ENATAL LEARNIN

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MAN BADE WOMB
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VOL. 8 NO. 3
EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE
DECEMBER 1985

PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON

EDITOR: GURNEY WILLIAMS III

GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO

MANAGING EDITOR: PAUL HILTS
ART DIRECTOR: AMY SEISSLER

CONTENTS PAGE
OMNIBUS Contributors 3

COMMUNICATIONS Coresoondence 12

EARTH Environment T. A. Heppenheimer 20

SPACE Comment .
James E. Oberg 22

BREAKTHROUGHS Technology Scot! Kariya 32

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Computers Owen Davies 34

FILM The Arts Milch Tuchman 36

STARS Astronomy Terence Dickinson 38

CONTINUUM Data Bank 41

NEW BIRTH TECHNOLOGIES

FIRST WORD Opinion Dr. Howard Jones 6

FORUM Dialogue 16

PRENATAL LEARNING Life Martha Nelson 24

MIND Behavior Paul Bagne 26

THE BODY Health Dr. Jeremy Cherfas 28

MALE PREGNANCY Article Dick Teresi and 50

Kathleen McAulifte

THE DRAGON SEED Fiction Kate Wiihelm 58

MAN-MADE WOMB: THE NEW Article Doug Starr 66

SCIENCE OF NATIVITY
COSMIC CREATION Piclorial Owen Davies 74
ALAN TROUNSON Interview Robert Weil 82

BIRTHTECH: THE IDEAL Article Kathy Keeton 90

SPERM DONOR with Yvonne Baskin

CHOICES IN CHILDBIRTH Birth Poll Judianne Densen-Gerber 106

TRAvb. SIM THE INTERIOR Fiction Scott Russell Sanders 98

ANTIMATTER UFOs, etc. 113

GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 146

and Phil Wiswell

FROSTED DUNE Phenomena Kathleen Norris Cook 156

LAST WORD Humor Parker Bennett 158

Ar,ngg hovers over the vast,

bieak terrain of Ingo
Swann's 45-by-50-inch canvas.
The
Salt Flais Vision.
eggshell is partially torn
away to reveal the'
cosmos Swann, a visionary
surrealist, is a leader
in this New Age art rr
 - '

M '' !::.;: ! ik>,~! .

ii! -r'S-

mv.m objections
ingiy inefficient.' With
;! :!! i
!,/! and norma;
,!!»,.
regular
il . ,
I
•erlii-ved
to 'Vf have
egg. Ttiese
largely boor; maim.ed by trie

expect to become] pregnant oriiy one bidh of more than -.000 babies who were
monthof even/ throe 01 al: women woo conceived through this o-oeoss.
'
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!!! p ::'!!!; Op :,,'".'.
.
' .|i v U ! IWl;
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ii 111".; .
, i.. '
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.
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only 60 percent will become pregnant . lion md ; '

n ji :
'.. a: the oi ?n-
after ihrse months of trying. tdc .eve; Remember I'ne bib-jiatic-.ns of
If •: Is so dlflicutUoriave'a baby why are' Gal
"here now mom than'4 billion of lis? Trie methods ot reproduction would be mom-
answer is simple A woman's rep'odactve .' . i
':'' ! U "U ,:- :
I. .!.;,.,

sysiem operates 13 drnes a year. As a eihioa; yamsfiok For oentures. or /sc sna
result, the system can to era IP some jneffi-'- I have subscribod to [he Hlppocraiic oath
ci&ncy and idood ty b: th. be' ei idi i
t. and when faced wilh medical diiemrnas.
To the reproductive sciential, however, have been gu:. eo ih lo: •[> ire I > \; .
fi

(be ineifioiences ot the human- re productive i :: leencohsid-

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i' tss pose a !

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lOSt &' /' '. thr ; treafoioi-;; omwelgh the risks r-o\ only
nunans. yoi aronal models seem made- for the pakon! but \v,-: yfhem involved.
.'!. Oi .!:. !..!:,.!.: : lend i
i
:
3s i' ' res ir.i: l- vai I'in a
mdicatss that many human germ cei's ;
ibeanlngiui way society must reach, if not
both male and female, are genetically •.-.. , w

FIRST
a oonse-ri .

:>... .i id i
!';.! e gei e Ic about these issues,. Scientific endeavor ".
embryos thai fail to survive. . does no: Nourish wllbout popu a' supoort.
abnormal human embryos seem Because o- a vocal minor.ty me score-

UUDRD
in tact.

to be [-noro common loan norma; ones. tarv of the Docai trr-oor o! Health. Educator
'

-XtiSi and.Welta'e ('HbVV'i in ^974 issued reguia-

s ;'.'.;; rely aoiiormal embryos sponta- :nted the
neously, some.tmes sc early that a Naiionai Institutes of Health f'om Eupporiinc;
By Howard Jones
.

Q'.
pregnancy is. no! even suspected. On other research :n human iV'F and, by exrenson.
occasions, trie woman's rejection media: otht r i
.
i
m " .',.". : i
•:

mArchconservatives nave ii'sm can fa. \i oped since the: tin'*;, in 1979 an ethics
voiced a blanket i '
'.
i
:arric" -o biiih :orr"in -= in life : .comnottee formed by Vie. socrelar/Oi HEW.
:.: i
!.„ ~a\ I'V'- research was not only
complaint against the sometimes a loving/burden, to the
albsll .
rmure. Nonetheless
"unnaturalness" ana soeem'as a whole. A child with
-'amity moral' 'no
i i'
". : mo govern ,

Qown s syndrome Is such a case. funding remains, withdrawn. -Aiy money

of in vitro fertilization, but
There ren ,. '.! a-e ii
! !.: ;. ni . h h is ;
yjack-of -government am effected by hundreds c genelm :

come ;.;.'..,'..' j
vide loung itio

action-may be the: most abnormalities such as diabems that am u :> -gesi

i

mdiog gi v, . .
,

nel nearly a:, sei'loas am iakrng their cue bom the covornmon!
uneinical.actofaii* ' imme
i
.
i /i Ivios ': people ano stay no oearof'a
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" I
!:''! \ ni J :.: ;
.-:. Ii I ".
human embryos;
ihai ail of us have many abnormal genes; Research on procrnbryonic development
smoe we nave :wo copies o; moor ger o -i e us to oolormino wftiph
i

one bom eaco parent— adefocl may no! embryos are viable and when are not. thus
oe expressed or m copy is normal. Mos; I! i
eioiog increase thi lumoof
humans am oulte- normal, and the r genetic ':, igii :." Altnougii this kind
structure acts to remedy any imbalances of -esea.reh nas oeen sanotoneo by the
i-hai ight ot'ierw be pi ;
rr. HEW ethics committee, there persists
perhap: tl ; rising thai
is r>:e a feeling c! uncas: ios-: uc:.:.'se fedliizec
and Imperfect a mechanism as human eggs are involved. Un-orlunaloly. embryo
reproduction may sometimes no! function .,! !! u :.' ... mused with ibottions
en Ic :'." ii,'.. some of "ertiizedeg.
aft; 15
fierce"!! of all coup;es who wish lo mere- E ill . i
- i vith
no; respond research on the p-oomtsryo. we wou^q
;o traditional therapies; newer methods b e mi"' i.i .'ii' ' :,n; -:-, r;6f !
. . !
'

are constantly oe:r;g oevoedvlr: vitro cios of human reproduction. Ni

feriiization (IVI-!. i.ne ass of donor sperm or in " I.
. :! . Igl '. I
:!" v ' .;. i| :,
eggs, the use of oonor-lemiizec. eggs, tile couples, they would also help us
arc surrogacy the temporary use of — clev i

another's reproduct ve capacity "n venous .

,
ntrol fhe is r of govoim u. ,

ton in lac* be the most unethca act of all —

preserve Te embryo .;. ..'..' n are small w>u :l e
. has also been introduced ootential benefits to the individual and
Most of these newer mpro auction society am great DQ
techniques have ruffled some elhicai
feamem. and each merhosi has its-own
;ps ,
,'. ., m'm mor.
have voiced a claime! mf against
1

fhe-'.'u-nnaiuralne'ss' of the entire field and

CONTRIBUTORS
Dnnruii

: j-:AGONS? = r;

Human life starts deep

female body, where, shrouded in
within the cally possible.Some of the most striking
evidence comes from experiments indicat-
mortality rate, with the greatest beneficiaries
being the very premature. In "The New
mystery, male sperm fertilizes ing the placenta can support a fetus in Art and Science of Nativity" (page 66) author
the female ovum. The miraculous result: a the abdominal cavity, outside the womb. Douglas Starr examines the spate of knowl-
single cell that divides and differentiates, But what man would want to experience edge that has revolutionized preemie
yielding, nine months later, a fully developed childbirth? Not Dick Teresi. "Despite the care. "Meeting the parents of these infants
fetus nestled in the shelter of the womb. fact that Kathleen McAuiiffe and worked
I
was a heart-wrenching experience," Starr
But human reproduction has long been iogether very closely," he protests, "there is says. "Some are devastated. For others it's
inefficient. Some women are simply unable no truth to the rumor that am carrying I their only salvation. It's hard deciding how

to conceive. Others produce defective her baby. We're just good friends." But -
to feel about this kind of intensive care."

embryos'or normal premature infants that there's a glint in McAuliffe'seyes. "I don't Complementing the theme of human birth
cannot survive. Today, however, with the think the idea of men carrying babies was is "Cosmic Creation" (page 74), this
advent of birth technologies, the historic very appealing to him she says,
initially," month's pictorial fe-iu.r ng artist Helmut

nature of human birth is aboui to undergo "but it may be starting to grow on him." Wimmer's work on the birth of the solar
radical change. It wouldn't be surprising if the firsl system. Wimmer's paintings highlight the
The area most revolutionized by advances successful male pregnancy occurred In process that began some 14 billion years
in technology is conception itself. And in Australia, which boasts some of the greatest ago with an explosion that spread the
"Birthtech" (page 90). Kathy Keeton, presi- advances in birth technology. But such a seeds of stars over the space of light-years.
dent of Omni, and Yvonne Baskin, describe procedure would not involve Alan Trounson, But genesis isn't relegated only to the
embryo transfer, cryopreservation, and even though his research into in vitro vastness of the cosmos or the shadows of

other alternatives to natural conception. "I fertilizatiomand the freezing of human the womb, where
"In the rain forest, the
believe birth technology is the most exciting embryos has made him one of the world's plant life grows on and over itself, and even

and most important thing happening for top fertility pioneers. In this month's inthe concrete jungle, where the grass
women," says Keeton, whose article is an Interview (page 82). features editor Robert pushes through the cracks," says science-
excerpt from her recently published book, Weilsucceeds in getting fhe internationally fiction writer an
Kate Wilhelm, "there is

Woman of Tomorrow. These breakthroughs acclaimed sheep embryologist to speak incredible compulsion to reproduce and
may even enable women to have children candidly about his work, something he has grow." In "The Dragon Seed" (page 58)
later in life, much like the biblical character rarely done. "The most exciting part," Weil Wilhelm embodies this force in the character .

Sarah, who at age ninety conceived and says, "was observing the in vitro fertilization of the seemingly retarded Cory, who

delivered a healthy child. process in action and learning that possesses a mystical ability to creaie life.
Perhaps the most controversial future Trounson is about to perfect a technique In our second fiction entry, "Travels in the
birth scenario is male pregnancy. At first, that will freeze unfertilized human eggs." Inferior" (page 98), by Scott Russell Sanders,

consulting edi:o- Octand contribut-

Teres!
ing editor Kathleen McAuiiffe were skepti-
cal, but in "Male Pregnancy" (page 50)
they report that male mothers are theoreti-
s OMNI
But conception is only one arena in two men plunge intoscark ungle and head
which new technologies are altering the toward amysierious mountain. Hounded
notion of birth. The field of neonatology has by scavenger beasts, one man comes
made great strides in lowering the infant to terms with the darkness in himself. CQ
 Introducing aNikon for
total beginners who dorit
plan to stay that way

This picture was taken by setting the N2000 in the This picture was taken in the manual mod::, with a Nikon
programmed mode, focusing and pushing the shutter button. 15mm super-wide angle lens, between Li and f 16 at !4 second.
I

Exposure compensation of - Vi stop. f:a;h fi:l ;:nd skylight filter.

Not so simple.

If you're new to 35mm But you won't be a beginner forever. So the N2000
SLR photography, also has a high-speed programmed mode, aperture
thereb no better place priority automatic and manual modes, TTL flash con-
to begin than with the trol,plus the ability to accept over 60 Nikon lenses.
new Nikon N2000. So as you progress from beautifully simple pictures
Its auto-wind, auto- likethe one on the left to com- iff
load,and can automatically set the film speed. plex beauties like the one on fY/ff0/f,
And with programmed exposure control, all you the right, one thing you won't \\fe take the worlds
have to do is focus and shoot. have to change is your camera, greatest pictures?
 LETTERS -

president
OMNI PUBLICATIONS' INTERNATIONAL LTD

THE CORPORATION
CDnnnnunjicAToais

Robuttal Lab Athletes

Richard Wolkomir's "Careers of the Future"
[September 1985] does an excellent job
oi outlining employment trends in today's
emerging technologies. No technology
exists in a vacuum, however, and predictions
that fail to consider potential areas of
resistance invariably turn out to be wrong.
Wolkomir's suggestion that plastics
willreplace wood for construction is
reminiscent of the argument of several
years ago that cotton and wool would soon
be obsolete. Are we really likely to stop
using wood, a renewable domestic producl,
which is not?
for plastic,
Although makes economic sense
il
expensive industrial robots to replace
highly paid auto workers, (he
Iread with interest "Ultra Sports" [August
1985], by Mark Teich and Pamela Weintraub.
Although sports technology has only
recently been accepted in the United States,
ithas been used extensively in Soviet-
bloc countries for years. Such technology,
including the use of steroids, produced
such wonders as middle-distance runners
who continue to improve after two decades
of competition, a fifteen-year-old world-
champion weight lifter, and sixteen-year-old
female gymnasts who appear to be no
more than nine or ten. This performance
Utopia has a downside, however, as
for evidenced by the short life expectancies of
Soviet athletes.
same doesn't Barry Willis

hold true for minimum-wage jobs. Further- Atlanta

more, robots aren't consumers, and neither
will humans be if unemployed.
they're Gesundheit
The profitability of automaton could easily In addition to the seven possible experi-

be eroded by government robot-use taxes ences one might have in puzzle solving
to pay for swelling welfare rolls. [Games, August 1985], believe have I I

Roland H. Priebe discovered an eighth: sneezing.

Chicago had cut the T puzzle out of my copy
I
of
Omni, manipulated the pieces every
The Doubting Dowser possible way, but try as l might, I couldn't
"Water Witches" [September 1985], by solve it. I was just about to give up and turn

Richard Wolkomir, reminded me of my first to the answer page when sneezed, I

dowsing experience, in 1958, at Purdue scattering the puzzle pieces.Suddenly

University. My fellow fraternity members and everything came together, and assembled I

I— all of us young, aspiring engineers a perfectly shaped T Could it be that I

and scientists —
were faced with the problem have discovered the ac/ioo experience?
of having to dig up a substantial area Ned Anson
around our house to find an inoperative St. Louis
sewer line.
We all laughed when the plumbing Omni TV Series Seen Worldwide
foreman asked for two wire coat hangers, The United States Information Agency is
bent them into L shapes, and proceeded to deeply grateful to Omni president Kathy
walk around the property. But suddenly Keeton for her generous donation of the
the wires moved, and the foreman instructed prestigious television series Omni: The
the backhoe operator to "dig here." Within New Frontier.

moments the line was exposed, and we U.S. embassies in 30 countries have
allrushed to find our own coat hangers to screened this series for audiences of influ-
see we too had the "power."
if
entialpeople in the sciences, industry,
Thanks for bringing back the memory. I
education, and ihe media. Clearly our
FOREIGN EDITION: had been one of the biggest skeptics partnership with you has benefited both
'/?,'- Ediiic-m
::.-p/gfl
there that day. Now think Igo outside
I'll our.country and our friends overseas.
ia Company, Ltd.. 55 dera-Cho. Shin;
kyo 162; Germany: R. ionOmni, Waile and see if my old "power" can be rediscov- Leo Jaffe, Chairman
ingerPresss AG.Pc h. CH-8021, Zu ered. and help me find my water line. Television and Film Acquisition Committee
Sw Tom Pearson United States Information Agency
DECEMBER
Effingham, IL New YorkOQ
OMNI

DIALOGUE
FDRUfUl
Omni welcomes speculation, theories,
commentary, dissent, and questions from
readers in this open forum. We invite you
to use this column to voice your hopes
about the future and to contribute to the
kind of info::
thought and generates breakthroughs.
Please note that we cannot return submis-
sions and that the opinion:: expressed here
are not necessarily those of the magazine.
Cloning Controversy
T. A. Heppenheimer's First Word [July
1985] makes some interesting points in
favor of human cloning, but disagree with
I
some of his suggestions.
Heppenheimer describes delayed
twinning, in which
a divided female
half of
embryo is frozen and years iater — thinking on the subject. His statement that
implanted in the womb of its sexually mature
twin, who then gives-birth to a child who
is a clone of herself.
suggest that anyone considering such
I
;
a procedure should irst be tested to .see
that she is free of psychological problems.
Ifshe weren't, she would not be a suitable
candidate for cloning. Personality quirks are
another problem. The cloned child would
share the same guirks as its parent/twin,
causing problems in their relationship. It is
the unknown in our children that leaves
room for hope that they will be better
than we were.
Yet another problem for the clone would
be privacy, which is necessary for any
child's maturation. How would you feel
your parent were an exact duplicate of
yourself, someone so similar to
orshe probaby knew exactly what you
were thinking and feeling at all times?
Heppenheimer also says that delayed
twinning could offer parents insurance
against the heartbreak of a child's early
death. Each child could have a clone,
waiting on Icppcrneimer tails to realize,
ice. r than excitement in regard to the prospect
however, that every child is unique and
cannot be replaced; what he suggests could
lead .to a throwaway mentality, such as
we now have with material goods. Why take
any special'precauticns with the original,
child? There's another one waiting.
Barbara Stand
Houston
16 OMNI
— .
Hepperheime' m^nitvns ihat it would men and women and combating
the best
human race to let cloning
benefit [he the worst?It may take a bit longer, but it
become a common practice, but seems it seems a sater bet in ihe dream of an
to me that two-parent reproduction is improved human race.
infinitely superior from a genetic viewpoint. Laurie Wandtke
irovokes is also proposed that cloning would
It Roseville, MN
be a wonderful way to study the extent to
which behavior is biologically determined. T A. Heppenheimer responds. Ms. Stanciiff,
Despite his or her genesis, a cloned why do you place such trust in psycholo-
person would still be a human being not — gists? Do people need psychological
a laboratory rat. To create a human being screening before being allowed to have
purely for research is not so much unethical children? Clones will have quirks, but many
as it is inhumane. relationships feature shared quirks.
Gary Heidt Clones are only as close as identical
Seabrook, TX so a room of the child's own should
twins;
take care of any privacy problems. As
I don't have anything against cloning for the throwaway mentality you speak of, a
. humans, but disagree wi!n Heppenheimer's
I
clone is still a human being, not a material
possession. Delayed twinning would be a
your clone is not only like you but is you sort of baby insurance We often carry
is false and absurd. Only can be me. A I hie insurance, which offers monetary
clone may be an indistinguishable duplicate compensation for the loss of a loved one.
of me, but is not me.
it Cloning is a method for replacing a lost
also disagree with the conclusions
I loved one with a baby that will, in time, be
Heppenheimer draws from University of that person's duplicate.
Minnesota psychologist David Lykken's Mr. Heidt. genetic stagnation would
research on identical iwris roared apart. become a problem only if cloning were total
That work may have shown "a strong sense and universal. Even a little sexual repro-
thai vastly more of human behavior is duction would maintain genetic diversity.
genetically determined or influenced lhan What I a behavioral
we ever supposed," but doesn't take il studies give insight mio cloning, not that
inio account the considerable role played clones should be used in behavioral studies.
by one's environment. As for a clone that "actually is you, " a
Heppenheimer's hypothetical Karen clone would, in reality, be an identical twin.
wouldn't be anything like her delayed-twin Mr. Rea's point is well taken.
if clone, because the two would have grown Although Lykken's research on identical
up in different decades. Such a time twins did indeed fina expected influences
you that he difference would see major changes in that were caused by environment, what was
society and would translate into significant surprising were the strong similarities he
differences in behavior. found in twins reared apart, even in widely
Gary S. Rea differing environments.
Oklahoma Ci:y Ms. Wandtke, cloning is one more way to
make babies, and every baby born is a
tcan't help but feel more apprehension potential Hitler or a potential Gandhi. No,
we're not better off settling for what we
of human cloning. True, cloning would have in the- here and now any more than
provide the comfort of knowing that such we would have been a century ago, before
people as Mahatmrj Gandhi and Martin pasteurization, antibiotics, or vaccines.
Luther King could live again. But you could Cloning can be viewed as a tool, and the
also clone such demonic forces as Adolf better our tools the more we can
effectively
Hitler and Charles Manson. solve our problems. Cloning may prove to
iff Wouldn't we be better off by working be a most valuable tool in the dream of
with what we have here and now, nurturing improving the human race.DO

PERPETUAL MOTION
EARTH
ByT. A. Heppenheimer
J^^few years ago in Belton, Texas, an
#^^fc inventor named Arnold Burke
m %built a perpetual-motion machine.
He called Jeremiah 33:3, after the biblical
it
passage: "I will answer thee and show
thee great and mighty things, which thou
knowest not." His great and mighty thing
was a 200-gallon water tank, 12 feet tall.
Water spilling from the top turned an
electricity-generating turbine. Then, to get
the water back into the tank, Burke relied
on "energy-free submersible pumps,"
the heart of his invention. With this, he
attracted $800,000 from investors."
After an investigation showed that a
hidden wire led from the "energy-free
pumps" to an electrical outlet, the state
attorney general charged Burke with theft
and perjury. But at his trial, Burke said
he had replaced his special pumps with
standard electrically driven ones only
to protect his secret from prying eyes. He
was acquitted.
"We had reasonable doubt of the
defendant's guilt." the jury foreman declared.
"The Lord's will was done," said Burke.
More recently, in Los Angeles, there was
-macrynejnveri'O', conir-j
—
the case of the inventor Karl Aegerter and
his attorney, Jackson Chandler. Aegerter
built a 1,600-pound "aegerter motor,"
which he and Chandler claimed generated
more energy than consumed. Essentially,
it
the motor featured a long tube fed with
compressed air from an outside source. The
compressed air turned a propeller, and
the energyproduced by the propeller was
siphoned off for use.
Aegerter and Chandler described their
motor as "the power energy source of
the world forall times." But to those in the
know, proof of that claim rested in the
machine's true perpetual-motion ability
the. ability to run itself. The means seemed
obvious: Why not forget about compressed
air from an outside source and simply
connect the two ends of the lube so that
the same air could travel around and around.
The air would run with energy produced
by the machine itself.
Even when the duo said they couldn't
figure out how to connect the two ends of
the tube, investors, who put up $850,000,
remained convinced. Not so the district
attorney, who charged Aegerter and
v;:!h his brzincn.-d.
Chandler with fraud, theft, and conspiracy.
"We've had experts analyze the
machine, and in their opinion, it was worth-
less," said prosecutor James Green. But
despite the evidence, the so-called inventors
were acquitted. "The jury, actually believed
the machine delivered more power than
went into it," complained Green. "I know
because. they told me so."
But the latest and most successful of
these inventors is Joseph Newman, of
Lucedale, Mississippi. Newman has devel-
oped what his patent application calls an
"Energy Generation System Having Higher
Energy Output Than Input." Proficient in
neither math nor physics, he explains his
machine with a unified field theory, he-
recently developed on his own: "All matier
is made up of one entity," says Newman,
"This ingenious principle is so simple it
befuddles ihe mind."
Newman calls this entity, which allegedly
runs his machine, the gyroscopic particle.
"There is no instrument made that can
weigh or see it," he explains. What is this
particle's mass? "I haven't concerned
myself with that," he says. "I don't give a
hoot about maihematics."
The essence of the Newman machine is
an electric motor powered by batteries
and featuring a 600-pound rotating magnet.
The gyroscopic particles slowly turn the
magnet's mass into energy, says Newman.
These particles, he adds, are also respon-
sible for tornadoes, dowsing, and ESR
Why hasn't Newman run the machine on
own energy, proving beyond the
ifs
shadow of a dotot that is pcoetual-motion
capability is real? "That's an unthinking
question," says the inventor, who insists the
term perpetual motion does not apply to
his generator. "The problem we have now is
that the machine produces too much
—
energy if ran on its own power would
it it
be overloaded or destroyed."
Electrical engineer Karl W. Carlson, of
Mississippi State University, has a different
point of view. Carlson, who tested the
Newman motor in March 1983, found to it
be between 55 and 76 percent efficient;
most normal motors, he notes, are between
75 and 95 percent efficient.
But Newman has looked elsewhere for
CONTINUED ON PAGE 154
ISLAND MADNESS

By James E. Oberg

J^^ speck the vast Pacific

tiny in and adding special shuttle guidance during the construction of such a base.
#i^^l
Ocean. Easter Island has become equipment. But the Soviet Union's reaction The Americanization of life on the island will
M % the focus of a cosmic-scale has caused both the United States and inflict rreparable damage."

dispute. One of the most isolated areas on Chile some concern. —

The Soviets have little if any basis for —
Earth — 2,200 miles from the nearest Chile, From the moment this NASA project their arguments. The Chilean government
land — it is still shrouded
partially the in became public. Moscow papers and radio insists that laws protecting archaeological
mists of its past. The origins of its giant stone stations fired a steady stream of accusa- areas will be strictly enforced. "None of
statues remain a mystery to this day. But NASA and the Chilean government.
tions at these modifications will affect the historical
the island has recently been thrust into the The Soviets contend that the project is treasures for which Isla de Pascua is
international spotlight. actually an effort to establish a nuclear- famous," says a NASA spokesman.
In mid-1985, NASA announced that it armed military base on the island. On July Furthermore, the guidance equipment to
was negotiating with Chile —which owns the 11, Moscow radio commentator Igor Chari- be installed is hardly appropriate for
46-square-mi!e island it calls Isla de kov claimed that 'American experts have navigating missiles— the system is currently
Pascua— for the right to establish an determined that from there [Easter Island] used in civilian airliners. It will be installed
emergency space shuttle landing facility it will .be very convenient to control the in the existing Mataveri Airport tower and
there. The port's function would be highly accuracy of guidance of nuclear missiles." operated by Chilean officials. U.S. officials
specitic: to accommodate shuttles launched The Soviets have even gone so far as will spend very little time on the island.
from Vandenburg Air Force Base. If a to say that the setting up ot an Air Force Just prior to a launch from Vandenburg, a
spaceship lost power during its ascent and base will turn the island into a U.S. colonial NASA team will on Isla de Pascua to
arrive
the mission had to be aborted, the crew enclave. According to a report issued check out the equipment and communica-
could make an emergency dive to the by the news agency Tass, "Washington's tions link. As soon as the spaceship is
prepared landing strip. encroachment upon the island cannot safely in orbit, they will pack up and go.
Within a few months, both governments be regarded otherwise than an encroach- The worry is that the Soviets' faulty
reached an agreement, and according ment upon the asset of the whole of assumptions may unduly alarm other
announcements, the Chileans
to official mankind. . . . Invaluable monuments in the countries that have consented to act as
promised to upgrade Easter Island's natural open-air museum will be destroyed. hosts for aborted shuttle missions. These
Mataveri Airport by extending its runway and the island's ecology will be disrupted- include Argentina, Zaire, Turkey, and Japan.
Such emergency-landing agreements
are fundamental to the survival of the space
program. In the event of a critical mechani-
cal failure, human lives could depend
on such cooperation.
Thus far, the Chileans are continuing to
honor their agreement, although a group of
Chileans protesting the treaty did hold a
demonstration in July. The first launch from
Vandenburg is slated for spring 1986.

Airport modifications will still be under way

at that point, but there will be navigation
aids and lights to guide the shuttle should
the launch be aborted. By the time the
second polar mission is made, next fall, the
runway extension should be completed.
Although it's highly unlikely that astronauts
willever have to make an emergency
landing on Easter Island, such preparations
are easy to justify. And there's a rather
simple way for the Soviets to finally assuage

their fears of a U.S. military presence on

the de Pascua; They could send an
Isla

inspection team to see whether the landing

strip would be useful to cosmonauts as
n calm the Soviets. well as to astronauts.OQ
 — "

LISTENING IN THE WOMB

By Martha Nelson

experiences a J ter Dim. vowel and consonant sound." In work now

Parents have known for a long time result of
as
looked
whatever caused this preference
It

under way DeCasper hopes to pinpoint

that kids find Dr. Seuss's classic if

iale. The Cat in the Hat, irresistible. was prenatal." which part ot the auditory experience
Now the cat has found his way into science. To explore that possibility, DeCasper and babies are remembering.
Using the verse to test babies' recall of Spence askeo pregnant volunteers to For the moment, though, the most
prenatal expo no nee. psychologists Anthony read The Cat the Hat aloud twice a day
in promising use oi the new "fetal psychology"

DeCasper ane Iv'olanie Spsnce made during the sx wee^s cf their oregnan-
last the care of premature infants. Dr.
lies in

some intriguing discover- es that may help
doctors learn how to better care for prema-
ture infants. Their research also has some
interesting implications for Ihe development
of the artificial womb.
DeCasper, a professor at the University
of North Carolina, in Greensboro, began to
work with infanls n [he Seventies, explor-
cies. A few days after birth, the babies
were offered a choice of two tapes: the
mother reading The Cat in the Ha! or another
rhyme with a different rhythm. Ten out of
the 12 infants tested chose the story their
mothers had read to them in the womb.
It appeared as the babies had learned the
if
s'tory, or more precisely, says DeCasper,
;
Norman Krasnegor, chief of the Human
Learning and Behavior Branch at the
National Institutes of Health, sees ways in
which DeCasper's research may aid
neonatologists. More sophisticated medical
technology has allowed tnsse specialists
to save babies who weigh as little as 2.2
pounds, infants who earlier could not have

ing the auditory functioning of newborns, "somCtnhg registered be cro birth, and survived. "But." explains Krasnegor, "we
who. he points out. "have a highly developed something was retained after birth." But he know only that babies who are born
sense of hearing at birih." He and psychol- cautions, "This doesn't mean that the prematurely frequently have problems later
ogist Earl Butterfieid designed an ingenious baby understood. doesn't mean that the
It in life with perception, learning, or growth.
communication system for "asking" babies baby can learn ABCs or that it learned What we don't know yet is which babies will
about their preferences. An infant wears to understand what the cat did." In fact, he survive with minimal insult and which ones
tiny headphones, which are attached points out, researchers have yet to will have lifelong deficits, if we can begin to

to two different tape recorders, andis given discover justwhat aspect Of the poetry the understand tnat. we w ;

a pressure-sensitive nipple, also attached
to the recorders. By changing its pattern
or timing of sucking, the newborn child-
not yet capable of speech, nodding, point-
ing, or any more complex means of indicat-
ing preference— can choose which tape
it wants to hear. DeCasper and Butterfieid
discovered that the babies they tested
showed strong preferences, preferring
instrumental music to white noise (a
nondescript static noise), and singing
i
begin to know
child recalled. It may be. he explains, "it what kind of care and attention to give
was simply the repetition of the word car, or premature infants."
itmay be the pattern of different words, DeCasper realizes that rghi-to-life groups
or the rhythm, the tempo, or some particular may use his work to support their political
stance against abortion. But, says
DeCasper, "my research doesn't bear on
the question of abortion in any direct way.
From a biological point of view there is
no doubt that the conceptus [embryo] is a
human one. That is not a moral position.
It's a fact. The political, social, and moral

voices to instrumental music. concerns have to do with something less

In another study, DeCasper, with When does the biological being
factual:
colleague William Filer began to test babies' develop a status such that we are willing to
responses to their mothers' voices. He call t a oerson?"
offered the newborns two choices: the DeCasper's work, however, may have
mother reading To Think That I Saw It on an
direct implications for the creation of
Mulberry Street, by Dr. Seuss, and another artificialwomb. "Imagine the typical day for
woman reading ihe same verse. In signifi- the fetus inside the mother," explains
cant numbers, the infants preferred the DeCasper. "She's lying down, she gets up,
sound of their own mothers' voices. In she takes a bath, she talks, she sings,
variations on the study, Fifer looked for she eats, she drinks. If all of this stimulation
differences between infants who were produced by ihe mother's activity gusta- —
breasl-ted or bottle-fed, between those who
were separated from the mother after birth
tory, auditory, visual, olfactory plays a
role in development, then substituting
—
and those who were with her continuously. an artificial womb may be inadequate, I

Despite the differences, the child's prefer- can'tspeak about the year 2000 or 2050,
ence for the mother's voice was consistent. he continues, "but it does seem to me
It seemed, says DeCasper, "as if the that the best gestation vessel fora human
preference for the mother's voice was not a Scriift osfees may 'f.'coi: iovnds from tr,e womb being will continue to be a human being."DO
24 OMNI
 .

LIFE SIGNS
nniruD
By Paul Bagne

The centerpiece of a controversial

The Silent Scream,
anti abort ion film,
surrounding environment or to pain; if
doctors detect no spontaneous movement:
tant oeierm na-n ir oecid.ag
begins. "The brain is the seat of human
when life

is image of a fetus as it
a ghostly and if the brain shows no electrical activity. consciousness and the controller of all other
is being aborted.In (he ultrasound movie an The machine that helps determine the organs," argues Dr. John Goldenring, a

abortionist's catheter draws close to the moment death is the electroencephalo-

of professor of adolescent medicine at Mew
twelve-week-old fetus and, bit by bit, sucks graph. With input from electrodes pasted to York Medical College "If the brain is
out pieces of its tiny two-inch body. The a person's scalp, ihe instrument amplifies unct on:ng, you are alive."
:

narrator, obstetrician Bernard Nathanson, the brain's eleotr city arc records it as Goldenring proposed a brain-wave
says the fetus "does sense aggression" an electroencephalogram (EEG). a squiggly guideline in an article for the International
and makes s "pathetic attempt' to escape. readout on graph paper. Depending on Journal o! Medical Ethics. He argues
"Nonsense," challenges Clifford the individual and his age. the EEG may that science should decide once and for all
Grobstein, a developmental biologist at the detect anywhere from 20 to 100 microvolts. on a consistent standard for when life
University of California, San Diego. When a person dies, the brain's ends and when it begins.
Grobstein questions the film's suggestion synapses stop working, and electrical "I'm talking about a medical definition that
that the electrical activity of the fetal brain drops below two microvolts. On
activity can be used at any time," Goldenring
can be interpreted to mean the fetus thinks paper/the squiggly pattern flattens out. says. 'At some point in utero, a live and
and feels. 'At that stage of life the brain Medically, a flat EEG indicates brain death active brain is present."
isn't developed enough to allow the embryo and signals doctors to unplug a patient's Because distinct electrical activity only
to anticipate anything." He believes the life-support systems or to remove any begins after cell structures for all parts
fetus withdraws from the catheter in a organs the patient had listed for donation, of Ihenervous system are in place, he says
reflexive action. Brody suggests that science use the the key to arriving at some definition of
"Nonetheless," he continues, "the same criteria as brain-life guidelines. If the lite is determining when brain waves appear.
embryo-fetus reacts. There may be primitive patient is still responsive, in his brain In the growing fetus, the brain appears

forms of sensitivity we don't know anything waves or any of the life signs, he is consid- tostir and to generate signals of activity as

about." Grobstein is one of a small but ered to be neurologically alive. early as eight weeks after conception.
growing group of scientists and ethicists Some have suggested that the presence But coherent, recognizable wave patterns
who think it's time to study the developing of brain waves should be the most impor- do seem to appear until seven or
not
brain more intensively. Information like eightmonths alter concoct-on. By then,
thiscould help answer one of the most basic researchers can tell from EEGs when the
questions in science: When does a fertil- unborn chile s awake or aseep. They
ised egg become more than just live tissue? can even decipher REM. or rapid-eye-
When is it considered human? movement. sleep wnich indicates dreaming.
"It's not a religious question," asserts (This also suggests that late in fetal life,

Paul Ramsey, professor emeritus of religion the nervous system is advanced enough to

at Princeton University. "It is a scientific construct and retain memories.)

decision." And each advance in fetal and But brain waves alone cannot be used to
reproductive medicine creates a greater decide when life begins, according to
need for an answer. One fetus may be Grobstein. "They are gross characteristics
aborted while another the same age is we do not fully understand," he says.
delivered as a premature baby; some "One also has to look at when synapses,
researchers want to operate on a fetus in neurons, and neurotransmitters appear."
the womb, while others want to experiment Before researchers can offer the equivalent
on embryos or to freeze them for storage ofa brain-life standard, they have to learn
in tertility clinics. more about fetal brain development. Some
We need a definition of life as consistent information —
when brain cells and nerve
as the one we now have for death, accord- structures first appear, for example— can be
ing to Baruch Brody. director of the Baylor gleaned from studying dead embryos.
University Center for Ethics. His suggestion But researchers also must determine when
is modeled after the brain-death guidelines these cells begin to function. "There is a
established bylhe Harvard Medical School bit of a problem here." says Brody. "We can
in 1968. According to these criteria, a do that kind of research only on a living
person is considered medically dead if, for fetus, and in the course of doing those tests,
example, he does not respond to the F-j-:'!i : zed egg. 'A'r,en :r- we might find out that what we have
26 OMNI PACE \Z2
NO MORE MEN
THE BDDM
By Dr. Jeremy Cherfas

AII I iihin a population of male and men. The firs: is the rncst w cey discussed: provides genes essent s for developing the

U \m female animals happily repro-

ducing by means of sex, a
mutant female arises, one who can sidestep
Remove the nucleus, with
blueprint, from an adult woman's cell and
place into an egg to develop again into a
it
its genetic placenta, which,strictly speaking, is not

part of the embryo, while the mother pro-

vides genes needed by the embryo itself.
males and still have young. Her offspring complete person. A second technique That might seem like the end of the line
are all females who can reproduce withoul involves fusing two separate eggs, each for asexual reproduction in humans, but
sex — by a process called parthenogenesis with its half ration of genes, into a single, I doubt One technique being used
it.

(virgin birth). Because she produces no
sons, the lemale gives birth to iwice as
many daughters as the other females do.
very few generations later every female
in the group is reproducing asexually.
Males have become a memory.
viable whole. The third one requires the
genes of an unfertilized egg to double up
A before proceeding to normal embryonic
development. Each of these methods has
been the subject ol experimentation.
Already the research has uncovered at
for domestic animals, for instance, might
overcome the problem by providing the egg
with a surrogate placenta. The placenta
develops from the outer layer of the fertilized
egg. This external wall of the embryo is
called the trophoblast. The embryo itself

the males I'm referring to in this popula- least one major roadblock to cloning in develops from the inner-cell mass, contained
tion are not men, but one day this fate humans. According to a team at the Institute within the trophoblast.
may befall the males of our species. Already, of Animal Physiology, in Cambridge, Normally, of course, the trophoblast and
artificial insemination by donor gives England, both maternal and paternal the inner-cell mass both grow from the
women who want the freedom to avoid
it contributions are apparently vital to the same egg. Bl: scientists have
fertilized

men entirely. In vitro fertilization offers development of ihe fetus. Eggs with two sets transferred the inner cell mass from a
the same freedom to women whose repro- of maternal genes do develop, but they sheep zygote into the emptied trophoblast
ductive equipment is not fully functional. fail to grow an adequate support system. of a goat, implanted the concoction into
But both processes require men as sources The tissues thai make :he placenta, which a goat, and ended up with a perfectly
of sperm. What I am talking about is nourishes the growing embryo, do not normal lamb. Ordinarily a sheep trophoblast
cloning —women reproducing without any form properly. Eggs with two sets ol paternal would not form a placenta in a goat's
contribution from men whatsoever. genes, by contrast, grow a functioning uterus. But by hiding the sheep's inn.er-cell
There are three basic cloning techniques placenta, but the embryo itself does not mass in a goat trophoblast, the researchers
that women might use to dispense with develop well. The conclusion: The father .
created a hybrid in which the goat
placenta, attached to a goat uterus,
nourished a sheep embryo.
What has this to do with cloning'' believe 1

that a similar process could enable a

woman to clone herself. We know that a
purely maternal zygote would fail because
it would not develop a proper placenta.

however, one could slip the cloned

If,

zygote into the empty trophoblast of a

normal fertilized egg. the result would be a
cloned female embryo, supported by a
normal placenta: in other words, the
successful cloning of a woman.
This would not be a "natural" process. It
would require" costly high-tech medical
engineering. But could be done. Of course,
it

to get ihe trophoblasts, the women would

need fertilized eggs, and that means a
supply of sperm would still be needed but
not much of one. We men may not be
entirely dispensable (yet), but it is surely
only a matter of time.DQ

Dr. Jeremy Cheries,. along w;;h Dr. John Gribhen,

'S Ihe. coauthor of T'ie Redundant Male,
If human maim; go :ne i-vffy .:;. ihe o':ncsaui and dodo h;:'d. vshere :v:ii t&biei, c published by Pantheon Books.
28 OMNI
MENDING MYOPIA
EREAHTHRDUEH5
By Scott Kariya

I ^* | hen Robert Mucci decided to 15 sessions spscec over a period oi several objects, the c iary muscle relaxes and the
'

I I become a New York City tire
mJ vv iighler, he knew one thing
could stop him. City regulations required
firemen to have uncorrected vision of at
least 20/40, Mucci's was 20/400. In desper-
ation, he appealed for help from his
optometrist. Joseph Trachtman, a vision-
training specialist. After considering the
problem, Trachtman put Mucci through a
series ot tests with a machine he had
invented while writing his doctoral thesis on
reducing myopia, or nearsightedness.
Twenty sessions later, Mucci passed the
vision test forfire fighters with a measured
score of 20/40.
Today, three years later, Trachtman has
patented the device, called the Accommo-
trac Vision Trainer, and has already sold
20 units— at $18,000 each— to specially
and ophthalmologists.
trained optometrists-
Sales are expected to double this year.
Built on biofeedback techniques, the
Accommotrac consists of a harmless infra-
red light system that measures the focus
of the eye, and a tone generator that
provides instant, audible feedback. During
months, patients look into the device and lens adjusts accordingly. Research
"train" their eyes to focus for longer distances indicates that prolonged contraction may
simply by listening to the change in tones. triggera muscle to spasm. The muscle
Although Trachtman's technique does isunable to relax, and the person becomes
not eliminate the need for corrective lenses myopic. This explains why students,
lor all patients, clinical nessjrements of professors, proofreaders, and other people
more than 100 subjects confirm reduction who read frequently and for extended
of myopia in almost all cases. Many patients periods often report sudden deterioration
with tested vision of 20/200 ended their in their visual acuity.
sessions at 20/40, good enough to pass The Accommotrac provides audible
in many states.
driver's license vision tests feedback whenever the ciliary muscle
The system has already won over many relaxes. During the sessions, patients learn
respected experts, including Paul Berman, how to control the relaxation of the ciliary
an eye consultant to the U.S. Olympic muscle, thereby gaining long-distance
Committee and the New Jersey Nets. vision. Although prevailing medical opinion
The second most common human affec- holds fhat myopia is most often the result
tion next to toothdecay, nearsightedness malformation, the overwhelming
of structural
often results from such structural defects as success of the Accommotrac suggests
an elongation of the eyeball. This condition muscle control learned may even
that the
can be corrected only by surgery, if at compensate for physiological conditions.
all. But nearsightedness can also be caused According to Trachtman, fhe skill of
by environmental influences that can be controlling the muscle is never lost, though
reversed. Extendec c osc work, such a refresher course may be needed two
as reading, causes the ciliary muscle in the or three years after the sessions are
eye to contract, thereby allowing the lens completed. Accommotrac success stories
to focus on nearby objects. To see distant should be able to see their way clearly
to such a repeat performance, especially if

it means being able to see clearly without

the aid of corrective lenses.

