors moved out of author of Pioneering Space: able to fully Frontier (McGraw-Hill), Oberg dolphins? Will we ever be the caves, gradually develop- the Next If one been fascinated by astronauts communicate with them? so, ing newer and greatly improved living has long ability to eventually and others who test their limits under benefit may be the shelters. It all led, of course, to super- ex:ralcrestrial beings. for the cave communicate will-' skyscrapers towering amid the clouds, adverse conditions. As The world of dolphins teems with higher above the experience, Oberg comments, "I'd never climbing higher and the most they provided me with seemingly alien exotica. One of subterranean world. Now we want to go do it unless life forms a hot tub, and my architecturally striking marine even farther—into deep space. But in three kegs of wine, World of Coral husband." probably a toilet, which is coral. And in "A early January of this year an Italian And the detailed in "Cosmic Relief" (Space, Harmonies" (page 58) interior designer abandoned modern she discusses photographs of coral polyps offer views shelters and moved back into the bowels page 20). divers never see. editor Justine Kaplan is thai even most of the earth. At this time the twenty- Research course, may be the source interested in dolphins, which have Water, of seven-year-old Stefania Follini is still living more renewable, nonpollut- fascinated her since she was in the of an abundant, a solitary existence. Her only contact if advocates Water-skiing off Florida's ing—in fact, perfect—fuel, with humans has been through a seventh grade. their way. In her grip and fell of hydrogen energy have computer, although a medical research Gulf Coast, she lost dorsal "Road to Power" (page 66) Robert team has constantly monitored the into the water after she saw five speed toward Keating reports on the potential of woman by video camera. fins moving with great power as an alternative energy "I paralyzed by fear because I hydrogen When writer Aicestis Oberg first her. was sharks going to attack source. The plans to extract energy heard about Follini, she tracked down thought were been in recalls. they began from this common element have Italian and her research me," Kaplan When the pioneering been her toward shore, however, she the lab for years, but they've team. The result: a series of exclusive nudging were dolphins. hindered by the high costs of production. interviews with Follini conducted before realized her rescuers Louis Herman Now, however, environmental concerns during the experiment and Years later Kaplan met and future brighter. applied to his graduate are making hydrogen's recorded in 'A Cave Dweller's Chronicle: when she marine mammal psychology We -vll ovenhja-iv to:..---.' Fifty-six Days and Counting" (page program in today's children, and their future ongoing physiological and at the University of Hawaii. "He made to 50). Through educational laborious nature of depends in large part on the psychological tests, Oberg says, the me very aware of the "Studying opportunities we offer students now. studying the changes that occur research," Kaplan says. team is out [Fonjm, harder work than writing As Karen Emmons points during isolation "in a situation where a dolphins is much schools have ateady them, that's saying a lot." page 18), some is denied sunlight and a sense of about and person fee corpo- recently returned to Hawaii to recognized the need to brg time." Why? in part because the under- Kaplan his rate community into the classroom. experiment will shed some meet with Herman and discuss ground organe^ons. this month's Interview (page And businesses and light on long-term space travel, whose work for Omni", are responding » tip in the article "The Day of including are similar to those of cave life. 76). And ; conditions f (page 42) she reports on the odds in favor o fe _!-e OO A regional finalist in NASA's defunct the Dolphins" 10 OMNI E LETT cannnnuruicAToajs

mystic" because The Way We Were Ramanujan "was no "seemed to him articles that feel as he said that all religions It's not often I read This might preclude though they have ihe power to change more or less true." or Interview religion according to Christianity my life. James Gorman's but not necessarily to Hinduism, with paleontologist Jack Horner [March Islam, definition of religion is broader 1989] had just such an effect on me. whose more flexible than ours. Indeed, We get so self-involved that we forget the and obviously more of a incredible world lhat lived and breathed Ramanujan was Hindu than philosopher Jiddu and ramped without our technological cultural Krishnamurti, but Krishnamurti was assistance. When Jack Horner was ftg- still declared a holy man by the most eight he found a dinosaur bone and has influential Hindu leaders. Their religious- since formed a life that appreciates is ambiguous because Hinduism the world's earlier inhabitants. My ness has always had room for ambiguity. appreciation is renewed, and life is Miles Fowler once again in proper perspective. El Cerrito, CA D. L. Gassie Richmond A Better Idea printed a cartoon without a caption? Bite of the Iguana We did, on page 56 of the March Jeff Goldberg and his iguana appetizer Yes, we Omni humor department [Omnibus. March 1989] brought to 1989 issue. The the ability of our mind a popular Mark Twain quote: "If was just "testing" readership to find the minor discrepancy you have to swallow a frog, it's best not in the cartoon that shows two doctors to look al it too long." Although Twain confused at the sight of a patient may not have meant this literally and The staff of the Smith- probably did not have fine lizard cuisine sprouting leaves. sonian National Air and Space Museum in mind, I'm sure Goldberg can relate. own: Patrick Tierney graded well with a caption of their

it is, it gives a Denver "I have no idea what but whole new meaning to the term personal And so did Bil Plummer from Cold Feet growth" with "II was a mis- reading Omni for six years Lafayette, California, I have been

I said, 'Take now and have always enjoyed your understanding. He thought and call me in the insightful look at the future. After reading two aspens morning.' "—Bill Lee, humor editor "Out in the Cold" [Continuum, March I'd mention how my 1989], I thought - Like Home 9813. ''s-i S2W -;- of the idea that There's No Place friends and I make use travelogue ["Omni's Five freezing things makes them last longer. I loved your Travelogue," March 1989], especially m. Sr WffAdr -wfra- For a few years now, before wearing Star your "ten best rides in America." You my panty hose, I wash them, place hometown of Brooklyn proud in sandwich bag, and freeze did my (WgB J I PreOCti. a them a ™£* you included the Cyclone roller SSftto 1 lei when them overnight. Then I defrost them, coaster on your list, but I've got some bad them dry, and wear them. I've found fc'dSf fi- news for you. The Cyclone's not the fleg, ; that my nylons survive longer this way. in town. For rfel Ml ..on ROSSI. V Ruthann Allen only or even the best game 1 true stomach-wrenching, knuckle- G"9<- Fresno. CA to out-of- whitening thrills, I recommend through midtown Ecumenical Counsel towners a ride York City taxicab The controversy over whether Srinivasa Manhattan in a New rush hour. I've taken both "rides," "' Ramanujan ["The Master of Math," during - V.PvTf.v.- L'..i- jf- £d.' frightening. Sf. was religious betrays and the Cyclone is less '1, March 1989] . ju.rin ...t,. 0D S :: Jolin Hiff ^ *T " Western assumptions of what conslitutes BrooklynOO JUNE religion. To mathematician G. H. Hardy, HIRE EDUCATION FDRURfT By Karen Emmons

Located in the middle of New York Freudian psychology says The Henry Highland Garnet School is grim and Some officially known as Public City's Harlem, PS. 175 supposed to stroke you for Success, I'm abandoned named for a clergyman fortresslike, surrounded by and tell you you're doing well School 175 but crusader, has taken and badly decaying buildings (a crack even when you're not," hollers a teacher and antislavery house operates across the street). Inside, Harlem junior-high school. "But some innovative steps in hopes of in a kindergar- the makers. In the the nearly 400 kids in grades your background's not Europe. It's Africa. surprising odds school administrators and ten through eighth are as charming You're not doing well. And I'm telling classroom, recognizing the history as they are unruly. Some are the children you. You're not doing well." An awkward teachers are of drug addicts and alcoholics who hush sweeps across the auditorium and unique social problems of ttieir Foster. real world of financ- abused or neglected them, says where the seventh- and eighth-graders students. And in the opportunities, they One minute they are hardworking and at RS. 175 are rehearsing their African- ing educational earnest; the next they are hollering American Heritage pageant. Then a few have recognized the need to bring the class- and hopping around the room. Under nervous giggles break out. Pushing corporate community into the businesses, including the tutelage of Foster and her staff of 25 on, the teacher bellows, "This country room. Some 15 concern about what teachers, reading levels at RS. 175 doesn't need another black person who Omni, that share a average from three future have to offer these have improved on can't read or write, it can make a the may committed themselves years behind grade level in 1985 to computer that doesn't require health children have a classroom." grade level or above this year. They study benefits or a paid vacation." this past year to "adopting at principal Carol Foster German and read Bury My Heart These children are the college gradu- It's a goal Garnet (donated by Omni, along is critical. 'America is saying that to Wounded Knee ates of 1998 and 1999— if they stick says books). most Fridays -year- get a good job, you need a college with other And with it. Of the 3.5 million eighteen sponsors spend the afternoon I in their I want every child come olds in the country last year, nearly degree college," she says. talking about career possibilities, helping one quarter were high-school dropouts contact with to go to students with homework, and taking and another 700,000 couldn't read "In ten or fifteen years these kids will knocking doors looking for jobs. them on field trips, often to the company their own diplomas. Local officials predict be on should help them now to offices. Omni has donated a Sony that half of the 100 eighth-graders at Businesspeople qualifications." television, a GE VCR, and an Apple RS. 175 will go on to col get proper computer and printer, with which Omni editors and students in Graver McArthur's eighth-grade class are working on a class newsletter. The adopt-a-class program was started in the New York City school system one year ago. PS. 175 is the first school to have won sponsorship for every one of its 15 classrooms. Sponsors range from the United Auto Workers union, police officers, and AT&T to a local hardware store owner. The adopt-a- class program was designed not only to attract financial assistance but to bring

in "people who are passionate about what they do and who can bring that out in the kids," says Foster. But the program's benefits flow in more than one direction. "They have them," given me more than I have given Omni president Kathy Keeton announced at a Christmas party the magazine gave the students.

people. I "I feel good when I help guess she does, too," said Mohammad ciass at New York RS. 175. El-Amin, fourteen, of Keeton. Keeton ni president Kathy Keeton spends time her adopted CONTINUED ON PAGE 64 OMNI —

DSMIC RELIEF

ByAlcestis Oberg

now'done aboard Crapper earned immor- within the bowl by the application of a on Freedom (as is Thomas everything airflow. "It was a Mir), Inside its sealed system, tality by inventing the porcelain modest, constant astro- that is "waste," including the output of bathroom fixture that today sodden, frozen mess," says one got to the sanitation system, must be properly bears his name. Someday the same fate naut. At first, crew members relumed to Earth. spatulalike implement to clear stored until it can be may befall Henry Whitmore, if his design use a floating for their new There are two leading contenders for the commode aboard the space room in the mass installed for the right to become Freedom's head. station Freedom turns out to handle the contributions. Next, designers Both use airflow to keep the matter in didn't want to get involved an arm with a net for use mid-mission stuff right. "I employ trap hold the half-time accumula- the can from drifting out and at first," says Whitmore, who is one to and control odor. They also of the way. But it's not perfect: charcoal filters to of the developers of the space program's tion out approach to astronauts must put all their used re.ly on a trash-compactor exercise gear, "but I'll probably be The a drawstring bag reduce the volume of solids. remembered for the toilet." paper squares in simpler design- drifting beside the toilet. Also the hole at Whitmore's is the Laugh, but if the "Whit" works, its inches both to use and to maintain. Philosophi- . of can is only four inventor will have earned his place in the top the riders train before cally, it resembles a Volkswagen history. Engineers have had more trouble across: shuttle must their aim is true. approach to the orbital latrine. The top coming up with a zero-g toilet than the flight to make sure astronauts regard toilets past closes, and a square piston slowly just about any other piece of aerospace While present as unpleasant and unsani- pushes the waste forward. In the process equipment. It hasn't been for lack of and specially can tolerate them for a week. !hc piston (which is lined with a trying—or funding. Space insiders put tary, they space station with treated plastic-paper) squeegees a million-dollar tag on the shuttle toilet But on a permanent months at a clean the walls of the bowl. The Whit and estimate that R and D for the next crews of eight in orbit for six into a toilet breakdown would be can mash 60 "events' " worth generation will run at least $3 million. stretch, a sanitation container smaller than a cubic foot. There Before the shuttle era. the toilet was a a full-blown disaster. "Proper especially in a closed are also features that allow the Whit to plastic sack the astronaut held against is very important, malfunction: [like the station's]," work even if components his posterior. Fliers could guide their environment space astrorair-physiciai"! William Thorn- The piston can be cranked by hand floating wastes to the bag's bottom by says system fai s. overboard if the automated pushbutton taking advantage of the bag's built- ton. Refuse won't be tossed More upscale and more complicated in finger pockets. is the design from Hamilton Standard. The palatial 100-ton Skylab featured a This company already has cleaned up plastic-bag-lined toilet much more like in the space-waste business: It handles the one at home—except it was on the shuttle toilet after each flight at a a wall. A hose served as a urinal. rumored cost of $50,000 per round trip. The space shuttle was to herald a Hamilton Standard's plans call for a new high-tech era for off-world toiletry: cylinder-shaped bowl lined with a bag coed; recognizable, even mounted made of plastic that lets air—but not on the floor; with a privacy curtain. fluid— pass through. For "flushing," the The original idea was that the astro- bowl rotates, its lid shuts, and the nauts would merely activate a "slinger" whole assembly moves backward until it a series of revolving tines at the bottom winds up under a piston. The piston of the bowl. These would shred the then comes down and compresses the. material and smear it along the plastic- waste and the bag into a 50-visit can. lined wall of the bowl, where it was to The two designs are not far apart, be instantly freeze-dried. actually, and a compromise may be in Regrettably, many problems ensued. the offing. Whitmore has recently Most of these involved components become a Hamilton Standard subcon- that clogged and malfunctioned. These tractor, so it's possible that the head that troubles were more than inconvenient: finally winds up on Freedom will contain They could create a brown dust inside the best of both designs. "Whatever the craft, a fecal grit that held the promise we use," promises Rafael Garcia of of eventually threatening electronics , NASA's Manned Space Division, "it will and humans alike. be tested, retested, and tested again, The slinger was removed andthe until everything is correct."OQ matter allowed to just bob around, held

20 OMNI THE TEN-MINUTE PAIN TRANSPLANT nniruD By Douglas Stein

bloodstream a plethora of hormonal months ago surgeons at Yale several unexpected potential applica- the products, including adrenaline. All these JustMedical School grafted fetal tions for the treatment of pain, depression, substances except adrenaline are nerve cells from an elective first- drug addiction, and more. produced in small quantities. trimester abortion into tine brain of a For nearly four decades George "I to see how these chromaffin forty-eight-year-old woman. For 21 years Pappas, head of anatomy at the Univer- wanted might release their various she had suffered from Parkinson's sity of Illinois, Chicago, has studied cells contents after being transplanted into a disease, whose symptoms include severe synapses, the minuscule junctions recalls foreign environment," Pappas recalls. tremors, muscular rigidity, and difficulty between nerve cells. Pappas neuro- "Because our focus was pain. Sagen and of movement. The long-term effective- how Jacqueline Sagen, a young these big cells pain I thought, Why not put ness of this revolutionary brain-g raffing pil armacologist with an interest in his lab to learn into areas of the brain where there operation will take months to evaluate. pathways, came to electron microscopy. "It are lots of opiate receptors and see But scientists in the United States, techniques of what happens?" The brain contains Europe, China, Cuba, and Mexico are was she, after all," Pappas says, "who natural morphinelike chemicals that fit, becoming increasingly convinced introduced me to pain. I myself had neurons in in it. But at the lock-and-key style, into that tiny brain implants of human fetal never been interested specific brain areas. and other neural tissue will prove to time'Mark Perlow, the surgeon who Pappas and Sagen harvested their be the most powerful new weapon in pioneered some of the experimental from cows and rats. combating nervous system diseases adrenal transplants in rats, happened to chromaftin cells them into two regions ot such as Parkinson's. be here. So we put our heads together." They grafted rats' nervous system: the lumbar, or Besides potential medical applications The adrenal glands are a pair ot the lower spinal cord, and the periaqueduc- of immense consequence, the neural complex endocrine organs that sit on tal gray matter (PAG) of the brain. The graft provides a unique tool for basic top of the kidneys. Each gland has cortex, or outer bark, and PAG, located near the top of the midbrain research: It enables scientists to peer two parts—a contains in humans, funnels impulses from into the depths of the brain itself. For one a core, called !he medulla, that higher brain regions back down into the researcher, at least, these studies are chromaffin cells. Functioning like tiny spinal cord. The PAG is the center of fuming up surprise after surprise about chemical factories, these very large cells the brain's own pain-suppression system. how grafted cells react—as well as manufacture, store, and secrete into An injection of morphine into the PAG produces Ihe most potent painkilling effect of any brain region. Pappas and Sagen evaluated their

first series of brain-grafted rats with the same tests drug companies have used for 50 years to screen potential pain medication. They saw that the animals with intact transplants had dramatic reductions in their awareness of acute pain. The spinal grafts produced even greater pain reduction. Once the chromaffin cells were taken out of their natural environment in the adrenals. Pappas found, their chemical production changed. Rather than adrenaline, the neurotransmitter norepi- nephrine became the predominant product. Equally important, the cells' production- of Met- enkephalin, a natural opiate, shot up more than 20 times. "This is very, very good." explains Pappas, "because the combination of

the two is synergistic. It creates a powerful analgesic cocktail." implants effectively blocked Adrenal tissue (glowing circle), put near the brain's aqueduct, churns out potent painkillers. These

22 OMNI ENGLAND KNOWN FOR ITS PLAYBOYS.

THE GIN OF ENGLAND. AND THE WORLD. X3 \J K mJ xJ jN ^ EFis COM^.M' PLAIM IL_D. !.L A.\L; MG\ O'Y. CA. © — —

alleviate depressed. And of the many theories short bursts of acute pain, but would the be a grafting procedure to intractable pain that might take about depression, the most prevalent is transplanted chromaffin cells kill chronic chronic, office. This that depressed people lack one or find out, Pappas and Sagen ten minutes in a doctor's pain? To " thing! 1 more brain chemicals, specifically injected rats with a bacterial preparation is a marvelous of Pappas's work serotonin and norepinephrine." causing severe joint inflammation. Although the focus he discovered The lab animal model for human Within weeks the rats suffered a crippling was the study of pain, helpless- totally things while depression is called learned arthritis. "These rats are squealing, a few unexpected of ness. "You essentially teach a rat that he making sounds rats don't normally make," examining electron micrographs cannot learn anything," explains Pappas says. "We know they are tissue areas surrounding the PAG although Pappas used Pappas. 'After teaching him something, definitely in pain." implants. First, immunosuppressant you punish instead of rewarding him. Yet after receiving the chromaffin no cyclosporine, an did not reject the After doing this in many different contexts implants, this group of arthritic rats began drug, the rat brains state they chromaffin cells. "Immunologist these rats are in such a bad to eat again, gain weight, and move cow sit catatonically, refusing to move to when I just freely around their cages. "Their squeal colleagues are very surprised tissue that has a different area even when shocked. levels came down an enormous show them micrographs of You've done such a job on them," says amount. And," marvels Pappas, "they not been rejected," says Pappas. "We distaste, "that saw lots of phagocytes [immune- Pappas with obvious behaved as if they were not feeling any not interested in anything." that haven't response cells] just hanging around. they're pain. But I want to stress we of soldiers who Rats in this condition suffer a chronic affected the condition itself in the slight- They reminded me instead of fight- decrease of serotonin and norepineph- est—their hind paw joints remained normally fight. But here, attempt standing around doing rine in various brain areas. In an just as swollen. We've affected only their ing, they're neuroimmu- to reverse this induced depression, pain perception." nothing." A new mystery for Pappas and his colleagues performed Tracking these rats for a year—half a nologists to ponder. saw that neurons three kinds of transplants on the rats, rat's lifetime— Pappas and Sagen Second, Pappas In one group they took cells harvested found that the transplanted chromaffin from the pineal glands of healthy rats. cells continued to pump out elevated The pineal gland responds chemically levels of both painkilling Met-enkephalin changes in light, among other things, and norepinephrine. The chemical to and throws off an enormous amount cocktail sustained its powerful pain- 6/ can see of serotonin and melatonin. He grafted suppressing effect for the duration these cells into the frontal region of of the rats' lives. And perhaps more the day when people with helplessness" rats' brains. increased the "learned important, there was no will go chronic pain A second group of rats received tolerance. In almost all pain medication, doctor's office to have chromaffin cell implants in the same tolerance is the unwanted shadow; It to a area. The last group had both cell types takes more and more of the drug to do chromaffin cells— grafted into their brains. 'All three grafts the same job. For patients with advanced bovine, porcine, whatever- had some effect. But for the rats with cancer, doctors often prescribe Tylenol the pineal-chromaffin cell combination, along with morphine to slow the buildup grafted into the no matter what we did, we could not of tolerance. When Ronald Reagan of the spinel lumbar region reinduce a state of learned helplessness," had colon surgery, for example, Tylenol crows Pappas. along with morphine was continuously "The important thing about our work," pumped straight into his colon through he continues, "is that the brain structure a cannula, or small tube. of these animals is essentially healthy. It's These chromaffin-cell grafts in rats sheath had not a situation like parkinsonism or, were so successful at augmenting normally lacking a myelin Myelin is fatty worse still, Alzheimer's, where you have the animals' own pain-suppressing become myelinated. a around the localized or wholesale brain degenera- system that Pappas and Sagen were insulating material wrapped essential tion. Our rats, whether pained or certain thai the medical community axons ot many neurons that is speed and fidelity of the nerve 'depressed,' suffer only a chemical would be interested in it. And they didn't for the implants had deficiency. And we can compensate for have to wait long. Says Pappas: "Dr. impulse. The chromaffin that deficiency very effectively by Tapas DasGupta, a well-known surgical somehow induced what's called an is, adding cells that make that chemical, oncologist, has already initiated the "oligodendrocyte response." That cells on" in whether it's enkephalin, norepinephrine, spinal transplants ot adrenal medullary that produce myelin had "turned brain they are usually serotonin, or possibly others." tissue in cancer patients right here in areas o! the where investigating demyelin- Sophisticated imaging systems, such Chicago." But relief from cancer and "silent." "People multiple as magnetic nuclear resonance or arthritis pain are only two of many ating diseases, such as positron emission tomography (PET), as possible applications for these grafts. sclerosis," continues Pappas, "are very detect in this unexpected myelina- well as autopsies have yet to "Man is a social creature," Pappas interested brain degeneration in depression. Where philosophizes, "so there's this tion. It's an interesting sidelight that there is no brain degeneration, trans- overwhelming need to treat chronic we plan to pursue." sees brain implants as a plants of norepinephrine- and serotonin- pain. To speculate a bit, I can see the And Pappas for depression and secreting cells into the limbic areas— day when people will go to a doctor's likely treatment scientists think the so-called seat of the emotions office and have some chromaffin cells drug addiction. Because hold promise of being effective therapies bovine, porcine, whatever— carefully many drug addicts are chronically opiates, graft for long-term depression in humans. grafted into the lumbar region of the deficient in natural the PAG amounts. Grafts could replace today's antide- spine. Maybe a few years later they'll go could supply the missing other natural pressant drugs, with all their far-reaching back and have a few more cells put And if that works, grafts of psychoactive chemical "factories" side effects. That such tiny implants in. We've got to work out a means depression and might one day provide permanent of anchoring the tissue to the wall of the might be used to treat elevation for millions of chronically spinal canal and making sure there mental illness. "People generally go to a mood depressed people is, in Pappas's are no immune-rejection problems. But doctor for two reasons," says Pappas. lots of pain or they're words, "not too much to hope for."OQ I'd say that within five years there will "They've got

24 OMNI SAVE OUR SEA MAMMALS EARTH By Kenneth Brower

'"' am Fte^ Hearst, barks, bleats, roars, and coughs as any movements in her stomach. On a Tues- I ^\ I ^ II massive in the chest and seal rock offshore. Last October, when I day she underwent a Cesarean, U vv shoulders, his rheumy eyes visited, 40 sick or injured pinnipeds was delivered of a pup named for that half closed, gazed straight up into the occupied the cages around the bull. day—the first sea lion ever delivered by foggy sky. Two doors away Theda Among them were Arizona, a 292-pound C-section—then she died as the vet Bara's daughter Tuesday lay naked on juvenile male sea lion discovered by a stitched her up. the white concrete beside her pool. woman from Arizona: Padre, a younger To date, from a sharply delimited The sun broke through the fog. For male discovered by a priest, who stretch of the central California coast, 26 the first time that day William Randolph called the rescue line at the center, sea lions have come in with the seizure

Hearst began to heat up. A girl in hip blessed the lion, then waited with it for disorder. Among them have been William waders unreeled a black hose and help to arrive; and Aimee, a female Randolph Hearst, who it appears will will turned it on Hearst. He barked at the with a horrible cough and an IV of survive, and Aimee, who it appears that sky but seemed to enjoy it. lactated Ringer's injection dripping slowly not. It is interesting once removed W. R. Hearst, the Citizen Kane of the into her veins. from the waters of San Luis Obispo. recoveries. California Marine Mammal Center The pinnipeds I had come to see, 75 percent make total The (CMMC), is a bull California sea lion, He howeve'r, were a particular group of sea center's consulting scientists suspect stranded, weak and suffering seizures, lions from the vicinity of San Luis heavy-metal poisoning. Tests have near San Simeon, site of the old Obispo, The group was an epidemio- revealed what seem to be high levels of newspaper baron's palace, and thus the logical mystery. The first, Theda Bara, lead and other heavy metals in their name. Now recuperating at the rehabili- had arrived April 30, 1988. She had bodies. No baseline studies for heavy tation center, on the Marin Headlands demonstrated all the symptoms that the metals in sea lions exist, however, and no north of San Francisco, Hearst is almost later arrivals would demonstrate: grand one knows for sure what levels are himself again and soon will be back in mal seizures, lethargy, and biting normal, It is impossible as yet to rule out his element. Dozing with eyes nearly episodes so frenzied and violent that a biotoxin, but the scientists lean toward closed— his favorite way of passing the teeth were broken off against the cages. some toxin of the artificial kind. A shiploao day— he may imagine he is home Theda Bara was on the verge of death of copper is said to have gone down already. The center is as noisy with when workers noticed independent in the vicinity: Could the poison be copper? Oil exploration is under way offshore: Could the poison be some toxic property of drilling mud? The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant discharges

its cooling water just west of San Luis Obispo: Could radiation be to blame? The possibilities are endless. The United States dumps more than a ton of hazardous waste per citizen per year. American industry invents and manufactures thousands of new compounds annually. The effects of few of them are tested on the terrestrial

ecosystem, let alone the marine. Sooner or later the new chemicals, along with the old—crankcase oil, fertilizers, pesti- cides, sewage—find their way down to the sea. The smallest of marine mammals, the sea otter, was hunted to the verge of extinction by the end of the Russian era in North America. The largest of sea mammals, the blue whale—the largest species to have lived on Earth —had become one of the most endangered by

Will they resrAal:.!i:,r, ihvrnzc-ivcs. ihev caught oeiween a rock a, the 1930's. The largest of pinnipeds,

26 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 64 THE CREATIVE COMPUTER ARTIFICIAL irUTELLIBEOJCE

By Bill Lawren

This new math, Williams out. One step up from your average I e're in the year 2040, and mathematics, f% computer person is your average inventor, who !|l theorizes, may give the | | I it's just another Monday lacked: a understands, almost instinctively, how the at Design Innovations, Ltd., something it has always U %J the gears creative, humanlike imagination. parts of a system—such as a firm that creates everything from candidate at MIT's in a car transmission— interact to make left-handed monkey wrenches to self- Williams, a Ph.D. he wants to Lab, first envisioned that system work. When cleaning frying pans. Today's assign- Artificial Intelligence creativity design something new— like a solar- An extermination company wants the possibilities of computer ment: element down a summer job powered engine— he adds an to build a better mousetrap. But the while holding Could there of ingenuity, perhaps moving the exist- men and women of Design Innovations designing computer chips. introducing he wondered, to program a ing components around or don't just sit at their desks, waiting for be a way, "invent" varieties different parts. the creative muse to inspire them. computer to new own, without relying on Williams is developing a series of Instead, they punch the exterminator's of chips on its special mathematical equations to mimic the order—along with some relevant num- a human designer? Some design programs human reasoning process. It's a kind ot bers—into their computer. A few minutes computer-made will . which be existed, but the machines couldn't come "qualitative algebra," later it spits out a design; an ingenious innovative designs. used by the. computer brain to devise blueprint for a new and better trap. up with really it the - employing programs that will guide through The computer of the future will do A computer language for and artificial intelli- process of invention. more than just call up information and what philosophers qualitative Previous attempts to come up with solve logical problems. According gence specialists call lacking. "Qualitative this new algebraic language have to computer scientist Brian Williams, it reasoning was they explains Williams, "is the all failed, primarily because were will possess the ability to invent. reasoning," being's intuition of not flexible enough to deal with complex, In order to give computers the powers average human is combin- world." Even someone who real problems. But Williams of ingenuity, imagination, and intuition, the physical course, for ing his new qualitative algebra with Williams has broken down the mental has never had a physics the traditional, "quantitative" kind taught components of the inventor's musings example, instinctively understands that turns on a faucet, water comes in high school. The result: His new and expressed them in a new form of when he "hybrid" math possesses the flexibility that earlier versions lacked. Williams's new algebra, which he calls Q1, is a mathematical replica of the thought processes inventors and designers employ to creatively solve a real problem. Each part of the thought process is broken down into a separate equation. To begin with, the designer's

ultimate goal is formulated into an " 1 equation. He or she then feeds the "goa equation into the computer with a slew of other algebraic equations. These represent such variables as the physica characteristics of properties of the components involved, the way they behave, and, finally, potential moditica- tions of these different parts. The computer can then put together all of these different equations, and as it does, numerical "suggestions" and substitutions will pop up that can lead the computer to arrive at a fresh solution. Williams has tested his Q1 system by feeding a computer the algebraic next inventors. equivalent of the ancient design for Wise drives: Computers equipped to muse and consider could be tt CONTINUED ON PAGE 74 2B OMNI ;hedelia

ByA.J.S. Rayl

uring [he spring of 1943, president and chairman of the founda- When word about LSD hit the streets, research chemist Albert Hof- tion's board of directors. "But there is however, everyone from students to mann (Interview, July 1981) a tremendous body of literature and we scientists turned on, tuned in, and uncontrolled retrieved a formula that officials at the want to make it available to anyone dropped out in the largest Swiss pharmaceutical firm Sandoz who is interested." mass experiment in history. LSD Ltd. had shelved five years earlier, shortly Following Hofmann's 1943 LSD quickly gained a negative reputation. Administration after Hofmann had first developed it. experience, researchers garnered The Food and Drug Once removed from the lab's research intriguing though inconclusive results (FDA) moved in, confiscating LSD and program, a substance was never with LSD as a psychotherapeutic aid in halting even legitimate research in tested again, especially when the initial the treatment of alcoholism, chronic the United States. Janiger. for one, was nvofi-iigations proved, as in this case, depression, and psychosomatic condi- forced to abandon his painstakingly unimpressive. Hofmann, however, was tions, for example. More than 2,000 documented research. Most other lead. looking for a lifesaving medicine to articles and papers on LSD research countries soon followed the U.S. stimulate circulation and respiration. And were published in professional journals Since the late Seventies, many he was nagged by a feeling that his around the world. researchers have attempted to study shelved substance (synthesized from The research records available to the LSD's history and legacy, according to ergot, a parasitic grain fungus) public at the Hofmann Foundation will Janiger. Scattered around the world, possessed Peneficial properties not include, for example, psychiatrist Oscar however, many of the legitimate research identified in the earlier studies. Janiger's collection of LSD-influenced studies and reports have been gener- On April 19, 1943, Hofmann ingested art (Forum, November 1987). During the ally inaccessible. But in 1987 Janiger a minute amount of the compound, late Fifties and early Sixties, Janiger wrote to all the "original founding fathers known as lysergic acid diethylamide-25. extensively researched the effects of LSD of the. movement" and enlisted their The result: He tripped into the pages on creativity, dispensing the hallucino- assistance in forming an organization of history as the first modern-day hallu- gen to some 900 volunteers, average that would offer a neutral forum for cinogenic astronaut, launched into people as well as such notable partici- the study of human consciousness. inner space on an unplanned exploration pants as AnaTs Nin, Andre Previn, The foundation's board of advisers of human consciousness. Jack Nicholson and Gary Grant. now reads like a Who's Who of Today, Hofmann's "problem child," as consciousness research. It includes Allen his first he later called it, is better known as poet Ginsberg, who took trip in during government- LSD-25 or simply LSD. And for years it LSD 1959— Stanford has seemed that its potential medical sponsored experiments at use might be lost forever, Then last University; neuroscientist John Lilly, noted summer, 50 years after Hofmann first for his studies of LSD in sensory-depri- synthesized LSD, a group composed vation tanks; Andrew Weil, author of mostly of LSD pioneers established the From Chocolate to Morphine and The Albert Hofmann Foundation, Natural Mind; and Ram Dass, formerly The primary goal of the nonprofit known as Richard Alpert, who along fired foundation is to create a library and world with Timothy Leary was from information 'center to be located in Los Harvard for their controversial LSD Angeles and devoted to the study of experiments in the early Sixties. Such human consciousness. The center will names, the founders hope, will legitimize house books, research reports, corre- a venture that opponents might spondence, tape recordings, and news construe as "a bunch of people who clippings on the experimental trials can look into an artichoke and see and tribulations of LSD and other hallu- God," Janiger says. "Not single believes that cinogens. It will also include information a person on other means of achieving altered LSD represents a folly of our youth," states, research from such fields as psy- Janiger says. "In fact, we believe it is chiatry, psychopharmacology, ethno- worth reexamining. And it may be botany, anthropology, and theology, possible to do so now that we are far "Many people aren't aware of the enough away from the prejudice and research done before LSD hit the streets hysteria of the Sixties."

