How I Helped a Devastated Forest Make a Comeback

by GERMAINE GREER

Kaboom! How to Listen to the Big Bang

by BRIAN GREENE

Peter Matthiessens New Novel Revisits the Holocaust

E =
t
by RON ROSENBAUM

Patrick Stewart Looks Ahead The Worlds Most Lovable Robot Sci-fis Idea Laboratory Forecast for The Planet: Hot, Hot, Hot! TurboCharging Your Brain The Search for Other Earths Americas Tech Anxiety

ih t
N=R* fp ne fl fi fc L

SEEING INTO THE FUTURE

Smithsonian
May 2014 | smithsonian.com
2 2

B=0

Ed = d dt

B dS

h = 2m ) ,t u I (r

WorldMags.net

IM GOING TO MAKE SURE MY MONEY LASTS AS LONG AS I DO.

Recently we conducted an intriguing experiment. We asked 200 people to think about how much money theyll need in retirement, then had them stretch out a length of ribbon representing that amount to see how long it might last. What we learned is that most of us signicantly underestimate how much well need. The fact is, with people living longer, retirement could last up to 30 years or more. How can you make sure the money is there for you, year after year? Talk to your nancial professional about our guaranteed retirement income solutions that can help provide annual income for each year of retirement from Day One.

TALK TO YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISOR OR VISIT BRINGYOURCHALLENGES.COM

RETIREMENT

INVESTMENTS

INSURANCE

2014. PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, INC., NEWARK, NJ, USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 0256204-00001-00

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

MAY 2014 Volume 45, Number 2

Contents
Signs of Life
Driven to make the most of her time on this planet, MIT astronomer Sara Seager has set herself the goal of discovering another Earth in her lifetime BY COREY POWELL
Contributors Discussion From the Editor Phenomenon 2 4 6 9

DAVI D HI G G IN BOT HA M / E M M E T T GI V EN / M SF C / N A SA; I LL US TR ATI O N : RYA N SA N C H E Z ( D E TA IL ); COV E R: P H OTO GRA P H BY DA N W IN T E RS AT IN D U ST RIO ST U D IO, N YC , F E BR U A RY 20 14 ; G R O O M I N G : J OAN N A P E N SI N G E R / E X C LU S IV E A R TI S TS M A N AGE M E N T; ST Y L IN G: JO H N M O O RE / B E RN ST E IN & A N D RIU L L I; JAC KE T BY RE ISS LO N D O N

This month our theme is reversals, of Earths magnetic eld, rainforest devastation and traumatic memories

Listening to the Big Bang

Just-reported ripples in space may open a window on the very beginning of the universe

19

The White Veil

28

Peter Matthiessen takes on his most controversial subject yet in his searching new novel set at Auschwitz

Caf Future
A new poem by David Yezzi

57 60

Science Friction

62
Brave New Words
Science ction isnt meant to predict the future, but implausible ideas that re inventors imaginations often, amazingly, come true
BY EILEEN GUNN

A Pew-Smithsonian poll reveals Americans arent quite ready for driverless cars or lab-grown meat

The Pay Phone 1982

A new poem by Joshua Mehigan

74 80 104

Smithsonian
Whats going on around the Mall

Fast Forward

COVER: Sir Patrick Stewart photographed by Dan Winters THIS PAGE: James Webb Space Telescope

34

Mind Craft
An astonishing surgical operation called deep brain stimulation is providing relief to people with movement disorders, even as it raises troubling questions
BY DAVID NOONAN

38

Command Performance
Patrick Stewart, whose leading roles in Star Trek and X-Men have taken him into the far future, reects on art, 21st-century science and robot ethics
BY MARK STRAUSS

48

Hot Enough for You?

As global warming makes sizzling temperatures more common, will human beings be able to keep their cool? New research suggests not
BY JERRY ADLER

52

National Treasure

68

The Real McCoy

70

With its stubby cylindrical body and playful whistles and beeps, the lovable Star Wars robot R2-D2 is just the right mix of man and machine
BY CLIVE THOMPSON

The Starship Enterprises cranky doctor would approve of technology that could turn smartphones into devices that can detect disease
BY ARIEL SABAR

WorldMags.net

May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM

Contributors

WorldMags.net

Dan Winters
The eminent photographer, filmmaker and writer revisited the past for our Future issue when he photographed Patrick Stewart for our cover at a New York studio (p. 48). Id shot him 23 years prior for Vanity Fair, says Winters, who jogged Stewarts memory of their initial meeting by presenting him with a print from that portrait session. Winters, a frequent Smithsonian contributor, is the recipient of countless honors, including the Alfred Eisenstadt Award for Magazine Photography. His fth book, Road to Seeing, was published in January.

Eileen Gunn
A science ction writer who has won the prestigious Nebula Award for Best Short Story, Gunn says the genre prepares readers for a future of rapid change (p. 34). Finding yourself somewhere where you dont know whats going on can be unsettling, she says. Her book of stories Questionable Practices appeared in March.

PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS BY

Eda Akaltun

Germaine Greer
For two years, the renowned feminist and conservationist searched for a piece of devastated Australia that she might be able to x. In 2001, she found Cave Creek, a swath of 150 acres of battered rainforest in southeast Queensland. She describes her hands-on restoration (p. 9) in her latest book, White Beech: The Rainforest Years. Cave Creek, she says, is particularly special because its subtropicala member of the most depleted class of forests.

David Noonan
In his career as a medical writer, Noonan has watched dozens of neurosurgeries. But this months piece on deep brain stimulation (p. 38) marked his rst interview with a patient while his brain was being operated on. The patient and doctor were talking to each other while the patients skull had been opened, he says. It was extraordinary. A former Newsweek senior editor, Noonan is the author of two books, including Neuro, about the early days of modern neurology.

Corey Powell
The veteran science journalist and editor-at-large for Discover magazine proled the MIT astronomer Sara Seager, a leading authority on exoplanets (p. 62). I think there are some ways in which shes a mystery to herself, he says. She explores the inner space of her psyche, kind of the way she explores outer space.
2
SMITHSONIAN.COM

Mark Strauss
In his seven years as a senior editor at Smithsonian, Strauss has covered everything from archaeology to science ction. Still, interviewing Patrick Stewart (p. 48) was an eye-opener, he says, a vivid reminder that the greatest actors are among the most devoted students of humanity. They often understand ourselves better than we do.

Ariel Sabar
An innovative UCLA researcher who is turning the cellphone into a clinical laboratory is Sabars subject this month (p. 70). Still, neither the inventor nor the author wants to replace the bond between doctor and patient with a gadget. Sabars 2008 memoir, My Fathers Paradise, won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

G UNN PH OTO REFERE NCE : DE NNI S LETBETTER

WorldMags.net
A more efficient supply chain works wonders. Logistics works for us.

Jack Roush Chairman, Roush Enterprises When Jack Roush wanted to take the kind of performance engineering he puts into his engines and build it into his entire company, he called us. By consolidating all of his freight, package, air, tracking, billing and reporting, Jack saved a tremendous amount of time and money. How does he manage it all? With UPS WorldShipthe carriersupplied software that lets companies process and track their package, air freight and LTL shipments in a single system. Find out why executives like Jack Roush rely on UPS at ups.com/roush.

Copyright 2014 United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net Interesting article in

Discussion
FROM THE EDITORS

current Smithsonian about how emotions travel via social media rage & awe the fastest; melancholia, the slowest.
@JoyceCarolOates ON TWITTER

Our third annual feature on Americas best small towns to visit moved hundreds of readers to debate our picks. On Facebook, Jeffrey Doonan took a broader perspective: I moved from #5 Woods Hole to Istanbul, Turkey, about 25 years ago. It was a great little place, but the world is full of great little places, explore more.

to support sweatshop conditions in Central America and elsewhere? Camille Walkinshaw

COLUMBUS, GEORGIA

Mystery Solved?
I read the excerpt [Journey Into the Kingdom of Spirits] from Carl Hoffmans book Savage Harvest in your March issue with great interest and some dismay. Milt Machlin rst published precisely the same thesis 45 years ago in Argosy magazine and in his remarkable 1972 book, The Search for Michael Rockefeller. Milts book, along with 16mm lm he shot, became the basis of our award-winning 2010 documentary, The Search for Michael Rockefeller. Milt and photographer Malcolm Kirk interviewed in person all of the Dutch missionaries Mr. Hoffman quotes, and most of the other eyewitnesses. Milts conclusion was that Michael was killed and probably eaten by three natives of Otsjanep. All this is simply echoed by Mr. Hoffman. Any author in this field should acknowledge Machlins groundbreaking, widely published work. Your magazines claim that Michael Rockefellers fate has remained a mystery for 50 years, until now, is pure hyperbole and frankly dishonest. Fraser C. Heston
DIRECTOR, THE SEARCH FOR MICHAEL ROCKEFELLER LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Blending In
Despite their detractors, the nearly 70,000 Bhutanese who were welcomed by America [Manchesters Melting Pot] do indeed set an example of the kind of people that Americans like to imagine themselves to be. I say soften the refugees culture shock as they try to preserve the idea of blending happiness with their love of education, ambition and the environment. Many, many thanks for this inspiring story. Tova Navarra
MIDDLETOWN, NEW JERSEY

circulating since at least 1962. Carl Hoffman is the first writer to find sufficient evidence to confirm and explain it. That evidence, which was not in Machlins book, includes the report led by Max Lepr, the Dutch government official who led the violent raid on the village of Otsjanep that preceded Michael Rockefellers disappearance; the reports filed by the Dutch Catholic priests Cornelius van Kessel and Hubertus von Peij on what Asmat villagers were saying right after Rockefellers disappearance; the report filed by the Dutch government investigator Wim van de Waal after his three-month residence in Otsjanep; and documents from Dutch government and Catholic Church officials discussing the non-disclosure of the priests and investigators information. This new evidence was included in the Smithsonian excerpt. Hoffman discusses Machlins work in Savage Harvest.

Correction
In Americas Best Small Towns, we mistakenly identified the producer of MusicFest in Steamboat Springs. He is John Dickson. John Waldman, whom we quoted, is the promoter for the Steamboat Springs Free Summer Concert Series.
CONTACT US

Japanese Americana
How ironic that the Japanese appreciate the high quality of [early 20th-century] American-made garments [Re-Made in Japan] when our own country sold out the very workers who produced them. American textile and garment workers were betrayed by government policies and industry. They were told they could be retrained for technology jobs that never materialized. As a result, many good blue-collar workers lost everything. Was it morally worth it to destroy a vibrant American industry that provided solid middle-class jobs
4
SMITHSONIAN.COM

Send letters to LettersEd@si.edu or to Letters, Smithsonian, MRC 513, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013. Include a telephone number and address. Letters may be edited for clarity or space. Because of the high volume of mail we receive, we cannot respond to all letters. Send queries about the Smithsonian Institution to info@si.edu or to OVS, Public Inquiry Mail Service, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013.
FOLLOW US

Editors response: Milt Machlin did publish a thesis, one that our excerpt notes had been

@Smithsonianmag Facebook.com/smithsonianmagazine

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

From the Editor

would have made Bones less grumpy (Inventing the Real McCoy, p. 70); daily life in a globally warmed world (Hot Enough for You? p. 52); and our own Smithsonian-Pew poll on Americans attitudes about the future (p. 60). We are celebrating this issue with a big event May 16-18, our second annual Future Is Here festival (details at Smithsonian.com/future). A starry lineup of speakers will unveil the cutting edge of their elds, including exo-planet seeker Sara Seager (Signs of Life, p. 62), de-extinction expert Stewart Brand, Google moonshot leader Rich DeVaul, George Takei (Star Treks Sulu), and physicist Brian Greene (Listening to the Big Bang, p. 19). On May 17, Patrick Stewart will host the D.C. premiere of his new lm, X-Men: Days of Future Past. In our own most recent past, our April issue, we published a column by the Secretary of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, that was a perfect combination of future and past. Dr. Clough, who will be retiring in 2015, wrote eloquently about looking forward to revisiting his rural childhood hometown of Douglas, Georgia. Dr. Clough has written more than 60 columns for the magazine, covering his own work and the vast reach of the Smithsonian Institution. Its been a great run and difficult to say goodbye. But there are now so many other sources of information on the SI, including our thriving website, Smithsonian.com, that weve decided to discontinue the From the Castle column. I cant imagine a better one to end on. Michael Caruso, EDITOR IN CHIEF Michael@si.edu

Darwin Panama
A warm weather hat with Australian styling, hand woven in Ecuador from toquilla fiber. Water resistant coating, braided kangaroo leather band. Reinforced 4" crown, 3" brim. Finished in USA.
S (6-6) M (7-7) L (7-7) XL (7-7) XXL (7) #1649 Darwin Panama $120
..................

Panama Fedora
Classic sun protection, hand woven in Ecuador from toquilla fiber. Water resistant coating, grosgrain ribbon band. Reinforced 4" crown, 2" brim. Finished in USA.
S (6-6) M (7-7) L (7-7) XL (7-7) XXL (7) #1648 Panama Fedora $95
.....................

Add $9 handling per order. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Shop davidmorgan.com or request a catalog

Tilley Hats from Canada Northwest Jewelry Designs Akubra Hats from Australia

^
800-324-4934 davidmorgan.com
11812 N Creek Pkwy N, Ste 103Bothell, WA 98011

Fifty years ago, a Russian-born biochemist with mutton-chop sideburns and an intense fear of ying visited the Worlds Fair in Queens, New York. Inspired by a General Electric pavilion lled with modern electric gadgets, he typed up an article predicting what the world would be like in 2014. Among his many astonishing prognostications were the elements of electric coffeemakers, microwave ovens, cellphones, Skype, driverless cars and articial meat. It should come as no surprise that this prophet was a science ction writer, a novelist named Isaak Yudovich Ozimov, better known as Isaac Asimov. Ever since Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, science ction writers have been conjuring up possible futures for usand for scientists and engineers, who are often sci- fans as teenagersto build. We now live in a science ction world, a time beyond 1984 and 2001 when many far-fetched inventions have come true, and the time between imagination and actualization is shrinking every year. No idea is too sci- anymorethere are people right now tackling everything from raising extinct animals from the dead to teleportation to tribbles. In this issue, we peer into the future that is being constructed for us. Weve chosen a fearless leader for this timetravel trip: Sir Patrick Stewart, a.k.a. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek and Professor Xavier of the X-Men (Command Performance, p. 48). We follow with stories on a tricorder that
6

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY

Eda Akaltun

WorldMags.net SMITHSONIAN.COM | May 2014

Smithsonian
EDITOR IN CHIEF Michael Caruso ART DIRECTOR Maria G. Keehan DEPUTY EDITOR Terence Monmaney DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS

WorldMags.net
Smithsonian.com
SECRETARY
COPY CHIEF Karen Larkins DIGITAL EDITOR, MUSEUMS Beth Py-Lieberman ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Erik K. Washam PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Brendan McCabe ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Je Campagna DIGITAL EDITOR, SMITHSONIAN.COM Brian Wolly COPY EDITOR Jeanne Maglaty ASSOCIATE WEB EDITOR Megan Gambino ONLINE REPORTERS Natasha Geiling, Erica R. Hendry,

G. Wayne Clough
BOARD OF REGENTS CHANCELLOR

Debra Rosenberg
SENIOR EDITORS Kathleen M. Burke, T. A. Frail,

The Chief Justice of the United States

CHAIR

Elizabeth Quill, Mark Strauss

POETRY CONSULTANT TO SMITHSONIAN

Mr. John W. McCarter, Jr.

VICE CHAIR

Billy Collins
NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT Ron Rosenbaum COLUMNISTS Amanda Foreman, Brian Greene,

Joseph Stromberg
ART SERVICES COORDINATOR Madeline K. Kelty EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Saba Naseem, Michelle Strange READER SERVICES Carolyn McGhee INTERNS: MAGAZINE Kirstin Fawcett DIGITAL Helen Thompson MULTIMEDIA Erin Corneliussen PRODUCTION Erica Holsclaw, Melissa Wiley

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson

MEMBERS

Tony Horwitz, Chlo Schama

CONTRIBUTORS Jerry Adler, Ron Chernow,

Richard Conni, Joshua Hammer, Stephen Kinzer, Franz Lidz, Jan Morris, Michelle Nijhuis, Tony Perrottet, Ron Powers, Elizabeth Royte, Ariel Sabar, Mark Stevens, Paul Theroux, Clive Thompson CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Molly Roberts

SMITHSONIAN ENTERPRISES PRESIDENT Christopher A. Liedel CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Barbara Rehm SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MEDIA GROUP Alan Chu SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, RETAIL GROUP Ed Howell SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CONSUMER & EDUCATION PRODUCTS Carol LeBlanc SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PROGRAMMING

CONSUMER MARKETING CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR Lisa Dunham PLANNING DIRECTOR Timothy M. Smith RENEWALS AND GIFT DIRECTOR Susan Warner NEW BUSINESS DIRECTOR Lori Paldino RENEWALS & INTERNET MANAGER Michael Ivler GIFT MANAGER Jonathan Balangon MARKETING MANAGER, NEW BUSINESS

The Vice President of the United States Hon. Thad Cochran Hon. Patrick J. Leahy Hon. Jack Reed Hon. Xavier Becerra Hon. Tom Cole Hon. Sam Johnson Hon. Barbara M. Barrett Mr. Stephen M. Case Mr. John Fahey Mr. Robert P. Kogod Dr. Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey Mr. David M. Rubenstein
SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL BOARD

Cinny Kennard
VICE PRESIDENT, ADVERTISING SALES & MARKETING Stephen P. Giannetti CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER Bill Allman VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION Bruce Dauer DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

Stephanie Petta
ASSISTANT NEW BUSINESS MANAGER Cara Klewin ASSISTANT RENEWALS AND BILLING MANAGER

Jordan Nelson
MANUFACTURING DIRECTOR Sarah Kingsley PREPRESS DIRECTOR Katherine Balch PREPRESS MANAGER Frank Matthew Hale II PREPRESS SYSTEMS MANAGER Penie Atherton-Hunt COLOR AND QUALITY MANAGER Bill Whitcher ONLINE PUBLISHING GROUP SENIOR PRODUCER Todd Stowell SENIOR MANAGER, AUDIENCE AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Perrin Doniger SENIOR WEB DESIGNER Bilikya Schiller MARKETING MANAGER, EMAIL MARKETING AND ANALYSIS Andrea Cates DIGITAL PRODUCERS Shaylyn Esposito, Claire Tinsley COORDINATING PRODUCER, DIGITAL STUDIO

Mrs. Sakurako D. Fisher, CHAIR Edgar M. Cullman, Jr., VICE CHAIR Mr. Robert D. MacDonald, VICE CHAIR
NATIONAL BOARD: Mr. Rodney C. Adkins,

Jacqueline Moen
ADVERTISING PUBLISHER, MEDIA/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Lori Erdos
ACCOUNT MANAGERS

NEW YORK: Jaime Duy, Meryle Lowenthal, Walker Mason, Megan Westcott NORTHEAST: Rob DeSalvo MIDWEST: Susan Welter DETROIT: Laura Regalado SOUTHWEST: Brian Davis SOUTHEAST: Z. Media WEST COAST: Kelly D. Maier CANADA: Richard Brown, David Seaberg, Greg M. Smith UNITED KINGDOM: Will Nicholson, The Vision Network JAPAN: Yoshinori Ikeda, Mayumi Kai KOREA: B.J. Kim DIRECT RESPONSE: MI Media Services, LLC, Marie Isabelle DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Noelle C. Kennedy
MARKETING/RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, MARKETING

Casey McAdams
BUSINESS OFFICE DIRECTOR, CORPORATE BUDGET & ANALYSIS

Ed Dequina
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Shola Akinrolabu ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT MANAGER James A. Babcock INTERNATIONAL COORDINATOR ACCOUNTANT Joanne Hubbard HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR Dana S. Moreland BUSINESS PARTNER Jennifer N. Alexander HR COORDINATOR Sibyl A. Williams-Green RECRUITER Jay Sharp EDITORIAL OFFICES:

Regina Kim

Mr. Gordon M. Ambach, Ms. Valerie Anders, Ms. Judy Hart Angelo, Mr. William H. Bohnett, Mrs. Peggy P. Burnet, Mrs. Jane Lipton Cafritz, Mr. Thomas H. Castro, Ms. Abby Joseph Cohen, Mr. Vincent J. Di Bona, Mr. Michael R. Francis, Mr. Raul J. Fernandez, Ms. Julie A. Flynn, Ms. Brenda J. Gaines, Mrs. Shelby M. Gans, Ms. Myra M. Hart, Mr. Edward R. Hintz, Ms. Judy S. Huret, Mr. John C. Jay, Ms. Jennifer Walston Johnson, Mr. Dennis J. Keller, Mr. Jonathan M. Kemper, Mr. David S. Kidder, Mr. Allan R. Landon, Mrs. Betsy Lawer, Ms. Cheryl Winter Lewy, Mr. Russell E. Palmer, Jr., Mr. William M. Ragland, Jr., Mrs. Kristin M. Richardson, Ms. Alison Wrigley Rusack, Mr. Philip K. Ryan, Mrs. Marna Schnabel, Ms. Fredericka Stevenson, Mrs. Phyllis M. Taylor, Mr. Michael E. Tennenbaum, Mr. L. John Wilkerson, Ph.D., Mrs. Emily Willey,* Ms. Deborah L. Wince-Smith
HONORARY MEMBERS: Mr. Robert McC. Adams, Mr. William S. Anderson, Hon. Max N. Berry, Mr. L. Hardwick Caldwell III, Mr. Frank A. Daniels, Jr., Mrs. Patricia Frost, Mr. James M. Kemper, Jr., Mrs. Jean B. Mahoney, Mr. Paul Neely, Justice Sandra Day OConnor, Mr. Francis C. Rooney, Jr., Mr. Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Mr. Lloyd G. Schermer, Hon. Frank A. Weil, Mrs. Gay F. Wray

Judy Glassman
ART DIRECTOR Annie K. Sullivan MARKETING DIRECTOR Ellyn L. Hurwitz PROMOTION COORDINATOR Kelsey Newman ASSOCIATE MARKETING MANAGER Scott Karrel ASSOCIATE RESEARCH MANAGER

Linda Lawrence
INTERACTIVE AD OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

Michael Magette

MRC 513, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, (202) 633-6090 SUBSCRIPTIONS: (800) 766-2149, P.O. Box 62060, Tampa, FL 33662-0608, Smithsonian.com Outside the United States: (813) 910-3609 MAIN ADVERTISING OFFICE: 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 2335, New York, NY 10170, (212) 916-1300

* Ex-Ocio

WorldMags.net

May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM

ADVERTISEMENT

WorldMags.net

presents

ETS SCIE SCIE ENCE E MEE ENCE FIC CTIO ON IM MAGINA ATIO ON, , INSP PIR RAT TION AND INV VEN NTIO ON

TH
Visionar ries, scien ntist sts s and visitors vi rs fro rom m the fu utu tur re will include: re

ake kesp spe earean act ear ctor, St tar Tre rek k s Capt ptain i Je Jean an-L -Luc uc Pic icar ard and d XX-Men ns s Pr P of ofes e sor r Xa X vi v er PATR RICK K STEWART | Sha mollogi gist st, supe perstrin pe ing g an and d mu mult ltiverse se the heor oris ist, t, aut u hor of Th The e Hi Hidd d en Rea e lity y BR RIAN N GR REE ENE | Cosmo ASAs r rock and d ro oll eng gin ine eer AD DAM M STELTZNER | NA tar Treks Tr Sulu and su subjec ct of the new w doc ocumenta tary ry To Be B Tak akei ei GEO ORGE E TAKEI | Sta on exp pert and d Fo oun nder r of The Long No N w Fo Founda dati t on STE EWA ART T BR RAND D | De-extiinctio rofess ss sor off Plan netar ry Scie enc nce and Ph Phys y ics SAR RA SEAGE ER | MIT Pr ugo o an nd Ne ebu b la la-a -awa w rd wa d win inning g scien enc ce fic ict tion aut tio uth hor KIM M ST TAN NLEY ROB BINSON N | Hu tes e y of the he Sci c ence ce Cha hann nnel el TH HE MYTH HBUSTER RS | Court cien ntist and d Hug ugo an nd Nebu bula la aw wa ard rd-winning ing sci cien ence ce fic icti tion aut tho hor r DA AVID D BR RIN N | Sci
And many y mor re

Presenting Sponsor
In collaboration with Nerd Nite, the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, Smithsonian Grand Challenges Consortia, and the Smithsonian Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation In partnership with 1776 and iStrategyLabs

For more information and to purchase tickets go to SM MITHS SONIA AN.C COM M/FU UTUR RE
Seating is limited. All ticket sales are final.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
henomenon
A CURATED COLLECTION OF NEWS AND OPINIONS ON A SINGLE THEME

This month were thinking about . . .

Life must be understood backwards. But it must be lived forwards.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

I L L U S T R A T I O N BY

Traci Daberko

Once great wrongs are done, its rarely possible to undo them. Earth, the most exuberant planet known to exist in any galaxy, carries great wounds upon its lovely face: denuded hills, fertile farmlands being washed into the sea or turned to dust, treasure houses of biodiversity annihilated, air, land and water poisoned. It seems that nobody knows how to reverse any of it. And yet, in the cracks between the pavement of the expanding cities, seedlings of long-gone forest giants continue to emerge. Earth keeps on trying to renew itself, after radioactive leak, after nuclear explosion, after earthquake and eruption, ood and tsunami. The planets powers of recuperation and restoration are almost unbelievable. Give it an inch and it will give you a mile. Field owers no longer grow amid the crops in Englands elds, but once the backhoes are withdrawn from roadworks, poppies spring from the disturbed ground. The seed they have grown from blew off the elds maybe a generation ago, and has lain in the soil ever since, waiting for someone or something to break the sod. Year on year the poppies keep turning up, every time bringing their promise of resurrection. The dead hedgehog on the road cannot be brought back

to life, but creating habitat for hedgehogs will give other hedgehogs a better chance of breeding successfully so that numbers can build up again. In suburban gardens across the country people are making tunnels under their fences so that hedgehogs can travel without having so often to cross roads. It doesnt take much and costs nothing, but it puts the householder on the side of Earth, which is the hedgehogs home as much as it is ours. The swallows that have nested at my place in Essex ever since I have didnt turn up one year. Or the next. Ten springs passed, and I thought
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 9

WorldMags.net

they couldnt possibly remember the barn where they had built their mud nests so many years before. I stopped scanning the sky for them. I was working in the greenhouse when I heard their call and ran out to see. They were ying in and out of the little entrance I had cut out of the barn door for them, for all the world as if they had never been away. And they have come back every year since. They too tell me that everything is not lost. The lower orders, as we unjustly call them, have enormous potential for replenishment, because they reproduce in huge numbers. A buttery that this year seems extinct may turn up in clouds next year, given a different weather pattern. This is a massive reversal of fortunes, but the buttery is born to it. Insects are the virtuosos of reversal, because metamorphosis is their specialty. They begin as earthbound larvae that do nothing but eat and are as likely to end up as winged creatures that never eat. Even the humble cockroach can have several nymphal stages; rainforest cockroach nymphs can be spectacular. Even our exhausted honeybees might be capable of coming back from the brink, if we improved their genetic diversity. The further down we go the more transformational the powers of the creatures we meet, until we arrive at the viruses that can change themselves faster than we

WorldMags.net
can find ways of dealing with them. We imagine ourselves to be at war with such creatures, when they are our cousins and we need them on our side. If we colonize Mars, we will need to take them with us. In the last hundred years a patch of subtropical rainforest in southeast Queensland, Australia, has been logged, burned, cleared, plowed, grazed and sprayed with Agent Orange. Yet I knew when I saw it in 2001, while searching for a piece of my devastated birthplace that I could x, that it could rebuild itself. All I had to do was to remove the obstacles that prevented its coming back into its own, the cattle, the invasive weeds, most of them garden escapes and deliberately introduced pasture grasses. There was enough seed in the canopy to revegetate much more than a mere 150 acres; most of it carried larval infestation, which meant that the pollinators the trees required would be regenerated along with them. No sooner did the numbers of fruiting trees build up than the bats turned up, a dozen species of them. The bird species multiplied, including some thought to be on the verge of extinction. And the invertebrate population exploded. The reversal of the forests devastation may seem slow; its taken 13 years so far, but for at least ve of those I and my wonderful workforce were learning what to do (and what not to do). It has now gathered speed, and soon there will be nothing but maintenance left to do. The whole process has taken less than an instant of evolutionary time.
GERMAINE GREER

Phenomenon

REVERSAL

10

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Flip Art
A painter looks at her canvas from a new perspective
Flip this artwork over, and youll nd another kaleidoscope of pastel hues stretched over a raw wooden frame. The canvas of Untitled (Reverse) is cut to create aps, some attached to what looks like the front of the frame and some pulled around to the back. There is not a hierarchy of either side, says Maria Walker, a Brooklyn-based artist who views paintings as threedimensional objects rather than surface images. Her goal: to create sculptures out of the raw materials. She twists and manipulates the canvas, often opting for unconventional frame shapes and, in this case, applying primer sparingly so that the paint seeps into the canvas. While many of Walkers pieces stand upright or protrude from walls, giving gallery visitors a fuller view, Untitled (Reverse) hangs at, hiding one half. This creates a tension, says Walker, making the viewer wonder, Whats on the other side? KIRSTIN FAWCETT
View more of Walkers art at Smithsonian.com/walker

WorldMags.net

May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM

11

WorldMags.net

Phenomenon

Pole Reversal
In a large, warehouse-like laboratory on the University of Maryland campus, a stainless steel sphere ten feet in diameter whirls rapidly. It is the largest spinning model of the Earths interior ever built and resembles the Star Wars Death Star, only shinier. Geophysicist Daniel Lathrop wants, among other things, to use it to predict when the Earths magnetic eld will next reverse. Over the course of our planets history, the eld has ipped hundreds of times: Magnetic north has slid toward the bottom of the planet while magnetic south has traveled north. Signatures in volcanic rocks reveal that the switch last happened 780,000 years ago, when human ancestors were just learning to make re. Were still here, so well probably survive the next reversalbut we dont know what to expect. During the reversal, a gradual event that takes about a thousand years, the eld will weaken. Without the protection it offers, will our suns radiation bombard us? Will migrating birds relying on the eld become hopelessly confused? And when will it happen? Some estimates say soon, which, for a geophysicist, could be in the next 10,000 years. It could even start tomorrow. Thats where Lathrops

A giant whirligig tries to predict Earths next magnetic ip

When a sodium-lled model of the Earths outer core spins at full speed, it could generate a dynamo.

