Omni Magazine with Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet

Home , Juggling robot, PROTO (fusion reactor)

SPACE

LAWS OF THE . ROMAN EMPIRE ASIMOV'S NEUTRINO AND THE COLLAPSIBLE UNIVERSE THE RIGHT TO DIE PRIMAL GARDENS FROM GENETIC MEMORIES AND A NEW VIEW OF HUMAN SEXUAL COMPATIBILITY onnrui

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR; BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EXECUTIVE EDITOR: BEN BOVA ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: J. ANDERSON DORMAN FICTION EDITOR: ROBERT SHECKLEY EUROPEAN EDITOR: DR. BERNARD DIXON iTSON DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: BEVERLEY WARDALE

PAGE FIRST WORD Opinion John G. Driscoll, C.FC. 6 OMNIBUS Contributors 8 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 10 FORUM Dialogue 14 EARTH Environment Don Wall 16 LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon 18 SPACE Comment Charles Kohlhase 20 MIND Behavior Chris Tucker 22 FILM The Arts Jeff Rovin 24 TELEVISION The Arls 32 CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 THE RIGHT TO DIE Article Roger M. Williams 44 SPACE LAWS Profile Ron Bitto 48 VOYAGERS Hction Ben Bova 52 PRIMAL GARDENS Pictorial Robert Sheckley 56 THE MICROBOTIC REVOLUTION Fiction Ian Stewart 62 PROJECT TESLA Article 68 HELEN SINGER KAPLAN Interview Diane Klein 72 NEUTRINO AND UNIVERSE Article Isaac Asimov 78 TAILORED FOR ZERO-G Pictorial Anthony Wolff -84 I.O. TEST ANSWERS Results Scot Morris 88 INNOVATIONS New Products Geoffrey Golson 102 UHbLHIB " EXPLORATIONS- Travel Kathleen McAuliffe 118 STARS Astronomy Allan Hendry 124 DIGITIZED EINSTEIN Phenomena Herbert W Franke 126 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 128 LAST WORD Humor Stephen Robinett 130

John Holmes, a sell-taught artist, yiignr ® IBB1 by Omni Pubin sihi~ creator of this month's cover. Titled The Seer, the painting depicts man's ability to peek into an existential future. Holmes's paintings are in private collections throughout the world, and he is U.S.. AFO:S2.2SinCangd now working for clients in Europe, the United States, and Australia. 4 OMNI 1

President -Reagan'snow budge' programs individuals are woefully unprepared, miem nave an urisniocipated and unable lo.aot prudently, and effectively pernicious effect or; lbs future oi this unable to understand issues and options country his counselors believe /' He and - , inability to act generally . spawns.a thai the revftalization •' 1 ol our industrial and . paralyzing fear so that ignorance of ;/ I science, technology, and LP mm. „J sophisticated economy It is worrisome and puzzling thai techniques oi problem-solving osiers this same pro-industrial strategy calls for suspicion and distrust of our scientists''

tht 71s and technologists' motivations. Wears in designed to train citaeris with scientific dancer of the public's perceiving these

and engineering talent, i refer specifically V experts as Dp Strange loves, intent on .,..;• t^E^"^^^"^^ or. ^A V decision re manipulation for purposes not congruent rococo drastically the activities ot the With democrat!!., goals and ooieclivss.

NarjonalScianoe Foundation jnadeoj iti edo lii. :oe cos B^^^B^^^^^^^^^^^ This cute pose a direct ihrea! to the democratic." science educanoii. a gnevous. concern system. The right oi ''V'."^^^^. 1 the people to govern

_.._.;• . ^^k sir obal society in themseives is founded on ;he conviction which';! is increasingly iniporlsn; tnateacn efeen ^^^^^^1 ^L^m\ c. '.-. .'i.o 'V'-' -*",-'• ly, and politically for 99 hR i that J citizens to have an ^H ^B understanding of afieo; his lire, today many of -ne policies «^^^^^^^^^^^ science and technology. It is akoadv set by ihe puPhc and private sectors are widely reported iha- the level of ice'Cc n ihe areas of

below r l the other lal rratons. individual has an adequate understandm FIRST For example, 85 perceni of Arr.enoar. h-gh school students discontinue men has ihe appropriate tools with which to

siudies in science and mathematics aftei decide, he ;s incapable of exercising nis grace Ten. In contra;,:, two thirds or :r.c- rote in the democratic orocess. He must WORD lenfh -graders m the Soviet Union are instead resign himself to surrenoerirvg nis By John 0. Driscoll, C.FC. completing iwo years of caioulus Our responsibility lo a cernperal'vely sma;i technological society— which neeos the elite, a course of action basically iAnmdiyidual support of strong moral values a antithetical to :he American democratic disciplined educate its experience. ." ' '"-.' must have the tools to ;,/ j information base- can no? achieve rs Only through education can we hope to make decisions complex goals wi'o such an inadequate develop a citizenry that is prepared to before he can take preparation of :isci;izen& participate ac'r.e'y

i: :"ne isoa; i admin ion's assault on the i hr: licglca so ici.\ rnohasison part in the programs of the National Science litetaey "numeracy " and appropriate democratic process.? Foundation further complicates a serious academic and persona: discipline must condition ihai already exists within oe mace a priori;* Additional curricula

America. Wo are rapidly seeing ins d'owtn must be studied, much oi it with newer

' ., of'Lwosocia ola s. the sciei ;e i :: pedagogical techniques. Professional,

and the sclemce-capabie: those woo have prepared teachers i oeen educated exclusively in the Tins is nappenlt-.q at some learning humanities, law, or business and those centers. At lona College, m New Roche-He

: i. : who nave been frarv i m Now York, the faculty administration, and science ana rechnoiogy. The existence tr' authorities in science and technology hay*

1' I'. ' " . .,..:! two r ii, II. o.i,. in. been invoked en developing lecture and introduces considerable stress into our laboratory exoemsneos that would provide economic, poliitea: andethlca; e-^'y undergraduate with the opportuni- decision- makino processes. ties neeood ic as Ic'ross issues of beaim Presently we are witnessing a wonderful energy environment, information retrieval; reawakening of nuno-sity and interest in the oata and word processing, risk analysis'. sciences I'ho seoioess ol maoaxines such and bec.risiori mak:ny — : najor concerns as Omni and trio production oi numerous of today and tomorrow. so;ence and scionco-lrction boohs Appropriate change most be expected movies arid television programs and required of thai extraordinarily large demonstrate wiae support (or (he and fine network, the American sciences. While Some who read these educational system. Th;s change publications and enjoy these programs mandates iwo partners for ihe educations

' 1 .'. '.',!. i '!. : ii . : ,; community: a corpora;.;? secret lhal can most people do no: have Ihe background provide financial assistance to make to understand and Interpret technological educational changes feasible and a

: information n a way that will ret them judge government sector that wiii respond with and adjust ed eotio.o i id nrocision when ine by rapid change. Without an appreciation dd <' >„..., ..,,:' ,.. ii.'.l.i'i. ..!. ,, DNTRIBUTOR DRJirUIBU!

great fortunes of the next first 1 1 chapters of Genesis, and Asimov The will in century be made the on Science Fiction (Doubleday), a asteroid belt, and, by the year collection of essays on topics relevant Times Literary Supplement Stewart's 2020, a significant fraction of humanity's to science fiction, "Message from Earth" appeared in our gross world product will be derived from "Each of us worries to some degree February 1980 issue. space-based activities." claims Art Dula, about the circumstances of his or her own If the Donald Symons interview (March probably the first private attorney in death," says writer Roger M. Williams. "Will 1981) caused you to wonder about some

America to devote his practice entirely to it be protracted and painful? Will those of the theories espoused by sex therapists aerospace and technical law. "Cosmic who want to die be prevented from doing in this country, read Diane Klein's interview Counselor," Ron Bitto's profile of the Texan so by doctors or well-meaning relatives with sex researcher Helen Singer Kaplan space lawyer, begins on page 48. who want to maintain life at any cost?" (page 72) for more mindblowing insights Bitto, while working full-time as the These are some of the weighty questions into that touchy issue. advertising manager for Eastman Williams asks in "This Way Out" (page 44). Klein, a free-lance writer for a variety of Whipstock; the., a directional oil-drilling Williams, formerly head of the Atlanta magazines, has written several articles on company in Houston, is a ghost writer for bureau for Time magazine, senior editor at sexuality for Modern Bride. She, unlike engineers in his free time, Possessing a Saturday Review, and staff writer for 'Sports those hapless mates discussed in her liberal arts background, Bitto has been Illustrated, has contributed to a variety of interview, has been happily married to successful in translating highly iechnical national publications, including the Dial, one man for 28 years. subjects into understandable copy, Many Signature, the Nation, and the Atlantic. He Are you a genius? Last month Omni oilfield trade publications have published is the author of Sing a Sad Song: The Life of published an l,Q, test prepared especially his articles. Hank Williams, recently reissued in hard- for the magazine by representatives of If the universe begins to collapse, what cover by the University of Illinois Press, Mensa, the high-I.Q. society, Beginning will happen? Will it end as a small, dense and The Bonds: An American Family on page 88, you will find the test answers, point? Or will it bounce and begin ex- (Atheneum), which traces the lives of along with an analysis of the results. panding again? The key to this mystery Julian Bond and his forebears. Through the ages, storytellers have may be the neutrino, a neutrally charged, The line from Arthur C. Clarke's book created many different names for Eden, massless particle capable of going Voices from the Sky, "The rash assertion the originally perfect paradise. "Green through more than 20 light-years of lead that 'God created man in His own image' is World." beginning on page 56, is a without being stopped. In "The Very Large ticking like a time bomb at the foundations collection of Friedrich Hechelmann's Lion and the Very Small Mouse" (page 78), of many faiths," stirred Sen Bova to write paintings of that prehuman world. Isaac Asimov, the dean of science writers, Voyagers. An exclusive excerpt from the Hechelmann, the painter who created our discusses why the "tiniest mouse," the novel, to be published this month by December 1978 cover, resides in Isny im neutrino, may finally tame the "largest Doubleday, begins on page 52. Allgau, West Germany. He is a former lion," the universe. Other fiction this month includes Ian student of Rudolf Hausner, one of the Asimov has published more than 200 Stewart's "The Microbotic Revolution" masters of the Viennese school of books. His most recent are In the Begin- (page 62). Stewart, who is a lecturer in fantastic realism. The text is by Robert ning (Crown), a'masterful appraisal of the mathematics at the University of Warwick, SheckJey. Omni's fiction editor.DO a OMNI J

KATHY KEETON OMWPUBLICATIONS INTERNA" LETTERS EDITORIAL Editor in Chief: Bab Guccione; Eject.

Ben Bova; Managing Editor; J. Anderson Dorman: Sen/or Editors: Dick Teresi, Scot Morris. Owen Oavies, Fiction Editor: Robert Sheckley, Humor-Edi- tor: Bill Lee: European Ed/tor: Dr. Bernard Dixon: CDnnruiuruicAToriis Associate Edlti sen McAullfle Kathleen Stein, Alex Wagner; Assistant Managing

Editor: Paul Hiits; Assistant Editors. Geottrey Got- ' son. Mate Kaplan; Editor, Soofi Division: Robert Weil; Copy Chief: Ruben Boylan. Copy Editors: " Charles J. Aftardl. Brian McKemah: Editorial " (ants. Susan Caputo, Murray Cow, Leslie Epstein, Jayne Gassman, Franceaca Lunzer; Contributing

Editors; Stuart Diamond, Robert Malone. Dr. Patrir'- ' Contributors Write In be given credit for the concept. Since the The painting by Cristobal Toral illustrating picture was sold and profits were made my story ''Angel at the Gate" [June from 1981 reproductions, we felt it should be

stunning. I was Now understand why I lock acknowledged that Harmon's intellectual myself away in my study while everyone property was the basis for this image and else is at the beach. There just aren't any the inspiration for Dali's. better showcases for fiction than Omni. ADMINISTRATIVE Subsequently Dali has become ill. and Associate Publisher: Russell M. Griffin we have been unable to conclude whether Director of Advertising Milford. Conn. he wants to acknowledge Dr. Harmon's ate Director of Adverti contribution. The illustration for "Colonel Stonesteel's A. Reynolds Morse Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Salvador Dali Foundation, Inc. Mummy" [May 1981] was glorious. I'm St. Petersburg, Fla. proud of having my stdry in Omni. Ralph Perricelli; Natl Ray Bradbury Psychic Archaeology Richard Fogel: Director Los Angeles, In Calit. "Psychic Search" [April 1981 ] Stephan Usr.Dir.otPub.flel.: Te A. Schwartz refers to an alleged psychic, Tarn Wagner; Advt. Adrni Many thanks for Ellen Datlow's eloquent George McMullen, and presents the ' Prod. Mgr Robin Berli words accompanying "Stellar Technician" following evidence of Mktg. Services Lsro Rossanr McMullen's para- [May 1981 ], I was pleased and flattered. normal powers: "George had correctly ADVERTISING OFFICES Now if only I could live up to them. sensed the presence of Africans in the Vincent Di Fate Canadian Far West, which virtually rewrote 3301 Telex no 23712B Midwest (Norm Ki Wappingers Falls. N.Y. a chapter of British Columbia's history." 111 East Warmer Drive. Suite 2036, ChiC. I am a local historian and would love to 60601 . Tel. (312) 565-0466. South (Peter Gol Dalion Lincoln 1707HSt.N.W, Wa,rinyicr- DC 20006 T' know exactly which chapter of our history 293-6050; Detroit (John Bluth) 950 Eas! As president of the Salvador Dali has been "rewritten" by McMullen's Suite 204, Birmingham, Mich. 48011. Te Foundation, Inc., in St. Petersburg, Florida. psychic perceptions. 646,364.6; West Coast (John Romai The history of black Westwood Blvd., Suite 1002, Los Angela: and as owner of the world's largest col- colonists in this province, and of European

90024. Tel. (213)824-9831. U.K. & Europe (E lection of Dali, I read with great interest exploration on this coast, is quite well Graham) 2 Bramber Road. London W14 9PB, En your article on Dali's painting of Abraham documented. This example of psychic (and. Tel, (01)385-6181. Teiex no. 919665 Lincoln [Games, May 1981]. archaeology remains unknown lo local EDITORIAL OFFICES Lincoln in Dali Vision was based on historical writers, unless a group of Afri- New fork 909 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022 Tel. (212) 593-3301. Teles no 237128. West Coasl Leon Harmon's computer-reproduced cans had been teleported here by UFOs. 924 Westwood Brva. Suite 1002, Los Angeles, Gal illustration of Matthew Brady's original Ed Starkins 90D24. Tel. (213) 824-9S31. London 2 Bramber Roa portrait of Lincoln, which appeared in a Vancouver, West Kensington, London W14 9PB, England B.C., Canada Scientific article Tel. (01) 385-6181. Telex no. 919065 American on the com- U.K. S European Editions puterization of images and the human Read The Secret Vaults of Time., by Director ol Publications, U.K.: David Jones; Adve mind's ability to retain images. Stephan A. Schwartz, published by Using Director: Eleanore Gra«arr £ :;.', cr,*: .As.'.'.s Dali ant: Andie Buriand took the image from that magazine, Grosser and Dunlap, 1978, for a more BUREAUS blewituptoapproximatelytenfeethighby detailed account of how West African eight feet Washington, DC. William R. Corson, 1707 wide, and then painted directly sia '/r_;.5 were transported to British N.W.. Washington, DC Berlin: Hans-Hahn. En?ian on the paper. The photographic illustration " Columbia. — Ed. " strasse 1 , Berlin 45 flio Oe Janeiro Andre Fcdc is displayed in Dali's Teatro Museo, in Rua Mexico, 15th floor, Rio de Janeiro ZG39 Budapest: Paul Kirlyhedgyt,. 5 Regi posta utc Rgueras, Spain. It is very popular. More on the MX Budapest Hungary 5, Zagreb: Cedomir Komijenov Visitors can view it through a pair of Norman Spinrad's Last Word [March Strebrnjak 96, Zagreb, Yugoslavia binoculars from across the lobby. 1981], concern, the VX missile, con- THE CORPORATION ng When we first exhibited the print at the firmed my opinion that few Americans care Bob Gucciom? \r-frrman or the boarc Dali Foundation (then in Cleveland, Ohio), I about the MX and that those who do are hung a Xerox copy of the Harmon work and misinformed. the reference beside the illustration to Spinrad asserts that "200 square miles demonstrate how the image was derived. of desert" will be affected by the MX. At

I then received call a from Dr. Harmon's least 100 to 200 times that area is involved. lawyer, who thought that Harmon should He also places the cost at $30 billion, CONTINUED OMPAGE101 DIALOGUE FDRURJ1

In which the readers, editors, and cor- power which can bo sold at a profit. the article lha< discusses Scot Morris's respondents discuss topics arising out In our society, profit is the fuel to run the experiences at the Oregon Vortex is of Omni and theories and speculation of engines of commercial development. The interesting writing, but in reality there are interest general are brought forth . The best kind of profit is that which derives a? nc iv .Yca-i" esses in Mr. Morris's article views published are not necessarily those from improving humankind's lot while as he says there are at the vortex. His of the editors. Letters for publication preserving the home planet. Happily, "experts" are in fact professional should be mailed to Omni Forum, Omni Riggatron energy systems seem capable debunkers. As such, they cannot be Magazine, 909 Third Avenue. New York, of both, with large profit margins. considered scertists. nor can their NY 10022. Robert W. Sussard methodology be consioe'ed valid to President, INESCO assess what they say they are studying. Profit Preservation and San Diego, Calif. Mr. Morris takes Ray Hyman at his word on This is in response to the letter from Mr. these matters; I just don't think that's good Garrett A. Smith that appeared in Com- Science and Ethics enough, munications [April 1981] concerning article The "Rent-a-Cqnscience" [May I have a doctorate from the University of our Riggatron fusion reactor's charac- 1981] seems flawed in several respects. Michigan in behavior and. environment; I teristics and our profit motivation. First, its title implies that ethics, morality, have taught at four universities: I -iin a Indeed, if environmental concerns or conscience can be called upon in former associate editor of the Journal of render of storage "used" Riggatron units crises, but is otherwise le be left on the Environment and Behavior, have pub- • economically unattractive, it would be shelf. In fact, science and ethics must lished two college texts in environ- foolish to propose throwing them into "old cooperate with each other; otherwise one mental educacor. and psychology, and mine shafts." In fact, all of our studies show of them will seduce the other. have published several articles in a strong incentive lo reprocess old units in This seduction, secondly could take the professional journals. Some six years order to M extract the Co transmuted into form of the Inquisition, but is the other ago, while teaching at the University of the copper materials by neutron irradiation alternative any better— absolutely M Oregon, I began to study the vortex during operation. This Co can be sepa- unbridled scientific research and ex- phenomenon. I have now visited four rated at modest cost in reprocessing plants perimentation? Unless scientists take vortex areas: the Oregon Vortex, the Santa can in and be sold quite profitably some ethica' responsibility the Moral Cruz Vortex, and two in the Black Hills of markets for fooa sterilization/preservation Majority and their ilk will like come on South Dakota. I have studied the sacred (for nonrefrigerated LDCs) and for sec- gangbusters. But ethicians also need to places of American Indians, Eskimos, and ondary sewage sludge irradiation (which assume some scientific responsibility other cultures, seeking verification of makes low-cost cade iced orfertilizer). And ethicians, in the form of church or claims that these areas are "special." The Thus eo the by-product Co can dispose of religious leaders, are beginning to take vortices appear to be localized anomalies, a normal garbage problem at a profit. technology seriously. In addition to Father with fields strong enough to influence Finally, and more important, Riggatron [Richard] McCorrnick's work (mentioned animal behaviorand plantgrowth. tokamaks might be used to solve the in the article), the Pope John XXIII Center. Some of the things that the guide tells nuclear-waste-disposal problem. This is in St. Louis, is educating Roman Catholic people at the Oregon Vortex cannot be possible by placing the wastes of fission bishops in such matters as birth and substantiated. The vortex doesn't appear reactors in a blanket around the fusion death technology and human sexuality on charts that the Federal Aviation light bulb and then transmuting these I compliment Mr. Colligan for an Administration maintains, but a strong wastes neutron-capture by chains to less otherwise fine article, and Omni for its anomaly exists nearby, which is listed. The noxious isotopes. Studies made in the refreshingly optimistic tone about science geology of the area is quite peculiar: There past seven years by Bagatelle Northwest and technology Also for its ethical con- are many deposits of various metals and and that others show safety storage times cerns, as shown in "Rent-a-Conscience" other elements in igneous rock. The work for the most hazardous radioactive and in the publication of the continuing of biometeorologist Professor Solco Wolle materials, cesium and strontium, could be debate over the use of fetal brain material Tromp shows that localized anom- reduced by a factor of ten/from 400 and or transplants. alies are hardly uncommon. Tromp 900 years, respectively, to 40 and 90 Rev Theodore Seneschal. O.S.B. also shows convincing data about human years, by one year of blanket irradiation. St. Gregory's College perception of such anomalies. The phe- The much longer lived actinides all could Shawnee, Okla. nomenon of magnetotropism (plant life be "burnt-up" within a few in weeks such a being influenced by magnetic fields) is blanket. And, of course, all of this gen- Vortex Vituperative also well documented. erates thermal energy as well, which can I'm writing in response to the article Perhaps most telling aboutthe article \s be used to make steam and electrical "Magic Man" [May 1981 ], The portion of Mr. Morris's complete failure to explain the-. II OMNI CONTINLILUCNPAGE MB LAKE MAKER EARTH By Don Wall

Hyde can always tell when dry that in Hawk July and August Ihere wasn't Family. His companions are an old yellow the bald eagle is watching ducks enough waier for a Steller's jay to drink. dog and an Alaskan wolf, which he bought on the lake. All the ducks move thousands of Wow birds and other animals from a trapper for the price of its pelt. close together and form a cluster, a single come in every day to bathe and quench Occasionally Hawk and the wolf howl mass, which confuses the eagie. But when thirst, their together at four in the morning. a sick or crippled duck is separated from "I created this lake out ot nothing but The Hyde ranch, Yamsi — which means the rest of the flock, the eagle flies in sagebrush and snow water," Hyde recalls, "home of the north wind," in Klamath swiftly it. . and attacks sitting in a resurrected truck seat on the Indian— spreads over 6,000 acres of a "He takes about a duck a day," says front porch, wind chimes tinkling in a soft forested mounlain valley. If you look at a Hawk, whose real name is Dayton 0. breeze. "I just looked at my worst piece of map of southern Oregon, you'll see that Hyde. Hawk is a man of fifty-six, craggy- land I and wondered how could turn it into Chiloquin is adjacent to the Fremont faced and weather-beaten. "The eagle a wildlife paradise." National Forest. It's magnificent, Hawk is the veterinarian of the lake. Maybe he Over live 5,000 ducks here, a pair of owns an additional 6,000-acre tract in the doesn't ever think, 'Well, that's an bald eagles, two pairs of sandhill cranes, vicinity and 1,500 head of cattle. Unlike unhealthy duck; I'd better kill it; but the owls, hawks, a family of trumpeter swans. many ranchers, Hyde never thinks of way he works fits nature's pattern." cqyotes, mountain lions, and a single loon. wildlife as his enemy. The setting of this natural drama suits Hyde had expected that the osprey who "When our cows died in the winter, we Hawk's own pattern, too. Five years ago live above the lake ' would feed upon the would drag fheir bodies out into the woods the lake wasn't on his ranch, in southern rainbow trout. But the trout are up to 12 and leave them," he says. "What we were Oregon. He and his sons bulldozed pounds now, and that's too heavy for a bird actually adding, without knowing it, was worthless flatland into a lake bottom and with a five-foot wingspan. supplementary feed lor the coyotes during dammed olf a canyon, using snowmelled Hawk Hyde thinks of his wild world as a time of stress. Instead of removing the in the spring to supply water. When the the bare bones of a man's dream. He lives coyotes we got along with them and we lake is completely filled— it's about two at the lake in a small cabin he built with his didn't suffer the losses that other ranchers thirds of the way now— it will have a own hands, and he writes about wildlife. In intheareahave." shoreline of three and a half miles and a 1968 he published Sandy: The True Story As a rancher, Hawk understands that depth of 60 teet. This land once was so of the Sandhill Crane Who Joined Our when a man goes out into his corral and a bunch of his sheep have been killed

during the night by a coyote, it's pretty hard to turn him into a coyote lover. But Hawk objects to the view that mankind has dominion over wildlife. "I hate the word dominion more than any other word in the English language," he says. "I've always been able to look out (he and see energies of the world. I can hold my hand up to a tree and feel the

energy. I can see it in the rocks— it's hard to explain. It's like seeing somebody's

aura. I'm seeing the aura of the earth. I

don't know. Maybe I've taken a little more trouble to communicate or to understand or to sit and look and think about these kinds of things." Hawk believes thai man and nature can coexist, that you can have your ranch and wildlife, too. He's putting that philosophy into practice. His plan, the Wildlife Stronghold, would give the nation a natural preserve that all the federal money in the world couldn't produce. The Wildlife Stronghold calls for Hawk Hyde and his wolf; Humankind ,'."? nir.e: v

By Dr. Bernard Dixon

a single day earlier this year, metals. |;, $20 Che^is lBS£j | ents in of patients out of an already tiny minority Inmillion was wiped off the market val- experimenls. b so found of the population? ue of atop British pharmaceutical house useful in "mop; cessmelals One man. Dr, John Walshe at Adden- when safety forced problems the com- that accumulat ;in patie jffering from brooke's Hospital. Cambridge, tackled the pany to abandon work on an antiasthma Wilson's diseas eandiec dpc sorting problem vigorously. He experimented with drug. As the stakes higher grow daily, the One particui rchelati ga ent— peni- alternative che:ai r:g agsnts and came up risks dizzier, and the regulations' more cillamine- pro with the equally effective Trien. which intense, a troubling question emerges: ridding tissues it binds unlike penicillamine, had no toxic side How can lirm afford any to pursue copper and lea rhen effects, A friendly pharmaceutical firm did treatments for infinitely rarer disorders? excreted, expe rous a few tests with Trien. but they declined The is illustrated problem by an ailment elements. Thus tone miracle Walshe's invitation to produce regular so infrequent, its name does not even drug, penicillin wrought ano her supplies. He was equally unsuccessful in appear in many popular medical guides: miracle— this :im= benef ring people approaches to other manufacturers. The Wilson's disease, This inherited condition stricken by Wilson's disease. market for such a drug was too tiny to results from a simple error in body So far, our tale is one of serendipity: justify a profit-oriented program. chemistry. Copper accumulates in the "[actios for defeating a lethal disease With no other recourse, Dr, Walshe liver, brain, and other organs, thwarting emerged from quite unconnected began synthesizing Trien on a laboratory their normal functions and ultimately killing research, The result was a drug (now bench at his hospital. As Britain's sole > the patient. marketed by Merck,- Sharp and Dohme) supplier of the lifesaving compound, he At one time no treatment whatever was with total power to prevent the ravages of worries about the future. What will happen available. Victims suffered increasing this rare malady. Bu! that is not the end of to his patients when he retires or dies? brain damage, which interfered- with story. the A few patients developed side And even if someone else can continue speech and movement until death effects so hazardous that penicillamine supplying them, will Britain's regulatory relieved them of their disabling torments. had to be withheld, How could any authorities then insist on the drug's being Then the picture changed dramatically pharmaceutical firm be expected to properly tested and approved? Forthe with the discovery of chelating agents, commit precious resources in searching moment, those obligations have been substances that readily combine with for a substitute drug to treat a minority relaxed in this one special case. The saga of Trien highlights a broader problem The presidentof Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Paul Janssen, recently pointed out the Catch-22 his company faced in devising a therapy for mucocutaneous candidiasis. Because there are only about 400 cases of this terrible infection in the entire United States the disease would be eradicated oefore licensing conditions could be satisfied! Citing 50 similar uncommon

conditions, Dr, Janssen said it would be pointless to embark on the process of meeting statutory regulations. Why bother? After all. drug companies are not charities.

But we cannot find the answer in mono- lithic state ownership, either. Nothing of novelty and value— nothing - has ever emerged ''cm the oharmaceutical laboratories of the Eastern bloc. The

solution, surely, is in incentives and a more flexible approach lo drug licensing. Medicine for rare diseases is a topic that needs urgent at:en:or, frcm governments Dr. Walshe: Bri i _.' '".'lisor^'v Q':^,:,-c on both sides of the Atlantic .DO '8 OMNI JOURNEY TO THE GIANTS

By Charles Kohlhase

weighs almost a ton and measures motion. Fortunately, space-exploration this type in our solar system. Or is it? Voy- Itapproximately four meters by four technology at the lime of the Voyager 2 ager 2 w\\\ scan Saturn's rings with much meters. Its two television cameras take launch had progressed far enough for greater detail and listen for the power- tens of thousands of pictures of worlds in scientists to exploit the alignment of the ful megawatt-current discharges between the outer solar system. A collision with a four outer planels; this event will not the icebergs that nudge one another micrometeoroid could cause it to lose its recur until the twenty-second century. during their endless, crowded merry-go- orientaiion temporarily, bul it wouldn't Boosted by Jupiter's enormous gravity. round about Saturn. is of founder. It made millions of parts. If Voyager 1 sent home more new knowl- Since Voyager 2 will fly closer lo some certain fail, components others will take edge last November about Saturn than of the Saiurnian moons than Voyager 1 over. We're.Ialking about the fantastic we've gained since man first pointed a did. we expect to receive more details, Voyager2, the semi-intelligent robot that, telescope toward the heavens. One of the perhaps even some revelations, about for neariy four years, has explored mosf startling discoveries was the superb these curios in the outer solar system. The unknown worlds. complexity of Saturn's ring system. This proximity of Voyager 2 to these moons will What enables Voyager2 to sail so month we prepare for a second flood of enable planetary scientists to examine blithely through space? Consider this law knowledge— Voyager 2's follow-up smaller surface features. of physics: An object in motion will keep encounter with Saturn. One moon that perplexes scientists is moving unless an oulside force acts on it. The first Voyager raised many bewil- lapetus. The front half of lapetus, which

of course, there is 1 And, no air resistance in dering questions about Saturn's vast faces the direction it travels in, is six times space to slow Voyager 2 down. Gravity swarm of orbiting ring particles and darker than the half facing the opposite assist alone controls the robot's velocity, clumps. For example, the mysteriously direction. Will Voyager 2 disclose that is, its speed and direction. When braided F ring will be more closely astonishing new facts about lapetus's Voyager 2 swings around a planet's scrutinized by Voyager2 to determine leading or trailing hemispheres? Another trailing side — the side away from the whether the ring is'interwoven three- puzzling misfit in Saturn's flock of icy planet's direction of motion— Ihe plan- dimensionally. If it is, that will explain satellites is Enceladus. Voyager2 may tell et's gravity considerably increases the more about the molion of its particles. us why Enceladus's surface seems to spacecraft's speed with respect to the Why the F ring is braided is unclear; show almost no impact craters, sun and changes the craft's direction of as far as we know, it is the only ring of Voyager 2 will not fly as close to Titan,

Saturn's largest moon, as Voyager 1 did, because of the flight-corridor choice to continue to Uranus. Also, we have discovered that Titan is covered with a thick haze, which cannot be penetrated by Voyager's cameras. Hereafter, in order to

capture an accurate portrayal of its surface, spacecraft may use synthetic aperture radar to pierce Titan's dense atmosphere. Other key satellite encounters include Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, and Hyperion. Voyager 2 will look for revealing surface marks on these moons, which will give Earfh-based scientists a better idea of how such moons are formed. Voyager will also enable scientists to measure the dimensions of craters and faults. Every day this month, Voyager 2 will send about 400 pictures back to Earth, making scientists work overtime to explain the evolution and composition of these baffling moons. Voyager 2, whose, closest encounter with Saturn will occur on August 25. at Computer graphics si^'jiaii: Voyage- 2 sftc'.'V before, its encounter w 1 Uranus in 1936. 11:24 p.m. Eastern daylight time, will be

20 OMNI CO\"INUtDCN PAGE 110 . .

DREAM CONCEPTION. n/iiruD

By Chris Tucker

For cenluries, since long before one another because of the way the brain while conscious. :ne brain does not realize Freud charted the hidden terri- operates during sfeep. that the paralysis is normal. Thus, if we try tory of fhe unconscious, dreams "The brain is programmed in its own- hard to move our legs but cannot, the have been thought to hold deep meaning. way to produce REM (rapid eye move- brain may incorrectly conclude that we From soothsayers to psychiatrists, ex- ment) sleep every ninety minutes during are running from an unknown menace. perts tried have to fathom the message of the sleep cycle," Hobson explains. Hobson and McCarley base their dream Morpheus. But if Harvard psychiatry pro- "Dreaming is the psychological concomi- model on the philosopher's tool known as Allan fessor Hobson has his way we may tant of an essentia ly phyS'Cal process. Occam's razor; When two explanations of have to abandon our cherished belief in Ideas have nothing to do with it." a phenomenon are available, one complex dreams as the road to the unconscious. It's quite normal for our dreams to seem and the other simple, prefer the simple. Dr. his Hobson and associate Dr. Robert strange and incomplete, Hobson says, Hobson believes his symptom is simpler McCarley, codirectors of fhe neurophysiol- because during sleep our brains are than Freud's, requiring fewer risky assump- ogy lab at the Massachusetts Mental Health forced to make the best of a bad situation. tions, He doubts that nature would provide Center, in Boston, have mounfed a strong "You get a number of low-level signals sent man with "an important self-communication challenge to the Freud -in spired nolion to- your brain, which doesn't know whether system," like dreaming, that required thai we can discover our secret motives it's awake or asleep. With no outside in- outside help (at $50 per therapy session) and desires through dreams. formation to help it, the brain starts trying to comprehend. According to Hobson, bizarre dream to make sense of the situation." Using the razor, Hobson slashes away at evenis can be explained without recourse This mechanistic interpretation another hallowed Freudian concept, infor- to the Freudian view of dreaming. "We highlights Hobson's departure from the mation degradation. For the Freudians,

: have a completed c' fferen! way of viewing Freudians. He believes, for example, that dreaming begins with an unconscious the bizarre nature of dreams," says Hob- distressing feedback from our sleeping idea— say, of sexual desire. Since the idea son, who has worked in sleep and dream bodies, not some taboo desire, gives rise in its original form cannot slip by the watch- research since 1960. Hobson maintains to our dreams of struggle and flight. In ful censor of the ego. the desire may mani- that all dream events are part of the brain's REM sleep our bodies become rigid. fest itself in the dream as flying, riding a normal physiological functioning. "We say Obviously, being unable to move is horse, walking down stairs, or another sym- that scenes shift and people meld into unpleasant. Without information obtained bolic activity. Hobson vigorously dissents. "We're saying just the opposite. Dreams don't start with ideas, but with perceptual

chunks. "It's red. It's over there. It moved.' Then the brain tries fo build a coherent picture out of the chunks, which may have no underlying relation to one another.