NEW PRODUCTS
For storing both moving and still images.
optical voeoo sKs are the wave of the
:

future: A single disk can hold an astonishing

24,000 pictures. And any image can be
retrieved instantly —
in less than one

second— at the touch of a key. Now Hitachi

is selling the a new generation of
first in

videodisk machines that not only play back

but also record. A standard video camera
is used to take the picture. The recorder
encodes the image— either black and
in

white or color — onto a blank eight-inch

optical disk. The recordings have a 13-
minute, 20-second maximum length. Two
things, however, may keep the system
out of the average home. First, this cutting-
edge technology is not cheap: $30,000;
and second, you can't record over a used
disk. (Available from Hitachi Ltd,, Hitachi
Atago Building. Nishi-Shinbashi 2-chome,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 105. Japan. )OQ
DEMYSTIFIED DATA

ARTIFICIAL
IfUTELLIGErUCE
By Owen Davies

The trouble with

using most of them
computers is that
is sometimes as
things they are. they require users to follow
exact procedures, to phrase their
600 databases,
your questions, not
And
charges for answers to
li

for time spent online.

it spares you the need to learn dozens
complicated as it is helpful. Lately, questions in precisely the right way, before
though, companies have begun to demystify up their secrets. These proce-
they'll yield of search procedures or even one. —
one of the most confusing corners of dures and query languages can be Just call the database's toll-free number
computerdom — the world of online enormously complex, and there are almost (1-800-EasyNet). You can tell EasyNet
databases. If you've ever had an important as many of them as there are databases. which database to search. Or you can call
question you couldn't answer, it's a devel- Furthermore, to use a database, you for help from an expert system that can
opment worth checking. must sign up for with an online vendor, a
it study your question, decide which database
Online databases are computerized firm that specializes in marketing is most likely to hold the answer, and guide

reference libraries that you can summon databases over the telephone. There are you to through a series of well-planned
it

with a telephone call. All it takes is your hundreds of them, and even the largest menus. EasyNet's computer automatically
computer, an inexpensive modem to link it offer access to only a small fraction of the translates your questions into the language
withthe phone lines, and a communica- databases being published. the database expects to hear.
tions program to operate Ihe modem. And they are seldom cheap. Database EasyNet charges a fixed fee of eight
Once online, you'll discover information on prices start at around $10 per hour of dollars per search. For this, you receive up
an astonishing variety of topics, If you use and soar into the hundreds of dollars to ten bibliographic citations or 500 lines
want to know about stocks and bonds, per hour. Suddenly, though, databases are ot full-text newspaper or magazine articles.
medicine, thoroughbred horses, or the best becoming cheaper, easier to access, If there is more, you pay another eight
restaurants in Dallas, you can find it in an and easier to use. The credit goes to two dollars for each ten citations or 500 lines of

online database. The selection is growing new online services: EasyNet, from Telebase published material. But the search if

rapidly. There are more than 3,000 Systems, of Narberth, Pennsylvania, and comes up empty, no charge.
there is

databases just a few keystrokes away,
triple the number only three years ago.
The trouble is, they're all different.
Computers being the none -too -bright
Business Computer Network (BCN), of San
Antonio. Each manages to cut the cost
and complexity of information searching.
At last count, EasyNet offers about
BCN charges only ten dollars per month
as a minimum fee, but subscribers must
learn the native languages of the databases
they use and pay their standard fees for
time in use. The emphasis is on the conve-
nience of having a single source for
hundreds of bases and on ihe chance to
avoid costly sign-up fees. BCN estimates
that signing up for all the databases they
offer would cost more than S3, 500; most
waive the fee for BCN subscribers.
It's.clear that both these systems are
only foretastes of wonders to come.
"Because we have all these databases
available in one place we can do enormously
exciting things," says EasyNet's Marvin I,

Weinberger. "We can build hundreds of

little information boutiques.

"For example, if you are an engineer who

needs patent information, you would have
had to go STC, Pergamon,
to Dialog,
Questel, and other vendors, each offering
more or less unique pieces of the puzzle.
Now you can find them all with one call,
"We can tailor an information boutique to
individual needs," he concludes. "You've
heard the saying, 'Don't worry about a little
luxury; it'll become a necessity by and
by.' That's the way it will be with online
taper human skills. information services in just a few years. "DO

FILM
THE ARTS
By Mitch Tuchman
The Defiant Ones it was a black convict
In(Sidney Poilier) and a white convict
(Tony Curtis) chained together, hating
each other, compelled to cooperate in
order to survive. For its year, 1958, it was a
bold allegory of racism, written pseudony-
mously by Nedrick Young, a blacklisted
screenwriter, and Harold J. Smith. In Hell in
the Pacific (1968) the tale about racism
became a tale about war. Lee Marvin was
the American G.I. and Toshiro Mifune,
the Japanese soldier stranded on a Pacific
isiand at the end World War II. Enemies,
of
they must cooperate in order to survive. The
plots vary slightly, but the allegory remains
the same.
And now there is Enemy Mine. Willis
Davidge (Dennis Quaid) is the pilot from
planet Earth. Jeriba Shigan (Louis Gossett,
Jr.) is the pilot from planet Dracon. Having
destroyed each other's aircraft, they land
simultaneously on the uninhabited planet
Fyrine IV, and, though enemies, they are
forced to cooperate to survive.
Remade motion pictures are by no means
unusual. Literary classics are especially
apt to be remade. There have been half a
dozen versions of Crime and Punishment, a
dozen of Camifle, and Hamlets without
number. Transpositions from one genre to
another are almost as common. Dramas
become comedies, and comedies become
musicals. Pictures change period and
gender (Cinderfeila). The early Seventies
were rife with remade melodramas in which
black actors were substituted for white.
Crossovers to science fiction are not quite
so common, but neither are they rare.
High Noon became Outland. Battle
Beyond the Stars is recognizable as The
Seven Samurai. The only aspect of Star
Wars not widely publicized was its basis in
Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.
Undoubtedly best known to film buffs,
however, is Forbidden Planet, a 1956
adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
What kinds of slories are most amenable
to translation to SF? In a word, the sim-
plest: the journey, the quest, the battle royal.
Moby Dick is a natural. So is Rambo.
The second great category, of which
Enemy Mine is an example, is the allegory,
with its schematic, universalist view of
36 OMNI
—
human relations and the eternal verities. mankind travels effortlessly through space,
The hidden assumption here is that although colonizing galaxies, mining their minerals
culture, period, or planet may change, the in compeiition with the Dracs, the only
substance of morality does not. (The other known race of intelligent beings. The
assumption ilself is culture bound, not
if result of this competition is war. In a one-
earthbound, but then we are probably not on-one aerial dogfight, Davidge and Shigan
yet producing films for other planets.) plummet to inhospitable Fyrine IV, where
Brotherhood is an obvious theme. So is any their war continues. Ultimately, however, they
story in which the members of one cullure must make a truce, and that truce
observe or come into conflict with members becomes understanding: that understand-
of another: Gulliver's Travels, for instance. ing, friendship.
Indeed, almost any picture directed by After certain production difficulties,
—
John Boorman like Hell in She Pacific, director Richard Loncraine left the picture,
Deliverance, Leo the Last, or The Emerald and Wolfgang Peterson, director of Das
Forest— falls into this category. What does Boot, was hired in his place. "Peterson gave
not work are stories that lack these films' an interview in which he said quite plainly
sociological conflict. Purely psychological that Enemy Mine was the best screenplay
dramas, which !he broader assumptions of
in he'd ever read in his life," says screenwriter
society are shared by all characters Ed Khmara. "I choose to believe that. I
soap operas, backstage musicals, and don'twant to imply that this is a message
pornography, among others—would be picture," Khmara continues, "and I don't
pointless remade as science fiction. want to imply that it's a preachy story,
The immediate source material for Enemy because isn't, but this story ultimately is
it
Mine is an 85-page novella by Barry concerned with the fact that to have
Longyear, published in 1982 in a collection enemies, we must dehumanize human
called Manifest Destiny. One hundred beings. We must put them into a different
years from now, according to that taie, mold before we can. kill, maim, and hijack
them. There have been a lot of stories
about that, but this takes a creature that is
not human and shows that under the skin,
the scales, the strange body, he is very
human after all."
Khmara was aware of the similarities
between his story and Hell in the Pacific
when he began, and he has since been
asked to write SF glosses of other standards,
among them Treasure Island and The
Treasure of Sierra Madre. "It's an old idea.
You can do Hamlet as a Western: The
king becomes a cattle baron, the drifter
comes to town to visit his mother. It's easy
to do that, but it doesn't necessarily add
anything. What's imporfant is that science
fiction enables us to look at things in a
new way. If we did this story about an
American and an Iranian terrorist, would it
be called exploitation, but science fiction
objectifies those things. We were able
to do what you could never do in The Defiant
Ones or Hell in the Pacific: We could go
in new directions because we didn't have
to obey the rules of physics or anything
Das Boot's Peterson Aliens c. else except dramatic continuity." DO
MOON MYSTERY
j Terence Dickinson
^^fter the Apollo astronauts
#^^fc nearly a ion of lunar material
§ » back to Earth, many astronomers
thought the long-sought answer to the
riddle of the moon's origin was at hand. But
today, 14 years after the last moonwalk,
the same three theories that were
still being debated. Is
prior to Apollo are
themoon: (a) Earth's sister, born simulta-
neously from the solar nebula in a process
called coaccretion; (b) Earth's daughter.
a by-product fissioned from a rapidly
rotating primordial Earth; or (c) our planet's
adopted cousin, a stray object gravitation-
allycaptured by Earth?
By taking a different approach to the
problem, a major study offers a fourth
explanation: that the moon is
remnant of a collision between Earth and a
smaller planet. "Posing the problem [ot
the moon's origin] in terms of coaccretion,
fission, or capture is not the right
address the question," says George
Wetherill, who conducted the study. "The
Formation of the moon should -be addressed
in the framework of the formation of the
terrestrial planet, not the whole solar
if
brought system. If you undc-rstanc how these were years, the thousands of asteroids had
formed, then the origin of the moon is become concentrated into a swarm of some
something that is going to flow from them." 500 mountain-size bodies called planetesi-
Wetherill, director of the department of mals. Through repeated collisions, the
terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie planetesimals continued to build into
institution of Washington, in Washington, increasingly larger bodies, protoplanets,
in vogue DC, arrived at his conclusion after perform- about the size of Mercury or Mars.
ing the most detailed computer simulation Some of these objects might have been
yet of the formation of the planets Mercury, gargantuan, having as much as three
Venus, Mars, and Earth. times the mass of Mars. Any object that
He began by simulating conditions that collided with the object that was to be
existed some 4.6 billion years ago.Then Earth became part of the planet.
ihe sun was a much younger, hotter star, The heat generated by impacts would
having just recently contracted from a have melted substantial portions of whatever
massive cloud of dust and gas. The young hitthe nascent planet. Debris from bofh
sun's radiant energy had pushed the the earth and Ihe impacting body would
lighter gases from the inner solar system have vaporized and splashed into nearby
the final outward, while heavier particles, less space, that could have lingered in Earth's
affected by solar energies, settled into an says Wetherill, and eventually
orbit,
orbitaround the sun. coalesced into the moon.
WetheriU's computer simulations, ten in There is some evidence to support ihe
way to all, suggested that the heavier particles theory. The Apollo moon rocks reveal that
coalesced gradually into increasingly larger while some of the lunar material is from
chunks of matter as they bumped into an unearthly source, some does resemble
one another in their orbits around the sun. the earth's crust. The unearthly elements,
After about 100,000 years a huge asteroid says Wetherill, could have come from
belt encircled the sun. After 10 million the projectile that hit our planet.
So far his study has received generally
good reviews from planetary scientisis.
("I've gotten a lot of requests for reprints,
and no one has argued with me so far") But
no one, including Wetherill, thinks the
riddle has been solved once and for all.
"It's possible that ten years from now,
planetary scientists will be arguing over
four theories, but hope not."
I
HALLEY'S HOT LINE
Science writer and amateur astronomer
Fred Schaaf is trying to get momentum
behind a grassroots -xvement called Dark
Skies for Comet Halley, or DSCH. Shaaf's
aims: to get municipalities to turn down
outdoor lights so that city dwellers can
glimpse the famous visitor during March
and April, and to increase awareness
of how light pollution from outdoor lighting
is' crippling astronomy. Those interested
can subscribe to the newsletter DSCH
Journal (four dollars per year). For more
information, write to the Astronomical
League, Department DSCH, Box 12821.
Tucson, AZ 85732. CM
 conjTiruuunn
THE ULTIMATE BRAIN
ack in the Seventies, Hollywood special-effects ex-
^P pert Douglas Trumbull set out on a mission to en-
*jfc hance the motion-picture experience. This master of
ItaMHP special visuals—who over the years has contributed
his expertise to such movies as 2001, Close Encounters of the
Third Kind, —
and Star Trek: The Motion Picture created a powerful
new image system called Showscan.
While tinkering with the film speed standard of 24 frames pet
second {fps), Trumbull discovered that motion pictures photo-
graphed and projected at faster speeds created some surprising
special effects on viewers. Subjects in lab tests reported that 60-
fps images were mofe vivid and real than those offered by stan-
dard movies. Recalling those early experiments, Trumbull explains
that "by substantially increasing the frame rate up to about sixty
fps, you can create tremendously increased physiological stimu-
lation of human beings." The evidence pointed to an important
revelation: The 60-fps rate approximated the speed at which the
eye receives information and transmits it to the brain. This helps
explain why the space between the Showscan viewer and the
screen seems to disappear, making audience members feel as if
they have become part of the image.
Trumbull's discovery has been refined over the years, and today
Showscan offers vivid, highly realistic images in 70-millimeter
widescreen accompanied by a superb sound system. The pri-
mary goal of Trumbull and his financial backers is to move the
system into the commercial motion-picture mainstream.
Movies that Trumbull would like to see shot in Showscan are
"experiential adventure films that will either have a lot of special
effects or race-car driving or something that tends to exploit the
medium," It's interesting to note that Trumbull had originally planned
to shoot the brain-tripping sequences in his movie Brainstorm in
Showscan, but the plan was eventually scrapped. More important,
the powerful effect of Showscan leads to speculation as to how
viewers may react to other types of fifms that could exploit the
medium in other ways.
What kind of effect would a Showscan horror movie, for exam-
ple, have on audiences? A Friday the 13th, Part 10 produced in
Showscan would probably be too overpowering. So would other
films with an overabundance of violence. Showscan may not be
for the fairithearted and impressionable. Judging from the recent
TRIP
public reaction to a movie like Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom, if Showscan were used one day for gory or violent films,
there could be a clamor from parents for a new kind of rating sys-
tem. Today some theme-park thrill rides carry warnings to people
with heart problems. Will doctors suggest that some patients avoid
Showscan's visual-roller-coaster effect?
Showscan also creates a feeling of voyeurism in its audiences.
Voyeurism, along with stimulation— another Showscan effect are —
the very responses that most "adult" moviemakers are trying to
achieve. So it would appear that Showscan and pornography would
make very likely bedfellows. But this is not likely to happen consid-
ering Trumbull's reputation and the company's desire to limit the
system to mainstream entertainment. But such a movie were
if
ever produced, the battle over pornography would no doubt heat
up even further, raising new issues relating to censorship this —
time of a technology.
Showscan also has a growing fist of applications outside the
world of entertainment. It's not surprising that Trumbull has been
approached by the defense establishment, which is interested in
using Showscan for its own purposes, So far, Trumbull has de-
clined to work on battlefield simulations but acknowledges that
Showscan "could be used as a very manipulative medium."
Trumbull is, however, encouraging the use of Showscan for ed-
ucation. He is reaching out into the academic community to estab-
lish nonprofit organizations that will test and later use his 60-fps
system as a teaching tool. Showscan's creator even predicts that
tests "will prove that if you put educational material on Showscan
on a big screen with powerful sound, students will retain substan-
tially more information than they would from any other way of
teaching." An enthusiastic supporter of Showscan in the aca-
demic community is Kenneth Brecher, professor of astronomy and
physics at Boston University. Brecher would like to see Showscan
used to produce high-impact science-and-technology movies to
draw students into the currently depleted ranks of university sci-
ence majors, This BU professor is especially interested in exam-
ining the psychological effects associated with Showscan and how
"they can be used to excite kids" about a range of subjects.
But Showscan as an entertainment medium is here. It will be
interesting to see how the public reacts to its first close encounter
with a movie of the hyperreal kind.—MARJORIE COSTELLO

coruTiruuunn
How can you check on the unborn child? Now there's a new prenata,
test for genetic defects that's safer than amniocentesis.
At present, a pregnant
woman who wants to have
her fetus checked for possi-
ble birth defects has little
choice but to submit to
amniocentesis —
a technique
in which amniotic fluid is
withdrawn by inserting a
needle directly Into the uterus.
Although usually safe, the
method does carry some
risks, including infection and
spontaneous abortion when
the needle inadvertently
nicks the fetus itself.
Soon, however, there may
be a noninvasive alternative
to amniocentesis. Developed
by Michigan State University
microbiologists Harold Miller
and Harold Sadoff, the new
technique —called early
prenatal assessment, or
—
EPA involves nothing more
dangerous than taking a
normal blood sample,
Knowing that a few fetal
cells are always found in the
mother's bloodstream ("they
digest their way out of the
42 OMNI
"
GOLD SUCK while Parduhn conducted a
bacteria census around
Prospectors, lake note: gold deposits in California,
Your picks and shovels, your Nevada, and Colorado.
ancient maps, and even Both researchers found
your electronic sensing de- that counts of 8. cereus were
vices may soon be replaced up to 100,000 times higher
by the simplest metal detec- in the area over mineral
tor of ail — a lowly bacterium deposits than they were in
by the name of Bacillus surrounding topsoils. Even the
cereus, which, according to depth of the ore seemed to
U.S. Geological Survey make little difference: In
geom ic rob olo g ists J h n
i one case, high B. cereus
Watterson and Nancy Par- concentrations occurred over
duhn, shows up in overabun- a molybdenum deposit that
dant numbers in the topsoil , was 3,000 feet underground.
above large mineral deposits. The assay, says Parduhn,
It started1979, when
in ;
costs only "a couple of bucks"
Watterson read reports i and requires nothing more
of bacteria in New York Har- j
sophisticated than test tubes,
bor that were tolerant of i
petri dishes, and a small
placenta," Miller explains, heavy metal pollutants in the i
centrifuge. Will the scientists
"and into the mother's capil- water. Could be that similar
it
1
forsake the laboratory to
laries"), the researchers bacteria might show up in |
become active gold diggers?
developed a method for sort- association with mineral i
"Right now I'm enjoying just
ing the fetal cells from the deposits on dry land? To test !
doing the research," says
mother's blood sample. this notion, he spent more Parduhn. "But," she admits,
I
A chromosome map of the than two years counting "my mind changes every
cells is then prepared, and microorganisms above a ; couple of months."
that map can be compared to copper deposit in Montana. —Bill Lawren
known chromosomal profiles
such genetic
of infants with
defects as Down's syndrome
or spina bifida.
The advantages over
amniocentesis are obvious.
"If we goof up," says Miller,
"we've lost only a blood
sample, not a fetus or a preg-
nant woman." Miller hopes
to see FDA approval within a
year. "It all depends," he
says, "on how gov-
fast the
ernment wants to move."
—Bill Lawren
"The best guesser is the best
prophet.
— Greek proverb
"Don't be so humble. You're
not that great."
—Golda Meir
 drinks too much, the alcohol PERFUMED SEWAGE: concerned sanitation officials,
in his bloodstream finds THREE GREAT SCENTS rather than spending a
its way into the ear. couple of million dollars on a
Alcohol, which is a com- Sanitation officials in high-tech odor-reduction
paratively light liquid, mixes Duluth, Minnesota, are using system, hit upon the novel
with the heavier canal fluids, cinnamon, bubble gum, idea of pumping various
causing a eddy. Both
tiny and pine-scented perfumes perfumes, or masking agents,
the astronaut and the drunk to cloak the foul odor ema- in with the sewage fumes
I

feel as though they are nating from that city's modern before they are vented to the
moving, even though their ! sewage-treatment plant. outside world.
eyes tell them they are not. I Because the plant is situ- After the fine points (such
The conflicting signals even- j
ated right on the shoreline, as figuring out which scents
tually make them sick. |
sanitation-department work best on hot days and
That tiny eddy, Money i
spokesman Kurt Soderberg which ones work best on
reasoned, could explain why says, winds blowing off cold days) are all resolved,
>
the room seems to spin I
Lake Superior have been i
sanitation officials think
after you've had one too :
carrying noxious sewage 80 percent of the odor can
J

i
many. And. if your inner ear |
fumes into nearby residential ; be concealed.
! can sense the intrusion I neighborhoods and onto There is already an im-
|
of a lighter liquid, then would it
j
thecity's commuter-clogged provement, claims Soder-
j

!
also sense a heavier liquid, j
freeway. berg, who says he personally
i
which would create an eddy "We're talking about a very, "wouldn't have any problem"
!
in the opposite direction, very strong sewage odor," living downwind of the sew-
i
making the room spin the he says. "I've heard every age plant "once all the bugs
The latesl spinoff of the j
other way. description of it imaginable, are worked out."
space program may be !
And, in fact, it does. At a from 'foul hog barn' to the — Eric Mishara
a hangover-free drink, '

recent seminar Money unprintable."

Dr. Kenneth Money, one of showed a movie of an inebri- Naturally, the awful smell "What is now proved was
Canada's first astronaut- i
ated cat, itshead held mo- has had the local citizenry once only imagin'd."
trainees, was studying tionless in a brace. The cat's virtually up in arms. So —William B
spacesickness, a malady eyes tracked left to right,
that afflicts astronauts during left to right as it watched the
the first few days after blast- room spin. In the next cut,
off,when he had a flash the cat, now sobered up, was
of insight. injected with deuterium
Spacesickness causes oxide — heavy water— a liquid
dizziness, vomiting, and heavier than the fluids in

disorientation. Sounds like a the ear. The camera panned

heavy drunk, no? That's in, and began
the cat's eyes
justwhat Money thought, and tracking right to left, right
his research shows that to left.

spacesickness and the HI The point? In theory, you if

effects of too much alcohol combine alcohol and a

may be related. heavier liquid in just the right
Both disorders are appar- proportions, their effects
ently caused by an unusual on the inner ear may cancel
motion in the fluids of the each other out. You can
semicircular canals, the bal- reach a happy state of intoxi-
ance organs in the inner cation without the hangover.
ear. In space, zero gravity "The point," concludes
lets the fluids slosh against Money, "is that you should
the walls of the canals. always mix your scotch with Aerial view ol a waste-treatment plant. Now you can get your sewage
Similarly, when a person heavy water. "—Nick Engler in a variety ol luscious flavors: cinnamon, bubble gum, or pine.
caruTinjuurm
NASA WALDO
In the parlance of robotics,
it's called a waldo, an autom-
aton capable of carrying
out the remote commands of
a human operator. NASA
now has one in the planning
stages, namely fine orbiting
maneuvering vehicle (OMV),
a free-flying spacecrafl
designed to service satellites
in orbits too high for the
space shuttle to reach.
Once released from the
shuttle's payload bay, the
OMV could carry a satellite
into a higher orbit, wait
until the satellite proved it
was functioning properly,
depending on the outcome,
return with or without
mechanical passenger. All
docking and rendezvous
maneuvers would be con-
trolled by an operator on the
ground watching TV pictures
transmitted from the
camera eye — something
like a video game, except NICOTINE-FREE
with millions of dollars of TOBACCO
space hardware at stake.
Rocketing between orbits To Jean Nicot, the six-
to a maximum altitude of teenth-century French am-
14,000 nautical mites, the bassador to Lisbon, belongs
OMV would burn hydrazine the dubious distinction of
fuel. But around the shuttle, having introduced tobacco
the planned space station, or toFrance when he came
contamination-sensitive home from Portugal in 1560
payloads, the OMV would with several pounds of the
switch to a much cleaner plant's leaves stuffed into his
cold-nitrogen propulsion sys- luggage.
tem. According to project For that accomplishment,
manager William Huber, the European scientists of the
vehicle's basic docking day named the highly addic-
attachments could be re- tive alkaloid called nicotine
placed in the future with after him.
dexterous arms or other The substance has fasci-
and ! complex tools for remote nated physicians, agrono-
I servicing of satellites. mists, plant geneticists, to keep harmful insects off its
its j
If all goes according to phytochemists, and the mod- leaves.
schedule, one of the three ern American tobacco indus- Richard Larson and Karen
I
aerospace companies now try ever since. So intrigued Marley at the University of
j
competing for the NASA have they all been with Illinois believe that nicotine
contract will deliver the fin- this particular form of plant may perform an oxygen-
ished $350 million OMV life that technical monographs cleansing function. But it is
OMV's for its first flight in early with such baffling titles as James Chaplin, of the To-
I
1990.— Randall Black "Quenching of Singlet Oxy- bacco Research Laboratory,
gens by Alkaloids and Re- in Oxford, North Carolina,
lated Heterocycles" are and a student of the weed for
commonplace today in the years, who occasionally
scientific literalure of tobacco addresses himself to the key
research. consumer question; Can
What particularly interests you smoke this odd marriage
scientists like Edward Leete, of tobacco and tomato?
a University of Minnesota Says the plant geneticist:
chemist, is that perfectly "Why would you want to
healthy, nicotine-free tobacco do that? Why would anyone
leaves can be grown by go to the trouble? If you
grafting the tops of tobacco wanted to smoke tobacco
plants to the roots of toma- without nicotine, you wouldn't
toes, which makes sense, get the flavor or the aroma.
since the two plants are Without nicotine, it would
distant cousins. be like smoking any other
But why, he wonders, substance — corn silk, for in-

would the tobacco piant, if stance."

left to its own devices, go to Says Reggie Lester, of the
so much trouble to produce Tobacco Growers Informa-
an alkaloid it doesn't really tion Committee, in Raleigh,
need? He thinks the answer North Carolina, "There's not a
Artist's conception ot NASA's shuttle-launched OMV maneuvering is could be a
that nicotine whole lot demand for
of
to make contact with a malfunctioning satellite in orbit. natural insecticide intended that." — George Nobbe
OMNI
 M "

the doctor said, by "very last

|
I'LL CPU IN MY DREAMS
pronation and flexion" of
Latter-day Luddites have the left wrist — in other words, You wake up in the night
been warning for years precisely the combined and your dreams've been a
that video display terminals j
tuming-and-bending motion fright;who ya gonna call?
can ruin your eyes and |
the cashier was using to The Dream Net Project:
playing Space Invaders can j
get the laser pricer to read a computer database that
ruin your mind. Now you the bar codes. A minor aspires to be a benevolent
can add "pricer patsy" to the '

operation solved the problem, Big Brother to the collective

growing list of diseases and the cashier was back unconscious.
wrought on us poor savages at work in a few days. If you're online, you're in
by the high-tech age. Wertsch is not sure whether luck. Instruct your modem to
It started when a super- this case represents the tip dial 1 (303) 722-6210 and
market cashier checked : of an enormous iceberg. The you will enter the digitized
inwith Milwaukee rehabilita- j
standard doctor's test, she portals of Dream Net, dream
tion physician Jacqueline notes, is not sensitive enough child of Henry Reed, of
Wertsch. Seems the checker j
to catch the kind ofpinched Virginia Beach, Virginia. There
had developed a worrisome !
nerve brought on by pricer you may choose from Menu Scared? Why not tell your
numbness in her left hand, i
palsy. At the moment, she is 1 (which includes a premoni- nightmares to your modem?
accompanied by an occa- ,
hoping to get support to tions registry, an open forum,
sional dull ache. The problem, run a more delicate test on a and psi computer games), private reality into a universal
she noted, got worse every large sample of cashiers. Menu 2 (dream news, lucid context. (Was that earth-
time she passed a can or In the meantime, she recom- dreams, psi anecdotes,
,
quake nightmare telling me
package over the store's !
mends that checkers de- the near-death column, and to leave L.A. or to settle
a
electronic holographic pricer. 1

velop a two-step motion, first the dream interpreter), or personal affair?) If you
On investigation, Dr. '
turning over each item so Menu 3 (parapsychological wished, your silicon servant
Wertsch found that the 1

the price code faces down, information, bibliographies, a could help you contact
woman was suffering from a then passing over the it dream newsletter, and statis- others with similar dreams.
pinched nerve brought on, scanner— Bill Lawren tical evaluations). Though imaginary now,
Sound otherworldly? This everything in the previous
is nothing compared with paragraph is possible, claims
the collective dreams of Reed Reed, either now or with
and his oneiric associates, computer systems of the not-
who wish to confound your so-distant future. Reed
W^t
PW
"'•*'-* CPU
% *£ - ^ \jV- ";
^jla .
•
•
;
computer's
processing even
more nocturnal data. They
(central
unit) with
. likens his inner-space project
to the initiation of the
program, "requiring the
space

;..-;h/''-- '%^\i:..
'

™ 1— foresee the day when your coordination of many different

l
: : .: ; :

\- .:• ':
computer can interview projects under development
Mr • •*, . ,;. 'i'-'rflSf you (as you relate your latest by many different people."
reveries), remind you of — Roopa Morosani
w previous similar themes, help
you create an animated "A corporation cannot blush."
cartoon of your dream, and —Howe! Walsh
display text and pictures
from previous intrapersonal "Children are aliens, and we
adventures. That's not all: treat them as such.
Your computer would gener- —Ralph Waldo Emerson
ate at your command a
survey of dream themes and "To study the abnormal is the
symbols collected over the best way ot understanding
One doctor recommends cashiers adopt a two-step motion: Turn past 24 hours from around the the normal.
"

over each item, then pass the product over the holographic scanner. world, helping you fit your — William James

YAWNS AND ORGASM
To the dismay of executives
at CIBA-GEIGY. the interna-
tional drug company based in
Switzerland, three Canadian
psychiatrists from St. John,
New Brunswick, claim that
who took
tour of their patients
the antidepressant drug
Anafranil constantly experi-
enced orgasm whenever
they —
yawned whether they
wanted to or not.
No one seems to know
why, and what's all the more
puzzling is that the more
common side effect of taking
antidepressants is a de-
creased sexual capacity, not
an increased one.
Nonetheless, the four case
studies were reported in
the Canadian Journal of Psy-
chiatry by Drs. I. A. Kapkin
and J. D.McLean, of Regional
Hospital, and R. G. Forsythe.
senior psychiatrist at Centri-
care. Inc. They stress that
their paper merely presents
some clinical findings and is
not tobe taken as a full-
scale study of Anafranif, a
more formally
tricyclic
as clomipramine.
46 OMNI
Two men and two women
for depression
being treated
all said yawning induced
orgasm, a side effect that
vanished shortly after they
were taken off the drug. One
of the women claimed she
could induce orgasm at
will by deliberately yawning.
The other said she experi-
enced sexual urges she
simply could not resist.
Of one of the two men, the
Canadian doctors wrote,
"The awkwardness and em-
barrassment [of orgasm
and ejaculation! was over-
come by continuously wear-
ing a condom." The other
male subject taking Anafranil
reported that he experienced
"such an intense sense
of exhaustion that he had
to lie down for ten to fit-
teen minutes after each
yawn."
Odd side effects from
tricyclics are not unusual,
the three New Brunswick
doctors, who no longer talk
to reporters, have yet to
say whether they have treated
any other cases involving
the antidepressant, yawning,
and the phenomenon of
orgasm.
CIBA-GEIGY spokespeople
point out that while their
antidepressant is widely used
in Canada and Europe,
not available in the United
States, adding, in a prepart
statement, "We cannot com-
ment on the validity of re-
ports associating the use of
Anafranif with a rare side
effect of sexual stimulation."
They said the company
was currently attempting to
determine if any of the Cana-
dian claims about the pre-
known scription drugs were valid.
—George Nobbe
.
TOP TA1LGATERS
Subcompact cars tend to
more than any other
tailgate
class of vehicle on the road,
according to a Purdue Uni-
"The image
versity study.
the big-car bully or the tail-
gating truck may be a gross
exaggeration," concludes
traffic-safety researcher
Michael Ooherty.
Doherly set up roadside
cameras on busy Indiana
roads in the Purdue vicinity
and videotaped the traffic
flow. More than 10.000 cars
and trucks were recorded by
the cameras; then the video-
tape was studied so that
the incidents of tailgating
couid be
tallied.
"Subcompacts make up
just twenty-seven percent
all the vehicles on the
Doherty exp!ains,"yet in
our study they were respon-
but sible for almost thirty-nine
percent of the tailgating."
Other vehicle types lailgated
in much more moderate
numbers.
Tailgating causes acci-
dents, so Doherty advises
that drivers stay back
it
Bad distance judgment or just looting
the worst tailgating offenders are the
one foot of following distance
for each mile per hour of
One major
driving speed.
reason many subcompacts
tailgate, Doherty theorizes,
that the smaller cars have
is
exceptionally short hoods,
of
which causes their drivers to
overestimate the distance
to the car in front of them and
thus inadvertently tailgate.
Then again, perhaps small-
car drivers are just trying to
get back at the world. Ac-
cording to Doherty, the
vehicles most often lailgated
inhis sludy were subcom-
pacts.— Eric Mtshara
"Imagination is more
important than knowledge."
—Albert Einstein
of "We do not know what to do
road," with this short life, yet we
yearn lor another that will
be eternal."
—Anatole France
"Except during the nine
months before he draws his
first breath, no man manages
his affairs as well as a tree
does."
at least — George Bernard Shaw
tor revenge? In any case,
owners of subcompact cars.
 and inspection stations
international-border crossing
points.
Many fruits and plants
not be brought into the
United States because of the
exotic insects or diseases
they may be harboring. These
may pose a threat to Ameri-
can agriculture similar to
the Mediterranean fruit fty
infestation of California citrus
in 1980. Officials believe
may have been
the infestation
i triggered by Medflies invad-
Evil fruit smugglers have a new I ing the country on smuggled
adversary to contend with. |
That outbreak cost
fruit.
at COLORFUL SMELLS
Color has a powerful
may influence on our sense of
smell, suggesls a fascinating
Ohio State University study.
"The purpose of this study
was to determine if there is
a perceived difference in
odor when hue is varied,"
plains Christine Malcolm,
who conducted the study for
her undergraduate psychol-
ogy thesis. "The result
that darkerhues of color
generally caused people to
perceive a given odor as
various colored liquids.
The interplay of color and
smell, Malcolm observes,
alters everyday human
perceptions. For instance,
when a woman wears darker-
colored clothing, her per-
fume seems that much
And darker-colored
stronger.
ex- prepared foods are per-
ceived as having a more
pungent aroma and spicier
taste than they actually do.
was The tendency to associate
stronger odor with darker
color could be a learned re-
sponse to the many things in

I
nearly $100 million to combat. smelling stronger but that r environment that are
FRUIT GUN The prototype of the car- lighter hues make it seem really correlated in just that
I bon dioxide sniffer has been weaker." way, theorizes psychologist
People who try to smuggle |
fieid-tested during the past In the study, 27 college Lawrence Marks, of Yale
fruit and
plants into the year at airports in Los Ange- students were instructed to University, a sensory-percep-
United States illegally soon I
les, t\few York, Philadelphia, smell various liquids that tion expert. As an example,
may have a gun pointed and San Juan, Puerto Rico. It ranged in color from neutral the darker in color you make
at theirluggage. The gun is proved to be 60 to 95 per- through progressively darker coffee, the stronger its aroma
actually a sensing device cent accurate in the various shades of green. Even though and taste.
that can detect contraband i field trials. all of the liquids had an "Or it is possible," Marks
plant material by sniffing Robert Duryea, of the identical lime scent, most of says, "that we are actually
out carbon dioxide inside a Animal and Plant Health ln- the students insisted that born with some kind of cross-
I spection Service, in Hoboken, the odor became stronger as sensory connection?"
Intact live plants and fruit New Jersey, says the main the shade of the liquids dark- — Eric Mishara
produce carbon dioxide, drawback to the device ened. And the results were
which builds up over time. j
at present is its lack of porta- the same when equal doses "Suffering isn't ennobling;
The carbon dioxide can The prototype weighs
bility. of banana scent were substi- recovery is."
— Christiaan Barnard
!

be measured by placing the :

"sniffer" end of the detector
against the seam of
luggage, thus drawing out a
sample of the air inside.
The device was developed
by chemist Paul Magidman
approximately 75 pounds tuted for lime in each of the
: and must currently be
sealed ]
plugged into an electrical
. outlet. Duryea says the
|
service is also working with
j
private companies to improve
the detector by reducing its

and engineer Wolfgang weight and having it powered

Heiland, of the U.S. Depart- by rechargeable batteries.
ment of Agriculture's Re-
search Service, to give cus-
— loel Schwarz

toms agents and animal "Thus science is much closer

and plant health inspectors a to myth than a scientific
new tool in reducing the philosophy is prepared to
amount of undeclared plant I admit, it is one of the many

material smuggled into the , forms of thought that have

United States. The device j
beeh developed by man, and
also is expected to speed up not necessarily the best." To the average nose, darker means stronger. Is it possible that
baggage checks at airports —
Paul Feyerabend humans are bom with some kind of cross-sensory connection?