Little Reds First Hood

FOLKLORISTS HAVE LONG BE-

REVERSAL

12

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

LITTLE RE D R ID IN G HOOD , ILLUSTR ATIO N FRO M THE STORY BY CHA RLES PERR AULT (1628-1703) (COLOUR LITHO), HASSALL, JOHN (1868-1948) / B IBLI OTHEQUE DES ARTS DECOR ATI FS, PARI S, FRANCE / ARCH IVES CHARME T / THE BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY; COURTESY DANIEL P. LATHROP

lieved that the tale of Little Red Riding Hood originated in China, where, instead of a cross-dressing wolf, the villain was a shape-shifting tiger. But after studying 58 versions of the story from Europe, Africa and Asia, anthropologist Jamie Tehrani of Durham University in England concludes the reverse is true: The little girl rst took the trek to her grandmothers in Europe, and later her story traveled east. Tehrani subjected the story to phylogenetic analysis, a method biologists use to map the diverging evolutionary branches of species. Stories, like living organisms, acquire and lose traits over time. In this case, Tehrani analyzed 72 features of the plot, such as whether the main character is male or female and how that character is tricked. He believes that the tale traveled west to east sometime during the 12th to 14th centuries. MARK STRAUSS

sphere comes in. Within is nested another spherethe space between the two lled with 12 tons of liquid sodium, heated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. When set spinning, the setup mimics the roiling liquid iron in the Earths outer core, which forms electrical currents that generate the magnetic eld in a process called a dynamo. His team hopes to nd out how Earths eld forms and evolves. Any theory theyre able to even rule out will be front-page news to many of us, says Peter Olson, an earth and planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University. Just getting the sphere going was a major feat: eight years on design and construction, two years of experiments with water, and another six months to drain the water and pour in the sodium, an element prone to explosions. Hazards have to be respected, Lathrop says. With the sphere spinning at 45 miles per hour, and a little help from electromagnets, the team saw short-lived magnetic bursts within the sodium. When the spinning ramps up to nearly 90 miles per hour later this year, the sodium might generate a eld without the extra nudge. If so, and with one second of the experiment equaling 5,000 years of Earth time, the researchers could see a reversal before everyone else on the planet. HALEY EDWARDS

WorldMags.net

Joan Uronis Diagnosed at age 62.

WorldMags.net

Fearless

WorldMags.net Will scientists

soon be able to erase our most traumatic memories?

Phenomenon

The best way to forget an alarming memory, oddly, is to remember it rst. Thats why the 7 percent of American adults who experience post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) at some point in their lives are often asked by therapists to recall the incident that taught them the fear in the rst place. Stirring up a memory makes it a little unstable, and for a window of perhaps three hours, its possible to modify it before it settles down again, or reconsolidates, in the brain. Reliving traumatic moments over and over in safe conditions can help a person unlearn the automatic feeling of alarm. The trouble is that fear extinction therapy, as research-

REVERSAL

I L L U S T R A T I O N BY

Richard Downs

ers call it, works well with recent memories but not so well with deeply entrenched, long-term horrors. But a new study in mice, from the laboratory of fear memory researcher Li-Huei Tsai of MIT, now promises to change that. The scientists, who reported the study in Cell, taught lab mice fear by the standard method of applying a mild electric shock, accompanied by a loud beep. Mice show fear by freezing in place, and they quickly learned to freeze when they were put in the test box or heard the beep. It was a conditioned response, like Ivan Pavlov ringing a bell to make dogs salivate, in his pioneering experiments on learning and memory. For mice, fear extinction therapy meant going back in the test box for a while, but without the shock. That alone was enough to unlearn the conditioned response if it was a new memory, just a day old. But if the mice had

been trained 30 days earlier, the therapy didnt work. So Tsai and lead author Johannes Grff combined the extinction therapy with a type of drug that has recently shown promise in mice as a way to improve thinking and memory. HDAC inhibitors (that is, histone deacetylase inhibitors) boost the activity of genes in ways that help brain cells form new connections; new connections are the basis of learning. The HDAC inhibitors alone had no effect, but drugs and therapy together seemed to open up and reconnect the neurons where long-term traumatic memory had until

then been locked away. Mice could be taught to overcome the entire conditioned response or just a partignoring the beep, for instance, but still freezing in the test box. Getting from mice to humans is, of course, always a great leap. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved investigative use of some HDAC inhibitors for certain cancers and inammatory disorders, which could make it easier, Grff speculates, to get to clinical testing for human psychiatric therapy. Marie Monls, who studies fear memory at the University of Texas at Austin, calls the new study beautifully done, with potential to open up really interesting avenues for research and treatment. That could be big news for a society alarmed by the surge in military suicides and other PTSD-related problems from more than a decade of war. For the desperate patients themselves, science now holds out hope that it will soon be possible, in effect, to rewind memory to a time before trauma stole their peace of mind.
RICHARD CONNIFF

14

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

104

WEEKS BARBRA STREISANDS ALBUM MEMORIES SPENT IN THE BILLBOARD TOP 200

WorldMags.net

SVUIFSOCIBSN
Smooth Water
The historic cities of the Southeast United States are linked by a network of rivers and bays known as the
Charleston
SOUTH CAROLINA

N
Beaufort Hilton Head Island Savannah
ATLANTIC OCEAN

Intracoastal Waterway. Experience Southern charm at its nest on an 8-day cruise to the iconic cities of Charleston, Savannah, and Jekyll Island. You will receive the nest of everything aboard your 100-guest small ship as we explore the beauty and diverse wildlife of the magnicent Old South.

GEORGIA Sapelo Island St. Simons Island Jekyll Island Amelia Island

Jacksonville
FLORIDA

Call for a free brochure.

1-800-460-6187
Open 7 days a week

www.americancruiselines.com

Small Ship Cruising Done Perfectly WorldMags.net

INDEX

WorldMags.net

Phenomenon

Number of species or populations delisted from the Endangered Species Act thanks to recovery

30

Survival time, in minutes, of the only animal ever brought back from extinction, a Pyrenean ibex in 2003

10

Average height in inches that people over age 40 lose each decade

Population of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region, as estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey, up from 136 in 1975

0.4 741

The longest reverse ramp car jump, in feetrecently set by reality TV star Rob Dyrdek in a Chevy Sonic

The upper estimate of the cost, in billions, of re-reversing the Chicago River, to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes

REVERSAL

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded.

LAWRENCE KRAUSS

16

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

H ARVARD -SMITHS ONI AN CENTER FOR ASTR OPH YSI CS

89.3 18

Cosmic Flashback
IN 1572, A TINY EXPLODING STAR IN THE CONSTELLATION CASSIOPEIA

caught the eye of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The burst of light, at its peak rivaling the brightness of Venus, was fueled by the radioactive decay of enormous quantities of metals, and then faded away in 1574. But today astronomers using X-ray observatories continue to study that same galactic drama, whose expanding cloud of debris now spans some 140 trillion miles. As the iron created in the explosion ew outward, slamming into interstellar gas, the collisions generated a shock wave headed in the opposite direction at millions of miles per hour. The energy blasted the iron, causing it to emit X-rays (in red), and now astronomers have for the rst time mapped the spectacular impact of the reverse shock wave. Hiroya Yamaguchi of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues, including Randall Smith of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, discovered that the heated iron-rich gas reaches roughly 100 million degrees Fahrenheithotter than the center of the Sun and, Yamaguchi says, much higher than expected. KEN CROSWELL

Half a millennium later, a famous explosion has new life

WorldMags.net
SCIENCE THE UNIVERSE

or six months

Listening to the Big Bang

S T E F F E N R I C H T E R / H A RVA R D U N I V E R S I T Y

A remote telescope finds support for a revolutionary theory about the formation of the universe
BY BRIAN GREENE photograph by Steffen Richter

Less than a mile from the South Pole, the Dark Sector Labs Bicep2 telescope (at left) searches for signs of ination.
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 19

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
SCIENCE THE UNIVERSE
tronomers led by Harvard-Smithsonian researcher John Kovac braved the elements to point a brawny telescope known as Bicep2 (an acronym for the less euphonious Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) at a patch of the southern sky. In March, the team released its results. Should the conclusions stand, they will open a spectacular new window on the earliest moments of the universe, and will deservedly rank among the most important cosmological ndings of the past century. Its a story whose roots can be traced back to early creation stories intended to satisfy the primal urge arena gave way to a space and time that were malleable and exible. Fresh off this success, Einstein then turned to an even steeper challenge. For well over two centuries, Newtons universal law of gravity had done an impressive job at predicting the motion of everything from planets to comets. Even so, there was a puzzle that Newton himself articulated: How does gravity exert its inuence? How does the Sun inuence the Earth across some 93 million miles of essentially empty space? Newton had provided an owners manual allowing the mathematically adept to calculate the effect of gravity, but he was unable to throw open the hood and reveal how gravity does what it does. In search of the answer, Einstein engaged in a decade-long obsessive, grueling odyssey through arcane mathematics and creative ights of

The result knocked him back on his heels. The math showed that the fabric of space was either stretching or contracting, which meant the universe was either growing or shrinking.
to grasp our origins. But Ill pick up the narrative laterwith Albert Einsteins discovery of the general theory of relativity, the mathematical basis of space, time and all modern cosmological thought. Warped Space to the Big Bang In the early years of the 20th century, Einstein rewrote the rules of space and time with his special theory of relativity. Until then, most everyone adhered to the Newtonian perspectivethe intuitive perspectivein which space and time provide an unchanging arena wherein events take place. But as Einstein described it, in the spring of 1905 a storm broke loose in his mind, a torrential downpour of mathematical insight that swept away Newtons universal arena. Einstein argued convincingly that there is no universal timeclocks in motion tick more slowlyand there is no universal spacerulers in motion are shorter. The absolute and unchanging
20
SMITHSONIAN.COM

physical fancy. By 1915, his genius blazed through the nal equations of the general theory of relativity, nally revealing the mechanism underlying the force of gravity. The answer? Space and time. Already unshackled from their Newtonian underpinnings by special relativity, space and time sprung fully to life in general relativity. Einstein showed that much as a warped wooden oor can nudge a rolling marble, space and time can themselves warp, and nudge terrestrial and heavenly bodies to follow the trajectories long ascribed to the inuence of gravity. However abstract the formulation, general relativity made denitive predictions, some of which were quickly confirmed through astronomical observations. This inspired mathematically oriented thinkers the world over to explore the theorys detailed implications. It was the work of a Belgian priest, Georges Lematre, who also held a doctorate

in physics, that advanced the story were following. In 1927, Lematre applied Einsteins equations of general relativity not to objects within the universe, like stars and black holes, but to the entire universe itself. The result knocked Lematre back on his heels. The math showed that the universe could not be static: The fabric of space was either stretching or contracting, which meant that the universe was either growing in size or shrinking. When Lematre alerted Einstein to what hed found, Einstein scoffed. He thought Lematre was pushing the math too far. So certain was Einstein that the universe, as a whole, was eternal and unchanging, that he not only dismissed mathematical analyses that attested to the contrary, he inserted a modest amendment into his equations to ensure that the math would accommodate his prejudice. And prejudice it was. In 1929, the astronomical observations of Edwin Hubble, using the powerful telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, revealed that distant galaxies are all rushing away. The universe is expanding. Einstein gave himself a euphemistic slap in the forehead, a reprimand for not trusting results coming out of his own equations, and brought his thinkingand his equationsinto line with the data. Great progress, of course. But new insights yield new puzzles. As Lematre had pointed out, if space is now expanding, then by winding the cosmic lm in reverse we conclude that the observable universe was ever smaller, denser and hotter ever further back in time. The seemingly unavoidable conclusion is that the universe we see emerged from a phenomenally tiny speck that erupted, sending space swelling outwardwhat we now call the Big Bang.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
your retirement savings and your tax exposure.

The Fidelity Personal Retirement Annuity 1

U->i>V>>viii2 U->}}>`ivii`>i`>> U/i>>>V>i

Talk with a specialist today. Call 866.507.4098 or visit Fidelity.com/rethink.

Taxable amounts withdrawn are subject to ordinary income tax, and, if taken before 59, may be subject to a 10% IRS penalty.

Mobile

Fidelity Personal Retirement Annuity (Policy Form No. DVA-2005 et al.) and, for New York residents, Personal Retirement Annuity (Policy Form No. EDVA-2005 et al.) are variable annuities. Fidelity Brokerage Services, Member NYSE, SIPC, and Fidelity Insurance Agency, Inc., are the distributors. 2 Fidelity reserves the right to limit contributions. Fidelity does not provide legal or tax advice. Always consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specic legal or tax situation.
1

Fidelity insurance products are issued by Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company (FILI), 100 Salem Street, Smitheld, RI 02917, and, in New York, by Empire Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company, New York, N.Y. FILI is licensed in all states except New York. A contracts nancial guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Investing in a variable annuity involves risk of loss. Your principal value may decline. Before investing, consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the annuity and its investment options. Call Fidelity or visit Fidelity.com for a free prospectus or, if available, summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully.
2013 FMR LLC. All rights reserved. 607993.5.2

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
SCIENCE THE UNIVERSE
But if true, what sent space swelling? And how could such an outlandish proposal be tested? The Inationary Theory If the universe emerged from a sweltering hot and intensely dense primeval atom, as Lematre called it, then as space swelled the universe should have cooled off. Calculations undertaken at George Washington University in the 1940s, and later at Princeton in the 1960s, showed that the Big Bangs residual heat would manifest as a bath of photons (particles of light) uniformly filling space. The temperature of the photons The prominence of the Big Bang theory skyrocketed, impelling scientists to pry the theory apart, seeking unexpected implications and possible weaknesses. A number of important issues were brought to light, but the most essential was also the most basic. The Big Bang is often described as the modern scientic theory of creation, the mathematical answer to Genesis. But this notion obscures an essential fallacy: The Big Bang theory does not tell us how the universe began. It tells us how the universe evolved, beginning a tiny fraction of a second after it all started. As the rewound cosmic lm approaches the rst frame, the mathematics breaks down, closing the lens just as the creation event is about to ll the screen. And so, when it comes to explaining the bang itselfthe primordial push

The Big Bang is often described as the modern scientic theory of creation, the mathematical answer to Genesis. But this obscures a fallacy. It does not tell us how the universe began.
would now have dropped to a mere 2.7 degrees above absolute zero, placing their wavelength in the microwave part of the spectrumexplaining why this possible relic of the Big Bang is called the cosmic microwave background radiation. In 1964, two Bell Labs scientists, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, were at wits end, frustrated by a large ground-based antenna designed for satellite communications. Regardless of where they pointed the antenna, they encountered the audiophiles nightmare: an incessant background hiss. For months they sought but failed to nd the source. Then, Penzias and Wilson caught wind of the cosmological calculations being done at Princeton suggesting there should be a low-level radiation lling space. The incessant hiss, the researchers realized, was arising from the Big Bangs photons tickling the antennas receiver. The discovery earned Penzias and Wilson the 1978 Nobel Prize.
22
SMITHSONIAN.COM

Einsteins formulation, gravity could also be repulsive. The gravity of familiar objects, such as the Sun, Earth and Moon, is surely attractive. But the math showed that a different source, not a clump of matter but instead energy embodied in a eld uniformly lling a region, would generate a gravitational force that would push outward. And ferociously so. A region a mere billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter across, lled with the appropriate energy eldcalled the inflaton fieldwould be wrenched apart by the powerful repulsive gravity, potentially stretching to as large as the observable universe in a fraction of a second. And that would rightly be called a bang. A big bang. With subsequent renements to Guths initial implementation of repulsive gravity by scientists including Andrei Linde, Paul Steinhardt and Andreas Albrecht, the inationary theory of cosmology was born. A credible proposal for what ignited the outward swelling of space was nally on the theorists table. But is it right?

that must have set the universe headlong on its expansionary coursethe Big Bang theory is silent. It would fall to a young postdoctoral fellow in the physics department of Stanford University, Alan Guth, to take the vital step toward lling that gap. Guth and his collaborator Henry Tye of Cornell University were trying to understand how certain hypothetical particles called monopoles might be produced in the universes earliest moments. But calculating deep into the night of December 6, 1979, Guth took the work in a different direction. He realized that not only did the equations show that general relativity plugged an essential gap in Newtonian gravity providing gravitys mechanism they also revealed that gravity could behave in unexpected ways. According to Newton (and everyday experience) gravity is an attractive force that pulls one object toward another. The equations were showing that in

Testing Ination At rst blush, it might seem a fools errand to seek conrmation of a theory that ostensibly operated for a tiny fraction of a second nearly 14 billion years ago. Sure, the universe is now expanding, so something set it going in the rst place. But is it even conceivable to verify that it was sparked by a powerful but brief ash of repulsive gravity? It is. And the approach makes use, once again, of the microwave background radiation. To get a feel for how, imagine writing a tiny message, too small for anyone to read, on the surface of a deated balloon. Then blow the balloon up. As it stretches, your message stretches too, becoming visible.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

At MD Anderson Cancer Center, we are focused on Making Cancer History.

As the nations top-ranked cancer center, MD Anderson continues to pioneer new approaches in cancer treatment. Using the latest genetics-based research, we can develop targeted treatments, personalized

to the individual patient. To learn more about how were raising the bar for cancer care worldwide, call toll free 1-855-894-0145 or visit MakingCancerHistory.com.

Ranked number one in the nation for cancer care, seven years in a row, by U.S. News & World Report.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
SCIENCE THE UNIVERSE
Similarly, if space experienced dramatic inationary stretching, then tiny physical imprints set down during the universes earliest moments would be stretched across the sky, possibly making them visible too. Is there a process that would have imprinted a tiny message in the early universe? Quantum physics answers with a resounding yes. It comes down to the uncertainty principle, advanced by Werner Heisenberg in 1927. Heisenberg showed that the microworld is subject to unavoidable quantum jitters that make it impossible to simultaneously specify certain features, such as both the In turn, these variations in energy would have an impact on the cosmic microwave background radiation, nudging the temperature slightly higher in some locations and slightly lower in others. Mathematical calculations reveal that the temperature variations would be smallabout 1 part in 100,000. Butand this is keythe temperature variations would ll out a specic statistical pattern across the sky. Beginning in the 1990s, a series of ever more rened observational venturesground-, balloon- and spacebased telescopeshave sought these temperature variations. And found them. Indeed, there is breathtaking agreement between the theoretical predictions and the observational data. And with that, you might think the inationary approach had been conrmed. But as a community, phys-

Is there a process that would have imprinted a tiny message in the early universe? Quantum physics answers with a resounding yes. It comes down to the uncertainty principle.
position and the speed of a particle. For elds suffusing space, the uncertainty principle shows that a elds strength is also subject to quantum jitters, causing its value at each location to jiggle up and down. Decades of experiments on the microrealm have verified that the quantum jitters are real and ubiquitous; theyre unfamiliar only because the uctuations are too tiny to be directly observed in everyday life. Which is where the inationary stretching of space comes into its own. Much as with your message on the expanding balloon, if the universe underwent the stupendous expansion proposed by the inflationary theory, then the tiny quantum jitters in the inaton eldremember, thats the eld responsible for repulsive gravitywould be stretched into the macroworld. This would result in the elds energy being a touch larger in some locations, and a touch smaller in others.
24
SMITHSONIAN.COM

icists are about as skeptical a group as you will ever encounter. Over the years, some proposed alternative explanations for the data, while others raised various technical challenges to the inationary approach itself. Ination remained far and away the leading cosmological theory, but many felt the smoking gun had yet to be found. Until now. Ripples in the Fabric of Space Just as elds within space are subject to quantum jitters, quantum uncertainty ensures that space itself should be subject to quantum jitters too. Which means that space should undulate like the surface of a boiling pot of water. This is unfamiliar for the same reason that a granite tabletop seems smooth even though its surface is riddled with microscopic imperfectionsthe undulations happen on extraordinarily tiny scales. But, once again, because inationary expansion stretches quantum

features into the macrorealm, the theory predicts that the tiny undulations sprout into far longer ripples in the spatial fabric. How would we detect these ripples, or primordial gravitational waves, as they are more properly called? For the third time, the Big Bangs ubiquitous relic, the cosmic microwave background radiation, is the ticket. Calculations show that gravitational waves would imprint a twisting pattern on the background radiation, an iconic fingerprint of inflationary expansion. (More precisely, the background radiation arises from oscillations in the electromagnetic eld; the direction of these oscillations, known as the polarization, gets twisted in the wake of gravitational waves.) The detection of such swirls in the background radiation has long been revered as the gold standard for establishing the inationary theory, the long sought smoking gun. On March 12, a press release promising a major discovery, issued by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, North American ground control for the Bicep2 mission, sent breathless rumors churning through the worldwide physics community. Perhaps the swirls had been found? At the press conference on March 17, the rumors were conrmed. After more than a year of careful analysis of the data, the Bicep2 team announced that it had achieved the rst detection of the predicted gravitational wave pattern. Subtle swirls in the data collected at the South Pole attest to quantum tremors of space, stretched by inationary expansion, wafting through the early universe. What Does It All Mean? The case for inationary theory has now grown strong, capping a century of upheaval in cosmology. Now, not only do we know the uni-

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Great Lakes
Brand New Ship Oversized Staterooms World class cuisine The adventure of a lifetime

Cruise the

PEARL SEAS
Cruises

TM

The Brand New Pearl Mist

C a n a d i a n Ma r i t i m e s Gre a t L a ke s S t . L aw re
Lake Superior Sault Ste. Marie Little Current Mackinac Island Lake Huron Lake Michigan Georgian Bay Parry Sound Midland

n ce S e aw ay C a r i b b e a n
Toll-free

TORONTO
Holland Windsor Lake Erie

1-888-669-5812
Dening Luxury Adventure
www.pearlseascruises.com

Lake Ontario

Niagara Falls

CHICAGO

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
SCIENCE THE UNIVERSE
verse is expanding, not only do we have a credible proposal for what ignited the expansion, were detecting the imprint of quantum processes that tickled space during that ery rst fraction of a second. But being one of those skeptical physicists, albeit one whos excitable too, let me conclude with some context for thinking about these developments. The Bicep2 team has done a heroic job, but full condence in its results will require conrmation by independent teams of researchers. We wont have to wait long. Bicep2s competitors have also been in hot pursuit cesses in the early universe. The Bicep2 data shows that these processes happen on distance scales more than a trillion times smaller than those probed by our most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. Some years ago, together with a group of researchers, I took one of the rst forays into calculating how our cutting-edge theories of the ultra-small, like string theory, might be tested with observations of the microwave background radiation. Now, with this unprecedented leap into the microrealm, I can imagine that more rened studies of this sort may well herald the next phase in our understanding of gravity, quantum mechanics and our cosmic origins. Ination and the Multiverse Finally, let me address an issue Ive so far carefully avoided, one thats as

In fact, in these models the inationary process typically proves never-ending, and so yields an unlimited number of universes populating a grand cosmic multiverse.
of the microwave swirls. Within a years time, maybe less, some of these groups may report their ndings. Whats certain is that current and future missions will provide ever more rened data that will sharpen the inflationary approach. Bear in mind that inflation is a paradigm, not a unique theory. Theorists have now implemented the core idea of the bang-as-repulsive-gravity in hundreds of ways (different numbers of inaton elds, different interactions between those elds and so on), with each generally yielding slightly different predictions. The Bicep2 data has already winnowed the viable models signicantly, and forthcoming data will continue the process. This all adds up to an extraordinary time for the inationary theory. But theres an even larger lesson. Barring the unlikely possibility that with better measurements the swirls disappear, we now have a new observational window onto quantum pro26
SMITHSONIAN.COM

wondrous as it is speculative. A possible byproduct of the inationary theory is that our universe may not be the only universe. In many inationary models, the inaton eld is so efficient that even after fueling the repulsive push of our Big Bang, the eld stands ready to fuel another big bang and another still. Each bang yields its own expanding realm, with our universe being relegated to one among many. In fact, in these models, the inationary process typically proves never-ending, its eternal, and so yields an unlimited number of universes populating a grand cosmic multiverse. With evidence for the inationary paradigm accumulating, its tempting to conclude that condence in the multiverse should grow too. While Im sympathetic to that perspective, the situation is far from clear-cut. Quantum uctuations not only yield variations within a given universea prime example being the

microwave background variations weve discussedthey also entail variations between the universes themselves. And these variations can be signicant. In some incarnations of the theory, the other universes might differ even in the kinds of particles they contain and the forces that are at work. In this enormously broadened perspective on reality, the challenge is to articulate what the inationary theory actually predicts. How do we explain what we see here, in this universe? Do we have to reason that our form of life couldnt exist in the different environments of most other universes, and thats why we nd ourselves herea controversial approach that strikes some scientists as a cop-out? The concern, then, is that with the eternal version of ination spawning so many universes, each with distinct features, the theory has the capacity to undermine our very reason for having condence in ination itself. Physicists continue to struggle with these lacunae. Many have condence that these are mere technical challenges to inflation that in time will be solved. I tend to agree. Inflations explanatory package is so remarkable, and its most natural predictions so spectacularly aligned with observation, that it all seems almost too beautiful to be wrong. But until the subtleties raised by the multiverse are resolved, it is wise to reserve nal judgment. If ination is right, the visionaries who developed the theory and the pioneers who conrmed its predictions are well-deserving of the Nobel Prize. Yet, the story would be bigger still. Achievements of this magnitude transcend the individual. It would be a moment for all of us to stand proud and marvel that our collective creativity and insight had revealed some of the universes most deeply held secrets.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Sleep
Our revolutionary Octaspring Technology makes our mattress nine times more breathable* than traditional memory foam mattresses. Youll simply enjoy the luxurious, pressure-relieving comfort of memory foam without the heat AND dynamic, bodyzoned support without the push-back of traditional springs.

Comfort without Compromise

Weve truly reinvented the mattress
Youll love our mattress that combines all the benets of memory foam and innersprings, without the downsides of eithera TRUE HYBRID BedTM!

9X MORE
THAN TRADITIONAL MEMORY FOAM MATTRESSES*

BREATHABLE

Sleep better on our cooler mattress

The head-to-toe indulgence provided by our breakthrough Octaspring Technology gives you night after night of better sleep. Our unique, open, honeycomb structuresnot only contour and adjust in all directions, but they breathe with every movement providing unbelievable comfort and luxury. This technology keeps you cool while you enjoy its 3-dimensional adjustability and dynamic support.

Made with our revolutionary Octaspring Technology, our beds are COOLER than traditional memory foam and MORE COMFORTABLE than innerspring mattresses.

Body-zoned construction reinvents comfort

Hundreds of our revolutionary structures are built into body-zoned layers to work together, providing comfort and support like no other mattress can. Octaspring Technologys varied levels of rmness, and strategic layers ergonomically support your entire body in a perfect cradle for proper circulation and alignment and your best nights sleep. DORMEO mattresses deliver cooler comfort and truly better sleep!

Ask for your FREE Information Kit and find out more about our reinvented bed!

Get your FREE Information Kit Today!

*Independent laboratory tests, performed Sept. 2012, confirmed DORMEO mattresses have nine times better air ventilation than traditional memory foam mattresses.

Call now 800-300-7760

or visit octaspring.com

2014 DORMEO Octaspring. All rights reserved.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

The White Veil

How did Peter Matthiessens lifelong quest for peace lead him to one of the most horrifying places on earth?
rudging through the snow that blankets the old whaling village of Sag Harbor and the tiny nearby hamlet of Sagaponack, up to Peter Matthiessens porch, you confront a at white fragment of a giant whale skull. Its affixed to the outer wall beside the front door. A slab of bleached bone that inevitably conjures up the Moby-Dick aura of this place on the eastern end of Long Island that juts out into the Atlantic. That ghostly whale fragment cant help suggest Peter Matthiessen as modern American literatures Ahab. Not raging across oceans in search of revenge but scouring the far ends of the earth and its seas for something different, but equally hidden from
28
SMITHSONIAN.COM

MATTHIESSEN INTERVIEW
the surface: a mystical oneness with the world. A glimpse not of a White Whale but of something beyond the White Veil of the mystics, the veil Matthiessen believes separates himall of usfrom True Knowledge of innitude. Matthiessen has trekked nearly impassable Himalayan passes and hacked his way to dangerous outposts of shaman-haunted Andean tribes, searching the far reaches of the planet for the oceanic peace that lies beneath the choppy surface of the mind. All of which hes chronicled in stunning works such as The Snow Leopard and Shadow Country, two books that made him the only American writer to win the National Book Award for both nonfiction and ction, respectively. A unique body of work, William Styron called it, the work of a man in

BY RON ROSENBAUM

photograph by Subhankar Banerjee

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
MOMENTS YOU CANT DESCRIBE CAN LEAD TO THE BEST CONVERSATIONS.

UV]HZJV[PHJVTWelcomeToAtlanticCanada

Annapolis Valley

Savour seafood fresh from the ocean, mouth-watering offerings from our traditional valley farms, and award-winning wines from our vineyards. All served in modern world-class restaurants, lively pubs, or beachside at authentic lobster shacks. Lose yourself in a foodie paradise where the only limit to delicious discoveries is the amount of time you have to spend here.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
MATTHIESSEN INTERVIEW

ecstatic contemplation of our beautiful and inexplicable planet. And lets not forget Matthiessens other contribution to American literature: He founded (with George Plimpton) the legendary Paris Review, which has nurtured several generations of literary stars. Matthiessen is a sui generis giant whose work has spanned the entire stretch of post-World War II American literature, yet one whos moved through it with the stealth grace of a snow leopard. No bombastic Maileresque self-promotion or pompous Franzenian polemics. No wild, glitterati-strewn Plimptonian parties.

traveling companion took before he disappeared, rumored to be the victim of cannibals. [For more on this mystery, see Journey Into the Kingdom of the Spirits in Smithsonians March 2014 issue.] Matthiessens wife of some three decades, Maria Eckhart, a soft-spoken woman, offers me tea and cookies and he and I settle in at a sturdy wooden table next to the kitchen. Outside, a deer pokes its nose into the snow and stares at us through the dining room window. Inside, Matthiessen is a tall blue specterblue sweater, blue eyes, blue blood. Yale blue.