.>; is in the Sixties." says Robert Zanger, Hormanr: Ut-wan ihs .s*y v/iifi diamonds. Such reaction to LSD in the Sixties

30 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 96 conjTiruuunn

SEAGATE

remember walking New Jersey's white sand beaches as a programs, Sea World has instructed more than 1 million stu-

boy. While standing too near the edge of a jetty, I marveled dents nationwide. Also to its credit, Sea World's Orlando park

at the force of the sea as waves hit the rocks a little recycled 168 tons of cardboard last year, and it recycles paint I differently each time, then slipped back into their great solvents and aluminum cans and forwards the proceeds to the source. The sea seemed threatening. When I stood in its waves Save the Manatee Fund. it shoved and pulled me. occasionally. knocking me to its floor Bui for all its good works, Sea World doesn't inform the and tilling my mouth with sand. And there were dangers: average park visitor about the havoc man is wreaking on the jellyfish, sharks, crabs, broken shells. Today, however, the sea world's oceans. Last year Sea World racked up record profits is more threatened than Threatening. Last July raw sewage and attracted about 12 million visitors to its four parks nation- caused New Jersey beach closings from Asbury Park to wide. While Sea World thrives, the world's seas are dying. Avon -by-the- Sea. This summer federal and New York State "Absent a major change in thinking, localized coastal prob- officials, armed with the knowledge of ocean tides and cur- lems will become widespread and amount to ecological disas- rents, will use helicopters and boats in an attempt to clean up ter. Coastal areas are a major litmus lest for the health of the floating garbage before it appears on beaches. planet," says Oceanic Society executive director Clifton Curtis. Given the scope of the seas' problems and the media A change in public thought is necessary, says Curtis, belore

attention our waste-infested beaches have received, I ex- people will start to protect the planet. pected to see or hear something about this issue while on a Sea World could be a part of this change. There is a long press trip to Sea World of Florida. Located in Orlando-—home history at Sea World of combining education with entertainment. of the theme park—Sea World's entertainment includes the Everyone who buys a ticket to one of lis parks should receive Penguin Encounter, dancing dolphins, and people riding killer information on what he or sne can do to protect—or in many whales. It struck me how clean everything was, artificially so, cases heal—the sea. Seminars could be tied in with an exhibit which prompted me to ask where tile medical-waste exhibit on the seas' future if protective measures aren't taken. A film was. The concessionaire didn't laugh. The Florida park boasts showing two versions ot the oceans' future could be featured: seven major shows and 23 educational exhibits, yet one could one showing the horrors of continuing our current disregard lor spend days here and never suspect thai the world's oceans the health of aquatic life; the other offering a vision of the hope are in serious trouble. that might accompany reform. The press trip had been arranged to publicize Sea World's Our seas need protection. In March an Exxon [anker spilled third successful killer whale birth "in the care of man"—animal 240,000 barrels of oil into the waters of Prince William Sound parkspeak for "captivity." Animal rights groups have long off the coast of Valdez, Alaska. Human error was implicated, debated whether man has the right to keep wild animals in the blood alcohol level of the ship's captain having been above captivity. This discussion, though, is becoming irrelevant as the the legal limit. We were outraged. It was a dramatic example seas become less able to sustain life, In the future these of environmental destruction. Yet much more insidious is the animals may exist only in artificial environments. destruction all of us engage in every day by producing too Sea World makes a point of its commitment to the con- much garbage—by thinking more of convenience than of servation of marine life. Park officials cite long-standing rescue conservation. Unless some fundamental change is made in and rehabilitation programs for sick and stranded animals at our assumption that waste can simply be flushed out to sea two of their parks and a major research facility in San Diego. and forgotten, future generations will travel to places like Sea In Florida the park has helped lead the fight to save the World not for a glimpse of the dynamics ot the undersea world manatee, an endangered marine mammal "indigenous to the but for a history lesson in what the lite of the ocean once state's coastal waters, in addition, through its educational was.—DOOLEY ADCROFT cDRJTinjuunn

ADOPT A SCIENTIST

A few years ago, zoos and save-the-animals foundations

hit on a new gimmick for raising money: They offered the public a chance to "adopt"—for a price—one of [heir animals. Noting the huge success of these programs, the National Alliance tor Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSD) in Chicago, decided to do something similar. But in- stead of offering whales or wallabies, NARSD put up for

adoption the only animals it

has: its own scientists, NARSD put out a press release describing ten young scientists, giving photos and descriptions of their research. For an "adoption fee" from $25 to $1,000, interested "parents" would get a photo of the scientist of their choice, as well as ongoing reports on the researcher's work. So far the fund has taken in only $5,000, far less than vedictions. Bui e the animal programs, —Bill Lawren

LIGHTNING RODS of the Western Hemisphere. climatic models. IN SPACE These measurements will The Lightning Mapper help scientists study the Sensor is initially intended to

More than 200 years after behavior of lightning and offer be a research tool. If the Benjamin Franklin's famous pilots, utility companies, and prototype proves useful for experiments, scientists still weather reporters more forecasting, says Hugh Chris- don't understand precisely accurate information. tian, an atmospheric physicist what causes lightning, how it Because the strength of a at the Marshall Space Flight moves through the atmos- thunderstorm is proportional Center, similar devices will phere, or where it will end up. to the intensity of the be placed on all our weather That may change, however, electrical discharge, the satellites; "Someday, hope- when NASA launches its sensor will also provide fully, you'll be seeing this on Lightning Mapper Sensor in valuable information about your TV news."—Steve Nadis the mid-Nineties. The device, worldwide precipitation pat- which will be part of an terns, particularly over.data- "This is the first age that's environmental satellite, will sparse regions such as the paid much attention to the provide information on light- Iropics and oceans within the future, which is a little ironic ning flashes and chart sensor's field of view. This will since we may not have one." lightning activity over much aid efforts to develop global —Arthur C. Clarke 34 OMNI Although SAVER is still a fluid turns to ice, it draws prototype and the inventors most of the water out of the

have no idea how much it will cells—there's nothing left to eventually cost, several freeze and expand. The cells nations have expressed stay —in their dehydrated interest in the system. As form "shrunken, wizened

Reuter puts it, "It's not hard little prunes," Storey calls to understand why someone them—throughout the winter. with a million dollars worth of When spring temperatures equipment flying around thaw the icy fluid, the ceils would want to be able to absorb the newly liberated

bring it down and use it water and are revived. again."—Edward Duensing It's a nifty biological trick that Storey believes may

"It's what we learn after we someday make, it possible to

think we know it all that freeze human organs headed " counts. for transplant operations not —Kin Hubbard for just a few hours but for weeks or even months at a PARACHUTES FOR Vehicle Retrieval (SAVER), a THE INCREDIBLE time. As for freezing a whole PLANES low-tech device designed to SHRINKING TURTLE human body, forget it, Storey catch drones in midair. says. "You just can't take a Many futurists predict that SAVER is composed of a Science-fiction fringies and giant piece of meat like a drone aircraft (remote- parachute wing and a large, others have long dreamed of human body," he says, j controlled planes) will be an cup-shaped parachute, both freezing the bodies ot "freeze it, and then hope to integral part af naval of which are tethered to the humans who are near death revive it later. We're just too operations by the twenty- first ship's deck "As the ship and reviving them at a later big, with too many dilferent century, Already drones carry moves forward, passing air is time, when whatever's ailing types of cells."—Bill Lawren sensitive cameras that allow trapped, which lifts the wing them can be cured. To date, a ship's captain to see over parachute two hundred feet that dream has been "If you keep your mind the horizon; they can also be up in the air and inflates the forestalled by a simple fact of sufficiently open, people will fitted with electronic devices capture parachute so it can nature; When water freezes throw a lot of rubbish into it." that intercept and jam enemy receive the approaching (human bodies are mostly —William A. Orton communications. But there is craft," Reuter explains. water, remember?), it ex- one problem with the planes: The drone is guided by a pands, doing irreparable Although they can be easily homing device directly into damage to the body's dells. launched from small ships the back end of the inflated Well, biologist Kenneth B, using a catapult, they require capture parachute. The chute Storey of Carleto.n University a vessel the size of an aircraft brakes the plane's mo- in Ottawa reports that there's carrier for landing. That's mentum and collapses, wrap- at least one reptile—the because drones are not ping itself around the aircraft. painted turtle—that routinely easily controlled during "It's like a big purse with a freezes in winter, then landing. They may veer wildly drawstring," explains Green- manages to thaw itself out off course. On land this is stadt. Once the drone is undamaged in the spring. rarely a problem, but at sea captured, the parachute wing How do the turtles avoid more than one drone has keeps it aloft until the entire deadly ice damage to the missed the ship altogether, device is hauled down by a cells? According to Storey, winding up in the water. winch Says Greenstadt, certain proteins (as yet James Reuter and Alan "Our invention will allow unidentified) in the fluid Greenstadt of Pioneer Sys- drones to be recovered by outside the turtles' blood cells tems, Inc., may have solved patrol craft and other small cause the fluid to freeze at a that problem with an invention vessels, including subma- temperature slightly below called the Shipboard Air freezing. As the extracellular CDQJTiruuunn

UNMANNED SHUTTLE Shuttle C offers advan- BELCHLES3 COWS tages over today's shuttle:

Now thai the shuttle is Because it's not burdened Your average cow serenely flying again, NASA is with wings and a crew, it can belches up to 400 liters considering developing an launch up to three times the (about 106 gallons) ol meth- unmanned shuttle. This pay load at one third the cost, ane gas a day. an awesome vessel, known as Shuttle G. says Robert Lessels, a NASA figure when you consider thai will use existing shuttle spokesperson. If.the program all of the world's cows components: an external iuel is funded, Shuttle C could produce roughly 210 billion tank, solid rocket boosters, launch in late 1993. liters of theigas daily. space shuttle main engines. The new shuttle, which Add this to the methane Instead of ah arbiter, Shuttle NASA boasts is competitive produced by other beasts C will have a cargo pod with Ihe Soviet Union's such as buffalo, sheep, and strapped to the external tank Energia, could launch as horses, combine it with the and won't be equipped lo many as three times a carbon dioxide spewed into return to Earth. To save year, ferrying deep-space the atmosphere from fossil- money, NASA will outfit probes and parts for the fuel- burning plants, and you Shuttle C with used engines space station into low Earth have an exacerbated green- from the regular shuttle. orbit.— Devera Pine

Donald E. Johnson, an animal nutritionist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, may have discovered a way of decreasing the amount of methane cows' give off. Much of the methane produced by cows is created when symbiotic bacteria in the rumen (the first section of the cow's stomach) break down cellulose into digestible cud. The by-product of this chemical decomposition is methane. Johnson suggests adding "weak, selective antibiotics" called ionophores to the diets of cattle to inhibit methane-producing bacteria in the rumen, leaving room for other bacteria lo flourish that can make a cow's digestion more efficient.

"I am interested in finding and testing other compounds that could inhibit methane production and enhance animal digestion," Johnson says. Applied on a global scale, Johnson believes this might decrease atmospheric levels of methane. According to the strategists at NASA, what goes up d- a one-way ticket will hurl cargo into space. —George Nobbe 36 OMNI the beam has properties thai strongly than anyone now wrist. It you run into trouble,

don't fit in wilh gamma rays. suspects and behave almost just tug the yellow trigger ring.

In fact, these properties are more like matter than light This causes a carbon dioxide difficult to accommodate when they hit the atmosphere, cartridge to inflate a nylon within our present knowledge Nagle admils another pillow that can keep a of particle physics." startling possibility: The 300-pound person and/or For example, alter measur- mysterious radiation may equipment ailoat for a week. ing the subatomic particles contain particles thai are new The device, which costs

that fell to Earth when the lo science. "We delayed . only §19.95, became popular beam collided wilh atoms in publishing our research for a with wind surfers during a the atmosphere, the research- year so we could recheck our recent international regatta in ers found an unexpectedly calculations," he says, "be- Florida: They attached the high number of short-lived, cause, frankly, this phenome- buoys to their sailboards to negatively charged particles non seems so bizarre." ensure easy recovery of the called muons. These particles —Sherry Baker boards when the surfer and are supposed to be present board parted company. John when bits of matter hit the "Consistency is the last Fleming, Aqua Buoy's mar- " atmosphere, but not when refuge ol the unimaginative. keting director, says that the beams are bombarding Earth. lightwaves do. —Oscar Wilde U.S. Lifesaving Association Trying, to explain the beam has endorsed this device. In MYSTERY BEAM has proved baffling. Nagle MINIUFESAVER addition, officers of the points out that in order to Houston police department Scientists at the Los have traveled so far across Wind surfers, snorkelers, now carry Aqua Buoy as part Alamos National Laboratory space, the newly discovered scuba. divers, and other ol their gear. "It isn't intended in New Mexico, along with beam—which packs a million water-sport enthusiasts often lo take the place of a life researchers in Hawaii. Ari- billion electron volts of refuse to use life jackets, jacket," says Fleming, "it's zona, and West Germany, energy, or about 1 ,000 times claiming they are cumber- something to hang on lo if have made a startling more energy than any some and impractical. But you're too tired to swim." observation that sounds like accelerator on Earth can they seem to feel differently —George Nobbe a plot from Star Trek: A produce—must contain parti- about a recent flotation de- mysterious beam of energy cles that are neutral, light, vice called Aqua Buoy. Man- "A cynic is a man who, when that appears to violate current and stable and must react ufactured in West Germany, he smeils flowers, looks theories about energy and strongly when they hit atoms this invention is the size of a around for a coffin." matter is striking Earth. in our atmosphere. matchbox and worn on the —H. L. Mencken

Physicist Darragh Nagle oi Protons almost tit that Los Alamos explains that the description. "They are posi- bursts of high energy are tively charged and would coming from a neutron star, have been scrambled by

Hercules X-1 , located about galactic magnetic fields," 15,000 light-years away. notes Nagle, but "the signal IS:,

"Hercules X-1 is a member we picked up was too ol a binary, or double-star, well-defined to have been system. Typically, ulirahigh- produced by protons." Neutri- energy emitters and the nos, although light, stable, radiation they produce take and neutral, also can't explain the form of gamma rays the beam's properties. "Neutri- [extremely high energy light nos as we know them don't &Z.vi*~ waves]," says Nagle. "So interact strongly enough," he when the pulse signals from points out. Hercules X-1 were first One theory, Nagle says, picked up, we assumed that involves gamma rays, which was what we were dealing at extremely high energy Vs, ait in the wnsi. Wnn a ing, ifiis tiny package could with. Instead, we found that levels may react far more B your lite and keep you attoat far a week. —

CDruTiruuunn

for Astrophysics. "Full-time called Histoacryl. According access allows you to do a to H. George Brennan, M.D., new kind of science." president of the Foundation Among other projects, for Facial Plastic Surgery in Mount Wilson astronomers Newport Beach, California,

will study star cycles surgeons have always been knowledge that could help savvy about the strengths of them predict sunspot cycles using Krazy Glue to seal and how sunspats and solar microscopic tissue holes they flares affect the earth's couldn't mend with a stitch. climate. "There is some Now that basic formula has romance in being able to see been refined for surgical use.

farther and farther, peering "I use it primarily for out to the origins of the face-lifts, eye lifts, and ear

universe," says Bob Eklund repair," says Brennan. "But it of the Mount Wilson Observa- can also be employed for

tory Association. "But in the facial lacerations, if the edges course of doing that, we've of the- skin meei wilhout being forgotten to look at our own pulled together." backyard "—Steve Nadis Most plastic surgeons stitch underneath Ihe skin to "/ wonder that a soothsayer avoid the familiar "railroad doesn't laugh whenever he track" scars. But even this sees another soothsayer." can leave behind tiny —Marcus Tullius Cicero depressions known as "su- ture tunnels." Tissue glue can replace stitching altogether in

very small incisions, or it can doctors were wearing masks allow surgeons to remove for" stitches earlier (before scar Star shiny, star bright, why can't I see you at night? Will overcome the light-pollution problem? —James H. Boren je forms around the thread). "It's particularly KEEPING AN EYE ON year, a figure unsurpassed KRAZY GLUE SUTURES good for closing cuts on a ALPHA CENTAURI by other observatories in this child's face," says Brennan. country. Curiously, the same It's the stuff lhat binds "It saves the child from the A "grass-roots" coalition conditions that lead to smog broken vases, cements of astronomers and educa- and temperature inversions model airplanes, and seals tors, headed by Arthur in the LA basin make for a. fake lashes onto eyelids. But Vaughan of the Jet Propulsion stable atmosphere and, now the same adhesive Lab, is taking over operation consequently, better viewing found in Kra2y Glue is being ot the 85-year-old Mount of nearby stars. used to close facial cuts and Wilson Observatory in Califor- Because Mount Wilson is surgical incisions. nia. The previous administra- an older facility, Ihere is less Indeed, the new "tissue tor abandoned the observa- competition for observing glue" may soon replace tory because light pollution time, enabling astronomers stitches as the surest way to

from Los Angeles made it to establish long-range pro- mend cuts in the skin without impossible to view distant grams spanning years rather leaving a visible scar. objects. Despite this, Mount than weeks. "You can look at Developed in Europe and

Wilson is an excellent site for stars every single night, currently marketed there and

observing nearby stars. which is important if you want in Canada (it's not yet Mount Wilson offers many to study Variations." says available in the United

advantages. The sky is clear, Sallie Baliunas of the States), the glue is made of a on average, 300 nights per Harvard-Smithsonian Center tough-sticking compound 38 OMNI traumatic ordeal of getting a cut stitched up and then returning to have the sutures removed a few days later." Currently only about 100 plastic surgeons in the United States are using Histoacryl, but B re n nan predicts that once this liquid cement is marketed here, more sur- geons will start laying down their sewing needles. —Ellen Kunes

"An ounce of image is wortli a pound of performance." —Laurence J. Peter

"Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." —Don Marquis SAY GOOD-BYE TO KIRTLAND'S WARBLER

The Kirtland's warbler is a tiny, yellow-bellied bird with a big voice, indigenous to the forests of North America. It may also be the first species doomed to extinction by the greenhouse effect—a harbin- ger of environmental destruc- tion yet to come. effect promises to So says Daniel B. Botkin, a professor of biological sci- ences and environmental in the warbler population may of Michigan, Minnesota, and projections are correct, the studies at the University of signal that the greenhouse Wisconsin won't be able to expected climate warming California, Santa Barbara. He effect is happening and grow in the warmer weather will prevent the one hundred and a team of researchers starting to do damage. and will eventually be twenty-seven thousand five have been charting the global Scientists now estimate replaced by the kinds of trees hundred acres of jack-pine warming trend (caused by that the greenhouse effect now used to build furniture, woodland, which is quite the buildup of carbon dioxide may raise the world's such as sugar maple, beech, sensitive to changes in and other gases in the earth's temperature an average 6° to and yellow birch. Botkin also weather, from regenerating." atmosphere), and he now 12° F within the next 100 predicts that large areas of Adds Botkin, "And without projects that temperatures years. Such a profound forests may become "shrub- jack pine, the warbler can't will rise so rapidly that the warming trend would dramati- land" in the interim. survive."—Ellen Kunes Kirtland's warbler, along with cally alter the types of trees How does all this change other endangered species, that grow in Worth American affect the Kirtland's warbler? "Suburbia is where the may not be able to adapt to forests. For instance, explains "These birds nest at the developer bulldozes out the its warmer habitat quickly 'Botkin, the spruce, pine, and southern edge of the trees, then names the streets enough to survive. fir trees—used to make jack-pine forests in Michi- after them." Botkin says a rapid decline lumber and paper products— gan," explains Botkin. "If our —Bill Vaughn caruTiruuurm

concentrate BRAINY CHIP sleep, eat, or his studies. Finally, in operation, he decided to Neural nets, computing a psychologist. systems that are modeled on It makes sense that people human brain, are already the Would worry about becoming able to read DNA code infected with the AIDS virus, sequences, recog n ize b ad iut as with other serious bank loans, and navigate leases, some people who robots around obstacles in Ion't fit the high-risk profile, an enclosed environment. But ;e the man above, have progress has been restricted begun to panic. to software simulations. The typical case, says Dr. Developing the hardware to Andrew Brotman, a psychia- go with the software has trist at Harvard Medical proved more difficult. Re- School, "is the single person however, New Jersey cently, who has had more than one scientists Josh Alspector and heterosexual contact and is Bob Allen, who work at looking back on his or her life, Bellcore, the research arm of or a married person who has the Bell Operating Company, had an extramarital contact." unveiled a neural network In the latter case the guilt over computer chip, modeled on past sexual activity merges brain neurons, that is capable with the AIDS threat to learning tasks with of produce anxiety. astonishing speed. These patients "spend The chip "learns" in two much of their day ruminating stages: First the chip is led about this," says Brotman. information and responds to and even multiple negative it in a free-form fashion. This AIDS tests will not allay their is followed by a "teacher" fears. Brotman has found that phase in which the chip's many of the patients are output is electronically shaped suffering from depression or into a correct response. ime other, underlying psy- Learning is achieved by that is fed , etiological problem strengthening and weakening ' by the public distress over of the 15 transistorized \ chip oft the old block: The te some epidemic. Antide- lhat learns without nagging. the AIDS connections in a manner i computer chip pressant drugs, notes Brot- similar io the way brain cells AIDS ANXIETY man, may alleviate the learn. "With a small number step toward building comput- recognizeand problem in some cases. of examples," Alspector com- ers that can National surveys have not begin process the spoken word at A twenty-year-old college ments, "the chip will Brotman student who was engaged to. yet been done, so delivering the correct answer the same near-instantaneous about the scope present- be married visited a prostitute is uncertain spontaneously." And it does speed with which AIDS anxiety. But he says, computers do arith- in an effort to gain some of so in a matter of milliseconds— day experience before his wed- "it is a common enough 100,000 times faster than pre- metic.—Jeff Goldberg ding night. Although he had phenomenon that therapists vious computer simulations no sexual contact with the are likely to run across at least of neural network models. "The brain is as strong as its person who has think." prostitute, after the encounter one Alspector and Allen's weakest . he became obsessed with it."— Paul McCarthy success raises the possibility —Eleanor Doan that he had such chips could be the idea that paranoids have real discipline the contracted AIDS from simply "Even used to add specialized "Small rooms room as enemies." computers. mind; large ones distract it-" being in the same fuhctionsto future —Delmore Schwartz Leonardo da Vinci the woman. He was unable In addition, it may be the first — 40 OMNI ARTICLE

From nurturing health to the search for extraterrestrial life, these "alien" beings may prove to be man's equal THE DAY OF THE DOLPHINS

BY JUSTINE KAPLAN

the shores of haps irresponsible to draw OffCarlsbad, the surf comparisons between is teeming. Boys in man and a 300-pound, hair- neon wel suits less marine mammal with push their way past break- skin like a wet inner tube. ers, their sleek boards But stare into the eye of a glistening in the Southern dolphin and some bit of California sun. From the information is exchanged; beach a school of dolphins some mutual yearning can be seen among them, happens. There is a reflec- rolling in the swells, waiting. tive glint, a hint of wisdom. When the right wave hits, From the beginning of the crest is a flurry of dorsal time the dolphin's remark- fins and sandy-haired surf- able abilities have been ers, as aware of one anoth- extolled by poets, philoso- er's presence as the rhost phers, and historians as serious of competitors. well as by the ancients, In our own oceans lives a whose legends tell that sentient being, a creature dolphins were really men perhaps as curious and transformed by the gods. communicative as we are. Only in the last decade, Torpedo-shaped and alien however, have researchers as Martians, 66 species in the field of cetacean of dolphins, porpoises, and behavior begun to deter- other toothed whales mine how intelligent these inhabit the earth's waters. aquatic sages truly are. detecting sound through Scientists analyzing the their jaws and breathing dolphins' communication from openings on the tops systems are working to of their heads. It is per- decode their verbal and

