SEX AND VIOLENCE AMONG THE PRIMATES SCIENTISTS BATTLE THE R THE AIR 4«™ onnmiVOL. 15 NO. 8 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT & C.0,0.. KATHY KEETON EDITOR; KEITH FERRELL EXECUTIVE VP/GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR; CAROLINE DARK SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM DEPARTMENTS 27 First Word Continuum By Fang Li Zhi and 34 Richard Dicker Ozone Politics Scientists come to the By James P. Hogan aid of their No evidence exists for the imprisoned colleagues ozone hole, in China. says the author. Eminent 6 science-fiction Communications writer Frederik Pohl 8 disagrees. Travel 43 By Wallace Kaufman Heresy! 10 Tfiree Modern Galileos Wtieels By Anthony Liversidge By Steve Nadis The Church doesn't have 12 to persecute Political Science maverick scientists By Tom Dworeizl<y anymore. Other Defending Star Wars scientists do It instead. 14 52 Electronic Universe Beyond HIV: Assembling By Gregg Keizer the AIDS Puzzle 18 By Colm Kelleher Earth Startling new researcti By Linda Marsa sheds light on Chiefs against biotechnology how HIV causes AIDS- 20 58 Animals Fiction: Grand Prix By Sieve Nadis By Simon Ings Do elephants ever forget? 62 22 Air Repair Kid Stuff By Owen Davies By Robert K. J. Kiliheffer Engineering solutions to New books show the global warming people behind 69 scientific discoveries. ozone and you'll likely run into all three. 96 We've got heady opinion, provocative commentary, Games bold speculation. An atmospheric, By Scot Morris as it were, issue. (Art and photo credits, page 94) OMNI (ISBN 0149-8711) Is publisliBd morrtWy In Bioadmav. New Yoili, NV 1002*6965. Second-da postage paid al New York, NY, and at additional maiiuig otlices. F TER' Serd address changes lo Omnl Magazire, F OBice Box 3041, Harlan, lA 51537.3041. «ilume 15, Number B. CapyjJ^ "~ rrgW © 1993 By Omni AH rights raseived. Tel. 1-a0&-2e9-6664; (212) 496-6100. OMI^I is a^^ af UP Printed in the USA By R.R. Donnelley S Sons Inc. and distributed in the USA Canada, Unil ;. and the world (except Australia end tine UKl by Curtis Circulation Compa- JJ 07601. Distribute! 1 Australia by Die Horowitz Group, P.O. Box 306. Cammeray id Shell Pic. '.O. BOX 381, lylliiiiarbour. London E14 9TW. Entire contHils le nctiofi or semificlion and real places or living or U.S., AFO—$24 one year; Canada ard elsev*ae—S2S one year. Sinele is S3.50 In U.S., AFO. and Canada. Teleplione: alter, and ail rigtits In portions thereof remain the sole property of Omni Publications International IJO. Letters sent lo Qmrl i editors become the property of the magazine. Printed in U.S.A. FIRST lAJORD POST-TIENANMEN SQUARE POLITICS: Should scientists engage in human-rights campaigns? By Fang Li Zhi and Richard Dicker J^^mid the protests marking es, electric batons had been ap- al scientific meetings will take *^^^the third anniversary of plied to Liu's genitals, place in China, including the 34th m % tlie killings around Tien- The physics community react- Congress of the International Un- anmen Square, the Chinese gov- ed vigorously to this horrifying re- ion of Pure and Applied Chemis- ernment received a petition with port: 360 U.S.-based physicists try and the International Con- the signatures of more than 40 issued a dramatic appeal to the gress of Crystallography Despite prominent American scientists, in- Chinese government calling for claims by the Chinese govern- cluding 11 Nobel laureates. Liu Gang's release. The signato- ment that all students who had "vi- Among them were Linus Pauling, ries included Kurt Gottfried, Nico- olated the law in 1989" have been Hans Bethe, Burton Richter, and laas Bloembergen, and Herman released from prison, Liu Gang Herbert Brown. They were offer- Winick, Another more highly remains in "strict punishment ing their prestige and support to charged arena for this growing hu- regime" at Lingyuan. While ques- Liu Gang, a former physics stu- man-rights activism was the tions about raising prisoner cases dent whose story is galvanizing round of international scientific at these events do arise, past ex- the scientific community in the conferences held in China in perience offers real guidance: 1992. At the 21st International Con- ference on the Physics of Semi- conductors (ICPS-21), which took place in Beijing last August, participants took significant steps to raise human-rights is- sues. One American physicist, Horst Stormer, the initial speaker at the important first plenary ses- the Chinese M'.:- sion, spoke out on behalf of free- DJGker irlijiE.. dom of expression. Two other is direclor ot the Americans, aided by other partic- committee. ipants, circulated a petition to Pre- mier Li Peng, which called for the release of Liu Gang. The petition gathered nearly 75 signatures. A Polish participant, Piotr Bo- guslawski, who