It was Paris, the height of the espionage world and everybodys coming through, stolen passports, etc. But my CIA superior in Paris said my cover as a novelist was feeble.
Now, at 86, after a remarkable career (and enduring chemotherapy for Stage 4 leukemia), Matthiessen has chosen his most daring and controversial subject yet: Auschwitz. Not only that, but a Zen retreat at Auschwitz. The novel is called In Paradisea deeply ironic title, based on an apocryphal biblical story about the hell of separation from heaven. Its an act of courage because, in striding into the mineeld of debate about the appropriate response to the death camps, Matthiessen is taking on a subject that has exposed those who treat it in ction, nonction and lm to fearsome critiques for failing to do justice to the dread imponderables of that horror. Inside his sprawling, shingled retreat, the rst thing one comes upon is a wall of Michael Rockefeller photos, stunning images of Stone Age New Guinea tribes at war, which the Rockefeller heir and Matthiessen
30
SMITHSONIAN.COM

In fact it is in asking him about his experience in the Yale English Department that I elicit what turns out to be a fascinating tale about the entanglement of postwar American literature and cold war espionage. Its mainly espionage historians who know this, but the Yale English Department was a hotbed of spies and future spy masters from the 1930s to the 50s. Among them William F. Buckley Jr. and the most notorious spy master in American history, James Jesus Angleton. But perhaps the most effective intelligence operative there was Norman Holmes Pearson, a Le Carresque prof who was a founder of the wartime OSS and its successor, the CIA. It was Pearson who recruited Matthiessen into the Company in 1951, after his graduation, when Matthiessen was living the expatriate writers life in Paris. My cover was writing a novel called Race Rock, Matthiessen recalls. It

was Paris, the height of the espionage world and everybodys coming through, stolen passports, etc. But my CIA superior in Paris said my cover as a novelist was feeble, and at that time I ran into a man called Doc Humes. He was running something called the Paris News Post and he signed me on as ction editor. I thought if I could go into an office, that would be a little bit better cover. But Doc was making a mess of it; he had a mutiny on his hands with that magazine. Id gotten a short story from Terry Southern [the brilliant comic satirist, later author of The Magic Christian and the Dr. Strangelove screenplay] and said Doc, that story is kind of wasted on your magazine, lets make our own magazine, just ction for young writers. After a while he just couldnt handle it so thats when I remembered this guy Id gone to [prep] school with in New York, at St. Bernards, named George Plimpton. The rest is literary history. We had Kerouac, he recalls. We had the rst English story by Samuel Beckett. They also had Philip Roth, Adrienne Rich, Norman Mailerthe whole lot of postwar literary eminences. The magazine, which just celebrated its 60th anniversary, has been hailed for decades for its waves of new talent and extraordinary writers at work interviews. What did you actually do for the CIA? I ask him. You know, if I told you Id have to be taken out and shot, he answers, laughing. Mostly, he says, it was just running errands and carrying messages and false passports between agents in Paris. I wanted to know because Id read allegations about the Paris Review being founded with CIA money as part of soft power cold war cultural outreach. No, he says, the Paris Review was not . . . This is a canard Ive always been trying to settle. He says the CIA involvement in the origins of the Paris Review was more an accident than the result of a deliberate cold war strategy. In any case, Matthiessen says he

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

soon came under the influence of French leftists and quit the CIA after two years. I just told them I couldnt play for the team anymore. I ask Matthiessen how much awareness there was then in postwar Paris of the Holocaust. Not much, before the Eichmann trial, he says. France was still engaged in the mission of denial documented in the Marcel Ophls lm The Sorrow and the Pity, evading the countrys complicity in deporting Jews and mythologizing the Resistance to paint a picture of national heroism. People couldnt take it in, Matthiessen recalls. In part they couldnt believe it. It was so horrifying, in fact, that it nally got to the point of actual Holocaust denial, he says. One reason he wrote this book, he says, was to play a small partnow that the last Holocaust eyewitnesses are dyingin the Resistance against denial. Tell me the story of how this book came to be. When did you start to focus your attention on Auschwitz? I am a Zen teacher, he says. And Ive been a Zen master for nearly 50 years. I had Japanese teachers for a long time and then a terric teacher named Bernard Glassman, who is probably the most respected Zen teacher in America. And he started working with poor people, people with AIDS, people who were discriminated against, as part of our practice. We started these street retreats. We purposely chose people who were really up against it, most in need of help, so that took us into the shelters, ophouses. And nally it just seemed that the only way to really do this was to live on the street. What city was this in? We started in New York. And we wouldnt shave, put on old clothes. We didnt fool anyone for a second, but they appreciated the effort. And what they really appreciated was that we wanted to look em in the eye like this and talk to them, as if they were people and not some stuff on the sidewalk. I remember I heard a woman say, You know what we are to you people? She said, We are like a piece of Kleenex

WorldMags.net
that somebodys blown their nose into and thrown on the rainy sidewalk. Who wants to pick that up? So we began with that and now Bernie has this organization called Zen Peacemakers and they go to troubled spots all over the world. We went to South Africa, Rwanda, Palestine, Israel. Then he went from people most in need of help to a people beyond help. To a remains of a mass murder factory at Auschwitz, Poland. A place where nearly a million Jews (along with Poles, gypsies, gays and other undesirables) had been murdered and cremated. Somebody, some English group did it rst as an experiment, kind ofa retreat to bear witness at Auschwitz. To bear witness? Well, we did it the rst time in 1996. And it was extraordinary. We had 140 people. Bernie wanted to use it as a training for Zen masters.

heart knows is inadequate. Which is what makes Matthiessens attempt by a Buddhist, Zen master, mystic such an extraordinary venture. Matthiessens book is in a way about this impossible dilemma of addressing the unaddressable. There is a erce literature over the question of how to approach the Holocaust, and fault is found with almost any approach. Matthiessen, deeply inuenced by Auschwitz survivor Tadeusz Borowskis searing stories, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, chooses representation over explanationrepresentation of what it felt like to be in the presence of a horror that dees explanation. We had prayer service in the Hebrew and the Christian and the Muslim prayer liturgy, Matthiessen recalled, and we chanted and offered hymns and prayer at the cre-

We went in the winter and we were eating food out of bowls, just soup and gruel. No spoon or fork, just a bowl. And we meditated all day long on the selection platform.
Because? Because its a Buddhist thing that goes way, way, way back. Poor people, you get next to them. All the churches are supposed to be doing that. We went in the wintera bad season, bad weatherand we were eating food out of bowls, just soup and gruel. No spoon or fork, just a bowl. And we meditated all day long on the selection platform. The selection platform was the rst of the horrors those entrained to Auschwitz endured when they arrived. It was where Nazi doctors and soldiers selected those they thought too unhealthy to work, those who were therefore destined to be murdered immediately. Ive never been to the purpose-built industrialized death factory that was Auschwitz, but I have spent time at the Dachau concentration camp, where tens of thousands were murdered. And realized: Everything the mind seeks out as a response, the matoriums. There was much silent communion andin the novel, at leastnoisy debate over why they were there, what purpose they could serve. (One of the virtues of the novel is that it contains its own critique of its impossible mission.) And then, during one of their sessions, something happened, something that became the ctionalized heart of Matthiessens new novel. Something happened? Something happened. He was not the only one who felt it. Maybe two people out of three said theyd experienced it. Im not going to go into it because its taken me six years to try to nd the words for it. And I still havent. What was it? Heres how Id

WorldMags.net

SMITHSONIAN.COM

31

WorldMags.net
MATTHIESSEN INTERVIEW
tape recorder next to his mouth. It just takes me a minute to get my breath and then I come back, he says, and returns to the question of the human capacity for genocide. I feel and I think most biologistsI have some training, but Im a very amateur biologistI feel were all capable of this. You feel were all capable of genocide? We are all capable if you press the right series of buttons. Your grandmother can turn into a genocidaire. Most of us, were lucky enough to never hit that combination of circumstances. But if were pressed hard enough and we think our children are getting not enough food or whatever the triggers may be, then its his people, its their fault. In a way, yes, he continues. You get behind that, you get the state be-

describe it: a kind of frenzied possessiona feverish tarantella, a fever dream dance of death. I wont spell it out further, not so much because it would be a spoiler, but because it can only be understoodto the extent it can be understood at allembedded in the context of the novel. Matthiessen is the kind of skilled novelist who also offers a spectrum of skeptical viewpoints about the something that happened. Its a challenging work, but one you cant soon forget. Matthiessen went on three retreats at Auschwitz. Can you imagine? There are no answers, but you have to give credit

We are all capable if you press the right series of buttons. Your grandmother can turn into a genocidaire. Most of us, were lucky enough to never hit that combination of circumstances.
to those like him who keep asking. They pay respect to the Big Question, perhaps the biggest question about history and human nature there is: Why? Primo Levi, one of the wisest memoirists of Auschwitz, wrote that within Auschwitz there is no why (Hier ist kein warum, an SS officer told him). But outside of Auschwitz, we cannot let that SS edict rule our questioning souls. What does it say about civilization? I ask Matthiessen. Was Auschwitz a quintessence of something intrinsic to civilization in a terrible way? No, he begins to reply, before momentarily losing his voice entirely, which he attributes to the effect of chemotherapy. This is a man with Stage 4 leukemia, recall, 86, talking about ultimate things, about the embodiment of deathno, the embodiment of mass murder in human nature. Until then the only hint of his personal ordeal has been in the faintness of his voice, which has led me to hold my
32
SMITHSONIAN.COM

hind it and propaganda machines, and then you demonize the people, thats the rst stepyou demonize them and pretty soon theyre not people anymore, theyre meant to be despised. Its exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust was simply a very big manifestation of it. And a very efficient one. As for human nature . . . ? I think its an aberration of it. Its pathological. Its something thats gone awry. But its something that we all have to watch out for. I ask him if in his exploration of the savagery of the natural world, nature, red in tooth and claw, hed found any equivalent. I cant nd a single thing in nature where one animal, on purpose, tortures or is cruel. But human beings can be cruel, especially cruel to their own kind. Why? Somewhere along the line that had to be a useful evolutionary advantage. Maybe when we were living on the savanna and com-

peting with other kinds of humans, Neanderthals or whatever. And our brains got too big? (meaning big enough to think up ideologies like Hitlerism or Stalinism). Our brains got too big. We have all this incredible technology. But our brains arent big enough to handle our . . . whatever . . . so we get amused by cruelty and corruption. For some reason it is very important to do this. Amused by cruelty and corruption . . . He trails off, not presuming to have an answer. Which is one of the most important things about his Auschwitz novelhe doesnt presume to explain. Was there one particular place in the whole vast Auschwitz-Birkenau complex that you felt drawn to? I ask. An actual physical place? Yes. Yes, he replies. Theres a big buffer zone between the camp and the nearest town. And in that place they just tore out all the housing and they kicked the people out of the houses. But somewhere out there I knew that they had the original platform for the unloading of the prisoners. Its called the Judenrampe, Jew ramp. Thats where I discovered this rail junction that pulled the rails inside the camp beneath the famous tower, the gate of death. Thats the gate with the notorious death camp slogan: Arbeit Macht FreiWork Will Make You Free. But before that was built [the railway] ended a mile short of the gates, so no matter what the weather, these poor folks had to . . . theyre dragging all their stuff they were told to bring, in terrible shape anyway, and they had to drag themselves across the marshy at to get to the gate. I knew that somewhere out there, there must be this huge railway platform, Judenrampe. So I tramped through the back of the woods and I found it. I followed the old tracks. The cover of CONTINUED ON PAGE 98

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Western Brook Pond Fjord, Gros Morne National Park

AROUND HERE, HIKERS ARE KNOWN TO CARRY EXTRA SUPERLATIVES.

Just standing here on the edge of this glacier-carved fjord will tell you why youre here. Here, you have a different view of the world. Here, you gain a sense of perspective. Because, down there, the cliffs are 2,000 feet high, the water is 500 feet deep and that is called a pond. To nd your way to this edge of Canada, call Ryan at 1-800-563-6353 or visit NewfoundlandLabrador.com
NewfoundlandLabrador.com/WelcomeToAtlanticCanada

SAVE ON AIR CANADA FLIGHTS. Experience award-winning service to Newfoundland and Labrador aboard WorldMags.net

Air Canada voted Best Airline in North America four years in a row by Skytrax. Find the lowest fares at aircanada.com/NL

BRAVE NEW WORDS

by EILEEN GUNN
art by MEHREEN MURTAZA

WorldMags.net

How Americas leading science fiction authors are shaping your future

STORIES SET IN THE FUTURE ARE OFTEN JUDGED,

as time passes, on whether they come true or not. Where are our ying cars? became a plaintive cry of disappointment as the millennium arrived, reecting the prevailing mood that science and technology had failed to live up to the most fanciful promises of early 20th-century science ction. But the task of science ction is not to predict the future. Rather, it contemplates possible futures. Writers may nd the future appealing precisely because it cant be known, a black box where anything at all can be said to happen without fear of contradiction from a native, says the renowned novelist and poet Ursula K. Le Guin. The future is a safe, sterile laboratory for trying out ideas in, she tells Smithsonian, a means of thinking about reality, a method. Some authors who enter that laboratory experiment with plausible futuresenvisioning where contemporary social trends and recent breakthroughs in science and technology might lead us. William Gibson (who coined the term cyberspace and will never be allowed to forget it) is well known for his startling and inuential stories, published in the 1980s, depicting visions of a hyper-connected global society where black-hat hackers, cyberwar and violent reality shows are part of daily life. For other authors, the future serves primarily as a metaphor. Le Guins
34
SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM

35

award-winning 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darknessset on a distant world populated by genetically modied hermaphroditesis a thought experiment about how society would be different if it were genderless. Because science ction spans the spectrum from the plausible to the fanciful, its relationship with science has been both nurturing and contentious. For every author who meticulously examines the latest developments in physics or computing, there are other authors who invent impossible technology to serve as a plot device (like Le Guins faster-than-light communicator, the ansible) or to enable social commentary, the way H. G. Wells uses his time machine to take the reader to the far future to witness the calamitous destiny of the human race. Sometimes its the seemingly weird ideas that come truethanks, in part, to science ctions capacity to spark an imaginative re in readers who have the technical knowledge to help realize its visions. Jules Verne proposed the idea of light-propelled spaceships in his 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon. Today, technologists all over the world are actively working on solar sails. Jordin Kare, an astrophysicist at the Seattle-based tech company LaserMotive, who has done important practical and theoretical work on lasers, space elevators and light-sail propulsion, cheerfully acknowledges the effect science ction has had on his life and career. I went into astrophysics because I was interested in the largescale functions of the universe, he says, but I went to MIT because the hero of Robert Heinleins novel Have Spacesuit, Will Travel went to MIT. Kare himself is very active in science ction fandom. Some of the people who are doing the most exploratory thinking in science have a connection to the science-ction world. Microsoft, Google, Apple and other rms have sponsored lecture series in which science ction writers give talks to employees and then meet privately with developers and research departments. Perhaps nothing better demonstrates the close tie between
36
SMITHSONIAN.COM

WorldMags.net
science ction and technology today than what is called design ction imaginative works commissioned by tech companies to model new ideas. Some corporations hire authors to create what-if stories about potentially marketable products. I really like design ction or prototyping ction, says novelist Cory Doctorow, whose clients have included Disney and Tesco. There is nothing weird about a company doing thiscommissioning a story about people using a technology to decide if the technology is worth following

Writers may find the future appealing precisely because it cant be known.
through on. Its like an architect creating a virtual y-through of a building. Doctorow, who worked in the software industry, has seen both sides of the development process. Ive been in engineering discussions in which the argument turned on what it would be like to use the product, and ction can be a way of getting at that experience. In the early part of the 20th century, American science ction tended to present a positive image of a future in which scientic progress had made

the world a better place. By mid-century, after several horric wars and the invention of the atomic bomb, the mood of science ction had changed. The stories grew dark, and science was no longer necessarily the hero. The tilt toward dystopian futures became even more pronounced in recent decades, partly because of a belief that most of society has not yet reaped the benets of technological progress. Smithsonian spoke with the eminent critic John Clute, co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, who quotes Bertrand Russells prophetic words from 1924: I am compelled to fear that science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups, rather than to make men happy. The real fear today, Clute continues, is that the world we now live in was intended by those who prot from it. Kim Stanley Robinsonthe bestselling author of the Mars trilogy, 2312 and Shamanshares this fear, and sees it manifested in the popularity of Suzanne Collins novel The Hunger Games, in which a wealthy governing class uses ruthless gladiatorial games to sow fear and helplessness among the potentially rebellious, impoverished citizens. Science ction represents how people in the present feel about the future, Robinson says. Thats why big ideas were prevalent in the 1930s, 40s and partly in the 50s. People felt the future would be better, one way or another. Now it doesnt feel that way. Rich people take nine-tenths of everything and force the rest of us to ght over the remaining tenth, and if we object to that, we are told we are espousing class warfare and are crushed. They toy with us for their entertainment, and they live in ridiculous luxury while we starve and ght each other. This is what The Hunger Games embodies in a narrative, and so the response to it has been tremendous, as it should be. For his part, William Gibson believes that to divide science ction into dystopian and utopian camps is to create a pointless dichotomy. Although his seminal 1984 cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, depicts a gritty, scarcity-driven future, he does not

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

consider his work pessimistic. Ive only ever wanted to be naturalistic, he says. I assumed I was being less than dystopian in the 1980s, because I was writing about a world that had gotten out of the cold war intact. That actually seemed unrealistic to many intelligent people at the time. The distinction between dystopian and utopian may often seem to hinge on whether the author personally has hope for a better future. Robinson, for instance, consistently has taken on big, serious, potentially dystopian topics, such as nuclear war, ecological disaster and climate change. He does not, however, succumb to despair, and he works out his solutions in complex, realistic, well-researched scientic detail. Of his own work, he says, Sure, use the word utopian.

WorldMags.net
our near future. The rst fruit will be an anthology, Hieroglyph: Stories and Blueprints for a Better Future, to be published this September by HarperCollins. It will include stories by both established and newer writers who have been encouraged to step outside their comfort zone, as Ed Finn, the director of CSI, puts it. The same goes for readers. Finn sees the core audience for Hieroglyph as people who have never thought about the issues these authors address. I want them to place themselves in these futures, he says. The stories take on big, difficult problems: Stephensons story envisions the construction of a 15-milehigh steel tower reaching into the stratosphere that would cut down on the fuel needed to launch space vehicles; Madeline Ashby applies the mechanics of gaming to manage U.S. immigration; and Cory Doctorows story suggests using 3-D printing to build structures on the moon. An underlying challenge to this approach is that not all problems lend themselves to tangible solutionsnot to mention briskly paced storytelling. Techno-optimists have gone from thinking that cheap nuclear power would solve all our problems to thinking that unlimited computing power will solve all our problems, says Ted Chiang, who has explored the nature of intelligence in works such as The Lifecycle of Software Objects. But ction about incredibly powerful computers doesnt inspire people the same way that ction about large-scale engineering did, because achievements in computing are both more abstract and more mundane. At the MIT Media Lab, instructors Sophia Brueckner and Dan Novy were surprised to discover that many incoming students had never read science ction. I could guess its because theyre top students from top schools who have been told science ction is a form of childrens literature, or it isnt worth their time, Novy says. Theyve had to compete so much to get where they are. They may simply not have had time to read, beyond required humanities assignments. Last fall, Brueckner and Novy taught

Neal Stephensonauthor of Anathem, Reamde and a dozen or so other wide-ranging novelshas had enough of dystopias. He has issued a call to action for writers to create more stories that foresee optimistic, achievable futures. Stephenson, who is also a futurist and technology consultant, wants realistic big ideas with the express intent of inspiring young scientists and engineers to offer tangible solutions to problems that have so far deed solutions. People like Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg and Jim Benford and others have been carrying the torch of optimism, says Stephenson. He agrees that the cyberpunk genre pioneered by Gibson did a huge service for science ction by opening up new lines of inquiry, but, he adds, it also had unintended consequences in popular media. When you talk to movie directors today, a lot of them seem stuck in a 30-year-old mindset where nothing can be cooler than Blade Runner. That is the thing that we really need to get away from. In 2012, Stephenson partnered with the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) at Arizona State University to create Project Hieroglyph, a web-based project that provides, in its words, a space for writers, scientists, artists and engineers to collaborate on creative, ambitious visions of

a course, Science Fiction to Science Fabrication, with a syllabus packed with science fiction stories, novels, films, videos and even games. The students were charged with creating functional prototypes inspired by their reading and then considering the social context of the technologies they were devising. For a project inspired by a scene in Gibsons Neuromancer, students built a device that uses electrodes and wireless technology to enable a user, by making a hand gesture, to stimulate the muscles in the hand of a distant second user, creating the same gesture. The young engineers suggested real-world applications for their prototype, such as physical therapists helping stroke victims to recover use of their limbs. But, Novy says, there was also deep discussion among the class about the ethical implications of their device. In Gibsons novel, the technology is used to exploit people sexually, turning them into remote-controlled meat puppets. Brueckner laments that researchers whose work deals with emerging technologies are often unfamiliar with science ction. With the development of new biotech and genetic engineering, you see authors like Margaret Atwood writing about dystopian worlds centered on those technologies, she says. Authors have explored these exact topics in incredible depth for decades, and I feel reading their writing can be just as important as reading research papers. Science ction, at its best, engenders the sort of exible thinking that not only inspires us, but compels us to consider the myriad potential consequences of our actions. Samuel R. Delany, one of the most wide-ranging and masterful writers in the eld, sees it as a countermeasure to the future shock that will become more intense with the passing years. The variety of worlds science ction accustoms us to, through imagination, is training for thinking about the actual changessometimes catastrophic, often confusingthat the real world funnels at us year after year. It helps us avoid feeling quite so gob-smacked.
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 37

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

MIND CRAFT
The most futuristic medical treatment ever imagined is now a reality. But it wont be long before brain implants are even more amazing and troubling
by DAVID NOONAN
photographs by BOB CROSLIN

A neurosurgeons view during a brain operation: The head is held in place and covered with an adhesive drape containing iodine, which prevents infections and explains the orange tint.
38
SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

LIKE MOST PEOPLE IN NEED OF MAJOR SURGERY,

WorldMags.net

Rodney Haning, a retired telecommunications project manager and avid golfer, has a few questions for his doctors. He wonders, for example, exactly how the planned treatment is going to alleviate his condition, a severe tremor in his left hand that has, among other things, completely messed up his golf game, forcing him to switch from his favorite regular-length putter to a longer model that he steadies against his belly. Can anyone tell me why this procedure does what it does? Haning asks one winter afternoon at UF Health Shands Hospital, at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Well, says Kelly Foote, his neurosurgeon, we know a lot, but not everything. The vague answer doesnt seem to bother Haning, 67, an affable man who has opted for the elective brain surgery. And its hard to fault Foote for not going into greater detail about the underlying science, since he is, at that very moment, boring a hole in Hanings skull.
Can you hear the drill? Foote asks his patient as he presses the stainless steel instrument against bone. When Haning, whose head is immobilized by an elaborate arrangement of medical hardware, asks why it doesnt hurt to have a dime-size hole drilled in his skull, Foote calmly explains that the skull has no sensory nerve receptors. (The doctors numb his scalp before making the incision.) The two continue to chat as Foote opens the duraIts the water balloon that your brain lives in, he says. Its sort of like a tough leather, for protectionand exposes Hanings brain. Deep brain stimulation, or DBS, combines neurology, neurosurgery and electrical engineering, and casual conversations in the operating room
40
SMITHSONIAN.COM

between doctors and their wideawake patients are just one of the surprises. The entire scene is an eerie blend of the fantastic and the everyday, like something from the work of PhilipK. Dick, who gave us the stories that became Blade Runner and Total Recall. During surgery, DBS patients are made literally bionic. Tiny electrodes are implanted in their brains (powered by battery packs sewn into their chests) to deliver a weak but constant electric current that reduces or eliminates their symptoms. DBS can improve a shaky putting stroke; it can also help the disabled walk and the psychologically tormented nd peace. More than 100,000 people around the world have undergone DBS since it was rst approved, in the 1990s, for

the treatment of movement disorders. Today, besides providing relief for people with Parkinsons disease, dystonia (characterized by involuntary muscle contractions) and essential tremor (Hanings problem), DBS has been shown to be effective against Tourettes syndrome, with its characteristic tics, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Add to that a wave of ongoing research into DBSs promise as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other neuropsychiatric conditions, as well as early signs that it may improve memory in Alzheimers patients. Suddenly its one of the most exciting treatments in modern medicine. With seemingly millions of potential DBS patients, its easy to imagine a future where brain implants may become as common as hip replacements. As co-directors of the UF Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration, Foote and neurologist Michael Okun are at the forefront of the DBS eld, rening operating techniques and establishing a rigorous standard of care that attracts patients from around the country and the world. Since teaming up at UF in 2002, Okun and Foote have done nearly 1,000 DBS procedures together and grown their two-man effort into an interdisciplinary program with more than 40 staffers, including eight neurologists, a psychiatrist, a neuropsychologist and physical, speech and occupational therapists. The treatment, for patients whose symptoms arent sufficiently controlled by medication, carries the usual risks associated with neurosurgery, including stroke and infection. Side effects range from headaches to speech and memory problems, and, in some cases, seizures. But Okun says more than 90 percent of their patients rate themselves as much improved or very much improved on standard postoperative outcome scales. In the 12 years since they joined forces, Okun and Foote have seen DBS evolve, in Okuns words, from crazy, to kind of cool but not completely accepted, to accepted. Okun, 42, recalls: When I rst got hired here, my chief said to me, Youre a nice kid, youre a polite kid, but dont embarrass us.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

Together, Okun and Foote breached the wall that has forever separated neurology and neurosurgeryblew it to smithereens, actuallyand formed a partnership that dees tradition as it advances the science of DBS. While it might sound logical to the laymanof course neurology and neurosurgery go togetherits hard to overstate how very differently the two disciplines have been practiced. And perceived. Foote, 48, whose smile comes easily and often, captures the old thinking with an old joke: Whats the difference between neurology and neurosurgery? Well, both types of doctor treat people with disorders of the central nervous system. And if theres something you can do about it, its neurosurgery. If theres nothing you can do about it, its neurology.

WorldMags.net
articial heart, the Jarvik 7. The operation was performed at the University of Utah, and though Clark died after 112 days, Footes fascination with the case endured. He earned a degree in materials science and engineering at the University of Utah, intending to become an inventor of articial organs. He entered medical school at Utah, where two things changed his course. First, he realized that biological solutions such as improved antirejection therapies, not mechanical organs, were the future of transplant medicine. Second, he did his neurosurgery rotation and saw the brain for the rst time. What could be more fascinating than the brain? he asks. Okuns path was also turned in medical school. Though he majored in history as an undergraduate at

exposed to them his whole life. The Jews have some of the highest incidences of movement disorders, says Okun, who grew up in a Jewish family in West Palm Beach, Florida. If you go to temple you see it, a lot of people are blinking, they have tics, they have tremors. One of the reasons I was fascinated by this eld is I would look back and remember seeing people shaking and shuffling and thinking to myself, Why is that? He knows the answer to that question now. Theres an abnormal conversation going on between different regions of the brain, he explains. DBS interrupts those abnormal conversations. The challenge for Okun and Foote is to identify the tiny spot in each patients brain where the electrodes will do the most good, to locate,

Doctors Okun and Foote breached the wall that has forever separated neurology and neurosurgeryblew it to smithereens.
Its all too true that neurologists have had to deal with more than their share of incurable conditions with unknown causes. Multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrigs disease, myasthenia gravis. The list goes on, and watching Okun at work in the OR during a DBS procedure, its as if hes out to make up for all those decades of frustration in the specialty he loves. Mike has a very surgical personality, says Foote. And I am much more of a neurologist than most neurosurgeons. Okun and Foote met as residents at UF in the 1990s. Foote grew up in Salt Lake City and was in high school there when, in 1982, the town produced the biggest medical story in the world at the timethe saga of Barney Clark, the rst human recipient of a permanent Florida State University, he made a late decision to go to med school and become a black bag doctor, a general practitioner caring for families and making house calls. Then I got my rst introduction to the brain, he recalls, and I said, This is really cool. Twenty years later, his enthusiasm is fresh as he describes his neurological satori. A lot of people were saying all these pathways and everything are really complicated, and they just wanted to get through the class and get a grade. But to me it made perfect sense. You could localize diseases and networks within the brain and figure out where things were and actually make a difference. Later, as Okuns interest in movement disorders grew, he realized he had been
Each brain is dierent. Michael Okun, left, and Kelly Foote rely on sophisticated imaging and microelectrode data to select a path to the faulty circuit.

amid the cacophony of a hundred billion chattering neurons, the specic neural network that is causing the patients problem. Location is everything, says Okun. A couple of millimeters in the brain is like the difference between Florida and California. Before setting up shop at UF, Okun and Foote both studied with DBS legends. Okun trained at Emory University with neurologist Mahlon DeLong, who pioneered the brain circuit approach to understanding and treating movement disorders. (DeLong is one of six 2014 recipients of a $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences,
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 41

WorldMags.net

created last year by Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley leaders to recognize major achievements in medical science.) Foote, after completing his residency, went to Grenoble, France, where he worked with Alim-Louis Benabid, who developed DBS as a treatment for Parkinsons and performed some of the rst procedures in the early 1990s. Foote then joined Okun at Emory, where the two continued their DBS training with DeLong and neurologist Jerrold Vitek. Now, as the two of them try to better understand and manipulate neural circuitry, they are working in what could be called a golden era in brain science. Each week seems to bring news of another advance, like a report in January from England affirming the effective-

WorldMags.net
in the simple fact that cutting open human bodies is a high-risk business and someone needs to be in charge. Foote, tall and commanding in his scrubs, gladly cuts against this expectation in his collaboration with Okun. He treats the neurologist as an equal partner in the procedure, a co-operator, to be exact, though the neurologist does not scrub in or get near the sterile eld that surrounds the opening in the patients skull. Okun, several inches shorter than Foote, is focused and intense in the OR, a forceful presence from the moment he enters, though he doesnt say much at rst. On this day, he is too busy studying the computer screen where Rodney Hanings MRI is being compared with a brain atlas that Okun, Foote and other UF colleagues created with data from the dissection of dozens of postmortem brains; because every brain is slightly different, matching structures in Hanings brain with the atlas helps the doctors map their targets. Standing side by side, Okun and Foote discuss their planned approach, pointing to familiar landmarks, which are outlined on the screen in bright red, green, yellow and blue. When the skull has been opened, Foote slowly feeds a microelectrode on a hair-thin wire down into Hanings brain. This is not the lead that will be permanently implanted in the brain; rather, its a kind of electronic advance scout, a radio receiver that picks up and amplies the electrical signals of individual brain cells, while canceling out ambient electrical noise. As the probe moves deeper into the brain, the sound of the cells lls the OR, like static from deep space. Okun, who has taken up his position at the patients side, manipulates Hanings left arm and ngers, and strokes his arm, chin and lips, triggering electrical activity in the brain. As he does this, he listens to the screech of individual neuronstheir electrical signaturesas they are pierced by the

With a tip the diameter of a human hair, this microelectrode listens in on chattering neurons, providing feedback so that doctors can make adjustments before placing an implant (below, in CT scans).

