THE STAR ENGINE: UPHILL SKIING: THE LYING IN WAIT ALL-NEW SPORT FOR HALLEY'S COMET OF GRAVITY EVASION

SPACEWALKING HOW OBSOLETE IS AT17000 MPH MODERN MEDICINE? THE VISIONARY WORLD GAMES TO PLAY OF THEODORE STURGEON ON YOUR CALCULATOR

alb Dnnrui'FEBRUARY 1980

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE EXECUTIVE EDITOR' BEN BOVA ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR. J. ANDERSON DORMAN FICTION EDITOR: ROBERT SHECKLEY EUROPEAN EDITOR. DR. BERNARD DIXON DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: BEVERLEY WARDALE EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT: IRWIN E BILLMAN ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: KATHY KEETON ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (INT'L): FRANCO ROSSELLIN

CONTENTS PAGE

FIRST WORD Opinion Ben Bova 6

OMNIBUS Contributors 8

COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 10

FORUM Dialogue 14

EARTH Environment Kenneth Brower 17

SPACE Astronomy MarkR. Chartrand II 20

LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon 22

FILM The Arts James Delson 24

MUSIC The Arts Sam Bruskin 26

UFO UPDATE Report James Oberg 32

CONTINUUM Data Bank 35

ORTHOHEALING Article Belinda Dumont 44

MESSAGE FROM EARTH Fiction an Stewart 50

COMET CATCHER Article Robert L. Forward 54

WHY DOLPHINS DONT BITE Fiction Theodore Sturgeon 62

INFINITE VOYAGER Pictorial ' F C. Durant III 68

ARNO PENZIAS Interview Monte Davis 78

UPHILL SKIING Pictorial Matthias Wendt 82

THE PRESIDENT'S IMAGE Fiction Stephen Robinett 88

FUTURE CURVES Article Bernard Dixon and John Gribbin 92

PEOPLE Names and Faces Dick Teresi 119

EXPLORATIONS Travel K. C. Cole 123

COMPUTER GRAPHICS Phenomena 126

GAMES Diversions Scot Morns 128

LAST WORD Opinion Daniel S. Greenberg 130

PHOTO CREDITS 124

:;>- P..c ln.emator.3l L;;:l Ah ngnts reserved Cover art for this month's Omni OMNI, 1980 (ISSN 0149-8711). U.S. Volume 2. Numbers. CopyvigH :cy\d'60 Omn ica-ons

Puolisned monthly in the United States a-ci simultaneously n Canada cy OMNI Publications lntema:ional _tc . 939 "h. re Avenue, New is entitled Broken Hearts, a York, N.Y 10022 Tel (212) 593-3301 Printed in [he U.S.A. by Meredith Printing Corp. and distributed in the U.S.A.. Canada. U.S. sculpture by American artist Nick territorial possess. ors. and .he wor.f.l {except the U.K.) by Curtis Circ^iat^o- Comcary. ?_' Hende'scn Drive West Caldwell. N.J. 07006. Aristovuios. Created from D shouted r/'cJ.-s riySM Distribution Ltd., 16- 18Trinity Gardens, London SW9, England. Entire conten.s copyngh;ed. Nothing -nay be in permission trom the i-^heis. Any siir'ila'ty eet'.vcen placet- cirjis'sxvi mentiorec in polyester resin and various other reproduced in whole or part without written pub the fiction or semifiction and real places or persons living or dead is coincidental. Surjscici'.ons. '._.S., AFO — S24.00 one year objects. Broken Hearts was Canada and elsewhere— $30. 00 one yea'. Singe copies S2. 00 in U.S.. Canada, and AAO. Address cheques, etc., to OMNI Magazine, captured on film by photographer PO. Box 908. Farmingdaie. N.Y 11735. Postmaster Sc-d'crm 3579 to Farmingdale address Tel (516)420-1 894. Second-class postage Shig Ikeda. Aristovulos works in paid at New York, N.Y. ana at additional mailing offices. Puolisner disclaims a respcnsici.ity to 'eturr, .irsci'c:!ec eoiio'ial matter, and

, all rights in. portions c.blished [hereof remain the sole prooer.y of Ornn i "te 'na;ior.at. Letters to OMNI or its editors Decome the York City. New 1 D'opecty of :he magazine and etc ass.;me:.: intent. eo '"c o^ PI cation '-> whole or in part, and may thereto e oe usee fc s..ich pLr coses. ' . ' , ' . :

It was only a small item, down in the corner when any newspaper in the land !~ias had

of a page of the Sunday New York Times : to carry a running account of -polio's

:

".. . . smallpox has been eradicated/' ravages. The World Health Organization (WHO) Now we've wiped out smallpox. We've officially announced that smal!pox : has eliminated another killer disease.-- been wiped out everywhere on Earth. One A curious doublethink takes place in of the great killer .diseases has itself been most human minds. on subjects such- as

filled. No more need for smallpox : this. Polio, smallpox, tuberculosis, lor:-., for.' vaccinations- . No more need countless, ages were regarded, as ..

; international travelers to carry the yeilow' inevitable natural-disasters that : cards that prove they are not bearers of humankind just had to bear, scourges sent the dreaded disease as they cross by the gods to keep us. in.our place: then-. national borders. ,- science —the product of human the rest of the news that same- day was thought— puts an end to ifies.e diseases,

filled riots', . with the usual passions: threats : and people accept their absence as of war, terrorism, starvation, population being in the: natural order of things. in Latin India America, ; who. unthinkingly problems and : The same people inflation, unemployment, strikes ... on and accept the gift of life from; modern

'

. on and on. . science, as if scientists are supposed to ' Americans were in the streets, marching produce miracles the way chickens in memory of those who were kitted in produce eggs, are quick to blame modern

: military. service. It was. Veterans Day, when so-ience for many of theprob'lems that bur .

we honor our dead and remember the society has not solved. : wars we have fought, "No more nukes," they chant, holding

Iranians were inthe streets, too, in. science (and snentc-t - for

Tehran, where they held more than 60 Three Mile Island. .. American: citizens hostage in thelLS, 'No DNA experiments," they Shout,

: Embassy, and were demanding the return visions of horror movies dancing in their .of their deposed snah so that he could beads.. '.'''M * Smallpox is a thing of the face the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's . 'INo research on intelligence/' they ]past. The- scourge version of justice. demand, being.told that such. studies are ';;> : No public celebrations greeted the done by "elitists," : that has killed millions news from WHO. No one cheered from any Such people form the shock troops for -.

,. . rooftop. is . wilt never again Smallpox a thing of the past. the armies of ignorance. In another: piade, The scourge-that killed millions . has and ; or another time, they woufd be shouting, . . threaten That's ' I anyone. :

: scarred hundreds of millions will never the. : ':.:. "Death. to Shah," or'"Down with. ...

''what scientists . again threaten any child or adult. Ho hum.- . .Galileo, "or even "Sieg Heitf Like Konrad. are; supposed to do, right? ? That's what scientists are supposed to do, : Lorenz's ducklings, they will follow,

' right? .whatever or whoever moves across their ...

Well, yes, it is. But- how often does the.- field of vision at the critical moment when public stop to' reflect that what scientists they are ready.for imprinting.

. "'

do is rather miraculous? . Unwittingly, they are destroying; our one. Perhaps I'm prejudiced.'!: started my true hope for a better -future:; science, the' writing career as a newspaper reporter most human activity that human beings back in the late 1940s. Every summer, in engage in, the highest expression of those days, newspapers carried a long, rational human thought. '.''. ,''

ugly running story about polio, it was like Yes, the work < an lead to .coveringfhe basebalt season. Ail.summer nuclear reactors or genetic engineering or long we ran box scores every day on the computers that are smarter than we are. number of children who had died of polio,: Scientific research and experimentation,

the number placed in iron lungs, the can also lead to- the banishment o.f number crippled for fife. disease, hunger— and ignorance.

That's fife. What can you do about it? : For, beyond all the controversy on the /

Then. one springtime we. carried one uses of scientific knowledge.lies the fact .

single story. Lots of human interest. Plenty that the ultimate goat. of science was -,- ;

.of wonderful photographs. Children were- summed up beautifully by the English poet. . being inoculated with the Salk vaccine. John Donne, nearly four centuries ago: Good front-page stuff: a kid screaming Death, be not. proud, though- some have bloody. murder as a doctor jabbed a called thee

needle in to his arm -and his anxious Mighty and dreadful; for thou art not . mother smiled bravely -in the background. So... .-.':.:' -• ,

. That was. a dull summer, poiiowise. And And Death shalf.be no more:, peath,-. there tras never fie die! ummer thou shaft OQ . .. IBM'S GREATEST HITS.

These aren't the kind of "platters" they spin at discos. But they are record- ings, and they've sold in the millions. They're magnetic disks, and what

ithey record is information for storage 'in computers. They were introduced by IBM in the mid-50's and revolutionized data processing because they gave the user quicker access to his

, information. Since then, disk storage has been universally adopted by the computer industry.

Without it, making airline and rental car reservations, credit card transactions, and 24-hour banking, to name just a few uses, would be all but impossible. But the most important thing about disk storage is that at IBM we're

still inventing it. Finding new ways to pack more information into less space,

and retrieve it faster, all for less cost. Today a single 8"disk (the small one at left above) can store as much information as 120 of the 24" disks (the big one at the top) used in the first disk storage system we built. The 8"disk can, in fact, pack all the information on 22 newspaper pages into a space the size of a postage stamp! Information that used to be stored at a cost of $150 can now be stored for about $1. Technology has gone through the roof. The cost of using a computer has gone through the basement.

! And the person who's getting more for his money is you. flU annruiBU!

I I hen the twentieth century ^^ would like to see." This month, exclusively Foundation funds research in ' America.

: I began, artist Chesley for Frederick | Omni, C. Durani, of the Air j The author, Carl Frederick, is a physicist Bonestell twelve ^rf ^^ was years and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.. who describes himself as being "greatly old. He grew up in San Francisco and has gathered a selection of some of annoyed with American science and the recalls vividly the earthquake of 1 906. Bonestell's greatest works. We invite you to NSF's part in it." Frederick, formerly with "We'd been carousing on the Barbary gaze at the artistry of a man whose visions NASA, took a post at Cornell University

Coast, and I got home about two in the of the solar system have influenced because, he said, "I thought universities

morning- I At five-fifteen was thrown out of generations. Our gallery begins on page were places where great ideas were bed. The whole room was shaking." 68. exchanged. Instead, I found a large Bonestell started drawing pictures when Orthomolecular therapy, the use of amount of my time was spent seeking NSF he five was and reading about astronomy vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to grants and massaging data." at ten. When he was seventeen, hiked he to strengthen the body's own natural Ben Bova, formerly Omni's fiction editor, the Lick Observatory and was so defenses, has been called the medicine of has replaced Frank Kendig as executive enthralled by a view of Saturn that he the future. Yet the idea that disease can be editor. Mr. Kendig has left Omni to pursue rushed home and painted his first vision of controlled by diet dates back to a writing career. Omni is also pleased to the ringed planet. Throughout his long Hippocrates, some 2,500 years ago. In her announce that writer Robert Sheckley has career he has painted this planet from article "Orthohealing" (page 44), science joined the staff as our new fiction editor. Mr. hundreds of perspectives. writer Belinda Dumont visits with the Sheckley is author of some 28 books, most Trained as an architect. Bonestell proponents of orthomolecular medicine, notably Mindswap and Immortality, Inc. quickly gained recognition for his mastery whose claims that "modern medicine has His novel Tenth Victim was made into a of detail. He was involved in the design of backfired" are driving traditional doctors motion picture. His newest work is entitled such great buildings as the Chrysler up the wall. Crompton Divided. Building, in New York, and the Supreme Originally a newspaper reporter, One of science fiction's most gifted and Court Building, in Washington, DC. He Dumont has worked for several notable provocative writers, Theodore Sturgeon also drew early renderings of the Golden publications, including Medical World takes us on a journey to the planet Medea, Gate Bridge. Growing restless with News, of which she was an editor for five a world of "irreconcilable hatreds" and architecture, in 1939 Bonestell to years. moved Her interest in orthomolecular "unpredictable situations." It's the story of Hollywood, where he became the most therapy derives from personal experience. an Earthman's attempt to divert an respected special-effects artist in town, "While traveling through the Soviet Union," impending civil war. "Why Dolphins Don't designing backdrops for such films told as she us, "I was made ill by an unknown Bite" (page 62) is part of a complete Citizen Kane, The War of the Worlds, The virus that had attacked my brain. I was anthology about Medea, edited by Harlan

Hunchback of Notre , Dame and many hospitalized and given massive doses of Ellison, to be released later this year. others. Today at ninety-two, Bonestell vitamin C. The orthomolecular treatment Joining Sturgeon in this month's issue paints daily — everything from extinct was successful." are author Stephen Ftobinett ("The Triceratops to Chinese landscapes on silk. This month's lead Continuum essay, President's Image," page 88) and British "The Chinese," he says, "ignore reality and "The Science Brokers" (page 35), takes a writer/mathematician Ian Stewart use imagination to create scenes one hard look at how the National Science ("Message from Earth," page 50). DO 8 OMNI 1

TlTll BOBGUCCIONE ISeditor & publisher KATHY KEETON associate publisher

OMNI INTERNATIONAL LTD. THE CORPORATION Bob Guccione (chairman and president) Kathy Keeton {senior vice-president) Irwin E. Billman (executive vice-president.) CDrmrwumicMToais Anthony J. Guccione (secretary-treasurer) EDITQRIAJ- Editor in Chief: Bob Guccione; Executive Editor: Ben Bova; Managing Editor: J. Anderson Dormah; Senior Editors: Dick Teresi, Scot Morris; Fiction Edi- tor: Robert Sheckley; Humor Editor: Bill Lee; Euro- pean Editor: Dr. Bernard Dixon; Associate Editors: Owen Davies, Kathleen Stein; Assistant Managing Editor: Paul. Hilts; Assistant Editors: Richard Levitt. Kathleen McAuliffe, Eric Rosen; Copy Chief: Gina E.

Yetis on Pogo Sticks I Information Sheet of Grant; Copy Editors: Robert Boylan, Charles J. At- received NASA's

tardi; Editoriai'Assistants: Suzanne Stoessel, Susan For years I half-believed in the existence of July 1979, which states: Caputo, Karen A. Galanaugh; Contributing Editors. yetis. I'm even working on a short story "1 Space settlements are no longer Monte Davis, Dr. Patrick Moore, QBE. Durk Pearson Sandy Shakocius involving the big, ugly creatures. Yet after being studied by NASA, A workshop study ART seeing the photo of yeti tracks on page 1 1 was conducted in 1975 to explore the Art Director: Frank DeVino; Associate Art Director; in Omni's October issue, I'm almost space settlement concept. Jeffrey Dorman; Assistant Art Director: Margaret inclined to drop my half-beliefs and "2. Establishing settlements in space Richichi; Photo Editor: Hildegard Kron; Staff Pho- dead-file story. tographer: Pat Hill; Art Assistant: Patricia Lubin my would be very costly. Both the hardware

ADMINISTRATIVE I can't think of a single bipedal creature required and the technology needed have V.P./'Director of Advertising: in Beverley Wardale; V.P./ off a pogo stick that moves such a "c: ess-" ne . s xec ~-~e number and Public Relations Director: Alma Moore; V.P./ straight line, placing one foot directly in background training of people to occupy Administrative Services: Jeri Winston; V.P/Production front of the other. Even uphill tracks in snow settlement is unknown. Director: John. Evans; V.P. /Circulation, Marketing, a and Promotion: Bob Guccione, Jr.; VR/General show a variance of movement from right to "3. There is within NASA no recog- Counsel: Joseph M. Kraft; Midwest Advertising left to right off a central axis line. To walk nizable need for a space settlement Manager: Norm Kamikow; Southern Advertising Di- rector: Peter Goldsmith; Controller; Marc Bendesky; placing one foot so directly in front of the project now or in the near future. Nat'l Marketing Manager: Ralph Perricelli; Natl other as the photo indicates requires ""4. NASA has no plans at this time to Sales Operation Manager: Richard Fogel; Nat'l Cir- considerable concentration and effort. establish a space station on the lunar culation Manager: Robert Gastardi; Newsstand Dis- tribution Manager: Vincent DeLisi; Direct Sales The steps have to be very deliberately surface." Manager: Jeff Giannohe; Liquor Sales Manager; placed and executed to avoid a loss of More people ought to show their interest Paula Fierman; Advertising Production Director: balance. Lower pelvic and upper leg in, and support of, space technology and Toni Wagner; Advertising- Administration Manager: Inge S. Schmidt; Editorial Production Manager: structure in any animal — including a exploration, since this seems to be our Linda Bogdanoff; Director of Research and Market- human, and especially the adult male— is ultimate destiny Youths living today might ing Services: Carole Rossant not really designed for this sort of rigidly live long enough to witness man's ADVERTISING OFFICES linear locomotion. expansion into the universe. New York (Beverley Wardale) Omni Publications In- Poor yetis! Fantastically well balanced, Victoria ternational Ltd., 909 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y Dennis and Lund 10022. TeL (212} 593-3301. Telex no. 237128. but hobbled, unable to run, and suffering Mapiewood, Mont. Midwest (Norm Kamikow) Omni Publications Inter- from severe lower-back problems and national Ltd., 111 East Wacker Drive, Suite 2036. horribly chafed thighs. Considering the Anoxiated Pigeons Chicago, III. 60601. Tel. (312) 565-0466; South (Pe- ter Goldsmith} Omni Publications' Int'l Ltd., 1707 H possible damage to the male sex organs, Your answer to Martin Gardner's question St., N.W., Washington, DC. 20006.- Tel. (202) 298- it is little wonder that the yeti population is number 8, in Omni's November issue, was 6050; Detroit (Christine Meyers) Omni Publications

as scarce as it seems to be. I certainly right you concluded International Ltd., 950 E. Maple, Suite 204. Birming- when that the overall ham, Mich. 48011. Tel. (313) 646-3646, West Coast hope these particular tracks are not weight of the truck remains the same, but (Isabel R. Kliegman) Publications Interna- Omni typical. for the wrong reasons. The question tional Ltd., 8732 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. Bill Tabit clearly stated that the truck 90069. Tel. (213} 652-8070. U.K. & Europe (Elea- compartment nore Graham) Omni Publications Ltd., 68 Upper New York, N.Y was airtight. If that were the case, the Berkeley St., London W1H 7DH, England. Tel. (01) pigeons would not be flying, they would be 262-0331. Telex no. 919865. Available for the Asking lying on the floor of the truck, dying of EDITORIAL OFFICES It may interest many Omni readers that anoxia. New York 909 Third Avenue. New York, N.Y. 10022. Tel. (212) 593-3301. Telex no. 237128. West Coast NASA space photographs are available Robert Mackey 8732 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles. Calif. 90069. for purchase. Anyone wishing to buy New York, N.Y Tel. (213) 652-8070. London 2 Bramber Road, NASA photographs should write to the West Kensington, London W14 9PB, England. Tel. (01) 385-6181. Telex no. 919865. National Aeronautics and Space Green Hair Update

U.K. & European Editions Administration, Room 6035. 400 Maryland I read your Continuum item on green hair Managing Director: Alan Root; Advertising Director: Avenue, S.W, Washington, DC. 20546, or in the October issue, and I wish to provide Eleanore Graham; Public Relations: Molly McKellar; phone 202-755-2320 and ask for the this update. The Fenzels have withdrawn Editorial Assistant: Andie'Burland BUREAUS recent NASA Photography Index. This their lawsuit. Blood screening of the Photography Index lists all photographs water-system consumers indicates that all Washington, D:C: William. R. Corson. 1707 H St., - N.W-, Washington, D.C. Berlin: Hans-Hohn. Enzian- from the Vanguard mission in 1956 to the tests are normal and that there is no health strasse 1, Berlin 45 .Wo de Janeiro: Andre Fodor. 98 present. When our index arrived, we also risk. Water testing confirms this finding.- Bua. Mexico, 15th floor, Rio de Janeiro 2C39 Budapest: Paul Kirlyhedgyi, 5 Regi posta utca, received a free set of 11 color glossies of Their drinking water is safe to consume. Budapest 5, Hungary Zagreb.' Cedomir Komijenovic, the recent photographs of Jupiter, which Ray E. Anderson

Strebrnjak 96, Zagreb, Yugoslavia. . were outstanding. Environmental Health Administration FEBRUARY

However, I was very disheartened when Baltimore, Md.DQ 10 OMNI FORUrUl

In which the readers, editors, and international in composition, through some benefit of all. My hope and yours is quickly correspondents discuss topics arising out voluntary cooperation among nations, being wrested from our grasp; immediate of Omni and theories and speculation of eschewing the absurd theory of borrowing action must betaken. Stop the U.N. outer general interest are brought forth. The from Peter to pay Paul. space treaty now.

views published are not necessarily those As a Canadian, it would do little good for John A. McDonough of the editors. Letters for publication me to write to a U.S. congressman, but I Kokomo, Ind. should be mailed to Omni Forum, Omni hope Omni's American readers will Magazine, 909 Third Avenue, New York, answer the call sounded in your editorial. Appalling Experiments

NX 10022. Americans, beg your representatives not I have read the article "So That Others May

to give away your heritage in space and Live" [December 1979], and it frightens Free Enterprise your rights as individuals to a free me. I believe scientists need the rhesus

I had just picked up the November 1979 interplanetary future. monkey the way a drug addict needs his issue of Omni and hadn't even Beverly passed S. Pinnegar daily fix. I am also appalled that Omni

your editorial when I was prompted to Toronto, Qnt, Canada seems to condone human experimentation. write. Is it your magazine's intention to keep

Creeping collectivization, which has After I read J. Anderson Dorman's editorial letting the scientists play and give them in been a hallmark of "civilization" these last Omni's November issue, I became human beings as toys after they've runout 20 years (indeed these last years), is concerned 60 enough to write. American free of monkeys? Where is it all going to end? threatening now not only our entire planet enterprise is about to be handcuffed. John Rizzo but our future in Socialist treaties, space as well. such as the one New York, N. Y J. Anderson Dorman's First Word made concerning outer space, must be that clear. stopped. As Omni states, our only key to It is true that scientists sometimes have How sad it is that the last frontier is to be space is free enterprise. Since our trouble demonstrating the legitimacy of enmeshed in the web of those who want government doesn't find it necessary to their experiments. But it must be something for nothing — and before we spend money on NASA or scientific remembered that countless diseases have even get there: exploration, industry is our only key to been eradicated by techniques developed I'm not antihumanitarian. The moon, and open the door to space technology. in experiments on animals and man. This indeed all of space, is our common Many new and exciting discoveries are often makes it hard to draw the line heritage as human beings. But being that killing made directly affect our future. between what should and should not be exploration and development private Space by technology is only one of done. Omni's goal in publishing the article individuals and/or companies is not the many— but one of the most important. We was to inform the public of the uses and way to guarantee each person his "just" must encourage our elected abuses of scientific experimentation so share in that heritage. representatives to vote against such that people can decide for themselves True, space belongs to us all, and so all treaties and to increase funding for NASA what is and is not proper. — Ed, of us, from whatever country should be and scientific experimentation for the free to invest in it as we choose, and Risky Business according to the means at our disposal. In response to a quotation of Ray Those not part of the actual team would be Bradbury in Omni [October 1979], these free to buy whatever resource, product, or "knuckleheads running around protesting development was the result. nuclear power" happen to be, on the The Communists and the Third World average, well-educated and intelligent countries, which have sponsored this political participants. The fact that they get disgusting space treaty, should ask up and protest proves they care about the themselves where the capital will come human race. One can be wrong about from to operate these something one protests, but one cannot "free-for-everyone-except-the-provider" "pretend" one cares about humanity by systems. protesting — bad logic. Also, as a group, Perhaps a more intelligent treaty would opponents of nuclear power, and

be one in which interested ' any nation or environmentalists in general, probably individual participate, could exchanging own the fewest cars and, I'm willing to bet, skills, sharing both the financial use them the least. investment and the results obtained. John L Jordan Exploration teams could easily be Eugene, Oreg. 14 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 120 TLAND SPIKE EARTH -

nature abhors a vacuum, then so does one would have minded. The Calvin magnitudes which had added enormity to Ifindustry Rampton View of the Desert went coarseness have become replete with "The Kaiparowits Plateau of southern unchallenged, then. Our appreciation of strength and even majesty" Southwest has "It is lovely terrible wilderness," Utah is so vast that you could drop the aesthetic virtues of the and

southwestern Stegner, ". . . harshly and Manhattan Island in the middle of it and developed slowly Before the writes Wallace never notice," says Calvin Rampton, an terrain could look like anything but beautifully colored, broken and worn until Industry scout. "Besides, nobody ever wasteland to us, we had to teach its bones are exposed, its great sky goes there anyway." ourselves to see again. without a smudge or taint from Rampton, a former governor of Utah, is "The lover of nature, whose perceptions Technocracy, and in hidden corners and now consultant to seven companies that have been trained in the Alps, in Italy, pockets under the cliffs the sudden poetry hold coal leases on the Kaiparowits Germany, or New England, in the of springs. Save a piece of country like Plateau, which contains the richest Appalachians or Cordilleras, in Scotland that intact, and it does not matter in the undeveloped coal deposits in the United or Colorado, would enter this strange slightest that only a few people every year States. He and his employers would like to region with a shock, and dwell there for a will go into it. That is precisely its value." improve the vacuum of the plateau by time with a sense of oppression," wrote It was the air that Willa Cather dropping a coal mine and a railroad into Clarence Dutton, one of southern Utah's remembered. Of her fictional Father things this an old the middle of it. The railroad, necessary for first white visitors. "Whatsoever he Latour, returning to desert as bringing coal out of southern Utah's had learned to regard as beautiful and archbishop, she wrote, "He always awoke present tracklessness, would be the noble, he would seldom or never see. The a young man; not until he rose and began largest rail project in 50 years— more than colors would be the very ones he had to shave did he realize that he was 300 miles of new track and three years of learned to shun as tawdry and bizarre. But growing older. His first consciousness was abor— costing $350 million. The mine and time would bring a gradual change. Some a sense of the light dry wind blowing in railway, called the Allen-Warner Valley day he would suddenly become through the windows, with the fragrance of Energy System, would be one of the conscious that outlines which at first hot sun and sage-brush and sweet clover; oiggest energy projects ever undertaken seemed harsh and trivial have grace and a wind that made one's body feel light and in the Southwest. meaning; that forms which seemed one's heart cry To-day, to-day' like a One hundred years ago, or even 50, no grotesque are full of dignity; that child's. "Beautiful surroundings, the society of learned men, the charm of noble women, the graces of art, could not make up to him for the loss of those light-hearted mornings of the desert, for that wind that made one a boy again. He had noticed that this peculiar quality in the air of new countries vanished after they were tamed by man and made to bear harvests."

It has taken the Duttons and Stegners and Cathers, the Georgia O'Keeffes, Eliot Porters, and John Hustons to teach us to

see this country, but at last we do see it. Even our government has got the message, and much of this country's land is protected by law Within a 250-mile radius of the Kaiparowits Plateau are 26 national monuments, 13 national forests, 8 national parks, 5 Bureau of Land Management natural areas, 3 primitive areas, 3 national recreation areas, 2

national historical sites, and 1 national

memorial. Twelve Indian reservations lie within the circle, and these in turn contain their own tribal parks and sacred Bryce Canyon's delicate towers may come tumbling down in the wake of active strip mining. landmarks. CONTINUED ON PAGE 98 He created some of the most passionate music. Yet he died whispering the name ofawoman henad never met.

the greatest orchestras (like the . .his "Beloved music. Played by She was his patroness. . .his confessor. greatest the = Friend" in an intimate 14-year correspondence. She was the Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia). Interpreted by foremo inspiration for his most romantic works. And yet he shrank conductors (like Munch, Ormandy, Ozawa). Performed by Gilels, Caballe, Landowskaj. from meeting her even when she invited it, replying that one leading soloists (like Richter, should never meet a guardian angel face to face. In future albums you will thrill to the genius of Mozart, Bac- Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Mahler. ..more than 20 cor- Finally, she withdrew her support from him. Yet years posers in all. later, on his deathbed, he whispered her name. In gratitude? well In love? In anger? The secret died with Tchaikovsky. But the And you'll listen with richer understanding as as passion that Nadezhda von Meek inspired lives on in some of enjoyment because each album is enhanced with a color- the most soaringly romantic melody ever penned, as you will filled booklet on the composer's life and times, plus progra- listen for. discover in TIME-LIFE RECORDS' magnificent four-stereo- notes that help you know exactly what to record album, Tchaikovsky—your introduction to an outstand- Start by auditioning Tchaikovsky for 1 days free. You' ing record series called Great Men of Music. receive four 1 2-inch stereo LP records (the kind that usually retail for each) in an elegant slipcase, the backgrounc Here is a connoisseur's choice of Tchaikovsky's creations, $6.98 with Listener's Guide, the $19.95 recorded in finest stereo sound by artists who have no peer. booklet complete AND Encyclopedia of Music -yours You'll hear Van Cliburn's rendition of the Piano Concerto No. 1 deluxe edition of The Golden free just for purchasing Tchaikovsky and agreeing to auditio- in B Flat Minor.. . Jascha Heifetz and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Fritz Reiner) playing the Violin Concer- future albums. in (Pathetique), to In'D Major. . .the Symphony No. 6 B Minor If after 10 days you decide you'd like to own this $47.87 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the value, it's yours for only $19.95, plus shipping and handling. direction of Pierre Monteux. . .Eugene Ormandy conducting If, however, you are not completely delighted, return the albu- the Philadelphia Orchestra, in The Sleeping Beauty. and encyclopedia and owe nothing. Send no money. Just rr.a The boxed set on Tchaikovsky is only the beginning of the postage-paid order card. Or write TIME-LIFE RECORDS Great Men of Music-an unparalleled collection of the world's Time & Life Building, Chicago, IL 60611. Great Men of Music g|| RECORDS TIME-LIFE RECORDS, Time & Life Building, Chicago, IL 60611 RLA477 Tchaikovsky. Please send this four-stereo-record album along YES, I would like to audition with The Golden Encyclopedia of Music to me for 10 days' free examination and enter my

Tchaikovsky I will subscription to the Great Men of Music series. If I decide to keep pay of S19.95 ($24.95 in Canada) plus shipping and handling, and The Golden Encyclopedia receive future albums (each Music will be mine to keep at no extra cost. I will then containing four 12-inch stereo LP records) in the Great Mem of Music series, shipped one album at a time approximately every other month. Each album will be $19.95 ($24.95 in Canada) plus shipping and handling and will come on the same 10-day free-audition basis.

I cancel subscription There is no minimum number of albums that I must buy and may my

If to Tchaikovsky and The Golden at any time simply by notifying you. I do not choose keep within 10 days, my subscription Encyclopedia of Music, I will return the complete package FREE BOOK! will further obligation, (with purchase of Tchaikovsky album) for future albums will be canceled and I be under no

send four Dolby-encoded tape cassettes instead of records. ($4 extra.) THE GOLDEN Please ENCYCLOPEDIA R2AAK2 Or music

• $19.95 retail value, 720 pages, SW X Address _Apt_ • More than 800 illustrations, 24 pages in full color • musical examples City More than 1,000 Also available (or Postal Code) including a separate glossary of 1,000 famous names in music on tape cassettes. FAR CLUSTER. SPACE

By MarkR.Chartrand III

The star clusters must be regions the globular variety. Their forms are association of very young stars lies within of incredible beauty. Imagine irregular, with few symmetrical features. the Orion Nebula, found in Orion's sword. living on a planet inside a star Open clusters contain younger stars, often You can locate any of these clusters on a cluster: Your night sky would be densely entangled in a web of cosmic gas and star map. spangled with bright points of light. dust left over from their formation. Such a To see why clusters are so important, Glowing bands of cosmic gas might arch cluster may have a few dozen stars or a consider what astronomers cannot do in overhead. The spectacle could make few thousand. studying stars: They can't breed them, Earth's clearest winter skies seem dull. The loosest groups of all are the feed them, or run them through mazes to For terrestrial astronomers, star clusters "associations," swarms of very young, hot see how they behave. For the most part, also have a practical side. They are stars, still evolving and often flying slowly they can't even watch an individual star enormous astrophysical laboratories in away from one another. They are age. Stellar astronomy is strictly a which we verify our theories of how stars subdivided according to their hands-off affair. But by examining a star are born, live, and die. The largest. characteristic stars: T associations contain cluster, we can find the answers to many densest, and most symmetrical are the low-mass, still-forming T-Tauri stars, significant guestions. globular clusters. Many are nearly named after the first star of their type that We can't tell how old a star is just by spherical. Others are distorted into astronomers recognized. OB associations looking at it, but we can usually say that it ellipsoids by the motion of the hundreds of harbor the extremely luminous OB stars, is no older than a given maximum. We thousands of stars swirling within them. among the most brilliant in the universe. know that a star behaves normally as long

Globular clusters surround our galaxy R associations show much gas and as it is still "burning" hydrogen to form most of them far above or below the disc dust — the afterbirth of stellar formation. helium and energy— most of its life. Such that contains nearly all of the Milky Way's A good example of a globular cluster stars, like our sun, are said to be on the stars. In these clusters we find the oldest can be seen on very clear nights as a main seguence. stars— stars that condensed from small, fuzzy patch in the constellation When the hydrogen in a star's central primordial gas before most of the rest of Hercules. The Pleiades, an open cluster in furnace is exhausted, the star swells and the galaxy had formed. the constellation Taurus, are the most becomes red. Eventually this red giant Open, or galactic, clusters lie within the famous of this type, celebrated in poetry ends its days as a white dwarf star, a

Milky Way's disc and are less dense than by writers from Sappho to Tennyson. An neutron star, or even a black hole— if such a thing exists. Computer studies tell us that mass determines how long a star remains on the main sequence: The larger the star, the

shorter its life. In the main sequence a

star's mass also determines its color So if we see a yellow star, like our sun. we know

that it must be less than 1 bilHon years

old. A hot blue star must be less than 1 billion years old. And a main-sequence red star could be as old as the universe; a red dwarf's lifetime is longer than the 15 billion or so years the universe has been around. But any single star could be much younger than its maximum possible age. There is no way we can be sure just by

looking at it. In a cluster, however, we can safely assume that all the stars were formed at about the same time. We can tell how old

the cluster is by examining the color of the- stars just leaving the main sequence, just

beginning to bloat and cool: It is roughly

as old as the number of years it takes those

Red giants are the brightest stars in M3, a typical globular cluster about 10 billion years old. stars to begin turning into red giants. 20 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 98 LISTENIN LIF

By Dr. Bernard Dixon

for example, has been Scientists have begun listening to with rapidly flashing illumination. Kirkbright, with wavelengths of light plant leaves and human skin. What happens next is the interesting experimenting that penetrate a vanishingly tiny distance Lumps of cells and other part. If the cells absorb the light, they that only the thinnest biological specimens are being monitored warm up — very, very slightly— and into the specimen, so outer shell is examined. This has proved to for low-frequency sounds in several expand the gas around them in the of finding out how pioneering laboratories around the world. chamber. This increases the pressure be an excellent way of a laser beam is absorbed by a A more unlikely idea is difficult to momentarily, until the chopper wheel once much another recent investigation the conceive: Leaf and skin cells are scarcely again interrupts the beam of light. Then mirror. In provided information about the noted for their habit of making noise. Yet the tissue cools and the pressure falls. method eye, thereby enhancing the technique used for this bizarre Because the cycle of heating and cooling lens of the human of how cataracts develop. preoccupation — photoacoustic is so rapid, the result is an audible sound our knowledge Writing in Trends in Biochemical spectroscopy— is attracting intense wave. This is picked up through a small Dr. speculates on other interest among biologists. The first microphone inside the chamber By Sciences, Cahen If suitable machines for the purpose have recently varying the wavelength of light and applications of this technology. open on gone on the market. listening to the sounds produced, which chambers could be made that are allowing to be placed over The experimenter who wants to listen to become louder as more light is absorbed, one side, them tissue being examined, they might a piece of tissue first seals a sample inside a great deal can be learned about the the insights into the function and a tiny transparent chamber. He then makeup of the material in the chamber. yield new cells in the body. For shines a light on the specimen. The beam Photoacoustic spectroscopy is being malfunction of living

using ultraviolet light, it may is interrupted by a "chopper wheel," like developed particularly energetically by Dr. example, by possible to insights into how a that in a film projector, which rotates at a David Cahen, at the Weizmann Institute of be gain causes speed corresponding to the frequency of Science, in Rehovot, Israel, and by Dr. lengthy exposure to sunlight skin cancer. audible sound. In a typical setup, the Gordon Kirkbright, at Imperial College, sunburn and specimen receives flashes of light 150 London The method has only begun to be What excites me about listening to cells, chemically or times a second. Although the light pulses explored; so its full range of applications is rather than analyzing them pictures of is the at the same frequency as sound waves, far from obvious. But two typical uses so taking detailed them, possibilities this technique opens up. the tissue is bombarded not with noise but far suggest that the scope is enormous. Dr. Throughout the development of medical science, ways of doing things have been as influential as the brightest of ideas in fostering radical change. Historians often overlook this. But think, for example, of the revolution in medicine triggered by Scipione Riva-Rocci in 1896, when he invented the first modern device for measuring blood pressure. That followed a century of misguided and often fatal attempts to measure blood pressure by inserting small glass tubes into patients' arteries. Consider how greatly the electron microscope has benefited medicine, agriculture, and other fields by permitting the intimate structures of cells to be scrutinized. More recently, computerized axial tomography— a technique for peering inside the brain — has opened up exciting new frontiers in neurology. Listening to the tissues of animals and

plants is an extraordinary research tool still

in its infancy But its practical repercussions could turn out to be as startling as those that have transformed areas. Cells have long remained silent, but scientists'have discovered a way to "sound out" their structure. those other DO 22 OMNI THE ARTS By James Delson

front of you the screen projects an stabilize them. Both involve a gigantic strip are still impressive. The most popular film Inimage so vast that you become part of of film nine times the size of standard ever made by the film board, Universe has the movie- Suddenly you're free-falling 35mm stock and three times the size of been in constant demand since its through space in a flying sequence. 70mm, the widest format currently in release, with more than 300 prints sold to Minutes later you're submerged in water, general use. But footage runs through the the U.S. government alone. gazing up toward the surface. projector at the same fast 24 frames per The influence of Universe on

This is Omnimax, the world's most second, requiring a horizontal feed subsequent cinematic productions is advanced projection system. A domelike instead of the traditional vertical underscored by its contribution to Stanley screen framed by speaker clusters arrangement. A patented "rolling loop" Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not creates a hemisphere of sight and sound mechanism isolates each frame only did Kubrick borrow the film's that physically pulls its audience into the individually. The entire combination of overpowering imagery of the sun rising picture. Heads must turn to capture the gears, air pressure, film compression, and behind a planet, but he also duplicated whole effect. rock-solid machinery presents the largest technical methods of creating special Omnimax is the second generation and richest picture in the world. effects and used Douglas Rain, Universe's of Imax, the largest film format in existence Colin Low's Weather is a big-budget narrator, as the voice of HAL. "After seeing for flat-screen projection. Whereas the Omnimax film currently in production. As our film, Stanley asked me to work on former is surface, shown on a dome Imax director and producer of documentaries Space Odyssey," Low recollected, "but I can be thrown onto a screen nine stories for the National Film Board of Canada, had already committed myself to making high and six wide. Though both are limited Low, through his use of futuristic movie- Labyrinth for Expo Sixty-seven in Montreal.

by budget, audience size, and the number making techniques, has achieved the Besides, I knew that if I worked with him, of theaters available to show them, these distinction of a cinematic visionary. I'd be a very small fish in a very big pond." systems are expanding the boundaries of Universe, a black-and-white Low doesn't seek publicity, but he has motion-picture technology. documentary about the cosmos, which had a fair share of the limelight, stemming Designed and built by filmmakers for Low made in 1960, featured special from his work on Labyrinth, a their use are effects of sophistication that own : Imax and Omnimax such even multimillion-dollar multimedia pavilion for simply oversized renditions of traditional today, 20 years and a couple of Montreal's World's Fair in 1967. "There was equipment with modifications built in to generations of improvements later, they a lot of interest in creating multiscreen movies after the success of the IBM and

KLM [ Royal Dutch Airlines] pavilions at New York's 1964-65 World's Fair," Low said. "That was the first time audiences seemed genuinely interested in seeing several images projected onto abnormally shaped screens, though Abel Gance had

done it in his pictures in the silent days.