COfUTirUUURJl
Will a tour-Ion squirrel be [he star of Japan's next horror movie?
Probably not. Even the Delmarva hits only three pounds,
GIANT SQUIRRELS
It was 50 years ago that
[he canny Delmarva fox
squirrel began to understand
what was happening to his
dwindling habitat and de-
cided to move out of Dela-
ware altogether. His depar-
ture caused wildlife biologists
to fear that the state might
have seen the last of the big
(up to three pounds), silvery
gray squirrels.
No one could have honestly
blamed them for leaving.
The government had begun
harvesting the mature wood-
lands in which they lived,
the types of cover they
relished were rapidly vanish-
ing, and the corn of which
they were so fond was vir-
tually gone. So the Delmarva,
48 OMNI
quife sensibly, moved
Maryland. Virginia, and
other exurbs.
This distressed wildlife
biologists like Kenneth Rey-
nolds, of Delaware's Fish and
Wildlife Service. So last fall
he trapped seven of the
endangered creatures^three
males and four females
and gave them a relaxing
chemical that enabled him to
slip tiny radio-transmitter
collars on them, In an attempt
to find outwhether the chubby
tree squirrelswere reproduc-
ing, Reynolds began to track
their movements. He'll find
out how successful the
project was come fall, when
the second litters of the
year" are due.
The wired-up squirrels,
who cover a 900- to 1 000- , work of fiction. Can you
— .
yard range, apparently don't name the title and author of
mind being tracked. Only the original story and the
one Delmarva has bothered year in which the story was
to slip his collar. published?
Reynolds's zeal about 1 The Day the Earth Stood
preserving the Delmarva is St/// (1951)
not always equaled by the 2. Blade Runner (1982)
Delmarva peninsula home- 3.Forbidden Planet (1956)
owners, whose concerns 4.The Thing (1951, remade
lean more toward keeping 1982}
squirrels out of chimneys and 5.Soylent Green (1973)
attics. "There are so few of —Ben Bova
them," says Reynolds of
ANSWERS
the threatened species, "that
they're not expected to be 996L 'uosujbh Ajjbh Aq
any problem." iwooy eyeyy iujooy ayew g
In case the whole project BE6t
fails, Delaware wildlife peo- '(IJBnig v uoa euieu eu.)
ple plan to import some jepun) jr 'iieqduieo uupr m
new Delmarvas from spots Aq „t,ej3Mi se-oo ou.m„ >
on the Eastern Shore, south- 0t9L bdjio 'e-jeedsa^eiis
ern New Jersey, and eastern uje!i|[M Aq 'issdujei ouj_ •£
Pennsylvania just to
. . .
896 '>P!a
1.
make sure. — George Nobbe y djimd rtq tdaaus o/JPSQ
jo ujbbjq spiojpuy orj 2
'
"America has been discov- 0>6l ssl e a *JJBH Aq
ered before, but it has always „'JSJSB|/\| 3U.) 0) ||eM3JBd„ I
been hushed up."
—
Oscar Wilde
out to
the "The brain is only one
condition out of many on
which intellectual
manifestations depend."
—Thomas Henry Huxley
SCIENCE-FICTION
QUIZ NO. 7
Some science-fiction
movies, such as Cocoon and
Star Wars, are original storii
created specifically for the
films. Others, like Planet
[ of the Apes and 2007; A
',
Space Odyssey, are based
on previously written short
stories or novels. Here are the
titles (and years of release)
of five well-known science-
fiction films. Each was based
on a previously published
 Can men have babies?
Research indicates they can, and volunteers
are already lining up for

MAL
PREGNANCY

BY DICKTERESI AND KATHLEEN McAULIFFE

There it was. After all the fruit- SINGLE WHITE FEMALE. 38,
less affairs, the callous re- successful businesswoman,
buffs in singles bars, and the seeks warm, nurturing, ma-
disbelieving looks of his SWM, 25-32. Let's have
ternal
friends, Jake found himself a baby: pay the bills, you
I'll

staring at hisdream "woman. carry the child. Looks not im-

She appeared in the form of a portant but ample abdominal
blind advertisement in the cavity a plus. Send recent
personal columns of The New photograph and histocompa-
York Review of Books: profile to Box 20035.
tibility

PAINTINGS BY ELLEN GOING JACOBS

 At last, Jake thought to himself as he com- healthy five-pound baby girl. An errant fer- with blood vessels that hangs down in front

posed a heartfelt letter to the anonymous tilized egg had lodged in her abdomen, on of the intestines like a protective apron. "It

advertiser at Box 20035. / just hope she her bowel, where it received enough nu- got adequate blood supply and nourish-
doesn'l insist on natural childbirth. trients to grow to term- without the aid of a ment," Jacobsen reports. "So with very
uterus. Dr. Peter Jackson, Martin's gynecol- moderate chemical support, the male ba-
Okay, so maybe it won't happen quite like ogist, reportedly told journalists that the birth boon was able to carry the pregnancy to-
that. But it will happen. Someday a man will proved was possible for a man to be made
it
—
ward term that is, well past four months."
have a baby. pregnant by placing a fertilized egg on his The experiment was testimony to the hardy
Already, a male baboon has proved that bowel. independence of the embryo. One key to the
males can get pregnant. Male mice have also Tabloids the world over announced that embryo's integrity is its ability to produce a
carried babies. And the medical literature is the era of pregnant men had arrived. The placenta, the vascular organ that normally
filled with two dozen case histories of women story struck a nerve in many men. Scientists attaches to the uterus and draws nutrients
who became pregnant after receiving hys- doing work on the cutting edge of human from the mother. Or in this case, the father
terectomies—proving that you don't need a reproduction were barraged with letters from — as studies by Jacobsen and others show
womb to carry a baby. men who wanted to be mothers. Some were that the fetal placenta is a versatile, oppor-

Our ticiitious hero need not worry about transsexuals. But others were conventional tunistic, and perhaps even an indiscriminate
natural childbirth, though. It will be anything men who si.mply wanted to experience the organ. As UCLA neuroendocrinologist Roger
but natural. What we're talking about is im- joysot pregnancy. Gorski puts the placenta is an "eroding
it,

planting an embryo into a man's abdominal With this background, Omni decided to tissue." seeks out and opens blood ves-
It

cavity, where the fetus would take nourish- check out the scientific possibilities for male sels. Because
of this, appears that the fe-
it

ment, grow to term, and be delivered by an pregnancy. What we found may surprise you. tus may be
able to attach itself to any site
operation similar to a cesarean section. The New Zealand case was not the first rich in blood and nutrients. Jacobsen's team

But we're getting ahead of our story. Pub- evidence male pregnancy. Back in the
for experimented with implanting fertilized eggs
lic awareness of male pregnancy devel- mid-Sixties, Dr. Cecil Jacobsen, of George on the kidney and the spleen as well but had
oped six years ago, thanks to a remarkable Washington University Medical School, per- best results on the omentum.
birth in New Zealand. In May 1979 Margaret formed an unusual experiment that com- The experiment did not result in the birth
Martin, a twenty-nine-year-old Auckland manded little attention at the time. He and of a fully developed baboon baby. When Ja-

woman who just eight months earlier had Dr. Roy Hertz transplanted the fertilized egg cobsen says the male baboon carried the
undergone a hysterectomy, gave birth to a of a female baboon to the abdominal cavity pregnancy "toward term," he means that the
of a male baboon. The embryo attached it- fetus had reached a point at which it had
Copyright ® 1985 by Dick feres/ self to the omentum, a 'atty tissue .oaded "survived embryonic development." The

One et the few men io truly understand Tney say the pa n from Kidney stones :
sib:li!y in any even;. tnink lira! anyllrng
tne k- approximates tine pain oi having a child. thai would ne^r; further that ordge o- un-
abiy enough Grouchc Marx 'Uer al- tut I've neve- heard ot anvone saying derstanding between the sexes would
ways complain that they can never know !
' -i iv- .: <ioney " in nne > iths be good.. Nurturing is c:ea'!y not an ex-
what it's like to g-ve birth." ho said.
:

l tel: I'm grateful to women for doing this job.

them it's easy. Just lake hold of your and I'm a- bit envious of that certa-n Joei Grey now starring in
lips — now fold -.hem back over your closeness that men have no; beer able Oh Broacway's n-'ie Norma: Hear-.
head F'oquent Omni contributor Bar-
'

to experience with the;' children. But

"
bara- Rowes asked seven male ceiebr- then. 'vo got a bad back 'o begin w-th
:

"God' forbid!. Men- have different

:'.£& --0'-
"heir feelings on 'ho meorca- pos- Dennis De Young, forrnor
'
'

strengths. Motherhood is not one' of.,

:
nt'ii-! -
"
"

! :- .
-
: : . !
=
;
i
I- w! i! tead Singer lor the rock them."-'' .
',." -.. 'group- Styx Alexander Godunc-v. oaliai dancer
iney said:
:
-;.

and cue of the stars ot Steven

f!K(X ChiOSE Spielberg's Money Pit

accept' trie Jaw backache Pit breas The Fonz" Winkler

feed- if necess But labo pains ha e 'Men giving ontn \o oabies m ins twenty-

got to go, I've '- t enough rouble w '

Its stares'. 'nn that you asked me this lirst century" I'm ~mune ;
to if
cramps." because several years ago, In the play Stuart Bergen best-seiimg
:> v i
! .
n pia '.rig'-it Mmco Polo Sings a Soio :
:
actuaity o-ayoc author oi Or 3eraer's Immune
author of 7brc/"r Song Trilogy ho son of a man who gave birth to me. -t
-

- -
'

Power Diet
Needless to say. a' the kmo it seemed
The closes; 'nine thai I've experienced like a :ota. fantasy. But here we are in "it's about timel'

to. childbirth has been kidney stones. 1985 lalking about in tne re?rn o- pea- it

normal geslation period lor a baboon is
seven months. At four months, Jacobsen and
Hertz "delivered" the fetus. "Had we wanted
to,"Jacobsen says, "we could easily have
taken the pregnancy to term, because em-
bryonic development was normal, and the
fetus was alive when we surgically removed
it from the male's abdomen. But we
bring it to full maturity because that
the purpose of our study."
So what was Jacobsen trying to do? He
and female-cancer expert Hertz, who. is now
deceased, were by no means interested in
allowing males to have babies. They were
concerned with pregnant women who de-
velop ovarian cancer. The ovaries produce
various female hormones. At what stage, they
wanted to know, is safe to remove the ova-
it
ries without causing a miscarriage? "The
question wasn't whether a male could bear
a pregnancy," Jacobsen explains, "but at
what stage does the embryo make all the
hormones needed to maintain a preg-
nancy? You can answer the question in two
ways. You can go ahead and take the ova-
ries out of different females and see how
many babies you lose. Or you can transfer
a fertilized egg to the male animal and see
ifthe fetus can survive in different stages."
The experiment has striking, though con-
troversial, implications both (or men who want
to have babies and for ihe field of obstetrics
and fetal development in general. Contrary
to what many researchers at ihe time thought
—and still think— temale hormones may not
be required for normal embryonic develop-
ment. The baboon operation implies that the
fertilized egg may be autonomous, produc-
ing all the hormones needs for its own de-
velopment. "That was
it
the marvel of our dis-
covery," says Jacobsen.
Not everyone is similarly impressed. Two
decades later, the study remains largely ob-
scure even to specialists in gynecology and
obstetrics because Jacobsen never pub-
lished the results. "It was one small part of a
much broader project," he says. Not unjus-
tifiably, this has raised doubts in the minds
of some of his peers. Says one critic,
asked not to be identified, "I'm dubious of
the veracity of that claim because never
appeared in a bona fide scientific journal."
Still, Jacobsen has some heavy credentials.
Now director of the Reproductive Genetics
Center, in Vienna, Virginia, he is credited with
developing and first using amniocentesis, a
prenatal test that involves extracting
niotic fluid from the womb to detect chro-
mosome abnormality inan unborn child. That
was in 1967. Today physicians use amni-
ocentesis almost- routinely on older women
and others at risk for giving birth to babies
wifh genetic defects,
Jacobsen is the only scientist on record
who has experimented with male preg-
nancy in primates. But he says ihaf similar
work has been done with fowl, rodents, sal-
amanders, and-other amphibians.
In a series of experiments in the early Six-"
ties, for example, Dr. David Kirby, of Eng-
land's Oxford University, transplanted
embryos into the testes, spleens, and kid-
54 OMNI
—a
neys male mice. Kirby got the best
of adult growing inside the abdominal cavity. In Au-
where one embryo de-
results in the testes, gust 1979, Dr. George Poretta attempted to
veloped in "perfect condition" for 12 days perform an appendectomy on a Michigan
about half the normal gestation period for a woman suffering irom stomach cramps. "I
mouse. Kirby, now deceased, theorized that opened her up expecting to find an appen-
the testicle capsule was simply not elastic dix," Dr. Poretta told the Associated Press,
enough to allow the embryo to mature fully. "and there was this #ny foot." Prematurely
didn't The experiment did show, however, that tes- delivered, the "appendix" weighed three
was not tosterone and other male hormones, found pounds, five ounces and was named Jo-
in high concentrations in the testes do not seph Thomas Cwik.
thwart normal embryonic development — An abdominal pregnancy is precisely the
positive sign for thosemales who want to kind of pregnancy the first man/mother will
have babies. have to endure. is dangerous. Estimates
It
But perhaps the best hope for these men vary, but the maternal mortality rate is about
comes not from animal studies but from 6 to 7 percent. Part of the danger stems from
strange pregnancies in women. According the fact fhat such pregnancies are often not
to the medical literature, there have been diagnosed until the woman is on Ihe oper-
some 24 cases worldwide in which women ating table. John Money, a pioneer of trans-
became pregnant despite having had hys- sexual operations and professor ol medical
terectomies. While 23 of these ectopic preg- psychology and pediatrics at Johns Hop-
nancies (ectopic in this case means outside kins Medical School, points out thai the "ex-
the uterus) didn't result in live births, they traordinary thing about the New Zealand
offer considerable evidence for the possi- case [Margaret Martin] was that the medical
bility of wombless childbirth. Incontroverti- person in charge made the correct diagno-
sis, mean, reallywasanA-plustobeablo
I it
fo recognize what was going on wifh this lady
and to realize that it was a healthy preg-
nancy." Even so, Martin's pregnancy wasn't
diagnosed until 23 weeks after her hyster-
^Women without ectomy. She had briefly considered that sho
uteri have given birth. In —
was pregnant her breasts were tender, and
these rare cases,
she had felt the baby move —
but refrained
from mentioning the symptoms, according
the fertilized egg works to her doctor, for fear of being ridiculed. In
its way into the case of men who purposely undergo ab-
dominal pregnancy, however, the danger of
the abdominal cavity, misdiagnosis will obviously be eliminated.
which expands Still, risks remain. In vitro fertilization pi-
oneer Dr. Landrum Shetiles has personally
to accommodate the fetus.^
delivered two healthy babies that devel-
oped in their mothers' abdomens. Such ba-
bies, Shettles warns, cannot be delivered
normally. He cites the case of a colleague
who attempted to remove a baby that was
ble proof, of course, comes from the twenty- attached to its mothers intestine. "He tried
fourth case: New Zealand's Margaret Martin to separate the afterbirth and the placenta
and her five-pound daughter. from the bowel," recalls Shettles, "and the
Then there are those women who despite blood gushed to the ceiling. The mother died
who having intact uteri have given birth without instantly." UCLA's Gorski reminds us that the
using these organs. Ectopic pregnancies are womb is not without purpose: "When deliv-
it fairly common, but in most cases this con- ery occurs, the uterus, which is just a mus-
dition refers to embryos that have implanted cular organ, contracts and shuts off the blood
themselves in the Fallopian tubes. Such vessels eroded by the placenta. " Blood ves-
pregnancies are doomed as well as life sels supplying the placenta in an abdominal
threatening to the mother. The expanding pregnancy, however, do not constrict, and
embryo can rupture the tube, and the pa- massive hemorrhage can occur the pla- if
am- tient can hemorrhage. centa is separated from the mother. As one
In rare cases, however— about 1,000 have obstetrics textbook puts bleeding may be
it,
—
been reported to date the fertilized egg "torrential."
works its way into the abdominal cavity, Which is not to say you absolutely need
which can expand to accommodate the the womb. "The point is," Shettles says, "if
growing fetus. This is an ectopic pregnancy you have an abdominal pregnancy, you tie
of a different color. Approximately 9 percent the cord off right near Ihe placenta and leave
of those women, with abdominal pregnancies the placenta in place. Don't touch it, and the
have actually given birth to healthy babies, body will absorb it."
"
is a difficult condition to diagnose. In July
It Those are some of the dangers. But let's
1981 doctors prepared !c deliver a New Jer- say a man wanted to have a baby so badly
sey woman's baby by cesarean section be- he was willing to take the chance. How would
cause ultrasound, studies indicated there was it be done? What experience awaits the first
a large tumor on top of her womb. The womb, man to carry a baby? After talking to Shet-
mouse as it turned out, was empty. The "tumor" was tles, Jacobsen, and other experts both in the
actually a seven-pound, ten-ounce baby United States and Australia, appears the
it
 "

produces a of the steroids that are nec-

procedure wou c go something like this:
:
There are two alternatives to this scenario. lot

conception could take place in the essary for fetal survival."

Doctors would first perform standard in First,

woman's body, most likely through artificial In vitro fertilization or embryo transfer, hor-
vitro fertilization to produce an embryo. Eggs
insemination. The fertilized egg would then mones or no hormones, male pregnancy is
would be surgically extracted from the wife's
be flushed out of the womb and implanted not a popular idea today in the medical es-
ovary and fertilized with the husband's sperm
tablishment. "It's an outlandish proposal,"
often in the man. This is the method used in the
in a petri dish. (In vitro fertilization is
process called embryo transfer, when a fer- says Gary Hodgen, who is the scientific di-
referred to as "test-tube baby" technology.)
tilized egg is moved from one woman's rector of the Eastern Virginia Medical
In 30 to 50 hours, when the egg has matured
womb to another's. Shettles, for one. prefers School's Jones Institute for Reproductive
to the two- to eight-cell stage and is about
method, however, because al- Medicine, in Norfolk, the leading in vitro fer-
the size of the tip of a needle, would be
it the in vitro it

lows more control. clinic in the United States. Hod-

tilization
placed in a flexible catheter for implantation.
in vitro process Second, is debatable whether hormonal gen's main objection to male pregnancy (he
At this point, however, the it

Instead of treatment is needed. In January 1984, be- used the word outlandish at least five times
would take an abrupt left turn.
forean assemblage of sex researchers at a when interviewed) is that it's tantamount to
snaking the catheter through the wife's va-
Kinsey Institute symposium, John Money ectopic pregnancy, a life-threatening con-
gina into her uterus, the doctor would per-
raised the possibility of male pregnancy. He dition,"As a male, obviously don't have a
form a laparoscopy on the husband. A small
I

would be made in the abdominal was encouraged in the discussion period uterus, right?A male who would request the
incision
afterward to hear Gorski say that the hor- transfer ofan embryo to his abdomen would
cavity, and the gynecologist would place the
monal technology was sufficiently in place be asking the medical personnel involved to
embryo into the lower abdominal cavity
to carry off such a pregnancy. Today Gorski advocate him taking on a life-threatening
against the omentum, the fatty, blood-rich
maintains that on a hormonal male level, condition that wouldn't even be to the ben-
tissue in front of the intestines. With luck, the still

pregnancy is possible. But Jacobsen's ba- of another extant person," Hodgen em-
efit
fertilized egg would implant in the omentum,
em- boon study indicates that priming the male phasizes. "That's antimedicine."
the placenta would develop from the
with female hormones may not be neces- Dr. Jack Hallatt, an expert in abdominal
bryo and begin drawing nutrients, and the
sary. "Maybe that's right," Shettles says. "It pregnancy at Kaiser Permanente Medical
pregnancy would be under way. At this point,
in Los Angeles, says, "There's no way
or possibly even earlier, an endocrinologist might well be that when the male gets a new Center,
body adjusts." doctors could avoid the dangers of hemor-
might be called in to administer hormones inhabitant, his
Or perhaps the embryo/fetus is a self-suf- rhage [during the pregnancy]. And it would
to the male mother so that his hormonal sta-
Richard Harding, a fe- be catastrophic. There's noway it would will-
tus would mimic that of a pregnant woman. ficient alien within us.
Monash University, in Aus-
physiologist at ingly be attempted." Hodgen agrees that you
Finally, nine months and several thousand tal

tralia, supports that hypothesis. "You know, can't eliminate the danger of male abdomi-
dollars' worth of custom-made' maternity
on an endocrine basis, on a hormonal level, nal pregnancy. "Thinka minute why," he says.
clothes later, the baby would be delivered
.the fetus appears to be totally autonomous," "It'sapparent. The placental sac and the
from the man's abdomen in an operation
Harding says. "It generates its own steroids baby, at term, are going to weigh on the or-
called a laparotomy, which would be similar
after 'a certain period of time. The placenta der of twenty-five pounds. And all of the
to a cesarean section.
months this is growing, this bag may be
twisting and turning."
Cecil Jacobsen feels that the risk posed

«££$ by an abdominal pregnancy has been

greatly exaggerated. The condition, he says,
lends to be lumped together with the much
more common ectopic pregnancy in which
the fertilized egg becomes lodged in the
Fallopian tubes.
'Any type of ectopic pregnancy in the tube
is dangerous," Jacobsen says, "because it

is a closed cavity that can't expand. But the

abdominal cavity can expand. It is a risky

condition, but if the pregnancy is watched
carefully, the risk of death is low," Even so,
Jacobsen is not anxious to be the first phy-
sician with a man/mother for a patient. "Sure,
it's feasible," Jacobsen insists. "But why in

heck would you do it? In my opinion would it

be an abuse for males to use the technology

in that way. think the proper use of the tech-
I

nology would be for women who have no

uterus but want to have a baby. That's where
I
medicine will first do it."
think
Perhaps it would be an abuse of the tech-
nology to use it on men. Still, there will be
men who want Who are they? What kind
it.

of man would have a baby? Johns Hopkins's

John Money originally envisioned only one
kind of person —
the transsexual. "If male
pregnancy ever became possible," Money
says, "the first applicants would be male-to-
female transsexuals, because it's so terribly
important to them to experience everything
"And what appears 'to be a pretty girl is actually a woman can experience."
a high-energy laser holograph. They're already lining up, In July 1984 a
group of at least six male-to-female trans-
CONTINUEDONPAGE11S

Bruce Enfield has a seat on
the aisleand nowhere to put
his elbows or his feet. Next
to him is a woman with
squatter's rights to the arm-
rest, and in the aisle the
stewardesses are hurrying
back and forth, pushing lre
heavy carts, delivering
drinks and peanuts. He
huddles into himself, hating
it all, hating the rest of the
that will as bad with
be just
a two-hour wait in O'Hare,
another cattle car in the sky
to Portland, another two-hour
delay, and finally the last lap,
twenty minutes Eugene.
to
He is troubled because he
is not certain why he
back. Not to see her, he tells
himself again, and he wishes
he had taken the slim Lucite
piece from his pocket be-
fore he put his coat in the
overhead bin. He will visit his
parents and an old friend or
two, sleep and relax, and on
Sunday afternoon make the
rest of the trip to
;
"<S,-'- ,
'
/' :/ -^::.
FICTION
It's always the same
dream, of flames as red as the
mysterious flower
DRAGON
BYKATEWILHELM
cisco, his actual destination. attention to her wonderfully
He will not see Cory. There made-up eyes. Beatrice has
is no reason to look her up; the loveliest eyes in the
, he is married, settled, rising world, he thinks, and he finds
in his world, he cannot summon an im-
He twists and struggles to age of Cory's eyes. Pale
extract his wallet from his lashes and brows, pale gray
r
pocket, gets a glare from his or blue eyes. The compari-
neighbor, and accepts his son of the two women is
drink gratefully when the cruel,and again he feels
stewardess puts it before embarrassed that he is
day him. In his mind he is seeing making it. He gulps his
Cory side by side with Bea- scotch and thinks of the Lu-
trice, and that is embarrass- cite in his coat pocket,
ing to him. wishes he had it in his hand.
Cory in her jeans and He wants a cigarette al-
heavy boots caked with though he has not smoked
mud, a man's flannel shirt for almost a year. He thinks
over a sweater, an unbut- almost desperately that he
is going toned, olive rain jacket over has to have a cigarette, be-
it all, her pale hair pulled cause in his head the com-
back carelessly with a string parison is continuing, and he
or a rubber band. And Bea- cannot stop it. Beatrice with
trice, elegant in a navy blue her quick intelligence, her
dressmaker's suit, high humor, her easy grasp of
heels, her nailsand lips ex- everything she reads or
actly the same shade of red, hears; and Cory, cowlike, re-
hair as soft and sweet as a tarded, or so near that it
baby's, kept in a style that makes little difference.
San Fran- 'Idlers he iace and draws Whitman had put his ad in
PAINTING BY PIERRE LACOMBE
the paper on Sunday, and on Monday morn- around when he had time. There was always trees, marshaling them in untidy heaps. Mrs.

ing, when he opened his door before seven too much to do, not enough good people to Davenport had come in wet and cold from
to start work, she was there on the back get it done. Don, his brother and partner in the weekly shopping and now sat drinking
doorstep. Whitman was a large, muscular the business, kept telling him to hire a full- coffee, thinking nothing, content to smell the

man in his late fifties, a widower for the last time manager, but he resisted. He had tried green smells of growing plants instead of

six years.To him Cory appeared an empty- that. No one else did anything his way, and cinnamon and and yeast. When the
vanilla

faced child that bright morning. his way was not the book way. He did things kitchen buzzer sounded, she got up to make

come for the job," she said.

"I've when they needed doing, not when the supper. One day Raymond had come home
"Worked in a nursery before?" books said was time. Only one man, Hank
it to find her sitting in there and had raged all

She shook her head. She was tall, strong Valchak, might have worked out, but he had
enough, and the fact that she was there that quit aftera few years and opened his own
early meant that she wanted to work, Whit- nursery on the other side of Eugene. And
man thought, studying her. "Where you live?" meanwhile Whitman's Nursery was growing,
She told him, one of the subdivisions ten business was expanding, and he, William
miles or more away. "How'd you get here?" Whitman, was atired, overworked man. But
She pointed to a bicycle leaning against at least the paperwork was Don's depart-
a tree, and he hired her. ment. Payroll, taxes, ordering, inventory,
He would have to teach her everything, vertising, all that he cheerfully
but then he always did, and come fall, they brother, who in turn never set foot in
always left to go back to school, and next the greenhouses or the long rows of seed-
night at her, and, of course, at Cory. Some-
times when Mrs. Davenport came out of
Cory's room she found that she had been
weeping with no memory of the tears or the
cause. Now that Cory had a good job and
was doing well at it, there was no longer any
reason to worry or cry over her, but still there
ad- were times when she wept.
left to his If only Raymond could accept her, she
one of thought at those times, that would make the
difference, but he could not look at Cory

year he had to do it over again. ling trees and bushes and shrubs. without a shadow passing over his face,
He showed her how to take chrysanthe- It was Don, employment rec-
filling in the without his eyes narrowing and a slight ridge
mum cuttings and how to space and plant ords, who discovered that Cory had left forming along his cheek. Most times he
the pieces and mark them for a fall crop of home to go to school that day and instead avoided looking at her. and most times she
blooming plants. She watched him silently stayed out of his way, out of his sight. Now
that she was working, they never even ate at
and then took over as she had been doing
if

it for years. He supervised for a short while the same time. He got home at four-thirty

before he went off to get his other tasks and had his supper, and Cory got in at six-
thirty, after he had settled in front of the tele-
started; he came back from time to time to
glance her work. Neither of them spoke.
at
( He was vision for the rest of the evening.

At ten-thirty he told her she could have a as cold, as rigid as stone, Raymond was a good man, she thought
break when she wanted it, that he didn't ex- He was a good man
as she peeled carrots.
without will
ways except with Cory. From the start
pect anyone to work straight through, he in all

wasn't a slave driver. She listened as atten- as he listened to Frank's there had been something in her that drew
tively as she had listened to his instructions out the devil in him. Mrs. Davenport knew
voice, like a
that one of those long, slow smiles from Cory
about the cuttings, and he realized that she
snare drawing tighter before was more important than hours of giggles
could not distinguish between kidding and
the straight goods. The tone he invariably the victim from other girls, but Raymond had never
employees was either a brusque
took with his learned that.
could suspect its presence.^ Tonight they would fight over their daugh-
directive ora banter that was meaningless;
he knew no other way to address them. He she knew, stirring the meat and vegeta-
ter,

stood looking at the girl kneeling in the bark bles. Cory needed things, a new sweater,
mulch along the row of chrysanthemums, new woolen socks, and he would act as it if

and he did not know how to speak to her. It

were his money. Each week Cory's check
was a mistake to hire her, he thought, and had come to the nursery. She had dropped went to him, to be deposited in the checking
felt a stir of self-contempt as he realized he out,he said, and only in the tenth grade. account, where he guarded jealously. it

was shifting his own problem of noncom- Whitman

tried to see Cory sitting quietly "How many years did we provide every-

municativeness to her shoulders. at a desk, immersed in history lessons or thing, ask nothing in return?" he would yell.
math problems, and nothing came. He her turn to help. If she wants to keep her
"When you get tired," he said, trying to "It's

soften his voice, because she looked fright- shrugged. "Her business," he said. But Don money, let her move out! Once she's gone, I
"

ened, "go on over to the shed and get a drink. Whitman was concerned about it. He had don't give a damn what she does.
Rest a few minutes. Okay?" three grown children, and he knew teenag- Sometimes Mrs. Davenport fantasized
She nodded and turned again to the ers sometimes did things their parents were about moving out with Cory, just the two of
chrysanthemums, began to cut fast. ignorant of until too late. He called Cory's Ihem sharing a small house with a garden
"Cory, take it easy, girl. You're doing a fine mother that night and learned that Cory had for Cory to work in. It was a pleasant reverie,
job, the best of anyone I've hired starting as a history of failing and that the school coun- but it was frightening also, because she
green as you. I don't expect you to finish all selor had advised a training school for her. cared for Raymond; was only where Cory
It

one day."
this in The brothers dropped the subject and never was concerned that he became a cruel
She looked at him again as if trying to referred to it again, stranger. Sometimes Mrs. Davenport felt that

measure his words, to test his truthfulness. someone had planted a sharp knife in her

And then she smiled, and he knew he had Cory's mother liked to go to her daugh- skull on the day of Cory's birth that day by
done right in hiring her, He walked away ter's room on her day off from the bakery day through (he years had sliced downward
thinking about her smile, not that it made her and just sit The room was not
quietly awhile. a little at a time, neatly dividing her into
pretty or anything, but it changed her. At lirst messy, the bed always neatly made; 'here halves. She imagined that the knife was even

her face was immobile, guarded; then it be- was no scattering of books or records or with her heart by now and that she had to if

gan to soften, and very slowly, like the open- clothes to offend the most fastidious house- make the decision about leaving with Cory
ingofa tight, hard bud, the softening, relax- keeper, but there were plants everywhere, of driving Cory away to be able to live with
ing continued until her whole face was in pots, coffee cans, milk cartons, rusty veg- Raymond, (he knife would make the rest of

transformed and was not protected at all, etable cans, Styrofoam cups. In here the . . . the cut very fast.
During her lunch hour he saw her wan- light was soft and green, filtered through

dering over the nursery grounds, and he re- leaves at both windows. Bruce has gone
Enfield to the phone booth
membered that he had meant to show her A heavy rain was driving leaves from the twice and each time has left it wiihout plac-

60 OMNI
 — "

ing the call to his friends in Chicago. He sits cending in a column until a draft hits it. He He dressed, made coffee and eggs, and
in a clattering coffee shop and stares out the stubs out the cigarette and is mildly sur- planned. He had to prune the two-year-old
window at fitful snow that looks dirty even prised to see four others already in the ash- trees;he had it scheduled for early January,
before hits the ground.
it tray, all three quarters intact. but they would break under a load of ice.
His friends would ask about Beatrice, and Yesterday he changed his reservation, And cover the evergreens. And the balled
he does not want to talk about her. He sips added this side trip to Eugene. Beatrice did and burlapped trees, and if he had time, gel
his coffee, wishing he had gone to the bar; not ask why. He wishes she would pretend to the year-old, dwarfed fruit trees. . . .The
he hates coffee shops. The snow is stop- to be interested but understands that she radio was giving no eomfort at all, nof even
ping again; it is like the ash-fall they some- won't play that game with him. From the start trying to predict when the ice storm would
times have in Savannah. He remembers she refused games, then did not matter it pass, turn into ordinary rain, wash away the
standing at the glass wall of his house, close because there was no game to play. But grief the ice always brought with it.

to Beatrice but not touching her as they now. ... He hears again her indifference It was as dark as night when he was ready
watch the powdery ashes settle on the lawn, when she asked how long he would be gone. to go out and start what seemed to be a day

on the surface of the pool. He can't remember if she acknowledged his of futile effort. The ice was already a quarter
"Lovely," she says. "Your company?" answer or even if he answered. It mattered inch thick. For a moment he squinted in
"No." so little, they both seemed to say. disbelief as he stared at the toolshed, brightly
"Have you made an appointment with a "Tell me about your mother," the doctor lighted. He hurried toward the gravel drive
it;

doctor yet?" Still looking out the glass, pre- says, trying to hide a smile. was already treacherous as ice smoothed
tending nonchalance, or actually feeling it "Not my mother. Not my father. It's Cory. out the irregularities.
he no longer can tell which she asks the — And I can't tell you." Abruptly he stands up "Cory! What Ihe hell are you doing here?"
question as if she were asking for the time. and snatches check and hurries from the
his She ducked her head and mumbled, and
."No." coffee shop. He can feel the hot breath on he drew closer to her.
A 747 rolls past the window, and he his back, and he does not dare turn to look "How'd you get here?"
watches until it is at home in its own bay and for fear he will see the dragon in daylight. He Her mother had brought her, she said, on
the caterpillar mouth has attached itself to knows when that happens, he will be lost. her way to work. She had heard the rain and
the giant body. knew it would turn to ice. He stared at Cory
He imagines the scene with the doctor: One morning Whitman woke up before for another moment, and then they went to

"You say you have nightmares, Mr. Enfield. daylight, listening to sleet hit the roof. Drows- work. Together they pruned the trees and
About what?" ily he turned over, finding comfort in ihe covered the evergreens and got to the
"Dragons. They are chasing me, breath- steady pattering of icy feei while his own feet grafted trees.
ing flames, and can feel the heat touching
I
were warm. Then he sat up. Sleet. He By late afternoon they had it all done,
me, spreading, consuming me." switched on the radio before he reached for everything they could do to protect the nurs-
"Dragons! Very interesting, Mr. Enfield." the light. They were already talking aboul the ery stock. In exhaustion Whitman made his

He lights a cigarette and watches the
the smoke curling slightly at first, then
lip, weather conditions- "reezing am throughout r
way to the house, motioning her to follow. He
as- the valley, roads closed, schools closed. envied her young, strong body, her stamina,
but even she was tired by then and hungry
and half frozen. Their outer coats were cov-
ered with ice; ice was an inch thick on every-
thing in sight, it had stopped failing an hour
earlier, but the temperature had dropped
throughout the day: there would be no thaw
until the wind changed. At the door of the

house Cory stopped and looked at the magic

world, and she smiled her rare smile. Whit-
man nodded. was truly beautiful, but he
It

was too cold and tired to smile.

He made coffee and got steaks from the
deep freeze and made a fire in the fireplace.
They both sat very close to it, driven back
gradually as the flames went from orange-
yellow to blue. Neither talked. When Whit-
man felt himself drifting off in a doze, he

roused and went out to make their dinner.

The telephone lines were down, and the ra-
dio was nothing but chatter about the ice
storm and its consequences. Nothing was
moving. Whitman sighed. She would have
to spend the nighl, he thought gloomily, and
there might be talk. No one else had been
able to get to the nursery that day, and he
had not talked to his brother, who probably
was iced in, Who would ever know? He
pushed the thought aside and went about
making dinner methodically, the way he did
everything. And he wondered about Cory.
f'ifi/ni-tv"* She always knew about the weather; no mat-
ter what it did, she was dressed for it or had
clofhes to change into. Today she had
brought rain pants and heavy enough
"For tomorrow's weather, the-clouds: partly toxic with scattered clothes to get by on an Arctic expedition.
meteor showers by late afternoon. When they had come in, she had gone into
the bathroom and stripped off a layer or two
 and had corriG out dry and clean. She never
lost plants to a drought or had them rot in a
week of steady rain. She knew.
She could not handle money, or take an
order; or talk lo a customer. She seldom
talked to the other employees; she man-
aged to take her lunch break atter the others
were back at work. Sometimes in good
weather, she took her sack lunch out under
one of the walnut trees and ate there alone.
She had not missed a day in a year and a
half, never had. a cold, an ache, a complaint.
In fact, he had had to tell her she could not
work seven days a week; was the only thing it
he ever had to tell her more than once. And
when he had tried to pin her down about her
vacation, she had said sullenly that she had
. nowhere else to go. nothing else to do, and
ifshe couldn't work, she would just sit under
the trees and watch.
A few days later, when everything was
back to normal, he told his brother he was
raising Cory's salary.
"Why? You know her father gets her
money."
"You been telling me for years should hire
myself another Hank Valchak, another man-
ager. I been realizing more and more
she's it. She does more than Hank ever
And we set up a trust and don't tell her daddy.
When this goes," he said, motioning vaguely
toward the grounds, the greenhouses,
everything, "what's going to
like her? Set it up, Don."
Don Whitman was sixty-three and had
begun to talk about training his own replace-
ment. William Whitman would be sixty in the
fall of that year. Soberly Ihey nodded at each
other and was done, the trust fund was
it
established: Cory became the highest-paid
employee of the enterprise.
Bruce Enfield tries to remember if he or-
dered chicken or the seafood casserole. He
cannot tell by tasting. He is on a DC-10 this
time, seated by a window in the smoking
section, T-he plane is two thirds filled, ser-
vice is prompt and efficient; already he has
had two drinks, and after he finishes his meal,
there will be plenty oi time for several more.
Beatrice travels more often than he does;
she is an assistant buyer for a department
store,and her trips are to Mew York, Paris,
London, even Hong Kong.
The food is taken away, and presently a
mellow voice suggests that the window-seat
passengers pull down their blinds in order
to view the movie. He pulls down his blind
and closes his eyes and remembers when
he went to work for Whitman.
His master's degree was assured by the
spring break, and in the fall he would report
to MIT for Ihe eighteen-month grind toward
his Ph.D. That was already assured also; his
project had been accepted, the execution
would be a matter of putting in the time it
took to. do the designing, the drawings, the
mock-ups. He was a chemical engineer
specializing in""plant design; there
great need for him and the too few
like him.
What he wanted for that
64 OMNI
outdoor job :hat required muscles and no plump little package, neatly tied ofl with a
mind. Hetound it at Whitman's. The old man wire.The ones she singled out were thin,
asked few questions, put him and Frank scrawny. She told them to do theirs over and
Fredrickson to work the day they applied. returned to her own task.
"Cory,- show these two fellows how to ball Frank watched her walk away. 'And how
up the roses," Whitman called. Across the did you spend your day? Balling roses." He
drive, near a shed, a nodded and mo-
girl laughed. "I'm going to be in her pants within
tioned to them to follow her. She was tall and two weeks, wanna bet?"
."
could have passed for a young man, bun- "Her? But she's a . .
dled up as she was in jacket and boots and "A dummy? Sure, she is. They make the
gloves. It was a cold March day, misty, with best lays. They're grateful, you know? And
more rain threatening any minute. they don't tell They do what you want them
.
Bruce ano Frank exchangee a glance and to do. Two weeks.. I'll let you know how she
followed her. She went inside the shed and is. A side bet. She's a virgin. Am l on?"
waited for them Her directions were terse, Bruce was revolted by the idea of taking
almost mumbled, and she did not look at a girl like her, revolted by Frank's easy ap-
them directly. praisal, his experienced air. That winter
Within a few minutes they all walked to- Bruce had met Beatrice Langley, and al-
ward the rows of roses, pulling long wagons. though he looked at other girls, she was the
On hers there was a box with labels, a stack one he always saw. The thought of groping
ofwooden flats, clipping shears, .scissors; a tall, frozen-faced, slow-witted girl like Cory
Bruce's had a stack of burlap squares, a was sickening.
large box of wet sawdust, a spool of wire, Somehow Cory kept eluding Frank all
and wire cutters, and Frank's had the spade spring. She was not where he expected to
tind her, or a third person entered when he
I
thought he had her alone, or something else
happened. He told Bruce that he had the.
that place picked out, back behind the last
did. greenhouse, the one they called Cory's trial
4/Ve went greenhouse. A grove of holly trees hid the
closer and looked curiously spot Frank had in mind, and no one ever
bothered Cory when she went back to her
at it—just a own greenhouse, That was where she got
become of a girl
red flower, pretty, unusual, strange grafts to take, where she hand-pol-
linated flowers to get new colors, new vari-
but nothing
eties. No one knew what she did there be-
more— and started to say it cause no one ever asked.
was just a flower "Leave her alone," Bruce said sharply.
"She doesn't bother anyone."
but decided to say nothing.^ But he knew she did bother Frank. Afrown
from her was enough to make anyone have
to do a day's work over again, and her a
dummy, second in charge of a million-dollar
operation. Frank resented her; more, he
and fork. The work was mindless enough, feared her, because.if a retard could go up
Bruce decided guickly. Cory moved on like that In a couple of years, where did it
ahead of them, pruning the roses that they leave someone like him? It wasn't right, he
then dug out and balled up in little bundles said; Whitman treated her like some kind of
with the roots packed in dirt and sawdust. special royalty, excusing her from anything
The roses came out easily: Bruce learned she didn't want to do, things she couldn't do
later that they had been root pruned twice thai any normal eight-year-old could handle.
io lorce them to make a compact root sys- One day Frank grinned at Bruce and mo-
tem, easy to dig, easy to transplant, almost tioned for him to look at something. It was
guaranteed to suffer no shock when moved. an envelope. Frank opened it carefully and
He found himself watching the girl as she left showed Bruce.
them behind. Her hands were so quick was it "Seeds," he said triumphantly. "She can't
hard to follow exactly what she was doing. talk about movies, or books, or television, or
First she seemed to feel the rosebush, and anything. she knows is plants.
All I have the
then she clipped it so fast that he could not ultimate weapon, my friend."
tell what she looked for, how she determined "What are they?"
what needed cutting, what needed saving. "Damned if T know. My old man brought
Some of the cuttings fell around the plants, them back from Africa ten, fifteen years ago.
to be cleaned up later by one of ihe younger They've been around the house ever since.
boys; some of them she kept until she had a Last night remembered them and knew
I
I
bundle that she tied together and labeled. had her."
Her cuttings always grew, he learned that Bruce thought so. too. He had an impulse
'
spring and summer. The more she cut. the to knock the envelope out of Frank's hand,
more plant stock they seemed to have. to grind the seeds into the earth, to yell out
was a After a whi e sho
; came back to Bruce and to Cory to hide, to run away. It was none of
other's Frank to inspect their work. She shook her his business, he reminded himself, and went
head over several of the burlapped roses back to work.
summer was an and pointed to one she had done, It was a was late afternoon when Frank wan-
It
 dered over to Cory's greenhouse. Bruce
watched him helplessly and slowly followed,
knowing he would nol interfere. He wished
a storm would come up, lightning hit the
greenhouse, set fire to the holly grove. At the
screened door he stopped and listened.
"I knew you'd be the only one to plant
them." Frank was saying. "See that black
one? It's almost like a stone, isn't il? And those
little ones in the glassine envelope, they're
more like grains of dust than seeds. And that
red one. That must be the dragon seed."
Her voice did not carry enough for Bruce
lo make out her words.
Frank laughed. "Sure they did. Where do
you think dragons came from? Two ways:
seeds like that and their own teeth. When
you grow one, you save the teeth and plant
Ihem. too. They'll grow. You want to borrow
my book about dragons?"
Bruce could no longer choose to move or
not to move. He was as cold, as rigid as
stone, without will as he listened to Frank's
voice, then ihe wordless murmur that was
her voice, Frank's voice again, like a snare
drawing tighter and tighter before the victim
ever had a chance to suspecl its presence.
He was moving her toward the back door,
saying what a wonderful surprise she would
have for Mr. Whitman when the seeds
sprouted. Then he was talking about how
much the seeds cost, how he had been will-
ing to pay so much because he liked her. .