PAINTING BY GEORGE SUMNER — —

nonverbal signals. Researchers are at- Ten years ago Smith began studying the chemislry and brain waves in patients tempting to determine how echoloca- responses of neurologically impaired before and alter they sw;m with dolphins, tion— Ihe complex sonar communication children to dolphins and found that those "The scientific community," he says, system dolphins use to navigate their un- children with auiism responded most "needs data." dersea world—can be used lo protect dramatically. "Dolphins, who have- no As much as it needs raw data, the sci- them from their greatest threat, the tuna preconceived expectations, approach an entific community also needs proot thai net. Cetacean scholars from Florida to autistic child as they would any other can be replicated. For ye.ars the field of Australia are studying the dolphin's com- for spontaneous interacton," says Smith. cetacean research was tarnished by un-

plex familial and social relationships. And "And if you're going to work with dolphins, supported and unrealistic claims

in the laboratory, neurologists are at- there better be a good reason so that it among them lhat dolphins can speak tempting to unravel the mystery ot the isn't exploitation. You have to show me English, heal wounds with their sonar, and dolphin brain, an organ quite different in lhal dogs and cats don't work." save drowning swimmers. Skepticism function from man's but with a creativity While the children's social skills ap- about dolphin work increased in the Six- center larger than our own. While most of peared to improve after spending time ties when the infamous Dr. John C. Lilly, the research focuses on understanding with dolphins, Smith admits she has not a neurophysiologist and psychoanalyst, the communication systems and minds proved that the dolphins, rather than the speculated that the cetaceans used their of these animals, more recent, and per- therapeulic effects of water, are respon- enormous brains to develop their own haps riskier, studies include using dol- sible for her success. But she says the language, culture, oral history, philoso- phins as an adjunct to treating a wide va- children who spenl lime with the dolphins phy, and system of ethics. Despite Lilly's attempt the riety of human ills, from autism to cancer. appeared to be more energetic and mo- early ground-breaking to map Every Tuesday al the Dolphin Re- tivated than a control group that was taken dolphin brain, his advances were under- search Center in Grassy Key, Florida, to swim at another beach. Question- mined by his unorthodoxy. He tried to psychologist David Nathanson relies on naires and interviews with parents have teach the dolphins English and pro- six Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins to help shown that the "dolphin kids" demon- posed equipping their tanks with tele- bolster the speech and memories of phones so that they could converse with mentally handicapped children. At the their relatives in the wild. Lilly also took to

center, which is devoted to "mutually downing hallucinatory drugs so that he beneficial human-dolphin interaction," the might enter what he believed was the dolphins swim with, are cuddled by, and dolphins' higher state of consciousness. ^Herman has shown aid in teaching handicapped kids. "He got involved with drugs and spent an Nathanson is finding that the children that dolphins understand the increasing amount of time trying to un- attention and learn up to ten derstand this world of illusion, drifting pay closer meanings of words times more quickly in these surroundings away from reality altogether." says Ken- than they do in classrooms, where their in their languages and how neth Norris, a field biologist at the Uni- at Santa Cruz who usual reward is verbal praise and a hug word order affects versity of California or a kiss. 'They prefer a kiss from the dol- has been studying Hawaii's wild spinner those meanings, a trait that is phins to a kiss from me," says Nathan- dolphin for three decades. "He started son. "I'm not insulted by this," he adds. considered the core out as a capable scientist, but nothing he During some lessons, pictures display- did was subject to measurement or truth, of most human languages.^ ing simple words such as bus or dog are and that's what scientists live by." tossed to Ihe dolphins, which bring fhem Most cetacean scientists agree that the given scientific to the children, if the child pronounces person who tuts credibil- the word correctly, the reward is a swim ity to the field is psychologist Louis Her- with the dolphins. man, director of the University of Hawaii's Nathanson recalls that when a six-year- strated long-term behavioral and social Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Labora- old quadriplegic boy dangled his legs in cnanges, and she plans to test these re- tory. "Herman's a real titan in the area. the water, a female dolphin named Little sults further in a lollow-up sfudy. His work is the very backbone of the field Bit, one of the original dolphins in the For years researchers have been ex- of dolphin cognition." says Norris. "He has Flipper television series, "zoned in on him amining the effects of stress and depres- almost single-handedly defined the ca-

and nuzzled him gently. It was striking. sion on the immune system. Terminal pabilities of the dolphin mind." For the past The dolphins seem to sense these kids cancer patients have reduced the size of ten years Herman and his colleagues are handicapped," Nathanson adds. their tumors by imagining their cancer have worked with two Atlantic bottle- "They perceive these children as a little cells are dark forces of evil being over- nosed dolphins, Phoenix and Akeaka- more helpless than Ihe people they usu- come by fighting white knights. Stephen mai, methodically testing their ability to ally swim with, so they're gentler." Jozsef of Living From the Heart, a non- understand and execute commands in A second facility devoted to human- profit inslitute in Parker. Colorado, be- two kinds of artificial language. Phoenix's

dolphin interaction is Dolphins Plus, a lieves that allowing cancer patients to in- language consists oi electronically gen- private "dolphinarium" with a grassy teract with dolphins might have much the erated computer whistles. Ake's is based waterfront al Ihe edge of two adjoining same effect. Jozsef recently flew 15 can- on hand and arm gestures. Each lan-

pools forming a lagoon in Key Largo, cer patients to Florida to swim with dol- guage has a "vocabulary" and a set ol Florida. In the summer of 1987 the own- phins at the Dolphin Research Center. rules governing how the sounds or ges- ers turned over ihe facility for eight days Dolphins, Jozsef thinks, exisi in an alpha tures are arranged in seguences thai form to Betsy Smith, Ph.D., an associate pro- state—a meditative condition associ- thousands of sentences. Using these fessor of social work at Florida Interna- ated with creativity, intuition, and per- languages, Herman has shown that dol- the tional University in Miami. Smith, who has haps Ihe potential for self-healing . He be- phins understand the meanings of been working in animal-assisted therapy lieves that by swimming wifh dolphins, words in their languages and, even more

for 15 years and was the first to try dol- humans can enter that state, making it important, how word order affects mean- phin therapy in 1971, wanted to test her possible for them to tap their own healing ing. This ability is considered to be at the

theory that autistic children who had not - powers. He hopes to use biofeedback to core of most human languages, a trait benefited from other types of treatment teach patients how to re-create that many linguists and philosophers would might become more sociable and com- meditative alpha state and plans to con- argue is a sign of intelligence. municative by being with the dolphins. duct 'comparative studies of blood Herman has discovered, for example, 44 OMNI lights up whenever a dolphin makes a that dolphins can differentiate between "develop an understanding of the words Richard Ferraro, a phrases such as "Pipe fetch surf- of their language at the level of a con- sound. With the aid of pass- senior scientist at the Institute of Applied board"—which translates io "Get the pipe cept." Fbr example, under means "Surf- ing beneath, and dolphins will raise an Physiology and Medicine, Herman is de- and take it to the surfboard"—and veloping and testing a more sophisti- board fetch pipe," which means "Get the object from the tank bottom lo swim be- to under. He has also cated instrument. A microcomputer, it is surfboard and take il to the pipe." low in response understand fastened by suction cups to each dol- The commands are issued in two dif- demonstrated that dolphins head. It records each sound and ferent ways: through a set of computer references to absent objects. When phin's offloads the time of every vocalization into whistles broadcast through an under- asked "ball question," which means "Is computer. These recordings will water speaker, and through a series of there a ball in the tank?" Ake searches a second be analyzed to determine which dolphin hand and arm gestures. For the latter, a the pool and responds on a "yes" or "no" Ihe communicating, what the sounds trainer stands al tankside, wearing dark paddle. When the dolphin presses was under- were, and what behaviors were occur- goggles to control unintentional visual "no" paddle, it implies she has ring at the time. cues. The trainer then makes a series of stood the sign, formed a mental image of Scientists have known since 1965 that gestures that construct a sentence. the object referred to, and deduced the there. This ability— called ref- dolphins have distinctive signature whis- Some scientists have argued that it is ball is not which they use to identify them- .misleading for Herman to call what the erential reporting — has previously been tles, work showed that the an- dolphins have learned "language." David documented only in apes and man. selves. Tyack's actually imitating one another's Premack, a former ape researcher at the Herman's laboratory sounds more like imals were with whistles. "Learned mimicry is rare in the University of Pennsylvania, who has re- an aviary than a marine habilat, filled clicks, squeals, animal kingdom, but dolphins can be tired from his animal language work, a cacophony of creaky imitate particular sounds, and claims Herman's "free use of a sentence" and high-pitched whistles. A new ven- trained to this skill to will to identify which dolphin is wild dolphins appear to use is a problem. Human language, he ar- ture be imitate each other's whistles, perhaps to gues, consists ot abstract concepts, not sending these sounds and which is re- Tyack. With It difficult task, as dol- initiate social interaction," says just objects and actions. And a decade ceiving them. is a Office of Naval Re- ago Columbia University psychologist phin sounds are produced in the region support from the Arlington, Virginia, Tyack is Herbert Terrace published statements of their blowhole and emitted through the search in studying the social function ot the whis- that ape language researchers were in- head without any visible indication. with tles by recording the sounds of captive correct, lhat animals learned not lan- In a preliminary study conducted dolphins at the New England Aquarium guage but behaviors— behaviors that Peter Tyack, an assistant scientist at Chicago's Brookfieid Zoo. Tyack is earned rewards. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and also analyzing the signature whistles of a Herman retorts that "the fact that an Herman and his colleagues attached to dolphin population followed in Sar- animal gets a reward does not invalidate the head of a dolphin, using suction cups, wild asota Bay, Florida, for the past 19 years the involvement of language." Further- a primitive contraption called a vocal- Tyack that researcher Randall Wells. more, Herman contends that dolphins ite-— a device developed by by Five months out of the year, Wells, along with guest researchers and volunteers from Earthwatch, a nonprofit research or- ganization, tracks the Sarasota dolphins to understand how they divide Ihem- selves into subgroups. The dolphins are captured for short periods of time for identification and sampling; during that time, Tyack records the whistles of each dolphin handled, including those of pairs that have bonded together, such as mothers and calves. Wells has recently expanded his pop- ulation studies lo the Tampa area. Since he began his study in 1970, Wells has identified nearly 600 individual dolphins from Florida's central west coast and has determined that the populations segre-

gate themselves into groups. It appears that adult females with calves form bands that may include three generations of fe- males as well as some unrelated fe-

males. It has ak-.o been eslablished that the adult females seen briefly accompa- nying calves may not be their own moth- ers but "baby-sitters." As dolphins ma- ture. Wells and his colleagues have found, they join sex-segregated groups. Within those groups, males form pair-bonds with other males for years at a time. A similar study by a group of University of Michi- gan graduate students at Monkey Mia, a remote bay in northwestern Australia, has shown that the male pairs often herd or 'Come to your senses, professor Fernberg. We did not transcend the "kidnap" females for mating. This bond- time-space continuum. We go! drunk in a topless bar." ing, which Wells says may be as tight as female-calf bonds, may give male dol- —

phins the group dynamics they seem to ergy directed at their wombs. The echo Norris. "Their school system does not need, as well as protection from sharks. locating beams are gentle, soothing vi- work when they are pressed together in design By recording age, sex, births, and brations thai feel like, energy pulsing a net. To release them, we have to deaths as well as sexual maturity and re- through a machine, a way to let that magic envelope out in- productive patterns of the Florida dol- Ken Norris, who identified the dolphin tact and maintain the spacing of individ- phin population, Wells hopes to gain an sonar 40 years ago, believes that some uals." Norris and his colleagues are now open- in-depth understanding o! the dynamics of the sounds are powerful enough to kill trying to define the shape of a net allow to maintain of a wild population. One practical appli- fish. "When the dolphin gets near a fish, ing that would dolphins cation: to compare his data with those of there's a loud bang two hundred to five their signaling systems. Seventies, Norris scientists doing studies in captivity to de- hundred times as long as a regular In Hawaii in the late schools ot termine whether wild and captive dol- echolocation click," he says. In exper.- tested his theory by encircling openings and phins grow, mature, or reproduce at dif- menls in his laboratory, Norris has killed dolphins in nets with 12-foot wouldn't out. At 20 feet, ferent rates. He is also studying the anchovies with simulated feeding sounds. found they go and fall, changes that occur in dolphin blubber Even with such a fine-tuned sonar sys- some of them did. This summer are testing the depths, "overcoats" that vary in thick- tem—a dolphin can detect a vitamin Norris and his colleagues ness depending on water temperature. capsule from the far end of a large pool configurations of net openings to deter- the opening required to Working with Deborah Duffield, a biol- dolphins are still unable to sense fishing mine the size of ogy professor at Portland State Univer- nets. Given that deficiency. Norris has let the entire school escape. that creature with a sity, Wells is using state-of-the-art ge- proposed a way to release dolphins from It would seem a size as netic techniques to determine the genetic tuna nets based on his studies of the brain approximately the same out to such makeup of the Sarasota population. Cur- mechanics of the dolphin school. In vast man's could figure how avoid of did, rently dolphin mating systems are unde- regions of the tropical Pacific, prized yel- trouble. Its keen sense hearing to with the fined, and paternity has been almost im- lowfin tuna are often found in the com- after all, evolve compete smell. possible to establish. By combining the pany of spotted, spinner, and common shark's acute sense of genetic information with observations of It's a strange combination of abilities the fas- interactions between males and females, and inadequacies thai has led to cination with the dolphin's' big brain. In Wells is hoping to see if or how fathers brain known as interact with their relatives. Wells has al- humans the part of the ready found evidence that the Sarasota the neocortex is considered the seat of '•Pregnant women populations interbreed with other adja- creativity and thought. In man the total percent neocortex; cent populations. The extent of this inter- report that while in the water cortical surface is 96 dolphin, 98 percent. But despite breeding will help determine whether the in the with dolphins, they the neocor- populations interact to recover from nat- the similarity in size between dolphin, in other ways ural disasters such as red tides, or hu- feel blasts of energy directed tices of man and are quite dissimilar. man intervention such as capture or at their wombs. The they coastal development. "This brain has come down a very dif- beams are actually vibrations evolutionarily. and the cortex The greatest threat to dolphins, how- ferent path more generalized ever, is the tuna net. While the Marine that feel like energy has remained much Mammal Protection Act has been than those of more modern land ani- pulsing through a machine.^ senior sci- amended to limit the number of dolphins mals." says Peter Morgane, Foundation for Ex- "accidentally" killed by fishermen, en- entist at the Worcester perimental Biology, with llya Glezer. forcement is lacking. Scientists studying who, dolphin sonar (sound navigation and an anatomy professor at the City of New ranging) as well as their schooling sys- York Medical School, has pioneered terns are attempting to develop ways to dolphins, an association :hai has helped studies of dolphin neuroanatomy. Before save Ihem from the nets. The sonar, or to build a billion-dollar fishing industry. the mid-Sixties it was difficult to study echolocating, blasts are actually short Fishermen locate schools of tuna by brains of cetaceans because it was im- bursts of sound pulsing through the fatty spotting dolphins, then herd the tuna and possible to conduct surgical procedures of tissue of the dolphin's forehead, or mel- dolphins into a bunch and drop a large on these voluntary breathers. A dose land lon, where they are focused into a beam net around them, which they shut at the anesthetic acceptable to mammals Mor- that travels through water 4.5 times faster bottom and winch in. Although they at- would kill adolphin instantly. In 1963 anestnesiologisv Na- than through air. When the sound is sent, tempt to release the dolphins while keep- gane, with Eugene disori- gel Forrest Bird of the Bird Respirator it bounces off a target and returns an ing the fish, the dolphins become and echo containing information on the sur- ented and entangled in the nets, where Company, designed a respirator that rounding environment. The dolphin hears they suffocate and drown. Approxi- mimicked the pulsatile breathing pattern through fat deposits in its jaw, from which mately 125.000 dolphins are killed by of this diving animal. And they created a mixture to put dolphins into sound is transmitted to the inner ear and fishermen each year, nitrous oxide anesthesia." then to the brain. A broad band of low- By understanding the dolphin school- a "state of general They and and high-frequency sound emissions, ing system, which he calls a "magic en- others, primarily in the Soviet Union, have of which bounce off or go through fish and velope." Norris believes a method can be succeeded in mapping portions the cerebral other animals like an X ray. lets dolphins developed to release dolphins from the dolphin brain — especially the using navigate in turbid waters and locate and nets. One function of the school, says cortex, which has been mapped irrpianicd identify objects well out of visual range, Norris, is the "chorus line effect"— an in- recording eleoToces in anes- up to 800 meters away. tricate system that allows dolphins to thetized specimens. There has been some speculation that evade sharks. As each dancer on the "What the dolphin neocortex has done dolphins may use their sonar to project chorus line anlicioates :he kicks of his or evolutionarily," says Morgane, "is get big- images into other dolphins' brains. Per- her neighbor, Norris explains, so does ger, but it doesn't seem to have gotten haps sonar, also gives dolphins an un- each dolphin foresee the moves of the more complex. It has a very ancient type derstanding of the humans that enter their> others in its school and then act in con- of organization, and we don't see this type environment. Pregnant women have re- cert with them. of arrangement in any modern land ani- _ ported that when they are in the water Caught in a tuna net, dolphins are mal. The dolphin has kept the brain it had with dolphins, they can feel blasts of en- "stripped of this magic envelope," says when it first went into the water some fifty CON T INUF-jO^PflGE94 . 46 OMNI Ho I I A —

window a paper crescent moon and a Mars. According to Montalbini, the pur- sleeps, the crew tests her REM (rapid eye patterns. Occasionally few paper stars keep unmoving vigil over pose of Follini's experiment— called movement) sleep take a battery of tests that the solitary occupant The only forms of Frontera Dona (Frontier Woman)—is to she's asked to physiologi- NASA, the Air Force, and the Navy use life are crickets, liger salamanders, red- study the psychological and determine reaction times, spotted toads, and an occasional mouse. cal effects on a human deprived of all on pilots to clocks, pattern recognition, and fine motor func- It's too cold for snakes. time measurements and cues— tions, such as finger coordination. Small in build, quiet, almost serene, the sunrise, sunset. Artificial lights in the cave ofher information twenty-seven-year-old Italian volun- can be turned down but not off, so she Follini feeds this and computer to the crew aboveground teered to imprison herself in Lost Cave can't create her own time cues. by monitor, Montalbini, his wife, and team physician for nearly five months. By profession a Follini wears a blood pressure monitor her 24 designer who advises people on how to providing data that are analyzed at the Andrea Galvagno—who the crew wants to arrange interior spaces, Follini began her University of Minnesota by Franz Hal- hours a day. When with her, they beep her. solitary venture on January 13, 1989. berg, the tather of chronobiology and the communicate hear her talk and sing, but she When Pioneer-Frontier Research and Ex- man who coined the term circadian They can hear them. A black-and-white plorations, a nonprofit organization based rhythm. This is the first continuously run cannot person in isola- camera, affixed to the wall of the cave, in Italy, sought a place for Follini's exper- blood pressure test on a full view of her module. One iment, Lost Cave, one of approximately tion. Follini takes her temperature four provides a situated inside the module 600 caves in southeastern New Mexico, times a day; collects her urine, an impor- camera levels; draws catches Follini's every move. The inside seemed perfect. Twenty-five feet deep, it tant indicator of calcium and of send- camera, positioned a few feet from the is dry, with a relatively constant temper- her blood every couple weeks, computer, surveys Follini as she types out ature of about 68". The "great hall" in the ing the urine and the blood vials through trailer answers to questions from the crew. When cave is 150 feet long with an average a hose connected to a above- or researchers interview her in ceiling height of about 13 feet. The Italian ground. The team sends the vials of reporters foundation has already conducted a blood, Express Mail, to laboratories to the cave, she can turn and look directly indi- into this camera, laughing, gesturing, or number of cave experiments in Europe. check her hormone levels, stress blood cell smiling at people she cannot see. In one experiment 15 people lived to- cators, and red and white small of her blood is immediately Follini's home is designed like a gether in a cave for 45 days. counts. Some spacecraft. is an entrance area, Maurizio Montalbini, the director of the frozen, and after the experiment is com- There an airlock, where Follini cleans organization, holds the Guinness world pleted, her calcium levels as well as her similar to Periodi- off dirt when she comes back into her record for staying in a cave—210 days. urine samples will be analyzed. module from the cave. Outside the mod- Today he hopes to interest NASA in a co- cally she hooks herself up to an elec- bathroom with a toilet operative experiment involving three to troencephalograph (EEG) to measure the ule, there's a tiny its and mirror but no bath— only towels for eight people dwelling in a cave for 12 electrical activity of her brain, alpha when she washing. The hose through which she months—the time it would take to fly to and beta waves. Sometimes T

Follini: who are in a hurry. sends her blood is in the cave; so are early as 4,000 years ago. The Mescalera Noise. People bottles of water for drinking and bathing Apache, who live on a reservation in the Omni: Are you religious?

I believe that is infinite. He's and replacement cans for the toilet. She Sacramento Mountains, displaced the Follini: God of everyone, not far away. stores the toilet's filled containers in the Basket Makers around-A.D. 1400. inside cave. The team figured out how much Although the rocks always project a Omni: Are you going into Lost Cave be- food and water she would need for the feeling of power and strength, cavers and cause you want lo contemplate? in to concentrate not five months. Nothing will be resupplied. park rangers alike are quick to point out Follini: I'm going —

I solve any Inside the module are a small worktable, that caves are among the most fragile of contemplate. don't need to

I myself in a medical equipment for blood tests, the Earth environments. The carbon dioxide problems, but want to put computer, and a wall of shelves. Follini people exhale, the dust turned up- by condition to solve problems. did lot of took 400 books with her, a guitar, a diary, footsteps, can change the underground Omni: As a child, you spend a and, being a vegetarian, plenty of cere- environment. Despite their appearance, time alone?

In fact, it like I had no als, legumes, dried fruits, and seaweed. they are delicate, as tragile as the tiles on Follini; No. seemed The Carlsbad area—where Lost Cave the mighty space shuttle. privacy. Somebody was always around,

I only child. My father, 1989, 1 Follini at the even though am an is located—had been an underwater reef On January 4, met

grandmother, I lived in big 250 million years ago, near the coastline Johnson Space Center medical clinic in mother, and a of the North American continent. After Houston, where she was completing a house with a garden. about 60 million years the limestone medical workup before entering Lost Omni: Professionally, you're an interior compacted, then cracked, and water be- Cave on January 13. She was wearing designer. Did you decide to live in a cave test the amount of space that a person gan lo seep underground. The acid con- glasses, very little makeup, and casual to tent of the water ate away at the stone, clothing. We talked in the hall through the needs to feel comfortable?

small places. I like carving out embryonic caves. The steady team's translator, Rita Fraschini. Follini: I'm intrigued by is rationally set drip of water— over thousands and thou- small spaces. If the space designed, living in a small sands of years—formed the dramatic Omni: What factors motivated you to try up and well beautiful experience. stalagmites for which Carlsbad Caverns this experience? space should be a is Omni: You are somebody's daughter, is tamous. Then about 12,000 years ago, Follini; My short-term goal simple: to feel free of the area turned into desert. The caves know myself better, to learn more about colleague, girlfriend. Will you ex- became dormant, awaiting the rains and myself, to test my ability and capacity to these human relationships or do you fresh water that would create more eerie live alone in an environment such as a pect to be lonely? all relation- run, that I Follini: I expect to feel free of underground sculptures. cave. I really hope, in the long

I'll ships. I'll take time in the cave to evaluate Prehistoric animals—saber-toothed ti- will experience liie differently; that have relationships, to learn to see people gers and ground sloths— lived in the en- a better life. I want to love myself more, my

from afar. I expect to feel lonely. trances to the caves. A tribe of prehistor- and that will help me to love people in my life You're the first woman to perform ic Native Americans, the Guadalupe around me more. Omni: pressure to Basket Makers, inhabited the area as Omni: What do you dislike in life? this experiment. Do you feel be successful? Follini: Sure, I'feel pressure and respon- sibility, but not because I'm the first woman. The pressure is within myself. Omni: Have you had any dreams about I your upcoming experience? dreaming about this for 4» > Follini: I've been \ } four months. In one dream, I'm in a castle f t it tl heavy door. The castle is Lsp !flj that has a big dark and looks like a cave. As I approach

the door at the opposite end of the hall, I - :its see ferocious dogs everywhere. But it's '

okay, I do reach the door. Omni: Only nightmares?

1 Follini: No, recently I had a wonderful "! : . . V, dream about a woman. The dream was triggered by an archaeological find, the skeleton of a woman who anthropolo-

gists say is Eve. I am in a cave contem- plating her bones, studying her skull. Somebody tells me who she is, her life story. Her name is Lucy. In Italian, Lucy means "lights."

POLLUTED AREA i NO Omni: Picture yourselt emerging from the SWIMMINSl cave six months from now. Follini; Faces, I picture the faces of my T family and friends. L-^TiT^1 -"--'.--::^^s^^| ££ .:-•>"?•*;? Follini entered Lost Cave, New Mexico, at three in the morning on January 13, 1989. Montalbini decided that going in and coming out of the cave in darkness would be less traumatic. The research -* team accompanied her into the cave. The occasion was festive. They left Follini at J8S$':' 5:15 in the morning. When she was first locked in the cave. . " — —

she experienced some vertigo. Montal- noon. The temperature was 70". Park friends at the gymnasium where I work bini—and scientists at NASAs Space rangers at nearby Carlsbad Caverns Na- out, to my parents, and to the last gor- Biomedical Research Institute — are par-, tional Park noted that the migrating birds geous sunrise of the twelfth of January. I ticularly interested in what happens to the had begun their northerly pilgrimage. looked at everything as if it were for the bones of a person completely cut off from Various cacti and grasses had begun last time. The value of life was over-

all sources of vitamin D, a vitamin essen- their spring bloom in the rocky white soil turned: What was meaningless started to

tial to absorption of calcium by the body of the semidesert region. The time: 5:30 become very important; what had al- for bone renewal. Follini received a com- in the afternoon. ways been important became a trifle. plete calcium workup and skeletal sur- Omni: Go back to the last week before

vey before she entered the cave. Even Omni: What' day is it today? What time? you entered the cave. Did you go through anxiety, her dried milk is vitamin D free. These Follini: It is Sunday, February 12, 1989, various stages of letting go— tests will be rerun when she finishes the four o'clock in the morning. sorrow, acceptance, and desire to enter experiment. (According to Joseph De- Omni: What was your first impression of the cave? gioanni, a medical officer at the space the cave? Follini: [rubs her arms, sighs, seems to agency, NASA is not officially supporting Follini: Intimate, pleasant, discreet, re- be anxious about the question] During the

I Montalbini's experiment. The Biomedical served, warm—even if it's not spectac- last week, I was very tired. experienced simultaneously. Toward Research Institute scientists are working ular. I liked it. various emotions

independently of the agency.) Omni: When you said good-bye to the the end of the week, I only thought: Let

I Within a few days after entering the world, how did you feel? me go in. I nearly entered at a run. cave, Follini's biorhythms began to drift, Follini: [hand on her face, thinking a long wished to close out everything. moving from a 24-hour day to a 28-hour time before she answers] My good-bye Omni: When they sealed the cave the first day. She tended to go to bed later and to the world lasted, perhaps, more than day and shut out the sunlight, how did later. Throughout January, she awoke a year, but for sure from the time the you feel?

between six and nine in the morning. By countdown started in November 1988. I Follini: Possible answers: 'Ah, they are not what?" early February, she awoke anywhere be- felt a great sorrow when I thought about kidding." "Finally alone." 'And now tween noon and two in the afternoon, and leaving the world. But this pushed me to [These are the exact responses she typed by the end of February, she was waking love life even more, to live more in- out on her screen.]

relief. it up around eight in the evening. tensely—even if detached—as if I were My first reaction was Then took

I where I On February 27, she went into a sud- ungluing [splitting] from reality. I enjoyed some time before realized was

den, drastic biorhythm shift. She awoke every moment, trying to retain in the eyes yes, it's really true, I am here. But I felt a at one in the morning and went to sleep all the images; in the ears, all the sounds. certain dismay at my new surroundings,

I it of at one in the morning the following day. I remember every handshake, every pat even though imagined thousands

times. I thought, "I am involved" sia mo On March 4, she woke up at 6:30 in the on the shoulder. — I "in morning and went to sleep March 5 at In Rome, the night before I left, said in balto the middle of the dance." Now

it noon. She had shifted from a 28-hour good-bye to the last Italian faces, to my let's see how I will manage. Now seems cycle to a 44-hour one. Galvagno noted PAGE 110 that the proportion of sleep was the same:

She still slept one third of the time. She was losing weight, however, because she was eating three meals a day for a 44- rather than 24-hour cycle. Another re- searcher, John DeFrance, a neuropsy- chologist at the University of Texas Med- ical School, noticed that her REM sleep had begun to occur earlier in her sleep cycle, a symptom sometimes associated with depression. She had had only one menstrual period in 53 days. Follini had begun to perceive a 14-hour sleep as a two-hour "nap." The Omni in- terviews took place during this severe biorhythmic disruption. Because she knew I was going to interview her in the

middle of the experiment, I was identified as Montalbini in the first interview and as a group of journalists and psychologists in the second. The research team did not want to give her any time cues.

In the cave, through the camera, I saw Follini's wide range of emotions—anger, irritation, sadness, distress, happiness, laughter—the very picture of human vul- nerability, laying bare the psyche's own brutal rhythms. Follini's a pioneer, expe- riencing the burden of solitary explora- tion. If she completes the entire 150 days, she will have lived alone in a cave longer than any other woman has dared.

Aboveground, Tuesday, March 7, was a beautiful spring day. The sky was the absolute blue of the Southwest, and the "I'm still not convinced. I wanted the pepper. sun went briefly into partial eclipse around

Previous pages: Coils pages, left to i castle coral creates a yellow polyps grace Below: Not white or coral patterns of sheet coral Mushroom coral's maze pattern; the outer edge gray but yelloi display a dizzying (left); white polyps intricately designed pale tips of staghorn of a coral; a sea fan matter—close-up of diversity of adorn tips of a shell; hard coral coral flushed coral native to a brain coral colors and textures. scarlet sea fan. These found in the Red Sea; with bright magenta; the Cayman Islands. from the Bahamas.