"When Roman Kroiter and I put

Labyrinth together, we played with all sorts of ideas about the use of space and the manipulation of the audience's reactions to given images. What we ended up with was a three-chamber setup that people moved through, watching separate films that tied together in overall feeling. We had to make certain compromises because of time, budget, and physical limitations, but the pavilion was a huge success," Kroiter and two other filmmakers, Graeme Ferguson and Robert Kerr, went on to start a film company, which they called Multiscreen Corporation, Ltd. For Expo '67 Ferguson and Kerr had created a

multi-image film called Polar Life, and all This frame of Imax/Omnimax film is nine times the size of 35mm. three times the size of 70mm. three saw the future in a series of 24 OWN! CC^INUEDONPAGE118 THE ARTS By Sam Bruskin

1619 the Bavarian astronomer Celestial polyphony was virtually a ever-changing symphony that InJohannes Kepler published Harmonices department of mathematics for the Greek demonstrated the awesome beauty of Mundi ("Harmony of the Universe"). philosopher Pythagoras, who laid the God's compositional powers: "The music Although astronomers since then foundations of acoustics. Pythagoras that God made during the Creation," he generally consider Kepler's greatest conceived the heavens as a grand writes, "He taught Nature to play; indeed, contributions to have been his deduction scheme of concentric spheres whose she repeats what He played to her." of planetary laws and the ray theory of ordered rotations through the kosmos Professor Ruff explains it further: chosen to light to. explain vision, Kepler himself produced music made pleasing through "Kepler reasoned that God had considered this 1619 treatise on the music numerical relationships. He speculated give the planets eccentric and variable of the spheres to be his crowning that as planets moved through space, the motion precisely in order to create six-part achievement. proportional distances between them, like harmony." Three and a half centuries later, by the divisions of the strings of a lyre, Ruff first encountered Kepler's work adapting Kepler's astronomical data and produced spatial harmonies. Moving at a when he was an undergraduate at Yale. In synthesizing them on an array of constant speed, each planet emitted a 1952 Ruff (fresh out of the air force's then computers and electrical devices, two Yale characteristic tone; the combination of all-black jazz band) attended composer professors have succeeded in creating 40 these tones created one eternal chord Paul Hindemith's classes on music theory. minutes of "celestial music" audible to audible to the divine ear. Hindemith introduced the young musician mortal ears. This idea was unquestioningly to the musical theories of Kepler, on whose "Kepler sent us a definite challenge," accepted until Kepler permanently life he was basing his opera Die Harrnonie said Yale geologist John Rodgers, "and shattered its astronomical basis by der Welt. Ruff inherited Hindemith's we think we've met it." Rodgers and his discovering that the planets have elliptical fascination with Kepler and developed a partner, associate professor of music rather than circular orbits, the angular compelling desire to prove that the

Willie Ruff, have recorded this music on a velocity of each planet changing as it astronomer's musical theories were stereo LP entitled The Harmony of the moves nearer to or farther from the sun. fundamentally inseparable from his Worlds: A Realization for the Ear of For Kepler, however, the astronomical scientific work. Johannes Kepler's Astronomical Data from importance of his discovery was "We were listening to Hindemith's opera Harmonices Mundi in 7679. secondary to its musical implications. on Kepler when we decided to do it," The idea that planets "sing" as they Because of the planets' changing recalls.John Rodgers, Silliman Professor move in their orbits has fascinated people velocities, Kepler thought, the celestial of Geology at Yale and Ruff's downstairs for centuries; Kepler was not the first. music would not be a single chord but an neighbor. Rodgers is also a musician, mathematician, and astronomer. "We had dinner together every night here at the dining commons," Ruff said, "and we were jotting down formulas on napkins and envelopes." Rodgers and Ruff applied the calculations Kepler had made for the six planets known to him. Kepler had assigned a pitch to each planet, derived

from its angular velocity, the pitch modulated according to the eccentricity of each orbit. In the modulation of this pitch, Kepler represented the changes in the planet's speed as its orbit approached or got farther away from the sun. In this way he described a six-part motet. Ruff and Rodgers used the pitches Kepler had chosen for each planet, starting with the G next below the piano keyboard to represent Saturn, with Mercury being placed the highest, reaching to the E next above the

Kepler assigned a musical pitch to each planet according to Its angular velocity — Saturn, a low G. keyboard. CONTINUED ON PAGE 118 26 OMNI The Final XTfeion OF John Barn? THEARTIST WHO DESIGNED "STAR WARS" AND "SUPERMAN" TAKES US TO A FUTUREWORLD — WITH A SEXUALLY PSYCHOPATHIC ANDROID — IN "SATURN 3"

It is some three hundred years from today. At a hydroponic laboratory on Saturn's third ring, two scientists work in idyllic isolation, searching for new forms of protein to feed a polluted Earth. Their world is a cocoon of flourescent blue corri- dors, tunneled into volcanic rock, endincfin a sudden oasis of advanced technology. They have a visitor, a disturbingly intense young scientist from who has come to deliver, assemble and program the ultimate robot. The first in the Demi-God series', the

android is an eight foot mass of gleaming metal, simulated brain tissue and plastic tubing through which vital fluids pulse. Christened Hector, he is program- med through "direct brain drain" from his creator. And since his cre-

ator — as it turns out — is a sexual psychopath with a taste for murder,

Hector is not only the most practical

robot ever designed, he is also con- genially insane.

The movie is titled "Saturn 3."-Star- ring Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcett, Harvey Keitel and the indomitable

Hector, it is a dazzling, deftly re- searched portrait of the future, studded with some $3 million worth of special effects.

It is also the final vision of the movies' most brilliant seer, the late ' a illlll

The Final \?bk>n OF John Barn?

As a production designer — the Finally, somefouryears later, with the financial backing of international creating, a film's environment — impressario Lord Grade and execu- Barry specialized in science fiction. tive producer Martin Starger, "Saturn In Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork 3" went before the cameras in a mas-

Orange," he painted a crimson por- sive network of futuristic r'" " ' trait of a future-shocked society that side of London. Included thrived on violence. In "Star Wars," communications room, crammed he whisked us to a distant corner of with whirring, oscillating, computer- the universe where a galactic civil controlled gadgets... a garage for war was waged with medieval bra- the scientists' lunar buggies... vado and light-speed spacecraft. hydroponics laboratory where some For "Superman," he created the 600 varieties of plant mutations were

exploding planet, Krypton, the bathed in artificial daylight, amidst a

glacial Fortress of Solitude and the clutter of electronic "nutrient cham- . subterranean lair where arch-fiend bers".. "modular living quarters Lex Luther dwelt — and plotted — paneled in fibre-glass and suede... beneath the lower level of Grand and miles of tubular scaffolding.

Central Station. . It was the perfect playground in Trained as an architect, the which the ultimate robot would Academy Award winning designer run amok.

drew this revealing comparison . But Barry never saw his vision between "Star Wars" and "Super-. come to life on the screen. Tragic- man": "In 'Star Wars,' we set out to ally, he passed away shortly after the

achieve a 'used' look, as if the picture start of production, leaving behind had been shot on location in outer what producer-director Donen de- space. 'Superman' demanded a more scribed as "the most fitting tribute poetic tone. We were dealing with a any creative artist could possibly

have . . . a world that once existed only

had to believe, if only for a few hours, in his mind, brought wonderfully to 3." that Superman was really up there, in life. . .the world of Saturn a red cape and blue uniform, soaring An A.F.D. release, "Saturn 3" is a over the streets' of the city." Lord Grade Presentation, starring For Barry, who began his career as Kirk Douglas, Farrah Fawcettand

the "seventeenth draftsman from the Harvey Keitel. Stanley Donen pro : left" during the production of "Cleo- duced and directed the screenplay patra," "Saturn 3" was different from by Martin Amis from a story by the late

any previous project. It was his John Barry. Martin Starger \

concept ... his story. . . his dream. executive producer. He first described the idea to pro- ducer-director Stanley Donen the two men were involved in "Lucky Lady," the comedy-adventure about bootlegging off the California coast which starred Liza Minelli, Burt Reynolds and Gene Hackman. E UFO UPDATE By James Oberg

f% hen astronomers began to man is the only intelligent life form in the belief in the existence of alien cultures. 1 point their high-powered universe is intolerably arrogant. Anyone Recently a third point of view has forced | I j ! mm \tM radiotelescopes toward the holding such an opinion today is an its way into this bitter standoff. it actually stars in search of intelligent life, their intellectual freak." Humankind, is suggested, may hopes ran high. In Earth's neighborhood UFO lecturer Stanton Friedman is just as be alone in the universe. This notion alone halt a dozen stars showed the positive. "I consider the term UFOs a enrages UFO buffs for obvious reasons, : slightly wobbling motion that should reveal copout," he once declared. "They're not and SETI astronomers are understandably idea that their search is a orbiting planets. And if planets were quite unidentified flying objects, they're flying upset by the (as Senator . of common, surely life, even civilization, saucers. . . The evidence is over- waste time and money could not be rare. That was almost 20 whelming that we are being visited by William Proxmire has declared). years ago. Today the chances of locating intelligently controlled vehicles from off Late in 1978 proponents of this third extraterrestrial civilizations appear much planet Earth. In other words, somebody's force in the ETI controversy gathered at poorer. UFOs are somebody else's spacecraft." the University of Maryland for a two-day topic, of The idea that life abounds in the galaxy The majority of the public concurs, symposium. Their "Implications seems to be almost universal, at least according to numerous opinion polls Our Failure to Observe Extraterrestrials," of among laymen, and some astronomers still conducted throughout the past decade. was bound to be provocative.. For most claim that the best way to detect life out Astronomers involved in the search for those attending, the implications were there is to search for the radio extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) remain clear: Since we haven't seen any trace of transmissions of distant technological almost universally hostile to claims of alien them, either they aren't there or there is societies. Many UFO buffs are equally visitation. In 1976 a poll found most something fundamentally wrong with our convinced that extraterrestrial civilizations •astronomers willing to concede that UFOs comprehension of the universe. have already found us and are now paying might be worthy of study but unwilling to The consensus that emerged from the visits here!. bother doing the research themselves. colloquium was heresy itself: "If we Neither group questions the existence UFO proponents, however, have been extrapolate ourselves into the foreseeable of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). Author interpreting —some would say future, and then generalize our type of and researcher Robert K. G. Temple in misinterpreting — astronomical research to civilization across the galaxy, then we 1976 said, 'An attitude which asserts that provide scientific respectability for their should not exist," declared Dr. Sebastian von Hoerner, of the Green Bank Radio

Observatory "If anyone is out there at all," insisted cochairman Michael Hart, a Texas astronomer, "then Earth should have been colonized millions of years ago, and 'us natives' wouldn't be standing here now." The idea that life has arisdn on millions of planets and that many developed high-technology civilizations raises a question originally attributed to nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi: "Well, then, where are they?" ETI advocates argue that such civilizations either refrain from, or are incapable of, interstellar flight, UFO proponents argue that some such civilizations do visit this planet but avoid detectable contact for any of several reasons. The Maryland conference considered both arguments and found them wanting. Papers by such eminent space scientists as Freeman Dyson and Ronald Bracewell demonstrated the feasibility of interstellar flight and presented a timetable for the step-by-step occupation of the galaxy.

7b the dismay ofufciogisis. scientists are reviving the r ire alone in the galaxy. Their estimates ran into the millions of 32 OMN'l CON"MUEDONPAGE122 conjTiruuurm

t

There is a scientific legend that says that "chemists defer a grant before? In short, is it safe to support this research? only to physicists, physicists defer only to mathemati- This "safety first" policy actually works rather well. Theodore cians, and mathematicians defer only to God." At pres- Sturgeon's law, which states. "Ninety percent of anything is ent, however, all three defer mainly to the National Sci- crud," applies also to science. By definition, most of anything is

ence Foundation (NSF), for it is the foundation that keeps these mediocre, and it is necessary to support mediocre science One scientists eating regularly. NSF staff member remarked, "If the NSF were to fund on the The NSF, whose annual budget exceeds $750 million, provides basis of merit, half of the science departments in the nation's well over half the national support for physics research, and universities would collapse overnight." The vast resources of the almost ail for mathematics. Further, from 50 percent to 95 percent NSF are keeping universities in business, running national labo- of all basic research at universities is conducted under NSF ratories, and coordinating international conferences. However, grants. science, in the long run, advances through the efforts of individ- The National Science Foundation was established in 1950 to uals—exceptionally brilliant individuals who extend or revolu-

"promote the progress of science." It is charged to do this by tionize the body of scientific knowledge. If such an individual is

offering grants to institutions or individuals for scientific research. successful, he is known as a great scientist. If he fails, he is often In the 30 years since its formation, the NSF has exercised power- considered a quack. The NSF takes a dim view of quacks or

ful influence-: It has overseen the establishment of huge national potential quacks. Furthermore, the NSF in violation of its own laboratories, astronomical observatories, and research centers. charter, does not give grants to individuals, only to institutions.

It has tunneled huge amounts of much-needed funds to univer- Thus, if you happen to be, say, a proprietor of a Chinese restau-

sities. It has also provided a bureaucracy for directing the course rant who has just come up with a solution of the plasma-confine- of American science in accord with the wishes of Congress. ment problem and you write to the NSF for a research grant,

Therein lies the rub. The NSF is watched. It is watched both by forget it. Similarly if you have a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from

the scientific community and by Congress. The scientific com- Harvard, but you're currently working as a mountain guide in

munity, loath to bite the hand that feeds it, rarely voices any Nepal in order to have time to work on a totally new concept in criticism of the NSF Congress, however, has no such inhibition. science, keep climbing. The NSF won't fund you, either. While not being made up of scientists, Congress nonetheless In view of its failure in innovation, one could well ask, "Is the takes in an active part the scientific workings of the NSF The NSF actually contributing to the decline of American science?" I needs of politics are not necessarily in keeping with those of believe that it is. Many others believe it also. Gain the confidence science. Pulling research titles out of context and flogging them of any good, young research scientist. Assure him he will not be as examples of wasteful government spending is. not exactly quoted by name, and he will probably tell you the same thing, conducive to the exercise of scientific creativity. embellished by his particular favorite NSF horror story. The result is predictable. Today the NSF is a large, well-orga- As long as the NSF feels itself under the control of Congress, nized government agency. Since it is responsible to Congress, things.cannot change for the better. Alternatives to the NSF are from which it must periodically seek appropriations, it is impor- clearly needed: private foundations willing to take risks and tant that the NSF does not fund "bad" science. However, the very make mistakes. We need foundations comfortable in supporting procedures the foundation follows to weed out inferior scientific new ideas and perhaps nurturing scientists of rare ability or research also weed out potentially significant work. The NSF is genius. very conservative and is oriented toward tangible results. This is In 1978 the NSF published a report entitled "Science Is Too most obvious from the criteria that the NSF uses in dispensing Important to Be Left in the Hands of Scientists." Maybe so, but research grants. Will the research produce results? Is the re- science is definitely too important to be left in the hands of the searcher working at a major university? Has he or she been given National Science Foundation. —CARL FREDERICK 4

coruTiruuunn

determined WING-WALKING damaged during blastoff redesigning floodgate con- death could be propeller in 1979, three fifths were the AT 17,000 MPH from Earth. Thousands of the trols and possible victims of man or his works. tiles cover the underbelly, guards for boats. is becom- Powered vessels took 1 Astronauts love backpack- wings, and sides of the But the situation ing critical. The resident manatee lives; another 6 ing, particularly when it spacecraft. population is drowned or were crushed in means the difference be- By using the 240-pound manatee canal locks, or MMU, an astronaut could in- thought to be around flood gates, spect and even repair defec- 1,000, with a mortality rate other artificial structures; 3 percent drowned while entangled in tive or missing tiles. A do-it- now estimated at 10 fishing nets or lines; and 2 yourself tile-patching kit is annually. gunshot wounds. also being designed. Manatees, which are also died of The rechargeable back- called sea cows, graze in The Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice has drafted a recovery pack has enough fuel to fly shallow water. This habit plan aimed at minimizing untethered in space for six often places them, in bays injuries, but im- hours. and channels trafficked by deaths and plementation depends on According to Joe Lenda, a powerboats and barges. Col- among 14 sepa- project engineer at Martin lisions between half-ton, cooperation groups, including Marietta, the company build- ten-foot-long manatees and rate fre- utilities and conservation or- ing the device, there is no boat propellers are so state and "panic situation" in readying quent that researchers iden- ganizations and federal agencies. Vic Cox the apparatus for its earlier- tify individual adults by scar — than-anticipated first flight. patterns on their backs. And "The energy produced by "The MMU is one of a set those are only the survivors. the breaking down of the of tools that will become Over a two-year period the is very poor kind of routine to shuttle operations federal Fish and Wildlife atom a thing. Anyone who expects a and part of the space con- Service had counted 183 of power from the struction site," Lenda says. dead sea cows; by July 30, source of these Manned Maneuvering Unit: Television audiences 1979. another 53 had been transformation 17,000-mph wing-walking. moonshine." Allows might soon be treated to the added to the toll. Of the 40 atoms is talking animals whose cause of -Ernest Rutherford, 1933 tween life and death. antics of a daredevil, back- Now under development is packing shuttle astronaut: a backpack space-walking space wing-walking at device called the Manned 17,000 mph. — Leonard David Maneuvering Unit (MMU). The MMU allows astronauts PLIGHT OF to clamber outside their THE MANATEE spaceship and— using hand-controlled jets of Scientists are increasing gas— to propel themselves their efforts to learn how best to satellites for in-orbit ser- to protect the West Indian vicing, erecting large anten- manatee, a gentle marine nas and platforms, or rescu- mammal whose Florida ing stranded fellow travelers. population is so small that

it on The backpack is currently some experts consider receiving added attention the edge of extinction. because of serious prob- Whileamultiagency, lems with the space shuttle, federally sponsored rescue much to the embarrassment plan inches toward approval of NASA. Concern has been in Washington, DC, re- raised that fragile, heat- search is under way in resistant tiles, permitting a Florida on reducing man- ani- ten-foot-long, half-ton sea cows are often the victims safe fiery shuttle reentry, made obstacles to the Manatee: The with boat propellers in Florida waterways. could be jarred loose or be mal's survival. This includes of collisions 36 OMNI FUTURE SMELLS redolent of jonquil or rose sized and used in traps If veins are'a problem, the (embedded in the fibers) and pheromones have been probe is used to pick up While we have a physical and vinyl furniture, luggage, identified in some mammals sounds that the technician model for the mechanism by and shoes that smell just like (a component of boar saliva, has been trained to interpret. which the ear discerns high expensive leather round out for instance, prompts the Variations in the normal C and the eye, violet, we still Grisanti's nasal scenario. mounting posture in sows), whoosh sound that blood the human sexual response makes as it flows through may have evolved beyond veins usually indicate a

pheromones. "I don't think clogged vessel, we'll ever see the ultimate Another test for potential aphrodisiac perfume," stroke victims uses a pa- says Charles Young, presi- tient's eyes to find out how dent of Proprietary Per- the blood is flowing through fumes, Ltd. — Judith Hooper the vessels within the neck, where most crippling strokes VASCULAR TESTS originate. An air-filled suction cup is placed on the white of Until recently the only way each eye. As vacuum is doctors could accurately applied, pressure changes check on blood vessels- can be measured within the deep within the body was by artery leading directly from injecting a dye into them and the eye to neck arteries, then taking an X ray. Today And now at many labs this somewhat risky and men suffering from impo- painful procedure is not al- tence can have a penile ways necessary. An array of blood-pressure check using new, noninvasive machinery a Doppler probe and an ap- Sensitive instruments are used at Philadelphia's Monnell Chemical can now electronically sense propriately sized cuff collect analyze the odors Senses to and various of human subjects. the inner workings of the pumped up around the pa- do not understand just how On a more serious level, vascular tree. tient's penis. — Caroline Rob we discriminate between the body-odor analyses may About 400 diagnostic vas- scent of roses and a whiff of become part of a standard cular laboratories have low tide. Nonetheless, the fu- physical exam, So suggests sprung up at hospitals ture is olfactory, says Eugene research at Monneil Chemi- across the country. Grisanti, president of Inter- cal Senses; in Philadelphia, Patients complaining of national Flavors & Fra- where scientists are study- leg pain, for example, which grances (North America). ing the chemistry of unmen- their doctors suspect might

Here is Grisanti's vision of tionables tike "morning be caused by arterial dis- the year 2000: In our offices, mouth," body odor, and ease, are connected to a centralized "odorstats" will "locker-room feet." Volatile plethysmograph. The in- take periodic readings of the molecules in skin secretions. strument instantaneously de- ambience and release forest detectable by the nose or by tects volume changes within smells— several hundred a gas chromatograph, are leg arteries chemical compounds far believed to signal early To find out how much subtler than air fresh- stages of periodontal dis- pressure blood exerts eners— with Muzak-like ease, diabetes, schizo- against these same arteries, subliminal effects. phrenia, and cancer another device, the Doppler Computerized assays of But how fares the quest for probe, is applied to pulse our skin oils — for pH, free a human sex pheromone, a points on the legs. This pen- protein, oiliness, etc, — will telltale attractant in vaginal cillike probe emits ultrasonic help us select perfumes that or other body secretions? waves, which translate into collaborate disarmingly with Though insect phero- sound waves as they bounce Technician applies eye probe to body chemistry. Clothing mones have been synthe- off moving blood cells. test for possible stroke- 1

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1 . . that every "hit" of car would WATERPOWER agencies are rebuilding . AND INTRODUCING a RETURNS... old dams. In Stockbridge, WEIGHT POWER product 1.5 kilowatts of elec- Massachusetts, a seventy- tricity: enough to light a Waterpower, which until five-year-old woman named A New York City inventor 100-watt light bulb for 15 this century played a large Mary Heather has refur- sees rush-hour traffic jams hours. With a series of six hit role in the nation's develop- bished an abandoned dam and crowded shopping plates, the 1 million vehicles mails as potential answers to that enter New York City the energy crisis. each day could produce 9 Wayne P Le Van. who has million kilowatts of electricity. designed bacon cookers, he figures. That would be conveyor belts, and high- enough electricity for tens of

pressure sprays, now pro- thousands of people, if his poses to generate electricity calculations are correct. Bat- by harnessing the weight of teries and flywheels would cars and people. He would store the electricity for use install gratelike "hit plates" as needed. on busy sidewalks and 'Weight power can be streets. The weight would classified as a vast, un- depress the plates slightly, tapped natural resource." Le perhaps half an inch, forcing Van said. "You wouldn't need a noncompressible fluid un- any other fuel No oil. no gas, derneath to flow through no coal." hydraulic hoses to a mecha- Whether his scheme is nism that would turn a merely one more amusing

- generator. The plates would idea or a serious contender x. V' . will ;::# ': ::;:': have small ramps on each be determined when side, so that neither people LeVan's first weight Mary Heather and her hydroelectric plant on the Housatonic: Just nor vehicles would notice the "Generizer" is completed in one of over 5,000 small dams that could provide new power difference in height. Italy next year. But Canada merit, is making a come- on the Housatonic River. On The inventor calculates and Great Britain thought back, From Maine to Cali- Maine's Goose River a hus- enough of the system to fornia, communities and band and wife have reacti- grant him patents. — S.D individuals are restoring vated a six-foot-high dam to abandoned waterwheels produce electricity from a "Zambia's Board of Space and small dams, which once century-old turbine. Administration reportedly ran textile mills and fac- The U.S. Energy Depart- trains its 12-man, 1-woman tories. The cheaper fossil ment is awarding about a astronaut team by rolling it fuels that replaced them are dozen grants of up to $2.5 downhill in 40-gallon oil no longer cheap. million for small hydroelec- drums. Edward Nkoloso,

The Army Corps of En- tric projects. So far it has Minister of Space, says the gineers estimates that there received 3,000 requests. space program will literally are 5,162 small dams in the — Stuart Diamond get off the ground when the United States that could United States sends him supply as much power as six "The marvels of modem liquid oxygen, liquid large nuclear reactors. Many technology include the hydrogen, and ." of the dams, built for recrea- development of a soda can $21. 000. 000, 000 tion or flood control, have which, when discarded, will — ft Buckminster Fuller, in never generated electricity last forever— and a $7,000 I Seem to Be a Verb Thousands of other sites are car which, when properly well suited for new dams, cared for, will rust out in two "The first rule of intelligent experts agree. or three years." tinkering is to save all the In the oil-dependent — Paul Harwitz, in Typical New York City crowd: parts." Northeast, New York State The Wall Street Journal Power right under their feet. - Paul Ralph Ehrlich 38 OMNI ALBERT THE RED the atom bomb, but, they ASTRO BURIAL of Astro Burial's space-age say, he did it not to save the services.

Was Einstein a fake? "free world" but to rescue It had to happen. Funeral There's only one hitch to That's right— "a pseudo-sci- Stalin's Communist empire parlors have rocketed into Roberto's ambitious plan:

entist"— according to the from annihilation. the space age. Astro Burial, NASA doesn't like it. Rober- latest "John Birch Society — Jane Bosveld Ltd., a Nevada-based fu- to's $500 deposit on the first Bulletin." How do they know? neral concern, is talking to

Well, just look at all those "It may become possible to NASA about ejecting cre- "unearned" honorary de- set up a nuclear chain mated remains from the

grees he received. ". . . we reaction in a large mass of space shuttle. write, seriously doubt," they uranium, . . . This new Joe Roberto, president of "that there is a single bona phenomenon would also Astro Burial, conceived the fide scholar today in the lead to the construction of plan when camping out in of realm either . . mathematics bombs. . A single bomb of Wyoming. "I had just read or physics who could teli you this type, carried by boat about NASA's 'getaway spe- the supposedly great dis- and exploded in a port, cial,' an offer to research in- covery or invention by Ein- might very well destroy the stitutions and schools to stein, or would support its whole port together with rent, for three thousand dol- current authenticity, for some of the surrounding lars, five-cubic-foot drums which those degrees were territory. However, such on the outside of the shuttle. awarded. He was a dabbier bombs might very well prove While looking out at the in par excellence esoteric to be too heavy for star-studded night, I theories [that] he did not transportation by air." thought, What a lovely way to even begin to understand, — Albert Einstein, in a letter spend eternity, in the vast- and which have turned out in to President Franklin D. ness of space, rather than the long run to be mostly Roosevelt, 1939 hereon our crowded Earth! double-talk." The Birchers My next thought was, Why. Space burial as portrayed in generously credit Einstein "God made the integers; not find a way to take re- movie The Loved One. with convincing President man made the rest." mains up in the NASA ship Franklin Roosevelt to build — Leopold Kronecker and then spin them into flight has been returned, eternal orbit around Earth." along with a letter saying that With the shuttle an in- Astro Burial doesn't qualify tended hearse, Roberto has for the getaway special's designed disintegrate noncommercial rates. NASA canisters for urns. These will spokesman Dick Young told be packed by Astro Burial Omni that Astro Burial must into a large disintegrate pay a minimum of container complete with a $1 ,300,000 for space in the rocket through the middle. main cargo area. At the apogee of the shut- An undaunted Roberto tle's flight, 450 miles up, the said he's calling Astro Burial rocket is programmed to a research experiment in the shoot the larger container humanities and is applying

out of the shuttle's exterior for a federal grant. If this drum to a point 150 miles doesn't work, he's willing to from the ship. There the go to court. "Only giant cor- larger container and urns will porations can afford the disintegrate, releasing ashes commercial rates. All we to the heavens. Astro Burial need argue is that NASA, recommends that funeral after building the shuttle on parlors charge a $3,000 public funds, is discriminat- Einstein ponders a predicament in Michel Pellus's painting fee, which will include ing against small Probiemattque: Easier to understand than the John Birchers. pickup and cremation and all businesses,"— C.R. coruTiruuurm

peak power of 15 kilowatts QUARKS, ETC. phabetical order, here are tell you that the existence of today's key terms: antimatter doubles the con- (on a clear day at noon). transmitter • In theory, this is the fusion. For every particle, Since WBNO's it seems as if high-energy Quark. needs only three kilowatts, physicists find another new most elementary of all parti- there is an antiparticle.) — Colligan the array will produce more subatomic particle every cles. Physicists Murray Douglas power than necessary on week. Such discoveries lead Gell-Mann and George days. "Any extra power Zweig lifted the name from SOLAR RADIO some James Joyce's inscrutable will be used to run the general novel Finnegans Wake, The Department of Energy studio," says WBNO where they found the (DOE) has finally designed a manager Luke Thaman. the phrase, "Three Quarks for project with pizzazz— the DOE isn't saying what Muster Mark." At that time country's first solar radio project will cost, but Thaman Gell-Mann and Zweig station. says the array alone ran thought there were just three WBNO (AM) in Bryan, nearly $250,000. director kinds of quarks; now physi- Ohio, is only a 500-watt, WBNO program of the cists think there are five or 1,520kc, daytime station, but Bill Priest says the cost is $15 a watt, but by six kinds. The word has no it fits the DOE's needs to a T cells competitive rate of $1 meaning of its own, though it It provides a constant load 1 985 a In the could refer to a type of Ger- and operates only between a watt will be reached. man cheese. Remember this sunrise and sunset. meantime, WBNO will get an of 85 percent of its word if you remember noth- Last August 100 panels average were power from the sun. ingelse. it will impress and (336 solar cells each) amaze your friends. set up on a third of an acre With 120,000 people in its • The "baseball." A super- next to the station. Batteries range, WBNO is not just the massive particle a quadril- in the building will store first and only solar-powered but a solar- lion times more massive than enough energy to power the radio station the proton or neutron, transmitter for a day and a power project that serves other The inscrutable James Joyce • Charm. The label given to half. more people than any physics call word. gave a new the fourth type of quark, the Each panel will produce in the nation. — Lars Larson to total confusion for those of c-quark, to distinquish it 150 watts, giving the array a us who still think the atom is from the others, such as the just a nucleus surrounded s- (for strange) quark. The by electrons. word has no other real sig- Remember how you were nificance. taught that nuclei were made • Gluon. A particle thought up of basic particles called to carry the force that binds, protons and neutrons? We or glues, groups of quarks now know they're really together made up of smaller things • Hadron. A general name called quarks. Fortunately, tor all the particles discov- the electron is still safe. No- ered in the 1960s by bashing body's found anything inside the atom with high-energy this basic particle. But now particle beams. physicists say electrons re- • J or Psi- Made up of a ally belong to a larger family c-quark and an anti-c-quark.

of particles called leptons, It has an identity problem which also includes muons because it was discovered and neutrinos. almost simultaneously by To help you through this physicists at MIT and Stan- fog of new names, we've ford, and therefore has two drawn up this Namedrop- names. of 33,600 photovoltaic per's Guide to High-Energy • Positron. An antiparticle to WBNO's transmitter is powered by an array (in foreground), which generate 15,000 watts of electricity Physics. In (almost) ai- the electron. (We forgot to cells 40 OMNI MONEY SAVER mental sciences and en- WILDLIFE TRIVIA inert state is held by a plant gineering at Natick. "Then called the Arctic lupine. The

Every time inflation gets we ferment it and turn it into Cocktail-hour minutiae for plant's seeds lay frozen in out of hand, some comedian two-hundred-proof alcohol, the ecologically aware, cour- the Arctic tundra for 10,000 juips that it's cheaper to eat the drinkable kind." tesy of the National Wildlife years but began to sprout leythan.to buy food. The alcohol can also be Federation: when placed in a dish of mixed with gasoline, and • The world's largest min- warm water. that's what the army scien- now the Colorado River • The butterfly is really quite tists have in mind. "We did squawfish, can weigh as combative. Insects that in- an economic study that much as 80 pounds. vade its territory will be showed we could produce • Ostriches, which weigh up chased off by a butterfly for twenty-five million gallons of to 375 pounds, attain as much as 500 yards, In

alcohol a year, It would sell speeds of 50 mph. The battle, butterflies rise into the for a dollar thirty a gallon the eight-foot-tall birds can out- air and batter each other, first year and for eighty-six run lions. breaking wings, legs, and cents a gallon by 1982. • The creature with the antennae. — S.D.