Bruce could imagine his hands on her now,

her bewilderment,
"When a man likes a girl and she likes him,
it's Ihe most natural thing in the world to show

each other."
Bruce never saw him coming, but sud-
denly Whitman was there, entering the
greenhouse. "Cory, you run along home
now." His voice was low and easy, the way
he always spoke to her. She ran from the
greenhouse clutching the envelope, ran to
her bicycle and sped away. "You. you piece
of shit! "Get your gear and clear out and don't
come back."
"You've got no right, Mr. Whitman. wasn'tI

going to hurt her."

"You say another word and I'm going to
whip you. Get out!"
Frank came out blinking in the bright sun-
light. He
called over his shoulder, "She's got
freewill, doesn't she? was going to give her
I

a good time, a little fun. that's all."

Bruce hurried back to the new green-

house, where he was supposed to be caulk-
ing windows.
The next day when he met Whitman, he
saw contempt on the old man's face.
Bruce opens his eyes in order to stop
seeing that look. It is still there.

August heat lay over the land like some-

one opened ihe door to hell, Whitman
thought, pulling up in the driveway of the
Davenport house. He was not sure what he
would say to Mrs. Davenport, but he had to
say something, know
let Cory
her was vul-
nerable. All summer he had worried about
this, pondered what he should do, what he
t for trying new Bill Blags Vo
could do, and finally he had got in his truck
;. ft>ra limited time only. See details at participating

CONTINUED ON PAGE
retailers. Offer ends January 15, 1986.
120

bOne tone warns that the baby has stopped
breathing. Otherssound when the heartbeat has dropped or
when oxygen levels are too low3
Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston,
weren't so sure. Kimble had lost two pre-
mature babies, and the chances for this one
didn't look good. The child, weighing a mere
one and a half pounds, was born about 25
weeks after conception. She was at the very
edge of human viability, before which lite
cannot be sustained.
Predictably, things soon went awry. In a
few days doctors found a small hemorrhage
in the baby's brain. Then she became jaun-
diced, as broken red blood cells lingered in
her skin. Her toes turned blue. She devel-
oped infections. She needed transfusions:
enough in her first week to replace all the
blood in her body several times over. Her
blood-sugar level skyrocketed, sending her
brain into seizures. Her heart stopped twice.
Both times a doctor did cardiopulmonary re-
suscitation [CPR] by pressing his thumbs
lightly against her chest.
"I called the hospital, and the doctor said
he didn't think she would make it," says Kim-
ble. "I just rushed right over there. But first
asked him to go over to her and say 'God
bless you.' knew that God would know
I
it
was coming from me."
Once at the hospital, she continued to
pray. The doctors, meanwhile, used every
technique they could muster. They admin-
istered antibiotics, clotting agents, and sei-
zure repressors. They used the latest tech-
nology to examine the baby's brain. They
tought infections and wild changes in tem-
The neonatal unit at Cedars of Sinai Hospital, in
Los Angeles, is shown at top. Middle: Adult fin-
gers cradle the tiny toot of a premature infant
68 OMNI
'
perature. They fought things they
didn't even
know how unusual swell-
to explain, like the
ing and blue 'color of her stomach.
I Days passed, then weeks. And with the
passage of time the child's underdeveloped
organs began to mature. Finally, after two
and a half months, she was strong enough
to be transferred out of intensive care. One
month later she was ready to go home-
three days before she would have been born
had she been the product of a normal nine-
month pregnancy.
"She's come a
long way," said Kimble as
she prepared to take her baby home. "From
the very beginning she was not supposed
to live." Indeed, from the outset the child
—
seemed to merit her name Victoria, an
homage to the victory over death.
Victoria is one of the quarter million pre-
mature babies born each year who are ben-
efiting from a revolution in neonatal care. That
revolution is due, at least in part, to a simple
but crucial concept: Premature babies have
nothing special wrong with them. Their or-
gans are simply underdeveloped and still
adapted to the dark, cushioned environ-
ment of the womb, where oxygen, food, and
waste disposal are all provided by the pla-
centa. Thus, the task doctors face is to nur-
ture these ban es. Ngnlng damage while the
preemies' fragile organ systems mature.
Spurred by the notion of the preemieasa
freeze-frame of human development, med-
ical researchers have forged dramatic im-
provements in care for the premature.
They've used ultrasound and the three-di-
mensional X-ray machine known as the CAT
scan to understand the physiology of pre-
mature babies. They've developed sophis-
ticated respirators that produce rapid stac-
cato puffs of oxygen fortiny, sensitive lungs.
They've adapted computer technology to
monitor and sustain the babies' vital func-
tions.They've even begun to probe the
minds of premature babies, learning how
they respond to all this intensive care. And
they have concentrated all these develop-
ments in special baby wards so modern that
one expert says they look like "Hollywood
portraits of intergalactic spaceships."
"It's absolutely a product of the Space Age
and microprocessors," says Dr. Lu-Ann
Papile, director of neonatology at the Uni-
versity of New Mexico Medical Center. The
progress in the last decade "has been ab-
solutely incredible."
Dr. Elizabeth R. Brown, director of neona-
tology at Boston City Hospital, agrees. "The
frontier of viability," she says, "has moved
back.In the Fifties, it was unusual to save a
thousand-gram (2.2-pound) preemie. Mow
they survive all the time."
Indeed, survival rates, which depend on
size and age, have been rising in every cat-
egory. Twenty years ago, more than 85 per-
cent of all preemies less than 1,500 grams
died: now thatsame percentage survive. For
larger preemies, the survival rate has jumped
into the ninetieth percentile. And the rate of
—
severe handicaps such as cerebral palsy
and mental retardation— has either dropped
or stayed the same, depending on whose
studies you read. Increasingly smaller ba-
bies are remaining healthy. Though compli-
cations from prematurity still account for
8,200 infant deaths a year, the picture has
changed.
For most of human history, of course,
preemies were considered weaklings and

given up for dead. Then, in the late nine-
teenth century, a French doctor named Ste-
phane Tarnier got an idea while visiting a
Paris zoo. Noticing how baby chicks were
kepi warm and alive in incubators, he asked
the zoo statf to make one big enough for a
child. Voila —the world's first warm-air incu-
bator was invented. And the Paris Maternite
Hospital became a world center for care of
the premature.
Years later a young doctor from the hos-
pital displayed the incubators —
babies and
all— at the 1896 Berlin World's Fair. The so-
called Child Hatchery was such a hitthat Dr,
Martin Couney took it to London and then to
America for a tour lasting several years. He
went to Chicago, Omaha, Buffalo, and other
cities, displaying the hatchery at exhibitions
great and small. Finally he settled near New
York's Coney Island amusement park, where
in the summertime he charged 25-cent ad-
missions to all who wanted to see his Pre-
mature Baby Exhibit. The show remained
open until World War II.
Couney's approach may have seemed
sensational, but he's credited with saving
thousands ol "hopeless" preemies and ad-
vancing the cause of premature care. Cou-
ney's work influenced Dr. Julius Hess, who
established the country's first hospital
preemie unit in Chicago.
was Hess who eventually pioneered the
It
practice of giving oxygen to preemies, dra-
matically improving their rates of survival. But
with the boon came a problem. Doctors soon
"
realized Iheir oxygen supplement was scar-
ring the immature blood vessels of the eye,
preventing the retina from attaching and
rendering the infants blind. By diluting the
oxygen, doctors finally curbed the epi-
—
demic but not before thousands of pree-
mies had been hurt.
Olher dangers abounded in the Fifties.
Then, as now, the leading preemies
killer of-
was respiratory distress syndrome. All that
doctors knew about the syndrome was that
infants afflicfed with spent fwo or three days
it
gasping for breath, only lo give up and die.
Autopsies revealed that the lungs were col-
lapsed, airless, and purplish-red.
Then, in the late Fifties and early Sixties
Dr.Mary Ellen Avery, of Boston's Peter Bent
Brigham Hospital, examined victims' lungs
with an electron microscope. She found that
they lacked a soapy coating, called surfac-
tant, that kept lung tissue pliant, much as
mink oil can soften a shoe. With surfactant
the air sacs in the lungs can expand easily,
like smooth-working bellows. Without theyit
collapse, like small, dried-out balloons.
Indeed, without surlactan! most preemies
could not breathe on their own. The obvious
solution: pumping air into the lungs at a rel-
atively high pressure. Yoi high pressure could
destroy the fragile lung tissue.
"There were a lot of abortive attempts,"
according to neonatologist Mildred Stahl-
man, a pioneer in the field at Vanderbilt Uni-
versity^ "You'd try lo use high pressure, but
it would blow out the lungs.
Eventually, a former Air Force doctor de-
signed a machine that kept babies' lungs
inflated with continuous air pressure while
pumping in small puffs of air. The machine
also had an "air clutch," which allowed the
baby to override the machine he started if
breathing on his own. Thousands of the new
respirators were installed, and by the early
Seventies a majority of respiratory distress
syndrome victims lived rather than died.
"It [the new technology] was like a band
starting up." says Dr. Jerold Lucey; profes-
sor of pediatrics at the University of Vermont
and editor of the journal Pediatrics. "You'd
hear a toot, then a whistle, and soon every-
thing was in motion." The progress was so
rapid that in1975 the American Academy of
Pediatrics formed an entirely new medical
specialty, called neonatology.
Since then work has continued unabated,
giving insights into problems that scientists
barely knew existed. In the late Seventies,
for instance, Dr. Lu-Ann Papile, of the Uni-
versity ofNew Mexico, startled the medical
community with her studies of preemies wilh
brain hemorrhages. Doctors had long known
that some preemies die;: ol bleeding in the
brain but didn't think it was very common.
But Papile —
using CAT scan machines to
examine the brains of 100 preemies in her
hospital —
found this inkblotlike bleeding in
about half of all preemies who weighed less
than 1,500 grams, about half of whom died.
Her work helped identify hemorrhage as one
of the leading causes of preemie mortality
and the prime cause of cerebral palsy and
mental retardation.
By the Seventies, it had also become
common knowledge that about a third of all
preemies suffer the effects of an immature
circulatory system. In the fetus, a small tube
near the heart directs blood away from the
lungs. That's because the fetus gets its ox-
ygen through the mothers placenta; its lungs
don't need to be suffused with blood. After
birth, the tube naturally closes, and circula-
tion adjusts to life outside the womb. In many
preemies, however, the tube does not close.
If severe enough, this condition, called pa-
tient ductus arteriosus (PDA), can cause
heart failure.
The standard treatment for PDA in the
Seventies was to stitch the tube closed. But
then doctors at Stanford University, looking
at the circulatory system of fetal lambs, found
that a body chemical called prostaglandin
keeps the tube open. If that's the case, they
reasoned, why not use a drug to inhibit pros-
taglandin? And so for the next several years,
various teams of scientists used a chemical
relative of aspirin to inhibit the production of
prostaglandin in premature lambs and then
in human premature babies.
Finally, in 1983 the National Institutes of
Health reported that in a nationwide study
involving 421 preemies, the recovery rate of
the treated group was nearly Ihree times as
high as for the untreated group. So positive
were the results that this year the Food and
Drug Administration approved the drug for
intravenous use, eliminating thousands of
surgical procedures per year.

These advances, moreover, have spurred
the advent of perhaps the most crucial fac-
tor in preemie survival: the modern neonatal
intensive care unit (NICU). These high-tech
facilities, the latest word in the treatment of
premature babies, represent medicine's lat-
est attempt to simulate some of the functions
of the womb.
"We're not here to create something super
or to intervene in nature," says Dr. Michael
Epstein, of the NICU at Brigham and
en's Hospital, in Boston. "We're just trying to
help with the functions until the baby comes
to full term. At each stage we try to pick the
minimum intervention."
At first glance, the technology in the room
seems to contradict him A baby girl
in one plastic incubator. Nearly lour
premature, she has no fewer than half a
dozen tubes and wires connected to her. A
clear plastic tube carries nutrients to a vein
in her left ankle; another drips medication to
a vein in her left hand. Two tubes lead from
the respirator behind her into her nostrils,
past her vocal chords, and down her tra-
chea. Nurses explain that some babies
"fight" the respirator and breathe against
They may be completely paralyzed with
pancuronium, a synthetic form of curare, so
that the respirator can take control, forcing
them to breathe.
Three wires lead from computer-driven
monitors to small plastic bands on each arm
and one leg. The monitors display her
breathing and heart rate in an ever-chang-
ing series of green numbers and graphs.
Other wires lead to a nickel-size disc on the
baby's stomach. This transcutaneous oxy-
gen monitor heats a small patch of skin and
then measures the oxygen that diffuses from
the capillaries. Because the disc heats the
skin slightly, nurses often shift to avoid it
causing a burn. A few mosquito-size red
spots show where the monitor has been.
The whole body is warmed from a small
overhead" heater and bathed in an unearthly
blue light. Doctors have found that the light
breaks down the old red blood cells that the
liver does not remove. To avoid eye dam-
age, nurses fit the baby with a blindfold.
"Here we go," says nurse Gretchen Law-
hon as she reaches through two portholes
in the side of the incubator. Avoiding the tan-
gle of wires, she removes a tube from the
needle in an ankle and touches a capillary
tube to the base of the needle to withdraw a
blood sample. In a few minutes she'll have
a lab report, showing oxygen and carbon
dioxide content and the pH of the infant's
blood. She takes less than a tenth of a tea-
spoon. This preemie's body contains a bit
more than a shot glass of blood; to draw more
would necessitate a transfusion.
Lawhon explains that the vast majority of
babies she sees are moderately prema-
ture — 31 to 36 weeks gestational age and
usually weighing from 1,500 to 2,500 grams
(3.3 to 5.5 pounds). A small percentage—
about 1 percent of -all births are very pre-.—
mature babies. Their gestational ages range
from 24 to 31 weeks; their weight, from 500
to 1,500 grams (1.1 to 3.3 pounds). It's these
72 OMNI
—
ones who require the most care.
tiny At the other end of the room a nurse dis-
bone— skin and bone," says Law-
"it's all connects a baby from a respirator. "Cute!"
hon as, she repositions the baby, who at 24 he exclaims as he removes tubes and tape.
weeks gestational age 'weighs a mere 600 The baby tests his liberated vocal chords
grams. "It feels like you're touching a tiny with his first healthy scream. "He's being ex-
Cornish hen." tubated," says Lawhon. "That's a big step,
As Lawhon speaks, monitors in the back- because now he can breathe on his own."
ground sound electronic alarms. One tone In a few weeks that baby may be sent
warns nurses the baby stops breathing.
if across the hall to the mid-level-care nursery.
(The condition, called apnea, arises be- Quieterand less high tech than the first room,
Wom- cause the preemie brain may not be devel- room houses those babies who
the mid-level
oped enough to "remind" the lungs to have come through the first critical few
breathe.) The treatment: Tickle the feet to months. The babies —
no longer connected
make the baby alert again. In serious cases monitors
to respirators or —
lie in incubators
doctors administer a chemical related to or in miniature cribs with clear plastic sides.
caffeine. Other alarms warn that a baby's The atmosphere is brightened by stuffed
sleeps heartbeat has dropped or that his oxygen animals, pictures, and brightly colored signs
months levels are too low. "Some of these kids are in the cribs.
so sensitive that just touching them will cause But if the NICU and mid-level-care nurs-
the alarm to go off," says Lawhon. Nurses ery represent the state of the art, scientists
check the babies, then reset the monitors. around the country are pushing the tech-
Every corner of the room is alive with nology further still. Even though doctors in
drama. A nurse puts a needle into a baby's the late Seventies recognized the danger of
arm. The baby tries to scream, but no noise hemorrhage, all they could do then was
watch the bleeding with CAT scan and ultra-
sound, draining the fluids and hoping the
it. leakage would stop.
Last summer, however, aWashington Uni-
versity team announced a new treatment.
'•The baby lay in Using an ultrasound probe, they measured
a frog pose —legs splayed the How in blood vessels around preemies'
brains. The vessels, they found, lack an im-
on either side
portant feature of more mature capillaries.
of the head. A fine white Blood vessels in the adult brains maintain a
fetal hair constant blood pressure. Those of preemies
are "pressure passive," according to Dr. Jef-
covered the body Her skin frey M. Perlman, and exert no control over
hung in loose the blood pressure within them. As a result
wrinkles around the joints.^
they swell or collapse —
sometimes enough
to rupture.
Perlman and his colleagues found that the
blood pressure changes occur in the first 48
to —
72 hours of life exactly when respiratory
distress syndrome is most severe. They
comes out. She explains that the breathing suggested that the two are linked; as babies
tubes passing between his vocal chords- struggle to breathe, their blood pressure
prevent them Irom vibrating and giving voice sometimes changes enough to cause hem-
to the scream. orrhages. As treatment, Perlman used the
A mother who has just given birth is standard procedure for infants who fight
wheeled in on a stretcher to see her pre- respirators: giving synthetic curare until the
mature daughter Still seds'.od. she is barely infant is 72 hours old. The result: 5 of the 14
strong enough to turn her head and gaze. test infantsremained free of hemorrhages,
"O-h-h-h-h," she says weakly. "Is it okay to while none of the 10 control infants did. in
touch her?" fact,Perlman says that using pancuronium
"Feel free," says a nurse. The mother ten- and other drugs has reduced the deaths due
tatively strokes a leg, afraid she might break to brain hemorrhage among preemies to
it. At the nurse's urging she caresses the about a third of the national average.
head. "She's so beautiful, so sweet," mur- He acknowledges that pancuronium is
murs the mother. She stares dreamily at the harsh, causing complete paralysis while it is
baby while her husband stands behind her. applied. "The next step is to find a less nox-
"I've been through that before," laughs ious agent."
Carol Cardoso, rocking her baby a few feet Of course, there might be fewer hemor-
away. Her first preemie was "scary, " but with rhages if preemies did not have to struggle
this one she seems almost nonchalant. to breathe. And so scientists have recently
Dr. Epstein walks in and recognizes Car- developed a new kind of respirator ihat
doso from two and a hall years ago, when seems to take the struggle away. At first
he helped her keep" her first preemie alive. glance it's not apparent why this device
"How's the first one?" he asks. works. Conventional preemie respirators
"Oh, fine. Of course we want to give him deliver about 50 teaspoon-size puffs of air
up for adoption." per minute; this one puffs about 20 times
"No returns!" says Epstein, in mock pro- faster, using far smaller volumes of air. It sets
test. "We have a firm policy of no returns!" up thousands of tiny air swirls in the lungs
CONTINL IFD ON PAGE 13S
 hJ mm
Wzs

ws&
355J3J5

m&m

IT
thing began with the Big Bang, some 14 billion years ago. No one is sure
what caused it or what existed before. But suddenly matter I

a single point. Initially, the fireball was too hot, too dense for atoms to exist:
Neutrinos (elusive particles with no mass or charge) condensed first, then
the more familiar atomic particles. Later hydrogen and helium formed. Only
minutes old, the infant universe was already billions of miles across.
Perhaps as many as 5 billion years passed during which gravity tugged
of matter back together. As
:
condensed, the first r*—
it
 -..Jp*'

The cloud gradually shrank

and organized (near
right). Th

w were born. Acting as furnaces, they welded

hydrogen and helium into heavier
elements. Some stars died in violent
supernova explosions, which created still
heavier atoms and spewed them forth
to seed other clouds of stars.

a second generation of stars. Around

them, matter dumped into smaller bodies—
*
""i planets and moons, the "

so dramatically that its

I

points almost directly into the sun? Ar

why are the paths of Pluto and Halley's
from the r

.-, «..j day discover the

if we are
to these puzzles but only
> necessary time and
invest the
money inspace exploration and the
study of the universe.
;

~ jen rf the riddles stay with us

forever, cosmic science has already tauqht
its most important
at our feet to the farthest star,
all children of the
White sperm and egg
may meet in a glass dish, and frozen
embryos can survive
indefinitely, the first human birth on the
far side of the galaxy
will still come from a mother's womb

irUTERV/IEUU

conceptions and
Epworth
the
Hospital, run by
the Uniting
sisters of
of glass-dish
embryo freezing, the high-tech
Church, lies in a residen- accoutrements or the antiseptic
tial section of Melbourne, Austra- pleasantries so typical of American
lia's second largest city. The hospitals are nowhere to be
hospital across the street from
is found. Instead, a modest gift shop
a row of turn-of -the -century on the ground floor sells lilacs
Victorian homes attractively and roses, while relatives cluster
decorated with blooming gardens in a central lobby for news of
and second-story latticework, their loved ones' operations.
and its quaint appearance hints Like the hospital itself, the city
little at its position as the leading in of Melbourne is a puzzling
vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic in paradox. The capital of the state
Despite Epworth 's
the' world. of Victoria, Melbourne is a curious
pioneering role in enabling mixture of old-fashioned morality
hundreds of infertile couples to and repressed prurience. Its
have babies through the practice divided sexual personality seems

PHOTOGRAPH BY LEE McELFRESH

 entirely in keeping --i thi traditions estab- master's thesis on the fecundity of sheep, Chilean Andes, leaving a legacy of two fer-
Queen Victoria, and then into thefirst baby born from a frozen tilizedeggs, a substantial financial estate,
lished during the reign of
Melbourne is both the most and the least embryo, in 1984. Yet the road from sheep and a scientific imbroglio with far-reaching
embfyologist to preeminent scientist was international consequences. The case be-
likely place for the world's top VF center. On
I

the one hand, this is Rupert Murdoch's na- paved with extraordinary obstacles. In 1979 came a headline writer's dream; Right-to-life

tive land, a country where tabloids scream his team found itself in a grueling race with groups from several ccriinons lobbied vo-
England's Patrick Steptoe and Robert Ed- embryos' protection, and
ciferously for the
of barmaids attacked in their pubs by ab-
"mums" refusing to wards, who had delivered Louise Brown, the the Melbourne clinie was besieged with re-
originals, of surrogate
give up another couple's baby, of prostitutes world's first test-tube baby, in 1978. For more quests from hundreds of infertile women
needing AIDS tests, and of child molesters than a year, Trounson's team labored relent- hoping to adopt the abandoned embryos,
lessly to duplicate ihe success of the British, The legislature in Victoria became em-
stalking the tidy gardens of the city's west-
and in finally doing so incurred the wrath of broiled in an ethical controversy that still
ern suburbs.
Edwards, who charged that Trounson's in- awaits resolution today.
On the other hand, Melbourne has distin-
troduction of drugs into the IVF proc- "There's where the Rios embryos are kept."
guished itself for decades as a world-class fertility

research center. The success of Australia's
sheep and cattle industries has led many of
the nation's scientists to specialize in animal
husbandry and reproductive biology.
Sparsely populated (15 million people) and
geographically remote from the citadels of
Western science, Australia offers its re-
searchers a laboratory environment less en-
ess was highly unethical. The British,, in the
late Seventies, had applied their techniques
to only one egg from a woman's natural cycle.
Trounson believed that using drugs to in-
—
duce superovulation the release of as
many as a dozen eggs during a single
cycle—would greatly enhance the woman's
chances of pregnancy through IVF several
if
Trounson says, as he points to a silver vat at
his research lab. The gleaming container re-
sembles a pasteurizing machine, yet its
contents of rouyily 260 labeled human em-
bryos is quite a bit more precious than milk.
Almost two years after the initial Rios furor,
the mood at Epworth Hospital is decidedly
low-key. Some procedures have become so

cumbered by rank and hierarchy and more embryos were implanted at once. Following routine that husbands of IVF patients, for ex-

conducive to achievement at an early age. Melbourne's first test-tube-baby birth in 1980. ample, are given handout instructions on how
to submit their semen samples, bring sam-
By any nation's standards, the accom-
plishments of thirty-nine-year-old Alan Os- ple DOWN TO THEATRE GOMPLEX AT FAR END OF
corridor, the instructions say. ring buzzer
borne Trounson are remarkable. Working
IF UNANSWERED LEAVE IT AT ST-;' LR S DESK IN "i 'L
since 1977 with his mentor, Carl Wood, and
about two dozen brilliant researchers at middle of the ward. The doctors sound al-
Monash University's Queen Victoria Medi-
'•Once you most jocular, as if they are shooting an up-
cal Centre, in Melbourne, Trounson has rev- get a lot of embryos and dated segment of M'AS'H on an IVF locale.
olutionized the field of IVF His contributions,
They joke about a patient leery of undergo-
tubes in those ing the IVF process in the first place, who
ranging from the introduction of fertility drugs
into the IVFprocess to the development of incubators, it can look ended up pregnant with triplets. "The sperm
human-embryo freezing, have transformed sample was pretty lousy," someone. says at
like a forest.
test-tube-baby research from the risky crap- the Sunday "hormone meeting," in which the

shoot that it was in 1980 to a legitimate and

We have more patients
can't staff goes over the medical merits of each

increasingly accepted medical science. Next because the case. "Any laparoscopies tomorrow?" "No.
in Trounson's series of achievements will be
justa frozen transfer at six."
incubators get so crowded.^ After the morning laparoscopy most of the
an announcement that he has successfully
frozen, thawed, fertilized, and implanted a
staff has gone home, but Trounson, dressed
human egg, a breakthrough that is antici- in jeans and a sports jersey, huddles over
pated in early 1986. The Queen Victoria unit his equipment, examining the latest harvest
alone is responsible for neary 300 test-tube- of eggs to be mated with sperm about five
- baby births, more than all the IVF babies born Trounson's methods became widely ac- or six hours later. While his affable manner
in ihe United States. cepted, and the Australians took a decisive often covers an intense personal drive, his
Trounson's meteoric rise has been noth- lead in IVF research. -
ambition has taken its toll on his personal

ing short of spectacular, yet he's distinctly
uncomfortable with such laudatory descrip-
tions. There's a modesty and a professional
humility that more befits the sheep farmer
Trounson thought he would be than the in-
ternationally acclaimed scientist he has be-
Yet if any one event placed
Trounson's group on the international map it
was his treatment of the American millionaire
couple Elsa and Mario Fiios. Arriving without
fanfare in 1981, the Rioses hoped that Troun-
son's IVF team could "replace" Mrs. Rios's
Wood and life. Despite so many successes in the IVF
field. Trounson remains uncertain of his fu-
ture and not fully reconciled with his scien-
tific accomplishments. LikeCincinnatus, the
tamous Roman senator, he harbors a wish
to return to the land and the simple life of a

come. He's reluctant to take sole credit for only child, a daughter from a previous mar- farmer. Such a move would free him from the

his breakthroughs and never fails to praise riage, who had been tragic^ 'y killed in a gun politics hindering his research and bring him

an associate or an assistant. accident. Submitting to an "egg collection" closer to Ihe sheep that dominate the Aus-
Given the ethical controversies and the or laparoseppy, Elsa Rios initially had five tralian countryside.

thicket of laws that now envelop IVF re- eggs removed from her ovaries. Since Mario Omni features editor Robert Weil traveled

search in the state of Victoria, Trounson does Rios was infertile, sperm from an anony- to Melbourne, where he observed IVF op-
not seem entirely comfortable with the spin- mous donor was used to fertilize Mrs. Rios's erations at Epworth Hospital and inter-
ning reels of a reporter's tape recorder, yet eggs in a laboratory. Three of the embryos viewed Trounson in his office at Queen Vic-
were promptly inserted into Elsa Rios's toria Medical Center.
his playful banter is evident both to col-
leagues and patients. "You're pregnant, dar- uterus, but she miscarried after 14 days. The
ling," he guips to a woman lying on an op- other two were frozen in liquid nitrogen to be Omni: In the year 2000, how will our attitude
and a colleague have
erating table, after he thawed later and used in a subsequent em- toward birth and reproductive technology be
an embryo-lransfer procedure, bryo transfer. different from what it is today?
just finished
inserting three embryos into her uterus While such a procedure today might seem Trounson: People will have a much freer
through a long catheter. human embryo freezing was, in 1981,
routine; choice about the type of reproductive op-
As with other pioneers in this field, Troun- almost unthinkable — a concept conjuring up tions that will suit them. For example, with a

son's genius seems to be more intuitive than Aldous Huxley's Brave

frightening visions of much better knowledge of birth defects, in-

learned: He parlayed his childhood fasci- New World in the extreme. In April 1983, ihe stead of choosing a mate on the basis of

nation with goats and other animals, into a Rios couple died in a plane crash over the love and affection, a person might select
84 OMNI
 '

other animals'7 Er-'bryo transfer technology ters of egg maluraf ci. "ert; >aiion, and em-
someone who minimizes the chances of birth

defects. believe that the actual process of

I
was the only way could sort out those two
I
bryo freezing. The work was very compli-
having children will be taken much more se- factors. So while still a student, I ap- cated—instead of evolving a technique, like
riously thannow is. Reducing the number
it
proached Neil Moore; then senior lecturer in embryo freezing, we were trying to under-
in each family will shift much more
of children animal husbandry [at the University of Syd- stand how this very large cell, the egg, was
emphasis onto those few children and ney], suggesting we could solve the inter- being controlled within the ovary.
whether they will be normal. esting problem relating to multiple births by Omni: When you joined Carl Wood's IVF
using his embryo-transfer technologies in my group in 1977, did your goals shift?
Omni: How did you first become interested
in the field of reproductive technology? sheep. Neil and actually did the experiment
I
Trounson: We simply wanted to duplicate the
Trounson: grew up In the country towns of
I
together at a field station in Hay, about four success, not the work, of the Edwards and
New South Wales. My grandfather, with hundred fifty miles west of Sydney, way up Steptoe experiment of 1978. Throughout
whom was very close, was a farmer before
I
in the arid zone. We selected two types of 1979 literally tried to repeat their work [in-
I

sheep, one kind that produced only single serting only one fertilized egg info a uterus],
he moved to Sydney to become a fruit in-
lambs and another that .produced mainly but it all seemed wrong to me. I'd been raised
spector. He had a tremendous interest in the
land, which he passed on to rne, my broth- twins. We transferred eggs from the twin- in the animal reproduction area, and knewI

bearing to the singie-ijoaiing sheep, and you could use drugs effectively
ers, and my sister. We had chickens, ducks,
that fertility

Then we varied the number of with animals you were always

and that much
cats, dogs, and birds. We looked after ihem vice versa.
and bred them. eggs that were being transferred in either better off you could get more than one egg
if

Once my father turned up with two goats kind of sheep. We

found out that the preg- and more than one embryo. You'd really have
he'd broughl to keep my mother company nancy rate was not determined by the type a much better chance at success.
while he was away. They were really the last of eggs but influenced by the number of So in 1979 started working independent-
1

eggs that were put in the uterus. The sheep ly on superovulation in women, using clomi-
thing she wanted, but was absolutely de-
I

lighted. We bred those kids, loo. when they that received three eggs produced either phene citrate as a fertility drug. It was in the
grew up. So my interest in farm life and ani- triplets or twins, regardless of the origin of early Eighlies thatwe put all these tech-
mals existed before wenl to agricultural high
I
the eggs. In short, multiple births resulted nigues together using superovulation. de-
school. At the University of New South Wales from animals that produced multiple eggs. I sp'le a !o: or criticism from Bob Edwards and
I did a master's degree, studying the ge- was quickly enraptured by this technology, others, who said that this was the wrong di-
netics of multiple births in sheep. realizing could solve many problems had
it I rection to lake.

While finishing my master's wanted to I

in my mind about the embryo and preg- Omni: Was the Melbourne group the first to

determine whelher the egg or the uterus en- nancy. When finished my Ph.D.
I
joined I
achieve a high success rate with IVF?
abled some highly fecund sheep to pro- Moore's mentors, who had trained him at Trounson: Sure. With clomiphene, got more I

duce and quadruplets. Did the uterus

triplets Cambridge. That's when my inleresi in cry- than two eggs per person, so had more I

embryos to develop, or did these

allow those obiology developed. embryos to implant. had a better chance
I

sheep produce more eggs on average than At Cambridge we were dealing with mat- than anyone elsotcootar pregnancies. Us-

j?/%a^
"So much for 'it'll keep us in omelets for weeks.
 3

still suMicient numbers of cells at the Adoption, under such circumstances, takos
ing clomiphene was a breakthrough:. Sud- there's
time of compaction. But after the eight-cell place at the one-cell stage with the donated
denly we had eight pregnancies that went
stage, at about the sixteen- or thirty-two-cell egg-
to births. So other researchers switched to
stage [in humans], the cells in the embryo Omni: How does a .vomari whom you ve ac-
superovulation instead of using the women's
bind, or compact, to one another. Some of cepted actually move through the program?
natural cycle. also allered the culture me-
I

these cells are internalized within a ball of What will her week be like?
dium for egg matu^iior. aga'.n based on my
cells, and it's these internalized cells that then Trounson: She calls the nursing staff at Ep-
knowledge of what works in sheep.
drugs to work go on to develop into the embryo proper. worth and informsthem that her period has
Once I'd goucn fertn ly in
Right now, we're doing most of our Ireez- started. If there are no outstanding prob-
1980, there remained the problem of what to
ing the two- and four- and eight-cell lems, she'll come to the hospital between
dowithsomary spare eggs. Sconer or later still at
because we have gotten an excep- the second and fourth day of her cycle and
we'd be restricted on the number of em- stages,
high rate of success. But we can also begin taking tablets of clomiphene, or she'll
bryos we could return to a patienf— women tionally
freeze the blastocyst stage. begin getting injections of human menopau-
would otherwise have guadruplets, quintu- at
Omni: A blastocyst is the last stage of the sal gonadotropin, a hormone derived from
plets, sextuplets, and risk serious compli-
felt that we embryo before attaches itself to the uterine the urine of postmenopausal women, which
cations for mother and child.
it
I

How old then? How many cells does will stimulate the follicles to burst.
had an ethical obligation lo develop a tech- wall. is it

have? She'll return each morning after the sev-

nique to freeze those extra embryos so that it

people to Trounson: about five or six days; about enth day to have blood samples taken be-
they weren't in the laboratory for It's

experiment on indiscriminately or just dis- sixty to one hundred cells. The cells are cause by measuring the circulating hor-
much smaller and easier to freeze at this mones we can determine how many eggs
pose of. argued that they could be thawed
mst we measure
I

Embryos are normally frozen at this are growing in her ovaries I"

outand given back to the patients. stage.

stage in animal reproduction. This requires the estrogen level, wh ch tells you how many
Omni: How did you. pioneer the freezing
that you grow them for five or six days in eggs are growing. We will also use ultra-
technique?
started using techniques bor- culture. This is a habi'ity because conditions sound to get a picture of the number of eggs
Trounson: I

developing. Later on we check for two other

rowed from sheep and cattle embryology in
hormones, luteinizing hormone [LH— a go-
1981 but soon found that needed to freeze I

nadotropin, a pituitary regulator of sex ste-

a human embryo at .a much earlier stage.
roids] and progesterone which tell us ovu-
Toward the end of 1982 and after some ex-
lation is about to occur. Then, around the
perimentation, we were able, to get our em-
bryos to survive, pregnancy, unfor-
The first
•When you'd get to thirteenth or fourteenth day of her cycle we'll

the other end of the universe admit the woman to the hospital.
tunately, lasted only twenty-four weeks. The
We'll then take blood samples three times
patient ruptured a membrane, and the infec- you'd need a a day. We want to drive these patients very
tion went into the amniotic fluid. The, baby
actually caught pneumonia and a serious in- uterus for those embryos. close to their own ovulation pattern [to par-
allel the natural hormonal cycle] because
fection in its lungs. Heavy doses of antibiot- Perhaps at
they may then spontaneously release their
ics keptit alive for four or five days. Our first

healthy birth from a frozen embryo in Mel-

that end of the universe there own luteinizing hormone and initiate their own
are creatures ovulation without requiring an injection. Most
bourne was in January 1984. I'd done the
patients, though, will need an injection of hu-
freezing and thawing. who have functional uteri
Omni: Is true, as a newspaper once
it printed. man chorionic gonadotropin to produce the
tried to defrost a human embryo in same biological activity as the patient's own
thai you
natural LH. About thirty-six hours after the
your home freezer?
patients receive this injection, we go into the
Trounson; Noway, because you can't freeze
theater [operating room] for a laparoscope
or thaw them in an ordinary freezer. They
glass], are not Omni: Once the laparoscopy is done and.
have to be stored ir icuicl n.-rogen. I've never 'in culture, that is, in vitro [in

as good as those in vivo [in the womb],. say, nine or len eggs have been collected,
done any embryo work at home. Why would
Omni: What basic steps does a patient go what's the next step?
you, unless you wanted to do some cattle
through in embryo freezing? Trounson: The husband and wife must de-
embryo work on the side? We're not permit-
Trounson: Prior to coming into the IVF pro- cide how many eggs to fertilize and whether
ted to have human embryos out of the hos-
gram, patients are counseled about their to donate. About six hours after the egg col-
pital environment, anyway.
Somebody whose religious beliefs lection, the husband provides the semen,
Omni: How many human embryos lie in fro- options.
may find egg either with the assistance of his wife or by
zen storage at Queen Victoria Medical Cen- do not permit embryo freezing

ter right how? freezing more compatible. We also inform masturbating. We require that the semen be
patients that well not implant more than three provided in the hospital since it must be fresh
Trounson: We currently have about two hun-
dred to two hundred sixty, the temperature embryos, as do many groups in the United and must be the husband's.
States. The risK ol premat. ire deliveries and Omni: Is there a possibility 'or intrigue?
of the storage vat being minus one hundred
abnormalities greatly nccased with mul- Trounson; Yes. mir.go.ng possibilities do ex-
ninety-six degrees Celsius [-320.8°F]. is

a patient chooses freezing, we'll ist, though we don't necessarily believe that
Omni: At the embryo incubator at Epworth tiple births. If

freeze the remaining embryos, and she can they would happen, Most of the husbands
Hospital, you once looked in and said, 'A full
have them thawed later on. don't have any problem, but some would
house today."
Omni: Basically, embryo freezing gives a prefer to provide their sample at home. If
Trounson: Sometimes you get so many em-
woman the opportunity to have several in- that's their real wish, then we'll accede. When
bryos and tubes in those incubators that it

sertions if the first one should fail 7
looks a bit like a forest. Incubators get
Trounson: That's right. This procedure ef-
crowded, and that limits the number of pa-
tients in our program, fectively increases her chances of preg-
nancy with only one egg collection, or la-
we finally prepare the semen, the prepara-
tion system very much depends on the se-
men quality of the husband. When we first-
examine the semen, we look at everything .

Omni: At what cellular stage is it best to

paroscope This is what the majority of that's in the sample— normal and abnormal
freeze a human embryo?
some ninety percent, choose. Pa- cells, volume, and anything else that's per-
Trounson: We don't, know yet. If you freeze a patients,
tients not opting lor feezing can donate their tinent. Once, we've prepared the sperm
two-, fpur-ror-even eight-cell embryo, .you
can still destroy some of the cells without eggs to others. We have about two hundred sample for insemination, we also look at the

damaging the viability of the embryo. won't It patients who either have no ovaries or no sperm's quality to make certain that we've
eggs or who have a familial genetic disease. gotten rid of a lot of the abnormal cells/The
make a difference to the embryo, provided
SB OMNI CON 5INUH DOW PAGE 12J
Do the mothers of
tomorrow want test-tube babies
and surrogate dads?