That's why the final image is like a surrealist picture." Though aware that their model needs more experimental testing, Hobson and McCarley believe that their efforts will have liberating effects. "We're ready to ask questions about dreaming that have not previously occurred to people," Hobson claims. For example, McCarley wants to probe the connection between the REMs that accompany dreams and the fact that the visual sense dominates in most of our dreams. Why do touch, taste, and smell play so little part in human dreams? Hobson hopes to rid the public of the lingering fear thai dreams are primarily a defense mechanism that is vaguely

unhealthy. "Our view is that dreams are while dreaming. normal — and normally bizarre." OO THE ART5 By Jeff Rovin

Cornered, as rarely he can be, our culture's interest in actors' personal likes of old pulp magazines such as Doc intergalactic rogue Han Solo offers lives and opinions, is just mythicalization Savage and G-8 and His Battle Aces. The a grudging portrait of the actor bullshit." and action occurs just before World War II. as who portrayed him in Star Wars, The Ford has been a hero to millions of the United States and Germany race to Empire Strikes Back, and the upcoming moviegoers since the premiere of Star locate a religious relic rumored to contain Revenge of the Jedi. "Harrison? He'd Wars in 1977, yet he is the least visible the explosive power of creation itself.

rather I be an actor than a star. can handle figure in the Star Wars company. He will Jones is caught up in this quest, chasing that, though I wish he had a working not accept any credit for the film's success clues from exotic bazaars to ominous knowledge of science fiction. He wasn't ("It was George's picture") and refuses to temples, glebehopping all the while from sure it was even possible to make a movie abandon his serious, protean career to South America to Nepal to Cairo and out of the stuff Lucas wrote, and it was pursue the huckstering TV-talk-show elsewhere. torture explaining the mechanical and circuit or play a succession of Han Solo "Jones really is quite different from space things to him." Solo downs the last parts. "I might make more money," he the other characters I've played," Ford of his coffee. "Still, he did all right con- grants, "but it wouldn't be long before I'd explains. "He's a scholarly man, a pro- sidering they cast him less than a month be bored and stereotyped." fessor of archaeology, and an expert on before Star Wars started shooting. The The breadth of Ford's talent is a reve- the occult. Otherwise he's just an average really guy applies himself." lation to those who know him only as guy who finds himself in swashbuckling Smiling boyishly, Harrison Ford slips Chewbacca's pilot. Roles such as the circumstances and rises to the occasion. from character and refills his coffee cup. "I raucous, hardheaded in outlaw The Frisco Also, unlike Solo or, say, the soldier I don't mean to be operatic, but promoting Kid and the introspective, soft-hearted played in Force Ten from Navarone, Jones myself to the public fills me with dread. pilot in Hanover Street quickly dispel is the person this film's about. So there is Actors are just people who've caused a visions of the cocky space mercenary; this necessarily more time given to developing whole bunch of other people to show up in is especially true of Ford's latest and most his character." crowded a room and turn over their rapt textured performance, as Indiana Jones in Traditionally the scope that gives epic attention; an actor's sole responsibility is Raiders of the Lost Ark. movies much of their flavor has also to be real sure there's something worth- Jones is the hero of this stunning tended to make ihem two-dimensional. while to offer that audience. The rest of it, fantasy-adventure film, inspired by the Not so with Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Ford explains why. "It's true that events in big movies like this one or the Star Wars series are usually so extraordinary that the characters needn't be. This seems to be a problem with the few science-fiction films I've seen, where outer space or a city of the future or a monster like the Creature from the Black Lagoon overshadows everything else. But there are ways of overcoming this, the most obvious being to have a strong story beneath the layers of sets and special effects. And in that scenario relationships are damned

interesting, even if they're not on the screen for as long as you'd like. "Then there's the way you play a part in a fantastic setting. I've found that no matter what the script says, you don't obligate yourself with intellectual marching orders until you root around that unfamiliar country or planet or spaceship, at the same time watching to see how the other

actors relate to it. Once you're in the situation, you may find that a line that read very dramatically in your living room average guy caught up in swashbuckling circumstances. sounds real tame spoken inside an asteroid. When I Mow with that strange, vitalize (he marketplace Gaorge also has emotions in concert with good intentions. new environment, the unwritten depih thai great skill as a filmmaker. Working with him "There are movies that preach, and in Ihe rounds out a character just seeps to the is always terrific fun and a good exer- hands of a director who is a poet of the

surface. And when that happens, all I cise of the acting mechanisms. system some of these films can change to is get "As for Spielberg, need do dressed and have I plugged right into the way a person thinks. But the audience someone show me where to sland." him. He's a more willful kind of guy. and we tor movies like this is historically very

Ford notes that most ot the research he did a lot of arguing, but I think we both limited." He points to Star Wars as an does while preparing for a part actually enjoyed that, At least, we both benefited example of more broadbased, functional

involves studying atmosphere rather than it." from filmmaking. "Sure, it's escapism, but I character In Ihe case of Raiders of the Despite a cautious tendency to talk only think that when people who have seen the Losl Ark he read every archaeological about work. Ford shows himself lo be a film watch a real space shot on television, book he could find from the 1930s. Star watchful and pensive man. His conver- they make a subconscious correlation. Wars was somewhat simpler: Until he got sation reflects an attitude that might They recognize that we human beings had

on the set, Ford says, all he did was wear best be described as qualified nihilism; If better control our insane ambitions before his costume under his street clothes and pressed, he'll admit that his most opti- we thrust ourselves onto new worlds,

practice sell-deprecating one-liners. mistic forecast for future society is. one of fouling places besides Earth. I'm con- Ford insists that he could have been attenuated decline. vinced that movies do this best by

happy in a number of professions. How- "I guess I worry about society almost focusing the audience's attention on the

ever acting is the career he has most neurotically, though I don't do anything work ralher than on a dislracting style or wanted ever since his college days in practical like stocking —v basement with idolatry Of the actors." Chicago. Nevertheless, he almost gave up emergency provisions. Civilization's at a While Ford frets about the plight of on the profession less than a decade ago. point where our concern seems to be how generations-to-be, he hasn't even a hazy

"My life was pretty well directed unlil I left /ess to harm people than how to make plan for his own future. college to go into summer stock, then left them any better, and I find that fairly Apart from starring as a bounty hunter that to go to Hollywood. When I'd been depressing. The various processes of of tomorrow in the currently filming Blade there for six months, Columbia Pictures culture can improve the situation by Runner, after which he'll offer his swan put me under contract for seven years at inspiring people, but it's the individual's song to the Star Wars trilogy, Ford

fifty to it one hundred dollars per week, with responsibility take from there, which I acknowledges very lew goals for his

all the respect that thai implies. The just don't see happening a lot. It wouldn't career Yet he does confess to one

relalionship didn't last very iong. I spenl help for me to become some kind of immutable and selfish desire. "People can the next eighleen months or so at Uni- martyr pleading to a crowd to avoid this pigeonhole me as whatever they want, as versal as a contract player, then free- cause or embrace that one; actors who Han Solo or as Indiana Jones; that's fine

lanced around in the mid-Sixties, This was get up and do that, and fans who expect it, for them. What's important to me is that'

all pretty discouraging. So I dropped out are really misinterpreting a performer's I'm never denies! the opportunity to sur-

and became a carpenter. I guess I'd still job. We're in another branch of public prise an audience. And if that ever hap-

be building furniture if I hadn't fallen in with service; we're assistant stcylo-lfers, not pens," he pauses and shrugs. "Well,

George Lucas." role or pontiffs > models of morality and y'see, there's this table I left unfinished Raiders of the Lost Ark marks the fourth logic. I genuinely believe in that old saw about ten years ago." film Ford and Lucas have made "together, about experience being the best teacher. A HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART OME though Lucas's role was that of coexec- An actor's task, apart from entertaining or utive producer The movie was directed diverting an audience, is to offer those The question hangs in ihe air like smog. by another Wunderkind, Steven Spielberg, vicarious experiences, to educate people "Why, Mr. Brooks, did you limit yourself to whose Jaws and Close Encounters by his example." making a movie about the hislory of the of the Third Kind are not far behind the Ford contends that what movies should world? Why not something with real Star Wars films as the most popular do, ideally, is give subtle direction to sweep, like'the history of the universe?" pictures in cinema history. And not people's attiludes by exercising their Hands folded on his desk, Mel Brooks since Star Wars has such a media fuss nods with jowly glumness. "That's a been made over a motion picture. rhetorical question, of course, and also Anyone who watches the sprawling, a very funny one." He gestures slowly $20 million Raiders of the Lost Ark will toward the office walls, which are papered appreciate Ford's description of it as with posters from'his films. "But let's not "a lot of movie to make." This factor. forgel who's the straight man and who's compounded by a tight shooting sched- the Jew comic. Now," he says, refolding ule, made Spielberg work his actors hard; his hands, "ask me a serious question Ford credits much of Ihe film's success to before I bang your head on the desk." that intensity. like "I working with people A serious query is hastily tendered, and who are never at a loss for ideas; Steven's the fifty-five-year-old Brooks smiles like like a Chinese menu, where you always a proud papa. "There, that's a good end up with more than you can eat. That's question, something insightful." He sits idea of creative my freedom: where you're back. " Unfortunately, I'm answering it in not cooped up inside yourself and can an interview in another magazine. So collaborate with talented people." you're out of luck." However, Ford lhat concedes working Brooks calls it "Jew fencing," defending for Spielberg was quite a different ex- oneself with humor; in his hands it's a skill perience from being directed by Lucas in that's rapier sharp. After just a few minutes American Graffiti and Star Wars. with the Brooklyn-born comedian, one "I very much admire them both. What I realizes that he's more than just a find most admirable about George is his funnyman, he's a comic computer: He conceptual skill. and his incredible nerve. consumes information and, instinctively He somehow gets away with putting his isolating its foible or weakness, thrusts it visions on film, at the same time proving back as a joke. Though Brooks has that it was jusl the thing needed to re- Met Brooks: Bad jokes will practiced his craft in virtually every 26 OMNI Cf>NII\'..;DCNPAGE112 IMBIA PICTURES TAKES YCK1 BEYOND THE FUTURE O A UNIVERSI YOUVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE...

[ A UNIVERSE OF MYSTERY. MVERSE OF MAGIC. NIVERSE OF SEXUAL FANTASIES. ,J&»rESOME OOOD.J OF TERRIFYING EVIL.

COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS AN IVAN REFTMAN - LEONARD MOGEL PRODUCTION HEAVY METAL — GROSS ™SELMER BERNSTEIN SSSS LEONARD MOQEL ~S DAN GOLDBERG & LEN BLUM S MICHAEL WR1GHTSON —-g SIC-HARD CORBEN ANGUS McKIE, DAN O'BANNON, THOMAS WARKENTIN ». BERNI '

.ib J, l ' GajYSlHS " ™~TS GERALD POTTERTON "°""TB IVAN REITMAN |oa,»,i„j l »t m,on « >WA^n,«.. nn i l COMING IN AUGUST TELEVISION THE ART5

^^ |hen Omni was launched in Kathy Keeton, president of Omni. The capture images in a 360-degree field of of 1978, its publi- will reveal .51 1 !l I October show how science is changing vision ("The image comes out looking like mJ mJ cation revolutionized the our world in incredible ways, providing our a doughnut"). A snorkel lens will provide magazine industry. Its immediate success only solutions to food, energy, and an inside perspective on how a Venus's demonstrated that science could be read medicine problems. "It will be a show that flytrap digests its prey. in the American household, that technol- will extend the technological vision begun The need for a visually spectacular set ogy and the future were no longerthe realm by Edison and Ford," Keeton says. design resulted in Guccione's looking only of laboratory researchers. To create a television series of this abroad. In Rome, he met with Danilo In September Omni will come to prime- magnitude, one that would successfully Donati, winner of three Academy awards time television. Its impact will be no less translate the magazine to the medium of for his set designs of such films as revolutionary. film, has been no small task. But Guccione Federico Fellini's Satyricon and Franco "Existing science series are docu- originally conceived Omni magazine with Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. mentary shows that deal with images ot the intention of bringing it to television. The Omni set is no less impressive. It is today. We want our show to convey the An exhaustive search for the most a magnificent image of a surrealistic awe and entertainment that are a part o( talented, visually attuned minds in Parthenon, whose distended columns tomorrow," says Bob Guccione, editor America has resulted in hiring award- appear to float freely in space. The set, and publisher of Omni magazine. winning producers Vivian Moss and Moss and Savage say, will serve as a In a television world where sit-coms, John Savage. Their direction of The Body bridge between the rigors of deep space , soap operas, and game shows reign Human, aired on CBS in 1978, led not and the intimacies of molecular genetics. supreme, Omni will hold a distinct only to national recognition for the The format of the half-hour show calls advantage. Like the magazine, the show show but to an Emmy as well, for a larger segment, of roughly ten will transcend the banality and global "We're trying to interpret in film," Moss minutes, along with two shorter pieces. problems of our own immediate world to says, "the look of the magazine; it's Peppered throughout will be visual present an inspiring, realistic vision of our beautiful and somewhat surreal." "bumpers" — bits of graphics, computer tuture lives. "Mothers and fathers will wan! To do this. Savage adds, "We'll use a lot animation, shots of photographic phe- their children to watch the show and will of special lenses," For a story dealing with nomena, and brainteasers patterned wantto watch ;t themse ve-s." says interactive television, a Volti lens will after the Games section in fhe magazine. Camera crews have traveled to local- ities as diverse as China, Japan, and Colorado to cover the stories that will shape our future world. The technological wonders of Chinese acupuncture and the emerging development of space industry will be just a few of the topics covered. A robot, programmed io speak wilh the voice of Bob Guccione, represents a major breakthrough in robot technology. How has fhe television industry itself responded to Ihe new Omni series?

Industry sources report it to be the strongest-selling syndicated series ever produced in the United States, with plans for its licensing to as many as 30 other countries. The cost for the development of the series has exceeded $3 million, about twice the budget of any preexisting series. Come the fall season, Guccione says, more than 80 percent of Americans will be able to tune in to the Omni show. They will see within the confines of their own living rooms how their lives, and their children's, will be dramatically altered over the next few decades. OO cofUTiruuunji Edited by Dick Teresi

HACKER MENTALIP

I hai old image ol the computer as the Great De- of "computer jocks." or "hackers." "They may find it easier to predictable, than to a humanizer is starting to lade. Little by little, people relate to a machine, which is absolutely are beginning to form very personal bonds with person, who isn't," suggests Charles Rose, chairman of com- these intelligent machines. puter engineering and science at Case Western Reserve Uni- A large toy company recently received a pile of fan mail about versity, in Cleveland. In one case. Rose had to recommend tried to family problems by one of its teaching toys, a microprocessor with an eighi-track- counseling for a student who escape tape cartridge setup packed in the body of a plastic robot. One spending most of his time with a machine. trouble are getting so close woman who originally didn't want her son to have the toy wrote, "I Not all of us have at home. Why we elec- apologize for nearly denying my son theopportunity to befriend to these machines? Psychologist Zimbardo sees these of greater social trend. [the robot] because of my 'prejudice.' " She went on: "I'm sure my tronic friendships as indicators a More kind of hacker mentality, son would rather have [the robot] help him with his schoofwork and more people, he says, have a other than have me help him." putting machines— putting anything — before the needs of mentality the special allure People with more technological savvy have gone even further people. More basic than the hacker is of the computer As one computer-science graduate student put off the deep end. Physicist Robert Eisenstein, of Carnegie-

it. very sexy, almosi too fascinating. When you use them, Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, sees a peculiar kind of attach- "They're to off and then." For the programmer, the lure ment to the most basic computer, the pocket.calculator, among you have back now creator of universes for which he alone is the the bright undergraduates, who take his physics courses. It is power. He is "a amazes him how panic-stricken they get when they leave their lawgiver," explains MIT's Weizenbaum. "No playwright, no stage powerful, ever such calculators behind or when batteries go dead in the middle of a director, no emperor, however has exercised absolute authority." test. They seem "lost, he says, and "feel they cannot function elementary and high schools, without this lollipop at their fingertips." Right now, moving through our there are the children who could be called the computer genera- If these small calculators may be seductive, the big ones— the immune to megabrains — are devastating. Joseph Weizenbaum, professor tion. Having grown up with computers, they may be adjust in their own way. Futurist pf computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, their sex appeal, but they may Stanford Research Institute, in California, was the first to talk about the phenomenon of the "computer Peter Schwartz, of the of interacting with computers will actually buffi." or the "compulsive programmer." The term includes any- predicts that years regard one who has a mania about working with computers to the point change how these children think. They will, he believes, where he or she withdraws from the world to the fluorescent- abstract concepts, more palatable to a computer, above the mind-set would also value lighted cloister of the on-campus computer center. Compulsive world of the concrete. A computer . programmers may end up communicating with no one but the logic skills and prefer man-made to natural or organic things. computer, taking a break now and then only to talk to other And since computers function in a realm where logic, order, and compulsives through the computer terminal. predictability are the norm, they may also leave the computer computer Stanford University psychologist Philip Zim'bardo knows the generation unprepared to cope with the world outside preplanned program. type. He calls them "computer addicts." He believes their close- circuits; life does not follow such a neat, generation ultimately disap- ness to the computer can siart early.on, in schools where human If this happens, what will result? A computer has taught teachers use electronic tutors as backups in the classroom. pointed and disillusioned by what the for people to "Fascination with the computer becomes an addiction," Zim- them? As Eisenstein points out, "There's a tendency

1 of the reasons bardo says, "and as with most addicr-or.s she 'suostance' -.ha; put blind faith in devices like that, and think one blindly trust in technology's gets abused is human relationships." we're fn trouble today is that we COLLIGAN Any college or university with a computer center has its share abiiity to solve all our problems. "-DOUGLAS CDruTiruuuRJi

MOVABLE MALLS ^"coping malls, he claims. brainchild of a now de- sponse Neciea.- Deterrent are "granite mausoleums." ceased Patent Office em- System), the same inventor "Retailers of the future will "As people become more ployee who was looking for said the cat-flap switch bring their stores to the cus- en orgy -conscious, the re- a way to feed his aging cat might be hooked up to a tomer, just as merchants did tailer w II have to follow suit and. by a flash of insight, 1.000-megaton bomb put in in the past," according to ana gc where the action is." also felt he stumbled onto orbit around Ihe earth, When

Elinor Selame, president of a Elinor Selame says. "It will it senses the light given off design firm lhat has devel- be the age-old concept of by a nuclear-missile launch oped a mobile mall. the traveling merchant, but from any country, the orbit- Describing the mobile instead of using camels and ing gadget would, instead of mall as "retailing on wheels, sailing vessels, the future opening a cat flap, drop the a plug-in, hook-up, and sell retailer will use superhigh- bomb on the country. concept that makes sense in ways."— Allan Maurer In defense of his 1.000- an age when mobility, en- megaton cat flap, the inven- ergy, and time-saving tech- CAT-FLAP BOMB tor said, "If all your nuclear niques have become num- energy were used for peace- ber-one priorities," Selame Cat fanciers and propo- ful purposes, instead of a believes moving stores will nents of nuclear disarm- large part of it being stored become common in the next ament now have a way to for blowing each other to bits ten years. serve both of their causes with H-bombs and the like,

The prototype, developed atthesame : time. you could save a hell of a lot by Selame Design, in New- In thefiles of the English of money, which would help ton Lower Falls, Massa- Patent Office is patent to stop world inflation and." chusetts, is a trailer that number.1 426 698, or he added, "might even bring opens like an accordion. It "Photon push-pull radiation down the cost of tinned cat ooe'ates hydraullcally, with detector for use in chromati- Black cat inspired food."— Douglas Colligan the trailer unfolding laterally. cally selective cat-flap con- "A skylight will let in the light, trol and 1,000-megaionne the ultimate nuclear-warfare FAST FITNESS and if it weren't for cash reg- earth-orbiiai. peacekeeping deterrent. isters, it wouldn't need elec- bomb," as it is officially The idea came after the A healthy young adult can tricity at all in daylight," says known. According to the inventor kept seeing his old. improve his strength up to 30 Joseph Selame, the firm's English publication New gmger-colored cat "over- percent and his stamina up design director. Today's Scientist, the idea is the taken on Ihe way to his cat to 25 percent in only two food by the black cat from weeks, training just 20 min-

next door, which is much utes a day. it he has group younger and more agile." support, he doesn't even His solution was a special, need self-motivation. light-sensitive switch that Working with 50 students opens the cat flap In the and a formal physical fitness door for a ginger cat but not program of fen standard for a black one. Asa cat ap- exercises (chin-ups. push- proaches the flap, its weight ups, etc.). Dr. John Pearn. of :riggo'E ;he switch, which Brisbane, Australia, set out flicks on two lights, A pnoto- to answer a question invari-

e ec:ric ce l measures how ao'y asked of doctors rec- much light is bounced off ommending exercise: How

the animal, and it will open long before I'll be in good

"he "lap only if a great deal of shape? hghf is 'efiected — as from After just 14 days the 50 alight-colored cat. students (30 were eager to

In a related patent for get fit, but 20 were enlisted an ARNDS (Automatic Re- as controls precisely be- "

cause they were poorly moti- sorb only right-handed (he Food and Drug Adminis- get an incredible tingle all vated) improved dramat- sugar, L-sugar passes tration's approval for the over your body," claims' in- Lloyd, got ically. They wereableto through the human digesvve sugar and to devise a cheap ventor David He hot complete the ten-course tract without being ab- way to synthesize it. The cur- the. idea for the stereo "build- which come bothin program far more rapidly, in- sorbed, making it non- rent options include pants, ver- dicating greater muscle caloric. Since .bacteria con- ing" it from chemical com- men's and in women's finding naturally strength. And despite exer- sider it to be a nonfood as ponents a of L-sugar. tion their hearts weren't beat- well, it does not contribute to .occurring source ing nearly as fast, indicating tooth decay. or producing it by genetic Ihere they had greater cardiopul- Dr. Levin says the whole- engineering. Right now monary endurance, or notion o! mirror-image, left- is an enormous sugar mar- startling. handed molecular structures, ket — 65 pounds a year per Reporting in the British of substances goes back to person— waiting ot Louis Pasteur. — Douglas Colligan Medical Journal , Dr. Peam the days c: found that his control group- Levin gave the idea-some experienced the same im- thought while designing life- ' Forever is a long ume, but provement as the highly detectjng experiments-em- hot as long as it was motivated group. In the ab- ployed oy ihe Viking lander yesterday" sence of desire, Pearn says, on Mars. —Dennis H'orgmes

peer support is crucial— as As he mulled over some area carefully thought-out down-to-earth applications, ROCK AND ROLL ' regimen and immediate Levin hit upon L-sugar. : You HOT PANTS feedback confirming that might say the idea came to Hot pants-; "De doop de doop." s being made, me out of left field." he notes The latest diseotechno- — Norbert Lemper! with a chuckle. logical breakthrough is an sions, from an Isaac Newton- Biospherics' L-sugar has item called Rock and Roll like incident. Sitting under- previous invention, a LEFT-HANDED SUGAR already passed its taste test. Hot Pants. neath a One.panel of testers ..could By wiring your shorts or stereo "Hying saucer that to speaker hangs from the -ceiling." It's everything sugar isn't not tell the left-handed ver- panties a stereo which re- Lloyd jumped when it fell in and saccharin should be. It's sion from the right-handed. with a 15-tootcord, his lap. "Then, doop, de something called L- (for left- The challenges remaining lays, the music to a two-inch de

doop, I handed) sugar, the heart of now, Levin says, are to get disc on your waistband, "you doop. doop, began Lloyd says. "It felt a sweetening process re- to smile,"

I second, cently patented by Bio- good. said, 'Wait a

I think I've just invented spherics, Inc., of Rockvilie. Maryland. something.' We worked on really pulsating Very simply, explains Dr. developing a Gilbert Levin, who devel- speaker, and now it's going oped the process, L-sugar well." For those who want a thrill, is a substance with the same chemical components as the Lloyd recommends not rock, music. "Try the sugar you spoon into coffee but classical or over cereal (right-handed 7872 Overture." he says. "The cannons are something sugar), but its molecular ar- else:"— Allan Maurer rangement is the mirror image of ordinary sugar's. danger is that You get most of the advan- "The real not will begin to think tages of sugar— the sweet computers that will taste and no aftertaste— and like men but men begin to think like none of the disadvantages. computers: Because our digestive en- Co/ive.' I'MViHi' suQfir js i^vij.:; ;

PfESEL POWER is exracted, the protein meal tering their bodies. The ac- carbon monoxide exposures is still left for food. Other tivities of speciai interest are for everyone in a typical of- One day last summer, Joel candidate oils being cooking, exam- working in an office or cafeteria, that cook- Curtis, a researcher on a ined are cottonseed, sun- fice, walking along city ing with a gas range causes Gold Kist peanut farm in flower (which the Republic of streets, traveling, and being higher particulate exposure Oklahoma, decided on a lark South Alrica is researching), in the presence of cigarette than driving behind a smoky to put peanut oil in an old linseed, and coconut. An smokers. diesel truck, and that driving tractor, "it worked beautifully, Australian study says a typi- "The problem has been on congested roads gives as well as diesel fuel," Curtis cal farmer could satisfy all that we have been using people the highest overall said. "We ran it around the his diesel needs with a tenth fixed monitoring stations, bul pollution. — Stuart Diamond yard for about an hour. The of his acreage. emissions smelled like pop- The cost for vegetable oils ANCIENT corn." He dubbed [he fuel today is $1.50 to $2.25 per PSYCHEDEUCS piesel. gallon, and petroleum prices Curtis's brainchild joins a are rising. Some experts Excavating a Cherokee growing number of experi- suggest recycling Ihe mil- irdia.'i ceremonial site in mental fuels using vegetable lions of gallons of used cook- South Carolina. Dr. Jeanne oil to replace petroleum. A ing oil now discarded by Runquist found something key advantage is energy homes, schools, restaurants, she did not expect: the content. While alcohol fuels and various other users of skeletal remains of more cooking oil. than 10, 000 toads. Of all major domestic Dr Runquist explains, crops, however, peanuts "You expect to find the re- have the highesl oil yield per mains of deer rabbits, even acre, says Joseph Peters, a a frog or two, but not almost University of Alabama en- eleven Ihousand toads. gineer who works with Gold Toads don'l have enough Kist But while large areas meat on them to serve as arc available fo grow more food. So I went to the litera- peanuts, the U.S. govern- ture." She discovered that ment has limited the acreage Indians in New Mexico and to support peanut prices. the Caribbean snorted a The Reagan Administration people are mobile," says chemical contained in dried is considering removal of the Richard Ziskind. of Science toad skins, bufotenine. Al- limits, however, opening the Applications, the California though toxic, which may ex- way for a peanuf answerto company conducting one plain why it never attained the oil cartel. "Could you such study for the federal widespread use, bufotenine imagine," Curtis said, "all government. is a potent hallucinogen ca- those New York City buses The devices, worn by a pable of transporting a user Peanuts: smelling like popcorn?" few Pleasant dozen volunteers, are to never-never land for hours. — Stuart Diamond battery operated, weigh up Runquist, who has de- (methanol and ethanol) have to 700 grams, and resemble grees in anthropology and only one-half to two thirds the HUMAN POLLUTION small tape recorders. Most zoology, theorizes ihat the energy of petroleum, vege- FINDERS instruments have a digital South Carolina Cherokees table oils approximate— and readout. The human sub- used the powerful drug in sometimes even exceed — The latest pollution- jects log their daily activities, ceremonies just as South- the power conlent of petro- de'.oclion device is people. which are matched with the west American Indians used leum fuel. To learn exactly how much instrument readings. The peyote. — Allan Maurer Gold Kist is now blending pollution people'inhale in a devices are worn like cam- a 30 percent soybean-oil typical day. scientists have eras by day and put on bed- "Pollution mixture is nothing but with diesel. Joseph enlisted human subjects to side tables at night. resources we're not Cox, Gold Kist's engineering wear instruments that meas- Preliminary findings indi- harvesting." director, said that after the oil ure the noxigus fumes en- cate that smokers double —H. Buckminster Fuller 38 OMNI AEROGEL

it loo^s and shatters like glass, but li'S 96 oercenl air and insulates like fibergass It-can be used insupereffi- cient house windows, green- houses, and covers for solar collectors, and even as a. replacement for the sensing chambers at the Although Wallace- ex- clear-particle aci pressed surprise-atthe lim- It's called aerc _ ited number of animal-hu- ts the product of Wi.l man parallels, thereis one: Sch'mitt, a [wenty-fr

1 rail common ic both. Organ old graduate studer size isn't necessarily com- chemical engineering at mensurate with the overall the University of Wisconsin- of the animal. Though Madison, who developed the size an aroused whale sports a material intwo years of working nights and weekends. Sch mitt considered using aerogel as a thermal insu- lator even though previous research had indicated that this type of 'material, which starts as a gelatinous slurry of silica sand, would be difficult and extremely hazardous to manufacture. He has now brought aerogel to the ooint oi commercial applica- while he alive. tion, however. ANIMAL LOVE possible W3S female saves the plate To demonstrate its le-asibil- The

! ; ie that covers his sex organs ity, Schmitt has produced an The variety c'se>: m

, is amazing for last. 1 aerogel window— a thin core animal kingdom Fp.'TS/iL- ;ifi. l', .: CiS-tOurS '"li.-J'S are just of nontoxic aerogel sheeted Anything humans can imag- Other animals plain Wallace. penis ie"i let-i rone ihiee ,-viih converiiionai glass — p'd car be topped some- crass, says feet In circumference, a that fie hopes will make where." says Dr. Robert Wal- Porcupines take golden Thermopane-type house win- lace zoologist, behavioral showers (the male urinates full-grOwn male gorilla can boast a penis barely two dows obsolete, since his ecology specialist, and visit- on the. female before inter- lonely female inches m length. Snails have window insulates 15 to 1-8 no professc a: Florida Stale course) A exceptionally long p.enises. times more effectively than University. porcupine will stimulate her- the penis of a dolphin is one sheet of glassdoes. Author oi me cock H:.;\- self with a stick. And Morrow beasts' habits are versatile: he uses :his sensi- Because aerogel has one Ttwy Do I! (William Some human: kind tive and flexible member to peculiar, and dramatic, vul- and Company) Dr. Wallace snikingiy One of the 1 more of turtle presses her legs !o- explore the ocean floor nerability (it dissolves back cited Some — ii doesn't wish to Patrice Adcroft into a.little pile' of white-silica bizarre animal mating gelnei- she mate; the poison frog conju- powder if ii co'"nes ir contact habits, The male praying of "Life is happens- to you With water), the window's- mantis, for example, may re; Its oily under abed what find itself being, eaten alive- leaves The female empid fly while you re-busy making edges must be securely " sealed with epoxy. The female often pins her won'; satisfy her lover until other plans n.uptiE — Lennah ""he Wise or-3 in Alumni Re- suitor to her thorax and be- the male performs a Jphn 33 CDRJTIRJUUrUl