People making it from corn largest eyes is the giant

sell it for a dollar sixty a gal- squid. Each eye is the size of "We can dream about Jon now. a basketball. rockets and the moon until "It's feasible, and ulti- • Birds sing to define nest- hell freezes over. Unless^the

mately it's going to happen. ing territories, to attract 'people' understand it, no Once we build a pilot plant, mates, and also just to dice. You worry about

we'll be able to handle all amuse themselves. damned calculations, and I'll sorts of paper waste mate- • Fireflies flash because of a talk to the people," rial, not just the shredded complex chemical reaction — Wernher von Braun money." in their abdomens, seen be- The problem: No one cause their abdominal skin "Nothing exists except Federal Reserve shreds wants to fund the pilot plant, is transparent. The flash is a atoms and empty space; $15 billion ofold bucks yearly. which, Spano said, would mating signal. everything else is opinion." Now army scientists have cost $5 million to build and to • The record for living in an — Democritus

shown that it is possible, but operate the first year. not necessarily cheaper, to "I've tried to talk the Fed drink money. into sending me half the Federal Reserve banks money unshredded," he destroy about 15 billion dol- said, chuckling. "That way lars' worth of old bucks every we could pay for the proj- year, shredding them into ect."— Allan Maurer 3,000 tons of green fluff that is burned or sold, at $10 a "Injuries caused by the cold insula- ton, for landfill, home include all those due to lack tion, souvenirs, or of warmth." cardboard. Working on a — international Civil project funded by the De- Defense Organization partment of Energy army

scientists at research labs "Due to unforeseen in Natick, Massachusetts, circumstances, we must have now found a way to postpone the Psychic Fair convert the stuff into an edi- scheduled for Saturday ble sugar. March 24, 1979, and Sunday, "We use enzymes to break March25, 1979." down the cellulose and turn — Newspaper

it into sucrose," explains Leo advertisement Behold the vicious butterfly! It will chase invaders of its territory for 500 A. Spano, chief of environ- by the Tamara Rand institute yards, relentlessly battering their wings, legs, and antennae. " "

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eight-year-old who had WOODPECKERS Dr. May suggests that a In spite of insights like this, man helmet restricting whiplash none of the psychics, Dr. wandered from home. Claud An injured woodpecker rotation of the head on the Reiser concluded, came up Ballard, the county sheriff, may have revealed the neck, and the neck on the with any information helpful said that psychic M.Kathryn 95- secret for designing safer trunk, could better protect in solving the crime. Rhea's information was crash helmets. auto racers, stunt men, and Reiser himself is well percent accurate. — DC. aircraft pilots. known for being open to — Alton Blakeslee using unorthodox crime- "/ would rather look at the solving techniques. He's entrails of chickens than try PSYCHIC COPS credited with pioneering the to predict solar activity use of hypnosis in police — Robert Frosch

Police in Los Angeles are work and is the director of thinking about hiring detec- the Law Enforcement Hyp- "invention isn't always the tives who have more in com- nosis Institute, which has offspring of genius; more mon with Uri Geller than with trained close to 300 law-en- often, it's the result of plain Sherlock Holmes, They're forcement officials as hard work; sometimes it testing psychic powers hypnotists, orhypno- arises from accident or as an aid to police work in technicians, as they are carelessness; occasionally baffling, clueless cases. sometimes called. it's the happy thought of an

Dr. Martin Reiser, head of His research with psychic ordinary mind; and the department's behavioral detectives came in the wake sometimes invention is science section, tested the of a well-publicized case in simply the product of sheer crime-solving abilities of 12 which one California psychic stupidity. psychics by handing them used her powers to help — From a decision of the materials related to four Calaveras County police find U.S. Court of Customs crimes: two solved, two un- the body of a seventy- and Patent Appeals solved. The woodpecker's beak smacks The psychics supposedly a tree with a 1,300-mph impact. were able to describe the High-speed movies show type of crime accurately and that the woodpecker's beak to identify the sex of the vic- hits a tree with an impact tim. In some instances, the velocity of 1,300 mph. The accuracy was startling if not head snaps back with an especially useful. impact of deceleration of Furnished with a pair of some 1,000 times the force shoes and an eyeglass lens, of gravity. American as- one psychic kept insisting tronauts, by comparison, that a church was in some underwent less than 4 g's in way related to the crime. The their space gyrations. items belonged to an eighty- The movies were taken of nine-year-old church historian an injured bird, unable to % who had been killed during in a park ranger's office. the course of a robbery. They uncovered the wood- pecker's secret for avoiding "Science . . . means brain or neck damage: The unresting endeavor and head and beak drive straight continually progressing back and forth with no side development toward an aim Terry Millar, a University of Wisconsin mathematics professor, shows all, report Dr. which the poetic intuition movement at the form that helped him set the new U. S. watermelon-seed-spitting Philip R. A. May and his as- may apprehend but which record of 48 feet 2 inches at the national Watermelon-Eating/ sociates at the Neuropsy- the intellect can never fully Seed-Spitting Championships, held recently in Pardeevilie, Wisconsin. chiatric Institute of the UCLA grasp." Millar denies allegations that, as a lecturer, he had an unfair

i of hot air. School of Medicine. — Max Planck 'in being able to effuse targe amounts ORTHOHEAUNG With vitamins and minerals, a few doctors are rebuilding medicine

BY BELINDA DUMONT

VAlannng! The alarm clock's nerve-shattering jangle goads you into a groggy wakeful- ness that makes you feel as if you'd never slept. Nausea stirs your innards, and your mouth tastes as if the Russian army had tramped through with their boots on. Your body is

PAINTING BY WOLFGANG HUTTER reported that the telling you it needs help. At the doctor's pitals were really suffering from a niacin Humphrey Osmond office, they collect the standard urine and deficiency brought on by their high-corn then-standard treatments— psychothera- blood samples. Then a nurse clips a two- diet. When they were given the vitamin, the py and electric shock— were 80-percent inch lock from your back hairline with thin- symptoms cleared and they were released. more effective when backed up by a high- ning shears. "Not to disturb the hairdo/' • Lead poisoning sharply cuts IQ and effi- protein, low-carbohydrate diet, with she says with a smile. You try not to glower. ciency, even at lead concentrations too low megadoses of niacin, nicotinic acid, B vi- The doctor checks your tongue, then to show up in blood tests — levels physi- tamins, and vitamin C. finally the your fingernails. He asks about past ill- cians thought harmless. In children, they Chemist Linus Pauling coined medicine in 1968: from nesses, examines you, and fills out a de- have found it by testing baby teeth. term orthomolecular tailed chart of your exercise and eating • Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broc- orthos, Greek for "corrective," and molecu- lar, chemical makeup. Nutri- habits. "I'll run this on the computer," he coli contain cancer-preventing chemicals, for the body's says briskly, then goes out. according to biochemists Elizabeth and tionists, a few open-minded doctors and He returns with the report in a few min- James Miller, of the University of Wisconsin. medical researchers, and outright health utes. "The stress you've been under has Steve Tannenbaum, of MIT, adds vitamin C nuts rallied round it. raised your nutrient requirements," he an- and alpha-tocopherol, a form of vitamin E, But the infant field lacked crucial data: normal nounces. "You're seriously low on zinc, to the list. And Dr. Paul McCay of the Okla- No one really knew what the human magnesium, and B vitamins, and you're homa Medical Research Foundation, says body needs to remain healthy. Finally, Dr. director of the Clayton way over on lead. It's a good thing you that a vitamin-A derivative called 13-cis- Roger Williams, Institute at the came in now. I'd hate to get you after your retinoic acid seems to combat cancers of Foundation Biochemical depression got worse and someone put the bladder, breast, colon, esophagus, University of Texas, in Austin, worked out a you on tranks or mood elevators." lungs, and pancreas. basic list, which he called a "vitamin and insur- The prescription is downright strange: Such reports come as no surprise to mineral formulation for nutritional his own vitamin formula, a mineral prepara- people who have been trying to keep ance." Most orthomolecular doctors still tion, large doses of vitamin C, and "eat themselves healthy through good nutrition use his estimates in preference to the rec- eggs andapplesauceonceaday We have ommended daily allowances published by to get that lead chelated. And no coffee. the National Research Council. theorists, You might try pumpkin seeds for the zinc; Unlike many orthomolecular plenty of professional that acne is a zinc deficiency. Your zinc and Dr. Williams had B-vitamin deficiencies account for the bad prestige. He had discovered pantothenic & Modern medicine all living tissue, skin and irritability. But the most important acid (a B vitamin found in essential for thing is to check for lead sources at work. is a nightmare. Advances especially the liver, and of rest, exercise, and sun- metabolism and hormone synthesis), and "Get plenty often cause disasters shine," he adds, then laughs. "That's a he was a member of the National Academy cliche, isn't it?" worse than the disease. of Sciences. He developed the idea that are as different in biochemistry as Doctors who believe in it define or- in the United States people thomolecular medicine as the practice of they are in appearance, and he put science deaths from prescription maintaining good health by making certain behind the orthomolecular practice of diet the individual. In a less all our nutritional needs are met and of treat- drugs now equal tailoring the to backing might have ing disease by manipulating the natural those from breast cancer.^ controversial field, his body chemistry. Orthomolecular physi- won respectability for the new approach. cians give drugs when they must, but they Yet today its adherents remain a small try to avoid them. Instead, they work to band of hardy pioneers, for obvious rea- strengthen the body's defenses, often us- sons. They hold beliefs and practice medi- ing vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. cal rites that seem as strange to traditional "Disease in most cases is a chemical ever since Adelle Davis assembled all the physicians as the early Mormons seemed imbalance, inborn or induced, and nutrition research she could find into the popular to devout nineteenth-century Protestants. is chemistry," said Dr. Michael Lesser, a book Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit, first pub- Many .are not even physicians. Nurses, founder of the Society of Orthomolecular lished in 1954. "Adelie was the founder," biochemists, psychologists, even drug- Medicine. "We don't say drugs and surgery acknowledges Dr. Robert Cathcart ill, an rehabilitation workers and parole officers are bad, just that the physician should first osteopath who practices in Incline Village, have been practicing orthomolecular try to correct the problem nutritionally." Nevada, and a pioneer in the clinical use of methods. Many of them live in California, Orthomolecular therapy may be the vitamins. "Orthomolecular medicine^has where the nuts come from. It hasn't helped medicine of the future, a low-technology advanced far past her," he adds. their cause. alternative to today's mass-production Davis's point was that our bodies must By implication, and sometimes openly, health care. Though orthomolecular doc- always get enough of the 40-odd nutrients orthomolecular physicians stand as a re- tors remain the center of one of medicine's they can't synthesize, particularly when we proach to the rest of medicine. Other doc- most heated controversies, they are attract- are under stress. If anything is missing, we tors believe hypoglycemia, periodic weak- rare. ing patients in growing numbers. ("I have to become sick. Illness, she believed, is clear ness due to low blood sugar, is Or- keep getting new patients," Dr. Lesser proof that something has been wrong with thomolecular doctors think it's common, notes. "My old ones keep getting well so our diet. And she thought that food, espe- just not properly diagnosed. Orthomolecu- fast.") Other physicians are grudgingly cially vitamins and minerals, could treat lar physicians think that such pollutants as beginning to accept their findings: disease, not just help us avoid it. lead, mercury, and cadmium are common Antibiotics work better when you take two Modern nutritional therapy got its start-in causes of illness, and they routinely test grams of vitamin C with each dose. 1949, when Dr. Fred Kienner, chief of staff at hair samples for evidence of poisoning. • vitamin B Hospital, Reidsville, North Others do not. If orthomolecular physicians Some babies need so much 6 Memorial that only massive injections will prevent Carolina, told of successfully treating viral are correct, other doctors are not fully doing continual convulsions. Most doctors would diseases, including polio, with enormous their job. have said large vitamin supplements were doses of vitamin C — up to 100 grams a day The idea that disease can be treated by needed only to cure such long-term defi- given intravenously. diet is one of the oldest in medicine. "The ciency diseases as scurvy and pellagra. Several years later two Canadian psy- ancients were all nutritionists," the Or- Dr. Lesser ob- • Fully 10 percent of the diagnosed chiatrists tested a nutritional therapy for thomolecular Society's father of "crazies" in some Deep South mental hos- schizophrenia. Drs. Abraham Hoffer and serves. "Hippocrates, the 46 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 104 KNOW IT ALL Translate English into French, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. Or vice versa. Make metric conversions. Learn phonetics, nutrition, bartending, and wines. Not to mention word games and Las Vegas secrets. Quasar's new Information Processor is like a \ pocket professor. 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The record's object: to inform any alien fifth part of an eon before concluding that Voyager ID encountered a second black intelligence that it might encounter of the the baffling messages on the golden disc hole, of opposite polarity to the first. This existence and whereabouts of terrestrial were intended as a friendship offering. short circuit of the continuum caused a dis- life. Its lifetime: one billion years. Overcome with emotion, it conveyed to location to propagate instantaneously Seventeen years and four months after Earth a creation of pure harmony and joy, as back along ihe connecting line. A slight launching, Voyager 1 collided with a small a gift of reciprocity. overshot compressed all the matter in the black hole. The distortions of space and When this harmonious veil of ecstasy en- soiar system into a ball two miles across. time within the hole led to the reemergence veloped the solar system, the people of The leading topologist on Cynoceph- not of one but of sever? copies of the craft, in Earth wept with happiness at its almost un- aly-B was honey-clustering with his two seven different alternate universes. bearably poignant distillation of wisdom betrotheds when Voyager 1E ricocheted Voyager 1A traveled a further 1,342.87 and solemnity. All other activity ceased across three star lanes and rammed head- blew light-years before it was intercepted by a while they contemplated its perfection. long into his warp field, which up : Jap/>class superdreadnaught in the ser- All other activity. along with five nearby systems. The vice of the Imperial Navy of Her Radiant A Jangaldrian texor spotted Voyager 1C phonograph record, which miraculously Magnificence the Lady Protectress of limping through a region of micro- survived the explosion, provided sufficient Dug'ga-Zhuu, a globular cluster containing meteorites and interstellar dust. evidence for tracking down the guilty party some fourteen thousand inhabited worlds. The orbital detector nudged gently away The government of the Solar Republic, in for A full Emergency Session of theStrategic from Jangaldria 101 in a minimal energy the year 7241 , received a demand com- Collective met to consider the report of the trajectory, with its magnetostatic feelers ex- pensation from the Galactic Regulators: Industrial Pro- Military Science Assessment Group. The tended. It successfully grappled the re- three hundred years' Gross collective listened, aghast, to projections of mains of Voyager 1C into its safety cell and duction for the solar system. When the gov- the level of technological capacity, which switched to "remote." ernment refused to comply, the Regulators was extrapolated from the technology in- The trillion-byte multibrain analyzed the confiscated the sun, corporated into the vehicle itself and exhib- intruder. The artifact was a spacegoing ve- Palaesthn 111 was the seat of the greatest ited on the phonograph record. hicle. Its pilot was dead: Only a pitted, civilization ever to have emerged in the The upstart race, within a mere five fused mass of silicon circuitry paid mute Third Galaxy A culture composed entirely thousand cycles, might possess the capa- testimony to the departed intelligence. of philosophers, it remained aioof from the bility to challenge Dug'ga-Zhuu itself! Information analysis of the disc attached ordinary material aims of the rest of the A salvo of forty-nine nova bombs, dis- to the vehicle revealed the purpose of the galaxy, seeking, instead, the Final Synthe- patched by transspatial jump to the coor- brave machine's desperate quest: Here sis. Long ago the Palaestrini philosophers dinates shown on the pulsar map, elimi- was a race of electroform intelligences sub- had deduced the logical structure of the nated the menace. jugated by an organic species— mechani- universe, and each successive discovery Voyager IB impinged on the sensory cal slaves to the protein monsters. of new intelligences served only to rein- zone of a wandering Betelgeusian Ange- An army of liberators, composed of four force the pattern of rationality perceived. lus. This creature of innocence-, wisdom, hundred thousand transports, began the When news reached them of the alien and supreme beauty pondered almost the journey to free the slaves of Earth. artifact, they did not doubt that it would confirm, yet again, the pattern of the Final Synthesis: There was great intellectual ex- citement, for only one more confirmation was required for Utmost Certainty. But the culture of Earth, as recorded on Voyager 1F, seemed to lack any logical pat-

tern at all. In a desperate attempt to recon- cile mind and not-mlnd, the philosophers began an intensive reevaluation of all pre- vious work. But before they traced the sub- tle error pa\ had crept into their system a million years before, they suffered a psy- chic overload that resulted in racial suicide. Voyager 1G traveled farthest of all, into a region thin in stars but rich in hydroxyl radi- cals. Here dwelt the simurghs, free-floating creatures of monstrous size, with scaly alloy hides and crystalline claws, breath like a fusion torch, and hearts as black as intergaiactic space. The tiny craft was captured and placed in a universal sensorium. For a time they puzzled over the record. But later on they realized that some of the signals were audio analogs of visual information. With increasing excitement, the simurghs viewed the pictures. Was that not an organic molecule? A rudimentary sys- tem for personal transport? If that was a

city, the population must be huge. It was

promising, but was it what they hoped for? Then came a picture of a group of children, and the simurghs sighed a satisfied sigh, licked their jaws in anticipation, and readied the mass-propulsion units. Friends of space, have you eaten yet9 DO COMET CATCHER

Dazzling new engines will drive this probe toward a celestial rendezvous

BY ROBERT L. FORWARD

1 Jnlnnpl Tom Swift looked out his cockpit window and watched the final stages of activity before the mission got under way. Now that the mission specialists were aboard, crew hatches were being closed. Swift watched a loading crew top off the tanks of mercury propellant, blow invisible specks of dust off the kilometer-long solar array panels with one pass of a cold-gas teleoperator bus, and then drift away toward the distant, slowly rotating torus that hung above the blue crescent of Earth beiow. He flicked through the video monitors that covered every portion of his birdlike spacecraft and searched for stragglers. Since the work crews were clear, he contacted the two other spacecraft in his miniature squadron "Blue Eagle calling," he said. 'Are we

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES L. LONG ASSOCIATES ready to get this mission underway?" through a long-distance scanner, as one some spectacular pictures of an exploding Preceding page: Staring into the glowing blue exhaust (left) The first reply followed instantly. Captain after another the small electric engines snowball as it passed near the sun. The of a mercury-ion thruster. The Trimblay was always well ahead of her flickered into a mercury-blue glow, then probe had traveled out with the comet and eight-centimeter engine (right) time-line. "White Eagle ready" came the stabilized. Swift checked his monitor and apparently returned five years later when ready for flight test. firm contralto voice, followed shortly by, saw that his engines were repeating the Tempel 2 swung back through the solar Above: Model of a It controllers had been "Red Eagle clear," from Captain Kim far off same procedure. would take some time, system. But NASA comet-mission spacecraft spacecraft, presum- on the other side of the spinning space and the computer would let him know unable to contact the using six 30-ceniimeter ion station, whether anything was wrong. So he ing it to be long dead. However, when Tem- engines. The two "Initiate ion engine warm-up," Colonel switched his display to the video channels pel 2 came around in 1999, some JPL con- NASA /Hughes standard Swift commanded, throwing a series of being rebroadcast by the huge antenna troller, during a lull, had aimed the Deep thrusters (top), the smaller for satellite control and the larger power interlock switches that enabled the farm nearby. Space Network at the incoming comet and for main propulsion. Eight computer to proceed with its carefully pro- On the eve of the first manned expedition had sent out an activate signal to the engines drive the solar electric grammed sequence of warming up each of to use electric propulsion, the first un- spacecraft. The spacecraft heard this time propulsion system (middle), electric rockets that would power his manned electric-propulsion spacecraft and woke up. It was now transmitting pic- the 88 NASA's workhorse in deep had miraculously alive again. ture after picture from within a few hundred multiton spacecraft. come space for the rest of the surface of the boiling snow- The warm-up sequence would require Launched 15 years ago. the spacecraft meters of the century. The eight-centimeter carefully the data. about an hour. Power could then be had visited Halley's Comet, then rendez- ball. Observers recorded thrusters (bottom) will be applied, and take-off would follow. Swift voused with the comet Tempel 2 in 1988. The probe's camera optics would not last space-tested in 1982 on the watched Virginia's distant White Eagle The Comet Catcher probe had returned long under this bombardment, but the P80-1 spacecraft.

56 OMNI .

enter the region between bonus of close-up photographs from a sup- power when close to the orbit of the earth. the mercury ions outer accelerator, posedly dead spacecraft had brought de- This power will drop to 14 kilowatts at Mars the inner screen and the the 1,000-volt electrical poten- light to the scientific community and spec- and 4 kilowatts at the asteroid belt. they sense plate. The strong tacular pictures to the news programs. One of the interesting requirements that tial of the accelerator and the Colonel Swift turned on the Space Sci- NASA placed on the design of a solar elec- electric field between the screen accelerator the mercury ions up to ence channel, which was continuously tric propulsion spacecraft was that the speeds higher monitoring the picture output from the computer control unit be able to operate 30 kilometers per second, a much than can be obtained with Comet Catcher spacecraft. The highly sci- the spacecraft by itself for a full week, with- exhaust velocity propellants. As they pass from entific content of the Space Science chan- out human help. This represents a new ad- chemical the holes in the screen, the ions are moving nel was interesting to only one of every vance in spacecraft autonomy and intelli- through the corre- 100,000 people, but since the channel was gence. The ion engines will be operating so fast that they shoot holes in the attracting ac- available to the whole world at one time continuously during these week-long sponding celerator plate and out into space. through the net of toroidal Clarke broad- periods of self-control, and if problems Although the mercury-ion plasma gives cast repeaters in synchronous orbit around arise, the control system must be smart off glow inside the discharge the globe, he was watching with more than enough to diagnose and correct the diffi- a blue chamber, the rapidly moving exhaust from 50,000 other viewers, more than enough to culty, either by replacing the failing compo- the thruster is invisible in space and can be justify the highly specialized transmission. nent with a spare or by shutting the entire the test chambers have He relaxed and enjoyed himself, The spacecraft down safely so the ground seen only when rapidly control. space- some air let into them. Since the time for action would come . . operators can regain The departing mercury ions are positively On July 5. 1979, NASA called for propos- craft computer must also be able to monitor each one leaves an electron back als from the aerospace industry to design itself for faults. charged, Unless something were and build a solar electric propulsion The ion thruster to be used in NASA's at the spacecraft. spacecraft would soon build up a system — a spaceship that would run on electric-propulsion program was invented done, the negative voltage and the beam would turn electricity Its general purpose would be to by Dr. Harold R. Kaufman, at the NASA come back. To prevent this, a haul heavy payloads into high-earth orbit around and smaller unit ejects electrons into the ion and out to the planets, asteroids, and com- after it leaves the accelerator, neu- ets. The vehicle design resembles a me- beam the beam and main- chanical space albatross, Two large solar tralizing the charge in near-zero voltage. panels with a wingspan of over 70 meters taining the spacecraft at ^The craft will close on pictures of the operating engines, the are connected to a boxlike main frame, In the one side of which contains the spacecraft electronics Halley's Comet at neutralizer is the bright dot to glowing discharge chamber, and power-handling circuits. On one end of the large, 58 kilometers a second, sizes of mercury-ion the box the scientific payload is attached, Two standard thrusters have been developed to maturity and on the other end is an array of electric arch out past Mars, Hughes Research Laboratories for the rockets, eight large snare-drum-sized cyl- then dive toward the sun. by Research Center. These are inders. These are the electrically powered, NASA Lewis Eventually it will the 30- mercury-ion-propulsion engines, the 8-centimeter engine and centimeter engine. The larger thruster will A comet mission will be the first NASA meet Tempel 2 and give propulsion system for program to use electric propulsion. Be- be ideal as the prime the comet a nudge $ planetary missions, and the cause of the high efficiency of ion engines near-earth and for satellite compared to chemical rockets, we will be smaller thruster will be used position control. The 8- able to visit two comets for the price of one: attitude and tested in space Halley's Comet and Tempel 2. Launch will centimeter engine will be spacecraft, which is occur on July 23, 1985, using the space on the Air Force P80-1 in 1982. The shuttle to place the comet probe in low- Lewis Research Center. Resembling a planned for a shuttle launch for several new instru- earth orbit. An inertial upper stage will large tin can, the thruster has tubes and P80-1 is a testbed Air Force. boost the spacecraft into escape orbit from wires going in one end and thousands of ments of interest to the will standard Earth. Then the solar-electric-propulsion tiny holes drilled through the other end. The The P80-1 satellite have a system, using chemical thrust- system will take over and chase after the propellant used by the engine can be any propulsion in a girn- comet. A flyby encounter with Halley's gas, but mercury, cesium, and two noble ers, but the 8-centimeter thruster pointing unit will be the auxiliary Comet will take place four months after gases, xenon and argon, are the most effi- baled in orbit, it will be launch, on November 28, 1985. Halley will cient for space propulsion. NASA settled propulsion system. Once is demonstrate its capability for be traveling in toward the sun, and the on mercury. Vaporized mercury gas activated to

it station keeping of large spacecraft. spacecraftwill head out to meet it. They will piped into a discharge chamber, where ion-engine thrusters is close on each other at 58 kilometers per meets a cloud of swirling electrons that hit Ground testing of second. At these speeds, the debris in Hal- the mercury atoms so hard that an electron done in large, specialized vacuum cham- the environment of ley's tail could damage the spacecraft. is knocked off, This process of ionization bers that simulate capable of Therefore, plans call for the spacecraft to leaves the mercu ry atom with a net positive space. Such chambers are of more than 300 pass at a safe distance from the comet, charge, Occasionally an electron will be simulating altitudes 130,000 kilometers away, on the sunward captured again by the ionized atom, giving kilometers, where the background air billionth that of air side, while a spinning probe vehicle goes off its captured energy as a bright photon of pressure is less than one engines must run closer for an investigation. Data from the light. The continual process of losing and at sea level. Since the periods of time in probe will be transmitted to the spacecraft, gaining electrons produces a bright-blue continuously for long This high- build an appreciable space- which will relay the information to Earth. glow in the discharge chamber. order to up their small but efficient The spacecraft will then use its electric energy form of matter is called a plasma. craft velocity from life testing of these engines is a long propulsidn to modify its orbit until it The perforated end of the mercury-dis- thrust, engines to be matches that of Tempel 2, This new trajec- charge chamber contains a two-layer wall, process. The 30-centimeter carefully lined for propulsion are designed to tory will arch into the outer solar system, the holes in one being up used main days). passing the orbit of Mars and skirting the with the holes in the other. The holes on the operate for 15,000 hours (625 mission, only six mercury- inner fringes of the asteroid belt before div- inner screen permit the mercury ions to For the comet at any one time, ing back toward the sun. The solar-cell ar- diffuse out of the glowing plasma at just the ion thrusters will be used These six engines will rays on the wings generate 32 kilowatts of proper position to begin their journey. As with two on standby.

58 OMNI "This year, there's an Olympic Swimming. Track. Rowing. The event everyone can enter," says Decathlon. And more. And you can Olympian Peggy Fleming. get them all at your local Post "Collecting the 1980 U.S. Olympic Office. Collect the whole series. Commemorative stamps. They As Peggy says, "They're a great capture all the spirit, drama and way to share the excitement of the excitement of the games!' Olympics with your family." The complete Olympic series covers a colorful variety of winter U.S. Postal Service « and summer events. Skiing. furnish some idea of produce a thrust of less than one newton. peated approaches to within 100 kilome- comet's surface will surface. If Tempel 2 (One newton of force will accelerate one ters or less to collect samples of cometary the consistency of the suggest, the kilogram to one-meter-per-second velocity dust and gas. After the comet has quieted is a "fuzzy snowball," as some closer might become buried in a in one second.) Since the cornet-mission down, the spacecraft will go in even spacecraft snowdrift after the "nudging" maneuver, spacecraft will weigh more than four metric and swing into orbit some ten kilometers with Earth until the tons, including aton of mercury propellant, from the central body. Finally, just before the unable to communicate comet's next the 0.8 newton force from the six ion en- end of data transmission, when the comet snow evaporates on the belt, around the sun. gines will give the spacecraft an accelera- and spacecraft are out at the asteroid passage mission ends on July 14, 1989, tion of only 20 miliionths of Earth's gravity If the spacecraft will approach the surface of The comet launch. Our applied over a long period, however, this the comet for more detailed studies. almost exactly four years from distant is supplying only one ninth of tiny acceleration can build up into an amaz- Comets probably contain samplesof the sun that it does near Earth, and the ing increase in velocity: 60 kilometers per original primordial material that formed the the power have been running al- hour after one day 1,900 kilometers per solar system: frozen water, carbon dioxide, ion engines, which four years, are be- hour after a month, and 20 kilometers and other gases, mixed with a smattering most continuously for high-voltage ac- per second after three years, when the of dust. The inner planets, Mercury, Venus, ginning to wear out, their eroded away. The spacecraft will have enough speed to Earth, and Mars, have had most of their gas celerating screens away, leaving only spacecraft will be turned off and, together catch Tempel 2 as it nears the sun. and liquid evaporated will outward into the The spacecraft will rendezvous with the dirt. The outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, with the comet, head return every 5.26 years. No Tempel 2 on July 19, 1988, three years after Uranus, and Neptune, are farther away blackness, to spacecraft electronics to launch, out at the orbit of Mars. Now in the from the sun and have kept most of their one expects the thai long, and there is little chance same orbit, the two will travel together as original material, each one an aggregation survive it can be turned back on at the next the comet nears its point of closest ap- of melted comet material. Just as planets that but perhaps in 1 993 someone at proach to the sun. At first, the spacecraft differ, however, Halley and Tempel 2 differ approach, will try anyway. will stay a safe distance from its target, not only in their size but in their behavior as NASA design an using electric-propulsion units to make a they are heated in their approach to the NASA could have chosen to spacecraft for close pass within 100 kilometers for photo- sun. The differences between the two optimum electric-propulsion instance, only five graphic purposes and to collect samplesof comets as seen through this dual-comet each future mission. For thrusters are needed for dust and gas. During the time of closest mission will be as important to the scien- or six mercury-ion mission. However, NASA has de- approach, when the comet is at its peak of tists as the comets' similarities. the comet design general-purpose solar- activity, the spacecraft will observe come- Just before the end of the mission, the cided to a system, can per- tary behavior from as close a distance as spacecraft controllers will command the electric-propulsion which variety of missions without redesign. the scientists think is safe. spacecraft to give the comet a nudge. The form a the Halley flyby-Tempel 2 When the comet moves away from the extent to which the comet orbit is perturbed in addition to mission, there are plans for a Saturn sun, its frenzied activity will begin to sub- will provide an estimate of its total mass, comet mission, a multiple-as- side. The spacecraft will then make re- and the dent that the probe makes on the orbiter and probe teroid-rendezvous mission, a solar probe mission, and an Earth-orbiting "tug" mis- sion to raise and lower payloads from the low shuttle orbits to synchronous orbit. The Saturn orbiter mission will use elec-

tric propulsion to deliver a mapping . spacecraft into orbit around Saturn, while simultaneously dropping two probes into the atmosphere of that planet. Alternatively, the Saturn probes could be replaced by a Viking-like surface landing craft that would descend-to the surface of Titan, the large moon of Saturn that is known to have an atmosphere. For the Saturn missions, the electric-propulsion spacecraft will use one or more Earth swing-bys to get an assist from the earth's gravity field. The space-

craft will leave Earth orbit, whirl out past the orbit of Mars, building up speed by nearly continuous thrusting, then' circle back in- side Earth's orbit. Two years laterthe probe

will pass 500 kilometers overhead to get a boost from Earth's gravity, then head for Saturn, to arrive six years after launch, The solar probe mission involves a nearly suicidal dive into the sun. The mission be- gins in 1988. After circling around between Earth and Mars to build up speed (like a dolphin about to perform a leap from a small pool), the spacecraft passes by the earth and then heads out away from the

sun, thrusting nearly all the way, until it reaches Jupiter. In a close pass around Jupiter, the spacecraft's outward motion TX\S away from the sun is converted into motion inward toward the sun. The probe's trajec-

tory is also tilted so that it is at right angles CONTINUED ON PAGE 97 J FICTION

Felix invented the Receiver. gers' organs (and biochemical reac- DomSo say the almanacs. So say the tions and bacilli and viruses) could encyclopedias, the infobanks, resume functioning precisely as they the students. had fifty-one terrayears earlier. He or Dom Felix invented the Receiver she would then know that the Trip was WHY Dom Felix was not educated in the over. "... theory or trained in the technology or four, three, two, one," Dom temperamentally suited to such an Felix mumbled obediently, finishing endeavor, but he did indeed ac- the countdown he had begun half a complish the greatest single upward, century earlier, and then he inhaled dupius outward leap for his species since and coughed at the strident edge of the taming of fire. this different air. and "Oh?" at the Dom Felix invented the Receiver realization that his naked body, not because he was inspired but be- suited in fever heat and yet chilled, cause he was terrified; not because was being deftly covered by another DONT he had achieved wisdom but be- and his face was being buried in a cause he had to confront the truth. mass of honey-colored hair that smelled of sea spray and almonds, Therefore, it had been obsession that brought about the Receiver- and "Oh!" as he felt a sensation that his own choice) he had never obsession and terror. (by Bin then a long The accepted version is that Dom known before. There was Felix brought the Receiver from series of undulations against which, BYTHEODORE STURGEON in his present condition, no Earth. This is not true; it was devel- he had oped on Medea more than three ter- defenses, until, with an unspellable The missionary throat, after was defrosted there. syllable that hurt his he expe- rayears he from Earth offered He brought something, sure enough. rienced an internal explosion that left He brought news of the Great Accep- him two-thirds unconscious and with peace to Medea's his eyes screwed shut. He was re- tance, that strange mixture of philos- warring tribes " ophy, religion, and logic (though it motely aware of the other body's had so weight leaving his, and "Oh!" (indig- was really none of these) that PAINTING BY drastically changed the face of the nantly) as he opened his eyes and saw a nude female deftly plucking a earth. Had it been a religion, Dom MICHEL HENRICOT Felix might have been termed a mis- sheath from his most private apos- trophe. She caught his eye and sionary. Had it been a philosophy, he would have come as a teacher. Had smiled. "Welcome to Medea," she left. its logic been pure, he might never said. Then she in denial have come at all. Nevertheless, he Dom Felix shook his head came, filled with the wonder of the of this reality and, in the process, saw success of his credo, eager to bring that there was a tail, bearded man in awaxy-looking short tunic it to another world. dressed Defrosting is a word, and Receiver standing by his bed. The man had a

is a word; the Receiver is an ultra- voice like a tuba. He said, "Welcome chron (some say "transchron") indeed, Dom Felix." transceiver. Humanity has always Dom Felix raised his head to look encapsulated its pivotal discoveries in the direction of the vanished

in a word, at one time or another. The woman. "Who was that?" That's Wallich, the Pill. The Church. The Bomb. The Trip. "That? about Cryogenics had nothing to do with best wide-spectrum technician there spaceflight, the detection of the is. Nothing but the best for you, you bioenergetic aura, and the sub- know." sequent development of the phase- "Damn it," said Dom Felix, surly. He inversion field, which became oper- ran over the big man's words in his able before freezing was even tried mind, trying to make sense out of the for the purpose. Yet defrosting was outlandish accent. "Damn it, I'm

still the name of the process by which celibate." the field was shut off and the activity "Not now, you're not," said the man of every single one of the passen- cheerfully. "My name is Altair II. Two, "You stay here and talk written archaically with two Is. To differ- tated; so we have the clothes thing in- Dom Felix she said, Please, relax. Your body entiate me from my father, who was Altair stead." to Altair, and relax. lot, your head Junior, and to differentiate him from his fa- Dom Felix blew air out through his nostrils has been through a and doesn't it yet, not really I've got to see ther, who was just plain Altair. So although and started to get up. Wallich said, 'Altair, know fellow passenger is getting there have been three of us, I'm called Two. stop chattering and give it to him; he's not how your What's the matter?" ready to walk yet." along." She waved and left. Kert Row," said Dom Felix. Dom Felix looked down at himself and "Oh, sorry." Altair handed the garment "Oh, God. "Is Accep- made a vague gesture. "1 feei self-con- over, and Dom Felix found a hem and Altair raised an eyebrow. that good-naturedly. scious, lying here like this." He was a short, pulled the thing on over his head. He stood tance?" he asked with Acceptance," broad man with thick, black brows over up and, with Waliich's deft assistance, got "Has nothing to do Felix said testily. "Kert Row is an ag- what seemed to be pupilless black eyes, a his arms through the sleeves and let the Dom expert sent out here with new short, thick beard, short, thick fingers and garment fall around him. It was a heavy ricultural dreamed up according to new legs, and a lot of hair on his body. black bumoose that came halfway down hardware and for two and a half "Never thought. Sorry," said Altair, and, his shins. He sat back, trembling, and theories by Occam, prep he did nothing but talk crossing his arms downward, he grabbed made himself raise the hood and draw it weeks during With beard beneath and to me about the theories and the hardware. the hem of his tunic and whipped it off over over his head. the

If that I have no understanding his head, whereupon the woman Wallich the shadows above, his face retreated into happens

I If I talent in either area. 1 wish had. entered. She was dressed. A bit. a dark cave, from which, astonishingly, his and no irritation then, it was at myself." "Oh, God," said Dom Felix. He sat up to black-on-black eyes glowed brightly. showed Altair came over and sat down next to protect himself. It made his head swim, and "That's better." candidly I you," he said he could feel the blood draining from his "Put yours on. too. Altair." him. "You know like people, 'specially Trippers trying to face. "Easy" said Wallich; she was by his "Huh? Oh. Oh, yes." Altair scooped up "Most a heavy impression, go all out to hide side in one swift stride, holding him compe- his tunic and donned it. He gestured at the make they're not good at. You come right out tently by one shoulder and the small of his burnoose. "That thing'll be great for Circle what back. with it." "Well, thanks. Thank you." Somewhere in "I think the clothes thing has turned that portable dark, the shadowed face around again," said Altair.

that ii moved. "Oh, sorry," said Wallich, releasing Dom showed was you're not stupid. Fifty-one percent Felix's shoulder, her hand darting to the "And Felix invented is what you're dumb at. clasp on her shoulder. Dom Felix managed £Dom of smart knowing An old financier named Brentwood said to catch her wrist. "Please, no. Just get me the Receiver not because my clothes." that." he was inspired but Felix now close to being em- "Right here," said Altair. He lifted a stor- Dom was terrified; barrassed. "Go on with what you were say- age case marked felix and placed it on a because he was small table and tapped a silver patch on the not because he ing before." Pellucidar. Clothes. We wear side. The top sprang open, and he lifted out 'Oh, yes. achieved wisdom but or nothing, if we feel like it. a heavy mass of black fabric. "The group had what we please, - should we? Controlled environment, that came here not three years ago because he had Why the skin is the everybody covered from ankles to nose- and. anyway, like it or not, to confront the truth.* screamed when they saw what we wear largest organ of the body. It needs light,

and it needs to breathe, and it was never here. Of course, that was a slow ship. It took time. almost eighty terrayears to get here. The meant to be covered up all the We light this air as we can, one before that, we couldn't keep clothes grab as much and when we can. There's damn little light and on 'em. They felt it was dishonest. Even out of fhe other air out there." at the Rim, they'd rather freeze than be Three on out, but it'll smother you In here." far too much Felix. dishonest." "Surely that's not all you wear on Medea." "That's too bad," said Dom "Please," said Dom Felix, holding out one "What you wear on Medea depends on "What's tjdo bad?"