BIRTHTECH
BY KATHY KEETON
WITH YVONNE BASKIN
1999 Louise Brown, the world's
first test-tube baby, will turn twenty-
Inone. Somehow is fitting that theit

women ot her generation, the

women of the twenty-first century, will
be the ones to reap the full benefits
ofa technology taking shape today.
Over the pasi ten years science
has revolutionized the process of
human birth. promises to put the
It

very definition of mother, father,

family lineage, and even human life

in our hands. In Ihe past two years

alone there has been news of: the first

baby born from a frozen embryo;
fhe first instance of a woman who
carried to term an infant born from a
donated egg; and the first birth of
a child from an embryo transplanted
trom one woman to another. In fact,
so much has happened since Louise
Brown was born that the techniques
used to engineer her birth are
considered a little old-fashioned.
Because women bear the heaviest
burden of deciding which birth
technologies to use. their opinions
will shape the development of repro-
ductive science in the next century.
To find out what those opinions
are, Omni enlisted the prestigious
research firm Yankelovich, Skeily, and
White, Inc., and conducted an

A technician examines a group of

Left:
donor eggs. Above: Sperm meets
egg in the glass womb of a petri dish.
international pollquerying women in the
United States, England, Japan, and South
Africa for their thoughts on the new
technologies. (For Omni readers —women
and men — who would like to register their
opinions on the implications of this technol-
ogy, we have included issue a new
in this
poll, designed by Dr. Judianne Densen-
Gerber, on page 106. This will give readers
the chance to compare Iheir attitudes with
those of the women of the world. And be-
cause Dr. Densen-Gerber hopes to use the
poll results to influence birth-technology
legislation in Michigan, this will also offer
readers the opportunity to have a specific
influence onhow the technology is used.)
Would women consider freezing their em-
bryos to save for later implantation? Given
the choice, which would they adopt: a child
or an embryo? Under what conditions would
they choose to have a test-tube baby? they
had the opportunity to handpick the char-
acteristics of an anonymous sperm donor,
what would they choose? When the results
were in, the answers were often surprising
and always enlightening.
These questions are more than academic.
92 OMNI
Already science has transformed the bio-
logical process of becoming a parent. In ad-
dition to old-fashioned conception, men and
birth
women today have a variety of novel alter-
natives for bringing sperm and egg together
produce a baby:
to
.
• A couple can have a baby by artificial in-
semination using sperm from the husband
or an anonymous donor.
They can choose to use a surrogate
mother, a woman who agrees to carry her
own or an implanted embryo to term for them.
• The couple's own egg and sperm, or do-
nated egg and sperm, could be joined in a
petri dish and later placed in a woman's
womb, a process that is known as in vitro, or
test-tube, fertilization (IVF).
• Finally, an embryo conceived in the body
ofa surrogate can be flushed from her womb
and implanted in another's womb, a tech-
If
nique known as embryo transfer.
Depending on a couple's fertility problem,
allsorts of combinations of these methods
are possible. Donated sperm can be used
either to inseminate the biological mother of
the desired baby or a surrogate mother cho-
sen to bear the child. Similarly, the eggs and
Opposite page: (near left) sperm being
screened lor sex selection before fertilizing
egg (far left). This page; tools of high-tech
birthing include ultrasound scans of the womb
(left), ultradeep-treeze storage tanks of liquid
nitrogen (above), and the warm, nurturing
world of an incubator (top and above left).
the womb thai are used could be those of tween the ages of twenty-six and thirty. For women with, ovulation problems get preg-
either the woman who wants a child or her women with higher incomes and those who nant. Others can have their problem cor-

surrogate chosen to carry the embryo. work, the ideal age was even higher. They rected surgically. One San Francisco sur-
Various scenarios are possible. In the most would opt for childbirth over thirty as the geon transplanted an ovary and Fallopian
complicated, a child conceived by IVF could ideal. For women who had not yet begun tube from one sister to her infertile identical
actuallyhave five parents: the woman who delayed motherhood was also
their families, twin afflicted with endometriosis.

donated the egg, the man who donated the considered desirable. Half of these childless For some women, none more of the con-
sperm, a surrogate mother who carries the women said becoming a mother over thirty ventional solutions work. They would be the
fertilizedegg, and the "two nonbiological was their preference. As one womanexec- ones to take advantage of other new op-
utive put it: 'At ages thirty-five to forty you've tions. And IVF is becoming the most popular
parents who finally adopt the child.
In the not-too -distant future we can ex- got your life squared away and your values of the alternative birth technologies. Since
pect to see these techniques made avail- straightened out. And you're young enough the birth of the first test-tube baby in 1978,

able not only to couples who have fertility not to be an old parent." couples around the world have been
infertile

problems or who are concerned about ge- Postponing pregnancy has its drawbacks clamoring for the procedure. By the end of
netic diseases but also to women trying to as well as its benefits. The later the preg- 1984 more than 1,000 babies conceived in
coordinate family and career plans or to nancy, the riskier is for both mother and
it lab dishes were born. As of 1985 there were

evade the tyranny of the biological clock. child. Women in their late thirties or older have 115 in vilro clinics operating in the .United
For the past 15 years, more and more a greater risk of such complications as tox- States, 8 in Canada, and at least 50 others
American women have been delaying the emia (pregnancy-induced high blood pres- around the world.
start of their families. Between 1970 and sure), stillbirth, premature delivery, and Here is how a basic IVF works today: A
1982, the number of those who put off hav- lower- weight babies. woman is given fertility drugs Clomid or Per-
ing their first child until age twenty-five more Getting pregnant may be another diffi- gonal or hormones to stimulate her ovaries
than doubled. Among women thirty to thirty- culty.Some women fail to ovulate, a condi- into releasing severaleggs instead of the
four, first births have more than tripled in that tion that becomes more common as a usual one. To detect when her eggs reach
same 12-year period. Demographers think woman gets older. Others may suffer from the peak of maturity, the IVF team gives her
the trend is here to stay, and our survey sup- endometriosis, a pelvic inflammatory disor- ultrasound and hormone blood tests. Then,
ports that prediction. der sometimes called career woman's dis- while the patient is under general anes-
Half the women we polled felt that if the ease because it progresses with age. One thesia, a 'doctor inserts a laparoscope, a

medical risks were the same at any age, the effect is that the lining of the womb spreads telescopic device the diameter of a pencil,
ideal time for starting a family would be be- outside and attaches itself to the ovary, the into her ovary through a small abdominal in-

Fallopian tubes, or other organs. cision. Looking through the scope, a physi-
But with standard hormone treatments or cian can identify the little blisterlike follicles
Adapted from the book Woman of Tomorrow, by
surgery, most women can get pregnant and that contain the eggs. He then inserts a long,
Kathy Keeton with Yvonne Baskin. Published by
carry a child to term. For example, such fer- hollow needle to suck them up.
St. Martin's Press/Marek Books. Copyright ©

1986 by Kathy Keeton and Yvonne Baskin. tility" drugs as Clomid and Pergonal help The tiny eggs are placed in a petri dish
with a layer of liquid nutrients. A technician
adds drops of sperm, and the container is
stored in a body-temperature incubator. The
eggs are left in the incubator until they have
been fertilized and have divided to an eight-
cell stage, usually after a day or so. The em-
bryos are drawn up in a plastic catheter and
deposited in the uterus.
Two weeks later, a pregnancy test will tell
whether the embryo has taken. If one em-
bryo is used, a couple stands a one-in-five
chance of a pregnancy in the most success-
ful clinics. If three embryos are used, the
odds almost double. Yet even when a preg-
nancy takes, a third of women will miscarry
during the first three months.
Now done in a hospital or clinic, out-of-
body conception eventually be per-
will

formed in a doctor's office. Physicians have

already taken thefirst steps in that direction

Los Angeles
at the University of California at
Medical Center. Teams there no longer use
a laparoscope but guide the retrieving
needle to the egg with ultrasound. The UCLA
team celebrated its first success with the
method in 1984 when a baby girl was born
to a thirty-five-year-old California woman.
The women we polled were of two minds
on IVF Most said they would prefer to adopt
a child if they could contribute neither their
eggs nor their wombs to produce a child.
Their preference for adoption faded, how-
ever, if doctors were able to use their eggs
or their wombs to produce or bear a child.
"Sure we have a long way to go, but let's Given the latter conditions, an overwhelm-
give ourselves a little credit for getting up off all fours/" ing 88 percent of women say they would
consider in vitro fertilization.
 As doctors make more use of cryopres-
ervation— freezing embryos in liquid nitro-
gen—some of the troubles and expense that
are now part of IVF will be reduced. Couples
will be able to store several embryos har-
vested today for implant attempts some time
in the future. The freezing process is still im-

perfect —
only a half to two thirds of all em-
bryos frozen survive the process— but an
IVF team at Monash University in Mel-
bourne, Australia, had the first successful
birth from a frozen embryo in 1984. (For more
information on their work, see the interview
with Dr. Alan Trounson, of Monash Univer-
sity,on page 82.)
The idea of beating the biological clock
by freezing embryos and reimplanting them

GREAT FOR later does not have much of a following

among women yet, according to our poll.
Only 11 percent said they would consider it.

EXTRA- Some just didn't like the idea, describing

as "terrible" or "creepy," while others wor-
it

CURRICULAR ried
if,
about unforeseen complications: "What
ten years down the line, decided didn't
want children," asked one woman. "What
I
I

ACTIVITIES. would happen to the embryos?"

Another birth technology that generated
strong interest among the women polled is

embryo transfer. By this technique, an egg

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is fertilized in the womb of one woman and
implanted in another, who carries the
adopted embryo to term. Scientists have had
a model for the procedure for years. Trans-
ferring embryos from one female to another
is a million-dollar business in the world of

cattle breeding. Only recently have re-

SPECTACULAR PURCHASE! searchers figured out how to do the same
for people.
After five years of work, obstetricians Marie
EL-5400 Scientific Computer and John E. Buster at Harbor-UCLA
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womb. The embryo, now at about the 100-
cell stage, is captured in a special catheter
Id simplify key operator. The preprograr
and transferred to the recipient's womb using
the same procedures as in an IVF
We know it works. In 1984 the first two ba-
bies were born to women biologically unre-
lated to them. The process is simple and safe
• 38 preprogrammed sc
tor the recipient, but for the egg donor there
is a slight risk of an unwanted pregnancy if
the embryo isn't recovered in the wash
process or if the washing pushes the em-
bryo back into her Fallopian tubes.
For women who are eligible, embryo
transplants will be commercially available in
CE 12SP 1986. Then Fertility and Genetics Research
TrMfflMf Prfnfw/CMMM Inlai
Inc., the Chicago company that sponsored
Catalog No. 012S3O
the Harbor-UCLA project, plans to open the
first of a network of embryo-adoption clinics.
CALL TOLL FREE 800-621-12BB EXCEPT CANADIAN TOLL FREE B00-458-S133 Although the women we polled seemed
to have more enthusiasm for IVF than for em-
sax.'iaana>sasr™ bryo transplants, a significant number were
still interested in the latter. Forty-two percent

IS ELEK-TEK.i said that if they were able to bear a child but

could not produce eggs, they would choose
 to carry another woman's eggs fertilized with
theirhusband's sperm. For them being
pregnant was part of the appeal. "I'd want
togive the baby my environment, to feel the
baby stirring." said a mother of two,
When compared with adopting a child,
however, tradition won out. A slightly greater
HOLLAND BEER
number, 47 percent, said they would prefer
adopting someone else's child to carrying
someone else's embryo to term. Some of-
fered medical explanations; "I wouldn't want
to take the risk of receiving an anonymous
embryo." Others were more pragmatic: "I'd
much rather adopt than go through the trou-
* !1W
0NEH"
'
bleof being pregnant," one woman said.
Women were even less enthusiastic about
a more established birth technology, artifi-

cialinsemination by anonymous donor (AID).

Conception through artificial insemination
has been possible for 25 years. At least a
quarter of a million children have been con-
ceived by this method in the United States.
Yet when given an either/or choice ot adop-
tion or artificial insemination, half the women
said they would prefer to adopt.
And of those interested in AID, more than
80 percent wanted to know more about the
fHOLLANrfl
donor than his age, race, and general health.
When asked what traits they would seek in
a sperm donor, women polled chose the top
A
BEER P
three: emotional stability, high intelligence,
and pleasant personality. In declining order,
these were followed by: good looks, lead-
ership qualities, a'.Nedc ao iky. artistic talent,
scientific ability, and tinancial success.
As for professions for the father, the big-
women) went
gest vote by far (almost half the
to businessmen. Distant seconds were law-
yers, scientists,and scholars, each group
garnering roughly 20 percent of the votes,
Even more distant thirds were athletes, writ-
and teachers, with 12 percent for each
ers,
of those groups. These were followed by art-
ftA
ists and musicians, religious leaders, politi-
cians and statesmen, entertainers, and, at
the very bottom, actors.
Interestingly, priorities shifted once we put
names to those general categories. Politi-
cians and actors moved to the head of the
line. John F Kennedy and Walter Cronkite

took the largest vote, with Robert Redford,

Albert Einstein, and Chrysler savior Lee la-
cocca close behind.
41
For all their divergent opinions on birth
technologies, one attitude was unchanging.
Women as a group do not fear the future
consequences of these new methods. Only
around a' tenth of the women surveyed w
ried that future mother-child relationships
would be less personal and that "children
^M
willbe ordered like consumer goods." Nearly
half were convinced that because of the new
birth technologies, the relationship between
women and their children will change for the
better in the future and that children will be
better planned, wanted more, and loved
more. Even as others talk about Brave New
World scenarios, most women today do not I

see the future as ominous but as holding the

promise of a new degree of freedom and
choices in the way they will bring children
into the world.OQ
 ,^m% .>w»"^»
&sfflli
»S**#W»

FICTION

Under the snarled canopy

of ash-gray trees, the ring watchers and
shadow creepers feast on death

TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR

BY SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS
Viewed now at twilight fall made it sound both
through the station's tri- hideous and holy.
ple-paned windows, the With a slap on the arm
forest seemed to rise up by way of warning, Kyle
like a cliff, solid and im- announced boisterously,
passable. A million sea- "Look out, old buddy
sons of leaves might have you're lost again."
fallen all at once, so thick Wrenching his thought
were the shadows. Wire away from the forest and
reinforcements in the its mountain. Garrett
window glass superim- swung around to view the
posed on the view a grid screen of the simulator, on
of lines, giving the illusion which the two brothers
of order, as the laby- were playing a game of
* "<r\, .. rinth of
if

limbs out there had been surveyed. But Wild-Survive. took him several moments to locate
It

Garrett knew belter. The forest had never been his player amid the glitter of luminous beasts and
mapped, never photographed, The few explorers savage terrain; then he spied a blip of light astray
it,

who had returned safely after penetrating its heart in a swamp, flickering toward extinction. He waved

were reluctant to speak about how they had trav- at the screen dismissively, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
eled or what they had seen. "Some pathfinder you are!" said Kyle. "You get
When Garrett questioned these veterans about lost and die three times in twenty minutes. hope I

the white mountain he had glimpsed while riding you do better when we get outside."
the curve of gravity down from orbit, they fell silent. Exasperated with the game, with his high-spir-
"Have you been to that dazzling white peak," he ited brother, with the cramped sleep-chamber in

asked them, "the one that looms up through the which they ticked off the slow hours waiting for their
forest canopy like the snout of a whale? How far is time of departure, Garrett declared, "Only a bear
it? What's it made of?" But the old-timers just stared of very little brain could play at this make-believe
at him with the bruised look of refugees. Their se- with a real wilderness just beyond the wall."

V<~' creliveness about the white mountain only inten-

sified his desire to go there. The few hints they let
Kyle
He was a
filled the
big
chamber with his rowdy laughter
man and did not provoke easily, re-

PAINTINGBYH. R. GIGER

-':»

*• -. _JL
 passing along it. fierce with self-restraint, he said. "It keeps
sisting changes in mood as a boulder re- animal:;,

sists changes in temperature. Of the two Suddenly, Kyle let out a cry of triumph, me sharp."
away from the screen, flushed with "Sharp for what? The wilds aren't like that-
brothers, he was younger by half a dozen turning
a "Bam! How's that for shooting?" one threat after another. You make exploring
years and heavier by some two dozen kilos. kill'.

Both men were tall, but while there was a The look of rapture on his brother's face seem like warfare."

good deal of meat on Kyle, there was very made Garrett uneasy. Yet he also felt a kind "That's exactly what it is — war." Kyle stood

of rapture, thinkingabout tomorrow's jour- up and stretched his brawny frame, releas-
little on Garrett. The older brother had to find

ney into the intricate woods— the sweet ing the tension from his muscles. "It's them
his way around obslacles. wh'-le the younger
dread a man feels on a cliff's edge. In honor against us, Garrett. One of these trips you're
one bulled his way through, killing or intimi-
of these woods, the discovery crew had going to see that as plainly as do. You're
dating whatever beasts stood in the way. And
I

named the planet Kentucky-2. Perhaps the going to quit imagining gardens outside and
so in their wilderness treks they had fallen
roles, Garrett leading name more than anything else had saved see teeth. Teeth and claws and pincers and
into complementary
the world from settlement, for the Federation poison. And this is the meanest son-of-a-
them into the uncharted zones and back
again, Kyle keeping them alive. had been so taken by the idea of a second bitching planet of them Why else do so
all.

. 'Another round?" said Kyle. —

Kentucky one incomparably vaster and many tough customers you and me," he
like

more tangled than the original— that they added, forcing a smile, "never make it back
"No. I've had enough. You go ahead."
declared the entire planet a wilderness pre- out of the Big Thicket?"
Kyle needed no encouragement. He
seemed fully alive only when taceup against serve. No one was permitted to draw maps Garrett knew the statistics — the number
name the islands and continents wounded by animals, the number shriveled
danger; and he could not for the moment
if or even to
confront real danger, then imitation danger and seas. Apart from a few nicknames— Big by hunger, the number lost or crazed; and
would do. Beast after beast attacked his Thicket,Ogre Pass, Tooth Alley— Kentucky- besides, was an old argument between
it

player, shaggy forms bounding "across the 2 was bare of words. This appealed to Gar- —
them so he held his tongue. Unless peo-
rett—the land's muteness, Throughout the ple could die from going there, no place was
simulator's glass face; but he shot each one
human system, everyone who made a truly wild. On Earth death had retreated to
before it struck. Between onslaughts, he
the intensive-care wards. Here, still lurked
leaned away from the console and said,
it

abroad in the countryside and could meet

"Why don't you go up on the roof and see if

you anywhere.
you can spy that mountain of yours?"
"1 already tried. It doesn't show above the
The hammocks were quickly slung from
horizon. It's west of here —
found out that- I

mn the
hooks in the walls of their compartment,
—
much and maybe twelve days of hiking." Garrett taking the position next to the win-
dow. With an agility remarkable in so big a
"You could go out in the lounge and milk darkness the forest looked
man, Kyle swi.no gracefully nto his berth.
a little more wisdom from the old-timers." more solid,
"Why so anxious to keep me busy?" "So get your sleep, trail sniffer," he muttered.
"You just seem kind of all wound up," an impenetrable weave of He soon lapsed into snores, butforalong
snapped. : while Garrett lay gazing with wide-open eyes
"Well, I'm not," Garrett , branches.
one tense." Kyle into the shadowy forest. In the darkness the
"Not a bit, not little bit

hummed a broken melody. Then he sug-

He must find a way through woods looked more solid than ever, an im-
the tangled mass penetrable weave of branches. Somehow he
gested amiably, "You could check the gear."
right."
must find a way through that tangled mass
'All
to the dazzling mountain.^ to the dazzling mountain.
There wasn't much gear to check, and
what there was had already been minutely
examined. Garrett went through the motions The air lock closed behind them with a
anyway, to reassure his brother. Food to last sucking noise —
even on a planet with
breathable air, the human system took no
a month, tools, clothes, tackle for climbing
rocks and descending caves, stove and fuel, profession or a hobby of exploration chances with sly nature. The brothers hesi-
lights, journals, books, guns— an easy load. dreamed of venturing here; but only ninth- tated in the clearing just outside the station,
degree explorers were granted entry. Garrett scanning the forest wall for a point of
compared with what they carried on most
On all that wild globe the single human entry, Kyle listening for the footpads of ani-
expeditions. No cameras or recorders, for
marks were the station and the rocket pad. mals. Their shirnmersufis were opaque in the
any device that could reduce the wilderness
scars on the margin of the chief conti- early light, clinging to them like brown pelts,
to images was forbidden. No signalers, since tiny

the brothers were ninth-degree explorers, the nent. Together with two dozen other explor- and their packs bulked high above their
most austere and advanced, and would not ers who had earnedthe right to come here shoulders like cargoes of darkness. It was
consider calling tor help. No breathing ap- through success in survival competitions on shortly before dawn, that ambiguous hour

paratus, because the atmosphere of Ken- tamer worlds, the brothers awaited their turn when nighttime predators are yielding to
tucky-2 was close enough to E-normal to to enter the forest. At twelve-hour intervals, those of the day. Nothing stirred.
permit travel without airsuits. in groups of twos and threes, the explorers "You see any door, big brother?" Even
Having finished his ritual inspection, Gar- slipped out through the air lock and disap- though Kyle whispered, his voice sounded
rett paced back and forth along the outer peared into that unmapped immensity. Some huge in the stillness.

wall of their sleep-chamber, preparing his of them would return to the station after only "Plenty. But don'tsee ours yet." Garrett
I

mind journey that would begin the

for the a few hours, baffled and numb; some would always savored this moment on the thresh-
next day. Each time he passed the fortified return after a few days or weeks; some never. old of a wild zone, the moment of deciding

window, he glanced out at the encroaching "Got you, big jaws!" Kyle bellowed, as he where to enter. At length he chose a small
forest. No movement, no glint of eyes. Abrupt undid another electronic phantom. opening where two trees had fallen slant-
"Will you quit that so we can get some wise against one another, their trunks form-
and final as the flank of a continent or the
brow of a glacier. sleep?" ing an arch just high enough for crawling

Big Thicket, the veterans calledit, a dense "Hey, hey, I'm cooking, brother. Just one through, their bared roots splayed in the air

snarl of trees and brush, creepers and briars, more round." like upflung arms. He dropped on all fours.

stretching inland for thousands of kilome- "I'rrvsick of it!" Garrett cried, slamming his "Here it is."

ters. Even thechannels of rivers were roofed fist on the control, blanking the screen. 'All "OU mercy, starting out on hands and
with vines. The only trails through the forest this brutal make-believe!" knees," Kyle grumbled, crawling after.
were those worn by animals; the more open Kyle swung around menacingly, eyes filled They soon wriggled through, and now they
the trail, the larger and more dangerous the with his murderous game. In a quiet voice, belonged to the forest. They had to read the
100 OMNI
 "What kind cvo you sec?" Garrett asked. the bodies tailed to stir. "Maybe you gave
tilt of land with their feet, read the pattern of
dense undergrowth and interwoven "Haven't you noticed those silvery bags them too high a charge."
hanging on the trunks, bristles all over, their "It was nothing. A tickle." Kyle prodded
branches with their eyes, obeying Ihe grain
snouts drilling holes through the bark?" the bodies with the rifle. The barrel thumped
of the woods, Garrett in the lead, as always,
"I thought those things were some kind
of against the scarlet plates. "I do believe the
his senses alert to every detail of the way,
lumbering behind, atluned epiphytes." suckers are dead," he said in a lone of gruff
Kyle, as always,
to danger; the two of them moved swiftly and
-
"No, expec: they're animals. Tree suck-
I
amazement. "Funny_ you wouldn't think —
Holding the rifle in one fist to use as a anything this lough o'h the oLlsde could be
in tandem, almost like a single one-legged ers."
pointer, Kyle gestured overhead. "And those so weak on Ihe inside," With pliers from his
beast, not talking, not needing to talk, put-
snaky things that slither through the roof he dragged the fleshy strips onto
tool belt
ting as much distance as they could be-
I

call branch weavers." the rock outcropping. "Might as well let

tween themselves and ihe station before the
Garrett peered a iong tiiro before he could someth ng else oat them."
next team of explorers was scheduled to de-
make out one of the scarlet creatures writh- Garrett felt the first nail marks of dread
part. The ground was spongy, yielding be-
ing, serpentine and slow, through the lattice- along his nerves, "Whatever they use for wir-
neath their boots and then springing back to
work of limbs. Once he discovered the first, ing must be awfully delicaie. too doiicate ""or
erase all marks of their passage. During the
first few hours they paused only to allow he suddenly perceived them everywhere. you to go blazing away with that damn gun."
The canopy was in fact crawling with these Kyle gave him a furious look. "I wasn't
Garrett to backsight along the way they had
snakelike animals, which seemed tobe lac- blazing away. What shot them with wouldn't
come, memorizing the textures of leaf and
I

twig and root so that a month from now he
could lead them out again.
Then as the local sun climbed overhead
and drove shafts of red light like fiery nails
into the forest floor, both brothers halted, as
ifon signal. They shrugged free of the back-
packs, took off their goggles and helmets,
and sat side by side on an outcropping of
rock. Garrett took a pinch of dirt and held
branches together, coiling and knot- have killed a rat back home."
ing the
ting their scaly bodies, binding twig to twig. Why shoot at all? Garrett wanted to say-
"How do you suppose they do it? Some kind Instead he muttered, "Yeah, okay. Let's go,"
of secretion?" The brotherS'had walked only a few paces
"Let's see." when there came a sou'io ol scratching and
Before Garrett could protest, Kyle had fired snarling from the rock where they had taken
their rest. Turning around quickly, they dis-
covered a pack of cat-size animals tearing
the bodies of the branch weavers into shreds.
it

Within seconds, every last scrap of meat and

to his nostrils. Must, mildew, iron— the sig-
scaly hide and bone had been snatched up
nature of this spot.
^Against and stuffed into slits in their shaggy flanks.
"It's a mean son of a bitch, all right," said

was slick from sweat and bro- the darkening sky, they were Weighted down. Ihe animals scurried back
Kyle. His face
into hiding in the network of roots.
ken wide open at the mouth from panting.
thickenings of Kyle whistled. "Hungry!"
He kept one hand on the rifle, which lay
across his lap. shadow, arrayed in a crude 'And quick," said Garrett, disturbed by the
work of these scavengers. Did they eat
swift
To Garrett the tangled woods seemed not circle; two crept
even the fur and bone?
mean and not beautiful, but awesome. The
in, then two more, arriving "Maybe they're the reason nobody ever
leaves and vines and fernlike fronds were
pairs they comes across the bodies of the guys who
mostly in shades of red, the solid trunks in till

combined get lost in here," said Kyle.

nearly .black, giving a effect of
formed an unbroken ring?>
flames and ashes. Instead of growing up and
The word tosr set Garrett in motion again.
up, as on Earth, the trees rose only about
He picked his way among the arching roots
and ash-dark trees, trying to put these first
three times the height of a man before
k :

out of his mire. There would be others.

branching horizontally, and these branches lls

On recent expeditions, Kyle had become

twined through those of neighboring trees,
the twigs seemingly fused together where
they touched. Flowers burned everywhere
a quick burst up through the canopy. An in- more and more trigger-happy, firing at any-
stant later, three of the branch weavers thing that was even vaguely menacing, as if
fell

clattering to the ground and lay still, like he feared that their luck was running out.
in this latticework of branches, fierce yellows
ot rusty chain. "Lead on, big brother," Kyle sang out. 'Just
and serene blues, and creepers looped hanks
Dead some "Why'dyoudothat?" don't forget to keep track of how we got here."
down from 'it in festoons. trees,
with their trunks rotted quite through, hung Bending over one of the fallen creatures, Warmed from body heat, their shimmer-
The canopy appeared Kyle said, "it won't hurt them. Half a minute, suits took on a ruby sheen in the midday
suspended from it.

and be squirming again," Examining sun. They wei; 1 saunter re; easily now, a pace
so tightly woven, Garrett imagined a person they'll

the scarlet body, turning over and over with they could maintain all day, if need be, for
could walk on it. The smaller animals prob- it

ably traveled up there— might be up there
right now spying on these two-legged in-
truders. "Have you seen any beasts yet?"
'A few," Kyle answered. "Nothing to sweat
about, don't think. We've scared off most of
I
the butt of his gun, he added, "How about
that armor? See how these plates mesh to-
gether? looks like some kind of glue seeps
It
out beiweerr-the joints all along its torso. It
musl smear the bark with this stuff, so when
days on end, for weeks, like caribou migrat-
ing. Now and again Kyle would lay his hand
on Garrett's shoulder and point wordlessly
at some new beast in the canopy overhead
or in the undergrowth, and Garrett would

it weaves the branches together everything

stare and stare before seeing the creature-
the littie brutes with all our hurrying. And the
And the whole canopy becomes one twitch. This was always ;he way of Garrett
big brutes—the ones that don't scare— ex-
it;
I
sticks.

pect they never come this close to the sta- gigantic web." had an eye for pattern, for the still matrix of
"To catch what?" things, and Kyle had an eye for anything that
tion. They're back deep in the woods, so the

old guys say." "'Anything that falls. Who knows what's moved against this fixed background, and
Thiswas about all that the old guys— the crawling around up there?" each brother was nearly blind to what the
veterans who had penetrated the Big Garrett leaned back to gaze at the solid other could see. "If can't run or jump or fly,
il

say: You won't meet the killer mat Of limbs. He would have to climb up itcan't hurt you, "Kyle would say. "If it moves,
Thicket—would
beasts until you've hiked for two days or so; through the canopy sooner or later to gel a you can't find your way by it," Garrett would
you can drink..the water; some of the plants bearing on the white mountain .but he was — counter.

are poisonous, eifher to touch or eat; Ihe meat inno hurry. He shouldered his pack and fit- Because the local day was only a little
of animals willkeep you alive, but what it ted goggles and helmet, yet he did not want more than twenty E-hours long, the after-
does to your stomach is not much more to leave until the branch weavers had re- noon passed quickly, the fiery shafts of sun-
vived from'Kyle's shot. Seconds passed, and light burning in longer and longer slants
preferable to starving.
102 OMNI
 campsite was enclosed in a blazing dome early red. While the brothers ate breakfast
through the woods. They pitched camp be-
of light. A chorus of guttural cries and whim- inside the light-dome, scavengers outside
side a stone-liltered creek. Kyle tested the
pers sounded in the branches overhead, devoured the two carcasses. The voracious
water, shaking a slug of it in a toxi-vial to
then a frantic scuffling of sluggish bodies. beasts evidently could not see in through the
make certain was pure. Satisfied, he lay
it

Kyle let out a riotous laugh. "Back into the but Kyle and Garrett, with eyes shielded
flare,
down and plunged his face into the stream
dipped a cup.
his out with night, you hairy bastardsl Go eat some- by goggles, were able to watch the snarling
to drink. Garrett
from where else!" banquet. It was overjn a few minutes, The
"I'll set up," Kyle said, water dripping

Garrett watched uneasily as his brother scavengers withdrew back among the ash-
his beard. "You remember."
in a heavy, lumbering dance around dark roots, gorged and swaying. A single
While the encampment took shape under shuffled

Kyle's practiced hands — domed ten! blos- the circumference ot the light-dome. bone was all that remained of the ring
wa*chers on the stony bank of the creek.
soming, sleep-pouches inflating, supper
brewing on the cookstove. security flare Twice in the night Kyle wriggled out of his "Hide and hair and giblets they eat all,"— it

sleep-pouch, muttered at Garretl, "It's noth- said Kyle.

curving in a great circle around the perim-
and
eter —
Garrett sat on the creek bank with his ing—go back to sleep,"
and
disappeared out-
a few minutes returned,
Putting on his gloves
through the light-barrier, Garrett said, "I'm
slipping out

bare feet in the water and his eyes closed, side the tent, in

He recollected breathing heavily. Come daylight, the pur- going to have a look at what they left." He
reviewing the day's trail.

pose of his trips became clear, for the bod- squatted down beside the bone. It was
backward Ihrough every step of the path un-
two ring watchers lay sprawled near vaguely horseshoe shaped, the color of ivory,
he reached the beginning point where the
til
ies of
riddled with sockets as if it were the meeting
two fallen trees formed a crawlway. Then he Ihe entrance of the tent.
"They got too curious," Kyle explained. place for many joints. As he reached down
turned about and worked his way forward to
"Did they attack you?" Garrett said. and cautiously lifted it, testing its weight and
this creek, returned again to the station, again
back and "They kept nosing around the flare, and hardness, there was a frantic scuffling be-
to the creek, retracing his steps
along the trail, as he were winding finally these two started creeping Ihrough." neath the roots, and dozens of the scaven-
forth
—
if

Garrett set his mouth grimly. Death al- gers came rushing at him, a wave of hurtling
and unwinding a ball of string.
and Kyle bodies tumbled him over, terrible swarming
At length he opened his eyes,
weight, Kyle shouting, claws gripping, the
was serving out Ihe stew.
bone turning in his grasp and jerking vio-
"Grub, old buddy."
lently away. A moment later he was sitting
It tasted vaguely of catfish and potatoes,
dazed on the creek bank, Kyle was crouch-
but it was the same high-energy confection

would hide under the camouflage of

4/f swung ing over him with gun at the ready, and there
that
other tastes on other nights. Garrett swal- into position, then suddenly was not a beast in sight.

"You hurt?" Kyle asked.

lowed some, then spoke about what had dropped and Garrett shook himself. He felt as if twenty
been troubling him: "I can't figure out whether
the old-timers have got a taboo on that white spread open like a fan, its had landed on him. but gently, as if tap-
fists

ping a message. "No, don't think so."

mountain or whether it's just something pre- ribs unfurling a
I

"Did they cut you? Bite you?"

cious they're trying to keep secret."
Kyle was not listening. Some movement thick blanket of flesh, and "Not that can feel."
I

in the vault of limbs overhead had caught an instant later The brothers scanned Garrett's shimmer-
and he was gazing upward, suit but could find none of the translucent
his attention,
the beastly weight buried fiim3 smears would have marked even the
that
hands tight on the rifle, body tensed for a
sliohlcst wound.
leap. "Visitors," he said.
"They were all over you before even saw
This time' even Garrett could easily see
I

them," said Kyle. "I thought they'd rip you to

the beasts. Silhouetted against the darken-
appeared like thickenings of pieces."
ing sky, they
ways more death. Shoving one of the car- Rubbing his neck, remembering the grip
shadowin the branches. There were at least
ten of them, arrayed a crude circle direclly
in casses with his boot, he rolled over, re- il of the claws on his body, the furious twisting
vealing a cluster of many-jointed legs sur- of the bone from his grasp, Garrett said, "I
above the camp. While he watched, two
rounding a bony hole that was lined with think they could have if they'd wanted to. But
more crepl into the circle, then two more and
spikes. A man's head would have fit into that all they seemed to want was that bone."
two more, and they kept arriving in pairs until
their bodies formed an unbroken ring. The lethal opening. Was it a jaw? Weapon? Lure? "What in hell for?"

limbs creaked faintly under their weight. They A thick and clumsy skeleton bulged under- "God only knows." Garrett could hear his
were larger than the scavengers that had torn neath the pelt, which was covered with del- own voice shaking. "Maybe they didn't want
up the branch weavers, as large as wolves, icate silver hairs, like the pelt of an aged go- me messing with their booty,"

but thick and slow moving. rilla. Why did the beasts die so easily? The "Could be they're pure scavengers and
way of finding out would be to carry one don't kill anything on their own."
"Ring watchers," whispered Kyle, who al- only
ways named strange beasts immediately. back and let the biologists take it apart. But A last shiver coursed through Garrett's
Reaching, out to place a hand on his if explorers were allowed lo collect speci- body. "Let's hope so."
brother's thick forearm, Garrett said, "Don't mens, Kentucky-2 would soon become as They broke camp in silence. Pathfinding
shoot. Let them be." tame, as fully known, as any trampled world. came hard for Garrett that morning. The more
"You want to sleep with that little party up- Ignorance was the condition for wilderness. he thought about the attack, the more his
"Pretty, eh?" said Kyle. "I figured you'd inilial fear gave way to astonishment. Why
stairs?"
"Maybe they're just curious." want a look." hadn't the beasts ripped him apart? What
"Maybe they're just looking for supper," "Did you mean to kill them?" impulse, of mind or instinct, had restrained
A tremor passed around the circle of long- "I meant to stop them," he said gruffly. "I them? Puzzling over this, he kept losing the
hit them with about the right dose for a dog. trail. He paused more often than usual to
haired bodies, sending waves of harsh grat-
ing noises out through the network of limbs. And thump— down they came— and never backsight along the path they had walked.
In a low voice, Garrett said, "See what the gave another kick." He grasped one of the Again and again he found himself uncertain
light does first." ponderous sacks of bones with gloved whether to go left or right when he came up
"Tenderheart," Kyle hissed. But he slipped hands. "Here, grab hold of this thing." against a phalanx of trees or a river or a
a cartridge into the breech of the perimeter Together, they heaved the bodies out swamp. He wet his cheek with a licked fin-

flare and twisted the fuse. There was an ex- through the barrier ol light, which still blazed ger to detect the faint motions of the wind,
and instantly the with a fierce yellow glare against the sun's but this gave him no clear guidance.
plosive release of gases,
104 OMNI CO\TI-\'JSDONPAGE130
How do you feel about the new
technology of conception? Your answers can
help shape upcoming legislation

BIRTH PDLL
BY JUDIANNE DENSEN-GERBER

One of the mos: cha lenoing and provocative

issues in science is how to deal with Ihe
many startling reproductive aids coming into
use. Artificial insemination has been avail-
able for some 20 years, and we still haven't
solved all the ethical and legal dilemmas
it raises. In vitro fertilization — so-called
babies— and the use of host
test-tube
mothers—women who carry someone else's
baby to term— are bringing further
puzzles, both for prospective parents and

for lawmakers.
Take just one case that could happen
today: Both members oi a married couple
are sterile, so they obtain a donated egg
and donor sperm. These are used to create
an embryo in the laboratory The prospec-
tive mother also cannot carry a child,
and the couple pays a third woman to do
so. When the baby is born, the host mother,
who carried the child, the genetic mother,
who donated the egg, and the woman who paper. By September 1986 legislation will Did not graduate from high school
commissioned the creation oi the baby be introduced in at least ten states, and the High school graduate
sue to obtain custody of the child. Who gets lawmakers are listening. College graduate
Ihe child? II the host or genetic mother Thank you for your help. Advanced degree
keeps the child, should she return her fee?
PERSONAL DATA Please check the total income earned
Do the others have any parental rights or 7.

responsibilities? Please tell us about yourself. by you and other members of your house-
there are no state or federal laws hold in the last year.
So far,
to govern such cases, but Ihe need for 1.Are you male or female? Less than $10,000
them has not been overlooked. Last summer Female Male $10,000-$19,000
the Michigan legislature asked Odyssey $20,000-529,000
Corporation of Connecticut, the
Institute 2. What is your sexual preference? $30.000-$39,000
research institute founded and operate, to
I
Bisexual Celibate $40,000-$49,000
gather intormation to help them devise Heterosexual -. Homosexual $50,000-$59,000
policies to regulate the new reproductive $60,000-$69,000
technologies. Our birth-technologies poll is 3. How old are you? $70,000 or more
one of the first steps in this project. Under 20 20-29 30-39
Please give the following questions and 40-49 50-59 60 or over 8. What is your religious preference?
Agnostic Atheist Catholic Jewish
statements some serious thought, then
mark down your answers and send them to 4. What is your marital status? Moslem Protestant Other
Birth Poll, Department 0. Odyssey Institute Married Single
CONCEPTION UNDER GLASS
Corporation, 817 Fairfield Avenue, Bridge- Separated/ Divorced/ Wid owed
port, CT 06604. Cited below are several high-tech
Remember, this poll is a rare chance for 5. How many natural and/or adopted methods to give a couple Ihe child they
private citizens to guide the course of children do you have? want and various circumstances in which
legislation on She of the most sensitive None 1 2-4.. 5 or more these techniques might be used. Assume for
issues in science and society. Your views now that the parents to be are legally
are important. Feel free to add whatever 6. What is the highest level of education married. Please indicate your views on the
details you'd like to on a separate piece of you have attained? following statements:

106 OMNI
 17. If a wife is infertile, a host mother may
be fertilized with the husband's sperm.
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

PARENTAL RIGHTS
Some of Ihe most important queslions
about artificial insemination, host mother-
hood, and other forms of high-lech maternity
are concerned wilh the legal rights of the
donors, the host mothers, and couples
seeking a child.

18. The donation of egg and sperm cells

should be regulated by the government.
Strongly agree Somewhal agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

19. A sperm or egg donor should have

9. In vitro (test a. too; ionization, using the 13. If a woman is infertile, she may be such parental rights as visiting Ihe child.
couple's own sperm and egg, should be implanted with a donated egg fertilized by Strongly agree Somewhat agree
used to overcome infertility. her husband's sperm. Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Slrongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree Strongly disagree 20. The recipient of a donated egg should
be considered the child's legal mother.
10. Artificial insemination with donor sperm 14. If both the husband and the wife are Strongly agree Somewhat agree
should be used when the husband is infertile, the woman may be implanted with Neutral Somewhat disagree
infertile. a donor egg thai has been fertilized by a Strongly disagree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree donor sperm.
Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree 21. A host mother carrying a fetus to term
Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree for an infertile couple should have the
Strongly disagree fight to visit the child.
11. Artificial insemination with donor sperm Strongly agree Somewhat agree
should be used when the husband carries 15. A host mother should be allowed to Neutral Somewhat disagree
a genetic disease. carry a couple's child when the natural Strongly disagree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree mother cannot.
Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree 22. A donor's name should be kept on
Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree record.
Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree
12. Artificial insemination using sperm Neutral Somewhat disagree
chosen tor the donor's high I.Q. or another 16. A host mother should be allowed to Strongly disagree
desirable trait may be performed even carry a couple's child for the convenience—
when the husband is fertile and free of not the" medical necessity — of the natural 23. The child, once grown, should be told
genetic disease.. mother. the donor's identity,
Strongly agree Somewhat agree' Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Neutral Somewhal disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree
Slrongly disagree Strongly disagree Strongly disagree
 Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree
24. The child, once grown, should have ac- Neutral
Strongly disagree Strongly disagree
cess to information about the donor—for ex-
ample, medical data— other than the do- becomes an alcoholic
30. If a host mother carries the child, the 35. If a host mother
nor's identity.
woman who contributed the egg should be or otherwise endangers her pregnancy and
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
considered the legal mother. a defective child results, the prospective
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree parents should be able to break the host
Strongly disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree mother's contract or sue lor damages.
Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree
25. Donors should be paid Somewhat disagree
Neutral
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
The host mother should have some pa- Strongly disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree 31.
rental responsibilities, such as providing
Strongly disagree
child support. 36. If a host mother miscarries, she should
Strongly agree Somewhat agree receive full payment.
26. Host mothers should be paid. Somewhat agree
Somewhat disagree Strongly agree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral
Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree
Strongly disagree
32. The host mother should have some pa-
If a host mother miscarries,
she should
Donors should be able to offer their rental rights, such as partial custody of the 37.
27.
child.
receive partial payment.
sperm or eggs for sale. Somewhat agree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Somewhat disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral
Strongly disagree Strongly disagree
Strongly disagree

A host mother should be allowed to keep 38. If a host mother miscarries, she should
28. Sperm and egg donors should undergo 33.
the. child she decides to do so in mid-preg- return her fee.
screening tor genetic and other diseases that if

Strongly agree Somewhat agree

they could pass on to the child. nancy
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral
Strongly disagree Strongly disagree
39. If a host mother is injured during im-
Host mothers who are paid should re- plantation surgery or pregnancy, she should
29. A person should be allowed to set up a 34.
turn fees they decide to keep the child. receive workmen's compensation.
business as an egg and sperm broker. if

Somewhat agree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree

"

-its for you, but don't open it tilt I get a chance to put this protective iead clothing on.
 machine, should be allowed? Neutral Somewhat disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree it

Strongly agree Somewhat agree Slrongly disagree

Strongly disagree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree 49. Embryos should be tested tor genetic
40. A would-be host mother should be al-
on the open mar- defects before implantation occurs.
lowed to offer her services
45. A fetus should be transferred to a womb Strongly agree Somewhatagree
Somewhat agree machine shortly after conception the par- Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly agree
if

Somewhat disaareo ents wish to do so. Strongly disagree

Neutral
Strongly disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree 50. Embryos should be used for scientific

41. host mother should be able to aborl

A Strongly disagree
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
the fetus independently or io participate in
46. an embryo not implanted into a Neutral Somewhat disagree
deciding whether to aborl the fetus. If is

mother's womb, there should be alimit to the Strongly disagree

Slrongly agree Somewhat agree
Somewhat disagree amount of time that the embryo is allowed lo
Neutral
Strongly disagree develop in a uleruslike environment outside 51. Embryos should be used to test drugs
the body. for such harmful side effects as toxicity or
42. If it becomes, possible tor the husband Strongly agree Somewhat agree deformities.
Neutral Somewhat disagree Strongly agree Somewhat agree
to carry the fetus to term, this should be en-
Strongly disagree Neutral Somewhat disagree
couraged in a certain percentage of mar-
Strongly disagree
riages, including cases in which the wife is EMBRYO'S RIGHTS
career oriented or is infirm.
What does an embryo have ?
1
52. Parkinson's disease and various other
Strongly agree Somewhat agree rights
Somewhat disagree illnesses might someday be cured by trans-
Neutral
47. All-embryos produced in the laboratory planting tissue taken from a fetus into the
Strongly disagree
should be implanted immediately into a patient; fetuses should be donated so these
male pregnancy becomes viable, a woman. operations can be performed.
43. If

Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly agree Somewhat agree

male should be permitted to be a host mother
Neutral Somewhat disagree Neutral '
Somewhat disagree
even he is not the donor father.
if

Somewhat agree Strongly disagree Strongly disagree

Strongly agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree SEX SELECTION
Strongly disagree 48. is right to freeze embryos for such
It

medical purposes as improving a woman's It may soon be possible to predict or ma-

chances ot conceiving at a later date. nipulate the sex of an embryo before im-
44. If it becomes possible to carry a child
from the four-month mark to term in a womb Strongly agree Somewhat agree plantation.