BLANKET The milky-white gel that SOUNDS OF FAILURE PROTECTION saturates the blanket contains antibacterial iodine With a sudden groan of perhaps underground forces Taking a five- to ten-minute povidone and consists metal, a bridge collapses, that presage an earthquake. walk through a blazing fire mostly of cooling oils de- killing a dozen people. A "The principle here is that sounds like a daredevil cir- rived from plants of the coal mine caves in. An av- things don't fail all at once — cus act. But now a new gel- Eucalyptus genus. The alanche rumbles down a warnings can be detected,"

soaked blanket enables blanket itself is made of 100 mountain. A pipe breaks in ; says Donald Eitzen. direc- people trapped by fire to percent wool, woven in power piant. A dam fails. tor of acoustics research

make it to safety because iisrinG'. so that it can absorb These events have two at the National Bureau of they are protected from and hold 13 times its weight. Standards (NBS). "Bridge skin-scorching flames. Manufacturer Jerry Trilling failures are caused by Unlike a fireman's protec- says that wool is the least ig- stress cracks that grow tive suit, the blanket— called nitive material to use and, over a long period of time

the Water-Jel— can be de- unlike synihetics, it doesn't and get long enough so the ployed in seconds by simply release loxic gases. propagation occurs very opening it and lifting it out of Once exposed to heat, the fast and a catastrophe a canister. Lieutenant Colo- gs so-iclifies siigfuiy and then ensues." nel Carmelito Arkangel, Jr., turns the outside of the blan- NBS recently invented a M.D., chief of emergency ket into a protective cover. device that measures stress

services at Fori Bragg's On Ihe inside, the gel cools movement of less than a tril-

Army Hospital, in North ihe skin and reduces evap- lionthof a meter. It is also Carolina, has been testing oration and loss of body developing a hand-held the blanket tor use in the fluids, which can cause monitor to check the degra- armed services. shock and death. dation of everyday mate- Dr. Arkangel says, "Guys Not available yet to Ihe rials.— Stuart Diamond trapped in the cockpit of a public, the blanket is burning plane could easily sold to fire departments, the "Sometimes men come by slip Water-Jel blankets over armed services, and restau- the name of genius in the themselves and escape to a rants for about $200 by Tril- same way an insect comes clear spol for donning their ling Resources, in Harisdale, by the name of centipede —

parachutes." New York. — Caroline Rob not because it has one hundred feet, but because most people can't count things in common. First, they above fourteen." are often catastrophic. Sec- — George C Lichtenberg ond, they happen after a usually undetected weaken- "Thought is only a flash ing process that has oc- between two long nights,

curred over days, months, but this flash is everything." or perhaps years. —Jules Henri Poincare Advanced acoustic equipment now promises to HUNGER CUES deled this weakening process, saving tens of thou- You're not particularly hun- sands of lives. By placing gry. Then someone in the ultrasensitive detectors in room starts eating a juicy areas of probable stress, steak or hot popcorn or ba- scientists say, they will be nana cream pie. Sudden- able to hear the faint cry of a ly you feel hunger pangs.

crack growing in a bridge Is it all psychological7 Not

Demonstration ,-.' g:r..jSs mode cJ Water-Jet: The milky-white gel girder, beams weakening in always, says Yale University

&8'L>ra!ir:g ;,';: h'Jv ;.; :c:"- a prcteciive barrier a building, stresses on con- psychologist Judith Rodin, 40 OMNI oc-les communicate their were"grilling and crackling MOTHERLY FROGS who just finished a study on Mom' mak- provide whereabouts to by what makes people eat. Dr. in the frying pan to ripples in the water with One way to tell a mammal ing Rodin found' that some rich visual., auditory, and cues." Result: from an amphibian — your theirtails; people secrete, insulin when olfactory food biology text "This is the most elaborate food. The Blood insulin levels' in- grade-school (hey see or smell behavior subjects may have taught you— is maternal-tadpole insulin causes a hormonal creased, and the mammal mothers nur- ever seen in a frog." com- makes Iherri got very hungry. that imbalance that expert ture their offspring meticu- ments tadpole hungry, and food restores The research supports amphibians don't, Richard Wassersug, ofthe prone to earlier findings that over- lously and the. balance. Those "His higher Now the Costa Rican University of Chicago. s response are people weight people have poison-dart frog— so-called the nearest observed thing because local Indians used to the complex maternal be- and to make lethal arrows from havior of mammals Levinson its skin secretions— has birds."— Lisa confounded things Accord- ing to German zootogist REASONABLE CHIMP Peter Weygoldt. the female frogs not only try io ensure Sarah is a 16-year-old their tadpoles' safety, but chimpanzee that, research- they also painstakingly feed ers say. shows ability to rea- them one at a time. son analogically given problems Here is how poison-dart- Sarah was like having to. determine frog mothering works, t he mother carries each newly whether a can opener is to a hatched tadpole on her oack can whata key is to a lock. another trial, Drs. Doug- and deposits it in a carefully In chosen spot — a puddle at las J Gillan, David Premack, the the base of certain plants. and Guy C, Woodruff, at Later she drops by regularly University of Pennsylvania with food (unfertilized eggs) Primate Facility, gave Sarah seed, for each separately en- an apple, an apple sconced tadpole The tad- and an orange, and she had to choose either an orange peel or an orange seed to complete the match. She who generally react strong- illn levels than thin- was right in the analogies ly '' ner people. And insulin, be- more than 70 percent of their surroundings. "They are sides enhancing appetite, the time. people more easi'y aroused also promotes increased "Probably the most sur- by sad stories and funny pic- storage of nutrients as fat. prising finding was that " she says. "They are But Rodin also found that not Sarah's ability at analogical e dislractable when lots all fai people excrete insu- reasoning was not restricted of things are going on." lin at the Sighi and smell of to perceptual problems, The study, funded by the food, And thin people may where she could detect rela- National Science Foun- excrete insulin, eat, and not tionships by looking at sizes, dation, involved a review of get fat. Obesity, she con- shapes, or colors, but that it animal data and experi- cluded, stems from many also worked for conceptual ments with human subjects. factors, including genes and problems, where she had to Rodin asked people who metabolism. But'her study know and remember some- had not eaten in 18 hours to does- show that people thing about the functions of visi! her laboratory, and while aroused by sad stories objects," Dr. Pre- 1 different blood was being drawn, should not even look a! food, mack said. steaks were put in front of while dieting. — Alton Blakeslee the subjects. The steaks — Stuart Diamond " "

coruTiruuurm

SOLAR FRENCH FRIES oesidos sponsoring a eom- "Our only hope lies not drilled, and the tube is panywide conservation pro- in making people feel placed inside with only the The sun has been used to gram, is running a small emotional but in showing ends exposed.

warm homes in winter, to methane production plant them what can be done Once buried in the tomb-

power satellites in space, to that uses potato throw aw ay .3 and giving them reasons stone, the device is guar- run office computers, and for the raw ingredients. "A for doing it." anteed for two generations,

even to make synthetic fuel. larger one," says Ore-Ida's — B. F. Skinner Now it's going to be used to Susan Gerhart, speaking do something equally impor- from the company's new "The woman named Tomorrow tant: to make trench fries. energy-efficient corporate sits with a hairpin in It's part of Ore-Ida Foods' headquarters in Boise, her teeth plan to compensate for the Idaho, "could replace ten to and takes her time rising cost of fuel. The proj- twenty percent of a particu- and does her hair the way

ect, sponsored by the De- lar plant's power if it be- she wants it. partment of Energy (DOE) comes necessary,"- — Carl Sandburg and designed by TRW in- Asts Ore-Ida's embryonic

volves a battery of solar col- solar project, if it does suc- TALKING TOMBSTONE lectors located in afield ceed, the company may

beside Ore-Ida's Ontario, convert all of its fryers to It started as a joke at a Oregon, plant. solar heat. Then, with its summer barbecue. Michael In the process, water is cheaper energy costs, you O'Pieia, of Sunnyvale, steamed by the collectors, may see less expensive California, said what this then used to heat the fryer's trench fries at the supermar- country needed was a good oil temperature to 417 °F ket.— Kenneth Jon Rose solar-powered .talking- tomb- So far, though, the solar stone. Many spare-time project Is still in the experi- "If your experiment needs man-hours later, the country mental stage, DOEstiil statistics, you ought to had one, patented by

wants to see whether it will have done a better O'Pieia. an electrical con- really work, experiment. tractor, and Stan Zelazny, a about 40 years. Zelazny In the meantime Ore-Ida, — Ernest Rutherford neighbor and an electrical once worked with NASA, engineer and he incorporated technol- Zelazny and O'Piela's ogy from the Pioneer space- company, Fidelity Monument craft in the design. In addi- Works, now offers a tomb- tion, he subjected the proto- stone— powered by the type to a basic engineering

sun— that will deliver a 90- thermal cycle; that is, he

minute message when acti- cooked it and froze it for vated by a special electronic weeks in order to ensure key. The price tag is 510,000. optimal reliability. Though the inventors keep The only unit sold so far the inner workings of their de- rests in a monument to World

vice generally shrouded in War II dead at a park in the mystery, they describe its Colorado Rockies, where re- corpus; a four-inch-diameter liability under conditions of

metal tube, roughly a foot extreme cold is paramount. long — roughly, because — Stephen Robine'tt each device is custom- made for its tombstone. One "Children of the future age end reproduces sound, the Reading this indignant page deceased's voice or a eu- Know that in a former time logy to him; the other houses Love, sweet love, was At last, a worthwhile use for solar energy Om-ida ;.anis to use solar the actuating mechanism. thought a crime." collectors to create steam lo heat frying oil io.41J°F. The tombstone is core- - William Blake 42 OMNI Right-to-die movements gain new ground as scientists proiong lives of the terminally Hi THIS WAY OUT

BY ROGER M.WILLIAMS

a late March morning Onin 1975, in a country house in England, Derek Humphry handed his wife a lethal potion of sleeping pills and painkillers mixed with coffee. Jean Humphry, forty-two, was dying of bone cancer, She was determined to lake her life, with her hus- band's emotional support and active assistance. As the Humphrys made their final preparations, Derek marveled ai Jean's calmness and attention to detail. When he broke into tears, she reminded him gently-, "I can't take any more of this cancer,

I'd rather die peacefully today, enjoying your presence and love in my own home, than in some grim hospital after being PAINTING BY GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN knocked senseless with drugs for a couple The book boasts an eloquent and moving tient may not be able to make his wishes of weeks. This is the best way." introduction by the eminenl philosopher of known. This statement should be treated

Jean Humphry did die that morning. Der- science Arthur Koestler, a staunch sup- like the last will and testament; what if the ek, a journalist, could have kept the man- porter of Exit. law said you could execute a will only when ner of his wife's death private, but he chose Derek Humphry predicts that voluntary you're terminal?" to reveal publicly this dark area of human euthanasia "will be the next major social SRD now has right-to-die committees in affairs: the treatment of the terminally ill. issue." Demographic studies lend cre- several states. The committees lobby for

Humphry published. Jean's Way, his ac- dence to his viewpoint. The American birth natural-death acts and keep the public in- count of the entire episode, which aroused rate has been declining steadily since the formed of developments favorable to the controversy in Great Britain and far be- 1920s, with the exception of the postwar cause. A second organ, zation. Concern for yond. Questioned by the police, he freely baby boom. If present reproduction trends Dying (CFD), split from SRD several years confessed to having "aided and abetted continue, an estimated onethird of the U.S. ago and now concentrates on what it calls suicide"— a crime in England and much of population will be old in 40 years' time. Dial- educational activities, including informa- the United States. The authorities declined ysis machines, respirators, chemother- tion on living wills, A. J. Levenson, execu- .to prosecute. apy—these and other medical technolo- tive director of CFD, says, "We believe Derek Humphry now lives in Santa gies keep the elderly alive longer with legislation is unnecessary, except perhaps Monica, California, where he leads a right- fewer members of the younger generation lo proteci the doctor involved against crim- to-die movement— that is, the right of an to care for the sick and the dying. More and inal charges. Actually, we're not certain aged or terminally ill person to will his or her more diseases will end in lingering death, doctors should be protected with a blanket own death, with the understanding, or at a staggering financial cost to survivors release. They should be held accountable perhaps even the complicity, of family, or, through medical insurance, to the pub- for the practice ot sound medicine." friends, and physicians. lic at large. How many of us would opt for a As an organized cause in the United The practice is more properly termed pain-free and dignified way out of such States, voluntary euthanasia dates from voluntary euthanasia. It is being promoted predicaments to help save our families? 1937, In England it dates from two years with increasing vigor by organizations in earlier, and it is England's Exit that led the this country and abroad. Hemlock, an aptly way into an uncharted part of righi-to-die named group that Humphry founded a territory— the dissemination of self-help year ago, now numbers about 1 ,500 mem- suicide information. Exit succeeded the bers, with the total growing at the rate of 30 40ne recommended original Voluntary Euthanasia Society, a week. Most of the members are couples which had been known for its British re- in the thirty -to-fifty-year age bracket; 10 method involves a drug serve and strong antipathy toward suicide. percent are facing a terminal illness. "We overdose, with Bearded young Nicholas Reed changed have all types," Humphry says, "including all that. He marketed euthanasia aggres- doctors, nurses, and clergymen." a chart that lists fatal sively and made the society at least neutral Hemlock has just made available to its amounts otsome on the. issue of suicide. Yet Reed had to membership a controversial book that re- wage a three-year internal struggle to get 200 prescription and ports, with sympathy and gritty detail, the Exit's executive committee to agree to pub. true accounts of people who ended or tried nonprescription lish the suicide handbook, A Guide to to end lives they regarded as no longer forms of medication. T> Sell-Deliverance. livable. Although suicide tips can certainly When news of the tempest hit the press be gleaned from these stories, Humphry early last year, interest in both the hand- emphasizes that the book concerns life as book and the Exit organization soared. In much as death: "It counsels survival as less than nine months membership qua- long as possible and, when it's no longer drupled, reaching 8.000. Not counting the possible, sensible preparation for the end, The right-to-die movement is gaining on British, Exit's home constituents, Ameri- that is, dealing with matters of timing, who numerous fronts. The dissemination of mil- cans account for twice as many respond- to tell and not to tell, psychological and lions of so-called living wills is perhaps the ents as any other nationality. By June 1980 legal effects on one's family, and so forth." most tangible sign ot its enormous follow- the group had enlisted 250 American Far more explicit— and socially abra- ing. These wills direct medical authorities members, receiving an average of ten sive—is a how-to guide to suicide that not to prolong life if the signer has become queries a day from the United States. (The Hemlock's is British counterpart. Exit, terminally ill. They were first accorded legal enrollment categories, with a touch of struggling lo publish over fierce opposi- status in 1976, when California passed a black humor, include "life member") tion. This book-to-be contains recommen- Natural Death Act, which gives competent A basketful of recent letters to Exit pro- dations against various methods of suicide adults the power to discontinue life-sustain- duced at least a dozen bearing Stateside along with lucid descriptions of five ap- ing treatment. Under the law, any doctor addresses: proaches that really work. Exit, which pres- who feels his ethical principles violated can A California woman: "My religion does ently faces litigation in Great Britain, is un- remove himself from a case rather than be not condone suicide; however, my parents willing to reveal many details. But one party to euthanasia. a are in their eighties, and I had cancer in method involves intentional drug overdose, California, it Besides the following states 1976. Should reoccur, I want to make a with a chart that lists fatal amounts of some now have natural-death legislation on the decision for myself, and to be supportive of 200 prescription and nonprescription books: Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, my parents, regarding a dignified death." drugs. The book also discusses the pros New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, A California man: "I'm over sixty years of and cons death by asphyxiation and by Texas, and Washington, Movement old, rather ill, If ac- and. at all possible, I [un- electrocution in the bathtub. tivists consider the laws of Kansas, New derscored three times] want to make a de- "We recommend the reasonably peace- Mexico, and Washington the best in that cision for deliverance." ful and nonviolent ways," says Nicholas they permit the necessary document to be A Providence, Rhode Island, man: "Hav- Reed, Exit's general secretary. "No shoot- drawn up at any time, not just when an ing been brought up under strict Roman ing or hanging. come out against wrist individual terminally ill. We becomes Catholic tradition, I appreciate hearing that slashing, because it hardly ever works and "That's very important," says Alice V, there are those who do not believe one makes a mess of the hands, and against Mehling, of the Society for the Right to Die must suffer the agonies of terminal illness- common overdoses, such as aspirin and (SRD), one of two long-established groups es that fate deals." painkillers, which just damage the body." working to legalize such wills. "A dying pa- An Ohio woman, a "cancer patient": "I - 46 OMNI '

consider myself very sane. ... I want very much to live if at'all possible, but I do not wish to be a useless vegetable or a finan- We Invented Golf. cial and emotional problem." Among other Americans- who have re- quested either information or the suicide The I,east We Qould £)o handbook itself were a chiropractor from New Jersey and- (he coordinator of Late bio Counseling Services at a large Midwestern Was Rlso Invent Scotch. medical center. This correspondence is received, with sympathy approaching passion, by the Exit staff members, almost all of whom have been personally touched by death. One elderly woman, a former actress who did not wan! id be identified, told me of watching her father succumb to cancer; "They said he'd last six months, but he .dragged on for sixteen. In the middle -of that, he had a heart attack, and the doctors brought him 'round— to die of cancer, friend with Right now I have a very good multiple sclerosis. She'll soon be bedrid- feel that den and in a bad way. I definitely euthanasia is the answer for her, and so does she." Janet Burnell, also of Exit, says it has "been my fate" to see a succession of friends die lingering and painful deaths. "Most people who condemn euthanasia," she observes, "have never been asked by someone close to help them die." Marsh Dickson, a sprightly seventy- Inventing a complicated game like golf was two-year-old, saw his mother, who had a brain tumor, botch a suicide attempt with a devilish thing to do. The small ball was easy an underdose of pills and his wife, suffering to lose. The clubs were hard to carry. The goal with multiple sclerosis, die after a wholly debilitating slide. was invisible from the starting point. Trees, But Dickson's most vivid memory is of a other friendly things were trans- Burmese jungle trail in World War II. When water, and his British Army unit was ambushed there formed into natural enemies of man. by Japanese soldiers and one of his men was "hopelessly" wounded, Dickson says, It seems only right that we also invented

"I did whatthamah begged me to do— put scotch. Because after a relaxing afternoon him out of his misery with a bullet. If my own wife had asked, I'd have done exactly the of thrashing and cursing through a frustratingly same. for her." well Experiences like those are what rearranged countryside, a person might prompted Exit to publish A Guide to Self- enjoy a scotch. Deliverance, thereby raising the ethical di- lemma of suicide for all ages, rather than That's why we made J&B a scotch with simply the question of euthanasia for the especially soothing taste. A taste that whis- elderly. Although half of the handbook is devoted, in Reed's words, to "why not to pered while you recovered from an afternoon of commit suicide," the other half, which de- course. tails the five deadly ways, has provoked relaxation on the golf alarm and condemnation. J&B is a carefully chosen collection of At this writing, publication was still being delayed for fearof prosecution. Meanwhile Scotland's finest whisky. It's blended fot offshoot, not bound by Eng- Exit's Scottish smoothness and subtlety. lish law. has already published a version of the book, entitled How to Die with Dignity. By the way, it's probably not true that And one Dutch euthanasia society, stim- golf to ulated by Exit's efforts., has put out a slim, the only reason we invented was technical volume instructing physicians on give people more reasons to drink scotch. dosages and other procedures that will ensure the success of "justified euthanasia." Even without its handbook, English Exit It whispers. has got into trouble with the law. Last s J&B. mer London police summoned Reed for suicide of Mrs, Hef- questioning about the *d Sco I ch Whisky. ©IS tie Crystal, a multiple sclerosis patient who CONTINUED ON PAGE 90 OMNI PROFILE

International law could block space efforts by private enterprise —

but not if lawyer Art Dula has his way

IrmHer meeting Ar! Dula, it's easy to picture him 25 years from now: Seated in a geodesic lunar courtroom, his ample figure lends an authoritative bulge to his judicial jump suit. He leans forward on the bench and begins his history lesson. Space law, fie points aut, traces its roots fo the Corpus Juris of the Roman Empire. The two

lawyers he's lecturing have heard it before, but they listen respectfully to the moon's first federal jurist. Then Judge Dula reads his decision, settling a corporate dispute over molybdenum mining in the Sea of Tranquillity. He allows extraction to begin immediately.

Today, at thirty-three, Arthur M. Dula is a blend of technologist and legal historian, an ardent advocate of free enterprise who looks to the past for guidance and to the future for vast new opportunities. He is probably the first private attorney in America to devote his practice solely to aerospace and technical law. Dula's office occupies the second floor of a restored Victorian house in Houston's Heights, an inner-city neigh- borhood slowly being redeveloped. A topographical map of Mars hangs behind his massive desk, above his right shoulder He talks enthusiastically into the telephone. To burn off nervous energy, he pulls an ivory-handied .45 automatic from the desk drawer, removes the clip, and lines up the cartridges on

PHOTOGRAPH BY MALCOLM KIRK COSMIC COUNSELOR BY RON BITTO his blotter like a row of tin soldiers. Then he ney maintains. By the year 2020, "a signifi- concerns that deal with NASA tend to be- reverses the process, slowly reloading the cant fraction of humanity's gross world come captive industries.

gun and returning it to the drawer. product will be derived from space-based Moreover, NASA's policy has been to Last week of a delegation European activities." concentrate on the academic and military 'lawyers attended a seminar on technical Transportation to Earth orbit will be use of space, playing down commercial law that Dula conducted at Louisiana State routine and inexpensive by then, he- ex- possibilities. Communications and weath- University Law School. During the course pects, and solar-sail spacecraft will rou- er satellites— the two areas where space he promised them a tour of the Johnson tinely traverse the Inner solar system. Ma- technology is improving life on Earth and Space Center, in Houston. Today he is ture businesses will manufacture goods, doing so at a profit— .are outside NASA's phoning one of his many'contacts at NASA generate electricity, and gather informa- jurisdiction. They are handled by Comsat to arrange the visit. tion in orbit, while private enterprise will be and the National Ocearcgraphic and At- "We've got to impress them with the exploiting asteroidal minerals that are pro- mospheric Administration, respectively, space program," Dula asserts repeatedly. cessed in orbit. By neglecting commerce while working "We've got to show that America is serious "Once profit— that is. new, real wealth closely with big aerospace contractors, about putting business into to flow space. These — begins back to Earth," Dula pro- NASA has failed to tell potential shuttle cus- guys are from Europe's biggest banks and jects, "investment in space operations will tomers about the opportunities in space. financial institutions. Can't arrange for accelerate we as world corporations go after Dula proposes to remedy this with a more something off the public tour to profits greater make them than those possible on the aggressive public-relations- program for feel special?" postindustrial Earth. NASA. He also suggests teaming non- Dula's friend bends a few rules to set up "Unfortunately, the laws that govern aerospace companies with experienced a Saturday tour. technology — and particularly space space contractors to help the newcomers While Dula often sounds like a self- law— are evolving at a much slower pace." deal effectively with the agency. appointed public-relations for That man the leaves many gray areas where the law Dula's concern wi;h such issues is an old American space program, his true voca- has not been set. And 'to Dula, these am- one. Robert Heinlein's science fiction con- tion lies not in promoting NASA but in help- vinced him long ago that mankind should ing companies solve the legal problems of not be limited to its home planet. Heinlein's introducing new technology and making a works ever ml jenced his choice of school- profit from it on Earth in and space. ing. "I agree with Mr, Heinlein," Dula says. Dula's practice is wide-ranging. A few of "that anyone who doesn't understand math his clients areearth bound; is a Mexi- iilnless we develop some One ought to learn it. It's basic to understanding can company trying to introduce a new practical laws the universe." And in a technical society, windmill to the United States, Another has he knew, even a lawyer needs a strong to govern our activities in developed a to produce way electricity and background in science. So as a prelaw fresh water from ocean waves. And a client space, we shouldn't student at Eastern New Mexico University. on the East Coast has a chemical process .be surprised when war Dula majored in chemistry and took his that turns wood chips directly into ethanol, minor in mathematics, eliminating breaks out over the energy-intensive distillation He has since built a collection of Heinlein now used to produce gasohol. who has the right to develop first editions, and the science-fiction art But several of his clients hope to profit the solar that lines his office includes a watercolor by from space itself: system^ Dula acts as a patent Ann Layman Chancellor depicting the lawyer for Eric Drexler, who has invented opening scene of Heinlein's novel Citizen an improved solar sail. And he represents a of the Galaxy. "Heinlein himself saw the company that has developed a new type of picture at an art show and recognized it as rocket engine. He also works for a group of the scene from his book," Dula remembers businessmen interested in launching a pri- bigulties are more than dry legal theory. with a smile. vate space vehicle. They could, he believes, discourage in- Leaving New Mexico, Dula went to Often his clients' space technologies vestment in space. At least one might even Tulane University's law school, in New Or- offer benefits for life on Earth. One com- block space development by private en- leans, where he made the law review. He pany Dula represents has developed a terprise entirely. retained an ambition to manufacture star- way to refine moon rocks and extract such Part of the problem lies with NASA itself, ships, but he also gained a deep interest in elements as oxygen, silicon, aluminum, Dula feels. In 1978 he wrote a report for the Earth's legal traditions. Today his science- and titanium. "Lunar material geems an agency detailing the ten most important fiction library shares a room with a collec- awful lot like the fly ash collected in pre- factors inhibiting participation in the shuttle tion of ancient lawbooks. cipitators at coal-fired plants," power the program by nanaerospace companies. This interest in the history of law clearly Texas attorney points out. "Every year, Most were rooted in the NASA Act. our marks Dula's approach to space law. "The electric utilities, in this country collect national space law. Romans gave nations jurisdiction over their enough of this ash to fill the Grand Canyon. For example, NASA controls America's territory from hell up to the sphere of the This technology could turn of one our most only launch facilities and has discouraged fixed stars," Dula points out. "That's where noxious wastes into a valuable resource. the development of private booster sys- we get our concept of airspace. So the

"The more I get involved in high technol- tems. The agency retains all patent rights Roman Code is really the starting point for ogy," he notes, "the more I see this synergy to technologies developed in operations laws governing space." between aerospace and Earth. Technol- that involve it in any way, and its administra- But a more recent episode of history has ogy developed for space almost always tor can reveal any trade secrets used in even clearer implications for space devel- has benefits on Earth." experiments on the shuttle. This alone is opment, Dula feels. "Whenever academic Dula's clients take up only part of his enough to keep many companies that rely laws have been arbitrarily projected into time. Much of the rest he spends legal as a on unique technology from launching ex- the future." he says, "there have been dis- theoretician, writing about laws that could periments on the shuttle. astrous consequences. When Pope Alex- enable business to operate profitably in And Dula believes thai NASA's charter ander the Sixth drew the Line of Demarca- space. Dula sees-a bright future for man- discourages cooperation with companies tion in the year 1494, dividing the New kind beyond Earth's gravity. other than the aerospace giants. The World between Spain and Portugal, he left "The great fortunes of the next century agency is set up both to promote space out England and France. The result was will be made in the asteroid belt," the attor- activities and to regulate them. In short, decades of war over the ownership of the 50 OMNI resources of the Western Hemisphere." The Texan worries that-similar confronta- tions may be built into today's international space law. "Unless we develop a practical law governing activities in space, we shouldn't be surprised when war breaks space GN&PC6E5 out over who has the right to develop resources," he warns. Current space law prohibits the "oc- cupation" of space. Such permanent establishments as space stations and lunar mining facilities would therefore violate international treaty The geosynchronous orbits a solar-power-satellite (SPS) system would require— now nearly filled by military and communications sateilites-also violate this prohibition. Partly because of this ban, there is no accepted way to assign "grazing rights" to

orbits in spade. Eventually the most desirable orbits will become filled, At that point it isn't hard to imagine that a power with killer iaielNtss might decide to clear private craft

out of the positions- it needs. Investors would find "range war-s" in space. a. difficult hazard to accept. But the threat that worries Dula most is already in progress. 'The. one thing that could stop the development of space by free enterprise would be to outlaw making a profit in space." he says. "The Soviet Union and Third World countries are now attempting this through the Moon Treaty," The 1967 Treaty of Principles and the Moon Treaty under debate in the United Nations— and signed but not ratified by the United States— proclaim that the resources of space are the common heritage

of all mankind- This is a lofty-sounding

principle, but it is vague. Neither treaty spells out exactly how this heritage is supposed to be divided, forbid If ratified, the Moon Treaty would private ownership of minerals on the moon and on other "celestial ooc-,es." Bu-.wiihoul ownership, there can be no profit, And as Dula points out. "free enterprise does hot move where there is no profit "Unfortunately, international space law

is based on academic and dangerous treaties designed to chill the development of free enterprise in outer space. Space may be the common heritage of all man- re- kind in a philosophical sense, but the sources actually developed by private industry must belong to the entrepreneur who had the vision and took the' risk to obtain the benefit," And that risk, incidentally, should all be on the company's shoulders., Yet the treaty on international liability for damage caused by space objects states that national governments have infinite liability for damage caused by objects launched from their country. "Pan American World Airways flies everywhere in the world," Dula reminds us, "with vehicles bigger and heavier than the space shuttle. Their planes would do more

damage if they crashed. Yet no one seems upset because Pan Am stands liable for its own damage." The attorney feels that CONTINUED ON PAGE 94 . .

FICTION

He dreamed of first contact with i being from another galaxy

BY BEN BOVA

trembled beneath them. toner lay on his back in Ihe The booster spherical capsule Pumps starting up. cramped ."

", . . of the Soyuz spacecraft. . , one, zero S He heard the Russian word for helmet on, visor locked and sealed, and felt the whole capsule gloved hands resting on his knees. He Ignition! growl from somewhere was sweating. His legs dangled up shudder. A dull within exploded into an above him. Like a turtle on its back, he deep shattering bellow as millions of thought. Useless and in danger. ear- demons howled their loudest and a He turned his head to see heavy, implacable hand squeezed Federenko, in the left seat, but his his chest, pressing him into helmet blocked his view. He could hear down on his seat, and shook him with the cosmonaut, though, in his violence. earphones, chatting happily with the bone-jarring Stoner felt the breath forced out of launch control engineers in Russian. were pressed back in Federenko's gloved fingers flicked him. His eyeballs sockets. He couldn't lift his hands across ihe switches of his control panel their from the armrests, His spine was being like those of a pianist testing a new the noise. The noise and instrument. One by one, the banks of crushed, And vibration rattling him . . lights lit up, mind-numbing roar eased away "Shtoner," the Russian's bass The died altogether. The rumbled through his helmet. and finally dwindled until Stoner saw that "Yes?" pressure were floating free of the seal "You can pick up the countdown at his arms lightheaded, and for a Teh minus one meenute. at my mark." A rests. He felt his innards told him that he short pause; then. "Mark" moment squeezing his eyes T minus one minute. Stoner heard the was falling. After shut hard enough to make them tear, he Russian words in his earphones. finally opened them, and he was no on his back but sitting T minus ten seconds, Stoner counted longer lying in the Soyuz capsule. Nothing mentally. upright changed but his perspective. He could feel his heart pounding had "Shtoner." Federenko's deep voice wildly as he went on: Five, four, three . . PAINTING BY MITCHELL JAM1ESON

HFSB.iftftM '

rumbled in his earphones. "You okay?" "Something's bothering you, Nikolai." ures against the latest data on the tanker's He nodded. "Okay. Nikolai. I'm fine. The Russian's unshaven face sank into a trajectory. We can still make if, if you can You?" frown. "Not dark worry, Shtoner. But I see dock us with the tanker on the first pass." 'All ..._ good." problem we must deal with." Federenko closed his eyes for a moment, Stoner's vision was blurred. to "Okay "The tanker?" as if rehearsing the problem in his head. open helmet?" my "Da. We must link with it before attempt- "Not easy, Shtoner." Bui Federenko was on the radio, checking to rendezvous with alien, according to Stoner couldn't understand the babble ing back with mission control. Stoner flight plan." of Russian coming through the radio waited until he was iinished, then asked "I know" speaker, but from the expression on again. latest "But radar shows tanker is not in Federenko's deeply lined face he knew it "Yes, yes. Cabin pressure is normal. All best position for us. Trajectory is deviating was bad. systems are good, ground control con- from plan." The cosmonaut spoke almost angrily " firms "We can still reach it, can't we?" back to ground command, and more ur- Stoner slid the visor up, pulled his gloves Federenko nodded somberly. "But will gent words burst from the radio. off, and wiped at his eyes. The gloves take more maneuvering fuel than planned. Stoner turned to the radar screen, a drifted out toward the control panel, and he Leaves less fuel for making rendezvous small orange-glowing disk on the panel be- grabbed at them, grinning to himself. maneuvers with alien." tween their two seats. It showed a strong "Zero gravity," Federenko said. "You Stoner thought a moment. "We could let blip almost dead ahead of them. He remember? Do not make crumbs when you the tanker go and save our maneuvering stretched slightly to search through the ob- eat." fuel for the rendezvous." servation port, and, yes, there it was. A Stoner laughed and took a deep, easy 'And have no propellant left for return to silvery crescent of metal against Ihe starry brealh. He was weightless, and the pleas- Earth," Federenko said. blackness. ure of it was euphoric. "They could send anolher tanker" up The tanker. Close enough to see it. But "Was a good launch, no?" With a grim laugh, Federenko said, "In Federenko's gloomy frown sent a chill of "Perfect," Stoner said. apprehension-through Stoner.

"Now we make contact with Salyut by "What is it, Nikolai?" radio, then go dock with equipment and Federenko turned toward him, defeat vessels." supply smoldering in his eyes. "The tanker. We Stoner pulled out the clipboard that was must not go near it. Malfunction." mounted on Ihe panel to his right. In both 6/\ flash caught "What?"