As the probe moves deeper into Rodney Hanings brain, the sound of the cells fills the OR, like static from deep space.
ness of transcranial magnetic stimulation as a treatment for acute migraine, which followed reports about the successful use of the non-invasive procedure for depression and some symptoms of schizophrenia. And research interest is booming too, as evidenced by the ambitious, multidisciplinary White House BRAIN Initiative. DeLong, after four decades studying the functional organization of the brain and neuromodulation, has never seen anything like it. The pace of change and discovery is just unprecedented, he says. Were forging really great advances in almost every disorder you look at, for both neurology and psychiatry. And this will pay off. Surgeons, as a rule, do not like sharing power. The stereotype of the domineering OR general is rooted
42
SMITHSONIAN.COM

microelectrode. With his trained ear, Okun distinguishes between normal neurons and the abnormal neurons that are causing Hanings tremor, and he guides Foote to their target, a malfunctioning network of cells located in Hanings thalamus, near the center of his brain, about four inches down from the hole in the top of his head. Thats a tremor cell, he says at one point. Can you hear it? Keeping movement disorder patients awake during DBS procedures makes it possible to track the effects of the surgery in real time. One of the quirks of the treatment is that the operation itself alters brain tissue and interrupts the abnormal signals, reducing the patients symptoms before the current is even turned on. (This temporary effect is an echo of past practice; years ago, before DBS, surgeons treated movement disorders by creating tiny lesions in the brain.) Several times over the course of his operation, Haning uses his left hand to draw spirals on a clear plastic clipboard that is held up for him. His rst spiral, made before the procedure begins, is jagged, unsteady. His last one is smooth, the work of a tremor-free hand. As the operation winds down, with the lead in place in Hanings brain, a pleased Okun tosses Foote a compliment. Kelly, I dont know how you did it, but youre all hand, he says, referring to the way Foote hit the target area, the circuit that was causing the tremor in Hanings left hand. Imagine that, Foote replies, deadpan. DBS isnt an option for everyone. It offers hope to selected patients who, despite expert medical management, remain disabled by their symptoms. While it usually works, it is hardly a panacea. Its brain surgery, after all, arguably the most invasive of all invasive procedures. And besides the usual surgery risks, it requires follow-up outpatient surgery every four years to replace the battery pack.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

44

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

But it has showed itself as an effective and generally safe treatment for many, including Rodney Haning. With those successes, Okun and Foote, like other leaders in the eld, are looking beyond movement disorders. Thats why they added the word neurorestoration to the name of their UF treatment center, and why they are already performing experimental DBS procedures on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourettes syndrome and Alzheimers disease. Similar DBS research is going on at academic medical centers across the country. DBS has even attracted attention from DARPA, the research arm of the Department of Defense, which is launching a ve-year effort specically targeting four neuropsychiatric conditionsPTSD, major depression, borderline personality disorder and general anxiety disorderas well as traumatic brain injury, addiction and chronic pain. Its a dreadful and daunting list. It evokes a universe of suffering even as it speaks to the promise inherent in every successful DBS procedure: If we can do this, then perhaps we can do that. Faced with the challenge to take DBS further, Okun and Foote offer a measured view of the state of their art. Right now, our understanding of the circuitry in the brain is fairly rudimentary, says Foote. The technology is pretty crude, especially when compared with the human brain, with its 100 billion neurons and an estimated 100 trillion synapses. In the past, Okun explains, the big debate in the eld was whether DBS worked by inhibiting abnormal cir-

Okun asks the patient, Rodney Haning, to perform various motor tasks during the operation. With the electrode in place, Haning draws a smoother spiral.

WorldMags.net

May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM

45

cuits or exciting other brain activity. Both sides ended up being right: The neurons closest to the implanted leads are inhibited by the electrical current, while axons leading away from the targeted cells are stimulated. In addition to these changes, says Okun, in the last few years weve learned that DBS also alters brain chemistry and blood ow, and even leads to the growth of new brain cells. And recent studies using electroencephalography show that DBS causes what Okun calls neurological oscillations, disease-specic changes in the electrical wave patterns that ripple through the brain. In Parkinsons disease, for example, DBS suppresses the beta wave, while in Tourettes syndrome, it stimulates the gamma wave. Okun and Foote have seen rsthand

WorldMags.net
powerful demonstration of DBSs potential as a treatment for disorders like major depression. Its also unsettling, a peek into a possible future where human happiness is the product not of the experiences and relationships that make up a life, not even of mood-altering medications, but of an elective surgical procedure, a face-lift for the brain. Okun and Foote are acutely aware of the ethical issues raised by their DBS work. They have adopted a guiding principle that denes their goals and proscribes anything that might be considered outside the bounds of proper medical practice: The purpose of DBS, they insist, is to alleviate pain and suffering. Its a clear standard. The question is, will it endure over time as the specialty continues to evolve? Standing just outside the OR after Rodney Haning s operation, still in his scrubs, his surgical mask dangling from his neck, Foote tries to imagine a day when healthy, normal people will choose to undergo DBS in order to enhance their lives. He understands the appeal. Referring to early results from Alzheimers research, he says, What if we were able to make people remember better? Whos not going to want that? But its still brain surgery, he argues. Can you imagine, he says, if I take a perfectly normally functioning human being who wants to have some enhancement, and I do an operation, and I hurt them, and they end up a not perfectly normally functioning human being? Imagine the liability there. He cant see how the surgical boards and the FDA would ever allow such a thing. Of course, If it ever got to the point where it was essentially risk-free, he says, then you would let the line go a little further, probably. Foote ponders that idea as the subject of cosmetic surgery comes up. Sixty years ago, plastic surgery, a technically challenging specialty with one of the longest training regimens in

During surgery, which typically takes about three hours, the scalp near the small incision site is held open with a retractor, exposing the skull.

The purpose of DBS is to alleviate pain and suffering. Its a clear standard. The question is, will it endure?
the power of their pretty crude technology to affect mood and emotion. They even lmed it and presented it to an audience as part of a talk they gave in 2012. In the video, a woman undergoing a DBS operation to alleviate her debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder beams with joy and laughs when, during the normal course of the successful procedure, Okun and Foote tickle a region near her nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain associated with pleasure, reward, motivation and other complex phenomena. Describe what youre feeling right now, Okun says. With an ecstatic smile on her face, in a voice giddy with joy, the woman replies, I feel happy. Its an extraordinary moment, and a
See more images from the operating room at Smithsonian.com/brain
46
SMITHSONIAN.COM

medicine, was centered on the treatment of facial trauma and disgurement. Today, ordinary people think nothing about undergoing multiple cosmetic procedures to make themselves more attractive, and surgeons are happy to perform them. Thats actually a really good analogy, Foote says. I hadnt thought of it that way. If youre not dysfunctional, should you be able to get functional surgery? And I think DBS is going to be a similar battleground. He hesitates a moment, then finishes the thought. And we will ultimately cave in. Just like we did with cosmetic surgery. This is a revelation for him, and not a good one. I hadnt really gone that far in my head, but now that I think about the whole cosmetic surgery thing . . . yeah . . . goddamn. Foote returns from the future and his mood brightens immediately when hes asked how it feels to watch patients like Haning leave the OR smiling and waving their tremor-free hands. Its still a rush, he says, every single time. A few days after his operation, Rodney Haning is back home in the Villages, the Florida golf community where he lives with his wife, Barbara Jo. Hes been practicing in his den with his favorite putter, looking forward to a busy spring and summer playing the game he loves. Hes tired from the surgery, but feels stronger every day. His tremor is gone, and he hasnt experienced any side effects from the ongoing treatment. Except for the small scars on the top of his head (his golf hat will cover them when hes back on the course), there are no signs of his recent adventure in the OR. Ive got absolute trust in those guys, he says of Okun and Foote. I thought it was real neat during the operation when he said Thats your tremor right there. Its surreal, thats why I was chuckling every now and then. He pauses, recalling the details. Then, with a laugh: There was a hole in my head.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

COMMAND PERFORMANCE
Patrick Stewart, who has led starships and mutants, returns from the future to talk about science and science ction
interview by MARK STRAUSS photograph by DAN WINTERS

I HOPE THAT THE MORAL QUESTIONS

will be addressed as enthusiastically as the technical questions when it comes to articial intelligence, Sir Patrick Stewart says of an ethical quandary that once arose on Star Trek, in which he starred as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, a role he also commanded in several movies: Does a robot with consciousness have rights, or is it a slave? The question intrigues Stewart, 73, who is nearly as well known for his human rights workhes a prominent advocate of the United Nations and a generous patron of Refuge, a London-based service for abused women and childrenas for the Shakespearean depths he brings to performing, including X-Men: Days of Future Past, premiering this month. Even that sci- series based on Marvel comic characters raises important social issues, he said when we met at his apartment in New York City, where he was appearing with his X-Men co-star Sir Ian McKellen in the acclaimed Broadway revival of two daunting, famously bleak plays: Harold

48

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Pinters No Mans Land and Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot. These days, Stewart says, I nd myself continually torn between a sense of almost juvenile hopefulness and a real despair.
SMITHSONIAN: Is your lifelong passion for human rights part of what attracted you to the role of Professor Xavier in X-Men?

WorldMags.net
potential good in us is still to be explored . . . so that we can become better human beings to ourselves as well as to others. And I sometimes feel were only at the threshold of those discoveries.
How did a Shakespearean actor end up on the bridge of the USS Enterprise?

STEWART: Actually, yes. I turned that down when it was rst offered to me, and the director, Bryan Singer, whom I had not met, said, Please meet with me. I want to talk to you, before we move on and talk to someone else. And he talked to me about what he hoped to achieve with the rst of those lms; how the subject matter would be examining the rights of those who are different from others and asking, because they were different, did they have the same rights as everybody else. And he said in the lm there will be two camps. There will be a camp led by Magneto, who believes that the only way in which the mutant world can protect itself is by ghting and destroying its enemies, and Xavier, who believes that there is, as Captain Picard would have done, another route which is peaceful and involves discussion and exposure and conversation and dialogue. And I saw it, I saw the point. So I happily signed on to be an active voice for the good guys.

It was a uke. In my business one should never worry too much about whether things are going right or not because you never know whats around the corner. For a number of years, I had been a co-director of an organization that brought Shakespeare and actors to the United States for short residencies in colleges and universities. It was called AIRActors in Residence. I had

If we create independent life but keep it under our control, what is that? It can be said to be a form of slavery.
become very friendly with a number of people, particularly in California. And when I had any downtime in England, the man who directed our program would make a few phone calls and set me up with a series of lectures or master classes or demonstrations in colleges around Southern California. Id got to know very well a Shakespeare scholar at UCLA, so whenever I went to Los Angeles I stayed in his guest room. And while I was there, driving off every day to Pomona or to Santa Clara or to wherever, he said, Look, Im giving a public lecture in Royce Hall this week, I think it was called something like The Changing Face of

Comedy in Dramatic Literature, and he said, If you, and another friend who was an actress, would be prepared to read some extracts to illustrate my lecture, it would be so much more fun for the audience than just having me talk. So we did. And among those who had signed up for the lectures was Robert Justman, one of the executive producers of Star Trek. He claimed, adamantly all his lifeand his wife agreedthat halfway through this evening, when I was reading Ben Jonson and Oscar Wilde and Terence Rattigan and Shakespeare, he turned to his wife and said, We found the Captain. And it took them six months to persuade Gene Roddenberry [the creator of Star Trek] of that. I met with Gene the next day and Gene apparently said, No, no, this is not the guy. Denitely not. But it turned out differently.
Gene Roddenberry imbued Star Trek with a very optimistic vision. He believed human beings could create a better future. Based on just what youve seen and read today, do you think science ction has abandoned that optimism and instead embraced a more apocalyptic and dystopian perspective?

X-Men is really more fantasy than science ction. But today, theres a movement called transhumanism, which believes that we should use all available technologies at our disposal to enhance human beings. To make ourselves better and to ultimately engineer our own evolution. Not only would we be healthier and live longer, we could modify ourselves to breathe underwater, to see wavelengths of light beyond our normal vision, to leap higher or run faster in ways that no one else can. What do you think of that idea?

I think its fascinating! But I think that for the moment, at least, we are as good as it gets. And the good, the
50
SMITHSONIAN.COM

Cant say that Im persuaded of that from what I see presently. Genes view of the future was fairly utopian and benevolent, mostly. And its one of the reasons, I always believed, why the series continues to be such a success. What is it, 50, 60 years? Theres nothing like it. No other show has ever had a history of this. And it is because of the fundamentally optimistic view of what happens in Star Trek. And Gene set up certain moral parameters that we endeavored not to break through. And if we did, there had to be a damn good reason for doing it and you had to justify it. And that made those seven years for me, for the most part, very interesting because Picard was a thoughtful man. I used to get asked, In a ght between Kirk and Picard, who would win? And my answer always was there wouldnt be a
Patrick Stewart photographed by Dan Winters at Industrio Studio, NYC, February 2014; grooming: Joanna Pensinger / Exclusive Artists Management; styling: John Moore / Bernstein & Andriulli; suit and shirt by Paul Smith

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

ght because Picard would negotiate his way around it. Picard saw force as a last resort. Absolute last resort.
On Star Trek, you worked with Brent Spiner, who had a very challenging role playing Data, an articial human being. People are now beginning to talk seriously about the prospect of articial intelligence. If we ever created a truly sentient articial being, should it be granted the same rights as humans?

WorldMags.net
at me. He would not have been attered to have known that I was basing Macbeth on him. But . . . he was a man of great presence and character and dignity. Roles do stay within you. Sometimes they just go underground. And sometimes it can take a little while to set them free.

Its safe up there. Life gets complicated when you go back out on the streets again.

Your character, Hirst, in Harold Pinters play No Mans Land, appears to be coping with dementia. How did you prepare for that role?

James Dean once said, To my way of thinking, an actors course is set even before hes out of the cradle.

We addressed that issue very powerfully in an episode [The Measure of a Man]. A Stareet Judge Advocate General presides over a hearing to determine whether Data is a sentient being or property. And I remember at one script conference, Whoopi Goldberg, during the period when she was with us on the show, saying what we ought to make clear in thisthat were actually talking about slavery. And it was a great point to make. If we create independent life but keep it under our control, what is that? It can be said to be a form of slavery.
Many actors have said they retain a remnant of their characters long after theyve stopped playing them. Are there traits of Captain Picard that perhaps inform your preparation for other roles?

Yes, Id read that. I would have liked to have asked him if he could just say a little more about that. Why do people become actors? Why did I nd, at the age of 12, that Shakespeare was easy for me? I had the most basic, basic education, but my English

I cant say that theres anything about the Star Trek Captain Picard experience that directly informs what I do in other roles. But I had seven years to do the series and then four feature lms to think a great deal about what command means, what authority is, what duty and responsibilities are, and I think I draw on them in many different ways. Its only in the last six to eight years that Ive begun to realize how big a role my father plays in the characters I play. I think, in many respects, Ive actually been channeling my father for years. I played Macbeth ve years ago in a sort of modern version of it, set it in an Iron Curtain country. . . . Id grown a mustache, and when I looked in the mirror I had a truly shocking realization that my fatherwho was a soldierwas looking straight back

A poster for the new X-Men blends Stewart, reprising his role as Professor X, and, as his younger self, James McAvoy.

teacher put a copy of Merchant of Venice in my hands and I understood it and could speak it well from the very beginning. I came from a working-class family from the north of England. Nobody read Shakespeare . . . actually, thats not quite true; my oldest brother did, but I didnt know that for many years. And nobody in my family was an actor or performer. Why would I have this impulse and why would I nd the stage such a safe place? Cause it is. A lot of actors have acknowledged that.

MARVE L / 2 0TH CENTURY FOX

Quite a few years ago, I did a movie which unfortunately was never releasedabout a character who was in the early stages of dementia and Alzheimers and who knew it was happening and whose memory was already starting to go. And I did quite a lot of research then, including, with their complete understanding and agreement, talking to patients who knew that they were ill and who were willing to talk to me about what it was like. I brought that experience to studying the play. But I had one other thought while we were in rehearsal. I have twice in the past consulted the great neurologist Oliver Sacks about roles. So I asked the guys, What do you think if we asked Dr. Sacks to come in and just watch a few scenes? And he did. Hes a big fan of Pinter, as it turned out. So we ran some selected scenes from it, many of them involving Hirst and his confusion and so forth. And then we sat in a hot circle around the great man and asked him, So how did it seem to you? And he said, Well, I know these people very well. I see them every week in my consulting room, in my clinic, in hospital beds. Theres no mystery here. This confusion, this misidentity, this delusion all these things are present. And in the case of Hirst, [these traits] are magnied by a vast consumption of alcohol, which is the worst possible thing if you are an elderly person. So I had a lot of help and I totally trusted what Harold had written. When challenged in a rolenot with every role, of courseI have always looked for someone I could talk to who might be able to illuminate a path or give me some understanding.
Read more of Mark Strauss interview with Stewart at Smithsonian.com/stewart
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 51

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

HOT ENOUG
52
SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Phoenix glows even after 10 p.m. one April night in this image made with a camera sensitive to infrared light, which is generated by heat and invisible to the naked eye. Researchers call the city an urban heat island.

RADIANT

H FOR YOU?
Devastating droughts, killer storms, flooded cities, raging tropical diseasesyouve heard that climate change promises a host of catastrophes. But the reality of a hotter world will probably be more subtleand its already here by JERRY ADLER
WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net DOUGLAS KENRICK, RANGY AND GRIZZLED, SQUINTS THROUGH THE

shimmering heat of a late-summer afternoon in the Sonora desert. You live here long enough, he says, crossing to the south side of an empty street for the ve-minute walk across the campus of Arizona State University, and you become like a desert animal, searching out shade. Having grown up on Long Island, and coming from the frequently snowbound campus of Montana State University, he relished the heat when he moved to Phoenix in 1980, but by the end of his rst full summer, it had become oppressive. I came from New York with the attitude that it cant ever be too hot for me, says Kenrick, but I was wrong. It seems likely that most people who move to Phoenix, where the temperature reached 118 degrees one day last June, make the same discovery, but as an evolutionary psychologist, Kenrick wanted to do more than complain about the climate. So he did an experiment. His method had the elegance of all great science: He recruited a volunteer to stop her car at a green light and he counted the seconds until the driver behind honked the horn. He did this once a week from April to August, on days when the high temperature ranged from 84 degrees to 108, and he found that the thermometer accurately predicted how soon, and how many times, thwarted drivers would protest before the light changed. When the weather was comfortably cool, the typical driver
just politely tapped on the horn for a second, Kenrick wrote. When it got up near 100, though, they started blaring their horns, yelling out the window, and making hand signals they probably did not learn in drivers education. The link between heat and angerpeople are red up or steamed up, or they keep their coolis so deeply embedded in folk wisdom that it has gone mostly unquestioned. But it is increasingly a subject for psychologists and other social scientists concerned about the implications of a world in which 108 degrees may no longer be exceptional. Under one scenario studied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by the end of the century, todays North Carolina summers would become the norm for New Hampshire, while Louisianas climate would migrate up to Illinois. In Phoenix itself, tempera54
SMITHSONIAN.COM

tures could regularly hit the 130s . . . by the second half of this century, University of Arizona climatologist Jonathan Overpeck has predicted. The various environmental effects of greenhouse gases are potentially devastating, as we have often heard. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, made public in March, underscored the danger of widespread hunger, even starvation, resulting from crop failures. Other health threats have been enumerated by Robert Repetto, a United Nations Foundation economist, who says climate change will intensify smog, leading to increased outbreaks of asthma and allergies, and exacerbate vector-borne diseases such as hantavirus, West Nile virus, Lyme disease and dengue fever. Repetto also worries about the extreme weather events that some researchers say climate change will

If Phoenix today oers a glimpse of a hotter future, studies by Douglas Kenrick (inset, left) suggest that tempers will are. Water is increasingly precious in the pavement-laced and golf course-dotted desert (right).

PARCHED

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

COURTESY DOUGLAS KE NDR ICK; P. 55 : PE TE R M CB RI DE; PP. 52 -53: BR ENT C. HEDQUIST

engender. Biological systems and engineering systems are all designed for a range of climatic conditions, he says. Within those limits, were OK, . . . but outside those limits, the damage increases rapidly and becomes catastrophic, and were going outside those limits. Heat waves themselves pose a health risk, especially for young children and the elderlyand world-class athletes. Temperatures at the Australian Open in January reached 104 degrees for four consecutive days, a condition that one tennis player called inhumane after competitors collapsed on the court. The weather is always changing, to be sure, and any given event might have happened independent of global warming, but some trends are clear. Melting glaciers and disappearing sea ice, combined with the thermal

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

expansion of the oceans, will almost certainly lead to increased coastal ooding of low-lying areas around the world, including parts of the United States. Like the iconic polar bear stranded on a shrinking ice oe, we are all facing an uncertain and perilous ecological future. There may be hordes of climate refugees, eeing homes on islands and coasts made uninhabitable by climate changeanywhere from 25 million to 1 billion people by 2050, according to the International Organization for Migration. Even people who dont have to move will experience a bewildering sense of dislocation as the environment changes around themas Northern winters start to be measured in weeks rather than months. Glenn Albrecht, an Australian philosopher, coined the term solastalgia for this emotion, a kind of homesickness you can experience without leaving home. We will see the emergence of novel climates, environments weve not seen before in human times, and the extinction of others, around the Arctic and in high Alpine regions, says Laurence C. Smith, a professor of geography at UCLA and author of The World in 2050. Smith says cities, industry and agriculture may benet in places such as Canada and Scandinavia, though at some cost in psychological and cultural disruption. Very bitterly cold winters will be less common in some places, he says, but instead of a nice blanket of white snow, they will have slush. And people who move north for the weather, or for jobs that may open up as the Arctic melts, will discover that climate change doesnt make the winter nights any shorter. But climate is about more than ecology: Its also a force in human behavior, a fact often overlooked in global-warming scenarios. And new research suggests that a hotter world may, for one thing, be more dangerous, and not just because of road rage. Craig A. Anderson, of Iowa State University, pioneered research on climate and aggression, and derived the formula that each additional degree
56
SMITHSONIAN.COM

WorldMags.net

CRAZED Science ction has long experimented with the idea of a hotter world. In a 1961 Twilight Zone, New Yorkers go mad when Earth moves closer to the Sun.

Its hard to write a story where the characters are grappling with climate change. You cant just pull out a laser gun and shoot at it.

of warming increases the rate of violent crime (homicides and assaults) by 4.19 cases per 100,000 people. Solomon Hsiang, a public policy specialist at UC Berkeley, has found that climate change historically leads to social disruption, up to and including war. Property crime, personal violence, domestic violence, police violenceeverything you want less of, climate change seems to bring more of, either directly by making individuals more violence-prone, or indirectly by promoting conict related to diminishing resources or deteriorating economic conditions. For reasons Hsiang is still studying, hotter temperatures depress economic activity. In a study of 28 Caribbean economies, he found that short-term increases in surface temperature are associated with large reductions in economic output. I was stunned by how large the effect was. I

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

CB S VIA GETTY IMAGE S

dont want to be alarmist, but I think the evidence is extremely concerning, and it hasnt been seriously considered by policy makers. Violence, disease, social chaos these are irresistible themes for science ction, at least since the classic Twilight Zone episode The Midnight Sun in 1961, in which a cosmic accident sends the Earth out of its orbit and spiraling toward the Sun. Since then, of course, weve come to realize that humanity has supplied the mechanism for calamity all by itself, through greenhouse gas emissions. Global warming does pose some special challenges for ction, as the editor Gordon Van Gelder points out: Its hard to write a story where the characters are grappling with climate change. You cant just pull out a laser gun and shoot at it. Still, Van Gelder managed to recruit 16 contributors for his 2011 collection of stories, Welcome to the Greenhouse. Families driven out of their homes struggle to reach the Arctic, where temperatures are bearable; monster tornadoes level whole towns; the military battles six-inch-long honeybees. And, in a story in Van Gelders magazine Fantasy & Science Fiction, tribunals in the future pass judgment on tippers, the wastrels whose giant carbon footprints led the world over the edge to disaster. Science ction is one way to get a feel for what daily life might be like in a hotter world. Another way is to go to Phoenix during a late-September heat wave when temperatures hover around 105, where the rst thing you learn about the future is that it will apparently be lived indoors.

WorldMags.net
Caf Future
The bunting they put out for the grand opening never got put away, so every day looks as if it might be opening day. You inquire if Caf Future carries pie, and sure enough its right there on the menu. A piece of rhubarb and black coee, please. The pie tastes like youd hoped it would, but sweeter. And though youre wary of newfangledness, youve never had a piece of pie this good. You think youll make the Future your new place. The long counters reected in plate glass, where sunlight pours in from the parking lot, and the guy whos looking back at you is you and not quite you. The morning rush is over. The chrome gleams with a perfect gleaminess. The waitresss smile lets you know she agrees. It makes you want to stay and eat more pie. She comes by, young-looking, like her own daughter, and whisks your plate away. Another slice. I know I really shouldnt. Just one more. Thats ne with her, she says. Shes on a double and happy to bring you pie all day long.
David Yezzi

It is, as they say, a dry heat. On the East Coast, summer heat envelops you, like a hot, wet blanket, but step outside in Phoenix and it swats you, like a rolled-up newspaper. When I worked in Atlanta it was hot and humid, but there was never a day I couldnt go outside and hit a tennis ball, says Royal Norman, a meteorologist for station KTVK. But there are days here where Im never outside except to get in and out of my car. An

advertisement for air conditioners in Phoenix uses the slogan, Some of the best moments in life happen indoors, which could well be true, unless your passion is, say, golf or gardening. Newcomers have to learn the hard way what happens to a soda can left inside a car parked in the sun, or to dogs whose owners take them out on sidewalks without protective booties. Outside my hotel, in the heart of downtown, the streets illustrate why the noun desert is cognate with deserted. At mid-morning on an ordinary weekday, I can walk around

the block twice without encountering another human being on foot. In late afternoon, I meet a radio reporter named Jude Joffe-Block. She arrives a few minutes late, apologetically; she says she was once two minutes late to meet a friend at a bar, which happened to be closed that day; he was gone, unable to bear 120 seconds on the sidewalk. Phoenicians defend their city with variations of the claim that everyone has air conditioning, but during a heat wave last June, whose average high temperature was 107, Joffe-Block interviewed people
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 57

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

HOT ZONE Top: At the Australian

Open this past January, douard RogerVasselin and other tennis players battled 104-degree temperatures. Middle: A polar vortex (dark blue) chilled the lower 48 this past winter but left Alaska warmer than usual. Bottom: In Chicago, a 2012 heat wave called for more ice.

58

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

RE X FEATURE S VI A AP IMAGE S; NASA; SI TTH IX AY DI TTHAVO NG / AP I MAGE S

who were doing without it, usually because they couldnt afford monthly electric bills of $400 or more. Sharon Harlan, a sociologist at Arizona State University, who has been studying how communities are affected by extreme heat, says that in some poor neighborhoods a third of the population says the high cost of electricity keeps them from using their air conditioning. Joffe-Block herself was living in a rented apartment with a device called a swamp cooler, a machine that blows air over a water-saturated pad, lowering the temperature by evaporation. On a recent 105-degree day, the swamp cooler chilled Joffe-Blocks apartment all the way down to 95. The machines are common in the small stucco and cinder-block houses that line the streets of south-central Phoenix, a low-income neighborhood a 15-minute walk from the skyscrapers of downtown, if anyone was around to walk it. And by the iron law of real estate values, people too poor for air conditioning tend to live in the hottest parts of town, at and shadeless under the relentless desert sun, far from the soothing balm of golf courses and parks. Wealthy neighborhoods receive the microclimate ecosystem services of trees and shrubs. Over the course of a summer, Harlan measured temperatures in the yards of houses in various neighborhoods and found differences up to 14 degrees. Plants provide shade, intercept sunlight and cool the surrounding environment as water evaporates from their leaves, whereas the built environment absorbs energy from the sun and radiates it back as heat. Driving by a golf course at night during summer, with the windows down, the change in air temperature can be startling, says Chris Martin, a professor of horticulture at Arizona State.