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quota to be extended indefinitely. Re- search on dolphin-saving gear and tech- FDRunn EARTH niques has halted. The National Marine PAGE ID CONTINUED FHOM PAGE 26 CONTINUED FROM Fisheries Service has done little about the southern elephant seal, relentlessly cheating and has failed to make findings became aware of the program through a article appalled hunted in Antarctic waters for its blubber, against the countries whose tuna fleets newspaper and was by had been rendered nearly extinct by are killing dolphins in excess of the law. the school's lack of textbooks and facili- 1885. By the same year the northern el- Another proud feat of marine environ- ties. The school operates on a budget of ephant seal, the southern seal's smaller mentalism, the 1985 moratorium on com- about four dollars per student, which is cousin, was thought to be extinct indeed. mercial whaling, is beihg compromised. insufficient to provide textbooks in every like tuna industry, subject for every child. A science labo- But if the sea mammals are harbingers Whaling interests, the of wider troubles in the ocean, they also have never ceased nosing about for ratory remains a fantasy. is less represent our first victories against those loopholes. Some years after the Interna- While community involvement troubles. With protection and reintroduc- tional Whaling Commission (IWC) gave than a year old, Foster started her alter- four tion, sea otters have established them- complete protection to blue whales, Jap- native program in the Garnet school selves again on long stretches of the Cal- anese scientists discovered the "pygmy years ago. She had a reputation for suc- hard-to-handle stu- ifornia and Alaska coasts. The blue whale blue," a new species exempt from the ban. cess working with given kids from has been protected since 1948, and its The Japanese began "scientific" whal- dents. In 1984 she was 60 populations are recovering. The gray ing. On their January 1988 expedition to other schools who were perceived as whale has rebounded with protection Antarctica, Japanese whaleships en- high-strung and with little regard for dis- from a low of around 1,000 animals to to- gaged in the scholarly slaughter of 273 cipline. Each year more and more par- day's 21,000. The southern elephant seal, minke whales. Japan's government told ents who wanted extra help for their kids protected since the 1960's, now numbers the IWC's Scientific Committee that it did asked Foster to take them in. Soon she nearly a million. The northern elephant not feel obligated to submit data on these had a couple hundred students. "Regu- 'meeting the seal has multiplied from several dozen to research kills because they were not lar education is not just

" whole child is today's 80,000 to 90,000. "catches," they were "samples." needs,' says Foster. "The take the One of the great accomplishments of The obdurate whaling nations of the my motto, and that means we on recent years, the Marine Mammal Pro- West were quick to turn their own whale- social problems as well as the reading tection Act (MMPA) of 1972, is already in ships into "research vessels." Iceland and writing challenges." Foster now, need of rescue. The MMPA was a re- killed 76 fin whales and 40 sei whales in For some who work with their roles. sponse, in large part, to the problem of the summer of 1987. Norway plans to kill that strategy has broadened teach "incidental" dolphin kills by the tuna in- 30 minke whales in the North Atlantic. This "Sometimes we have to them how dustry. For reasons unknown, Pacific yel- is the thinnest sort of subterfuge. The to eat, walk, and work out their anger be- them read or do lowfin tuna swim in close association with Reagan administration allowed it to hap- fore we can teach to "They're brutal with schools of spotted and spinner dolphins. pen, even abetted it. If there is an answer math," says McArthur.

it's of life. I don't In the old days, tuna fishing was by rod, for it, under the Bush administration, it is each other, and a way get that baitless hook, and line. The accompa- strong sanctions. understand how we're going to

since it gets rein- nying dolphins, too smart to go for bait- In a catalog of ills like this one, it is easy out of them, especially less hooks, were not inconvenienced. All to lose sight of the fecundity, beauty, and forced on the TV and in the streets." take their se- this changed in 1960, with the applica- mystery that reside still in the seas. The The kids claim to studies tion of purse-seining techniques to tuna ocean remains what Hemingway called riously. Says one boy whose attendance is blotchy: "My mother teaches me fishing. Since then, any dolphins sighted it a half century ago, "the last wild country record all can be; get in the eastern tropical Pacific are sur- we have." I spent six months of my life to be obedient—be you rounded by a huge seine. Cables draw with two photographer friends in a small as much education 'cause it's a danger- there." In the school's the purse in the seine tight, trapping the boat on the deep ocean off Kona, Ha- ous world out dolphins and any tuna swimming under- waii. We documented whatever came our fenced-in playground, the kids con- neath. The Sixties were catastrophic for way. We dove with pilot, humpback, and stantly chatter about "making a lot of the dolphins of the eastern tropical Pa- sperm whales. We jumped in the water money and getting out of here." They operators, cific. Some escaped the nets, but many almost daily with spotted dolphins. We speak of becoming computer drowned in the net or tore themselves swam in the wild with rough-tooth dol- lawyers, doctors, and architects. When apart against the mesh. By 1972 and the phins, a species so rare that the first liv- asked what they worry about, they tick off passage of the MMPA, 500,000 dolphins ing specimen was not discovered in the nuclear war, the Middle East, the home- were dying each year, and stocks of cer- North Pacific until the 1960's. We swam less, the atmosphere, and getting their tain species had been reduced by 80 with the melon-headed whale and with mothers out of New York. percent. Since 1960, according to gov- Blainville's beaked whale, which has a Not long ago, as Foster, her staff, the ernment reports, 6 million dolphins have head attached to the adopt-a-class sponsors, parents, and been killed by the purse seiners. body of a whale. The bull is armed like a classmates looked on, the middle After passage of the MMPA, tuna fish- boar, with a pair of stout tusks at the mid- schoolers paraded through their assem- traditional African garb, ermen worked with scientists to design points of the jaw. Until I met Blainville's bly room clad in held high. After four months improvements like the Medina panel, with whale face-to-face, I had no idea that their heads a finer mesh that prevents dolphins' beaks such an animal existed. of preparation, the African-American at last under way. and fins from snagging. They refined the I, lor one, find it cheering that the uni- Heritage pageant was "back-down" procedures by which dol- verse of Blainville's whale will survive us. "Strong man keep movin' on. Strong man ." phins are released before the nets are The ocean has had lean times before, as git stronger. . . they chanted. Sterling hauled aboard. According to the provi- after the planet's epochal collisions with Brown's Strong Man provided a powerful unbri- sions of the MMPA, the dolphin kill was to asteroids and comets. Our worst ther- message, and their gusto seemed dled, their testament to be reduced each year until it reached monuclear error will not end life in the performance a to succeed. "I "insignificant levels." Through the Sev- deep, and' species will radiate again. I their talent and their ache to good citizens, good enties it did so. In 1981, 1982, and 1983 am happy to have known firsthand the want these kids be the quota remained the same (20,500). once and future ocean. DO husbands, good wives, good parents Foster. "I In 1984 the MMPA was amended under good people," declares know tuna-industry pressure to permit that This is the third in a three-par! series. they can be that."OQ 64 OMNI

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6He envisions the earth's deserts canvased by vast stretches of solar farms, spread out in geometric clusters to harvest the sun's Iight3

and gardens. The grounds are traversed tained by separating it from natural gas by smooth, paved roadways and spot- through a process called steam reform- ted by many neat two- and three-story ing. Hydrogen is also extracted from brick buildings. Geese, ducks, and swans water through photolysis, a chemical re- are returning to the many streams and action that uses sunlight, orthrough elec- ponds, some as large as 18 and 22 acres trolysis of water, the .second most com- each. Deer roam beneath the blossom- mon technique. By passing electricity ing trees. The setting is idyllic. But in the through water from one electrode to an- conference room where electrochemist other, the liquid is split into two parts hy-

John Bockris is holding court, things are drogen, one part oxygen. Commercial in tar from ideal. If the world's supply of oil hydrogen is most widely used the dwindles, the automobile industry will manufacture of ammonia—15 million tons need an alternative to gasoline. Betting of chemistry at Texas ASM, the small, en- per year, accounting for two thirds of the on that alarming fact, Bockris has been ergetic man who popularized the phrase world's hydrogen consumption. Oil refin- called in by GM to consult on what the hydrogen economy in 1969, envisions the eries use one fifth of the world's hydro- company hopes will be an alternative earth's deserts canvased by vast gen to process petroleum products. the electric battery. But as the day's ses- stretches of solar farms— spread out in Other uses: to produce fertilizer, dyes. sion draws to a close, the battery's lofty geometric clusters to harvest the sun's and the niost powerful of rocket fuels. position in the future is unexpectedly re- light with their onctcvoNa c cells. An elec- If Bockris has his way, we will live in a placed. "We created six scenarios," tric current will .then electrolyze pools of solar-hydrogen age in which nonpollut-

1- Bockris recalls. "And four of the scenar- water, protected' fro:" " evapora:ion, into its ing hydrogen fuel would replace petro- ios ended up with hydrogen at the bot- primary elements—hydrogen and oxy- leum fuels. The fossil fuels that propelled industrial are tom line. I said, 'Hmm, we'll be living in a gen. After these gases are captured and the world through the age hydrogen society' Someone else added, stored, they are piped to urban areas in now killing it. Hall of the carbon dioxide

'It'll be sort of like a hydrogen economy,' less sun-drenched countries whose emissions in the United States come from That was the origin of Bockris's vision. economies they fuel, Even though hydro- oil. Coal and natural gas make up the rest. For two decades Bockris has chased gen is the most plentiful and lightest ele- Carbon dioxide levels have increased 25 his dream of a hydrogen society—a world ment in the universe—the first on the pe- percent since 1958—with 5 billion tons of fueled by this clean and abundant ele- riodic table— it barely exists as a free carbon released into the atmosphere ment. Today the distinguished professor element on Earth's surface because it each year from the burning of fossil fuels. rises in the atmosphere and is released There the carbon dioxide joins chloro- Clockwise from top i$:: Sti.w panels spread in space. On Earth, the invisible, odorless fluorocarbons and other gases to create out to receive iris -sun's /aftr; pollution ircm the dangerous greenhouse effect, trap- commuter trat'ic greets !ne seinng sun; two gas has combined with other elements. causing global ways to produce energy— an oil rettery snd Hydrogen can be extracted a myriad ping radiant heat and an electric plant. of ways. For example, it is usually ob- warming. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides spew

88 OMNI from power plants and cars, producing cost of operation and maintenance has passed an electrical current between the the acid rain that is destroying our lakes made nuclear a very expensive way to electrodes. The electrical current split the and trees. Ground-level concentrations produce energy. Nuclear is more costly molecules of heavy water, and the posi- of ozone, the principal component of ur- than its competitors, though the figure tively charged deuterium atoms sepa- ban smog and a by-product of fossil fuel varies from utility to utility. The introduc- rated from the water molecules were burning, have doubled in the earth's at- tion of hydrogen as a storage medium drawn to a negatively charged cathode mosphere in the last century. (In the and secondary fuel source would enable made of fine palladium wire. This was the stratosphere, ozone is beneficial, form- utility companies to take advantage of off- site of the sustained fusion reaction. The ing a protective shield against ultraviolet peak usage, store the. energy, and then researchers claim that the device pro- radiation.) Unfortunately, fossil fuels pro- move it to where it's needed, making hy- duced four watts of energy for every watt vide 80 percent of the world's energy drogen a perfect complement to nuclear. used. "We hope we'll be able to work with needs, and no practical alternative is near. Safer, less expensive nuclear energy, others to develop this into a usable tech- A May 1988 Canadian conference on however, is a distant hope at best. Hydro- nology for generating heat and power for world climate change resolved that all gen fusion, lor example, has had a lot of the world," says Fleischmann. "The proc- governments must cut carbon dioxide recent exposure because of the extraor- ess is clean, and indications are it will be emissions 20 percent by the year 2005 dinary claims of a pair of researchers at economical compared with conventional and 50 percent by 2050. Jim MacKenzie, the University of Utah. (In nuclear fusion, nuclear systems." senior associate at the World Resources the nuclei of hydrogen atoms are joined Most fusion experts, however, fear it will

Institute in Washington, DC, puts the fig- to produce helium and large amounts of be years before commercial applications ure at 50 to 80 percent. "The kind of tech- energy; in fission, the process used in to- are available. But Bockris hopes Fleisch- nology that Bockris talks about would day's nuclear power plants, atoms are mann and Pons are right about the dis- have an impact on our oil dependency, split to produce energy.) The scientists covery and the cost. "If they have sus- air pollution, and the greenhouse effect claim they have created a sustained nu- tained a fusion reaction, it's wonderful," and would go a long way toward solving clear reaction— at room temperature—in Bockris says. "We would then go ahead these problems," says MacKenzie. a wire made of palladium, a metal olten with our plans for hydrogen using fusion The fuels we use today, however, are used to stimulate a chemical reaction. instead of using solar to electrolyze water." not just polluting the environment. The Martin Fleischmann, professor of elec- T Nejat Veziroglu, director of the Univer- renewables—wind, sun, or hydropow- trochemistry at the University of South- sity of Miami's Clean Energy Research er— are unreliable because wind stops, ampton, England, and B. Stanley Pons, Institute and president of the Interna- Ihe sun goes down, and water dries up. chairman ol the department of chemistry tional Association lor Hydrogen Energy, As a fuel, nuclear power is the most effi- at the University of Utah, collaborated on says that the discovery by Pons and cient, costing $.71 per million BTUs; coal the very simple experiment. They im- Fleischmann could be one of the most costs $1.58 and oil $3.04 to produce the mersed two electrodes in a container of important discoveries of the twentieth same amount. But the impact of strict heavy water, or deuterium oxide, which century. According to Veziroglu, during federal regulations coupled with the high is easily extracted from the ocean, and the production of deuterium fuel, hydro- gen would be produced as a by-prod-

uct, making it economically competitive with petroleum. The relatively clean fu- sion energy would produce cheap, abundant electricity and speed up the introduction of a hydrogen economy. For more than two decades Bockris has been a leader of a small group of scientists—about 3,000 worldwide—who hope to usher in the age of hydrogen. At the University of Madras in India, for ex- ample, R Maruthamuthu is producing hy- drogen from oxilic acid laced with a cop- per-tungsten oxide catalyst Instead of using electricity, Maruthamuthu exposes the solution to direct sunlight, which in- teracts with the catalyst to separate out

hydrogen. (Oxilic acid is used for bleach- ing and is a common laboratory medium for chemical reactions. Tungsten is a re-

-;i!iy;i: moim user, m high speed drills and in the space program; tungsten oxides are reducing agents used in chemical re- actions like Maruthamuthu's.)

In Japan, researchers working at the University of Osaka Prefecture are fine- tuning supersonic aircraft engines fueled by liguid hydrogen. At Texas A&M's Cen- ter for Electrochemical Systems and Hy- drogen Research, director John Ap- pleby, who cofounded the center with

Bockris in 1987, is making advances with a highly efficient fuel cell that will convert hydrogen into electricity. One of his "Things don't always work the way they're supposed to. Since t subscribed to graduate students concentrates on ob- The New York Times, people find me less interesting." taining hydrogen from biomass— plants and waste materials. All work toward the if talk about hy- same goal: a clean, abundant, versatile of thirteen percent," says Appleby, in DOE offices where you there's sac- energy source. Despite their lofty goals, Two years ago Bockris joined 64 other drogen they think something rilegious about it. They even speak about some in the scientific community view the scientists worldwide in signing a petition voices. Economically, they're work of hydrogen researchers as folly, thai Veziroglu had drafted calling for en- it in lowered long-term view." even referring to them as the Hydrogen vironmental surcharges on products that not taking a is Hydrogen research in the United States Mafia. "Real men drill for oil," says one damage the environment. Veziroglu largely limited to tour academic cen- scientist, laughing. considered one of the most knowledge- is the Florida Unfortunately, history has tied hydro- able researchers in the hydrogen field. In ters: the University of Miami, a.report estimating Solar Center, Texas A&M. and the Uni- gen to a disaster in which it actually 1984 he published versity of Hawaii. Meanwhile funds for played little part. Maneuvering through a both the environmenlal and health costs hydrogen energy programs at Brookha- bad thunderstorm on an overcast day in due to the burning of fossil fuels. Twenty- National Laboratory on Long Island, 1937, the dirigible Hindenburg caught fire five billion tons of carbon dioxide, car- ven in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, New York, have been cut by the DOE from as it approached a docking station bon, million to last year's Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six pas- soot, and ash poisoned the atmosphere the 1978 high of $6.5 sengers and 22 crewmen died— most that year alone—and the pollution in- $600,000—and at the end of ihis fiscal year the is shutting down the pro- leaping from the craft. What is forgotten creases every year. According to Vezir- DOE alone fossil-fuel- gram completely, shifting Brookhaven's is that 65 people walked away after the oglu, in the United States Solar Energy Re- gondola reached the ground. Because related deaths— including heart dis- responsibility to the ill- search Institute in Boulder; Colorado. To- hydrogen is light, flames rise rapidly in ease, chronic and acute respiratory according to Bockris, fewer than 40 combustion, producing little heat or nesses, cancer, and lead poisoning- day, billion annually. people do full-time hydrogen research in damage. If escape measures had been cost $133.8 the United States. And outside of military planned in advance, hydrogen would not Each year environmental costs in the only $3 million of federal have been implicated in the disaster. United States range from $4.4 billion expenditure, hydrogen energy re- Testament to the power of hydrogen as spent on land reclamation necessitated money goes into search in this country. In faci, says Jim a rocket fuel are the billions of dollars physicist at Brookha- several nations are spending on hydro- Wegrzyn, senior budget is being gen-fueled aerospaceplanes. The U.S. ven, "very little of DOE's on hydrogen. need a coherent National Aerospace Plane is being de- spent We production." Accord- veloped under a shroud of secrecy at policy for hydrogen <*Some in the United States is rela- Wrighl-Patferson Air Force Base in Ohio. ing to Bockris, the tively unprepared for the future. "In the The size of a 727, it will fly 20 miles above scientific community view the reach Mach race to produce hydrogen," he says, the earth af speeds that may work of hydrogen "we're running behind the Soviet Union, 25. In Europe the proposed aerospace folly, and West Germany." projects Hermes and HOTOL will also be researchers as even Canada, The Soviet Union, tor example, has had hydrogen fueled. Still on the drawing referring to them history of success with hydrogen. In boards, Hermes is a French venture sim- a as the Hydrogen Mafia. "Real 1942, during the siege of Leningrad, fuel ilar lo the U.S. shuttle, and HOTOL is a for vehicles ran out, so automobiles and British version of the aerospaceplane. men drill for oil," commercial passen- trucks were modified to run on the hydro- Japan's hypersonic scientist, laughing.^ says one in floating the city's ger plane, with a cruising speed of Mach gen stored for use many aniiai re raff defense balloons. In the 5, will also be fueled by hydrogen. early Sixties the Soviets shifted to hydro- If hydrogen is one of the highest-qual- gen as the main fuel in their space pro- ity fuels available, if it's safe and clean, gram. At the seventh annual hydrogen as scieniists like Bockris claim, why hasn't held last September in there been a concerted effort to develop by strip mining lo $73 billion in damage energy council Moscow, the Soviets renewed their com- it? The" problem, contend hydrogen op- caused by leakage from underground mitment io hydrogen research. Months ponents, is the prohibitive cost of pro- gas tanks. Another $8.2 billion is lost in rain. earlier, a scientist reported, one of three ducing hydrogen as a fuel. "I think a hy- farm produce due to ozone and acid engines on a Soviet Tu-155 commercial drogen economy is unlikely," says Mark "The environment subsidizes the existing jet had been fueled entirely by hydrogen Mills, president of Science Concepts, Inc., fuel mix," says Rafe Pomerance, senior flight. And in Siberia a Washington, DC, energy consulting firm. associate tor policy affairs at the World during a 21-minute preparations are under way to drill for "It's not going to compefe with existing Resources Institute. "Not internalizing the are to underground energy programs, not unless it's half the price of fhe climate-change risks and what hoped be of hydrogen. price of what already exists." Carl Gold- other environmental costs of fossil fuel streams spirited pursuif of a hydro- stein, a vice-president of the U.S. Council delays the onset of alternatives." Canada's in government- for Energy Awareness (USCEA), con- Today Bockris is working to keep his gen society is captured a least commissioned report entitled Hydro- curs: "It's not a perfect fuel. It has haz- dream alive. "We think the world—at ards such as high combustibility, but the the United States or Wesi Germany, to gen—National Mission for Canada. With of natural gas, the fossil- main drawback is the cost of producing begin with —will be a wonderful place," large reserves vision is held back only by rich Alberta Oil Sands, and the giant hy- it. There must be a reason why there's he says. "My Bay. been no breakthrough in the past thirty the political climate of the moment." droelectric facilities in St. James is to produce hy- years," he continues. "It will take a lot of Last summer, even as Congress held Canada certainly ready near future. Hydrogen work to get to a hydrogen economy." hearings on the greenhouse effect, the drogen in the The Council (HIC), an organization Even so, a growing number of author- Department of Energy (DOE) was cut- Industry Pari corporations including Esso ities in the scientific and environmental ting funds for most energy programs. of about 50 communities say that when you take into of the legacy of the Reagan era is that Petroleum and Atomic Energy of Canada the possibility of account the cost of pollution from fossil the burden of preparing for the nation's Ltd., is' considering national rail from fuels, which Appleby estimates at about long-term energy needs has been shifted switching the system under $1 per gallon of gasoline, hydrogen may to the private sector, which is driven en- diesel fuel to liquid hydrogen. Also prove economically competitive. "This tirely by short-term profits. "The DOE consideration: exporting cheap electric- figure puts a hidden tax on the gross na- seems so biased and fixed in an antihy- ity in the form of hydrogen to Europe. acid tional product somewhere on the order drogen direction," Bockris says. "I've been West Germans, angered because 72 OMNI rain caused by fossil fuels is destroying modate hydrogen, or the fuel could be IPJTELLIBEnJCE their forests, are searching for alternative mixed with natural gas as an extender. energy forms. Incensed and shaken by Newer'homes would be heated entirely the potential aftermath of the 1986 Cher- by hydrogen. And eventually, instead of an innovative oil lamp by the Greek in- nobyl accident, the West German gov- stopping at gas stations, people could ventor Philon in about 300 b.c Philon's ernment has created a $100 million an- refuel their cars at home from small com- original goal was to create a lamp that nual budget for hydrogen research, with pressors installed in their garages. would burn much longer than conven- another $100 million being spent by the "You have to be very careful," Williams tional lamps without refueling. So Wil- private sector. Daimler-Benz, for in- warns. 'As Far as economics is con- liams broke down the components of stance, the parent company of Mercedes, cerned, it's going to be a wash between Philon's lamp design into a series of is testing hydro gen -fueled cars. Three hydrogen and all the synfuels [synthetic equations. These components included German corporations are putting a super- or liquid fuels made from domestic coal a lamp with a small fuel chamber at its quiet, hydrogen-powered submarine or oil shale]. But as far as usefulness and base; a larger, spherical fuel reservoir; a through tests at sea. West Germany's the future of the environment is con- jar of oil; and an array of small pipes and aerospace agency has contracted with cerned, hydrogen's a clear winner." valves. Among the properties also mer- Saudi Arabia to build a 350-kilowatt so- Bockris has never been more encour- iting an equation were the force of gravity lar-hydrogen facility near the sun- aged. "Their work is really the best justi- on the lamp and its fuel; the behavior of the oil in a closed system;, the way drenched town of Riyadh. And a $27 mil- fication I could wish for as proof of the and lion, 500-kilowatt soiar-hydrogen facility ideas that I've had since 1975," he says. the oil, the chambers, and the valves is planned for Bavaria. In his world of tomorrow he sees the once worked together to fuel the lamp. Although the United States has balked dangerously polluted cities of Europe and A key modification that Williams for- at throwing its weight behind hydrogen the United States powered entirely by hy- mulated into a numerical equation in- research and development, Bockris is drogen. Acid rain has disappeared. The volved a valve that lay between the large tireless in his commitment to his hydro- skies have cleared. Global warming has fuel chamber and the smaller chamber gen dream, traveling the globe to attend eased, and the air-pollution problem has at the base of the lamp. Philon had de- conferences, visiting universities, speak- long since been solved. Developing signed the valve so that when there was ing to anyone who will listen. countries are also nonclilhg from a world plenty of oil in the lower chamber, the Last December Bockris followed the that has "gone hydrogen." Burned as a pressure of the liquid against the valve level route of one of his imaginary pipelines gas. hydrogen heats homes and cools kept it closed. When the oil dropped, that he hopes someday will carry hydro- appliances. And in a world that has be- the valve opened, and more oil flowed gen from Texas to New Jersey. There he come increasingly electric, hydrogen is into the smaller chamber. visited Joan Ogden and Robert Williams, pumped into highly efficient electro- When Williams ran his Q1 math on this researchers at the Center for Energy and chemical fuel cells, which convert it to design, the computer verified that Phi- Environmental Studies at Princeton Uni- cheap and steady current. This simple lon's original blueprint would work. Q1 versity, who are studying the possibilities element fuels everything from light- had mathematically reworked the thought of using amorphous silicon photovoltaics weight, nonpolluting automobiles to the processes of Philon's mind and arrived to produce hydrogen. aerospaceplanes that shuttle between at the same conclusion. Williams's next In the past solar cells could be made New York and Tokyo or Moscow in two step is to see if 01 can actually replace commercially only through a costly crys- hours time. And the only by-product of Philon. His plan is to set up the equations tal-growing process. And while the cells' hydrogen's powerful combustion is a so that the computer can look at the com- 31 percent efficiency is better than that clean, harmless water vapor, produced ponents and principles of the oil lamp of fossil fuels, the cost of manufacture has as it rejoins the oxygen in the air. The va- before Philon applied his creative genius made their use in a solar-hydrogen sys- por is so clean, in fact, that many regions to bettering it. Then if Q1 is as powerful

thinks, it should able to tem prohibitive. Williams and Ogden, convert it to drinking water. as Williams be however, are structuring their work around With the plane! running entirely on a actually "reinvent" certain innovative significantly cheaper amorphous silicon hydrogen economy, the. world's wealth components of Philon's lamp. cells. (Amorphous silicon solar cells, like has shifted. Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, India, The long-term goal, of course, is a those on the faces of tiny electronic cal- the Sudan—countries that invested in computer that can use basic principles culators, generate power from indirect solar energy— are the rich nations. For- to arrive at a wide variety of novel de- ; light. Today these cells also charge bat- ward-looking coL,r hes like Canada and signs. Williams admits that talk of an "au- teries that power everything from cars to West Germany profit by exporting their tomated engineer" makes its human boats to electric fences.) advanced hydrogen technology. And the counterparts nervous. But he insists that Where would Williams and Ogden be- United States, which for so long lagged "we don't really want to yank the design- gin to apply their research? Phoenix, Ar- behind in developing a solar-hydrogen er's job away from him." A computerized izona— hypothetical^, that is. In 1987 system, has struggled back, deploying "apprentice system"--a designer's little Phoenix violated federal air-quality stan- its firsf solar-paneled space platform, helper— could become a sort of para-ex- dards for ozone, carbon monoxide, and The stuff of fantasy, some researchers pert, able to advise the engineer on spe- particulates 33 times, Williams says. 'At would say. But in 1874 an engineer ship- cific areas and thereby allow him to con- first, hydrogen produced from existing wrecked with several other people in centrate on the big picture. electrical power plants during off-peak Jules Verne's Mysterious Island was Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of hours could run a fleet of 30,000 vehicles asked what man would use for fuel when Williams's computer machinations is their with photovoltaic [PV] cells, eventually the earth's coal finally ran out. "Water," potential for enlightening us about the supplying the energy for hydrogen pro- the engineer responded. "Yes, my friends, human mind and its capacity for endless foremost," says, duction." In 25 years half of the cars in I believe that water will one day be em- invention. "First and he Phoenix could be fueled by a 20- to 30- ployed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxy- "human beings are tool builders—we square-mile field of PV cells, depending gen which constitute it, used singly or to- meet new challenges in the environment on their efficiency. gether, will.furnish an inexhaustible source by thinking up new instruments to deal Then, Ogden and Williams argue, the of heat and light." In 1974, 100 years after with them. That's the process we want to solar farms could be expanded to other Verne's prophecy, with the completion of comprehend. It will take at least fifty years parts of the country via pipeline. In the Energy: The Solar Hydrogen Alternative, until the computer actually becomes an Northeast, heating systems in older Bockris may well have designed the per- inventor," he continues. "But Q1 will be homes could be retrofitted to accom- fect energy system.OQ the first step." DO 74 OMNI "My goal is not to 'be with' dolphins in the open ocean as we encounter some adventure," says the world's leading cetacean- intelligence investigator. "I'm interested in communicating more effectively with dolphins and learning how they communicate." irUTERXJIEWJ

Tankside al the Univer- Head Crater, an extinct vol- sity of Hawaii's Kewalo cano, looms against the Pacific Basin Marine Mammal to the east, where parasailors Laboratory, director Louis Her- float off Waikiki. Below in two 50- man is pirouetting in front of a loot-wide pools, four dolphins pool. The dolphin Phoenix spots work and play. Their porcelain- him and spins in turn— a man- like figures burst from the water to-sea-mammal game of Simon in jumps so exultant as to pro- says. Two dogs, part of the fa- claim that every part of their cility's ever-growing menag- being, from their sleek gray erie, follow Herman up the steps backs to their pearly-while un- of a 12-loot-high redwood ob- dersides, is experiencing sen- servation tower equipped with sations more exquisite than we computer terminals, a Yamaha can imagine. Watching, it's easy DX7 synthesizer, and a sound for us to anthropomorphize. system connected to under- Their anatomy evolved so that water microphones. Diamond they seem to be perpetually

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALAN CX LEVENSON —

smiirg as i they've found some higher cisse'ta'ion or how efficiently humans krow doe-- Iho key to hapoiness. handle simultaneous tasks. One of the How much do they really know? Over earliest attempts to use the concepts of the years scientists have argued that lin- information processing to understand the guistic communication and comprehen- human ability to handle multiple de- sion is the sole hallmark of thought and a mands, the thesis won the American In- uniquely human characteristic. After suc- stitute for Research's C.reative Talent

cess; 1.) ly :oach'rg a complex vocabulary Award. This honor persuaded Herman to to two 12-year-old female Atlantic bottle- leave an Ohio job on decision making in nosed dolphins, Herman has proved for antisubmarine warfare systems—deter-

the first time that dolphins understand not mining and Classifying targets received only language bet grammar and syntax by sonar to make them more reliable as well. Beginning in 1979 Phoenix and and return to academe to begin the dol- Akeakamai were each taught an artificial phin work for which he is best known. "To

language: Phoenix's consisted of elec- this day." he says, "as I see dolphins as tronically generated compute' whistles; active processors of information, these Ake's was based on arm gestures. The are concepts Broadbent advanced." languages have their own rules for syn- In 1966 Herman began work as an ex- tactic word order, and with these words perimental psychologist a", ".he University thousands of sentences— of up to five of Hawaii. The next summer, recognizing words—as well as two-word questions there was little objective information on can be constructed. the learning abilities of dolphins, he "bor-

function. "What is revealed almost al- dolphin Kea, he set up a sonic language ways turns out to be more interesting than consisting of a small vocabulary with a the mundane "antasies people nainlain miniature grammar. The work was pro- about dolphins," he says from an office gressing quickly. But just as rapidly it decked with the sweeping plate (feeding stopped. Already soft-spoken, Herman's bristles] from the mouth oi a oa sen wha e. throat seems to tighten as he speaks of photos of lab residents—human and an- the 1977 night when two disgruntled ex- imal —and scripts from Peter Benchley s emp ovees who had recently been dis- TV series Dolphin Cove, for which he is charged from the lab packed Puka and the consulting scientist. Kea into a van, transported (hem almost Herman lives on a ridge at the eastern 50 miles, and released them into Oahu's end of Oahu with his wife and nine-year- Yokohama Bay. Unfamiliar with Pacific old daughter, whose soccer team he av- waters and hand-fed 'most of their lives, idly coaches. A suntanned, bearded man Puka and Kea disappeared; most likely with a head oi sa.[-ancipepoer curls, he they met with violent deaths. was born and raised in the borough of The tragedy undoubtedly marked Her-

Queens, New York. His love for the ocean man for life. As I sit facing him, listening

and its inhabitants was nurtured by sum- to the dolphins so asnng playfully in the

mers at the shore and as a lifeguard al brilliant orange dusk on:sce his office, Rockaway Beach. A powerful swimmer, the pain in his voice makes me want to he briefly held the Hawaii state record in dive into the ocean and search every inch

the 50-meter freestyle for men over forty. of it until I find them. But it is also clear to

After receiving B.A. and M.A. degrees in me that Herman and his colleagues have psychology from the City University of moved zealously forward. New York. Herman did a brief stint as an Almost a year and a half after the theft, Air Force intelligence of- ce<" before con- two new dolphins arrived. Herman named cluding his doctoral work at Emory and them Akeakamai, which means "lover of Pennsylvania State universities. wisdom," and Phoenx, whose name was In a library at Penn State, Herman hap- chosen to represent the rebirth of the lab. pened upon a book by British psycholo- In the last decade, scientists have gist Donald Broadbent that shaped the come to regard Herman's work with these course of his career. Perception and colphins as the most advanced in the field Communication, written in 1958, became of animal-language research. He has also his biWe and the stimulus for his doctoral begun teaching two four-year-olds aa

Haipo, a male, and Elele, a female— whales manage their lives. In the open thing that sounded whalelike. We played language that may enable them lo com- ocean, we look at the whales' migration back copies of songs the whales pro- municate with each other. And in what between their summer feeding grounds duce here on their winter grounds. As a may be his most ambitious avenue of re- in Alaskan waters and winter breeding control we also played back this Alaskan wanted a search, he is trying to decipher their nat- and calving grounds here in Hawaii. We're feeding sound because we ural vocalizations.— Justine Kaplan looking at social behavior and social af- sound the whales made that was not rel- filiations as well as calf rearing and care. evant to their presence in Hawaii. Mob-