Russian and English it listed every task they his eye. In total silence "Very strange, they tell me. Malfunction in must perform, the day and hour it must be tanker self-destruct circuit. It can explode, the tanker blew started, and how long they had to complete they think." each. apart; a trio of flashes The cosmonaut's hands reached for the "You make the first EVA," Stoner said. followed quicker stubby levers that controlled the Soyuz's "Da." maneuvering jets. "I'll watch the store." than eyeblink ' an by an "Wait!" Stoner yelped. "If we don't linkup Federenko peered from around the edge enormous fireball with the tanker, we can't complete the mis- of his helmet. "Watch store?" sion!" "It's an that nearly blinded them$ American expression." Stoner "If we do link with the tanker— boom!" tried to explain it to him. Stoner sagged inside his restraining Federenko listened, frowning deeply. harness. ." "I don'l believe it. How could . . "But there is no one here to steal from A flash caught his eye, and they both store." craned toward the observation ports. In Shrugging inside his suit, bulky pressure how long? Two days? Two weeks?" total sifence the tanker blew apart, a trio of Stoner said, "Well, Nikolai, you know how i! "They've got a backup at Cape Canav- small flashes, followed quicker than an is In a capitalist society. So thieves many eral; they were holding it in case the first eyeblink by an enormous fireball that that we expect them everywhere." tanker didn't get off okay. No problem." nearly blinded them. It made no impact on the cosmonaut. "By the time backup tanker is launched Stoner squeezed his eyes shut. Fe- "But no thieves in orbit. No thieves aboard we would be on same trajectory as derenko growled something loo low for Salyul. They are both good Soviet citizens, alien — heading out of solar system. Sec- Stoner to catch. officers in Army." Red ond tanker not reach us at all." The fireball faded into darkness, leaving The American grinned and gave it up. "Shit." a burning afterimage against Stoner's "We must link with tanker," Federenko eyes. There was no shock wave, no noise, Stoner scratched drowsily at his stubbiy said firmly, "even if it means no rendezvous no debris pattering around them. It was as beard. It was starting to itch, and he longed with alien." if they had been watching a silent picture. for a hot bath. Federenko, just as grubby "Christ, Nikolail We've come all this way Stoner couldn't believe it was real. and tired-looking, sat calmly in his seat at to make contact with that bird!" "Gone," Federenko said heavily. Stoner's left, checking the mission "is true," the Russian replied calmly. "But Stoner rubbed at his eyes, then looked schedule. The command module smelled I have no desire to meet alien and never out through the port again. Nothing but the of sweat and body heat. return to Earth. Do you?" unutterably distant stars. "Separating supply module is no prob- Stoner did not answer. "Gone," he admitted. 'And where does lem," Federenko was explaining. "Explo- that leave us?'"

sive bolts snap cable and push it away." "You are sulking," Federenko said later. "We are dead men, Shtoner. Without "That's the fourth time in the past hour Stoner pulled his attention away from the propellanls from tanker, we cannot get you've told me," Stoner replied, "It's worry- computer screen and looked at the cos- back to Earth." ing you, isn't it?" sitting monaut beside him. It took a few moments for the realization "No, no. Is no problem." "You don't look so happy yourself, to sink in. Finally Stoner heard himself say. Nikolai." "But we have enough fuel to make the ren- ©1961 by Ben Bova, from the forthcoming book "How can I be? To come all this way and dezvous with the alien, don't we?" Voyagers, to be published by Doubleday & miss the alien. It is not happy." Federenkogavehimalong, solemn look. Company, Inc. "I've been checking the computer fig- "Da," he said at last. "Plenty maneuvering 54 OMNI "

working on new course for us. Get us back near, its golden energy screen glowing, fuel left for us now tanker is gone, Shtoner." pulsating slowly. "Then let's do it!" Sioner said. "Thai's to Earth." in the meantime we're here! They seemed to be at rest now, com- what we came out here for, isn't it? Let's do "Terrific. But "Not to use maneuvering fuel," pared to the alien vehicle. They rode it, Nikolai!" about a hundred meters off its Federenko's bearded face almost Federenko said. "Take photographs. De- alongside, spacecraft for radio and tapes." flank, riding silently against the stars, close smiled. "I knew you would say that, scribe the thing!" enough to touch, too far away to touch. Shtoner." "But we can rendezvous with placid, seemingly insisted. "For Chrissake, it's only a Stoner knew that their "What else is there?" Stoner asked, feel- Stoner motionless encounter was an illusion. Both ing strangely excited. "Let's go!" stone's throw away!" "Too long a throw. You are Olympic craft were hurtling away from Earth, flying farther from safety each second. Thealien They came on the alien craft with the sun champion, maybe?" Nikolai!" was heading out of the solar system, back at their backs. The radar image had been "Come on. use maneuvering fuel," the into the unthinkable gulf between the stars, fuzzy, almost nebular, at the longer wave- "Must not stubbornly. "Orders. and unless they broke away and took up a lengths. But when Stoner turned on the cosmonaut replied on this." new trajectory, Stoner knew that he and microwave radar, the image cleared up im- Our lives depend the ovoid orbital Federenko would also leave Earth's grip mediately and showed a smaller but much Stoner pulled back into peered out of the observation forever. sharper blip. module and stared hard, at the alien spacecraft, alien craft. It was close enough He Now for the first time he saw the space- port at the clearly with the naked eye. knowing that a- million miles away men and craft itself, now to make out tantalizingly women were working frantically to find a It hovered against the stars, It glowed with a strange, eerie, golden CONTINUED ON PAGE 95 light, like an aura, that surrounded the solid craft, The spacecraft was embedded in the

glowing light. From this distance it was still too far away to make out details, but it appeared to be roughly oblong, with a smooth surface and rounded corners. Federenko asked. "What is the light?" BOOTH'S*90 PROOF GIN "A screen of some kind." Stoner guessed. "A screen of energy like a magnetic- field, maybe, To protect it against cosmic radiation. Maybe a shield against micrometeors, too." They were closing fast on it. Stoner floated out of his seat and wormed his way back to the orbital module of the Soyuz. ' Taking the stubby, compact telescope from he. its ciips on the equipment rack, focused on the alien ship through the nearest observation port.

"If it's come all this way from another

solar system, it must have been in space for hundreds of thousands of years at least." he called, loudly enough for Federenko to hear him on the other side of the open hatch, "But its surface looks smooth and completely clean. No meteoric erosion at

all. No pitting."

"What is color?" Squinting ihrough the telescope, Stoner said, "Hard to say. The light around it makes everything look kind of golden," "Are cameras recording?" Stoner glanced at the equipment monitor panel. The camera lights were on. So were the video transmitter lights. "Yes." he called. Stoner watched for what seemed like an hour as they glided closer to the spacecraft and Federenko spoke to ground control. The spacecraft's surface was absolutely featureless, as smooth as the skin of a supersonic aircraft. Not a rivet, not a seam, not even a line of decoration. Then he realized that they were not getting any closer. Leaving the telescope hanging weightlessly, he ducked halfway through the connecting hatch. "You can get us a lot closer. Nikolai. It won't bite us." "No closer," Federenko said firmly. ."

. "Come on, we . "Orders from ground control. They are Perfect gardens of primeval origin spring from our genetic memories GREEN WORLD

F^pmp|

O iiiiHi-

! '-f- , : .'\a oMhegodsor' world. Eden, ap.ri-- cf^i-i- .^-.mc-, s.-.^wz bt-Y-r . 'the birth of humans This primofctiaJ pace has been called the Green World. Eden s perfection-presents an archetype of.lhe

PAINTINGS BY FRIEDRICH H EC HELMANN

•JMMMl'M msmmm "

it They'd agreed was a marvelous idea and a very critical frame of mind by then. twenty actually works. But when it does, it shown me the new lasers they'd just Oliver's eyes bought glazed over completely. For makes up for the nineteen others. I guess from Optronics. I Takahashi Still, did get a moment I thought it was the. ale. Then he that's how Decal Electronics sees it, too. -„ihem to promise to order their pelvic pin slammed his mug down on the counter, "Mine makes its own spare parts out of joints through us in the future; so the jour- "I'll just have to find a way to stop them any material that comes to hand. Metal, ney wasn't entirely wasted all. after from accumulating," he said. mostly and bits of plastic, And when it

Whenever I'm in Bristol, ! try to look up builds a copy of itself, it does it on one tenth Oliver Gurney He's lived there for years and I didn't see Oliver again for a month, scale'."

knows the city like the wrinkles on his elbow though I in the Bristol was area twice during "Clever idea, Oliver" I said. "You make Especially the pubs. His current favorite is that time, Decal Electronics seems to have one big one. and that makes a medium- the Tall Ship, in Upton Stourby an old stone a finger in every pie from laser-powered sized one, and that makes a small one. and building with ratters. sagging toasters to particle-beam benders, and that makes an even smaller one ... but it It was a cold night, but the fire in the Oliver often gets dragged halfway across won't work."

lounge bar of the Tall Ship was burning the world on business with only ten Have you ever tried to tell a mother that

brighily as the ale flowed, and I warmed to minutes' notice. her newborn offspring resembles an apo- the topic. "Control, Oliver that's the prob- The third occasion, I phoned from Car- plectic capuchin monkey? He actually lem. Like threading a needle from a dis- diff, and Oliver was back in circulation. We snarled at me. "Why not?" tance of ten feet in a hurricane." I lowered agreed to meet at the Tall Ship. He breezed "The smaller it gets, the more the molecu-

the level of my mug by a good two inches in with a tatty-looking cardboard file under lar structure of the materials changes in and leaned my elbow on the bar. "Same one arm, hauled me off into a corner, and relation to the size of the components. You again, please. Janice." shoved an engineering diagram in front of can't shrink atoms, Oliver."

Oliver is some sort of Top Frog in firm me. It looked like a a cross between a me- "Thank God. I thought maybe you'd called Decal Electronics. likes to think He chanical grab and a helter-skelter and I thought of an obstacle I'd missed, I've proof himself as an engineering entrepreneur. said as much. He hastened to explain. grammed it to modify the design as it His enthusiasm for a new idea is boundless shrinks in size," This involved other modifi-

and often clouds his judgment, which is cations, too. It was rather complicated, but or lousy atthe best rimes 3u' every so often he seemed to have it all worked out. The he has an idea that is truly mind-boggling in process had to stop at some point anyway, its audacity, and he makes.it work. I sup- and he had programmed the machine to 6 The re are times pose you could call him an erratic genius. stop reproducing when ii had reached This time he had a bee in his bonnet about when it pays to listen to Oliver. macromolecular size. pea-sized robots. His pudgy face, with-its "But what about the error buildup?" is bright. beetle-browed He eyes, bore an expression "There isn't one. I've arranged it so that

that I had known of old. but also a trifle sloppy. the machine corrects its own structure on "What we need." he "is said, a new ap- One crazy idea the basis of its internal programs. And proach. I'll concede, Johnny, that you can't those are just copied. With a good error- build microscopic directly. in twenty works. But when robots But I correcting code, there's no cITIiculy." think you could it in stages." I do it does, it makes tried another tack. "It looks very compli- "Come off it. Oily! The more stages you cated. Won't the first stage be rather big?" up for the nineteen others.? use, the worse the problem gets. Like "Not with off-the-shelf components. rounding errors in a long computation, About the size of a Helibug." blowing up and swamping the answer" "Expensive?" "Maybe you can leave a few out." "Not as much as you'd think. You'll be "Maybe, What's the limiting factor on the glad you Invested in this idea." size of pocket computers?" It's the preliminary 7 " blueprint for the "I'm sure I — What did you say He grinned. "The size of pockets." Oliver Gurney Reduplicating Engine," he He clutched at my arm. perhaps to stop

I wasn't very amused. "You loon. I mean said proudly. me from getting away. "It's a money spinner, on how smalt they get. large." can not how "Reduplicating?" Jonathan! Imagine it; a robot no larger than

"Ah. talk. . . . Serious Er making the but- "Portmanteau word. Cross between re- a bacterium! It'll be the biggest thing since ." tons big enough for lingers to push them." ducing and duplicating the microchip!" "Right! Whalever size you want to. end up "Engine?" "I think you mean smallest. Oliver. Now with, it all starts here. People. And people "Makes for a better acronym. OGRE." look. I've got better things to do with my are pretty in — big mechanical terms. Billions "Oh." I asked how it worked. money than of cells, trillions maybe, I forget. Compared He edged closer in conspiratorial fash- "Oh, come on! All I need is three hundred to single virus, that's a huge." ion, and I away, edged and we both moved pounds! I can get a lot of the stuff out of my Oliver looked at me thoughtfully "Have two feet some along theseat, until I was research budget at Decal. and I've got a you ever noticed how similar viruses are to wedged into the corner. "Basically," he few quid put away for a rainy day myself, tiny robots?" he asked. "I remember a pic- said, "it's a modification of one of the but I'm three hundred short!" ture of a bacteriophage that looked rather standard replicating automata." "Get a bank loan." like lunar lander, a with a kind of syringe on For once I understood what he was talk- "Umm. Well, you remember how I got an stilts up the middle. And the flagellae of ing about. "You mean that thing at MIT that overdraft lo finance that development proj- bacteria are little Archimedean screws builds copies of itself?" ect for microwave socks to keep feel warm running on circular bearings." "Yes. The Japanese have one, too, and in cold weather. National Westminster "But nobody builds a virus! We can't the Russians have one." caught a bit of a cold on thatone." even synthesize one of any real complex- "But that relies on a supply of I get spare "Say no more, the picture. Anyway, I

ity!" Then I realized we had strayed from parts, and a stock of magnetic cards to don't have—" ." the point. "Anyway, I is, what mean to get copy the program on, and . . "You'll regret it if you refuse. Think of the down to in microbots stages — your He held up both hands as it to ward off possibilities' And you'll have a stake in the suggestion involves too long — a chain of the flow of words. "Mine doesn't." ground floor. Once it takes off—"

command. So the errors accumulate too There are times when it pays to listen to "Oily, it's a funny ground floor that can-

much." It was a good I thought. Oliver argument. carefully. He's very bright, but also a take off with a stake in it. It's just— " On the It certainly convinced I in trifle me. Not that was sloppy, and about one crazy idea in other hand, maybe he was right. It was a 64 OMNI machine-tool assembly ingly a little embarrassed. "Well, the big small enough risk, and the returns might be this was a kind of out of Hong line, wound from top to bottom in a spiral. machine is mostly made up . huge . . prices Right on the top was a hopper with a me- Kong copies bought at knockdown "All right. I'll forgo the new hall carpet. thing on the black market. But don't let IBM know, Half shares?" chanical grab arm, The whole was or they'll cancel all our service- contracts." "Of course!" mounted on caterpillar tracks, and if you thick ran looked carefully, you could see a retracta- I looked around me. A cable He'd said that too quickly. "Hang on I I "Where do the ble in segment of track. from a plug on the wall. want half shares in the profits. I absolutely hook each the hooks were for climbing offspring get their power from/' refuse to accept responsibility if anything Apparently third, "There. I cheated. The second, and goes wrong!" up things. Oily?" fourth generators use bakeries After that. "Done! A check will do fine. Payable lo "Where's the barn door, one stays put. The they get small enough to rely on solar 'Oliver B. Gurney' Lovely!" "Eh? Oh, no, this tracks are for later generations to scavenge power. By the seventh generation there's He tucked it into his wallet. "Painless, enough energy in starlight," for materials. I put them on this one-only to wasn't it?" how they'd look," "Much more to do?" I asked, "So far. I'll answer that when the see the mate- "Nope, Just some final programming, analgesic effect of the alcohol wears off." "And where does this one get minutes, and I'll have it done." rials it needs?" Hang on ten certainly the pointed. garbage cans over So I hung on It was almost Decal Labs is on the outskirts of Bristol. He "Those i is. because irnacs next generation uses these little- biggest mistake of my in an old country house in the village of there. The Oily rush the programming job and not Menderby, not far from Bristol Parkway bins here, and later generations can- check it properly Anyway he rattled away railway station. The building's exterior is nibalize previous ones." "Aha. Reviving the ancient an of mat- at a keyboard in the cornerfor a while, then much as it was too hundred years ago. but : grabbed the magnetic orogra'rininc cax: the inside has been ripped out and totally riphagy. Bui isn t it rather costly to let them and shoved it into a narrow slot in the,side- rebuilt. eat up all that machinery?" "They won't eai much. There's only one of OGRE-1: ii-st gene'alion mairiaich. Oliver had built OGRE in the basement. 1 He threw the switch. was astonished at how quickly he had machine, in each generation I suppose they might bite a few chunks out of Mama's managed it. He explained to me that once Progress was pretty slow to begin with. the design was specif :ec °.ne construction caterpillars. The. scavenging has to be "It should take was easily performed by using a standard fairly efficient for the process to stand any not said_"Butthatti[ assembly robot and a critical tree quasi-- chance of working at all. Frankiy, I'm babies from eating get smaller Eve bootstrap technique. Sure I could stop the see, to thai. ten at first, The. r Cdnceited bastard! Mama if I wanted to. You do is hours, then for it impressive. It ;hey nave to recognize who Mama and But I had to admit was lot of programming. and so 01 just about filled the baseman The bulk that means a extra process drops was a lot of electronic mcd^es. with s few memory, and such, " down to millisei induction motors and belt drives. Around he broke off. A diary from 1899 could give us the sun's power within five years ffloffl PROJECT TESIA

The chamber is vast, Robert Golka literally empty, dark. Footsteps plays with lightning, the click on the cement floor. In his laboratory, on Muffled voices echo in the site of the former Wen- Base, eerie, dim shadows. dover Air Force Golka can generate light- H The very air crackles. A low hum, ominous with ning bolts of 25 million for electrical power, builds volts , and he has plans more energetic ex- mm and builds, and then- even periments. His 150.000- nmen: t of routinely lightning bursts the dark- watt Tesla coil be- ness, sizzling blue-while produces what Golka the largest energy that writhes and lieves to be man-made roars deafe.ningly, turning continuous lightning discharges in the world into a terrifying Stage where more than 20 the Western Hemisphere. that his million volts of electrical Golka insists energy blasts down from nine meters over- studies of lightning have opened a way to pro- head and cascades to the barren floor. duce a sustained nuclear- fusion reaction. Abruptly the lightning bolt winks out. leav- In the fusion-energy process, light atoms deuterium are ing an ear-ringing silence and ghostly af- of hydrogen isotopes such as terimages of light. heated to temperatures of tens or even hun- centigrade. In an abandoned airplane hangar in Utah, dreds of millions of degrees pres- where the first atomic bomb was assembled. Under high enough temperature and together. Project Tesla has created another bolt sure, deuterium nuclei will fuse uclei and enormous man-made lightning. Someday— soon, if the producing hefiui man who directs these titanic bolts of energy amounts of energy. of three ways to produce can find the funding — it might create a prac- Physicists know sustained nu- tical fusion generator. the conditions under which \M With the overhead lights on and the Tesla clearfusion will take place: the equipment turned safely off, the hangar re- Gravitational containment is the way sembles a latter-day Frankenstein's labora- sun and other stars produce fusion condi- 10" tons of hydrogen tory. Robert Golka, a mild-looking, soft- tions. But it takes some fusion spoken forty-year-old, is director of Projeci to hold together with gravity the Tesla and president of Pyrosphere, Inc. generator that is a star. Magnetic containment is the avenue by fusion researchers have ap- Robert Golka (left), seen with his lightning ma- which most problem, trying to hold the chine, is retracing ihe work of Nikola Tesla (above). proached the PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAN McCOY star-hot deuterium together with plasma Tesla said that he had repeatedly pro- Ball lightning is a rare, spherical dis- from which the plasma could absorb en- Fire Ball reactor, the water would be turned tronaut L, Gordon Cooper is president of powerful magnetic fields. duced small fireballs that persisted for charge of electricity often suggested as Ihe ergy efficiently. As the plasma took in en- to steam and the steam used to turn a the Center for Advanced Technology, in La inertial containment is the key to other many seconds after his coil — then generat- source of many UFO reports. A weird, ergy, the deuterium gas pressure in the turbine-driven generator. Alternatively, the Jolla, California, where a research team fusion experiments. In these studies a ing into io a precisely Tesla coil to 12 million volfs— was turned off. Tesla multihued, crackling glow, it hovers tank would be built up. gradually, allowing, water might be broken down hydrogen plans use tuned of laser light beam or charged particles devoted eight pages of his diary to a crude momeniarily in midair, darts unpredictably the fireball to reach a temperature of 1.5 and oxygen, and the hydrogen would be tap energy directly from Earth's electrical forces a pellet of deuterium to implode, theoretical study of the fireballs, but after about, and then vanishes. Golka and Bass billion .degrees in 30 minutes'. used as fuel. fields. Tesla himself first proposed the proj- releasing fusion energy. These to experi- his death Ihe experiments were forgotten think they can "chain" artificial ball light- At that point, if Gotka is correct, fusion Would it work? A good many fusion ex- ect in 1900. He- later claimed have car- ments look promising, but many technical Golkathinks the .skep- ried it out successfully but died without re- and never repeated. ning in a pressure tank and build within it could' begin, 'and the lasers could be perts claim not. But problems are yet.to be solved. Then, in 1970, Golka tracked the diary to the furious temperatures and pressures turned off, Each hydrogen-deuterium pair tics are simply prejudiced against the work vealing his techniques. Golka wants to use his man-made light- the Nikola Tesla Museum, in Belgrade, needed for fusion. that fuses together makes a helium atom of people outside the government- and When Tesla announced his hope of pro- ning in a fourth approach to fusion: pres- Yugoslavia. From Tesla's notes, he re- The Fire Ball fusion reactor would work by and'Shoots off two neutrons ai high speed. academic-research establishments. ducing "free energy for the world," his fi- sure 1968," containment. "Since he re- created the high-voltage machine, later focusing a carbon dioxide laser beam to a The neutrons have no charge, and so they "We can prove or disprove this theory nancial backers, including John Pierponf ports, "we have been looking for a way to doubling its power pinpoint at the center of a metal sphere travel effortlessly through the onionlike inside of two years," he told Omni, "atacost Morgan, withdrew their support, ending his hold very hot gases together without the Working with Professor Robert W. Bass, filled with hydrogen and deuterium gas. layers of positive ions and negative elec- of two-million dollars, But the Department of work. Golka, who dreams of using Tesla's use of magnetic fields." of Brigham Young University, Golka This, Golka believes, would creafe a trons that make up the fireball. Energy won't listen to us." Considering that ideas to- make- nuclear fusion practical, He found the answer in work originally founded Pyrosphere, Inc. to test the fusion lirecracker-sized explosion, just as sun- The fusion tank would be lined with a the department intends to spend S20 bil- ironically faces Ihe same critical problem. done in 1899 by Nikola Tesla, the Croatian scheme that emerged from this work. The light shining through a magnifying glass water jacket. When high-speed neutrons lion on fusion experiments over the next two With research budgets being cut back in a American scientist who pioneered the de- experimenls af the Tesia Laboratory, sup- giTies 3 piece of paper. strike water, they are slowed and convert a decades, Golka's request for funding time of fiscal austerity, it seems doubtful velopment of AC electrical power. Testa's plemented by mathematical analyses, This explosion would sit ati.:efocal point little of the hydrogen in the. water into seems modest indeed. lhat a maverick like Golka can raise the work, the key to modern electrical-utility have convinced ihem that stable dis- of four more infrared lasers, placed at the deuterium, They also heat the water, just as Other experimenters also have hopes of funding he needs. systems, has been for the most part forgot- charges of ball lightning can be produced corners of a tetrahedron. The lasers woula the spinning disc of an automobile brake using Tesla coil-generated discharges to "All we want is a running chance," says ten by today's electrical engineers. the harnesses lightning, and can yield confinuing fusion reactions. be chosen to emit light at a wavelength heats the pressure pads that slow it, In the produce useful electricity. Former as- man who DO

+** A sex therapist talks about men and women in love, and why female orgasm

is only an evolutionary luxury IRJTERV/IEUU

impregnating as many questions might have been pondered by a tabloid's Male reproductive success is a matter of possible. Symons explains. So men are genetically Theadvice columnist: What is love? Are women naturally women as to for ever greener sexual pastures. In con- faithful and men fickle? Is a happily-ever-after marriage programmed yearn state of nature by pregnancy incompatible with human biology.? trast, women, handicapped in the caution. While men are No greeting-card gush spoils the subject when sex researcher and childbearing, have evolved sexual and unwrinkled skin — all Helen Singer Kaplan -physician, psychoanalyst, and animal be- attracted to youth, physical beauty, reproductive value"— women find "high havior and learning theory Ph.D. -scrutinizes human mating prac- emblems of female " appearance. are status" males desirable without regard for physical tices. It could be, she concludes, that neither men nor women still operate in sin- Is Symons right? Do hunter-gatherer values i especially suited to lifelong marriage. oi Human Sexuality a is favorite activity of socio- gles bars? Or is his' book The Evolution \ Musing on human sexuality a manifesto, offensive to feminists and biologists, who trace our romantic preferences lo ancient biologi- love-'em-and-leave-'em S sexual- genes. Voicing the sociobiology true-love believers alike? Dr. Kaplan, who teaches human % cal imperatives encoded in our Cornell Medical Center, in New York City, and directs New » hard line, while eschewing the label, University of California an- ity at Hospital's human-sexuality program, is certainly in a position- i thropologist Donald Symons has proclaimed (Interview, March York sexual creatures. to answer these questions for us. I 1981) that men and women are very different part of a movement thai passed from the Slone \ That's because natural selection has fashioned a basically Kaplan's work is Vienna-born brain. Age to the Nuclear Age in just two decades. The \ polygamous male brain and a stand-by-your-man female therapist remembers her first job, at New You see, all the many differences be- York's Metropolitan Hospital, in 1964, where tween males and females are brought she dispensed a kind of sex therapy not about by testosterone. Without the testos- unlike the operating instructions tor an terone a male fetus produces, it would de- appliance. "There was no time for long- velop into a female. Later on, during

term treatment of poor women with sexual adolescence, there's another big jolt of tes- problems," she recalls. "So with very brief tosterone in the male. Many of our tissues. behavioral instructions and diagrams, I not just those of the genitals, are sensitive showed them where their clitoris was and to sex hormones. The muscles, the skele- time how much they needed for arousal. I ton, the skin cells, and the brain all have was amazed it helped about ninety percent testosterone receptors. That's why we see of my patients! And when I went to Cornell profound differences not just in the way

in 1970, 1 started to treat men as well, with men and women look, but in how they be-

the same surprising results." Nowadays in- have, too. If you give a woman this male novative methods are used to treat many hormone, she'll begin to grow a beard in sexual difficulties that had previously been two weeks, and she's likely to feel sexier. regarded as incurable. Omni: What do you see as the main differ- Beyond the nuts and bolts of sex, how- ence between male and female sexuality?

ever, is the realm of male-female attraction, Kaplan: I think all the differences between fantasy, love, bonding, and even happy male and female sexuality are due to the 60-year marriages, all of which are dis- strength of the male sex drive, which cussed in Kaplan's current book. Now, for seems much higher than the female's. All Omni, she explains her views of human other differences follow from that. sexuality to writer Diane Klein. The male sex drive is so compelling that Omni: Do you share Donald Symons's it's less subject to inhibition by learning ^Typically, view that human male sexuality and female than the female's, which is more variable, sexuality are markedly different, for biolog- flexible, and influenced by experience. A everyone, except the ical reasons? woman can be aroused and have more most neurotic Kaplan: I agree that there's a very strong orgasms than a man, but she isn't driven to biological element in all sexual behavior sexuality the way a man is. The male sex individual, fails in and that there are profound male-female drive is much more difficult to suppress. differences love. But most that are biological. That's not to For example, if you tell a little girl not to say, of course, that cultural factors are less masturbate, she's likely to listen to you, but of stay us in love for important. But there is a male sexuality and a boy will continue to masturbate, in part a female a relatively sexuality, though one is no? inferior because his urge is much stronger. I'm not to 'the other: They are complementary. saying there aren't crucial cultural factors short — time several And I share Symons's view that evolution present in sexuality, of course, but I believe , years, in provides a fruitful way to look at human the biological factors in our sexual behav- behavior, by considering how behavior ior have been neglected. human beings romantic helps us survive and reproduce success- Omni: Is that why females rarely develop love often fully. Bull disagree with Symons about what perversions? these male-female differences are. and I Kaplan: Exactly, but I don't like to call them doesn't last Iifetime3 a disagree with many of his conclusions, perversions; sexual variations is a better

Omni: Will nonsexist education fail to term. When a young girl's sexuality is eradicate differences in sexual behavior, treated harshly, she tends to become feelings, and attitudes? asexual, but a harshly treated boy is more Kaplan: Even if we bring up boys and girls likely to develop an alternative expression in exactly the same way, they will probably for his sexuality, perhaps in the form of a

not turn out the If same. you raise a bull and fetish. I have never seen a woman fetishist. a cow in a nonsexist environment, they're Females will not become aroused by look- not going to act or look the same. Yet ani- ing at a shoe or fondling a glove; yet for a mals vary in their gender differences. In male such objects often become symbols

some species the sexes ; oos so much alike of forbidden sex. you have to check their genitals. For in- Omni: Is this powerful biological male stance, you can't tell by observing a dog's sexual urge in accordance with Symons's behavior or appearance whether it's a male theory that men innately desire sexual vari- or a female," except when the female's in ety more than women do? heat. We humans are somewhere between Kaplan: I totally disagree with Symons's canines and cows in that respect. conclusion that men want and need a Omni: What's your opinion of Symons's greater variety of sexual partners. Clinical theory that there are differences between experience makes it crystal-clear that both male and female brains, just as there are men and women are pair bonders. We form 7 differences in the genitals strong monogamous pairs, and this is Kaplan: That is no longer a theory; it's an basic to human experience.

established fact, We don't know fully what it When Symons describes men whd are implies, but just as the bodies of males and looking for sexual variety, he's looking at females are complementary and fit to- men who are not in love or who are between gether for the purpose of reproduction and love relationships. He confuses the experi- survival, the brains of males and females ence of the unattached male with men who are somewhat different physically. Per- are emotionally involved. A man doesn't haps that's so our behavior patterns can fit need or want diversity when he's with a together as beautifully as our bodies do. woman who meets his sexual fantasies. '

The lovestruck man has eyes only for his but they're not promiscuous. When you adapted to different circumstances. For

love, and in fact he tends to overvalue and leave kids alone, without compelling them example, mutual attachment is charac- idealize her. Love is a kind of lovely mad- to do anything except what makes them teristic of a mother and her baby, since the

_ ness for men and women alike. feel good, they'll usually form pairs. immature little one couldn't survive without Omni: What is the clinical description of In fact, couples are healthier and live the system of behavior between mother

the phenomenon we call falling in love? longer than singles. Monogamy is not just a and young. Both mother and baby feel

Kaplan: It's a romantic bond between two female predilection. Men want and need it, upset when separated and feel good when people ihat is formed so rapidly, you almost too. Actually, males show more signs of they are close. They are highly empathetic,

feel there's a biological aspect to it, and it's stress when they lose a mate. It's true, how- sensitive to each other's smallest discom- a universal experience. The visual compo- ever, that males are highly sexed, and even fort. They don't compete, and the mother is

nent is very important: What a man or a if they're attached, they will function and protective and slow to anger, even if the

woman looks like seems crucial in the initial enjoy it if they should find themselves in baby wakes her up in the middle of the attachment. The relationship is highly vul- bed with a beautiful woman. But that's not night with its crying.

nerable at first. A harsh word, a clumsy the same thing as hunting for women and That sort of mutual caring is incorporated

action, or any unpleasant occurrence can craving diversity. 1 have also seen some into the romantic bond. Lovers are typically

break the bond, until it is "set." Although the people who do desire sexual variety, and very uncomfortable when they're apart.

instant bonds don't always become long- when they're not guilty about it, they can be They -take great pleasure in being close

term attachments, they can, and significant content. But such behavior is atypical, and caring for each other. Competition is

love relationships often begin rapidly, at Omni: Do you think that if Syrnons had minimal, and nothing seems too much

first sight. Such an attraction may not be a studied loving couples, he would have trouble if it's for the one you love.. Add to the good long-term love relationship, because come to different conclusions about parental kind of bond the bond of sexual love is highly complex, with many ele- monogamy? attraction — two people who meet each

ments. Bui the basic romantic sexual at- Kaplan: That's correct. If someone is hap- other's sexual fantasies, which is a very tachment is an important ingredient: with- pily attached, he will not actively seek out important part of a long-term romantic at-

out it, you have merely a cordial partnership other partners. And if Syrnons had any clin- tachment— and you have the glorious state between two people. ical experience and understood the loneli- of being in love.