Unfortunately, the cooling effects of plants come at a cost, namely water, which is becoming increasingly a precious commodity in the Southwest as the climate warms and population increases. With the advent of air conditioning and high-insulation building materials, people felt less need to surround their houses with shade trees. Improvements in articial turf have made it an acceptable alternative to grass in small patches, even in wealthy neighborhoods. Such a yard can be 15 or 20 degrees warmer at night than the same yard if it were irrigated, Martin says. You can see very nice homes in a yard without a single living thing in it. Its one hot place, but most people are inside so they dont care. Phoenix, like most big cities, is what meteorologists call a heat island, hotter than the surrounding countryside, or than the land would be without the burden of civilization: of asphalt parking lots and tinted-glass skyscrapers, of the air conditioners, automobile engines, appliances and light bulbs of 1.5 million people. (Or, for that matter, the people themselves: The population of the Phoenix metropolitan area, over four million, generates as much energy in the form of body heat as a medium-size power plant.) The heat island effect creates a phenomenon that meteorologists and ordinary citizens nd even more disturbing than the occasional 115-degree afternoon: the trend toward higher nighttime temperatures. Citing National Weather Service data, Norman, the meteorologist, said the last record low in Phoenix was in December 1990. Since then we have set 144 record [daytime] highs and 230 record-high [nighttime] lows. Back in the 1980s, even in the hottest part of the year, there were cool mornings, but this year there were nights it never got out of the 90s. I wonder if eventually we will never get below freezing, and that worries me because when it happens, the next summer we get hammered by the bugsspiders, roaches, antseven mice. Fifteen to 20 times a year, Ken Waters of the National Weather Service

WorldMags.net
issues a heat warning for the region, based on predicted highs and, equally important, nighttime lows. No question it has a major impact on people, he says. When it stays above 90 all night, it makes it very difficult to recover from daytime heating. If you dont have a home to go to, you are at the mercy of the elements, Harlan says, no less than someone sleeping on a subway grate in Manhattan to stay warm in December. In a study that looked at heat-related death by occupation, men in the category unknownwhich usually means homelesshad a rate ten times that of men in known occupations. For the rest of uswell, we will just have to get used to sweating more, and put up with what Anderson, of Iowa State, describes as the crankiness factor. Being uncomfortable colors the way people see things, he says. Minor insults may

An ambiguous act now seems more provocative when your own mind is in turmoil because of the heat.
be perceived as major ones, inviting, even demanding, retaliation. That was just what Richard Larrick of Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business, along with his co-authors, found when they examined the box scores of some 57,000 Major League Baseball games played since 1952 about 4.5 million plate appearances in all. They were looking into whether hot weather made pitchers more likely to throw at batters, and based on records of game-time tempera-

tures, they found that it did, but in a specic and telling way. In theory, hot weather might increase the incidence of wild pitches by affecting pitchers control (distracting them, or making their palms sweaty), but thats not what the study focused on. Instead, it found that after one or more batters were hit, intentionally or not, hot weather made it more likely that the opposing pitcher would retaliate later in the game. Whats interesting is that the same actyour teammate being hit by a pitchseems to mean something different in a hot temperature than a low one, Larrick says. An ambiguous act now seems more provocative when your own mind is in turmoil because of the heat. Of course, very cold weather makes people uncomfortable also, and in laboratory experiments cold has in fact been shown to increase aggression. But that doesnt appear to translate into more crime during cold spells. There is some evidence from brain imaging that the perception and regulation of heat involves some of the same regions that process angerthe proverbial hotheadalthough the signicance of those ndings is unclear. Anderson speculates that in evolutionary history, extreme cold has generally posed a more immediate threat to personal survival than heat, and people are driven to escape it, with clothing, re and shelter. If Im cold, I have to deal with that right away, he muses. I dont have time to be irritable. And if you suffer from the heat, like Kenrick, the Arizona researcher, and you work on an academic schedule, you can head north for relief. I go to Vancouver for a couple of weeks a year, he says, and I enjoy being able to go out for coffee without having to stop each time and think, is it worth it. He should enjoy it while he can, because Vancouver recorded its two hottest days ever in 2009, and the city is considered at risk of ooding owing to climate change in the coming decades. That honking sound you hear? It may be the climate apocalypse, right behind you.
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 59

WorldMags.net

SCIENCE FRICTION

WorldMags.net
A BETTER TOMORROW
11% Dont know/ No answer

Long term, the poll shows that people think technological changes will help make lives . . .

30%
Mostly worse

59%
Mostly better

Our new poll reveals that Americans love technology but theyre a bit freaked out by what may be waiting for them in the near future

driven future with a sense of hope. They just dont want to live there. That paradoxical viewfuture technology sounds awesome, but its not for meis one major nding from an exclusive new national survey conducted by Smithsonian and the Pew Research Center. The opinion poll involved 1,001 people interviewed in February by landline or cellphone. Almost 60 percent of respondents said technology would improve life in the futureroughly twice as many as those who said it would make things worse. But charts by driverless cars? Lab-produced meat? LINDA ECKSTEIN Brain implants just to get smarter or illustrations by improve memory? No thanks. RYAN SANCHEZ If people had been asked specically text by about future technologies that promise T.A. FRAIL to alleviate current challenges, such as curing cancer or eliminating pollution, the respondents would presumably have embraced such changes without reservation. But the new survey, done for this special issue about the links between science and science ction, was intended to reveal public attitudes about future technologies envisioned in sci- movies and literature. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project, says the things we asked about were not mere conveniences or little incremental advances, but big, imaginative stuff. And that stuff, ranging from robotic caregivers to commercial or personal drones ying in U.S. airspace, gave people pause. Giving respondents a chance to unleash their own imaginations, they were asked what life-changing invention they would like to see. Two ideas tied for rst place, with 9 percent apiece. One was right out of science ctiontime travelwhereas the other was as old as the hills, the wish to improve health and boost longevity. But 39 percent didnt name anything, perhaps suggesting that they are content with things as they are or, as Steve Jobs said, people dont know what they want until you show it to them.
60
SMITHSONIAN.COM

MOST AMERICANS VIEW THE TECHNOLOGY-

BUT DOUBTS REMAIN

How likely is it that the following things will come to fruition over the next 50 years?
Already happened Def initely Probably Dont know Probably not Def initely not

Transplantable organs will be custom-made in a lab

Computers will create important works of art

Teleportation will be possible

Long-term colonies will be built on other planets

60 %
Probably

35%
Probably

34%
Probably not

39%
Probably not

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

CURIOUS PERSONAL TASTES

Would eat meat that was produced in a laboratory

WorldMags.net YES
48%
of those polled

27% 14%
MEN WOMEN

YES 20%
of those polled

55% 42%
WEST, NORTHEAST MIDWEST

Would take a ride in a driverless automobile

UNNERVING DEVELOPMENTS
If people wear devices that constantly inform them about the world around them

Some technologies that may be right around the corner gave pause
Change for the better Both Dont know Change for the worse

37% 28% 26% 22%

53% 65% 66% 63%

If lifelike robots become the primary caregivers for the elderly and the ill
If parents-to-be can alter osprings DNA to better intelligence, health or athleticism

If personal and commercial drones are permitted to y in most U.S. airspace

INSPIRED BY SCI-FI
9% Time machine / time travel 6% Flying car / ying bike 4% Personal robot / robot servants 4% Personal spacecraft 3% Self-driving car

What invention would be welcome?

9% Improved health and longevity / cure for diseases

Weather will be controlled by humans

3% Teleporter / teleportation / transporter 2% World peace / improved understanding 2% New energy source / environmental betterment 1% Ability to live forever / immortality 1% Jetpack

44%
Def initely not

11% None / nothing / not interested 28% Dont know

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

62

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

SIGNS

WorldMags.net

LIFE
OF
by COREY POWELL
photograph by TRENT BELL

Planetary scientist Sara Seager has turned tragedy into tenacity in her search for new Earths among the stars

TWO MONTHS SHY OF TURNING 40, THE MIT ASTRONOMER

Sara Seager decided to throw herself a highly unconventional birthday party. She rented a wood-paneled auditorium in the universitys Media Lab. She invited a few dozen colleagues, including an inuential former astronaut and the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute. In lieu of presents, she asked 14 of her guests to respond to a challenge: help her plot a winning strategy to nd another Earth, and do it within her lifetime. Hundreds or thousands of years from now, when people look back at our generation, they will remember us for being the rst people who found the Earth-like worlds, Seager began. She paced tightly, dressed all in black except for a long redand-pink scarf, and spoke in her distinctive staccato voice into a hand-held micro-

WorldMags.net

May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM

63

phone. Ive convened all of you here because we want to make an impact and we want to make that happen. We are on the verge of being those people, not individually but collectively. By the time of Seagers birthday nonparty on May 27, 2011, she gured that her life was half over, she told her audience. She had believed the discovery of other Earths was inevitable, but she now realized she would have to ght to make it happen. There was also an unspoken reason for her newfound sense of urgency: Her husband, Michael Wevrick, was gravely ill. With those thoughts in mind, she called her event The Next 40 Years of Exoplanets, videotaping and posting the talks online as a lasting astronomical manifesto.

WorldMags.net
Faint light from those worlds is trickling down on us right now. It contains the information about whether the cosmos is full of life: microbes, plants, perhaps even intelligent civilizations. I have only one goal in life now, besides my kids, she says, and that is nding another Earth.

I had a real lack of respect for all authority. And that actually was a very valuable trait.
So far, those next 40 years are off to a great start, at least from a planet-searching perspective. This past February, Kepler space telescope scientists announced the discovery of 715 new planets around other stars; the current total stands at 1,693. (In the 4,000 years from the emergence of Mesopotamian astronomy until the 1990s, scientists found a grand total of three new planetstwo if you are a Grinch and dont count Pluto.) There may be tens of billions of Earth-size worlds in our galaxy alone. NASA recently approved TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, to identify other worlds around the nearest stars. Seager has signed on as a project scientist. She is also working on an innovative way to bring small, rocky planets like our own directly into view.
64
SMITHSONIAN.COM

If this is the part where you expect to hear about how Sara Seager always felt drawn to the stars, expect again. You meet people now who say, I wanted to be a scientist since I was 5, I wanted to go to MIT since I was 6, but I was never like that, she reects. It wasnt on my radar. We are sitting in the atrium of the Gaylord National Resort, just outside Washington, D.C., at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. It is 7:30 a.m. and Seager is fully focused, oblivious to the milling crowd of astronomers. I knew I was different from other people from day one, I just didnt know how the difference would manifest, she says. I spent more time daydreaming than anybody I know, and I was such a risk taker. I felt like I always had to live on the edge. Seagers parents divorced when she was in elementary school. From then on she lived a divided life in her home city of Toronto: weekdays with her mother and stepfather, weekends and summers with her father. She had a difficult relationship with her stepfather and felt angry and abandoned. I dont know if I would be successful if I hadnt been so beaten down. After that, I had a real lack of respect for all authority. And that actually was a very valuable trait, right? she says. Its so liberating not to care about what other people are thinking. Her father, a physician who became an expert in hair transplants, instilled his own lessons on independence, telling Seager that she needed a career that would make her self-sufficient. He suggested medicine. But when Seager was 16 she attended an Astronomy Day open house at the University of Torontos St. George campus. She took a tour, picked up pamphlets and got hooked. In retrospect it was one of the top ten days of my life, she says. Her father

was dubious of a career in astronomy. He gave me a long, harsh lecture, You cant do that, you need a real job. But after that, every few months, hed ask, So what does a physicist do? He couldnt get his head around the idea, what is their job? After an undergraduate degree in math and physics at the University of Toronto (where she worked with the same professor who had been handing out the pamphlets), she continued on to grad school in astronomy, coming under the guidance of Dimitar Sasselov at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He directed her to an obscure but important problem in cosmology, modeling how radiation ricocheted off hot gas in the aftermath of the Big Bang. Believe it or not, she says, that remains my most highly cited work. While Seager was focused on the edge of the universe, a quiet revolution was breaking out closer to home. In 1995, researchers found the rst known planet orbiting another Sunlike star. Dubbed 51 Pegasi b, it was about as massive as Jupiter but circled so close to its star that it must have baked at a temperature of almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the following year, Geoff Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, and his collaborator Paul Butler discovered six more exoplanets, three of which were also big and broiling. Humanity nally had hard proof that the universe is full of other solar systems, something that until then had been an act of Star Trek-style faith. Sasselov realized the models he and Seager were applying to hot gas in the early universe could be used to study the hot gas in the atmospheres of these overcooked planets, if only someone could get a clear look at them. At the time, the known exoplanets had all been detected indirectly by their gravitational tug on their stars. Picture a black dog at nighttime, yanking on its owners leash. The only way you can tell the dog is there is by the owners herky-jerky movements. Detecting starlight streaming through the air of an alien planet? Far more difficult. If it were possible,

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

though, it could reveal all of a planets key details: temperature, composition, even the local weather. Sasselov and Seager huddled, and together they made a fateful decision. That was when I gured out she was a special student, says Sasselov, very bold. They plunged into the infant, unproven eld of exoplanets. I imagine that must have been a pivotal moment for a young grad student. Seager swats away the idea: You have to remember, at the time I wasnt even sure I wanted to be a scientist. Its one of the many contradictions that come up in my conversations with her. She has a laserlike focus on the search for another Earth, yet shrugs off the career-dening moment that aimed her at that target. She exudes confidence but is reexively self-questioning, frequently terminating statements with a right? She worries that she intimidates her students, but they speak fondly of her hard questions. You take a little pain in being self-critical and critical of colleagues, but the value in the long term is tremendous, and Sara gets that, says

Among the exoplanets most likely to host life, Kepler-62f ranks in the top 20. Its one of ve planets known to orbit its star, 1,200 light-years from Earth.

TI M PYLE / JPL-CALTECH / NASA A ME S

Marcy, a close friend. Its a bit of a psychological quirk, to be so transparent. Sara is like the umpire of the universe. Some are balls and some are strikes, and they arent anything until she calls them. There is nobody else like her. Seager is also an adventurer by nature, something you would not necessarily guess from her controlled demeanor in an auditorium. When I was younger I did stuff I never should have done, major white-water trips, solo trips, right at the edge of my skill, she confesses. She met the man she would marry, Michael Wevrick, at a skiing event organized by the Wilderness Canoe Association in 1994. He was 30, she was 22. She had known him less than half a year when they set off alone for a two-month canoe trip in the Northwest Territories. Most of the grad students were hanging out with each other, but I was just with him, she says. Early in life, Seager seemed more intent in seeking out intense challenges than in plotting a precise

destination, even when she was doing some of her most remarkable work. In 1997, she modeled the appearance of starlight reflecting off the atmosphere of an exoplanet, showing other astronomers what to look for. In 1999, she predicted that the element sodium should leave a prominent ngerprint in light shining through the atmosphere as a planet transits in front of its star, a nding soon conrmed when a colleague at the Center for Astrophysics (and a fellow University of Toronto alum), David Charbonneau, observed just such a transiting planet. People were really impressed, to make a prediction at that level that led to an observation, Seager says. With that triumph, she snagged a postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where she once again paddled into the unknown. I showed up and got to be the resident expert on exoplanets. I was the only one. There were no barriers, she says. Thats how I got into the Earth stuff. Small, Earth-like planets are
Want a lesson in exoplanets 101? See our special report at Smithsonian.com/cosmos
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 65

WorldMags.net

even more challenging to observe directly than are giant gas balls like 51 Pegasib. Nobody had cracked the problem then, and still nobody has cracked it now. But the scientific stakes could hardly be higher. Finding water vapor in the atmosphere of an Earth twin could indicate that a planet has the potential for life. Detecting molecules like oxygen and methane, which are associated with known biological processes, would be even more stunning. It would show that life really is out there, on another world, some tens of trillions of miles away. It would be, not to mince words, among the greatest discoveries ever.

WorldMags.net
dont want you to ever be limited by your own internal thinking. You have to understand that to understand why Im so successful. By this point, Seager was barely speaking with her mother or her siblings. Today she refers to herself as an orphan. And you know about my husband, right? My stomach knots up at the word. I can talk about it without crying now, so dont worry, she reassures me. In 2010, Wevrick started experiencing intense stomach pains. Seagers father had described similar symptoms before dying of pancreatic cancer, so she nervously coaxed Wevrick to the doctor. After an agonizing series of medical visits, he was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer of the small intestine. He died in July 2011, two months after her Next 40 Years meeting and two days after her actual 40th birthday. The death left Seager profoundly alone. When I was married I only had my husband, who was my best friend, she says. Im not your average person, and its really hard for me to integrate with the real world. Now the challenge was far greater, as the world seemed to be receding from her at the
A stars bright light will obscure a closely orbiting Earth-like world. One solution: A giant shade to block the glare so a telescope can get a snapshot.

I got the job at MIT in 2007, right before my dad died, Seager tells me. I said, Dad, this is the best I can do. Im 35, and Ive got tenure at MIT. Weve met up at her MIT office, on the 17th oor of the Green Building, where the windows look out over the Cambridge rooftops and across the Charles River. She has positioned the chairs so we face each other easily, but we both have a view in case we need a moment to look off and think. He gave me his last lecture. Sara, I never want to hear you say its the best you can do. I know theres a better job and I know youll get it. Hed say, I

speed of light. The most important thing that ever happened to me was my husband dying. Everything else was meaningless. Through the slog of depression and unexpected jolts of rage, Seager rebuilt her life. She helped her two sons through their own emotional journeys. In her hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, she connected with an informal support group of widows and made a new best friend, Melissa. She acquired a group of male buddies she calls the Council of Dads, after the book by Bruce Feiler. Grief is not like a black hole anymore, Seager says. Its sort of, lets just say brown dwarf. It doesnt suck you in and make you so depressed. Today, Seager talks about Wevricks death as a tragedy but also a salvation. Before he died, I told him, Your death has meaning. Im going to go on, and Im going to do great things. All he said was, You would have done it anyway. Seager recounted the same moment for reporter Lee Billings book Five Billion Years of Solitude. Then she surprises me with a wistful reply to her husbands words: But its not true. With two young boys at home and her husband gone, Seager ipped her life around. Her greatest thrills pre-

66

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

CALTECH / JPL / NASA

viously came from wilderness adventures. Now, she directed her energies into her research with a new sense of purpose. Im dedicated to nding another Earth, she says, because what else can I do? NASAs Kepler space telescope with its bulging catalog of exoplanet discoveries is just a baby step toward Seagers big goal. Most of the worlds found by Kepler are too distant and dim to study in detail; thats why Seager is working on TESS, which will scan the sky, starting in 2017, for planets orbiting closer, brighter stars. The James Webb Space Telescopean $8.8 billion successor to the Hubble telescope, set for launch in 2018will peer through the atmospheres of some of those worlds, using the approach Seager pioneered in her graduate school days. But even those tools arent enough. Tracking down our planets twin will require three breakthroughs: Understanding the biosignature, or chemical ngerprint, of alien life; locating the best exoplanets to examine for ngerprints; and developing a way to examine those planets directly, with extreme precision. Strange as it sounds, modeling the chemistry of alien life is the easy part: It requires only brainpower, not hardware. In a recent paper, Seager explores which of the molecules given off by Earths biomass would be detectable on other planets. In another, she considers one specic type of atmosphere, dominated by hydrogen. Next comes locating the most promising exoplanets. Earth is tiny compared with the Sun, and it completes an orbit just once a year. To identify an identical planet around another star, you need to look at a lot of stellar targets for a very long time. For Seager, its not about spending long nights with a telescope, but about interpreting incoming data and coming up with concepts that make the observations possible. Sitting beside us on her office windowsill is one of these concepts: a prototype of a miniature satellite called ExoplanetSat. It is designed to be produced in batches, with copies costing a million dollars or less. A

WorldMags.net
Grief is not like a black hole anymore. It doesnt suck you in and make you so depressed.

eet of ExoplanetSats, each about the size of a loaf of bread, could provide a low-cost way to scan the sky. Finally, there is the colossal challenge of bringing those alien Earths into viewof nding a way to blot out the star and get a direct look at the dim planet right alongside. Doing so will require a totally new kind of observatory. All my activities are funneling toward a big, direct imaging space telescope, Seager declares. NASA recently invited Seager to lead the planning of a Starshade mission. A screen, shaped like a set of ower petals, would y thousands of miles in front of a space telescope and eclipse different stars as needed. She accepted instantly, ending a two-year recovery period when she turned down almost every new professional offer. When they asked me to be the chair I could do it, because I had said no to everything else, she says. If NASA got an extra billion dollars, Seager says her team could begin building tomorrow. But if NASA doesnt get the money, she has other plans. The ExoplanetSat project brought Seager in contact with Planetary Resources, a private company that wants to mine the rocky asteroids circling near Earth. She started thinking that rich, space-minded patrons might want to underwrite her search. I have a private thing going on, a company called Nexterra, as in next Earth, she says. Or maybe Ill become wealthy and Ill support my own Terrestrial Planet Finder. I look at her sharply and see she is serious. The only way I

could make the money that Id actually like is really asteroid mining. It sounds like a long shot, but you know what? Theyre all equally long shots. This is what I hope to do in my lifetime: I hope well get 500 Earths. If were lucky, maybe 100 of them will show biosignatures. It takes a moment for the sentence to sink in. She is talking about 100 planets with signs of alien life. I put down Seagers ExoplanetSat mock-up and take a tour of the strategic totems in her office. A copy of her book Exoplanet Atmospheres; yes, she wrote the book on the new eld. Champagne bottles from when her PhD students graduated. Another champagne bottle, celebrating Seagers 2013 MacArthur fellowship better known as the genius award. A photo of a man standing next to a telescope. This is my boyfriend, Seager explains, without changing cadence. Im completely crazy about him. Its like the romance of the millennium. But how do I t him in my life now? He also lives in a different city. Im guring it out. Im still trying to gure out one thing about Seager. Normally, at some point in a conversation like this, I hear a philosophical gush about what the discovery of alien life would tell us about our place in the universe. She nods. Thats not why Im doing it. What about being a part of history? Thats cool, right? Thats not really why I do it, but if someone wants an answer, I usually try to give that one. Even with all that she has revealed, I am struggling to get behind the mask. Then I realize how much of her life is dened by the Before and the After. Ive never met the Before Seager, the thrill-seeker who paddled through rapids with Wevrick in a single canoe with limited supplies, in waters far from human habitation. I think I do it because I was a born explorer, she says after an uncharacteristic pause. If I was born in the past, I probably would have been one of those guys who made it to Antarctica. I start a project and I get really excited about it, the heart beats faster. I just love what I do.
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 67

WorldMags.net

Almost Human
How R2-D2 became the most beloved robot in the galaxy
Many Star Wars characters loom
large in the imaginationthe sepulchral Darth Vader, the swaggering Han Solo, the take-charge Princess Leia. But one character implausibly worked its way into peoples hearts: R2-D2. With its stubby little body, blooping voice and wide round eye, R2-D2 was a curiously endearing machine. Fans went crazy for the droid, knitting winter hats in its shape and building computer cases that looked like its body. Even Star Wars actors went a bit googly-eyed when they were on the set alongside the droid. There is something about R2-D2, as the robots original designer, Tony Dyson, has said, that people just want to cuddle. In 1983, when Return of the Jedi was released, Smithsonian curator Carlene Stephens wanted to preserve an artifact from this pop-cultural moment. The Smithsonian contacted Lucaslm executives, who sent over
by Clive Thompson

National Treasure

WorldMags.net

PHOTOGRAPH BY

Dan Winters

one of their R2-D2 models, along with its companion, C-3P0. The R2D2 pictured here is now part of the Smithsonians permanent collection. But what precisely is the source of R2-D2s allure? There are plenty of movie robots. Few stir emotions as richly as this oneparticularly given that it looks, as Stephens jokes, like an industrial vacuum cleaner. Yet that might be the secret to its appeal. To understand R2-D2, you have to wrap your mind around a theory called the uncanny valley. The concept was rst posed in 1970 by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. Hed noticed that as robots grow more realistic, peoples attitudes toward them change. When a robot is toylike and capable of only simple, humanlike gestures, we nd it cute. If it starts looking and acting a bit more human, we nd it even more endearing. But if it gets too humanas with, say, a rubbery prosthetic handwe suddenly shift allegiance. We nd it creepy. Our emotional response plunges into what Mori called the uncanny valley. Why would overly realistic robots so unsettle us? When they become nearly human, we start focusing on the things that are missing. We notice that the arms dont quite move as smoothly as a real humans, or the skin tone isnt quite right. It stops looking like a person and

starts looking like a zombie. Angela Tinwell, a professor specializing in video game design at the University of Bolton in Britain, suspects we unconsciously detect sociopathy or disease. Mori saw a way out of this conundrum. The most engaging robot would be one that suggested human behavior, but didnt try to perfectly emulate it. Our imaginations would do the rest, endowing it with a personality that we could relate to. In essence, Mori perfectly predicted the appeal of R2-D2. R2-D2 was really charming, Tinwell says. Any humanlike traits you could perceive in him made us like him more. When the robot whistled and beeped rejoinders to its friend, the neurotic droid C-3P0, audiences thought Oh, I can relate! He has a sense of humor! Indeed, R2-D2 was famously brave, plunging into bruising laser-gun battles to help its comrades. (Like an interstellar Forrest Gump, the robot always managed to turn up at the absolute center of the action.) R2-D2 was also useful. Its body contained tools ranging from computer interfaces to blowtorches. Director George Lucas was so enamored of the robot that he insisted it should save the day once every movieas in The Empire Strikes Back, when R2-D2 xes the Millennium Falcons hyperspace engine moments before being caught in the tractor beam of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

68

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| Monthtk 0000

WorldMags.net

DAN WI NTER S / & LUCASFI LM LTD.

WorldMags.net

FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Even R2-D2s voice avoided the uncanny valleyit wasnt a voice at all but bleeps and bloops created by sound designer Ben Burtt, who used an audio synthesizer. This was a big cultural shift. Designers had spent centuries making androids in the image of humans. For example, the Smithsonians collections include a clockwork automaton friar from about 1560.

The eyes move side to side, the articial jaw moves up and down, the arm moves a rosary to the lips of the gure as though kissing this thing, says Stephens. But it is very weird. It attempts to look like a human and doesnt quite make it. R2-D2 changed the mold. Roboticists now understand its far more successful to make their contraptions look industrialwith just a touch

of humanity. The room-cleaning Roomba looks like a big at hockey puck, but its movements and beeps seem so smart that people who own them give them names. In Hollywood, Wall-E succeeded with a gang of lovable robots that looked like toasters. The worldwide affection for R2-D2 helped show designers the way out of the uncanny valley. This is the droid we had been looking for.
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 69

WorldMags.net

INVENTING THE REAL MCCOY

The fantastic tricorder device that Bones used to scan aliens on Star Trek is nearly at handin your cellphone. And it promises to be cheaper and smarter than anything even Spock could dream up
by ARIEL SABAR
photographs by BRINSON+BANKS

WorldMags.net

70

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

A UCLA engineer hoping to make medical diagnoses a snap turns a smartphone into a powerful microscope with new software, a few LEDs and a test chamber made by a 3-D printer.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net EPISODE ONE OF STAR TREK, STARDATE 1513.1. CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Leonard Bones McCoy beams onto a desolate planet, M-113, with orders to perform a routine physical on Prof. Robert Crater, an ill-tempered archaeologist who wishes McCoy would just go away. Doubtless the good surgeon will enjoy prodding and poking us with his arcane machinery, Crater snipes. Think again, Crater: Prodding and poking is so last millennium. Dr. McCoy packs a medical tricorder. Wand the body with this hand-held computer, and seconds later it coughs up the particulars of a patients condition. The machine is capable of almost anything, McCoy says. As he sweeps the device across Craters chest and back, it purrs like a blissed-out electronic cat. In the 23rd centuryas pictured by television writers in the late 1960sthat purr was a sign that a very sophisticated machine was working. The tricorder-like devices in the UCLA engineering labs of Aydogan Ozcan dont purr. Nor do they cause the shoulder strain of the cassette recorder-size clunkers of Trekkie lore. But in other respects, theyre the closest thing yet to the real McCoy. Ozcans sleek gizmos, which t onto the back of a smartphone, count thousands of red and white blood cells in seconds; screen urine for signs of kidney disease; spot viruses like HIV and inuenza in a smear of blood; and test water for bacteria,
parasites and toxic chemicals. Another phone attachment, the iTube, scanned for microscopic specks of allergy-causing peanut in what one of Ozcans journal articles last year described as 3 different kinds of Mrs. Fields Cookies. When I visited Ozcan on the UCLA campus, a dozen of the devices were arrayed like museum pieces in an illuminated glass display case in a corner of his laboratory. The ones in the original Star Trek series resembled antediluvian Walkmen. Ozcans devices are the size of a lipstick case or matchbox. This is honestly one of our rst hacks, he told me with a touch of nostalgia, pulling out a six-year-old Nokia phone that hed somehow retooled into a lens-free digital microscope. He says hack because he takes technology already in our pocketsthe smartphone, another gadget anticipated by Star Treks inaugural episodeand cheaply reworks it into lightweight, automated versions of the bulky instruments found in medical laboratories.
72
SMITHSONIAN.COM

At the rate hes going, Ozcan, who at 35 already holds the title of UCLA chancellors professor, may soon hack the whole clinical lab. He wants nothing less than to make it small and cheap enoughand so idiot- and klutz-proofthat we can carry it in our pocket like loose change. Id visited Ozcan during a week in January when temperatures tripped into the 80s. So when one of his postdocs, Qingshan Wei, a 32-year-old with stylish clip-on shades, asked if I wanted to scope out the waves in Marina del Rey, I raised no objection. Our scope was a Samsung Galaxy with an attachment that turned the phones camera into a mercury detection system. The toxic metal can build up in sh, and water tests can serve as an early warning system. We want to detect mercury in water before it goes into the food chain, Wei told me. We splashed barefoot into shindeep surf, and Wei pipetted seawater into a small plastic box on the back

of the phone. Inside were a pair of LEDs that red red and green beams of light through the water sample and onto the phones camera chip. An app scrutinized the subtle shifts in color intensity, and four seconds later, results ashed on the screen. Two months earlier, mercury levels at this very spot had been worrisome. Today, the phone told us, the water was safe. Similar tests performed by a fullscale environmental laboratory are very expensive, Wei told me. They also require schlepping the sample to the lab, for a complicated analysis called inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. For this, Wei said, nodding at the mercury tester, which cost $37 and was made by a 3-D printer, we write a smart application. You just sample, click open the
Ozcan (in his UCLA lab) started a company, Holomic, to market microscope-outtted smartphones, which he calls a telemedicine tool for improving health care in the developing world.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

application, follow the instructions and click analyze this. The brains of the system are Ozcans algorithms, which turn the phones humdrum camera into a powerful optical instrument that sees what the eye cant, then tells us how worried to be. His devicesbecause they piggyback on GPS-enabled smartphonesno sooner test a sample than they can send time- and location-stamped results to your doctor, an environmental agency or, say, Google Maps. Supply the technology to enough of the worlds three billion mobile subscribers, and youve got battalions of citizen scientists beam-