I discovered that Omni: Obviously you're best known in the We identify individual whales and trace ley, Adam Frankel, and percent of the tar- scientific community for your dolphin re- their behaviors, and we can identity l horn about twenty whales search. But you captured public atten- by photographing the tail fluke when the geted with this feeding sound literally their tracks perhaps from tion with the rescue of the humpback whale dives after being on the surface for stopped in and, kilometer or away, turned and whale Humphrey in the fall of 1985. What a while. During some dives the whales a more small vessel. other happened then? throw their flukes in the air, nearly verti- charged toward our No reliably provoked such a totally un- Herman: Humphrey had turned into San cally. If you're close enough lo film the song Francisco Bay and begun to swim up the characteristics of that fluke, you have a expected and dramatic response. winter songs Sacramento River. He swam farther and "mug shot"—the whale's fingerprints. Joe Omni: Are they drawn to the farther and for three weeks resisted all Mobley, Scott Baker, Anjenette Perry, and in the same way? catalog of about Herman: They didn't approach our un- attempts to drive him back down. People I have just published a speaker in response to song. banged on pipes in the water, a method twelve thousand whales we've identified derwater have that the Japanese use for driving dolphins. in Hawaii and elsewhere. Roger and Katy Payne shown the winter, male whales sing long, They exploded small cracker bombs in Some years we've gone up to the sum- during consisting of a series of the water. They gunned the motors ot their mer feeding grounds in Alaska and stud- complex songs boats. Humphrey would turn down- ied whales during the other half of their themes repeated in a certain sequence. to, say, theme six stream for a while, then, as quickly, return lives. Up there it's a very different social To go from theme one upstream. After three weeks Humphrey may take twelve to fifteen minutes. The then resumes with theme one and was more than fifty miles upstream, and song again. During that his skin was beginning to slough off be- repeats the sequence whale'may be about sixty to one cause he had been in fresh water for a time the hundred feet under, usually alone, head prolonged period. California authorities ^Humphrey stopped called a conference. There were about down at about a forty-five-degree angle, spread out. Multiple twelve of us on the phone from North in his tracks, wheeled around, big pectoral fins whales may be singing at the same time, America discussing Humphrey for about and charged. They but not in synchrony. four hours. I suggested that instead of analogy is to male driving Humphrey, we try to lure him out frantically waved the woman Now, the obvious birds singing to attract females. And with using a particular whale feeding sound I back onboard, put and my colleagues had recorded. No- birds you see females coming in and as- the boat in gear, and started song ot the bird body else knew of such a thing, so there sociating with males. The males as well. But was a great deal of skepticism. But mine downstream. The serves to deter other else has seen was really the only plan. An hour or two neither we nor anybody whale followed for 53 miles.^ songs alter the conference, attendees called direct evidence that these whale They may back and asked me to send a tape of the serve a reproductive purpose. to create sort of sound sound to them. enable a male a female That was a Thursday evening, and by space around himself. Possibly a singer, Sunday evening they were ready to test listens to the song of a particular the system aboard a vessel called the structure: The whales are much more comparing it to other songs to make some of the Bootlegger. They got within about half a asocial in Alaska than they are in Hawaii, judgments about the "fitness" then issues kilometer of Humphrey. Then, as all sci- often feeding independently. Occasion- singer. And perhaps she entists do, they decided to calibrate their ally we see groups of whales who seem some signal to that male, possibly a vo- her. equipment. One of their investigators — to be working together to corral schools cal signal, that tells him to come to singers stop singing and leave woman scientist—went out in a rowboat of krill or fish. During collaborative feed- We do see with a hydrophone [underwater speaker] ings in Alaska, Scott Baker, who is a for- and join other groups. that the singing to study the sound. When she got into mer graduate student now at the National We've hypothesized ovu- position and signaled ready, the sounds Cancer Institute, recorded a sound that may serve to synchronize females' water, into ovulation at a started. Humphrey stopped in his tracks, whales make while .they're under lation, to bring females wheeled around, and charged the Boot- corralling the food. time when multiple males are present, so is likely to re- legger. He caught everybody by sur- Usually this sound comes from one copulation, when it occurs, prise. They. frantically waved the woman whale who issues a series of trumpeting sult in impregnation. These whales have back onboard, put the boat in gear, and calls to the group, very much like an el- traveled thousands of miles to the breed- started downstream. Humphrey followed ephant call except louder. Moments later ing ground. They've invested a lot of time the vessel for fifty-three miles— seven the whole group of eight to ten whales and energy in getting there. What a hours —with the sound playing intermit- erupt vertically through the surface like shame to go back without reproductive Old whal : nG records show that tently throughout—all the way back to the missiles being launched, mouths agape; success. Golden Gate Bridge. The next day he was and they polish off the school. We used the vast majority of females killed on the winter breeding still in the Golden Gate area. The sound this "feeding sound" in the spring of 1985 way back from the was resumed, and Humphrey followed during some playback studies with an grounds were pregnant. the vessel under the bridge and out to underwater loudspeaker in Hawaii to try Omni: Do animals, especially whales and the open ocean. He's been seen in suc- to understand vocal communication. dolphins, have consciousness? cessive summers since then, alive and From our sixteen-foot Boston Whaler, Herman: I would say yes, but that's a slip- that well, feeding about twenty-five miles west we used an underwater loudspeaker, pery term. It's better to ask questions Are an- of San Francisco. weighing one hundred and twenty can be answered by experiment. Omni: How did you discover this sound? pounds, powered by an eight-hundred- imals aware of themselves? Do they have Herman: We've been studying how watt amplifier in order to produce some- images and representations they can re-

BO " OMNI —

fer to? Consciousness does not neces- biologically engineered to remember the tles. We extended this work by assigning sarily require language. You can be aware status of its nesting holes and virtually some sounds to objects. After training, of your feelings, your bodily states, or noihing else. In contrast, the dolphin is the dolphin was shown an object such as nonlinguistic inputs such as touch. Lan- capable of remembering totally arbiirary a ball, hoop, or Frisbee and reliably re- guage allows us to report on what those events of no relevance to its natural world, sponded wifh a particular vocal label. In states are but language is not necessary of no relevance to what's biologically im- general, dolphins exhibit a great deal of flexibility. for the existence of such states. portant. And it can report its memory in vocal Omni: What is your definition of intelli- ways that are totally arbitrary, that are not Mark Xifco, a former graduate student gence, then? fhe natural conventions of the species. of my lab who is now working at the Liv- Herman: From my point of view and that As another exampfe, when a bee (Lies ing Seas Pavilion at Epcot Center, has of some other people who work with an- back after foraging and, through its rit- shown the dolphins' ability to imitate other imals, we generally mean flexibility, the ualized dance, indicates a large abun- dolphins or humans. In these studies one ability to change behavior. Intelligent an- dance of nectar at a certain angle and dolphin served as the model, and the imals are able to construct a detailed im- distance from the nest, that's an impres- other as observer. The observer could age of the world based on experience sive demonstration of symbolic report- imitate the model's behavior immediately and accumulated knowledge. An animal ing. And it's delayed reporting as well, in or even after delays as long as eighty needs to construct fairly detailed models that there may be an appreciable interval seconds. The existence of both capabil- of reality in order to behave, react, re- of time since the bee found the flower. ities, vocal and motor mimicry, has yet to spond appropriately when different as- Again, however, what else can the bee be demonstrated in ofher species be- dolphins. Birds pects of that reality emerge, including remember? Can it remember things that sides humans and may new aspects. Intelligence thus relies on have no biological relevance? Things that be wonderful vocal mimics, but they aren't the ability to store and utilize new knowl- are completely arbitrary? Probably only capable of motor mimicry. Monkeys are edge, along with strategies and rules that with limited capacity at best. Can a bee good motor mimics but aren't capable of have been learned or that may be de- report explicitly that ihere is no nectar? vocal mimicry. vised. Omni: Do you think the vocal repertoire Omni: Can animals think? will be extended to human-dolphin com- municaiion? Herman: If you define language as the sole source of thinking, the answer is no Herman: Not, easily. The problem is, we don't have any instruments other than the if you say animals have no language. That Qlf I were a remains to be seen. The question for re- human ear to identify a sound the dolphin dolphin's vocabulary of searchers is to determine what aspects dolphin, I'd most admire my produces. As the of language may be acquired by ani- sounds increases, it becomes very diffi- ability to go mals, and to what degree. We should cult for the human ear to make reliable never expect animals to approach even beyond what's necessary, to judgments quickly. So we had to aban- that path. we have two new dol- the capabilities of the young child in lan- process information don But guage performance, as we would not ex- phins who are being trained in bofh ges- having nothing to do with my pect a human to approach the capabili- tural and acoustic tasks which opens the ties of a dolphin in swimming. Perhaps a experience possibility of dolphin-dolphin communi- dolphin would not call what we do swim- cation. Our planned approach will use within the natural world.V represent ming. Our task is to define the limitations keyboards on which keys and abilities of dolphins and other ani- words. Dolphins themselves make vo- mals for languagelike behaviors. callzattons, but so far no one has evi- Omni: Is intelligence different trom one dence that these vocalizations have species to another? properties of language or that they even that Herman: Any species demonsfrates in- The answer seems to be that if can only act as symbols. We've been studying carefully. telligence to the extent that it demon- give positive reports. In contrasi, in our very

strates appropriate flexibility in its behav- studies we have shown the dolphin can Omni: I observed two dolphins who were

ior. For example, we've shown dolphins report the absence of objects as well as separated from each other by a board. can remember new sounds heard after their presence. One was told to jump over an object, and delays of several minutes. They can also And absence is information. By report- the other, whose eyes were covered, was remember things briefly shown to them ing the presence or absence of some told to "mimic" this behavior. How is it that after delays of several minutes. But when Frisbees in his tank, the dolphin reveals the second dolphin imitated the first dol- you present this kind of result to an ani- exceptional flexibility. The dolphin can phin perfectly? mal behaviorist, he might say that's not understand references to objects or re- Herman: It's possible that the first dolphin very impressive. After all, critters called lations among objects having nothing to was vocalizing in a way that communi- digger wasps can remember for hours do with the dolphin's experience in the cated what the task was. It's also possi- the status of food stored in their nesting natural world and having no relevance for ble that by listening to the splashes ac-

I if particular behavior, the holes. These wasps dig holes in the sand survival or reproduction. think I were companying a and lay their eggs there. When the eggs a dolphin or any animal, I'd admire this observer dolphin could judge what be- hatch, the larvae need food. Each morn- kind of talent, the ability to go beyond havior fhe other was performing. If one ing the wasp visits the various nesting what's necessary to what's arbitrary. dolphin jumps over a Frisbee, the sec- holes, takes an inventory of the food, goes Omni: Can dolphins imitate sounds from ond may hear the first leave and reenter out, gets food, and restocks the holes of human voices or computers? the water. The assumption the dolphin those who need it, in the.amount needed, Herman: We've presented Ake with a va- makes is that you jump over whatever's based solely on what she remembered riety of computer-generated sounds there. So hearing the sound, the dolphin from the morning rounds. through a hydrophone. The dolphin lis- might infer that the other was jumping over

That certainly exceeds our demon- tens to the speaker, turns to an adjacent the Frisbee. It may be a nonlinguishc stration that dolphins remember for min- underwater microphone, and then whis- phenomenon not requiring vocal com- utes new things.heard or seen. But when tles in imitation of that sound. The dolphin munication. Or maybe both are involved. you pose to the zoologist the question' reliably imitated a wide variety of whistle It's always tempting to set up dichoto- "What else can the digger wasp remem- sounds— pure tones of constant fre- mies, but often the truth is a bit oi both. ber?" you get a blank stare. The wasp is quency and frequency-modulated whis- Omni: Is their hearing that finely tuned? 82 OMNI —

Herman: You're dealing with probably the of light dancing about on the screen as in turn and never making an integrated besi hearing in the animal kingdom. compared to with hands or full body. We response, we created what we call an in- There's no doubt they can hear almost wanted to see whether this might prove verse grammar for relational sentences anything we produce in our tasks. But djfflcu.il for humans, too. So we exposed for the dolphin Ake, trained in the ges- how they go about using that information twenty-one of our trainers to those same tural language. To tell Ake to take the ball fetch." is the question. white spots and asked them to tell us what to the person, we say, "Person ball Omni: Are you going to try to analyze the they meant. The trainers were divided into Ake thus has to integrate all the words in sounds they make? fourgroups: experts, intermediates, nov- the sequence to interpret what she.should Herman: We have done some of this al- ices, and short-term volunteers. The re- do. Our analysis calls the destination the ready. We've found that during the be- sults indicated that the dolphins per- indirect object, whereas the object ma- havioral mimicry there are differences in formed better than ail of these groups, nipulated or carried is the direct object. vocalizations depending on the behavior except for the expert group. The grammar tor Ake is indirect object term. In performed. Again the question is: Do We're also looking at TV technology to plus direct object plus relational these represent some form of intentional see whether dolphins. might understand Phoenix's language it is expressed as di- communication from dolphin A to dolphin scenes of dolphins or humans shown to rect object plus relational term plus indi- B, or are they arbitrary vocalizations that them on television, and whether they use rect object. accompany a behavior, like a human who those TV images as models. So far our Omni: What have you not been able to or grunt results are negative. We're also studying teach dolphins? . may squeal excitedly in one case don't why the in another? We are looking further into the whether dolphins, like humans, have Herman: We understand issue in studies being conducted at our hemispheric brain specializations for dolphin hasn't learned certain things. We laboratory by graduate students Sara various abilities. Now that we've taught attempted to teach the concept of "not." that "not" serve as a Parten and Kristin Jerger. Also dolphins an artificial language, is it specialized in The idea was would seldom give a visible identification when one hemisphere of the dolphin cortex or logical modifier to precede an object they vocalize. Peter Tyack of Woods Hole the other to differing degrees 7 And more term. For example, "Not ball over" meant has been working out the technology to 'Jump over anything but the ball." We tried attach some simple receiver to a dolphin. unsuccessfully for eight months to teach When the dolphin makes a sound, a lighl "not." The dolphin seemed to grasp the glows on the receiver. In related work meaning at times; at other times, it Richard Ferraro, we will at- seemed the dolphin was attempting to proposed by mW& exposed tach an instrument that will place a time interpret "not" as an object term. stamp on a vocalization. So from the re- 21 of our trainers to the same Another difficulty involves teaching concepts of large and small. We used a cording, say, we will see that Phoenbs was dancing spots on vocalizing at time 00010. And Phoenix's large and small hoop, a large and small behavior during the vocalization was the screen. The results were basket, and a large and small ball. We created particular gestures for large and jumping over the hoop. Does that vocal- 'that the dolphins ization occur each time she jumps over a small. Then we might sign, "Large hoop better than the hoop? Does Ake make that same sound performed tail-touch," or "Small hoop tail-touch." As when she jumps over a hoop? This tech- humans did, long as the dolphin was shown the hoops nology promises to open a whole new in advance and the hoops were placed except for the expert group3 window to understanding behavioral in the water within her view, she could communication. respond reliably. Problems occurred Omni: What other dolphin research is in when we attempted to generalize be- the works? yond that initial context. Herman: A whole bunch of studies using Omni: What happens when the dolphin television technology. Palmer Morrel- generally, are there various performance is asked to react to an anomaly— carry function of their out task that is impossible or respond Samuels, Adam Pack, and I have re- differences as a com- a cently demonstrated that dolphins can plexity in the different hemispheres, as to a nonsense word? understand instructions given by tele- there are in humans? Herman: We presented dolphins with vised images ot signers [trainers making Omni: Phoenix and Ake are trained in two three different kinds of anomalies. In the body signals] about as well as they can different languages. Do these languages semantic anomaly we ask something like. from live signers. The dolphin swims down have different grammatical rules? Take the window to the surfboard, the in the to an underwater window. Behind the Herman: Yes. We construct two kinds of window being a permanent fixture window, the window is a TV monitor displaying a tel- sentences when we give dolphins com- tank. Instead of going to the evised image of a signer being filmed in mands. One, called the nonrelational in- dolphin may go to some other object and re- a remote location. The dolphin peers at struction, asks the dolphin to take an ac- take it to the surfboard: a substitution the TV monitor, sees the signer, and car- tion toward a specific object. For example, sponse, rearranging reality. ries out the behavior signaled by the sign "Pipe tail-touch ".means "Touch any pipe Stricter examples are where no ap- or sequence of gestures. with the tail flukes." The other kind, called proximation is involved. For example, We don't have to show the trainer's a relational sentence, asks the dolphin to when asked to swim through a hoop lying whole body; just his white hands in black construct a relationship between two ob- flat on the tank bottom, the dolphin raises

if to space are sufficient, or even white spots jects by taking one object to another ob- it in order to swim through. Or asked of light dancing about the screen, tracing ject or putting one object on top of an- jump over a surfboard that's resting out the dynamics of the gestures. This other. For the relational sentences the against the side of the tank, the dolphin capability, by the way, was' not trained. grammar and word order are different. will swim to the surfboard, move it out to We simply directed the dolphins to the The acoustical language taught to Phoe- the tank center, then jump over it. underwater window, and to our surprise, nix uses a left-to-right grammar for rela- In lexical anomalies we substitute non- they immediately responded appropri- tional sentences in which the order of in- sense words for known words. If the sub- ately to the televised images. struction corresponds to the order of stitute word was an action word— if you "Ball over" We also tested, the humans' response execution. If we ask Phoenix to take the said "Bali glub" instead of to to these images. The dolphins' perform- ball to the person, we would express it as the dolphin will simply refuse carry out ance dropped somewhat during thetrial "Ball fetch person." To test whether the the behavior. If we substitute a nonsense in which they were exposed to white spots dolphin was just responding to each word word for an object term, " 'Glub' over," the 84 OMNI is not In dolphin will pick out whatever object it The question is, Does the dolphin have And this aSjsoluioiy trained. dolphins have fairly broad con- wishes and jump over it. In syntactic a concept of what the word refers to? The general, anomalies, instead of saying "Hoop ball word ball doesn't refer to a particular ball; cepts of words they're given. With chil- kind of thing: As fetch," we may say "Fetch hoop ball," a it refers 'to "ballness." Words and the things dren we see the same rearrangement of word order. Or we might they refer to are not equivalent. Objects they begin to develop, they broaden and create a string [of words] in which there may have functions that exceed the sharpen the boundaries of words. We shouldn't lose sight of limitations hu- was an embedded grammatical seg- boundaries of the word. If we sit on the the ment with extra words added such as floor and put our dinner on the chair, the man beings have in learning language limitations "basket hoop tail touch." In a number of chair is a table at that point. To the extent when we discuss the these an- cases the dolphin extracted the embed- that the dolphin understands the words imals have. ded grammatical segment out of the in her language- as referring io concepts, Omni: Are there Gihcr techniques that you to dolphins' ability for longest string and operated on it. Gen- such as "ballness" or "throughness" or have used measure erally, our results with syntactic anoma- "hungriness," yes, the dolphin is showing abstraction? lies show the dolphin is very sensitive to awareness of abstractions. Herman: Perhaps a more telling test of word order and violations of word order. We did tests to see, for example, what their ability to form representations and Omni: University of Pennsylvania psy- a hoop is to a dolphin. A hoop is not just abstractions occurs in the "referential re- chologist David Premack has claimed that the hoop used in training the animal. It's porting" procedure, where the animal

in it, relatively understands a reference to an object . the items dolphins respond to are all con- anything with an opening investi- crete, that human language consists of large to its perimeter. So we have round, that's absent. Investigator after abstract items, not just objects, proper- square, and little hoops; hoops thai float gator has put his finger on the ability to refer displaced in ties, and actions. Have dolphins shown and hoops that lie on the bottom, All of to events or objects they understand abstract concepts? these are "hoop," when you use the sym- space or time as a key aspect of human to dis- Herman: One has to question the validity bol for hoop. With respect to actions, if language. That's what enables us past, lo- of Premack's analysis in the first place. we teach the dolphin to go under some- cuss the future, or some other are now. He was trying to say thai objects, prop- thing, is "under" restricted to that object, cation as opposed to where we erties, and actions are rather simple to going under a certain way? Or is there Lack of this has been seen as a limitation things, that any animal could point to an a concept of being or passing beneath, in animal performance, animals being primarily object, while language deals with ab- or "underness"? We see that the dolphin, viewed as operating in the here stractions. In fact, language mainly con- in fact, really has a concept of "under- and now. It's only been recently demon- sists of words that refer to objects, prop- ness." She will pick up a hoop lying flat strated by Sue Savage-Rurnbaugh, a psychologist at the Yerkes Primate Re- erties, and actions. And with animals we on the bottom of the tank, raise it up ver- Center, that are able to un- simply express symbolically through tically, and then dart under it in order to search apes words the objects, properties, and ac- carry out the "hoop under" command. derstand a reference to something that is tions, or their relationships, that we wish She manipulates the world so that she not in [heir presence. his 1986 book, basically the animals to attend to. can create that action. Premack, in dismissed comprehension of "motor commands," as he called them, as say- ing anything about language compe- tency. Asking dolphins to jump over a ball or over something, he said, is a limited procedure that does little justice to the ability to use language to access knowl- edge about the wortd. Then he says, "A language-competent individual who knows about tigers, for instance, can an- swer queslions about them, even though no tigers are in view. And similarly, a lan- guage-competent dolphin who knows about the usual disposition of objects in a tank should be able to answer ques- tions about these matters, although they are not in view." In our reporting studies we asked the dolphins exactly that; What is the dispo- sition of objects in your tank? Is there a Frisbee, a ball, a hoop? And Ake re- sponded by repeating that a particular

object was present, or that it was absent. Omni: Do you think that terms developed for human language: competency should be used when one is assessing animal competency? Herman: Some feel that you should use

a term only if you can demonstrate that

the animal uses it in all the ways a human does. That's obviously unduly restrictive. A dolphin might think that humans don't demonstrate swimming ability until we've

demonstrated all the things a dolphin can

do, like leaping fifteen feet from the water, staying underwater tor fifteen minutes, swimming at twenty knots, and so forth.

CON I INuEC) ON PAGE 97 ^Existing international space law does not cover the eventuality of contact with extraterrestrials.^

Astronomers involved Toward this end,

in the search for ex- addsprotocol contribu- traterrestrial intelli- tor and NASA Ames Center researcher Jill gence—or SET I—con- tinually scan the heav- Tarter, "we are |ust try- ens for radio signals ing lo reinforce the from advanced socie- need for caution ties. But what would within the scientific at they do if contact community the were actually made? same time as we con- That's the question vince the public that asked in "The SETI extraterrestrial contact ," will Protocol a documen I be announced." written by U.S State Even so, not all Department official Mi- SETI investigators are chael Michaud behind the protocol. Presented at the re- Paul Horowitz of Har- cent International As- vard, for example, tronautical Congress says, "I am strongly in Bangalore. India, apathetic." He be- the protocol is meant lieves SETI is no dif- to be signed by all as- ferent from any other tronomers Involved In scientific issue and the search for extra- that "science will take

terrestrial life Thegoal care of itself." Would of the document' "lo UPDATE Horowitz sign'' "If I UFD it is reduce the chance of Ihmk reasonable a hoax or Ihe premature announcement of contact," ex- and stands for motherhood and apple pie and basically plains Michaud, director of the Stale Department's Office strives to remind us all of what good science is." of Advanced Technology. The protocol, he -adds, would The chance to sign this document will probably come also require that signatories make the discovery public. soon Protocol proponents plan ro obtain the endorsement Alien messages would thus belong to the world, not just to of the International Academy of Astronautics and the Inter- a single university, organization, or government. national Institute of Space Law, according to Tarter. Then According to political scientist Allan Goodman of the they will try lo convince international scientific bodies like Georgetown University School Of Foreign Servioe, one of the International Astronomical Union. After thai, says Tarter, the protocol contributors, there are good reasons tor drafts "all individuals and institutions that we can identify who are ing the document. First, he says, alien contact Is nof cov- taking part in any SETI activities will be approached." Even ered in any existing international law or protocol that deals though the protocol could not legally bind a government, with space Second, in talking to SETI investigators, Goodman says that the final step will be lo ask governments Goodman has found some who would be inclined to keep to sign as well. A separate question, of course, is who will

extraterrestrial contact a secret and some who felt that It speak tor Earth once contact is made. Originally a part of should be treated like any other scientific discovery. the protocol, this issue will now be Ihe subject of a further As far as Goodman is concerned, neither approach will document. The reason? "It turned out to be such an do. "It would be the most dramatic scientific announcement emotional issue," says Tarter, "that we are giving it more

1 in our lifetime,' he says, "and must be treated as such." careful and deliberate thought."—PAUL MoCARTHY ,

'

about : "Cultures all over the world even remotely uncanny :^f" have made the discovery that these images from the people gazing into a clear unconscious, adds Moody, is The psychiatrist who made depth will have remarkable "that people report the the near-death experience a visual experiences," says imagery as arising from within respectable subject of scien- Moody, These "visions" may the crystal ball, mirror, or tific investigation is now contain faces of people whatever they are using." explonng the mental land- known and unknown, child- Of the 100-plus people he ! scape with a tool made hood memories, or even has worked with, Moody popular by fortune-tellers— minidramas involving the says, more than half have the crystal ball. Dr. Raymond characters in one's life. reported seeing images in a scrying has long crystal ball. For this reason Moody, a professor of~ While psychology at West been associated with the oc- Moody believes that scrying Colfege, is using an ancient cult, Moody doesn't think can be a useful psycho- method of divination called there is anything paranormal therapeutic technique. Scry- scrying to explore the about the practice. "The ing, he adds, may be more unconscious mind. images reported by my effective than the traditional Scrying, which comes from patients seem Indistinguish- Rorschach test, which involves the word descry, meaning able from hypnagogic im- interpreting a series of ink- "to reveal," involves staring agery," he says, referring to blots "Because the person Limburg in the Netherlands intently into anything from a the images that people is gazing into a clear recruited five iridologists, M.D.'s. clear mountain lake to a i commonly report as they drift depth," he says, "you know including two He practitioners polished mirror or crystal ball. off to sleep. The only thtng that what the person sees showed these is plainly coming from within." 78 slides. Half depicted the Psychiatrists and psycholo- eyes of patients known to gists are generally unfamil- have inflamed gallbladders

iar with scrying "I've never I with gallstones (a disease

heard ot it," says psychia- I recommended for the study tnst Stephen Barrett of Allen- by the Iridologists them- town, Pennsylvania, "and selves), and the other half

haven't the slightest idea If showed the eyes of normal

it's valid "—Patrick Huyghe controls The idea was to determine who had gallblad- der disease and who did not. But. Knipschild lound, the iridologists could not tell Iridology, the practice of the difference between a diagnosing disease by exam- gallbladder patient and

ining the iris of the eye, is a healthy person. They common in the Netherlands, picked the gallbladder pa- Germany, and England. tients only 50 percent 'Of Practitioners, in fact, claim the the time. Even more embar-

iris contains a map of the rassing, the diagnosticians body's organs. A discolora- could not agree as to who tion in one area, they say, was sick and who was not. indicates lung disease Shad- Knipschild says he knows ows in other regions point to of a lew other studies that problems with the kidneys. obtained findings similai to But can iridology possibly his own. "So in general." he work? To find out, physician concludes, "we believe there Paul Kmpschild of the is no empirical evidence for Department of Health Care the diagnostic value of at the University of iridology."—Paul McCarthy "

been seen by several people (including Beatle Paul Mc-

Cartney) and is communicat- ing through numerous chan-

neled "John is popping up all over," Myers explains, "because he was cut off before he could accomplish

what he- wanted. He's still trying to get out his message to give peace a chance Psychologist Robert Baker of the University of Kentucky calls Myers's book "uninten- tionally hilarious. I'm sure

some people lake it seriously

and believe-Gabie is still shacking up with Lombard," Baker says. "Not many people are scientifically literate Sometiave primilive notions about how the universe works, including beliefs about the dead hanging around and having power over the living." —5herry Baker

"Seware the dead. And hail them. They teach you' drunkenness. You have your own place to drink. Hail and beware them, when they come." —Charles Olson

i York glows with her about her," he says. "Some epergy 20 years after her of the park rangers were Famous people sometimes death, scared Out of their wits by the seem bigger than life. And "People who become ghost and threatened to "quit." according to Ghosts of the famous usually have a Although the death of Rich and Famous (Contempo- tremendous amount of drive Marilyn Monroe was officially rary Books) author Arthur and a certain amount of pronounced a suicide, Myers

Myers, some of them also exhibitionism, " Myers says. repons that the sex symbol appear to be bigger than "So perhaps they are more has returned repeatedly to tell death For example, there are likely to want to come back psychics that her death was reports that long-deceased and influence people." an accident. She also Clark Gable and Carole Myers says he's convinced

Lombard are still carrying on Mamie Eisenhower haunts ghostly figure in a photograph their love affair in an Oatmap, the home she shared with Ike taken of her grave Arizona, hotel and that a light 'near the Gettysburg battle- The busiest celebrity bulb from the theater where field. "The National Park ghost, says Myers, seems to Judy Garland last performed Service has had many reports be John Lennon, who has — "

older lady, you automatically think ovarian cancer, which When representatives of is a very lethal disease," he Florida's Department of says. But when Burton Op- Professional Regulation vis- erated on his patient, instead ited the Howell Morning Glor of excising a malignant body, Chapel funeral home in growth from Argue's Jacksonville last summer for he removed a benign a routine inspection, they cyst that held a shiny, suspected something was square-cut diamond amiss: Eight unembalmed The gem apparently found its way into Argue's repro- bodies were found rotting i ductive a fron! room. tract some 52 years Although Morning Glory ago when she delivered a Chapel's owner. Lewis How- daughter by Cesarean sec- tion. "It's the only time her ell, explained that he had abdominal cavity was ever been unable to dispose of tt bodies because he couldn' open before." says Argue's reach family members or husband. Rollo. "We as- (ell off because the city had failed sume the diamond doctor to give him the proper jewelry worn by a paperwork for indigent buri- or nurse." he's never heard als, the state inspectors Although called the police. "We got of a precious stone being there and started snooping retrieved from a patienl be- around. That's when we fore, Burton says that a found out how gross the cyst growing around the gem "1 situation was," says homicide makes medical sense detective Lieutenant Jim can understand how it hap- Subef. "Several rooms were pened. The ovary just grew around the diamond to tilled with bodies," a cyst the -body from an In all, 45 corpses and the protect cremated remains ol another tons," Mathis says. been properly buried, and irritating foreign object. 26 people were discovered Why was Howell keeping Howell was recently con- Rollo Argue emphasizes m the funeral home. Accord- a collection of corpses victed of grand theft and sen- that finding a diamond inside half exciting ing to Special Assistant State around? Mathis explains thai tenced to a year and a day his wife wasn'l as Attorney McRae Mathis, many of the deceased in prison. "A special condi- as discovering that she didn't some of the dead had been were indigents and Howell-, tion of the sentence," Mathis have cancer. The diamond lying around since the late took money from the city says, "was that he forever re- that was a part of Virginia Seventies, while others were of Jacksonville to bury them vokes his right to be a Argue, however, will soon be instead of it. of fairly recent vintage. Instead, he pocketed the funeral director—anywhere" on her person m Several bodies were stuffed cash and stuffed the bodies —Sherry Baker "It's a tiny diamond," he says. together in coffins; some into empty rooms. "In "But I'm having it mounted were in bags; and others some instances, there were so she can wear it on a were stacked vertically m a indications that he did have necklace."—Sherry Baker storage room. The corpses a body in a coffin for showing When gynecologist Harold have avoided were not embalmed or to relatives But if the family Burton of Roseville, California, "Aristotle would relrlgerated but had been didn't want to go to the ceme- discovered a swollen mass the mistake ol thinking that sprinkled with lime in an tery, he just used a coffin about six centimeters wide women have fewer feefh than attempt to reduce the odor of for viewing, dumped the body near eighty-year-old Virginia men by the simple device of decay. "They were in various on the stack, and reused Argue's right ovary, he feared asking Mrs. Aristotle to open stages of decomposition the coffin." the worst "When there's an her mouth:' from mummified to skele- The bodies have finally enlargement like that in an —Bertrand Russell 92 OMNI —

dividual but a communal sense of self," share. "How do we detect signals and DOLPHINS says Jerison. recognize patterns when we are unsure Norris is not willing to accept this group- ol the nature of the signal?" she asked.