- Omni: Are we, then, basically monoga- ness that men and women feel when Omni: Are humans lifetime bonders?

mous, rather than polygamous, as Syrnons they're not connected— the pain, the de- Kaplan: I don't know whether we're lifetime believes? pression, the anguish of searching and not bonders like geese or gibbons, which stay

Kaplan: No one knows for certain, but I finding someone to love — he couldn't have with one sexual partner all their lives. That believe so. Most cultures are based on a made such a judgment. is a successful strategy for their survival,

monogamous model. It's such a universal Omni: What elements are necessary to an just as in other circumstances promiscu- thing. For instance, in certain segments of enduring love relationship? society, young kids have much more sexual Kaplan: There are only so many bits of be- strategy. Symons's book indicates that the

freedom than previous generations had, havior thai have evolved, and these are only sensible strategy for survival is male

promiscuity If that were true, there would be no monogamous species, and there are > very successful monogamous species on this earth. I'm addressing myself to the question of what kind of bonders human beings are, by intensively studying certain wonderful, atypical couples who are s:ll glowing with each other after twenty, thirty, or even forty years. Unfortunately, these people are the exceptions in our society Typically, everyone—except the most neurotic individual—falls in love. But most of us stay in love for relatively short periods of time, perhaps three, seven, or ten years. In human

beings it doesn't often last a lifetime. In many marriages the caring part of the relationship far outlasts the romantic sexual attachment. Omni: Is that because of the present longevity of our species? Kaplan: That's an interesting question. The anthropologist Margaret Mead believed we were headed for "serial monogamy" because of our long lifespan. Our life in the wild was probably about fifty

years, if we were very lucky. In a harsh environment, a person older than that couldn't see well enough or run fast enough

fi^k to survive. But I don't think most people stay in love romantically with their mates. We could be three-year bonders, or eight-

year bonders. I thinkthe birth of a baby can lengthen the bond. Omni: Syrnons points out that ihe physical " learn responsibility "You have got to to delegate attractiveness and desirability of females

everywhere is dependent on their youth and unwrinkled skin. Is this a universal standard of female beauty, independent of environmental influences?

Kaplan: I am afraid I have to agree with that. That's why women wear makeup and try to look young. And it's foolish not to recognize the universal appeal of the younger woman. I think it's ludiGrous to say this is due to advertising or social condi- tioning. However, youth is only one element of falling in love, and attractiveness is a complex variable, Older women can be very appealing to men, since we're a very intelligent species, and a woman's voice, warmth, intelligence, and, especially, the way she fits into a man's sexual fantasy are compelling ingredients. Once you're in love, if that bonding is firmly established, age doesn't really make any difference. You can remain each other's fantasy throughout life. I'm studying eighty-year-old women who are still enormously attractive to their husbands, and I'm studying the same situation with older men and their wives. In seeking new relationships, men tend to look for younger women. Omni: Do you envision any changes in men's criteria for female desirability as women become more powerful Eft status and earning power? Kaplan; The youthful complexion will always be an element. But it's not the only element. There are, in fact, men who are attracted to older, more powerful women. They enjoy the role of the good boy, complementary to that of the protective, stronger "mother." They can fall very much in love with such a woman, who can provide other satisfactions. This has been true since the dawn of history. Queens, duch- esses, and powerful older women have never had a shortage of lovers. Omni: Do you agree with Symons that female orgasm is an artifact cultivated by skilled and caring men? Kaplan: Yes. Female orgasm is an artifact from the viewpoint of evolution. In other words, we could have survived successfully as a species without female orgasm, but we could not have survived without male orgasm. The (act that female orgasm is an artifact doesn't mean it's hot impor-

tant. It simply means it wasn't a primary structure or function that evolved because

it was adaptive; it's a by-product. Our brains, for example, were adaptive because we wereable to survive. and thrive in a variety of environments, By-products include our ability to play chess, dance, and build pyramids. The penis, of course, has enormous

adaptive value: It can become very hard and carry the sperm deeply into the va-

gina, where it's safe. The clitoris comes from the same embryologieal origin, has the same nerves, and can transmit the same sort of pleasure. And the same mus- It's crystal-clear. cles that are used in male orgasm, propel- ling the semen, also go into the pleasurable It's a bit more expensive, but for a crisp Gin & Tonic, contractions of the female orgasm, but they the world comes to Gordon's! don't have the same biological value. The female orgasm probably doesn't occur in a CONTIMUED ON PAGE 92 THE VERY LARGE LION AND THE VERY SMALL MOUSE Wherein the wily neutrino tries to tame the expanding universe

BY ISAAC ASIMOV

1 mouse incautiously Most galaxies are ventures /ithir parts of groups or clus-

' reach of a lion's paw. The ters. Our particular galaxy, the Milky Way, is lion spares it out of the generous impulse of the one of a couple dozen moment, and the mouse galaxies bound together vows to repay the good gravitationally that make cluster. deed. The lion, naturally, up a galactic In laughs at that. But then, our own galactic cluster. some time later, the lion called the Local Group. falls into a net set by most of the galaxies are hunters and cannot es- smaller than the Milky cape. Providentially the mouse arrives. Way, but at least one, the Andromeda By gnawing through a number of the Galaxy, is larger. connecting cords, the mouse frees the The Local Group is only one of million. Moral; Don't underestimate the im- lions of galactic clusters. Other clusters portance ot little things. run to hordes of thousands- of galaxies. Since most of us feel helpless in the The universe, then, is made up'o'f mil- lace of a harsh and unfeeling world, we lions ot galactic clusters, which are the enjoy reading about the power of little is'gest aggregates of matter we know things: of Jack defeating the giant, of oi A big cluster is-60 million light-years- David beating Goliath. In fact, the stan- wide and flat; a vast pancake of matter. is th<; of dard thriller won't work if Good and Evil Every distent galaxy =cu'cc are evenly matched. The Evil Menace particles that radiate outward in all di- must be. all-encompassing, all-threaten- rections. The most important of these ing, all-devouring, and the Forces of are-photons, or units of electromagnetic Good must be weak and all but. help- radiation that comprise not only visible less—yet somehow win light but radio waves micowavos, in- As every writer knows, nature imitates frared waves, ultraviolet rays, X rays, art. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising and gamma rays. Photons travel at the that in the real world the smallest mouse speed of light — 300,000 kilometers per can rescue and indeed dominate the second — and after millions to billions of largest, most ferocious lion, years some of them reach our instru-

Our universe is the largest lion imag- ments. Only by studying these photons learn anything at all about the inable. To describe it in the most general will we terms, let's start with Earth. A world rip- distant galaxies.

pling with life, Earth is part of the plane- We can pass photons through a spec- tary train that accompanies our sun. The troscope and spread the visible light spectrum, ot sun is part of a huge conglomerate of portion into a- band, or 300 billion stars that is shaped like a flat steadily increasing energy. At one end is pinwheel. slowly rotating about its cen- low-energy red light; at the other, high- ter Such a system is called a galaxy. energy violet light Crossing the spec:..

PAINTING BY MARK RICKERSON a

are lines, representing irum dark missing Group could be reached by our instru- centimeter if the universe is to be closed. photons of particular energy content. ments. The trillion or so stars in our Local That isn't much, for it is equivalent to one The dark lines occur because various Group eventually will collapse or drift into hydrogen atom in every 340.65 liters of ..types ot atoms tend to absorb certain one or another ot the black holes that now space or so. But the universe is so huge, photons before they can be radiated out exist or that may evolve in the future. The even such low density is the equivalent of into space. Each type of atom produces universe will then be, to all intents and pur- 25 sextillion stars the size of our sun. dark lines at precise positions. poses, dead— and dead forever. The trouble, however, is that, as nearly as Sometimes those positions shitt. For in- But this expansion is occurring against scientists have determined, there are only

if light stance, the source ot is receding the pull of the overall gravitational field of alt about a hundredth that many stars in exist- us, all the from dark lines shift uniformly the stars in the universe. Underthat inexor- ence. The actual density of the universe is toward the red end of the spectrum — able pull, the rate of expansion is decreas- only about a hundredth the amount needed shift. so-called red The faster the speed of ing. At some distant date in the future will to close the universe, and so the universe is recession, the greater the red shift. If light the rate of expansion be reduced to zero? open and will expand forever. travels toward us, however, the spectrum Consider the following scenario: The uni- An open universe, however, is a puzzling shifts toward a higher frequency, or the verse will remain static for a moment; then, one. Where did the universe come from? blue end. An object approaching us at high under the same inexorable pull of its own How did the original cosmic egg come into velocity is to the perceived have color of its gravitational field, it will very slowly start to being? Why did it explode at one particular spectral lines blue-shifted. collapse. The collapse would continue over time and not another?

It happens, As the spectra of all the hundreds of billions of years at a steadily A closed universe is somehow more galaxies beyond our Local Group, without increasing rate until everything in the. uni- comfortable, since we need only postulate exception, show a red shift. Conclusion? All verse came together in a big crunch. The that the universe has always existed and the galactic clusters in the universe are rebound of another big bang probably we can then explain the Big Bang by say- withdrawing from us. would follow. ing that it was preceded by a big crunch. The fainter the galaxies are, and pre- There are two possible scenarios for the The universe is always expanding and con- sumably the more distant, the greater the tracting, with no beginning and no end, red shift. Consequently, the farther a galac- with many big bangs and crunches, and

tic cluster is, the faster it recedes. the moment the Big Bang occurred is de- But why should all the galactic clusters termined as the boundary between two be fleeing from ? they us And why should be stages of expansion/contraction. . 6/f we made a movie receding at rates that increase in propor- But we can't close the universe without at tion to their distance? How can a galactic least of the expanding universe a hundred times as much mass in it as cluster know its distance from us? Why us? we can detect, This is the mystery of the and ran it backward, In fact, we have nothing to do with it. The missing mass.

universe is merely expanding. Every galac- we would see a contracting It is not only the universe that is involved. tic cluster is increasing its distance from Gravitational forces hold galactic clusters universe; if we ran every other galactic cluster. If we consider together, yet the clusters' total mass is not it backward long enough, the the universe to be uniformly expanding, great enough to supply a gravitational field then it is possible to show that it doesn't universe would shrink sufficiently intense to contain expansion. matter in which galactic cluster we are lo- Of course, we are aware only of the mass to a point, the cosmic egg3 cated, that all other clusters would seem to that we can detect. Is there mass that we be receding from us at rates that are pro- can't detect? Are there dark bodies we portional to their distance from us. can't see that possess the missing mass? Naturally, if the universe is expanding A black hole might have the mass of and getting bigger and bigger each day, it millions of ordinary stars and yet be totally must have been smaller in the past. The universe. In one, we envision a big bang invisible; there might be such a black hole further into the past we delve, the smaller and eternal expansion. This is what is at the center of every galaxy. the universe must then have been. If we meant by an open universe. And we merely But it wouldn't matter. The mass of a of took a motion picture the expanding uni- exist in it for a little time, so long as a habit- galaxy is judged by its size and its speed of verse and ran it backward, we would see a able planet is here at our disposal. rotation, and that mass would include a contracting universe, and if we ran it back- In the other, the universe begins with a central black hole, whether visible or not. ward long enough, big we would see the uni- bang and first expands, then contracts The missing- mass, if it exists, is spread verse contract to a point. to a big crunch, then undergoes another out along the outermost edges of the That point, the cosmic egg, apparently big bang, and soon, over and over. This is a galaxies and in intergalactic space, where existed about 15 billion years ago. At that closed universe. There are. in this scheme, it wouldn't affect the galaxies' rate of rota- time, with all the matter of the universe an infinite number of habitable universes, tion. That rate would depend largely on the existing in one point, there was a sudden one after the other, and we are merely in concentration of mass in galactic cores. inconceivable explosion, the Big Bang, in one of them. There is a powdering of stars around the which energy came into being and slowly But which is the correct scenario? rims of the galaxies, along with vast clouds condensed into matter. The matter ex- It all depends on the strength of the over- of dust and gas and possibly some black panded and swirled into fragments the size all gravitational field of the universe. If the holes. At best, however, as nearly as as- of galactic clusters. The fragments con- strength is greater than some critical value, tronomers can discern, there isn't enough densed into smaller fragments the size of then it is strong enough to halt expansion mass in these "galactic halos" to solve the individual galaxies; these fragments col- and close the universe. If the overall field is mystery of the missing mass. The halos lected into stars and planetary systems. less, the universe remains open. might be enough to multiply the supposed And even 15 billion though years has now The strength of the gravitational field is density of the universe by 1.1 times, but elapsed, the force of that cosmic explosion dependent on how tightly the mass of the certainly not by the necessary 100 times. still the sends galactic clusters racing universe is compressed, that is, on the av- Let's consider the makeup of the uni- madly apart. erage density of the universe. verse on a more fundamental level. Forget And what of the future? Given the present rate of expansion of stars, planets, and so on. Consider, in- It may be that the expansion will continue the universe (or what astronomers think it stead, the subatomic particles that com- forever. Galactic clusters will move farther is), the average density of the universe pose everything from atoms to stars. farther 30 and apart until only our own Local must.be at least 5 x 10- gram per cubic We know of hundreds of different kinds eo OMNI of subatomic particles, but almost all of YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU them are laboratory curiosities that don't exist in nature in substantial quantity. There are no more than six subatomic particles that make up almost the entire universe: protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, gravitons, and neutrinos. All of these particles are constantly in motion. The photons, for instance, move at the speed of light. This motion represents energy; energy, as Albert Einstein has

shown, is equivalent-to mass-. However, a

considerable-amount of energy is equiva-

lents only a small amount of mass. If only

the energy of motion is to be taken into

account, the amount of mass it repre-

sents—in today's universe— is negligible. Suppose, though, a particle is brought to

rest, It may still have mass even though its energy of motion is zero. This mass that persists when the particle is not in motion is its rest mass. The rest mass is an extremely concentrated form of energy. The energy

that stars radiate is given off at the expense

of less than 1 percent of the rest mass of the particles that constitute them.

If a particle has rest mass, even a small

amount of rest mass, then it counts for much more than the mass equivalent of any energy of motion a particle might possess. Three of the six subatomic particles, namely, the photon, graviton, and neutrino, have a rest mass of zero-. So let's forget them, The three others have rest masses in

the following ratio: proton, 1; neutron, 1; electron. 0.00055. The relative number of each of these

three is: for the proton, 1; for the neutron,

0.12; for the electron, 1.

If we multiply the relative rest mass by the relative number, we get the relative contribution that each particle makes to the

mass of the universe. It comes out proton,

1; neutron, 0.12; electron, 0,00055. photography By this calculation, protons make up easy as adding roughly 90 percent of the universe and neu- for exciting ups of your favoril iubjects. trons make up the other 10 percent. If this is true, then the mystery of the CELESTRON telescopes and telephoto lenses are compact and missing mass can have but one answer, lightweight. The modern Celestron design means you can There can't possibly be 100 times as many protons and neutrons as we think there are, take it anywhere and have it set up and operating in minutes. which means there is no missing mass and Under clear, dark, steady skies, the amount of detail seen through the universe is open. The universe will ex- Ceiestron telescopes borders on the fabulous. As a daytime pand forever, and the whys and wherefores telescope, see or photograph ships, planes, wild- of the Big Bang may possibly remain a life and people at incredible distances with com- puzzle forever. plete clarity. Apertures available from 3-1/2" to The lion of the universe is thus trapped in the unbreakable net of insufficient mass. 14" priced from $295.00 Celestron also has a What we need is a tiny rescuer. full line of binoculars of astronomical quality. Such a rescuer, if there is to be one at all,

can only be one of the three particles that I Send $2.00 for 32-page full color said had zero rest mass: the photon, the catalog on how to select and use a Celestron telescope or telephoto lens. graviton. or the neutrino. The photon and the graviton can't be the labile (DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED) rescuer, for they are the exchange particles of the electromagnetic interaction and of the gravitational interaction, respec- Celestron tively. Both electromagnetic intensity and gravitational intensity fall off as the square of the distance, which fact has been

checked with fine precision. If this is so, the exchange particles, the photon and graviton, must have zero rest mass. The neutrino, however, is different, For one thing, it is the only particle that is not constantly interacting with the others. Pro- ¥)u never forget tons and neutrons cling together in atomic nuclei; protons and electrons cling together in atoms; photons and gravitons are forever being absorbed and reemitted by yourfirstGirl. other particles. Otherwisethey wouldn't be exchange particles- Neutrinos, conversely, are not exchange particles; they pass-through matter as if it weren't there. Trillions upon trillions of neutrinos can pass through the earth from side to side, and only a scattered few would be stopped. The rest swerve neither to the

right nor to the left; they behave as if the earth were empty space. The neutrino is, in a certain sense, the tiniest mouse conceivable, but there is

nothing about it that absolutely requires it to have zero rest mass.

As it turns out. experiments conducted in the United States and in the Soviet Union in 1980 may have shown thai neutrinos have rest mass, perhaps 0001 that of an elec- tronand, therefore, Q.0d0000O55 times that of a proton, This may not seem like a rescue. If the light electron contributes a negligible amount to the total mass of the universe, the far lighter neutrino might certainly seem to be unimportant. Hcwc-ver. scientists es- timate that for every proton in the universe there are no fewer than 3 billion neutrinos. Eacfi group Of 3 billion neutrinos would have a total mass equal to 165 protons, even allowing for the fact that each individual neutrino has such a tiny mass. That means 99.3 percent ot the mass of the universe would sorsisi of neutriros. The protons and neutrons that make up the. mass of everything we think of as Ihe universe - ourse'ves. atoms, pi arrets stars— are only the remaining 07 percent.

If we now count in the neutrinos, there is 166 timesas much mass in the universe as we had thought, and that is sufficient to close the universe. Is the mouse's rescue of the lion credi- ble? Scientists, in need of something to close the universe, snatch at the neutrino. But the massive, neutrino, quite unex- pectedly, may Solve other puzzles, Neutrinos are being formed constantly by the nuclear reactions that.take place al the core of every star, but a majority of those that now exist were formed hot in this way at all but at the very beginning— the moment ot the Big Bang. Being so small, so light, and so unrelated io other panicles, neutrinos were able (according to the careful argument of Hunga- rian physicist Alexander S. Szalay) to part from the thick energy mixture right after the Big Bang and proceed on their own. For the next 100,000 years or so, protons, neutrons, and electrons were unable. to form as independent particles. Furthermore, the neutrinos, having rest mass, could slow down. Particles with zero rest mass, such as photons and gravitons, An exclusive first look the well-dressed space

TAILORED FOR ZEROG

. .7/ plugs in h9r electrocardiogram

i preview ol the EMU in (middle row, left). After pulling on ' her leggings, she squats to engineer Jocelyn j " " prod- into the i

luring the flight to orbit, the suit h ' ock between the Before locking the id the cargo bay waist. Johnson cc ! "~"'' ivfl row. left). In the seated cabin, hoses that c thlings enjoy shirt-sleeve cooling water trc

:d- helmet _ric metal rings. With the — 14.7 lo 4 psi (bottom right) and pres- pounds per square inch.

cargo bay and float off to ' pendent of the orbiter. The EMU's ifli'JKMWIWWMi is he armed for a v , An armchairlike manned-mai .

Time's up! No peeking at your neighbor's paper IQT T ARJSJUERS By Scot Morris

Last monlh we published an I.Q. 7. a. The figure rotates counterclockwise 19. c. (60) test prepared especially for Omni by increments increasing one-eighth turn 20. a. e. (83) by representatives of Mensa, the in each successive drawing: The second 21 $60. The price of each is determined high-I.Q. society. Readers were asked to drawing has rotated one-eighth turn by the number of letters in the word, take the 39-item test in 30 minutes. Here counterclockwise; Ihe third has rotated multiplied byten. (55) are the test answers, along with a tew an additional quarter-turn; the fourth has 22. a. The apple and pear alternate black occasional explanations. You can get a rotated an additional three-eighths turn. and white and are moving counter- sense of which items were easiest and The correct answer, a, shows the figure clockwise. The two bunches of cherries which were hardest from the number in rotated an additional four-eighths are moving clockwise. (79) parentheses that follows each answer: It (one-half) turn. (37) 23. 207. Each succeeding interval is indicates those Mensa members, out 8. Discord. (77) multiplied by three. (50) of a sample of 8S, who answered the 9. Center, perimeter. (73) 24.c.(65) item correctly. 10. a. (75) 25. b. The second dot moves clockwise

1.33. Each increment is double the 11. 72. Each succeeding number is al- and is "hidden" in the fourth drawing. (74) previous increment. (72) ternately multiplied by two or three. (72) 26.d.(52) 2. vex, pacify. Allhough other words have T2. a. The black window in the far left 27. c. Each increment is multiplied by antithetical meanings, these two are column goes down one square each time three. (74) considered most nearly opposite. (63) before it starts again at the top; the 28. b. (81) 3. $36. The price is determined by the black window in the middle goes up one 29. Tale, story. (73) initial letter of each item and then mul- square each time; the black window in the 30. c. (59) tiplied by two. $2 for an item beginning second horizontal row moves left one 31. a. (66) with A $4 for one Starting with S, etc. (45) square each time. (38) 32. c. This item was the "easiesf'on the test. 4. b. Human things are alternated right 13. c. (72) Still, one Mensan missed it. (87) and left. Although this item was missed 14. Beam, ray. (62) 33. b,e (83) 6. is num- by most Mensans, once it was explained, 15. d. The center figure is always solid; the 34. Each number reduced by a there was virtually no argument about symbols in the corners are moving ber that is increased by one with each the answer. (32) counterclockwise. (65) succeeding term. (85) 5. NEWS. The arrows represenl Worth, 16. c. (67) 35. Curtain, window. (77) East, West, and South, (35) 17. d. The right angle is moving 36. Yolk. (41) 6. 2. In rows, the left number minus the counterclockwise, The changing figure 37. a. Each square is exactly like its middle number equals the right number. increases the number of its line segments diagonal counterpart, except the color of In the columns, the top number minus the by one in each succeeding square. (64) the triangle changes black to white or middle equals the bottom number. (76) 18. a. (66) white to black. (81)

CO\T : NUFO ON PAGE 122

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

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88 OMNI numbers of the elderly will therefore prefer lish anything resembling Exit's handbook. THIS WAY OUT to die, and fhey should be allowed to do so. "Our decision was unanimous and based As far the handbook, Miss Little em- on two factors," says Mrs. Levenson. of phasizes thai it will be available only to CFD. "First, terminating one's life is the had been in touch with Exit shortly before members of at least three months' stand- most drastic step a person can take, and her death in December 1979. few A months ing. That, she said, will mitigate the prob- anything that makes it easier is probably later Reed and Exit volunteer worker Mark- lem of having copies fall into the hands of not good. Second, promoting the accept-

Lyons were charged in with - connection aid- persons who are unstable or temporarily ability of suicide could have a rebound ef- ing and abetting in Mrs.. Crystal's death. depressed. But what if the handbook is feet on the elderly, with old people telling Neither Reed nor Lyons has yet pleaded to around or passed Xeroxed? "Our mem- themselves, 'I have no right to be alive and the charges, but the Exit organization in- bers are responsible people, will and we sick and a burden on others. I have a duty tends to support them fully in court. include in the mailing a very firm statement to kill myself.' The United States has done a Exit's campaign has not gone unchal- about how they should keep the material terrible job of caring for its elderly. We don't lenged. The British Medical Association under cover. However, if somebody steals favor anything that relieves society of its and the Samaritans, an English-based a handbook or if a given member turns out responsibility for improving their lot." group thai "befriends the deeply troubled," not to be very honest, Exit can hardly be Humphry readily agrees. Asked whether have issued statements questioning eu- held responsible." he thinks that proeuthanasia material thanasia the and condemning handbook. Pressed on thai point, Miss Little added. should be distributed among the aged, he Samaritans official Jean Burt rests her case "There will certainly be one or two unfortu- replies, "Definitely not. I don't favor even on studies of persons who attempted nate incidents. But you need to weigh making them aware of the option, because suicide and failed; "Eighty percent were those against the welfare of six thousand or that would imply an obligation on their part glad to be still alive." She further points out seven thousand elderly people [in Great to consider it." Hemlock, he adds, is care- that a suicide not attempt may be meant to Britain], lying in pain and suffering a need- ful not to proselytize. "People must hear of end in death, but may be a cry for help. Ms. less prolongation ol the dying process." us in one way or another and conre join. Burt deplores making Exit-style an hand- Let Me Die Before ! Wake, Hemlock's Morally and legally, we feel, that's the nec- book available to teen-agers, "whose of version the handbook, will be "more hu- essary approach, It's all right to talk in gen- moods go up and down like yo-yos." man, more loving" than Exit's, Humphry eral terms about voluntary euthanasia or Those objections were put to Sheila Lit- says. "It will not be a how-to guide but a 'assisted suicide,' But it's not all right to say tle, seventy-four, who fields tough ques- compilation of people's acts of voluntary to a person, 'I think you should die.- Take " tions on Exit's behalf. The next decade will euthanasia, told in their words. As such, forty Seconals.' see an increase of 43 percent in the num- our lawyers assure us, it will have First SFD, meanwhile, intends to press na- ber of Britons eighty-five, over Miss Little Amendment protection." Hemlock, like tionwide for natural-death legislation, Alice declared, "but there will not be a parallel Exit, will sell handbooks only to members of Mehling says that the group has encoun- increase in the number of caring relatives three months' standing. tered two principal objections on the legis- or facilities looking after them." Increasing Both. CFD and SRD decided not to pub- lative level. "One is thai a natural-death law will open the door to mercy killing, and the other is that there's no need for such a law, because doctors are already permitting or practicing voluntary euthanasia." Mrs. Mehling insists that the record since pas- sage of the firs! act shows no trend toward mercy killing: There hasn't been a bit of litigation under any of the laws, and the question of abuse hasn't been seriously raised. As for the laws' being unnecessary, not all hospitals are going to honor a living will without legislation behind them. Be- sides, once a person is connected to a [life-sustaining] machine, it's difficult to have the treatment stopped."

Where will it all lead? To indiscriminate, needless suicide? To that and worse, says Malcolm Muggeribge, the English social critic and curmu.dgeon-at-l.arge. Exit, Muggeridge says, "represents the trend toward total paganism, toward regarding human beings as merely bodies, animal bodies. If that's all they are. you don'l worry about putting them to death. But if you believe men are created by God and have souls, such a choice would not arise." Muggeridge excoriates exit's- suicide handbook as "completely the devil's work.

If aman consciously and sincerely wants to committing, a sin. die, all right, I think he's but people do sin, as we know. In any case, experience shows that.people think favor- ably about euthanasia for themselves when they're well. When they become ill and are actually confronted with death, they wish to remain alive." Right-to-die advocates dismiss argu- ments framed in the Muggeridge manner as at best unrealistic. Acceptance of voluntary euthanasia, they say, will bring a dramatic, reduction in unnecessary suffering among the dying, as well as a new and healthy respect for a human being's control over his own life. "Eighty percent of us are " going lo die in hospitals Mrs Mshimg says. "None of us know under whaf circumstances, but we doknow that the concept of individual decision making is res' v gaining greater acceptance." At least one prominent psychiatrist, the renegade Dr. Thomas Szasz, argues that none of the presen- rianMc-ciie aevneaios are going nearly far enough. Dr. Szasz, who believes that "although suicide is not necessarily good, it's your right," insists that not only information on lethal drugs but the drugs themselves should be made generally available. He dismisses concern over euthanasia. Suicide is the issue, he

says, and it has been given a bum rap: "Suicide bears the same relation to murder as masturbation does to rape. It's nobody's business but that of the person who does it. Yet we linksu/cide and homicids. instead of using a sensible term like seif-de.termined death." Few of us, including leading proponents' of the right to die, would go all the way with

Thomas Szasz. But it is hard to dispute his contention'that the issue raises "one of the fundamental questions of the contemporary social world. "DO ing many physical c har.a etc ri sties with no ble and happier in this intimate relation- iniTERVIELTU survival value. We're like a rich person who ship. It's just that homosexuals can't always can afford unnecessary expenses. find 1TINUED FROM PAGE T, this. The homosexual male often has a Omni: Let's talk about homosexuality. fear of intimacy: Intimacy ruins his sexual-

natural state among be- it ii most mammals, Does have a biological basis? Does ity. I think Symons was right about that. If cause the clitoris doesn't receive sufficient result from hormonal differences? such males start talking to each other and stimulation in the usual intercourse and Kaplan: We don't know the answer. Most knowing each other their sexual experi- love play of most mammals, including hu- experts will admit that the data are not all in. ence is ruined. But that could betaken as a mans. The clitoris receives litlle stimulation, Whenever you find a number of different sign of pathology, not as a true expression since mounting is generally from the rear. explanations coming from the medical proof a biological nature. So, from an evolutionary standpoint, the fession, fhen you know we don't know what Omni: Are there differences between male female orgasm is a luxury. But it's a glorious we're talking about. Practically speaking, and female homosexuality? use of something that we got accidentally, however— with modern methods— many Kaplan: Yes. The male homosexual is and it makes no more sense to diminish the homosexuals can change to a heterosex- moved by a strong erotic attraction to other importance of the female orgasm because, ual orientation if they want to do so. men, and his heterosexual drive is im- biologically, it's an artifact than it does to There are probably several different paired. The female homosexual is moti- o.smiss the Brandenburg Concertos or kinds of homosexuality. Some male homo- vated more by anger at males than by a Picasso's paintings because they do not sexuals are anxious and full of conflicts strong erotic drive toward other females. enhance our ability to survive. about sex with women. Modern treatment Many, but not all, female homosexuals are Omni: Do orgasms in women ever develop methods are successful at reducing that so hostile or ambivalent toward males that on their own, as a natural urge? anxiety, and when they do, very often a they are turned off by them. Very often, Kaplan; A little girl can touch herselt and man's latent heterosexuality will blossom. when they resolve their anger at males and discover spontaneously that she can have Omni: Why do you think most homosexual their envy of women who have a man taking an orgasm. Artifacts can emerge on their men have a large number of sexual care of them, homosexual women are free own. Women are endowed with the capac- partners in a lifetime, whereas most homo- to feel erotic toward males. ity to feel sexual, to become aroused— and sexual women do not? Omni: What are some of the unknowns orgasm is extraordinarily important and Kaplan: Well, as I said, the male sex drive about human sexuality that you look for- pleasurable to them. is much stronger whether in homosexuals ward to seeing solved within the next two or Omni: Why has natural selection retained or heterosexuals. Someone with a stronger three decades? the clitoris if it isn't at all necessary? drive sex will seek more sexual outlets. Kaplan: I think we have come out of the Kaplan: Why has the appendix survived? Omni: Why can't the homosexual male sexual Dark Ages in the last two decades. Why are we hairless? Why is our sense of satisfy his sex drive by male-to-male pair We finally have some very sensible con- smell so poor? We are a very successful bonding, like heterosexual bonding? cepts of sexuality, and we understand and with species our high fertility and our mag- Kaplan: When a male has a tender con- can treat sexual disorders. However, we still nificent brains. We have the luxury of hav- nection with another male, he is more sta- don't really understand the brain mechanisms of sexual desire, When we do, we'll probably have drugs and medication to enhance libido and sexual appetite. Sexual desire resides in the brain. Unless the brain's sexual circuits are active, you don't feel any desire. Nor do we yet fully understand bonding behavior or romantic attachments. My hope in studying these happy, enduring

romantic relationships is to try to answer the question of what our true biological her-

itage is. There is evidence that our heritage

is monogamy, but it may be serial, not lifetime, monogamy. We should know which

it is. because the more closely you express your biological heritage, the more content you'll feel. And the closer our diet is to the one we were adapted to, the healthier we'll be and the less stress we'll experience. So it's important to unravel all these mysteries to find out what is closest to our natural heritage. Were we designed for a cold or a warm climate? Were we adapted to be herbivorous, carnivorous, or omnivorous? Is serial monogamy or lifetime bonding our natural heritage? Whal are the ingredients for successful, enduring relationships between men and women? I'd like to teach our children the art of wise mate selection. There's such terrible waste when a couple with young children

divorce. I'd be happy if the relationship lasted until the children were teen-agers.

What does it take to choose the right mate and make romantic attachments work?