53. These techniques should be used when

there is a known risk of sex-linked genetic

Strongly agree Somewhat agree

Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

54. They may be used simply because par-

ents have a preference as to the sex of their
child.
Slrongly agree Somewhat agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disa gree
__
TRANS-SPECIES HYBRIDS
Techniques are being used to fertilize cow
eggs with human sperm. Scientists wielding
such technology have created what they call
"trans-species gametes." How far should we
pursue trans-species experiments 7

55. Scientists should be allowed to con-

tinue to create and experiment with trans-
species gametes in the lab.
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagree

56. The U..S. government should determine

how far trans-specios gametes may de-
velop (the British have set the limit at the two-

cell stage) and how such gametes should

be destroyed.
Strongly agree Somewhat agree
Neutral Somewhat disagree
Strongly disagreeDO
 ^When the
earth shifts on its axis at the turn
of the century,
only one in seven will survive. 9

Ruth Morn ,
and lectured him
those not familiar with about the sorry state
her 14 books, was of the world
once a syndicated months he had closed
columnist covering down a su
Washington politics. advertising agency in
Today, as one of the Tucson and moved to
world's best-known Fort Collins, Colo-
psychics, she is still rado. For the last four
dispensing informa- years, he says, he has
tion. Most of us will die spent much of his time
in a planetwtde cata- building what he calls
clysm, Montgomery a "chromosomic heal-
contends, and the end ing devltr-
is coming soon. structions received by
Montgomery claims automatic writing; — in
to learnsuch things whichspirits move his
from her Guides, hands across the
"souls like ourselves typewriterand page,
who have had many thereby sending mes-
previous lifetimes but sages from beyond.
are currently in the And in Manhattan,
spirit plane, as we will there is an entire sa-
be alter we pass
through the mysteri-
ous door of death."
For 25 years, Mont-
UFOupnm-E
gomery and her Guides offered only familiar occultisms on turus. The
lon of mystics who
claim to remember
past lives on a planet
inthe star system Arc-
salon's leader: the fabulously wealthy thlrty-nlne-
reincarnation and the so-called spirit plane: We ere all sparks year-old heir Frederick Von Melrers. Eight years ago, Von
from God. was one message. We live many lives, which only Meirers says in Montgomery's book, he was lying In a Cali-
a few can recall, was another. fornia hospital with a severe infection when "three beings
Recently, though, the Guides have reportedly chivied materialized in my room and revealed secrets," including
Montgomery to write about UFOs. The result is Aliens Among the need to help Earth prepare tor the cataclysm to come.
Us (G P Putnam's Sons, 1985), a description of the "spiritu- ThatIs a mandate with which Montgomery agrees. At ihe

ally advanced" aliens who have come to Earth. According
to the Guides, these "spacellngs" travel by breaking down
their bodies and equipment into a formof energy that moves
faster than light. They reassemble what they need upon ar-
rival and use flying saucers only to lug hardware around
once here on Earth.
In Aliens Among Us. Montgomery claims to have found
two dozen people who either have encountered UFOs or
lived as aliens themselves. Joseph Ostrom, for Instance, was
vacationing in Crete In 1978 when he dreamed of meeting
an extremely tall, thin man who took him to a (lying saucer
on its axis," she says.
turn of the century, "the earth will shift
Six out of seven will be sped toward reincarnation by falling
objects, freezing, or flooding.And the rest will rebuild civili-
zation with the help of Montgomery and her Guides.
Of course, there is no way 10 prove any of this before the
world comes to an end— for most of us, anyway. But Mont-
gomery does offer one test of her power. President Reagan,
her Guides say, will leave office in poor health belore the
end o( his term Given Montgomery's other forecasts, even
liberal Democrats are likely to wish the President a healthy
stay In the White House —OWEN DAWES
 " ' "

Memphis State and the family heirloom "We always chorus," says the engineer's
University ol Tennessee an- dealt with it as a curiosity wife, Donna. "There are

nounced its Appar-

findings: rather than a valuable arti- drums and whistles and some
ently broken off from the fact," Austin says. "It was just things you've never heard
rest ol thebody at the shoul- something the children before. You can tell that
ders, the head once be- could take to school occa- the inspiration came from
."
longed to a woman between sionally for show-and-tell the music in Chariots ol Fire,
thirty and forty years of —Sherry Baker but it's very different. It

age Her naturally dark hair keeps getting better the

had been dyed red during "Leap! Leap up, and lick the longer it plays."
the embalming process, and sky." So far, Welker's music
electron microscope —Herman Melville machine has attracted at least
'eated that had been cut
it tentalive interest "It's hard
a two-inch length by "Two days before her period to evaluate it without more
dull razor— probably to a woman can open that technical details about how it

;iiilate the wearing of crack and step through it into works." comments Robert
iborate wigs another world. Moog, research director
'Unfortunately, the brain —Carlos Castaneda at Kurzweil Music and
iad been removed through Speech, a Boston-area
the which was
left nostril, computer firm, and inventor
a common Egyptian practice, of the famed Moog synthe-

When Memphis Stale notes-Hugh Berryman, a Duane Welker's computer- sizer. "But Ihe idea is certainly
University recently forensic anthropologist from ized music machine hasn't
announced plans to host the the University of Tennessee the fidelity of a digital stereo. in fact, Welker says that
Ramses exhibition coming
1! Center for Health Sciences. It won't even lit on your the Air Force is experimenting
10 the United States in 1987, "We still have a lol of clues belt But Welker says that it with similar technology lo
Claire Austin began thinking about the woman, however, you slip on the headband that control airplane and weap-
about the strange thing and we suspect her death holds its electrodes m place, it ons. "I'd really like to tie this

tucked away in her attic. may have been related can tap into your subcon- son of device in with brain
Brought back from Egypt as to infection from her teeth." scious mind, learn whal you waves," he adds, "but I've
a souvenir by her husband's Because of the gold coat- like, and tailor ils tunes to been working on the project
great-uncle, amateur ex- ing on the mummy's face, fit your taste. only In my spare time, so I

plorer Archibald Marvine, the researchers have concluded According to Welker, a haven't gotten around to
curious object appeared to that she was well-to-do and Self-taught Kaysvilfe, Utah, that,"— Owen Davies
be the decapitated head may even have been a engineer, his device is a kind
of an ancient Egyptian member of royalty A rosette ofautomated stereo that
Austin decided to take the on her cheek provided
left must be programmed with
head to Memphis State's a way to place where and music before is used. As the
it

Egyptian Institute of Art and when she lived. "Right now, It music plays, the electrodes
Archaeology to see whether just looks like a wan but record the listener's heart
there was any interest in thousands of years ago the and respiration rates as well
exhibiting it there Not only rosetle was an attractive as the electrical resistance

did the university's Egyptolo- decoration." Berryman ex- of the skin "The machine
gists accept her offer, they plains 'And it was used only senses those responses as it

were amazed at their good
fortune. Says Memphis State
Egyptologist Rita Freed.
is one ot the best preserved
mummy heads m existence."
After-examining the head
with CAT scans, dental X
rays, and mass spectrometry,
a team ot experts from
114 OMNI
during a thirty-year period makes random changes in
in Akhmin, in Middle Egypt. the music," Weiker says
"It So that places the mummy "and whenever a strain of
during the Macedonian music evokes a particularly
kingship, between 331 and strong reaction, a microproc-
304 8,c essor just instructs the ma-
The mummy's owners are chine to do more of il."
aamittedly surprised over The results are intriguing
all Ihe Interest surrounding the "Some of it sounds like a
 — " " "

tome As soon as she saw body as it dies.

the car, looked like her
it 'Although we cannot yet
eyes would pop out By the measure and reproduce
: hanged, these fields," Slawinski says,
she was laughing. It jus: traveling at the speed of
turned her around light, they might be able to
—
Owen Davies enter a dimension beyond the
space-time ca
1

'

The power of tobacco to Research on radiations of

Remember when
fluorocarbons in aerosol
sprays were going to
the earth's ozone layer,
opening an atmosphenc hole
forcancer-causing cosmic
rays? American manufactur-
ers have long since removed
sustain the system, to keep living systems provides
up nutrition, to maintain a realistic basis for dealing
and increase the weight, to with the problem of Ihe
brace against severe exertion, afterlife. It may also stimulate
and to replace ordinary personal and social transfor-
food is a matter of daily and mations toward a more
"
hourly demonstration creative and benevolent life
—
George Black Critics, however, disagree
Experiments conducted
jointly by Duke University and
cosmic-ray helmets and the Psychical Research
shirts festooned with costume Is human consciousness Foundalion were specifically
jewelry, airline tickets,and an electromagnetic field designed to detect whether
the fishing gear; and cosmic-tay- capable of surviving the consciousness, in the torm of
def lection motor vehicles shock ot death? Maybe so, radiation, could leave the
in Aswelt's case, a 1968 says physicist Janusz Sla- body Says psychologist S.
Mercury station wagon lay- winski, of the Agricultural Keith Harary, who helped de-
ered with magazine clippings University, in Poznan. Poland. sign the project. "Our experi-
and dripping with earrings SlawinsRi bases his theory ments didn't suggest any-
bracelets, and beads On the on a real phenomenon known thing like what Slawinski
forward corners of the rool as the "death flash," m which is proposing. We didn't detect

the fluorocarbons from their
products, but according
to Also Asweli, fluorocarbon-
based spray cans are
exported by the millions Says
Asweli. a chef and part-
lime painter from Greensboro,
North Carolina. "The danger
has not gone away."
To deal with the threat,
Asweli, whose real name is
Chuck Alston, formed the
Cosmic Ray Deflection Soci-
ety back tn 1973. And he's
been spearheading an effort
to fend off cosmic rays ever
since.
Today, after more than a
decade of work, the 15-
member group has devel-
oped protective equipment
there are also Christmas
candles that, Asweri says,
were "added for the ,
still July.
"We think that cosmic rays
are semHnteiligenl," Asweli
explains "We celebrate
Halloween on Valentine's Day
and give out hearif
loween. It conluses them
They have to pause and think,
and thai gives us time to
getaway."
Asweli admits that the
bizarre equipment may not
actually fend off cosmic rays,
but he is sure has seme
it
benefit. "When we wear our
clothes or sit in our cars.
we feel rejuvenated,"
'And one time, when stopped
a cell population emits a any electromagnetic radia-
powerful burst o( electro- tion consistent with Ihe
magnetic radiation as dies. it release of the mind
Traditional researchers —
D. Scolt Rogo
have proposed that the death
flash results from degenera-
tion of the cells' molecular
order. But based on his
computations, Slawinski con-
tends this burst Is powerful
enough to encode reams
of complex information,
including human memory
and consciousness itself
The death flash, he says,
could be temporarily released
while a person is still alive,
accounting for out-of-body
experiences. And it could be
he says. the physical corollary of
the near-death experience,

I
i

that, they say. shields the ata traffic light, there was a marking the physical release
body and the brain, There are crying in the car next
girl of consciousness from the

Driller is unique lis producer
is Timothy Green Beckley.
a New Age prophet and
TV personality known to
friends as Mr UFO. And Its
cast ol characters Includes
zombie women in spiderweb
costumes, werewolves.
hooded monks, a Quasimodo
look-alike with one eye on
his tor ahead and another in
his cheek, and the pop
Star Mr J
According to Beckley,
Driller is loosely based on
Jaokson'8 video
Thriller. 'Jackson seemed
above parody" Beckley
explains. "People ei
almost as a new messlah.
Don't get me wrong; think l at the spiritual
he's a terrific per f s
But hispompous approach
and conservative attitude
toward flex ia H him open to
spoor
Why would a professional
prophet get involved in
porn? As it turns out, Beckley
regularly sees x-rated mov-
ies and has even been a
116 OMNI
— "
two pet interests, Beckley producing the sound of male
claims there is none, "You mosquitoes, said the French
have to keep the physical as researchers, would thus
wellas the mental in shape," keep the biting females away.
he says. "I'm sincere about Working with a group of
what I'm doing. I'm not just scientists. Cote and his
trying to make a buck," colleagues eventually came
—Nancy Lucas up with a sound they say
repels 30 ol the 44 local spe-
they are beginning to
"At last cies. Their program runs
take me seriously. This im- from eleven to twelve in the
poses a terrible burden morning and from four-
on me. I must redouble my thirty to eight at night. So far,
laughter has met with mixed re-
it
— Lawrence Durrell views.Some listeners have
complained because the
"Ihad the feeling ol things sound audible between
is
having happened here when records. But others have high
l stood under the walls ot praise.
and •-;.'
Zimbabwe—of blood and "One person called to tell
AduA tma Review "My
,'..- cruelly, ol strange rites end us he was fishing comfort-
plan tor Qpfer, * he says, sacrifices, of lust." ably on a lake with his radio
"was to add ess a crossover
r —Stuart Cloete on." says Cote, "and he
audience of liberal-minded wondered what would hap-
people over twenty-one" pen he turned oft. When
il it
those who can comfortably he did, the mosquitoes
deal with a blend of hard core really started bothering him.
porn, camp horror, and a What can wake you up, So he turned** back on-,
touch of the supernatural. put you to sleep, and keep and they went away."
"With werewolves and the mosquitoes away, all Despite such anecdotal
zombies running around, a without invading your con- evidence, entomologist Phillip
lot of the sex Is obviously not scious mind? The only openly S, CallBhan, of the U.S.
taken that seriously" Beckley subliminal radio statu-- Department of Agriculture
adds. "It's tor someone with North America, CIME-FM in and the University ol Florida,
imagination, not for the Montreal, has his doubts. Controlling
raincoat crowd.' According to news director mosquitoes with sound
Beckley is editor of UFO Chris Cote, CIME-FM first has been an elusive goal ot
Review and Inner Light. introduced subliminal pro- entomologists for 25 years, he
a compendium of paranormal gramming to help people rise says. The problem Is that
tows items and advice He in the morning and relax at mosquitoes do not respond
has had a hand in dozens of night. Then it decided to tosound alone but to a
articles and books targeted go after something a little complex combination ol
community, more concrete: mos |
sound and odor in addition,
and he is a favorite guest on The idea emerged after females will feed on human
late-night radio and TV talk one of the staton owners blood even if mating has ye!
shows. This New Age Jack-of- traveled to France While to occur.
all-trades says that his search there, she learned of a repel- 'The disappearance and
for "worldwide awareness" ling system based on the reappearance of those
was prompted by "several notion that humans are mosquitoes could have been
UFO Sightings, an out-of- attacked only by female caused by a million things,"
body experience, and living mosquitoes that have already Callahan asserts, "For In-
in a haunted house," mated and want nothing stance,a solt breeze."
As for conflict between his more to do with males. Re- —Rick Bollng
 seemed very normal," he ties feminists were fond ot the slogan "A
men who called

PREGNANCY recalls.
experience
"I

also contacted,
guess they just wanted
of
to
having a baby." Shettles was
like Harding, by men whose
have the woman without a man is like a fish without a
bicycle." Now with male pregnancy on the
horizon, Steinem suspects the tables may
be turned. have a small, nagging fear,"
sexuals requested admittance to the in vitro wives were iniertile and who wanted to "take "I

the tension the wife." she confides, we women lose our car-
"that if

fertilization program at the Queen Victoria off

more
womb envy. tel on giving birth, we could be even
Medical Center,in Melbourne, Australia. They Then, of course, there's "If lit-

want to have penises," says Dr. John dispensable than we already are."
wanted to have babies. The Melbourne cen- tle girls

ter turned down the request. Munder Ross, "boys also, at some level, want
to have wombs and breasts." Ross, a psy-
An admission: We never wanted to write
Garrett Oppenheim, a psychotherapist in
chiatrist with Cornell Medical College, cites this article. It was the result of a casual com-
Tappan, New York, says male pregnancy
phenomenon' of couvade syndrome, in ment about John Money's work, unwittingly
"would be the most magnificent break- the
which husbands suffer the symptoms of uttered at an editorial meeting. Our editors
through since the sex-change program
came into effect." As director ot Confide- —
pregnancy weight gain, backaches; nau- were as skeptical as we were but asked us
to at least explore the idea. We took the as-
Personal Counseling Services, Inc., Oppen- sea, and so on—while their wives carry the
baby. "Most of the men I've analyzed during signment with the assumption that after a few
heim evaluates and counsels those who ap-
their wives' pregnancies have expressed
phone calls and a couple of library searches
ply for a sex change, to help them decide
wishes to have babies and have developed we could honestly report back that there was
whether they should undergo the necessary
no real futurein, or scientific basis for, male
hormonal treatment and surgery. There are symptoms," Ross says.
In'any case, when the time comes for the pregnancy. We were wrong. Some impor-
approximately 20,000 transsexuals in the convinced us the idea was
embryo transfer into a man, there will be tant researchers
world today. 'And most transsexuals want to lirst

no shortage of volunteers— and no short- altogether feasible

experience womanhood in all its facets,"
animal studies are
age of critics, either. Most researchers we Granted, many more
Oppenheim says.
practicality of male
talked to admitted that a huge stumbling needed to assess the
A social worker currently undergoing a
pregnancy. As far as endocrinology is con-
male-to-female transformation verified
cerned, what little research has been done
Money and Oppenheim's views. "If it were
casts serious doubts on our current under-
possible to become impregnated and have
standing ot the roles of so-called female
ababy," says Jerry (a pseudonym), "I would
hormones and what kind of hormonal prim-
do without hesitation and at all costs. I'd
it,
^Scientists ing a man would need to support childbirth.
walk out on my man had to. If it came
it I

doing work on the cutting And the treatment of abdominal pregnancy

down to choosing between having a baby
must be refined before a fertilized egg can
and staying with the man love, would leave I

edge of human be safely implanted in a man's omentum.

I

-
the man love and have a baby." Jerry re-
reproduction were deiuged Then again, perhaps some renegade will
I

mained undaunted by the prospect of ce-

just go ahead and do it.

sarean section, but he did have one reser- with letters

In the early Seventies, Landrum Shettles
vation about carrying a baby in the summer
"with the heat and all."
from men who wanted to was conducting pioneer work in in vitro fer-
months
experience Columbia-Presbyterian Medical
tilization at
Transsexuals do have one advantage over
Center, in New York City, when his boss told
other males.They can nurse a baby—at least the joys of pregnancy^ him to discontinue his research, ordered that
according to one doctor. Dr. Leo Wollman, a
the test-tube culture Shettles had produced
Brooklyn psychiatrist who has treated 2,800
be destroyed, and finally, in 1973, fired him.
transsexuals, claims he hormonally primed
Perhaps because of this attitude, both Eng-
one of his patients so he could breast-leed
land and Australia produced test-tube ba-
his own child. This patient had remained
block to male pregnancy would be ethical bies well before America did. Ironically, two
married to his wife after transforming from
and moral objections Already, the Michigan years ago Columbia-Presbyterian began its
male to female. The wife was carrying their
state senate is sponsoring a study to assess own in vitro clinic, a decade after destroying
biological baby, and after she gave birth,
The point is that suppos-
its citizens' attitudes toward new birth tech-
Shettles's culture.
both parents took turns nursing the baby.
nologies, including male pregnancy. Pre- edly crazy, irresponsible ideas are often
Wollman claims his patient had "a breast de-
sumably, not everyone in Grand Rapids will warmly embraced ten years after they're in-
velopment to rival his wife's" and that he gave
be overjoyed with the idea ot men in mater- troduced—often by the same people who
him a drug to induce lactation.
nity clothes shopping for nursing bras.
condemned them originally.
But men who want to have babies may not
necessarily want to mimic women in every But how do feminists feel? Do they see We asked Shettles, who now runs his own
transsexuals. When male pregnancy as their chance to escape Las Vegas, to estimate when the first
clinic in
respect. They are not all
human male pregnancy would take place.
a tabloid erroneously reported that Monash biological destiny?
Gloria Steinem, ior one, believes that As a preface to giving us an answer, Shet-
University's Harding had transplanted mouse
and pregnancy could make men less violent. tles pointed out that a former colleague of
embryos into male mice (he hadn't) that
"Giving birth has made women value his, Dr. John Rock, stated in a medical jour-
research team was looking for human
life
his
more," says Steinem, an editor and nal in 1958 that the time had come for in vitro
volunteers (it wasn't), he was deluged with

cofounder of Ms. magazine, "and we are far technology. But it took a full 20 years before
letters, mostly from men. He received phone
less violent by all measures." England's Patrick Steptoe and Robert Ed-
calls in his Australian lab from as far away
Flo Kennedy, the black feminist who pop- wards actually produced a baby. As for male
as Alaska. Harding suspects that many of
ularized the slogan men could get preg- pregnancy, Shettles says, "I don't think it's
those who wanted to carry their own babies "If

nant, abortion would be a sacrament," also going to take as long as it did with the in vitro
were homosexual. But others were hetero-
saw a benefit: "Certainly this is an opportu- program. think anyone who really wanted
sexual men who had infertile wives. Still oth-
I

a woman to have a leg up, if she's to get on with it now could achieve suc-
ers were single men who wanted to fulfill their nity for
got brains enough and guts enough to take cess." And who will do it?
need for a child. There were even letters from
advantage ot She should take a rest and would be really funny the Aus-
think if

women who were interfile and who won- "I it

it.

let the man do the work, It's a possible step

tralians,who have an international reputa-
dered their "husbands could carry their
if

toward women gaining on men, at least in tion forbeing the macho men of the world,
baby. Shettles has received similar inquiries
were the first to achieve a male pregnancy,"
through the years but says he has never re- terms of cocktail-party jokes."
But serious doubts remain. In the Seven- Shettles says. "I wouldn't be surprised."DO
ceived a call or letter from a transsexual. "The
. 118 OMNi
 . .

him the bronze-leaved geranium; it had yel- pulled down nearly to her eyes.

DRAGON
OjNT.NULO FRCIV r>.'iF it
low flowers. "I'll be damned!" he said huski-
ly. "I'll just be damned!" They

name it,
Would have to
protect the seeds as if they were
"What happened? You have an acci-
dent?" The rain was cold and steady, al-
ready soaking through his sweater, into his
Christ's tears,see if they came true. ... He shoes. He remembered the day she had
and started out to do something, but he still
looked from the plant to Cory, and her smile taught them how to ball up the roses; it had
did not know what.
brought tears to his eyes. rained that afternoon.
Mrs. Davenport was slightly built, pretty;
She shook her he"ad and pointed to the
she looked frightened, the same look that
A steady rain is falling in Portland. Bruce front tire, which was fiat.
Cory got now and then. "Is anything wrong?"
"Let's put the bike the station wagon,
"No, didn't mean to scare you like that. I
stands before a glass wall and watohes the in

give you a ride home."

I

make sure they did a water on the tarmac. Today is like a repeat and I'll

just dropped in to
As soon as he spoke, he was afraid she
. . .

home: It was raining that day,

good job with the greenhouse. Been mean- of his last trip
he had the same flights, stood in this would remember that other day, connect him
ing to check it out for months. Too busy." too;
same spot. That day he wanted to sing and with Frank, but she did not hesitate. She
She relaxed and admitted him to the
dance through the terminal, tell every nodded and wheeled the bicycle toward the
house. It was cooler inside than out; the all

stranger that he had his Ph.D. and a job and station wagon. They put it in, she sat in the
drapes were closed, and a fan moved the
a fiancee. ... The standing water has an oil passenger seat, and he got in and started
air. Whitman had never been here before; he
swirl that twists and turns, separates, re- to drive, and he searched for something to
was surprised for a reason he could not put
combines; has a violet sheen that changes talk about. "You'll have todirect me," he said,
a name to. He had expected poverty, maybe, it

to blue, green.
glancing at her. She looked ahead with no
and this was middle-class nice. Cory . .

He drove to all the places he had known, sign of unease.

dressed as if every penny had to be
hiked some muddy trails, swilled beer af the She directed him, he assumed, the same
weighed. The house was clean without being
old bars, saw a couple of his old girl- way she rode her bike to work, through back
antiseptic; there were bookshelves and a
friends—just for a drink or lunch, nothing streets, secondary roads with deep pot-
stereo and an oversize television. No plants,
holes and no traffic. Because she waited un-
he noticed with disappointment.
they were at the corners where he was to
In Cory's room he nodded; this was what
til

turn, he slowed down again and then again.

he had expected. The greenhouse had been
A min- The wagon grated sickeningly as the left rear
built next to her room, a door led to it.

wheel sank into a hole.

iature rose in full bloom, each perfect yellow
QShe shook Again he looked at Cory; she had not
blossom smaller than a fingertip; half a dozen
changed her position or expression. Damn
hanging orchids enclosed in plastic bags to her head, and now he could
her eyes, he thought, twisting the steering
conserve moisture during this hot dry see the fatigue wheel hard, creeping along.
weather; a bench covered with pots of
begonias, a hunching her shoulders, "You ever plant those funny seeds Frank
blooming flowers— lobelias,
gave you?" he asked.
bronze-leaved geranium in bud. .
.
.
drawing lines
She nodded.
He looked at the joints of the greenhouse under eyes waiting for him He had to drag it out of her. One was a
and peered at the lights, the heater, while
to tell her banana plant. There was a fuzzy bush that
Mrs. Davenport hovered in the doorway.
was too young to flower yet, maybe a tree,
There was room for only one in here. what to do, where to go. 9
'Just fine. She's
she didn't know. And one was a dragon plant,
"Looks fine," he said then.
with a red dragon flower.
enjoying it, isn't she?"
"You're kidding."
"You've been awfully good to her," Mrs.
She remained silent until they had to turn
Davenport said softly. "I've wanted to thank
." again, and suddenly they were at her house.
you, but. .

"You want to see it?" she asked.

"She earned it," he said brusquely. "She more. He was too full of Beatrice for anything
more. They were already living together, and He wanted to get away from her, never
saved my business last winter. She's a good
in one month they would be married and
see her again, never think of her again, but
worker, the best one I've got."
move to Savannah. he found himself nodding. She led him
Mrs. Davenport nodded. "She's good with
He stands at the glass wall watching the through the house; no one else was there,
plants."
but lights were on, as her parents would
the uneasy standing water, fingering the
it

"With plants," he agreed, and now they rain,

Lucite piece in his pocket. If only this could be back soon. She took him to her room,
looked at each other.
her some- be that "day, the intervening time a bad through it to the small greenhouse, and
She knew he had come to tell

dream. He remembers. pointed to a bushy plant with a single red

thing, to ask her something, to warn her. . .

He had no intention of going into the flower and many tiny buds.
She felt the knife in her chest come alive,
greenhouses or onto the property; it was He went closer and looked at it curiously,
waiting.
simply an act of finishing up the past that just a red flower. Pretty and unusual, but no
And he found he could not bring any more
this woman. He sighed. She had took him to Whitman's that Saturday. He more than that. The air in the greenhouse, in
torment to
wanted to say good-bye to all the past, the her bedroom, was spicy, sharp, and clean.
done the best she could. Maybe she had
good and the bad. He drove by slowly, Beyond the glass walls, over his head against
even talked to Cory about boys, about drugs,
waved, and left that part of his life for good. the glass ceiling, the rain was beating, run-
about sex. If she hadn't and if he brought up
A mile or two from the nursery he saw Cory ning down crazily; the world was gray, and
any of now,.she would know something
it

pushing her bicycle on the shoulder oi the in here the light was green, there was a still-
had happened, something that forced him
road. He knew was she as soon as the ness. He turned abruptly from the green-
to come here. He took a deep breath and
it

figure emerged from the rain and mist and house and looked at Cory, who was stand-
smiled at her and, using the voice he used
became human, not just a shadow. He ing inside the doorway of her room. He
with Cory, he said, "She's a good girl. Mrs.
slowed down, passed her, then stopped on started to say it was just a flower, but he said
Davenport. You've done a good job with her."
the shoulder and got out. nothing; he found he did not want to break
The next day he talked to Cory himself.
What he said, quickly, almost roughly, was, "Hey, Cory, remember me? used to work I
the silence.
Whitman's;" He reached out and touched her cheek,
"If any guy'around here bothers you, you at
was She stopped, peered him awhile, then and a look of terror crossed her face. He
come tell me first thing. Understand?" It at

he could do. came on toward him and said hello. She was wanted to shout, "For God's sake, you don't
all
a long green poncho with a hood have to be afraid of me!" His hand left her
For his sixtieth birthday that fall Cory gave encased in
cheek and went to her shoulder, and she aborted, he thought, and he knew they must
was moving backward, he was following,
now with his hands on both her shoulders,
not do that, not to Cory.
nniruD
and he knew she was not going to stop him It is only late afternoon when Bruce ar-
and he was not going to stop himself. He- rives at the nursery. It seems impossible for been operating on is a human being."
fumbled with her clothes and his own, and such a long day to go on and on and never As is, Brody says, what we now know
it

then he was atop her, and she was moaning, turn into night, as this one has done. Every- about the neurological development of an
then keening. And he heard a voice crying, thing looks exactly the same, as if this little embryo suggests that anyone doing re-
"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God ..." pocket of the universe knows nothing of time search on a fetus older than twelve weeks is
and finally realized was his own voice. it
and change. already facing that problem. Brody hopes
When was over he pushed himself away
it
He sees Whitman crossing the drive be- that medical science will devise nonrisky
(ram her. She was staring dry eyed at the tween the toolshed and the boiler house, and ways to study a living lotus.
ceiling. He grabbed his jeans and ran to the he starts to go to him. He has to see Cory The Supreme Court has ruled that the fe-
bathroom he had seen on their way in, He alone, have a private talk with her, maybe in tus has no legal rights until the third trimes-
Whitman's house. He cannot talk to her while ter. "So you can abort a fetus seventeen or
slammed the door and leaned against il

shaking, and again he heard his strange, she's on her knees pruning roses, or potting eighteen weeks into development," Brody
thick voice: "Oh my God! Oh my God!" up marigolds, or some damn thing. He draws explains, "when there is clear evidence of

When he returned to the bedroom she was nearer to Whitman, who looks the same, neurological activities we use as indicators

not there. He looked in the greenhouse, but maybe even more vigorous than before, less of life in a dying patient."

it was empty. He hesitated, then pulled the lired. Bruce starts to call him, then stops as Although learning about how fetuses de-
bloom from the dragon plant and left. a woman comes from around the potting velop s essentia to making difficult moral
: 1

Sitting in the plane, waiting for takeoff, he shed, pulling one of the long wagons. A small and legal choices, current attitudes don't fa-
boy is sitting on the wagon, trying lo drag vor Antiaborlionists opoosS ho researci.
watches the rain running crazily down the it.

window, and he realizes at last what he has his feet on the ground. He is loo short to since might involve experimenting with live
it

embryos— considered by them to be un-

come back for. He has to give the dragon reach.
flower back to her. He has to face her and "Cory!" he says; his voice is a whisper that consenting humans. And the proabortion
make her take it back. He looks al his hand no one can hear, but she stops and looks at side is not interested either. "There isn't going
and stares at the Lucite him, and her smile vanishes, leaving him io be any sciont.tic advance that is going to
and slowly opens it

slab with a red flower embedded in it. She feeling chilled. make the ACLU change its position," insists

The boy jumps from the wagon and runs Janet Benshaw, director of the American Civil
has to take it back, he says to himself.
across the drive to the boiler house, yelling, Liberties Union program on abortion. "We
Mrs. Davenport had to tell him; she "Hey, Dad, we've got to go in now. Momma know what the fetus is, scientifically and bi-

couldn't make such a terrible decision by .says it's going to rain real hard." ologically. I
don't think anything has changed
herself. For days she put it off, trying to think "You always knew," Bruce whispers, look- in the last twenty years."
her way out otCory back to
it, trying to will ing-at'her. She has not moved. His legs are This last observation might come as a

normal, bul it was no use, and finally she heavy, his feet leaden, as he stumbles back surprise to physicians and losearchers. Our

knew she had to tell him. They could take to the rented car and gets in. current understanding of fetal development
Cory away tor a week or two, a vacation, The as he drives back to his
rain starts has come primarily from technological
parents' house. is a hard, pounding rain breakthroughs like ultrasound, letal heart
they would say, and have aborted. People it
It

did every day. that the windshield wipers cannot control. He monitoring devices, special scopes capa-
it

He turned ashen, and a low, wordless cry is forced to road and wait for the
pull off the ble of peering directly into the uterus each —
came from clampedhis tightly lips. He he is driving blind.
rain to let up, available only since the Seventies. Baruch

rushed to Cory's room and banged the door Only after he stops does he realize that Brody himself was "amazed" when told of
closed. Mrs. Davenport heard crashes, glass he is weeping. He puts his forehead on the the ACLU position on fetal science. "They
back and on steering wheel and listens to the rain. His traditionally have defended those who can-
breaking. She sat rocking forth

a kitchen chair, clutching her head, her arms son, the son that Beatrice will never have. not protect their own civil liberties. The fetus
tight over her ears. When Cory came home, He hears her voico t'n-'oiign the rain, "We can't at the late stage o! development might well

he pulled Mrs. Davenport away from the door go on like this, you know. If it isn't physical, be such a person. "DO
and stormed out to meet Cory at the back it's psychological. It's that simple. You have
of the house, where she was parking her bi- to see a doctor."
REDITS
both hands and "I have nighlmares, Doctor. About drag-
cycle. He grabbed it in
eft. ..;:' m
And
hurled it through the last standing wall of her ons. Always about dragons.
worked out for her; she's happy,"
it isn't fair. Jj*p**
i «g f!: l ;
}:]::,,
"v"'
greenhouse. Cory stared, then turned It
'% page 22,

around and walked away. Raymond held "Mr. Enfield, now that you know she's
"V'
happy, perhaps you won't need to torture
$$%.: ""
Mrs. Davenport's arm and would not let her
34,
run alter their daughter. yourself with Perhaps that is why yo.u
guilt. s-r page 38,
4.1'-,, page
went back, to make amends, and you found ,'.m-er
':,-:
none are needed." He groans and starts the
•'•:
when Cory knocked on ae 43 bottom
It was nearly ten
and stood car. He won't see a doctor, he knows. There
''' S page 44 top. Ol,"0 o[*il*-- o>:ge
Whitman's door. He opened it n, pa e 45 ton. A'. 'i.J' T-,.:-; -|-.;lf. !'
!
back for her to come in. is ho way he can ever explain.
J,;.:';.,,,;

torn. O.ii, :(.

"What is Cory? What happened?"
it, "Bruce, what happened? It used to be so i^/> ;!?
bOTion '.""'."'.
She told him, and they looked al each good with us. What happened?"
"Cory happened, he thinks, and he feels —:'.'"
other. Whitman nodded and .motioned tor her
into the living room. "You have any- the breath of the dragon on his back, in his
s ! '*'.!'. ^tcUe,,
F.v.iiii;
to go iirVSIar File; page 52 top
thing to eat yet?" She shook her head, and chest, in his loins. ;c 5 ' . r
-;,'

porch Whitman and nucvj pages 80-91, Ha.nk

now he could see the fatigue hunching her From the shelter of the
Pafic< C-idis-Sy ma; page
shoulders, drawing lines under her eyes. "Sit the child in his arms watch as Cory reaches "-'"
.
r.s-.,> 5'j !.j
:

vi .:
'""*" »iJ5W3w>S. ':
down. Cory, 111. get something hot for you." out one' hand, palm up, and then the other
and to the first drops of rain. 'm " (: . page
She followed'hirn to the kitchen sat at ;. , ,

'"
the table while he heated up leftover pot She tilts her head back, and the rain falls »(!,! i!-j.'.!>a.

roast. She was waiting for him to tell her what

to do, where to go. They would have it
onto her face as she turns in a slow-dance,
welcoming the rain. DO
' ':
aga 115
pages 1
'. i..!.

»M
P
^ l;|Hge t« VGA

10? OMNI
 figure of seven percent to twenty percent, Omni: What kind of patient was Elsa Rios?

lOITERVIELTU
L.CM-|NUF-i==:OyHAyi s>
you get a success rate near thirty percent.
Freezing then becomes quite significant.
Trounson: Elsie was really exuberant for life.
She would arrive from Los Angeles with gifts
Omni: Are there also medical advantages for us all. Her excitement at going through

preparation system depends very much on
the quality of the semen. Bad semen sam-
ples require careful preparation, while good
ones are prepared very easily by centrifug-
ing and removing the fluid.
Affer this preparation procedure,
seminate the designated number of eggs,
resulting from embryo freezing?
Trounson: Yes. When we transfer thawed
embryos, we have a uterus unaltered by fer-
tility drugs. A natural cycle, one in which su-
perovulation has not been imposed, creates
we in- greater uterine receptivity [for the embryo].
There is also another advantage to embryo
an IVF treatment cycle overwhelmed us. But
when something went wrong, for example,
when her eggs would not fertilize, she'd be
decimated and would want to destroy
totally
Then, within a day, she'd be back on
herself.
herfeet— bright and cheery, saying, "Don't
forget, be back in three months. See you
I'll

freezing. The data available suggest that then,"as she left lor the States. Elsie Rios
of which up to three will be inserted by cath-
eter into the woman's uterus, and we freeze there is a much lower incidence of birth de- was loved by everybody in the program.
or donate the others, depending on the. cou- fects. The genetically defective embryos Everybody had to know Elsie: she was that
ple's preference. cannot survive the freezing and thawing type of personality.

Omni: Does embryo freezing improve a
woman's odds of getting pregnant?
Trounson: You firsi have to consider that with
straightforward fVF the success rate is just
process as ably as yenoticaliy normal ones. Omni: What was the reaction when the siaff
Omni: What aboul the nonmedical advan- learned of the plane crash 9
tages? Would you freeze an embryo for a Trounson: Oh, it was like losing a very good
thirty-five-year-old female corporation head friend. After their deaths, was embarrass-
it

over twenty percent. About one woman in who merely wishes to delay childbirth? ing that the situation became as contentious
get pregnant. When
five will we freeze the Trounson: No, but only because we- already as it did. We were already on the way to solv-
first implanta- have three and a half thousand couples on ing the legal dilemmas when the news of Elsa
embryos remaining after the
perceni our waiting list who have genuine fertility Rios's two existing embryos and the inheri-
tion, we expect to lose about forty
and thawing pro- problems. It's unethical to add people who tance problem got to the press. The story
of them during the freezing
cedure. We know unusable
thai they're be- don't have difficulties. was leaked by one of my postgraduates, who
cause many of the ceil membranes have Omni: What was your involvement in the cel- was on a bit of a high and couldn't conirol
ebrated Rios case? himself. of course, was very angry. But you
been broken, and the embryo does not have I ,

Trounson: The Rios couple came here for could not have created a more exotic situ-
enough cells left to compact. There's too
much damage to enable us to warrant the. treatment because they ecu cn't gel it in the ation —
this drama stretched over three con-

United States. This was in 1981, very early tinents. We didn't have any idea how much
transfer into the patient With freezing
back
we end up with a pregnancy rale of twelve in our development of IVF and they both their estate was worth. We just knew them
percent when we thaw and im- agreed have some embryos frozen as an
to both as the most generous people.
and a half
plant the surviving embryos, and a rate of experimental procedure. They were, in fact, Omni: Have Elsa Rios's embryos already
seven percent when you count the embryos
'
among the first half dozen or so patients who been given up for adoption?
agjeed to contribute embryos. Trounson: No. not yet; they're still in the liquid
that have not survived. So if you add this
nitrogen storage, am shll wahing -o be ad-
I

vised by the Ministry ol Health after a proc-

lamation of -the law in Victoria. The hospital
will then be informed that we.are to thaw out

the embryos and provide them for another

recio-ent couple.
Omni: Your clinic has been successfully

Ao freezing embryos for years. Why is it tougher

to freeze
Trounson:
eggs?
We con know al the answers, but
let me you
give some possibilities. The egg
is a very large cell— twice the size of a cell
in a two-cell embryo, four times the size of a
four-cell embryo, and eight times the size of
a cell of an eight-cell embryo. So first of all,
[here's a size problem. We have to dehy-
drate the cell, and dehydrating a large cell
is more .difficult than dehydrating a small cell.