consciousness idea. "There is no ques- "How does an observer of one species million years ago." Qualitatively the dol- tion dolphins pick up a lot of information penetrate the communication system of phin neocortex bears more resemblance by listening to each other's echoes," he another when we are really deaf and blind is that system?" to the brain structure of the hedgehog says. 'And I think the idea engaging, to whose cortex evolved more than 100 mil- but there is no proof. We do have evi- During her eight-year study of four bot- dolphins, Reiss has concen- lion years ago—and of the bat— another dence that when they echolocate, they tle-nosed Other with sound. trated on analyzing both vocal and non- ancient brain —than it does to those of avoid spraying each modern land animals. They have a thing we call dolphin echolo- vocal signals. Much like the work Louis The "advanced primate" neocortex, for cation manners: They simply shut down Herman is doing, Reiss constructs "ethc- behavioral watch- example, is built of densely packed col- their gear. They have developed a win- grams"—a code—by umnar structures, vast groupings of neu- dow to spray the environment, but not ing and videotaping the dolphins, tape- then sorting rons stacked like coins. These long, nar- each other, with sound." recording her observations, row columns are the basic processing "He is also unconvinced that dolphins their behaviors into categories, search- units of the cerebral cortex. Using ad- have language. Instead, he hypothe- ing for a relationship between the dol- vanced imaging technologies, Morgane sizes, there may be a more ponderous, phins' sounds and their other behaviors. and Glezer have recently discovered that multilayered, emotionally based com- Reiss has also designed an underwa- dolphins have fewer of these columns munication system. "It's more like music," ter keyboard of nine keys that the dol- than humans, though the dolphins' are says Norris. "There is a lot of rhythmicity, phins can manipulate. Each time a dol- key with its beak, a wider in diameter. The microcircuitry, too, multiple messages carried in beats," such phin pushes a dol- it and produces a is less complex. as a single whistle that identifies one computer records On land, mammalian neocortices phin to another and at the same time tells sound specific to that symbol. Then the evolved, becoming more specialized. dolphin gets what it asked for: a ball, fish, Many land mammals, including humans, and so on. Soon after she installed the have associated sensory systems sand- keyboard, the dolphins taught them- imilating computer wiched in layers between areas of the selves to use it, the primary cortex. These cortices are whistles they would hear after pushing the ^Reports surfaced whistles thought to be crucial to learning and keys, and incorporating those emotion —the connective tissue that al- that during the Vietnam War, into their own vocal repertoire. This sug- gests that they were learning to associ- lows us to associate sensory information porpoises were sent with memories and feelings. For in- ate key whistles with visual signals. stance, the smell of pine can evoke to Cam Hanh Bay to guard Not all research has been so benign. Christmas past. In the dol- Currently most financial support for dol- thoughts of - ships. With lances phin brain the somatosensory areas—vi- phin studies comes from the U.S. Navy, strapped to their beaks, the recently accused of sion, hearing, touch — remain more gen- an organization eralized than those of land mammals. dolphins supposedly abusing the marine mammals in its pro- gram. In the past four years, $30 million "Maybe most of this cortex is an associ- frogmen.^ skewered enemy on work the Navy refers ational cortex," Morgane muses, "and it has been spent biological did not go on to specialize. The last stage to as research into "marine lions, and of cortical evolution—the formation of systems" with dolphins, sea primary sensory and motor regions—did beluga whales. During the past 30 years, not take place." the Navy has trained 240 animals at se- San In 1986 Harry Jerison, a microbiologist that dolphin that there is trouble. cret facilities in Hawaii, Key West, and at the University of California Medical Some researchers, however, describe Diego and has published more than 200 School, proposed that given the dolphin Jerison's notions of a communal con- papers on its research into the dolphin's brain's close positioning of the laminates sciousness as "philosophical" and "ethe- sonar, diving and retrieval abilities, and activity of the neocortex, "motivational" functions real." Jerison seems to be proposing that anatomy, as well as the electrical such as intimacy and feelings may be the dolphin sees the world differently than of the dolphin brain. But there is much — will not more active in the dolphins' neocortical man does "which it may," Morgane public interest in what the Navy appears plenty. processes than in humans', and their says, "if it has a different brain. It's like an disclose, which to be thoughts more emotionally charged. alien from another planet or Atlantis." Navy marine mammal research began He also theorized from research on Researchers from SETI, the search for in the late Fifties, says Norris, when offi- bats that huge areas of their brains are extraterrestrial intelligence, would prob- cials hired a group of young marine devoted to a sophisticated echolocation ably agree, which is why a number of mammal workers to find out what could system. Given the enlarged dolphin neo- space agencies have taken a keen inter- be learned about dolphins to aid the Navy cortex, he proposed, the dolphin echolo- est in the research of Dianna Reiss, an with military missions. They sought to re- cation system may have evolved to the animal- and human-communications duce hazards to divers and to develop a hydrodynamic tor- point where it creates the dolphin's "real- professor at San Francisco State Univer- dolphinlike sonar or water ity" Dolphin echolocation processes may sity and director and founder of Project pedo that could move through the operate as visual processes do in hu- Circe at Marineworld Africa, USA in Val- as easily as a dolphin, says Norris. mans, "creating both perception of the lejo, California. Reiss's work decoding "The Navy was the best organization outer world and of the self." dolphins' communication systems seems I've ever worked with in terms of support bureaucracy. They It has already been demonstrated that similar to the quests for extraterrestrial in- and unencumbered bats can intercept one another's signals, telligence. In 1987, in a paper before the bet on people who had innovative ideas something done not at the cortical but at International Astronomical Union in Hun- and stayed with Ihem. But I'm opposed the subcortical or midbrain level. This kind gary, Reiss; who was a guest speaker at to things under security wraps and have of interception could mean they could a recent NASA conference and the re- no interest in being involved in dolphin share perceptions about the external cipient of a grant from the Pasadena, monkey business such as using dolphins

referring t< world. "Within its perceptual world, the California-based Planetary Society, for sinking ships," he says, dolphin may not have constructed an in- spelled out the problems the two quests rumors that dolphins w 94 OMNI . the Persian Gull to detect Iranian mines WHAT SECRET POWER and sink enemy vessels. The Navy has been scoffing for years. at accusations such as these, assertions DOES THIS MAN POSSESS? prompted in the Seventies by the novel and film The Day of the Dolphin, which suggested that Navy animals were trained to carry explosive packs that blew up enemy ships. At about the same time, reports surfaced that during the Vietnam War, porpoises were sent to Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay to guard ships. With hol- low lances strapped to their beaks, the dolphins supposedly skewered enemy frogmen with exploding air cartridges. The program, the reports alleged, was discontinued because the dolphins couldn't tell the difference between friendly and enemy frogmen. Navy officials admit that the dolphins were sent to Vietnam for research into the animals' ability to detect military equip- ment in the murky waters. They have also revealed that dolphins were in fact in- volved in recovering torpedoes, detect- ing mines, and locating hostile frogmen in the Persian Gulf. And the Navy has publicly confirmed its plans to use 16 dolphins to guard the Trident nuclear submarine base in Bangor, Washing- ton—an action 15 environmental and an- imal rights groups are trying to block, HE HAS INNER VISION. . The Navy's semiclassified program came under attack for another reason as The Ancients called it COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS well. Navy marine mammal trainer Rick

There are no physical limitations to inner vision . . . the Trout, on disability leave from his job with Seaco, a San Diego firm with Navy con- psychic faculties of man know no barriers of space or tracts, claimed the Navy was abusing the time. A world of marvelous phenomena awaits your animals in its underwater defense train- command. Within the natural—but unused—functions of ing program. The program includes work your mind are dormant powers which can bring about a with dolphins and sea lions. Trout alleged transformation of your life. that drunken Navy trainers mistakenly drowned several sea lions by dropping Know the mysterious world within you! Attune yourself them overboard in locked cages and that to the wisdom of the ages! Grasp the inner power of your trainers kicked and starved animals that mind! Learn the secrets of a full and peaceful life! did not perform well. Rosicrucian is age-old fraternity of learn- In February a seven-member team ap- The Order an pointed by the Marine Mammal Commis- ing. For centuries, they have shown men and women how sion (MMC) to investigate Trout's claims to utilize the fullness of their being. This is an age of reviewed files, records, and training ses- daring adventure . . . but the greatest of all is the explora- sions, and interviewed former Navy em- tion of Self. Determine your purpose, function, and pow- ployees, including Trout. The team found ers as a human being. no evidence of "pervasive abuse," but they did recommend that the Navy add For more detailed information about our practical, sys- no more mammals to the program until it tematic teachings, write today for your free copy of the can hire more veterinarians. They also re- "Mastery of Life" booklet. Address: Scribe BPG ported that the allegations were "sub- stantially lacking" but found "there were The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC elements of truth, isolated incidents of San Jose, California 95191 animal abuse and some shortcomings in the program." They recommended that a high-level Pentagon official oversee the Scribe BPG marine mammal program. The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC San Jose, California 95191 The fact remains, however, that Navy Please send me the free booklet the "'Mastery of Life," which explai funding is essential for much of the re- search on dolphins to continue. And with may learn to use my faculties and powers of mind. recent cutbacks in the Department of Name : Defense budgei, even those funds are' waning. Grants from the National Sci- Address ence Foundation (NSF) and other re- search organizations are coveted, and a university affiliation for a marine mammal Call Toll-free 1-1 J-AMORC. Ask For Operator BPG scienlist is rare. "The peer-review proc- phins in the water; the other 20 consist of ess ai NSF has become very conserva- a lecture on dolphin behavior and anat- tive in their support for new or risky proj- omy. Dolphin Quest is the brainchild of BDDK5 CONTINUED FRO!- i-'A'.il * ects. The Office of Naval Research marine veterinarians Jay Sweeney and specializes in funding this kind of inno- Rae Stone, who plan to establish a ma- the principal reason Timothy Leary's vative research," says Peter Tyack. rine science education program at the name doesn't appear on the foundation's "What happens," says Norris, "is the Hyatt as well as a nonprofit research roster. America's LSD guru remains too National Science Foundation says, The foundation whose first project will be to controversial and wasn't approached by

Navy wants doiphin proposals; go see help support Norris's studies of the social the foundation. "If I were starting a legiti- that to them.' So do we sit back and say our dynamics of Hawaiian 'spinner dolphins. mate foundation needed win es- principles are being violated by dealing As the hazards of life in the open seas tablishment approval, I wouldn't invite me with a military agency? Or do we say, have increased of late, protected habi- to be on the board either," Leary says. tats the few safe havens "My name is still too radioactively dan- 'Well, as long as I keep my integrity in- may be among In the wild they are prey for gerous. My job now, as a performing phi- tact, there's nothing I can do about where for dolphins. the government money goes'?" sharks and tuna fishermen and recently losopher, is to stir up controversy, and Excluding the Navy, 641 permits have were the victims of a- mysterious plague. that's not what the foundation needs." been granted to date by the National Two summers ago thousands of bottle- With the antidrug movement and the Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for pur- nosed dolphins died. Many of them recent resurgence of LSD on the streets, seem poses of research and public display in washed up along the shores of the East the Hofmann Foundation would to Ihe United States, and last year the Marine Coast with lesions, pneumonia, and bac- have all the right elements to stir up con- Mammal Protection Act was amended to terial infections. troversy But, Janiger asks, "how can there library? require that "dolphin swim" programs In February a research team of North be controversy over a Providing contain some kind of conservation or ed- American scientists supported by the information is not advocacy. We are not ucational element. MMC, the NMFS, and the U.S. Navy at- looking to screen oul the negative mate- The Marine Mammal Commission is tributed the dolphin deaths to bizarre rial. That will be there, too. We will be currently reviewing the four permits movements of a bloom of toxic algae, or looking at the whole spectrum of LSD and granted to these programs, where guests red tides, from the Gulf of Mexico. The other consciousness-oriented sub- pay up to $55 to swim with dolphins. The dolphins, they said, died from eating fish stances and techniques. The focus tends of its promi- original permits were granted "with res- tainted with the brevotoxin of the bloom. to be on LSD only because ervations," says John Twiss, executive di- But environmentalists and other re- nence." No one, he adds, is suggesting acid. "That's tired rector of the Marine Mammal Commis- searchers are not satisfied with the gov- that everybody drop a sion. "We approved the NMFS permits ernment findings, suspecting that the old prejudice." Agency but recommended that these swim pro- cause of the deaths is directly related not For now the Drug Enforcement grams be conducted on an experimental to red tides but to the infectious and toxic (DEA) is maintaining a neutral stance on

Foundation. "If it is truly basis until the end of 1989 when prelimi- wastes Americans dump into Ihe oceans the Hofmann a potential nary data were available to evaluate each year. place of learning, to collect the have them." The last "swim" permit to be In Hawaii, where the glassy waters of benefits, if any, of LSD, then we don't granted was to the Hyatt Waikaloa on the the Pacific remain relatively free of hu- any problems with it," says Raymond Kona coast of the island of Hawaii, a man waste, bottle-nosed dolphins may McKinnon, head of the DEA's dangerous- megaresort with the largest captive hab- have a better chance at survival. At dawn, drug unit. "If these people want to gather the material some legitimate itat for dolphins in the world. At the Hyatt's when the Hyatt's dock is closed, the dol- and take Dolphin Quest, scientists and trainers are phins dart playfully across the lagoon, looks at LSD and possibly reopen the is- merging research, education, and enter- jumping in tandem between stone pillars, sue, then they appear to be going about

it in right way." tainment; and there is no question that it graceful as dancers. At dawn the sun the in his eighties, Hofmann agrees will be a profitable venture. rises over the quiet ocean. On the rusty- Now in the Sixties not The habitat is a five-acre natural sea- orange horizon, humpback whales that banning LSD was water lagoon, open to the ocean and breach into the light, their enormous fig- only appropriate but necessary. "The ac- teeming with tropical reef fish and mul- ures charging like missiles from the water. cidents occurred because of the unwise first group of uncontrolled use of LSD, much of it let—fish the dolphins eat naturally in the A few hours later the and of places, like bars," wild. The space is so large, in fact, that swimmers enters the lagoon. The dol- in the wrong kinds the dolphins can choose not to partici- phins seem to welcome their presence, he says. "But many other people had pate by swimming away. tossing balls, offering themselves for in- good experiences with LSD. And we had "Please remove your life jackets and spection, and examining in turn these so much more to learn." put them on the dock," says dolphin curious and sometimes fearful humans Had someone like eighteenth-century trainer Christian Harris. "If you can hear whose arms and legs they gently nibble. Austrian physician and hypnosis pioneer dol- Franz Mesmer (from whom we get me, I'll give you a hundred dollars." The Without question, swimming with Anton group participating in the last phase of a phins is an uplifting experience. Despite the word mesmerize) had the foresight to half-hour dolphin encounter seem en- the intrusion into their captive environ- pull together all the information then tranced as they dangle their legs into the ment, they appear to unconditionally em- known about hypnosis, the medical com- enriched natural lagoon that is home to six young brace humanity. Our communion with munity would have been vastly bottle-nosed dolphins. them is real, not imagined, reiterated time at a much earlier date. That, Janiger No one responds. Harris smiles and and again by the myriad scientists de- points out, is what he and others at the are trying to shrugs his shoulders. "If they go away with voted to comprehending their "alien" in- Hofmann Foundation do now anything, it's with a greater appreciation tellect. "We're not on a pedestal some- for human-consciousness studies. and compassion for these animals." place, alone and magnificent. Dolphins "Professionally and personally, I be- real mile- The popularity of this program is ob- are one branch of a tree we are all a part lieve that LSD is one of the vious on examining the daily waiting lists of," says Norris. "We are of them, they are stones in the history of our understanding for the $55 dolphin encounters. They of us, and trie more we know about them of the human mind. In a hundred years, number in the" hundreds for the 40 spaces and the other animals, the fewer the bar- it will become apparent how vital and how available under a lottery system. And of riers there will be between us."00 much of a watershed these last twenty to the 30 minutes allotted to the experience, thirty years have been in the understand- only ten are actually spent with the dol- Research contributed by Kathleen Stein. ing of consciousness."OO 96 OMNI "

descending series of notes, the other an their subjects. Could his conclusion ap- IfUTERV/IEUU ascending series. We used many differ- ply to your work?

C0Ni'iNUF"!F"!O.Vl !'«:;:: Hi: ent examples, of each. We were asking Herman: The problem of inadvertent whether Phoenix could learn to recog- cuing certainly has to be dealt with. We've

Otherwise we humans shouldn't call it nize these differences between two basic dealt with it by trying to eliminate all such swimming. We construct artificial lan- sequences and report them accurately. possibilities. For instance, when we con- guages and apply them to animals to an- Initially we tried to train her to respond duct tests, we. use an observer who's swer questions about language compe- to the paddle on her right if it was a de- blind to what information has been given tency. We can therefore hardly avoid scending series and the one on her left if to the dolphin. Also we carefully control using those language terms that are the it was an ascending series." For months the trainer's behaviors. focus of our studies, such as semantics we attempted to improve her perform- Omni: Can any other animals understand and syntax. ance, but she remained close to chance a change of word order? Omni: You have emphasized language levels. And from time to time, trainers re- Herman: Ronald Schusterman [at the comprehension, or understanding, over ported that Phoenix was making a lot of University of California, Santa Cruz], language production, or making speech. noise down there, seemed to be upset, who's adopted our experiments with sea Why is that? et cetera. lions, has recently shown that sea lions

Herman: For two-way communication lo One day I simply walked down, stood will distinguish among words according take place, both language production and by the tanks, and listened to Phoenix. I to their serial order, similar to what dol- comprehension must be present. We've should have done this earlier. After about phins can do. So far he has only asked stressed comprehension for purposes of half a dozen trials, I began to realize that the animal to fetch one object to another. objectivity and control. Suppose you em- Phoenix was sponiano-ously whistling in Omni: But hasn't Schusterman been crit- phasize production—symbol making— the presence of a descending series and ical of your approach'' and teach the animal a variety of symbols remaining silent during the ascending Herman: He recently criticized us for not

it can use, say, to request specific foods. series. I couldn't hear the sounds, but as having fully reported our training proce-

You teach it a symbol for M&M, for ba- dures. It was a specious criticism be- nana, lor peanut. When the chimp pro- cause he personally was advised of our duces a symbol, it's difficult to decide procedures in his visits here many limes. whether it really understands Ihe mean- And'we tutored him in these procedures ing of the symbol. What's the difference during his training of the sea lions. <%The between the chimp giving the gesture for loss of He has questioned our use of linguistic M&M, say, or pressing a lever to get an Puka and Kea was not just a terms in describing or discussing Ihe M&M? You don't know. Very often, the dolphins' responses. Schusterman pre- setback but a context in which the symbol is used is fers to use stimulus-response terminol- rather loosely defined, the timing arbi- critical junction in my life ogy, phrases like "paired-associate , trary, and you can't exactly replicate it. learning" and "conditional discrimina- and career. It was In contrast, an emphasis on compre- tion" as. opposed lo "words" or "sen- a personal loss, like what you hension means you provide the symbols, tences." But it seems reasonable thai if you construct the situation, and therefore experience when your goal is to look at animal language you can describe exactly what that situ- competencies, you use language terms a child you have reared dies3 ation was. And you can objectively to describe those competencies. It's fool- measure the animal's understanding by ish to set up a program that admits you've how and how well it responds to the sym- constructed an artificial language, as bols you provided. Schusterman does, and then deny your- Omni: You've said that Ake's perform- self the use of language terms to analyze ance has remained stable, but Phoenix's tfte trainers reported back to me what they your results. Also words have a great deal has begun to decline. What's behind this? played, they became apparent. So I of influence on how we think. Thinking in Herman: We're not sure. The acoustic asked them to continue the series, and terms of stimulus-response terminology language Phoenix uses is based on I'd point to Ihe right or left paddle to in- tends to drive us to view animals as au- sounds generated by a computer through dicate which way I'd think Phoenix should tomatons, to give them very little credit. an underwater speaker. The computer respond based on her vocalizations. Well, If we open ourselves a bit. we may be

produced the same sound each time. We I was correct ninety-five percent of the surprised by what that reveals. suspect the stimuli, which were so invari- time, using Phoenix's own information. So The fact that an animal gets a reward ant most of the time, aside from some we simply chucked the paddles and lis- for a certain behavior doesn't invalidate computer glitches. Also it wasn't a per- tened to Phoenix. Her performance im- his language. You may work for me for son providing the information. The extent mediately improved to ninety-five per- money and we may communicate about to which a transaction lacks a social cent correct, and she had no further that work, but the money reward doesn't component may limit an animal's interest, trouble with the task. ii"'vali'iai'j our ui.o !.;i'K.iu;ic;e. ii v:\r\Y.\ motivation, or ability to perform well con- Omni: Did the decline in her perform- lus-response conditioning is appropri- sistently in a situation. ance have anything to do with boredom? ate, it can be used. Omni: Is that the only theory? Herman: No, she doesn't seem to get Omni: Why do most scientific journals to- Herman: At this point, yes. There's also bored doing the same thing, at least in day refuse to publish papers on animal the possibility that it's a Phoenix problem, our setting. As long as she's right, she language research? although Phoenix has been able to learn loves it. I think Phoenix invented these Herman: Most will publish these articles; plenty of complicated things since then behaviors, why I don't know. a few will not. The historical context is im- having to do with sound. She can pay at- Omni: In 1979 Herbert Terrace, a Colum- portant. Animal language work during the tention to sounds when she wants to and bia University linguist and psychologist. mid-Sixties through the late Seventies was can report accurately on their character- published a paper saying that research- very promising and exciting. If was pub- istics. For example, in a melody-recog- ers conducting animal language acqui- lished in a number of journals, including nition experiment conducted by Jim sition studies had been misled. The ani- Science. After publication of several ar- Robton, now a psychology professor at mals hadn't learned language but rather ticles by Herbert Terrace and colleagues Indiana University, we presented Phoe- behaviors that produced rewards, and in 1979, people began lo take the atti- nix with two simple melodies. One is a trainers were unconsciously prompting tude thai it was all artifact, all trickery, that

there was nothing to it. Science made a may nelo us :o nx"prei behaviors in cap- from our language studies. Each study

policy that they would no longer publish tivity. If you see male aggression in the we do is typically motivated by questions articles on artificial language in animals. tank—a male tooth-raking and biting a raised by our previous studies. My goal This was around 1981, when postdoc- younger male or even a female— is that is not to "talk" to dolphins or to "be with" toral associates Jim Wolz, Doug Rich- an abnormality occasioned by the cap- them in the open ocean as we encounter

ards, and I submitted our first dolphin tive situation? We now know from field some adventure or another. Right now I'm research paper on language compre- studies that large males do impose much more interested in communicating

hension. It took us tar too long to realize themselves aggressively on younger more effectively to dolphins and learning that policy and politics, not science, were males and females, with the exception how they communicate with one another. at stake. that the animals can run away a little bet- Omni: What do you see when you look at Omni: Have you suffered any setbacks ter in the field situation. So from the field a dolphin? in your years here? studies you get an idea of whether you Herman; When you live with a person or Herman: The loss of the dolphins Puka are creating a poor situation for the. ani- an animal for a very long time, you have

and Kea in 1977 was not just a setback mals. And you're not. responses to it you're not even aware of. but a critical junction in my career and Studies of captive animals can also You don't have first impressions any-

life. It was a personal loss, like we expe- lead to working better with captive ani- more. It's difficult to analyze, but I think rience when a child whom we've reared mals trahed 'or open-ocean work. There one develops a great deal of respect for dies. The lab was these animals' virtually destroyed abilities, not only

because it had ex- intellectually but

isted for these dol- socially. I see so-

phins. It was shut cial sk.is, I see cu- down for fourteen Ym can have a full riosity. When you months until Ake are with them at and Phoenix ar- tankside, you're rived. Not only was liquor cabinet without very aware of their

I affected, but all attentiveness and the staff and stu- their expectations dents who had put WildTurkey of you. They ex- in so much time, pect you to do tension, and love things with them for these animals. just cant have a and for them. Yet Y)u they're not The crisis was not de- just an incident but pendent, they're something that complete one nceoordent. They stretched out in love to play, they time. There was not love to interact. We only the tragedy of treat them with a the event but the great deal of care fact that we then and respect, give had io face a long them tasks that are trial process to satisfying to them bring these people as well as to us. to justice —the There's a lot of ones who had ab- WILD worried mothers " ducted Puka and around this place if Kea from the labo- the dolphin doesn't ratory. TURKEY take a fish, and Omni: Are cur- many are bonded you 8 years old, 101 proof, pure Kentucky rently planning any very closely to the

study of dolphins in dolphins. the wild? Omni: What about Herman: We have you?

plans, but it's very Herman: I have difficult around Hawaii because they're are many reasons tc wor* w:.\- dolphins gone more from being at iankside to

not readily accessible. We're fortunate that in the open ocean. They can make re- being in the back room, planning and

there are studies by others of Hawaiian pealed dives wi:houl su'-ac-ing. And with writing. It's more impersonal, and this isn't

dolphins in the wild, most notably by Ken special training they may be able to re- necessarily how I'd like to be, but it's a Morris. And we hope the sum of this in- port to you on the presence of sharks or necessary concomitant io running a large

formation yields better understanding other predators. They can help you lo- research project. What I say about the

than any one project. cate anything from sunken ships to bod- trainers reflects things I have experi- In most early work on dolphins in cap- ies of drowning victims. enced over the years.

tivity, their social life was seen as a pos- Omni: What are your future goals in dol- I don't think I or anyone else takes the sible artifact, that they were really just phin research? point of view that these are "just" animals

caged animals and that their social be- Herman; I don't have a lot of fantasies or and therefore subordinate. It's pretty dif-

havior had nothing to do with their behav- far-out expectations. I don't find myself 'c-rc-nt from how you might relate to a dog:

ior in the wild. Work in the field, however, speculating as to where all this will take 'This is not obedience training. Our re-

has shown the same social structures me. For example, I had not envisioned sponse to the dolphins involves meeting

occur in the wild. So field researchers can the success with TV communication fiiaJ them on equal grounds. We're dealing look in the wild for certain features iden- we have had. But this success evolved with a very complex, very intelligent tified in captive animals in tanks; con- out of our finencs about visual capabili- creature. And we're both doing the very versely, studies of behaviors in the wild ties of dolphins, which in turn emerged best we can to communicate. DO :

TWO DISPARATE CULTURES, A TALENT NOT QUITE ACKNOWLEDGED, AND A MAN PLAGUED BY DREAMS MAKE FOR A VOLATILE MIX LITTLE BOY BLUE by bruce McAllister

April 6, 1990: Thai nigh! he dreamed of been a party to it even at age ten. the leper again, and of the little Monta- The next morning, as hedrove toward gnard girl he had come to love who had the freeway off ramp at Orange Street, he died in Dak Lo. His own sounds woke him. saw the first one. The boy was on a lawn He was weeping with a corner of the pil- in front of an apartment complex, squat- low wet in his mouth, and he was alone. ting on his haunches. He was thin and Gala was gone, and the bedroom door dark, with delicate features. was closed. To keep his sounds from He hadn't seen anyone squatting like the children. that in years. In the morning he noticed a pillow on The boy was Vietnamese. the living room couch and a blanket

folded neatly beside it. The four of them That weekend, as he drove his son to ate breakfast in silence, with only one at- soccer practice, he saw four teenage tempt at felicity from Gala. She spoke of boys, all of them lithe and confident, with a porcelain class she was going to take ready grins. He passed them slowly, at the Y and how she would be having wondering where they lived. lunch with a friend that day. He waited for Aaron said. "Is anything wrong, Dad?" the children to speak. Katie had a new Are they Vietnamese?" he heard him- kindergarten teacher, he remembered. self say. The children said nothing. He thought of the young boys in Darlac He avoided contact with Stratton at the Province whose left arms he and another office, gave the Irvine contracts lo the new medic had vaccinated, how those same Tlk. man, and was unable to concentrate. left arms had been cut off by the NVA When he came home forty-five minutes and piled in the center of the village—as early, he found a note Irom Gala saying an example. that she and the children were at Jack Aaron said, "I don't know, Dad. They Tatum's. He knew she would never go kind of look Japanese to me." there alone. But they weren't. They were moving into When he went to get them, Talum town, family by family, and he saw the grinned, shook his hand, and told him same four a few days later, near the high what good kids he had. That evening school again, where he had driven in the Gala's blue eyes avoided his, and even hopes of seeing them. They lived near