That's my own interest at this point, and I hope we will find some answers soon.OQ corporation that collects it? And once the Technologically, Dula claims to be five system makes a profit, must the taxes be years ahead of the big law firms. His office COUNSELOR computer sys- divided among all governments to ensure a is equipped with a modern CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51 fair distribution of the benefits from outer tem that tracks his clients' legal activities; space vehicles should be covered by cur- Space? No one knows. his legal papers are turned out on a word house is cooled by an rent insurance law just as' air transport is. "Existing space law is extremely vague, processor. His big heat that uses far less . "There's no reason lor the government to and it is stacked intavorofthe Soviet Union advanced pump ordinary air conditioners. take on that kind ot liability for private com- and the Third World countries," Dula energy than formed his panies," he says. "But by signing that trea- warns. "This trend must be reversed before On the same day that Dula firm, secretary-treasurer ty, the U.S. government has gratuitously a viable commercial space industry can law he became counsel for Engineer- done so." evolve." and general Eagle ing, small consulting firm he founded with Dula's list of legal obstacles to space Dula has been involved with technical a engineer-managers formerly with development is a long one. Look at SPS issues from the beginning of his career. As three technical and units, 'for instance. They are technically a young patent lawyer with the large Hous- NASA. Eagle applies the managerial skills acquired in the space feasible and might be economical if built in ton firm of Bufler, Binion, Rice, Cook, and busi- space from lunar materials. Dula himself Knapp, he worked for industrial clients in program to problems encountered in designed thinks the tangible benefits of an SPS pro- the medical and aerospace fields. He soon ness and government. Eagle has gram could restore public support for saw the need for a new breed of lawyer, petrochemical process equipment, has and space development. Yet a! every siep one who could devote himself entirely io integrated computer-hardware has performed there are legal questions to be answered. the legal questions presented by ad- -software systems, and of advanced According to international treaty, space vanced technology. technology assessments the SPS, and ocean- vehicles, like ships, must be registered to a Dula first established himself as an ex- propulsion systems, systems. single nation whose laws govern the craft in pert on the legal aspects of medical thermal-energy space. For an American spacecraft ferry- physics, then became a faculty member at Dula is also a charter member of the of Houston ing workmen to build an SPS system, fed- the University of Texas Medical School and Space Foundation, a group to find opportunities eral law would become space law. But the University of Houston's Bates College businessmen working the Interna- whose regulations would govern a space of Law. During the same period, he served for free enterprise in space. At confer- station owned by a multinational corpora- in the American Bar Association's Science tional Aeronautics Association's in last September, Dula tion, manned by people from many coun- and Technology Section, of which he is ence Tokyo Harvest, a film produced by tries and building SPS units for several dif- now chairman-elect. showed The The film's thesis is ferent parts of the world? Here the law is not After conducting studies for NASA and the Space Foundation. for that mankind is no longer limited to a single at all clear. General Dynamics on the prospects that free enterprise can use When the first SPS goes into operation, development of private industry in space, planet and in presently existing technology to harvest still more legal questions will emerge. Does Dula opened his practice aerospace and raised a few eyebrows the power belong to all mankind or to the technical law in December 1979. space resources. "It among members of the Socialist delega- tions, particularly that from the Soviet Union," Dula says. He also showed slides outlining a technological assessment of the SPS. "I think the SPS presentation demonstrated to the Russians that, given the opportunity, free enterprise can operate in space and return real benefits to Earth." In 1978 Dula ran as a Republican candidate- for Ihe Texas House of Representa- tives. He jokingly remembers his campaign as having been run on the "space plat- form." In fact, he ran a rather conventional campaign that stressed strong public schools and a comprehensive regional water plan. He lost, but he made a respect- able showing in a heavily Democratic con- gressional district. One evening during the campaign, he received a last-minute invitation to speak at a community center. Too short of time to prepare a new talk tailored to his audience, he decided to give his slide presentation on the SPS. "That audience was the most

attentive group I spoke to during the campaign," Dula recalls. "And do you know why? Because space presents us with an optimisfic view of ihe future, a future of growth and prosperity." Dula has promised his wife, Tamea Ann,

who is also an attorney, that they'll visit the

moon together by the year 2001 . If he isn't a lunar judge by then, he doesn't plan to take more than three weeks of vacation to make the trip. DO "

"What if ground command send up new VOVRC5ERS orders, a new flight path that will get us back?" Federenko grumbled while he checked out Stoner's suit. "You will be out ." way to bring the-n both back home.to Earth there . . safely, "I'll be in touch over the suit radio," "Fuck it," Stoner muttered. He reached Stoner Said. will for his pressure suit, hanging limp and life- "Da, And when I say come back, you less on the opposite wall of the orbital say, 'Not yet. One more photograph.' module. Stoner chuckled. Sailed that me s-ui- "What you do, Shtoner?" Federenko was sealed properly, Federenko handed Balled from the command module. *k"-i the h.slrne-:. Stoner pulled it on, locked

"I'm going out," Stoner said, yanking on it in place, and slid down the visor and the pressure-suit leggings. This procedure sealed il with care, "'

; was not a simple matter in zero gravity. "I'll . come Pack when you tell me they've use the packpack maneuvering jets to get got us a new trajectory that'll get us home," to the ship." Stoner said, his voice muffled inside the "Not enough fuel in backpack. Alien is helmet. too far away." Federenko looked unconvinced. He held "Nudge us a little closer then. Close up.one tinger, then squeezed back-through enough for me to reach it." the hatch into the command module and "No." swung the hatch shut. "You've got to, Nikolai!" Stoner was alone now. Federenko appeared at the hatch, his "Radio check," the cosmonaut's voice dark face set in a solemn frown. "I want to rumbled in his earphones. "Can you hear save our lives, not kill us foolishly." me?" The exertion of wriggling halfway into the "Loud and clear," .pressure suit made Stoner bob weight- "Very good." lessly across the orbital module. He put a Stoner glioed over ro 'he :::--: 5 that hand against the ceiling to steady him- pumped the air.out of the orbital module. self; his feet dangled a couple of inches Nikolai's giving me his backpack lor this, from "the floor. he thought. Ifhis rescue depends on going,

"Sit down, Shtoner," Federenko said, EVA, he's pst thrown his life away - "Calm yourself." "Shtoner."

"Listen. I could take, both backpacks— "Yes?" yours and mine. One to ride me out there., "Good luck, Shtoner."

I . . the other to get me back." "Thanks Nikolai. appreciate . every- "Foolishness." thing you've done," "But it'd workl" he said. "There's enough "Say hello to alien for me." will." fuel in the two of them to make it okay, isn't Stoner laughed. "I there?" Federenko lu-nen awav irom him. He cycled the air out of the ovoid "Isn't there?" Stoner grabbed him by the chamber and opened the outer hatch. shoulders. Pushing the extra backpack out ahead of "Yes," said the cosmonaut, meeting his him. Stoner stepped out into nothingness. drifted free of the Soyuz then turned eyes. "But I forbid it," He Stoner went back to struggling into the and surveyed the situation. pressure suit. The earth was far away. No longer a huge

"Shtoner. I am in command." smear ot awesome girth, it was now a blue "And I'm a third-degree black belt," and wn te crescent hanging in the- star- Stoner retorted, reaching down for his scattered dark. He could see the moon, boots. "Are you going to help me. or do we too. a smaller crescent. The sun's fierce fight?" blaze was over his left shoulder; he had no

"You will kill yourself." intention of looking in that direction, but he Fill a TDK cassette with "Nikolai, if we. get back to Earth, I'll have could see at the corner of his vision the music and the playback is to live with myself, Do you think 1 could, glowing disk ot the sun's zodiacal light: knowing that we go: his close and didn't go cosmic dust, rubble left over from the for- unforgettable. It's music, full the rest of the way? That son of a bitch has mation of the planets eons ago. and rich. Charged. Vibrant. traveled light-years to reach us! The least I A slight, soundless puff from the thrust- Instruments cascade, surround, is cover the last hundred meters to ers at his waist and he squarely faced the can do bathe you in music. Crystal clear. meet him," alien spacecraft. It floated serene and aloof Not a note missed in the flow. Federenko said nothing. He solemnly inside its golden, pulsing aura of energy. Music lives. Experience the watched as Stoner pulled on his boots and Slowly, tugging the spare backpack on energy of TDK. Start the music. began zipping up the suit. its tether, Stoner approached the alien Then glow with it. "Well, are you going to help me, or are spacecraft. you going to just stand there and sulk?" "Nikolai, do you suppose that energy Stoner taunted. screen could do damage to a slow-moving MUSIC LIVES ON TDK Scowling, Federenko pulled his own oQject. like an astronaut?" backpack from its rack and started adjust- "Could be," Federenko's voice re- ing its' shoulder straps. sponded. "Keep talking ... everything is "You are killing me also," he said. But he relayed to home base automatically," helped Stoner into the backpack. "Okay." . .

Describing what he was doing as he did Doesn't obscure my vision much.'' against the craft's hull once again. it. Stoner pulled up the tether that held the "I see you also," Federenko's radio voice "Yeah, it's got to be metal. Feels like extra backpack, reeled it up until the pack was as strong as ever, although a slight metal." wa&4n his grasp, then pushed it out ahead background hum now accompanied it. He planted his boots against the ship's of him. The effort slowed his approach to Stoner could feel his heart pumping. hull. They clung.

alien . . . the spacecraft as the backpack "Okay," he said. "I'm going to going "Hey! I think it's magnetized! My boots sailed out ahead of him, the long tether aboard it." are sticking to it." Stoner pulled one boot gradually, slowly unwinding.- "Be careful, Shtoner." free: it took only a slight effort. "The tether's insulated," he said. "If the The extra backpack, still drifting at the "Boots are nonmagnetic." Federenko screen causes an electrical discharge, it end of its tether, bumped into the curved said flatly. won't run back up the line and zap me. I side of the spacecraft and bounced "Well, something's holding them," Stoner hope." harmlessly off it. answered. He held his breath as the backpack "It's cylindrical," Stoner reported into his He stood erect on the curving hull, a lone glided into the glow of energy, then passed radio microphone, "with tapered ends. Sort visitor on a world twenty-five meters long. through it with no discernible effect. of like a fat cigar. Light tan in color. Looks He took one step, then another. It felt tacky,

"Did you see that, Nikolai?" like metal. No protuberances, no antennas as if he were walking across a freshly

"Nothing happened." that I can see. Very smooth finish. About painted surface that hadn't quite dried. "Right. Stoner licked his lips. twenty, twenty-five long, five or six Good." meters "Going forward," he said. "Af least I think "Now it's my turn." deep." it's forward. Could be aft. This thing looks "Cameras are recording. Television He was close. The craft loomed before the same at both ends." transmission is working." him, dominating his vision. His lips felt dry. Carefully Stoner planted one booted foot Stoner touched the controls at his belt His innards burned. in front of the other. andfeltthethrusters push against the small "Kind of light brown in color ... I said that And felt the breath rush out of him. of his back, gently, for just a flash of a sec- already, didn't I? Looks like metal. Definitely A line of light sudden y glowed the length ond. He glided toward the light. metal. Well machined. No sign of rivets. No of the ship and his earphones gave out a ."

'Almost there . . seams. Like it was made whole, cast out of low-frequency whining hum. Not loud The glow seemed to be all around him for a mold or some:hing No markings. Hasn't enough to hurt, just loud enough to make a brief moment, There was a sharp crack in been pitted at all — like it's brand-new. That certain that it could not be ignored. his earphones, and then he was clearly screen must eat up micrometeoroids and The line of light flickered through every ." inside the screen. He twisted around for a any other junk it encounters . . color ot the spectrum. It was like watching a view of Soyuz When he reached the curving side of the rainbow rippling under a stream of water.

"I'm through itl Can you hear me?" massive spaceship. Stoner instinctively put "It's color! "Stoner shouted, describing it.

'Da." out his hand. it, He touched rebounded "Then it goes dark ... I think it goes into the "It's like being inside a gold-tinted ob- slightly, and with his other hand pulsed the infrared and ultraviolet, beyond human vi- servation dome. I can see through it. thrusters, which gently pushed him up sion."

The whining in his earphones also wa- vered up and down in pitch, and Stoner

realized that he could hear it only during the few seconds of time when the line of light was off. "It's going through the whole elec- tromagneiic spectrum! Visible light, radio

frequencies . . . must be putting out pulses of X rays and gamma rays, too, Can you hear me, Nikolai?" The cosmonaut's voice came through

despite the background noise. "I hear you. The high-energy detectors on instrument panel are silent." Stoner watched the flickering light, fascinated, almost hypnotized, "It's saying,

'Welcome aboard,' in all the colors of the rainbow." Federenko's unruffled voice replied. "Switch to radio frequency two. Perhaps

hum is not there."

They went through all four channels on

the suit radio. The whine persisted on all of them, running up and down the scale in contrapuntal rhythm with the line of light.

"Hold everything!" Stoner yelled. "It's . . ." something . . Up at the nose of the craft the. line of flickering light sudden y spin into two parallel lines, then looped around to form a circle. The metal of the hull inside the circle seemed to brighten. "Something up at the nose." Stoner de-

scribed the circle. "Maybe it's a hatch." "Be careful, Shtoner." "I'm going up there." Trembling, throat dry, too excited to be onnrui TD TEi_E\yisoru

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afraid, Stoner stepped slowly toward the is dead"?" "He Federenko asked. "Wait. I check with ground control first." glowing circle. "Must be. Or frozen. Maybe he's just pre- Stoner shook his head inside the its He stood a! edge as the whine in his served^ . . you know, cryonically." fishbowl helmet. At their distance from

earphones worked its way up to a shrill Stoner's pulse was racing, and he felt Earth it was taking nearly six seconds for screech and then cut off completely. The sweat trickling along his skin, inside the Federenko's messages to reach base and line of light cut off, too. But the circle of pressure suit. It was difficult to make out another six for their responses to get back metal continued to glow .dully, almost as if details of the alien's form. He was a long, to Soyuz. Plus the time in between white heated from within. ,'_ very solid-looking body stretched out on a they screw around trying to make up their "It's glowing," Stoner reported. "Could' it bed or bier of some sort. There was a head, minds, Stoner thought. be radioactive? A nuclear heat source? shoulders, two arms. He couldn't see the "I'm going in," he said. Maybe I've cooked myself." lower part of the body. "Wait, Shtoner." "No radiation counts from detectors "Speak!" Federenko commanded, But Stoner already had his hands on the here," Federenko told him. "What do you see? Your words go straight hatch's rim and started gingerly lowering "Maybe the screen blocks it," to base." his legs through the opening. Federenko said nothing. "Okay, okay ..." "I'm halfway through. No problem." But the now, his visor glow was subsiding and Stoner pressed close to the "Shtoner. it could be dangerous."

Stoner saw that the metal inside the circle transparent hatch again, to get a clearer "I don'! think so." was becoming milky, translucent. He view. And there was no hatch. His helmeted He floated down inside the craft and strained his eyes looking at it. head sank an inch or two below the rim of touched his boots to the soft flooring. They ."

I "I think . can see something . metal that framed the circular hatch. stuck gently, just as they had on the outside ." Slowly he got down on his hands and "Oh. no . . He pulled back, then ran his of the hull. knees and put the visor ot his helmet gloved fingers around the rim ot the circle. He turned slowly in a full circle, taking in against the hazy surface. It was open, as if the metal that had been the interior of the alien spacecraft. "It's clearing up. It's becoming transpar- there moments earlier had dissolved, "I'm inside," he said, his voice uncon- ent. I can see inside ... not much light "Nikolai," he called, fighting to keep his sciously hushed. "Can you. hear me?" ." down there, but . . voice from climbing too high. "The "I hear you." Federenko's voice in his

.He peered through the glassy surface, hatch— first it went transparent, now it's earphones was weaker, streaked with siz- forcing himself with sheer willpower to see disspooarod altogether." zling static, but clear enough to under- what was inside. Then it hit him with the "Disappeared?" stand easily. power of a physical blow. "Gone. Vanished. Just an open hole "It's a lot smaller in here than the ship's "Oh, my God in heaven," he whispered. where solid metal was a minute and a half exterior dimensions. This must be just one "It's a sarcophagus. ago." compartment. All the machinery's hidden "I can see right through the metal," Federenko asked unbelievingly, "It is behind bulkheads." He shivered. "And it's Stoner said into his helmet microphone. open?" cold in here. Colder than outside. How can "The metal's become transparent." "Yes. I'm going inside." that be?"

RfflSfMfltli

9B OMNI "What do you see?" Stoner turned to the elevated bier and the- crealure resting on it. He took a step fKeep a coupled Id ones on tap toward it, then stopped. The curved walls of the compartment Bacarcli tonic. were starting to glow. Not like molten metal but like the soft radiance of a moonlit sky As Stoner watched, slack-jawed, the hull turned milky-while, then translucent, and finally as clear as glass. "Shtonerl Answer!" Federenko was bel- lowing. "Can you hear me?"

"I can see you, Nikolai," he answered, awed. "The whole damned hull has turned transparent. Just like the hatch did. 1 can see right through it!" A pause. Then Federenko grumbled. "It is One same as always from here. Dark metal. Not transparent." "A one-way window," Stoner mused. "Christ, what'd that be worth to Corning?" "Who?" As he stood beside the bier and looked across the hundred or so metersof vacuum to Soyuz, Stoner giggled. It looked squat and ugly to him now, a primitive artifact from a primitive world. "They have one hell of a grasp on materials sciences, I'll say that for them." "Describe, Shtoner. All is being transmit- ted to base," He swallowed hard and looked down at his gloved hands. They were trembling. "Shtoner, talk." "This whole section of the interior about eight meters long, say, twenty-five feet. Almost the full five meters wide, but only two and a half, three meters high. The ports, your words being broadcast all "Turn up suit heater." floor is solid and opaque. So's the back across Soviet Union, Europe. America., "Right. I'm doing that." The miniaturized wall of the compartment. But the nose and Asia, many other places." fan in the helmet's collar hummed a bit side walls are perfectly transparent. As if "I'm on live, Nikolai? In Russia?" louder. Federenko hesitated, then replied "In the tendrils of frost cleared from the there weren't any hull there at all. I can see As fifteen right through it." USSR, broadcasl is delayed min- edges of his visor. Stoner saw that there He stepped to the edge of the floor and utes SO censors can make certain nothing was writing on the bier alongside the alien's translu- put his hand out timidly. The gloved fingers harmful is 1 el out." body. And artifacts: a metal cup, a of child's ball, a rod touched the invisible hull; it felt spongy, "And in the: States?" cent sphere the size a giving. "Live, I think." of something that looked like wood. He'

"Hull's still there, though. Hasn't van- "I'd belter watch my language." tried to pick up the rod, but i! stuck fast to ished completely, the way the hatch did, -ederenko saic- no'.h --.c the surface of the bier. Ashe described it all alien. his tried to dislodge And it's very cold in here, as if energy can Stoner lurned back to the "Arms into microphone, he go out through the hull, but none can get are longer than ours. The hands' have only the other objects. None of them would into it." two fingers each and the ends of the fingers move.

Turning back to the alien, Stoner took a look like suction cups— suckers, like on an "This is a sarcophagus. Nikolai. A tomb, I long look in the dim starlight, Then he re- octopus." know it is. This guy died a million years ago membered the lamp hooked to his belt and "The head? The face?"' and had his body sent into space— like an himself sent out turned it on, "Seems to have two eyes, but they're Egyptian pharaoh. He had

He leaned over the alien's body. It was closed. I don't see a nose of any sort, but in a sarcophagus." very long, but extremely thin, emaciated, there's a mouth— lips at least. Wide and "But why?" desiccated. thin." Stoner couldn't bring himself to touch "As an ambassador!" The answer 'hit "He's more than two meters tall, I'd say. the creature, although he badly wanted to Stoner's conscious mind as he pro- No clothing, Very slim, plenty of ribs show- see what was behind those lips, those nounced the words. "Of course! As an ing. Body's covered with some- kind of closed eyeiids. "Same kind of nappy fur ambassador! What better way to make orange-brown fuzz. Not hair, really. Loo.ks covers the whole face, even the eyelids. contact with unknown intelligent races more like a nap on velvet. Almost." The head is rounded, large-domed, and scattered across many thousands.of light-

it." "The figure is human?" Federenko very smooth. I don't see what he could have years? That's asked. breathed with." "Ambassador^"

"Sort of. Two arms, one head. Torso's "Is ft breathing?' "Yes!" Stoner knew he was right. "He's

I fee! I to much longer than ours . . . legs start where "No," Stoner said. "He's dead. can saying to us, 'Here, want you to see me, our knees would be. And there are four of it. There's no atmosphere in here. This know that I exist, my civilization exists. You 'em, four legs. Little knobby ones with chamber's been in vacuum for millennia. aren't alone.in the universe. Take my body. round, hooflike pads at the ends." It's cold, too. Frost is' beginning to form on Study it; study the artifacts I've brought "Wait ..." Federenko said. "Base re- my visor." along with me. Study my ship. Learn from

99 " .

me.' What better way io share knowledge? He was starting to babble, and he knew UGGED? To show that his intent is totally peaceful. it, but his hands clicked away with the benign?" camera while he chattered on; "We havB The007 Federenko was silent, thinking. nothing io fear! This isn't the end of our S toner went back to his description. world. It's just the beginning! Do you realize IONIC "He's got a jaw that looks like it hinges the What that means? Intelligent civilizations same way our own jaws do. No ears, but don't wipe themselves out with wars or pol- BRIEFCASE there are a couple of circular patches on lution or overpopulation — not always, not. the sides of his head. They look almost like inevitably. We have a future ahead of us as

outcroppings of bone. They're not horns, wide and bright as the stars themselves, if flat. though. They're Perhaps sense organs we strive for it, if we work together, all of of some kind." us— the whole human race as a species, "What sexual organs?" Federenko as one. family unit in the great interstellar asked. Then he added, "Biologists to want community of intelligent c vi.izations . . . know. "No sign of other life forms here," Stoner Stoner grinned. "They would. Nothing continued, his throat rasping. "No plants or visible in the usual place, but there's some seeds or other animals. Maybe they're in kind of protuberance halfway down his one of the other compartments of the torso. And his fuzz is a slightly different spacecraft. color around there, more yellowish." "I've tried to get into the rest of the ship, "Wait," Federenko said. "We are getting a but it's no go. Just a smooth, blank wall that

transmission from ground control." won't open up. It's going to take a lot of Stoner walked around (he raised plat- study to figure out how they work their en- form, bobbing in the zero gravity as his trances and exits. bools clung slightly to the spongy flooring. "The biggest discovery among the ar-

There were more artifacts on the alien's tifacts, I think, is this star chart. At least I other side. straightedge, A a square cov- think it's a star chart. I don't recognize any

ered with dots that were connected by thin of the constellations, but there's writing on it lines. astronomical An . map? he wondered. . . looks like writing, a lot of circles and This ark is a damned treasure bouse; it curlicues."

looks tike he's brought his whole civilization Federenko's heavy voice broke in- with him. "Shtoner, we have new trajectory data. Federenko's voice interrupted his mus- Tanker is being sent to meet us. We must ings. "Switch to frequency two, Shtoner." retrofire in eleven minutes." Stoner clicked the suit-radio switch on "Eleven minutes?" Stoner's heart his wrist, and the Russian's voice said, stopped in his chest. His voice nearly "Shtoner, this frequency is for private talk. cracked Not for broadcast." "Ten minutes, forty-eight seconds, to be "Okay" exact." "Ground command is working out new Stoner's gaze flashed to the alien resting course for us, to get us back. New tanker is on his bier. He's spent thousands of years being launched." to get here, and I have to leave in ten fuck- "I knew they'd figure something out," ing minutes? Stoner said. "No," he protested. "We need more time. ." will fire retro "We rockets to break present We can't . . course. Very soon." "No more time," Federenko said flatly.

A tingle of alarm went through Stoner. "Come back to Soyuz now. There is no other "How soon?" way."

it. "Computers working on But you must "Nikolai. I can't! Not yet!"

be ready to return to Soyuz when I give "Now. Shtoner." command." Stoner looked through the transparent "Sure," Stoner replied. hull of the sarcophagus, toward the distant "Photograph everything now," Fe- stars. Then at the shrunken Earth, so far derenko said. "Time is short." away and finally at the stubby Soyuz, wait- "Yeah, okay. I'm switching back to fre- ing for him ."

I quency now. want . one everybody to hear "Nikolai, please . what I've got to say." "We must go. Shtoner. Or die here." Federenko grunted, "Base estimates Stoner's lips were dry and cracked. He more than one billion people hear your felt the chill of death breathe on him, and he voice." turned to stare once again at the alien. All Good, Stoner thought. Wow they'll know. the distance you've come, to offer us your Unhooking the bulky thirty-five-millime- body, your knowledge, everything that you ter stereo camera from its case at his belt, are and that you represent. So much to said for Stoner broadcast: "I think it's clear learn from you . . now that this alien has come in peace. He's "Shtoner." offering us his body and his treasured pos- "No." he said quietly. "I'm not going sessions, giving them to us, for us to study. back with you, Nikolai." He's telling us that we have nothing to fear, "Shtoner ..." that there are other intelligent races scat- "I'm going to stay here, with him. Maybe tered among the stars. We're not alone. The in another few million years some other universe is filled with life, and it's civilized, civilization will find the two of us." intelligent life." And he turned off his suit radio. DO fact that the seal coruiruiunjicMTiDrus 1981]; It is an unfortunate, hunt as a managed harves: has been going Let your eyes on for hundreds of years, but we find it while cost estimates available last year ac- grossly irrelevant when the numerous in- walk on the past mil- tually show a $70 billion price lag. humane actsof mankind over The Air Force has chosen to place this lennium are taken into account. Time has the moon. iniquity. system in an area not likely to generate never condoned ecologists public inquiry. Utah and Nevada lack the Nijhuis also states that most un- population, and thus the political clout, to are "city dwellers" and therefore lack wiiderness. influence the Department of Defense. This derstanding of survival in the Be friends from this that ecoac- fact, coupled with the vast tracts of feder- He cannot conclude illegitimate. ally owned land (nearly 90 percent of tivists' concerns are with a Karen and Becky Mendenhall Nevada), will ensure the deployment of this technologically obsolete system. Evans, Colo. rabbit. Spinrad's thrust seems to be one of sat- Photo ire; however, with more extensive re- Phenomenal search, he might not have found the tacts Paul D. Lewis snapped a superlative pho- so funny, tograph of the clouds crossing Ohio's night

Mark Meiser sky [Phenomena, May 1981]. I tried Jerry Reno, Nev. Andrus's spiral hypnodisc. and it really did create a swirling, boiling image. Solar Sisters and Brothers Sherri Patterson Akron. Ohio Interested as I was in solar energy, I was angered by Patricia Seremet's report on Sense the Women in Solar Energy's conference Media's Uncommon analysis of held at the University ot Massachusetts- at It might be said that Jeff Rovin's Amherst [Earth, April 1981]. antinuclear cults is a mite florid [Rim, No- However. Cynthia Albert's The Issue at hand is solar power, not vember 1980], sexual power! We need knowledge and February rebuttal is illustrative of the -hy- experience from men and women alike, perbole that characterizes the output of collectively increasing our understanding these "well-informed, practical people." nuclear-related news items in- of the subject. My file of B. Sherman cludes numerous accounis of antinuclear Kenneth When you are observing events a South Berlin, Mass. activities- Thus far the no-nuke movement lot closer to home than the nearest demonstrated very little io warrant its has galaxy, you need a different kind Albert's opinion Ecofighters glowing self-analyses. Ms. of telescope. But you still need observers. One letter in Communications [May 1981] is not Shared by objective great optic;; So for terrestrial view- has me hopping mad. My conclusion is that the media are ing—bird-watebing, wildlife study, armchair Living in the decaying suburbs of India- peculiarly averse to the positive aspects of hunting, sports events, nuclear power, preferring to present.an al- mountain-climbing — your ideal napolis, apparently I can appreciate better is Unitron's portable than Tony Nijhuis, of Nelson, British Co- most exclusively negative viewpoint. If nu- companion spotting scope. Its large aperture- lumbia, Canada, what wilderness and clear power is to be a vital contributor to our gives you excellent visibility in dim wildlife, are left on this planet. The wildest energy scenario, the media should present light, even for seeking comets and seen around here is a flat skunk a balanced mixture of information. thing I've exploring the moon. it isn't common sense to burn a on the interstate-highway. Since The Unitron 80mm spotting is boil a pan of water, it is ironic that The phrase managed harvest a forest to scope starts at $106, ready to use. euphemism for government-sponsored the antinudearists' alternative is to "Split gov- wood, not atoms." slaughter. I hear that the Canadian UNITRPM ernment officially admitted recently that. Bob Renaud many baby seals were being skinned alive. Pittsfield. Mass. As for this harvest's lasting tor hundreds of years, so did slavery. Duration is not a just Intelligent Alien reading Robert Forward's article grounds for continuation. I enjoyed The excuse that seals and man compete "Alien in our Seas" [May 1981] since I'd intelligent, on any significant scale for fish is. a trans- often heard that octopuses are evi- parent ruse, much like the rationalizations but I never knew that there was any Intelligence; trappers use. If the Grand Banks fishermen dence to substantiate such are having trouble finding fish, it's probably The idea that the seabound octopus is easier for a end did puzzle me. from overfishing. But I suppose it's headed dead r inform ati oi a plane! whose surface is 70 percent to blame it on the seals. On spotting sc Trappers and seal hunters do not survive water, living in a wet environment hardly provide a Unitron in the wilderness; they survive oif it parasit- seems like a handicap! The seas free of Instruments, Inc. ically. Being fit in the context of the envi- three-dimensional living space 175 Express Street ronment means being able to live in har- climatic extremes (drought and flooding), 11803 destroying or is abundant. Water, in many Plainview.N.Y. mony with it. 1 1 does not mean and food wasting its resources on frivolous fads. Will ways, is a hospitable habitat.. nor the vogue in 100 years be house-cat coats? The octopus is not limited by its gills, Susan Ruthroff are we limited by our lungs. Life fills all Indianapolis, Ind. niches, and intelligence is not restricted to just one species or one environment. Palter In response to the letter by Tony Nijhuis Linda regarding "Ecofig titers" [Earth, February Islip, N.Y.OO Remarkable new devices — such as jet surfboards, iwuons portable bikes, arid personal stereos — transform summer doldrums into futuristic modes of exploration

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We stared at it. Motherhood must be buckle.

It slow, but I like may have been was fasci- something this. The tiny scraps of junk "Oliver." I said, "what's that funny rasp- nated. Oliver is a skillful engineer, and metal went "tinklc-tinkle-i:.nkle." Oliver had ing noise?" We listened. Besides the rasp-

OGRE was functioning smoothly, as far as I a sloppy smile on his face. "Oh, look," I ing, there were faint clanks and clicks, and could tell. Already a kind.of chassis had said. "It's feeding." We looked at each hums, and behind them all a persistent been assembled, and as it began to de- other, and we both burst out laughing. background whine, like a tethered swarm scend the helix, it acquired extra parts. "You'll be checking it for colic next," he of mosquitoes. The junk metal dropping into the hopper said. "Wake up, man, it's just a machine! "It's coming from OGRE," he said. He did kick up a bit of a racket, though. I've got a better idea than just standing bent down to take a closer look. "Get me a

I rearranged all my work schedules to around here!" magnifying glass!" keep me in the Bristol area for the next few "Oh?" "Where?" days, but my mind was only half on the job. "The Carpenter's Arms; Portishead. at "Look in the filing cabinet, under 'M'!" I

Every spare I spenf over moment in Men- Prawn cocktails and jugged hare." found it and passed it to him. He hitched up derby, seeing how OGRE was progressing. "Mmm, Sauteed potatoes, asparagus his trousers, squatted on his haunches,

And the more- 1 watched it, the more the tips, and sour cream!" and peered through it at the wreckage. I clanking of metallic scrap came to resem- "Black cherries in Kirsch!" have seldom seen anything looking less ble the cheerful chinking of coin. It really "Champagne!" like Sherlock Holmes. looked as if Oliver had tapped the mother We left hurriedly. "Oh, my God!" he said. "Look!" lode this time. I did. On [he evening of the third day a minia- We arrived home in a taxi, well after mid- The OGRE matriarch was crawling with ture OGRE about a foot long duly rolled off night, as plastered as the ceiling of the sub-sub-sub-etcetera-OGREs, like a rotten the ramp at the end of the assembly line. It Sistine Chapel, We. didn't look into the cheese afflicted with mites. They were whirred the floor across and began fo basement at Decal Labs until midmorning dismantling it. Cockroach-sized OGREIets rummage happily around in one of the the next day. when Oily drove us over. were hacking Mama to pieces with teeny- smaller bins. Within a quarter of an hour a OGRE was a total wreck. weeny chain saw's on retractable arms, sub-sub-OGRE had begun its spiral de- At first we thought that someone had gouging chunks out of her plating with their scent. it. vandalized Then I suggested to Oliver little laser cutters, and stripping the insulat-

Suddenly I truly believed: not it just an intel- that had perhaps fallen to bits of its own ing plastic off her wiring to melt it down for lectual acceptance, but a warm glow in the accord, and he lost his temper. Only when their own use. And as they pursued their gut. It was overwhelming. "My God, Oliver! he felt something scamper up his leg did gruesome task, even tinier OGREIets at that thing! Look It's building inch-long he stop shouting at me. He thought it was a swarmed over them, sawing and rasping robots\" spider and he hates spiders. and hacking so fast that all you could see was a blur. The larger OGREs were trying frantically to repair themselves, and I saw several of them sweeping up piles of the smaller pnes with devices resembling dustpans and pouring them into their own ANNUAL hoppers. It wasn't doing them much goo.d; The little OGREs were eating the hoppers SCIENCE faster than the big ones could digest them. It was a jungle in there.

It looked as if nothing could possibly sur- CONVENTION vive. But the smaller OGREs reproduced so much faster that they had a considerable advantage. Their numbers were obviously increasing.

I handed the magnifying glass back. Its metal rim was dull and pitted: They'd started on that.

"I don't understand," said Oliver. "There ought to be only one machine in each gen- ." I eration. wonder whether. . Suddenly he thrust his hand into the wreckage and began groping around. "It should be—

gerrrofff! Yes, here it is." He extracted a

magnetic card, mostly intact, although it

looked as if mice had been' at it around the edges. "They don't need much plastic, fortunately." he said. He shoved the card into his terminal and switched on. There was a shower of sparks, and the eW=oi§ terminal collapsed. They'd started to &QM scavenge that, too.

There were many more terminals in the Decal labs, and we tried one three floors

up. It worked. Presumably the OGREs "It's a fact that people will eat hotdogs no matter whal you put in them. Which brings hadn't yet moved that far afield. Oliver ran me to my idea for disposing of nuclear waste " through the program listings and soon

found his mistake. "Damn! I mispunched "

" the card for OGRE's fertility factor." "Which does what?" Imagination has "Controls the ratio of numbers in suc-

cessive generations. It should have been at set at 1 , 10 keep just one machine each extra zero on stage. I seem to have put an just become reality the end." "You loon."