I have hand for the garment. He swung his feet where you are on Medea. Medea has ev- "Sorry. Thinking aloud. About what

over the side of the bed and again felt the erything, all the time - cold, hot, wind, wet. to do here. Pass it, please." you're to rush of faintness. Wallich put her arms dry, desert, mud, and supermud. Here, "No, tell me about what going firmly around him. When he could, he dis- where we are, is Pellucidar. Center of the- do. Acceptance, and all that." 1 "Well, you know?" engaged them. "I'm all right. Please.'' earth. Ancient term derived from the days how much do

I've learned. I like. "That clothes thing," said Altair, absently when Terrans lived in burrows and ate rice. "Not too much. What face of I it's the turning the heavy garment over and This section is central to Earth Main, which From what hear, changed don't fight with nations, around, evidently trying to find the most is the middle building of this colony, which the earth. Nations fight with sisters. A man convenient way to hand the thing to Dom is called Argoview, the dumbest name of even brothers don't in a game, or a deal, Felix. "The pendulum swings, all through any of the Terran enclaves, because the about to cheat you this suddenly tells you so and plays it straight. A history, but it doesn't swing straight, and only places there can be an enclave on the highest the freguency varies. Certain times and crazy blob are places where you can view contractor never estimates fair air, light, humidity in Pel- price he can get — just his cost plus a places, it was immoral to display feet. Other Argo. So and starts out places, knees. Faces. Genitals. Bellybut- lucidar are as near Earth average as we profit. A man running for election like a by saying everything bad he ever did and tons. Buttocks. And combinations thereof. I can get. It's positive pressure, bad habits he has that have a theory: The human race is innately 'clean-room: Any airflow is outward from tells the voters what hasn't been able to break, before he disinterested in sex. The more so, the here, so the pressure stays the same. Then he where says anything about how good he is. That nakeder it gets. So when people find the there are five concentric segments, libido starting to atrophy, they begin deco- the air is increasingly mixed with Medean right?"

right. I mean, it's not a rating the sexual emblems and pretty soon air; you move out at your own pace until you "That's almost

it percent yet. But it's getting there, cover them up, which is a very good way to get used to it. When you get used to and hundred there on find the lights too it vs better than it's ever been, back put sex under forced draft. If it weren't for come back in here, you There've been some bad times that, the species would've died out long bright and the air too thin and the oxy mix Earth. know." ago. What we are, what we've always been, making you a iittle ding-y." there, you

I tell I'm histo- "Sure I know. didn't you. a is cripples. We got our rut cycles ampu- "It shows," said Wallich, not unkindly To ar An historian, if you're a purist in the

:. z Tongue. What that means is that 1 read a lot. think a lot, see what of that which I read and think applies to where we are and where we're going, and pontificate about it.

2 j1 ~ere we study Old Earth probably a lot - are than the homebodies. It keeps us to-

ftnd yet you've sent for me." "Oh, that. Well, yes, God knows we need

xi. We're just about split in two if we're not already. Two and a third, maybe. It's the Gengies, you see." "Gengies?" "Genetically Engineered. They like to call themselves Truforms. They're all Medea- born— if you can call making them born.

They're, well, produced. If we need a supergenius math type or a guy this wide and only this high to work in the mines, we make one, that's all. Not that we ever go too far away from the norm. They may have a specialty, but they have to live with us." "Us. Them."

"Well, damn it, there is a diflerence.

We're Naturals - Nats, we call ourselves. We let God choose the genes, yes, and love. That's the way it's always been; that's what made us two-legged critters what we are. Now they come along and act as if they're better than us!" "Are they?" "Whenever we design them to be, sure. Their specialties-- they're tops. Why not? But do you think they're grateful? No way!

Look, they try to reason it both ways. They're superior because they're good at what they were designed for. And they're deprived because we have history, an an- cient homeland, racial memory, and they haven't. They're better than us, and they're deprived. They can't have it both ways, but they want it both ways. And there's going to be trouble. Big trouble, and Medea isn't big enough for trouble like that. Well, Medea is, but the Terran enclaves are not. There's talk of the Gengies driving us out." "Out where?"

"Out there. It's real hell out there, Dom Felix." "Who talks of the Gengies driving you out?" "Well, everybody."

"Who, everybody? Are the Gengies tell- ing you that?" "They aren't telling us anything!"

'Ah. So it's you Nats who are telling one another that."

"Well, it figures." "Does it?" Dom Felix paused. "Tell me something. Do they like to be called Gen- gies?" "Oh, man, you'd better not. Not to their face." "Mm. And what do they call you among "They'll be back... themselves 7 " Dom Felix thought the man colored. they forgot the Chivas Regal'.' When the answer seemed too long in com- ing, Dom Felix turned wordlessly toward him and waited again. At last Altair said in a low voice, "Vaj." "What?" Chivas Regal * 12 Yeats Old Worldwide • Blended Scotch Whisky • 86 Proof. General Wine &. Spirits Co.. MY. CONTINUED ON PAGE 108 Long before NASA hurled camera-laden probes toward the edges of space, our views of the solar system depended on an entirely different eye: the far-reaching painterly eye of Chesley Bonestell, for 30 years the dean of astronomical art. With his uncanny ability to traverse the limits of Earth and cosmos, Bonestell anticipated planetscapes with such

accuracy that even now it is hard to distinguish a Bonestell Saturn of the 1950s from a recent Pioneer shot— except the Bonestell seems by far the more real and gripping. Renowned for his illustrations of such books as The Conquest of Space, with rocketeer Willie Ley. Chesley Bonestell (pro- nounced Bon-es-tel) inspired legions of young people to devote their lives to space science. Arthur C. Clarke wrote in 1972, "Conquest appeared in 1949 and probably;-did more than any book of its time to convey to a whole generation the wonder, romance and sheer beauty of space travel." In the foreword to Across the Space Frontier, author Wernhervon Braunsays. "Bonestell's pictures represent INFINITE VOYAGER

The prophetic realism of Chesley Bonestell is a triumph over space and time

BYR C. DURANTIII ^The artist's architectural background and imagination took the place of hard data.9

the most accurate portrayal of the heavenly bodies that modern sci-

ence can offer. I do not say this lightly. In my many years of association

with Chesley I have learned to respect, nay fear, this wonderful artist's obsession with perfection. My file cabinet is filled with sketches of

rocket ships I had prepared to help him with his work— only to have them returned to me with penetrating detailed questions or blistering criticism of some inconsistency or insight." Born in 1888, Bonestellgrew up in San Francisco and was trained in architecture at Columbia University, in New York City. He quickly gained respect for his designs, for his ability to take given specifications and, through the use of perspective, transmute them into dramatic visual entities. That talent is the key to Bonesteil's astronomical art. In his painting Saturn from Titan (page 73), for example, Bonestell positions the planet, as seen from its 5

largest satellite, in crescent phase, tipped 29 degrees from the orbital plane. In From Mimas the stark surface of Saturn's innermost moon is

back lit by the sun and by the reflected radiance from the giant planet looming above. Viewed edge on, Saturn's rings disappear against the planet, their rims revealed as banded shadows. Bonestell distin- guishes between his art and that of SF illustration, where more often than not the artist is inspired by fantasy, rather than by the precision of known and potential technologies. Bonestell's collaboration with Von Braun and his team in 1951 provided the world's first representation of possible manned missions to the moon and Mars (page 71) and giant ships blasting off for orbital rendezvous. Always the salient characteris-

tic is perspective. Bonestell uses it to create the sensation of weightlessness and horizons stretched thousands of miles or stunted

Clockwise from above: Saturn, Bonestell's favorite planet, From Dione, the fourth moon (Saturn seen from within a lava cave); From. Titan in its crescent phase; From Mimas; The Milky Way, seen from a planet 250,000 miles from its rim.

£His plastic models were the basis for an artistic reference "library" of the planets. 3

ZBonestell's eye conveyed to a generation the wonder and beauty of space travel

to a fraction of the earth's 18-mile line. Bonestell never paints with airbrush but relies on stippling and glazes to achieve photorealism. To show the relation of an orbital craft to a planet, he developed a form of "spherical perspective." Constructing a transparent plastic model of the craft on which he drew the details, he rotated the model until he obtained the desired angle relative to the planet. Then he photo- graphed the scene, "saving an infinite amount of time" for referencing the painting. Today, at ninety-two, Bonestell paints daily and continues to believe that "spaceflight will be recognized as a step in man's evolution. We approach space with the temerity and the driving motiva- tion that have always led humans to explore," he says. "We shall never conquer space, but by our questing — with the magnificent assists of science and technology— we shall keep the spirit of inquiry eternal. "DO "We're here, with

all the world around us, and almost every

bit of it has been cooked up inside a star," marvels this Nobel Prize-winning radio astronomer IfUTERV/IEWJ

I

^^^^ adic astronomy has revealed cosmic events of stagger- awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their epochal discovery. 1^5^ ing violence, but the signals reaching our antennas have Last spring Penzias was named executive director of research 1^^^ been pitifully faint: A snowflake touching the ground is at Bell's communication-sciences division. He supervises the work more powerful than the impulses from an exploding galaxy. That of nearly 300 researchers, probably the world's most concentrated led Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, two young researchers at Bell pocket of expertise in electronic communications. Few universities Laboratories, in Holmdel, New Jersey, to undertake in the early can match Bell Labs' record of discoveries in both pure and 1960s to eliminate every possible source of electronic noise from applied science. - their observations. But no matter where they pointed the large Penzias discusses the challenges and opportunities of practical I microwave antenna Bell had buiit to gather satellite signals, they communication with the same enthusiasm that inspires his continu- | could not erase a certain background hiss. They checked and ing basic research. His hands—are constantly in motion as he talks, g rechecked their amplifiers, taped the horn's seams, and even and his frequent interjections "Look . . you've gotta realize that still 1 evicted a nesting pair of pigeons and scrubbed away the birds' . . . right?"— are not verbal fillers but pauses to make sure you're iL droppings. But the noise wasn't from pigeon droppings. It was with him as he pours forth analogies, historical examples, and

: 2 from the big bang or, rather, from its faint electromagnetic "echo,' alternate scenarios for the future. Not every technological possibil- | attenuated by 15 billion years of expansion. Within a few months ity can or should be realized, he emphasizes. Omni contributing | Penzias and Wilson became aware that cosmologists had predict- editor Monte Davis began with a question about one Bell innova- £ ed such radiation long before. In 1978 the two astrophysicists were tion that hasn't gotten around to changing our lives quite yet. Omni: Let's start by discussing why we're Penzias: It's a problem of the interface and we consider secretarial duties are mechan- here, sitting in the same room, rather than of how people feel about it. It's not just a ical and repetitive. You can talk about the using a Picturephone. It seems to have matter of goi ng from one end of a wi re to the challenges and rewards of secretarial been in the demonstration phase for a long other, but going from the inside of one brain work, but as long as most secretaries are time now. Is the problem a lack of demand? to the inside of another. We've got to know women, society is saying, in effect, that it's

Penzias: It's found its greatest acceptance about human attitudes before we design a low-grade job. Whenever you give a job as a remote-conferencing service. For in- something. exclusively to one portion of society, you'd dividuals, of course, there's the start-up We didn't invent the modern telephone better watch out. problem: Until the people you want to con- handset, you know. According to the It's like the old Pullman sleeping cars on tact have a Picturephone, you can't use Ericsson telephone people in Sweden, their the railroads, which were very comfortable, yours. linemen were working up on the poles and but that was largely because every car an Then there are social factors, such as found it difficult to maneuver with a micro- came with a black man, which was callers you don't want to see because it's phone in one hand and an earphone in the obscene situation. I would say that morally harder to say no to a salesman or a fund other. So one of them went down and got a we can no longer assume that every office raiser face to face. Or, perhaps, you don't stick and lashed both the microphone and is going to come with a secretary. But it is telephone. want to be seen. We had a lot of executives the earphone to it so he'd have a hand free going to have a smart voice telling us, "I'd like the Picturephone ser- to hang onto the pole. At that moment he Omni: Will it still be primarily a com- vice, but my secretary doesn't like the way was a telephone user, not a design en- municator, or will it be a general data- she looks on the screen," which is a coded gineer. Fortunately, someone at Ericsson handling terminal? no reason it couldn't han- statement, as we eventually realized, that spotted it and developed it, and since then Penzias: There's lays the vanity on someone else. we've put a great deal of ingenuity into the dle everything and still be simpler than Omni: Does the Picturephone have a handset. There's very high technology in most terminals today. The distinction be- switch that allows you to cut off the image the magnets and filters and so on. but tween the keyboard and the display has to while you yawn or scratch or whatever? we've got to remember that we didn't invent disappear eventually. You'll have a flat will display information, and Penzias: Sure, the switch can be there, but it. The inventor was a user who knew what panel, which enter touching a spot here or you can't use it. People will wonder what he needed. you'll data by repertory there on the surface. It'll be an inch thick, I have a you're hiding. If I call someone and leave Omni: notice that you

you'll pull it out of a slot in your the image off, he'll be thinking, / under- dialer on your desk, so you can push a say, and stand, Arno. Sometimes my office is a single button for numbers you call fre- desk to wake it up. It will take messages will speaker built in so you're not mess, too. I'm going to feel that I ought to quently. Will the basic telephone continue and have a straighten the place up, run out and get a to get "smarter" along these lines? holding a handset while you wait for the airline reservations people to answer. haircut and a new suit, and call him back Penzias: I think so. but I'm not going to give with the picture on. right? You can't use the you the standard line about micro- Omni: So some things won't change! What Will able to say. switch. processors, because I think there's a social about voice input? you be this panel? Omni: So it becomes a social problem. reason for a smart telephone. A lot of what "Get me so-and-so." to Penzias: You could have one today that would respond to the digits of a spoken phone number. But as for people's names or taking dictation, that's tough. At Bell Labs we have some of the world's best hearing theorists and pattern-recognition specialists, with rooms full of computer hardware. But you can go to the dog pound and pick any pooch, and with a case of dog food and a month's training, the dog will respond far more reliably to voice com- mands tfcari any computer we've got. It's an extremely tough problem. We're working on voice-recognition equipment, and we'll

continue to work on it, but it's going to take a lot of time and money. Omni: The line between communication and information processing is getting very fuzzy these days, what with the Bel! System offering more data services and the com- puter people more and more active in set- ting up networks. Both of you face the same question: Where do you put the brains? In the central system or at the terminals?

Penzias: It seems to me that we'll be trying to put as much of the complexity near the individual as possible, and again the rea-

sons are social ones. It allows more per- sonal control and offers a greater chance for privacy. Omni: Can you give an example? Penzias: Take the old idea of shopping by phone, which has been talked about for

decades. I might want to go to the shoe

store, because I might want a salesman "Okay. Anything from the top shelf." who can look at what I'm trying on and say "You're going to wear those with that suit?"

CON1IMJF.DON PAGE 100 1 Tr grips yourparachute, driving youtoward the summit. Ski and sinew defy gravity, and suddenly you're in midair, floating above the rim of a glacier. One quick maneuver and the chute drops you on the 9^~ far side of the slope. Skis touch snow and zoom you back down the mountain. Paraskiing combines the best of skiing and sailing with alpine aerodynamics. • Designed for the unpredicte wind action of alpine slopes, ski-chi are controlled by special vt that respond to a steering b

As wind rushes up high-altitude slopes unimpeded by heat, a neatly vented parachute plugs into the 75-mph-plus updrafts. Windows within the chute open or close to direct airflow, enabling the

paraskier to maneuver instantly. If the wind suddenly changes direction", the paraskier need only manip- ulate a steering bar and trim the angle of his chute. Like sailing, uphill skiing requires you to go where the wind goes for maximum speed. Unforeseen obstacles are quickly avoided by punching a chut disconnect button on the harness, stopping you instantly. An experienced paraskiercan reach speeds of 50-mph while racing up such glaciers as. the one pictured here, in Stubai, Austria. As the paraskier reaches a promontory, he raises his chute. The icy peak drops away and the paraskier sails into space, rising momentarily on the updrafts. The chute billows out and gently deposits its cargo on the downside slope. Now you descend the mountain, using the chute as an airbrake. Fantastic, futuristic, andfast, paraskiing is a brave new sport for the '80s. da

•Racing up a glacier, only to-jump off

- into space once you've, reached the summit, fuses the best elements FICTION

Presidential Transcript No. 21 Recording dated: 17 January 1996 Location: The Oval Office Subject: The President's Image THE PRESIDENT'S IMAGE

BY STEPHEN ROBINETT

A have called you all here

for a special reason. The '96 primary looms before us, and I

have yet to announce. I want all of you to be the first to hear my decision. To quote, one of my predecessors in this

office: If nominated. I will not run. Groans and disappointment? Hear me out. Only then will you understand my decision. The latest polls show a new issue emerging, one that could overshadow the excellent record we have compiled. The issue has nothing to do with our programs. Those have w been embraced enthusiastically by the American people. The problem is of a different order, not the substance of our administration, but the form, the image, more accurately my image.

I Let me be more specific. According to our sampling, I am seen by the electorate as competent, efficient, imagi- native, and innovative, but in failing health. Rumors about my health have proliferated. My ability to last out another four-year term is questioned. The media have dubbed us the Haggard administration.

PAINTING BY FRIEDRICH HECHELMANN

- , I Haggard— that is the operative word. A with his dubious personal habits-he the kind of man Senator Mirada wanted computer model of the next election shows drank, smoked, and philandered to ex- neutralized. the issue could be controlling, especially if cess—had completely weakened his con- That weekend, to escape temporarily ouropponents are given any opportunity at stitution. The assassination attempt from the growing frustration of his search, trip all to make political hay out of this straw threatened to break it. He kept muttering to Fred took his son to Disneyland. The of Death in the fateful. After a particularly nauseat- man. As you all can see, 1 look no more Fred about seeing the face proved Hatter's — son haggard now than the day I took office. It is crowd. He told Fred something had to be ing spin on the Mad Teacup simply our higher profile in preparation for done. He could not go on, with the Grim squealing with glee, father losing most of the Ninety-six campaign that has brought Reaper dogging him over the campaign his lunch — Freddie Junior dragged his fa- the issue to public attention. trail. The Grim Reaper, in all his guises, had ther in to hear Lincoln deliver the Gettys- Okay, on to the purpose of this briefing. to be neutralized. burg Address. Some of you don't know all the details of Neutralized— a fine word. But how? Fred Fred Senior had seen the exhibit years

rock it mechanical man, The how our present situation came about. I'll was caught between the proverbial before when was a outline them as succinctly as possible and and the equally proverbial hard place. If he mechanical Lincoln had long since de- they could get holographically projected have a transcript made for reference. I don't did nothing and hoped parted- Now a want any misunderstandings about the through the Ninety-two election with a sane Lincoln, tied to a computer, stood in its game plan. candidate, some nut would probably try place. Not only did it give a fine and moving would delivery of the Gettysburg Address, but it How did it start? That's the big question. again and the senator's taut nerves

If, effort the senator's questions from the audience as It started with the attempted assassina- snap. in an to ease answered tion of Senator Mirada in Los Angeles be- troubled mind, he threw on a total security at a press conference. from wide- fore the last election. As most of you know, I wrap, Senator Mirada would never get One of the questions came foot had not yet joined the campaign, but the close enough to the electorate to become eyed little Freddie Thoroughway at the whether he senator was leading our party full stride President Mirada. Still, an order to neutral- of the dais. He asked Lincoln toward the White House. When he heard ize was an order to neutralize, no matter knew how much he resembled Senator paternal the hornet buzz of the assassin's bullet, his how imposing the task. Mirada. Lincoln gave a kindly and stride, understandably, faltered. For a week Fred toured security services smile and said many people had made that of The next day the senator called in Fred in Los Angeles. With more than its share of observation to him. It reminded him an his boyhood. He Thoroughway. You all know Fred over there. nuts, Fred reasoned. Los Angeles would anecdote from own He was chief of campaign security in those have state-of-the-art technology for deal- launched into a story about splitting rails in days. According to Fred, the senator ing with them. He examined electrical. Illinois. looked like death warmed over. His skin chemical, and mechanical gadgets. Some The story had nothing whatsoever to do was the color of old newspaper, and dark of them would have stopped riots. Some with the boy's question, but Freddie circles showed under his eyes. He seemed would have destroyed cities. None would thought it did. So, evidently, did everyone convinc- to have aged a decade overnight. The de- stop a lone assassin bent on murder who else in the room. The illusion was mands of a too ambitious career, combined had no regard for his own safety, precisely ing. Fred Senior gazed up at the expound- ing Lincoln and knew he had found the solution to Senator Mirada's problem. On Monday morning experts on computer-controlled holography were brought in. along with the most sophisti- cated equipment available. The senator took a break from campaigning, long enough to cover the recording session. Cameras and microphones recorded his every movement, head to toe, front to back, standing, sitting, walking, talking — espe- cially, talking. The waveforms produced by the senator's every sound and movement were analyzed instantaneously and were as- signed a two-hundred-fifty-six-bit binary number. Numbers accumulated at a rate of one million per millimeter of recording tape. Tape passed through the -machine at two

meters a second. All of it was ultimately stored in a computer, a collection of some- thing close to two billion digital information bits on the senator for every second of re- cording time. Thoroughway worked the senator hard, further damaging his already

frail heaith, but managing to assemble one hundred hours of tape. They could now holographically reproduce every move- ment and sound the senator was capable of making, together with a few he would never be able to manage. Then came the hard part. They had the form, the image. They needed substance. Every plank in the senator's platform was' programmed in, along with details on the problems of implementing each policy and the solutions to those problems. The pro- CONTiNUEDON PAGE 96 .

FUTURE CURVES OMNI SURVEYS THE ROYAL SOCIETY

• The discovery of enzymes chose what he regarded as the that chop DNA into pieces, pro- worst paper of the past decade, viding scientists with the power enumerating its faults in purple to create life in a test tube. prose. And an unexpected reply • Increased understanding of came from one of the few non- the relationship between efec- scientists to have been elected tromagnetism and weak nuclear an FRS— the former prime min- forces— a step toward the uni- ister Sir Harold Wiison. Wilson fied field theory initiated, but cited an address delivered to never completed, by Einstein. the Royal Society by one of its • Developments in ways of former presidents, Lord Black- reading the coded messages of ett, an advocate of centralized DNA, notably the discovery of planning for science before the overlapping genes that read like war who publicly suggested in several telegrams mixed in one. 1967 that the United Kingdom • Confirmation that variations in might have been mistaken in the earth's orbit determine the concentrating scientific talent in pattern of ice ages. government laboratories in- • Detection of background stead of in private industry. radiation left over from the big The most frequently men- bang that created the universe. tioned paper in the biological These are five sensational ad- sciences was that by Or, Fred vances made in the past de- Sanger and his colleagues at cade, according to a survey conducted by Omni among Cambridge, England, wherein they described the entire the Fellows of Great Britain's Royal Society Founded in sequence of nucleotides, or "words," in the DNA of a the mid-seventeenth century the Royal Society is the virus, PhiX-174 {Nature, Vol. 265, 1977, p. 687). This world's oidest scientific association and inarguably one achievement marked the first time ever that the complete

of its most prestigious. Such luminaries as Samuel chemical "blueprint" of a living organism had been un- Pepys, Isaac Newton, and Edmund Haliey were among raveled and followed shortly after Dr. Sanger's group and the earliest members. Admittance to the society is limited a second team working under Dr. Walter Gilbert had to the finest scientific minds in Britain. Thirty-two new improved methods for reading DNA sequences. An ex- members are elected each year from some 350 candi- tremely simple life form, PhiX-1 74 proved to contain 5,375 dates, all of them first-rate researchers. As a unique body words. Grouped into sentences— genes— they specify

of expertise, the society holds a position in the world of the composition of a virus particle when it replicates, and science that is unrivaled. indeed they control ail its functions. The investigation, sponsored by Omni rather than by A perplexing revelation from this work was that the the Royal Society itself, was designed to pinpoint those genes overlap. Like a telegram with no spacing, the developments in the last decade that wilt probably have coded message read entirely differently, depending on the greatest impact on the future. A simple questionnaire whether one began with the first, second, or third tetter. was sent to some 700 eminent Feiiows. They were asked The fact that three messages were contained within one to cite "the outstanding scientific paper of the past de- seemed to some researchers artificial or contrived, cade," but the reply card also included an option for prompting Drs. Hiromitsu Yokoo and lairo Oshima to re-

those who felt it was not possible to select one individual vive the theory, first suggested by Dr. Francis Crick and reference. The response (40 percent) was excellent A Leslie Orgel (icarus, Vol. 19, 1973, p. 341), that life on majority of respondents (191) quoted a paper or area of Earth began from organisms sent here billions of years research or argued why science should not be assessed ago by extraterrestrial civilizations that decided to "seed" " in this way. Of these, 78 Feiiows cited specific references. other planets. The Japanese scientists suggested that Oniy 46 indicated no choice. the gene sequence of PhiX-174 might contain messages, Even the more negative replies — and replies from or signal's, as yet not decoded, in' their reasoning, such those missing the point — furnished some remarkable in- overlapping messages would be a highly economical

sights. "If it were possibie to answer this question, sci- way to send information through vast tracts of space. The ence would lose ail its interest for me," wrote one Fellow advantage of this mechanism over radio communication

Another, strictly within the terms of the question posed, is that it does not presuppose that a receiver is aiming an BY BERNARD DIXON AND JOHN GRiBBIN antenna toward the sender at the right time and within the leagues of his at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Correct frequency range. Scotland, and the Statens Seruminstitut, Copenhagen, life-style of an organism that may Genetic engineering is the second major province of Denmark, it outlines the in than has biology to emerge from the Royal Society survey. Many welt cause considerably more illnesses man Hyg., Vol. respondents cited the original papers in which Paul Berg, yet been realized (Trans. Royal Soc. Trop. Med. Toxoplasma Herb Boyer Stanley Cohen, and others first indicated the 65, 1971, p. 380). A cosmopolitan parasite. rodents, and birds possibility of what we now call recombinant-DN A manipu- gondii infects primates, carnivores, for at least five kinds of human dis- lations; some of these respondents highlighted this as a and is responsible febrile illness resembling field of crucial importance. The key breakthrough was ease, ranging from an acute children. Dr. Hutchison the isolation of "restriction enzymes" that split DMA into typhus in adults to encephalitis in should clas- pieces, permitting genetic material from different or- and his team showed that this bacterium be parasites. They have also ganisms to be combined. The discovery of these en- sified alongside the malarial latent human infections, appar- zymes thus paved the way for man-made life forms, produced evidence that skill antibodies in the bloodstream, nonexistent in nature. In June 1 973 this newly gained ent only when we measure attained prominence when scientists at a Gordon Con- might be widespread. biological study cited was the ference on nucleic acids, held in New Hampshire, in- Another significant in Dr. Vane demonstrated that aspirin structed the conference cochairmen, Maxine Singer and paper which John inhibiting the synthesis of Dieter Soil, to draft a public document about its future and related drugs act partly by Biology. Vol. 231, 1971, implications. Later printed in Science (Vol, 181, 1973, p. prostaglandins (Nature New p. tissue antigens and their impor- 1114}, the letter announced, "We presently have thetech- 232), Several papers on and in relative susceptibil- nical ability to join together, covalently, DNA from diverse tance in organ transplantation ity to different diseases were mentioned. More surprising sources." It went on to warn the world that "certain such Dr. David Gilbert (J. hybrid molecules may prove hazardous to laboratory was the reference to a report by describing in meticulous workers and to the public." Physiol., Vol. 253, 1975, p. 257), giant axon (the long out- This landmark step led to unprecedented activity in detail the architecture of the conducts impulses) taken from regulating such work, centered on the guidelines issued g rowth of a nerve cell that by the National Institutes of Health in the United States a marine worm. repeatedly by those quoting papers, as and by similar controls in other countries. Today whether A point made declining to so, was the overwhelm- such constraints are needed is a subject of much debate. well as by those do contribution predating Omnfs study, At least some of the original whistle blowers now feel that ing importance of a Watson, who re- they had exaggerated the dangers. But there is no ques- that of Drs. Francis Crick and James helical structure [Nature, Vol. 171, tion about the profound scientific importance of the vealed DNA's double are best summarized by technology at the center of the controversy. The tech- 1953, p. 737). These comments distinguished biologists, niques promise revolutionary advances in studying the the view of one of Britain's most the Crick-Watson genetics of higher animals and plants. And the ability to Professor J. Z. Young: "Singles such as century. I do not fabricate novel organisms according to man's specifica- paper perhaps occur once or twice a of one such in biology during the past decade." tions is likely to transform industrial microbiology and to know any proved willing to have unforeseen effects on agriculture and medicine. The physicists in our sample more specific Several survey respondents cited the paper {Proa Nat. commit themselves. Forty-three selected a with only biologists), and more of Acad. Sci., Vol. 75, 1978, p. 3727) in which Walter Gilbert paper (contrasted 35 a thoughtful ex- and his colleagues described inducing bacteria to syn- those unwilling to make a choice gave thesize proinsulin, a precursor of insulin, as the first deci- planation— 39 as opposed to 31. in the realms of fundamen- sive indication that genetic engineering does have prac- Among the papers chosen noteworthy topic selected by a tical applications important to the welfare of mankind. tal physics, the most the unification of the The discovery of enkephalins and endorphins, whose broad cross section of Fellows was fundamental interactions. Yet painkilltng action on the central nervous system was de- weak and electromagnetic single paper emerge as most scribed in the February issue of Omni, was the third not even here did any point to the biologicai breakthrough indicated by the survey. The re- valuable. Some respondents preferred to Professors Stephen Weinberg and port by John Hughes in Sfa/n Research (Vol. 88, 1975, p. theoretical work by (Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 46, 1974. 295) was cited as evidence of the first, rather crude Abdus Saiam Others the theorist Dr. Gerard t'Hooft success in obtaining a morphinelike peptide from the p. 255). mentioned 167). Still others brain. "Like Gaddum's soup pharmacology many years [Nuclear Physics B„ Vol. 35, 1971, p. logically enough, tor the paper by Dr. F J. Hasert before, it started things," wrote one distinguished pro- opted, Letters (Vol. 46B, fessor of pharmacology "Where the spate of work on and colleagues, published in Physics 1973, p, 138), which contained the first experimental brain peptides is going to end, I cannot see; but my own confirmation of the validity of the theory. view is that Hughes' little paper started the avalanche. proving a unified field For my money, the names you want are those who first As a step toward the goal of most important develop- point to the tip of a nugget of gold; after that, it's cranking theory, this work is seen as the of the universe the handle, and the big battalions move in." ment In our understanding of the working of relativity was pro- There were even some surprises in the mailbag. One since Einstein's genera! theory In find four basic physical forces: respondent, for example, chose a paper entitled "The pounded. nature we electromagnetisrn, which are familiar to us in Life Cycle of the Coccidian Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. gravity and life, the strong and weak nuclear forces, in the Domestic Cat" as the prime contribution of the last everyday and fundamental particles to- ten years. Written by Dr. William Hutchison and col- which hold atomic nuclei and .

