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GEICO Gecko image © 1999-2015. © 2015 GEICO Contents MAY 2015 • Volume 46, Number 2 FUTURETHE IS HERE Startling innovations are remaking our brains, bodies and towns—and saving lives worldwide 34 The Body Shop The dream of replacing injured or diseased organs is ancient. Now scientists are getting close to creating live human body parts on 3-D printers BY MATTHEW SHAER 44 Mind Meld Exploring uncharted territory in human communication, neuroscientists are making strides with human subjects who can “talk” directly from brain to brain BY JERRY ADLER 52 Levitation Nation The inventors of a playful Back-to-the-Future- style hoverboard that uses magnetic levitation technology have a surprising social goal in mind: to levitate buildings BY CHRIS COLIN 54 The Sheltering Sky Using satellites to assess the health of farmlands, a U.S. agricultural engineer’s break- through research can anticipate where famine might strike next in Africa BY ARIEL SABAR 66 Monolith No one had a sharper sense of the future than Arthur C. Clarke, whose original screenplay for 2001 was just acquired by the Smithsonian Contributors 4 BY BRUCE STERLING Discussion 6 Phenomena 9 American Icon: History, with Fries 68 Plastic Planet COVER: A 1970 Art: Speaking Volumes Artifi cial fl owers. Action fi gures. Plastic pellets. Millions of tons of artifi cial waste vintage toy, a Small Talk: Beth Shapiro combination are swirling in our waters and washing up on Adaptation: The Art of War rocket and boat coasts worldwide PHOTOS BY MANDY BARKER / Artifact: Natural Selections equipped with a TEXT BY ELIZABETH ROYTE television camera Essay: Sheer Madness Commemoration: Re-fi ghting Gallipoli Photo by Jeff Pidgeon / Drawings Ask Smithsonian 74 Welcome to Farmtopia by Iris Gottlieb Viva Manila 25 A new real estate trend has suburban develop- ments planted around working farms. THIS PAGE: Filipinos in Las Vegas are sweetening The harvest, residents hope, is healthy food the pot with Asian fusion fare Keir Dullea in and a stronger community BY FRANZ LIDZ 2001: A Space BY SUE HALPERN AND BILL MCKIBBEN DMITRI KESSEL / THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION / GETTY IMAGES; (DETAIL) ROY W. MCDIARMID W. ROY (DETAIL) / GETTY IMAGES; / THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION DMITRI KESSEL Odyssey (1968) Fast Forward 100 May 2015 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 1 EROO T M USIC A The most spacious staterooms M T S Regional live entertainment S every evening with private balconies and fl oor to ceiling sliding glass doors TOR IS Y H Th e Mark Twain Library and chart room. INING D Th e grand dining room allows you to dine whenever you want. ONM IR E V N OM RO T Th e most environmentally Enjoy breakfast N E friendly ship on the river. S served by room service on E E R V IC your private balcony. Wireless internet and in-room phones. USA Built and registered in the United States. All American crew. Comfortable Lounges Historic River Towns www.americancruiselines.com ELAX R Open sun decks give you plenty of space to relax. ERCIS X E E Exercise area with a stunning view of the river. THE MISSISSIPPI DONE PERFECTLY TEA Complimentary tea service every afternoon S E E R V IC in the Sky Lounge. 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UNG O E Enjoy the view from L the Paddlewheel Lounge. ew in 2015 gle - Brand N Th e Most Spacio erican Ea us Staterooms Am 1-800-460-6187 Reservations offi ce open 7 days a week Contributors Mandy Barker Sloane Crosley The award-winning British photographer The author of the has been collecting objects on beaches since best-selling essay collec- she was a child, but now, instead of seashells tions I Was Told There'd and driftwood, Barker collects plastic—ev- Be Cake and How Did erything from toothbrushes to Transformers You Get This Number (“Plastic Planet,” p. 68). “I wanted my photos was struck, she says, “by to connect with the people of Hong Kong,” the untold philosophical where she visited 19 beaches over three history of nylons” (p. 16). years. “These are objects that are part of ev- “We owe nylons a debt of eryday life. So when the people see where it gratitude, however out of ends up, hopefully, it will help them think fashion they may be for about recycling and reusing—and not buying certain age groups. They as much plastic.” Barker’s work has been ex- made way for tights as we hibited in China, Belgium and England. know them—and if you spend your winters in the Northeast, you know how ILLUSTRATIONS BY Sam Hoh Chris Colin important tights are.” Cros- The San Francisco-based journalist was happy to ley’s fi rst novel, The Clasp, revisit Back to the Future Part II, the sci-fi comedy will be out in October. set in the far-off future year of 2015, for his story about the inventors of the real-life hoverboard (p. 52). “This is a team attempting to defy the most fundamental law of the planet,” Colin says. “I think it’s good for the species to swing for the fences like Elizabeth Royte Kendrick this. Not because I foresee a signifi cant chunk of The Brooklyn-based Brinson and humanity getting to the grocery store on hover- science journalist David Walter boards anytime soon—but because inventions like published Garbage Banks the Hendo keep things exciting and remind us that Land, a 2005 book The photographers, we should never stop trying to shoot the moon.” about what happens who are married and Colin has written for the New Yorker, Outside and to our trash after it live in Los Angeles, Wired. His latest book, co-authored with Rob Bae- Charles Floyd leaves the curb. “I traveled to a biody- deker, is a guide to conversing, What to Talk About. For the illustrator and for- haven’t been able to namic farm to shoot mer art director at Nation- stop thinking about “Farmer D” for “Wel- Bruce Sterling al Geographic, the topic of where things come come to Farmtopia” The renowned bioengineered organs hits from and where they (p. 74). “There's some- American science close to home. Four years go,” Royte says. Still, thing about farming fi ction writer has ago, Floyd underwent she was shocked next to a beach that is always seen Arthur open heart surgery for an by a recent study so rare and beautiful,” C. Clarke as the aortic valve replacement. estimating that 8.8 Banks says. “Farmer iconic futurist (p. Now he looks forward million tons of plastic D was such an inspi- 66). “The passage of to a future where bioen- fl ows into the ocean ration,” Brinson adds, a million years was gineered organs might annually (p. 68). “that after we came nothing to Clarke—he was happy with the re- be a reality. Floyd hopes Royte is also the au- home, we started our mote past and remote future and had profound his illustrations (p. 40) thor of Bottlemania: own compost.” Their insights that other people didn’t have.” Sterling, “help readers understand Big Business, Local work has been fea- author of more than 17 books, won the Arthur C. where in the body the Springs, and the Bat- tured in Rolling Stone, Clarke Award for the best science fi ction novel organs currently being re- tle Over America’s the New Yorker and published in the U.K. for Distraction. Two of his searched for replacement Drinking Water. Sports Illustrated. novelettes also won Hugo Awards. are located.” 4 SMITHSONIAN.COM | May 2015 WITH MACULAR DEGENERATION YOU MAY NOT KNOW YOUR VISION IS GOING UNTIL THERE’S NO GOING BACK. ONLY PreserVision AREDS 2 contains the exact levels of clinically proven nutrients now recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of progression for people with moderate to advanced Macular Degeneration.*† PreserVision AREDS 2. Clinically Proven Nutrients. Ask your doctor if PreserVision AREDS 2 Formula is right for you. † Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 Research Group. Lutein + zeaxanthin and omega-3 fatty acids for age-related macular degeneration: the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2013 May 15;309(19):2005-15. National Eye Institute website: http://www.nei.nih.gov/areds2/ Accessed October 2013 ©Bausch & Lomb Incorporated ®/TM are trademarks of Bausch & Lomb Incorporated or its affi liates.