"Well, it was only a little mistake." "'Surely. But as a result, we get (en limes as many OGREs at each stage?" "Yes."

1 "Oliver, you've got a population explosion on your hands. Lord knows how much damage these things will do!" "Now don't get upset. It isn't as bad as at mac- I you think. I put in a stop code rbmolecular size, remember? OnGS they reach that generation, they stop reproducing and switch off. They die out, Thextam- age area shouldn't be too big." "Oh. Wait aminute. though. Shouldn't we have reached that stage by now? What's geometric pro- i the formula for summing a gression?" PS "You've forcoLien torag nu time. That's a

limiting factor, and it's random. It will slow them down a bit. We just have to wait. We waited. We made occasional forays

I down the stairs. The activity continued un-

abated. In fact, it seemed to grow. Finally I suggested we take another look at the program. Oliver had oeen Lisng a high-level language that accepts commands in < Anglish — Analog-English— and, instead

of telling it to stop reproducing, he'd told it reducing. and to stop Emerald, Ruby

"You know what you've built?" I said- He groaned. "A rapid-breeding artificial virus. One Sapphire Earrings I that eats metal," $ Our first thought was to call the police. 5 a pair I but the- phone didn't work. None of the phones worked. The internal, telephone exchange was in the basement. As part of an advertising program we (limit 3 pair). But if your request is made The car wouldn't start, not suronsrngly will give a pair of genuine emerald, ruby before Oct. 22, you may request up to for something that looks like Stilton cheese. or sapphire earrings to every reader of iwu pair of each (limit 6 pair, any com- So vve cepsrr.sd on foot I: was raining n returns bination). request will be accepted I torrents. this publication who reads and No

Half a mile down the road , the sole of my this printed notice before Midnight, past the dates noted above; your un- eaten the nails. left shoe fell off. They'd Oct. 30, for the sum of S5 plus SI ship- cashed check will be returned if post- Oliver was having trouble with his zip. ping and handling for each pair. There marked later than those dates. "This is terrible!" I exclaimed. is no further monetary requirement. INDICATE QUANTITY DESIRED: "Too right! It hasn't rained- like ttiis [Each pair of stud earrings contains a

"I mean your bloody virus! Communica- total of one quarter carat of genuine tions will fail, machines will break down, precious stones and will be accom- there'll be no transport, TV stations will go panied by a Certificate of Authenticity will boredom! ; off the air. and people die of to that effect.] This advertising notice is Coins will crumble to dust! Plastic cutlery from highway service stations will change being placed simultaneously in other this entire hands for inflated sums! It will bethe End of publications. If you see it in more than HOW TO ORDER: Send Civilization as We Know It." one publication, please let us know, as notice with your name and address "You're overwrought! It's not come to plus SI this information is helpful to us. Should (please print) together with $5 that yet!" | you wish to return your earrings you shipping and handling for each item to: it "No. but it will," I said dismally. "Has address CHHVSTIE&SPRVNGHF., ltd., 3- Earring occurred to you that we're both carriers oi may do so at any time to the 1920, Ihe disease? The virus must be all over our below and receive a full refund. No Program, Dept. 662-9, Box doing (SB4Uioi I clothing, lo judge by the damage it's more than one pair of each per address Greenwich, Connecticut 06830. to it! Where are we going anyway? All we'll " -

do is spread the infection everywhere!" with our necks intact he'll do it." to look like colanders, spraying the clien- Oliver grabbed me by the shoulders. "'Fine. But if what the disease just keeps tele with cold lager. Oily groaned aloud "What else can we do? We have to warn spreading? It really will be the of civili- end at the waste, I suspect. And something hor- people somehow! Now shut up, keep walk- zation, Oily!" rible had happened to the railway lines ing, and let me think!" He looked glumly at his fingernails. "I near Bristol, but they weren't saying whal. know. But there's still hope. Have you Every so often we got an updated report Eventually we managed to hitch a lift into noticed anything?" on the true state of affairs, over the tele- Bristol. I spent the ride waiting for the car to "Like what?" phone. For the first twenty-four hours the fall apart, it but seemed unaffected. I could "Well, for instance, the lights are still epidemic advanced eastward along a nar- only assume that the virus had not in fact working. So was -the phone I when put it row front, until if had affected an area about been carried on our clothing, life but for the down." He switched on the hi-fi. It was tifteen miles long and two broad. We plot- of me I couldn't see how that was possible. working, too. ted its progress on a map, with pins. Itwas The car dropped us at the street corner "So il hasn't reached here yet." heading straight for Swindon, an important near Oliver's flat. The door key was a bit "No, but we have. Something killed .off railway junction, a center for heavy industry mangled, but it held together enough to let the OGRE virus particles on our clothes. I with a population of one hundred thou- us in. Oliver headed for the telephone.. noticed on the way here that the corrosion sand. So far il had passed only through Half an hour later he put it down. "Oof] I seemed to I have stopped. I only wish knew rural areas, but this would be orders ot don't want to have to go through anything wny!" magnitude worse. like that again!" Then the wind" changed, and it turned "What did you do?" Oily and I did as we'd been told. We slightly northward, just enough to "miss "I called the managing director ot Decal stayed put. And wehave never felt so use- Swindon. But any relief we felt was short- Electronics and put the position to him. less in our lives. We drank coffee and lived. Thirty miles along the Thames Valley, He's agreed to inform the authorities that played records and kept an eye on the TV right in its path, was Oxford. there has been a sudden and inexplicable for new all bulletins, the time half-expecling Oxford isn't just dreaming spires and incidence of rapid corrosion in the vicinity the percolator to surfer a meltdown and the ivory towers. In addition to the university, of North Bristol, resembling an epidemic. hi-fi and TV to go on the blink. Oxford has motor works, steel works, and Cause as yelunknown." It was an eye-opening experience for printing presses. OGRE was going to make "But—" anyone with a lond belie! in the openness an awful mess of those. "But we can reveal the cause only by of British government The world was about The advancing front had narrowed admitting it is all our fault, and neither you to grind to a halt, and there was not one again, fo less than a mile. There were fewer nor I nor Decal Labs would want that. Nor word, on TVor radio, to let the public know. damage reports coming in, but it's a very does it do any harm, because Decal will There were a few hints, though. Like an rural area, and so it was hard to tell whether spearhead the investigation. item about a pub in Lennard's Green (just that was significant. "I know the managing director. He's a down the road from Menderby) whosebeer We'waited. It was torture. tough bird. If it's possible to get out of this kegs had suddenly decided they preferred The phone rang. Oily beat me tq it by a nose. He didn't say anything; he just stood there with a funny lodk'on his face, shaking his head slowly from side to side. It didn't look very encouraging. He put the telephone down. He looked stunned. "Don't tell me." I said. "Oxford is in ruins. The British Leyland plant at Cowley is a scrap heap. All the university computers EP McGEE are wrecked, and they're suing Decal for every penny they've — ' A 8RILLIAW "No," he said. "Not yet anyway. Oxford hasn't suffered any damage yet. The plague seems THB SYSTEMS to have stopped spreading, somewhere, between Bampton and King- ston Bagpuize." "Why? Has the wind dropped?"

' it's WALL sritSET J6U&&IL "No, blowing a gale. I just don't understand it."

"Perhaps it's voodoo." "Eh?"

I waved vaguely toward the map. "All

those pins we've stuck into it have killed it." The area of active inteclion began to shrink. Within forty-eight hours reports had ceased altogether.

Something had wiped out Oliver's artificial virus. But we still had no idea what had

really happened, or even whether it would stay wiped out. Oliver was whisked oft to Decal's Manchester branch to assist the inquiries, and I was patted on the head and

sent home. I drove back to Coventry with fingers my crossed, and I took a detour -***&&£ east of Oxford, just in case.

There was never even the barest hint of a BUY BACK

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whisper in the news-napeis col a p-.jsf-.ycai. plagueTrOm taking- over the entire globe?" as my father used to say. but from various Cneap Hong Kcng copies!' he hissed. from the corner oi his :_'" "I'll have a malt whisky. A treble." sources I pieccc together a fair picture. The plsrjue oi Ihe melal eaters had con- "Come again?" the end of Oliver's metal- fined itself to a region Pf some fifty square "Those, and our worthy British climate."' So that was should've miles, largely open fields, and most of the "Stop oeirg obsc-.."e eating virus. It rusted away. We known; bodywork always goes first. earn ace- vas superficial. It had died out "Very well. It was rust." The before anything really serious happened. -Rust?" So rtseerfis. Oliver left. I've never been "he new"; papers knew something odd "Exactly, It's a good job you're such a Bui since r.ui'.e You viruses can mu- had occurred, of course. But they'd been skinflint, only prepared to invest a pittance :ei-vincee see of the nth-generation fed some tale about national security, and in my sound' business ventures. The pro- tate-. Suppose one 1" built the government had siapped a "D" notice totype OGRE was made of cheap steel. Not OGRF; -reacts own program and its offspring out of gold,, or platinum, or on the story, So they had shut up. (There is too many generations down, the compo- steel? one learned to no press censorship in Great Britain. There nents got so small that they rusted away slainless Or suppose the rust killed'off the are- merely so™es:ories that the papers are faster than new ones got built." copy anything. When

ii vvould leave a few members of a not permitted to print.) "I said your inability to scale the molecu- p'sgue. ir touch lar structure would cause trouble! It's pre- rust- resistant strain. By the time I managed to got It time for their numbers to with Oliver again, things were pretty much cious hare to make a iayerof paint lessthan would take especially if they required back to normal, but he looked distinctly one molecule thick. And that's the last time build up agam. scarce materials or were iranped '-1 an un- subdued, even a shade thinner than his I'll invest a penny in one of your 'sound' " business ventures, ungrateful — su "able environment ike an overeoa; usual degree of rotundity, and I told him so. you instance. There could be tiny hold there! I exactly pocket, for "I'm surprised you aren't in jail." I ad dec. "Oh, on know what went v^rong! You have to expect a few reservoirs of infection remaining, ready to "So am I. But the thing that stopped the conditions cer-ame lioh". plague s.so destroyed the evidence. It's teethingtroubles! Wecan have another go fere up when the omnivorous OGRE; Tha- would be been officially classified as a 'natural disas- now, using Japanese equipment in stain- And an " .. oh. truly fearful device, ter.' Of course, Decal Labs chaired the less steel casings His voice railed a probably worrying needlessly. committee that made the final report, That "Never! Oliver Boswell Gurney. I refuse!" I'm

If only Oliver hadn't gone to Paris, the may have had something to do with it." "Oh, perhaps you 're rig hi. O.GRE had too would never have entered my head. I idea "hey sar.Ktsd you. of course I think many bugs." "" see. there was a report on television might be ab;e -.0 wangle you a job in — "You can say that again!" You- "Eh? 'Good Lord, no! Decal got a huge "Anyway Decal Labs is send ng me off to this evening. Eiffel just fell dawn, contract for reconstruction work!" Paris for a few months-. To recuperate. The Tower authorities have attributed it "There just ain't no-such thing as justice Probably Ihe real reason is to get me out- of The French bit, 10 metal fatigue-. in this cruel world no more. Oliver, please, the country. Thus I won'l see you for a

- I they're right.DO pint before I hope, the suspense is ageny. Wria . dia stop the Can I buy you .a go?" 107 HE HAS INNER VISION UFOs ARE COMING LARGE LION

can travel Ihrough the vacuum of space constantly with this incredible only at the speed of light; they cannot ever new Electronic UFO Detector. decelerate. About 1,000 years after the Big Bang, neutrinos would be moving slowly enough to be trapped in the gravitational field created by their own rest mass an.d would break up into flat clumps, eventually measuring 60 million light-years across; By the time protons, neutrons, and electrons formed, they would be caught in the gravitational field already set up by the neutrinos and would settle down along the cluster shapes created by the neutrinos. Astronomers have not been certain until now about how matter managed to collect ».-mis* into galactic clusters. Apparently the Big Bang sent out matter and energy evenly in TheUFQLARM Electronic UFO Detector all directions. The preliminary clumping of The Ancients called it in Che Earth's magnetic field. These disturbances neutrinos, which can happen only if neutri- i for all < nos have mass, may supply an answer. The COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS mass of the neutrino may explain the size a field and shape of galactic clusters. The gravita- There are no physical limita-

tional field of the neutrino skeleton would tions to inner vision . . . the trigger the UFOLARM's piercing electron!' supply the additional gravity needed to ex- psychic faculties of man know buzzer from 40 - 50 Km. away. Yet thi- plain the cluster holds barriers of space or time. remarkable device isn't confused by convention; why together. no A aircraft! One final point. Scientists have been try- world of marvelous phenomena ing to detect neutrinos radiating outward your Within Attractive Conversation Piece awaits command. from the sun. However, astronomers can the natural — but unused — Assembled in a 29 cm. * 5 cm. diameter clea detect at most only one third the number functions of your mind are dor- butyrate cylinder, the UFOLARM's slee: thaUheory suggests exist. There appears mant powers which can bring styling will enhance any decor. An excellent gif to explanation. idea, the UFOLARM is guaranteed ti be no easy about a transformation of your If neutrinos have mass, then different life. Exclusive to OMNI Readers kinds of neutrinos— three kinds are known Know the mysterious world now— may be moving back and forth. within you and learn the secrets Our objective in advertising in this prestii The devices used for finding neutrinos of a full and peaceful life! l this can kind. product as widely as possible. In sdi discover only one The assump- The Rosicrucians (not a reli- incredibly low price of S1 0.00, if you act promptly tion has been that only that one kind is gion) are an age-old brother- you will receive an Unidentified Phenomena produced by the sun and only that one kind hood of learning. For centuries Questionnaire. This handy booklet of Questions reaches us across the space between the and Illustrations will help you make an abjective they have shown men and aswjvne": in strange phenomena. sun and ourselves. women how to utilize the full-

Still, even if only one kind is produced, Bonus Offer ness of their being. This is an that one kind, in its voyage across space age of daring adventure . . . but between Earth and the sun, will oscillate the greatest of all is the ex- into other, undetectable varieties. Only a ploration of self. Determine fraction will, at any one moment, be In a refund. But keep t' your purpose, function and detectable form. This would explain why powers as a human being. we detect fewer neutrinos than we had Write for your FREE copy thought ought we to under the old neutri- of "The Mastery of Life" — nos-have-no-mass axiom. LISTEN FOR LIFE Today! No obligation. No sales- If neutrinos have a very small rest mass, men. A nonprofit organization. then the universe would be closed, and Address: Scribe BGP TUCKER SCIENTIFIC that explains the Big Bang. It would explain ept. 3A, 4031 Sucia Drive, how the matter of the universe settled out Ferndale, WA. 38248 The into galactic clusters; why the galaclic ROSICRUCIANS «c> Please send me UFOLARMte) & £10.00 e; San Jose, California 95191 U.S.A. clusters are the size and shape they are; how the galactic clusters hold together; SEND THIS COUPON 1 Name and finally why the sun seems to be short of - Scribe BGP neutrinos. The KOSICHUCIANS (AMORC) Address San Jose, California 95191 U.S.A. To be sure, the experiments that seem to City Slat show neutrinos have mass may yet be Please send me the free book, The Mas- „,„ V Order '""» tery ife, I of L which explains how may found to be false alarms and neutrinos may QVISAIB Etpire learn to use my faculties and powers of be forced to return to their status as mass-

Account # I I I I Mill less particles. If that proves to be so, what a shame! Their mass would explain so much; their masslessness would mystify. Don't leave, little mouse! Don't go! The lion needs you! DO 108 OMNI .

INFINITE- LIMIT rx 3"+7x'-4" *A METHOD:

3 EMRTH It looks HARD with that x term CGNNMJEC FRCP/ PA^ . I but it's EASY to get x = . 547928287 your calculator with my iW BUCS. wildlife. So far, 1 .25 million acres has been on % pledged by landowners nationwide. Hawk • QUICK • EASY • GUARANTEED maintains that 80 percent of the wild ani- INTRIGUED BY CALCULATORS:!"!"

I Yore- i!r him mals already feed upon private land and, "- as his example shows, marginal land can CAl.:.ii:

;: ' ,;..;/ ' ; ':";''' : --;!' be used without cutting farm production. ',', '::'::',: :! <-.„:,;•.'. The beauty of the idea is that the land- owner maintains control of his own land Fnr :!,:,

;,-,!! and, if all goes well, will receive tax breaks. ?v:;:: v,™ . To;. 1 .J.-.T Wildlife, Hawk asserts, is a resource worth

. CALCULUS' :'::- CALCUIJiTOK cultivating, like corn, wheat, or cattle', :.n!v Farmers have been reluctant to make — all designed to wildlife for their land available to two rea- THIS. Get my c : on your ralojfalor! I WANT YOU TO TRY (-; Stu. sons. First, their property will attract ,,;.;- ,Yr( ,v[ih d ;l-.35 ; k-.]ldior. a 200 n. M.-nh Uook. A'-.T.' ;h» ijmdc bo ,:.. ,'i,M. i.'AA tourists, and, instead of tending to busi- :o USA V AiK: J

«.': .' to patrol the area. i:- AIK ness, they would have Calii.ac I $2. 40 ;nv Fori jr. Second, farmers fear that when land wildlife, the government abounds with I ;< .:>,'. Ol k:rr.!i;n: :-.:J,.ifi iori-l-.ipphm, I'- in O.I.I :=.!:( "Cl '..!>::. A^-timviv.i-o buys it and takes it out of production.

talking to landowners, Hawk, tries ,i When ,.'...... : ;\i\\ - ...... : | , D NOW to dissuade them from claiming that wildlife IV, dr-;:..;. :.!: ior n^le^,-.,,,.

-.:.' -"..-.:.: : ' i;i;ii< V: !.AiT> Hi! i r :! -o.-.v competes with crops and livestock. He LOOK AT W McChmcy. };.. ol them how healthy wildlife is an asset shows TAI.CUI-ATGX life. What to the community; Life breeds urnrs I I'lm-e been i tell is all have to Ihmugh my JiEUif. Hyde is trying to us that we Tinjnk >:-., fiijf u'id! i hiid ;.iow i-rT'-- :':,<: .- s:;a(!!i' -Jn-sr -^lutt

is fit in. 1 do to reap a fuller harvest ! , -;, -.:: ^-J-rijIr !kr the L-ni'.-fi.'iis :i i!s'ji. !ii'fi. ;. -$*^-&t?£~f- ,...., ... „.. :- On Hawk's ranch, some 25 percent of in.-, ..„,( . . :.: do. Willi :-_.,-.::./' :,::dci::,ii,:iii.:.- • been converted back to wet- '. !('.:. the land has ...... ,.,,„." :,- r_- land marshes, the way it used to be be- rX,"i;;:r\\"F [e^iteaerai&wprab- M-'irf'fr _" ;hrh.l / f ™? L-.i-M 5!-ssi'i( k:^; :t~.::ea fore his uncle drained it to make hayfields. The groundwater there is cold and the climate is harsh. In summer there is frost. I tithe past Yamsi and other ranches in the area had been plagued with grasshoppers and OMNI PRESENTS mice. But because of Hawk's ecosystem, THE ONLY BALL POINT his beef production is up 50 percent. The standing water in his marshes, PEN THAT EVER heated by the sun, acts as a reservoir of WENT TO THE MOON. heat and has actually moderated the climate. Water for irrigation is warmer. So is the air. and there is less summer frost, which helps the grass to grow, The wild _ ^:^ : _ animals come into the mafshes to prey upon the pests. "The coyote is as useful a tool as a shovel or a pickup," Hawk says. "He's a rodent catcher. You see, our idea of coyote man- agement is to keep them well fed. In fifty i that writes in years we've never lost a calf to a coyote," blazing heat Dayton 0. Hyde is on the road now, talking to ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and timber producers around the country, trying to sell thein and the government the idea of the Wildlife Stronghold. But it's not a tough sale to anyone who has seen thai lake and walked along its shore with Hawk, an old yellow dog, and a wolf. rluolly etrmmated, "When you get out there in a canoe and won't dry out in 100 years Rush mo your tree catalog! the moon comes up over Calimus Moun- icondifianally tain, there is a golden path between you and the moon. Then the wolf howls and fills this whole earth with that mournful music- ot his, and you know why you've done all these things. When my time finally comes, I Clip And Mall Coupon Today To: hope to have the guts to go out there in the Edmund Scientific Co., Depl. 301 6. ki -„;.".";;. RC Bex :;5,0.E'K middle of the lake in a canoe and quietly tip Edscorp Bldg, Barrington. N,J. 0800 over. Until then I'm going to fight every day for wildlr .'DO Miranda, the innermost Uranian moon nian and Jovian moons, and whether it Voyager will 2 journey within 16,000 kilome- possesses an atmosphere. ters.of the small CONTINUED FROM P/ moon— closer than the After the Neptune rendezvous, Voyager Voyager 7 flyby of the Jovian moon lo in ""100.000 2, like its twin, will leave the solar system, at kilometers from Saturn's upper March 1979. We know very little about just over 16 kilometers per second. atmosphere. During the flyby, Voyager At this 2 Miranda. Will it be primarily an icy moon, or speed. 358 millennia will before will measure the gas. giant's atmosphere pass the will .it contain a mixture of ice and rock? robot will fly within one light-year and rings with a photopolarimeter, the of Sirius. only Since a gravity-assisted flight science path to the brightest star in the heavens. instrument on Voyager 1 that Pluto would require Voyager 2 to fly virtu- failed. Science It is regrettable that Voyager 2'$ pictures instruments are net redun- ally through the center of Neptune, a ren- of Saturn dant on the Voyager will be followed by the longest dry spacecraft, whereas dezvous with Pluto will not be possible. spell since space exploration most other components are. began more Consequently, a large range of tlight-path Unlike Voyager than 20 years ago, No planned deep- T.whicbwill escape from possibilities at Neptune are open and will- space missions have launch dates before the Solar system and have no further enable Voyager 2— if it survives another 1985. planetary There has been too little money for encounters. Voyager 2 will use eight years- to accomplish many more maintaining Saturn's gravity a strong program of un- to propel' it on to Uranus scientific objectives. manned planetary exploration. arriving on January 24. 1986. One remark- By arriving at Neptune on August 24, able characteristic One space probe that deserves funding of Uranus is its tilted 1989. and diving over its north pole, at only is the Halley Intercept spin axis, which causes the planet Mission. This will to lie 7,500 kilometers from the cloud tops nearly give us our only chance to look at the comet on its side for its 84-year trip around Voyager 2 will be positioned for a close for the the sun. When Voyager next 76 years. When Halley's Comet 2 arrives at.Uranus, encounter with Triton — Neptune's largest returns in 1986, the Europeans, sunlight will, bathe only the northern hemi- the Rus- satellite- five hours later. This unique tra- sians, and the Japanese will have sphere. The southern hemisphere remains space- jectory, designed to fly through the earth craft ready to meet it. Of the completely dark. Even so, the spacecraft's technological and sun occultation zones of both Neptune powers, flight path only the United States may plan to permits good coverage of and Triton, provides the Robin Hoods of watch from afar. Uranus, its necklace When will Congress of nine narrow rings, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasa- realize the United Slates has and all five of its presently much to gain known moons. dena. California, azesty challenge to prove by participating in the Halley's Comet mis- "During this flyby Voyager 2 will uncover their bowmanship at a target range of 4.5 sion? Using sensors to scan the dirty more information about the ring formations billion kilometers. The Triton flyby distance snowball of Uranus; some astronomers nucleus, we could search for think, the of 44,000 kilometers can be reduced by clues to the composition of the early formations may be the result of small solar flying closer to Neptune. system and shepherding moonlets. perhaps to the origin .of life The closer Voyager 2 swings by Nep- itself. Many Americans profess to In a final display of cosmic believe in billiards. Voy- tune, the more its path will curve, allowing it the of value human growth and evolution. If ager 2 will proceed to Neptune. Since this to pass closer to Triton. We want to find out that is so, then we must also believe in flight path by Uranus is near the the orbit of whether huge Triton resembles the Satur- value of exploring this small corner. DO

br Soup £*m MRF A>f

gjfeii-: &h&J$BsMMii films won him a pair of Oscars. The Critic reliable framework for his mordant satire. FILM was honored as the best animated short "I had a bit of a nervous breakdown after subject of 1963, and The Producers (1968) my previous picture, High Anxiety. Mot so CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 won for its brutally funny screenplay about you'd notice, because I'm having break- entGftainmerit medium, his a ruthless theatrical he has reached mogul. A subsequent downs all the time. But I discovered that a widest audience as a wriler, actor, director. Brooks film, Blazing Saddles (1974), be- modern setting was too confining for my and lyricist for motion. pictures: filmgoers came one of the top-grossing motion pic- nuttiness. Wow we all know; so there's very around the world spent a quarter billion tures of all time, rarefied company it shares little stretch. You can take great liberties dollars to his first half-dozen with his see movies. Young Frankenstein , released the with the past, because it's all open to in-

The comedian's latest production is A His- following year terpretation, and with the future, because it tory of the World, Part One, which has the A History of the World, Part One is un- has yet to happen. potential to be his greatest monetary suc- questionably Brooks's most satirical mo- "By the same token I didn't want to stay cess, although the critics have given it tion picture. ("No," a he states, "there isn't with just one period, as I did with the Rus- lukewarm reception. It is also the film that going to be a Part Two. I did that just so I sian Revolution in The Twelve Chairs, or gives Brooks's sensibilities their comic could end the movie with some crazy com- then in Blazing Saddles .So I decided to do broadest canvas, embracing events from ing attractions.") The picture is also some- something like Intolerance, D. W. Griffith's as early as the Dawn of Man to the coloniza- thing of an experiment: the first film Brooks episodic condemnation of hatred. Intoler- tion of space. has constructed around a theme rather ance was made in 1916, and it's a very long

A movie fanatic with a particular passion than around a plot. and somber movie, not only because it's tor the Marx Brothers, Brooks inevitably "The oil shortage was very catalytic in my about Babylon and the advent of Christian- turned his talents to motion pictures. Me decision to make a movie like this. There's a ity and Renaissance France and other began his career in vaudeville, working any lot of discontent because the energy situa- periods, but because anyone named job offered to him, from musician 7 to im- tion has accelerated inflation, and inflation David Wark Griffith was meant to make pressionist. He eventually found it more of a has created the downtrodden. Millions of movies like that. You don't give a kid a name challenge to write for the fledgling medium people talk to themselves in their cars be- like Wark and then let him become a of television and did so prolifically, concur- cause they're meshugga trom not being milkman. rently with Carl teaming Reiner to record able to put money away. I think they'll iden- "But I feel you can get rid of people's pain their best-selling series of Two-Thousand- tify with the stricken masses who populate and depression and insecurity more effec-

Year-Old Man albums. (See July's Last the picture and that they'll realize that the tively with humor, dragging it from inside Word for an exclusive interview with the powers-that-be have rarely given a shit them and slapping hard. Despots and very old man.) Brooks's comedic reputa- about the common citizen." bigots can be made more vulnerable, be- tion was further embellished when he The focus of Brooks's view is villainy cause you paint them as the ridiculous fig- created the extremely successful Get through the ages, a massive subject that ures they are, Not only that, but while Wark Smart TV show in the mid-1960s. was necessary not only to make his politi- had to wait until he was dead for history to Remarkably, the novice Brooks's first two cal. points but also to provide a sturdy write him love letters, you know right away

with comedy if you've hit your mark. If

someone tells you, 'That's very interesting, .

that's very good,' you know it stinks. If they spit out their popcorn and roll on the ground, you know you've done the job. You know you're dangerous." BROOKS UNCHAINED

Brooks is dangerous; likewise it is dangerous to be Brooks. He has been re- lentlessly criticized for the brand of comedy that seems to get him the biggest belly

laughs, his allegedly vulgar iconoclasm. It is an approach he uses freely in his new picture to parody some of history's most pivotal or stately historical phenomena, including the Spanish Inquisition, which he's turned into a Busby Berkeley production

number ("What could I do?" he wails.

"When I started writing it, I said to myself, 'It

sings!' "), and Lincoln's emancipation of the slaves. The comedian is also braced for a fresh round of censuring over his impious portrayals of Moses and the waiter at the Last Supper. "People will twist you into a pretzel." he sighs, pulling at fistfuls of imaginary dough. "Somebody'll say, 'Mel, hit 'em

where it hurts!' while somebody else'll say,

'Mel, that's rude and tasteless.' I do what I think is funny and makes the point, then hurl myself on the steps of a synagogue and pray to God that my feelings are correct and that people will celebrate what I've done to their minds." Among the less controversial historical settings used in the film are the prehistoric world, the Empire, Viking Roman a funeral, from sex to those crazy -narketplaces they direct it personally," he said seriously. the French Revolution. "It and was too had to those hei^icls w-lh brushes, people However, Brooks confesses that there is bad," Brooks his selection, comments on brushjng each other off all the time. I ended one noncomedic subject he'd consider ,'lhat we had to drop so many exciting up with more than two hours of the Roman tackling on his own: time travel, Not only periods. At first I tried to stay away from Empire, which I cut down to forty-five great does the subject fascinate him. but Brooks things that Stanley Kubrick and Cecil 8. minutes," he adds, taking another chomp also expresses an "affection for science fic- DeMille had already covered, which would of his pastrami on rye. tion that is second only to his adoration of have left me with a three-minute movie Brooks also allowed himself to search Groucho Marx and Kim Stanley (whom he abou! the Hawley-Smoqt Tariff of 1930. the untapped riches of science fiction for describes as his "father figure").

"Sol cast off that restriction, but I ran into humor, interviewing Ihe mutated Melldown "I love science fiction, because it allows other problems. I loved the Black Plague, Family and concluding his film with a seg- you to create an ark of creativity between but we already had the Inquisition. The ment entitled "Jews in Space." what is now and what could be. You can American Revolution also wonderful, was "Apart from being an absolute riot, this is project and prepare for how we're going to but it was really a merchant rebellion and also a spectacular movie," Brooks de- make things better or play cheerleader didn'l have the passion of the French Revo- clares, "thanks in large part "to our special- while the bombs fall. There are very tal- lution, which was a people uprising." effects team. We spent ten million dollars ented people writing that stuff, though Ray Brooks adds that Nazi Germany also ap- on the piclure, and if it hadn't been for the Bradbury has always been my favorite and pealed to him, but he skipped the Second good people we had. it would have cost The Martian Chronicles one of my bibles. World War to it for the save U-boat picture three times that. As it is, we probably spenl Before him there were Edward Bellamy and he hopes to make after he recuperates more on just the French Revolution than Aldous Huxley. H. G. Wells also fascinated from History of the World. Robespierre and his gang, with as many me. When I was a kid, the movie Ihey made Even when the seleclions had been heads rolling at Twentieth Century-Fox." from his book Things to Come was the most completed, the length of each segment Comedy is Brooks's forte; unlike Woody exciting picture I'd seen since Franken- was a problem. Brooks had wanted fo Allen, he has no desire to direct dramatic slt'in came out. make everything 20 minutes long, but he films. "I'm content to be just a catalyst. For "Time travel, though, is by far the most found that impossible. doesn't "Comedy instance, I created a company called interesting concept I've come across in work well against the rubber walls of fan- Brooksfilms, and our first effort was The- science fiction. Not only is it the most seri- tasy, and I could only hit Bible so the Elephant Man. I worked hard to get all the ous kind of displacement a person can ex- quickly— it's kind of crazy in itself with all elements together and to raise the money perience, but the thought that events may the miracles are for — and the cavemen on for it. I agreed to do a special for NBC, actually be frozen behind us and ahead of only twelve minutes, because there's not literally sacrificed my soul to see this man's us thrills me. If something you do is trapped enough behavior or structure to refer to or story told in a frank and sensitive way. Par- in a warp, even though you're here and not sustain it. Yet I writing couldn't stop the enting that picture satisfied whatever com- there, then maybe time and not matter is Roman Empire. When you have those stone pulsion there is within me to make movies the fundamental reality; the only things that walls of fact, there's so much you can do, that,are superdramatic. I" didn't have to are interred with your bones are an expensive suit and a lot of preservatives.

"But time-travel stories rarely fulfill the promise of the subject matter. Time after Time came close, with Jack the Ripper and

Wells coming to the present, but it's more exciling when a character with foreknowl- edge inhabits the past, smartassing his way through the story by telling all the other characters what they're going to do next. Jack Finney probably handled lhat theme

best in his novel Time and Again. But it's never enough just to get an idea, in science fiction or any field. You need people who

know what lo do with it."

Until he finds the right story. Brooks is contenl to stay within his all-but-patented realm of irreverent comedy. "What I write comes from my heart and from my soul. Though dramatic films have a certain poig- nancy, comedy can be very serious, like confronting racial prejudice in Blazing Saddles or creating a symbolic Promised Planet for 'Jews in Space.' I'm on that spaceship in spirit, just as I'm Jacques the Pissboy in the French Revolution or the people on the rack in the 'Inquisition' seg-

ment. I think other people will identify with these things, loo, which is what's most important to me.