Aaron seemed nervous, as though he had the school. He was sure of it. PAINTINGS BY GREG SPALENKA — —

of yard left himself, floating high above the oth- When he returned to camp, he heard down from the tree, trying to flee, when For an instant, as Ihey stood un- laugh. It sounded like coughing. was lying in the middle the and ers, able to look down and see his own how she had died. The camp had been he saw it from where he floated high in dressing in the bedroom, her gaze They taught each other a few words he was the first to see it. body running on the jungle floor, dodg- mortared again, but this time a long- the trees and told his body where to go moved down his front to the spot just and he gave her a strand of costume He walked toward it and the world ing ihe slow blue bullets of the NVA, house had been hit. Three villagers had and caught it before it could get away. below his waistband, just inside the jut jewelry, swirling glass beads from Camp flickered blue. Everything slowed. his and doing exactly what he told it to do. been in it, the girl one of them. She had He danced toward it, avoiding the little of his hipbone, where the tattoo was. It Goodman near Saigon. In return she He stopped, shook head, He could see the NVA, the blue uni- been wounded in the spine and they pieces of metal it threw at him, and tore was a small thing, but horribly intimate gave him a brass bracelet and followed. stared at the can. forms on the blue earth, and he took had packed her with plasma. She had its throat out with a knife. He knew this there, and he knew how grateful she was after him when he walked the perime- He took another step. asked for him until she was wrong, that the others would be to. called world turned blue again, slow- them oul one by one. died, thai it was always hidden, that Iheir ter, though he told her not She The When it was over, he was covered He looked at her body, He thought he bothered, would look at him oddly, so friends at the pool and on Balboa could him Ni Fa, which he found out meant ing, and he stopped, di2zy. others had arrived, and one of with blood. He could not remember why. should take her hand. he fired into the animal's head, making not see it. It was of a tiger, tiny and ex- "long brother." "That's awfully close to The can. He could not remember how he had Three nights later he dreamed of the a third blue eye there, and held the body quisitely done, its eyes wide, its paw 'long pig,' " Carruthers teased him. the Jarai was heading toward the another step, killed them, only that he had. their fire leper he had seen on a beach near Da up against him as it died. Then he went raking the air. He could not remember "Damn close." They had both laughed. He made himself take to find the tenth. how he had gotten it. He never picked her up. She never climbed up on his lap or asked to be April 17, 1990: When Gala suggested a That Saturday, while he mowed the carried piggyback or thrown into the air picnic wilh the Moynahans that week- lawn, the bag came loose. As he leaned as an American kid would have. That end, he said yes. The park was full of over to reattach it, he watched the clip- was okay. She was a female, and the kids, the ducks so well fed they could pings and the red dust from the bare last thing the new A-camp needed was barely walk and wouldn't even look at earth rise, beaten by the rotary blade. a misunderstanding. the bread in your hand. He wanted his This close the grass seemed as tall as They touched nevertheless— his son to lie on the grass with him, but he an elephant's legs. The red dust filled hand on her shoulder, her hand in his knew he couldn't keep him for long. The his nose and he swore. Even in the and when these touches brought no Moynahan kids knew how lo have fun. monsoon season, there was dust. looks of disapproval from the adults of God, ' love that boy, he would re- The rotors beat the air over him and the village, the unease finally left him. member thinking. he kept his head turned from the prop COULD HE/ They were lying on the grass, the two wash, his eyes squinting, his hand A few hours before the patrol was to of them, near a hedge of bamboo. They cupped to the right side of his face. He leave— at sunset— she came to him. All THE SOUN could hear the children playing in it. could hear the Chinook struggling day she had sat watching him on the When the dark-skinned boy appeared overhead, overloaded with body bags, hard-packed red earth of the village, ten OF THE COP out of the cane, holding a black toy rifle, bumping the ground two, three times or twelve yards away, looking into the jungle he tried to smile. The boy stopped, as it tried to gain altitude, the bodies shadows of Ihe whenever he OVERHEAD, raised the barrel, and stared back at weighing if down. glanced over at her from his packing. him. The barrel came down in a flash The fading sound of the rotors filled She was silent when she finally came, a LOADED WITH and the muzzle snickered. Beside him him with an emptiness. woman's anger in her eyes, presenting on the grass Aaron's head exploded, "Ni Fa?" a voice said. He turned. him with her arm, the limp wrist, the only BODY BAGS, the bottom jaw remaining, jutting like half His wife was standing not far away, thing she could offer to make him stay. a Halloween grin, teeth glittering with looking at him oddly. She had never There was a scratch, not very deep, and BUMPING THE the blood, as the body spasmed, called him that. Someone else had. he wondered how she had gotten it. The spasmed again, and tipped back slowly Her eyes were slits now, her skin dark, inflammation was all but hidden by the GROUND in the reeds and shallow water, which her young face as broad as a platter. pigment of her skin, and her arms and smelled like spoiled milk. "Ni Fa?" legs, he realized now, were covered with SEVERAL TIME" "Aaron!" he screamed, the weapon Herlips, he could see, did not move the litlle pink scars of scratches just like in his own hands arching, slitching the as she said it. it from Ihe world she lived in. He simply AS IT boy up the middle with a burst. Some- This isn't real, he told himself. It's hadn't noticed them belore. He got out where out in the paddy two women be- happening to me because I was there. a first-aid kit and disinfected the scratch TRIED TO GAI gan to scream. It's happening to the others, too. and fussed over the arm as he would Aaron was staring at him. He was have a broken doli. Then he put a ALTITUDE. okay now. There wasn't any blood. November 17, 1966: Her name was bandage on it and waited. She did not Gala was rushing toward them. Moye. She was the niece of Lam, the leave. She stood Ihere while he fin- "It's all right," he told her. "It's all right." village headman who spoke fluent ished packing, and when he said "Good ' He looked at the boy standing by the French. She was eight or nine and he night" and went inside his hooch for a bamboo. The barrel was pointed at the often thought she had chosen him from couple of hours of sleep, he heard her grass now, a duck passing inches from all the others because of his age. At say something thai also sounded tike meaningless, their weapons one Nang. Thr !-u:eous bkir the beautiful it. The was watching the duck now. twenty-one he was the youngest and "Good night." and the world flickered blue, stayed — by boy one— stopping at last. sand, a colony Ihe war never seemed The boy's eyes weren't even slitted. greenest of the team, and she seemed blue, and he started to speak, to say Carruthers, the black operations ser- to touch. There wasn't even an epicanthic fold. to know this. The banyan trees were beautiful. "No." but the Jarai was to the can now, geant, was the first to reach him, 'Jesus, In the dream the leper wore his face The boy was Hispanic, Chicano, that She was stocky, unlike most of the Their world was like a dream. They rose leaning over, rising suddenly, driven boy, that was some down-home shit and said: You can save yourself with this was all. Montagnards, and her broad face made a hundred feet, and their crowns arched skyward, splitting in half like a wet straw kicking," he said, but the look in his eyes thing, Danny Boy, but you can't save This isn't real, he told himself. This is him think of grass skirts and hula danc- like endless umbrellas to keep the sun- doll, the concussion a tremendous No. said something else. The black man others. What is it worth? What is it worth a disease. The others have it, too. ers rather lhan rice paddies and triple- light oul. In Ihe shadows below, the That was the first lime it happened. wouldn'l touch him. He'd never seen if you can't save another? canopy jungles. Her nose was flat, her trunks grew like great gray knees from Later that day, as he ran toward NVA anything like it in his life—a boy fresh What is il worth, the leper said to him lips full, and her eyes wide set, Coming the ground, and he felt like a toy soldier fire, the world turned blue again and fairy tale. In yard of the aban- stayed blue. The banyan trees were from Fort Bragg moving through jungle Later, standing down in Pleiku, he on a beach as blue as his wife's eyes, from those lips Ihe patois of the Jarai in a the ' like that, untouched, len NVA kills. The would remember what il had been like: in a war that hadn't ended, if you can't which he didn't understand and still doned French hospital, with its perpet- blue. TheAK-47 rounds were bluer still. black man wouldn't touch him. The ninth blue animal was climbing save others? What is it worth, Ni Fa? wouldn't at the end of a. year—made him ual twilight, he saw the C-ration can. It They slowed as if in a dream, and he porch, and he could see the unpainted January 3, 1967: When she the a didn't care that others October 18, 1964: They were just kids, Schuermann had put it more than Later, that man—whose name was opened coward and more lumber ot the rooms that had been door, he was standing there, shaking in he and Art. Jesus, they were just kids. once—waking at last after an eon of Burdick—had tried to find him might die his place." this thing, one one, to the of the filthy. His dead. "You looked him. They were going to get out of the heat civilized sleep? than once. "We can use added, by back and eyes were have She at He could not read

" the phone, his house. He watched a yellow Celica ar- killed," said, her a whore's, her face did not think it of the Merced Valley, away from the Danny Boy, he'd said on she accent but was con- voice the soldier would always be, rive one day and a pretty woman with her broad face beautiful. tempt he saw. She had been there, too. same girls with the same brown hair at He remembered a man in Pleiku, an he war win. "We can change Eurasian features get out. She did not He said,- "Yes. But my fiands are secretary lor a shipping company, she the same county fairs, away from the A-camp captain from Georgia wrjo looking for a to A it. together live there, he discover, but now." jobs you always took after graduation hadn't been afraid of him, who'd known the world with I'm putting a would she empty had said. little group in Schuermann's memory. visited often. She took him by the hand, led him to It was the first time he had talked to and the little towns where no one knew the blue flickering for what it was, be- — later the cour- small all. I hope you'll join us." Three weeks he found the tiled room with its vase of white her about these things. After this, it a damn thing. They were going to get cause things like this happened to him, You know them don't to speak to her. did under- chrysanthemums, away and then come back, older and too, and he knew of others just like them, He'd paused, then added, "We age She not and made his bath would be at her apartment, only there, stand him at first, was annoyed, and did warm. She helped his tell her. were going to be John and he kept a list. need their army, do we, Danny Boy." him horn uniform that he would . better. They told man no both times. not want to talk. She worked for an and saw she old blood on it. As she Kennedy's warriors— berets and three "It's a warrior's gift, Danny Boy," the He'd the bathed him, he began to fall asleep. She languages and training in five combat April 17, 1969: "Synchronicity," Dr. kissed him and let him lie back with his Schuermann was saying to the ten of arts. They didn't smoke. They drank in head against the tile. not "is idea. It is moderation. They ran fifteen miles a day He did come them, a wonderful a Jung- to her as the others did. together, did ten sets of everything and He came as a ian concept that explains, without really child, running from else's explaining, psi that are be- laps at the school pool whenever they someone phenomena • • shame. This was why she lelt what she yond even speculative explanation. But could and watched their grades. They r^ » i felt lor him, and why she thought of him it doesn't help us much, does it?" didn't want you if you flunked out. You f . when he was gone. The group had been togetherfor four had to be smart. He'd miss his sister She knelt for a moment by the win- months, working in the lab and on the and his parents, sure, and even his dow, looking out at Cholon, at Dong makeshift training course six days a brother, Jim. He'd remember his father N Khanh Boulevard and the lights of Sai- week, twelve or fifteen hours a day. and standing in the almond groves setting Wz ».jflL ^__-''ALA gon, and in the darkness above the city they liked this Schuermann, candy- the long sprinklers that seemed to go -J! tried to see the flight of a beaked bird assed civilian that he was. They liked forever. His father would stand up sud- 11 s «»3 ¥ !1 WAS KNEELING JBf' or the flailing of a big cal, fighting for its him and he liked them. He liked seeing denly in his memory, in the morning light, eternal life. them think, and even the lamest training and wave at him, and he'd remember HI ami AS IF IN 1 -ji "!» He did not wake, even when she idea someone suggested he would try. this, carrying it with him in any jungle. W moved him to the bed. There, she Even Burdick, who had quit the war be- on any highland plateau, in any riverine PRAYER, HER her legs until of MACV, liked him. and this said darkness. He'd remember his sister, too. wrapped around him he cause was warm against her, and stared into something, didn't it? her last birthday party, and his mother, FISTS the night until she could it. "The trick," Schuermann would say, her eyes. He'd come back to them all at see "is not'to understand the role of the hy- last, older and wiser. He knew this. TIGHT LIKE A June 18, 1990: Over dinner, the fifth time pothalamus or medulla oblongata, or the

they went out, he said to her, "I knew a importance of 'intentionality readiness April 17, 1990: That night he saw two LITTLE man named Clipper—a medic. For nine peaks,' or the phenomena of 'psi miss- men from his unit die horrible deaths, months he saw people, his and yours, ing,' but simply to find a trigger—here, their blue bodies headless, cleaved GIRL'S, THE whose deaths made no sense to him. back in the Big that will work as from their spines by men they thought PX— When his tour was over he went to Ja- well as fatigue and blood and fear were friends in a war that wasn't a dream Ufaft' FEAR pan. I wanted so much to go with him. worked over there, to make you what at all.

I knew it was the right thing to do. He you were. After all, boys, there are a lot He awoke shouting, and it took him a 1 AND ANGER went to Kyoto, to study kendo. By the of people interested in what you were moment to realize thai someone else -' **; end of three years he could hear men over there." was screaming with him. 8*7 *i*.,"» WHIPPING kneeling approach him from behind even when Their visitors from Virginia didn't come "Stop it! Stop it!" Gala was :: clenched ; f they made no sound. He knew when often, and when they did, they falked to on the floor, as if in prayer, fists HER FACE LIKE the katana would fall on his shoulder in Schuermann, no one else, and this like a little girl's, the anger and fear the training even when there was no made it easier, as did fhe pay, and how whipping her face like wind, her eyes WIND. warning, except the truth of his own laid-back it ail was. Schuer- wide and locked on him, but not in love. because centeredness, the Tightness of his mann wanted it that way. All they had to She said she didn't want this anymore. -- choices. The bodies of small-boned do was listen to what terms like OBE that it wasn't fair to ask her to live through f people falling from the skies, pushed and waking precog and nocturnal chair it again and again, and that if he loved her he wouldn't. by men just like him, were still with him, meant, sit at a monitor with wires on their Tomorrow, he knew, he would find her but they meant something else now. He chest and head every once in a while, lived agency that resettled her said this in letter, that did not their to bring if all the at Jack's house. Aaron and Katie might man had told" him. "Ken tai. Samurai's He found where they and people, she a one and do best back: and young said at last. sound like him, one he had written only voices, the tunnels of lighf, the visions or might not be with her. She could stop blessing. Use it or lose it, Danny Boy." watched them come go. A pretending now. But this wasn't a warrior's war, the man man who held his cigarette the way Eu- These were her cousins. They had because he had promised he would. It of angels, the auras, the gut senses, the

lived in I had said later. MACV wasn't going to let ropeans do and wore a white short- Cholon, too. was the only one he wrote. read it again blue flickering world—the things that

it sleeve shirt watered the front lawn every He followed her and made sure that and again in Ben Biet when the shelling had kept them alive, over there. "They Was it gone forever? Was it buried so them win. So made no sense to stay, black dai he ran into her again, at the place wouldn't stop, when the world stayed don't think it," deeply after twenty years of his life that and he'd left as soon as he could. day. An old woman in a min we can do Schuermann still after walked and the street every downtown where she usually had a late blue for three days and I was alive, would say. "They think we need a war it would take a hundred deaths wit- On a pretty campus the war they up down

lunch. A week after that, I it nessed, a hundred threats to his own had met again, invited by an agency morning with a two-year-old. The four he asked her and there were others who were not. to bring back. boys. What do you

the high school out. He did not tell her he had fought wanted to be there with him. I wanted think? A little fatigue, a little Valium, an body, to bring it back, to make him again that had kept its own list. They'd worked boys who attended what he had once been, moving through together there, laughing and question- walked .home at four pm. and did not there, but she seemed to know. There to use what I had differently. Over the arcade game or two? We can do it, can't

would I jungles untouched, unafraid, floating ing, for a couple of months, and then leave again, Stone dogs with heavy have been no other reason for next two days lost the letter. I cursed we?" He'd wait, and then, with a wink,

him to talk to her, would there? him for leaving. I told myself free, the world turning blue, the gift—as gone their separate ways. scowls sat on either side of the old that he was he'd say, "lfwecan,tef'sno((e//f/?em." —

leaves, it He'd laugh. They'd laugh. They were When the cloth was plunged deep She let him in, taking him by the hand. and then she was beside him before, he realized, even after so many could see an inconspicuous military first time to again, working with the clothes that re- nights. twenty-lwo years old and thirty and into his throat, all the way down to his It was not the he had come "I'm sorry," he said. base, one he had never visited but it the worst. mained. She nearly forty-five, and he was sixty-five, the re- larynx, and he began to gag, he came her this way, but was He was crying. somehow knew. The kind where white-

bring it back, there was He looked at her, and cry from "It tired director of a "dream lab" on the fully awake but was unable to make a had tried to and a came was done years ago." he said. gloved guards snapped off crisp sa- nothing at all. It was another him, below all dryness and death. "Over there." official East Coast. They'd all laugh like boys. sound. A single hand held both ol his in nothing, lutes to visitors and were cour- naked, kneeling as if pray- The campus was beautiful. They were excruciating pain, and "he could feel two country, another time now. She was There was' nothing he could say to teous to civilians lost on the interstates.

with its ing over him, her hair untied, it. It civilians now, vets with special talents fingers touching the cartilage of his In the small living room vase covering change was her world there, just The kind where insects beat them- of flowers she kissed him, knelt her shoulders, and the whites of her inside the jut of and special invitations to be here, and throat as if lovingly. The figure standing white the bone. The hope of selves to death against the lights of the him held him, and down before him, the ao dai hugging eyes like crescent moons, like chalices a city, a country. He hadn't even known guardhouse during hot it was like a dream. in the darkness above summer nights. like silky hand, unbuttoning his filling with moonlight. Her breasts moved what picture it "Psi cannot exist independent of in- he knew he wouldn't be able to reach her a would be when they'd He could see a compound. It was in dividual psychodynamic need," the handgun by the bed. shirt, pulling it up and away from his belt. gently as she worked, unembarrassed found the place on Tu Do Street, and, the northeast corner of the base, just her head and there was a and unafraid, and the jackknife curves too drunk to say no. he had it airfield, Schuermann would say while they It had taken less than four seconds, Then moved done. beyond a small with its own road gazed out the windows of the class- he would realize later. The pinched access and gate, its own guards in ma- room, the eucalyptus trees dappling the nose, mouth springing open, the rag roon berets. Its ten-foot chain-link fence sunlight, the girls walking by pretty as crammed down his throat, the pressure had double outriggers with three magazine ads, books under their arms. points on his hands, the clear meaning strands of wire each and was electri- were fied. fence It didn't bother him. He knew they of the fingers at his throat. These Inside the was a helicopter in this this, he would say it again the kinds of things they taught you pad. and on the twelve men in train- . needed and without getting angry: "When a woman special-warfare schools. The kinds of ing here came and went, as did their officers, dreams her lover is dying, and he is, it things he knew nothing about. superior as did those who had trained is a bond-based receptivity ruled not The figure in the darkness waited. them for fifteen years. by the paraphysical laws of the talent There was enough light through the He was not one of the twelve, but he itself but by her own, very measurable window that he could see the basic somehow knew them—name by name, psychological needs. Sometimes the contours of the face. rank by rank, talent by talent—and he in imagery is literal, sometimes it is sym- He knew that face. Was it possible? was with them the briefing room now. this wife. knew They were the bolic, but it is always dictated by need. Yes. He knew man's He government's team. The like "When the world turned blue, as it did this man's children. He had been hop- team that had trained dogs. They and rotors. for you, Daniel, it was because a part ing for an affair, something long could hear the Was the colonel, of you, refusing death, reached out. convenient for them both. They'd had or the man in civvies who had accom- When you, Burdick, made the NVA see lunch twice. He'd kissed her in the car panied him, coming back? Had there the pictures you wanted them to see, two days ago. been a change in mission plans al- after just like your father did in another war, it He'd never imagined the man would ready, only an hour the briefing? was the same, Had you been able to do anything like this. Would the night insertion into a desta- accept death—your father's or your The darkness shifted. The figure bilized Lima be called off? own—you wouldn't have needed pic- stepped back and turned, as if waiting Something was wrong. tures, would you. for him to do something. Jasper Cheek, the Special Forces drawer quickly, sergeant "What is it that a man really needs, He got the .38 from the hardened by countless SOG boys?" Schuermann would ask them, fumbled, and was aiming it, aiming it missions in Laos and Cambodia, and a

his voice rising with emotion. "Is it vic- again, into the darkness. "waking precog," was sitting, holding tory over death, power over others, the Still the figure did not move. his head in his hands, his head moving wanting from side side, sating of every hunger? Or is it—some- He held the gun tightly, so to unable to get up. times—something else entirely?" much to fire it, but unable to. Adam Riggs, the Navy SEAL sergeant They didn't have an answer, but he When he was alone again, the pain who saw auras on those about to die,

would ask it again and again. fading from his hands at last, he saw was up and standing, pale as a sheet, trying It was there that they heard of the suddenly what was expected of him, to speak, though the words would second group— run by the agency on how he could not afford to open his door a base somewhere, DOD and need-to- to thai woman again. He was. the dreamer saw. crying. know, its members still in the service and The rotors were wrong— the pitch of training hard as dogs. They laughed at There had been no blue, a lighter machine.

how serious it all sounded. None at all. Even when he'd waited What was happening? Two months later, as they began to for Tatum to fire the weapon, there had Lieutenant Yamura was up now, too, find the trigger, Schuermann died in an been no blue. The talent was dead and eyes as wide as a child's, moving slowly car accident near Napa and they were gone. He knew, this now. toward the front of the room where the of her legs, skin told to leave, coolness against his chest. A kiss. A her the color of teak, He moved his hand to her side and general and the civilian had stood, star- When he appeared at her door that single kiss. the feet upturned in another prayer, were touched her. She shivered. He kept his ing through the wall. Wernick, the Air a beauty he had not June 22, 1990: Jack Tatum didn't panic night, he could not remember driving He felt nothing. His mouth, his eyes, seen in years. He hand against her. In the end she Force Black Beret, and ASAs Arias closed his eyes. He could feel her fin- when he first felt the pressure on his there. "What is it?" she said. Her English and his lips were dry touched him there as well. the one who had said, "I know I'm the lying his on a fa- gers. He could feel the cloth slipping face. He was dreaming of Santa Bar- was good. He was back, head When he awoke she was asleep be- one doing it, Captain, but when it hap- on the ceiling, away as she helped him what he side bara, of his first wife, and the pressure, She was a strong woman. He had miliar pillow, his eyes do him. naked, her body against his pens I feel like a puppet, you know, the

which moved slowly, turning like the fans could not do. as if she had known him her entire life. strings, when it started, was faint. Then he be- known her long enough now that her someone else doing the pull- smoked He felt nothing but this. gan to suffocate. In the dream he had concern was probably real, that it might in dark rooms where old men On the nigh (stand he could see the ing"—were looking through the ceiling they had And then he heard her gasp. white fallen into the Pacific by their hotel, even be love, the feelings they felt. opium and dreamed of animals flowers. as if they could see beyond it, to some- He raised himself couldn't get air through his nose, and He could not say it. never seen. up and found her thing horrible there. The veins in their staring him, had to open his mouth wide. "You have killed." she said. He could hear the rustle of silk, the at at his groin, at the ex- June 23, 1990: He had a dream like no necks were gorged and pounding. quisite tiger there. She had never But the pressure was real. "In my dreams," he said. "Only there." whisper of it drifting to the floor like dry seen dream he had ever dreamed. In it he What was it? Had they been poi- — — — .

o'-lantern had already dodged wifh a soned? A test? A hallucinogen in the gram, and sprayed. Chambers jumped terrible ease. The man swung again. ventilation system? Each was a talent, sideways, but it was as if the Ingram jack-o'-lantern tilted to the side, and a survivor with special training. Looking knew where he would be. It made no The of caught difference. It happened fifty or sixty feet a leg came out nowhere and at them now it was as if in face. The man shook his Edwin Vick, a "remoter," and the only away, but the dreamer saw the three the man the head, swung again, knew where the talent the agency had found among its heavy-caliber slugs strike the man's this time, but the other own, screamed suddenly, "Mother of skull and the back of his head blossom other would be it, knew it better, as if guiding God! Where are the weapons?" like flowers, filling the night air with rain. knew too, toward the heli- the man where he wanted him to be. As Four of them— led by Nuno, another The dreamer moved the swung, his talent helping him, remoter, and the nocturnal clairvoyant copter, wondering how he would die. man turned three hun- •Sebastian —came awake now, head- Off in the shadows of the Q Building the jack-o'-lantern dodge, and dred sixty degrees, then one hundred ing for the door. As they reached it the he saw a man dodge, eighty, feinted and kicked, and though sounds of automatic weapon fire be- seen it all and was already gan. There were sound suppressors, the man had moving, too, the jack-o'-lantern had but it didn't really matter. more, had already kicked again, Suddenly the dreamer understood. seen and the dodge brought the man's neck They were going to die. Someone was right to him. The neck snapped. Some- going to kill them because of what they one laughed somewhere. The jack-o'- were, because of something their su- lantern stared at the body for a mo- periors in Virginia had done long ago, ment, grinning, then turned. He looked and because of what they were trained at the dreamer and began to walk to- to do. And it would be someone who ward him. could indeed do it, who was as good IHE floated up from the dark- as they were and always had been A name ness, which still held no blue. the gut senses, the auras, the OBEs, DREAMER

Burdick. . . the remote viewing, and everything else The jack-o'-lantern face came to- a war had wakened in them. LOOKED ward him, and it was the leper now, and They were going to die and they couid it wore his face. "They killed Schuer- see it. UP. NOT FAR because he wouldn't They could see themselves dying. mann, Danny Boy, help them," Burdick said at last. "He had They were outside now, all except FROM A the 'trigger' and he wouldn't help them. Riggs, who was still in his chair, the vi- You didn't know that, did you? You sion in his head—the future minutes or HELICOPTER'S have joined us. We could have seconds away— holding him there. He should together to avenge him." The could not stop crying. ROTORS worked still Danny Boy. The dreamer moved toward the door, face paused. "We can, team left now." The face and as he did he heard the silenced WERE SIX MEN We're the only again. "The gift isn't dead, Ingram machine pistols outside again paused It never dies." All of this was and watched as the forty-five-caliber WITH Danny Boy. knew. Twelve men with slugs tore through the thin walls beside real, the dreamer talent had died, were dying, this very him. He kept moving. The world was not STOCKING night somewhere, while he was living. yet blue. Outside a body rolled against The dreamer felt something stir be- his legs. Bert Northcutt, the Special CAPS what it was. In an- Forces sergeant from Bluelight. A sound side him and knew other world, a woman lay on a bed be- came from the man, then stopped. Un- CVER THEIR him, dark-skinned, and asleep. He der the light—where the insects bat- side the little girl who had died tered themselves to death —he could HEADS. remembered in Dak Lo, and the woman lying against see the exit wound, where it had taken now, what he might feel for her if his windpipe out. him man named The dreamer looked up, and there, given a chance, and the Burdick, reached him at last, not far from the blurring rotors of a light- who had hours, picture weight helicopter painted the colors of in his sleep, in his waking picture over the past two months, a hospital medevac, were six men with after black stocking caps pulled over their dodge again as the rounds from two ln- without his knowing it. Danny Boy, the jack-o'- heads, the eyes cut out like jack-o'-lan- grams tried to find him. The man's talent It never dies, face said again, and waited. terns. They hadn't seen him yet. He saw was working and he was good, moving lantern his There would be a phone call or letter the frogman Chambers on the ground. as if on a ball court. He was trying named Burdick would The quiet, sinewy man who spoke of his best. He did not want to die either. The soon. The man talent as "Cousteau vision," where man had something—a length of wood want an answer. heard her say beside him, "everything down there is as clear as a or metal— in his hands and was nearly Ni Fa? he her hand in his, as alive and real as any- TV set," was trying to get to his feet. to the first jack-o'-lantern face. He was thing he had ever known. Something about the man's shoulder raising it, whatever it was felt her stir again, and as they woke was wrong, wet, like an oily rag. A jack- Before he could swing, the jack-o'- He he could o'-lantern face appeared around the lantern dropped the Ingram and stood together, he knew the two corner of the building, raised the In-, waiting. The man swung, but the jack- save. DO great deal of time in the module, reading CAVE DWELLER or playing the guitar. I go outside the only to empty the toilet. When I'm t module JRRHBB& :"cm iM'.ill" i-:om -;;:; :-,, out there. I cook and contemplate the sky!

I food to friends that my cave is the only reality. I didn't [She laughs] also take my fee! anxiety or sorrow. Giuseppe and Ninetta [two enterprising Omni: What physical adjustments did you mice that showed up in the cave and be- immediately go through? friended Follini]. picture Follini; During my first days in the cave, I Omni: When you the outside

felt very tired and often dizzy. Now I feel world, what do you see? fantasies fine, even if I'm not perfectly "in training Follini: Images, memories, and beautiful: the in the judo way" [her peak— Follini has alternate. Two images are

I earned a brown belt in judo]. But I am last sunrise and the last sunset. When

I to a lot of lazy. I practice do-in [a physical training return to the world, hope see

program]. What physical activity I can do, smiling people. impressions of the cave I do. even if I have to pull my ears to over- Omni: Have your come my laziness. changed since you first entered? Omni: Did you go through any mental Follini: It's more beautiful. It's a lot colder.

stages or adjustments? Omni: Does it seem bigger or smaller?