gether and which govern the processes of radioactive ence may well be on the brink of a new breakthrough, as decay. These are less familiar but stili of some conse- meaningful as that which occurred early in this century quence in a world in which atomic energy has become so with the advent of the quantum theory and the theory of influential a part, quite aside from their fundamental sig- relativity. Progress is being achieved through the study of nificance. the very small (subnuclear particles and their interac- But why should nature "choose" to have exactly four tions) and the very big (the whole universe and strong fundamental forces? Why not 40, or 400, or one? For gravitational fields in extreme states, such as the big decades physicists have sought a single grand theory bang itself or black holes). that would include the four forces as special cases, so HoweveLthis work and that of the genetic engineers that we no longer need four separate theories running on are going forward in a much more open climate than parallel paths. The Weinberg-Salam theory, with its exper- science has enjoyed in the past. Two final choices — of imental confirmation, is the first definite step toward this books rather than research papers— may be quite appo- goal, explaining in one framework the weak nuclear and site here. Thus, one Fellow entered fully into the forward- the electromagnetic force. The experiments confirm that looking spirit of the Omni survey by suggesting that Fritjof at very high energy the two forces are the same. Only in Capra's The Tao of Physics (Wildwood House, London), our low-energy world do they branch into separate dis- an attempt to set modern ideas of quantum mechanics guises, two sides to the same coin. This gives the and field theories in the same philosophical context as theorists heart that eventually the two other forces (the Eastern religions, points out one possible road into the strong nuclear force and the force of gravity) may also be future for science. A more conventional choice, but one brought into the fold. Perhaps at enormously high ener- equally relevant to the next ten years, is Amory Lovins's gies, corresponding to the split seconds early in the big Soft Energy Paths (Penguin, London), singled out as an bang of creation, all four were indistinguishable. assessment of the energy problems that confront man- We now have a great deal of confidence in the idea that kind and that must be at the heart of the scientific and the universe actually did begin with a big bang because engineering challenge of the next few decades. Surely, of the discovery of the 2.7-microwave background radia- such suggestions would not have been found in a simi- tion, interpreted as the "echo" of the big bang. That larly worded survey conducted a decade ago. discovery was made by Drs. Arno Penzias and Robert EVAPORATING BLACK HOLES Wilson in 1964, although their results were not published until the following year (Astrophysicai Journal, Vol. 142, Elected in 1974 at the age of thirty-two, Cambridge 1965, p. 419). They received a Nobel Prize in recognition astrophysicist Stephen Hawking was one of the youngest of the event in 1978. Strictly speaking, their publication Fellows ever admitted to the Royal Society (the average predated the ten-year period of the Omni survey. But age at election is fifty). Yet it was his paper on black holes several Fellows cited it, often saying that it was more that was the most frequently cited in Omni's survey. important than any more recent paper. Others selected Until recently, black holes were regarded as the ulti- the discovery of pulsars by Dr. Jocelyn Burneli and her mate collapsed state of matter, so dense that their gravity colleagues (Nature, Voi. 217, 1968, p. 709), Now that wraps space and time around their central singularity, theorists agree that the pulsars are neutron stars, whole forming a horizon from which not even light can escape. stars made of incredibly dense matter in the same state However, just as physicists in the mid-1970s began to as the nucleus of an atom, some of the predictions of accept the reality of black holes, Hawking discovered general relativity have been corroborated. that black holes are not completely black after all. One paper was cited far more than any other, not only To prove this, Hawking had to go beyond Einstein's by astronomers but by Fellows from all the physical sci- work, incorporating elements of quantum theory with the ences. It goes beyond states of matter as "ordinary" as gravitational theory of relativity Quantum theory tells us neutron stars or nuclear matter. Professor Stephen Hawk- that pairs of particles (one matter and the other antimat- ing's work on black holes, and especially on the way very ter) can be created literally out of nothing, in the vacuum strong gravitational fields can create particles by quan- of free space. Immediately upon forming, they would tum interactions so that black holes bubble away and normally pairfogether, causing mutual annihilation. How- eventually explode (Nature, Vol. 248, 1974, p. 30), is held ever Hawking realized that in the extreme conditions uptime and again as a paper likely to lead to new under- surrounding a black hole, one of the pair produced by standings in the future, as opposed to "merely" confirm- such a "vacuum fluctuation" would be captured and ing Einstein's theories. This work {see Omni, February swallowed up by the hole even in the brief instant before it

1979) holds out the promise of unifying the theory of and its partner could be annihilated, if one particle goes gravity— general relativity— with that of quantum me- in, the other must go out, to conserve momentum, it chanics, for another advance on the quest for one unified seems at first as if new matter has been created, violating field theory. the law of the conservation of mass-energy. But we can't Finally there are indications that a "revolution in the get something for nothing. atmospheric sciences" may be in the offing, as a few Indeed, Hawking has shown that as one particle selections pinpointing recent work on climatic changes scoots off out of the clutches of the black hole, the hole make clear. The one single paper emerging from this itself loses an amount of energy ( = mass) exactly equiva- pack is the confirmation from deep-sea cores, by Jim lent to the mass of the created particle. This has disas- Hays, John Imbrie, and Nick Shackleton, that the varia- trous implications for the hole, because its gravitation tions in the earth's orbit (the Milankovitch effects) do set field will weaken until, at some instant, the constraining the pattern of ice ages (Science, Vol. 194, 1975, p. 1121). horizon disappears and the remaining matter inside The overall picture that emerges is that physical sci- blasts outward. OQ once. The longer we went without small disasters, the more Fred's forebodings told IMAGE him a big one was on the way. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 90 It arrived November 4, 1992, one day gram was given a capacity to deliver this after we squeaked into office, and while information either as a formal speech, or as most of you were still under the weather casual conversation, or as response to from the victory party. Senator Mirada— a questions from an audience. It even con- now on the wagon, a nonsmoker, and tained a few all-purpose ripostes for jogger— had discovered a new way of life, hecklers. more tranquil, healthier, without the crush- When Thoroughway was satisfied, he ing burden of governing the most powerful in that final called Senator Ivtirada in for a demonstra- nation on Earth. As he said to in harmony tion. He activated the equipment, all of it postcard, he felt himself be with the seasons and the tides. He had portable, and I joined them in the labora- tory Thoroughway asked me about tax- decided to trade in the smoke-filled rooms the fresh air and sun- reform legislation, covering it both from the of Washington for substantive angle and from the practicality shine of Tahiti, permanently of getting such legislation through Con- That gave us a problem. I'm sure you all satisfactorily. Senator remember the meeting. Most of you were gress. I answered Mirada asked me about foreign policy is- hysterical over the possible consequences

sues—the Tierra del Fuego War, the Lisbon of his decision. I had to take charge. We coup, the Sino-Japanese Mutual Defense voted. We arrived at our decision demo- cratically. What we did we did for the good Pact. Again I answered each question, one

-- if had already done the or two of them with well-turned and I do of the country. We say so myself — witty responses. mundane work of getting elected. Could The senator was impressed. He put one we stand by and simply give away that 7 of his arms across Fred's shoulders and election Was one man that indispensable? AUGUST 79 SEPTEMBER 79 talked into his ear, saying the success with Besides, we had programs we believed me would allow him to do what he had in -programs the country needed. onnnjiionnrui longed to do from the first days of the cam- paign, take a relaxed and extended vaca- Looking back, I think we can say we tion to restore his health. He gestured at me made the right decision. My personal popu- larity is high, my record good. We have only and said I could do what he called "the

mundane work of getting elected." this single issue, my health, to deal with. I We got postcards from the senator in have already taken steps to remedy the Tahiti, all signed with his- Secret Service situation. tele- codename, Cheshire Cat One. Hesentone Last week I dispatched an urgent photograph of a man with his face averted gram to Tahiti, followed by a two-hour satel-

and his arms around two young Tahitian lite conversation with visual linkup. I must looks girls. He was having a wonderful time and say, Tahiti has agreed with him. He y'^SiTiiiiJ- wished we were there. tan, rested, and content. He has followed While the senator chased grass skirts in events here and approves of our ac- complishments. Indeed, he is convinced Tahiti, I worked night and day at the mun- dane work of getting elected. Before every that we have done a better job in office than public appearance. Thoroughway set up he could ever have managed— an en-

the equipment under the hustings, some- dorsement I deeply appreciate. times an outdoor podium, sometimes an In any. case, we spent much of the two indoor stage. He gave orders to have the hours examining our options, He suggest- motorcade stop within range of the projec- ed the most obvious solution, a new tape

fit healthy image. I had to tor. When the senator's limo came to a halt, showing a and Thoroughway flicked on the equipment.. veto that one. The media have already big deal out of my reluctance to OMNI, the magazine of to- The limo door slid open. I got out, smiling. made a morrow, means back issues waving, politicking. shake hands — the Howard Hughes Syn- drome, they call it suggesting it indicates could well be ahead of, in- Though I didn't kiss any babies or shake hypochondria, stead of behind the times. any hands — an impossibility under the cir- a neurotic fear of germs, evidence of potential mental instability. I Limited supplies of the cumstances— I did give rousing. Lincoin- esque speeches. Even the media began pointed out to him that we had to squelch above issues are still avail- talking about the "new" Senator Mirada, that sort of talk rather than encourage it. He able at $3.00 each including better organized, better prepared on the saw my point. Still, he was hesitant to leave postage handling. List and issues, more responsive to questions, his Shangri-La. Only after further negotia- the issues you've missed and quicker-witted. We moved up in the polls. tion and a firm promise that Air Force One need, enclose your check or No one saw me then as having'served four would make frequent and prolonged trips money orderalong with your years in a man-killing job. So there was little to Tahiti did he agree to cooperate. name and address and mail comment on my appearance. I think, ladies and gentlemen, we can the four more years we to OMNI Back Issues, RO. Box None of our success pleased Fred. From now look forward to

need to realize our programs fully. As I said 903, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11737. time to time he would have me join him late

briefing, I at night and discuss the matter. He had at the beginning of this have

We'll rush you the magazines been through many campaigns, and some- made my decision. I think you now under-

stand it. If nominated, I will not run, but, if of tomorrow that were on thing always went wrong. Either little things — our friend from Tahiti should -give sale yesterday. went wrong all the time- -late planes, elected rained-out rallies, slipshod advance us just the image we need for that mundane

work — or something big went wrong all at work— I will serve. DO —

CATCHER The fascinating FROM PAGE 6 CONTINUED Puzzle Sculptures to the plane of the planets. It will eventually bass over the north pole of the sun, seeing of Berrocal within I from a new angle, then approach : our solar radii of the sun at the far equator, delight the eye, and exit over the south pole. This long, ellip- tical solar orbit will be repeated every two intrigue the mind years. At its point of closest approach, the 5. 770°C heat of the sun will be coming from a 30-degree solid angle in the sky The in- struments and cameras in the spacecraft will be timidly peeking out through peepholes in the thermal shield that keeps MINI CARIATiDE the spacecraft from melting : 25 Elements, : A visit to six asteroids forms the basis of the multiple-asteroid-rendezvous mission, planned for late 1988. The spacecraft will stop to explore for two months at each of six asteroids: Medusa, Nyssa, Erigone, Masal- lia, Mimosa, and finally Protogenia in 1999. Completion of this mission will take us into Exrremely handsome works of orr when assembled, ; CENTICORE ARTS, INTERNATIONAL the first the twenty-first century, when rhe remarkable Mini 5culprures of Miguel Berrocol are j 2122 Melrose Avenue Dept 27 manned missions to the outermost planets also challenging puzzles rhar con absorb one for counf- I , , . Ann Arbor, MichiganUj _kt««« 48104/mftA entirely different works were conceived I will begin. less hours. Six and created by rhe artist in the late Sixties, each of them ... A green light flickered on the main | numbered, limited edition masrerpiece a signed and | pieose send your free Swift saw it out of the control board. Colonel composed of 18 to 25 inrricarely sculpted elements, j [j erroco | brochure corner of his eye and glanced over to the Each element was meticulously cast in bronze and finished in Berrocal's own foundry, ond then nickel _ squadron-status panel. In a few seconds hand j Nome plated to endure forever without rornishing. Send rhe he saw two other green lights join his. The [ Address coupon for a beautiful full color brochure describing the engines were warmed up and ready to Berrocal puzzle j six Mini Sculptures ond many other I City , start. punched off the comet pictures sculptures. For immediate information call COLLECT: | , He -Zip- and replaced them with a dual-screen Jame55. Rudolph (313) 663-1812 L___ :_i oresentation that showed Virginia and Fred at their posts, their eyes scanning their con- The Future Looks Great! trol boards, obviously ready. "Prepare for ignition," he commanded, i Share It and their motions followed his as they raised protective covers and activated the high-voltage power lines that would allow the computer to start thrust. As they waited out the countdown. Colonel Swift's face broke into a broad grin, and he chuckled. Virginia, ever alert, directed a quizzical glance at him over the screen. "What's funny?" she asked. Colonel Swift's grin grew broader "I was just thinking back to my days at the Air Force Academy in Colorado when my classmates would tease me about my name," he replied. "Only now, the laugh is flashed over the on them." A green light energy health We help the people who main propulsion sign. Riding an invisible science values shape the Future beam of ions, Tom Swift and his Electric technology foreign affairs shape it better. We predict Rocket blasted off to Mars. finance politics what's going to happen in: the stock market environment At press time, the Office of Management and Budget abruptly cut funds for solar electric propulsion from NASA's 1981 bud- ~your antid°te to Future sh°ck - Lf Li get request, thereby killing the Halley- LDTfO L L*L Li Tempel 2 mission. A proposed substitute, 150 Haven Avenue New York, NY 10032 a high-speed flyby of Halley's Comet, please enter my subscription to FUTURIFIC Magazine One year issues). Check for §11 enclosed. would give far less information than the (12 For overseas mailing add $10. _ rendezvous. Dr. Forward tells us Congress ',,, can still restore funding for the Haliey- L^VULrU/LLr Tempel 2 probe if public support is strong 150 Haven Avenue Representative enough. So write to Don New York, NY 10032 Fuqua, chairman of the House Committee

;i S~^A Article submissions encouraged on Science and Technology. Halley's Comet won't be back until 2061.OO nities for young people now, and they move away. Jobs provided by the mine and rail- EARTH road, the Mormons' hope goes, would call SPACE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 CONTINUED FFIOIv! PAG I- ?0 young Mormons back from distant cities. The Allen-Warner Valley System, as The tax base would broaden. The church, Similarly all the stars in a cluster have the Ronald Rudolph, of Friends of the Earth, vigorously proselytistic, would gain, in the same composition when they are formed. has said, "drives a spike through the influx of new workers, plenty of raw material Most stars are made of hydrogen and heartlands of our national parks." for its missionary zeal. helium and very little else. Spectroscopic In the past few decades southwestern The question, of course, is whether that analysis shows that elements heavier than coal has become increasingly attractive to influx of gentiles— tough American gyp- helium are relatively rare. Even in stars rich energy utilities. They have been drawn into sies of the trailer-camp culture, an influx in them, heavier elements make up no more the industrial vacuum of the Four Corners outnumbering the local population eight to than a minute fraction of the star's material. country by the pollution standards there, one — would lie down quietly and be prose- The slight differences in stellar evolution less strict than those of more densely in- lytized. Would miners and railroad men be caused by the minor variations in a star habited areas; by the boosterism of local satisfied with Utah's 3.2 beer? Would Mor- cluster's composition are insignificant. politicians, who imagine that their con- mon family life be improved by the al- From clusterto cluster, however, there are

stituents are bored with life in an industrial coholism, delinquency, divorce, violence, marked chemical differences. The stars of vacuum; and by the cheapness of the coal. and culture shock that inevitably follow in- a globular cluster consist almost entirely of The worst of the coal projects, from the dustry into rural places? hydrogen and helium, with almost none of environmentalist's point of view is the Four Kane and Garfield counties share the the heavier elements present. Stars in an Corners Power Plant, in northwestern New illusions that Fairbanks, Alaska, held be- open cluster are much richer in heavy ele- Mexico. That plant burns coal strip-mined fore the Alaska pipeline was completed, ments. The study of stellar evolution helps from land near Shiprock, a Navajo sacred and that Gillette, Wyoming, held before the explain this contrast. mountain, and sends skyward a smoke strip mine was opened there. Such illusions We think that the heavy elements are supernovas, the cataclysmic plume so gigantic that it was one of the few are possible only in places far from the city created by artificial phenomena visible to the as- Environmentalists are preparing for the explosions that end the lives of some stars. tronauts of Project Gemini. Nearly as bad is fight. Lawyers from the Environmental De- While the normal nuclear fusion that goes the strip mine at Black Mesa, another sa- fense Fund have joined forces with the on in all stars produces elements other cred Navajo mountain. Coal from Black Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and sev- than hydrogen and helium, only super- Mesa is burned at the Navajo Power Plant, eral local ranchers whose land the railroad novas can form elements heavierthan iron. near Page, Arizona. When the wind blows will cross. The lawyers like their chances. The explosion spews these elements out in the wrong direction, the smoke from that The National Park Service and the Bureau into the interstellar gas. enriching it for the plant reduces visibility in the Grand Can- of Land Management are ranged against next generation of stellar birth. In this way yon to less than 15 miles. the project— in the personal sentiments of each generation of stars is richer in heavy Stegner's description, then, "great sky their personnel, at least. The mine compo- elements than the one before it. The without a smudge or taint from Technoc- nent of the Allen-Warner System is situated globular-cluster stars, which formed first,

racy," no longer holds true in all of the just three miles from the boundary of Bryce were made of primordial material, unen- Southwest. The air that Gather wrote Canyon National Park. Mining operations riched by supernovas since its creation at about-- light, dry, aromatic, free -has dis- would be visible from Yovirnpa Point, one of the beginning of the universe. Open clus- appeared from parts of this desert. the canyon's main scenic overlooks. Air ters formed later on. The sun is a second- or Over the Kaiparowits Plateau, still, quality in the park would be impaired, and third-generation star. We know this from the thanks to luck and inaccessibility, the sky is Bryce's desert silence would depart. Blast- abundance of heavy elements detected in flawlessly blue and unsmudged. The air is ing might well tumble the delicate, its spectrum. the cleanest in the nation, and it still bears salmon-colored erosional towers for which A recent study of meteorites has shed all those messages it carried to Cather's Bryce was protected. Industries should not some light on the sun's birth. In the meteor- Father Latour. be able to do this to a national park. The ites are the remains of a radioactive form of

The Allen-Warner Valley Project would fix environmentalists think industry won't be aluminum. It is an isotope that is radioactive that. It would annually generate 30,810 tons able to do it. They argue that the mine site for only a short time, cosmically speaking, of particulates, 17,024 tons of nitrogen cannot be reclaimed in conformity with re- and should not occur in such "recent" oxides, and 3,267 tons of sulfur dioxide. quirements of the Surface Mining and Con- material as meteorites unless it was formed Erosion from construction would damage trol Act; that safer, cleaner, and cheaper only a little while before the meteorites water quality in a region where water has alternatives to Kaiparowits coal exist; and themselves were. always been scarce. Coal dust, heavy that the enormous investment required by Astronomers think that this aluminum metals, and salts would find their way to the the Kaiparowits project will preclude in- was formed in a supernova that preceded Colorado River, Deer, antelope, elk, bighorn vestment in more sensible alternatives. the birth of our solar system several billion sheep, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, "Those who haven't the strength or youth years ago. The cataclysm both enriched cougars, bobcats, and Utah prairie dogs to go into it and live with it," Stegner writes the gas that was to make up our sun— it would be displaced. of this country, "can still drive up onto the contributed about a tenth of 1 percent of The human population would boom. shoulder of the Aquarius Plateau and sim- our material— and started the contraction Utah's Kane and Garfield counties, where ply sit and look. They can look two hundred of the gas cloud. This supernova caused most of the project's impact would be felt, miles, clear into Colorado; and looking the formation of our solar system. Some of presently contain just 7,000 people. The down over the cliffs and canyons of the San the material from that stellar explosion is project would bring in 80,000 more. Many Rafael Swell and the Robbers' Roost, they now part of your body. of the present residents believe they would can also look as deeply into themselves as Future space probes will collect pristine

if of welcome that. anywhere I know And they can't even get meteoroids, perhaps even pieces com- Most are Mormons. The project, many to the places on the Aquarius where the ets, and will reveal more details of the early think, would mitigate an old Mormon di- present roads will carry them, they can solar system. Much further in the future, lemma. Mormons are strong believers in simply contemplate the idea, take pleasure interstellar probes may visit the Pleiades, family, yet their great nineteenth-century in the fact that such a timeless and uncon- one of our most beautiful astrophysical migration took them to a sparse region trolled part of earth is still there." laboratories. From these will come a fuller where holding a twentieth-century family Perhaps, with a little more luck, that will picture of how we fit into the 15-billion-year together is difficult. There are few opportu- continue to be so. DO evolution of the universe. DO Omni: A solid credit rating isn't quite the ship, such as your birth certificate. Now, inJTERY/IEUU same. that doesn't sound like they'll give you as CONTINUED FROM PAGE 80 Penzias: Right. I think we want something many accounts as you want. Because,

on a smaller scale, and I think smart termi- after all. it's proved too useful to the IRS.

But if ! know 1 want a particular style and nals fit in better with that. People want a Omni: So much for good intentions. size, the machines can handle that and human scale, even if a big. centralized sys- Penzias: If the government wants to do that send me a bill. tem might be more efficient. and the voters put up with it, that's fine. But But say it's a liquor store and somewhere Omni: Could you isolate some information we feel that people are paying us not just to in the system are all its sales records. Say in the home terminal by means of a plug or provide a service but also to look out for the Strategic Air Command wants to check a switch? their interests. Not totally— the ultimate re-

out somebody as a launch officer in a mis- Penzias: I like the idea of a mechanical sponsibility rests with the individual— but sile silo and it uses the system to weed out barrier, but given enough bad will on we have the resources to examine new drunkards. Okay, maybe that's acceptable. somebody's part, that won't be enough. If ideas in more detail and look farther down

But sooner or later it gets down to the Sec- you ever plug it in. your records can be the road. People can't test every can of ond National Bank in Clinton Falls, which is interrogated at that moment by a standing beans for botulism themselves; so they pay thinking of promoting you to head teller. order in the system. Maybe you'll have a taxes that support cannery inspectors. Our They push the button and find out you went code that changes in a pattern only you rate payers have a right to expect that we'll through six cases last month, and you're know or some sort of alias for certain trans- think about the implications of the hard- not there to tell them it was because of your actions. ware we come up with. daughter's wedding. I've been interested in this privacy ques- Omni: We've seen a new subculture spring

It's a real problem. You want the conve- tion, and as personal research. I looked up around the citizen's band radios, and

nience in purchasing, the stores want to into the Social Security system. As I under- now mobile telephone service is starting to maintain inventory and balance the books, stand it. when people first objected to the boom. How do you see the technology and but nobody wants a big machine with ev- idea of giving everyone a number- the social needs interacting in that area? erything in it he's ever done. There are sev- naturally only a liberal Democrat such as Penzias: Well, you can take the plain black eral possible solutions. You can enact laws; Roosevelt could have gotten away with telephone and add repertory dialing and we're very good at that. Did you know ihat it! — they were told that you could open as electronic switching and so on. but it's still we have twenty times as many lawyers per many Social Security accounts as you connected to a wire that goes into the wall, capita as the Japanese? Or such com- wanted. Take another name, open another and'when you go next door, you don't have panies as American Express could sell pri- account, and when you're ready to retire, it anymore. We're working toward a point at vacy as well as transaction services. you can collect on payments made on all which we can overcome that limitation, al- What's missing is some electronic your accounts. though, at present, we're limited by FCC

eguivalent of a "good name" or of the old Well. I wrote to the Social Security Admin- regulations to a narrow part of the radio practice in which you get three people of istration, asking how to get a card, and they spectrum. standing in the community to vouch for you. replied that you bring evidence of citizen- It may well be a misuse of the spectrum to give so much to broadcast television. because there you have a fixed transmitter and. in most cases, a fixed receiver. Cables can give you an infinite number of chan-

nels; so. in principle, it would make more sense to widen the broadcast bands allot- ted to mobile communications. So many

lives could be saved if we made routine and automatic the sort of communication that happens sometimes now with CB radios. Hey. there's a patch of ice around the next curve, or your left rear wheel is wobbling.

How much would it be worth to know that if your car breaks down on the highway, a truck isn't going to come along and plow

into you from behind? I can think of so many things— how many millions of dollars in police costs and court costs and prison

costs would you save if every car were equipped with an electronic tracer to pre- vent car theft'7 Omni: Some people have suggested that with optical fibers and more efficient use of land .lines and light beams, we may be coming to the end of the broadcast era. Maybe we shouldn't expect extraterrestrial civilizations to be filling the galaxy with broadcast signals. Penzias: Oh. we'll still be broadcasting, but the nature of what we'll be sending will be

very different. It will probably be increas- ingly digital, at least where enough bandwidth is available, because of the convenience of talking to machines. Ulti-

mately, it seems to me. the broadcast of any high-level civilization will not be an analog

signal of / Love Lucy. That stage will pass very quickly. What you'll eventually see used instead will be much more noise- like. Omni: What does that mean? Penzias: Noiselike in the sense that there are so many digits, in all sorts of modulation schemes, that they'll all blend into noise that covers the spectrum. Predicting is always a risky business, because if you had any clear idea of what lies beyond, you'd be working with it al- ready That's not just in science, though; extrapolation leads you astray anywhere article you go. I remember a wonderful on the history of economics that showed how the grand conclusions of Malthus or Adam Smith worked very well for their own time but increasingly badly as time went on. There were a couple of people working at Bell Labs who figured out a way to double their money in the stock market; so they quit. It was one of those speculative periods when you could make money on any company that had -onics in its name. But a few months after they quit, the bubble burst. That happens in science as well. Omni: You mean there are times when a scientist can't miss if he's working in the right field? Penzias: Sure, there are good times and bad times for certain lines of research, cer- tain lines of theoretical speculation. Over the years some people invented crazy modulation schemes because they were mathematically interesting. Then all of a Kahlua. Coffee Liqueur from Sunny Mexico. 53 Proof. sudden you get cheap digital electronics Maidstone Wine & Spirits Inc. 116 N. Robertson, Los Angele: and the crazy schemes turn out to be very neat ways of doing something practical. New from OLYMPUS Optical Co., Ltd. Other ideas, of equal or greater mathemat- ical interest, will remain abstract and use- Pearicorder. : Newest Microcassette less until all the paper they re written on crumbles into dust. Everything is smaller. I'm not a digitally oriented person myself, you know. Until a few years ago, when I had Even its price! to determine the area under a curve on a graph. I'd have the computer draw the graph, then cut out the paper and weigh it. A digital computer is such a wasteful, We think a pocket tape' recorder ought to -really stupid thing, adding the same number fit into a pocket, So we took all the performance twenty-three times instead of multiplying a features of Pearicorder, the state-of-the-art tape couple of voltages the analog way But we recorders, arid built them into an even smaller have the circuitry to make that kind of unit, at a smaller price, brute-force computation rapidly and accu- Making things better and smaiier is not new rately. So that's how it's done. to us. We invented the Microcassette concept You have to keep your mind as open as that records a full hour on a single tape. Then we you can. When the steady-state view of the created a micro-motor that minimized flutter and universe was dominant, for example, some wow in spite of its size. And a tiny speaker with people limited the kinds of physics they did powerful, extended fidelity output. Pius miniatur- to what would fit that theory ized capstan drive, previously only on large, Omni: That brings us to the big bang and to heavy recorders. It took the leader to accomplish your own work. Microwave astronomy all this, and house it in a unit 26% less bulky of the gas and dust opened up the study and 20% lighter than comparable competitors. clouds between the stars, and you made Hear the remarkable Pearicorder S202. Handle contributions to that. Over the past many it, at your tape dealer. Today. decade you've turned to the stellar pro- And then marvel at its incredibly low cost. cesses that create the elements and com- Want more details? Write Olympus Cotporafion pounds in those clouds. Why does that in- of America, 4 Nevada Drive, New Hyde Park, terest you? N.Y. 11042.

Penzias: I found myself asking simpler and simpler questions, each of which got more

it. complicated as I looked at Is the abun- Pearicorder S202 dance of the elements that we see here and now the result of the processes that we can that may begin star formation. . . .It's gotten sensitivity? see occurring now, or was there something pretty crowded there in supposedly empty Penzias: At some' wavelengths, yes, al- funny about the beginning? It's a basic curi- space, hasn't it? though I wouldn't want to say what can't be osity about how things got the way they are. Penzias: Oh, it's a vacuum in the sense that done. Some of the miraculous things the suit and optical astronomers do with film sensitize it ! was at a conference for high-school if you went out there in a space students in Salt Lake City not long ago. opened your faceplate, you'd go pfffft. But way beyond what the manufacturer says it They had business people, entertainers, there's lots of material. The mass of gas in can do. Now that art is being replaced by and so on, and toward the end we got to one of these interstellar clouds, not even a more. sensitive electronic cameras. There's talking about this, the fact that the oxygen big one. can be ten thousand times the also been a tremendous improvement in and nitrogen we breathe, the carbon and mass of the sun. our ability to detect X rays. wavelengths article in the I said, at some iron in our flesh and blood, all came out of a I looked at an on astronomy But as improve- star somewhere. You don't have to get into second edition of the Encyclopaedia there's not much more room for the mathematics, because everybody Britannica, from the late eighteenth cen- ment. In the deep-space network that the out beyond Jupiter, breathes the air, right? Where does it come tury, and it didn't even discuss the stars. As tracks probes of thousands of dollars from? We're here, and there's all this world far as the author was concerned, as- they've spent tens each degree of noise in the around us, and every bit of it except the tronomy was the solar system plus some to scrape away percent of hydrogen and some of the helium has been bright lights off in the distance. The only system. At this point, about thirty the cosmic back- cooked up inside a star. thing you could get any real science out of the noise comes from The question shouldn't be "What makes was the orbits of the planets and their ground radiation, which is going to be there me curious about that?" It should be. "Why moons. That was all of astronomy no matter what. limits of useful isn't everybody curious about it?" To be Anyway, now that we can see these Omni: As we approach the amplification, will discoveries curious is a basic human tendency. The clouds, we can use them like biological the become reason people don't care is acculturation: stains or tracers to study the stars and the less frequent? They've learned very eariy to stop asking galaxy as a whole. Hydrocyanic acid, for Penzias: Most of the real discoveries are questions and get their noses to the example, soaks up deuterium, and in other not made at the limit. You know, some have that there should grindstone. In those people I met in Salt places carbon monoxide reveals the pres- people suggested moratorium on observation while all Lake City some of the* curiosity is still alive. ence of molecular hydrogen and dust that be a They're asking, Why? What's here? What's you can't observe directly And now we're the researchers go back to the plate going on 9 beginning to look farther out, fifty thousand stacks. We're inundated with observations, center of the galaxy, to I'm sure there's a lotto be discovered in Omni: It seems that as recently as a gener- light-years from the and ation ago the basic picture in astronomy study the galactic halo. what we've already got. was stars and vacuum. Now we have doz- Omni: You and Robert Wilson discovered Omni: How does that suggestion strike ens of molecular species, the solar wind, background radiation when it was then you?

it anyway, without the comet cloud beyond Pluto, the galactic near the limits of detection. Are we getting Penzias: I think happens reason, you halo, shock waves in the interstellar gas near the absolute limits of instrumental a formal decision. For some can't get time at an observational facility, or you break your leg or take a year's sabbati- cal, and you go back to the plate stacks for a while. One of the nice things about Amer-

ican science is its diversity. It isn't ail cen- trally planned. Omni: Imagine for a moment that you weren't here at Bell Labs, but you had a large sum to spend as you liked. Would you

put it into new antennas or into better analysis of the signals coming into an exist- ing facilityvor into further study of the plate stacks? answering Penzias: I guess I'd — you know, a question like that will always get you into trouble with somebody! Omni: Take a chance

I like to invest the Penzias: I think would money in thought, in people. A lot of the money for science in America goes to facilities and somewhat less for mainte- nance of the facilities. What often falls by the wayside is the kinds of jobs that we need for young scientists, who may do the thinking that's more important than any new

facility.

In my own work, 1 like things I can tinker

with, where I can use a file and a hacksaw, more than the big projects. We have a medium-sized millimeter-wave antenna here at Bell Labs, and there are projects under way in the United States, Europe, and Japan to build larger dishes and inter- ferometers for that portion of the spectrum. But the trouble with very big facilities is that there's a lot of demand, a lot of investment of money and effort, and, eventually, all you can do is work for those results you're virtu- ally sure of before you begin. Omni: So the more speculative projects tend to be done at the secondary facilities? Penzias: Right. There you can make mis- takes; you can turn a project over to a stu- dent who might blunder but who also might

go in a direction nobody else has tried. I don't think you can do without the big proj- ects, but I'd hate to see them taking away

all the resources from the smaller ones. Ideas always start very small, in just one human brain, somewhere. Omni: Tell us a little about how ideas get started here and how you see your own role as a research director.

Penzias: It's mostly atmosphere, I think. Making sure that the research atmosphere

is as good as it has been in the past. Mak- ing people aware of their freedom. There's a human tendency, you know, to do what you think is expected. Some of the people who come here to work— with a Ph.D. and a solid bibliography and all that — well, they're here in an open shirt and jeans and sandals, and they may talk "mellowspeak," to use a Doonesbury phrase, but they can

still be pretty uptight about doing what the

boss wants. So I have to make sure to en-

courage people not to do what I want, be- cause I'm not smart enough to know what to ask for. what I sometimes provide guidance by

I'd call a "dumb" outlook. This morning one of the researchers here showed me a beautiful experiment, the first time anyone had synchronized two pulsing lasers at dif-

ferent wavelengths. And I was there to ask

him why he'd done it. What was new? Be- cause people ought to be able to defend their work. We do have to select some lines of investigation at the expense of others, and sometimes we have to cut our losses and abandon an idea. naturalist, educator, One of the people in this division has no For the photographer, astronomer, established a new desk in his office, just a drafting table and a or casual observer—Celestron has lenses at couch. He likes to lie down and look at the standard in superb telescopes and telephoto observatory ceiling, and occasionally he goes to the affordable prices (from $245). All feature large lightweight, drafting table and draws something or lies type mirror/lens optics folded into a compact, detail borders on the couch and types on his computer portable telescope or telephoto lens. Close-up light away, to terminal, or he carries his terminal home on the fabulous from celestial subjects years ships, planes, flowers, wildlife or people. Here is truly an and plugs it in there. You can't have a per- photograph the world son like that in a division that's developing instrument that allows you to view or switchboards, but here we have room for around you. unconventional approaches. Omni: The Bell Labs' record certainly Free 4-page brochure or send $2.00 doesn't show any evidence of gold- for 32-page full color catalog on bricking. how to select and use a Penzias: Oh, it's a high-pressure place in Celestron telescope or

its own way There's a real desire for excel- telephoto. lence. We're a competitive bunch of people, incapable, mostly, of doing a bad Celestron International job. That makes feedback all the more im- 2835 Columbia St., Box 3578-10 portant, and that's part of my job, too: to tell Torrance, Calif. 90503, U.S.A. people how they're doing, what's going on, Telephone: (213) 328-9560

and how it fits somehow into the long-term Dealer Inquiries invited. evolution of Bell Labs' work. So there's my radio astronomy and the communications research and figuring out

away to use all the freedom we have here. I

get into all these areas day by day, which means what I'm doing is a lot of fun. DO J

the same results that orthomolecular re- orthodox psychiatrists claim that autistic searchers claimed. In medicine that's tan- children suffer an emotional illness, the re- ORTHOHEAUNG just searchers found that some, not all, are tamount to saying the treatment CONTINUED FROM PAGE 46 massive of vitamin B doesn't work. helped by doses 6 , medicine, twenty-five hundred years ago According to Dr. Lesser, though, the test combined with a special diet and vitamin Institute for said, 'Let thy tood be thy medicine, and thy says more about the way orthodox C. Rimland now runs the Child

1 medicine be thy food. Maimonides, in the medicine does things than about or- Behavior Research, in San Diego, to con- thirteenth century, said, 'Let nothing that thomolecular practices. "They varied only tinue the work. that not careful can be treated by diet be treated by any one nutrient at a time, for example, adminis- It seems, though, even " other means.' tering niacin without a low-carbohydrate research can win acceptance for some or- The use of vitamin But modern men of medicine haven't diet," he testified before the Senate's thomolecular methods. not been much impressed by this philosophy. Select Committee on Nutrition and Human C in colds is so hotly contested that its startling endorsement by Dr Paul- A spokesman for the American Medical Needs. "It's the classic way drugs are even the Association says only that "we haven't seen tested in medicine, but it's oversimplified." ing, in his book Vitamin C and Common schizophrenia Coid published ten years ago, could make any sign that [orthomolecular medicine] Dr. Hoffer, the pioneering :

is suit- it respectable. On the contrary, it evoked works. Nutrition is by no means something researcher, adds that "their method that the two-time Nobel Prize that the medical profession ignores. We just able for testing individual drugs, but it is muttehngs senile. take a rather conservative view" virtually impossible to test a complex winner had finally gone careful medical trials of vitamin C The medical establishment's response treatment method with it. We change the Several been performed since then, and the to the use of vitamins in treating schizo- treatment for each individual, and the dos- have recent editorial in phrenia by Drs. Hoffer and Osmond was age must sometimes be chosen by trial and furor still hasn't abated. A It's England's leading med- fairly typical: There almost wasn't any. The error, as we do with diabetes. impossi- The Lancet, one of that vitamin does report coincided with the introduction of ble to arrive at the correct dosage in their ical journals, declared C physi- not ber of colds people get, but tranquilizers to treat schizophrenia, and it double-blind studies, in which the cut the num

it used it was drowned out by excitement over the conceded that patients who had wonder drugs. milder symptoms than others. still with vitamin C, Medicine's habit of resorting to drugs Dr. Pauling is working

it cancer therapy distresses some orthomolecular physi- testing now as an aid to have found a He and Dr. Ewan Cameron find that cians, who are certain they ^Orthomolecular physicians terminal-cancer patients, if given huge better way to treat their patients. It angers others. remain a small- band doses of ascorbic acid, live about three times as long as they otherwise would. Yet 'The neuroleptics [major tranquilizers] of hardy pioneers who stand allowed for more humane control and he reports that "we've applied to the Na- speedier discharge," Dr. Lesser, who as a reproach tional Cancer Institute five times for a grant.