We also have to protect the membrane o!

the'egg. In a two-cell embryo, if we get dam-
age across the membrane of one of those
cells, we still have one intact we get dam- If

age across the membrane of any part of the

egg', the whole egg is destroyed. Another
factor is that the chromosomes of the egg
are set up on the meiotic spindle [the deli-
cate skeletal arrangement of the egg's
twenty-three chromosomes]. It's an ar-
rangement of chromosomes especially de-
signed for fertilization by the sperm. We're
very concerned that the spindle won't be re-
farmed properly when the egg is thawed out.
Chromosomes might drop off the spindle,
resulting in genetic abnormalities.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, before continue to shower my largess on the peoples
I ol Omni: Is your team close to perfecting a
this earth, demand formal recognition by the United Nations!"
I technique for egg freezing?
Trounson: Yes. but here comes one of the
 —

Trounson: Well, they might see them as fro- Omni: How will IVF-Australia help your clinic
big binds of our current situation. Everybody
zen peas, but don't see them as frozen peas financially?
believes that it is more ethical to ireeze eggs I

at all, 'I see them as frozen embryos. Abso- Trounson: Vicky bakers realization was that
than embryos. But the laws of the state of
frozen embryos, the United States was relatively deficient in
Victoria forbid us to do research on, or -ana- lutely,

Omni: Victoria a tougher state, in terms successful clinics. Only about a half dozen
lyze for genetic abnormalities, embryos that If is

have resulted from Irozen eggs.
Omni: Should you perfect a technique for
freezing human eggs and overcome legal
snags, what kinds of patients will beneiit?
Trounson: With any form of radiation or
chemotherapy, ovaries or testes are af-
fected, and the patient is normally rendered
sterile. In 1986 we will be prepared to offer
young women before they undergo
chemotherapy— the service of taking some
of their eggs and freezing them. This paral-
lels the service we offer young men
undergoing chemotherapy. We offer to pre-
of restrictions, than Auslralia's other
why doesn't your research team move?
Trounson: It's a lithe o't ike Chief White Half-
oat, in Catch 22, whose tribe was always liv-
ing near where oil was discovered. "After a
while, they'd predict where this Indian tribe
would move and then put down the oil wells.
Finally, the whole tribe was surrounded by
these people with oil derricks. If we moved
to another place, another legislature would
be formed, and then wed always be on the
run, like the Ghief. The only thing thai
him to do was to join the army.
left for
six states, clinics in the U.S. have produced more than
five babies. We could set up a successful
States and get some
satellite clinic in the"
money back, in terms of royalties, that would
be paid io the Monash University and could
underwrite our research.
We're in ihe process of setting up a sat-
ellite clinic in the greater Mew York area be-
cause there are relatively few IVF clinics
there. II should open early next year. Since
we can operate IVF only under Victorian law,
was we will not be able to do surrogacy [using
surrogate mothers] or experimentation on

Omni: Is Australia a particularly supportive embryos. They didn't wart me escaping from
serve their sperm in liquid nitrogen so that
the political system so that could do re-
should they recover from their treatment, they country for your kind of research? How do I

freedoms here compare with elsewhere? search elsewhere.

may utilize these gametes.
Omni: Theoretically, how long can a human
embryo be frozen?
Inoetiniloly. tre-e's no known
Trounson:
David Whittingham and Mary Lyons
U.K. exposed mouse embryos to the equiv-
alent of a hundred years' worth of ionizing
radiation [a kind of natural radiation that ex-
ists in the earth's stratosphere and can have
damaging effects on the cells over time].
They looked carefully at the mice that were
Trounson: We haven't any more freedom to Omni: Recently, your clinic had io reject sev-
do research here than in the United Slates. eral applications from transsexuals wanting
The major difference is that in the United to carry a transplanted embryo to term. Is
limit.
such aihing possible?
in the
Trounson: Theoretically, the patient doesn't
have to be a transsexual. Presumably, you
could ask the same question about a man.
There's very little differenee. except one of
^You'd have to them, the transsexual, has been casirated.
provide the transsexual Bui don't know of any work currently being
I

done using male animal models. The only

exposed as embryos to this radiation and with hormonal experiments know oi were done in the Six-
I

found no alteration in their characteristics.

Omni: Let's take that thought further. Inter- replacement therapy, and ties. When transplanted embryo tissues were

put .under the iesies capsules in mice, they

galactic travel mayvoyages of hun-
require you'd have
formed carcinoma cells, not embryonic cells.
dreds or thousands of years, voyages thai
to put the embryo in the But lei's take a mouse, a male mouse.
people couldn't survive. One way to seed
distant universes might be to place frozen appropriate Omni; No, let's take a human.
Trounson: No. no. No one's going to do those
embryos aboard. Is this feasible? spot. That spot is the bowel* experiments on humans!
Trounson: It's bio ogica:'y possible, but the
Omni: But lei's hcoreticaliy ".ake a human.
problem is: Who would raise the children
Trounson: describe the mouse, and then
born of the thawed embryos? When you get
I'll

end of the universe, you'd need you can translate it. You would have to cas-
to the other
trate the mouse, which brings us to ihe
a functional uterus for those embryos to de-
States back the mid-Seventies, the NIH transsexual. You would then have to provide
velop in-. Perhaps down the other end of the in

[National Institutes ol Health] decided that the transsexual with hormonal replacement
cosmic universe are creatures with func-
it

was not prepared to support IVF work, It has- therapy [at leasi estrogen and progesterone
tional uteri. Creatures with, well, surrogate
never changed its position despite the pro- to simulate the female hormonal environ-
wombs could perhaps understand a mes-
tests of many committees. As a result, the ment], and you would have to put the em-
sage sent from this end of the universe, but
United States, as compared with Scandi- bryo in the appropriate spot. The anterior
these propositions are most unlikely,
and Australia, quite chamber of ihe eye is a very privileged spoi
Omni: Could a time capsule, filled with hu- navia, the U.K., France, is

primitive in IVF research. Butcompared with in the body, so an embryo could develop
man embryos, be used during a nuclear
that of any other developed country, Aus- functionally very well there. If you were going
holocaust?
Trounson: Yes, I
think so. Ovaries cannot tralia's financial medical research
support of todo the work, you'd then have to choose a
survive all of the resulting radiation, but in general is lousy. We are starved for funds. more desirable place in the body, presum-
We had to develop our own funding sys- ably, for example, on the bowel.
maybe, if some women survived the holo-
caust, they .would have uteri. You would
still tems, and that pressure forced us to con- Omm': So you would have to remove ihe em-
sider IVF-Ausiralia. a concept developed by bryo from the eye after has taken hold?
need, however, the whole of NASA to have
it

an American businesswoman, Vicky Bald- Trounson: wouldn't put it in an eye in the

survived the holocaust io retrieve the time
l

win. She was a patient with us who ended firsi .place. I'm just saying it's very difficult to
capsule or satellite with the embryos aboard.
up having two children by IVF She couldn't get embryos growing in any place but a
But again, there's this monumental problem
believe that a group with our standing in the uierus, excepi for some models that have
of having the maternal componenl around
international medical scene was actually been used in the eye of the mouse.
for the embryos. It's really- a big problem.
There's no chance at the present time that surviving on selling raffle tickets and cakes. Omni: Why the eye?
embryos can be grown outside the body in And that still goes on. Trounson: Because it's isolated from the res!
Omni: Do you personally have to. go ouf and of the body, and it has a natural cavity.
an artificial womb [ectogenesis].
Omni: Ectogenesis is not a pre-2000 event? sell raffle tickets? Omni: The eye—wouldn't ii be damaged
Trounson: No.-I think it's more likely to hap- Trounson: No, the patients do. I'm often buy- upon removal?
-
ing a whole book of raffle tickets for the pa- Trounson: Yes, It would be. It depends on
pen near 2500— it's not a close event.
Omni: An Australian right-to -life group has tients, The money helps us buy incuba- how long you left it there. mean, if you let
I

accused you of reducing unborn children to tors —the. very things that enable the work to an embryo implant in there, it's going to
"frozen peas." How do you respond to this? go'on. damage the eye— my point being that there
126 OMNI
 .

are rather few privileged -lies in the body in birth," or "miracle happening." The scien- events in the genes possibly producing very
which an embryo can develop, and the eye tists are put up on pedestals. Nationalism is weird effects that are then inheritable, righi?
chamber was certainly found to be one of engendered because it's the world's first. We face much greater dangers right now
those sites. Developing a male pregnancy, Then a reaction sets in, because people from AIDS and genetic or biological warfare
then, would depend on whether you could soon realize that this is a departure from what and nuclear holocaust than we ever have to
find other privileged sites. has been going on before. The press will feed fear trom reproductive technology.

Omni: The brains also privileged, isn't it? this reaction, and then people will believe Omni: Did you ever anticipate your meteoric
Trounson: The brain'? Well, don't think any- I that they're heading in the wrong direction. success in the IVFfield?

one has put embryos in there. There's been a tremendously negative re- Trounson: No. As a child, visualized myself I

Omni: You know, like Athena popping out of action from people: associated with religion, as a farmer and haven't ever turned off that.
the head of Zeus. particularly the Roman Catholic Church. Iwould very much like to return to the farm
Trounson: If we come back to the difficulties There's almost a hysterical reaction, and it's life, to have my own farm someday. hope I

of putting an embryo on a bowel. It involves very predictable. Finally, there's a certain it's not too distant, because it's difficult to go
a certain amount of danger. And a great deal oscillation until the community manages to back to afarming life when you're too old.

of trouble. This isn't technically, impossible, gain a total perspective. Omni:I'm not quite convinced that you could

because some women have survived with Omni: Are we gaining a better perspective abandon the inter naiienai spotlight of IVF and
ectopic pregnancies on the bowel, but right now? go off to a sheep ranch.
practically, it's a huge technical problem, and Trounson: No. Societies in general are into a Trounson; Well, we can assess that only when
ethically, a major dilemma. sort of moral crusade. Perhaps it's some- I
do it. The big problem is that I've never
Omni: Are male pregnancies medically not what greater in the U.S. than in Australia. I made any money out of my work as a mem-
feasible? expect another pulse forward, a progres- ber of Monash University. The salaries have
Trounson: While it's not something we enter- sion engendered by the silicon chip, which always been so low that we've only just been
tain, that doesn't stop a transsexual popu- will provide a lot of assistance in the house- able to survive. Somebody, family or friend,
many is going to have to be benevolent.
lation, or even men married to women who hold and liberate people.
are totally infertile, from approaching us. We Omni: If someone gave you the funds to-
have been approached in the past, we have morrow, would you buy the farm?
talked about and we've rejected such
it,
Trounson: I'd be delighted.
techniques. [For another perspective on Omni: Before your retirement to the farm,
male pregnancy, see page 5D.] what are your remaining professional goals?
Omni: Chromosomal ly, would It ever be pos-
6j/fs much easier Trounson: The main goals of my own re-
sible for a human to carry a fetus oi another to program people through —
search and they're not the goals of the
animal species? psychiatric modes —
Center are, first, to freeze an egg. Second,
Trounson: 1 think the possibilities are almost to surgically inject sperm under the zona
zero. Even ii you were to consider such than by using reproductive pellucida [the protective outer membrane of
things, you'd be limited to very few primates. the egg]. This treatment would be for men
technologies.
But again, this is purely science fiction. having sperm that do not fertilize eggs and
Omni: your work involves ma-
Currently, all
You can psychologically would involve using sperm taken directly
lure eggs aboul emerge *'roTi follicles. But
to control people trom the testes.
in the future, would it be possible for you to The third major goal focuses on genetic
in any way as a group3 defects. We've already begun using a thal-
take a wedge of the ovary and preserve
hundreds of immature eggs? assemia mouse model [thalassemia is a
Trounson: Possibly, but right now eggs have congenital blood disease-., which has a gene
to be at least normal in size before we can deletion, hoping to identify those gene de-

get them to develop further in culture. That fects in early, preimplantation mouse em-
. only occurs about five or six days before Omni: Aldous -'uxley suggested in 1932 that bryos. In the future, we can perhaps offer
ovulation. When eggs are in a very primor- the embryo-production process could be such early detection to humans. Currently,

dial state, they are much, much smaller than used for social and "political manipulation. detection-techniques require you have more
mature eggs. We
have no mechanism now Could your own work ever be used in a po- than one thousand cells, but we believe that
to increase the size of these immature eggs. litically unscrupulous way? we can develop techniques that would iden-
We're limited to collecting eggs that are in Trounson: We are a long way irom Brave New tifythese defects in the very early embryo.
the follicles, those ol normal size with fluid World,Even though Huxley predicted that While I'm uncertain whether we can con-
surrounding them. If you've treated a patient we could grow embryos in a test tube, many tinue to work in the field of human reproduc-
with some gonadotropin, you may get five or of his other propositions are untenable in our tion, I'm quite prepared to develop all the

fifteen of those immature eggs, but this is present society. To create a Huxley-like sce- appropriate technology, say. in the mouse,
relatively inefticient compared with getting nario, you've got to have cloning; without it, and then put it on the doorstep of people in
thousands or hundreds from a wedge. you've pulled out some of the major building medicine, and say: "There's the technique.
Omni: A baby girl is born with all the eggs blocks of his propositions. You can apply it in the human you wish." if

she'll ever" have. In the future, will we be able It's much easier to program people Omni: Assessing the last eight years, how
to create more eggs for a woman? through psychiatric modes than within re- would you do things differently?
Trounson: No, don't think so. It's all finalized
I
productive technologies. .By isolating a group Trounson: would certainly alter the way
I
I

in letal development. The complete comple- Of people and then working on them psy- led my private life, particularly in the years

ment of egg formation has occurred before you'll get a much more pro-
chiatrically. between 1979 and 1981. Those years really
birth. I don't see that there s any mechanism grammed group of people than you would contributed very much to the breakdown of
available to us at the moment to alter that, ever have by selective breeding. You can my always regretted that.
marriage. I've

particularly when you're dealing with fetal lite. psychologically conlrol people in any way These years were critical in terms of the
Omni: Do you think society will become in- as a group. progress that we made, but there was a ma-
creasingly more tolerant of the accomplish- Another more dishoresi. form of manipu- jor cost to many of us in our personal lives.

ments of this "brave new world"? lation Is genetic engineering —

the insertion Ifhad that time again, would try to accom-
I
I

Trounson: Yes.- There's a logical series of of DNA into mice or other animals. This is an modate some of my family's needs. The rest
events occurring in these areas. First, the absolute no-no in human reproduction and of the science, wouldn't want to do over
it, I

technology is termed a "miracle," with the should be prevented, at all cost. DNA inser- again. I don't think I
could get it as right as I

press trumpeting such phrases as "miracle tion may trigger absolutely unpredictable did the first time around.DO
128 OMNI
 " "

"Not fast, just right straight at me like a

he wondered. Pale limestone upthrust trom
truck in low gear, grinding along. When I

an ancient seabed? Mineral crystals?

TRAVELS From below came the whine of the rifle. nailed
The
the others headed for the trees."
it,

descent from his vision of the crystal-

CCNTINUEj-nrAIPAC- IGi
"Kyle!" Garrett swung down through the
mountain down to this grisly scene left
such a branches, hit the ground, and braced him- line
By midmorning he was in state of
Garrett shaken. He slipped the pistol back
against a tree with pistol drawn. A few
bafflement thai he realized he must over-
self
in its holster but left the flap unfastened.
come his dread and climb up into the can- meters away, Kyle was bending over the
shinned sprawled body of a gray, hairless animal. "Come on." saidKyle, hefting his pack. "I
opy. Leaving his pack with Kyle, he don't expect they'll stay scared for long."
up one of the slimmer trees, grabbing
for "Hey brother?" said Garrett anxiously.
All that afternoon the ash-gray
shapes
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Still holding'ihe rifle
handholds on the vines that twisted around stole along behind them, gliding from tree to
A racket of small feet scampering over the across his heaving chest, Kyle kept staring
it.
might tree in the The shadows. brothers made
looked as though
leaves broke out overhead and receded. As
at the beast. It
it

weigh as much as a man. but its shape was good time, since the forest was older here,
he rose, the somber light grew brighter, and the shade deeper, and the undergrowth
not even vaguely manlike. A dozen or more
then as he wriggled up through the
inter-
legs protruded from the squat torso, each
more sparse, and since Garrett now had a
woven branches the full dazzle of sunlight clear sense of direction. But no matter how
made him squint. one ending in a pad of flesh as broad and
over fast they walked, the shadow creepers— as
thin as a dinner plate. For scrambling
"See anything?" Kyle shouted. Kyle named the lurking beasts— never tell
Garrett blinked the water from his eyes. the treetops? The skin was ash-gray mottled
behind. That niah:, secure inside the blazing
yes," he murmured. Thickly with black, closely resembling the bark of
"Oh my Lord, with hun- light-dome, Garrett said, "How did you know
and was perforated
strewn with flowers, the canopy of leaves the trees, it

dreds of slits.
meant to harm you?"
it

spread away in vast, undulating plains of red "1 didn't." Kyle poked at a chunk of undis-
enormous His breath still coming in gulps, Kyle said,
directions. Further inland,
in
solved powder in his stew. "But couldn't
all
"These gashes must do them for eyes and
I

dark animals were grazing on the

until it grabbed hold of me to find out."
herds of
wait
treetops. Here and there a lone beast loped ears and mouth." He pried one of the slits
"No, don't suppose you could. Only—"
stealthily around the edges o! a herd. The open with his knife. 1

Scanning the woods, Garrett noticed here "Only what?"

only break in that rolling scarlet plain was the of scav-
thinking about that pack
the and there a tree that looked unnaturally thick
"1 keep
solitary mountain, gleaming white against just long me
near the base, as if something had wrapped engers; the way they held
western horizon. As soon as he glimpsed enough to take the bone and then let me go.
down excitedly itself around the trunk. 'Are there
more of
that snowy peak, he called
It was as if they were
being careful not to
to Kyle, "I can see it.on course."
We're right them out there?"
"A bunch." Kyle stood up from the
ashen hurt me."
"Good. Let's move it!" Kyle hollered. "The
body. "They kept sniffing closer and closer "You didn't smell dead enough."
company down here's getting a little friendly" Ignoring his brother's sarcasm, Garrett in-
Through the binoculars, Garrett took a while you were up top. Then this one came
me." sisted, "But what about all those other
right at
hasty bearing on the peak. At this latitude beasts— the branch weavers, the ring
'
charged you?"
the white surface could not be snow. Sand?
"It
watchers, that gray bag of guts you shot-
why do they ease up on us so slowly if they
mean to kill us? They could just be trying to
scare us, to drive us out of their territory. Or
maybe they just want to find out what sort of
animals we are."
"It could be they want to discuss
meta-
physics," Kyle scoffed.
"The point is we don't know," Garrett said.
"They're as deep a mystery to us as we are
to them. And the only thing we can think to

do if they get too close is to

kill them."
"How was to know they'd die so easily?
I

A little poof, and all their circuits go haywire.

"Thai's what I'm saying—we don't know
anything. We're pig ignorant, and it bothers
the hell out of me. We never stay in any wild
zone long enough to learn how the animals
are made, how the plants grow. We're al-
ways pushing on. out and back, and every-
thing'shidden from us, as if we're burrowing
through a cloud."
Kyle fixed him with an amused glare.
"You're not turning into a scientist on me, are
you?"
"No, it's just
—
"1 know what itis, and bothers me, too.
it

as much as it would bother me

But not half
to get stuck in a laboratory or out in some
crowded patch of woods with other scien-'
lists behind every bush, studying the same
bug for fifty years. What I want is to keep
seeing things never saw before. don't want
I
I

to plod along in .bootprints that other

guys
have made."
"It finally happened. This year they've all been naughty." "But we miss so much, and we make so
many mistakes,"
 have been drawn by ino iight. Staring out at drew his knife and began hacking away at
Kyle set down his dish and said earnestly,
and then only the flesh, chopping a hole through until he
"If you couldn'l budge you understood
until them, the brothers spoke rarely

away from Earth. whispers, conjecturing. But conjecture led could see a boot. Then more cautiously, to
everything, you'd never get in

nowhere, for the gulf between the brothers avoid cutting his brother, he chopped the
And then you'd never see that roadway of
and these lurking beasts was deeper than thick muscle and pried the ribs apart, until
limbs up there, or those orchids growing in
the gulf dividing humans from any species he had carved a way of escape. Kyle was
the crotches of the trees, or your white
*
on Earth. stunned, but with help he managed to crawl
mountain."
"Here's your peace at the heart of the wil- out through the ragged opening.
"Or the butchered animals."
derness," said Kyle one evening after a day For a long while the brothers panted for
"Why does that keep nagging you? A few
of almost constant battles. breath. Then Kyle lifted his dirt-blackened
beasts dead?"
There was nothing Garrett could answer face. "You can put that knife away."
"There's more of them every trip," Garrett
to that. He was just trying to hold himself Garrett stared at the fist holding the knife
said sharply.
subdue sense of horror until they as if it belonged to a stranger. The knuckles
"That's because we keep going to wilder together, his
reached the mountain and could turn back. were white from the fierceness of his grip.
What do you expect? A picnic?" Kyle
still
places.
The glistening peak seemed so out of keep- His arm was smeared to the elbow with the
prowled around inside the perimeter of light,
ing with this dark and murderous woods that creature's oil. Slowly he loosened his fin-
shoving pieces of gear aside with his boots.
—
"There you sit all you've got to worry about ithad become in his imagination a kind of gers, cleaned the biaco agams: the fabric of
his shimmersuit. and sheathed again at his
is the trail. Fine. That's a hard job, and I mecca, a reassurance. it

On the tenth day out from the station they waist A darkness came over his mind, the
couldn't do it. I'd get lost in an hour. But I've
encountered an even larger beast. They darkness of utter revulsion. "Let's turn back,"
got to keep us alive." He stopped in front of
could hear coming well before they ac- he said carefully, trying to keep the tremor
Garrett, looming dark against the blaze of it

tually spied for the weight of its body set out of his voice.
the dome. 'And if you wandered off by your- it,

you— sharp cracKs like lightning through the "Turn back? ltd take more than that to stop
seli for an hour, something would get off

me—
no matter what your tender interwoven branches as it swung ponder- me." Kyle thumped himself on the chest.
believe
"Look, I'm right as rain. Nothing's broken."
heart tells you about the wilderness."
Shaking uncontrollably now, Garrett said,
Garrett did not answer. Leaving of! his
"I just want to go back."
goggles, because he did not want to see
Kyle-gave him a searching look, "What's
what was slouching around outside, he
to get worked up about? Nobody's hurt,
stared through narrowed eyes at the fiery
arched in a blinding curve around
•The watchers right? Next time one ol those roof swingers
barrier that
comes along, we'll bag before it gets close
and above the camp. overhead kept still; below, in it

enough to drop on us."

Proiected from the night beasts inside this every direction, "No!" Garrett roared. "I don't want any
simulacrum of daylight, he lulled himself to
sleep by summoning up his vision of that
stealthy shapes crept from more killing! I'm sick of it!"

"Hey— easy, an
brother, easy." Kyle rested
pale, tranquil mountain. tree to treeon
arm on his heaving shoulders and spoke
for a rest, for a
the forest floor; drawing soothingly, "How aboutIf we just hike on a
Each time they stopped
little ways, leave this pile of meat behind,"
drink, for Garrett to climb up through the his pistol, he was
gesturing at the butchered beast, "and set
canopy to check his bearings on the white shaking too hard to aim$
mountain, the beasts closed in It was as if :
up camp? Well both unwind, and things will
look better in the morning."
stillness were an invitation to attack. Or to
Garret! waited until he had regained con-
inquire? Converse? What did the creatures
want? There was no way of knowing — no trolof his breathing and his body had ceased

oul. to quake, Then he agreed to camp, As he

way, short of a lifetime's study, to find
Usually Kyle shot the boldest animal, and
the others drew back. But sometimes he had
to shoot several. The scavengers, following
in packs behind the brothers, no longer
along
even waited for Ihem to leave a kill before
falling ravenously on the carcass, clearing
away every last scale and bone.
don;t see how they can
"I
ously toward ihem under the canopy. Its body
was like a huge jackkhife with clusters of
pincers at each end, the skin a sullen red
and gleaming as if smeared with oil. It held
on by one set of pincers, snapped its hinged
length forward until the other end could seize
hold, and so whipped along like a trapeze
still be hungry" artist. There was a hectic scramble among
trudged away from the scene of his butch-
ery, he was aware of the offending hand
dangling at his side. He could hear the scav-
engers gnawing at the massive bones.
The bout with the roof swinger must have
scared away many of the stalking beasts, for
that night the woods outside the light-dome
were still. Yet Garrett slept poorly, troubled

said Garrett on -the morning of the seventh the ring watchers on top of the canopy and by suffocating dreams. In the morning things
a band of scavengers swarm among the skulking shadow creepers in the did not look better, and he said so.
day, watching
shadow creeper, remem- underbrush, the lesser beasts giving way in Kyle was losing patience. "Look, how
over the body of a
panic before this newcomer. much farther is to your blessed mountain?"
how the fierce pack of them had it
bering
swarmed over him with that odd gentleness. "Looks like trouble," said Kyle, shrugging His mountain — his mecca — lost now.
expect there's fresh ones coming along free of the backpack and bracing himself to Garrett shrugged. 'A long day. Maybe a day
"I

all the time." Kyle watched the feast with fire. Without pausing, the creature swung into and a half."

position directly above them and dropped, "So we. go double time we could make
stony eyes. "The news gets out through the if

forest. It's like sharks in the ocean— the ru- its body spreading open like a fan, heavy it by nightfall?"

ribs unfurling aihckbianw.'l of flesh. Garrett "I'm not going!"

mor of blood."
Despite the frequent kills, the ranks ol leaped to the side. Kyle fired a burst and an Giving way to his anger, Kyle said, "I'm the

shadow creepers stalking them through the instant later was smashed to theground and one who got smothered under that hunk of .

woods kept swelling. At night these pur- buried under the beast. meat, and you don't hear me talking about
Garrett bellowed, tugging furiously at the quitting. Whal's the matter? Are you break-
suers were visible outside the light-dome as
an ashen crowd several bodies deep com- horny, lip of the body, trying to pry it loose, ing?" He seized Garrett by the shoulders.
to peel it away and free his brother. But the "After all the bad things we've been through,
pletely encircling the campsite. They might
muscle was- rigid, the ribs would not give. are you going to desert me now?"
have been ambassadors gathering for a
parley; or dumb beasts lured by instinct to The pincers were clamped tightly around tree Garreft could feel the waters of hysteria

drive out predators, the way

songbirds will roots. He bellowed again, but Kyle lay mo- beginning to churn in him, and he forced
mob an owl; or like moths, they might simply tionless under the smothering weight, so he himself to speak calmly. "I don't think it's

132 OMNI
 1
© ART CUMINGS
L<2"b'e see which
is mightier
Come on /

' -
"*
 .

worth the cost anymore."

"What cost?"
"The cost in lives." Kyle let out a scoffing
breath, but Garrett kept on: "It's like we're
two blind men stumbling forward, carving
our way through the guts of the wilderness,
and the deeper we go, the deeper we cut.
I'm not just thinking about last night. I'm
thinking about everything we've killed — here
and in the other wild zones. It's a road of
corpses."
After giving him a last brutal squeeze on
the shoulders, Kyle him go. "So where let

can we go and not be intruders? You tell me

, that? Tell me where you're going to live with-
out destroying whatever threatens you.
Where? Earth? The job's already finished
there.An asteroid, maybe. Or one of the stony
desert planets. But you go anywhere that's if

got life on it, you're going to have to kill some

of it to make room for yourself."
Quietly shouldering his rucksack, Garrett
faced back in the direction from which they ESPIONAGE
had come. He would never get to that tran-
quil mountain. "I justdon't have the stomach
for anymore."'
it

Kyle slung his own pack into position and

Washington and
set his face in the direction they had been Moscow
traveling, "Well, still do. And by
I God I'm
going
Neither
to finish
moved
what we started."
to take a step. They stood
London and Havana li\T PARADISE
East versus West
with shoulders brushing,
Finally Garrett said,
me, how are you going
eyes averted,
"If you don't come with
to find your way back
The Third World War A island paradise that offers
you total relaxation plus the
thrill of discovery. Stroll
to the station?" Sabotage and pristine beaches. Go fishing for
'Til have to take my chances on that."
just
Infiltration the big ones. Sun yourself by our
Although would mean breaking a wil-
it

pool or scuba in waters renowned

derness code, Garrett offered, "You want me Crap shoots and for the splendor of their tropical
to leave markers?"
Kyle spat In the dirt, then scraped his boot Double-dealing fish. On Forbes Magazine's

across the stain. "You worry about making Laucala. Island, all the choices
friends with the beasts. I'll worry about the
Missions and Escapes
are yours.
trail."' Ciphers and Satellites
They touched hands briefly, roughly. Kyle
Spies and Moles
BUT JUST FOR A FEW
1
...

glared at him with eyes bruised by a sense Forbes loves its private Fiji
island, and we think you will, too.
of betrayal. Garrett took the first step. A mo-
Traitors and Heros
ment later he could hear his brother's boots So we've put out the welcome
retreating away behind him. Fast-paced, Subtle mat, but only for a few at a tune.
After less than an hour
while the animals prowled around him in
of solitary hiking,
Sometimes brutally We'll take up to 12 guests, for 7
nights and 8 days. Cost is S 1,650
ever-tightening circles, Garrett staggered to blunt per person, which includes 4
a halt, overcome by guilt and fear and the
days of tropical fishing plus all
weight of his own ignorance. He leaned Past, Present and
against a tree —
at least nothing could lunge
Future
meals, lodging and a round-trip
flight between Laucala and Nadi
at him from behind. What did they want? Just
International Airport (on the
food? With so many, they would get only a
mouthful of him apiece. And suppose they
Fact and Fiction main island]. It's the "in" place to
merely wanted to touch him, speak to him go, away from the cold, the traf-
through their pincered and padded limbs? fic, the noise, the hassle. Service
If he could bear to stand still and let them
with a smile and no tipping.
swarm over him, as the scavengers had,
perhaps they would be satisfied and go
away, perhaps they would imprint a mes-
ESPIONAGE For information please write:
Noel Douglas, Forbes Magazine,
sage on his body. 60 Fifth Ave.,New York, NY 10011
He squeezed his eyes shut, but fear im- or call 212/620-2461,
mediately forced them open again. "Go For a one year subscription (6 issues)
away!" he shouted. His heart was clenching send your check/money order,
and unclenching like a fist. payable to "Leo 1 1 Publications, Ltd,"
They crept nearer. He could actually smell for S15 In U.S. funds (S17 in Canada,
them, sour and hot. There was no sound ex-
320 tc-'&gn; Id; i3-'IO\AGE Magazine
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cept the occasional creaking of a limb or the
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DE 19599.
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 —

where he lay on his belly, rifle and ments, the Roman and Nazi and Frontme
Stupid brutes. Because of them he had the dirt,

abandoned his own brother— four hundred
kilometersaway from the station and no map.
He might just as well have shot him.
me alone!"
"Leave
helmet-lamp aimed in Garrett's direction. holocausts —
but nothing earthly would ex-
"Kyle, it's me! I've come back! Kyle!" Be- plain the raising of this deathlymonument.
cause of the light, Garrett could not see his After a moment the scavenger resumed
climbing,its passage rousing a faint clatter.
brother's face, but he stood up anyway, arms
lifted. "Kyle?" he repeated uncertainly, as he The brothers watched labor up beyond the
it

The beasts watching him from the canopy

thickened into a solid mass of dark bodies
overhead. Picking up a heavy stick, he flung
it at them. As it
clattered on the underside of
the limbs, the mass of animals stirred briefly
but soon drew togethei again, like !he murky
waters of a pond regathering.
—
He roared a sound raw and wordless.
stepped into the sights of the gun. canopy, beyond the range of their lamps, up
For a long while the rifle did not waver in skyward into the darkness.
its aim. Then Kyle rose onto his knees and
Releasing his breath with a hiss, Garrett
all the deaths it took."
said, "Think of
called in a jubilant voice, "Back from the
dead, big brother?" Flinging down the gun, "Damn near everyone on the planet, I'd
Kyle surged to his feet and came running. guess,"
"I see now why the old-timers wouldn't
The two collided with such force thai they
about it."
talk

fell sprawling and wrestled over and over in

The watchers overhead kept still. Below, in
the growling joyfully. "Would you?"
every direction, stealthy shapes crept from dirt,

tree to tree on the forest floor He drew the When they finally rose and dusted them- "No."
selves off, laughing, hooting until the woods They fell silent, their twinned headlamps
pistol but was shaking What
too hard to aim it.

rang with their cries, they held one another glaring on the silvery debris. Then at the
did it matter where he aimed? He wanted to them,
at arm's-length and siared long and hard, as
same moment confessions burst out of
spray the entire forest with death, murder
if each needed to reassure
himself that the Kyle saying, "If you hadn't come back was I

everything, drive back, erase those men-

it

other had actually been found. Then Kyle a dead man, lost in here. had no idea which
acing shadows, clear a highway through the
I

suddenly grew serious. "Come here. You've way was home," Garrett saying, "I went crazy
wilderness. He fired wildly, squeezing off
got to see this." with killing, was pure hatred, wanted to blow
I

burst after burst, firing in a blind passion while

was now quite dark. The brothers fol- everything away, erase and start clean."
it,
bodies rained down from
the canopy, fired It

Again there was a shocked silence.

at the creatures shambling away through the.
At length, turning his light away from the
maze of trees, shooting until he could see
slope, Kyle bent down and retrieved the rifle
no living beast anywhere, no least quiver of
from where he had flung "You want to wait
it,
flesh, no threat. Then he stopped, horrified
and explore in daylight?"
it
by what he had done. ^Dusk was In a hushed voice Garrett said, "I'd like to
Still shaking, he pushed away from
the tree
black fog sit down and study it and not budge until
gathering
I

where he had been leaning. The scaven- like

could make sense of But I'm afraid I'd go
it.
gers were hustling out from beneath the tree among the mad."
roots to glut themselves on his slaughter. He
nearly fired on them as well, but he re-
'

trees when he saw his brother "I'm more scared of beasts than mad-

and holstered the gun. Blind ness," said Kyle. "I say we head back now.
strained himself motionless,
What do you say?"
with shame and loathing, sobbing out loud,
his fighter's body starkly Garret! nodded silently, never taking his
he wanted to drop the gun and rucksack,
off (he mountain.
'

against the eyes

peel away the shimmersuit, wander naked visible
"Good." The straps of Kyle's pack creaked
into the woods and give himself to the beasts. gleaming white mountain.^ as he put it en, "Can you find the way with
But no— he had to find Kyle— lead him to
just the lamps? Maybe go a couple of hours
safety— tell him about this horror.
to give us a breathing space?"
little
Facing about, he set off at a trot. Imme-
Garrett took a last dazed look at the ivory
diately he feli better, as if joining with Kyle
slope. He had been coming to this place for
again would be the healing of a wound. He
beams of their helmet lights a long time. Here and there, scavengers were
arrived at the place they had separated, then lowed the jiggling
Even while they were a hauling new trophies onto the heap, the talus
he pushed on, stooping every now and then to the clearing. still

good distance from the slope, Garrett could of skeletons shifting beneath them with the
to study Kyle's bootprints, oblivious to the
whatever made this gleam so crackling sound of ice about to give way un-
beasts that were skulking again in his wake, tell that hill

brightly was hot. stone. And not jewels or derfoot. Enveloped in this rustle of scurrying
his breath coming in rags. Several times Kyle
metal. Then he realized what must be. bodies, each with its shiny offering, the
had stopped to climb a tree— doubtless to it

"Bones," said Kyle softly, "a whole moun- mountain of bone possessed a terrible
make sure he was headed toward the
mountain— but Garrett did not need to stop tain of bones." beauty. Was it the beauty of instinct, like that

As Garrett's vision cleared he gazed of a termite hill or bird nest? Or was it the
or even slow down, and so he fell certain he
numbly at the glittering, jumbled slope. The beauty of intellect, of pyramids and cities?
was gaining on his brother. By late afternoon
the trail was so fresh that the trampled grass shapes were not familiar, but the color was And the work of mind, what was
if its inhu-

was still unbending, and bootprints stamped a calcium sheen polished silver-bright by air man meaning? He did not know.
and weather. "Yes," Garrett said, "I can find the way."
in the sandy bank of a creek were still col-
lecting water. "Where'd they come from?" He guided them unerringly. Perhaps be-
Kyle aimed his lamp at a point some few cause they moved so swiftly or because
Dusk was gathering like black fog among
meters up the slope. "The scavengers haul news of their slaughter had spread through
the trees when Garrett finally saw his brother,
them the forest, the brothers were rarely stalked
standing motionless in a clearing up ahead, here."
Transfixed by the one of the cat-size on this return journey, and they left no new
the unmistakable bulk of his fighter's body light,

beasts paused ascent. Pro- carcasses in their wake. The trek into the wild
starkly visible against the gleaming base of slinking' in its

The rucksack lay at his feet. truding from slits along its flanks were sev- zone had taken them eleven days. In only
the mountain.
gleaming bones. From one of my kills? nine days they were back inside the station,
The rifle was cradled at a slant in his arms. eral
Garrett wondered. He remembered the suf- the air lock sealed behind them, three thick-
He seemed to be contemplating the moun-
lamp on helmet struck bril- focating tide of bodies, the bone twisting vi- nesses of glass protecting them from the
tain while the his
olently in his hand. How long had they been foresi. Even in that human sanctuary, Garrett
liant reflections from the glittering slope.
building this pile? And why? He thought of could not rid his mind of the mountain of
Knowing would be suicide to sneak-up
it

elephant graveyards, the mass suicide of bone. The peak rose in his memory, up and
on him, Garret! slipped free of his pack,
lemmings, the antler heaps of deer, the mid- up, a glistening monument, piercing the sky
ducked behind a boulder, and gave a shout.
Kyle spun halfway around before hitting den of skeletons near Eskimo encamp- of understanding. DO
136 OMNI
 example; one with arms and
ing detail.They mounted a portable com- a nipple, for
was surrounded with a cotton
puter on a stand that could be wheeled up legs flailing

NATIVITY and connected to the baby's electronic

monitors. The machine' also had a keyboard
bunting for containment. The results: The
p reem es w ho
j
were treated this way had
significantly shorter stays on the respirator
damaging way to into which nurses could type their observa-
a more efficient, less
than others.
We don't breathe that way tions, such as the infant's activity level, color,
transport oxygen. Als says the improvement came from lim-
because it takes a lot of energy. But and other behaviors.
naturally sensory input. "Like Gorski, she con-
After nearly 5,200 separate observations, iting
with amachine providing the effort, it might cludes that preemies' brains lack the ability
Gorski found that preemies react differently
be a good way to keep preemies alive. block out stimuli. Als doesn't say that care
to handling than previously thought-
Many to
"We stuck tubes down our throats and tried should be withheld: only that its timing should
says Dr. Charles Bryan, Toronto
of the doctors ihink preemies like being handled,
it,"
that stimulation good. Gorski's enormous be geared to preemies' behavior.
Sick Children's Hospital, one of the devel-
is

database shows otherwise. He found that "When you look at a preemie, you're really
opers of the machine. "It feels like you're get- looking at a fetus displaced into an environ-
body rub." several minutes after routine chest mas-
ting an internal
ment for which it's not evolutionary
Bryan has used the machine on hundreds sage, preemies often showed depressed
heart rates and lowered levels of oxygen in
adapted," says Als. "His autonomic nervous
of preemies whom conventional respirators system is at the mercy of medical technol-
So encouraging are the blood. Social interactions such as strok-
might not have helped. have to observe preemies rather
We
ing or hugging cause similar distress. In- ogy.
his and others' results that the National Insti-
than just act on them."
tutes of Health have recently begun trials to deed, many routine interveniions caused
blotchiness, grimacing, irregular breath-
Even when all the experimental technol-
evaluate the machine with 1,500 babies in
ing—all signs of physical stress. ogy and techniques have been perfected
ten hospitals in the United States and Can- and put in place, survival will be impossible
Gorski explains that the nervous system
ada. Results are expected in about a year. for preemies younger than 24 weeks.
Before
of preemies "poorly organized." At 24
Another approach, pioneered by Dr. Tet-
is still

preemie's brain undifferen- that the lungs just aren't developed enough.
suro Fujiwara, of the Iwate Province Medical
weeks the is
But suppose the preemie didn't need
Center, in Japan, is to supply preemies with lungs? Theoretically, that's possible with a
the lung surfactant they lack. To accomplish technology called extra corporeal mem-
that feat, Tetsuro obtained surfactant from
brane oxygenation (ECMO). Essentially a
remove
and then treated new kind of heart-lung machine, ECMO is
calves' lungs it to

most of the protein. (Protein might react with

'•Several minutes an apparatus that removes blood from the
the infant's immune system, while the fatty body, pumps oxygen into the blood, and
portion of the surfactant benefits the lungs.) after routine chest massage,
sends the oxygenated blood back in. In this
He gave the substance to ten preemies with preemies often way it acts like the womb,
providing oxygen
severe respiratory distress syndrome. Eight to a feius that can't breathe on its
own. The
them survived.
showed depressed heart rates
of
technology is used on some full-term ba-
Thai success sparked a series of experi- and lowered levels bies, but it requires the use of anticlotting
ments, the results of which are now coming that would surely cause brain
the Uni-
of oxygen. Socialinteractions, compounds
in. Last June a team of doctors from in preemies. Still, a few ex-
such as stroking hemorrhages
versity of California in San Diego and Chil-
perts say that with years of refinement,
dren's Hospital, in Helsinki, Finland, re- and hugging, caused distress.^ ECMO might someday be used in the care
ported that they had isolated surfactanl from premature babies.
of
the amniotic fluid of women who had
cesar-
others talk about giving preemies ox-
Still
ean sections. Over a period of two years, ygen through the skin. In the lungs, gases
the infants treated with that surfactant had pass from thousands of tiny air sacs across
significantly less lung disease than the con- beds. That transfer
It has the general shape
tiated: but not the membranes to capillary
trol group. In August doctors at the Univer- in immature lungs because the
creases and folds of the full-term human is impossible
sity ofToronto reported thai infants given between air sacs and capillaries has
junction
brain. The cerebral cortex— the center
of
surfactant from calves' lungs relied less on been formed. But preemies have thin,
nervous control and conscious thought— is not yet
respirators than the controlgroup did. The
capillary-rich skin that covers their bodies.
group also had fewer mild brain being formed. With brain cells migraling
still
treated some doctors speculate that ii pree-
at rate of 100,000 a day, the whole intricate
a Thus,
hemorrhages. In October doctors at the Uni- mies were placed in high-pressure cham-
wir-
circuitry is still being connected, like the
versity of Rochester reported similar results.
The bers, oxygen might be absorbed directly by
"The present attiiude of many neonatolo- ing of a giant built-at-home computer.
result, says Gorski, is that preemies below a
the skin.
gists is one of great enthusiasm,"
according
certain age lack the ability to filter out stimuli. Lungs are the only organs unable to func-
to Dr. Donald Shapiro, who, with Dr. Robert preemies 16 to 20 weeks of age. Thus,
Rochester work. Too much unfiltered noise, light, or handling tion in
H- Hotter, did the with either high-pressure chambers or
Other groups are working on completely can disrupt physiological functions.
"They're "-easily overwhelmed, and they
ECMO, the plateau of viability would take
man-made surfactant and testing it on ani-
crash," says Gorski. "I've had babies so
another step down.
mals. Meanwhile, Abbott Laboratories, the Nonetheless, most experts say that med-
overtaxed by the social interaction of eye
giant drug company, has acquired the
contacithat they go limp. What seems kindly icine will never replace the first crucial
American patent to Fujiwara's formula and months a fetus must spend in the womb. The
plans to start clinical trials in a few monihs. to usmay not always be best."
His work is buttressed by ongoing exper-
placenta provides the fetus with oxygen,
the tests work out," says Dr. Alan J. Gold, while removing
"If
iments at Harvard Medical School. Working food, and hormones all its

Abbott Labs, could be on the market in

waste. The process is so complex that doc-
of "it

four or five years."

with Lawhon and other NICU nurses, psy- '

chologist Heide Als has shown that minimiz- tors won't even discuss the possibility of re-
With all the intervention, preemies—who
can make preemies placing it with technology. Even though doc-
would be isolated still in the
if womb— are- ing disturbances
can create a lest-tube baby by fertilizing
bound to react. Thus, another research fron- healthier. The experiment was based on be- tors
A researcher would the outside the body, there's no
human egg
havioral observations:
tier involves- learning what preemies
feel
getting around the fact that in a few days
during intensive care treatment. At the Uni-
watch a procedure, record how the baby re-
they must implant a woman.
acted, and then suggest how to make the
it in
versity of San Francisco Medical Center, Dr. even think about keeping a
Peter A. Gorski and his colleagues spent two baby more comfortable. A baby who was "It's silly to
preemie alive during the first trimester," says
looking for something to suck on was given
years recording preemie behavior in exact-
138 OMNI
 Senator David Durenberger (R- Minnesota), technically alive. What should doctors do?
Dr. Jay R Goldsmiih, chairman of pediatrics is

an advocate of prenatal care. "Now time No single policy exists. It's determined hos-
at the Ochsner Clinic, in New Orleans. "What
it's

do.something about prevention." pital by hospital, doctor by doctor.

goes on in terms oi organogenesis is so crit- to
Yet the Reagan administration,, which For example, Dr. Lu-Ann Papile of New
ical that any change in the environment could
claims to support 'las consistently cut or Mexico says she doctors who do
told the
result in deformed babies or miscarriages."
life

opposed and prenatal care—the therapeutic abortions her hospilal not to

ai
Even now, some doctors wonder how far nutritional
send her any fetuses all. "If you're doing
at
they should go in saving babies who are very very programs that would keep more babies
alive, That, say the experts, is why the infant everything possible" to abort a ietus, don't
premature.
mortality rate, which dropped sharply in the tell me in the next moment to save it. Already
"Some of these physicians say, 'Give us
Seventies, has virtually ceased -decline so much has been set in motion that it doesn't
Ihe money and we'll make anything lhai
its

nationally and rising in some poor areas. have a chance."

moves stay alive,' complains pediatrician
" is

It contributes to this country's rank of sev-

Other doctors take a less rigid view. At
and medical historian Dr. William Silverman.
enteenth for infant mortality, according to re- Boston City Hospital any fetus over 350
We should accept, the fact that "there are
more
biological errors" that naturally cause cer- cent United Nations statistics. We're behind grams whose heartbeat continues for

fetuses not to survive. "The error rate Finland. Sweden, Japan even places like than a few minutes is sent to the NICU—just
tain
. . .