I noticed It is I Follini: haven't any change. i SB* Follini; Alter I entered the cave. became afraid of the possible dangers of my sur- "more known." roundings. The fear became so great that Omni: NASA has considered making

it, that station areas adjustable so crew I became identified with so much space

TOLL FREE it. having members may rearrange their living CAiL I lost sight of [Translator: She's 1-800-426-6027 great difficulty expressing herself. The spaces. Is that a good idea?

interior designer, I would first In New York 17)8-41 7-3737 fear was so much a part of her, she seems Follini: As an OR WRITE to be saying, she was lost in it] like to see the project. For sure, it's a good for var- My house is on top of a landslide, I idea to provide different spaces thought. Looking at the stones—who ious activities. knows when they tumbled down from the Omni: Do you prefer your module or the outside the module? top ol the cave? I imagined the noise they environment

Follini: becomes angry] When I sit created. I really believed that the cave [She

was an invader and would crush me, down, wrapped in thought, I look at the really want punish me for my arrogance. Now I feel rocks one by one. What do you

more' satisfied, more serene. I feel like I've me to say? STATE ZIP let down some barriers: anxiety, fears, Omni: When you first entered the mod- sterile angers [rabia sterili— an odd, un- ule, how did you arrange the space?

familiar expression, says the translator]. Follini: First I divided the space into the

world. It living room, bedroom, and dining room. But now I know this is my own

I eat, sleep, and cannot scare me any longer. I set down mats where Omni: Will your cave experience help you read. The mats are very comfortable. overcome personal problems? Omni: What books have you read? [She detail that the crew be- Follini: At a personal level, I am trying to goes into such collect my strength, correct my attitude. gins to joke about her response as the to renounce [atteggiamenti rinuncia- revisita— the book-review journal.] is Dictionary tari—the phrase doesn't. exist in Italian. Follini: My favorite book the Possible meaning: to withdraw from the of the Italian Language. I've read The

problems], and establish positive rela- Gates of Grace by Evelina Chao. I espe- tionships with people, without allowing cially liked The Black Opera by Marguer- pleasure. The any abuse and without allowing any ite Yourcenar. I reread, with crimes to be perpetrated. [Translator:

Grammar is really off-the-wall.] Now the magazine of the future con be Omni: Isn't it contradictory to come to kept for the future. Store your issues of grips with your problems by "withdraw- OMNI in new Custom Bound Library Case

3 of bfack simulated leather. It's built to ing and renouncing"? Are you running MiK !S. i (litis: 21!. i ijaae ' mint 22. :<;.',;-. i:.;s;]S?S. 3st, and If will keep 12 issues In from life? away Bruce Coleman; page 28, Steve-, Hi.r-t. page 30, -si- condition indefinitely. The spine Is embossed - ": Follini: My time in the cave will not solve ne: Pret page 34 top. M E v-imier IJ72 '->-o:o with the gold OMNI logo, and In each case all my problems. It's a question of per- there is a gold transfer for

recording the date. spective. From here, I look at the world page 36 top right, Rani Lew; page 36 bottom, NASA page 37 lop, The Stoc* Ma-kel; page 37 Bottom, Mario Send your check or money order very differently. This change of perspec- Ruiz; page 38 top, Phots Researchers page 38 bot- •-:.: : 3 lor $24.95; 6 (or $45.95) solutions. .. :: -.- '. :. ($8.95 each; tive may help me find different tom. i-.':--:S, :- usgsM, .- : ::!,.!.,. !' ' . '. ' ::• ! /it", ' postpaid USA orders only. USA orders add I-..: H!' « , D^S if learn to I am convinced that you don't S8clookvilaelromtiipi<;;!. $1.00 and foreign orders add $2.50 01 know and love yourself, you cannot know Image Sark. Doi Lan-jwehrie/lrnagc 3;;-,k. Ten King-' Image Bark, page 76. ,;, ;:«;•; Si'!. and love others. Probably tor this task, a White; page 90 top right, 3a oh Fst.il:-.- VI D. Sci- To; OMNI MAGAZINE ?.-.-- S-»..'CC-Ft;;.io r-r-Mearcheis page 90 bottom, few months are not enough. - I,!-:.-,,-- .\ .'i,-:li,viH-:; pags SI top F I Jesse JonBS Industries, 499 E. Erie Ave. How much time do you spend in MO. PA 19134 Omni: page as; Movie Si I the module and how much time do you ...,; ,. ' CREDIT CARD HOLDERS (orders ( 5TS15) area? Co.; page 121 lop, Shigoc Takagi; page 121 bottom, CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-972-5858 spend outside in the open 124 John Stuart: Or mail your order, clearly showing your Follini: Very little time in the open cave. page 122, © landscape Inc.; page lop. page 124 bottom left, lr> o 'aikjrccr-_,0'n:c_d page account number signature. Pa. resident and Even less in the module. I am almost al- add 6% sales tax, ways traveling around the world: Brazil. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED England, China, Italy. Actually, I spend a —

in translator Fraschini's lot, this is for me. I Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. ! let welled up eyes. sleeping a but normal

myself go with two fairy tales by Michael Follini had courageously rejected the idea sleep well. I sleep frequently. Ende entitled MOMO and The Neverend- that the cave was lifeless in spite of the Omni: Are your dreams more or less vivid

ing Story. I became very involved in stone surroundings.] since you entered the cave?

reading Dona Flor and Her Two Hus- Omni: If people went on interplanetary Follini: They are more vivid. At the same

for years there time I think I dreaming less. I've bands by Jorge Amado. I had some dif- voyages that lasted and am

ficulties with Favorite Fairy Tales Told was no certainty of returning to Earth dreamed three times that I left ihe cave Around the World selected by Virginia again, what mental adjustments would before the end of the experiment. In one

I Haviland. I just started Dynasty by Eileen they have to make? dream, had to start over, from the be-

Lottman. Naturally, I keep M. Siffre and Follini: [She took a full four and a half min- ginning. I dreamed more than once about Maurizio Montalbini's books about cave utes to answer.] They would need to de- my parents. Along with a cousin of mine, exploration close at hand. [Follini gets up velop a flexible attitude that included the they were coming here. The most beau- and looks for book titles. She can't re- possibility of not returning to Earth. Prob- tiful dream was about a man. Nothing member them. Montalbini commented ably they should be, paradoxically, free scandalous. He shook my hand, smiled that Follini's concentration was poor and free from fears and desires. at me, and then we joined some people she may have been experiencing mental Omni: I've been told by many explorers to drink a glass of wine. drift, a common occurrence among Ant- that their sleep patterns changed during Omni: Have you seen Lucy, the prehis- arctic explorers.] their journey into isolation. Has that hap- toric woman you dreamed about before Omni: For a person in your situation, in a pened to you? you went into the cave?

I cave, does Dona Flor have too many ref- Follini: I have the impression that I am Follini: No, haven't seen Lucy. erences to sex?

Follini: The use makes the organ. I do not know. When a function is not necessary, y-i Official announcement of the it becomes temporarily suspended— like

turning off a light in an empty room. I must JriRST MEN ON THE MOON tell you, I don't feel tormented by the lack $5 COMMEMORATIVE COIN of sex, so I didn't find the references in Dona Flor excessive. An affirmation ofAmerican ingenuity and Omni: Astronauts in space often turn off courage, available at the face value ofonly the spacecraft cameras because they $5.00. Now you can hold a piece of feel as if they are being watched all the history in your hand. bother you or give time. Do the cameras Twenty years ago, America landed the firsl men on Ihe you a sense of security? moon. And this year, the self-confident and heroic spirit Follini: Well, you know, a star like me, I'm lhat put America's flag on the moon's Tranquillity will be officially marked with the is used to it! You may keep my physical of the First Men on the Moon S5 Commemoi presence under surveillance, but the Coin. This legal lender cob is being issuer camera can't enter my mind. In the be- the Republic of the Marshall Islands, where A it bit intrusive, eye, ginning was a a prying has an important space tracking station.

and I was afraid of acting unseemly. Bui The coin dramatically depicts the triumphant m

1 the feeling disappeared. Now I don't care. ment when American astronauts became the first Omni: Do you look at yourself in the bath- men on the moon. About the same diameter a; even room mirror? Silver Dollar, the coin is thicker — and painstak- ingly minted in a brilliant uncirculated finish. Each coin Follini: Not really except when I put on the is protectively encased, after passing exacting mintit

electrodes for the experiment. I EEG standards, and is accompanied by an ai

myself I . glance at when wake up to see This historic coin will be issued on the anniversary di

if I recognize myself. July 20, 1989 — and it will be minted only in 1989. It will be Omni: Do you recognize yourself? available only for a short time and in limited quantity. The coin is offered without any premium over its face value of $5.00, plus Follini: Well, I don't know. I haven't got $1.00 per coin for shipping, handling, and ir used to the idea of having a face, or pre- distribution, there is a strict limit of five coins per order. cisely this face. Order promptly — For yourself or as a gift — from the Republic of Omni: If Montalbini extended the experi- the Marshall Islands Coin Fulfillment Center, One Unicover Center, ment for a longer period of time, how Cheyenne, Wyoming 82008-1989. Phone TOLL-FREE 1-800-722-7121 would you feel? from anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. All orders are subject to limitation and acceptance. Follini: [She chews on her fingers, rubs Satisfaction guaranteed. her neck, thinks a long time, grabs some

food, laughs.] I do not have the vaguest

idea. Probably it wouldn't make any dif-

ference, since this is my life. It would be

an extension of the eternal moment that I now experience. This is not good or bad. LaaJiniunww.LiBiicS.

It would depend on how I gave it polar- ity— turning something neutral into something positive or negative. Omni: Does the knowledge that you will come back to the world—full of life, full of activity, full of light— psychologically sus- 1-800-722-7121 tain you? from anywhtit in [he U.S. jiio Canada. Follini: Even here, there is life. My return

will be a change and I enjoy changes,

but I do not think about my coming out as a "freeing." [The crew aboveground reacted emotionally to this answer—tears- —

— Omni: Why hasn't she visited you? lationships with everyone I know, even the render, every failure, every blow the wolf will I a sheep, I Generally, feel "Whoever becomes Follini: Perhaps I became Lucy. I do not ones just met. more open

them. eat." I relive my memories with tactile, ol- know. I also don't understand why I'm and clear toward

factory, and visual sensations. I feel hap- dreaming less or why I don't remember Omni: Have your thoughts changed for your piness, pain, serenity intensely. my dreams. I feel a little sorry. about any people, example, — Omni: In various experiments in the Ant- mother and father? Omni: NASA structures the astronauts' arctic, the subjects couldn't tell the differ- Follini: [She gets up and leaves the ter- time very rigidly. Is that a good idea? ence between dreaming life and waking minal to go to the bathroom. She returns Follini: No, I don't think so. You cannot

I biological and mental rhythms. I life. Have you experienced this? seven minutes later.] I've learned that control

than I thought. think it's better to face ihe situation with Follini: No. Clearly, I can separate dream love them very much, more from reality. But in this situation of atem- Omni: Have you considered whether flexibility or, if you prefer, with fantasy.

what time it porality, it's the reality that may seem like you'd like to remain single or get married Omni: Do you miss knowing

II is? miss the a dream. It's very difficult for me to re- and have children? is, what season Do you Follini: Since I've in the cave, I've rhythm that time gives to life? member if I did something an hour ago been or a month ago. married a couple of times and had two Follini: Here, I am the tyrani of time. I de-

it is so I can create I cide what time my Omni: Do you follow a daily routine? children. But I was unfaithful. was weav-

girl was doing homework and own day. And I have time for everything I Follini: I try to discipline myself, probably ing while a poultry pen. Per- to accomplish. It's not important I want you've noticed. As soon as I wake up, a man was closing a

what time it is outside I have my take the medical data, my blood pres- haps I would like to be normal, lo have a because

if it is day, I children. I cannot see own seasons. Even a sunny sure and urinalysis. I transcribe the data husband and But

it, it's not important to me. I will thinking cannot see so and communicate it to the crew. Then I myself in this role. keep prepare tea with yeast, do the salute-to- about my options. Omni: Do you think that time and light are the-sun exercise, which stretches my Omni: In the absence ot relationships or essential to the human race? Do you think

distractions, fills the social void? we could live without them? muscles. After a while, I have breakfast, what light is vital. Time is a good read, play a card game or the guitar, draw Follini: I try not to lose my concentration, Follini: The

still if only not try to make concentrating. I have a thing we would a little. I cook lunch, and exercise again. but to keep

learn. I try to identify money, as the proverb goes. We are the After lunch, I read and take a nap. When lot to Sometimes myself in a stone, another person, or an mistaken ones, "not the rhythms of nature. I wake up, i do judo or T'ai Chi Ch'uan. Is solitude good teacher, a unique I the Omni: a After supper, I read and go to bed. At animal. think about mathematical distract from ot the world. I remember with teacher? Or does loneliness intervals, I take medical tests and answer harmony calls from the crew. extreme clarity what I've thought about, the search for wisdom? couple of assist- Omni: You said you wanted to use the buried, or denied in the last five years. I Follini: Solitude needs a self-discipline. time in the cave to reevaluate your rela- reevaluate small details until they be- ants: willpower and tionships. Have you done that? come important. I'm surprised at my nar- at this point. I remember every sur- The first interview ended Follini: Yes. Yes. I am reevaluating my re- row-mindedness.

It was one in the morning, March 8, 1989. The interview had lasted seven and a half hours. When Follini was queried, she thought only one hour had elapsed. She ignored the cues of fatigue from her body, such as frequently rubbing her back, At one point she had a snack, munching on dried apricots as she typed out the an- swers to my questions. Before the second interview Follini was told that un gruppo had arrived to inter- view her—presumably a group of jour- nalists or psychologists. This interview took place Thursday morning, March 9,

at 6:30, just after sunrise. It lasted until

ten in the morning. After sleeping for 14 hours, she was cheerful, laughed a lot, and gestured often. Her crisp answers reflect hermood; her response time was

quicker ihan in the first interview.

Omni: Do you spend much time garden- ing? Do the few living things down there plants, frogs — give you comfort?

Follini: I don't exactly garden. I have a

sprout container in which I cultivate wheat

and watercress, I haven't seen the frogs

yet. They're probably shy. I met the mice. We've established a neighborly position

with each other. I fill up a plate with water

so they can swim. But I leave them alone, intrusive in I don't try to catch them or be any way, They show some trust, allowing me to get close to them, up to a certain "tn a minute we'll have the results of your sperm count, but first, an poini. But they don't comfort me, Fre- important message from your AMA," quently, I see cave spiders and I offer them a snack. AT $9.47, LONGEVITY ANSWERS THE QUESTION: WHAT PRICE IMMORTALITY? A year's subscription to Longevity has to LQSggW»w rank as the deal of a lifetime. Because for the Charter subscription price of only $9.47 you get 12 issues of the first magazine devoted to helping you live longer and better. That's just 79c an issue. 74% off the cover price of $36. Which isn't bad, even if immortality isn't quite within our grasp. Yet. In the months to come, there will be articles on subjects ranging from exercise to nutrition to psychology and genetic engineering. Provocative stories from the frontiers of the field and immediately useful, practical advice, written in a fast-read style.

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If share your things, salty things, spicy things. I've al- Omni: II there were no living things Omni: you were asked to plants or animals—would the cave be space with another person, what prob- ways loved sweets. But just before I en- much worse for you? lems would you encounter? tered the cave, I started to prefer salty I've lost Follini: You know, after a while, even the Follini: Coordination. foods. The scale says weight, so

I it would you like to share this probably I eat less, even though have stones seem alive. I cannol imagine Omni: Who

impression I eat frequently. without any form of life, it's nol visible, then space with? the or alcoholic invisible, some microorganism. Besides, Follini: That's a serious question. Not Omni: Do you have wine, I'm here. Prince Charming. With my best girlfriend beverages in the cave?

Omni: Do you miss long showers? because we would be able to coordinate Follini: No. And I do not want any alco-

our disagree- holic beverages. I don't like the effect al- Follini: That will be the first thing I do when our activities, work out has on my body. To drink a glass I adjust with ments, and have fun. cohol I come out. In the meantime, that's a pleasure. what's at my disposal— soap and a Omni: If a two-person crew were to go to of wine with friends— the of two Drinking here would be bad for my stom- sponge. Sometimes I even wash my hair, Mars, should crew be made up usually after I've taken off the electrodes women, two men, or a man and a woman? ach and my humor. I don't miss it. crews on Follini: I can't a categorical judg- Omni: Do you think spaceflight for'the EEG tests. I take a complete bath make with a gallon of water. ment. All three options could be for the long voyages should be allowed to drink? Omni: Do you have perfume or cologne? better or the worse. We need to consider NASA doesn't permit alcohol onboard. abil- Follini: imagine the orbits? Follini: No perfume. Just incense. I light each person, their compatibility and Can you

share experience together Speaking for myself, I don't drink when up every time I empty my chemical toilet. ity to such an that you've be- I'm in training. But a glass of wine during Everything has its own smell I don't need Omni: Is there any object strong perlume. Anyway, my nose has a come especially attached to since you Iree time on a long voyage might be a good memory. entered the cave? tonic for the crew. Wine, though, would spoil during these kinds of trips. Omni: The matter of free time and Follini: I don't think so. Everything has a communicating through a amusements on the space station is really value based on its use, I love my dish Omni: Does

it time-con- I bother Is too crucial. Should activities be passive, such when I eat, my guitar when play. But I'm computer you? express yourself? as reading or watching TV, or active, such not attached to them. In fact, I couid do suming, a poor way to computer keeps for itself the as team sports? without them like the other things that I Follini: The conversation. In Follini: You cannot replace physical ex- don't have here. feelings that animate

conversation, I love to jest and embellish. ercise. In a restricted space, however, it Omni: How does the food taste? Do you relate these af- is necessary to allocate some space for eat more or less than you did when you The computer cannot aboveground? fects. It's like a filter. The nice part, you're individual activity. I don't think reading is were all able to think a bit more before you talk, as passive as watching television. It's very Follini: I wish I could invite you for din- are I human beings on Mars satisfying to create, to be able to draw or ner but I'll just talk about it. love to cook. Omni: When forced to communicate with people on I prepare lots of good things, sweet

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"/ figure il i do well enough here, they might let me get into something creatfVe Earth through a computer, what prob- them see life differently. They enjoy cer- tle mood swings, various voice tones, and lems do you foresee? tain activities more; some even change any obvious body language. her im- Follini: I don't have any idea. When I their priorities. Will you make any changes Degioanni wants to know how communicate to the crew aboveground after this experience? mune system will fare. After the experi-

I is his and I don't receive an immediate answer, Follini: don't know yet, ment completed, DeFrance and of I Texas I don't worry. I know they're busy. But Omni: From your experience, what type colleagues at the University will Follini's haven't had an emergency. If I had an of person is best suited for this type of Medical School analyze REM emergency and the crew didn't immedi- experience? Can anyone do it? sleep patterns to see how they were af-

ately answer, I'd worry. Follini: Someone who doesn't eat a lot! fected. And Galvagno will analyze her Omni: On a Soviet flight, a cosmonaut's [She postponed breakfast for this inter- blood to check her calcium levels. laboratory controllers did view.] Seriously, I think a person goes Franz Halberg professor of father died. The ground who :

not tell him until he returned to Earth. Was into isolation must simply be open to medicine at the University of Minnesota, that a good decision, or should they have whatever happens, physically, mentally, believes that the experiment has already informed him immediately? and spiritually. yielded valuable information. Most peo- ple's Follini: I think it was the best decision. Omni: Can isolation in a cave change a blood pressure peaks by day and What could the cosmonaut have possi- person's basic, fundamental nature? drops by night, and differs on weekdays

bly done besides feel bad during the rest Could it change the human race? from weekends. "Not so with Follini," Hal- of the flight? By the berg says. "She fol- way, how are my lows her own built- parents 7 in cycles: twenty- Omni: Fine, they're four-and-a-half- perfectly fine. Ant- hour days, and arctic explorers weeks just slightly sometimes experi- longer than seven ence a "mental days for hearl drift" and sensory rates." In fact, Hal- deprivation while berg says, Follini's they're isolated. heart rate and They force them- blood pressure selves to concen- cycles seem to be trate in order to ac- complish tasks. her cardiovascular Have you experi- system apparently enced mentaldrift? is independent of external such Follini: I have to cues concentrate in or- as morning and der to complete evening, day or some tests; every- night. This is the thing else seems to first time any re- come naturally as searcher has tried to track this phe- if I had lived here

all my life. nomenon on a per- Omni: One team of son in isolation. "It psychologists ex- seems to mean," amined Antarctic English Leather. says Hal berg, "that and submarine ex- our concept of 'the plorers and found Leather week' is partly that while certain built-in to our na- brain functions or ture— it's not just a such as attention culturally influ- span and percep- nothing enced thing." tual cues deterio- all. Follini's rhythms rated, other func- at seem to mimic her tions such as the underground cave

ability to become absorbed in beauty and Follini: No. No basic fundamental world, a bizarre and alien environment aesthetics increased. Has that hap- changes. You get to know yourself better, with its own slow rhythms, measured not pened to you? change a few things. The temporary ab- from dawn to dusk or season to season

Follini: I don't know. [She pulls at her sence of human relationships allows you but by some seemingly quiet subterra- clothes.] I've always had a special love your relationships. nean clock ticking off tens of thousands,

for beautiful things. I hate synthetic even millions, of years. Here, in a plastic clothes or mismatched colors. I'm trying We signed off. She was beginning to module, surrounded by technological lo create a nice environment around me. feel dizzy and nauseated; she had not gadgets and support systems, Follini lives

Omni: Do you still think that small spaces eaten. We had talked far three and a half out a dream, to test herself against her- can be designed in a beautiful way? hours. She thought we had talked to each self for 100 days of solitude— or more. Follini: A small space can be designed other about an hour. When she comes out, she'll be greeted

in a rational and beautiful way. But it isn't As of March 9. the last time I saw Fol- by an enormous green metal sculpture,

lini, Italian arlisi Misheff. Like always possible to live in small spaces. . by camera, she had been in the cave made by Alzek even if they have been designed per- for 56 days. Because she was in the ini- a city sitting on a hill, it can be seen

fectly. But I would have said the same tial stages of the experiment, the results from miles away: Representing the stump thing a year ago. of the research were very tentative. Mon- of a tree with a little leaf sticking out of

Omni: When people return from the Ant- talbini, from the trailer aboveground, the side, it's called Moonleaf: For the arctic or come back from space, many of. keeps vigil over her psyche, noting sub- Future of Man.QG The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

By Scot Morris

Audiences are thrilled when a magician can make his assistant vanish, whether it's

behind a screen or in: a puff of smoke. But when a disappearance occurs

in plain sight, the effect can

.be all the more mystifying and the question "Where did

it go?" all the more perplex- ing. A similar effect in the form of a puzzle has also stumped people for years. This two-dimensional problem works on the same premise: By rearranging pieces of an illustration,

characters in Ihe picture disappear. This puzzle, known .as a geometric van- ish, was popularized around the turn of the century by Sam Loyd's version called "Get Olf the Earth." On a paper disc Loyd contribute to drew 13 warriors dancing' on only-two different totals. at all times, how could any designs may the outskirts of a globe. Now there's a new version candle "disappear"? The improving the hydrody- propulsion, life- The disc, cut into iwo sec- offering three totals. This explanation will appear next namic, and support for small tions, is pierced through the geometric candle design month, so you have plenty systems The. center with a pin. In one was created by Shigoo of time to challenge yourself undersea vehicles. position you can clearly see Takagi, a chemist, marine and your friends. novelty of this race is the puzzle maker submarines' power systems, 13 figures, but if you move surveyor, and FELLOW SUBMARINE the pieces around the in Tokyo. Atop Ihe next which will be fueled by pin, one of the warriors page is -a card with nine Remember when subma- the human body. seems to vanish, leaving candles. Cut along the lines rine races used to be a Human-powered subma- only 12 men in view, and rearrange the top teenage joke—a euphe- rine racing may still prompt A more recent example, three pieces as follows: mism for parking on lovers' giggles, but it's no joke to shown above, is the "Van- Move the leftmost reclangle lane. Late this month, the competing teams. A ishing Leprechaun," pub- to the far right. Move the without sly winks or double few of the impressive lished by the W. A. Elliott other two pieces over one entendres, an invitation entrants include the U.S. Company in Toronto. space each to the left to watch submarine races Naval Academy, Mare

This variation is divided into (as shown in illustration 2). will be for real. Island Naval Shipyard, Na- three sections, initially Now there are only eight The First Annual Interna- val Special Warfare, Lock- showing 15 leprechauns. .candles. For the third tional Submarine Races, heed Advanced Marine Cut along the lines and arrangement, repeat the sponsored by. the H. A. Systems, MIT's Sea Grant switch thetwotop pieces process, as in illustration 3, Perry Foundation and Flor- Program, the University as shown. Now count and count again. You'll ida Atlantic University, of Washington Applied the Florida the leprechauns. It seems find only seven. are to be held in the open Physics Lab, that one has disappeared. Which two candles ocean off West Palm Beach, Institute of Technology, the University of California at Which one is it. and how vanish? Don't be too quick Florida. The purpose of Barbara, and Califor- do you account for it? in giving an answer: Con- the contest is to inspire fur- Santa Uni- Up until now the variations sidering [hat all parts of the ther experiments in marine nia Polytechnic State on this trick have involved jigsaw puzzle are visible technology. These vehicle versity at San Luis Obispo. 120 OMNI . — — .

breakaway from a moving- your lungs are.len lo twelve sphere at unpredictable inches lower than your spots, causing turbulence, mouth, so when you breathe si- but Gongwer's eight-blade from a scuba regulator,

propeller is designed to your lungs have lo over- suck the water back into a come that extra bitof converging stream. Gong- pressure to pull the air

wer says, "I.don't expect down. We found- that in a to win this race. I'm entering sitting position a diver

it only to demonstrate that consumed about twenty- my idea works." five percent more air and less work -Cr Another entrant, Larry did ten percent Beckman of Seascapes than when he was in a

Aquariums in Riviera Beach, position where his lung's Florida, confided that he and mouth are at about the plans to use tanklike tracks same- depth." to maneuver his sub along Uniike other races, speed the ocean bottom, 15 to is not an immediate con-

30 feet below the surface. cern. A. goal of about six-

The Lockheed team knots (8.4 mpb) is men- has shunned using a pro- tioned. But most designers

peller in favor of a vertical I spoke to were unclear blade that will flap back about projected perform-

and forth like a tuna's tail fin. ance. No one has ever built The craft (shown' below) a human-powered sub ble for the steering and is aptly named.the Gossa- before, so no one knows RACE PARTICULARS safety of the craft. mer Albacote. quite what to expect. In

The races will be held Second, all vehicles must Most. of the subs will future years, as. experience June 23 through 25. Spon- be free flooding, which have the propulsor lying on is gained, the winning craft sors are offering cash means that the operators his back but not necessar- will probably begin to look

prizes to the winners: a will be surrounded by water ily for reasons of comfort more and more alike. But £5,000 grand prize for the within their contraptions. or streamlining.. "We tested this -year, when the prob-. vehicle with the best overall This necessitates breathing underwater perform- ferns are new and the' performance and $500 through scuba regulators, ance in various answers are tentative, the

for each winner in the cate- so the participants must . positions," race is up for grabs. The gories of speed, cost-effec- be certified divers. entries this year are sure to tiveness, and innovation. All The propulsor may use be as' innovative as human vehicles will race three any form of muscje power imagination can make times around the course arms, legs! or both. Most them. And that should a kidney-shaped, one- teams are opting for a make for a good third-kilometer-long loop bicycie-pedal arrangement, submarine race- for a total of one kilometer. but one entry, designed no joke.DQ Vehicles are required to by Cal Gongwer, will use turn in both directions. only arm power. Safety concerns have Gongwer, an aerospace dictated some important re- engineer and propeller strictions: First, each vehi- designer, is entering a five- will be operated by foot clear acrylic sphere. Lew Nuck- two people. The teammate 'A sphericaf shape has olsoftheU.S: designated as the "propul never been stable, in the Naval Academy.

' " will be the sole source water," Gongwer told me, "Normally a cyclist

of muscle power, while "but I have found a way to might prefer to sit upright the "pilot" will be responsi- control it." Water tends to But in a sitting position, VIDEO SCANS EMfinES

cient historian Thucydides, If I ran the world, things festlect of Athens' would be different. We'd Cine Countries (tUtum* H; w Sparta's fear have international famine, growing power made war widespread insurrection, inevitable; All you have mass hysteria, nationwide to do is replace the names bankruptcy, nuclear war, ey7S Athens and Sparta with and an occasional town- Soviet Union and America. stomping invasion by 1 If you get the principles right, can change the Godzilla. If you've ever you wanted to wage war on ur- situations and the charac- ban crime or edge a finger ters, and the simulation dangerously close to the 3; will turn out right." -- Meanwhile, the home Big Boom Button, Balance \^j a on of Power: The 1990 Edition front, SimCity caters to - (BOP 1990) and SimCity 5 armchair politicians on an jm.-h nmrd Means urban scale. It demonstrates will let you find out what <2J would happen. that if you can't fight city Praised by The New York hall, you can join.it, Times Magazine as "the for a bipolar "us against blood before reality caught Assume the hot seat in most sophisticated strategic them" scenario. The 1990 up with them." Boston -before a nuclear

simulation in America, Edition boasts a complex Combining intelligence meltdown, San Francisco other than Pentagon war multipolar simulation in with a game player's sense prior to the 1906 earth- games," BOP 1990 is a re- which all 80 countries in the of mischief, Crawford is quake, or Tokyo just as creation of eight years game can act with com- Dennis the Menace fathered Godzilla stomps into town.

(1989 to 1997) of world plete and sometimes con- by John Kenneth Galbraith. Make-be I i eve mayors geopolitics. As the Ameri- founding independence. With his outspoken (and allocate funds, oversee can or Soviet leader, you BOP can't capture all the carefully cultivated) ability police and fire departments, observe and react to events complexities of the. real to offend almost everyone. make long-term design with and activities in 80 coun- world, but its imaginary he's developing a reputa- plans, and struggle tries, gaining or losing reality is intricate, enough to tion as the Sam Kinison of Mother Nature while trying international respect and challenge the most canny computer game software. to advance the quality of staving off the final reality of amateur politician; At a game designers' life or just survive. global thermonuclear war. BOP's imaginary reality, conference, for example, he SimCity is an ingenious As you extend overt however, has deep hooks illustrated the exploitative mix of amusement and and covert activities around in authentic events. In attitudes of software pub- simulation, combining ani- the globe, dole out financial fact, Crawford was the first lishers by punctuating mated city maps with charts aid, and listen to a quartet of to measure his computer his remarks with the crack and graphs of hardheaded computerized advisers, world against the real thing. of abullwhip. And last population, crime, and BOP 1990 lays bare the "My representation of the March, during San Francis- financial realities. And for tension and the tedium of Philippines showed a con- co's West Coast Computer those who like Fifties fanta- world politics in a way siderable amount of Faire. he boldly proclaimed sies, there's always that

that newsprint and news- instability there^ though it the death of-Apple ll and surprise Godzilla attack. casts can't. missed the fall of Ferdinand Commodore 64 computers. BOP: The 1990 Edition, Only the most mature Marcos," he says, "The But while controversial, from Mindscape Inc., is

tactician will prevail against Soviet pullout from Afghani- Crawford is widely recog- available for MS-DOS, Ap- the imposing volume of stan and the conclusion nized as the dean of com- ple Macintosh, Apple llgs, BOP's financial, military, and of the Iran-Iraq war were puter game designers. and Commodore Amiga industrial detail. "I've never among other changes "BOP is about the princi- 'computers. Maxis Soft- ware's SimCity is published had anyone complain that caught me flat-footed: I ples of geopolitics," Craw- that BOP is too simple," didn't expect either of ford explains. "Those prin- by Broderbund for the Macintosh, confesses BOP designer them to happen this year. I ciples don't change and Apple Commo- Chris Crawford. Although figured they needed to haven't in thousands of dore 64, and Amiga com- the original BOP settled spill a few more-rivers of years. According to the an- puters.—Bob LindstromOQ

122 OMNI STAR TECH

ACCESSING THE FUTURE

by Julio Harvolh, a yoga devotee and former eleisl with Ihe Roma- 1

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