We it once a year, at least. So far they've trained in orthodox psychiatry at Albert to the rest of medicine. do satisfy Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, said no. It's a little hard to them. If they are right, admits. "But the side effects are so serious We'd have to withhold the therapy from half that people stop taking them and land other doctors are not our patients." hospital. wound up with Orthomolecular doctors are finding a back in the We doing their job. swinging-door psychiatry." wide variety of other uses for vitamin C. Dr. Cathcart treats about 1,000 Dr. Bernard Rimland, a San Diego pedi- Nevada's year in his Incline Village atrician, is harsher in his criticism. "Mod- new patients a that "massive doses ern medicine is bankrupt," he declares. practice and reports of viral infections. In the nine years "It's becoming a nightmare. The advances C ease have often backfired, leaving in their cian observing the results doesn't know that I've been in Incline Village, which has a wake death, blindness, stroke, and a vari- what a given patient is receiving." generally young population, we've never ety of other. iatrogenic [physician-caused] Yet most orthomolecular treatments are hospitalized a patient for viral disease." disasters more serious than the original based on careful scientific research. Dr. In fact, Cathcart classifies illnesses by disease. The side effects of prescription Rimland himself provides a good example how much ascorbic acid it takes to cure

drugs now equal breast cancer as a lead- of how it gets done. Autistic children suffer them. "Hepatitis is a sixty-gram disease," to hippies here all know how to ing cause of death in the United States. a purely emotional illness, according he says. 'The "The difference between a schizo- traditional medicine, but psychotherapy treat it. They come down out of the hills, buy phrenic and a normal person is not that the has proved heartbreakingly unsuccessful. theirlittle can of vitamin C powder, and cure schizophrenic has a deficiency of Rimland has found an orthomolecular it for about seven dollars." Thorazine. The difference between a treatment that apparently works. Patients take vitamin C up to "bowel hyperactive kid and a normal one is not that Like many orthomolecular researchers, tolerance"— until they develop diarrhea. the hyperactive kid has a deficiency of am- Rimland got into the field "anecdotally"— "Colds are a hundred-gram disease," phetamine or Ritalin. That's not a rational because he had seen a specific case. "I Cathcart says. "When they hit, people can approach." have an autistic son," he explains. "I began take eight grams without diarrhea. They Traditional medicine's counterattacks on hearing from parents who tried what Adelle know they've got something, but ninety

orthomolecular theorists are more orga- Davis suggested and found that it helped." percent of the symptoms are blocked." nized and — among scientists — just as tell- To aid in his research, Rimland called in Scientific studies haven't confirmed vi- believes, ing. Orthomolecular physicians don't do two scientists with solid establishment cre- tamin C's effectiveness, he be- proper research, they charge. "What they dentials. One, psychiatrist Enoch Callaway, cause the experimenters used too little of it. do varies so widely that we can't exactly of the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatry In- The largest dose used in double-blind joined in because far is four grams a day. "Every- study it," the AMA says. stitute, in San Francisco, studies so In 1973 the American Psychiatric Asso- he thought "orthomolecular psychologists one's different," Cathcart stresses. "You ciation's Task Force on Vitamin Therapy in tend to do poor research and engage in have to take each patient right up to bowel Psychiatry told of repeating the studies that polemics." tolerance." orthomolecular physicians feel prove that Rimland and his colleagues' study was There is a darker side to vitamin C, how- vitamins can help cure schizophrenia and eventually published in the prestigious ever. "People become dependent on as- other mental illnesses. They couldn't get American Journal of Psychiatry. Although corbic," Cathcart asserts. "These are

people on a high-maintenance dose, say, surprisingly, estrogen deficiency. All these percent glucose solution. over four grams a clay. Hay fever sufferers, conditions can be treated effectively with a "One of the richest men in the world died for example, take ten or fifteen grams a clay progesterone skin cream, Peat reports. of starvation. Aristotle Onassis had myas- for years. When you take it, there's a sud- We'll soon be adding antioxidants to our thenia gravis and couldn't chew. Just like den punch, and you feel better," morning's dose of vitamins and minerals if those patients under conventional therapy

He warns that if someone using large orthomolecular physicians have their way. in intensive-care units, they gave him in- doses of vitamin C is suddenly deprived of Antioxidants prevent oxygen, and some travenous glucose. Patients on such a mis- it, say, when hospitalized after an accident, other elements, from attacking easily dam- erable diet die from malnutrition. They it can be dangerous. "They'll do very aged body molecules. Many of the chemi- should have given him amino acids." badly," he says. "We're getting to the point cals in air pollution are oxidants. Vitamins There is a lot of nutritional research, Dr. where it will be malpractice to take away A, C, and E are the best-known antioxi- Ghadimi said. "Doctors know it, but the re- someone's vitamin C." dants, but some of the trace minerals are search doesn't cross over. It just hasn't As the battle over ascorbic acid con- also effective. been used at the bedside." tinues, several other battles are shaping Two possible antioxidants that have At long last, that may be changing. Only bitter is fought are zinc and separate up. One of the most being gained attention recently ten or so medical schools have — against the Food and Drug Administration, selenium. "We think selenium will be to the departments to teach nutrition "and long an enemy of unorthodox new Eighties what iodine was to the early they're lousy," Dr. Lesser said— but the therapies. Orthomolecular methods are a 1900s," says Herb Boynton, president of a number is slowly increasing. Perhaps the thorn in the FDA's side, because the La Jolla, California, health-food business orthomolecular doctors have finally made agency cannot regulate the use of vitamins called Nutrition 21. "We're just beginning to their point. and other natural substances as it does find out that most Americans are deficient artificial drugs. Recently the FDA has at- in it." The company regularly searches the There is little doubt that the health nuts tacked experimentation with adrenal corti- scientific literature for new nutritional find- were right all along, especially about pre- cal extract (ACE). ings and offers to answer queries about ventive medicine. Our nutritional needs are Patients deficient in adrenal hormones more individualized and far more critical to develop fatigue and put on excess weight, our health than traditionalists have thought. particularly around the hips. Doctors usu- Though our needs vary and critics claim ally give them synthetic steroids, with that orthomolecular practices vary even dangerous side effects. Dr. Richard P. more, Dr. Lesser points out that there are ^Massive doses of ascorbic Heumer, of Westlake Village, California, in- some basic principles of good health that sists that ACE injections are as effective as acid ease viral nearly all the orthomolecuiar physicians steroids and free of the hazards. He gives adhere to. It couldn't hurt to include them in infections. In the nine years them along with nutritional therapy and B our own diets. I've practiced vitamins, especially B , and can often psychiatrist quips. 6 "Lesser is more," the wean patients away from other drugs, in Incline Village, we've "Eat unprocessed foods as much as pos- Unfortunately, the FDA has classified sible, trying for organically grown fruits and never hospitalized ACE as a "new drug." This classification vegetables. Avoid frozen foods. They are makes ACE difficult to obtain, even for re- a single patient for a treated with chelating agents — the wrong search. "Their first commandment is 'Thou kind. foods. They viral illness.^ No canned are contami- shalt not experiment with substances nated with sugar and salt. Avoid processed naturally occurring in the human body,'" and refined foods. No white flour. No sugar.

Cathcart says bitterly. Though the FDA re- Use maple syrup or unfiltered honey if you mains unmoved by calls for controlled like sweeteners. Avoid coffee, alcohol, and studies of ACE, Senator Barry Goldwater the city. If you can't, you may have to sup- has thrown his support behind the or- human dietary requirements. plement your basic diet." thomolecular researchers, calling the re- It begins to look as if orthomolecular doc- He recommends "B vitamins in as bal- port that led to the ban "peculiar and tors are slowly convincing their more con- anced a form as possible, such as brewer's scanty." Whether Goldwater's backing will servative colleagues. Dr. Hossein Ghadimi, yeast." For vitamin E, his rule of thumb is to do any good remains to be seen. a Long Island pediatrician, for instance, is a take 100 units per day for each decade of Orthomolecular research has also fo- specialist in metabolic diseases who says your life. Vitamins A and D should be taken cused on the sex hormones. Estrogens, for he doesn't think orthomolecular medicine in a ten-to-one ratio, say, 25,000 units of A example, are often given for toxemia or is even a legitimate specialty. Yet he gives and 2,500 of D daily, as Adelle Davis pre- bleeding in the first months of pregnancy. vitamin C to make antibiotics more effec- scribed. Add a natural mineral preparation According to Dr. Ray Peat, a research tive, uses amino acids and megavitamin that has as many elements as possible. chemist, they can combine with unsatu- therapy, and tests diabetics and hypo- Scientists still haven't figured out for cer- rated fats in the diet, causing the birth of glycemics even more rigorously than most tain how much vitamin C healthy people small-brained, retarded animals. He claims orthomolecular practitioners would. need. Estimates of the proper daily dose that using 10 to 15 grams of the male hor- He explains that "there are biochemical range from 100 milligrams up to Dr. mone progesterone, instead of estrogens, reasons to use vitamins in far greater dos- Cathcart's four grams per day. Whatever child's during pregnancy raises a IQ by ages than is done in conventional you take, you'll need more when you're ill or around 35 points. And even the AMA says medicine, which says that if you don't feel under stress. There is some evidence that that progesterone is harmless to both fetus right, it's part of aging and that you can take you should also take more of vitamins A and motherwhen given in early pregnancy. Valium to lift your mood. I believe we can and D and minerals, especially calcium. Dr. Peat blames excess estrogen for manipulate you nutritionally so that, with no "Pay attention to everything you con- many ills: "There is an epidemic of drugs, no stimulants, you can start to feel sume," Lesser urges. "You can't expect to prolactin-secreting pituitary tumors," he like a new person." be healthy if you put toxins in your body. If asserts. "They are the result of the Pill, Modern medicine, he agrees, pays far you are really ill, see a physician. The best which contains large doses of estrogen. too little attention to nutrition. "Cancer pa- of them understand nutrition." Progesterone stops it." Other maladies, he tients often die from malnutrition," he For further information on nutrition and says, may be caused by progesterone de- charges. " 'Overwhelming infection' kills orthomolecular medicine, contact the Or- ficiency. Among them are conditions that them. No wonder they can't fight off even a thomolecular Medical Society, 2340 Parker mimic epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and, little infection. All they're given is a five- Street, Berkeley, California 94704.OO 106 OMNI means you're still very very close. Tell me. Altair sprang to his feet. "Man, I did in- " What do the Mules think?" deed blast it good. I'd better go and — "That's what we don't really know. Dom With a cold sternness Altair had not yet CONTINUED FROM PAGE 65 Felix, do you know what a 'swing vote' was seen, Dom Felix pointed to the bed beside

"Singular, It Vaj. Plural, Vags. means 'va- in an old-time election?" him. "You'd better sit right down again." A

1 gina, vagina-born. And a lot is in how they "That's when a small party has enough moment of confusion, then Altair came and say it, too. There've been some pretty bad votes, in a close election, to decide which sat. More gently, Dom Felix said, "It won't do fights." of the big ones will win, although they a bit of good to chase after her now, if I'm "I can imagine. What's this third group themselves have to lose." any judge, and I am. Later will do, and I'll you mentioned?" "I like all I you better the time," Altair said help if can, and I can. "Oh, them. They're Mules." warmly. "Well, that's the situation with the "Now, you've been almost embarrassing "Mules?" Mules. We can't tell where they'll throw their in expressing your liking for me. I'm going

"Once in a long while a Nat gets Gen- I'll a weight. tell you this about them, though. to embarrass you twice. One: I like you. J gie pregnant. not me. Though They make In brains and in work, they vary from excel- like you very much. I think you're super- me nervous. the other 'round, too. And way lent all the way down to good." bright, and I think your instincts are in the

And usually if a baby gets born, it grows up "That's the nicest thing you've said about right place, and I think you're basically sterile. Well, you've heard of that before, if all me day," said Wallich from the doorway, honest. Two: I think your long view of human you know any biology. Take a lion and a in a dangerously sweet voice. "Dom Felix, affairs has preoccupied you so much that tiger. Big cats, same diet, pretty much the I'm one of those Mules. Hee haw, and all you've lost your link to the short view: here, same habits. They won't breed. If you try it that." now, Medea. You toid me that your function ."

under I I laboratory conditions, might 1, I . . you 'Oh, Lord, Wally, didn't, mean here was to apply that link, and I am telling make it once in twenty tries. And if you don't Altair turned almost frantically to Dom Felix. you that you are not doing it and that there- get a stillbirth, you'll get a mule." "Listen, there stands the best synthesizing fore you are not doing your job." " "Yes, I know that. It's the very definition of technician in all Medea. There is nobody "Now wait a — species. One of the basic tenets of Accep- like her, nobody. Chemistry, biochemistry, "It's testing time, Mister Historian, and is tance the simple scientific fact that there physiotherapy, psychotherapy, she can run I'm glad that's your specialty and that I can is form of no humanity on Earth that cannot any piece of equipment in the place. Yes, speak to it and that I can make my point breed readily with any other. Never mind she can fix any piece of equipment. That's simply and quickly without sidling up to it. "

1 should, never mind might. They can. Once what I was just telling him, Wally Do you know what a Catharist was?" you grasp that, you begin to understand "I'm so pleased," she said steadily and "Well, I-" man as what he is- -a single species." there were tears in her eyes. "Now tell him 'A Huguenot, a Jansenist?" " 'And Altair, what we have here," said "is a that I have ears as good as yours, feelings Altair nodded. "The Huguenots were — different species, that's all and we're say- as tender as yours, and that I can hurt just Implacably, Dom Felix drove on: "Wal- ing." as much as area/ person." And she turned denses, Adamites, Irgun Zwei Leumi, "You still get Mules, though, and that quietly and left. Mormons, Mau Maus, Pieds Noirs, the Con- federacy, Symbionese, Froets Raiders, Sans-Culottes, the Polar Gang, the IRA, the Anzac Hangmen, the PLO?" "Most of those. A lot of them, anyway. The Polar-" Overriding, Dom Felix demanded, "What. were the issues of the Thirty Years War? Why the story that men and women were hanged for wearing the color green? Did you know that men were flogged and churches were burned because they did or did not-- have candles on the altar? Why r would a man be hunted down and speared INTHlSTWS^TE^ONAi^VtO.ig^ like a boar because he had been seen A pOHK POCK (3&0UR 5TM*WNG raising his wine glass over a glass of water? What were the issues? What were the is- at Twe pefriM&r&F- cfth&h sues?" " "Well, in the case of — IKTO A S^iCK HOL& WHICH VACWMBD OPAU^tm 'Ah! You know. You know because you JHB-H are Mister Historian. But suppose you are not Mister Historian. You are a modern Ter- ran with a good education and a fine back-

ground, and I say to you, Catharists. I say,

Waldenses. I say What are the issues?"

"I ... I guess I'd have to say, I don't know

I'd have to say, I'll look it up."

"But if I say, modern Terran, does it matter

what the issues are? Does it really matterto you ?"

"Well, I guess not. Not now"

'Aha. Now we have it. Not now. Altair Two,

I submit to you, looking down the long

sweep of history, that it did not matter then, those things for which people fought and died and were imprisoned and tortured

and burned; that in the deepest sense it did

not matter if a man turned his face toward Mecca or Rome or Canterbury or stood alone on a rock on a mountain and poured prayer on the rising sun or paid his tithes to

'his or that emperor. Yes, of course, it was -nadeto matter to the man, but in the larger sense the issues were issues that had no

real significance. 1 read a story about a man who traced back through three centuries of warfare to find the basic issue, and it turned out to be a quarrel over the king's breakfast, whether one should break a boiled egg on the big end or the little end." "That was, ah, Dean Swift. Toiliver's Travels."

"Thank you. I'd forgotten. And I submit to you now that your splits here on Medea, with your Nats and Mules and Vags and Truforms, are of the same category and do

...... not matterl" They sat glaring at each other for a mo- ment, Dom Felix less and less as the mo-

ments passed. Altair II more and more until he exploded.

: 'By God it does matter! Do you think we can run the risk of the Geng — ah, Tru- forms— breeding at random, one with superior size and another with a superior • OTHER LIFE FORMS . logic, a double-dominant, and a brat who * would grow up to be something we couldn't MATHAVE KNOWN ABOUT handle? Do you think we want to repeat the mistake of the Computer Wars, when men had to obey the commands of their own THE ROSICRUCIANS

creations? Damn it, Dom Felix, the only rea- son the issues you just reeled off— oh hell, FQRTHOUSANDS0F YEARS. man, you do know your history! — is that those issues were settled —fought and won All life forms share a common denominator. It's called and done with, and that's why they don't Cosmic Consciousness and this ever prevailing universal matter. This one is here and now and we will | is now upon us for the asking ... as it has fight, we will bleed, /will bieed! It's got to be knowledge stopped! Then in another thousand years always been. you can look back and say that only a spe- The Rosicrucians are a unique fraternal cialist can even remember what the issues organization (not a religion) that allows you to utilize were. But you can't say it now" these principles in your everyday life. What others have I

"I it and I The issues are can say now, do. known as a beautiful relationship with the Universe is been when men turn what they have always available to you. Find out about the Rosicrucians.

on one another. You have the power, and I Yes. Please send me the free booklet, The Mastery of Life, that it. I and must want have the power, you |

explains how I can learn more about Cosmic Consciousness obey. I will kill you if you do not give me the

power. 1 will kill you if you threaten to take my and Universal Principles.

It not matter; it power away. is that that does Scribe X.T.F. is that that is triviality." The Rosicrucians (AMORC) "Well, if you think we're going to knuckle Rosicrucian Park

. . . of . . . why, they're under to a bunch of San Jose, CA 95191 U.S.A. not even humanV "Altair, my history books say that from time time the Visigoths were not human, to Address- the Japanese, the Jews, the Germans, the " .Zip. Irish, the New Jibaros, the — City talk, Dom Felix," Altair in- "Propaganda understand ourselves terrupted tiredly. "But this one time they To really are not human}" is to understand the Universe.

"And I too really am not human." The voice behind them was metallic and not quite a monotone, and synchronized

with it was a series of soft grunts, whistles, THE ROSICRUCIANS and squeaks, all but inaudible. Dom Felix whirled around and gasped. Altair whirled around — and laughed. Squatting against the back wall was the strangest animal 9 creature 7 being? mon-

ster? that Dom Felix had ever seen. It rose

as they turned; it was taller than Dom Felix, though notastall as Altair. It was covered in records, that is precisely the answer he might hurt himself. He'll talk to you for as gray-blue fur, with large upthrust triangular gave more than eighty terrayears ago. Ask long as you like, anytime, and never gets ears feet with slender ankles, and him why he is the only Arcan — that's his miffed if you have to cut it short. He'll an- : clawed

extremely massive thighs, shaped rather city Arca--the only one who has ever swer any guestion — almost — and I just like those of a wolf, but obviously jointed to learned our language." can't remember his ever asking one." what must be something very like a human "Why is that, Aquare?" "Doesn't he mind our talking about him pelvis, for it could stand upright with its legs "There is no need." behind his back to his face like this?" almost straight. The arms were long and Altair said, "That's from eighty terrayears "Say no; say no," said the strange mixed slender and seemed to be muscled with ago, too. Years before that he showed up at voice. "I am a very pleasant conversation." knotted steel cable, What at first seemed to the enclave, when it was nothing but a "Another Terran tripped down with Dom be a decoration or even a kind of garment dome and afew fields. Hej'ust hung around Felix, Aquare. Would you like to meet him?" proved to be an inordinately long tail, all the time, didn't want food, didn't want "He is Kert Row I have meet him. He and wound diagonally around the torso upward anything. Security got very uptight at first, machines and theories all happy harmony from its base, just over the small potbelly, but, thank the powers, we had a Big Chief together. I do not think they harmony with

I and on around and around until its pointed with the wit not to blast him. Just a tight Medea. I do not say him that. wish he bony tip rested in the area of what would guard and observers. One day one of 'em, happy until rested. Time then find out." be, in a human, the clavicle. Hooked a bright Gen — ah, Truform — called Zylo, Altair groaned. "Here we go again. It's around the neck was a padded metal band noticed those noises he was making and that damn Occam. Such a great idea in bearing a small grille and a slender curved claimed to recognize words. A whole team theory, a projective computer that will give wire, terminating in a knot the size of a got to work on it and designed the first you the simplest possible solution using all thumbnail, which hovered a few centime- version of that computer-translator he's the data, because, according to 'Occam's ters from the mouth— or was snout a better wearing. It's been improved a lot since Razor,' the simplest solutions have the term? A purplish tongue flicked out and in, then. And he's been a great help. He's ar- greatest possibility of being right. But how and Dom Felix was able to see a flash of ranged a dozen or more tours to Area over do you tell Occam that problems on Medea blue-white teeth, clearly those of an ornni- are not simple, that solutions that work are vore, with blunted canines and very even, never simple, and that there's no way to manifestly sharp incisors. The most fas- feed the computer all the data?" cinating feature to Dom Felix was the "It's been pretty good at cutting trans- hands, which bore two two-jointed oppos- mission time from Earth to Medea, though, wear what we able digits and two very long fingers with • We receiving laser as long as the trip is in range, computing probable outcomes, and in the palms, a . . small curved claws and, please, or nothing. . The protruding chitinous pair of nippers, or beaming those ahead," Dom Felix said. skin is the largest beaks, shaped rather like a parrot's but "That's what brought me here at this time more slender. As the two men rose and organ of the body; it needs instead of maybe forty years later." horrible turned, it was striking and scraping the two "That is a truly thought," said light, and it needs sets of nippers together, making a dry, Altair. To the Medean he said, "Dom Felix is breathe. It never high-pitched chirping sound. to was going to solve all our problems for us."

1 "Laughing/ said Altair aside to Dom meant to be "Going to try," said Dom Felix, suspect- Felix, briefly imitating with his own hands ing that the cheerful historian might have a covered up all of the tirne.V the movement of the creature's. "That's the touch of vicious irony in him. way he laughs." Aloud, he cried: 'Aquare, "I hear him solving," said Aguare. "Wal- you ol' long-tailed hoptoad — I'm glad you denses, Adamites, Irgun Zwei Leumi." A blew in! This is Dom Felix here at last — he pause. "Altair II, you put you ear far down in just tripped down. Dom Felix, this is my mouth of Dom Felix. Leave there." Pause oldest friend on Medea. Really. He used to the years, though not much anymore. Noth- again. "Could be Dom Felix is very great bounce me in his arms while my mom was ing changes over there. You'll see for your- Or very very great. Or the greatest Terran

working in the labs." self when you start to move around." yet on Te^ra. On Medea. Soon I will know" The long, thin lips quivered and moved; While he spoke, the Medean stood quite Blushing like a schoolgirl. Dom Felix the strange sequence of whistles and motionless, head turned to one side. Dom said, "I really don't think I'm so great, clicks emerged softly while the little metal Felix realized suddenly that he did not have Aquare."

grille said, "Please be welcome and the binocular vision. Like a rabbit or a squirrel "True. But could be. Soon I know" happiest, Dom Felix. We have spoken or most Terran birds, the averted head "I really don't know what to say," mur- much of you and how you have saved the meant Aquare was looking straight at him. mured Dom Felix sincerely. Terra." Altair was saying, "Neither Aquare nor any "Say you sleep now. You more tire than

"I have heard a great deal about you, too other Arcan ever asked for or took a thing you know Dream happy."

You are quite a celebrity on Terra, you know from us. Even when our engineers thought "Omigod, yes!" cried Altair. "I shouldn't ."

better something, or . . Ahd please, I have not saved the Earth, not they had a way to do have kept you up, got you all stirred up give them that at all. I think the Movement I work in has some device or gadget to to He leaped up, swung Dom Felix around, done a great deal of good; it was doing it they might use. they just looked at it and and lowered him gently. Sleep approached

I off, old here before I joined, and all am doing is to try to walked and Aquare just with a rush, holding back just long enough return the good it has done me." wouldn't say why. 'We are content,' " he for him to hear Aquare intone sagely "There 'Ah, please lengthen yourself." mimicked, and the Medean -went chirp- is no should. There is only is." Dom Felix turned a puzzled face to Altair, chirp-chirp. 'And what the hell! We're just who laughed and said, "He means, essen- not in competition. There's plenty of room, Kert Row, tow-headed engineering tially, don't be modest. Ask him how old he we never built near Area or any fishing or genius, lay with his eyes open and started is." hunting ground we thought they might use; up when Altair came in. "Hi. Hey," he said, "What?" we can't eat the same food; there's just no abruptly propping himself up on his elbow, "Go ahead." reason for any friction. So as time went on, "you know who that is in there?" "Aquare, would you mind telling me how Aquare became free to come and go any "Sure do. Dom Felix. And he just corked old you are?" time. He stays out of the way — he has a real off, which is what you ought to bo doing."

"I have achieved my maturity." instinct for that and he never goes into "I don't mean just his name. Do you know Altair said, "You know, according to the restricted areas or anywhere where he who he is?" 110 OMNI "Fill me in. It's hard to know when Occam leaves off on facts and fades in the projec- onnrui tions. The projections are pretty impres- ruEXT sive, though."

"I haven't seen them," said the engineer,

"but, sight unseen, I am here to tell you they don't do that man justice. You just don't know what happens when that man turns on . . . whatever you call it that he turns on."

"Words just don't do it, see. He laughed. j

Look, I saw him put a hundred thousand people in a stadium into some sort of a, oh

hell, I was going to say trance. It wasn't a trance. You wake up from trances." "He certainly spun my head around." Al- tair pursed his lips.

"I know what you mean," said Kert Row. (Altair doubted that.) "But you have to see

him in action, with a crowd, I mean, before you can appreciate what happens when you're alone with him. After that stadium

thing, when I found out I was going to prep

with him for two and a half weeks, I thought he was going to burn me to a crisp in the first twelve minutes. But you know what? The whole time he let me talk. He wanted

me to talk, and he really listened. I was the guru, he was the student."" "Well, he was," Altair said. "He told me that. He said he was angry at himself for having so little knowledge, so little talent in your field, and how he wished he had even some of what you had."

." "He did? Oh . . . my . . The "my" came out despairingly, as if he had searched for expletives and found none that would suit and had to fall back on something so pale. HIGH PRIEST GUERRILLA PSYCHOLOGY-Two people sit in a room, Altair hoped he would not actually ask THE OF conversing -normally, except that one of them, unbeknownst to the other, is a whether he had had the same experience "Cyranoid." The words he speaks are not his own but are fed to him through an with the man in the black burnoose, and his electronic hookup that he wears in his ear. And the man who dictates his every hope was realized. Kert Row 'ell very sud- behind two-way mirror several feet away and talks into a micro- denly asleep with a luminous smile on his sentence stands a phone. is Stanley Milgram, perhaps today's most innovative experimentalist in face, Altair did not know how long he stood He of social psychology for his obedience-to-authority experiment in there, tanning his heart with the smile. the field Famous Americans will inflict pain on their fellows if ordered to do "Oh." the 1960s, which showed pioneered studies so original (and oftentimes amusing) that He turned around. Wallich. One long so, Milgram has since he's, been called the Allen Funt of social psychology if you're freaked out by Freud, stride, and he had her, upturned hands on paranoid over you'll be blown away by Milgram in the next issue of Omni. her elbows. He said, "No more 'Mule,' pub- Pavlov lic or private. Ever" SPIN-OFF -~ Famed science^fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein reacted with horror Tears. There had been tears before, too, galled- before last July They wanted him to testify about "applica- but what a difference! He. had a mad when Congress tions space technology for the elderly and the handicapped," but what did he thought that they must taste different, of know about that? Quite a bit, it turned out. He knew he probably would have been

. . angry tears and . and these. He slid his killed by a stroke had it not been for medical techniques developed during the arms around her, and she leaned against Apollo missions and other space programs. In next month's Omni Heinlein telis of him for a time. He raised his head, then the spin-offs that saved his life and that are now saving thousands of other lives. turned it toward the door, a quiet sugges- tion. She stood back and looked into his OF test tube in hand, a scientist spools face, eyes wide open and certain, and BIOTECHNOLOGY COMES AGE-With Out spaghettilike threads of DNA on a glass .rod. At a later stage he will combine it shook her head. "Not now, Altair. And not for with DNA from another source to create a new life form — one that will convert a very long time, but thank you." She tip- biomass into gasohoi or produce a rare antiviral substance. Where is this research toed to kiss him swiftly on the corner of the taking place? You may have guessed MIT, Stanford, or another university think tank, mouth and went out. in fad, commercial rather than academic enterprises are leading the race to He glanced at the other door, the adjoin- develop the practical applications of recombinant DNA. In the upcoming issue of ing room where Dom Felix slept. Utile hairy read about the revolution in biotechnology and the wonders it will bring about. man, he thought, you do move and shake Omni things around here. MiCROWQRLDS— All scientific investigations look at the mysterious, the strange, and the unknown. Perhaps the most fascinating research tool combines the illumi- In the weeks that followed (Terran weeks, nation of the microscope and the recording power of the camera. High-quality of course. Medea stubbornly and rever- optics has opened up entirely new worlds to us, from the crystal lattices of minerals ently adhered to Old World time), Dom Felix to the inner structures of cells. The best of these new worlds can be seen in our visited, Dom Felix observed, Dom Felix exclusive pictorial of Nikon's annual photomicrography contest in the March Omni. questioned and listened and studied; he became as ubiquitous as the Arcan people and between people and ideas. He Aquare, appearing everywhere, anywhere, won the confidence of the Big Chief, Direc-

at any time at all, while staying out of the tor Kesseridge, a born administrator who

way. was so good at his job that it was rumored He witnessed the departure of the lander he might be a Truform, made to order; so

that had brought him and experienced the good at his job that he was bored with it, strange mixture of feelings experienced by bored as only a man can be who has no

all Trippers; it was unlike any other depar- alternative to that which he does well. Dom ture since men first traveled, boarded, en- Felix was able to interest him in that facet of trained, and emplaned, for there was no Acceptance that taught the ability to listen waving from the rail, no message from over to a man being wrong without correcting

a horizon, no captain's table, flight atten- him. It was hard to do, even to grasp, at

dant—none of that. There were seventeen first, but when he set out to practice it, he days of psychological and biological prep- found himself welcomed more and more in aration, and then immersion in the bio- places and in situations he had never

energetic phase-inversion field— all this dared approach before. He thought this planetside. Subjectively, the Trip was in- was a miracle and Dom Felix was a magi- stantaneous; objectively, a half-century or cian, and thenceforward ail doors were OMNI so. Between these extremes of time, Oc- open to the hairy little man in the black cam, the projective computer drank infor- burnoose. TIME CAPSULES. mation until the well ran dry, soaked up by Dom Felix acquainted himself with all the

It agriculture, meteo- Now, the magazine of the future can distance. did its extrapolations, and, sections — astronomy,

be kept safe for the future. Store your when it could, it sought and found its oppo- rology, biochemistry, radiology, xenology, issues of Omni in a new Custom Bound site number on the approaching ship {for bioenergetics, ecology and all the divi- Library Case made of black simulated leather. It's buiit to last and it will keep 12 ships, few as they were, were scheduled to sions of life support. Most often he was the issues in mint condition indefinitely. The coincide going and coming, so they might student and the specialists were the spine is embossed with a gold Omni logo and in each case includes a gold transfer pass each other somewhere near Midpoint teachers; occasionally he displayed abso- for recording the date. Turnover). As long as they could, they lutely astonishing knowledge in one field or Send your check or money order swapped and shared and then turned their another. He had no intuitive grasp of me- ($4.95 each; 3for$14.00; 6for$24.00; lasered cargoes on their destinations, so chanics or number, in its widest sense, but postpaid. USA orders only) to: OMNI Library Case, P.O. Box 5120, Philadelphia, that when they arrived, ail their news and he was as fascinated as a wondering child 19141. Pa. knowledge were there before them. It was at what they could do. He seemed {be-

Complete satisfaction guaranteed or difficult to regard the Trippers as strangers; cause it was genuinely so) ashamed of refunded. Allow 4 weeks for money only the destination was strange, and that what he considered vast holes in his erudi- delivery. only to the Tripper himsejf. Knowing all this, tion, and his expression of it can only be

it was a quite indescribable emotional ex- called bold embarrassment — an immedi- perience to watch the departure of a shut- ate willingness to announce the fact that he

It From Italy . . . The Ultimate in tle bound for its orbiting interplanetary— a did not know and that he could not grasp.

launch that, if one tripped again, one would was most disarming, and it made no HISTORIC SHIP not feel, a Trip that, from beginning to end, enemies. And he began to distribute his REPLICA KITS one would not truly experience, in a ship sign one would never see. For all that, the launch Interest in it developed slowly. He did not Frame and Plank Construction represented the casting off, the burning of force it or sell it or seem to attach much

the bridge, the lost opportunity to take it all significance to it. He simply did it. Re-

back, cancel the plans, go back home. garded at first as a mere quirk, it began to And then the impact that no amount of prep attractattention and then curiosity; when in could ever quite erase: You can't go home a conversation would he make this sign, again. That poignant truth so often learned and did these occasions have anything in by any growing consciousness was multi- common? What was its purpose, and what

plied immeasurably: Home wasn't there did it mean? Speaking with someone, he anymore. A true-time century would- fake would put out his hands, palms down, the care of that. left resting on the right, and raise them World famous SERGAL and His acclimatization took considerably together almost to the level of his face, MANTUA kits: large magnificent less time than anyone had expected, and while slightly inclining his head. Then the replicas (up to 51 " long) with soon he was able to stay quite comfortably hands would fall away and the talk would beautiful walnut planking and com- at the at first to gesture of ponents and cast-brass details. Rim, breathing ninety-percent Me- continue. Thought be a Virtually museum pieces when dean air and becoming accustomed to greeting or of farewell — a kind of sayo- completed. Large-scale plans, En- Medea's strange and multishadowed nara — it was gradually noticed to occur at glish instructions, all materials in- light — what some forgotten technician with neither of these events. cluded. Also, hundreds of other poetic twist light. It in its quiet way, extraordinarily superb Italian kits, plans and ac- a had called thick He was, cessories. found, as had others before him, that his potent. The hands placed together and Send for 68-page full-color catalog, eyes, more and more, winced from the bril- raised appeared to be defensive, to say only S3, refunded with first order. liant light flooding the Terran agricom- "Stop!" But the inclined head turned it into a MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY! pounds, finding comfort in the more muted tribute, a concession: "You have a point tones of the land the faintly there." thing was certain. Whatever MODEL EXPO, INC. Depl 0-2 and luminous One 23 Just Road, Fairfield, WJ 07006 dull oranges of the estuary. The winged provoked the gesture— intensity, passion, structures of the outbuildings fascinated rudeness, that kind of positiveness once

' him, for Earth had never seen the like; ulti- described as "being wrong at the top of mately he would claim one of them as his your voice," or even simple inaccuracy —

own. once the gesture was made, it ended with

His preoccupation, of course, was with Dom Felix having the floor. It was one of the L------__.-._.J people, the interaction of people with most ingenious stoppers ever devised, and the more its meaning was understood, the was a knack so absent from Dom Felix that and immediate that it was he, for example, of the old hands, more potent it became. he carried a kind of vacuum in its place. rather than Aquare or any The day Acceptance entered Medea Like all movers and shakers before him, he who was able to explain to Dom Felix the was the day someone was moved to ask of was an obsessive and lacked the synthe- basic idea of an Arcan wing structure just the sign, "What does it mean when you do sist's ability to seek for the balance in by looking at one. All Terran buildings were that?" things, to turn the coin over, to seek for designed this way now, dome buildings

!, Dom Felix smiled and answered. lt's a parity when imbalance fell in hiswished-for having been all but abandoned. Medea's way ot becoming." No more would he say directions. Wallich had changed radically ferocious, unpredictable winds were ca- almost kind of about it for a long time. since his arrival, polite and efficient as al- pable of sweeping away any The day Acceptance began to ferment in ways but intimate with no one. She made surface structure, just as a hurricane-proof the enclave was the day someone thought herself useful, close to essential, to Dom building will blow apart in a tornado. "By to ask, "A way of becoming what?" Felix while carrying on all her other respon- golly, they got wings!" exclaimed Kert Row looked And Dom Felix smiled and answered, sibilities. And if this cost her recreation and the very first time he and Dom Felix

"It's a way of becoming you." sleep, she bore it well. No one knew out from the Rim of Pellucidar across the He would discuss this, when asked, The third favorite of Dom Felix was the Terran compound. "Those buildings. You though he never forced it. He explained young agricultural engineer who had see? Wings. Airfoils!" that when he used the sign, he suspended Tripped out with him, KertRow. True to Altair Dom Felix looked at the odd structures, his own thought and even his own identity ll's prediction, the hardware he had puzzled. They were rooted to the ground, and made a profound effort to become the brought with him— automatic machinery to and they bristled with short, thick shelves, other person, to see with his eyes, feei with invert and neutralize the hormone poisons as if a builder, assigned to apply eaves, his fingertips, think with all his method and that made Terran crops and bacteria lethal had suffered an acute attack of surrealism mode, background and learning. So the to those of Medea— were useless. The and had stuck short pieces all over the roof gesture did indeed cry, "Stop!"— not to the theories the hardware was based on were and walls. At Kert Row's command he observer, conversant, opponent, but to nonsense. Faced with the facts, he made watched them carefully, through the twirl Dom Felix himself. And the quality of obei- no effort to deny them. Despite his years of and bluster of the Medean gusts. The sance was real, because for that moment labor in the R & D of something the com- "wings" were trembling, becoming thick, the other was dominant. And the air of con- puters assured him would work, but that did then thin, twisting, warping. "How about cession was real, for during that moment not. he flung his energy and design genius that!" the engineer said admiringly "How the other was as right, as authoritarian, as into new problems, half a dozen of them, about damn well that!" commanding, as he felt himself to be. ranging from jet-cycle improvements (they "I don't understand." The day Acceptance achieved full flow say the level-deck stabilizer was his) and a "Those buildings don't fight the wind. on Medea was the day one man used the new high-acceleration centrifuge to They use it! Watch that. There, do you see? sign on another, and neither was Dom Felix. mess-hall conveyors and a balanced-light You see what's happening? Those foils can And the day Acceptance could ac- easel for the art section in recreation. His sense wind direction and force, make one knowledge its victory was the day a Natural grasp of physical principles was so clear edge a leading edge and the other a trail- used the sign in talking to a Truform. Mis- sion accomplished.