WorldMags.net
ing up health and environmental data from across the globe in real time. Ozcans software funnels the data into a continually updating map where epidemiologists, public health officials and your uncle Murray could follow the spread of a disease or chemical spill live, the way our smartphones already use our speed and location to crowd-source data for mobile traffic apps. Ozcans goal: to chart the worlds invisible threats the pollutants in water, the allergens in food, the pathogens in airas panoramically as traffic or weather. And the devices potential to safeguard health is vast. At the moment

were lost in low-dimensional data, Ozcan says. Its like looking at a Picasso picture where only a few pixels are there. With more dots painted by more individuals, you can see more of the big picture. Ozcans work has drawn particular praise for its promise in the developing world, where state-of-the-art diagnostic tools are in short supply. With his phone attachments, minimally trained health workers could quickly test blood for HIV and malaria, and water for E. coli and Giardia. I asked Ozcan to picture a future in which smartphones spotted threats to our health as faithfully as they identied gridlock on our commute. I would be more healthy with my choices, more informed about air quality, tap water, he said. If youre camping and you dont have a lot of things with youor frantic after a hurricane, earthquake or other disastertheres another opportunity to sense what to drink, what not to drink, what to eat, what not to eat. Should my kids drink from that rusty faucet? Are peanut crumbs lurking in that carrot cake? Theres a hypochondriac-worthy list of health questions we might wish to answer, at least preliminarily, with a screen tap. This future is arriving at warp speed, says Ozcan. Less than ve years. Its going to boom. Aydogan Ozcan (pronounced I-doe-on Euz-john) was born in Istanbul, but had a peripatetic childhood. His father was a low-level clerk in Turkeys forests ministry, and his mother a homemaker. His only siblinga brother, Cumhur, nine years olderstruggled in school, and the family hopscotched the country in search of the right educational setting. Aydogan went to ve elementary schools. (Cumhur, now a physician in Istanbul, became the rst in the family to attend college.) Aydogan fell in love with the elegant symmetries of mathematics, and that passion wheeled into a fascination with physics. As boyhood TV habits went, he was only a tepid Star Trek fan: cold and too dark,

The Pay Phone

1982
A pay phone is ringing. It is twelve fteen, a balmy summer weeknight, no one around. The ringing is both urgent and routine. Loud, sharp, and even, it is the only sound. It reaches to the fountain and marigold bed, and down the dress-shop alley, and back again, up past the darkened windows overhead, past the green turret, past the nial. Then the phone stops ringing. The air continues to ring. When it, too, stops, the calm feels tentative. But soon its strongtoo strong. Its sickening. This is no place for human beings to live. Then, once again, the pay phone starts to ring. It will go right on ringing. No one at all will hear this sound. No one is listening. But someone must have some interest in this call. The phone rings with enough force to be heard two hundred miles and thirty years away. And who is the caller? A mad lover spurred by a broken promise? A client allowed to stray from bed at Willing Helpers? Could it be a desperate spouse, out to arrange a hit? Or is it a wrong number? No. Its me, at thirteen. Oh, how I wish I could answer it.
Joshua Mehigan

74

SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

he says of the atmospherics. He preferred The Smurfsspecifically Handy Smurf, the can-do inventor in workmens overalls and pencil above his ear. But Ozcan, a svelte man with the tightly wound intensity of a loaded spring, discouraged me from mining his childhood for clues to his career. There were no medical crises. He never wanted for health care. No apple emotionally hit me, he says. As a kid, he dismantled pens and watches, not computers. When I asked him to name the most exciting piece of technology to arrive in the family home as a boy, he said color TV. This was the 1980s. Despite his professional renown as an innovator, his personal life is still something of a throwback. His current cellphone, for instance, is an unfashionable BlackBerry awarded to him by the University of Southern California when one of his smartphone microscopes won the schools Body Computing Slam. That was four years ago. His pursuit of pocket-size labs was less a childhood dream than a product of almost Vulcan rationality: Digital microscopy was a wide-open field with the potential to improve lives, particularly in remote parts of the world, and he saw an opportunity. Its quite unfair that some people dont have access to very fundamental things because their government is corrupt, because the aid system is broken. It was timely to produce some more cost-effective and very advanced tools. After earning a PhD from Stanford in 2005, Ozcan took a short-term job at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, at Massachusetts General Hospital. He worked for Harvard professors trying to boost the eld of view of dishwasher-size optical microscopes, but soon he had his own ideas. I was sure that some of the problems of imaging and counting cells could be solved in different ways. Ozcan and a former Stanford classmate, Utkan Demirci, went on eBay and bought used surveillance cameras on the cheap. With lasers and

WorldMags.net

A pathologist in your pocket, the device sees viruses just .000004 inches across.

Its quite unfair that some people dont have access to very fundamental things because their government is corrupt.
screwdrivers, they pried off the lenses and scooped out the imaging chips. Then, almost for kicks, they dribbled a solution of cultured liver cells right onto the chips silicon faces to see what kind of a picture they might get. Something similar was tried a couple of years before, by a NASA collaborator at Stanford named Gregory Kovacs. For an experiment into the effects of zero gravity, Kovacs had rigged a video chip to image the movements of tiny roundworms, Caenorhabditis elegans, as they plummeted to earth from a high-altitude balloon. The camera chip successfully tracked the backlit wigglers by their shadows.

But C. elegans were one millimeter longvisible to the naked eye. How on earth would Ozcan get a similar chip to pick up the shadows of cells one-hundredth the worms size? To Ozcans surprise, the liver cells threw respectable shade. The shadows grew if he put the cells on a slide one-fifth of a millimeter from the camera chipjust as the shadow of your hand grows the nearer your hand is to a light. Before long, Ozcan had a prototype that could count hundreds of thousands of cells in seconds, work done in hospitals by machines called cytometers with the girth of a linebacker and a price tag in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The parts for Ozcans gadgetan off-the-shelf image sensor, a few LEDs and two AA batteriescost less than $10. But could a lens-free device do more than just count cells? Ozcan wondered. Could it be tweaked to actually see inside them? Because of the way lenses bend light, traditional microscopes can focus on just one smidge of a sample slide at a time. If you ditched lenses, though, your eld of view would be limited only by the physical size of the camera chip. A half-centimeter-square chip, like those in many cellphones, was at least 100 times larger than a conventional scopes eld of view. That meant Ozcan could both count more cells at once and more readily spot so-called rare cellssuch as markers of early-stage cancerwithin a pool of healthy ones. But to see nuclei and other internal cell features, Ozcan needed more than shadows. He found that if he trained an LED through a pinhole, the light created a funky hologram as it passed through the insides of a cell. The challenge now was somewhat like deducing the shape of a mid-sea rock from the contours of waves on a faraway beach. I literally spent a summer deriving tons of equations, Ozcan told me. The goal was to digitally time-reverse those holographic waves until their sourcea cell, a parasitecame into focus. Over the next few years, Ozcan rened the physical design and softMay 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 75

WorldMags.net

ware until his scopessome with tiny lenses, many withoutcould see stuff as small as individual u viruses and adenoviruses. Some of his apps mimic facial recognition software, identifying cells by comparing their size, shape and internal architecture with a library of reference images. As we hustled back to his office after a tour of his 25-person lab, Ozcan let drop that he was on the verge of another breakthrough: smartphone detection of a single DNA molecule, less than three-billionths of a meter wide. When I reacted with what must have been a look of astonishment, Ozcan, with a note of swagger, straightened his black cashmere sport coat with a snap of the elbows. What Ozcan didnt know when he first dreamed of mini-microscopes was the eventual role of smartphones. Without the technological leaps fueled by our lust for the latest models, Ozcan says, a university might have to spend tens of millions of dollars to develop similar gear to image, process and transmit data from his optical devices. Daniel Fletcher, a UC Berkeley bioengineer and leader in lens-based microscopes for smartphones, gave a crisper salute to Americas phone mania in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed: Thank you for upgrading.

WorldMags.net

Ozcan and co-workers are taking part in real-world tricorder competitions.

The road to a real-life tricorder is paved with prize money. Top honors in the rst round of the $2.25 million Nokia Sensing XChallenge went last fall to Nanobiosym, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, rm led by the physicist and physician Anita Goel. Its Gene-Radar detects HIV and other diseases in bodily uids dripped on a disposable microchip, which slides into an iPad-like device that looks for the DNA and RNA signatures of known pathogens. The Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize will split $10 million next year among gizmos that read vital signs, diagnose 15 ailments each, and are lightweight and user-friendly enough for the masses. Contest organizers have called health care one of the few industries in which consumer needs have failed to ignite innovation. If
76
SMITHSONIAN.COM

Equip ordinary people with technology to make their own reliable health diagnoses anywhere, anytime.
youre sick and need, say, a throat swab, you have few choices beyond seeing a health care professional at a clinic or hospital, creating an access bottleneck, the organizers say. A better system would equip ordinary people with mobile technology to make their own reliable health diagnoses anywhere, anytime. Ozcans start-up company, Holomic, was a nalist in the Nokia contest. Four teams in the ongoing and more elaborate Qualcomm showdown have asked Holomic about tucking its tech into prototypes, though nal agreements are pending. Whether next years XPrize win-

ners will be Stareet-gradeor, more important, Food and Drug Administration-gradeis an open question. But more modest efforts have already found their way to market. The $199 AliveCor heart monitor, a home EKG device that won FDA clearance in December 2012, gloms onto the back of a smartphone and identies irregular heartbeats from the pulse of a patients ngertips. The Scanadu Scout, now in clinical trials, pledges to read blood oxygen levels, heart and respiratory rhythms, blood pressure and other vitals noninvasively in ten seconds. (The companys motto: Sending your smartphone to med school.) Among those racing to shrink the lab, Ozcan stands out for his focus on one of its oldest and most indispensable instruments: the microscope. Four centuries after its invention, the Renaissance-era gadget remains a thing of Rubenesque proportions: big and expensive. Silicon Valley has made warehouse-size computers small enough to t in our pockets and cheap enough not to empty them. But high-end microscopes remain beasts of the lab, tended by whiterobed scientists who get back to us later with the results. Ozcans insight was to do to microscopes what digital audio did to vinyl. He replaced the scopes heaviest, costliest and most iconic elementits stacks of glass lenseswith something weightless: computer algorithms that make cheap image sensors, like those in your phone camera, sharp enough to glimpse viruses and other minuscule particles. Ozcan hacks smartphones not because theyre coolor status symbolsbut because they thrum with once unthinkable computing power. Theres no mystique or bling factor for him. Without the staggering growth in phones processor speeds and megapixel counts in recent years, he would have looked to other technology. Yet for all his digital wizardry, Ozcan remains old-fashioned about the relationship between doctor and patient. Medicine means caring for the person, he says. I dont see the future as being everythingnurse, tech-

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Wading into the challenge of screening environmental poisons, Qingshan Wei, a research fellow in Ozcans UCLA group, wields a prototype smartphone to test seawater near Los Angeles for mercury.

nician, surgeonreplaced by robots. He sees his devices as your Siri, M.D., between doctor visits; your guardian angel, watching your back when your fellow humans cant or wont. If I create a tech system that will send an ambulance to your house 24 hours before something happens to you, then I save you. A couple of years ago, a pair of doctors writing in the Lancet proposed a name for their colleagues sometimes excessive faith in technology: McCoys syndrome. Often, they said, a thorough physical and patient history reveals far more than any MRI. In truth, even McCoy knew limits. Mid-physical on that long-ago epi-

sode, McCoy puts down his tricorder, picks up a tongue depressor and tells Professor Crater to open his mouth. When Crater looks mystied by McCoys sudden reversion to old-school medicine, McCoy says, Ill still put my trust in a healthy set of tonsils. The promise of smartphone-powered health care in the developing world has drawn millions of dollars from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and spawned groups like the mHealth Alliance, a nonprot started by the Rockefeller, Vodafone and United Nations foundations. Patricia Mechael, the alliances executive director, told me that digital successes in far-ung parts of Africa, South America and Asia so far are mainly a product of basic telemedicine: text messages that remind patients to keep medical appointments and take their

pills, and apps that help indigenous health workers track patient records and recognize disease symptoms. Still absent are tricked-out smartphones, like Ozcans, that perform automated, tricorder-like diagnoses. To me this is one of the potential game changers, Mechael says. Point-of-care, or on-the-spot, diagnosis is of distinct benet to migrant workers and people in isolated villages. By the time health workers learn the results of a lab test, they may no longer know where to nd the patient, who then goes without care. The single greatest advantage [of Ozcans devices] is how quickly the information can be shared with experts and decision makers across a wider swath of geography, says Anurag Mairal, a program leader at PATH, a Seattle nonprot that fosters tech innovation in global public health.
May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 77

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

One of Ozcans most promising inventions is a universal reader of rapid diagnostic tests: chemically treated strips, like a home pregnancy test, that reveal a line if a blood, saliva or urine sample is positive for malaria, HIV or, say, heart trouble. People can and do eyeball such tests. But because Ozcans reader sees the line more sharply than the human eye, it can answer not just Am I sick? but also How sick am I? From nuances in the shading of the positive line on a rapid blood test for prostate cancer risk, for example, his apps can glean a relatively precise count of prostate-specic antigen, or PSA, concentrations in blood.
Get a closer look at Ozcan and his latest inventions at Smithsonian.com/ozcan
78
SMITHSONIAN.COM

UCLA physician Karin Nielsen, with Ozcan and others, created an online game showing that laypeople can identify malaria infection in blood samples diagnosis outside the box, she calls it.

How popular the devices will prove to be in the real world remains to be seen. When one of Ozcans students took a lens-free microscope to a health clinic in the Brazilian Amazon in 2011, the technology worked wellbut local feelings were mixed. The student, Onur Mudanyali, now the PhD-bearing director of research at Holomic, told me that some clinic workers viewed it as a job threat. But in nearby dorms for visiting researchers, people were more encouraging. They were delighted that one day they would have a backpack of tools like these [to] visit

villages and diagnose in the eld. The doctor who arranged Mudanyalis visit was Karin Nielsen, a distinguished UCLA professor of pediatric infectious diseases who frequently works in South America and Africa. When I stopped in her office after seeing Ozcan, she showed me a photograph shed taken of a ramshackle houseboat on the Solimes River, near the Amazonian capital of Manaus. Our next step would be to go to areas like this, she said. Inhabitants of these boatsknown as the populao ribeirinhararely visit clinics, so health workers pull up alongside in boat hospitals and do medicine midstream. She says Ozcans devices would likely double if not triple the number of people who get diagnosed. While she and Ozcan await funding for more overseas eldwork, his start-up has set its sights closer to home. The U.S. Army is paying Holomic to investigate how soldiers might use smartphone add-ons as monitors of personal health and bioterror. Theres also a long list of potential civilian uses, from hand-held forensic analysis and animal disease monitoring to anti-counterfeiting (identifying microscopic seals of authenticity) and home fertility testing. One of his devices, a lens-free 3-D video microscope, recently mapped the never-before-seen helical swimming patterns of sperm cells. FDA approval could come as early as this year for what would be Ozcans first commercially available medical device, a smartphone reader of rapid blood tests for hypothyroidism, a common disorder of the thyroid gland. (The test measures levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone.) Sharon Cunningham, the president of ThyroMetrix, which will market the reader, sees in gadgets like Ozcans a revolution in the cost and convenience of routine medical testing. Walmart? MinuteClinic? Do you think theyll want to send stuff off to labs? she says. No, theyll be standing there scanning you. And theyll be using something like this. And youll pay for it and be happy about it because youre not waiting all day for results.

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Are Tax Free Municipal Bonds Right for You?

Please call (800) 901-0736 for your free Bond Guide
The Main Advantages of Municipal Bonds
Investors are attracted to municipal bonds for three reasons, safety of principal, regular predictable income and the tax-free benets. Together, these three elements can make a compelling case for including tax-free municipal bonds in your portfolio. municipal bonds you purchase can earn more or less interest than the called bond. According to Moodys 2012 research,* default rates are historically low for the rated investment-grade bonds favored by Hennion & Walsh.

Potential Triple Tax-Free Income

Income from municipal bonds is not subject to federal income tax and, depending on where you live, may also be exempt from state and local taxes. Triple tax-free can be a big attraction for many investors in this time of looming tax increases.

Potential Safety of Principal

Many investors, particularly those nearing retirement or in retirement, are concerned about protecting their principal. In March of 2012, Moodys published research that showed that rated investment grade municipal bonds had an average cumulative default rate of just 0.08% between 1970 and 2011.* That means while there is some risk of principal loss, investing in rated investment-grade municipal bonds can be a cornerstone for safety of your principal.

About Hennion & Walsh

Since 1990 Hennion & Walsh has specialized in investment grade tax-free municipal bonds. The company supervises over $2 billion in assets in over 15,000 accounts, providing individual investors with institutional quality service and personal attention.

Potential Regular Predictable Income

Municipal bonds typically pay interest every six months unless they get called or default. That means that you can count on a regular, predictable income stream. Because most bonds have call options, which means you get your principal back before the maturity date, subsequent

What To Do Now
Call (800) 901-0736 and request our Bond Guide, written by the experts at Hennion & Walsh. It will give you a clear and easy overview of the risks and benets of tax-free municipal bonds.

Dear Investor, We urge you to call and get your free Bond Guide. Having tax-free municipal bonds as part of your portfolio can help get your investments back on track and put you on a path to achieving your investment goals. Getting your no-obligation guide could be the smartest investment decision youll make. Sincerely,

FREE Bond Guide

Without Cost or Obligation

CALL (800) 901-0736

(for fastest service, call between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.)

Hennion & Walsh, Bond Guide Oer 2001 Route 46, Waterview Plaza Parsippany, NJ 07054

2014 Hennion and Walsh. Securities oered through Hennion & Walsh Inc. Member of FINRA, SIPC. Investing in bonds involves risk including possible loss of principal. Income may be subject to state, local or federal alternative minimum tax. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall, and when interest rates fall, prices rise. *Source: Moodys Investor Service, March 7, 2012 U.S. Municipal Bond Defaults and Recoveries, 1970-2011. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Smithsonian
Burmas wilds, Spider-Mans duds, Ohio and Michigans battle Royale . . . and more.
In Portrait of Nan, Wood highlighted his sisters femininity.

Less Wooden
After American Gothic, Grant Wood gave his female model a makeover When Grant Wood posed his sister, Nan, as the female half of American Gothic (his dentist did the honors as the fellow with the pitchfork), they could not have foreseen how deeply her likeness would resonate. His rendering of a plain, stern-faced Iowa woman has a timeless, enigmatic quality that led some viewers to call her the American Mona Lisa. Yet Nan Wood Grahams image also stirred up some meanness. When American Gothic was rst shown in 1930, there were critics who said that she looked like the missing link, that her face would turn milk sour, says Wood biographer R. Tripp Evans. The following year, as a sort of apology, Grant painted Portrait of Nan, one of his most intriguing works. Its really kind of a love letter from Grant to his sister, says Evans. He adored Nan. And its a painting that he felt very close to as well, one of very few of his mature paintings that he kept for himself. It portrays the 32-year-old Nan in fashionably marcelled hair, a patent-leather belt and a sleeveless polka-dot blouse. She holds a plum in one hand and a chick in the other. Grant said the chicken would repeat the color of my hair and the plum
by Jamie Katz
80
SMITHSONIAN.COM

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

COLLECTION OF WILLIAM BENTON, CHAZEN MUSEUM OF ART / FIGGE ART MUSEUM, SUCCESSORS TO THE ESTATE OF NAN WOOD GRAHAM / LICENSED BY VAGA, NEW YORK, NY

the exceptional lustre, texture and comfort of pure spun silk at a

special introductory price $29.95

regularly $69.50-$74.50

WorldMags.net

pure silk, a smart choice.

Nothing is as versatile or comfortable. Dressed up or relaxed, it works any season. Perfect for travel. It doesnt stretch or wrinkle. Just neat good looks all day.

polo

your size
regular: S,M,L,XL,XXL,3XL tall sizes: XLT,XXLT mock

pink

tan

your style
6 colors short sleeve polo short sleeve mock

plum

ivory

french blue

black

promo code S4MSSM

order now

800-309-6000

or

paulfredrick.com/spunsilk

WorldMags.net new customer offer. limit four sweaters. shipping extra. not combinable with other offers. expires 5/31/14.

WorldMags.net
SMITHSONIAN

This Just Out

Burmese Odyssey
During 50 years of repressive military rule, vast jungles in Myanmar were unexplored by scientists. But after a parliamentary government took power in 2011, Smithsonian Institution researchers were granted long-sought access. Their expeditionduring which they encountered 27 species considered endangered or vulnerable, including Asian elephants, clouded leopards, tigers and sun bearsis documented in Wild Burma, a three-part series debuting on the Smithsonian Channel at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, and continuing May 14 and 21. KIRSTIN FAWCETT
82
SMITHSONIAN.COM

| M a y 2014

WorldMags.net

G RA N T WOOD , AMERI CA N, 1891- 194 2, AM E RICA N GOTHIC , 1 930 , OI L O N B E AVE R B OARD , 7 8 X 65 .3 CM ( 30 3/4 X 25 3/4 I N .) , FRI E N DS OF AMER ICA N ART COLLECTI O N, 1930.934 , THE ART I N STITUTE OF CHICAGO / FIGGE ART MUSEUM , SUCCESSORS TO THE ESTATE OF N A N WOOD G RAHA M / LI CE N S ED B Y VAG A , N EW YORK , N Y ; N MAH , SI ; SMITHSO N IA N CHA NN EL

would repeat the background, Nan wrote in 1944, two years after Grant died, at age 50, of pancreatic cancer. Nans typewritten memoir, The Story of My Portrait, is one of the highlights of Artists and Their Models, an exhibition of photographs, letters and other materials organized by the Smithsonians Archives of American Art, to run this spring and summer at the archives Fleischman Gallery. Models are so important to the artistic practice, to the artists education, but we dont always know very much about them, says exhibition curator Elizabeth Botten. One of those models, Botten points out, is the chick in Portrait of Nan. Purchased at a dime store, the bird turned out to be more than a handful. Grant kept long hours when he was on a painting spell and would work

well into the night, Nan recalled. The chick adjusted to his hours and made an awful fuss if it was sent to bed actually, a crock Grant kept in the closetbefore 2 or 3 a.m. It was also fussy about its victuals. It wouldnt eat toast without butter or potatoes without gravy, Nan said. One evening, the chick was acting up while company was over, so Grant deposited it in the crock, placed a book on top and forgot all about it. By morning, deprived of air, butter and gravy, the chick was in a dead faint. We threw water on the chick and fanned her for almost an hour before she came to, Nan said. It was a close shave. She was pretty weak, and Grant didnt have her do much posing that day. More than one expert doubts that Grant included the plum and chick as randomly as Nan suggested. He undoubtedly liked the chicken because as it perched, young and vulnerable, in the cupped hand of his sister, it conveyed her tenderness, says Wanda M. Corn, a leading Wood scholar who knew Nan well before she died, at age 91, in 1990. And the plum because, as an artistic convention, fr uit has always symbolized femininity. The two images represented for Wood all that was benecial and wholesome about the Midwest. Nans role as Grants muse ended with Portrait of Nan, Evans writes in Grant Wood: A Life. After completing the painting, Wood reportedly told his sister, Its the last portrait I intend to paint, and its the last time you will ever pose for me. She was surprisedshed spent years posing for himand asked for an explanation. Wood said, Your face is too well known.

This Just In
Dressed to Thrill
The musical Spider-Man: Turn O the Dark was an epic. Onstage it featured actors ying on invisible wires; ostage it oered titanic creative battles, record losses and lawsuits led by the director, Julie Taymor, who was red, and an injured dancer, Daniel Curry. The show, which ran on Broadway for just over three years before it closed in January, is due to reopen in Las Vegas next year. The original Spider-Man costume, designed by the late Tony Award-nominated designer Eiko Ishioka and worn by the actor Reeve Carney, will receive a lifetime encore at the American History Museum, where it will enter the permanent collection this month. Dwight Bowers, curator of culture and the arts, is drawn to comic-book heroes that gain new lives in other mediaand he says Spider-Mans leap from the page to the visual pyrotechnics of Turn O the Dark was particularly challenging. KIRSTIN FAWCETT

 WorldMags.net ENGINEERED

Scientifically
to

Accommodates Orthotic Inserts

G-DEFY EXTORA II
AVAILABLE

GRAVITY

DEFY

Calf Skin Leather Upper.

Breathable & durable.

VS2W VersoShock Trampoline Sole

Smart Memory springs combined with elastic polymers

AVS3 Ventilation System

Cools the foot and circulates air

Reactor Gel

Stabilizes foot bed

SHOES THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE... GUARANTEED!

The Ultimate Shock Absorbing Footwear As featured in hundreds of magazines, on radio and TV nationwide, Gravity Defyer shoes are changing lives every day. They have become a comfort phenomenon, and are being used and recommended by professionals in hospitals, the food service industry, board rooms across the country and more. A Decade of Science in Every Pair The patented VersoShock system was developed by Impact Research Technology and is found exclusively in Gravity Defyer footwear. It absorbs harmful impact relieving discomfort from every step before returning energy that propels you forward. Stay more active on your feet and experience unparalleled comfort and performance. Feel Weightless Standing, walking, and running are easier as the VersoShock systems energy return makes you feel lighter, like youre walking on clouds.

Absorbs Shock on Impact

dream and go to China without my Gravity Defyer Energy Return Eleanor W Propels You After ordering and wearing your Gravity Defyer Ron B Diana B Extora $149.95 Extora II $149.95
MED THRU X-WIDE WIDTHS MED THRU X-WIDE WIDTHS

TRY A PAIR FREE FOR 30 DAYS!

OR

3 PAYMENTS OF

$49.99
PLUS

FREE SHIPPING
COUPON CODE: MF9EFT8
Call 1 (800) 429-0039

GravityDefyer.com/MF9EFT8
Men Men WHITE TB9006MWS WHITE TB9007MWS BLACK TB9006MBL BLACK TB9007MBL Women WHITE TB9006FWS BLACK TB9006FBL Women WHITE TB9007FWS BLACK TB9007FBL

Once you put on your first pair, you wont ever want to take them off! We guarantee that they will change your life, or simply return them and pay nothing.

*Offer valid for new customers only. Deferred billing for 30 days from the date shipped and is an option selection during checkout. Credit card authorization required. S&H nonrefundable. See website for details.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
Ask Smithsonian
Your questions answered by our experts

Why is Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, part of Michigan when its closer to Minnesota? Kurt S. Petersen, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin
Because of Ohio. When the Buckeye State entered the Union, in 1803, it manipulated its border with Michigan to appropriate Toledo, on Lake Erie. That port increased in value to such an extent that in 1835, the Ohio and Michigan militias were on the verge of going to war over it. So the federal government brokered a deal: Ohio kept Toledo, and Michigan got the Upper Peninsula and copper-rich Isle Royale. Too few people lived in Minnesota to protest effectively. Mark Stein, author, How the States Got Their Shapes Too: The People Behind the Borderlines, Smithsonian Books
ILLUSTRATION BY

Every morning, I toss scraps of biscuits or bread out on the grass for the birds. Within a minute or two, they appear and begin eating. How do they know the food is there? Jerry Hughes, Tulsa, Oklahoma
They know because you have conditioned them. They are now used to being fed every morning, so theyre on the lookout. Gary Graves, curator of birds, Natural History Museum

sion of General Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Tokyo. But in 1975 the noted scholar Otis Cary established that Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson repeatedly rejected Kyoto as a bombing target. Nara was never targeted. Rihoko Ueno, archivist, Archives of American Art

How are drought, higher temperatures and climate change aecting lichens? Linda Popelish, Jamestown, New Mexico
Not much. Lichens occupy some of the most extreme habitats on earth, from tropical rainforests to the Antarctic. As a group, they tend not to be very sensitive to temperature (though individual species prefer certain temperature ranges), and they tolerate drought pretty well. Some species, however, are highly sensitive to air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and heavy metals. Rusty Russell, botanist, Natural History Museum

If there is no oxygen in space, how do rockets ignite their engines? Thomas Carlton, High Bridge, New Jersey
Rockets carry an oxidizer, often in the form of liquid oxygen, to burn their engine fuel. Thats the fundamental difference between rockets and jets; the latter get oxygen from the air. Allan Needell, curator, Space History Division, National Air and Space Museum

Jos Luis Merino

As one of the rst U.S. soldiers to enter Japan after it surrendered in 1945, I was struck by the damage from our bombing but also by the sparing of Kyoto and Nara. Who was wise and powerful enough to spare those cities? George Johnson, Bellevue, Washington
Credit was often givenerroneously, and despite his denialsto Langdon Warner, a postwar adviser to the Arts and Monuments Divi-

Submit your queries at Smithsonian.com/ask

84
SMITHSONIAN.COM

SMITHSONIAN

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

More Than Just Car Insurance.

Saving People Money On

See how much you could save on insurance for your truck, motorcycle, RV, boat and more.

geico.com | 1-800-442-9253 | local ofce

Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. Boat and PWC coverages are written through non-afliated insurance companies and are secured through the GEICO Insurance Agency, Inc. Motorcycle coverage is underwritten by GEICO Indemnity Company. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. 2014 GEICO

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
by Kirstin Fawcett
THSONIAN SPOTLIGHT

Indian Ink
Ends May 26

Saving Faces
Ends January 11, 2015 By the mid-20th century, portraiture had become pass, overshadowed by Abstract Expressionism. But a group of artists, including Elaine de Kooning, Jamie Wyeth and Alex Katz, paid fresh homage to face and form, transforming realistic subjects by merging them with the eras unconventional takes on composition and color (right, Katzs Frank OHara, 1959-60). Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction, at the National Portrait Gallery, features more than 50 of these paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures.