dedicated his pa- per to persecuted physicists, lat- er said, "In our case, being from United States and in Europe in Eastern Europe, we had experi- Should scientists be engaging in the way the cases of imprisoned ence We knew that pressure these types of activities?Jhete is dissidents in the former Soviet Un- from the outside worked. Western a longstanding tradition of scien- ion did more than a decade ago. opinion did have an influence for tists undertaking human-rights Liu, who was number 3 on the us. We did not have a moment's campaigns. These are not politi- government's post-Tienanmen hesitation at ICPS-21 ." These ac- cal activities. Rather, they are Square list of "most wanted" stu- tivities became the main topic in aimed at protecting fundamental dent leaders, was sentenced to the Corridors and at informal eve- human-rights values such as free- six years in prison in February ning meetings. Discussion dom of expression. 1991. He has led several hunger raged over whether it was appro- strikes in prison and has been se- priate to take these actions, and Can scientists mal<e a difference'^ verely tortured. Last August, a re- many people—foreign and Chi- Based on the experience of hu- port was smuggled out of nese—came up and thanked man-rights campaigns for prison- Lingyuan Prison, where Liu is be- those who had spoken out, Simi- ers in many countries, repeated ing held, detailing the conditions lar actions occurred at the 19th mention focuses attention on a for political prisoners there; beat- International Congress of Entomol- prisoner's case and puts the au- ings by guards, torture with elec- ogy held in Beijing. thorities on notice that there Is in- tric batons, and punitive solitary . Throughout this summer, anoth- ternational concern. Rather than confinement. According to sourc- er series of significant internation- leading to more abusive treat- — onn I CDnnnnumicATioms READERS' WRITES: Science unsullied, of egos .and egalitarianism, and can you hack a bit more off the sides? Nobody Does II Better perception of science and its relation- Congratulations to Kathleen Stein [Fo- ship to humanity. Acts of aggression, rum, December 1992] for her impres- hoarding and greedy self-interest, hos- sive record of Interview articles in Om- tility, and even mistrust remind me of ni I am a long-time subscriber primari- what may have been necessary traits ly because of the Interview articles, No of our distant ancestors. Embry believes other magazine does it so well. the resulting violence and unproductive Sharon P. Bailey behavior from such "negative" emotions Rochester, NY may be suppressed by substituting "vio- lent acts with neutral or kind acts," He Hate Those Split Ends makes me wonder what a neutral glob- The article "The Walking Way" [Janu- al community, one without ambition or ary 1993] on bipedal locomotion was in- drive, would be like. Can a community teresting, but I want to know if anyone exist without the individual? has considered another attribute that is Mark Tyler un que to us and has had a strong in- Denver, CO fluence on our tendency to invent tools: hair on our heads that never On the Battlefront stops growing (for most of us anyway), Your article on cancer [February/March I can think of no other species of ani- 1993] and alternative therapies omitted n al with hair Ihal grows without stop- a natural substance that has been ping and must be cut to be managea- documented for years: vitamin B-17, ble Has a researcher Investigated tfie otherwise known as laetrile. Laetrile has connection between the need to cut our been shown to act as an extremely ef- h^r and the development of tools? In fective "toxin-toting torpedo," as you re- addition, since we don't wear down our ferred to such substances in your ar- fingernails with quadrupedal travel and ticle. It's widely used by holistic heal- di some point began wearing shoes, we ers in this country in its natural form and probably had an early need for tools to is available in Mexico as an injectable manage nail growth, too, fluid. I,aetrile is naturally prevalent in sub- Susanne dels stances such as the seeds of apples Seattle, WA and apricots, among other things. The FDA, the National Cancer Institute, and Blame Not now Omni have ignored laetrile, IvlcfVlanus I am a scientist who completely dis- John G. agrees with Bryan Appleyard's message Wakefield, MA [First WDrd, February/March 1993], Mr, Appleyard forgot one important thing: When Only a Miracle Will Do Science in itself is nothing except a The Biblical account of the Red Sea part- game of the mind. It looks like he takes ing when the wind blew [Continuum, Feb- technology for science itself. The import- ruary/March 1993] neither proves nor ant thing about science is what you do disproves believers' versus disbelievers' with it.