The mission was, of course, not accom- plished in any single hour, for the concept had to soak in cell by cell, as bread takes up red wine. And like any battle won, it had to this Felix FOR then to be secured, and Dom FUTURE now turned his attention. During the time in which the raised hands were replacing the raised fist, Dom Felix worked toward the root cause of the rift between the Naturals and the Truforms. "It has to be simple," he told Altair. "All basic things are simple. REFERENCE Complicated things might be vital, they Moving? We need 4-6 weeks notice of a Listing/U nlisting Service? Omni makes might make great literature and music and change of address. Fill in the attached form' the names and addresses of its subscribers empires and human disasters. But if they below. available to other publications and outside definition not are complicated, they are by companies. The publications and com- New Subscription or Renewal? One year basic." Altair spent a good deal of time with panies selected are carefully screened for of Omni is $18 in the U.S., $24 in Canada him, especially since Dom Felix had gently their acceptability and quality of their offers. and overseas. Please enclose a check or pointed out to him something he should money order for the appropriate amount and have known, something that had sidled up allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Please check the appropriate box below. on historians since the first troglodyte grunted the tale of last month's contest with the timber wolf: History isn't only then; it's O New D Renewal Attach mailing label below and send to: now. Dom Felix, in his turn, was delighted Subscription Omni with the big man's growled and pithy com- R 0- Box 908 ments. "Ye shall know the truth," he said a Please remove my This is a change of Farmingdale, N.Y. 11737 one day, "and the truth shall make you fran- name from your address; my new mailing list. address is below. tic. Mankind has never solved its problems.

It has just substituted larger ones." Name And Wallich. Wallich was invaluable to Dom Felix because of her wide knowledge Address_ of so many technologies and their theoreti- City _Zip_ cal underpinnings. Her ability to make clear analogies between anything she Payment must accompany order. OC380 knew well and anything else she observed ing edge, and bulge the chord enough to saw her tense, but only because, by now, could. They just don't."

give positive or negative lift, or . . . yes, see he knew exactly what to look for and he "Well, they can't," she said positively. that? They can twist from the root, acting was looking for it. My, she was cool. "And if they ever could, why haven't they? If like the control planes on an underwater- She looked at him levelly "And exactly they had, there wouldn't be this trouble be- craft. But, working together, they ride the what am I, in your eyes?" tween them and the Va— er, Nats." wind or use itto press down or relieve strain "A real person." He spread his hands. "If I knew for sure, I no matter where the wind blows from or how It was quite the right thing to say. "What could stop fantasizing about it. Wallich, will strong the gust is. But, my God, they have do you want to know?" you check it out for me?"

if to sense and react in microseconds! How "Something that perhaps I shouldn't be "Well, sure, you really want me to, al-

it's if really do they do that in time?" asking. If I really shouldn't, will you keep my though like finding out we "Are you really asking me?" Dorn Felix asking confidential and tell me anyway?" breathe oxygen." was awed and genuinely humble. She looked at him for a long moment, "Then find out if we really breathe oxy-

"I go find out," said Kert Row, and he level eyes under a frame of heavy honey gen," he said. "But, Wally, find out carefully, pelted off. When excited, he would speak hair. She seemed to find in him a man who all right? I'd as soon nobody knew I was in some idiom of his own, a sort of baby talk. could keep a confidence, and perhaps by wondering about it. And be carefui. It just Dom Felix looked after him admiringly and then she had one herself that might need to might be a hot question hotter than you turned back to contemplate the bristle of be kept. She nodded. realize." nervous wings. "Thank you." It was no idle, push-button "I don't believe it, but— all right, I'll be Kert Row indeed found out and returned Thank You. "Nats are fertile, Truforms sel- careful." She rose in a swirl of gossamer with an explanation, not one word in ten of dom are. Why?" and went out. in which Dom Felix understood. It was a wel- "Because of the way a Truform is de- Dom Felix leaned back the lounger ter of chips and microsensors, pressure signed and decanted. Realigning his DNA which gently massaged his lower back, magazines, release valves, dynaflex and gives him or her whatever special talent is and he began to meditate. He was inter- alloy cores, microcryogenic superconduct- needed but takes away the ability to repro- rupted after a time by a soft, rapid chirping. ing hairs, and lots more. By definition not "Aquare!" He opened his eyes. He was basic, thought Dom Felix, but it works. He right. The bizarre creature squatted was overwhelmed with admiration for Kert against the wall by the door, brushing his Row's ability in this, to him, impenetrable long, strange hands together in his mode of area. He let himself float uncomprehend- laughter. ingly in this sea of words until he heard Kert £77?e day Acceptance entered "You're laughing at me." Dom Felix said Row say, 'And you know what? It's an Arcan Medea was the day this without rancor. He had by this time design." become quite accustomed to the Me-

someone . . . asked of the sign, which to be "It's a what? I understood the Arcans had dean's appearances, seemed no technology to speak of." "What does it mean occurring more and more often. He had been told at his defrosting that the Arcans, "Right. They haven't. They grow the when you do that?'- Dom Felix wings for their buildings. They have a cen- like virtually everything else on Medea, had tral building in Area with a tower thirty me- smiled and answered, no conflict with humanity no competition for ters tall — in this wind!" "It's a way of becoming/' No anything with the possible exception of "Grow them?" Dom Felix asked. Lebensraum, and there was still plenty of more would he say 3 "This is a crazy place," said the engineer, room on plenty of land and probably al- and it was a compliment to the place. "This ways would be. Medea's function in the is a crazy toy shop. All the weather there universe — as Terrans conceived the uni- ever was, one place or another; little verse—was to supply one single export: ecological pockets, all kinds of mutati- knowledge. There seemed no reason for potent radiation. But look, even on Terra we duce. But why should that make a differ- Arcans, or even one Arcan, not to have the have little plants that fold their leaves when ence? He or she can make love or have sex same motivation: to acquire knowledge you touch them. Why not a plant that ad- fun just like anybody else, and if it's chil- without conflict, without competition, with- justs its leaves to support the plant in vari- dren they want, they can get them by con- out friction. And if from time to time Terran 9 able hurricanes Survival is survival." tract easily enough." and Arcan found each other funny, it was to Well, that's basic, said Dom Felix to him- "They get a special talent or structure,, be expected. Accepted.

self, and he reflected that basics may be and it costs them fertility The one means "Laughing is I am intelligenter; you a simple, but when you get all the way down, the other" foolish." you don't get a thing or even a method. You "Everybody knows that." "What?" get a principle. "Then why do we need all Dom Felix smiled. "You'd be surprised at "Laughing is I see you in shame." 9 " " that hardware the things 'everybody knows' from time to "Aquare, I don't feel — "Because we're poison to Medean life time. Once everybody knew that old Terra "Laughing is pretense attack, all know- forms, just the way they are to us. We can't was flat, and if you went too far, you could ing is pretense," the almost uninflected work with living plants or living anything, not fall off the edge, and it rested on the back of voice, with its background of soft squeaks with any reliability We can work with their a big turtle, and the sun went around it." and gurgles, went on. Dom Feiix stopped principles." She laughed. "No." trying to respond and began simply listen-

"That's what I just said," and only then "Oh, yes. Now everybody believes that ing, trying to follow did Dom Felix realize he hadn't said it the engineers can't design in a new "Laughing is hiding afraid. Laughing is

aloud. He went away to meditate on the characteristic without eliminating fertility." you unhappy; I happy I am not you." (Dom nature of basics and the nature of princi- "Well, they can't. Or they don't. They Felix realized at last that Aquare was mak-

ples. And it was through this path that he never have. Dom Felix, what are you driving ing a list.) "Laughing is I give you happy 9 " I secured the victory of Acceptance on at then I happy with you. Laughing is

Medea. "I've just been fantasizing that maybe the sudden-quickly admire. Laughing is I see I

earth is round like a ball." He had at times a have no word to say. Laughing is I have no

"I want to find the truth, the real truth, sudden and childlike smile, and he used it word to say, cannot find word to say, no not about something," he told Wallich one day. now. "I've been thinking that maybe the ever and must say no more. Laughing is

"And I think you're the one to ask. You are gengineers can inject a special charac- more-more-more." Chirp-chirp. not a Nat, and you are not a Truform." He teristic without eliminating fertility— always "Ah," said Dom Felix. "What you're saying 114 OMNI ;

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is that there are many kinds of laughter and this group or that group that doesn't know. enclave by the time the Big Chief passed that it can mean many different things. You Nobody knows. So everybody's suspicious the word, the final word that forever lubri- couldn't be more right. Whole big books, and afraid. Tell me something, Wally, about cated the dangerous friction between the whole studies, have been done about Established Procedure. Who established factions. It was — had been, rather — the

laughter. So . . . why were you laughing at it?" secret of secrets, the psychological dyna- me?" "Oh, who knows? Gengineering's been mite that might well have blown the human "Sudden-quickly admire. Again. More." done on Medea for a hundred years, and colonies to fragments, blowing in Medea's

"Well, thank you, Aquare. I really don't the procedures were coded back on Terra treacherous winds, for arriving ships to find know what I might have done to earn it." before that. The only variations we do here and wonder at. The secret was simply that

"All. So far." have to do with characteristic design; phys- sterility was not the price of special ap- "So far. You mean I'm on the right track? ical, mental, and not an unlimited number titude, that in the production of a Truform Going in the right direction?" of those. The basic procedures— what from normal human genes sterility was ac- "What is right." There was no inflection to produces a whole human being — well, complished in one programmed operation indicate that this might be a question, but they just are, that's all." in the DNA alteration and the applied spe- what else, thought Dom Felix, could it be? "The word for that is tradition" said Dom cial aptitude in quite another. In other What is right? What is right, for whom, Felix, "and that brings about the rule of the words, the sterility was not at all necessary

it under what circumstances, and, in the dead hand. Wally, the reason I asked you to in the case of any individual, but was

all. it trait sweep of growth and change, for how long? be careful in your questioning is that I essential to For without the new What is right? That was a big one. thought we had stumbled on a deep, dark, was heritable, and the alteration of the

He laughed. Laughing is i have no word deadly plot." His smile came and went. "It gene pool was inevitable and unpredict- to say, and the Medean chirped right along isn't. It's the dead hand. It's people who did able. To maintain the special ties Medea with him. right things the right way a long time ago. felt toward the mother planet, the possibility They sat for a while in companionable But the things they did lived after them, the of a genuine alteration of species was un- silence. In his many encounters with the same things, the same way, while the world thinkable; so the Truforms were simply not strange Medean — and he realized there permitted to breed. Yet their every other had been a great many recently, an increas- human attribute was preserved, for the ing number, as he moved about dropping sake of harmony on the colonies. It seemed his seeds of Acceptance— he had noticed an obvious and simple solution, and it was that he was quite comfortable with the si- just on the point of failure when Dom Felix 67776 long, thin lips lent, brief appearances and with the con- arrived. It must fail because it was an im- versations, short and long, shallow and quivered and moved; the posed solution; any solution imposed on a deep, as they occurred, but also with the segment of humanity must fail eventually strange sequence "being together" kind of association. Only government by consent of the gov- "Being-together," he murmured. of whistles and clicks erned can survive. Chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp To explain this to the colonists at the out- emerged softly . .

Wallich came in. "Dom Felix, I — oh." set might well have been impossible; to little Chirp-chirp. Aquare unfolded himself while the metal have this knowledge freely given to an Ac- from his squat by the wall and went away. grille said, cepting society dissolved all tensions. To "

"I hope I didn't — empathize, feel with another'sfingertips, 'Please be welcome to "He was just leaving anyway," Dom Felix and to see out through his eyes was the overrode her. (How had he known that? purpose of Acceptance and the means to Had he known that?) He had no time to its ends. think it through; words tumbled from the And Dom Felix wrought his miracle in just giri. under four Terran months. And the Big

"I didn't ask anybody. I mean I did, but it and the universe changed around them. Chief said to Dom Felix, "Now tackle the wasn't anybody, it was the Central. I guess Ask Altair about Marxism and revisionism. Arcans." if you hadn't warned me, I'd have wandered Ask him about Catholicism and Luther. The "They're just altogether goddam stand- in and asked Jeth or Harrick or someone greatest movers and shakers our species offish," Altair II explained to Dom Felix. "I else in Gengineering, but I didn't. I went to has ever known, the greatest thinkers, can almost understand their not offering us the computer, and you know what?" have, one and all, done one inexcusable, anything they have. But it just doesn't make

"I think I do." thing: They've died, and their accomplish- sense for them not to take anything we offer,

"It just read out ep. I asked it if sterility was ments froze at that moment. Nothing in the it would be all profit for them, no loss. We've the result of characteristic injection, and I universe ever stops except the human poli- designed ground transportation for them, got ep. I asked if DNA redesign necessarily tic, the human solution to this problem or for example, protective side arms, boots to

resulted in sterility, and it said ep. I asked that. And when we stop, we fail. Stopping is keep them from being bitten by the wildlife the same question from every possible di- the only unnatural thing there is; every force around here. But no, there they go, bare rection, and that's all I got — EP, ep, ep." in nature, every object in the universe is in toes, on foot, at the mercy of these crazy ." "I don't know what ep means." motion, changing, changing . . His mind winds and the crazy bugs and beasties. "Oh, Established Procedure. But you reechoed Aquare's What is right? Nothing, Don't think they gave us the winghouses. know that's a dumb answer. That isn't an he thought, is right in all ways, for always. We observed them, we copied them, we answer at alii" He was on his feet. "I'm going to the Big engineered them our own way. But they "That's right." Chief." And he did, a brigh't-eyed black never offered a thing.''

"It's as if Central was programmed to bullet, leaving a honey-haired technical "What about that city of theirs? What do answer any question like that that way." synthesist staring after him in astonish- they do there?"

"That's right." ment. "Nothing! I mean, I really and truly kid "How did you know, Dom Felix?" And somewhere out in the blowing dusk you not. Nothing. First of all, Area is not a

"I didn't know. It's just — well, it had to be that is daytime on Medea, on his way back city. I'd call it some sort of a shrine if I that way. Vags and Gengies and Mules- to his city, an Arcan brushed his hands thought for a moment they had a religion or

excuse me — and all that fear. There had to together: Chirp. Chirp. Chirp-chirp . . some sort of reverential philosophy, but they be something people just didn't know That haven't, or, if they have, it's not visible to the kind of fear always comes from something Stop and let me be you — the gesture of naked eye. What do they do? Nothing I They people just don't know In this case it isn't Acceptance— had yeasted through the sit around, that's what they do. If you have a 116 OMNI "

chance to go there, don't bother. Central their knowledge of the local wildlife. do. How long do you think it takes us to can give you all the holos you can take; if "Well, forget it. We fixed up a harness for learn as much about Medea as any one of suicide is your hobby, you can bore yourself Aquare to tote some of 'em back to Area, those hop-toads could tell us in a single :o death with them. Nothing's changed and he just politely wouldn't. 'There is no hour of real communication? Months over there in the past century. They just sit need.' That's all he would say about it. years, maybe. there— no talk, no music, no rituals, and 'There is no need.' So we trundled them out 'And while you're bringing diverse certainly no fun and games. No agriculture, to Area in a convoy of cycles. Tried to hand species together," Altair added abruptly, no trade, no manufacturing. Every now and them out. The Arcans wouldn't take 'em. So "see what you can do about Wallich. She

I then a dozen or so get up and leave, walk we just had to pile them up and leave them and I used to fun around a lot, and don't away single file up into the mountains. there. They just left them where we put mind telling you, I miss her."

Every now and then a dozen or so will walk them, till they got kicked around and mostly "You don't see her much?" Dom Felix was

oack in. Whether they're the same ones or lost. Bet there are still some lying around surprised, but then, he had been busy. not, there's no way of knowing. They don't there." "I don't see her ever! Not since the day wear clothes or decorations; so how can "What about Aquare?" Dom Felix asked you were defrosted. She's around you all you tell who's boss, or chief, or whatever? again. "I've never really talked to him about the time, and doing her own work as well." They don't use weapons, not even a Medea or the Arcans. Maybe he has ... by "She's been a great help. There's some- pointed stick. They maintain Area pretty God, he has led the conversation away thing very special about her. I'd give any- from that. But there always so to thing for her grasp of, well, of everything." much by hand. 1 must admit, they can do a was much hell of a lot with hands like those. And they talk about. A kind of philosophy that, well, Altair nodded. "A synthesist. She was

ust sit." that I can touch but not grasp." sired by one, a Truform. Also a synthesist,

:i

it. I "What about Aquare? "Oh, sure, I know just what you mean. designed for but do believe she's better "By now you know as much as any- But, hell, he isn't human, and it would be than he was. There's only one head in this one—maybe more. He's spent more time stupid to expect him to think like one," Altair whole place that can compare with her, and .vith you than he ever has with anyone. said. "But he's been no help whatever in the that's your friend Kert Row Seems kind of

Maybe he's some sort of freak. Maybe he's nuts-and-bolts of local flora or fauna or stupid, well, childish, you know what I

:he only Arcan ever born who ever had a weather or, damn it, anything. Big Chief we mean? But he is to technology what Wally is

hobby, and we're it. One thing's sure: He's had before, he got so sore about that that to theory. A supergenius. It isn't what they the only one who can talk to us, or ever did. he locked Aquare out, forbade him the know which is plenty. It's how they think." You can bet that as soon as we had that premises. Aquare didn't ask why, then or Dom Felix nodded. "It absolutely awes translator functioning we made more- ever, didn't go away, stood out there in the me. Well, if you like, I'll sound her out."

over a hundred. We thought it was a real wind for weeks until the old chief relented "I wish you would. Truth is. I'm surprised breakthrough, that we'd hold conferences, and let him back in. And he didn't ask why at myself. Never knew I'd miss her so that we'd find specialists, that we had a then, either." He shook his head. "But if you much."OQ short line to their history and their culture can make that Acceptance trick work on and their science, if any, to say nothing of the Arcans, there's no end to the good it will To be continued next month.

"^j2#ze^

"Life will emerge from the sea tomorrow at twelve noon. Pass it on. there," said Ruff, whose specialty at Yale is musical rhythm (he participates in an inter- disciplinary faculty seminar on rhythm, FROM PAGE 24 - J CONTINUED CON"! \l.rD -ROW AGr ?6 which includes a neurophysiologist, a psy- Relying on precise modern data for ob- chologist, a poet, an art historian, and a multiple-screen extravaganzas. The own- their new served motion of the planets, the profes- philosopher). ers of Multiscreen developed system, called sors then needed a function for the rate of The final result of Ruff, Rodgers, and camera-and-projection Harmony change of each pitch as its planet's veloc- company's effort was the album Imax. It's on the Kepler label, of Unveiled at the World's Fair in Osaka, ity varied during its orbit. For this calcula- of the World. years of in Imax an impressive tion they used the cosine function that course. The record contains 264 Japan, 1970, was of five seconds of film technology. American graphs simple harmonic motion, that is, the planetary music (at a scale display

it wrote, "The film is the movement of a point around a circle. per year, to put within range of a human Cinematographer on format in the history of the At that stage they encountered prob- life span). It begins appropriately largest film three times the lems. For one thing, they couldn't syn- Kepler's birthday, December 27, 1571, and movies. The frame size is can indeed produce chronize the six planets' tracks on the continues to December 1 835. size of Cinerama and Moog synthesizer. Conventional instrumen- Mercury, fastest and closest to the sun, a high-fidelity image nine stories tail — [It Mars has the gives first inkling of what movies may be tation posed other problems. So they makes a high chirping sound; J a turned to the computer. Jacob Druckman, most erratic orbit, its song sliding up and like in the future." and slowly underway, head of Yale's electronic music studio, re- down a wide range of notes; Earth As the Imax system got consultant. ferred them to Laurie Spiegel, his former Venus seem coupled in a duet in minor key. Low served as an occasional assistant and an electronics composer in Kepler equated Earth's song with the mi- 'Tve been out of production for sometime,"

years, but I her own right, and she agreed to collabo- fa-mi minor second of the scale. (To him., Low said. "I haven't directed in litany of "mis- into things. So Weather rate. the planet sang a dolorous wanted to get back surprise for Why was the computer the only instru- ery-famine-misery.") seemed a good idea. The big learn to approach ment capable of creating this music? "Sev- Jupiter has a majestic, organlike tone, me was having to how It's as shooting eral reasons," Spiegel 'explains. "These shifting slowly and weaving mysteriously Omnimax. just not the same in and out regular film." pitches are all glissandi. that is, they're all with Saturn's deep growl, moving a bear in continuous, smooth pitch changes. There of a major triad as the spheres alternately Low continued, "You must always that the picture will almost completely is no way to control them carefully on in- overtake each other. mind struments. Also, the sounds are not fixed in The entire concert is a shifting moire; surround the audience, filling their entire to absorb them, and discrete rhythmic units. It's impossible for melodies disappear before they develop, peripheral-vision area they'll to look people to play these things." and the planets seem to move from duets to then add more so that have By feeding the computer precise data, trios to solitary wanderings. The listener around to see everything. The timing of a Spiegel was able to write a program estab- seems projected outward among the shot is changed because of that factor. lishing a phase relationship for the planets. planets themselves, until it seems as if one When we have a lot of things happening on

It the shot longer." She used the GROOVE hybrid system at is at the center of the solar system. be- screen, we have to hold stresses awareness of Bell Labs, developed by Dr. Max Mathews, comes, as Kepler might have hoped, a va- The filmmaker work- director of acoustical and behavioral re- riety of spiritual auditory experience. perspective and composition when of the pic- search at Bell Labs. GROOVE is a system "Kepler searched all his life for general ing in Omnimax. "Since the top of the for synchronizing multiple oscillators that principles patterns," Spiegel remarked. ture is directly above the heads dome can generate the necessary sound. 'And to be able to take a set of relationships audience, you must be careful to keep out of In the spring of 1977 Spiegel, Ruff, and discovered in one place, generalize them, things that would appear abnormal person's Rodgers performed a tape at Yale, and Carl and set them into another medium -that is the shot. With a flat picture a head Sagan was impressed enough to include an important idea for our time, too." can be right at the top of the frame, but in plan to you have to avoid that, because it portions of it on the Voyager space probe. Spiegel, Ruff, and Rodgers Omnimax

if that head was Ruff and Rodgers, however, were still not explore further musical analogies in the would look as person's shooting satisfied. "We had the data, but we were sciences. Ruff has received diagrams that shaped in a right angle. When I'm in the picture, unable to make the outer three planets suggest rhythmic applications in the amino people, I try to keep them low " sound," Ruff remembers, "since their fre- acids, and even of interest to him is the just ahead of the audience quencies were below the audible spec- possibility of finding correspondences in Although there has been communication trum." Furthermore, they had not accom- the world of subatomic matter: "The music between the different theaters that show pictures modated the elliptical nature of the planets' of the quarks," he bantered. Omnimax films about how the collaborative effort has orbits. Rodgers said, "It's not so important should be done, a for planets with nearly circular orbits, but An album is available from Willie Ruff, never been made to finance, produce, and for the more eccentric ones like Mercury Yale School of Music, 96 Wall Street, New distribute a film made in this format. "Before 06520. said, "several Omnimax theaters and Pluto, it becomes quite important to Haven, Connecticut now," Low Since work out exact formulas for the ellipses, to Other composers have given musical were making little films of their own. make the music more closely resemble the expression to astronomical themes. Gustav there was only a limited attendance, the actual movements of the planets." Hoist, in his 1916 composition The Planets, pictures were being designed for small, re- The project moved to Princeton Universi- interprets seven planets. Hoist's work, con- gional audiences. Now that more and more being constructed, ty's Compute-" Science Center to take ad- ducted by Sir Adrian Boult, is available on Omnimax theaters are faster pace. vantage of the newer IBM 360/91 system. Angel (S-36420). Ralph Vaugha'n Williams's the movement is going at a space There, computer specialist Mark Rosen- Towards an Unknown Region (1907) is con- "Omnimax films have explored with Weather, berg wrote a new program for Kepler's ducted by Boult and performed by the Lon- and the oceans thus far. Now, earth- music; he used the MUSIC 4BF program don Philharmonic and Chorus, on Angel we're trying to make it a bit more shooting on glaciers, in originally developed by Mathews at Bell (S-36972). George Crumb's Makrokosmos, bound. We've been how and modified by Princeton's Hubert Howe. music for amplified piano and percussion, snowstorms, in rainstorms, showing interact with their Rosenberg also found a way to make the is available on Nonesuch (Vol. 1 — 71293; men are beginning to succeeds, it'll be outer planets audible as beat frequencies. Vol. 3-71311) and Odyssey (Vol. 2-Y- environment." If Weather of Thus, the ancient idea of the music of the 34135). Hindemith's Harmonie der Welt the first step in the next phase experience, expand- spheres gained a new dimension: a rhythm suite, though out of print, may be found on Omnimax— a unique (DG-18181).DO ing the dimensions of film. DO section, "t knew there had to be rhythm out Deutsche Grarnmophon 118 OMNI By Dick Teresi

pace may someday be hit with the ladies, a combination of kindly shortly thereafter. The Asahi Broadcasting populated by self-breeding researcher and Catskill comedian. Here's Corporation of Tokyo, which previously I t robots. First they'll orbit the earth. one typical exchange: picked up Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent Then generation after generation will Lederman: "I'm going to spend the next of Man and John Kenneth Galbraith's The follow, with the total number of machines ten years trying to split a quark." Age of Uncertainty (both PBS growing exponentially, spreading to the Donahue: "But why? You know, why productions), has now agreed to televise ."

moon, building space colonies across the would a guy spend all that time trying to . . Cosmos as well. While watching Sagan

solar system and then throughout the Lederman: "Well, you know, it's a living." film a segment of the show recently, a universe. And to a hostile question from the group of Asahi executives became very

A nice idea. But who believes it will ever audience challenging Fermilab's $100 obviously enthusiastic, and one remarked, happen? None other than NASA's million budget, Lederman replied, "Don't "That Sagan will go over well. Much better administrator, Robert A. Frosch. forget that you have to put the hundred than Bronowski or Galbraith." "Why?" our Addressing the Commonwealth Club in million dollars into the context of what this reporter asked him. "Because," explained San Francisco, Frosch called for a country does as a whole. A hundred the Oriental businessman, "he looks "productive machine economy" in space. million dollars doesn't pay for a fraction of Japanese." "The key to this idea," he said, "is the the chewing gum we chew. Why don't we

construction of a machine that, either all stop chewing gum? Then I could make Stanley Milgram, the social psychologist totally automatically or with minimal human an even bigger accelerator." who shocked the country with his intervention and guidance, can use solar Lederman may not yet be in a league obedience-to-authority experiment two energy and local materials on the earth or with Henny Youngman, but he is funnier decades ago, revealed an unusual fact the moon or an asteroid or elsewhere in than Edward Teller. about that project to writer Douglas the solar system to build a replica of itself." Colligan, who was interviewing him for an This scenario is a bit of a bombshell, Meanwhile, the fame of another science upcoming Omni profile. After the interview,

coming as it does from the normally media star continues to spread. Carl Milgram asked Colligan whether he knew

conservative Frosch. It also came as a bit Sagan, whose new series, Cosmos, will any scientists he considered to be good of an embarrassment to some NASA debut on PBS television in the fail, will writers. Colligan immediately named officials, who say in private that the become a household figure In Japan Free man,Dyson, the Princeton physicist, agency doesn't have an in-depth plan for whose book Disturbing the Universe had

self-replicating robots. What it does have just been published. is findings from a NASA/Jet Propulsion "Freeman Dyson! Freeman Dyson!" Laboratory (JPL) study group, which exclaimed Milgram. "There's that name concluded that NASA should place again." Without further ado he took heavier emphasis on machine intelligence Colligan into the inner reaches of his and robots not only for long voyages but offices at the Graduate Center of Ihe City also for operations near Earth. But, says University of New York. There, in a back one JPL staffer, the agency does not room, Milgram revealed the Machine. It presently have the automation or was the terrifying shock generator he had production capabilities to do this. used in his obedience-to-authority experiment. Subjects were made to think Phil Donahue, whose midmorning that this machine was administering television talk show is a hit among 450-volt jolts to strapped-down "victims." It

America's housewives, has had some didn't do anything, of course, but it looked interesting guests in recent months: as if it could. transvestites, Rosalynn Carter, Barry Milgram disclosed that he had built part Goldwater, lesbian couples, Betty Ford, of the machine with his own hands while

Leon Lederman . . . Leon Lederman? Yes, he was at Princeton's Institute for the famed quark hunter and new director Advanced Studies. "During that time I kept of the Fermi National Accelerator hearing this name Freeman Dyson over

Laboratory (Fermilab) faced the cameras and over." So it was only natural, Milgram recently to answer questions about atom said, that when he finished making the smashers, gluons, the unified field theory machine and needed a name for it ... He and the big bang. Oddly enough, the pointed to a label on the side of the gener- high-energy physicist proved to be a big NASA's Frosch: Surprising talk about robots. ator. It read, "Dyson Instrument Co "OO conceivable that this matter could be strengthen their base of support. The sup-

swept up by some kind of collector- port base I propose is a new political party. FDRUn/l magnetic or otherwise — on the ship, This political party (let's call it the New Re- :\" \_.E3 -ROM PAGE 14 passed to the rear, and combined with an- naissance Party; I invite other suggestions futuristic name) could build a Illegal Aliens timatter to create a sustained energetic for a suitable, bloc with well- The opening paragraphs of "Illegal Aliens" propulsion of some kind. significant political operations [November 1979] are reminiscent of an Brice Stewart organized operations. These for example, making informa- early scene in one of my favorife movies, East Lansing, Mich. may include, scientific breakthroughs readily The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, based tion of [Omni is an excellent start) and on a 1940s short story, "Farewell to the Mas- Dr. Forward replies: Dear Mr. Stewart, no, available

of water. I the application of new ter," by Harry Bates). you do not need 400,000 tons encouraging technology in all facets of life. Envision the In the movie, the alien Klaatu (played by tried to make it clear in the article that NRP as a "statue of liberty" of science, Michael Rennie) has just emerged from a the JPL I Jet Propulsion Laboratory J study and, finally, progress. "silvery disc" that landed in Washington, found out that the optimum ratio of payload technology all antimat- in mind that certain corporations D.C. He lifts his hand, clutching a small to reaction mass is the same for Keep retard public awareness of new object (a gift for the president), and is ter-energized missions. seem to the patents of inven- promptly shot and wounded by an over- For a 10-ton payload, you will need 40 technology by buying could endanger profit margins. zealous American soldier. Klaatu, however, tons of water (hydrogen is better) and an tions that of an interstate and intercity had the foresight to travel with Gort, a sort amount of antimatter that depends upon But think magnetic-levitation train system. Think of of intergalactic robot policeman, who at your destination. For Mars you heat the 40 from solar collectors in space. once zaps the offender and his fellows, tons of water with 10 grams of antimatter to electricity of mining the moon, the asteroids, destroying only their weapons and tanks, get a very hot steam jet. For Pluto you heat Think Mars instead of Mother Earth. not the humans. the 40 tons of water with a kilogram of an- perhaps — tomorrow instead of today. One hopes that future alien visitors to our timatter to get a plasma jet. For the stars Think of living In the event our government continues to world will be similarly accompanied! you heat the 40 tons of water with 100 kilo- Jane Morgenstern grams of antimatter. The energy content of act indifferently toward futuristic technol- for Sci- Brooklyn, N.Y. the heated water is then so high that it is ogy, we must take action ourselves. difficult to imagine an engine that can con- entists and graduate students have too waiting to be devel- rotten time tain it without melting, but that is merely an many excellent ideas I believe aliens would have a only to be brushed aside by an ig- here. In addition to all the legal bugaboos engineering detail. Your idea of sweeping oped, The economic costs that Robert A. Freitas discussed, consider up the interstellar hydrogen as a reaction norant government. is worth I of laser- are extremely high, but our survival everyday life on This Here Marble. Could an mass is a good one. had heard extraterrestrial obtain credit? Buy a house? augmented scoops that would use Earth- the extra cost. David Rounds (Oh, Gawd, there goes the neighborhood!) based lasers to heat the scooped-up hy- Batesville, Ark. Wait tables at a fancy restaurant7 Use a drogen, but not of antimatter-energized Minolta successfully? What about gas scoops. Perhaps you should write it up and Garage-Built A-Bombs lines? Would a space visitor be ad- submit it for publication in the Interstellar (or and I you anyone else) monished for tank topping? Is there really Studies issues of the Journal of the British If were to come to "I atomic bomb," how would enough leg room in that Fiat? Could an ET Interplanetary Society. say, have an of I wager that 99 percent get a date with H. R. Giger? And what you react? would

the would say, "Sure, that's nice," . would Darth Vader have to say about all this Coup d'Etat people laughing. lack of hospitality. Futuristic science (which studies the po- and they'd walk away Gabrielle Davis tentials of space, space travel, solar and The problem is that many people can Bridgeton, Mo. other "soft" sources of energy, biophysics, build an atomic bomb, but hardly anyone and so on) has been falling to an all-time knows this or believes it possible. of junior I age and a Antimatter Overheated low in public opinion, manifesting itself in am seventeen years

school, I sure I can build my The article on antimatter in Omni'a No- behavior just short of a Salem witch hunt. in high and am vember issue was interesting, informa- This behavior originates from the federal own A-bomb.

it interesting and I believe that would be tive, and well written. However, toward the government's inability to engineer a stable informative if Omni were to publish an arti- end the author got a little overheated on the and goal-oriented program of scientific re- May- subject of space travel, as often happens. search and development that the public cle about garage-built atom bombs. even go so far as to tell Dr. Robert L Forward suggested that can directly relate to. As Jerry Grey pointed be you might build one. After all, the principle is with antimatter and water as propellent, we out in the First Word [August 1979], it is the how to available, and ev- could travel to the nearest star in 50 years, classical (and logical) role of the govern- simple, the materials are the dangers of using only 100 kilograms of antimatter and ment to provide funds and incentives for eryone should be alerted to an unspecified amount of water. He had new research, but our democratic govern- the wrong people building such a bomb.

if I had previously stated that 10 grams of antimat- ment has failed us miserably. All these I would not hesitate to build one, materials, to prove how easy ter combined with 40 tons of water would problems of confidence, corruption, and the necessary propel a 10-ton craft to Mars in a week. self-interest leave the mind boggled. What it actually can be. Jeff Sharpe Assuming these proportions for a trip to the can we do to correct this situation? My an- to this question follows. Joliet. III. nearest star, we would require 400,000 tons swer . in of water. This works out to about 13 million I propose a scientific coup d'etat our

this . — , we'll one Ed. Gubic feet, which would occupy one tank country. Since political ideals control nec- Thank you but pass on 100 feet in diameter and nearly a third of a essary research and development, scien- mile long. tists, college professors in pertinent re- Our Man in Perth let you One big problem for space travel has search, inventors, and innovative, credible Just a quick note from down under to your always been the high ratio of fuel weight to corporations (such as those in Silicon Val- know that we really appreciate maga- zine. Yours is the first science magazine payload. But, after all, matter isn't so hard ley) must become more involved in the polit-

that I from cover to cover. to come by in space that you should have to ical processes of our country. Realizing have read that that lobbying groups in Washington, D.C, Omni, keep coming! carry it al I with you from home. We know facilities, Max C.'deVietri "empty" space is filled with a very low den- already are pleading for funds, Perth, Western Australia DO sity of ions, atoms, and molecules. It is and other resources, these groups need to 120 OMNI See Tomorrow Today.