"Commercial success is nice, critical acclaim is wonderful, but what really matters is people." He deferentially waves a hand toward a copy of Omni. 'Also, smart aliens like Michael Rennie. I think," he says "Scientists say mere eruptions ate possible, but, with import, "that a history of the world just then, scientists say a lot of things, don't they?" may be a history of fhe universe in micro- cosm." Wise guy DO his sensitives. He dismisses Jerry and me as "professional debunkers. As such, [we] ATTENTION STUDENTS! cannot be considered scientists." Why not? As he says himself, we judge by the methods employed, not by the titles of FOR those who employ those methods. And just what is it that makes Jerry and me "professional debunkers"? Neither' of us makes a living at "debunking." Nor did FUTURE liPPJ^NCE we set out to show that there was nothing special about the vortex. We tested the claims and found that every one of them is Moving? We need 4-6 weeks | Dnnrui based on phenomena_ that are perfectly F II notice of of address. i o change 11737 O. Box 908, Farmlngdale, NY normal. Not a single piece of evidence . in the attached form. 1 stood up lo scrutiny when we created or Renewal? New Subscription ayrrent must acrarrpany order "methods to be objective." indeed, if Dr. One year of Ornni is $18 in the U.S. UNewSuDsc'iption D Renewal Swan's camera shows things that differ failed $28 in Canada and overseas. | 3 ^'ecse lorr.cve rry name from your from ours, it is probably because he check or -"oney roili-f; to use objective methods to ensure that his P.easo enclose o | !l„. :. !! - -i-r-ss Tyne,v exactly equidistant from . camera lens was .i. i. i, .i he approo; ate imoun: | 6-8 weeks for delivery both target objects. This turns out to be a and allow | very tricky problem at the vortex, but it can

Listing/Unlisting Service? Omni 1 -Jcrne be solved with proper equipment and a makes the names and addresses Knowledge of surveying. uf Ms subscnoersavoi able tcothet Redress Jerry and I also made an effort to gather

publications and outside com- , "reports from as many impartial observers of the vortex panies. The publications and | State 3P as possible." The owners house, however, were none too cooperative. for their acceptability After much urging, they mentionedEarl Nix- screened | on's report, but they wrongly informed us If and quality of their offers. you | Attach mailing label that it was a master's thesis done at Oregon would like your name removed 1 State University. We were also given, as

from this mailing list please check 1 anothei "scientific source," John Godwin's

the ' the appropriate box on This Baffling World (1968. Hart Publishing OC88I Company). After describing some of the effects that take place, Godwin writes: "However avidly these miracles are as-

broom phenomenon? If an Oregon state serted by the promoters of the 'House of geologist, using proper instruments, finds Mystery' and by visitors to the site, scien- FDRunn things that Mr. Morris's camera doesn't fmy tific opinion holds that there is nothing in the photos show different things from Morris's, so-calted vortex that is indeed a baffle- broom standing on end at the vortex. When by the way), then I suggest that more re- ment. The House of Mystery is nothing shown photos of the broom, Dr Charles search needs to be done, because two more or less than a house of illusion, and it Tart, of the University of California at Davis, independent researchers have arrived at does not defy any of the set laws of nature.

is is "Herbert B. Nichols, formerly natural sci- found it difficult to explain with trickery un- conflicting views. That what science less there were magnets in the broom. about. ence editor of the Christian Science Using two sensilives who had never previ- James A. Swan, Ph.D. Monitor, effectively deflated the vortex. He President, Life Systems had visited the spot, armed with a carpen- ously visited the vortex, I asked them to stand outside and record their impressions Educational Foundation ter's level, a light meter, and a plumb bob, of the "energy" of the place. They both felt Seattle, Wash, and his report explained that in this locality themselves wanting to move with the same all was right with the world. No, the laws of slightly wobbling motion that the broom Ray Hyman replies: Dr. Swan has certainly nature were not awry— only the impres- to not allowed his list of educational and pro- sions of the visitors who were victims of displays. I find such coincidences hard explain by trickery. fessional credentials to stand in the way of optical illusion." effort to reports from as his creative miracle mongering. We less I made an gather many impartial observers as possible insightful beings always felt that balancing Alternatives to (which Hyman did not do). When my a broom was in accord with all the normal I recently thought of a way for no-nukers proliferation of fission reactors. I laws of physics. A broom can be balanced stop the studies were done. acquired a report by — state geologist Earl Nixon, written in the on a floor— either sloped or horizontal These people have two alternatives: 1) re- early 1940s, that stated many of the same because of the splaying of the broom's bris- duce the national consumption of electric- tles. In fact, the balancing act looks more ity by enough to keep our demand within things I reported. spectacular on a horizontal surface: Be- the constraints of nonnuclear electrical I do not support all the claims made by of the slope of the bristles, the broom generation methods (i.e., all no-nukers stop the people at the vortex. I cannot substan- cause join tiate its affecting airplanes passing over- stands at nearly a 45-degree angle. Martin using electricity); or 2) the system by the trick in his Encyclo- buying stock in the utility companies and head. I am also aware of suggestion and Gardner describes fission illusion, as is any good perception re- pedia of Impromptu Magic, thereby have a say in the use of searcher. No doubt, to capitalize on Dr. Swan criticizes my methodology The reactors for production of electricity haven't tourism, they dp exaggerate. That is why article in Omni Is no! a scientific report, nor I wonder why these methods un- the scientific method was invented. If you does it go into any detail about methodol- been used so far. Are the no nukers want to focus on vortex areas, why not sup- ogy. How in the world does Dr. Swan know imaginative, uninformed, or afraid? Kortiak port some good studies? Look at animal what methods Jerry Andrus and I em- Boris Pa. behavior and plant growth. What about the ployed? I assume he must have consulted Bensalem, DO 116 OMNI . BMRTIES

1, Rastelli used the fountain technique for juggling a large number of balls, in which CLEVEREST half the objects are juggled separately by each hand. When a juggler can "fountain" six balls, three in each hand, the next step EXECUTIVE TOYS is eight balls and then, in Rastelli's case, ten, Rastelli was not as adept at the Cas- cade, which is the method used for odd Fun. It's numbers of balls, something you 2. "Juniors" are (c). people who have been have to give up when you grow up. juggling for three years or less. Once Each new Sharper Image catalog fea- juggling is never forgotten. "It's products. Like learned, . _ . __ 10.0 intriqumg an like riding a bicycle," Graham says. "I've '.egantly eniii, .! . teb 'phone hat places calls over a private FMfre- never heard of anyone saying, 'I used to be quency. Or a genuine European racing able to juggle, but I can't now.' That just seat —for your oifice or den. Plus mirac- doesn't happen." ulously efficient home gyms, portable THE IMPOSSIBLE BOX REVISITED itress monitors, and the latest video and microcomputer high technology. Our feature article on magician Jerry Products so new you won't see them product categories Andrus ("Magic Man," May 1.981) has ise where (and you never knew existed). Plus inter- drawn quite a response. He has received nationally known names like 1.000 orders for his package of optical illu- Seiko—at worl d- b e a t i ng dis c ount 5 sions, which included a 12-inch, precut For a lull year's subscription

: Tri-Zonal Space Warper and some addi- (S or more editions) to our 36- to tional illusory tricks not mentioned in the page color catalog, send one dollar Sharpt-;! Imaae ^i ik^ address below. article. (His price has gone up to S4 for the The A/.ri ..-lease remember to include your own name package, but you still get more than your money's worth. Order your Space Warper irom Jerry Andrus at 1638 East First Av- THE SHARPER IMAGE San Frarra™, CA 941:1 enue, Albany, OR 97321.) We have received more than 1,000 draw- ings of Andrus's Impossible Box, the object in the photograph that opened the story. This is the greatest response ever received for a single photograph in Omni. About 40 readers actually built models of what !hey thought the box looked like from a different angle and either sent us the models themselves or sent pictures of them. One Indi- ana man, Andrew Cook, actually built a full-sized reproduction and sent us a picture showing his son standing in the box. We can say that most of the hypotheses we have received are wrong: They are not the way Andrus's contradictory crate is built, although they would create the illusion. We will reveal all— the true construction of the Impossible Box as well as some of the more interesting "wrong" hypotheses readers sent in— in next monthls Games column .DO

PolyGram Records* ,

MODERN MEGALITH EXPLDRATIDrUS By Kathleen McAuliffe

of Europe. They are Pro- birth, death, and feast or famine? The full n the western coast of Scotland the stone relics son, Dr. story behind the ancient megaliths may perched high upon a windswept fessor Alexander Thorn and his engineers by training; never be known. No writings, not even overlooking Glasgow, is a Archie Thom, both bluff have Roy, professor of astronomy at inscriptions etched on stone, come circular, megalithic structure 40 feet in Dr, Archie University; and Euan MacKie. down to us. diameter. This ring of weather-beaten Glasgow their at the university's One thing is certain: Whatever looks like a mini-Stonehenge. assistant keeper whinstone fabric of their Hunterian Museum. Unraveling the religious beliefs or the social the artifact of a prodigious race of ancient megaliths been culture, astronomy played an integral part. the monument is mystery of the ancient has Britons. Sighthill, as northern challenge, even for the Glasgow The stone circles of Britain and known, stands out in stark contrast to the no easy Medieval people thought the great France are among mankind's first factories and blackened chimney stacks group. to Gerald S. stone monuments had been constructed observatories, according that dot the horizon. How did it come to as the 1920s, many Hawkins, author of Stonehenge Decoded a skyline that is today remem- by giants. As late dominate the presumed them to be (1966), and probably were among bered as the birthplace of the antiquarians the Druids Celtic priests earliest calendars. Industrial Revolution? the work of — of painstaking by Julius Caesar and others Now, thanks to years The secret resides in a time capsule esteemed When radioactive research by Alexander Thom, who buried deep within the foundations of the for their great wisdom. established that the together with his son studied more than central stone. Papers contained there carbon dating finally details of a broader built between 2900 and 1200 400 Neolithic sites, the explain that Sighthill does not date back to circles were startled. stone picture have emerged. The stone align- megaliths of Avebury or to the B.C. , the world was The the Neolithic sun, found scattered from the ments relate to the movements of the famed stone rows of Carnac, in Brittany, monuments stars. Mediterranean basin to Scandinavia pre- the moon, and bright Rather, it is Britain's first megalithic millennium. MacKie's excavation of megalithic sites, observatory to be erected in 3,000 years. dated the Druids by a measurement of the megaliths' such as at Kintraw, in the Scottish Completed in 1979, Sighthill was Precise obscure. Highlands, further bolstered the Thorns' commissioned by the Glasgow Parks age only made their origins more boun- findings, But archaeologists were not Department as a tribute to four city Was their purpose to mark territorial esoteric easily convinced. Such an interpretation scholars who played a pivotal role in daries, or did they serve some surrounding requires a nationwide astronomical pro- exposing the hidden geometry underlying function in ceremonial rites gram, working with a fixed standard of measurement (what he calls a megalithic of yarcj— 2.72 feet). Moreover, the layouts later stone rings led Thom to hypothesize that the builders may have possessed knowledge of Pythagorean geometry some 2,000 years before the Greeks. Many experts find impossible the idea that such an advanced society could have existed in prehistoric Europe.

Their position is cogently stated by archaeologist Glyn Daniel, writing in a recent issue of Scientific American: "Many people, no doubt bored by the prosaic account of megaliths to be got from archaeological research, jumped on the Hawkins-Thorn bandwagon, accepting the builders of megaliths not only as experts in Pythagorean geometry and possessors of accurate units of mensuration but also as skilled astronomers who studied eclipses, the movements of the moon, and the positions of the stars. To me this is a kind of refined academic version of astronaut archaeology" Lunan said, chuckling, "we can't very well It is against this backdrop that Duncan meant going about the task entirely in re- Lunan. the Scotsman charged with the de- verse. Instead of observing the horizon maintain that people in the Neolithic and astronomically sign and construction of the new megalith, events, Lunan had to calculate these posi- the Bronze Age built failed "acknowledges an ulterior motive behind tions in degrees relative to due north for the aligned structures if we ourselves technology." the project; "The alignment and layout of exact latitude of Sighthill. Next he had to using twentieth-century approaches Sighthill are entirely derived from prehis- modify his figures to take into account both The dramatic moment when will find whether its toric megaliths, notably the pattern of view refraction and parallax (displacement due the Glasgow team out paid off: stations around te Grand Menhir Brise, at to an observer position on the earth's sur- hard work has June 21. 1979; Thirty people Carnac. Since many archaeologists still face other than at its center). Once the 3:30 A.M., the hori- maintain that the ancient sites are not precise bearings of key lunar and solar mount the hill. Black clouds shroud observatories— and ours most certainly events had been worked out, a surveyor's zon. A downpour soon scatters the crowd. P.M., 21: dozen people return to is — where does the difference lie?" theodolite was used to pinpoint landmarks 10 June A To Lunan, an astronomy buff and author on the horizon that coincided with each catch the setting of the sun at summer sol- Torrential rains dampen their hopes. of several books, building a contemporary degree setting. {Chimney stacks and ca- stice. before the sun stone circle presented an irresistible chal- thedral spires came in handy for this pur- Only a few more days to go lenge. For starters, megaliths are not -easy pose.) The stones were visually aligned, will change its course. 22: rising sun draws the to come by these days. Most modern quar- with these features, in much the way early 3:30 a.m., June The hard-core enthusiasts back to Sighthill. ries use fast-burning explosives, such as peoples may have used prominent gelignite, which bring down the rock in notches and peaks on the horizon to aid Wore rain. dwindles. More small pieces suitable tor highway construc- them in their own arrangements. 10 p.m., June 22: The group interspersed with drizzle. tion. The stones required for Sighthill had to As the last stone was positioned, more clouds, for event, 3:30 a.m., June 23; Sighthill is now a fit a human scale— standing some four to than 1 ,000 people turned out the brave the climb. Their six feet above the ground. Only a slower- including the press and television crews. mudslide, but three burning explosive, such as black powder, All told, 17 stones were incorporated into efforts are in vain. figure the would permit the recovery of boulders that 10 p.m., June 23: A solitary makes ascent. sky is sullen and size. After combing up and down the west treacherous The Lunan's of coast of Scotland, the search finally ended overcast. Miraculously moment arrives: part, and a great at Beltmoss Quarry, in Kilsyth, otherwise glory The clouds stone. known as the Back-of-the-Hill Quarry, on ball of fire sets over the central ^Considering that thinks of his achievement as Tak-ma-Doon Road. "With a name like While Lunan archaeoastronomy, it is that," Lunan remarks, "we should have builders of megaliths had a blow to critics of unlikely to change their views. If they had guessed it would be the last black-powder only siedges to converted, the statistics quarry in all of Scotland," sought to be convinced them by now. Then there was the difficulty of hoisting move rocks weighing up would surely have Hawkins's computer calculations of the rocks up to the hilltop. For the smaller tons, the to 60 summer-win- stones, the Royal Navy came to the rescue Stonehenge's alignments to effort invested standstills place a' with a Sea King helicopter, executing Op- they ter solstice and the lunar one-in-a-million probability on the boul- eration Megalithic Litt in only 36 minutes. would be comparable purely The larger rocks were too heavy even for ders' appearing in that configuration to today's space program.^ hundreds the helicopter; only an earthmover would by chance. The Thorns' survey of ascribes the likelihood of do. "inasmuch as the early Britons had only of Neolithic sites alignments to other stellar ratts and sledges to move rocks weighing pure-chance the rising of Capella, at still up to sixty tons," Lunan says, "the effort events, such as they invested would be comparable to lower probabilities. Why, then, the staunch the early inhabitants sending a man to the moon today." the layout, which had been scaled down refusal to believe that sophisticated knowl- Ironically, the ancients had a significant from 40 miles across (the diameter of the of Britain possessed of the sun. the advantage over the modern-day megalith view station at Carnac) to 40 feet. The ob- edge of the movements and the stars? Presumably, agricul- builders in the accuracy of their astronomi- server at Sighthill is meant to look across moon, promoted cal layouts. To align stone markers with the circle, with the marker stone on the far ture and navigation would have is any reason to celestial bodies on the horizon, they prob- side occluded, and see the event happen their interest. Nor there prehistoric man was in any way ably employed several generations of sen- over the central stone. If Lunan's calcula- believe that his latter-day descendants in tinels, who would make their observations tions were correct, Sighthill would mark the inferior to capacity. from carefully chosen vantage points. The lunar standstills, sunrise and sunset at the terms of brain size or intellectual linger. skepticism moon, for example, migrates to its most summer and winter solstices, and the rising Yet doubts My own practical con- northerly and southerly positions in the sky ot the bright winter star Rigel — both as it is stems from a much more ex- once every 18.6 years. To mark the lunar nowandasitappearedintheskyin1800B.c. cern, namely, the weather. We are ancients "standstills," the point where the moon re- A full month would pass before the first pected to believe that the boulders from quarries verses its apparent motion on the horizon, major test ot the Glasgow megalith, sum- dragged 60-ton the early astronomers are thought to have mer solstice, and during that suspensetul sometimes more than 200 miles away— or die refined their sight lines over a century or time Lunan had more than one doubt about for what? To stare up at black clouds more. The prolonged observation time was the accuracy of his calculations. He con- of pneumonia in a torrential downpour? necessary because fluctuations in tem- sidered the precaution of buying a one- "That's not much of a problem," Lunan thousand perature and humidity affect refraction: way ticket to Buenos Aires. But Sighthill says. "Three thousand to five better cli- Theearth's atmosphere bends light rays so was there to stay; ten-ton concrete founda- years ago Britain had a much Diodorus says it that a celestial object appears higher in the tions would see to that. "It would be bad mate. The Greek historian excellent weather, with harvests twice sky than its true theoretical position. The enough to tell the Parks Department that I'd had 'the. great spherical temple extreme accuracy of the ancient align- got it wrong, but can you imagine trying to a year, when Apollo' probably Stone- ments suggests that refraction had to be explain it to Professor Thorn?" dedicated to — it is because averaged over a number ot lunar standstills. There was another niggling worry. henge— was in use. Maybe The Manpower Services, however, had Should the modern-day megalith builders Britain became colder and wetter that we building astronomical circles — allotted a considerably shorter time scale have blundered, it would serve only to fuel stopped for the completion of the project. This the opposition's argument. "After all," until nowT'DQ 120 OMNI RJEXTDnnaii IQ 38. d. (77) 39. Lid, kettle. (73) Answer sheets from the 88 Mensa volunteers were scored on Ihe 39 items selecfed for our test. The distribution of their scores

is shown in the table on page 88. As you can- see, no Mensan gof all items right — the highest score was only 36. The average (mean) score was 28.91. The me- dian (which 50 percent scored better than, 50 percent worse than) was 29. The distribution is somewhat bunched up toward the high end, suggesting that the test was too easy for many Mensa members and not sufficiently difficult io dif- ferentiate among the smartest of them, Our test sample was too small, and the number of items too few, Io draw any firm correlation between test scores and I.Q.

Still, aftera few qualifications, it is possible :o make some general estimates.

' Not everybody does his or her best at all times. Obviously, some Mensans who took the test may have had a headache or otherwise failed to do their best. Even the best, most accurately administered individual I.Q. test has -'.ha; statisticians call a

probable error. This is the amount by which

the score might vary if one took the same test on two different occasions. Many psy- chologists, therefore, prefer to give I.Q. TECHNOCITY— Quickly, now: What American metropolis has adopted space sci- scores In a range, and not as a specific ence to solve urban problems? Would you believe Philadelphia? For the last dozen number, allowing for Ihe probability that a' retest would a different score. years Dr. I, M. Levitt and the mayor's Science and Technology Advisory Council show have been using high technology to solve crimes, fight fires,. and cut energy loss- With that in mind, you may convert test es from municipal buildings. Now other cities are learning from their example. To scores io l.Q.'s as follows; find out how science is fueling an inner-city renaissance, see the September Omni. • With a score of 20 up to 23. your I.Q. is probably in the 125 to 131 range. This is CLARKE EXCLUSIVE— After the great success of 2001, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a slightly below the level required for Mensa treatment tor a new movie, one that would take the next conceptual step into the qualification (defined as the upper "2 per- future. Despite Clarke's reputation as the world's foremost science-fiction writer, cent of the population), but this one-time his new movie has gone nowhere, Omni is proud to present "The Songs of Distant score is still on a par with that of several Earth," an original film treatment by Arthur C. Clarke, with artwork by Robert McCall. certified Mensans. • A score of 24 to 28 translates to an I.Q. SMART FOOTBALLERS— The young men at Caltech take their football ser range of 1.32 to 139. This approaches the

Their biggest wish is thai others would, too. It won't happen soon. The F middle of the Mensa range. You would Almanac lists Caltech as having the "Worst College Football Team of All Tim have a good chance of qualifying. surprising since over a stretch of recent seasons the team lost 33 straight. Still, their • A score of 29 to 33 corresponds to an I.Q, coach says, "What other team in the country has the brains to learn sixty plays right between about 140 and 147. This is a very

the firsl lime! " Many of the country's, most ambitious academic whizzes routinely strong showing. You have an excellent steal valuable time that should be spent on quantum mechanics, calculus, chance of qualifying. organic chemistry so they can batter their bodies and shatter their egos 01 A score of 34oroversuggesls an I.Q. of gridiron. This startling brain s-lo-brawn transformation suggests strategier 148 or above. Were you to take the Mensa might better be applied to the game of life. Discover why in the September test, you would almost cerlainly qualify. Scores on this test are not accepted by PARTICLE-BEAM WEAPONRY- The age of missile warfare is coming !o an Mensa (nor is any other unsupervised test), "Both the United States and the Soviet Union are extensively researching Is but they can indicate what you might ex- particle-beam weapons," reports physicist Gregory Bentord in Omni next h pect if you officially try to qualify. Some Particle beams, which under certain circumstances can produce a hole in a piece people join and become active members of metal, might prove to be the strongest defense yet conceived against Soviet to socialize with other intelligent people;, ICBMs. Benford's analysis of this future weapon coincides with the Reagan Admin- others merely want to know whether they ' istration's allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars to particle-beam-i can make it. For membership information

research. Read about the latest military technology in the next issue > write to: Mensa Selection Agencv, Dept. 0, Suite 1R, 1701 West Third Street. Brooklyn, SCIENCE FICTION— "Going Under," an unusual story by Jack Dann, vi\ NY 11223, For $8 they will send you a take- trays the way in which the aristocracy of the future combat boredom home test. Return the completed test to September a man sick and tired of his brutal profession prepares to thro 1 Mensa and they will respond with a valid bout and get out while he's ahead of the game, in Wayne Wightman's "The I.Q. report. DO 3

JNAR CHIMERA TAR5 By Allan Hendry

The moon has been dead for astronomers, cgl eci the Aicus Astro-Net, helped Cameron acquire photographs billion ygars. That's why astron- broadcast their own TLP sightings over and photometric and polarization meas- omers have been so puzzled shortwave radio, and the New Mexico urements of TLPs. Several Apollo mis- by "transient lunar phenomena" (TLP)— staff attempted to confirm their claims. sions saw streamers that indicated a glows, mists, and color changes seen Seven years and 45,000 photographs temporary lunar atmosphere. The Soviet on the moon's surface. later, no TLPs had been seen. On a few astronomer N. A. Kozyrev, of the Pulkovo Fully 1,400 TLPs have been reported occasions the moon's brightest features Observatory, in Leningrad, has taken during the last two centuries, according to took on a bluish cast that sometimes even emission spectra of TLPs at Alphonsus one count. Yet proof of their existence has covered its entire surtace. These were not and Aristarchus. His findings indicate the been frustratingly elusive; TLPs do not "mainstream" TLPs, however, and they presence of molecular carbon, hydrogen, permanently alter the lunar surface, and were at least partly explainable. In addi- and nitrogen. And Apollo's measurements

evidence for them is primarily anecdotal. tion to checking most of the 19 Astro- found concentrations of radioactive gas But scientists have slowly worked out a Net claims, the study tried to confirm two at sites favored by TLPs. Such uneven

theory that may explain these events, dozen independent sightings— all unsuc- distribution points to sporadic venting of TLPs sometimes appear as bright cessfully, despite the generally superior gases on the lunar surtace. Yet direct spots, even on the moon's unlit region. equipment used. measurements don't bear this out. Others blur surface details up to ten miles Yet the NASA study has not discouraged What are TLPs, then? Another theory across. Sometimes they appear weakly serious interest in the subject. A! a sci- would have the sunlit side of the moon ' red or blue. While such observations entific symposium held in Houston five appear brighter simply because vented usually last for 20 minutes or so, some years ago on lunar "activity," the existence gas "fluidizes" the dust on the moon's persist intermittently for hours. TLPs seem of TLPs went uncontested. Winifred surface. This would increase the reflection to favor certain craters and the edges of Cameron, of NASA's Goddard Space of sunlight by flattening out the spiky lunar maria; over 300 have been reported Flight Center, dismisses 60 percent of the structure of the dust layer. The catch is that from Aristarchus alone. 1 ,468 TLPs in her catalog as spurious, but the change would be semipermanent and But these sightings spring chiefly from she treats the remainder as valid. would require too much gas, amateur astronomers, whose observa- Members of the Association of Lunar Allan Mills, of England's University of tions the professionals often consider and Planetary Observers (ALPO) have Leicester, has recently proposed a suspect. British astronomer Patrick scheme that requires much less outgas- Moore once commented, "We did our sing. The smallest dust particles are blown best to weed out very unconvincing re- upward as "moon smoke," without disturb-

ports, but it was sometimes difficult to ing the structure of the dust below. Sunlight come up with a decision, particularly with would scatter the particles, with the result- the older observations." ing color and polarization depending One professional search for TLPs upon their size. Then the "smoke" would seems to rule them out. In 1964 North- quickly settle back to the ground, leav- western University, in Evanston, Illinois, ing the area unchanged. backed by a NASA grant, dedicated Yet what opens and closes the vents of

a 24-inch telescope in New Mexico trapped gas? Mills says it's tidal forces, to a search for lunar events. President noting that an older study linked TLP ac- Lyndon Johnson described the pro- tivity with the moon's closest approaches gram in a message to Congress the to the earth. following year: "The objective is the Cameron disputes this, noting that the automatic detection and analysis of lunar larger her TLP data base grows, the phenomena," he said. "Scientific analysis weaker the link becomes. Furthermore, not of such phenomena may indicate ener- one of her ALPO observers has ever seen gy sources on the lunar surface that a TLP near a seismic epicenter. "Shallow may be exploited." moonquakes" are a more probable cause, A TV camera replaced the telescope's she thinks. Cameron asserts that individ- eyepiece, and observers watched a small ual TLP features possess separate corre- monitor. That way small differences in lations to orbital position, sunrise, solar-

contrast could be enhanced electronically, flare activity, and other factors. Still, she revealing otherwise undetectable changes agrees that a gentle outgassing causes

in surface details. A group of amateur Moon mystery. : hings that go Hash in the night. these enigmatic incidents. DO 124 OMNI 1

PHEiUDnnEruM jjoan

wigs

portrait with a Rolleiflex earner; SOinm Planar lens. Frankeenvi through compL - i and, a

"Look, Ma, rmjugglin'!

By Scot Morris

"The laws are all the same lor everybody. red, spherical juggling bags, machine- " Nature sets the rules. washable and -dryabie, can be bought — Sergei Ignatov, champion juggler for $16, postage included, from Brian Dube, 7-13 Washington Square North, QUIZ QUESTION 1: The man considered Apt. 47-B, New York, NY 10003.) to be the best juggler of all time was Practice over a bed. Practice while Enrico Rasteili, who died in 1931 at facing a solid-color wall. Contrary to what thirty-four. He could juggle ten balls— one might think, juggling is (or should be) world's record that still stands— yet he a two-dimensional activity: Use only the was never able to juggle nine. From the vertical and the left-right axes. As soon as information appearing later in this column, throws go out of this plane, forward or can you figure out why? back, you're in trouble. The commonest problem is throwing the QUIZ QUESTION 2; In the International balls too far out in front of you. so that Jugglers Association (IJA), a "Juniors" catches have to be made with an competition is (or; (a) people under twelve extended arm. (This can be worked into an years old. (b) people under sixteen, (c) asset in "joggling." See Jugglemania, people who have been juggling less than at right.) Concentrate on where you're

three years. putting each toss — it should pop out of the hand, without spinning, and pass just to Juggling — the sport and the art the inside of the arc of a ball coming form — is enjoying a renaissance. More down. The second-commonest mistake people juggle now than ever before— is reaching up and catching too high,

not just on street corners, but also on Remember: Gravity still works. Let the campuses and in laboratory hallways. balls come to you. Balis and clubs are flying at Stanford, Beginners get frustrated by not being Harvard, and M.I.T. — where one scientist able to get anything started. Everything even tried to build a juggling robot, seems to go too fast. One instructor rec- Mathematicians and computer scientists ommends slowing down gravity by prac- are drawn to the patterns and structure of ticing with silk handkerchiefs, which float juggling. "They also like the control," says through the air more slowly than balls do.

Ronald L, Graham, head of the discrete Another technique is to roll the balls on a mathematics department at Bell Labs, tilted table: At low angles they'll travel in a "getting things to do what you want them slow, wide parabola. When you get the to do and to come out right — like a neat hang of this, increase the tilt gradually computer algorithm " Graham keeps a This is called the Galilean technique

15-foot-square net dangling from the because it was supposedly devised by

ceiling of his office. When it's time to toss, Galileo in his studies of the motion of he lowers the net around himself and can falling bodies. practice without having to chase after ~~~ the inevitable drops. He can juggle six THE THREE BASIC PATTERNS balls proficiently and is working on seven. Juggling has traditionally been com- We cannot give an adequate juggling pared to the flow of water, a good analogy lesson in this short space, but we can offer from which are derived several terms a few general tips — such as the obvious constituting the basic patterns: one of practicing with one ball, then two, The Shower. One hand does all the before advancing to three. The balls throwing, the other hand catches and should be uniform in shape, size, and passes back to the first hand: The balls color. They should have some "heft": follow each other around in a circular Tennis bails are too light, but lacrosse pattern. This is the technique most people

balls are about right. We prefer bean learn first, though it is relatively inefficient bags; they're easy to catch and don't roll and inflexible. A few professional jugglers all over the floor. {An excellent set of three can shower six balls, which is the modern The Cascade: Once learned, never forgotten. 128 QMNI 3

record (there are some aroysphotos Ignatov juggles five hoops "flapjack-style" irom the193C= i~.':i~ :~-~ (end over end) in his act, he may do seven showering seven sTdeoj* bate, but the for friends backstage. Rastelli juggled ten

pictures may harebeff ; aged balls— five in each hand — but not ag,a

"- ; TheCaseace = : . :^; Dnal" regular part of his act. method, aisce: • Hoops, balls, clubs; These are the standard juggling implements, in what :-ok: people !nc is :he ascending order of difficulty. Thus, a typical skilled juggler might do-only four clubs but five balls and The cascade v.:*-; z-e~- : :-: -_~bsrs six hoops. 11 of. objects. Severs spel tuckers can The current world's records are: cascade nine date the c#rers world's hoops (Ignatov). 1'0 .balls (R.as!elli),.8 clubs record fortius "e:~~ z.i ~-s - :v (various), and 8 plates (various).

:- objects ever [uqg^C fr " s" • For "joggling"— juggling three balls Hoops in a cascade tr/ 9* rty-year-oid while running — current records are 13.6 "- star of fheMc-s:: 7 - .- z' i::--: seconds for the 100-yard dash (Heffler) shown, setting his lecofO - - and 5 minutes 44.7 seconds for the As shown i'i'fE-f""": r=" — :.\o one-mite (barefoot!) run (Lau.ziere). balls in you' ,: :;"~ "=."_ e t-.- IS ANYTHING IMPOSSIBLE? difectionsifyoyaa -- : ess ~t :' these toward your left No-one- has ever been able tb do a

this ball begir-;- : - : = n sustained juggle with 12 objects Of any - learning your left hanc : - :.-_s.s kind, though with so many people arc. Make the ttwdfrro a to juggle nowadays, that record may be fashion, as she*- Thensaap adycu set in the neai future. Truzzi. who can juggle five balls, doubts that anyone will ever be able to juggle more-than 12 of anything: "Given the speed of 'objects cycii -three falling through gravity and the height limits The Fountain - — to which humans can throw .objects into - control, it or pairs tech' one ; : the air with adequate may be anevennumce- :" ir. a impossible for anyone ever to juggle more are juggled separate^ than adozen objects." Dennis Soldati, ex-IJA president, dis- itthe agrees. "Ignatov already juggles eleven

: : = "-zz'Q is hoops, and while-doing it, he tells me, he's ten balls with tm u= If you can 'thinking thirteen.' He plans to perform with " ~ juggle two ba s = ~z -:„ a thirteen hoops in abouttwo years." usually advised !q ---aesceftoec* toe left Accuracy is a problem: The higher you hand before ::"': ~~zz :-:;_-." throw a ball the harder it Is to get it to land is gravity. once. Marcel ; ~-:r ::_;-;:: where you want. And then there juggler at Easts ----_- ^-.- v As Graham points out, "If you throw a ball twice as high, that doesn't give you twice as much time but only forty percent more time. The, speed gets magnified as the ball ""- - that the simultaneous. — : ^eright comes down," Graham regrets hand may helpiiisi^gef ggrigaiiddo astronauts missed a great opportunity to

better than it wou-datone." hesays. set an 11-ball record on the moon. JUGGLEMANlA For'answers to the two quiz questions

• The best :t,c;e-E : .; " ;-?"":-" only and a preliminary report on Jerry Andrus's the tricks the;. -i=.e-=?e--e-: "-.; .'.hue Impossible Box, see page 11 7. DO LAST IAJDRD