Singapore and Hong Kong. in case the fetus is viable but more often to
has never been zero. It's not zero for any
species on the planet." "Weight for weight we do better than any- keep it warm and comfortable until it dies.
one: We use high-tech and expert care to "It's draining," says Dr. Brown. "It's very
'

"We don't want to get biological errors to

keep preemies alive," says Dr. Graven. "But difficult watch a perfectly iormed yet
to
zero," argues Boston City Hospital's Eliza-
we have many more very low-birth-weighi previable baby try to breathe." She adds thai
beth Brown. "We want to get mechanical er-
babies. Other nations wouldn't stand for our in ten years at the hospital she saw just one
rors to zero." By that she means many pree-
level of prenatal care." aborted fetus survive, when the mother was
mies are biologically perfect but are born
Other issues seem less likely to have an mistaken about the stage of her pregnancy.
too early because of a "mechanical" prob-
lem in the womb. "In many cases you're sal- answer. A dozen years ago the Supreme The child was later adopted. "This was not
an evil woman." she says. "She was very
vaging a person who would have been fine."
As for those preemies who develop serious
happy mat the child lived."
If all this sounds depressing,
remember
handicaps, she says, "If the majority do well,
that would not be an issue not for the if

I'm willing to live with the ten percent who

it

recent turnaround in premature care, Sci-

don't," (Estimates for severe physical and
'•The line ence has brought life to thousands of babies
menial handicaps among preemies range
between abortion and preemie who otherwise would have died. Bui prog-
From 5 to 20 percent, depending on gesta-
tional age. That's two to live times as high as
ress brings choices. Do we rescue the pree-
care is becoming mie who seems destined to be handi-
in full-term babies.)
"If we as a society keep an eighty-five- increasingiy siim. Many capped'' Dowe keep marginally viable
year-old with cancer alive," she adds, "why
How much should we spend?
children alive?
hospitals abort
can't we save someone who is just starting
How do we make decisions in an area in
.
fetuses one wing and save
in which every step forward is rife with contro-
his life?"
preemies just a versy? And who should make the decisions:
One reason may be that NICU care is one
parents, doctors, or government officials?
of the most expensive services a hospital
few weeks oider in another.^ Perhaps nothing illustrates Ihe double-
can provide. The costs may exceed $1,000
edged nature of premature care more than
a day. Antoinette Kimble says Victoria's
treatment will cost "eighty thousand dollars
Victoria Kimble, the childwho was sustained
or more." Her Blue Cross medical insurance
at the very edge of life. Shortly before she
will cover the payments. Poor people rely on
was due to go home. Antoinette, her mother.
Court upheld the rights oi women to have ran into one of her doctors in the hall. The
-publicly funded Medicaid.
The choice rests A'.th the woman doctor had bad news. He had just come from
Perhaps there's a cheaper way. Prematur- abortions.
ity results from a cluster of causes, including and her doctor until the onset of letal viabil- examining the child, Her retinas — not formed
smoking, diabetes, alcohol and drug abuse, ity; may intervene. The
afler that the state at age she was born— had not properly
the
attached to the eye. It was sad but not sur-
multiple births, and teenage pregnancies. trouble is that.the limits of viability have

dropped. In 1973 was about 28 weeks; now prising, given Victoria's extreme prematur-
But the major factors relate to poverty: in- it

adequate nutrition and a lack of prenatal it'sanywhere Irom 24 to 27. The line be- The baby would almost certainly be blind.
ity.

care. That care could include early exami-
nations, adviceon living habits, and making
—
arrangements for delivery all for S500 lo
$800 per pregnancy.
Dr. Stanley Graven, professor of maternal
and child health at the University of South-
ern Florida, studied prenatal programs for
the state of Minnesota. He found that for
tween abortion and lifesaving care is be-
coming increasingly slim— so slim that many
hospitals abort fetuses in one wing while
saving preemies just a couple of weeks older
in another. Most keep a safety margin by not
aborting fetuses older than 20 weeks.
Most neonatologists we spoke to are pro-
choice, arguing that abortion
is
"It hit me like a boom," Kimble recalls.
Three months of struggle, and now this. But
she stopped for a minute before entering the
NICU. She-thought about the child and how
the nurses had worked so hard to help her.
She knew they had grown fond of Victoria
and would be nearly as devastated as she
an issue of by the news. As she entered the NICU and

every hour you prolong a pregnancy be-
tween 24 and 28 weeks, you save $150 in
hospital care. Others have shown that nutri-
tion and prenatal care could save.the coun-
religion or personal conscience. Studies also saw nurses Gretchen and Lisa and Brenda
indicate that many countries that permit and Pat she could tell they were barely hold-
abortion have lower infant-mortality rales ing back tears. She got their attention.
than we" do. Still, the issue is so painful that "Now don't want to see any of you up-
I

most medical people avoid it. sel," she commanded them. "I don't want to
try $360 million per year in the trealment of
low-birth-weight babies, most of whom are "In my entire time here don't think ever I
I hear one sad word, Don't you remember how
heard the abortion service mentioned by she's always had io battle? How when her
preemies. Recently, the National Academy
Science's Institute of Medicine recom- name," says nurse Lawhon. "It's a little too toes turned so black we'd thought they'd tall
of
close to home." off? And her stomach swelled up? And her
mended that.the country "undertake a broad,
national commitment to ensure that all preg- It's especially close when an aborted fe- heart stopped?" Some of Ihe nurses wept
tus has a heartbeat that lasts for more than openly now. "There were so many times we
nant women .
receive high-quality care."
. .

a few minutes. The fetus may be only 18 didn't think she would make it. But only one
"Technology has done just about every-
weeks old. It has no chance of surviving yet thing is important. My baby's aliveV'GO
thing it can," says Lynn Blewett, an aide to
MARS OR BUST!
MARSCAPE: This rocky
stretch of Mars' surface
iscoated with thin ice.
There is enough water on
Mars to support one
million people,

The Mars Colony Needs

a Few Good Men — and Women
Today's first graders w$, graduate Jroni college in the 21st century. Will the)
be ready to pioneer the solar system, or to settle on Mars? Mt it we don't
start training them AT ONCE!
The Young Astronaut Program is helping our schools and com,
the crisis in science and math leaching. The progrMtH'-wiH pi
the greatest adventure mankind has ever undertaken,: the coi..,.
'
universe! -
...
;

Tomorrow's Columbuses and Magellans need your help. You can

them on their way to the stars by encouraging youngsters to enlist inWjjgi,
start
Young Astronauts. Better, you' can help form a Young Astronaut chapter in
your neighborhood. Go to your local elementary or junior high school and offer
to help organize a chapter. If you have a background in science or math,
you
might help tutor the Young Astronauts.
Perhaps the children you help won't go to Mars after all. But all
of them will have to live in tomorrow's high-tech world. Unless •

we do something about it, an appalling 90 percent won tbe able to cope. They
are graduating from high school today woefully illiterate in science and
technology. They wont be able to operate the computers, robots and lasers
that will be standard equipment in just a few years.

The problem is urgent! Encourage youngsters to sign up in the Young

Astronaut Program. Or send for more information yourself. Please write:

YOUNG ASTRONAUT COUNCIL

P.O. Box 65432 • Washington, D.C. 20036
 ;

The 20 best games of the year

By Scot Morris and Phil Wiswell

it's time again for our annual roundup of the

year's best new games and diversions.
We'll give our choices for the ten best

general games first, then the best computer

and video games.
Two features characterize this year's
best general games. First is the rise of the
lone inventor.Good ideas can make it
on the market without the imprimatur of a
big game company: Six of our top ten
choices this year go to "first-shot" producers
(Aerobie, Chase, Football Fever, Megiddo,
Mental Blocks, and Supremacy],
The second trend is the fade-out of
electronic games (not a single battery-
powered item made the list this year) and
the rise of party games, in which the whole
family plus friends and neighbors get
involved. Trivia games inspired by Trivial
Pursuit (one of our choices for best of '82)
have mushroomed, the new generation
ranging from Solid Gold Music Trivia to
Sexual Trivia to Bible Trivia. Mystery party
games, arising from Who Killed Roger
Scruples, Aerobie,
Ellington? (a best of '83 choice), have also Best genera/ games, clockwise from top left: Football Fever, A Question of
blossomed. How to Host a Murder Stage II. Chase, Last Word, Megiddo, Supremacy. Not pictured: Clue VCR Mystery Game.
(Decipher) has three games (each priced
simple you wonder why you didn't think of if minute videotape (VHS or Beta) showing
at $25.95). Murder to Go (Ideal) has another
and yourself. But you didn't. Tom Kruszewski selected scenes between the principals
three (all in one package for $35),
did. Play is on a hexagonal grid using dice Watch closely for imporiant facts about the
it
more are on the way. Murder-mystery parties
as pieces: green dice for me; red dice murderers, victims, rooms, and weapons.
arenow rumored to be more popular than
for you. The dice move along hex rows Later you may learn that "the person who
spoon-bending parties in Washington,
according to fhe number of spois they show carried the rope was killed in the conserva-
DC, or wine-tasting parties in Mill Valley.
uppermost. Your team of dice (you start tory."and a good memory will put you
Within each category below, the winners
not by preference. with 9) must total 25. The object is to capture wellahead. The butler, Didit, introduces the
are listed alphabetically,
be on the high five ofyour opponent's dice so that his rules and leads you through a sample
Prices quoted tend to
side; shop around l or discounts. four remaining can't add up to a total of 25. game on the tape. There are 18 different
On any turnr.you may move a die or cases to solve, so the game can be played
TEN BEST GENERAL GAMES exchange the "speeds" of two dice— many times. One problem is that first-
TX 75221 turning a 2 into a 5, and a 4 into a 1, for time players will find themselves at a distinct
1, Aerobie (Box 2025, Dallas,
column example. This adds an exciting dimension: disadvantage against those who have
$7.95). Reviewed in this last July, this

can be thrown farther A pair of pieces that are powerless on seen previous parts of fhe tape and already
is the flying ring that
can become deadly on the next. recognize the lead characters. And you'll
than any other man-made object. With a this turn
For a game with such simplicity, Chase has have to do without playing with the traditional
distance record of nearly one fifth of a mile
(1,047 feet), the Aerobie is a superb airfojl surprising depth and unexpected levels models of weapons, such as the wrench
that anyone can throw farther (and some say of strategy. The similarity between the and the lead pipe.
name Chase and chess not accidental. 4. Football Fever (two players; Orbus
more a Frisbee. Invented by
easily) than is

Clue VCR Mystery Game (two or more Marketing, 450 Lakeviile Street, Suite 225.
a Stanford aerodynamics engineer, the toy 3.

creates one main problem: finding a park players'; Parker Brothers; $40). Those Petaluma, CA 94952; $39.95—543.45
back— Miss Scarlet, by mail). We are tempted to pick (his game
big enough for 3 simple game of catch. .
old favorites are
Chase (two players; Blue Dolphin Games, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and fhe merely for its production values; For the
2.
This is an updated version of the price, you get a felt-covered, backgam-
Box 9632, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33310; rest.

game so classic board game but now with a 60- monlike board, a varnished wood p
$15.95—517.95 by mail). This is

146 OMNI
 —

opponent so that he can't make a word around the painting any part. You
to look at

isu&r and you can—the last word. This is an

imaginative and original idea, with typical
Milton-Bradley high-quality production
can lake any face of any cube and desig-
nate it as the top left corner, say, and
then place the other 15 cubes appropriately,
and a reasonable price. so there are a total of 6 x 16, or 96 differ-
6. Megiddo (two or three players; Global ent windows.

nr Games, East 8112 Sprague Avenue,

Spokane, WA 99212; $17.95—$20.45 by
mail). We like games thatare simple to learn

and to teach, and this one qualities.. It is

Mental Blocks: a combination of puzzle and
Eight of the ten best computer
year. Reviews lor all ten start
games of the
on page
in which to place timekeeping pieces, and
a bag of multicolored 4-, 6-, 8-, TO-, 12-,
and 20-sided dice with which you simulate
the vagaries of a real football game. The
rule book is long — 29 pages— but most
the rules turn out to be easily memorable
you know the rules of real football. The
game is very well thought out, with contin-
gencies provided for such events as a
blitz, bomb, fake punt, field goal, onside
kick, and fumble recovery, all with proba-
bilities that are remarkably close to those of
a real game.
5, Last Word (two to four players; Milton-
Bradley; $12). This word game/strategy
reminiscent of go-moku or Pente. You can
win by either getting six stones in a row
or by capturing six opponents' stones. On
the circular board you can place six
stones along a spoke, in a circular orbit
around the center, or in a spiral that starts
at the center and moves out one orbit
and along one spoke each step. You capture
opponents' stones Pente-wise, by flanking
two at a time, then replacing them with
your own. A revised rule allows you to
assume that the board is doughnut shaped
and that opponents' stones can be
captured by a "wraparound" along the
148.
spokes of the torus.
7. Mental Blocks (Perigee Books. 200
Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016;
$17.50—$19 by mail). Don't look for months
of entertainment from "puzzle and
this
game." After you show to a few deserving
it
friends you may decide to leave it on the
of shelf. But it's an absolutely new and original
concept in geometry and art, and we
if
can't resist plugging it. You start with 16
small paper cubes, each colored on all
sides, in a 4-by-4 arrangement on the. table.
They make a coherent picture with all
pieces fitting,together. If you pick up the
entire top row of blocks (by exerting, finger
pressure on the two outermost blocks),
give a quarter turn toward you, and
it
replace it at the bottom of the design, you
.
The inventors of Mental Blocks, Jacklyn
Lambert and Jeffrey Samborski, of
Richmond,
their
Virginia, originally hand-painted
puzzles on solid maple blocks. With
prices in the $200 range, they were out
of reach for all but serious collectors, This
version on stiff paper is an affordable
introduction to this novel idea. The cubes
come preassembled, packed correct-
side up in a box, with an instruction booklet
that includes suggested games and varia-
tionsand a copy of the master painting
on the cover.
8. A Question of Scruples (four to eight
players; Maruca Industries; $18). This isn't
a game in the usual sense, but it is a hell
of a conversation opener at parties. You are
dealt one answer card no, say (or yes,
or depends) —
and five question cards,
posing such dilemmas as: (1) A friend asks
you to write a letter of reference. You feel
he's poorly qualified for the job. Do you
refuse? (2) Would you tell a friend that his
or her fiance or fiancee is making advances
at you? (3) $9 in quarters come spilling
out of a pay phone. Do you report it?
Your job would be to pick the opponent
most likely to give you a "no" answer. If
an answer is challenged, players debate
whether a question was answered truthfully
and decide by a vote. The fun is in
discussing those little moral dilemmas that
we face every day but don't often talk
about. That subject matter can be absolutely
addicting. There are only 245 questions,

so a second edition is called for.

game is a combination
of Boggle and will extend the picture down a row. You
9. Stage ft (two or more players; Milton-
Isolation. Real word-game fanatics may can repeat this three more times, each time Bradley; $30). The title is well chosen: This
think there is too much strategy and not exposing a new view. Then you can move is the second stage of trivia games (the
enough word knowledge involved. Imagine the columns from left to right, again with instruction booklet even says, "Once you've
a 10-by-10 Boggle board on which you a quarter turn each time, to extend the played Trivial Pursuit, you're ready for
can begin making words from any square "picture in that direction. In effect, there is a Stage II"), and the object is not only to get
on your moving orthogonally or
side, large 8-by-12 painting (called The Block the answers right but to figure out a theme for
diagonally, and that you remove letters Party), ingeniously designed so that it ail six trivia answers in a given round.
from the board as soon as you pass over '

wraps around top bottom and

to left to right, Answer a question correctly and take a
them. The object is to collect as many and the blocks give you only a 4-by-4 one-point chip from the pel (no penalty for
letters as possible and to isolate your "window" at any time, which you can move wrong guesses), then guess the theme
correctly and ;;iko whaievei .s left in the pot rope, Africa, or South America. The game is FOR AMIGA. The Amiga is so new that there
(with a one-point penalty for guessing set in the future; all powers start with equal isno game software yet. We previewed Ihe
What kind of ball is a strength. With fewer than six players, the un- following pair of very playful and exciting
wrong]. For example:
baseball pitched at the batter's head? What's used areas of the world become neutral. The programs, however.
game box, board, and logo are all beauti- GraphiCraft, which Commodore will sell
the last name of the cowboy who chased
designed. specially for the Amiga, is a free-form draw-
villainson his faithful horse Topper? What "i.lly

magazine does Larry Flynt publish? Which This is a game of military and/or eco- ing/painting program and the flagship of ihe

nomic conquest. You can win in the tradi- system, reflecting Ihe "increased power of the
author of one of the Gospels studied medi-
tional way by invading and conquering, or next generation of home computers.
cine and was known as the beloved physi-
name of the author who more subtly and shrewdly by buyingor sell- Unique to this program, you can custom-
cian? What's the first

a Mockingbird? What's ing supplies of oil, grain, or minerals, driving ize a palette of 32 active colors from the
wrote the novel To Kill

Ihe department of gov- up or down the price of these necessities for Amiga's range of 4,096. So, for example, to
the abbreviation of
been headed by George future rounds of play, thus bankrupting the build yourself a palette of 32 Caribbean
ernment that's
opponents. As with real warfare, you need pinks, you can simply enter two different
Romney and Samuel Pierce?
After a few rounds we gained great re- grain to move an army over land, you need shades of pink for the extremes, and the
spect for They
the writers of these questions. to move a navy or to airlift an army to a
oil program does the rest.
inspired very few arguments (and magazine new territory, and you need minerals to build GraphiCratt contains many singular fea-
and their new forces and weapons. This is Ihe sort of tures that help to automate the creative
editors are notorious know-it-alts}.,
"theme" answers seemed fair and satisfy- game that can easily take a whole evening process. The most interesting option cycle —
ing. In the case of the series above, the writ- and to play the
just to get the rules straight draw —lets you draw with a brush that

ers had to questions that would

come up wilh firstfew rounds. After that, you can try out changes color automatically.

various strategies long enough to make you Harmony (£80, from Cherry Lane Tech-
lead to these answers: Bean(ball), (Hopa-
eligible for a cabinet post. nologies), is a brilliant program that makes
long) Cassidy, Hustler, Luke, Harper (Lee),
the Amiga intoa musical accompanist. It's
and HUD, That task isn't easy, but it's nec- BEST COMPUTER GAMES
— like sitting in with a quartet of musicians who
essary if anyone is to get to Stage that II

Inthe world of computers, there were fewer never lose patience with the clams you oc-
all answers are title characters played by
games from which to pick Ihis year's top ten, casionally hit.
Paul Newman. The writers should have got-
ten a byline. yet their quality seems to have doubled. For The fun begins when you select a part to

10. Supremacy (two to six players; Suprem-
acy Games, Box 533, Buffalo, NY 14209; $36
plus $2.50 postage). This board game will
appeal to lovers of Risk or Diplomacy. The
players control up to six superpowers; the
United States, the Soviet Union, China, Eu-
each of the five computer systems— Amiga, play, and the other parts play along with you.
Apple Commodore 64, IBM PC. and Ma-
II, When you speed up. the other four musi-
cintosh —
we have chosen two programs as cians speed up to match your tempo. Play
being the most fun to play with on those ma- softer and they all play softer.
chines. Many of these are available for the It's a great teacher, too. Harmony is based
other computer systems, too. on the principle that when you don't sound

"
Mommy. Daddy. ' (jc-ila go bathroom.
 TELL HIM WHERE TO GO.

photo sensor
And what to do
and he'll react to
when he gets there.
movement. Or /
And what to say
the infra-red /
Omnibot2000isthe
sensor. And hell/
state-of-the-fun robot ;
|
your own react to
with a mind all
obstacles.
Exercise remote control
and hell deliver cocktails or Then there's the
jmputerinterface.lt
breakfast in bed. Hell even walk the dog.
Program his 7-day 24-hour memory and allows you limitless program-
Omnibot 2000 will wake ming potential off your own
the alter ego-driven
home computer.
—
you up, pour your coffee and recite the day's
5 agenda on In Omnibot 2000,high
technology selves its high-
i

1 his built-in
\ tape system. est purpose: You.
For the nearest retailer, call 1-800-822-OMNI
Of course,
(in California call 1-800-421-8496). We'll tell you
I he's always
| open to self- where to go.

|
1
improvement
Add his OMNIBOT 2000
TOMT
I optional THE STATE-OF-THE-FUN-ROBOT FROM
 « .

good, the rest of the band ain't so hot either. discover them through careful observation,
HE HAS INNER VISION So it's practice or stink. irue-to-life hackers
which is exactly the way
must go about things.
Best Project: Space Station ($40, from Hes-
FOR APPLE II. Under the category of

Fantasy Role-Playing Computer Game of the Ware) is an authentic science simulation in-

Year comes Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar volving the planning, design, launch, and
($60, from Origin Systems). It is a strategic operation of a manned space station — in

quest, filled with battles and magic and short, a mission simulator.
-

strange adventures in a mythical land. The first stage involves getting a shuttle
Your personality is part of the game. Ini- mission approved and funded by NASA.
tially, you are asked a series of difficult ques-
You'll have to stick to budget in your selec-

tions, such as, "You are entrusted on a royal tion of crew, equipment, and space-station

mission to deliver a targe bag of gold when modules, then actually launch and control
you meet a poor beggar asking for a single the shuttle's flight into orbit. And every detail
coin. Do you toss him one or remain faithful counts, right down to the personalities of in-

to your mission?" dividual crew members.

Once you've answered the questions, the You will return to Earth for extra funding
computer determines your characteristics, and to pick up one of 40 different research

and for the rest of the game keeps tabs on it projects to earn even more money. Unlike
traits such as compassion and loyalty. most computer games, there is no single
Everything you do affects these traits, though structured goal, nor is there necessarily an
you have no way of knowing how close you end to your space odyssey if you plan things
are to solving the puzzles until you actually effectively enough.
The Ancients called it
solve them.
Hardball ($35, from Accolade) is a two- FOR IBM PC/PCJR. Software Golden Ol-
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS player computer baseball game with such dies ($30, from Software Country). The title
realistic strategy and graphics that you may may sound something like an easy-to-refuse
There are no physical limita- find yourself standing on your feet and offerfrom K-Tel Records, but it's actually an
tions to inner vision. .the psy- excellent bargain, a collection of four popu-
.

cheering your men along.

chic faculties of man know no
barriers of space or time. world
of marvelous phenomena awaits
your command. Within the
natural— but unused— functions
of your mind are dormant powers
which can bring about a
transformation of your
Know the mysterious world
within you and learn the secrets
lar games. And each of the four programs,
The batting screen displays a view from
A justbehind the pitcher, plus a small window originally developed on university main-
frame computers, is enjoyable in its own very
showing fielders and base runners. To pitch,
different way.
you first select from an extensive repertoire
For $30 you get the original Adventure,
of deliveries, including off-speed, slider,
Eliza, Life, and Pong. Yes, the programs are
change-up, or curve. Then you add an op-
tion of high, low. inside, or outside. The result old, but they're classics, and like old Elvis
life.
isa range of 16 pitches that you can throw, 45's, they seem timeless. Besides, Software
Golden Oldies contains the original code for
from meatballs to garbage.
Once the ball has been hit, the screen the programs, the only such collection.

of a full and peaceful life! pans the field to pick up the action, and the Adventure and Pong started the com-
player nearest the ball is automatically un- puter video-game revolution, the former
The Rosicrucians (not a
der joystick control. Throwing puts the bur- being a test of mental prowess that begat
religion) are an age-old brother- an entire genre of interactive fiction, the lat-
den of coordination on you, however. The
hood of learning. For centuries winner is not necessarily the player with bet- ter, a test of dexterity that led to the rise of
they have shown men and ter reflexes, but the one who knows more coin-op arcades.
women how to utilize the fullness about baseball strategy. Eliza is the early artificial-intelligence pro-
of their being. This is an age of gram that turns the computer into a crude
daring adventure but the and often humorous psychiatrist. It's a silly
FOR COMMODORE
.
. .

64. Hacker ($30, from

greatest of all is the exploration program that straddles program, but everyone gets a kick out of it.
Activision) is a clever
of Self. between game and The Life (see Games, October 1984) is more a
the fine tine reality.
serious effort, visually demonstrating meth-
FREE BOOK scenario reads a story from today's
like

newspaper about teenagers cracking cor- ods of generating random patterns. Neither
Determine your purpose, porate computer systems. is a game as much as a puzzle or an amuse-

function and powers as a human The screen is blank at the start except for ment, but both are equally enjoyable alone
being. Write for your free copy of one message: logon please. You don't know and in social situations.
the Mastery of Life —Today! what to do, but you try typing hello, or your A more solitary endeavor but no less en-

name, or something else. The computer re- grossing is Wizard of Wall Street ($45. from
sponds with your first clue: logon password Synapse), a real-time simulation of trading
The ROSICRUCIANS HAS BEEN CHANGED— CURRENT PASSWORD IS in the stock market. Warning: If you have no
San Joso, California 95I91U.S.A. particular interest in financial matters or in
LOCATION OF TEST SITE.
SEND THIS COUPON '-
You don't know much more when, after re- how money is used to make more money by
,
peated guesses at the password, the com- investing in paper, don't bother with Wiz-
Seribe KDH
it

puter begins to disconnect you. But ard of Wall Street.

The Rosicrucian Order (AMORC) mir- . . .

acle of miracles their security system Before you know it, you'll be buying on
San Jose, California 95191, U.S.A. . . .

malfunctions "and you slide in undetected. margin, selling short, and conducting elab-
Please send me a copy of the
You know you shouldn't be here, but as long orate market research on a company's BETA
Mastery of Life.
as you are. .
.
—
numbers or you won't be making much
Name . You can remain undetected by security money.
for only a short time, though you can learn Three skill levels increase the challenge
Address _
tricks to fool the system into thinking that you by giving you access to more money at
are an authorized operator. There are no in- greater degrees of risk, though the begin-
structions included with Hacker. You must ner's game is difficult enough for most peo-
 OMNI
TIME CAPSULES
Now the magazine of the future
can be kept for the future. Store your
issues of OMNI in o new
Custom Bound Library Case made
of black simulated leather.
built to last, and It will keep 12
inmini condition indefinitely.
The spine is embossed with a gold
OMNI logo, and in each case
there is a gold transfer for recording
the dale.
Send your check or
money order (S6.95 each;
3 for S20; 6 for S36)
postpaid. USA orders only. Foreign
orders (add S2.50 for
postage and handling per case)
to: OMNI Library Case.
P.O. Box 5120, Philadelphia, PA 19141,
Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
pie without experience
complexity ot brokering.
StoGk prices constantly
ticker at the top oi your screen.
in the
travel
speed and
along the
Meanwhile,
EARTH
CQ'NTINUED FFCrv -Al,i.
;>'
news headlines appear, and you must buy
up the good deals and sell off the losers as
support, Milton Everett, an engineer with the
Mississippi State government, was im-
can learn to operale the
fast as yourfingers pressed with a water-pumping test: "We
keyboard. Rub your eyes and you can lose compared his device with a conventional
a fortune. motor. It did the same amount of work with
one tenth the energy." To Jerry Miller, a li-
FOR MACINTOSH. VideoWorks ($90, tram censed electrical contractor, tests with os-
Hayden Software) isn't a game, but it's cer- cilloscopes were the key: "I measured fit-
one of the most enjoyable programs
tainly teen times more power coming out than
for the Macintosh. You use it to create high- going in." Roger Hastings, a physicist with
quality animations— and if you've ever seen Sperry-Univac, fell that Newman was work-
the high-resolution "graphics of the Mac, you ing as a proper scientist: "He had the theory
can imagine how realistic things look when then he built the motor."
first;
you can direct a cast of up to 24 characters Following the test sessions, Newman
around the screen. asked his guests to sign affidavils. Only
the Macintosh is "the computer tor the
It
much later did Lawrence Wharton, a NASA
It's
rest of us," as Apple suggests in its adver- physicist, evaluate the tests. "The experi-
Issues
tising, then VideoWorks is definitely the ments have not been done under properly
computer-animation tool for the rest of us. controlled conditions," he said. "I don't think
No other program o! its kind is at once so there's any evidence that the machine puis
powerful and so easy to use. out more energy than it takes in."
VideoWorks requires no programming; in But it was too late. Using the atfidavits,
everything is controlled with the mouse. Newman had already convinced Energy
fact,
To select an actor from your "cast of char- Resources Unlimited, ot Sacramento, Cali-
acters," you roll the mouse on your desk until $500,000 in his effort to per-
fornia, to invest
the pointer rests on iheone you want, then fect the machine.
press the mouse button. And what has Newman been doing with
Characters and objects tor your anima- the funds? He's recently developed a new
tions can be drawn, transferred from pre- prototype, which he says is 700 to 1 ,400 per-
cent efficient. According to Newman, his
drawn images, or "grabbed" from existing
MacPaint graphics, yielding tremendous dream is manufacturing the motor at a rea-
power not only to those who can draw but sonable price around the world. 'This de-
also to those who can't. vice," he says, "will do more to bring world
realize that Pinball Construction Set (S40.
I
peace than all the kings, queens, and poli-
from Electronic Arts) is not a new program. ticians that have ever lived."
In fact, it was on our list last year. The Macin- Crilics point out that the notion of a per-
petual-motion machine direct contradic-
tosh version of PCS, however, is unique, with is in
incredible graphics and sound effects that tion tothe second law of thermodynamics,
demanded inclusion again. When you're which states that energy is neither created
talking "most fun on the Mac in '85," you're nor destroyed and that some energy is irre-
trievably lost when is converted trom one
talking PCS. it
The point is to design your own computer form to another. But, they add, this time-
pinball tables and play them. You control tested rule cannot offset the desire to sus-
everything from placement of targets to pend reality, the same sentiment that propels
gravity. As with the older versions of this pro- Las Vegas casinos and offtrack betting.
gram, you work from a split screen. One half So you have little technical training, sup-
if
shows an empty pinball table; the other ple ingenuity, and flexible morals you may
shows the parts you can use to build and be able to build a perpetual-motion machine
store your personalized games. Using the of your own. Start with a real physical theory,
mouse, you drag flippers, bumpers, rollov- not .a home-brewed one; it will be most im-
ers,and other parts onto the table, place pressive if this theory is the work of a repu-
them wherever you wish, "wire" the targets, table physicist whom even the experts can-
and set the scoring values. not understand. The quantum physics of
The graphics and sound effects of the David Bohm, as described in his book.
Macintosh bring this game close to real pin- Wholeness and the implicate Order will do.
ball. The MacPaint program can be used to and sayit gets its energy
Next, build a motor
decorate the playing board and the back from the implicate order who would dis- —
glass with incredible detail. And if you have pute you? Finally, ask some technical types
a 51 2K Mac. your ears will think they've gone to study the machine. Feed fhem beer and
to the local arcade because the four-voice popcorn; answer their questions; collect their
channels pump out some remarkably real- statements.
istic digitized pinball sounds.DO Even if you should be indicted and sent to
your attorney will provide you with a jury
trial,
For their' help in suggesting nominees for in- devoid of technical background. Following
clusion in this- year's list, we would like to your acquittal, you can retire to the Baha-
thank John Di Menna, Abigail Reifsnyder, mas. As long as America remains a nation
game expert Sid Sackson, and Games of technical illiterates, its citizens are your
magazine's Wayne Schmittberger. lawtul prey.DO
 '

PHEniOrUlERJA
Arizona's Monument Valley sparkles with
the luster of morning frost in this picture by
landscape photographer Kathleen Norris
Cook. "I was on a predawn photo
:e of the area," Cook explains
o breeze that morning; so
every grain of sand was still in place from
the evening before, when the wind had
"' ""'
the face of the dui
and the light

i her camera i

photographing this ephemeral scene. "T

was evaporating before my eye
frost

minutes all ol

a Pentax 6 x
camera loaded with Ektachrome 64 film to
record what she describes as "this special
gift from nature."DO
 " :

I;bapooned somehme m the dovei-ler;. even costlier

cijxe; lagnots pure cadone. Sore,
Maybe was :he UFOs. Or a communist :r it
ii

DioL No one sure, but somehow uu" is-

cos:
and at ieasi twice !ne zip q- regu ;

ar
favorite products began to unoergo subtle, taste

nideous chances. They go! Ighlar leaner. coffee. be wortn ;i vvi-; :l

. . .
no:, lev. 'i :i
::.' SUGAROOS. Is it a cereal'' is a canciyV i;

decaffeinated T's ieltwhen you o:fe irno these

ha;d to

i!, -!., :,.; .

hoi sterol ,
h „ .:: swe. rings of sugar-- .; -
i

it made cm tavorite frosted sugar Peope can! soom io get

—were rsmove'd, ,vhicl .m! :u..v a huge surge
. .
i

In popu-anty .viien NuiraSwee: is banned

educed, cr replaced.
But now/than;^; :o Ramoo anc men like dv an act of Ccngress.
:,.,. ! ! : :. ... -i
' Si ...i. .. .' the :: - ' in.:, see i

not' gang to
!
ake it anymo'e. W:moy with tne goioen goodness oi giucoso

oroducts am cut Americans are demanding a\-c they're -ortined with 12 essentia!
sweeteners. Any time area: for Saga-cos..
newer; gutsier, "heavier" products, and
.'manufacturers have
:,.,'. i
.,. is

i
> m i" ;

-ate research iaos'to satisfy this demand.

postsweerern.M \< .

'A sampling of seme of the newer p-oducts

GRANOLA-FREE CANDY For the past
r.an look decacle q-'anoia has insidiously crept into-
oanov aiste Tnuitipiylng ano mutatng
HATE COLA Although ihe cc-ia wars have the
nbioc

LAST
i
.
.. Iv ii
i
I!'.; . Il'l , ,
I" .* I

-"0-
setoff a new rouno ol bathes because o' !! w:th p -.-j
u: i

.....'. lOW
its special formula and its unique sales
: :
.

candy inoiiStry fgntlng back Candy bars

campaign. "You eon: need caffeine bin :s

UUORD pro- i
...-., ?-;:=:

.. hop. :b. .Ma

ducing Hate. the cola you hafe io love
,
.

:; !.! :;... in .:.:. tne fight and that future generations vvii!

./... , iv-e ro a*:oen i"C he ho

'"..'' earbonatlcm and 30':'imes tne caffeine o!
oi grandia.'
..
By Parker Bennett ...... regular ;
do ly ru etis

thscafieine yon enjoy o< ralnc: and a VvibTH- WATCHERS FROZEN DINNERS;
nas enough ueh at b
• Hate cola jus! srd a: co a unless
it
i

cola, the \:i, .

.1

..... |l:. ,! I'.:.: I" M IBUSO

ess o sugar
' .
.-. |
!

pro; r,

you hate to love;-

"cola
;ng napooa! nightmare
.. i
.
.a, s me Lkthrc !.' " Od-ocncen
has twice the oack. ho Irghf beers =
:...;.: . : VVcifn Watcl e: ;

-v.« ,:!!! .; IIS

., ,.|- .....I .
.

n. i-; the o r nC ol an gn
sugar five times- the .
il :

course o n ea! and twice 'he minimum daily

LIS
carbonation, .. rur :; .r / .' m .r ' ri: :
reguirem en;s oi carcohydratcs and choles-
:

3 :entyoTsat;', too..
and thirty timesi Beer isGocdhooo. terol.

And so mere wd be Dense bee-. Croat Take the Meat and Potatoes Saecial. for
'..:
"the caffeine :
exa-r'ph in no / entree bu: .
.. .i .;

'/';'. comes
of regular cola3. '
.

.always wanted :rt a deer and hern .

.
fuli-oiown. gid -wrenoh-ng feast. If

some Dense beer is made with 30 percent . ;

itiariifi ml! .
. uvm
.
para cra.n alcohol— to gei you drunker :
^ed dye numbers one arid two) mashed
potato t-eipe:: and four oificrent desserts
'

faster— and plenty of real beer sediment,

giving you 42 limes (none made with either natca: substances
beerf Bssr-of a; Cense deer will rea iy
!

.
. : ! ';- 'In. .'. inders O"
c [trod icing
you up because is brewed with neavy !., .
, ii
i
,. ..yi!
fiii it

water piped direchy to the orewery horn oinor heavy dinners: Moan Cu s ne. Massive : :

Two R:vers nuclear-power plan;. V.onu. the Angry Mans Dinner, ano :tro
,0OTCi :OOLb"RS rnI
."-'
:
Buraeori'na Gorernc:.
counter-pan Ihe sec lCLA3-SPF€e GASOL :NF. Goo had II

cooler ino scotch cooler is a refreshing. meani for casohne to t.:e un-eaded. he
,:l % i arl .ii
' c .• ho:n :
'
.vouidrVthave createri the 7-8 engine.
an sod etch Furtnermor' arcan
:: i
no only e.tch.

anri-omy a ;

:ii.le soda In a convenient --2- en sciecars the Corvette, Tie Mustang

. :: :-oli cap m GT the V-i2 C'neve- regi; ar gas. even
:

Ino bepionng of a new lino of premium, just doesi'T make it. That's why
;s -ust
c.i. ii ,
:: :
!.: i ; i
i. n i' i
r i
=iei tuel -schnobgy i':as oroduceci new lead
:'..;;.;
boilemiarsr coolers, and e.ouDie martini 'Li:
'
:

coolers to hauclv six-packs Tnia h:gn-lead :ue; coosts the octaoe :

RECAFFEiNAIED COFFEE, if .you love trie reduces engine knock ano ihe fumes alone
i
.: .!.: :afl " .
I: i :
: are enough tc shield you from radianon in

I ,., rfer e. :h: .

ino ..'i
1

ee 'oi /on me event r.ueioa.- olast.DCj

Through a costly and ume-oonsaming proc-

r:
ess, the cade, ne is rsl removed from the

beans rc r lha; iight, decaffeinated ilavor

Cater while the beans are being grcuno. ar