Making Art Pop

Ends August 31 Quotidian objects began their ascent to high art in the 1950s after a group of artists started tinkering with the barriers between the two. In the process, the artists became so celebrated, and their work so coveted, that they produced multiple prints to satisfy demand. Pop Art Prints, at the American Art Museum, highlights 37 rarely seen works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and others from Pops raucous heyday (below, Robert Indianas The Figure 5, from the portfolio Decade, 1971).

London Calling
Ends August 17 Massachusetts-born James Whistler moved to London in 1859, while the city and the artist were both rapidly modernizing. Track the changes (above, Nocturne: Blue and GoldOld Battersea Bridge, c. 1872) in An American in London: Whistler and the Thames at the Sackler, the rst major exhibition devoted to his work from this period and, with more than 90 works, the largest Whistler show in the United States in almost 20 years.
86
SMITHSONIAN.COM

White House Cover-Ups

Indenite

The American History Museum has been exhibiting rst ladies clothing for 100 years. Now the book The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection oers a behindthe-scenes look at the wardrobes that have helped women from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama shape one of the most visible (and most vaguely dened) jobs in American life.
Get an insiders look at the Smithsonian at Smithsonian.com/mallblog
| May 2014

WorldMags.net

PH OTO COURTESY OF CR OWS SHA DOW I NSTI TUTE OF THE ARTS ; ALEX KATZ / LICENSED BY VAGA, NEW YORK, NY EXH.FF.04; TATE, LONDON 2 013, PRES ENTED BY THE ART FUND, 1905 ; 2014 MORGAN A RT FO UNDATION / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY(ARS), NEW YORK; SI BOOKS

Wendy Red Stars lithograph enit (above, 2010) was inspired by her Crow ancestors tradition of adorning their horses (and, later, their cars) for parades. The work is one of 18 featured in Making Marks, an exhibition at the American Indian Museum showcasing images by seven emerging Native American artists who served residencies with master printer Frank Janzen at the Crows Shadow Institute of the Arts on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.

WorldMags.net How a Chicago Doctor Shook Up the Hearing Aid Industry with his Newest Invention
New nearly invisible digital hearing aid breaks price barrier in affordability
Reported by J. Page ALL DIGITAL affordable hearing aid. Now, most people with hearing loss are able to enjoy crystal clear, natural soundin a crowd, on the phone, in the wind without suffering through whistling and annoying background noise. The doctor evaluated all the high priced digital hearing aids on the market, broke them down to their base components, and then created his own affordable versioncalled the MD AIR for its virtually invisible, lightweight appearance.

Nearly Invisible!
SAME FEATURES AS EXPENSIVE HEARING AID COMPETITORS

Affordable Digital Technology

the MDAIR This doctor designed and approved hearing aid comes with a full years supply of long-life batteries. It delivers crisp, clear sound all are so comfortable you wont realize youre wearing them.

Mini Behind-The-Ear hearmake speech clearer

ing aid with thin tubing for a nearly invisible prole

New Digital Hearing Aid Outperforms Expensive Competitors

not

Advanced noise reduction to Feedback Cancellation

eliminates whistling

Wide dynamic range com-

pression makes soft sounds audible and loud sounds comfortable

Telecoil setting for use with

compatible phones, and looped environments like churches

Try It Yourself At Home With Our 45 Day Risk-Free Trial

3 programs and volume

dial to accommodate most common types of hearing loss even in challenging listening environments

Can a hearing aid delay or prevent dementia?

A study by Johns Hopkins and National Institute on Aging researchers suggests older individuals with hearing loss are signicantly more likely to develop dementia over time than those who retain their hearing. They suggest that an interventionsuch as a hearing aidcould delay or prevent dementia by improving hearing!

For the Lowest Price plus FREE Shipping Call Today

800-873-0541
Phone Lines Open 24 Hours EVERY DAY
Use Offer Code AA79 to get FREE Batteries for a Full Year!

Satised Buyers Agree AIR Is Best Digital Value!

I am hearing things I didnt know I was missing. Really amazing. Im wearing them all the time Linda Irving, Indiana Almost work too well. I am a teacher and hearing much better now Lillian Barden, California I have used many expensive hearing aids, some over $5,000. The Airs have greatly improved my enjoyment of life Som Y., Michigan I would denitely recommend them to my patients with hearing loss Amy S., Audiologist, Munster, Indiana

www.MDHearingAid.com/AA79
100%
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE

45 DAY RISK FREE TRIAL

BBB RATING

Proudly assembled in the USA from Domestic & Imported Components.

2014

WorldMags.net

Grow Young with HGH

)URPWKHODQGPDUNERRN*URZ<RXQJZLWK +*+FRPHVWKHPRVWSRZHUIXORYHUWKH FRXQWHUKHDOWKVXSSOHPHQWLQWKHKLVWRU\RI PDQ+XPDQJURZWKKRUPRQHZDVILUVW GLVFRYHUHGLQDQGKDVORQJEHHQWKRXJKW E\WKHPHGLFDOFRPPXQLW\WREHQHFHVVDU\ RQO\WRVWLPXODWHWKHERG\WRIXOODGXOWVL]H DQGWKHUHIRUHXQQHFHVVDU\SDVWWKHDJHRI 5HFHQWVWXGLHVKRZHYHUKDYHRYHUWXUQHGWKLV QRWLRQFRPSOHWHO\GLVFRYHULQJLQVWHDGWKDWWKH QDWXUDOGHFOLQHRI+XPDQ*URZWK+RUPRQH +*+IURPDJHVWRWKHDYHUDJHDJHDW ZKLFKWKHUHLVRQO\DWUDFHOHIWLQWKHERG\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r to SROLF\LWVPRUHLPSRUWDQWWKDQHYHUWRWDNH c o D ! w e N mended SURDFWLYHVWHSVWRVDIHJXDUG\RXUKHDOWK m o c Re &RQWLQXHGXVHRI*+5ZLOOPDNHDUDGLFDO GLIIHUHQFHLQ\RXUKHDOWK+*+LVSDUWLFXODUO\ KHOSIXOWRWKHHOGHUO\ZKRJLYHQDFKRLFH RELEASE YOUR OWN GROWTH HORMONE AND ENJOY: ZRXOGUDWKHUVWD\LQGHSHQGHQWLQWKHLURZQ KRPHVWURQJKHDOWK\DQGDOHUWHQRXJKWR ,PSURYHGVOHHS HPRWLRQDOVWDELOLW\ 6WUHQJWKHQHGKHDUWPXVFOH All N PDQDJHWKHLURZQDIIDLUVH[HUFLVHDQGVWD\ ,QFUHDVHGHQHUJ\ H[HUFLVHHQGXUDQFH &RQWUROOHGFKROHVWHURO atura For m LQYROYHGLQWKHLUFRPPXQLWLHV)UDQNDJH Normalizes blood pressure ula l /RVVRIERG\IDW ZDONVWZRPLOHVDGD\SOD\VJROIEHORQJVWRD &RQWUROOHGPRRGVZLQJV ,QFUHDVHGERQHGHQVLW\ GDQFHFOXEIRUVHQLRUVKDGDJLUOIULHQGDJDLQ :ULQNOHGLVDSSHDUDQFH ,PSURYHGPHPRU\ PHQWDODOHUWQHVV DQGGRHVQWQHHG9LDJDUDSDVVHGKLVGULYHUVWHVW 5HYHUVHPDQ\GHJHQHUDWLYH ,QFUHDVHGPXVFOHVWUHQJWK VL]H DQGLVKDUGO\HYHUKRPHZKHQZHFDOO*+5 GLVHDVHV\PSWRPV 5HYHUVHEDOGQHVV FRORUUHVWRUHG GHOLYHUV +HLJKWHQHGILYHVHQVHVDZDUHQHVV Regenerates Immune System ,QFUHDVHGVNLQWKLFNQHVV WH[WXUH +*+LVNQRZQWRUHOLHYHV\PSWRPVRI$VWKPD This program will make a radical difference in your health, $QJLQD&KURQLF)DWLJXH&RQVWLSDWLRQ/RZHU appearance and outlook. In fact we are so confident of the EDFNSDLQDQG6FLDWLFD&DWDUDFWVDQG0DFXODU difference GHR can make in your life we offer a 100% 'HJHQHUDWLRQ0HQRSDXVH)LEURP\DOJLD refund on unopened containers. 5HJXODUDQG'LDEHWLF1HXURSDWK\+HSDWLWLV KHOSV.LGQH\'LDO\VLVDQG+HDUWDQG6WURNH f UHFRYHU\ o t c u d A P ro ea l t h www.biehealth.us G l o b a l Hct s )RUPRUHLQIRUPDWLRQRUWR P ro d u BIE Health Products 3840 East Robinson Road RUGHUFDOO Box 139 ZZZELHKHDOWKXV DIV 2037839 ON Amherst, NY14228 FRS\ULJKW WKHEORRGDWWKHVDPHOHYHOV+*+H[LVWHGLQ WKHEORRGZKHQZHZHUH\HDUVROG

WorldMags.net Choose Life

ADVERTISEMENT

The Reverse Aging Miracle

1-877-849-4777

GHR

WorldMags.net These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.

CODE SMITH

WorldMags.net

the medical alert service that costs less and goes where I go!
For only $1499 per month!
Sometimes life can catch you by surprise, and it takes just a moment to end up in an emergency situation. In my good friend Helens case, that moment happened while she was out for a walk. She started feeling dizzy, lost her balance and fell. Helen had her cell phone, but it happened so quickly she didnt know who to call or even have time to dial. It turned out she had experienced a minor stroke. It took my friends unexpected emergency to make me realize that I need to be better prepared. Then I found 5Star TM Service by GreatCall and I thought, This is the answer! The 5Star is a mobile medical alert device that gets you help whenever you need it, wherever you go. Now I know that when I encounter an uncertain or unsafe situation, all I have to do is press the button AND ) CAN IMMEDIATELY SPEAK TO AN .!%$ #ERTIl  ED Response Agent who can get me the help I need. 4HESE !GENTS WILL CONl  RM MY LOCATION USING '03 evaluate the situation, and even dispatch emergency services if needed. I had tried one of those old fashioned help buttons, but since it only worked around my house, I felt trapped. Plus, it was so expensive. 5Star has reliable nationwide wireless coverage, so I can get help at home or on the go. And at only $1499 per month, its affordable. With 5Star, I can live my life the way I want to, and my family can worry less about me.

What our fans are saying on Facebook:

Why 5Star is simply the best:

Patented GPS technology Access to emergency services Speak with a registered nurse,

This little device is one of the best purchases Ive ever made. I will never be without it. An amazing tool, phenomenal customer service and worth it, worth it, worth it!

day or night
100% live, U.S. Based Agents,

available 24/7
Powered by the nations

largest, most reliable network

The most affordable medical alert service. No contracts. No cancellation fees. No equipment to install.

Limited time offer! Call now to get a FREE 5Star Pouch, a $1999 value.
With activation by 6/15/14.

Endorsed by John Walsh, from Americas Most Wanted

Call 1-866-252-0927 today

or visit us online at greatcall.com/5Star
$
If ordering online, please enter promo code POUCH at checkout.

per year in fees compared to other personal emergency response services.

Start now and save over 200

Not all personal emergency response systems (PERS) have the same features. You should determine which features are important to you. $200 savings calculation was determined by averaging the PERS market leaders lowest available monthly fees. 5Star Urgent Response is available with the purchase of The 5Star and a one-time set-up fee of $35. Valid credit or debit card required for monthly service. 5Star service may not be available in remote or enclosed areas. You will not be able to make 5Star or 9-1-1 calls when cellular service is not available. 5Star service will be able to track an approximate location when your device is turned on and fully charged, but we cannot guarantee an exact location. 5Star service does not require a contract and can be cancelled at any time. Monthly service fees do not include government taxes or assessment surcharges. Prices and fees are subject to change. TM GreatCall, People You Can Count On, and 5Star are all trademarks of GreatCall, Inc. registered and/or pending in the United States and other countries. Copyright 2014, GreatCall, Inc.

WorldMags.net

500 Stores Nationwide

FACTORY DIRECT SAVINGS

WorldMags.net SUPER COUPON! SUPER COUPON!

QUALITY TOOLS AT RIDICULOUSLY LOW PRICES
ON ALL HAND TOOLS!

HARBOR FREIGHT

LIFETIME WARRANTY

How does Harbor Freight sell great quality tools at the lowest prices? We buy direct from the same factories who supply the expensive brands and pass the savings on to you. Its just that simple! Come in and see for yourself why over 25 million satised customers and leading automotive and consumer magazines keep talking about our great quality and unbeatable prices. Visit one of our 500 Stores Nationwide and use this 20% Off Coupon on one of over 7,000 products*, plus pick up a Free 1" x 25 Ft. Tape Measure, a $6.99 value.
We Will Beat Any Competitors Price Within 1 Year Of Purchase No Hassle Return Policy 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
NOBODY BEATS OUR QUALITY, SERVICE AND PRICE!

OFF
ANY SINGLE ITEM!
LIMIT 1 - Save 20% on any one item purchased at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. *Cannot be used with other discount, coupon, gift cards, Inside Track Club membership, extended service plans or on any of the following: compressors, generators, tool storage or carts, welders, oor jacks, Towable Ride-On Trencher (Item 65162), open box items, in-store event or parking lot sale items. Not valid on prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase date with original receipt. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

FREE 20%
$ 99
VALUE
WITH ANY PURCHASE

1" x 25 FT. TAPE MEASURE

ITEM 69080 69030/69031

Item 69080 shown

LIMIT 1 - Cannot be used with other discount, coupon or prior purchase. Coupon good at our stores, HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Offer good while supplies last. Shipping & Handling charges may apply if not picked up in-store. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

Customers Say and Experts Agree Harbor Freight WINS in QUALITY and PRICE
R ! PE ON SU UP CO

3 GALLON, 100 PSI OILLESS PANCAKE AIR COMPRESSOR

LOT NO. 95275 60637/69486/61615
Item 95275 shown

R ! PE ON SU UP CO

900 PEAK/ 800 RUNNING WATTS 2 HP (63 CC) NEW! GAS GENERATOR
SAVE

SAVE 50%
R ! ! PE ON NEW SU UP CO SAVE

39

REG. 99$79.99 PRICE

$89
R ! PE ON SU UP CO

$90

LOT NO. 66619 Item 69381/60338 69381 shown

"An Excellent Means of Adding a Winch to your R ! PE ON 4x4 Without Breaking the Bank" SU UP SAVE 4 Wheel Drive SUV Magazine O C 9000 LB. ELECTRIC WINCH

$120

99 $12999
REG. PRICE $179.99

WITH REMOTE CONTROL AND AUTOMATIC BRAKE

LOT NO. 68143/61346/61325/62278
Item 61325 shown

27999

REG. PRICE $399.99

LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

t be used with other discoun last. calling 800-423-2567. Cannot Offer good while supplies day. or HarborFreight.com or by er per l purchase with original receipt. LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores Limit one coupon per custom ses after 30 days from origina or coupon or prior purcha coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Non-transferable. Original

LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

"We Are Impressed With the Quality... The Price is Incredible"

1.5 HP ELECTRIC POLE SAW

Car Craft Magazine

LOT NO. 68784 69387 62270

$280

2633 lb. Capacity Super High Gloss Finish! Weighs 245 lbs.

44", 13 DRAWER INDUSTRIAL QUALITY ROLLER CABINET

SAVE $30
Extends from 6 ft. to 8 ft.10"

R ! PE ON SU UP CO

40 PIECE 1/4" AND 3/8" DRIVE SOCKET SET

LOT NO. 68862

Item 68784 shown

36999

REG. PRICE $649.99

6999

REG. PRICE $99.99

SAVE 65%

LOT NO. 47902 61328

Item 47902 shown

REG. $ 49 PRICE $9.99

LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

LIMIT 8 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

R ! PE ON SU UP CO

8 FT. 6" x 11 FT. 4" FARM QUALITY TARP

LOT NO. 2707 60457/69197
Item 2707 shown

R ! PE ON SU UP CO

"The Undisputed King of

the Garage"

Four Wheeler Magazine

LOT NO. 68053 69252 60569/62160

SAVE 41%
R ! PE ON U P S U CO

$ 99
REG. PRICE $11.99

$59
R ! PE ON U P S U CO

RAPID PUMP M INU 1.5 TON ALUMItem 68053 shown CK JA G CIN RA 99 $ 99

R ! PE ON SU UP CO

90 AMP FLUX WIRE WELDER

No Gas Required!
WE CARRY A FULL LINE OF WELDING WIRE

SAVE
$

REG. PRICE $119.99

89

60

LOT NO. 68887 61849

LIMIT 7 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

be used with other last. calling 800-423-2567. Cannot Offer good while supplies day. or HarborFreight.com or by er per l purchase with original receipt. LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores Limit one coupon per custom ses after 30 days from origina or coupon or prior purcha coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Non-transferable. Original

3-1/2 Pumps Lifts Most Vehicles! Weighs 27 lbs. discount

REG. PRICE $149.99

LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

99

99

Item 68887 shown

SAVE $50

SAVE $50
Item 68333 shown

1500 PSI PRESSURE WASHER

LOT NO. 68333/69488

21 PIECE SAE/METRIC GO-THRU SOCKET SET

LOT NO. 67974

R ! PE ON SU UP CO

SAVE

150

1195 LB. CAPACITY 4 FT. x 8 FT. LE HEAVY DUTY FOLDABER UTILITY TRAIL

7999

REG. PRICE $129.99

SAVE 40%

REG. PRICE $29.99

1799

Item 90154 shown

$24999
$
REG. PRICE $399.99

DOT certied

LOT NO. 90154/62170

29999

LIMIT 3 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

LIMIT 7 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

t be used with other discoun last. calling 800-423-2567. Cannot Offer good while supplies day. or HarborFreight.com or by er per l purchase with original receipt. LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores Limit one coupon per custom ses after 30 days from origina or coupon or prior purcha coupon must be presented. Valid through 8/23/14. l Origina Non-transferable.

If You Buy Tools Anywhere Else, WorldMags.net You're Throwing Your Money Away

WorldMags.net A Better Bed = Better Sleep

101 Night No-Risk Trial

Each Reverie Dream Sleep System includes a 101 Night No-Risk Trial so you can try your new bed in your own home.
No return fees. No restocking fees. No fine print. No hassles. 100% refund.

Everything comes together in each Reverie Dream Sleep System to provide you with an ideal environment for rest, relaxation and rejuvenation.
The Bed Designed for You Every aspect of each Reverie Dream Sleep System is designed to provide you with the perfect place for sleeping, reading, watching TV, talking with your partner or even working on your laptop or iPad. Support You Can Customize Reverie uses patented support technology so you can customize the rmness level to your exact preference on both sides of the bed. Plus you can change your rmness level in just minutes if your preferences or needs change. Natural Materials for a Healthy Sleep Environment Reverie uses natural breathable materials for healthy, comfortable sleep. Our sustainable plant-based materials are naturally anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and dust mite resistant. And they look great and will last for years and years. Built-in Full Body Massage Each Reverie Dream Sleep System includes a gentle, full body massage for total relaxation and comfort, helping you fall asleep faster. Youll look forward to going to bed each night.

Free Brochure and DVD Info Kit

DreamCells come in four rmness levels and are custom congured to meet you and your partners support preferences.

To learn more about how this revolutionary new bed can improve your life, please request your free information kit.

Adjustable Foundation for Sleeping and Relaxation The adjustable foundation allows you to raise or lower each side of the bed independently so you can relax and sleep in comfort. Theres an Anti-Snore setting for those who snore or have acid reux and the Zero-Gravity setting is particularly soothing for those with back pain. Youll never want to go back to a at bed.

Call 1-800-685-3445
www.reverie.com

Dept. 1058
2014 Reverie. All rights reserved. 750 Denison Court, Bloomeld Hills, Michigan 48302

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net Why Diet? Try Vinegar! LETTERS

Advertisement

Dentist Recommends Vinegar

Eat and lose pounds the healthy way.

f you want to lose weight and keep it off -- hate dieting and are tired of taking pills, buying costly diet foods or gimmick fast loss plans that dont work-- youll love the easy Vinegar way to lose all the pounds you want to lose. And keep them off! Today, the natural Vinegar weight loss plan is a reality after years of research by noted vinegar authority Emily Thacker. Her just published book Vinegar Anniversary will help you attain your ideal weight the healthiest and most enjoyable way ever. Youll never again have to count calories. Or go hungry. Or go to expensive diet salons. Or buy pills, drugs. Youll eat foods you like and get a trimmer, slimmer figure-free of fat and flab-- as the pounds fade away. To prove that you can eat great and feel great while losing ugly, unhealthy pounds the natural Vinegar way, youre invited to try the program for up to 3 months on a You Must Be Satisfied Trial. Let your bathroom scale decide if the plan works for you. You must be satisfied. You never risk one cent. Guaranteed. Whats the secret? Modern research combined with natures golden elixir. Since ancient times apple cider vinegar has been used in folk remedies to help control weight and speed-up the metabolism to burn fat. And to also aid overall good health. Now-- for the first time -Emily has combined the latest scientific findings and all the weight loss benefits of vinegar into a program with lifetime benefits-- to melt away pounds for health and beauty. If you like food and hate dieting, youll love losing pounds and inches the Vinegar way. Suddenly your body will be energized with new vigor and zest as you combine natures most powerful, nutritional foods with vinegar to trim away pounds while helping the body to heal itself. Youll feel and look years

younger shedding unhealthy pounds that make one look older than their age. According to her findings, staying trim and fit the Vinegar way also provides preventive health care against the curses of mankind-- cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure and other maladies. In fact, the books program is so complete that it also helps you: s Learn secrets of ageless beauty and glowing skin s Help build the immune system, to fight arthritis and disease s Speed the metabolism to use natural thermogenesis to burn fat PLUS so much more that you simply must use the books easy Vinegar way to lose all the weight you want to lose--and enjoy all its other benefits-before deciding if you want to keep it. To Lose Pounds and Enjoy a 90-Day No-Risk Trial... Do This Now To Get Your Personal Copy of the Book: Simply write Vinegar Anniversary on a piece of paper and send it with your check or money order of only $12.95 plus $3.98 shipping and handling (total of $16.93, OH residents please add 6.5% sales tax) to: James Direct, Inc. Dept. VA2347 500 S. Prospect Ave., Box 980 Hartville, Ohio 44632 You can charge to your VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express by mail. Be sure to include your card number, expiration date and signature. Remember: Youre protected by the publishers 90-Day Money Back Guarantee if you are not delighted. WANT TO SAVE MORE? Do a favor for a relative or friend and get 2 books for the low introductory price of $20 postpaid. You save $13.86. Special Bonus - Act promptly to also receive The Very Best Old-Time Remedies booklet absolutely FREE. Supplies are limited so order now. http://www.jamesdirect.com

have some useful advice that others may be interested in. When I got my Dentures several years ago, the Dentist told me use vinegar to get the plaque off them. So - about once a week I soak them in the wonder liquid and Presto - they sparkle. I have since gotten implants - Since I am not fond of the hygienist scraping the posts for cleaning - I clean them with Vinegar before going for my check-up. On my last visit to her, she couldnt believe how clean they were and praised me for it! I then asked the Dentist that put the implants in if the vinegar would harm the metal posts and he informed me it is OK to use it. - D. L., New Braunfels, Tx.

Vinegar Heals Ear Ache in 2 days.

have been plagued with an itchy ear for several months. It then developed into an earache. I was able to cure both the itch and earache in two days. - J. D., Jacksonville, Fl.

Vinegar Diet helps mother of the Bride

his is kind of embarrassing, but here goes. My name is Sarah Pierce. I am 58 years old, and through the years (in my minds eye) I always thought I looked pretty decent. Especially so when our second daughter was married. I really considered myself a rather smashing Mother of the Bride. That is, until the wedding pictures came back. I just couldnt believe it. Here I am, definitely portly - not lean and svelte like I thought. Unfortunately the camera doesnt lie. Since then, I heard about Emily Thackers Vinegar Diet and decided to give it a try. What surprised me most was how much I could eat yet I was losing weight and inches. It was like I was getting thin, thinner and thinner yet with the Vinegar Diet. I just thought you should know. - S. P., N. Canton, Oh.

NEWS & RESEARCH

Simple Vinegar used to reduce cervical cancer deaths by 31%
he latest study about vinegar, shows it will prevent an estimated 72,600 deaths from cervical cancer each year. This according to a study released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, IL. The results were based over a 12 year period tracking 150,000 women in Mumbai, India, between the ages of 35-64 years. The conclusion, a simple vinegar test significantly reduces cervical cancer deaths. Immediate plans are to implement this simple and successful screening test in developing countries. The study had been planned for 16 years, but after the results were analyzed and found to be conclusive it was stopped at 12 years. Vinegar has always been used for its versatility in home remedies, cooking and cleaning. And now scientific and medical findings are showing its a simple, low cost, non-invasive and safe for the patient.

Scarlett Johansson confesses her apple cider vinegar beauty secret

hen celebrity beauty Scarlett Johansson needs to keep her skin looking beautiful and glowing one would think she would turn to high priced beauty creams. Not so, according to an article in the February 2013 issue of Elle UK. She uses simple apple cider vinegar and its natural pH balancing properties to keep her skin looking amazing.
*Testimonials are atypical, your weight loss may be more or less. 2014 JDI VA176S

WorldMags.net

ADVERTISEMENT

A Most Unusual Gift of Love

WorldMags.net

The poem reads: Across the years I will walk with you in deep green forests; on shores of sand: and when our time on earth is through, in heaven, too, you will have my hand.

Dear Reader, The drawing you see above is called The Promise. It is completely composed of dots of ink. After writing the poem, I worked with a quill pen and placed thousands of these dots, one at a time, to create this gift in honor of my youngest brother and his wife. Now, I have decided to offer The Promise to those who share and value its sentiment. Each litho is numbered and signed by hand and precisely captures the detail of the drawing. As a wedding or anniversary gift or simply as a standard for your own home, I believe you will find it most appropriate. Measuring 14 by 16, it is available either fully-framed in a subtle copper tone with hand-cut mats of pewter and rust at $135, or in the mats alone at $95. Please add $14.50 to cover insured shipping and packaging. Your satisfaction is guaranteed. My best wishes are with you.

The Art of Robert Sexton P.O. Box 581, Rutherford, California 94573
MasterCard and Visa orders are welcome. Please send card name, number, address and expiration date, or phone 415 / 989-1630 between 12-8 PM EST. Checks, also, are accepted. Please allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery. . It, too, is available from the address above at $12.95 per copy postpaid.
...And when you come to San Francisco, please visit my new shop at the above address. Its just one block from Coit Tower on top of Telegraph Hill. The coffee is always on, and you will be most welcome.

And please visit my website at www.robertsexton.com WorldMags.net

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

CLEAR meadows, trails, underbrush

from woodlots, pastures. 3" thick,tough brush. small pieces.

6-MONTH TRIAL!

Try a DR FIELD and BRUSH MOWER with our

WorldMags.net

SH OWC ASE

TO ADVERTISE CALL 860-542-5180

Save $50 Now!

FREE Shipping with code N5444


$
&
%$

)
'
!"


)
 $
$$#
!
"

AUTHENTIC ANCIENT COINS, COLLECTIBLES AND ARTIFACTS

CUT 8-foot eld grass, saplings CHOP everything into

Past Rarity 1902-O Morgan Silver Dollar, Brilliant Uncirculated
Tow-Behind Model

SHIPPING
83609X 2014

Self-Propelled Model

Call for a FREE DVD and Catalog!

TOLL-FREE

888-201-5557
DReldbrush.com

Fifty years ago this historic 90% silver dollar was a key rarity in the popular series. Then hundreds of bags of pristine issues emerged during the last Treasury releases of the 1960s. Our Brilliant Uncirculated specimens are as beautiful as the day they left the mint well over one hundred years ago. Youd pay $120 elsewhere. NOW $69 (#44247). Limit 1 per household. NO ON-APPROVAL COINS SENT; NO CLUBS TO JOIN. 30-Day No-Risk Home Examination: Money-Back Guarantee. International Coins & Currency 62 Ridge Street, Dept. N5444, Montpelier, VT 05602

1-800-451-4463 www.iccoin.com/n5444

800-426-2007

'''#"(!

COLOR CATALOG

FOR A

FREE






Design Makes our Inflatable SUPs

Faster and Easier to Paddle

NEW Sea Eagle NeedleNose Standup Paddleboards
Featuring Patent Pending Wave Piercing Design
Folds to a fraction of its inflated size

Unique wave piercing, razor sharp bow, straight-line hull and hydrodynamic shape make these new Sea Eagle NeedleNose inflatable SUPs faster, sleeker and easier to paddle. This allows you to paddle our SUPs long distances effortlessly. All Sea Eagle NeedleNose models come with paddle, pump and backpack carry bag.

Specs
Easy to inflate, easy to paddle, easy to carry, easy to store...Could you ask for more?

Watch Video 1-800-944-7496 or visit SUP.SeaEagle.com Review 19 N. Columbia St, Dept SM054B, Port Jefferson, NY 11777 WorldMags.net

3 Inflated sizes: 11 4 x 2 6 x 4 12 4 x 2 6 x 6 14 x 2 6 x 6 Weighs 21, 29 & 30 lbs. Inflates to 15 psi in 6 to 9 minutes

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

HOIST

THE SAILS WITH THE ORIGINAL!

WINDJAMMER CRUISES
Camden, Maine Since 1936

M AINE

WorldMags.net
or te t f dua c rfe gra Pe ur o y

SH OWC ASE

TO ADVERTISE CALL 860-542-5180

WORLDS FINEST

Eye Cream!

Refreshing, anti-aging $LUEUXVK(\H5H QLQJ Treatment hydrates, VRRWKHVUHGXFHVFURZVIHHWDQGSXI QHVV and promotes collagen for younger, brighter looking eyes.