May 6 thru 11,1980 The Convention Center Baltimore/USA

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Global Technology

2000 is the first in a series of biennial events where aerospace engineers and

scientists from all over the world will

convene to discuss the future of tech- nology. And where industry will exhibit

its most advanced technology not only to this audience, but—for the first time— to the public. The private half

The private half of the event is the

meeting itself. Led by Laurence J. Adams (President of Martin Marietta Aerospace, and an AIAA Fellow), the meeting will cover the areas of 20th- century activity that spawn 90 percent

of all advanced technology: Transpor- tation, Energy, Space Science and Ap-

plications, and Defense. It begins on Tuesday, May 6th, and continues through Thursday, May 8th. The public half At noon on Friday, the exhibits go public. On an exhibit floor the size of two and a half football fields, in a

stunning convention facility, the high-

technology companies of the world will be exhibiting the largest display of

high technology in U.S. history. From advanced space vehicles to advanced airplane engines. Multimedia shows. Mockups. Working models. And the real thing. The exhibiting companies include Boeing, British Aerospace, COMSAT, Fokker, Ford, G.E., Grum- man, IBM, Lockheed, Martin Marietta, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell, Rolls

Royce, TRW, Westinghouse...The list goes on.

The public days, and hours: Friday and Saturday, May 9 and 10— noon to 10:00 p.m. Sunday, May 11— noon to 6:00 p.m. Admission Adults - $2.00 Children (under 12) — $1.00

Join us. It should be something.

The AIAA is a non-profit technical society whose 27,000 members work in the various engineering and scientific disciplines of aviation and space. 121 _ /**"% Thus, there are no scientific reasons to explore suggest a priori that other intelligent beings UFO must have developed just because it has earth's J* CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32 happened here. If other such life forms did largest years, but the scientists concluded that arise, the conferees concluded, either their one civilization would occupy the entire transgalactic activities would be over- space 0wL* galaxy long before another could arise by whelmingly obvious or they would have set- chance. tled in the soiar system eons ago. museum -^00% specialist Robert Sheaffer Boston University astronomer Michael '"' Computer

AND TOUCH THE . SEE fl^^K' described unpublished details of many Papagiannis suggested that they might WHOLE STORY OF MAN'S fPf9R&&Ii|BL ADVENTURE INTO SPAC6- liiiilFHuM famous UFO sightings, providing details have settled in the_asteroid belt and may ft! iHE ALABAMA ^^•'»^6 5*^*2«bP that the cases far less impressive still be there. Other participants in the con- AND ROCKET CENTER Wk^00^^ make HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA JwP^^ than they are made to appear in the popu- ference described how star-faring civiliza- (90 miles south of NasJiville) lar press. Sheaffer also suggested that the tions would be able to "terraform" likely Toll Free (800) 633-5761 residue of unexplained UFO reports is planets into life-bearing worlds, wherever In State (205) 837-3400 Open Every Day w unreliability of they to colonize. The absence of mere "noise" due to the chose Summers am — 6 pm eyewitness testimony. evidence for such developments thus be- Winter 9 am — 5 pm memory and

for the absence of ETI . At For free brochure write: This conference may be as significant a comes evidence Alabama Space and scientific event as the 1971 conference at least, that was the theme of this budding Rocket Center, Tranquility Base Byurakan, in the Soviet Union, which SETI counterreformation. Huntsville, Alabama legitimized the whole topic of SETI. It did Such an opinion is anathema to the pro- 35807. buffs. not reach any formal conclusions, nor did it ETI astronomers and to UFO The open up any new ways to deal with the vehemence of believers in UFOs may be

possible existence of ETI. But it did under- spurred by a poorly recognized aspect of line a growing sentiment in the scientific the UFO camp itself. It, too, is critically split Give money. community that the wild optimism for ETI in over the issue of ETI. Several leading the 1960s and 70s may have been based spokesmen have abandoned the "alien Even more, give on bad data and now-shaky theories. spacecraft" theory altogether. Dr. J. Allen Dr. Ben Zuckerman, another of the con- Hynek, for example, calls such an explana- ference organizers, was rather low-key in tion "naive and simplistic." understanding. his new-found skepticism. "There aren't Dr. Hynek, a former air force consultant many compelling scientific arguments on on UFOs, deserted his debunking cam- United either side of this issue," he remarked, "al- paign in the mid-1960s and founded the Studies, in Evanston, Il- (@ though I think the weight of evidence does Center for UFO Cerebral Palsy suggest that we have the biggest brains in linois. He is still convinced that UFOs rep- the galaxy." Dr. Zuckerman, who helped resent a real phenomenon. At the same conduct the sophisticated OZMA-2 radio time he's unimpressed with the ETI expla- search of 600 nearby stars in the mid- nation for them. "There is a lot that the 1970s, explained what changed his mind: spaceship concept doesn't explain about "Carl Sagan has been asserting that life UFO phenomena," he told an interviewer in NOT SO and intelligence are just natural extensions 1977. "You have to disallow or neglect or of stellar and planetary evolution, that it is overlook all sorts of things if you accept the

all a step-by-step inevitability. That seemed idea that nuts-and-bolts craft are coming FAST too strong for me." here from outer space— the so-called ex- Recent scientific discoveries have borne traterrestrial hypothesis. I think they're out Zuckerman's caution. The much-touted something much more metaterrestrial than astrometric, or star-wobble, evidence for extraterrestrial." The term metaterrestrial the existence of large planets around refers to the suggested link between UFOs nearby stars has been discredited as re- and psychic phenomena, poltergeists, sulting from instrument error. The obvious "parallel realities," and other planes or vi- cause-and-effect relationship between bration levels of existence. Modern sci- slow stellar rotations and the presence of a ence rejects all such theories, but they family of planets has been shot down. But have been receiving support from such the existence of totally sunlike stars many UFO theorists as Jacques Vallee (see Omni billions of years older than ours has been Interview, January 1980), John Keel, Peter You'll get about 20 established, thus affording aliens innu- Kor, and Alan Greenfield. into our So the three-way battle over ETI con- more miles from every tank merable opportunities to expand solar system — if they are out there at all. tinues, with shifting alliances and varied of gas if you slow down The origin of life on Earth remains prob- fortunes of war. The concepts remain excit- from 70 to 55 mph on the lematic', the progress of evolution seems ing, and the hard data remain sparse. Neu- highway. For a free booklet increasingly uncertain and freakish, and tral parties can watch the skirmishing from with more easy ways to the rise of intelligence and technology the sidelines with a mixture of amusement save energy and money, could well have been a fluke. The stability and confusion, as claims and coun- of a hospitable planet over the billions of terclaims are thrown back and forth with all write "Energy," Box 62, years needed for life to spring up and the subtlety of thermonuclear bombs. Oak Ridge, TN 37830. undergo changes now seems less likely. The ones who would be most amused, of Internal variations and external deviations course, would be the ETs themseives, if ENERGY. caused by solar variability, passage they exist. Picture them silently watching We can't afford through interstellar dust clouds, and un- Earth's civilizations develop, seeking — to waste it. lucky proximity to sterilizing supernovas criteria to confirm the existence of Tl are much more probable than was once terrestrial intelligence. Perhapsthis debate U.S. Department of Energy believed. is the final exam in that test. DO ,

By K. C. Cole

a two-mile-long tunnel beneath the scientific research. They are designed to enormous energy is converted into a tiny Inrolling hills of northern California, get to the heart of the matter, to search for quantity of mass, as predicted by Albert to 2 electrons ride a microwave almost up nature's raw ingredients, the indivisible Einstein's famous equation E^mc . Thus, the speed of light. Inside a ring four miles elements of the universe. adding more energy at this point serves in circumference, surrounding a restored Up until about 25 years ago atoms were mainly to give the nuclear collision more prairie 30 miles west of Chicago, protons thought to be composed of three weight. By the time an electron is 100 feet

are pushed in circles by magnetic fields elementary kinds of matter: light, along the two-mi le path of the Stanford

until they emerge with energies of 500 negatively charged particles, called Linear Accelerator, it is traveling at 99.9 billion electron volts. In a one-half-mile electrons, orbiting a dense core of much percent the speed of light; at the end of its

storage ring under construction in ithaca, more massive protons (positively charged journey one thousandth of a second later, it New York, matter and antimatter will whirl particles) and neutrons (chargeless has acquired virtually no speed, but

around in opposite directions to collide particles). Although electrons so far have 40,000 times as much mass. It is this head-on in a burst of pure energy and not been broken down into any simpler conversion of mass into energy in violent mutual annihilation that will leave in their constituents, both protons and neutrons collisions, and the re-creation of mass in a wake particles "strange" and "charmed," have yielded even smaller particles when new form, that allows scientists to study evidence of quarks and gluons. bombarded under extreme conditions, unseen elements of nature. The quarry of high-energy physics is achievable only in the most powerful of the Besides SLAC in Palo Alto, California,

elusive, elementary infinitesimally small. high-energy accelerators. For example, two other high-energy accelerators in the Yet the mammoth atomic microscopes that the first evidence that protons may be United States fall into this elite category: physicists use to track them are hulks of composed of quarks was obtained at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, copper and concrete, elaborate and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Batavia, Illinois, and Brookhaven

gargantuan. They have been called (SLAC), where it is possible to reach National Laboratory, in Upton, New York. cathedrals to contemporary science. In energies massive enough to create new Both operate synchrotrons, the progeny of their presence, one feels a respect for matter— energies, indeed, that make Ernest O. Lawrence's first, 11-inch pure power, an awe of the unknown and speed meaningful only in terms of mass. cyclotron, now on display at Lawrence Hall perhaps, the unknowable. All high-energy accelerators speed up in Berkeley, California. Cyclotrons High-energy particle accelerators are particles to within a whisper of the speed accelerated-particles inside two D-shaped instruments of the most basic kind of of light. At these relativistic velocities, magnets with a series of alternating electrical jolts. The particles spiral outward, their speed increasing with the distance they travel so that they are always in the right place for the right jolt at the right time. When particles approach the speed of light, however, they increase in mass and slow down. Accelerators were needed that could vary the frequency of the electrical push and that later could vary the strength of the magnetic field that kept the particles in place. Cyclotrons begat synchrocyclotrons, proton synchrotrons, and eventually super-high-energy alternating-gradient synchrotrons like those at Brookhaven and Fermilab. (Synchrocyclotrons retain the basic characteristics of a cyclotron — spiral path, two solid D magnets ~ but synchronize the frequency of the electrical jolt with the particle's speed. Proton synchrotrons use a single, large, circular magnetic field that increases in strength

as the particle accelerates, keeping it on a Inside Fermilab's four-mile ring, protons are accelerated to close to the speed of light. circular path instead of a spiral one. Alternating gradient synchrotrons refine (sometimes matter and antimatter) in the magnetic focusing further by dividing opposite directions. Instead of colliding EMRJ1ES it into independent sections.) with a stationary target, one accelerated ANSWERS TO GAMES {PAGE 128) Fermilab has one of the two largest particle will collide with another accel- Turnabouts: proion synchrotrons in the world (the other, erated particle. It is the difference 107734 inverted is hELLO! ~~ running over a --2-Z. . arge, s n operation in between a truck bug and Civil War battle: ShILOH ~ ,-. :ze* i'z _ ke most large accelerators, two speeding trucks colliding head on. Gambler: hE.LOSES it is realiy a series of accelerators. First, an Among the colliding-beam projects Casab/anca/goifer (with liberties taken in electrostatic generator strips hydrogen currently under construction are SLAC's spelling): BOGIE aioms of their electrons and boosts the Positron-Electron Project (PEP), the resulting protons to 750,000 electron volts. Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), CRYPTARITHMS:

A linear accelerator 500 feet long rides Brookhaven's Intersecting Storage (1) ALPHABET tnern along an electromagnetic wave up to Accelerator (ISABELLE), and Fermilab's ABCDE 21978 an energy of 200 million electron volts Energy Doubler. It would take a single ring (MeV). A booster synchrotron then raises as large as North America to achieve the EDCBA 87912 their energy to 8 billion electron volts energies planned for the Fermilab project. Of all the big accelerators, Fermilab's before they begin a 50,000-rps ride (2) SIX PLUS spectacular. (It offers both around the four-mile-round main is the most SIX + SIX + SIX * NINE + NINE accelerator. aesthetically pleasing power lines and a 942 + 942 + 942 = 1413 + 1413 Linear accelerators can also be used to buffalo herd.) But you don't have to go to the accelerate protons and other ions (atomic front of the line to get a good view Berkeley's (3) TELEGRAM nuclei), but their main advantage applies Bevatron {a proton synchrotron) is SEND 9567 to electrons. No magnetic force is required effectively out of the high-energy physics + MORE + 1085 business, at a mere 6.8 billion electron to guide electrons along the straight path MONEY of a linear accelerator. In contrast, volts. Nonetheless, it is active in good old accelerating synchrotrons must use a magnetic field to nuclear physics (mainly (4) GARDEN OF EDEN in circles, heavy ions) and in nuclear medicine. keep electrons going around EVE/DID = TALKTALKTALKTALK. . (in housing and enormous amounts of energy are The 135-foot diameter) 242/303 • radiated when electrons experience this looks like a concrete carnival big top. facilities, the force. The energy loss is such that Cornell Like most accelerator (5) DOTS University's half-mile-circumference Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory has several electron synchrotron required 3,300 linear accelerators, electrostatic revolutions per second to achieve less accelerators, and cyclotrons, some of than half the energy obtained in SLAC's which the public is encouraged to see. As straight two-mile run. is true at other facilities, the site is littered

Electrons in a linear accelerator are with spools of cable, steel beams, and crests of a spare magnets — testimony to the constant pushed along by the FIVE ROOMS. The problem cannot be microwave propagating in a copper tube. building, repairing, and tearing down. solved on the surface of a sphere, but it can Because electrons function as elementary Concrete bunkers and corrugated metal be solved on a torus (below), so long as particles, electron collisions are "clean." barracks (where physicists set up The particles are used as point sources, experiments) lend them the look of not to smash atoms, but to probe them. construction sites — which, in fact, they Accelerators provide beams not only of are. Accelerators are one of a kind, and protons, electrons, and heavier ions but almost everything is homemade. also consisting of a whole stream of IN TRANSIT secondary particles, including kaons, pions, mesons, and photons. Some of Because all these facilities are funded these particles live for only one billionth of by tax dollars, visitors are usually made the "hole" is in one of the five-wall rooms. one trillionth of a second. Many do not very welcome. At centers where regular This solution was offered by Martin Gard- normally occur in nature. Scientists tours are not conducted, they can often be ner in a puzzle, Tanya Tackles Topology, identify and study them by observing the arranged on demand. Not everything is presented in the July 1979 issue of Isaac trails of bubbles they leave behind as they open to the public, however; so it's best to Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. DO boil liquid hydrogen in bubble chambers telephone in advance. or by scanning the series of electrical Other accelerators worth seeing are: PHOTO CREDITS sparks they set off in spark chambers or Clinton P. Anderson Meson Physics Credit was omitted from our December issue for "White the ionization they produce in Facility, Los Alamos, New Mexico: 800 Contineni" (pp. 60- 65). The photos were excerpted from permission of the computerized scintillation counters. MeV proton linear accelerator, about half a the book Antarctica, by Eliot Porter; by publisher, E. P Dutton. AH rights reserved. Page 8, Marc isolated for mile long, provides intense secondary Specific particles are Zicree, John D. Muth, Geoffrey Creighton Studio, Ansel investigation by huge magnetic beams of pi mesons, muons, and neutrons. Adams; page 14, NASA; page 17, M.RL. Fodgen/Bruce Coleman, Inc.; page 20, Celestron, page 22, Roman Vish- spectrometers that separate particles William H. Bates Electron Linear niac; page 24, Minnesota Science Museum; page 26, according to their mass, much as a prism Accelerator, Middleton, Massachusetts: NASA; page 32, W. C. Stevens Collection; page 36 left, NASA; page 36 right, Russ Kinne/Photo Researchers; separates colors in light. SLAC's experi- 400 MeV electron linear accelerator, 663 page 37 left, Monnell Chemical Senses; page 37 right, mental area End Station A contains three feet long, used mainly to study weak Medical Center, Rochesfer, N.Y., James Hudak; page 38 Jan such spectrometers, which rotate around interactions in the atomic nucleus. left, Rick Friedman/Black Sfar; page 38 right, © 1976 Lukas/Pholo Researchers; page 39 left, Michel Peilus. vault. Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, a common pivot in a concrete Levine & Levine Graphics, Inc.; page 39 right, Movie Star But spectrometers and bubble Illinois: tandem Van de Graaf electrostatic News; page 40 left, Gisele Freund/Photo Researchers; 40 right, WBNO, Bryan, Ohio; page 41 left, ©1979 chambers and even accelerators accelerator, which injects into a page Iris Schneider; page 41 right, Aivin E. Siaffan/Photo Re- themselves are already nearly passe'. superconducting linear accelerator searchers; page 42 left, A. A. Francesconi/Photo Re- searchers; page 42 right, The Capital Times. Madison. Particle tracking is done by computer, and (ATLAS). Accelerates heavy ions to 9 MeV Wis.; page 111, Lynn McLaren/Photo Researchers, Mal- the excitement at accelerators is focused The superconducting cavities allow the colm Kirk, Nikon World, James Long; page 119, Pat Hill; Alvy-Ray Smith Artist, Paul Xander, on the large storage rings that will tracing of nuclear events to within 25 page 126, 3-D Saucer, Dr. Alexander Schure, page 130, Tony Escolt. circulate already-accelerated particles billionths of a second. DO i- OMNI e ^ MMH S6mThe Motion Picture STAR TREK" POSTERS FULL COLOR POSTERS APPROXIMATELY 2 FEET BY 3 FEET

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The ability of computer graphics to simulate projects, to create new art forms, and to depict amazingly lifelike images is becoming an integral part of our life. The image displayed here was generated on a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11/70 minicomputer at the New York Institute of Technology, in Old Westbury, Long Island. The "egg" was originally a "flying saucer" created by mathematical means. A series of programs generated a three-dimensional image, and by using a different color scheme, the egg was obtained. The "toast" was created in a slightly different way. An artist "painted" the image with an electric pen and tablet that transmitted coordinates to the computer, where they were stored and then re-created in color to make the image. Computer graphics, capable of producing an almost unlimited range of colors and virtually any picture an artist might choose to create, is becoming the true middle ground between science and the arts. This image was obtained from the video display screen using a Dunn Model

631 camera and special Polacolor 2 film i; from the Polaroid Corporation. OQ "

Push-button fun, and readers confront the "impossible" EAnriE By Scot Morns

of your birth, and "One evening i was sitting in the rooms of (the floating decimal separates the two digits of the year the Analytical Society at Cambridge, my words). subtract 108. The result will be your head leaning forward on the Table in a kind With that in mind, try these quick birthday. (For example, November 3, 1951, of dreamy mood, with a Table of turnabouts: will read 110351.) logarithms lying open before me. Another • Say hello to your calculator and punch member coming into the room, and seeing in 107734, then invert for the calculator's DROP OUT David Popoff. of Rowayton, mehalf asleep, calledout, 'Welt, answer. Connecticut, suggests this solitaire game. Babbage, what are you dreaming about?' • Multiply 33928.75 by 12 to get the name First, enter a six-digit number in which all different. object is to reduce To which I replied, 'I am thinking that all of a famous Civil War battle. digits are The two-digit these Tables (pointing to the logarithms) • If a gambler bets $25 on 2,140 roulette the display to 0.00 by using only might be calculated by machinery.' numbers, then tips the croupier $7.34 for numbers and any operation — Charles Babbage, luck, what's the outcome? (Multiply the (multiplication, division, addition, or Passages from the Life first two numbers and add 7.34.) subtraction). Clearly, division or of a Philosopher (1B64-) • What does the movie Casablanca have subtraction will be the most effective in common with a weekend golfer? Enter operations, but addition or multiplication Babbage's nap, which he recalled as 2562, add 97, and multiply by 12. may be helpful in getting rid of a decimal

having taken place in either 1812 on 81 3, or in obtaining a number that is a square or has given rise to a technology as Another type of calculator game is the a factor of a two-digit number. Reaching in five, incredible as any dream. It includes, as mind-reading trick. After a series of 0.00 in six moves is good, one branch of the computer revolution, seemingly arbitrary calculator operations excellent, in four, superb. calculators the size of credit cards, or a familiar number is revealed. Here are BOWLING. Enter an eight-digit number smaller, and built into digital wristwatches three examples: and divide by 1.7. The first digit to the left

(buttons on the latter are pressed by a • Enter your age. Double it. Add 5. of the decimal is a "random" number and hand-held stylus). What keeps calculators Multiply by 50, Add the amount of change designates the score on your first

1 or for a strike. To from becoming even smaller is the size of you have in your pocket up to $1 . Subtract ball — from to 9 pins, the human finger and the acuity of human the number of days in a year. Add 115. try for your spare, generate a second eyesight. Divide by 100. Finally push the = key. Your random digit and add it to your first

We have collected several push-button calculator will display two numbers to the number. If the total is 10 or more, you have games for your amusement— too many in left of the decimal — your age— and two converted your spare. Score 10 frames fact, for one column. In a subsequent numbers to the right—the correct amount exactly as in bowling. Larry A. Lansberry, issue we'll present more complex of money, (From The Calculating Book, by of Phoenix, Arizona, who sent me this

' challenges. This month we offer diverse James T. Rogers, Random House, 1975.) game, says, "I find I average about 30 pins calculations to compute after the • Hand the calculator to a friend, and, higher on the calculator than on the checkbook has been balanced. while your back is turned, have him or her bowling lanes." three-digit number of which the enter any CRYPTARITHMS One class of puzzles relies on the first and last digits are not the same. Then calculator display's being turned upside ask him or her to reverse the digits A type of puzzle called the cryptarithm down so that many of the numerals look mentally (e.g., 398 becomes 893) and requires the solver to substitute digits for like roman letters. For example, 0, 3, 4, 5, subtract this new number from the original. symbols to produce a valid equation.

and 7 can be read upside down as 0,E,h, If the result is negative (-495, in this Though a calculator is not required, it may S, and L. The"/ can double as/ or an case), he or she is to change the sign be helpful in checking your solutions. point, little and add this number torts reverse exclamation and with a (495) (I)ALPHABETTIMESFOUR. imagination you can get the digits 2, 8, (594). Place your hand to your brow and ABODE and 9 toresemblethelettersZ.fi, andG. after a suitable pause announce that you X 4 A few years ago calculating the cause of have mentally received the total: 1089. the gasoline shortage was the most Magic? No, the result of this operation is E D C B A popular stunt. You would punch in a always 1089. This cryptarithm appears in James E number to represent the cost of a • Take the month of your birth Fixx's More Games for the Superintelligent letter shipment of oil — 426.46407— divide that (January=1, February=2, etc.) and (Doubleday, 1976). A given always digit, The problem number by 3 oil companies, then multiply multiply it by 100. Add the date of your represents the same by an inflation factor of 5. The answer: birth (the first of the month=01, etc.). can be attacked logically. First, one 710.77345. Turn the machine upside Multiply by 2, add 9, multiply by 5, add 8, realizes that A multiplied by 4 yields only a down, and there's the culprit: ShELL.OIL multiply by 10, subtracU22, add the last one-digit answer; so A must be either 1 or

128 OMNI 2. Next one notices that 4 x E yields a had previously appeared in Esquire ("A placed the utilities inside the houses or number ending in A. But four times any Spelling Test Beyond Belief," by T. K. moved one house out of the plane above

number equals an even number; so A Brown 111, April 1967). We found the test in the others or directly through the center of must be 2. Since 3 and 8 are the oniy a recent issue of San Diego Mensan, the earth. Several readers pointed out that

numbers that, when multiplied by 4, have which had reprinted it from In Black and if the problem was set on a world that was a product ending in 2, then E must be 3 or White, a publication of Associated not a sphere but a torus (the topologist's 8. Can you carry out the rest of the Editorial Consultants in La Jolla, California. term for a doughnutlike surface), it could calculations to decipher the cryptic The consensus was that this was a be easily solved, as in the illustration, multiplication? When you are done, try titillating spelling quiz, and our asinine, adapted from one sent in by Chris these classic cryptarithms. sacrilegious omission of credit was not Hanson, of Seattle, Washington. meant as braggadocio; Our apologies to (2) SIX PLUS SIX. Alan Wayne, of Holiday, Esquire and to T. K. Brown. Florida, originated this elegant puzzle. Different letters represent different digits. in November we proclaimed, unwisely, Numbers beginning with zero are not that we had the "ultimate" solutions to allowed. some classic puzzles and that others were SIX + SIX + SIX = NINE + NINE "impossible." Omni readers do not like to be told that anything is impossible, and (3) TELEGRAM. they told us so. Three problems drew the An urgent message from a freshman. most mail and deserve comment: SEND FIVE ROOMS. This one drew the most mail + M R E THE NINE DOTS. Several readers showed of all. We said there was no way to draw a MONEY us how to fold the paper in various ways so continuous line that crosses every that all nine dots could be crossed off by a segment on this floor plan once and only single line without lifting pen from paper. A once. Several readers disagreed.

(4) GARDEN OF EDEN. box of eight solutions came from Joe Eddy EVE/DID = .TALKTALKTALKTALK .... Brown, of Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Among In this one the fraction eve/did has been readers' suggestions: Draw a "line" with a l reduced to its lowest terms; its decimal very wide paintbrush, fold the paper so form has a repeating period of four digits. that the nine dots are stacked and can be

Again, the solution is unique. (Hint: To pierced by a single pin, or wrap the paper . obtain the simplest fraction equivalent to a around a cylinder and cross all nine dots decimal of n repeating digits, put the with one line, barber-pole fashion. repeating period overn 9s and reduce the fraction to its lowest terms.)

(5) DOTS. Finally, here's a multiplication followed by an addition, a classic The most common suggestion was that brainbender from the English puzzlist since a line has only one dimension,

Henry Ernest Dudeny Each dot is a digit length, it could traverse a wall lengthwise from 1 to 9 inclusive (no zeros), and each and thereby "cross" it. Fair enough, if we digit appears once. The answer is unique. bend the meaning of "cross" a bit. Some had the line leave a room exactly at a corner, thereby crossing no walls, or THREE UTILITIES. This problem required crossing two or three at once, take your you to connect each of three utilities (gas, pick. One reader rearranged the rooms to electricity, water) to each of three houses suit her aim ("You didn't say you couldn't so that the lines "don't cross or pass under rearrange the rooms"). Another avoided a house or utility." Readers got around this crossing over by burrowing under. Some wording by passing linesover houses (the readers said the problem could be soived OLD BUSINESS electric lines, naturally) or through houses. on the surface of a sphere; others said it

It has been called to our attention that One reader stretched the wording to its could be solved on the surface of a the list of words we published here as "The limit by passing each line under two doughnut. Is either solution possible? World's Hardest Spelling Test" (June 1979) houses (not undera house). Others Answers: page 124.00 . .

r E LAST IAJDRD By Daniel S. Greenberg

following is another in an wasn't wasted. We regrouped, so to together for a kind of Super Bowl of Theoccasional series of interviews speak, and took a whack at speed comparative studies. We'll have with Dr. Grant Swinger, who views looking. simultaneous translation, and after it's all the world of science and technology from Omni: Speed looking? over, we'll publish the Proceedings of the the pinnacles of the Breakthrough Institute Dr. Swinger: It could be useful, for First Annual Conference on Comparative and the Center for the Absorption of example, for going through museums. Studies.

Federal Funds. Dr. Swinger converses Tourists would provide the market. Omni: I see. What else are you doing?

here with Daniel S. Greenberg, a veteran Omni: I trust that none of these schemes Dr. Swinger: Do you know about the JRM? observer of the scientific community. went very far. I mean, with all due respect, Omni: No. they are very far outside the norms and Dr. Swinger: It's the Journal of Rejected Omni: Dr. Swinger, when we last spoke, traditions of science and technology. Manuscripts. No author can complain you were quite gloomy about the financial Dr. Swinger: Of course they are, but that about censorship, suppression, bias, or status of research and development in this shows how desperate we were. any of that stuff. Manuscripts go straight

country. What I'd like to ask . . Nevertheless, everything is okay now. from the mailroom to the printer. It's a

Dr. Swinger: Gloomy? I can tell you very We've got a number of new things going at procedure that's fair and swift and leaves plainly that my colleagues and I were both the Breakthrough institute and the the author with nothing to complain about. desperate. In fact, we were so hard up that Center for the Absorption of Federal Omni: Why, that's in complete violation of we were ready to go to the Department of Funds. all the basic principles of scientific Energy to propose a project for turning oil Omni: Such as? publishing. What about referees, checking into coal or shale. Dr. Swinger: We're running a conference. for accuracy and . .

Omni: Oil into coal or shale? It's the first annual Conference on Dr. Swinger: I trust, sir, that you are not so Dr. Swinger: They've got so much money Comparative Studies. naive as to believe that when a traditional for research and development at DOE that Omni: Comparative studies of what? scientific journal rejects a manuscript, the they'll snap up anything. In fact, we've Dr. Swinger: Of anything you want to manuscript then never sees the light of even got them interested in a project to compare— apples, oranges, Gross day. Of course it does. The author then develop a solar-powered typewriter, and National Product, birthrates. People are sends it to another journal and still another, we were going to go to the National always doing comparative studies of this if necessary, until he finds one that

Institutes of Health with a proposal for or that. So we figured we'd bring it all accepts" it. This is what's been going on all appendix transplants. We were desperate. along in scientific publishing, and it One of our people had an idea about what explains why new journals keep popping to do with NASA, you know the National up and more and more papers get Aeronautics and Space Administration. published each year, while the purchasing Omni: Of course. What did he have in power of the scientific community remains mind? the same or even declines. Rejected papers Dr. Swinger: Well, with space activities sort never die. They just get mailed out again. of running low, he thought we might take all Omni: How interesting! What else are you those laboratories and research centers doing? and get a big national program going to Dr. Swinger: We have a contract to teach animals to speak. We'd beat the administer the newly established Fund for

Russians. We'd call it the National Animal Dubious Research. This is a ten-year Speech Administration. We could keep all program in which funding is provided for those NASA emblems and thus save a lot research ideas that have been dismissed of money on paint jobs, stationery, and as crackpot, impractical, and so forth. The shoulder patches. object is to compare their proposals with

Omni: I see. proposals that have been rated Dr. Swinger: And then we've been outstanding and promising. tinkering with variations of speed reading. Omni: But any project supported by the Using the latest optical and psychological Fund for Dubious Research would be methods, we got some test subjects up to under a severe handicap. Who would five thousand words a minute. publish the results? Omni: Five thousand words a minute? Dr. Swinger: The Journal of Rejected Dr. Swinger: Yes, though at that speed Manuscripts. they had no comprehension. But the work Omni: Thank you, Dr. Swinger. OO 130 OMNI Only the best go to the Olympics.

obligations that the Nothing in the world of competitive sport promise, Canon photographic equipment will be aspect of the photographic ^ can match the Olympic challenge. It isachal- er livelihood depends on the images they record for lenge that demands not only the best in human . un posterity. VVithj|irqfessional service and repair, athletic achievement, but a determination that - att emer- can be"summoned up to overcome seemingly Canon's s'uppo systems suppomand supplementary or : ~| our commit- ' nhcter.iP_* Yet with all.the talent, skill W: r Games aoes fa gency equipment.. Standing behind

dedicate my iur a brief instant, there can be only a few assistance money, skill and human o wear the gold. can provide-

.: for all Canon photq- For Peggy Fleming and Jean-Claude Killy The quality standard ^graphic pr u ,e intensity of their gold-medal-winning per- THE OFFICIAL formances On the ice and the slopes passed on the outside, but you'll cornejto appre 35MM CAMERA OF difference bi through them for a few moments of heart-stop- the years go by. It's the big THE 1980 OLYMPIC and others thai seem to offer ping action most of us never feel irt a lifetime. But Canon cameras " performance. And itfe something that the memories of the day IFve for them forever. Irt WINTER GAMES equivalent photographs. & simply can't be faked. I it's inevitable that considering Olympian It is because of the vital importance of th achievement calls to mind has been selected Official 35rr of the At Canon, we don't use sui 1980 Olympic Winter Games I we'll at Lake Placid to prove it. utmost severity, in a situation tt And be

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