Compass Rose
Offering Six Cruise NATIONAL LANDMARK SCHOONERS Options Weekly The compass rose is a reminder we are not merely travelers but are the navigators of our destiny. Card with inspirational words. Silver & Gold ............#X2445..............$235.00 All Gold ........................#X2446..............$575.00 Gold, 4 diamonds... #X2477..............$875.00

20% off with code SMITH23 at

www.dremu.com or 800.542.0026

Autobiography of a Yogi
Fascinating.
NEWSWEEK

800-736-7981

MAINEWINDJAMMERCRUISES. COM

MENS WIDE SHOES

FREE catalog 200+ styles

Cross Jewelers Portland, Maine

www.CrossJewelers.com 1-800-433-2988

A rare account.
THE NEW YORK TIMES The life story of Paramahansa Yogananda

DALLAS PRIDGEN JEWELRY

ONE AT A TIME BY HAND

   

1 inch tall with 18 chain

w w w. S R F b o o k s . o r g

EEE-EEEEEE, SIZES 5-20

www.wideshoes.com
1-800-992-WIDE Hitchcock Shoes Dept. 21G4 Hingham, MA 02043

Unconditionally Guaranteed

1-800-477-1856 www.dallaspridgenjewelry.com
Since 1973

American-made furniture of the nest quality.

Huaraches

Best Huaraches Guaranteed

KILL LAKE WEEDS

Proven AQUACIDE PELLETS. Marble size pellets. Work at any depth.

www.brandxhuaraches.com
or Call: 510-658-9006
moving gears you can wear

Order NOW FREE Shipping

Before

After

10 lb. bag treats up to 4,000 sq.ft. $85.00. 50 lb. bag treats up to 20,000 sq.ft. $334.00. Certified and approved by state agencies. State permit may be required. Registered with the Federal E.P.A.

KINEKT GEAR RING

Like us on Facebook

KillLakeWeeds.com
Order online today, or request free information.
Our 59th year

888-600-8494 watch our video at www.kinektdesign.com

Custom orders welcome. Visit us at chiltons.com. We d e l i v e r a n y w h e r e

SCARBOROUGH & FREEPORT, MAINE 866-883-3366

800-328-9350
AQUACIDE CO.

ATHENA PHEROMONES
Biologists Formula

tm

PO Box 10748, DEPT 569, White Bear Lake, MN 55110-0748

Unscented fragrance additives for men and women

SMS

Enjoy More Affection with Biologists Pheromones.

Developed by Dr. Winnifred Cutler, co-discoverer of human pheromones in 1986. I tried Athena's 10:13 for the first time last night. My husband professed his love for me 4 times in 30 minutes! -Julie, CAN

WorldMags.net

4-6/mo supply-10:13 for women $98.50, 10X for men $99.50

Athena Institute, 1211 Braefield Rd. Chester Spgs, PA 19425

www.Athenainstitute.com 610-827-2200

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

WorldMags.net

SH OWC ASE

TO ADVERTISE CALL 860-542-5180

Our demo video and catalog show lots of amazing projects you can cut on this robotic machine. Call for your free packet today!

*UDQHURV5G &RORUDGR&LW\&2 ZZZSODVPDFDPFRP

With 332 FDA tests, 13 patents, scientists tell us to run these ads: The ONLY water purifer in the world that allows ENOUGH DESTRUCTION TIME to destroy dangerous NOROVIRUSES (below) using UV and HEAT 100s of times/gallon (NOT ONCE!!). CDC: No Vaccine or Treatment is causing the closing of nursing homes, daycare centers, schools, hotels, restaurants and cruise ships (meter our water into the water lines)! With home and commercial versions, keeping patrons safe provides great publicity!! Also, ALOT OF ENERGY is used spliting water into hydrogen and oxygen (like electrolysis)! Ordinary water has a Hydrogen Bond Angle of 104 degrees between hydrogen atoms. If you change it to 114 degrees, the Body Electric requires almost NO ENERGY to split the water molecule (Video at johnellis.com the FREE ENERGY KEY). When people meet me: You CANT be that old! Even at 84 (website picture in my 80s) you wont change much! This water SUPPLIES ENERGY so the immune system can fight disease and keep you looking young! Viruses are so tiny they go through ordinary filters/ distillers, even your skin! The hepatitis virus survives 30 min of boiling and like heavier minerals, carry over into distilled water

THIS WATER CURES ANYTHING!!

LOOK YOUNGER AND LIVE LONGER!!

VIDEO PROOF

(TDS isnt 0.00!) An Engineering Degree from Lafayette College and Steam Plant Design: SUPER VIRUSES have antiquated ordinary filters/distillers (not ENOUGH Destruction Time! Virus & Bacteria Chart). Click johnellis.com for a WW2 story that will SHOCK YOU!! Gilbert de Daunant (Prince Rainiers cousin) risked his life saving these people (exploits in a book by the President of MIT) while his brother was jailed for insulting a German officer! History buffs will be interested in his links to American history and European aristocracy that buy 100s of our machines. Its on PUBLIC RECORD at the Dept of Environmental Quality (DEQ) when ordinary filters/distillers couldnt even stop the smell of 10 million gallons of e-coli and noroviruses (municipal letters with a machine)! Only 1000 gallons of light tap water was sprayed on the 5 acre waste lagoon (they also make light distilled) and the smell was gone in 24 hours, saving $10,000/ day in fines! Also, a DOLE FOODS 7 page contract. Listen to a recording: 800 433-9553

Gilbert de Daunant (Prince Rainiers cousin): I just walked 40 blocks and I am 94! Send another E5 to Monaco!

FREEater Bottled WLE! SAMP

570.2 96.0214

Water Can Cure Anything

ORDER A MACHINE 845.754.8696

watercuresanything.com WorldMags.net

LISTEN TO A RECORDING 800.433.9553

24 Hour Health Shoes

THERAPY FOAM INSOLES

ONLY

SAVE $3.00
Off Original Price

1699

Dept 69789 2014 Dream Products, Inc. (Prices valid for 1yr.)

of Soothing Therapeutic Comfort

24 WorldMags.net Hours FREE S

HIPPING

So Comfortable...Youll Never Want To Take Them Off

These may very well be the most comfortable shoes youll ever slip your feet into. Not only are they totally constructed of imported plush polyester from heel to toe, they have a therapeutic foam insole that conforms to the exact shape of your foot for ultimate comfort. If thats not enough, the top has a self closure that adjusts for an even more custom fit. Also features a flexible TPR rubber sole for sure footing and durability indoors or out. So comfortable you might forget youre wearing them. Hurry, order today and get a FREE surprise gift and FREE SHIPPING.
Satisfaction Guaranteed or Return For Your Money Back
#95021 #95022 #95023 #95024

MENS LADIES

S (6-7)
______

M (712-812)
______

L (9-10)
______

XL (11-12)
______

S (5-512)
______

#95017

#95018

#95019

#95020

M (6-712)
______

L (8-9)
______

XL (912-1012)
______

__ Pr(s) 24 Hour Health Shoes @ $16.99 $

CA residents must add 7.5% sales tax
$ $ 3.00

Regular Shipping Add $3.95 $ FREE

Great for
Diabetes Blisters Tired

T
T VISA

Add $3.00 Handling No matter how many ordered

FOR EXPEDITED SHIPPING (optional) Add An Additional $2.95 (receive your order 5-7 days from shipment)

$ 2.95
$

Check or money order payable to: Dream Products, Inc. Send Order To: 412 Dream Lane, Van Nuys, CA 91496
T MasterCard

TOTAL

Feet Bunions Swollen Feet

ADJUSTABLE CUSTOM FIT

T Discover/NOVUSSMCards Exp. Date

SHOCK ABSORBING SOLE IS EASY ON LEGS, KNEES AND ANKLES!

Card#

Dept. 69789

Name Address City Daytime Phone # Email Address ST Zip

Refresh | Revitalize | Invigorate The Longer You Wear Them... The Better Your Feet Will Feel!
www.DreamProducts.com
(website offers may vary)

Miracle Knee Support

Helps Relieve Stiffness & Fatigue
Only

OR

ORDER NOW TOLL-FREE

1-800-530-2689

Miracle Support For Your Knee

Magnetic therapy has been used by the Chinese for centuries to help improve circulation, reduce swelling & relieve pain. Our miracle imported knee support is crafted with layers of washable polyester/spandex for warmth and 32 - 800 gauss internal magnets that are believed to help provide relief from stiffness and fatigue in joints and muscles. 9L x 514W. Hurry, order today and get FREE shipping & a surprise gift. Satisfaction Guaranteed or Return For Your Money Back
Magnetic Knee Support

FREE SHIPPING

999

Dept 69790 2014 Dream Products, Inc. (Prices valid for 1yr.)

#89755

_____Knee Support(s) @ $9.99 ea. $

CA residents must add 7.5% sales tax $

FREE Regular Shipping

FREE

Add $1.00 Handling no matter how many ordered $ 1.00

T
STRETCHABLE For A Perfect Fit!
T VISA Card#

FOR EXPEDITED SHIPPING (optional) Add An Additional $2.95 (receive your order 5-7 days from shipment)

$ 2.95

Check or money order payable to: Dream Products, Inc. Send Order To: 412 Dream Lane, Van Nuys, CA 91496
T MasterCard

TOTAL $

T Discover/NOVUSSMCards Exp. Date

Dept. 69790

Helps To: Relieve Pain Reduce Swelling

GAUSS MAGNETS
Improve Circulation
Without With

32-800

Name Address City Daytime Phone # Email Address ST Zip

WorldMags.net

The Formation Of Water And Our Solar System From A Fission Process With An Improved Heliocentric Model (The AP Theory)

)BSEDPWFS
t

4P
DPWFS
23 original 4-color high gloss prints included.

WorldMags.net WhiteWalls

Magnetic Whiteboard Steel Wall Panels

Matthiessen
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32

WhiteWalls.com 800 624 4154

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
E-book from Xlibris

Some of the most fundamental questions about the formation of water and our solar system are logically answered for the very first time in this new, non-fiction, cutting edge, easy to understand book. The AP Theory is the most provable, must read book that directs our minds down new paths describing water and our solar systems formation. The AP Theory is the logical answer to the fundamental questions: how was water and our solar system formed? Grounded in science; it dispels the many myths and misconceptions surrounding water and our solar systems formation with a definitive description and chronological interpretation. This easy to read, essential book is a welcome addition to the information presently being offered as fact. There werent any water from gas formation theories until now and scientists admit they havent a clue as to how water formed. The AP Theory is the only theory which satisfactorily describes exactly when and how hydrogen and oxygen gases became water and where and how the heat and pressure necessary to forge the gases into water (H2O) originated. The AP Theory turns the astronomy community on its ear by presenting questions which severely cloud the creditability of the accretion (theory) process and by presenting compelling evidence, to discredit the gravitationally held (gas) atmosphere theory. Internationally acclaimed for its controversial, courageous and bold truth statements this one of a kind, watershed book advances cosmology and science to a new level of enlightenment by using the latest scientific discoveries to help prove its position. The AP Theory supersedes the present texts and library reference books. XXXBQUIFPSZJOGP
t
Barnesandnoble.com "NB[PODPN
t
orders@xlibris.com.au Volume Discounts library & school sales aptheory@aptheory.info

THE ONLY COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE FORMATION OF WATER FROM GAS EVER PUBLISHED.

WhiteWalls give you and your

team an unlimited blank slate that encourages original ideas and fosters out of the box solutions.

Peggy's Cove

Visit Nova Scotia

with Prince Edward Island 10 Day Tour $1395
This is your year to visit Canadas Atlantic Coast and the Canadian Maritimes. TM Join the smart shoppers and experienced travelers who rely on Caravan to handle all the details while you & your family enjoy a well-earned, worry-free vacation. Affordable Guided Vacations (+ tax & fees) Guatemala, Tikal, Antigua 10 days $1195 Costa Rica Natural Paradise 9 days $1095 Panama with Canal Cruise 8 days $1195 Canadian Rockies, Glacier 9 days $1595 Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion 8 days $1395 Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone 8 days $1295 California Coast, Yosemite 8 days $1295 New England, Fall Foliage 8 days $1295
caravan

caravan

Free Vacation Info Guide 1-800-Caravan Caravan.com

In Paradise features a bleak image of a railway junction branching off toward the gate of death. Then I walked out, way out beyond the camp, where, according to the maps, they had a great, huge pit for bodies when the crematorium got overowing. They were taking people out and bulldozing them into these enormous pits. I just wanted to see, sort of sense . . . identify that whole experience to the degree one can. And, of course, you cant at all. What was your religious tradition growing up? I grew up in a WASP-y, Episcopal, Anglican tradition. But very, very casual. What about spirituality? Yes, I do believe theres something there. Theres a creation, a creating force. But whatever it is is in everything we see. Its in that log, in that stone. Its just the power. And Ive had many experiences with it. Certain circumstances bring it out, which all the mystics know. That is part of our Zen training too. Its called an opening. An opening through what he calls a kind of gauzy veil that separates us from the spiritual realm. For a second, you see what the world is. It is a whole other way of seeing, which is horrible, terrifying, and extraordinary and a great blessing to have. Was it a mystical experience that brought you to Buddhism? Well, Id had a number of semi-mystical experiences, mainly through psychedelics. Ive never said it before, but the trouble with the drugs is that you can have experiences very like mystical experience. But theres always a gauze screen, always something separating you. You never are really at one. Youre still an observer. So you have been able to access the ungauzed, unltered awareness that you were seeking through Zen? Im not going to claim that I have.
98
SMITHSONIAN.COM

Guided Vacations Since 1952

WorldMags.net

| May 2014

Perfect Choice HD is simple to use, hard to see and easy to afford

WorldMags.net
ADVERTISEMENT

The invention of the year is great news for your ears.

NEW Now with more
power and clarity!

ver the years, digital electronic technology has made the way we live easier, safer and more convenient. In many cases, its even made many products more affordable (remember how much the first VCRs used to cost?). Unfortunately, the cost of many digital products, including the hearing aid never seemed to come down. Now, a new option has been invented its called Perfect Choice HD. Perfect Choice HD is NOT a hearing aid. It is a Personal Sound Amplification Product (PSAP). Hearing aids can only be sold by an audiologist or a licensed hearing instrument specialist following hearing tests and fitting appointments. Once the audiologist had you tested and fitted, you would have to pay as much as $5000 for the product. Now, thanks to the efforts of the doctor who leads a renowned hearing institute, there is Perfect Choice HD. Its designed to accurately amplify sounds and

deliver them to your ear. Because weve developed an efficient production process, we can make a great product at an affordable price. The unit has been designed to have an easily accessible battery, but it is small and lightweight enough to hide behind your ear only youll know you have it on. Its comfortable and wont make you feel like you have something stuck in your ear. It provides high quality audio so sounds and conversations will be easier to hear and understand. Try it for yourself with our exclusive home trial. Some people need hearing aids but many just want the extra boost in volume that a PSAP gives them. We want you to be happy with Perfect Choice HD, so we are offering to let you try it for yourself. If you are not totally satisfied with this product, simply return it within 60 days for a refund of the full product purchase price. Dont wait dont miss out on another conversation call now!

Affordable, Simple to use.

Virtually impossible to see.

Why Perfect Choice HD is the best choice !

Lightweight / Inconspicuous Sound Quality Increased Loudness Test and Fitting Required One-on-One Personal Set Up Friendly Return Policy Less than 1 ounce Excellent Optimized for speech Yes No Free 60 Days

Are you or a loved one frustrated in these situations?

Please mention promotional code 47940.

1-888-889-9027
81005
Perfect Choice HD is not a hearing aid. If you believe you need a hearing aid, please consult a physician.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

PLAN YOUR LEGACY

MARY HOPKINS and her husband shared a passion for learning. As a tribute to him, Mary made a bequest to endow internships at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the National Museum of the American Indian.

NAME

This legacy is a wonderful way to honor my husband and support the educational opportunities I treasure at the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian
Your Plan. Your Legacy. Your Smithsonian.

Begin planning your legacy. Please ll out, detach and return to the address below.
Send information on including the Smithsonian in my will or other estate plans. I have already included the Smithsonian in my will or other estate plans. Send information about gifts to the Smithsonian that provide income for life.
BIRTHDATE

ADDRESS

CITY /STATE /ZIP

TELEPHONE

EMAIL

PG1405SM

There are varying degrees of opening. But Ive found a more profound opening than anything Ive ever had. And soon we are back at Auschwitz again, but this time from a differenttroublingly paradoxical perspective. And question: How does one respond to the appearance of life amid a realm of death? One time we went in nice weather in mid-June. And it was very different. At the ash pits, where they dumped the ash, where people died, the vegetation was trying to come back. Even at the height of winter, I was astonished the rst time I saw it. There was snow on the public crematorium. And you see little deer prints. And little lichens, mosses, ferns, coming back in the bricks right in the gas chambers. Life is coming back. You cannot help but recognize the extraordinary life force that will crop up virtually anywhere. Theyve found it even on the bottom of the seaoor, where the tectonic plates shiftsulfurous burning, totally toxic, way down in the darknessand theres life there. Do you somehow feel that theres a kind of unity in all vital phenomena? I do think there is unity. Because its hard to imagine that we didnt all come originally from whatever that life miracle was, in the water or wherever. The whole plant and animal kingdomeverything. We were all part of the same blast. So yes, I feel a connection to it. With life. And death. Because thats part of it too. Whats your sense of the afterlife? I ask him. I have a bit of trouble with the afterlife. My own instinct is that once youre gone, youre gone. Really? Does that comport with the Buddhist view? Now thats a rude question, he says. I cant tell whether hes joking or serious. No, the Buddhists believe in reincarnation. But I have . . . you know you always try to verify your own experience, subjectively . . . and Ive never had that strange sense of meeting . . . reSMITHSONIAN.COM

OFFICE OF PLANNED GIVING

PO Box 37012 | MRC 035 | Washington, DC 20013 | 888.419.7584 | legacy@si.edu

WorldMags.net

100

| May 2014

WorldMags.net Add well-traveled to your resume.

In todays global economy, job candidates with language skills are increasingly sought after. Make yourself more competitive by adding a new language to your skill set. Whether you want to discuss a project, greet new clients, or meet your goals in another language, the award-winning Rosetta Stone method works. Without memorizing or translating. <RXOOVWDU WZLWK WKHEDVLFVEXLOG WR SKUDVHVDQGFRQYHUVDWLRQV DQGEHIRUH\RXNQRZLW\RXOOEHVSHDNLQJFRQGHQWO\LQ\RXUQHZ language. Next career move? Yours.
LEVELS 1, 2 & 3 LEVELS 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

399

FREE SHIPPING USE PROMO CODE: sss054

499

(866) 427-2441 | RosettaStone.com/traveled

2014 Rosetta Stone Ltd. All rights reserved. Free shipping for products shipped within the contiguous United States only. Offer limited to TOTALe CD-ROM set purchases made directly from Rosetta Stone and cannot be combined with any other offer. Offer valid through November 30, 2014. Rosetta Stone TOTALe includes interactive online services that require online access and are offered on a subscription basis for a specied term. Online services must begin within 6 months of purchase or are subject to forfeiture. Rosetta Stone, TOTALe and other marks used herein are the property of Rosetta Stone Ltd. and are used and/or registered in the United States and other countries.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net ORIGINAL U.S. GOVT MORGAN SILVER DOLLARS!

Only

$
Obverse

2900

each
Reverse

National Collectors Mint announces a special limited release of 2,541 Morgan Silver Dollars 93-136 years old at $29 each. Several prominent national dealers charge $46 MORE for a comparable Morgan Silver Dollar. These Morgans are among the last surviving originals still in existence, and each coin is guaranteed to be in mostly Brilliant Uncirculated to Fine condition. Orders will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis and a limit of 100 coins per customer will be strictly adhered to. Timely mail orders will be accepted if directed to: National Collectors Mint, Dept. 7594, 8 Slater St., Port Chester, NY 10573. THIS OFFER MAY BE WITHDRAWN AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE AT THE SOLE DISCRETION OF NCM. You may order one Morgan for $29 plus $4 s, h & ins., 3 for $94 ppd., 5 for $154.50 ppd., 10 for $303 ppd., 20 for $599 ppd., 50 for $1480 ppd., 100 for $2935 ppd. 60-Day Money Back Guarantee: If youre not 100% delighted with your purchase simply send us your postage paid return within 60 days for a refund of your purchase price. CALL NOW!

incarnations. I had an experience I described in The Snow Leopard where I saw my fathers hands. Strange. And I felt there was somehow an overlapping of generations there. And you do have the feeling sometimes that somebody you meet, you know them very well. Theres somebody there that you knew. But by and large, I dont. I tell him I have two more questions and Id be gone myself. First, why he chose a poem by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatnova for the new novels epigraph. In particular the closing passage: And the miraculous comes so close to the ruined, dirty houses something not known to anyone at all But wild in our breast for centuries.

Credit cards & check by telephone accepted, call Toll-Free, Ext. 7594

1-800-799-MINT

(1-800-799-6468)

National Collectors Mint, Inc. is an independent, private corporation not affiliated with, endorsed, or licensed by the U.S. Government or the U.S. Mint. Offer not valid in CT or MN. 2014 NCM E1-E91

SMITHSONIAN; May 2014; Volume 45, Number 2, Smithsonian (ISSN 0037-7333) is published monthly (except for July/August issue) by Smithsonian Enterprises, 600 Maryland Ave. S.W., Suite 6001, Washington, D.C. 20024. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C. and additional mailing oces. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Smithsonian Customer Service, P.O. Box 62060, Tampa, FL 33662-0608. Printed in the USA. Canadian Publication Agreement No. 40043911. Canadian return address: Brokers Worldwide, PO Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. We may occasionally publish extra issues. Smithsonian Institution 2014. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Editorial oces are at MRC 513, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013 (202-633-6090). Advertising and circulation oces are at 420 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10170 (212-916-1300). MEMBERSHIP DUES/ SUBSCRIPTION Prices: All subscribers to Smithsonian are members of the Smithsonian Institution. United States and possessions: $39 a year payable in U.S. funds. Canada add $13 (U.S. funds) for each year. Foreign add $26 (U.S. funds) for each year. Ninety-nine percent of dues is designated for magazine subscriptions. Current issue price is $5.99 (U.S. funds). Back issue price is $7.00 (U.S. funds). To purchase a back issue, please call or email James Babcock at 212-916-1323 or babcockj@si.edu. Mailing Lists: From time to time we make our subscriber list available to companies that sell goods and services we believe would interest our readers. If you would rather not receive this information, please send your current mailing label, or an exact copy, to: Smithsonian Customer Service, P.O. Box 62060, Tampa, FL 33662-0608. Subscription Service: should you wish to change your address, or order new subscriptions, you can do so by writing Smithsonian Customer Service, P.O. Box 62060, Tampa, FL 33662-0608, or by calling 1-800-766-2149 (outside of U.S., call 1-813-910-3609).

What is that about? That comes as close to anything Ive found to expressing that thing that happened to us. Something not known, youve got to gure it out. The people in the novel, when that mysterious something happened, they cant even say what it is, he says. But they know its true, its wild in our breast for centuries! Wow! Damn! I wish that line wasnt so long, I would have made that the title. I think its one of the great lines of poetry and almost perfectly expresses things. My nal question: After all the amazing variety of adventures, experiences, youve had, is there something that you regret, that you have not experienced? You mean other than the Nobel Prize? he says, half joking. (Not inconceivableor undeserved.) Yes, there is, he says. Sometimes I see something that delights me and I say, I wish Id been around early enough to enjoy that. And thats kiteboarding. I left shortly thereafter, nodding goodbye to the whale skull and thinking, well, that speaks of a vast life, doesnt it, if your only regret is missing kiteboarding? Once youre gone, youre gone, Matthiessen said. But I think hell always be with us.
102
SMITHSONIAN.COM

WorldMags.net

| May 2014

WorldMags.net Technology Breakthrough Safe, comfortable bathing from Jacuzzi

ADVERTISEMENT

Enjoy A Bath Again Safely and Affordably

Exclusiv foot ma e ssage jets!

What To Look For in a Walk-In Tub:

Five major considerations to help make an informed decision before buying a Walk-In Tub:
- Quality - A walk-in tub is a major investment. You want to find a quality tub that will last for decades. Look for one thats 100% leak-proof, mold-resistant, full metal frame construction and one thats American made. - Warranty - Ask for a lifetime no leak guarantee. The best tubs offer a lifetime warranty on both the tub and the operating system. - Pain Relieving Therapy - Find a tub that has both water and air jet therapy to soak away your aches and pains preferably with a perfectly balanced water to air mix. This tub is the first to offer a specialized foot massage experience. Its unique spinning motion provides optimal therapy to feet and legs. Best of all, you get it at no additional charge. - Comfort - Insist on ergonomic design, easy-to-reach controls. - Endorsements - Only consider tubs that are ETL or UL listed. Also look for a tub tested to IAPMO standards and thats USPC Certified.

FREE

PointPro Jet System Threshold Step

The Jacuzzi Walk-In tub is luxurious, feature-packed and affordable

here is nothing like the simple pleasure of taking a warm bath. The cares of the day seem to fade away, along with the aches and pains of everyday life. Unfortunately for many aging Americans with mobility issues, slipping into a bath can result in slipping onto the floor. The fear of falling has made the simple act of bathing and its therapeutic benefits a thing of the past until now. Jacuzzi, the company that perfected hydrotherapy, has created a walk-in tub that offers more than just safe bathing, peace-of-mind and independence, it can actually help you feel better. Unlike traditional bathtubs, this Walk-In Tub features a leak-proof door that allows you to simply step into the tub rather than stepping precariously over the side. It features a state-of-the-art acrylic surface, a raised seat, and the controls are within easy reach. No other Walk-In Tub features the patented Jacuzzi PointPro jet system. These high-volume, low-pressure pumps feature a perfectly balanced water to air ratio to massage thoroughly yet gently.

Some swirl, some spiral, some deliver large volumes of water and others target specific pressure points. They are all arranged in precise locations designed

Jacuzzi
Other Brands

SEE THE JACUZZI DIFFERENCE

Laboratory tests clearly show how Jacuzzi jets outperform other manufacturers jet systems, producing a deeper and wider plume of revitalizing bubbles. You get the best technology for an affordable price!

New & ved Impro

Jacuzzi

Walk-In Tub
For information call:

to deliver a therapeutic massage, yet they are fully adjustable so that your bathing experience can be completely unique. Why spend another day wishing you could enjoy the luxury and pain-relieving benefits of a safe, comfortable bath? Call now and youll get an unsurpassed limited lifetime warranty. Knowledgeable product experts are standing by to help you learn more about this product. Call Today!

1-888-672-6362
Call now Toll-Free and mention your special promotion code 58519.
Third-party financing available with approved credit. Aging in the Home Remodelers Inc. is neither a broker nor a lender. Not available in Hawaii and Alaska We are proud to support Operation Homefront in their efforts to assist members of the military and their families.
2014 Aging in the Home Remodelers Inc.

WorldMags.net

80973

Fast Forward

WorldMags.net
THE FUTURE IN THE MAKING

Far, Far Away

Human beings havent traveled more than 380 miles above the Earths surface since Apollo 17, the last lunar landing, in 1972. But later this year, NASA will send a capsule designed for people more than 3,600 miles into deep space. That capsule, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, is rapidly coming together at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its three sections include a 16.5-footwide conical crew module that can sustain four astronauts for more than
104
SMITHSONIAN.COM

three weeks, an emergency launchabort system and a module for propulsion, power and life-support systems. On any given day, there are more and more pieces on it, says John McCullough, the engineer who leads Orions 120-person assembly team. It looks like a spacecraft now. (Above: a prototype used for recovery practice.) In December, NASA will send the 25-ton vehicle on its maiden voyagean unmanned, four-hour ight twice around the Earth, with an apogee of 3,671 miles, that will test

PHOTOGRAPH BY

Bill Staord

| May 2014

WorldMags.net

B I L L S TA F FO R D / N A SA

the crew modules re-entry system, which involves parachutes collectively as big as a football eld and the largest heat shield ever built. A second unmanned mission, around the Moon, is scheduled for 2017. The hope is that long-distance manned ights can begin in 2021, and that eventual missions will take astronauts to asteroids, or even to Mars. Were here to push the frontiers, McCullough says. AMY CRAWFORD

The Great Tours: WorldMags.net Experiencing

LIM

ED IT

TIME O F

Medieval Europe
Taught by Professor Kenneth R. Bartlett
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

70%
off
ER
BY J U

RD

NE

Experience the Wonders of Medieval Europe

Travel through time to the golden ages of 12 of Europes most beautiful medieval cities in Professor Kenneth R. Bartletts The Great Tours: Experiencing Medieval Europe. In 24 lectures that use extensive location footage, youll discover the sights, sounds, and smells of teeming markets and mercantile centers, royal feasts and ritual, dramatic military engagements, magnificent religious pageantry, and the many colorful layers of daily medieval life. Astonishing in their preservation and historical authenticity, these open-air museums offer one of the worlds great cultural travel experiences, revealing not only the culture, rich history, and daily realities of medieval life, but the ways in which the medieval city contributed to so many aspects of our contemporary world.

21

R FE

LECTURE TITLES
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. The Medieval CityA Feast for the Senses RothenburgJewel on the Romantic Road MdinaThe Silent City Mdina and RabatIn the Steps of St. Paul PalermoA Mosaic of Cultures PalermoCelebrating Throne and Altar YorkWool and Prayer YorkVikings and Merchants AvignonThe Babylonian Captivity AvignonPapal Splendor CarcassonneFortress of the Languedoc CarcassonneCathars and Crusaders BarcelonaThe Gothic Quarter BarcelonaImagination and Inspiration DubrovnikPearl of the Adriatic DubrovnikCity of Seven Flags KrakwThe Royal Way KrakwCrossroads of Europe PragueFreedom of Mind and Spirit PragueCastle Hill BrugesBuilt on the Sea and Trade BrugesCommerce and Community SienaGood Government SienaThe Gothic Dream

The Great Tours: Experiencing Medieval Europe

Course no. 3021 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

SAVE $185
DVD $254.95 NOW $69.95
+$10 Shipping, Processing, and Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee

Priority Code: 95431

Offer expires 06/21/14

1-800-832-2412
WWW.THEGREATCOURSES.COM/6ST

WorldMags.net

For 24 years, The Great Courses has brought the worlds foremost educators to millions who want to go deeper into the subjects that matter most. No exams. No homework. Just a world of knowledge available anytime, anywhere. Download or stream to your laptop or PC, or use our free mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, or Android. Nearly 500 courses available at www.thegreatcourses.com.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net